Loving the People

Here's the newest and latest from Sarah. In this installment, she continues to serve in Trieste with Sorella McMurray. Her investigator, Margharita, from Lodi gets baptized; she reflects on 'numbers'; and, in her words, she has some "funky lesson experiences...and a couple evenings that I almost felt normal again."

8/25/15

Almost Feeling Normal Again

So in Trieste there are a lot of YSA members and so on Wednesday nights from now on, we are going to have FHE with them. This week for FHE they showed a clip from Hercules for the lesson; we played sardines and human knot, and then ate chips and peanuts and talked with some of the less active YSA members who showed up. It was a super chill night and when one of the members drove us home that night and I had my arm out the window I almost felt like I was getting a ride home with my gurl after a party. Maybe that is bad or whatever and I should feel more like a oppressed missionary 24/7 but I liked it.

The other time I almost felt human was one night when we came home we were both cold and hungry because it had been raining and our "lunch appointment" with one of the members ended up just being watermelon. So we got into our warm PJs, opened the window so we could hear the rain, ordered in some Chinese food and watched Mormon Messages and "I'm a Mormon" videos on our iPads. Then we got into bed and talked about boys and felt a little trunky. Such a good night. Also I have missed Chinese food.

Gianna

So we teach this really old lady named Gianna every once in a while. She knew the Sorelle in 1993 but then they lost contact. But one day she saw our Anziani walking around and she flagged them down and asked them to have the Sorelle visit her. I think I maybe wrote about her a few weeks ago when we first met her. But anyway, these visits are mostly service. She is very old and very weak and can't go out very much. She calls some of her friends on the phone but she only has one nephew and no children and she doesn't have enough people in her life for all the words and stories she wants to tell. So we go over there and she talks to us. And she loves us. When we left last time she said, "When you girls come over it is like a party for me!" She also has a little bit of depression and she told us once that she was sorry she talked so much but she can't help it when she is so happy. This last time we went over we wanted to read Alma 32 with her. (Funny side note, we think that she thinks Alma is "her Mormon saint." Like in Catholicism they have their saints that they pray to and all that. She loves Alma. She is always like, "Read me something from Alma. He is so bravo." (Yes he is Gianna, yes he is.) Before we started reading I asked if we could say a prayer. She said of course I could and then went on to tell a ten minute story about when she was in a catholic school learning to pray. She tells it a little differently every week. Finally I started the prayer but right after I started she stopped me and just said, "Vi dico una cosa." "Let me tell you something." She just stopped me in the middle of my prayer to tell us a story about some guy she met when she was 20 at a dance. Then she was like, "Sorry, okay, keep praying," and I went along with my prayer. She always asked about the Anziani so I stuck them in my prayer.

Me: "Please bless the Anziani in Trieste."

Gianna: "Yes, yes."

Me (Thinking: She probably thought I was talking about old people...):  "Also please bless Anziano Horne and Anziano Penfold--"

At that point I had to look up because Gianna was clapping her hands furiously and her eyes were very big and wide. I couldn't keep it together. I just couldn't. I started laughing and she was like "Oh, those bravi ragazzi! They are so bravi!!" The whole time she was...I guess she was applauding them? I don't even know, but it was freaking hilarious. I tried so so hard to finish the prayer quickly but it was infinitely harder with the mental image of Gianna with wide eyes clapping her once prayer-poised hands. Man alive. I couldn't even get out the amen. Luckily I got it pulled together before she told us that she thought it was awful that teenagers don't dance as couples anymore. "They just rampage around like..." ~miming someone who was definitely high with her hands swinging around above her head~  And then there is me with my straight face, "Mmmm, yeah. That really is awful. Kids these days..."

