Simon and Garfunkel

Hello all,

Sicily is great! Sometimes I forget I'm in Sicily... I think, "Yeah I'm just in Italy!" and then I realize that I'm on that TRIANGLE island beneath the boot. It's awesome.

So I've been plopped into this small little town on a mountain called Mistretta, population 5,000. It has a branch of the church with about 13 active members, which is very very small. The only reason there's even a Mormon presence in this small town is that two brothers were converted up in Bologna many years ago, and then they moved back to Mistretta, bringing the church with them. Since then, there have been missionaries to work not only in Mistretta, but in the surrounding little towns up and down the northern Sicilian coast. The closest costal town to Mistretta is Santo Stefano and it's pretty gorgeous, right by the ocean. Almost every other town we visit is bigger than Mistretta, but for the most part they are not what I would call large cities.

I'm still trying to learn all the cities, but right now we have

Mistretta
Reitano (just down the mountain, between Mistretta and Santo Stefano)
Santo Stefano (where the church building is)

... from there, going east, we visit
Aquadolci
Sant'Agata
Capo D'Orlando

with lots of little places in between.

We do have a car here -- the only area in Italy where sisters get cars, and I'm here! I'll have to learn to drive this funky little Italian Opel car. It's a manual transmission. My trainer, the other sister missionary who has been serving longer, assured me that she never knew how to drive manual before and she learned just fine. Whooooo.

We live in a great little apartment. I don't know what it is about Italy/Europe, but I really like it. I like how all the food smells in the fridge, how the blankets feel, how the tile in the bathroom looks, how everyone hangs their laundry out to dry... One of the missionaries in the Book of Mormon, Ammon, describes how when he visits the people of his mission that he "desires to dwell among this people for a time, yeah, and perhaps until the day I die." I could honestly say the same right now. That will probably change in the future (and I like to think that Ammon maybe didn't always feel that way), but for now, I'm pretty much in love with the Sicilians.

Being in such a small town/branch has its challenges. We visit outlying cities and are working with some investigators, but several of them have to drive a half-hour/hour to church. While that's not a huge deal compared to other parts of the world, it makes it hard to get people who are starting to become interested to begin coming. The nice thing, is I already have two automatic callings, as ward pianist and Primary teacher here. The one member of our primary, Lucrezia, is the daughter of the branch president and is getting ready to be baptized. Since she's a little older than 8 (the tradititional baptism age for Mormon youth), we have to teach her the missionary lessons that we teach all potential converts. So last week, I taught her a VERY SIMPLIFIED version of the Law of Chastity (using an awesome idea from another sister missionary). It was grand.

My trainer is fantastic. She is from Fresno, California. I love seeing the differences between missionary work in America/Arizona and Italy. In America, there was a lot of emphasis on diligence. Here, there's a lot of emphasis on patience, which has been great for me. I'm still trying to figure out how to be a good missionary without being a crazy/robot missionary, and my trainer is understanding and instructive. We also have a lot of fun.

Here as a missionary, I feel like I do a lot more missionary work (at least how I had imagined it before I went on my mission). I am enjoying each aspect of missionary "work" . I think it's a combination of things, like lessons I've been learning and the mission culture in Italy. But I'm pretty sure this mission is exactly what I needed.

For example, we do have a cellphone, but no one has answering machines in Italy. AWESOME. Really, the style of missionary work is completely different here and I'm digging it. In the words of Simon and Garfunkel

O Sicilia! You're breaking my heart! You're shaking my confidence daily!
O Sicilia! I'm down on my knees! I'm begging you please to come home (to the gospel!)

 much love!
sister fuller

Safe, Sound and Jet-lag Stupid

I have lost track of the hours, but I woke up at 4 am in Arizona, August 21 and am still awake 8 pm in Rome, August 22. Whatever that means!

Their whole goal for today is to keep us entertained long enough that we don't fall asleep until night time. The mission president, President Kelly, and the assistants picked us up at the airport. On the way to the Mission Office, we drove by the half-built Rome temple. Lookin' good! They won't give a finish time, but it sounds like it will definitely be after I'm gone. And the rumors are true: the Cristus--the iconic Christ statue in Salt Lake City--is being replicated in the Rome Visitor's Center, but they now have permission to also replicate the statues of the 12 apostles along with it.

