Week 15 - Missionary work and Gelato

This week I'd like to start by saying I now have a reason to justify "gelato finding." This means I will almost definitely come back a slightly rounder version of myself, but it also means that I've found a way to do missionary work and eat gelato at the same time. The ideal win-win situation. Our morning had started out pretty rough; no one wanted to talk, we got some pretty hard rejections, and we got slightly lost. We were feeling down and decided to get a pity gelato before heading home to make pranzo. So we started asking people where to find good gelato in Battipaglia. We got various answers and directions, until one man told us he would just walk with us so we wouldn't get lost. Long story short, this man ended up eating and talking about the gospel with us for an hour and then inviting us over to dinner with his wife to continue talking! The dinner went great and we have another appointment with them this week. All thanks to Heavenly Father and the huge blessing of gelato. 

The second half of our week, Sorella Oveson was hit by "la febbre," running a solidly high temperature for three days before the mission nurse quarantined us in our house for 24 hours. Our day was spent studying and bonding over our childhood love for the movie Swan Princess. I also channeled my inner motherly nature and made some soup for Sorella Oveson, because for some reason you're supposed to make soup for sick people.  

In all that time, I was able to get in a lot of study and think about what I wanted to share spiritually this week. I had the chance to do a lot of reading from the Book of Mormon, and I've really come to appreciate it's importance. Everything about our church, about our beliefs, is resting on the fact that the Book of Mormon is truly a book of scripture. The more I read it, the more I know that it's true. So I want to encourage you all the keep reading the Book of Mormon . It is a powerful book of scripture that will give us peace and help us to grow our faith. I know it. I heard in a conference talk this week, said of the Book of Mormon, "No wicked man could habe written it, and no good man would". 

Love you all,
Sorella Maxfield 

Week 14 - Ciao Tutti

Ciao tutti!

Some how we're already to the end of January and I don't know how that happened... time is flying! We had some really great adventures this week but also some pretty hard rejections.

Our zone challenged us to knock 20 doors a day, have 20 unplanned gospel conversations, and read 4.5 pages of the Book of Mormon everyday. Sorella Oveson and I have maintained a 6 day streak for each of those, and it's really helped to push us to be in a constant finding mentality. I've noticed that there are days when Satan tries so hard to discourage us from talking with people. My personal favorites from this week include:
1. Being chased out of an expensive apartment complex by the security guard who we come how snuck past.
2. A tiny old man who looked at us when we knocked on his door and said "No. I'm not interested in your message. No one is interested."
3. A very round Italian woman who responded to my "ciao, buona sera!" With a high pitched, mocking "ciao, buona sera! Now go away I have things I have to do" 
I can't tell you why, but these moments just make me laugh. It's sad to see people choosing to turn away our message of Christ, but I can't help but smile when I realize nothing can discourage our desire to share it! 

As always, even though we had hard times, we saw miracles!
We found two new investigators from our door to door invite! They let us in and began to tell us that they'd met with the missionaries years earlier and that the only reason they had invited them in was because they were wearing cool ties. The husband told us he was a physicist and he was thrilled to hear Sorella Oveson and I both plan on study physics as well. They offered us chocolate, we talked about the Book of Mormon, and they told us they'd love to see us again.
The biggest miracle of the week was finding and old friend of my mother's. For those who don't know, my mom served in this mission 20ish years ago. While she was here she met and taught a wonderful woman. It's been several years since they've last seen each other, and she asked if I'd look for her if I was ever in Caserta. Well. I just happen to be the companion to an STL, which means I get to go on a scambio every week. And this past week just happened to be a scambio in Caserta. With Sorella Taylor. So we went full steam ahead in our search for my mom's friend. And through true miracles, we were able to find her and talk, although briefly. I don't know exactly why Heavenly Father needed us to see her at that time, but I know that we were guided and directed in our search for her. I truly have a testimony that Heavnly Father cares for and guides his children. We don't always know the how or why of the plan, but if we follow in faith, we will always always be blessed.

