Christmas in the Rome Italy mission is kind of tough

 So I don't remember in exactly which email you wrote this to me, but you kind of talked about how you have ben struggling with doing the basics, and it kind of made me smile, becuase I have been kind of having the smile experience this last week. Christmas in the Rome Italy mission is kind of tough as I'm sure it is for every mission in the world becuase everyone and their dog goes out of time, and there is no one left to teach the gospel to. 

The big difference between america and Italy however is that Holiday celebrations last well into January so it's even harder. So I had kind of checked out. I had decided that I was going to spend my last few weeks just hanging out with my district and new converts, and that I wasn't going to really try anymore becuase honestly there wasn't any point. 

Then I got sick, and I had to get a blessing, and Heavenly Father reminded me that I still have things to do. I only have three weeks, but those three weeks have the power to make a difference for me and those around me. In the blessing special attention was placed on scripture study, which I have been doing but maybe not with the dilligence that I should. 

I really realized this weekhow valuable our time is as human beings, and how the only way we can truly become great is through sacrifice. I know the thing that annoyed you the most about me in high school was how hard I pushed myself, and I think that trait has only been accented in my mission. I would rather stand in front of the Lord and tell him that I did evil in my life, than that I did nothing. 

I think the most hurtful thing we could do to the Lord is disregard the life that he has given us. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's a crucial part of who I am. Another thing that I have learned as a missionary is that I have to do the things that I want done first everyday first everyday. We are given a missionary schedule in which we generally have an hour to get ready first thing in the morning and then an hour of scripture study. 

Because of the fact that we are in four and we have to move things around so that we can all shower I have started cleaning up for about 15 minutes so that I can fell the spirit, studying for an hour, and then getting ready with whatever time is left over. I've seen that the only way to make the gospel my first priority in my life, is to literally make it the first priority in my life, as in the first thing I do every morning. I'm hoping to be able to find a job that starts at about noonish when I get back home, so that I can mantain a similar schedule. Scripture study for an hour, Italian study for an hour, and then work. I'm trying to make these last three weeks just as effective, if not more effective than every other week in my mission. Sorella Winegar is already hating me. :)

Mission Christmas card 2014

 

Sardegna Zone

Giant Nativity

 I'm still pale and white, they still put up giant nativity scenes in piazza's in Italy. Not much has changed.

    The only thing that you really need to know about this week is that I sang far far away on Judea's plain over 20 times last night. I may never ever sing that song again. I'm not sure that I have any Christmas Spirit left in me. not even like a few drops. Just kidding I love Christmas, this year has been particularly special. I did my final addestramento this week, and it went really well. The whole zone conference was on testifying of Christ, and I was assigned to talk about hope in Christ, and I spent about two weeks studying Christ, writing down all ideas, weeding through all thoughts, and finally the morning of I ended up with a 15 minute explanation of the enabling power of the atonement, and how through the sacrifice of our Savior we can become more than we ever could have been on our own, and I don't know if it affected anyone else, but it truly changed me. I finally realized that there are no limitations that can be placed on me. I can accomplish anything with the help of my Savior. That being said it's proabably about time to retry Freshman biology.

     We also did a really cool lesson with three men that my companion met while I was in Cagliari for like a week. We were only supposed to be doing a lesson with one of them, but he ended up bringing two friends with him. It was super startling because I expected him to be like this 60 or 70 year old guy, and he drives up to the church and he like 25, so I had to adjust the whole perspective I had had for the lesson. Needless to say, Sorella Winegar did not do a good job of prepping me. It was really cool because this guy (his name is Christian) doesn't believe in God, and his two friends believe but aren't practicing, and we invitied them to try alma's experiment in Alma 32, and then let us know what happens. It was a super logical discussion. We kind of ended on the note, that if it's true it could potentially change your life, and if it's not what happens. absolutely nothing, you go on with your life, and we go on with ours. It sounds super logical, and kind of agianst the whaole nature of the gospel, but the spirit was super strong.