Poodles

There is this older couple that we go and teach. (The wife is the sister of one of the members.) Anyway, we went in to teach the restoration and as we were about to start the lesson their two dogs were gettin' a little frisky over by the couch. The husband was like, "Do we want them doing that?" "Yeah yeah, it is fine. We want them to have babies...[then speaking to the miniature poodles] Go into the kitchen!" But they didn't listen and as I was trying SO HARD to talk about prophets and dispensations I could see these two cute lil poodles just goin at it out of the corner of my eye...Luckily they had had enough by the time we got to Christ's earthy ministry and the rest of the lesson went swimmingly. But as we were leaving, the wife picked up the girl poodle and said, "You going to have babies now?" Then turning to me, "Did you see? They were making love during your lesson! Haha!" "Haha, yep! I sure did see! I saw that! I definitely definitely noticed that happening!!"

Mara

So we called Mara this week and she answered, but only to tell us that her dad passed away and she was going to be with her mom a lot and that she needed to have a little space for a while. We told her that we completely understand but if there is anything we can do, to let us know and that we'd be praying for her and her family. I don't know if I'll see her again before I leave Trieste. And I don't know if the next Sorella will be as...flexible regarding her genuine love for the Madonna. I believe God will take care of her though. Because she is just so good.

Patrizia

Patrizia finally came to church this week! Yay! And I think she liked it. The members aren't super good about talking to her but there is this one RM who is really just grand and I love her and she has really taken Patrizia under her wing. And Patrizia loves her too. So that is good. Funny snippet from this week, we were reading the BoM with her for a lesson and there was a verse that mentioned the devil and whenever he comes up she starts shaking her head and says something like "This devil guy again! He's always around!" And we are like, "Yup, unfortunately yes he is." She is doing alright. She finished Jacob last time we asked her which is AMAZING considering that she can hardly read and can't write. Seriously so cool. I believe that God helps His children when they make an effort to be close to Him.

Jacob 5

Actually it was pretty cool reading Jacob 5 with her. I have never really loved that chapter, but after reading it with Patrizia I wanted to study it a bit more. I know that the normal interpretation is about apostasy and all that, but I have liked thinking about it on a more personal level this week. Our testimonies or belief or relationship with doctrine or whatever you want to call that are the corrupted trees and it is Christ who is our advocate for us, the masters of our own imperfect trees. He is the one who doesn't give up on us. When we want to call it quits on ourselves, when we feel that we can't keep doing this whole "vineyard" thing, He is the one who pleads with us to leave ourselves to struggle a little longer. Not because he wants to see us struggle or fail, but because He honestly believes in us and can see the divine potential that we have. He knows that we can succeed if we let Him graft us and lift us and grow us. I dunno, that is how I read it this time. Maybe it is just because I want to believe I still have good fruit down in here somewhere haha. But maybe it is because God wanted me to know this week that He's still rootin for me.

9/2/15

Mission Conference

So the conference was okay. I really like Elder Kearon. He's a funny guy. And he's nice. There were a lot of good things that came from the conference, but the thing I liked most that was only mentioned in passing before they moved on to talk about how to baptize more people. (It is getting harder and harder to sit through conferences and trainings about inviting people to be baptized because "you all know it is the only road to salvation." I feel awkwardly pegged whenever I'm at a big mission thing. Wtvr.) But the part that I really liked was when he asked us to think of the reasons for which we act. Like love of the people, love of God, our family, giving people something better, etc. I like the idea that when it gets harder to act, we can find our "trigger" and use that to give ourselves a nudge.

Other than that, it was good to see Slla Yonk and some other people from the MTC days. It was a little eerie though at one point when I looked around and saw all these young adults chatting and laughing and all dressed up cute and wtvr and realized that a mission is just a longer, more miserable EFY haha.

The Trieste Crew

On the way back (5 hour train rides both ways) it was just me, Slla McMurray, Anziano Horne and Anziano Penfold (the greenie! We just call him penny.) That is the Trieste crew. I love these kids so much. The work here in Trieste has been especially hard, recently made harder by the fact that it is so flippin hot outside. So we have gotten really close, us four. Anyway, on the train ride home we were just swapping stories and talking and laughing and the train was whizzing through the Italian countryside and it was the best.

