Gate, Water, and Path

2 Nephi 31:17 

The gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism

Doctrine and Covenants 10:66

Partake of the waters of life freely

Doctrine and Covenants 25:2

Walk in paths of virtue before the Lord

Psalms 24

This morning before we left for our day trip to the Amalfi Coast, I opened my scriptures and they fell open to Psalms 24. The first scripture I read was verse one.
    The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
I immediately thought of our upcoming trip today.  I knew that Heavenly Father knew me, and knew where I was going today.  He wanted to remind me that he made this beautiful earth, and even the Amalfi Coast in all its splendor was created by his hand.  And he created each of us.  We are his.
Verse two says: For he hath founded it upon the seas...(We were going to be traveling on the sea today.)
Verse three: Who shall ascend into the hill of The Lord? ( We are going to be climbing up many hills today.  And the Lord made them all) Or who shall stand in his Holy Place?  (am I standing in Holy Places?)
Verse four: He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,  ( a wonderful reminder)
Verse five: He shall receive the blessing from The Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.  (I felt like it was a rich blessing for me today to go and see this beautiful part of the world that The Lord has made!)

   

The boat ride to Amalfi

Here is our friend Alfredo, who is the organist for our branch alongside my favorite missionary of all, Anziano Scherbel.  Alfredo lives in Salerno.  He gave us the royal tour of the Amalfi Coast today.

While we waited for everyone to arrive, we had a snack at the Temple Bar, around the corner from the Salerno Train Station.  Alfredo is on the left, Paul is in the middle and Ivan, his councilor, is on the right.

The elders and the sisters also came.

Sister Kelly and the Steurers came also:

Lunch in Amalfi

We found a darling place to eat lunch.  It was up a back ally and we all sat down 

together.  There was a piano near our table, so sister Kelly played and we all sang our mission song. We had a yummy pasta with a lemon white sauce on it.  Amalfi is very famous for its huge lemons.  For
desert we had one of these lemons sliced up and we all had a few slices.  You dip the slices in sugar and you eat the whole thing, peel and all.  They were delicious and so different.  The lemon peel is very soft and not bitter like regular lemons.

Amalfi Coast

Today was Pday for all our missionaries and Alfredo had wanted to show us the beautiful Amalfi Coast.  Sister Kelly and the Stuars were able to come so we had 11 of us take the tour.  we caught a small boat in Salerno, and traveled along the Amalfi Coast, viewing it from the Mediteranian Sea.  All the little villages are built just above the sea , with the homes  built right into the rocky cliffs.  if you google : Amalfi Coast you will see incredible photos.  The weather was perfect today, with sunshine and white puffy clouds.  We didnt need a sweatshirt til about 4 in the afternoon.  We got off the boat in the town of Amalfi after a 35 minute boat ride up from Salerno.  

  

Today's Miracle

On our way home from Roma, Paul got a call from a man from Cedar City, who was visiting Italy and had been a missionary many years ago.  He had served in Salerno and since that is a part of our branch, he wanted to meet with Paul and find out if there were any people still here that he had known.  So Paul invited him and his daughter over this afternoon.  He came by after we arrived home     He was saying some names of people he had baptized in Salerno and said that he had baptized a young man named Francesco but he couldn't remember the last name.  Of course we have brother Mondelli and we thought of him,  but kind of dismissed the idea.  We did try to call Maria and ask her what year her husband was baptized and we asked her if she knew who baptized her husband.  She said it was 1976 and he was baptized by Daniele Nelson.  Wow!  That's who was in our living room.  We walked over all together to the Mondelli's house and there was such a wonderful reunion of brothers in the gospel.  What a sweet moment to see those two men hug each other.  We stayed and visited for a few hours.  Sister Mondelli pulled out the baptism picture of these two men.

Saying goodbye to our dear Sorella Missionary

Due to Serious medical reasons, one of our cute sister missionaries had to fly back to the states today.  Anziano Scherbel and I drove her to Roma last night and she flew out this morning.  She has been such a trooper, and continues to be positive even though none of us knows why this had to happen.  We loved her from the moment we met and we can't wait to hear the rest of her story.  She wanted to see a few things in Rome this morning on the way to the airport.  We did a drive by of the colleseum...

