Snow in Bologna!!

Well this week was kind of a crazy one because of transfers! As you already know, I am staying in Bologna for a third transfer, and I am with one of the Sisters in my MTC District who came over here 30 minutes by train from Reggio-Emilia. Sorella Frandsen is awesome! She's super diligent and Christ-like. And seriously a beast. I have so much to learn from her. It'll be an awesome transfer. My other new roommate, our new STL, is cool too! Meno male.

Not much happened in the way of investigators this week. We still have Basirat and Ayisat on date, but they tend to be a little flakey so we haven't been able to see either of them for 2 weeks, so we're gonna have to push their baptismal dates. Hopefullly we see them soon... We will see what happens with them. We got 2 other new investigators this week! Gini and Arianna! Gini is a girl who did a foreign exchange in Utah with Sorella Petersen, a Sorella in my MTC district and now in my zone! It has been cool talking to her about her experiences with the Church in Utah. 

The snow has been crazy in Italy! We haven't gotten snowstorms like in Southern Italy, but it has been snowing a ton! Just not really sticking, except for last night and last Friday night it kinda stuck for a couple hours. But mostly rain. So it's been freezing!!! -10 degrees Celsius! So that has kind of made missionary work a little miserable but it's fine. We haven't been outside too much, but it looks like this next week we will probably be outside freezing so hopefully by next week I'm not an icicle. Also on Sunday we had Stake Conference in Mestre, which is by Venice. We didn't get to go to Venezia, unfortunately. Maybe one day.

My spiritual thought this week is from Ether 12 in the Book of Mormon. Verse 32 says, "And I also remember that thou hast said that thou hast prepared a house for man, yea, even among the mansions of thy Father, in which man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared." 

I think having hope can be hard sometimes. Also maybe keeping our focus where it needs to be, which is the end result of returning to live with our Heavenly Father in the mansion that He has prepared for us. But we have to do it! Because life is better that way. I really like the simplicity of this verse. The Book of Mormon is so cool you guys!

That's it for this week (: Vi voglio bene! Ciao until next time!

Sorella Henderson

Pic 1: Sorella Cazier's funeral photo from last week

Pic 2: Sorella Frandsen and I with our Romanian potential, Carmen

Pic 3: Sorella Cazier's last gelato ): I take a picture of every gelato btw haha

Pic 4: bowling for p day last week! Sorry it's a terrible photo haha

TRANSFERS (also 4 months done!)

Ciao tutti!!! Well I've been in the mission officially 4 months now, and I'm done with my training!! Which is nuts!! Well I'm sure you're all just DYING to hear my transfer news, so here you are...drum roll please... BY THE GRACE OF GOD I'M STAYING IN BOLOGNA!!! Unfortunately, my trainer and bff Sorella Mitchell is going away to go be STL in Genova, the youngest STL under President Allen, I'm pretty sure. And she's gonna kill it! So excited for her, but I will miss her a lot. My new companion is Sorella Frandsen, who I was in the MTC with! So we are gonna be bottle breaking each other! Which is awesome because I love Sorella Frandsen and I'm so excited to see her! She's a great missionary and we're gonna do good work together.

Last PDay we went to Parma with the Anziani, which was really cool. I've included some pictures below. This week we got 2 new investigators! So we now have 8 progressing investigators, 2 with baptismal dates. And 2 that are super close as well. It's crazy to think that at the beginning of this transfer we literally had 0 investigators. The Lord has blessed us with so much. But we are gonna keep going! Unfortunately Ayisat, one of the women we have on date, has been kicked out of her home with her husband and child and doesn't have a place to live or a good job, so we are praying hard for them to find a place so we can get back to teaching her. We also did service at the Caritas on Monday, which is where all the homeless people can go eat and shower and rest. And it was so fun! We got 2 numbers and found a lady that was baptized in Nigeria and hasn't been to church here yet! It was awesome. And I only got proposed marriage by one Nigerian man this week, so it was a good week! Haha!

So for my short spiritual thought I just wanted to share this scripture in D&C 24:7-8. "For thou shalt devote all thy service in Zion; and in this thou shalt have strength. Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days." I like this scripture because it just teaches that the smartest way to live is to consecrate our heart and our mind to the Lord. If we don't do this, we can't receive blessings and we will always be struggling with God. But when we consecrate our lives to His service, we can be at peace. 

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!! You're all amazing! Until next week!! Ciao!

Pic 1: the sorelle of the Bologna apartment ): Sorella Cazier is going home tomorrow!

Pic 2: family photo with my mission mom and dad!!