A Bitter Day

Other than that, a mean old lady in the ward told me I was getting chubby. So that is always a big confidence booster. "Oh, you are getting chunkier! You used to be so skinny! Not anymore! Haha!!" "Thanks Nelli."

Then we had an appointment with a less active, walked the whole hour to get there in the flippin heat of noonday, rang her doorbell, heard her inside but she wasn't answering. We then called her and she said to come back at 2 pm and then hung up. So we walked all the way home, shoveled some lunch down and then walked back before the sweat had dried. That was a bitter day. That afternoon as I was walking the hot asphalt streets of Città Vecchia that always reeks of dog urine, I seriously was not able to understand why people love their missions. Why they even like their missions for that matter. But I was also intentionally keeping my eyes down and reveling in my discontentment.

Martina

But Sunday was really good. Remember Martina the gelato girl? So we ran into her again randomly on the streets last week and she told us she had quit her job at the gelateria and now she had time to see us. So we texted her to get something set up and she was like, I'll just come to church! And I was like, "Great, they never come" but I still prayed that she would come like a good lil missionary. And then she came! And she is so great. She just came for the last hour which is sacrament meeting here and after she was like, "I've never seen anything like that. It is so tranquil." And then she had to take a smoke outside so we went with her and she told us a little of her life story, but basically I told her I believe that when we look to God for support and help, that things have a way of falling how they need to. Not only spiritually, but in every aspect of our lives. She said she liked the way we talked about things and the way we saw the world. She is eager to meet with us again, so we will be seeing her again soon :) maybe even tonight.

Lunch and Lights

Then we had lunch with some of our English class students after church and it was so good. Like really good food (the guy is a chef) and really good to have a lunch appointment with people who love us, not because we are missionaries (which is sometimes how it feels with ward members), but because they genuinely like who we are. Like they don't just like Sorella Christensen, but they like Sarah. They like talking to me because even after ten months on the mission I am still somewhat cool somehow. And then they gave us all the leftovers :) And that night when we went down to Piazza Unità for finding, it was the first night that they had all the blue lights and buildings lit up. So pretty... So it was a good Sunday. 

The Masseuse

Oh, haha, remember the masseuse Alex? Who wanted to give us coffee and a massage? We got off the bus Sunday night and apparently he had seen us on the bus and then got off with us and caught up with us and tapped me on the shoulder said hi. I was really really surprised and probably also a little terrified looking and I was like, "Buonasera" and then I grabbed Slla McMurray and bolted. Haha, it was a little freaky and I'm pretty sure he knows where we live now. But wtvr. I'm sure it isn't like When a Stranger Calls or Take or The Shining or anything. But really, I'm sure he's harmless.

