Changes

Well folks,

This was a week of change! We cleaned out our pizza boxes from the past three months. Sorella Harmon and I ate 23 pizzas together! We were so blessed. I was sad to say goodbye to her. However, I have a new companion, Sorella Brown and she is amazing. She and I have already clicked and it is going to be a wonderful transfer here in Ostia! It's a short email this week. Mostly photos. We went to the beach today. And I can finally send temple photos that I took! I love you all lots!!

Ciao ciao!

Sorella Thorup 

Miracle Sunday

lCiao i miei amici!!

This has been quite the week, with two temple service days, lots of rain, and a miracle Sunday!

I guess to start off, we received our transfer calls this morning. I've finished my two training transfers so we were expecting some changes, and changes we got! So Sorella Harmon will be leaving me (😭) and moving to Roma 3, which is in the Roma East Zone. I'll be staying in Ostia another transfer, and will have Sorella Brown join me. We are in the Roma West zone. So that will be an exciting change, and I've heard wonderful things about Sorella Brown.

So this week, we met a lot of important people. Since V.I.P. Tours are smaller, we didn't start very many groups. However, the groups we DID start, were very impressive. Now it was a wonderful experience, but our miracle on Sunday was waaaay more cool, so I will list this in a bullet point fashion: 

-We started a tour for one of Elder Bednar's groups, and he sat in. So we had to give our Italian instructions in front of him and his wife. That was pretty nerve-wracking. Watching the audience become more open during the video was amazing.

-We started a tour with just one person and her body guard. She was the ambassador of Palestine. That was way cool. And Elder Rasband came and spoke with her for a while in the room with us. When I say us, we stood on the side and watched and smiled. But that was really cool. 

-We started a tour for the Temple Architect and the people from Denmark who gave permission to copy the statues of the Cristus and the 12 apostles. I felt so much gratitude towards that group.

- We started a tour for the Bahai religion, and that tour was lead by Elder Stevensen and Elder Johnson (who is in the European Area Presidency) so we were able to meet them and their wives. Sister Johnson was so so sweet. It was pretty special to be able watch these two religions join in friendship.

There were some other special four groups, but these are the highlights. 

Now to our miracle. We have a family who is part member. The grandmother, Margarita, joined the church when she was in Mexico with her son a few years ago. But she can't take care of herself very well, so she lives with her daughter here. Margarita doesn't speak Italian, so if we are to meet with her, we needed her daughter to translate. However her daughter works a lot. So we couldn't find a time to get out there. A couple week ago, we finally set up an appointment with them, and the morning of, Margarita canceled because her daughter would be working. We asked to go over anyways. Neither of us speak Spanish. But we went over and spent time with her. It was hard, but we bonded with Margarita. Her daughter isn't a member and won't take her to church. But this Sunday, we arranged for a member to pick her up. The daughter, Miriam, ended up calling back the member and saying she would take her mother. And so, on Sunday, Miriam and her son, and Margarita all showed up. They stayed both hours. The son Francesco liked Primary, and Miriam really liked Sunday School. She took notes, participated and even took a Come Follow Me Manual to study for next week's lesson. The members were so loving and welcoming. All the members who spoke Spanish came and greeted Margarita and just loved her up. And the best part. There is a little girl in the ward, who is the only Primary child. She was crying because she didn't want to go to church and be alone again. Her grandmother told her to pray that another child would come. So she did. And then, Francesco came. It was just proof to me that God softens hearts, and helps His children find Him.

Anyways, that's a wrap up of this week. I love you all and hope you can see the hand of God in your life this week. ❤️

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Thorup 

These are Days Never to be Forgotten

Ciao ciao!

