Moving forward

Well today I had to go back to Como for my permesso because it was in my wallet that was stolen. It was so great to go back to Como and hear how everyone is doing here from the other sorelle here now (sorella carter e clawson). It was so strange because on the train we passed by the train stop we would always take to get to our recent convert. I got teary eyed thinking about all of the times we went to go and teach her. It was strange being in como because I realized that I dont have responsibility for the people in this area anymore. It was such a treat to come back to this beautiful city with sorella roth. 

This past week there has been a ton of rain. Nonstop. I have never seen so much rain in my whole entire life. Luckily it stoped raining yesterday. So hopefully it will stop raining for just a few days. 

I have loved wearing my rainboots everyday though. We were walking down a underpass one rainy day and I have my umbrella in my left hand, with my rainboots on and everything. I was just stomping in the puddles, just enjoying myself as I walked down the stairs. Just all smiles thinking "We dont't have rain like this in California"..haha Then all of the sudden I realized I was going down..oh no. It was the weirdest moment. I went down on my knees on the step in front and all of the sudden I grabbed the railing with my right hand and I was back up.. That was a close one. The best part was that sorella roth was in front of me and she didnt see anything that had happened so I just felt like I was a crazy person when I told her the story afterward, I am defintely being watched over because I dont think my reactions are that good..ha

I love our study time in the morning. 

It is seriously my favorite part of the whole day. Recently I have started reading "Jesus the Christ" which is a spectacular book. I learn so much everyday that I read from this book. I love learning more about our savior Gesù Cristo. I hope I can finish this book by the end of my mission but I only read a few pages each day. proviamo..

I love Bergamo. It is so peaceful. We are just surrounded by mountains. I absolutely love it here. Apparently Beragmo is well known for their polenta and rabbit..I am sure I will find out one of these days. They even sell dessert polenta. It is a real thing! It is a lot different then Como, but I love it in different ways. They sell ducks, rabbits, and feasants. No big deal.. hah I saw the duck hanging from a store and I said to sorella roth " was that a duck?" haha she looks at me and just shakes her said to say yes. Bergamo. I think the best part of Bergamo is hearing people speak in dialect..aka Bergamasco. It is a real thing. No one knows what is going on. We learned the numbers last week in Bergamasco and they sound very similiar to french which was cool to see the french influence. Also in every city under there is a brown sign which says what it is in Bergamasco..too much. 

This week my favorite moment was when we asked this eldery woman if we could help her walk her bike with her groceries and she told us no. But she told us that she is 88 years old and we started just talking to this sweet old woman. She then told us about all of these people in her family who had passed away. So we taught her about the plan of salvation. I love this lesson. Everytime I teach this lesson I know exactly how these people feel. She had tears feel her eyes and I told her that she could see these family members again someday and she just said I hope so. She was so sweet and I hope we will be able to teach her someday about the restoration. She was such a cute little 88 year old Bergamasco old woman. I love these moments in the mission. 

I am grateful for Sorella Roth she is teaching me a lot and helping me realize certain thing that I need to improve at. I love Bergamo and my mission. Not every moment is easy but I love the Lord and I am grateful to be a missionary for him for a year and a half of my life. 

I love you all! 

love, 

Sorella Rebecca Carter

                                                  My companion Sorella Roth 

                                                   My old companion Sorella Carter

                                             Bergamo sorelle e como sorelle

                                                                Como!

New Beginnings

Alright so Thursday I went to Milano to meet my new companion Sorella Roth. It was the best because I was able to see Sorella McCann!! I think I may or may not have screamed when I saw her there. She kept telling me"okay take deep breaths it is going to be okay". It was so great to see her there. I missed her sooo much! I love Sorella McCann!

Then we left and went to Bergamo. There are two wards and a branch in Beragmo and I am serving in one of the wards here. My new companion Sorella Roth is great. She is a transfer ahead of me and studied Italian for two years before the mission and did a study aboard in Siena...Bless the day! She is going to help my Italian! ha. I have already learned a ton from her already and I am excited to see what else I will learn from her this transfer. 

There have been some funny things that have happened this week in my first week in Bergamo.. per esempio.

1.

goose walking down the street with his owner trying to make sure the goose doesn't get hit by the car...

2.

teaching someone in a flower shop and then after she gave us flowers to take home...

