Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Il lavoro del Signore può essere divertente ed emozionante!






Hey!  Soooo.... This past week was just about the funnest week... ever!  I got to see so many cool missionaries in Roma when we went to the conference,and the 6 hour train ride there and the 6 hour train ride back was a blast!  Also, it was also nice to do finding in Roma again!  I feel like there are sooo many cool, different people to meet there.  It really is an international city.  

E Allora?  
The conference was really great!  Elder Kearon from the area 70 came to speak to us!   He is from the UK and he did a lot of work in Roseville and in the Sacramento area, so he has actually seen me before...  Holy cow, coincidence?  Annnd, he really got all the missionaries excited about the work again.  We will be a power-house mission before long, I am certain of it!  And.... hmm.. in specific, I loved that he talked about faith.  The most important thing that we can have as missionaries is faith because, without faith, we cannot see the miracles that are happening and we cannot allow even bigger miracles to occur.  It was really great!  

Also, I was able to see a ton of my friends in the mission and I didn't realize how many people I know until I was there in a pack of missionaries!  There are so many good people in our mission.  :)  And I know that these friendships we make here will last a lifetime and even longer!  Also, I am realizing, piano piano just how many weird connections I am making and have in the mission.  For example:  I saw an Anziano who kind of looked like my friend, Shamae Budd.  I read his name tag, and it says "Anziano Budd".  Too weird.  I then I had to ask him if he knew Shamae, and he said, "Um, yah.... She's my sister!"  Holy cow!  we were both in shock!  And then Elder Budd asked me if I knew Professor Kerry! The words "Small world" do not cut it to describe how everyone in my life is somehow connected to another person I know... :)

Also, we got to stay at the villa, which was really nice because we got to spend some time with the Waddoups, Millets (the office couple) and other missionaries dalla Puglia!  It was really nice, and we all said a family prayer both nights that we stayed there.  It was a really cool experience.


And now... the work!  :D  
Holy cow, you guys!  Something about this conference was seriously magical because I feel that, when I got back and was in a trio with Slla Vasilachi and Slla Ruppe, our work started exploding!  :D  Like, we met with our New Simp, Collins, and he brought a friend who wants to meet with us, and there was a boy in English course who approached me and the member I was teaching with (Marianna P.) and asked US about the book of Mormon!  It was really amazing!  We even got to teach him a lesson after Corso D'inglese!  :D  And, Oh my goodness, you guys!  The finding really payed off!  I love finding, you guys!  And now, we have so many phone numbers, people we are getting a hold of to meet with, new simps, referrals from Simps, and this is a really exciting time in Taranto.  

Also, Collins came to church!  It was like a dream!  The other day, when teaching in our trio, Collins asked us if he could come to church!  We then said, "of course!", gave him directions to the Capella and said we would meet him at the Bus stop after Lidl to walk together on Sunday.  And, WOW!  HE CAME! He called us Sunday Morning, walked with us to church, the Anziani Translated for him in priesthood meeting, and then me and Sorella Bradford took turns translating for him in the other meetings.  He told us that he really liked church and that he would meet with us later in the week too!  We want to invite him to be baptized the next time we see him, so we will see how that goes.  :)  This is really an exciting time in Taranto, you guys!  For real.  

Hmmmm... What else?  I cut my hair!  It is really short, and I looooove it (because Sorella Ruppe cut it for me, of course ;)

Well, I love you guys, and I just want to convey to you how much I love you, how happy I am, and how I love my church, my religion, and God with all my heart.  I know that this is the true church, and I want to try my hardest every day to remember all the things that Christ has done for me so I can "forget myself and go to work"! And, you guys, if the gospel makes you as happy as it makes me, share it with the people you love who don't have it yet.  It is the greatest gift that you could ever give anyone, and it is a gift that will provide eternal and everlasting friendship.  These things I share with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.  

Love,
Sorella (Corey) Cherrington

PS-  Funny Story this week!  
Soooo, I sat down at the piano the other day (half as a joke) to see if I could play anything from the Simplified Hymn book.... I ended up being able to play an entire song, even with the bass parts!  Uau!  Che forte! 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Ci spostiamo in avanti, nonostante le distrazioni dell'avversario!!



Sooo, this week, I wanted to say that I was incredibly inspired by Avri's e-mail to me about how she received an answer to her prayers.  I could not stop thinking about it after I read it and I am so happy for her, and that she has decided to serve a mission!  I can't wait to see her and to talk to her about all these experiences she is having right now.  I would like to even put her story on my blog, if she approves?  If so, I am sure tons of others would be inspired by it as well. 

