The Best Birthday of My Life!!

This week was a combination of days that were really difficult, and some of the greatest miracles I have seen on my entire mission. There were a lot of days where we didn't have anything scheduled and we spent the whole day doing finding in the rain, with no success but there were also some very beautiful moments.

Thursday night we had English course and we taught it on attending church, and one of the words was home teacher, so Sorella Fossa (we do scambis for english course) and I explained home teaching. Our english course loved the idea of home teaching and we talked about it for a little bit. Then after class I jokingly asked an English course student of nine years if he would like to be a home teacher, and he responded very well to the idea. So I explained to him that he would have to be baptized first, and he told me that he would have to pray about it, but he was super excited. This guy has been to church several times, and has taken the lessons multiple times. Sorella Marquis and I have put a lot of thought, and prayers into what is going to make this time different. We have a FHE (family home evening) with him tonight, and we are going to try to focus with him on how the church needs him and how he can serve the Lord, because we don't think that he is looking for a church that will serve him, but one that he can serve.

Also Sunday was the best Birthday of my life. Sorella Marquis made me a delicious French toast breakfast out of a Colomba (a traditional Italian easter cake) and then we went to church. After church we met with three contacts (which made up half of our numbers). Two are friends from Romania and they seem to have been very prepared. They agreed to read the Book of Mormon, and they radiate with the light of Christ. We are a little concerned about their smoking habit, (they are chain smokers) but we will get there.

The other was a dad with two little kids and he also agreed to read the Book of Mormon. Then we went to have dinner with my favorite less active in the world. She is named Sorella Carubba and she is a tease. We called her to set up the appointment, and she responded very cooly. She told us we could come if we wanted. Then we got there, did the spiritual thought, and after we finished she asked us if we had another appointment or if we could stay for dinner. We told her that we could and she went into the kitchen "to throw on some pasta" and she came out with a 5 course meal. Then her husband comes out and he's like who's birthday is it today? He also kept telling us that he only eats this much on "occasions." It made me feel super special.

Also I found out today that Michael and Lizbeth were not baptized yesterday but that Michael had his baptismal interview and he passed and Lizbeth is waiting two weeks so that Michael

 can baptize her.

All in all, best birthday of my life.

Sorella Spencer

This week has been really amazing!

This week has been really amazing. We were unable to have as many member present lessons as normal, because we just couldn't plan ahead very well. We didn't want to set something with a member just to have to cancel last minute because Sorella Worsham was in a lot of pain. We are really excited to go to to the doctor this evening just to reassure ourselves that everything is fine.

So this week we worked in primarily with three very wonderful people. Lizbeth and Michael are both progressing beautifully towards baptism. It has been wonderful to watch the change that has taken place in Lizbeth. I know that she is going to be such a strong addition to this ward. Also our primary is very rapidly growing which has been so rewarding to watch. Our sacrament meeting is progressively getting noisier! We are also meeting a few times a week with a referral from Lizbeth named Yair\joir\yoir (she uses all 3 and so do we). She is still just very curious, but very open to meet with us, and keep commitments. We talked with her about family history this week and we are trying to schedule an evening in which we can meet with the consultants in church. She has a few apprehensions about coming to church because she has two little babies, and she doesn't think she can handle getting them to church by herself. We have invited a member to come to a lesson with us this Tuesday who has agreed to help her get to church. The last sister who made a lot of progress this week is a less active member named Balbina. She told us that she felt guilty coming to church, but that she wanted to start again this next Sunday. she has a two year old little girl. So we are officially working with three Peruvian families and we couldn't be happier. It's been a little bit slower this week because we are just trying to give Sorella Worsham the rest that she so desperately needs, but there is a lot of work here, and with the Lord's help I feel like it's only going to pick up.