Pic 3: transfer photos! My district is so old

Pic 4: it's been raining in Bologna all week!

Pic 1: I'm living off of gelato right now

Pic 2: and also kebab!!

Pic 3: more evidences of the gelato addiction

Pic 4: we have a problem!!!

Parma Pday (2/14/18) Pics

Little Africa

Ciao tutti!! And Happy Valentine's Day to you all haha. As Sorella Mitchell and I like to say, Valentine's Day is great on the mission because you are never alone. (: It's been another beautiful week in Bologna!!! This week really has been amazing. Last P-Day, we had all you can eat sushi, which is sempre worth the stomach pain. We also had our weekly FHE at Friday's house where I am forced to eat banku, which is disgusting but I am getting so good at chomping banku!!! (this is the raw dough dipped in spicy miscellaneous soups with bones in it that you have to swallow whole) And the Africans love me for it. And Friday facebook-lived the whole FHE, which was interesting. Then some of the Africans asked us to be their Valentines, and we told them that the only love we talk about on Valentine's Day is the love of Jesus, which led to a great discussion about the grace of God, as any conversation does with the Nigerians.

So this last Sunday, Presidente Allen came to Bologna for church to do a caminetto (fireside) for our ward for the last 2 hours of church on missionary work. And I heard it was good! I didn't stay because we took our investigator, Basirat, and our then-potential, Ayisat, out for a mini-lesson because online missionary work doesn't really have a lot to do with them. So we taught them the Restoration, and they honestly don't retain any information. Teaching Africans is so hard! Because even though we both speak English, we really don't speak the same language. So at some point, Ayisat books it out of the lesson for an unknown reason. But then Basirat tells us she likes our church, and even though she doesn't understand everything that we teach her, she feels like she is coming home to our church. So we set a bap date with her for March 17! Then we go back up to finish out the caminetto, and after the meeting, Ayisat sits down next to us and says, "Hey when can I get baptized too?" !!!!! So we were like...  uh.... March 17???And she was like okay cool I can do that. Hahahahaha we were like ARE YOU KIDDING hahahaha it was the best day of my life. So we have 2 bap dates for next month!!!! And we hope to see them with their husbands this week and fix the dates a little more firm and set ones with their husbands too since their husbands have never come to church. But we have 2 solid families!!!

We also got another new investigator this week! Her name is Suki, and she's super cool. She's from Morocco. We're pumped to teach her some more. The work in Bologna is going solid right now! We had transfer predictions at district meeting today. We open a kinder egg, and based on my toy and my scripture everyone predicted that I am leaving, which I don't want to do!!!! But I guess I will let you all know next week! We have just been so blessed here the last 2 weeks, and I am not ready to leave yet!

I love this work and this Gospel! I love being able to see people recognize truths that they knew before they came to this Earth and have just forgotten! I love how the Gospel unites families and marriages! It has been so cool to see! I love serving in Little Africa and I never want to leave! As I like to say, here in Bologna, a baptism for us is actually a baptism for Nigeria. Because I'm pretty sure everyone that has been baptized in the last I don't even know how long is Nigerian. AND IT'S THE BEST EVER. I love this work and Gesu! You are all the best, and keep going strong in whatever trials or struggles you may face! You can do it because Gesu loves you! You're all awesome and you'll hear from me next week! Ciao!

statue by Michaelangelo

Ark of Saint Dominic

MIRACLES IN BOLOGNA

Ciao tutti!!! I hope that everybody is doing well and enjoying life. This last week in Bologna has been a great week for the Sorelle woo! So the family that was invited to church 2 weeks ago by our super brava famiglia of Africans in our ward are now investigators! And unfortunately they didn't come to church on Sunday because Basirat, the mother, was sick, but our first lesson was so powerful, and we are seeing them again tomorrow! And their kids are the CUTEST! I can't pronounce their names for anything though.

Then on Tuesday we got another new investigator! Her name is Ayisat, and she is a friend of Basirat, our new investigator. We went to see her on Tuesday, and we hiked for 15 minutes on the side of a busy highway in the pouring rain with 2 African women and 2 babies to get to her house from the train station and I thought we were gonna die. Not to scare anyone! But she's very nice, and Basirat was there with her kids. Unfortunately, we weren't really able to teach because we were bombarded by drunk Romanians with weird questions about Mormons, which everyone here thinks are Amish, btw. So that was annoying but a fun experience and we are hoping to get her to church on Sunday! We just gotta convince one of our members to bring her which will honestly be hard but I'll send President Allen to their house if I need to.

