View From the Top

hi.  Sorry, I'm probably not going to write much this week because it's so cold that my fingers hurt. just warning you. pray for nicer weather. PRAY FOR SUN.  

Making progress on our beautiful temple

This week we discovered that we just don't seem to have as much faith in the cold and the rain, but we try to stay positive...

It's Happening
Mostly because Carol is getting baptized this week!.  It's really, really happening and it's happening this week.  She is so cute and so excited and she already picked out the whole program.  One of the anzianis' investigators is going to SING at her baptism. It's cute that we are all friends.  

It's just a big love fest in Roma 2:  love for the members, love for our investigators, love for our district.. just lots of love. 

Fun story from last Monday:  We did a walking tour of Rome.. 

we were walking by Il Vittoriano, which is this huge, white building that I never could figure out what it was built for.  

They have a little free museum underneath, and we stop to look at it--because it's free and nothing here is free.  

This Italian man waves us over and we chat and offer him English course and he says,  
"You do something for me, I do something for you.. follow me."  

Then he turns to this lady and says "Watch the door.  I'll be back.  I'll explain later."  

So we follow this man into an elevator and we are a little sketched out, but not too bad.  He takes us outside to another elevator with a bunch of other Italians and tells them to "Take them up" and they all say "Yes, boss."  

They take us up this elevator to the VERY TOP of this building that overlooks ALL of Rome and you really can see EVERYTHING.  

So now we offer English course to everyone because it gets us access to cool places and free stuff (like perfume samples). 

Original Form
We got a new investigator this week named Simon.  We taught him the Restoration and it was probably the coolest Restoration lesson we have ever done.  At the end, he just looked at the pamphlet and whispered, 

"Restoration.. do you know what that means? It means brought back to the original form without modification" 

and we are like "Yes, that's exactly what this is."   So we are hoping it continues to go well.

Passed
Carol had her interview this week and she passed! and she made us chocolate chip cookies.  

We also had an FHE with a newlywed couple and I found out that the wife is YOUNGER than me.  

That made me feel really old and startled to remember that people my age are married.  I'm afraid I will be an awkward RM when I get back, so I'll need lots of help with that.

Rob in Italy

Luca is doing well.  Even though we don't teach him anymore, we still get to see him a lot because he comes to English course.  This week he brought his guitar and we all went out to lunch together: all 8 anziani and Luca and us.

Luca - our Star

Public Speaking
Sunday I gave a talk in church.  Somehow I made it into a year of my mission without having to give one.  But it was good and I made the missionary moms cry. 

(Side note: we have all the Rome leadership in our ward.. most of the stake presidency, the mission president, and even an area seventy.. so it's way nerve racking to speak to THEM about missionary work in Italian.)  

I based my remarks off of two of my favorite talks from conference, Elder Ballard and Linda K. Burton, and also a really old talk by Spencer W.  Kimball,  "When the World will be Converted."  (Read it HERE)

After church we half begged an American family to have us for lunch with Carol because our afternoon appointment was cancelled, and it was the best.  

Bread of Life
They had fixed a crock pot meal.  yay!!. and 2 loaves of homemade bread. It's like they already knew we would be coming over... or just inspired like the bread story by President Monson in the RS broadcast.  ("We Never Walk Alone")

On that particular morning of the bread delivery, Sherrie had been prompted to make two loaves of bread instead of the one she had planned to make. She said she felt impressed to take the second loaf with her in her car that day, although she didn’t know why. After lunch at a friend’s home, her one-year-old daughter began to cry and needed to be taken home for a nap. Sherrie hesitated when the unmistakable feeling came to her that she needed to deliver that extra loaf of bread to Nicole’s sister Tiffany, who lived 30 minutes away on the other side of town and whom she barely knew. She tried to rationalize away the thought, wanting to get her very tired daughter home and feeling sheepish about delivering a loaf of bread to people who were almost strangers. However, the impression to go to Tiffany’s home was strong, so she heeded the prompting.

When she arrived, Tiffany’s husband answered the door. Sherrie reminded him that she was Nicole’s friend whom he’d met briefly at Thanksgiving, handed him the loaf of bread, and left.

And so it happened that the Lord sent a virtual stranger across town to deliver not just the desired homemade bread but also a clear message of love to Tiffany. What happened to her cannot be explained in any other way. She had an urgent need to feel that she wasn’t alone—that God was aware of her and had not abandoned her. That bread—the very thing she wanted—was delivered to her by someone she barely knew, someone who had no knowledge of her need but who listened to the prompting of the Spirit and followed that prompting. It became an obvious sign to Tiffany that her Heavenly Father was aware of her needs and loved her enough to send help. He had responded to her cries for relief.

So it was a good week.  We have been SUPER tired, because it's cold and there is no sun and it rains a lot.  

Sorella Steurer made us go buy vitamins because she said we looked dead (also probably because we have been SO busy) but she takes care of us. 

Carol's baptism is on Saturday and the Americans sisters said they are bringing dolci for a little party afterwards.  (They don't do after-baptism refreshments here.. so we are trying to get that on track.) 

With Love from Rome,

Sorella O'Connor 

(Email Sent - January 27, 2014)