Also we had a really wonderful conference this week. Elder Kearen came through on a mission tour and talked to us. He had a really wonderful teaching style, and I feel like I learned so much from him. It was kind of funny (in sort of an evil way) because the last time we had a general authority came to our mission (Elder Allen who helped direct the district) I was miserably sick, and there wasn't really anything Sorella Worsham could do about it, because we sort of had to be there, and this time Sorella Worsham was really hurting, and miserable, and there wasn't a thing that I could do about. So pretty much we are Charlie Brown and always a mess. Luckily we are going to a doctor this evening and we are hoping for some really good advice. Also he knew the Posey (sp?) family who are currently serving as the temple President and Matron(?) in Atlanta. Mormon world really is small. He talked a lot about learning, and changing from conferences, and church, and personal studies. He said that if all we do is listen to general conference, and read a passage of scripture, and we don't do anything to change ourselves all we will have gained is a few brief moments of happy feelings.

In order to grow in the way the Lord intended we have to pay close attention, record what we have learned and make plans to change. So I have started taking much better notes, and making goals every Friday morning (one so far!) and then following up on them the following Friday (this is a plan and still hasn't happened yet) before we plan. I feel like I have changed so much through my mission, and I hope that I really can become the person the Lord wants me to be. I know that the Lord is working so hard to mold me into something great, I just hope that I can become good enough before my mission is over so that I have a little time to actually help someone. Just kidding I'm doing my best to dedicate myself to the Lord, and as soon as I let go, and allowed him to do the work I have seen soooooo many miracles. I love you al Vi voglio un saco di bene. Mi manchete un po, ma il lavora dell Signora e la lavora piu bella in questo mondo. I bet you probably won't be able to google translate that because my spelling isn't great in any language, so you will just have to guess.

-Sorella Madyline J. Spencer


I borrowed this picture from Sorella Kimball's blog. I'm so thankful someone is getting pictures of her now and then because she never sends me any!!

A Baptismal Date!!

This week Lizbeth set a baptismal date! She will be getting baptized April 26th 2014! That is the day before my birthday, and I think that regardless of if I'm here, or if I have been transferred by that point that might just be the very best birthday present in the whole world. We also received a fantastic referral from Lizbeth. Her name is Joir and she has two little girls and she is very religious. She told us that religion is like when you are sick, you need to go to a lot of doctor's and get a lot of opinions before you can decide what works. I think that sounds exactly like she is searching for something, and I'm really excited to see how this gospel can bless her life.

We also really received a wonderful referral from the mission president. She is a tour guide for the vatican museums, which is super cool. she wants to meet with us in the first week of April because she has a big project that she is working on but we may try to stop by and drop the Book of Mormon off with her before then just to make initial contact.

So Sorella Worsham took a really nasty fall this week going down our hill and is in a lot of pain. She has been trying to truck through it but I finally sat down with her last night and asked to her actually let me know how she is feeling and I think she is in a lot more pain than anyone realizes, and it's been really hard on her. So we have been kind of inhibited by what we can do. However, while she was resting I called every inactive sister on the ward list (we have been working on talking with the members and compiling information on every member on the ward list, and we had finally gathered information on every known member in the ward, so we called every name on the list that no one knew anything about.) Almost every number we called was inactive, but we talked to four sisters who were interested in meeting with us. Two of them hadn't been contacted in 20 years, and one of them said she really wants to help us with missionary work (which she brought up,and it was very confusing to me because usually less actives don't volunteer to help with missionary work within the first 30 seconds of conversation). So on Sunday we had a brief meeting with Sorella Salerno,the relief Society President, where she agreed to get these 4 sisters visiting teachers.

Also we have started having a lot of beautiful experiences with the romanian immigrants who live near our home. We know several of them by name now and they are always excited to see us. Yesterday when we got on the bus this woman Victoria scooted over and invited me to come sit with her. She was so sweet, and we talked about faith for about 15 minutes. she told me that she prays every day, and that she prays that God will remember her sister (who we also know and is wonderful) because she has forgotten her faith. she doesn't attend church (I imagine because she isn't welcomed) but she loves the word of God, and I promised her one in Romanian. We would like to start meeting with her, but we are going to wait till after this Wednesday when we can talk to an elder in our zone who is also working with these immigrants to see how he introduced the idea to the ward. If you all wouldn't mind including these people in your prayers I would really appreciate it, specifically Victoria, Alesseo, and Camren. These three specificaly are prepared to hear the gospel, and I think that if Christ were here he would be sitting with them teaching in their camps.