I don't even have the words for this week. This was just a week full of miracles and absolutely astounding opportunities. This week, all the sisters in our mission were brought up for a special tour of the temple, and training for when we help with the open house. We had sisters who were 15 hours away by train come. (Although I think they might have flown them in.) On Thursday night, Sorella Harmon and I took the metros and traveled to the Rome 2 Sorelle to stay the night. We are only 2 hours away from the temple, but they wanted to make things easier so we wouldn't have to leave at 6 to be in time for the training Friday. Friday morning, we set out to the temple. Let me tell you, it is absolutely stunning. We were allowed to take pictures on the grounds for the first time, however we aren't allowed to send them until the 28th of this month. But there are pictures available online as of this morning. So go check it out!! But get ready for when the 28th roles around... I got some beautiful pictures.

But all of the sisters were able to go though the temple. There is no doubt that once it is dedicated, it will be the house of the Lord. When we got to the Celestial room, no one spoke. I cannot describe how it felt. The Spirit was so so strong and tangible. I am so so shocked that I get to be part of the open house for this beautiful building to our Lord.  On Saturday, they did a special tour for all those who helped on the temple and their families. Sorella Harmon and I were stationed in the video room, so we started the tour groups with the video about the temple and then send them with their tour guides. We were the first to host a group. It blew our minds to realize we started the first tour for the Italy Rome Temple, the first temple to be built in the biblical lands. There were so many people in these tours who did so much to build this temple, but didn't really know what it was. These families were finally able to find out what this magnificent building was for. There were so many people touched by the video, and I am so grateful to witness it. 

There is this huge stain glass piece of artwork in the visitor's center. It has a piece representing every parable/story from the life of the Savior. We were blessed to host the tour group with the creator of the stain glass piece. I will send photos as soon as I am allowed!  Near the end of they day, we were pulled from the video room and were instructed to rush to the Visitor's Center. Elder Bednar was there and President Pickerd wanted all of us to be able to shake his hand. So we went over. We couldn't see Elder Bednar anywhere, and then one of President Pickerd's counselors gestured for Sorella Harmon and I to come into this room. It was empty. He told us Elder Bednar would be coming here and to wait for him. So we were expecting to have all the sisters gather in there. But no other missionaries came. And then Elder Bednar, his wife, Anziano DeFeo and his wife and a few other people came in. Then they shut the door behind them. Elder Bednar came and shook our hands and talked a bit with us-the two sister missionaries standing awkwardly in the middle of this empty room. And then we were able to speak with his wife. She is so so sweet, and has a best friend (who now lives in Iowa) who has the maiden name Thorup. So that was a bonding moment. But it was just amazing to stand in that room as they conversed and figured out plans for Sunday. It sounded like they were going to be in Ladispoli, which is in my district. So we were excited for them. It was a little awkward just us being there but it was very magical. 

When we finally got home in Ostia, we received a text from our bishop asking us to come be seated half an hour before church starts. I don't know what we did to deserve this, but our sweet little ward in Ostia had Elder and Sister Bednar, Elder and Sister DeFeo, and Elder Wilson who is over all temples, all came to our ward. We have just a little ward, that probably should be called a branch, but that little chapel was packed. They all spoke. And it was so so beautiful. Then when we thought they would leave, Elder Bednar gets to the pulpit and says, "As presiding authority, I am taking over this meeting. I don't know who was supposed to be teaching, but you get the day off!" He then proceeded to do a Q&A. At the end, he went though and shook everyone's hand. My. Heart. Watching that ward was so beautiful. They may be small in number, but you could see the love they had for this gospel. They were so very excited. It was such a tender mercy for them. 

I wanted to share a couple of the highlights that Elder Bednar talked about; he stressed that the gospel has not BEEN restored, but is BEING restored. He said to buckle up, because there is so much more coming. President Hinkley stressed to Elder Bednar that there has been no time better than this. That this is "The greatest season in the history of the Restored Church." This come follow me program is so important now, but will be even more so in the future, so we have to start preparing today. He talked about the parable of the Ten Virgins, the Talents, and the Sheep and Goats. He said that how we respond to this new program will determine what we will be in these parables. This is important.  He also stressed the importance of going to the temple. How when it's easy to go, people stop going. They say "I can go tomorrow, or next week." We can't have that happen. Temples are so vital. Don't let them go forgotten. Attend as much as you can. Make plans to go. Don't put it off.