Vi voglio un sacco di bene,
Sorella Maxfield 

Week 14 - Maren and Lauren, miracle in Caserta

FROM MAREN:

Mom, we found Emma. It was the most miraculous experience that I've ever had in my life. There was so much divine help in us finding her. 

Sorella Taylor first randomly stumbled across her information in Area Book. She said that she just accidentally clicked on a woman "Emma Cantana" or something, and then noticed that her email was emmruss. So through that we were able to find her address and a phone number. We tried the phone number several times, but there was no answer. 

So we followed the address and it led us to this huge military base. We were so bummed. But we went and talked with the guards stationed at the gate, and they were so helpful. They gave us perfect directions. We followed their directions further down the street and we found Parco Le Arcate. It's one of those fancy piazza's where you have to get in the front gate first, and then inside the separate Scalas. So we ran up to the citofono at the front gate, and right there was E. Russo. I was beyond excited, I couldn't believe we had actually found her! So we rang three times, and nothing. My heart sunk. We'd come out so far and it seemed like everything was lining up for us to meet her. Then Sorella Taylor tried the gate again, and it swung open. IT WAS CRAZY! We were beyond excited. We ran into the Palazzo and past scala A and then when we got to scala B, the door was just propped open. THAT NEVER HAPPENS. So we ran up and started knocking doors trying to find her. A woman told us that she was on the top floor on the left, so we ran up and starting knocking, and nothing. Then, her neighbor came out, and asked if she could help and then gave us Emma's new phone number!! HALLELUJAH. So we called and asked if we could come by the next  morning and she agreed.

Mom I was so pumped up. Sorella Taylor and I couldn't believe what had happened to get us there! The next morning we went over to see her and the meeting was really short, she didn't let us pray or say anything spiritual, but I know we were supposed to be there.

I'll send more details later, I just wanted to let you know!
I love you

FROM LAUREN:

The second miracle we had this week was during a scambio with my childhood friend and wardie, Sorella Maxfield. On top of having an extremely fun time together we had such an amazing experience. Her mom, my young women's president, served her mission here in Italy in Caserta!  How cool is that?! And she found, taught, and baptized a 25 year old girl named Emma Russo and she was an amazing member but has sadly gone less active. She had emailed us saying that we should try and see her so I had been trying to find her contact information all week to try to organize to see her and could not find it. She wasn't in my records and her phone number was wrong...I was so bummed. One day I was looking for the daughter of one of our ward members who also happened to be named Emma. And found that she had a different last name...and found an address. This is a huge miracle because we have such and long list of less actives so I knew this was completely guided. So when Sorella Maxfield arrived we were on the hunt for this address and walked to where it said and arrived at a military base. Like the persistent missionaries we are we asked the guards to help us. They were very nice and said that we need to keep going and at this point we were out in the boonies. So like they said we kept walking and turned right and we arrived at this park where she lives but the numbers didn't match up. I now can see that all of this was so guided because we went up to the doorbells on the outside gate and sure enough it said, "E Russo". So we rang it and no response. We were so bummed but then decided to bump the gate and it was open! Then we went to the apartment building and sure enough that one was left open also!! So we hop on the elevator and make our way to her door only to find that she is not there. Such a bummer because finding her house was such a miracle...BUT then her neighbor comes out and we ask her if she knows when Emma will be home and she said no but offered us her number which she had to call someone to get!!! At this point I was in awe. She got it within 20 seconds and I called her and explained, "I am with Sorella Frazier's daughter and we wanted to see you" and she said we could come back in the morning!!!! We were so excited!!! We saw her and it was WONDERFUL! Her heart is a little bit closed right now but I know without a shadow of a doubt that seeing Sorella Maxfield took her back to the time when she found the truth through the restored gospel. And the Lord prepares a way for people and then we just have to give them their agency. 