She also wanted to see another cool building that had the huge horses and angels on top of it.  I don't know the name of it.  I will try to find out.  I think it was in one of the movies like Angels and Demons.  Not sure though.

Very serious about learning English

A lady in our branch has a school for teaching English.  She has three teachers and she teaches from 3-8 everyday.  The italian kids go to school from 8-1:30 Monday through Saturday.  They go home for lunch and then they come to an hour or more of English school.  They are quite dedicated to learn English.  I went in and taught for a few days while one of her teachers went back to the states for a wedding.  It was a nice way to do service and to have the kids be able to recognize our name tags. Hopefully they will let the missionaries in some day and have a desire to learn about our church.
These kids are very smart.  Their vocabulary is impressive and they have very good pronunciation.  They all have goals of what they want to do with their life.  I loved working with them.

Give Me This Mountain. (Joshua 14:12

Yesterday, at our district meeting, Sister Rossell gave a wonderful and inspiring spiritual thought.  She shared parts of President Kimballs October 1979 conference talk, titled, Give me this Mountain.  It was a fantastic talk.  He tells about Kaleb who was with Moses and was sent to scout out the promised land, with Joshua and 10 others.  They discovered a beautiful land filled with milk and honey and with figs and grapes so large that it took two men to carry a cluster of grapes.  But the one problem was that there were giants in the land and the Israelites were too afraid.  They did not think they would be able to chase the giants out.  They were afraid for their lives.  They didnt trust The Lord.  All of the Israelites except Joshua and Kaleb were afraid.  Kaleb trusted in The Lord and tried to convince the others that they could do it if they trusted The Lord.  The Israelites were so afraid that they tried to stone Kaleb to silence him.  Anyway, 45 years later, The Lord allows Kaleb to enter the promised land.  It was still filled with giants and had the same challenges as it did earlier.  Kaleb, now 85 years old, says, "give me this mountain."  This means he was ready for the challenge, just as he was 45 years earlier.  I think you would enjoy reading Joshua chapter 14.
The reason, it was such a good spiritual thought for me is because we have such overwhelming challenges here.  I personally have the huge challenge to learn Italian.  I feel so unhelpful, because I can't say what I want to say yet.  There are many giants here that could cause us to shrink and be afraid to try.  But we were called by The Lord, to serve here in Battipaglia, and he will help us overcome our challenges and find a way to beat the giants, if we are willing to climb this mountain.

The flowers at the church have bloomed!!

We have been waiting for a month to see what these flowers look like that line the driveway to the church.  They are called Gigli.  And they have all opened up.  Their scent is intoxicating and so sweet.  You can smell them as you walk down the drieway, without even leaning over close to the flowers.  I think they are a type of lilly. Anyway, they are beautiful, and I am glad to be here when they bloomed.

Stuck behind a funeral procession on a one way narrow street in an unknown town

On our way to Avelino, we were trying out a new navigatory system and the app sent us through the winding streets of a little town, way up on the top of a hill.  We got caught behind all these people, mostly men, walking very slowly and reverently, down the middle of the street, toward the church, which was straight ahead.  We think it was for a funeral procession, but we arent sure.  

Saturday morning

Saturday morning, we had our weekly missionary corrilation meeting

with all 7 of us missionaries and also with our ward mission leader.  Afterwards, we were talking a minute before we all headed out in different dirrections.  Paul and I were heading to an appointment with Flavias family to teach them about Patriarchal Blessings.  They wanted to accompany her to Rome when she gets hers in a few weeks.  We really love her aunt, uncle, cousin and Nona.  They love having us come.  Paul got Delia's recipe for a yummy pasta sauce, and she made us some fresh pasta noodles which we took home and cooked today after church.  The drive home was beautiful, with flowers blooming everywhere.  Here's a few pictures that show what we saw.