Then we got some basic orientations on how to stay legal while staying in Italy (in short, don't carry any valuable documents with you and paperwork paperwork paperwork). Then we came to the mission home, where I'm now staying the night. The mission home is a short distance from the mission office and is a villa built in 1924 by Mussolini for one of his daughter's. There's nothing like a fascist nepotism legacy for an LDS Mission Home! But it's a beautiful villa. They fed us -- forgot about the food, I forgot how good Italian ingredients smell. Maybe I was suffering from jet lag, but I could have smelled all the food in the fridge for several minutes.

Aaaand the real carrot to keep us up was our new assignments! I will be serving in Mistretta, Sicily! It's up in the hills and has a car (luckily, I won't be driving... yet...). I was hoping for walking! But it is the "coolest" part of the mission (temperature wise). Which is a shame, because I was totally prepared for this summer weather after Mesa! Even with humidity, Italy at 95 degrees with 70% humidity is nothing compared to Mesa at 115 degrees.

I'll travel down to Sicily tomorrow (yay, more traveling) and figure all that good stuff out.

Italy Rome Mission

Piazza Carnaro, 20
00141 Roma, Italia

Okay, I need to fall asleep now! Give a letter shoutout to Jesse, Bekah (they forwarded your letters from forever ago to Italy!!!), Kayci, and Sister Puttapong. 

Thanks! 

Love!

sis fuller

This Week is Brought to You By the Letter "Baptism"

Dear Family and Friends,

I am going to send a little mini-diary of the things I did each day. That might help my e-mails make more sense. How about the beginning... a very good place to start....
 

Last Tuesday, 14 august
We had this thing called "Mission Tour" (or "Tour de Mission," as they say in Europe). They brought in a church leader of a general area (called a "seventy") who specifically works with missionaries a lot, Elder Marcus Aidukaitis (from Brazil). He gave us lots of advice on how to plan -- as missionaries, we always talk about "miracles" and "faith," but we always need help in doing the footwork and planning, as well as the praying and fasting, to facilitate these miracles. I took several things from Ye Ole Mission Tour: (1) don't get dehydrated. I was super dehydrated during the meeting and so cranky for the first part. Not good for a missionary, or anyone. So drink water! (2) We are able to be diligent only if we have faith. If we have no vision in mind, then there's no real motivation to stick anything out, easy or hard. We have to have faith in whatever we are doing (missionary work, finishing a degree, seeing a goal through) and from that we can be persistent, dogged hard workers. If anyone wonders why I'll stubbornly see something to the end, it's because I have faith in it. Yep, that's the secret. Lots of other great things too. Write to me and I'll share one.
 
Wed, 15 august
I had to start saying goodbye to some of the people here that I knew I wouldn't see after this week. When that happened, I realized "Waaaah, I LIKE these people." I really want to stay in contact, especially those who I've seen progress so much in the past six weeks. For example, our dear Brooklynite (who calls the Book of Mormon "da Book"), was preparing to get baptized. He had already missed one baptismal date due to family concerns, but we had worked with him and rescheduled another. I had just figured, "Airight, we'll just work with him for a week or two until he gets baptized, and then he can start progressing." But NOOO. We were able to teach small lessons that have made such a huge difference. For example, we taught him to pray and ask God for specific things instead of just saying, "Please bless everyone." And every day after that, he would see us and tell us, "You won't believe it! I asked God for xxxxxxx and right after my prayer, the phone rang about just that!!!" That happened several times over the week. Even though he was baptized on Saturday (uh oh, getting ahead of my diary thing...), seeing these moments was actually more special to me. It showed me that he has real and lasting faith in what he is doing. And that is more valuable than be baptized (or as he calls it, "swimmin' without the floaties").
 
Sat, 18 august
Okay, I'm not very good at this diary thing, so I'm going to skip to Saturday. Not only did we have our AWESOME baptism in the morning (lots of church members came and so did the new convert's older daughter), but had a great lesson in the evening. We met with Dennis, an author, poet, biophysicist, and single father of 8 (children now grown and since remarried). He is SMART and that is FUN to talk with. Why? Well, sure, our "getting to know you" time is enlightening for me. But when we teach, we cannot rely AT ALL on any argument (true ones or false ones) about how our church is true or that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Because he can easily deconstruct any argument. The solution? We do what you do with every investigator -- you teach them what you know, you let THEM pray about it, and then let them receive a confirmation from God that it is true. No convincing or anythin'. Just simply teach and have faith--faith, faith, faith--that they'll get their answer.
 
