27 FEB 2008

Hi from Rome!

Happy Birthday to all the birthday's....Paul and others!

These weeks are flying and already another transfer is ending! We got our transfer calls and we get our wish and are staying together! Yea! We're happy and I'm glad I get to end with such a cool companion.

This week....

Thursday was a day full of finding work. It's just been really hard to get appointments lately with all of our contacts, they are either working or out of Rome for work or sick! But, I always enjoy doing finding work so it's all good. We got a few phone numbers from people with whom we spoke so we'll see what comes of them.

Friday morning we had to go to the other side of Rome to finally get my permesso, my permit to be in the country. After more than a year it finally came through! Haha, so that took all morning. We had a funny time waiting in line with all these different foreigners. I talked with a lady from some African country by Ethiopia. Interesting. Then I got fingerprinted and handprinted. At the end she said, okay, we'll see you back here in about 6 months....haha, I just smiled and nodded. Poor Italian government struggles! Friday night we had a good lesson with Yana. We talked more about the restoration and gave her the invite to be baptized when she knew that what we were teaching was true.

Saturday morning we met with new convert Nancy and her 7 year old cute little boy. We had a lesson all planned for Nancy but had to change it on the spot so that her son could listen to. It was impromptu but went well, talking about the 2000 warriors of Helaman and how the mothers knew it etc etc etc. We had exchanges set up for Saturday afternoon but unfortunately, they fell through. A member who's my age, Andrea and I were going to go to an appointment with our investigator Rita while my comp and another member our age were going to go do some finding. But Andrea called and said she was sick, then Rita called and cancelled. So, it was going to be cool but I guess we'll have to do it another time.

Sunday was church. The man who got baptized, Ivan, received the Holy Ghost in Sacrament meeting and then the aaronic priesthood too! He even chopped of his long hair! He's soo cool and now a member of the ward! Then we headed into Centro to sing with all of the other missionaries in Piazza Navona.

Monday...district meeting like always and then we had an appointment with Concetta again. She totally doesn't understand the plan of salvation so we're going to plan a good lesson for next time. She's so nice and we really want for her to be able to come to church again.

Yesterday we tried to stop by Claudio and Maria's in the morning. We are getting sort of sad about this situation because we go and ring the door and we can hear them looking through the peep-hole that all Italian doors have, and then they just don't open! So we don't know if they're interested anymore. We'll see. Then in the evening we went out to Cave again to visit with a member, Maria Ramos, and her son and then her non-member husband. Her husband has been to church the past 3 Sundays so she wanted us to come and have a lesson with the whole family. We found out that he doesn't like church at all. He was raised in an orphanage type place that was very strict and orderly and doesn't like how on Sunday we have relief society and priesthood separated and then everyone goes to Sunday school, and then everyone moves again for sacrament meeting. And he was complaining about all the men looking the same wearing white shirts and ties. Absolutely just doesn't like the orderliness of it all. Oh brother! That's the first time I've heard complaints about that aspect of the church. I've always marveled at the incredible organization of the church. He's nice though, just an intellectual and introvert.

And that brings me to today. We are having a relaxed day... just doing the shopping and hopefully writing some letters! Thanks for the package Jenn and Jack! And mom, the package you sent got stuck in customs and I have to pay 6 Euro to get it just fyi, no problem though.

Okay, sorry, I feel like this is a boring email but it'll be better next week because miracles will happen!

Love you all,

Sorella Boynton