"The work is just BOOMING now"

Wednesday, July 6, 2011 10:53 AM

 

Oh my goodness!!

 

I cannot say how relieved I am to have a P-Day today...I KNOW that this transfer is going FLY BY soooo fast!! Already my companion has been here a full week! I just can't believe it. Transfers went really well and we just had to dive into the work. As I think I said last time, we have gained the WHOLE city and we have QUITE a bit of repairing to do. There is a new convert who has STILL not received the gift of the Holy Ghost, but I KNOW that it was divine intervention that she didn't make it to her confirmation on Sunday because she is still addicted to marijuana...and it wasn't caught during the lessons, interviews AND baptism :( I don't know HOW it was missed...her eyes were FIRE RED the day of her baptism. Sometimes, I have learned that there is a need to have optimism, but as well as a REAL sense of reality. Even I knew that she was high..her eyes had that look. But, the missionaries said that everything was fine...who am I to judge? She wasn't my investigator...but after seeing the baptism and just KNOWING that she wasn't ready..I was KICKING myself. So now, I am grateful that the Lord trusts my companion and I enough to find her again and get her path straight.

 

The work is just BOOMING now. It's tough, but time flies by so fast. We haven't done ANY finding work...just biking everywhere and appointments. I am NOT complaining, but I just feel like the Lord is blessing me with so much that I can't keep up! I keep having, well in missionary terms, <nightmares> that I am home and my mission is done...or that I have forgotten an appointment or that President sent me home early and I didn't understand why. Last night I dreamt that I woke up in a hospital (probably because one of our new investigators told us her story of how the gospel became an answer to her prayers for being in a coma for 2 months) and every one was so excited that I was awake. I was too, but I didn't understand why I was in America. And Mom, you kept telling me that I had finished my 18 months and that I was home and completed my mission. I believed you, but I was like...well, why don't I remember any of it?! What happened to all my invesitgators? Did Seth get baptized? Why don't I remember teaching these people that I love so much?! And then you turn and say that I was in an accident and that I didn't remember anything because of it. And next thing I know my whole right side is horribly bruised and my shoulder is completely dislocated and I was sent home because of the accident. DAH?! Of all things, I just wanted to know how my investigators were and how guilty I felt for not writing in my journal every night... The woman that we visited, her name is Angela. Her story is so interesting..and she shares it almost every time. You have to be very blunt with her, but she listens and with our lesson...she finally got the point that even though she experienced this celestial glory type thing...I told her that she would NEVER feel that again unless she was baptized by proper authority. She shrugged it off and said God would give her another chance. I then said that she was been given a chance at life, just as she told us. After this life, God is a just God, but it will be so much harder to learn! What are you going to say to God, as He is giving you this chance RIGHT NOW? You just didn't want to take it? ...That shut her up really fast and just jumped right in...<what do I need to do? How many lessons do I need to be ready to be baptized?> So on and so forth...It's amazing how when you really try to listen, the Lord tells you EXACTLY what to say and HOW to say it. I had been struggling with the language the day before, and with this lesson...the words just CAME. But words don't come unless you are willing to listen. A lot of our investigators just need to know that we love them, and that this just isn't another baptism...another number for the church. I had only been to her house once, and she lives about 13k outside of Modena...we had no map, no directions...and no response from her phone. We left in the morning with only our bikes and helmets, a tortello (which is an AMAZING pastry here that is so delicious...the women in the bakery love me hahha) and my memory of pictures. This transfer has FORCED me to find street names. They don't have street signs like the US...it is just a cement block on the side of the building...hit or miss of finding it. So we set off, and I get to a certain point...right at the beginning...and I panic a bit because I don't remember. And then I tell myself...Sorella, you cannot listen if you are too busy panicking...so I listen and, I kid you not, a loud and pressing voice tells me to go LEFT. I look left, and sure enough it is the street we need to get too. Of course, it's the main road and the ONLY street name that I remember. So as we are traveling, everyone...you know me..I panic a little when I don't know directions to places. And that is with a car AND a GPS system. But here, all you have is a foreign language and your faith to guide you. As we were biking, I was recalling how if the Lord can help the 2k stripling warriors defeat an army...He can help my companion and I find a road, on our bikes, for an investigator who needs this truth. And also, the Lord had stopped the rain that morning..and so I KNEW that He would get me there. All the while, my companion is just trailing along and I am just talking, literally talking with the Lord...well, in my mind of course. I just hear a small voice telling me to keep going straight. And even every once in a while I would hear like <after the bridge go left> but the voice was different...like, I didn't even believe it. And then a more powerful voice, one that was more comforting...I canNOT even explain it...would tell me to keep going straight. And sure enough, I needed to keep going straight. We kept biking and then at one point, the same strong voice said <You will know how to get there from here> And I was like <No! No! No! Don't leave! I'm human! I won't remember!! And I do NOT want to get us lost!> Gosh, this 21 year old missionary with her nerdy helmet and fanny pack begging the Lord not to leave..which He never does in the first place, but like little babies they have to take steps on their own to learn!! And with the <no, no, no> thought, another one came immediately to my mind...that the first time I went to this investigators home, I prayed to the Lord that He would help me remember landmarks and bring the pictures to my mind when I needed them. And right then and there, I said that I was sorry and just pressed forward. And sure enough...we made it there just fine. We made it to the lesson, learned so much about Angela (the investigator in the coma) and learned that the Lord needs us to start from scratch with her. Cè lo facciamo! We can do it! So that is just how blessed I am...as well as picking up street names faster and making faster connections. The Lord is REALLY directing our work.