     On Sunday IKA CAME TO CHURCH!!!! I think it was actually really hard for her, because she feels super out of place in Italy, but luckily there were two Africans in church that are working with the other sisters and she clung to them a little bit, becuase even if they don't speak the same langauage they both understand what it is like to not understand Italian. Then we went to her house and sang to her in the evening. She lovessss the missionaries, but is still a little overwhelmed by the members. Oh well little by little. We are getting her a skirt for Christmas, so that she feels more comfortable in church.

     Also Alessandro is doing so well. He blessed the sacrament on Sunday, and it almost made me cry. Then we went to the relief society president's house to carol (always far far away on Judea's plain of course.) and he was doing his home teaching. (I didn't even know he was a home teacher, no one tells me anything dagnabbit) AND in Sunday school On eof the elders was teaching the lesson and he asked how can we show Heavenly Father that we love him, and Alessandro immediately responded obeying the commandments. I know that may not seem lik e a huge deal, but he struggled so much with understanding the commandments. I was so worried when he was baptized, that maybe we had made a mistake and that we were setting him up for failure, but he has literally blossomed in the gospel, and I don't think that it is something that ever would have happened with out the Holy Ghost. Also his mother and brother have started "coming to church" with him. Tilda (his mother) only comes for the "mass" because she isn't a member, and she isn't "obligated" to come all three hours like alessandro, and his brother sits in the foyer and waits for the missionaries to come out and talk to him. I'm pretty sure they think we are Catholic, but we are getting there. piano piano.

      I think that is the big news for the week. I know this is kind of one of those boring missionary emails, so I will throw in on efunny story just for spice. HAlfway through carloing last night, I got super tired and stopped paying attention for the whole affair, and at the relief society president's house I sang the wrong verse for about half of a verse, and Sorella Tapia got confused and started following me. Then the next song, I kind of started following the alto part accidently which threw the whole Soprano group off, and we all started laughing, and for that song Sorella Tapia was the only soprano singing, but Alessandro thought we did great and that's all that matters. My favarite thing about this ward is that it is full of the biggest variety of people I have ever seen in my life, and we are all crazy and imperfect, but it works, and we love eachather. I pretty much live on the island of misfit toys, and I couldn't be happier. 

      Love you all 

Sorella Spencer

Sardegna Specialized Training - December 2014

 

Christmas time in Italy is so beautiful!

 wow guys I don't have much to say. It's Christmas time in Italy which is so beautiful, because it's a catholic country and so there is a lot of emphasis on I was out of town for almost two weeks so I don't have a ton to say about the work. I was worried having left the two greenies by themselves, but they did an AMAZING JOB. They set two baptisimal dates for investigators in the other companionship, and found two new investigators.

 Right now, our number one investigator is named Ika. She is a beautiful Romanian woman who has lived in Italy for 3 years now. She does not speak even one word of Italian (just kidding she does but it is messy) so teaching her is an adventure. We used google translate (don't worry it was authorized) to translate the baptisimal invite two lessons ago, and she started cying when she read it (we tried to read it, but it turns out that our Romanian is not great). She is super special, and all I want to do is spend every minute of every day with her. 

Also I have to teach an Addestramento (my guess is that the english translation is training) in zone conference on finding Hope in Christ next week, so I have been doing a really in depth study of the atonement in every spare minute taht I can find. I feel kind of like a dork becuase I am finishing up my mission and I feel like I'm just starting to understand ehat it means that we are children of God. It makes Christmas a million times mopre meaningful.

I have to go I love you all so much!

I knew exactly how it was going to play out.

So almost a year and a half ago, I left on a mission. I knew exactly how it was going to play out. I was going to learn the language perfectly over night, I was going to have only companions that were my best friends, and all of my investigators were going to progress towards baptism. Then I was going to come back to a picture perfect life, where nothing had changed, and I would be able to fit seamlessly back into it, and I would have a perfect plan of what I was doing.