9/9/15

Raining in the Bathroom

Some exciting things happened this week. First, I called my very first "cento diciotto" (118) this week (that is the Italian 911) when we saw a woman fall down on the street and cut her face. The bleeding looked really bad at first and so we called, but twenty minutes later when the ambulance showed up (eye roll....Italy) almost all the bleeding had stopped. I think she was just fine. Her name was Lorenza and she was a little crazy. But that doesn't happen every day. Then, that night we came home and it was raining in Slla McMurray's bathroom!! (We have two. What luck) Wow! How exciting is that! Slla McMurray turned on the light in her bathroom and then the power blew out. I was in the other room and I was like "Hey! Turn that back on!" And then I just heard "WATER!! I TURNED ON THE LIGHT AND NOW THERE IS WATER!! THERE IS WATER ON THE GROUND!!! AND ON THE TOILET!! IT IS WEEEEET!!!" I couldn't see much cause the power was out, but in the dim moonlight and with the help of my trusty mini iPad, I was able to see Slla McMurray running around the house, extended towel in hand, catching the invisible drops of water that were falling everywhere in her mind. And then there was me, wishing I remembered where the emergency flashlight was, calmly getting buckets and garbage cans to catch the water. Just kidding, I was running around too. Anyway, after getting buckets and garbage cans situated around in her bathroom, we headed upstairs to see what the trouble was and the door sloshed opened and the woman behind the door said "Ah, you are here. How bad is it downstairs?" She was wringing towels of water into a bucket and was soaking and looked exhausted. It actually broke our hearts because literally about ten days ago this couple had their first baby. And then their washing machine exploded or something and they are going to have to pay for water damage and will be up late and bills and baby and....I am not excited for real life. Anyway, we didn't know how to tell them there was some water "dripping" downstairs, so we just said, "Sta piovendo in bagno un po..." "It's raining in the bathroom a little..." (Haha. Somehow the idea of us not knowing the verb "drip" and instead saying it is raining in our bathroom was a lot funnier in my mind before I typed it out.) We ran back to our apartment to get some more towels and things and then stayed and helped them mop up the rest of the water and then told them if they needed anything to just ring our door bell or call us. The next day they came by with the landlord to look at the damage and it doesn't seem to be too bad. We are going to see if it can just dry out.

Numbers

This week I also had a scambio with Sorella S who is at Mestre (right outside of Venezia) and we had a pretty good time. We talked to a lot of people. Almost all of them were really nice actually. Slla S really likes praying with everyone and at the beginning of my mission I did too. And sometimes it is good, but, eh. Sometimes it felt like she just wanted "lessons" and didn't actually care if these people ended up better off. Numbers and single prayer lessons are a very...delicate, ethical, and political issue in this mission. Some leaders encourage them and others discourage them. I don't really know. My thoughts about it have been changing a lot recently. The biggest argument for single prayer lessons that I have heard is that you are praying for people and blessing them. But I don't think that praying for or with them really makes God want to bless them any more than if we just talked to them. And the other thing is people are like, "But they don't mind! They don't mind praying with us!" Yeah, maybe they will say yes but maybe that is only because they won't say no. It is like if someone walked up to you on the street and was like, "Can I sing a song for you?" You don't really want them to sing because that is awkward and weird, but you say yes because if you said no that would make you rude. The other thing is that with so many single prayer lessons, nothing really comes of it. It has become a way to prove you are working and look better than the other people in your district. But of the single prayer lessons I have had, very few of them have gone anywhere and very few of them I feel like I actually left them off better than before. We just leave them with an awkward bus prayer that feels culty. Or if I did leave them better than before, it was because I talked to them. Not because I prayed with them. I'm just sick of numbers being a reflection of how people think our work is going. The STLs got on our back Sunday night when we were reporting numbers. She was like, "I know you can get more lessons, we got seven in 24 hours. The more lessons you have the more simps you will get. And you need simps right now in Trieste." First off, single prayer lessons DO NOT lead to simps. Talking with people leads to simps. Secondly, none of those lessons lead to any "mission success," they just make our week look good and make you look good. I would've only counted one of those lessons as an actual lesson. And even then, the only guy I really feel like we taught and blessed, we could've taught him and blessed him without guilt tripping him into saying a prayer with us. I just hate that you have to make people and beautiful experiences into numbers. Because that is all the leaders see. The numbers. Not the people. That is all it really is.

Claudio

But anyway, we did talk with a lot of people and that is good. Some of them were just curious about our church and wanted to look things up on the Internet which was cool. Some of them were just old people who wanted to talk to two ragazze and we prayed with them too. (Awful. Literally just praying with old people.) But there was one man that we talked to that I was really touched as I was teaching him. He was just a normal ol guy, Claudio, about 50 years old. We started talking to him and immediately learned that he felt alone because he didn't really have family or friends here. He was also looking for a job, but Italy's economy is pretty bad right now. Basically he feels really helpless and hopeless. We just started talking about how God loved him and knew him and was watching out for him. As I told him that I knew that God loved him and that he was not alone, it was the first time in a while that I really felt that what I was saying way true. Maybe I'm just not as in tune with the Spirit or maybe I was just particularly emotional that day but it felt good to feel like I was backed up by the Spirit. We invited him to pray that night to feel that God was there and aware of him. We gave his number to the Anziani, hopefully that will go somewhere. But mostly I just hope that he prayed and that he felt something or at least felt less alone.