Notes from President Kelly

PresidentKelly gave an awesome talk.  It was very inspiring and filled with love  From the first time that  we met him, we loved him, and we were so thankful that he could be our mission president.  He is so humble and so very caring for all these missionaries.  He said that they have had 400 missionaries under their watch.  And that they know each and everyone of them.  And love them just like they love their own children. I know that is so true.

He reminded us that we are only one piece of the puzzle.  This is Gods work.  We are helping him.  Everyone of us has our agency to accept the gospel.  We must not get upset when things happen that are not in our control.  Dont let your happiness depend on the decisions of others.  We are not responsible for Adams transgressions and we are not responsible for our companions transgressions and we are not responsible for our investigators sins.  Just be sure that we are as obedient as we can be to the commandments and to the little white handbook.

He told us a story about three weeks into being the new mission president, he gets a call from one of his elders who says that his companion ran away and he didnt know what he should do.  President Kelly told him to go back to his apartment and wait.  which the elder did.  Two hours later, he gets a call saying that the missing elder had returned.  He spoke to the elder and asked why he ran away.  The elder told him that he just needed some time to himself.  He hadnt done anything wrong, but just needed to clear his head.  He just walked around for a few hours and came back.  President Kelly told him, that if he ever even left his companion for five minutes, he would be sent home.  This mission isnt about needing your own time to clear your head.  You have committed to being a missionary for The Lord and you need to stay within sight and hearing distance of your companion at all times.  President Kelly called the elders mom and asked her to call her son and reinforce this rule.  She did.  And he said that if you ever need reinforcements, call a mom.  They will set you straight.

Prresident Kelly asked us to pray for our new mission president and his wife.  He said that he still could use our prayers for him and sister Kelly, but to remember the new president.  This is a big job.

He shared and gave us each of copy of President McKays 10 rules for Happiness which he said he was given as a new young Missionary many years ago and which he kept with him all through his mission.

All our new missionaries got to get up and bear their testimonies and it was wonderfu to hear sister Rossell and Sister Wright bear their testimonies.  They are valiant and strong sister missionaries.  They will do wonderful.  All the departing missionaries got to bear their testimonies and that is such a sweet thing to listen to as they give their farewell to all the Roma Missionaries.

We ended our meeting by singing the mission song, which is Inno Delo Missione Di Roma.  This song was written several years ago by a past mission presidents wife.  It was the last time that these missionaries would be altogether to sing it for their mission president and his wife.  It is a stirring song with beautiful words.  All the missionaries stood and wrapped their arms around the shoulders of the missionaries on both sides.  They sang with all their hearts and passion which was a departing gift to President and Sister Kelly.  The love that filled the whole room was incredible and I have never experienced a feeling like I got as they sang it.  It was like the armies of Helaman singing for Helaman  just before they all dispersed to go back home. Paul videoed the last verse and I hope it posts it to his bog in the near future.  He has been too busy to post anything, but I hope he gets a minute to do it. 

Zone Conference in Roma

We had a wonderful day yesterday in Roma.  This is the last zone conference with President and Sister Kelly as our mission presidents.  So everyone was appreciating every word they spoke to us.  Sister Kelly spoke first.  She talked about the fact that the temple wont be finished before they leave in 6 weeks.  She said that she hears many people say, °oh i bet you are so sad that you wont be there when it is finished.°  sorry about the ° sign for quotation marks. I cant figure out what to do to get them.  When I press the quotation marks I get the degree sign.  Oh well. hopefully you can understand what I mean.  Anyway, Sister Kelly said that she is ok with that.  She was so fortunate to be here for the building of the temple.  She has seen thee progress weekly from the very beginning.  She said that she likes to compare the building of the temple, to herself.  She said that she is building a temple to God too.  And her temple is not finished yet either.  Se are all in the process of being built.  non of us is finished yet.  We need to be patient with the process of growing and learning and becoming what God wants us to be.  Enjoy the process.  It is amazing.

She also said that our missions are a preparation for our life.  We have only 2 years to experience it and learn all we can.  Then we will have a lifetime to remember it and draw strength from it.  Do our best one day at a time.  Be flexible, dont worry when things dont go as you think they should. 