Loveyou all I hope you have a wonderful St Patrick's day.

Sorella Madyline Spencer

I LOVE ROME!!!

Hey Everybody!!!
This week has been amazing!!! I love Rome. It is amazing to live in a place full of such a variety of people. Sometimes I feel like I have been blessed to serve a mission not only in Rome Italy, but in the Philippines, and Peru as well. Leaving Rome will be really hard for me, because I really feel close to this ward and these people. I know Rome Italy will always feel a little bit like home, whether or not I ever figure out how to fully speak this crazy language.

So this week started with a wonderful Gans (young single adult or YSA) FHE (family home evening) that two of our investigators came to. One of whom is married with two children but we get really flexible on the definition of a gans (YSA) when we are working with investigators. Then we had a wonderful DDM (district meeting which is a meeting where all the missionaries in an area get together to brainstorm about investigators, and working with the members etc.) where Anziano Nickle (our district leader) gave a powerful lesson on finding. So Sorella Worsham and I spent a lot of the week focusing on really doing our best to find people the Lord has prepared for us.

Finding is really hard. It's really easy to slip out of the habit of doing it well. It's interesting the two things that I thought I would be really good at as a missionary are finding and less active work, but those are probably my two weakest areas. We also spent a lot of this week trying to pass by and track down less actives but it seems like they are never home, don't want to see us, or have moved. I have been praying for them and the ability to help them a lot this week, as has the ward but the Lord's timing isn't always our timing. Part of the problem might be that the word for sheep and the word for sinner are really similar in Italian so instead of praying for the sheep that are lost I was praying for the sinners that are lost. Hopefully now that that is cleared up maybe we will have more success.

Our main family that we are working with, agreed to pray for a baptismal date last night. It has been wonderful to see them make this change in their life. Every time I see them in church or hear them bear their testimony it makes every difficult thing that has happened so far worth it. Also Elizabeth has started asking if we know missionaries in Peru that can help her family, because she wants them to have the same tranquility that she has now.

Our English course is on chapter 5 in the Book of Mormon. This Thursday Sorella Worsham had to go to ward council, and so Sorella Ghio and I taught English course on the opposite sides of the room (so we were still in sight and sound) but I was teaching the intermediate class by myself, and we did the spiritual thought over chapter 4, and then I closed and ended class but forgot to assign them to read chapter 5. As they were getting up to leave Jessica, asked me what they were supposed to read this week. I was really excited to see her take that kind of initiative.

I'm also working on memorizing all of the scripture masteries in Italian. I made a calendar for the rest of my mission, and I am making great progress and it's helping me so much with the language. I have the Book of Mormon flash cards from the seminary teacher in Siracusa, but if anyone knew how to get a hold of them for the other books it would be amazing.

I also realized that a huge part of the reason that we serve missions is to help us become better members and build stronger testimonies (I know that is super obvious, but I internalized it this week) and the reason we serve for a year and a half or two years is because we need time to really build these habits. The reason that EFY usually doesn't change people is because it is only a week long, and real change takes time. So if you don't have the opportunity to serve a mission I want to invite you to really make scripture reading a part of your daily life, and I promise it will change you piano piano (little by little) but it will change you.

Bed Rest

First off, more or less I am healthy. Sorella Ansted showed me some photos of myself from zone conference and they are definitely very alarming, but I am much much better now. It took me two solid days of bed rest but I am getting there bit by bit. For the first time in my mission I felt like this cold came not from extreme stress but actually was just something I caught.

Despite being sick zone conference really resonated with me. Elder Allen came to Italy for temple related reasons and decided to come talk to the missionaries in Rome. (He is a general authority related directly to missionary work. He was one of the main people to write preach my gospel) I really felt the desire to improve as a missionary . Sorella Worsham and I have begun watching the district together, as frequently as we can, and we are praying more earnestly to help our investigators. The hard thing is as soon as I started making strives to improve, I felt satan begin working harder to discourage me. Sometimes I feel like a bully when invinting people to be baptized, and I sometimes feel confused about whether or not I'm relly even helping anyone or not. I am trying to draw closer to my Heavenly Father and continue to be a good missionary, and to improve every day, but it's not always easy.