There were so many more miracles this week. Way too many to fit into a weekly email. We are so blessed to live in the time of the history of the restored church. I want to testify that I know God is moving His work along in these days. He is hastening His work. Don't wait to prepare yourself. Great things are happening and we all have the wonderful opportunity to be a big part of it. And I am so so grateful to be playing a role here in Italy.

I love you all so much!

Sorella Thorup 

New Years or end of the World?

Happy New Year!!

This is the beginning of a new year, with lots of new adventures. And for me, a new year that will be entirely spent in Italy. And that is a weird thought! I hope all of you got enough sleep last night... We delightfully went to bed here at 10 pm! However, we were awoken at 23:55 to the sound of bombs echoing between the myriad of apartment buildings; lots of grown men and women screaming, and the shriek cries of little children. If I hadn't known it was New Years, I would have thought the end of the world came. Which, I guess if it were to come, being a missionary in Italy wouldn't be the worst place to be. The yelling, bombs, and fireworks continued for what felt like an eternity, but was probably only and hour or half an hour. I have never had such a loud New Year.

This has been quite the odd transfer. We have a little over two weeks left, and this is the first normal pday we have had. For the week of Christmas, they moved our P-Day onto the Tuesday which was actual Christmas, so everything was closed, and last week they moved it again to Tuesday, or New Year. Everything was closed, and it was our deep cleaning day so we were stuck in the apartment all day. So we are excited to finally have a normal pday! We get to go pant shopping! This week is going to be a fun transition. We also start the open house, and all the sisters in the mission will be coming up this week for some training. We've memorized lots of dialog, and hopefully will be prepared for when the tours start. A lot is in the air right now about the open house, but to quote President Pickers, "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape." So that's where we are at.

We haven't had tons of appointments because of Feste, but we have made some good progress with the people we're teaching. Danielle has started accomplishing the things she needs to be prepared for her baptism in March. (I'm hoping I'll still be in Ostia for that 🤞🏼) And we finally were able to bring a member to Angela's. The member was so loving but was also not afraid to gently break Angela's boxes. She showed Angela that she can overcome anything is she really wants to do it. And they left as good friends. So hopefully we will be able to bring the member again.  We have our week completely booked with new appointments! So hopefully we will have some new people to teach. We were going through the area book and calling people to see if they had interest in meeting. We only had like four minutes left before 21:00 but we decided to call one more person. The person I chose had a phone number that wasn't active. And we were pretty bummed about it. But I saw she had someone listed in her household, and they had a different number. So we quickly dialed the number, and Rita answered! More than that, she was so excited and grateful we had called. She was very willing to meet during the week. So that was our tender mercy from using those last miracle minutes before curfew!

Oh! Last but not least! Danielle for New Year's Eve, tried to feed us lamb brain! She had filled the table with food already. Way more than three people could eat. And the bug platter of lamb couldn't even fit on the table. But this platter had the head of the lamb, but right in half. The brain, eyes, nose, tongue, teeth and hair, lip all still intact. (or cut in half, but tomato-tomawto in this case) we. Flipped the head over to try and get a good picture of the brain, but it fell out! So Sorella Harmon used a fork to shovel it back in. However, the brain broke and some chucks fell out around the platter. Sorella Harmon then cleaned the fork and made sure it was Danielle who used it - because she likes the brain anyways. We ate all the food Danielle had laid out on the table, and when we thought she would dish out that abhorred lamb, she went to dessert. However she remembered the lamb and made me eat some. I didn't have to eat the head, so blessings, but it was still hard to put it down when we had seen the brains.

Anyways, one thing I've really learned this week was God will help you do what you can't do, if you first give your all. There were so many times when I didn't think I had the words to speak or understand, but when I would open my mouth, I was helped. I was able to find a way to convey my feelings. He wants to help us do the right things, and when we take that first step into the dark on our own, He helps us take the next.

I love you all and hope you have had a wonderful start to your new year. 

Vi voglio bene ❤️❤️

Ciao ciao!

Sorella Thorup