So yeah this week was awesome for the work! We got 3 investigators, and the STLs got 2 and a baptism date! So we have been working so hard because before this none of us had progressing investigators. And President has told us since the beginning of the transfer and then at interviews last week that he might have to close this coppia here. So we are hoping now that the work is going that we are not going to get closed because I don't wanna leave Bologna! But whatever President does will be fine. But I'd prefer to stay haha.

Yesterday we had zone conference, which is a delight as always. President and Sorella Allen are the best!! We got some good advice and stuff. And it's also fun to see the other missionaries. (:

I just want to testify of the truth of this Gospel! I have studied it a lot on my mission and taught the Restoration, and every time I teach it, I feel the Spirit testify that it's true. No matter if crazy African kids are running around or whatever is going on, whenever we teach Joseph Smith and the First Vision, the Spirit calms everything. I know that this church is the One True Church and I am not ashamed or nervous to say that it is! I love you all and want to encourage you to keep growing your testimonies through daily prayer and scripture study! We can choose to float through the Gospel, or we can grow a strong foundation! And trust me, the latter is better! Vi voglio bene! 

Sorella Henderson

Pic 1: when you have to wait for 20 min for a bus in the rain, you get an Italian hot chocolate

Pic 2: our investigator's daughter Lodila!! (We are all soaking wet from our hike in the rain to their house)

Pic 3: Sorella Mitchell playing torte in faccia hahahaha
Pic 4: Bologna zone (2-7-18)

Bella Bologna

Ciao tutti!! Come state??? Bologna is great and definitely the best city in the world. We have some amazing members here!! One family from Nigeria invited a whole family to church, and the wife came and brought her adorable but crazy children!! And this was the first time that Sorella Mitchell and I had had a potential or a simp in church for at least a month, so we were over the moon. We are seeing them tomorrow to teach a lesson and we're so excited to finally teach a lesson! This same family has also given us some other referrals that we have been trying to contact, but Africans work a lot so it's been really hard to see them.

We have gotten a lot of bidoni this week from people not showing up to appointments. So yesterday we had to do a bunch of finding and found 0 people so we were super depressed. But then today we had a lesson with our simps who have been simps for a while and they are praying about baptism!!! So we are so excited and have high hopes for them. The Spirit was so strong during the lesson and Samuel finally said he knows that our church is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet. So that was an awesome lesson.

The work here is kinda slow right now for all the Sorelle so I don't have much else to update. I love this work tho! It can be so hard at times but the members make my life. To be able to have so much love for these people and experience what Christ did just a little bit is awesome. Obviously I'm not as good as Christ was as a missionary but I try to improve every day and it can be done through Christ! That's so cool. Anyway love you all and hope you're all doing great and not freezing to death like me! Ciao until next week!!

Pic 1: mostra on the Book of Mormon ft. Beautiful chalk art by Sorella Ewing

Pic 2: beautiful foooood!!!!

Pic 3: matching pic

Pic 4: Italian gelato!!!

Pic 1: this building used to be a prison lol

Pic 2: Inside the old Bologna University where all the graduating members' family crests got painted on the wall

Pic 3: found the hidden Bologna canals!

Pic 4: window to the canals

I'm running out of cool subject lines

Ciao tutti!! It's been another amazing week here in Bologna! I still can't get over that I live here in this city! Bologna is home to the oldest university in the world (or so the Italians tell me), the Universita di Bologna!! And we literally have 3 Zaras!!! One is just for girls; they don't even let boys in hahaha it's amazing. And 2 H&Ms, Bata, 2 big Kikos, which is Italian makeup.... I'm loving it!!! And right now is saldi, which is the big Italian sales that last for a whole month, so we've just been shopping every week for p-day. It's been so great and so terrible at the same time.

Hahahaha one of the funny things that happened this week was we were on our way to go FHE that we have every Friday at Friday's house, an African family in our ward. And they are neighbors to our investigators, so they are always there too. And we were on the bus, and there were 3 ragazzacci on the bus standing by us (ragazzacci means like bad boys kinda....but like less lame) and they were with this littler kid who looked like 14 years old. And they were vaping and just filling the bus with smoke. And they get off the bus, and as the little fat kid walks past me he goes, "Hai degli belli occhi" and then runs off the bus. So that means "You have some beautiful eyes." for all of you that don't speak Italian. Sorella Mitchell and I just looked at each other and started dying hahahaha it was the most random thing and the whole situation was just very funny.