3.

An old man walking up to us and says in Italian"You won't be young forever"..points and my companions face and say some things in Bergamasco and then he does the same to me but then he touches my nose and says "Ding dong ding dong"..then he walked away

4.seeing roosters in some backyards

It is the little things on the mission that put a smile on my face. 

Here in Bergamo we use buses and the tram but mainly we use the tram..Which means we do tram finding. I like it a lot. The people here in Bergamo seem a little bit more open to our message. We were on the tram this week and there was a woman that looked so sad so I started to talk to her. I found out that she was from Ghana so I pulled out a couple of the phrases that I learned from Sorella Stephens in twi. Shoutout to Sorella Stephens for teaching me some phrases in twi. So we were able to teach a lesson to this woman on the tram and after we got all of her information so we could visit her again and talk about our message. Speriamo bene!

Here in Bergamo the members are just wonderful. Everyone was so welcoming and kind to me on my first Sunday in church. Also the members her feed us every Sunday, so hopefully I won't gain weight..hah 

We do email later here in Bergamo because we have appointments in the middle of the day on wednesday. So we email in the evening here. Next week I have to go back to Como though for my permesso. So hopefully all will go well with that. 

I realized the other day when we were at a members house how now I really like Coca-Cola. Before the mission I didnt like it at all, but now I have a grown appreciation for it now because of the members here in Italy. 

It is going to be a good transfer. I am excited to be here and get to work with the members here as well. 

One thing that I know for sure is that God is our loving heavenly father. He is aware of us and all of the trials that we are facing. Enjoy the week! Love you all! 

love, 

Sorella Rebecca Carter

                                                            Sorella McCann 

                                                      View from the room

                                                                Tram

                                                             Cittá alta

                                          

                                          Parco. My new companion sorelle Roth!

Bittersweet

I knew it would happen eventually... I am finally leaving Como. It is such a bittersweet feeling to leave Como after serving here for 7 months. Oh how I love these people here in Como. I never thought it would be possible to love a group of people so much until I met this ward. I have learned more from them than I could ever teach them. I am so grateful that I was able to serve in Como as my first city. It was such a blessing to walk the streets that my dad once walked. I will never forget the friendships that I have made here with the members. For the testimonies of the sweet members here in Como. The miracles that I have seen these last 7 months months. That is one thing that I can now say that I know for sure. That God is a God of miracles. I have truly witnessed that here in Como. I have a strong testimony know of obedience and I have learned that by the example of the members here.

 

I am so sad to leave Como but I am also very excited. I found out yesterday that I will be going to Bergamo!! I am very happy to go to this city. I have only heard good things about the city, members and people. I know it is time for another adventure. I know it will be a wonderful city and I can't wait to meet the sweet people of Bergamo. It will be different but I am excited for change and to meet other great people that will strengthen my testimony.

 

We taught one of our investigators yesterday and we asked when we could see her again and I said "Can we meet with you at the same time on Thursady?" But then I looked over at my companion and I realized that we wouldn't be able to because we will be in milano. So I had to tell this investigator that I was leaving Como. As soon as I told her she started crying. I was shocked. She was so sweet and for the next 10 minutes she thanked me for helping her to come closer to God. She told me that she was sad but she wants me to teach other people so that they can come closer to God as well. As we walked away she continued to cry and it finally hit me that I am leaving Como.

 

That night we had family home evening with our ward so I was able to see some of the ward members one last time. I was fine the whole night. I held it together. I said goodbye to my favorite people that have strengthened my testimony so much. But when our new convert drove us home I realized that this was probably the last time that I would see them for a while. It hit me like bricks. As we got out of the car, my eyes were full of tears realizing that I had to say goodbye to them. Oh how I love these people here. I can't even begin to express how much I love these people. They have changed me and I will forever remember them. They have stolen a piece of my heart that I will never be able to take back.

 

It is going to be hard to leave, but it is time to start in Bergamo. I am grateful that I have been given this opportunity to go to Bergamo. My new companion is Sorella Roth. My first transfer in Italy I did a scambio with her, so I already know her and I am excited to work with her in Bergamo. I am sad but I am ready to get to work in Bergamo.

 

Change is hard but it has to happen. I am ready for the next thing that the Lord has in store for me. It is going to be a great experience in Bergamo. I know that I am absolutely going to love it there.

