Sorella Rebekah Tiffany Acton: Week 4 in Palermo

Monday October 28, 2019

This week was a little crazy, things did not go as we had planned them. Actually, nothing really went as planned. I noticed that the Lord works in so many crazy, wonderful ways and I love seeing His hand in my life everyday. And I love reading the Book of Mormon everyday and learning more about the Gospel. I love feeling the spirit and of the love God has for His children. I felt like this week I needed to work harder and be more diligent and I want to reach the potential that God has for me. I have worked so hard to be here and I want to work hard while I am here.

Tuesday not very much happened. We had English course, which is always fun.

Wednesday was a crazy day. We got up and had studies and then went to go meet somebody we had found during "casa a casa" but she was not there unfortunately. So we changed our plans and we went to gardin d'iglese with the Anziani (Elders) and did some finding for about an hour. We stopped and talked to two women and we had really good conversations with both of them. They were very sweet and cute and they were interested. We got the number for one of them and the other one we just gave her our card because she was trying to get back to work. After that we went and had a little quick gelato stop, because you just have to do that sometimes. Afterwards, on our way walking home we ran into two members of the church, they were going to get ingredients for lunch and they invited us over. We were trying to go off gluten this week to see how our tummies would feel, but you can't tell an Italian "no" when they are inviting you over for lunch, no matter how hard you try. So we went over there and had carbonara and we were there for a while just trying to show them our love and meet their needs. Later that night we had to go back home because a guy was coming to fix our toilet seat and after that we went and did a little bit of finding.
Thursday we had what I call a sit and serve day. We got up in the morning and we went to go do service at Casa de Mina, which is a special needs home. We went there for two hours and sat with them and did crafts and went around and introduced ourselves. We just got to know them and loved them and made them feel special. That was really fun. I really enjoyed that because they can't speak the language very clearly for us to understand and I can't speak so it was a really good opportunity to be able to just show love and not worry about having to speak. It was an awesome experience! They were just the cutest and so precious. They drew some pictures and told us they wanted us to have them, so we took them home. On our way home we went to go top by the lady from Wednesday that we weren't able to meet with. We went to her bar and she was there, so we started to have a little lesson with her. Then her husband, daughter, and grandson came in and we started talking with them as well. They invited us to stay for pranzo and we tried to say "no, no, no, it's okay we will just go home" but again you can't say "no", you can't get out of eating with an Italian. So, we stayed there for pranzo and they made us pasta with lentils, which was actually really yummy. We were there for a while. Then after that we had to go to correlation to talk about the missionary work and then we headed home to do some studies and then went to English course. That night there was a big thunderstorm which was super awesome, probably the loudest thunder and lightning storm that I have been in. That was really fun. Today I realized that I have still a lot to improve on, especially my attitude. I need to be more patient and diligent and not get discouraged and let that affect my whole mood.
Friday we did weekly planning and then we went and got blessings from the Zone Leaders. My companion needed a blessing of health and I needed one for comfort. It was really amazing to be able to utilize the priesthood in our lives and be able to get a blessing from them. We were then going to go catch a tram to get to an appointment and it started raining super hard so we got caught in the rain. Right as we were getting to the tram Sorella Johnson, my companion, pushed the button to open the door and the tram took off, we missed it. That night we were going to go do exchanges, which meant we didn't have time to catch another tram to get to our appointment so we just did some contacting. Then we went to the train station and we switched, my companion went to the Palermo II district and one of the Palermo II Sorelle came here to be with me. That means Saturday I got to run the area since I know the way around which I was really excited about.
Saturday was the scambio, or exchanges, and we did a lot of finding. It didn't go as planned but we did our best. We went out and "heart attacked" Giovanna's door that we had pranzo with on Thursday and she really appreciated that. We had made cookies to send with her as well. That night we had a mostra, that is when we go down to main center of town and all the missionaries in the Palermo area get together and do some finding. We had a sheet with a bucket on it, filled with Books of Mormon, pamphlets, and candy. If the people would stop and read a scripture with us then we would give them some candy. That went pretty well, we had a couple people that stopped and talked with us. We did a lot of finding that night. Today was a blessing because I was able to lead the area. It was a blessing for me because I was able to do something that I was good at and feel useful. It's been hard to feel a little bit useless since I can't speak the language, so it was really nice to have the opportunity to be able to run the area.
Sunday we went to church and my companion gave a talk. We were both feeling sick so we had a little bit of a slower day. We made some good plans for the upcoming week to try and make it so we feel better.
A couple things that I wanted to share this week were some things that I studied. I studied a conference talk by Ulisses Soares this week which is entitled "Take Up Our Cross" and really liked the following ideas:
Taking upon yourselves your crosses and following the Savior means continuing with faith on the Lord's path and not indulging in worldly habits. The Savior's gift of grace is not necessarily limited to after all we can do. We may receive His grace before, during and after the time when we expound our own efforts.
I really liked this talk because it talked about how because we are human we are going to have those worldly desires but to take up our cross is to realize that we love the Savior and that we want to follow Him. So we take up those crosses and follow the Lord instead of giving into our worldly desires. I really, really liked that talk.
I also read a talk by the prophet, Russell M. Nelson and he said; "Individual worthiness requires a total conversion of mind and heart to be more like the Lord." I liked that quote a lot.
Some scriptures that I liked as I was studying this week were:
3 Nephi 9:13 ". . .will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?" As I read this scripture, a thought popped into my mind; "How often do I turn to the Savior and let Him heal me?" And then as it continues in verse 14 . . ."behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive. . ." I really liked this scripture as well because it's saying His arm of mercy is extended towards us and whosever will come, no matter who you are or what things in your life might have happened, he will receive us. And He's waiting, His arms are open wide ready to receive us. And another popped into my head that "sometimes we feel like we've gone too far, past the reach of our Savior or that we don't qualify for His Atonement or for His love. But I realized this week that by going to the Lord and using His Atonement and letting Him heal us is showing Him our love for Him. Because He atoned for our sins, he atoned for all of our mistakes, all of our sadnesses and pains and afflictions; He suffered for all of them. Everyone, individually for us, so as we go to Him and utilize His Atonement we are showing our gratitude towards Him for suffering for us. I really loved that because I am so grateful for my Savior and all that He has done in my life.
Love,
Sorella Acton