Week 13 - first transfer

Letter to dad..

Thank you for your letters! I love having the diversity of your quick little emails and the long detailed ones.

I'm really really glad to hear about Jane, Elisabeth, and Simone. It will be the best thing possible for all of them. Do you think their calls will come within the next couple weeks? I'm really proud of Jane for getting her papers done. This is a hard time for their family, I try to pray for them everyday.

I love that you're in the bishopric. I realize now just how important the bishopric is for ward unity and missionary work. Our branch here is really struggling here, and a large part of it is due to the disconnect between our branch presidency and the members.  Our branch president views his service in this branch as a temporary calling before he moves back to the Napoli ward, so he is very disconnected and uninterested in the members. He's a very very sweet man and loves the missionaries, but as the members say, his time here is obviously a dovere not a piacere. Anyway, our ward is so blessed in its unity and in its strong leadership, I want to take more advantage of that when I get back!

I'm sorry to hear it's a bad ski season this year, what a bummer! Does it look like it might be getting better or do you think the whole season will be this lame?

I'm working hard at opening my mouth and talking with people. I try to chat with the members and Sorella Oveson and I speak in Italian outside the house as much as we can. The trickiest part for me is speaking during lessons. Sorella Oveson is a great teacher, so some times I just let her go and don't say anything. But I had an awesome scambio in Caserta again this week with Sorella Taylor and I had the opportunity to teach with her. I got to talk and I felt like my understanding was good enough that I could keep up with the conversation and add what I felt necessary. So it's my personal goal this transfer to become more active during lessons, and by the end I want to be confident enough to lead a lesson on my own.

Anyway, feel free to share this one with mom, but as I said before, our branch is really really struggling. We have only 15 active members and everyone argues and fights during the meetings. Then yesterday, one of our members committed suicide. It really shook me up and everyone else in the branch. Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this is because we're praying to that this experience will bring our branch together and not drive them further apart, but if you could just keep the Battipaglia branch in your prayers and Maria. (The wife of the man who passed away)

Besides that, I'm doing really well and in working as hard as i can. I love you!

Maren

Week 12 - Food, Song, and Prayers

Like always, Sorella Oveson and I had some adventures this week; Some spiritual, some physical, some vocal, some culinary. 

Culinary: So we promised our investigator family that we would make them tiramisu (without coffee of course, thank goodness for Orzo).  We started making it Friday night and everything was going great. We got the cream made without any casualties and the cookies were all ready to be dipped. Then we realized we had no pan for the tiramisu. It was too late to go buy one, we already had the cream made, and we were already committed. So we did what any thrifty missionary would do; we lined a spare shoe box with tin foil. Voila. Tiramishoe.

Meal appointments are destroying me. I'm getting the sense that for Italians the state of being  "full" is literal. Your stomach should be 100% full and then some. We had a meal appointment yesterday where our sweet hostess said "oh dear! We only have two hours to eat. That's okay, all we're having is pasta, then sausage and ribs, then vegetables, then fruit, then salame and cheese, then walnuts, and then of course dessert."

Physical: Sorella Oveson is amazing. Our personalities are incredibly similar, we have similar tastes, and even did the same second grade play about bugs fighting for their rights. The one thing that we don't have in common is that she is wayyyyy more fit than I am. She pops out of bed right at 6:00 AM ready to run. I've made a personal goal to work out as hard as she does, but it's turning out to be the hardest part of my new lifestyle. But hey. If it means more pizza, I'll do it.

Vocal: We sang in a Catholic Choir yesterday with our ward. I use the word Catholic very loosely. I've been to mass before and it seems to be relatively mellow. Not this mass. Under direction of the choir leader, we were swaying and singing and clapping, all while the church goers were taking the communion. We would also chime in with some random sung "alleulias" throughout the meeting. For a Roman Catholic Mass, it felt very Alabama Baptist.