 

I love you all!

 

love,

 

Sorella Rebecca Carter

 

 

****send mail to the mission home address until I give you my new address in Bergamo***

                                                     I am going to miss Como

First Christmas spent away from home!

Christmas this year was wonderful. I am so grateful that I will able to spend this Christmas in Como. The Saturday before Christmas we had our ward Christmas Party. It was so fun to watch the cute little primary children do the nativity and sing christmas songs. We were able to go Christmas caroling with the GANS or Young Single Adults which was fun to visit the members in both of the Como wards. 

Christmas Eve we had a Peruvian dinner with a member in our ward that was delicious. It was so much fun being with this member because she is a little bit older than us. She was trying to cut the turkey but it was her first time, so she just looked at us and asked if we wanted to cut it..hah.. But then she decided to just cut it herself. 

Chrsitmas day we went to two different families. During the morning we went to this young married couples home and had pancakes for breakfast with their whole family. After we went to one of our new converts home for Pranzo where there was so much food that I thought my stomach was going to explode. Soo much food in only two meals. It was so great to be with these Italian families because it made me feel at home this Christmas. It was pouring the whole day on Christmas and was a beautiful day. 

I was able to skype with my family which was wonderful. It was so good to see everyone and to hear their voices. All of my nieces and nephews looked so much bigger but everyone was still themselves. It was such a blessing to talk to my family. I am so grateful for them all and the examples they are for me. I defintely appreciate them a lot more now that I am here in Italy. We also were able to watch one disney movie that night so we watched "The Lion King". Christmas was a day that I will never forget and was focused on our savior Gesù Cristo. 

Before Christmas I wanted to finish the New Testament and I did. It was a pleasure to read the New Testament and made me realize how grateful I am for our Savior Jesus Christ. It was also a testament to me of how we truly can use the Bible and The Book of Mormon together. So now I just started reading the Doctrine and Covenants which is filled of missionary work. I love it already and I am grateful to be able to read the scriptures every morning. 

I am so grateful for everyone that thought of me during the Christmas season and I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas this year. 

There are always some funny things that happen when we do casa. We were doing casa recently and we rang the doorbell which was by the gate all of the sudden we see this little dog come and run towards the closed gate. It literally looked like a black bat which rabies. Luckily the gate was closed..meno male.. 

Then we rang another door and an elderly woman came out and said she would be right back. Through her clear door she slipt a euro coin through the crack of the door..ha We had to tell this sweet old woman that we don't collect money from people and all we wanted to do was share our message with her..casa

Last casa story. We went to ring this old looking house. No one was answering. Finally a light turned on and the door is unlocked. So I poke my head in and said hello. I look to the left side of the room and all I can see is firewood. Then a very old man walks down this huge staircase very slowly. For some reason all that was popping into my mind was the story of Hansel and Gretel. Then I started thinking about instead of feeding us with candy he would just feed us Italian food: pasta, pane, pannetone, pizza, gelato and etc. But this man just told us no one lived there so we left smiling ear to ear thinking about the Italian Hansel and Gretel. shesh. too good. 

This week it seems like there have been many experiences where we talk to people who just want to argue. But almost everytime I noticed that in these situations that when I would bear my testimony there was silence and the person would stop and listen instead of talking over us. It was a cool experience because this happened to a man we were talking to from Yugoslavia (I keep finding these people..ha) and this happened. As soon as I bore my testimony to him he stopped and listened to me. 

It is amazing that it is now 2014. We were able to have breakfast this morning with one of our new converts.. American pancakes. It was such a great morning to talk about the blessing that have happened in 2013. They told us that they wrote down all of their blessings for that year and I now want to do that because there have defintely have been plently this past year. I am so grateful for them because they have strengthened my testimony of obedience these last 7 months here in Como. Next week is transfers so we will be finding out the news. I am so grateful for them and all of the members in Como that have touched my life. 

I know 2014 will be a good year and that there are many good things to come with the new year. I love you all! Enjoy this time of year with new goals. I am going to have some spiritual goals for the new year that I want to incorporate everyday. 

Love you all,

Sorella Rebecca Carter

                                                         Ward Christmas party

                       Natalie with the sorelle

                                           Chestnuts...they taste like little brains...

                                        A cute little nativity that a member made for me