Piazza Unità

That night we headed down to Piazza Unità and did some more pier finding and piazza finding. It was pretty good, but definitely the best part was seeing the piazza and the pier at night. The lights were stunning. The white buildings with their go ld accents lit up against the dark blue night sky and the yellow street lights and dock lights reflecting off of the black water. I will send pictures. Words can't do it justice. Pictures can't really either, but it gives you a better idea. Seriously, every time I'm down by the sea, whether it is night or morning, I cannot believe that I live a ten minute walk from this stuff. It is such a dream here. I can't even think about leaving this city. 

Margharita

MARGHARITA UPDATE!!: She got baptized and she sent me lots of pictures. She looks so happy in the pics and that made me happy. It is nice to have concrete reinforcement. Like, I know I don't need it, but it is nice after 10 months of....more or less no concrete reinforcement. Haha. In her email she said that the first time Anziano Christensen (no relation) baptized her, her hand didn't go under the water and she accidentally swallowed a bunch of water. She told me that she has a sore throat because the water was cold but it is okay because being baptized was important. :) She hasn't changed a bit. I wish I could've been there to give her a hug. Even though Italians hate hugging.

Silvia

Silvia, the woman from Peru who is going through all sorts of legal crap here in Italy, is in need of prayers. Keep her in your prayers. She lives with a weight that I can't even comprehend and we are out of ideas of how to help her besides just being with her and loving her.

Translating

I translated for this couple from San Fransisco on Sunday and it was a very weird translating experience. They have been married for three years but they still act like newlyweds if you know what I mean. I was sitting behind them translating in between them like normal and they had no shame. There were back scratches, heads cuddling onto shoulders, hair massages....I was like. Geez. Are you even listening to me? At one point they both had out their phones checking train times to go to Madrid and Paris and I was like hahaha they don't want to hear this beautiful testimony about how God works through and with Science. So I just leaned back and soaked in that testimony for myself. Then, when they put their phones away, I kept going. It was funny. I got a little man trunky though what with watching all that PDA. At the end of the meeting they were chill and nice though and talked to me about home and football and the mission and how I'm a good translator (yeah, like you were even listening) and then they took a picture of us three and sent it to your emails. So there is the story behind that. Beautiful couple though. He is a blonde Zac Effron and she is Gweneth Paltro.

Chuggin' Along

The work here is just kind of chuggin along. We talk to people and they are nice and whatever but then they break the news to us that they don't actually want to know more. Which is fine.

I'm Staying

Lance Long sent me a really nice email this week with the subject line being "If only all missionaries could be like you." It made me tear up. Tender mercies. Anyway, this week has been a roller coaster. I was flippin pretty bad. Especially one night. But now, this whole thing has kind of kindled this flame in me. As that one guy says in Hot Rod, "You done let the demons outta me!!" I'm staying. And imma go flippin Gandhi on em. MLK style revolution. DWB. Amnesty International.  I'm going to do things my way and if they don't like it, they can send me to Morbegno (Pres's favorite exiling city) to rot and I'll love the people there. Same thing happened with me and the church. Things were realized in my testimony, and at first I freaked out and was all like, "I'm out of this vineyard." And now, just like I want to stay in the mission and change the game, I want to do the same in the church. I'm all in. For Lance Long, for my family, for all the people who feel ostracized in the church, and for Jesus. Mm. Yeah. At least that is how I'm feeling in this moment.

Love you guys. I'm out.

Sarah