Then at Friday's house, I had to chomp banku again. But this time I was very fast at swallowing it, and they didn't even make fun of me! And we played this African card game called Whot, and they were super worried about if we would understand the game, being foreigners and all. But then I beat all the Africans every time we played, so they were all just going nuts hahaha. I don't know if any of you have been in a room with 8 Africans and 4 missionaries, but it was so loud and after that night of banku and cards I was lovingly accepted into the African community. Needless to say, I was very pleased.

Other things we did this week was play calcio (soccer) with some of the wardies and our potentials. It was fun, but freezing! And we taught one of our new investigators, Giuseppe, the first lesson yesterday during scambio with Sorella Blandford, which was good. He is the husband of a less active member, and he has taken the lessons before many years ago. But we are gonna start over with him and see where it goes! We also got another new investigator yesterday from Nigeria named Vivian. It is very difficult to teach her because she lives far away (technically in another missionaries' zone but we are working on figuring it all out), so we can only teach her on facebook. But she's funny! We're not sure if she's as interested in the church as having "American friends," so we will see. 

Life is good and living here in Italy is amazing! I am so grateful to be a missionary and to know some amazing people and have these amazing experiences. There is so much joy that comes from sharing this Gospel, and also getting to know people and their stories. I love you all and wish you well! Vi voglio un sacco di bene! Ciao!
2 Nefi 29:7

Sorella Henderson

Neptune's Fountain

Bologna's twin towers

3 MONTHS (almost)!!!!

Ciao tutti! Well it's been another week here in Bologna, which means it was a great one! The weeks are flying by here, for sure. And the mission is going so fast. I will have been on my mission for 3 months tomorrow! That's crazy. It is going too fast already! 

Last P-Day, we did a bunch of shopping. So this month in Italy there is something called saldi, which means sales. So Italian government regulates sales so that stores can't do them all year, but all month of January everything is like 50% off. So we went ham last week buying Italian clothes!!! Haha and we will probalby do some more shopping today as well, but I hope not as much as last week because I had never been as exhausted on the mission as I was after saldi shopping.

We also had transfers this week. Nothing happened with me or the Sorelle that I live with, but we have a new zone leader/district leader, as well as some other missionaries that are new to our zone. And a new Sister straight out of the MTC so I'm not the youngest anymore! Yay! Haha it feels so good to not be freaking out all the time anymore.

Okay a cool miracle from this week that I would like to share with you involves dentistry (sorry Mom)! So on Friday morning, I was eating sticky candy, and the crown on one of my teeth came out. So we didn't really have anything planned for that morning, so we called President Allen, who is a dentist, and he told us to just go walk into a dentist office. So we were about to go, when our phone broke! And it was just doing the weirdest thing! So we had to go to the library to get internet to get a hold of the office to fix it, so we weren't able to go to the dentist. And then the phone was magically fixed again just a couple hours later. So we couldn't go to the dentist until Saturday. So we get there, explain the isssue (really tested my Italian skills, you guys), and we got in to see the dentist. And while the dentist is cementing my crown back on, Sorella Mitchell is explaining the Restoration. And the dentist totally dug it! We gave him a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and he is coming to church this Sunday! Woohoo! That was a pretty expensive potential investigator, but the Lord works in mysterious ways, and I love it!

That experience definitely taught me something about always being prepared to share the Gospel when the opportunity arises. Maybe for members that aren't full-time missionaries, it's not part of your day-to-day activities to go knock doors or ask for referrals, but it's evident that God places peope in our path all the time who are prepared. Not just the missonaries, but everyone. And after that experience, I just started kicking myself for not carrying Books of Mormon with me or pamphlets or something becuase I definitely have had conversations or opportunities in the past to do it, and will for the rest of my life. So like why have I never done that before?! It was really a wake-up call for me. Well, the entire mission has just been a really big wake-up call, I'd say. Haha in a good way, for sure.

Well the work is going in Bologna! Our mission has some high goals. We want 300 baptisms this year! And in Bologna, we want 20! So it's gonna be hard, but we're very excited. And even though Sorella Mitchell and I combined don't have the experience of a missionary less than halfway through their mission, we have a lot of fire and a lot of desire and we are working so hard! And it is so nice to have amazing members in our ward that want to help. But I learned today in combined district meeting that 70% of baptisms come from member referrals, 23% from English class, 3% from self-referrals, 2% from media, and only 1% from finding!!!! I was like what in the world why did I always think that missionary work is all about knocking doors?!! So I would just encourage y'all to get involved in missonary work in your ward and to pray for missionary opportunities or knowledge on how to help missionaries because it's THE BEST! hehe. Comunqs, I love you all! You're all awesome and I'm doing good and I hope you are all good too! Chowdy!!!

Bologna's twin towers in background