Spiritual: One thing I've noticed is that even when we seem to be in the lowest of lows, God blesses with the best of miracles. This week we had a true miracle with our new investigator. She's a cute 18 year old girl who lives in Battipaglia and speaks perfect English. She had met the sisters here a couple months ago but was only interested in English course. Then a week ago, we ran into her at the train station and she said she would love to meet with us! So we were trying to find a time to fit in a lesson with her, but we were in a different city and nothing seemed to be working out. Some how, thanks to our Heavenly Father, we were able to make it back to meet with her.  WIthin two minutes of talking with her, she asked us how our baptism worked. The lesson that followed was amazing. She asked all the questions we had prepared to talk about and just kept saying "all that you're teaching makes a lot of sense." It was amazing. 

This week I've tried to really focus on my prayers. Before the mission, and even sometimes now, I forget what it really means to pray. Sometimes i don't put my whole mental effort into my prayers and sometimes my mind wanders. But as I've been studying prayer I'm more and more amazed as to what a blessing it is. We have a means to have direct communication with our Heavenly Father. We can express our gratitude, ask for guidance, and ask for help. I've seen so many miracles already through prayer and I hope to be able to strengthen my faith and prays as I continued to study. 

I love and miss you all 
Sorella Maxfield 

Splits in Caserta

Week 11 - Pictures of Battipaglia

Week11 - Christmas and New Years

Another great week in Battipaglia. 

I don't have much time to write this week, but ill try to write about the big things;

Christmas! It was so fun to be able to talk with my family, but I think my favorite part of Christmas was that I wasn't focused on alk the festivities. As a missionary, I could focus on why we celebrate Christmas. The birth of our Savior! It's such a blessing that we have a special season to remember Him!

Going to lie though, I am excited for the Italians to get out of the celebration mode. These people know how to celebrate! The holiday season here goes until January 6th, so it's been very hard to meet with people. 

Craziest story of this week was for sure new years eve. It's tradition here that people throw fireworks off their balconies to celebrate. Yes.  Throw fireworks off the balcony. This is why we weren't allowed outside at all last night. It was a pretty awesome sight to watch from our balcony.

I hope you all had great holiday celebrations!
I love you all so much!
Sorella Maxfield 

Week 11 - Per la Mamma - in Italiano

Bella mia, 

Per il mio studio di lingua oggi, voglio scrivere una lettera per te! Io scrivo questa lettera solo con la mia conoscenza e un dizionario, quindi, la grammatica è sicuramente schifo. Per favore, aiutami e dimmi i miei sbagliati. 

Adesso, siamo nella biblioteca per i nostri studi. È pranzo adesso quindi, nessuno è sulla strada. Abbiamo mangiato un hamburger oggi per pranzo haha. Quando noi mangiavamo, mi ricordavo quando abbiamo mangiato un hamburger dopo solo 2 settimane in Italia. Penso che abbiamo mangiato quelli nella stessa città con il giardino dove abbiamo giocato Bang. Mi piace questo ricordo. 

Per Natale (perché Natale era p day) Anziano Raimondi ci ha insegnato come giocare Scopa (e anche, lui ha detto che scopa è una parolaccia e anche la parola per broom... quindi context is important haha) allora, abbiamo giocato scopa e ho vinto! Spero che tu sia felice con me. :)

Ho una meglio risposta alla tua domande riguardo i vestiti qua. Ci sono tre cose che tutte le persone hanno; le giacche da Napapijri (come Patagonia), le sciarpe grandissime (letteralmente, le sciarpe qua sono coperte) e pelliccia. Veramente, ogni donna qua ha una giacca di pelo. Mi piacciano le pellicce, ma non avrò mai abbastanza soldi per comprarle.

Veramente, sono molto felice qua. Avvolte, io voglio fare un pisolino o qualcosa, ma so che io ho questa missione solo per un anno e mezzo e io voglio avete ogni momento! 

Ti voglio un sacco di bene!!

Figlia tua,

Sorella Maxfield