I have no idea when and where it all went wrong, but a year and a half later, almost none of that has happened. It has been messy, hard, humbling, and I nearly gave up, a lot of times. I still make dumb Italian errors (the other day in the store I asked the woman for zucchero in cane instead of zucchero di cana. So instead of brown sugar I asked for sugar of dog. I still blame Sorella Winegar, she was distracting me).

I'm not perfect, but I wouldn't change any of it. It was all raw and human, and is making me the person I am supposed to become. I have learned to forgive myself and others because we are all human, and if I screw up as frequently as I do, how could I ever expect someone else not to.

I have learned to respond with sympathy instead of anger, or to not respond at all because I will regret the anger later.

I have learned to laugh, because when you are locked outside of your apartment, without keys, in the rain and you left the two greenies alone with an Italian cell phone, which they broke, because they don't speak Italian, and you don't want to call your district leader because he asked you to please stop doing unplanned scambis without permission and you forgot until the moment where you were standing outside your apartment without the keys the only thing that keeps your from fighting or crying is laughing, and because those moments where everything goes wrong, are actually the most beautiful moments that we experience, and we only get them for so long and then they are over.

Mortality is short, and I could be wrong but I don't think we get those sort of moments in the next life. Those moments are something purely human, that we have to savor (just for the record the lecture that I received was very very short because I think the elders felt like we had already learned our lesson well enough from the locked out rain part), so mainly I'm rambling, and this wasn't as poetic as I had hoped, but I can't really fix it because it's my turn to buy groceries this week, so I hope it makes at least a little bit of sense. If not, I'm sorry.

The last thing I want to add is I'm not coming back to the life I had planned when I left. A lot of things have changed, I can't go back to my old major because I don't speak French anymore, and a lot of people have changed their lives in a way that I don't really fit into them anymore, and frankly I don't want what I wanted before, and it's ok, because finally, I'm starting to believe all the promises Heavenly Father has made to me.

When I was 16 I didn't plan to go to BYU, but He did. When I was 18 I didn't plan to serve a mission, but He did, and I'm so grateful because if I had followed my plan I have no idea where it would have taken me, but I do know that I wouldn't be in Sassari, Italy, sitting next to Sorella Winegar, and I wouldn't change that for anything.

So no, I have no idea what comes next, absolutely none. I have a few tentative ideas, but frankly 6 months from now, I could be anywhere, and it would not suprise me, and I'm ok with that, because in the end my Heavenly Father does, and I know that what he has planned out for me is so much better than what I have planned out for me. So I'm going to stop this rambling and go buy groceries. I love you all, and I can't wait to see you all after having lived every possible moment of my mission to the fullest.

Sorella Spencer

p.s. a little bit of explanation of the photos.

the random pictures of Sorella Winegar, are all of her firsts as a missionary.

the one's of me in a purple shirts with hearts was a really fun p-day we did to a castle that was closed so we went on a hike instead. Everything in Sardegnia is surrounded by water, so the hike was on a beach.

The one of me in a blue shirt is a p-day that I actually hated because we kind of got kidnapped, and I was tired, and I forgot my wallet, and everyone kept insisting on buying me stuff anyway, but I did like the part where we found random sea animals and I got to hold them. I am forever a 6 year old child when it comes to animals.

The one of me in a green shirt is our thanksgiving lunch after ddm. Sorella Winegar convinced me not to brush my hair which is why I look so dumb. She also convinced us to eat our pumpkin pie with just our faces. Anz. Borner turned out to be particularly skilled. The picture of me with the bowl full of whipped cream is my attempt at pink stuff. It was fruit with whipped cream.... every generation the recipe gets a little simpler. (there is no jello or mini marshmallows in Italy.)

p.p.s. we also have a really cool investigator named Fiametta who started making a ton of progress this week. She could use a lot of prayers! Also Alessandro is working towards getting the priesthood!!!!!!!

This last photo is my personal favorite of her! Only 49 days left until I can see her in person!!!