Roma 1 – Week 1

Buongiorno!!

I finally made it here in Rome!!  The last days at the MTC flew by so fast.  They were really just all a blur together honestly.  We had a really good Monday, though, and we just got to talk about Italy with our teachers and learn more about the investigators that they taught and such.  It was a lot of fun and we saw some really awesome pictures and some funny videos.  It really got me excited to be able to meet the people.  We also shared about what we learned the most or what aspect did we feel like we gained a stronger testimony of.  I really learned how to teach people and not lessons.  I was able to really learn we have to teach the people and fit the Gospel to their needs and make sure they are hearing what the Lord would want them to hear and have the Holy Ghost testify of that truth to them.

Fratello Gessel, Sorella Ansted, and Sorella Preston were super awesome.  I am so thankful for my teachers and all the help that they gave me and they really did help me learn the language as well as grow spiritually.

I woke at 2:00 the next morning to get ready to go and we went to the airport.  On the first flight to Chicago I talked to a member the whole 3 hours and it was really nice and we shared some stuff that we both liked to do, but we mainly talked about the Gospel.  He made a good point on how when we have the Book of Mormon we really are better able to understand the Bible.  He shared Isaiah 53:6 (“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”) and it is kind of hard to understand fully what that means.  Then when you cross reference that with Mosiah Chapter 14 we can really see more clearly what the Savior would do for us.  The Book of Mormon compliments the Bible so well and I have thought somewhat regarding to the two and how they both give us so much.  I think of the scripture in 2 Nephi 29:8 and it really shows that they are both testifying of Christ and I just really like that they both stand as witnesses to him.  It was a really great conversation and he also said that this wasn’t going to be easy and he said you probably won’t be doing it right if it is easy all the time.

This is the hardest thing I have ever done and I really saw that while we were at the airport.  We tried to talk to people and some people just didn’t want to hear what we had to say.  It’s not easy going up to people and sharing everything we want to share with them.  But those that have a softened their hearts are willing to listen and ready to receive what we have to say.  I am excited that the lord has truly prepared people for me.  I really want to work on getting better at it.

We arrived in Rome the next day and they lost my carry on so I filed lost baggage with them and after that we went to meet the President Waddoups, Sister Waddoups, the assistants, Anziano Romano and Anziano Alvey, and then also Anziano Hatch the former assistant.  It was a lot of fun.  We went straight to the Rome Temple site and it is really cool because you come around this bend and it is just right there in front of you.  I really hope it is finished within a year but there is no word on it.

We went to the mission home next, which we call The Villa.  It was built in the 1920s by Benito Mussolini [“Il Duce”] for his niece.  Driving around Rome to get there was just so cool.  It was just so cool to see all the buildings and such.  It was awesome.

We had lunch there and then a little later four of us got to go around Rome with Anziano Hatch.  We were the four that had a bag lost.  We went and saw the Spanish Steps which were packed and really busy and it was really cool.  Then we walked over to this pillar thing that has a story carved all along the sides.  We didn’t know the name of it though.  [It is Trajan’s Column, a Roman triumphal column, that commemorates the Emperor Trajan’s victory in the Dacian Wars.  It was erected in A.D. 113]  Then we walked to essentially what is their government building I think.  It was really neat and the architecture was awesome.

At that point you could see the Forum and Colosseum.  Then we walked down towards that and it was just so so so amazing.  It was all just so beautiful.  It was super fun.  Truly, Rome was just way ahead of its time when it was built.  It was really cool to see all that stuff though.  They have like really old water fountains that constantly spit out water that you can just walk up to and drink at anytime which was really awesome too.

Well next we went back and had dinner and then we had some short training and got to open our envelopes.  We knew where the areas were and that there was one Italian trainer. I ended up being the last to open my envelope and I knew at that point that Rome was still open and that the Italian trainer was still available so I already knew everything except the specific area and my trainer’s name hahaha.

My trainer is Anziano Jonathan Calvagna and he is from Bergamo, Italy. [Bergamo is a city of 120,000, about 25 miles northeast of Milan, in the foothills of the Italian Alps]  He is fluent in English as well and I am blessed to have him because he will be able to help me a lot.  We are in the Rome 1 area and are a district of 6 in the same area with 4 other sisters.  They are all really nice and I will give you their names next week.  They live right up the hill from us and cover the same areas.  We had a lot of lessons scheduled this week but ended up having 7 of them fall through.  We did a lot of finding and ended up finding some great potentials that I hope we be able to contact and teach for sure.  We had a lot of quality gospel conversations and I think that we can continue to push ourselves more.  We had a lesson with the Bishop’s nephew, Simone, and he is really cool.  He loves the missionaries and we do some service for him each week, give him a lesson, and then he cooks for us.  That was my first meal from an Italian which was really good.  He cooked spaghetti and it was really basic ingredients but he made the food so delicious.  I loved it.  It was good to get to know him and his mom over that meal.  I look forward to working with him and really hope that we will be able to really help him in any way we can.

I love it here in Rome, but it isn’t the easiest thing at all.  It really is hard work.  I love my trainer and we get along great!  He likes movies, movies, and soccer.  He is really cool.  Our area is huge and it covers so much area.  We are in the Rome 1 ward and it was a lot of fun yesterday.  I didn’t understand much at all, but it was still an enjoyable time.  Last night we visited at the Salerno’s.  They are a member family and we shared a short message on member missionary work and then ate with them.  We had some lasagna, then chicken, spinach, onions, and then some left over cake they had from the Easter weekend.  It was all really good.

Coming on a mission I have realized how important member missionary work is.  We really can’t reach our full potential without them.  Working with the member is a necessity.

Well we are planning on going into Rome as a district and seeing St. Paul’s Basilica [Basilica Papale di San Paolo fuori le Mura.  From Wikipedia: “The Basilica was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I over the burial place of St. Paul, where it was said that, after the Apostle’s execution, his followers erected a memorial, called a cella memoriae. This first edifice was expanded under Valentinian I in the 370s. … Commonly known as St. Paul’s outside the Walls, is one of Rome’s four ancient, Papal, major basilicas:  The Basilicas of St. John in the Lateran, St. Peter’s, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul outside the Walls.  The Basilica is within Italian territory and not the territory of the Vatican City State.  However, the Holy See fully owns the Basilica, and Italy is legally obligated to recognize its full ownership thereof and to concede to it ‘the immunity granted by International Law to the headquarters of the diplomatic agents of foreign States'”.]  so that should be a lot of fun!!  I am excited for the mission conference next week with Elder Bednar and look forward to that experience.  I won’t have p-day next Monday but it will be moved to next Thursday. Well, I will talk to everyone next week!!

Ciao,

Anziano Taylor Garrett

Anziano Calvagna and me. He is from Bergamo, Italy.

Roman fountain

My first Italian pizza!

The Spanish Steps

The pillar with writing on it

Italy’s capitol building

The Roman Forum

Foosball with the bishopric of the Rome 1st Ward, with Anziano Calvagna. They are extremely good at foosball!

The Colosseum in Rome