Week 26 - How to Clean a House 101

We've survived one week of trio life! It's been different, but overall it's been fun. My two new companions are Sorella James and Sorella Nelson. Sorella James is from Washington, worked at festivals making funnel cakes and enjoys occasionally speaking in a southern accent. Sorella Nelson is from Provo, and plans on studying nursing but also wants a side job as a car mechanic. They're adorable and it has been so much fun living and working with the both of them.

During our first weekly planning together we received 2 referrals, which is about as rare as finding an Italian kitchen without olive oil. It was a real blessing because finding as a trio is not exactly ideal. Anyway, we went to visit one of these referrals who the Rome 1 Anziani helped move early that morning. She bought an apartment by our church, so we went over to see how we could help. It was apparent that the Anziani had no experience as movers. We offered to come over and help her clean things the next day before the workers came to mount her cabinets. Before leaving, we asked if there were any cleaning supplies we should bring, but she assured us that she had everything. 

The next day we walked in ready to work! I was assigned to the bedroom tile floors, which I felt pretty qualified to do (thanks mom for teaching me how to clean grout with a toothbrush). So this woman handed me a broom, a bucket full of hot water, and said "okay, now pour the water on the ground." Thinking I misunderstood, I set the bucket down and started to put the broom into the water. But She grabbed the bucket and then proceeded to dump nearly three gallons of water all over her floor and told me to start scrubbing. So while I'm trying to scrub the now flooded bedroom with a broom, the other Sorelle are in the kitchen scrubbing down the walls with hot water. We were not permitted to use any soap or cleaner, although she had several grocery bags full. The service project ended two hours later, with the other still be asked to scrub the same wall, and me in the bedroom using only a broom and dustpan to try to sweep up the water from the ground.

The work and members in Rome 3 are awesome. We've got a functioning ward here, complete with a young womens, AND a real primary. (I spent the last hour of church with the primary kids as the pianist, and by the end I could feel myself getting grey hairs. At one point every single child was jumping on the table making cat noises while the primary president was just trying to continue the lesson like normal.) We had two awesome talks from our senior couples, one about repentance and one about tithing. I actually found the talk on tithing really beautiful. He talked about how tithing is both a form of gratitude for all that we've been given and a way to remind us that the things we are blessed with, aren't really ours. Heavenly Father gives us everything, including jobs and money, so it's not right for us to become possessive over our money.

We also had an amazing zone conference this week. President and Sorella Pickerd talked about faith, and asked us to come prepared with a person from the Book of Mormon who was an example of faith. I chose Alma, father of alma the younger. His story is such an amazing story of change through faith. He felt something while listening to the preachings of Abinadi, and had enough faith to leave his high position and flee to the wilderness, all to follow God's plan. His whole character changed, and through him, thousands of lives were changed, all because he had a strong enough faith. I would love to invite you all to study his story and how he was able to grow his faith.

I love and miss you all!
Sorella Maxfield