Another Transfer in Rome!

Ciao!
Well, I am still in Rome for another transfer, and I'm really excited because the work is going really really well, and it would have been a huge disappointment to leave it. We have been teaching a very sweet peruvian family twice a week, and they are really progressing. I am just forever amazed by them. Especially Michael (the husband) he just responds so well to everything we teach. I was told in the MTC (missionary training center), that sometimes teaching people would just be like reminding them of something they had known a long time ago, and that they had simply forgotten, and that is what it is like to teach Micheal. He always tells us that what we are saying makes a lot of sense, and that he thinks it's true. His wife is a little more apprehensive, but still progressing rapidly. She has had a lot of bad experiences with religion and just wants to make sure that it is true before she makes any major commitments. The ward is really really great and they were invited to three separate FHE's (family home evenings).

We also did a three hour read a thon this week with the Silva family. All three sets of missionaries took a shift to read out loud with them for an hour. The goal was to get Janus (18 year old son) all the way through the third book of Nephi. It didn't quite work out that way. With English being their second language (it's still what they like to read in) we had a really hard time helping him understand scriptural terms, and only got through 9 chapters, but it was really great and Sorella Worsham and I found a scripture about unity that we really liked. 3rd Nephi 2:18. We have used it in a handful of spiritual thoughts.

Our children's English course is really picking up, and we now have three families consistently coming. The kids are away too smart for me, and pick up vocabulary and grammar so quickly. They also LOVE the Book of Mormon. Each one of them has their own copy, and they bring it every week, and literally fight over who gets to read. We are learning to pick long scripture passages. They are are 3 little boys who I am sure will serve missions one day. The great thing about English course is it just builds so much trust and plants so many seeds. One third of our baptisms come from English course, so I like to put a lot of focus on it.

So this Sunday was a little chaotic. We met a man earlier this week on the bus who confused us for nuns (that is very very common) and got off the bus sooner than we were able to clarify. He did tell us he wanted to come to our church this week. So as he was getting off the bus we handed him a pass along card. So Sunday morning this 80 ish old man shows up at our bus stop in his sweater vest, and he tells us, that he does not know where this via Bra 34 (the church address) is, so he decided he would come to our bus stop and accompany us to church so that he could find it. So we get to church about an hour early and give him a brief tour and teach him the basic restoration so that he doesn't panic when he realizes we aren't nuns and in fact this is not a catholic church. Then President and Sorella Waddoups show up for a surprise visit. So we send Peitro (our friend in the sweater vest.) to Elders Quorum with President, and we wait for Lizbeth and Michael. When they arrive we drop Francesca off at nursery (she was a champ she just kind of waddled over there by herself.) try to get Sebastain into primary (he really really fought it, and then grab the elders to sit next to Michael into Elder's Quorum. So finally about half way through Relief Society we head in with Lizbeth. During gospel principles 3 more investigators come. So it was just kind of a chaotic day, so beautiful, but very stressful for Sorella Worsham and I. Luckily the ward really stepped in and helped because there is no way that Sorella Worsham, and I could have met everyone's needs alone. The other missionaries also both had investigators in church, so in total there were 8 present. The Rome 1 record (since I have been here) is 9, so we are getting close to breaking it!

Also I had a really beautiful, kind of conflicting experience this week. There is a huge group of Romanian "gypsy" immigrants in Italy right now, and it has turned into a very difficult situation with both groups. The Romanians have developed a reputation as thieves, and have become really dehumanized by almost everyone. We aren't allowed to give people money as missionaries, so for the most part we don't work very heavily with them, but this evening I got on the bus and there were 3 little boys on the bus. The oldest was probably about 11, and was teasing one of the younger boys. The 11 year old called me over and told me that his brother's (?) feet stank (oh 11 year old humor!). At first I was tempted to roll my eyes and walk away, but he called me over again, and I have a very soft spot in my heart for children so I decided to talk to them. Throughout the conversation, I just realized that they are just like any other little boys, and one of them really reminded me of Nathan Stewart (his name was Daniel) This little boy had an accordion so I asked him to play it for me, and he did. He absolutely beamed when I clapped and told him that he was very good. At some point the little boys started hitting each other, and I told them to stop, and that hitting was not ok, and they immediately stopped. It was just a very eye opening experience that these little boys were exactly like the little boys in Augusta Georgia, and that they just wanted praise, and love. I gave them all a piece of candy (actually Anziano Nickel gave them all a piece of candy), and I told them to be good, and that I thought they were really good boys. It was really interesting to see how they responded to that kind of interaction, and I wish that I could do so much more for them. I just realized again in a more deeper sense, that people are people, and that we all feel things the same way, we are all desperate for love (especially children) and that we are children of God.