Bidone. 10-27-14

Cara Famiglia,

In Italian there is a word, "bidone." It literally means trash can. But as missionaries we use it to refer to when appointments get cancelled. And I think it pretty much sums up a lot of the week.

Ok, the week was actually good. But we did get a lot of bidoni.

Well Monday night we did weekly planning. It went super well. It felt so good to plan everything out and it got us both super pumped for the week!

Tuesday morning we had a lesson with Maria. She is adorable. However, she hasn't been reading :( But she did agree to come to church. And then we went to try to contact a referral that the anziani of Bari Libertà gave us. And well the address turned out to be a mortuary. HAHAHAHA It was pretty hilarious. And the anziani were pretty horrified. We now have her correct address and will be seeking her out this week. After lunch we had an appointment with a member that we are trying to help sustain. We talked about Jorg Klebingat's talk from conference and it went really well. She was really open and sincere. I really like that family. Then we headed to English course. And we had a great spiritual thought on the Atonement. Our students were REALLY touched. I love seeing how much potential. Now we just have to work on harnessing it.

Wednesday morning we had DDM. It went really well. We had a nice addestramento about Christlike attributes. It's interesting to see how much I have changed from the beginning of the mission. I have such different things to work on now. After DDM we did transfer predictions and everyone guessed that I was leaving and training somewhere else. In the afternoon we went to see Lidia, Maria Teresa, and Giovanni. We haven't seen them since July so that was a miracle. The lesson went SO well. We taught the restoration and Lidia basically bore her testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. It was cool. And they made us focaccia and were so worried that we had to take the bus in the rain. It was super cute. The bus came late and so we had to BOOK it to church for correlation with the bishop. It all went pretty well. The work is going well in Poggio.

Thursday morning we were supposed to have a lesson with Susy, but she gave us a bidone. And then our back up plan couldn't see us. So we tried to go to the church to print out fliers for the upcoming Halloween party, but we don't have keys so we had to wait for the anziani and then they weren't able to let us in. Chaos. Then we finally went to see Sorella Pepe. I don't think she has totally forgiven me for the tithing lesson, but she let us come over and that is progress. Although she wouldn't really look me in the eyes. After lunch Sorella DeFranchi wasn't feeling very well so I let her sleep and did some area book. I actually talked to quite a few people who wanted to see us. It was cool. Then we had English course. And because it was cold and rainy almost no one came so we taught everyone together and it was REALLY fun. We were talking about the postal system and so we had all of the students write an Anziano a letter in english to cheer him up. It was HILARIOUS. 

Friday morning the Foggia sisters arrived to do a scambio. Gosh. I love them. So fun. In the morning we did a blitz in libertà. I was with Sorella Webster and we had a blast. Then after lunch we got another bidone. And once again our back up plan couldn't see us. But we randomly decided to see Susy. And she said yes!!! We brought her a batpismal calendar and she thought it was adorable and we had a great lesson on prayer and scripture study. She's been reading the Book of Mormon everyday. YES!!!!!! I was so happy. And we got to talk more with her husband and that was awesome! And she was so excited to come to church for the primary program on Sunday.

Saturday we did planning and got transfer calls. More on that next week. In the evening we had an appointment with the senior couple, the Hansens, and a less active GANS, Angela. It went well and they really bonded. But holy headache, So much translating for me. Because they don't speak the best Italian and she is really hard to understand. WE had a great lesson on the Restoration and she was super touched.

Holy yesterday was stressful. I found out at the beginning of church that Susy fought with her husband and that she wasn't going to be able to come to church. Here is hoping that it was just for this week. And then the Halloween plans kind of exploded because most of the auxillaries don't want to help out. So I have some serious planning to do this week. For pranzo we went with a really sweet older couple. It was wonderful and relaxing. Then we ended the night with a giant appointment with the Santoro family and their part member cousins. WE teach the less actives and the anziani teach the nonmembers so we were all there. There was a really great spirit. I love the people here!

Well we're having a pretty chill pday so nothing to report there.

Here's to a great week!

The gospel is true, I promise.

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Katie Francom