We posed it to Dennis as the scientific method -- we have a hypothesis, based on our own personal reserach, that our church is true. So we are asking him to experiment. We are asking him to take the discussions, to read the Book of Mormon, and to pray. Then he will analyze. What answers does he get? What are the fruits of his labors? etc. etc. And then he will make a theory: either it's true or it isn't. From there, he will continue to work on that theory, or as well call it in the church, a testimony.
 
I'm super bummed that I can't continue to teach Dennis, among many others, but I will write him (and if he is reading this, I am eagerly awaiting to hear about your progress).
 
Sun, august 19
HERE WE GO! So because of all the crazy companion changes, we are actually short on sisters in the Arizona mission. That means, this upcoming transfer, I'm leaving for Italy and my companion S. Taylor is going back to Mesa. In our place, they are sending to completely new missionaries. This doesn't happen very often, because it makes it hard to keep up continuity in the area. They'll send in two completely new missionaries who have no preconceived ideas about the people in the area. This is called whitewashing. Now, as we know, whitewashing is not as much fun of an activity as Tom Sawyer makes it out to seem. The new missionaries have to rely soley on notes we give them and have been attempting to record over our time here. So we've been scrambling to do that and it is EXCITING and STRESSFUL. The other crazy thing is that it's elders (male missionaries) coming to this area. Which they haven't had for at least 6 years. But one is apparently from Japan, so I'm leaving lots of Japanese messages around the apartment. I really hope I wasn't told wrong and that he's actually from Korea....
 
Alright kids! I leave tomorrow to fly out to Rome, Italy to start my second mission. So wait for that! And I have one last thing to share... it being an AWESOME scripture that my old Canadian companion found for me.
 
"So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also."
(Romans 1:15)
 
Set cruise control for Italy! :)
Love
sister fuller

Floss and Dross

Hi,

What a whirlwind of a week! I've played musical companions. In the mission field, we always go out as two companions, and occassionally we'll have a third. Y'all have known that I was in a group of three, with the Cambodian and Canadian sister. Well this week the Canadian sister went home unexpectedly--she didn't even realize how fast she had to go. But in less than 36 hours, we got the call, got packed, and sent her out. The problem? Neither me or my companion were allowed to drive the car! (As an international sister from Cambodia, my companion can't drive in the U.S. And missionaries are supposed to be in the mission at least 6 weeks here before they can get permission). We got a special driving test so I could take both of us around for a day and we could meet our appointments. And the next day, I switched out my Cambodian companion for a new one that can drive, Sister Taylor!

Sister Taylor was actually here in my area my first night and just barely left the area a month ago (when I arrived). Now she's back and better than ever! It got a little more interesting when we picked up a third sister, a new visa waiter for a night, Sister Bambrough, who was actually my roommate in the MTC. She's a little spitfire, going to Sydney, Australia Mandarin-speaking, via Mesa (for those that have seen Support Your Local Sheriff, she's "just on her way through to Australia"). We only had her with us a day and now things are settling down a bit. I only have a week left in Arizona (I leave next Tuesday), but with all the changes, it's like I'm starting a whole new part of my mission.

For example, last night we got a referral to visit someone who would be interested in the church. When we arrived, we realized that it was a family that had been taking lessons a long time ago and nothing had come from it since. But we decided to give it another go and invited them out to an activity. Not only did they accept the invitation, but we managed to say a pray with them and share a little scripture about the importance of family, and one of the young sons got pretty excited to learn more about the Book of Mormon. It's another sign to me that there are more things I still get to do in this area though my time is short.

Teaching is going better. It helps to have a companion familiar with the people and the area. Sister Taylor has just picked up where she left off and we're both working hard on teaching simply. Has anyone tried to teach complicated things in a simple way before? It's HAAAAAAARD. But, hey, if I don't work at it, how will I get better? Here's a good scripture that I told myself a week ago I should share with you: "Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer" (Prov 25:4). I like to think of a mission as a de-drossing process.