Remember that The Lord loves his missionaries here in Italy.  The Lord answers your prayers.  She told a story of one of their sister missionaries who ate some bad octopus and was sick for five days.  She was so sad that she couldnt go out and work and that she was keeping her companion from working also, because her companion had to stay with her.  She was of course homesick for her mother, because she was sick.  she prayed that if she couldnt have her mother there that she just needed someone to call her sweetheart and tell her that it was all going to be ok.  Soon after her prayer, Sister Kelly called her because she had heard that it was going on five days that she had been in bed sick.  Sister Kelly said that before she knew it, she said, Now Sweetheart, everything is going to be fine.  

She was upsest with herself for using the word sweetheart, and didnt  even realize she was going to say that, because she had never used that word when talking to any of the missionaries. It wasnt until that sister went home at the end of her mission that she shared her prayer and then what happened when sister Kelly called her.  The Lord does answer prayers.

Crazy afternoon

My washer broke yesterday.  The rubber backing of a throw rug came off in the washer and stopped up the draining tube.  The cycle finished but the tub was still full of water.  It is a front load washer type and so when I opened the door, I didnt notice the water still in the washer and the door opened nicely and dumped a million gallons of water all over the floor, which ran into all parts of the house.  We told our landlady and she said she would get someone to fix it.  I stayed home all day yesterday  waiting for °someone° to come.  They didnt.  This morning ourlandlady came by and said someone would be here at three to fix it.  So at three, two repair guys, my landlady and her husband all came in and started all trying to fit into my skinny little bathroom where the washer was.  They were all speaking loudly and  they were all speaking very fast.  I tried to explain the problem, and then they opened the door to the washer and my bathroom and hallway flooded again.  They found the problem and had to go to the store for a part and then they came and dumped the washer on its side and more water ran  out into the hallway again.  I have used up every towel and rag that I have.  After about two hours they say it is fixed and they all leave.  I thankfully start a load of dirty wet towels and voila my washer is not holding any water but  all the water that should be inside the washer, washing my towels is running out the bottom as fast as it enters.  Unfortunately, I didnt discover it til it had again flooded three rooms.  So I mopped and wrung out the colored towels that were waiting to be washed in a second batch.  I think I will just not worry about that washing machine any more tonight.  I think the problem is that the drain hose is not connected at the bottom of the machine now and so it is just draining all over the floor.  Who knows.  Paul was gone all afternoon as the repair men were here and asking me questions.  He is at presidency meeting now.  Tomorrow, we go to Roma for our zone conference.  So I guess we will think about washing machines on Friday.  A little excitement to ones day is never bad, because it helps things not be ordinary.  Today was definately not ordinary.!!!!
I dont want to make anyone jealous but we did have a delicious lunch.  We had prochuto, and melone and mozzarella di buffola.  There is nothing better in the world.

It was a great Birthday!

It was a great birthday.  I think at 61 seems just like 60!  I don't feel any older.  Thank you for all the emails  and birthday wishes.  Several members got me some beautiful flowers.  One sister gave me a pretty necklace and another inactive sister gave me two pretty blouses.  At the scout activity the whole branch sang happy birthday and gave me abracios and wished me happy birthday. I loved talking with our kids.

Our Cub Scout ward families

Our Cub Scout missionaries

Anziano Ostler and Anziano Bandiaky  above 

&

Sorella Rossell,  Sorella Wagoner, and Sorella Wright below

Cuba Scout attività

Saturday afternoon, we had a branch activity for all the 11 year old boys that are investigating the church.  This is one of the boys whom I have come to love.  He is reading the Book of Mormon.  We love his whole family.  There were 10 kids who came and only 3 are members.  Many parents came also and I think there were a total of 13 investigators there, 7 missionaries, and 14 members.  

Sister Barretta made all of the bandana's.  They were perfect.  She is a very good seamstress.  She and Anziano Scherbel found the blue shirts.  Anziano Scherbel made all the Turks head wiggles as a slide for the neckerchief s.  they include girls in scouts, here in Italy.  It's amazing that we have all these kids now!  

Here is a fun picture of the parents taking pictures of their kids.