Sono Americana
Best news of the week: Thursday a lady on the bus asked me if I was ITALIAN! I said "No, actually I'm American." and she said, "Really? You speak perfect Italian."
Whoo Hoo!!
It doesn't even matter that everyone I told that story to told me that, in fact, I don't speak like an Italian; it made me happy. overjoyed, actually.
Missionari Feste
Then Saturday we had ZONE CONFERENCE, which is a missionary's favorite part of the transfer. It's like a day back in the MTC where all we do is learn about the gospel and get pumped to work hard for the rest of the transfer.
All the missionaries in Sardegna
It was sad because it is Sorella Cojan's last one and it was also the Kellys' last zone conference as well... sad day.
Sorella Cojan with her "children"
(I don't really get it -- it's a missionary thing)
But I loved it because the sorelle from Sassari came down and stayed with us, and I got to see my MTC friends who are here in Sardegna as well.
Two of my favorite MTC friends
- and Anziano Robinson photo bombing in the back
Sunday was probably my favorite day though. We had a huge district conference for all the members in Sardegna. It was really great to see the chapel filled with so many people.
We even had an English course student show up. I went and talked to him after and his face was just lit up and he kept saying, "That was just SO GREAT". He was telling me who his favorite speakers were and afterwards we had a big pranzo all together and he stayed for that too! The Anziani are going to start working with him (we like to send the men to them to make sure their intentions are correct haha).
Also two less-actives we have been working with showed up so that made me so happy.
Missionary work is not just finding new people to teach but also getting the members involved with less active work. That is something we've been pushing, so it was great to get the members excited about it too.
The Big Number: 400
Afterwards we met with the district president and all the missionaries in Sardegna, and he had us set a goal for how many more people we wanted to have active (baptisms and re-inactivations) by the end of June... the big number is 400 for the island of Sardegna.. right now we have about 200, so we are trying to DOUBLE our numbers in the next month.
It is a huge goal but we are so excited about it. If we could get every member to bring someone back or invite their friends, we could get it to work. The branch president was really inspired, and so we are excited to get to work with this new goal.
Mother's Day Call
Then I got to call you guys that night for Mother's Day, which was really cool. It was a little strange to be calling from Italy to my home computer... but it was really fun. It was hard for me to switch back to speaking Italian afterwards with the Locci family for dinner, haha.
Three-Way Skype with Paige and Family
Monday we went and saw Gabe (He was an exchange student in Arizona). He's a great kid! It was really fun talking to him.
We invited him to come to English course, and he said he'd love to come and practice his English he learned in the US.
We talked about how he misses In-N-Out and how he got fat in America from the fast food. I said, "Try being American living in the land of pizza and gelato!"
We also had DDM on Monday so it really was three straight days of missionary training. We set goals on how we are going to accomplish our big 200 more goal. We want to work really hard with the members because thats where the magic happens.
Tuesday kind of sucked because two people canceled on us, so let's just not talk about that haha.
BUT, we did give away a Book of Mormon to our pizza guy! We stopped at an ex-simps house and she said come back in 20 min., so we said, "Let's go visit the pizza guy!" (He's never told me his name, but he teaches me Sard every week.)
Sorella Cojan asked him what he had done that day and he said he was reading a book about Budism. I said, "Have you ever read the Book of Mormon?" and when he said no he was surprised to find out I had a free copy right there in my hand! Coincidence? Of course not.
Love the Scriptures
I absolutely love being a missionary. I love being able to bear my testimony about the Book of Mormon. Never have I loved a book so much in my life.
It's crazy because I thought I had a strong testimony about the Book of Mormon before. But it's amazing how much stronger my faith has grown as I search for the answers to questions, and they are always found in the Book of Mormon.
I love being able to see the change in the countenance of a person when I share a certain scripture and it touches their heart.
Whenever it's hard here, I just think about why I am here and how much I love my Savior. I think about the missionaries in the Book of Mormon and how much more of a sacrifice this was for them, and what they endured because of their testimony of the Savior.
When we grow in our testimony of the love of the Savior and use the atonement in our lives to turn our wills towards His, we will finder greater strength and comfort and ultimately a greater sense of happiness. I am already so grateful for my mission.
COMUNQUE! I hope all is well wherever in the world you are.
With love from Cagliari,
Sorella O'Connor
(Email Sent -- May 15, 2013)
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