Oh, and weather. So it's supposedly the hottest week of the year in Arizona (110-120 degrees Farienheit 451). But... I'm fine. Sometimes you walk out of the car and just get completely drenched with sweat. But as long as you accept that you're gross, then you just kinda dawdle around in the heat like a happy little gecko. Also, there have been a few monsoons since I've gotten here. They are (sometimes) rainstorms that are always preceeded by a giant dust storm that darkens the whole big blue Arizona sky. These storms are also called "haboobs" (that's how it's pronounced, if I spelled it wrong I'm SORRY) and are just a wall of dust and dirt that air pressure has thrown up from the ground. When you're inside the car, it's like being in a car wash where it's all dark and the car is being buffeted. It just has the opposite effect on the car's general shininess.

Okay, a letter shout out: Thanks to Annabelle, Sue Fu, L'Deane, Bishop Caffaro, Kindra, and Chris for the e-mails you sent through my Mom (and thanks to Mom for printing them out and forwarding them to me!!!!). Always thanks to Tay, Kuuuuurt, and Taty for your correspondance! And a HUGE thank you to Jamiestown and Jester in Moab!! Your package was unexpected, awesome, and melted (the chocolate didn't do so well in the Arizona sun, but we managed to salvage most of it)! I just want to know how you picked out the exact journal I would have bought for myself. It was really awesome and I'm going to send you something with Italian postage on it in the near future. That goes for everyone who writes to me.

Time has gone fast. Always remember: TIME FLIES LIKE AN ARROW. FRUIT FLIES LIKE A BANANA.

I love you all! Don't forget that God loves us! And to floss!
Annie, Sister

Dear Family and Friends,

We have received Annie's travel arrangements. She is in fact going to Rome. She will leave the Mesa mission on August 21 and fly to Chicago, There she will meet up with the group from the MTC, onto Frankfurt, then to Rome
Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers on her behalf.
-Marybeth (Annie's mom)

Hello!

The investigators here are going well. I'm rediscovering that I'm not a very good teacher, because I have a hard time explaining things simply and being patient. So pray for me! Or give me tips! Ha, it's hard to teach simply and every time I try and teach to their needs, I find I go way over their head. Luckily, Heavenly Father knows I'm not perfect and I have a whole book (called "Preach My Gospel") to help me learn how to teach better. I'm working on it! I know that everyone is a child of God and deserves special care! I'm just trying to sincerely act like it, which takes (for me) time.

One investigator has been ready for baptism, but because of scheduling/family conflicts, is having the baptism in a couple weeks. In some ways, I feel like we're spinning our wheels because we've already taught him "everything he needs to know." But that's a new revelation about mission stuff: you never know everything about anything! We teach people across a whole spectrum: some have lots of faith in Jesus Christ and some have very little. So we work with everyone at their level (this is where the patience thing comes in) and help them strengthen their faith wherever they are at. Increasing faith in Jesus Christ is really a lifelong process... it's not something we just "get." Y'all know how I LOVE checking things off checklists and to-do lists, because I feel like I'm progressing. But that's not how faith works. The only real way I measure it is to look back in time and ask: "Where was I a year ago?" and compare myself then and now. When I do that, I can see a difference, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad.

I'm also starting to learn about mission exhaustion. Not that I'm sick or run down (I get eight hours of sleep a night and have a whole HOUR to make lunch, a huge improvement on my school schedule), but it's hard to be chipper and serving 24/7. I have found some things that help me:

-- deep breaths
-- singing Footloose songs (often with adapted lyrics to make them mission appropriate)
-- teaching/visiting with people. I can go into a lesson/visit dead tired, and after I come out, it's like I'm a slingshot of energy. As I focus on other people and their needs, I do feel re-energized. That's why I try and focus on always making appointments.
-- watching clips from "Special Witnesses of Christ," an old DVD from the LDS church, where prophets and apostles share their testimonies of Christ. It gives me Spirit!
-- eating Twizzlers

But I'm great. Yep. Send me mail and fruit snacks and I will recepricate!

I'd like to give a letter shoutout: Thanks to Hayley, Svenna, Matt and Peter for your epistles of love! Also, to whoever sent a package UPS, it's being rerouted, but I thank you for whatever is inside!

Love ya,
Sis Fuller