Our investigators are all doing fantastic. They still say that they don't feel ready to be baptized. We watched the restoration together this week, and asked them to pray if Joseph Smith truly was a prophet. I feel really strongly that once they have recieved that spiritual confirmation, they will be ready to make that commitment.

We set a baptismal date with one of our English course students this week. He may be moving to another part of Rome in the very very near future (if he hasn't already then in the next few days) so we will probably be passing him to another set of missionaries. (Sorella Worsham and I give really really great referrals.) He will still be working in our area, and so will still be coming to our English course, but he will attend church close to his home. He has been fantastic because he has asked really inspired questions. He is incredibly knowledgeable in various religions. He knows the bible a million times better than I do, and he often quoted the koran. I think that he has really been searching for the truth , and that is why he is so well educated in various religions. We have taught him some of the basic principles in English course but this week was the first official lesson we have had with him, and he accepted the invitation to be baptized! He is a really great example of someone truly prepared by God.

Also we are working with a ganz aged woman named Silvia who was first introduced to the church when she lived with an LDS family during a foreign exchange program. She is coming to a ganz family home evening tonight, and we are really excited to see how it turns out

Also I am not sure if you remember our Russian friends that have come to church a few times. There is a Russian LDS woman who is very good friends (I don't know exactly what their relationship is) with a non-member Italian man who lives here in Rome. He came with her a few times, just to bring her to church, and then I called him a few times to invite him to come indivisually. Last time he asked me not to call him too often because he lives very far away, but that he would come when he could. This Sunday he came again, by himself without me calling to invite him, and at the end of the service he told me he likes the LDS church more than any other church he has ever gone to.

I have realized that a lot of times we don't get to see the long term results of our actions. I will proabably not be able to see all of the people that I work with baptized. I do know that Heavenly Father has a very long term plan and sometimes we are only a small part of it, but everyone of us is essential.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thank you for all the support you provide.

Sorella Madyline Spencer

The pictures she mentioned above from their conference.

This week has been fantastic!

Cioa Cari!
This week has been fantastic. Sorella Worsham and I are still together, and still seeing miracles. We have decided that president probably doesn't want to mess with a good thing. We are focusing a lot of our time on Michael and Lizbeth, and it has made the work wonderful. We went to their house on Thursday, and they made us something called tiger's milk. It was in a tall glass and it kind of looked like a pink smoothie. Our big concern was that it was alcoholic, so I took a very cautious drink to check, and it was made out of fish. Which just turned out to be surprising. It was so good, just not what I expected.

We also had a FHE with them and several families in the ward (most of whom were spanish speaking so my Italian is starting to become more and more Spanish sounding every day.) I told Lizbeth on the way out that my favorite thing about the church was the spirit I can feel whenever I go, and my second favorite thing is that no matter where I go, I can always find a little family. She laughed when I said little, and told me that the church was like a huge family. I guess she is right. I am lucky to be a Latter-Day Saint and have you all as my brothers and sisters.

Also we are having a lot of success with our English course. All three of our intermediate students have started reading the Book of Mormon. We ask them to read a chapter during the week, and then we pull the spiritual thought from that chapter. They are truly spiritually progressing, and we are working on getting them all to start taking the lessons. Every now and again we combine advanced and intermediate so the elders can go to ward council, and it is so sweet to see our three students pull out their personal copies (they have all been given one and we have asked them to bring it every class) and explain it to the advanced class. I have great hopes for all of our students.



I just wanted to share something she wrote in another email after I asked her how she was "REALLY" doing.

I am doing well. I am learning a lot from being a missionary. I really am doing well. There are always hard things. Most of the missionaries in my district served together in another city before getting here, so I sometimes feel a little left out, and self conscious about my Italian. Also people keep making me eat a ton of food, but I am happy to report that those are my biggest problems. I am learning and I am growing. I worry about all of my people back home. I worry about you and dad, and Alisha, And BAM, and Dan, but I feel the spirit, and my testimony is growing.

I can't wait to see her and hug her and hear all about her adventures!

Here are a couple of pictures I found.

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.