Dear Friends and Family,
Real quick. My area is outside Rome by about 45 minutes and
is just a bunch of little towns with a couple cities. The town I live in is
smaller than The Colony, by a long shot, and I think I have probably met or
seen most of them by now, haha. It is cute. My companion does all the driving
when we need to, or the Elders drive when we go to church or District meeting
in Terni. They are the prettiest drives of my life that is for sure, but we are
spending a lot more time in a car than I am used to, and that means not talking
to people. My solution? Memorize scriptures! At least I am practicing the
language and trying to memorize ones I could use with people I meet. It is
nice, and passes the time fast.
For the 4th of July, I made some burgers for me, my
comp, the elders, and Alessandra and her friend Veronica. It was great. We had
a great little celebration of about one hour
because then we had an appointment, haha.
But it was nice to remember I am American :)
This week was... HOT. And filled with awesome miracles. I'll
show you one I wrote to President, well it is one morning, but like 100
miracles. It is really nice to be a missionary. I am just so grateful, all the
time!!
Letter to Presidente:
"That's about all the investigators I have seen. The
rest of our time is spent finding new people that are typically not from our
area, so lots of referals! It kinda makes it seem like missionaries aren't
meant to be here, and I think that is the mentality here, from what I have
seen, but to me it shows how much God loves His children that He put us here to
find all these people that might not have been able to ever meet the
missionaries of their own area. We have been seeing so many miracles that put
us in the most random places where we find people that accept our invitations.
Saturday morning for example, we were headed out to a little paesino dove abita
this contact that we met last Monday. When we got to the station, we realized
we hadn't taken into account that it was Saturday and so the trains were less
frequent. We missed one by about 30 seconds, and the next wasn't for 3 hours.
We decided to see if there was a bus, so we headed to the bus station across
the way. On our way there we stopped for a moment to talk to this man that
sells things on the stairs of the station. We told him about how we missed our train, and he said that there was
no bus at the station that would take us to Monterotondo, but that we had to
take a little bus to the highway thing and wait for a bigger bus. We had no
idea that existed, so that was awesome. He waled us over to the little bus and
told the driver what we needed. Then, we realized we didn't really have money
for the ticket, but the really nice driver let us ride for free since it was
one stop away. On the bus we talked with the driver until another man got on so
we talked with him too, and that man already had a Book of Mormon at home!
Miracle! We gave him a booklet on the Restoration and gave an English Course
card to the driver when we got off. Then, we walked over to our next bus stop
where there was just one woman sitting alone, so we started talking to her. She
was SUPER interested from the very beginning, I mean 100% prepared! She took a
Book of Mormon and while we talked about it, her bus passed! It was ours too
but we really felt bad that she missed her bus, especially when we found out
the next one didn't come for an hour... But since we had an hour, we asked if
we could explain the Restoration booklet and she said yes, so we said a prayer
with her then we started. Before we got halfway through, two more people came
up to this bus stop in the middle of nowhere (literally) and listened for a bit
as we were talking about prophets. One, a young man, asked if we were nuns
(common question). We said no and paused our lesson to explain who we are to
him (Terry). He then said he doesn't believe in anything, but agreed to listen
to us as we talked with Pelagie. As we were talking with them and teaching the
Restoration, ANOTHER bus went by, and we all missed it! Another hour to wait...
Haha! I couldn't believe it. Heavenly Father knew what needed to happen that
morning though, way better than we did. Long story short, Pelagie, the first
woman, is the best referal I have ever given (she lives in Rieti-so Terni) and
Terry, who believes in nothing, was super touched by the Book of Mormon and our
testimonies and took a book and gave us his number and really hopes we can help
him build his faith. When their bus finally came, we knew it was too late for
us to go to that appointment, but they both got on it with huge smiles and both
had a Book of Mormon in hand. Pelagie was really glad she had missed her bus
that day, and I think Terry was too. I just am so grateful to be a missionary
for the Lord. Right after their bus pulled away, we walked off the road into
the hay field and knelt down to say a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for all
that had happened. I have never been so happy to miss a train by 30
seconds."
This place is great :) Also, this week is Zone Conference!
Also, shout out to Paige Wightman, a sister missionary that
finished last year. She was and is incredible. She was serving in this area
when I got to Pescara, and she had such an incredible influence on me and my
mission. To keep it short, did a LOT of work here in Rome 5 and we are seeing so
many fruits of her awesome labors. I cannot thank her enough for her dedicated
service to the Lord. So many seeds planted, SO MANY. And such a love for the
people that showed in her actions. She is great.
Okay, missionary crush over.
Anyway, this week was good, and I am looking forward to
another good one :) I love you all. Thank you for your love, support, and
prayers! Have a great week!!
Sorella Patterson
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