Friday, March 26, 2010

Last Letter From Italy

This is the last letter from Kayla as her mission comes to a close. I am so impressed how she worked right up to the end. I'm thinking she would like an extension but thankfully she either didn't ask or they said no! Enjoy!

Wow, this week everyone was like YOU'RE COMING HOME!!! Yikes. I freaked out a  little. Did I tell you it still hasn't sunk in? I asked Sorella Pitkin on email if she felt like staying and opening up our own city and just keep working and she said I can if I want, but she is going home. Why am I the weird one? AHHHH! Mom, I love you and the family so much, but I'm just not ready to plunge back into life in the States. Anyway, that's my freak out moment. I had to bear my last testimony at interviews, got my new recommend from President (all in Italian!) and had my last district meeting. I love my district! They are seriously family. I can't get enough of them. Wait till you see all the pictures and videos. LOVE IT!
 
OK, back to responding to your email. I'm really glad you liked my last email! But guess what, the miracles haven't stopped yet! Sunday was the biggest one of them all. Ok, here is what happened! We were on our way to an appointment, but they stood us up and so we decided to head to where we had planned to go and knock doors. As we start on this street, we get to an apartment building who lets us in. The elevator said it only worked with a key, but seeing as how we had 0 desire to climb a billion flight of stairs, we prayed in our hearts that it would work anyway and it did! We got all the way to the top floor and started working. The first door, no. The next door a man opened up and said, come on in. We were all smiles and said, ok! Is there a woman? His countenance completely changed and he told me in English, this is not ok. You do not trust men. I let you in, having no preconceptions and you have the nerve to ask me if there is women. I am sorry, you are finished with me, go, in the other room are the women, we are done. I am not open anymore. You messed up, I am through. I tried to explain how it was a rule, but he continued to say it is a horrible rule and that it is rude. I was near tears and said a million times to his wife and daughter how sorry I was and that I wasn't trying to be rude. His wife was sweet and said Libero, come on, they are nice, listen to their message. His daughter and wife were very sweet and after a bit he came back in reluclantly. So, we decided to watch a little film, the same one I talked about the other time. It didn't work on their computer or laptop and finally after some trying it worked on their dvd player. At the end we asked if they have asked some of the questions in the film and they said yes, but they have found more or less their answers. Then he said he is a heretic and doesn't believe in certain things and asked me for answers. I don't know why I didn't just answer them, but I said, I'm going to write these down and we will talk about them the next time we come over. His wife teaches religion and he is an english professor. He believes that God is not loving and leaves some of his children behind sometimes and I got to bear strong testimony, in a loving way, in english about how I know that God is loving and He never leaves anyone behind. I was teary, he was teary and we scheduled our next appointment. He gave me a wink in a friendly way and we said a prayer. As we were teaching, I felt very strongly that one day he will bear his testimony in sacrament meeting about how the sister missionaries knocked on his door and he got mad, but in the end he felt the spirit and was converted. Sorella Ranieri said afterwards that she felt the same thing! He is going to be a strong member! He and his wife expressed in words how much they love one another and how they complimented each other in their lives. It was incredible! You don't see marriages like that anywhere these days! It was beautiful. Afterwards, we tried to use the elevator and it didn't work. The doors didn't close, nothing. As we walked down countless stairs, we realized we had witnessed a miracle and we immediately called President Dunaway and told him everything! Mom! Miracles exisit! They really do! We only had so much time, we taught with the spirit and I feel really strongly that I was sent to talk to him. Me! OH, it was AWESOME! I was crying and thanking Heavenly Father as we ran to our next meeting!
But the story doesn't stop there! Yesterday, after again being stood up for 3 appointments, we started knocking doors on this same street. After awhile, this tiny, frail little old lady with sparkly eyes opened the door and let us in. Usually they say no, but she didn't she let us in, listened to our message about prayer and then when we asked to come back she said, ok, here is my telephone number, call and confirm and I'm going to bring my friend. Then Sorella Ranieri asked if she was related to Libero, the man from the previous experience, and she said yes, he is my son in law and he talked to me about you! Mom!!!! Can you believe it???!!! How incredible is that??!! He already talked about is in an obviously positive way, to his FAMILY!!! AHH!!! We are so excited! Her name is Layla. Sound familiar? Yep, its one letter off from my name.
 
The miracles are just coming on in and we are loving every minute! We have done a lot of finding work, been stood up a lot, but we are happy and just loving every moment.
Well, despite everything, I'm still not trunky. In fact I had a dream that I paid someone else to pack my bags because I didn't want to! But honestly, I'm happy. We're completely booked with appointments, still working for getting baptisms and just loving every minute. Today we are going to make lasagna! Calabrese style...mmmm!  

I love you so much mom and dad! Thanks for being so supportive and loving!
Ti mando un baccio di cioccolato e un abbraccio di aceto di balsalmico!!!
Sorella Wilcox

 
 
 

1 comment:

Annette said...

I will sure miss these letters! It's my spiritual boost for the month.

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