 

There is so much more happening...Anna and Rishe are being baptized this weekend, as well as a ward barbeque. Next weekend is Seth's baptism (he is still nervous...but the Lord will help him) The week after that Victorty and Joy and hopefully Angela are being baptized, and the week after that Andy is being baptized, and HOPEFULLY the week after that Felix will be baptized. We had 7 investigators at church, and one bore his testimony! We have only been meeting for a week! Amazing. Our work has just taken LEAPS and BOUNDS!! And it is ONLY done by the hand of the Lord..what with learning Italian, speaking Africaan, and just connecting with SO many people....Oh for heaven's sake...I love my mission!!

 

As a missionary...you see SO many things. Both good and bad. At such a young age, I have come to see so much, and realized how blessed we all in America really, really are. We have come to find so many african women who come here in hopes of a solid job and good company, only to find that they are in debt for life and sold into sex slavery. What a way to live? To go to bed in absolute pain...physically and spiritually...spending your nights crying and begging God for forgiveness. KNOWING that you are doing abominable things before the Lord, but you are bound by contract and have no way to eat. To wake up every morning hating yourself because you know what you have to do that night to pay the bills. At those times, it is understandable when these women ask <Where is God?> Truth be told, this is the life of an investigator that Sorella Johnson and I are working with. She is BEAUTIFUL and WONDERFUL...and when we found out what she does, and how much she hates herself...I just wanted to cry. It's a very common practice here...and the women hate it. All she wants is to be clean in the sight of God..that's all that matters to her. And what a BLESSING the gospel is. TO have a testimony and I am called to share the cleansing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ...to know that God is BOUND when we do what He says...to KNOW that my Savior LIVES and that He truly DOES feel every pain that we have. HOW BEAUTIFUL THIS GOSPEL IS!! She looked me straight in the face and with accusation in her voice, about the plan of salvation <HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS IS TRUE?! HAVE YOU SEEN IT? HOW DO YOU KNOW GOD IS THERE?! (in the Celestial kingdom)> I looked at her and said <Because I have prayed about it...I do not need to see things to know that they are true. I have prayed, and God has answered. I do not need to see the sun rise to know that it will...> And with that, it solved her concerns. My gosh, looking back, the Lord has blessed me so much. It really isn't me teaching...I am just willing to open my big mouth and let the words just come...

 

You learn SO many ways to teach here. With Nigerians and Ghaneans, they are your friends for life. You might as well be blood. You have to speak a certain way, and you have to relate life to nature and to creations of the earth...and it fits. The gospel fits everything...or rather, our lives are made to FIT the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I will proclaim it from the mountains to the sea, that my God lives! ANd that His plan is for EVERYONE. Of course people don't listen...but you wait for the ones that will!! You knock casa, or strada, or parco and people will literally stop and stare at you. You smile at them and begin talking...and they are in SOME type of trance. You SEE that they SEE what the Gospel has given us in our life...and then reality snaps back in and they literally shake their heads and life is as it was <No, no. no, Sono catolica> And then it's gone. BUT we can take comfort that there WAS a difference made in someone's life that day...even if they didn't listen to the message. Someday they will....someday they really, really, will.

 

Life is going well, and the relations with the ward is improving. Fratello Pitochi just loves us sister missionaries and brought us a HUGE watermelon on Sunday. It's amazing what a simple Hello can do. Older people feed us and bring us food because that is how they express their love...by all means, I am NOT ashamed to take it. So take care Mom...I really am eating well...but working hard enough to where my weight is in good standing. Night is hard because I crave sugar...but I am getting better...or trying to be haha.

 

Amber...I am SO happy to hear from you! I about cried when I saw you pictures! Every time I pass a baby shop I think of you!! I am glad all is well...I'll write you soon!

Mom....Pictures are COMING! And I mean.,..a LOT of pictures hahah I bought the camera and you said you wanted pictures...so you will be getting them!

Ash...You've got something coming for you....be prepared!!

 

Alright, time is up..gotta go! Be safe, thank the Lord for each day you are given....because it truly is a gift as to how blessed we are.
Love,
Sorella Camille Bowman