Allora, I have made a lot of progress this week as a missionary and as a person as well.  Me and Sister Bradford have had to avoid some pretty awkward situations with people on the streets.  But, we know that that is just the adversary, trying to stop us.  For example, the other day, after we were rimaste un po' male da qualcosa that happened at a bus stop, Slla Bradford said, "Ya know, this is just the adversary, trying to keep us from finding a new investigator tonight!"  I said, "Yah!" And we immediately talked to a man about the gospel after that. He rejected us.  But we persevered and talked to one more woman, and it ends up that her child's doctor is Mormon, she has heard a little bit about our church, and she wants to learn more!  :D  We got her phone number and we will hopefully see her soon after our mission conference in Roma is over.  OH!  Ps, lol, I am going to Roma tomorrow for a mission conference that we will have! Haha, after this, I will have been to Rome in every single one of my transfers at least one time!  I am glad for this because I can always say that that city has a special place in my heart.  Especially since I spent the first 6 months of my mission there.  :)  

So, what else?  I love the ward here and the English course is great.  We have an awesome class and they are really fun!  Last week, we talked about "Looking for a Job" as our lesson and I was able to have the class participate in a fun representation of the difference between "fired" "laid-off", and "let-go". It was really cool because I got to use all of my random business knowledge that I acquired from Dads and Mom's heating and air business to help other people learn better the terms!  I absolutely loved it!  And Sorella Bradford told me, "Wow, I am really impressed by your random business knowledge!"  I love Sorella Bradford!

Soooo, I want to tell you all a bit about Sorella Bradford!  She is really great.  She is funny and so smart and has lots of fun stories to tell about her time at Berkeley.  We are able to laugh off awkward situations too and bidoni as well.  I really enjoy serving with her and I have learned so much, and I am sure that I will continue to learn more, from being her companion. 

Hmmmm, what else? Ah!  Our investigator, Ofori is progressing!  :D  He read some of the pamphlet and he loves to meet with us!  We just have to get him some stuff in his native language, Twi, and it will be fantastic!  Also, our lovely Rumena investigator, Cornelia, remembered the Joseph Smith story when we returned back by her yesterday! It seemed like she wasn't listening or that she didn't understand, but she did!  She is a tricky one, that Cornelia!  Lol, I love her sooo much and I have faith that she will make progress soon!  (Especially because we finally got her some materials in her language last night, and she told us that she would read "volontieri!"  The Fratello we brought to her lesson and Colins's lesson was really great too!  He has a humble, very powerful testimony that brings a great spirit to any lesson. :)

Also, we just started teaching Italian to 2 really nice people from China. We had another stellar fratello from our ward come with us to that lesson too, and it was really nice. We left them with a Book of Mormon in Chinese and another one in Italian and we were able to share with them a bit about the Book of Mormon as well! We weren't able to set up a return appt. because the man (Antonio) has to go to Napoli this week for work, but we will also hopefully see them after the conference!  

Welp, that is all for now!  I love you guys and I cannot wait to hear from you again next week!  :D  I absolutely love e-mail time because I get to hear your guys' stories.  :)

Vi voglio bene,

Corey

Senior Missionary Couple: The Franceschini's

Torta that Antonio made for them!!

"Spicy Ice" ????  :) 




Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Ti ringraziamo o Dio per averci inviato le tue anime valorose!!! :)



Ciao Famiglia!

Lol, before my mission, I didn't understand all those RMs who talk about their mission all the time or they "mess up" and speak their mission language on accident... Lol, ironically, I understand in questi giorni and it will be a rather large adjustment to make, going home to the states and eventually having to speak significantly less Italian than I am speaking here.  It just really hit me today... Especially because I have less than 7 months.  I was thinking at the bus stop of all the things that will be in English and how weeeeird it will be!  Like church and school, and basically everything!  I will miss this place soooo much and the language, and especially the people!  I love the people here.  Man... and being with my friends in the mission has been really fun too!  and I am excited to have these next several months to be able to learn, grow, and progress even more.  :)  Lol, stepping off of my scattola per sapone... ;)

THIS WEEK!  :D  So, this week was full of miracles and finding!  There is lots of finding to be done here because we are looking for new simps.  We are expecting a miracle though and so are the members!  (One member asked me yesterday, "So, when will our next baptism be?"  Haha, the members are great :)  and they are really excited about missionary work.  I really love that about this ward.  All we have to do as missionaries is find someone to teach so that we can invite one of the many ward missionaries to help us!  (I think there were 3 or 4 new ones called yesterday!  

SO!  Our investigators, Babba and Ofori are really great and they love to listen to us because they say they love to hear the word of God and they think that it is important to hear all of the word of God so that they don't miss a grande parte of God's message by not being open to all possibilities.  They speak inglese, so I brought my quad of scriptures to a lesson for the first time ever!  It was great. And Babba is making progress!  :D  Last time we met, we left him with some "homework" to read and answer the questions in the back of the restoration pamphlet (members out there get one of those and study it!  It explains who we are in a very concise yet professional manner, and I love it.)  And, though Babba has a tough time reading in English, we were able to help him through the things that he had trouble doi9ng on his own.  They are really great!  We have another appointment with them today after P-day ends.  

Also, the other day, we were doing some street on the Lungo Mare (best place to do street because the coolest people are always there!  :D) and we ran into this crazy group of kids who were around the age of 12 or 13.  It seemed a little intimidating at first, but I stopped them and I asked them if they wanted to listen to a brief message we have to share.  They agreed and, though some were quite rowdy, we were able to explain part of the >restoration with them and we even got them to respond to our questions and to share their knowledge of the Bible a bit.  It was great!  :D  But, there came a point where they just couldn't listen anymore because they wanted to go off and walk around the city, so we left a couple pamphlets and invited them all to English course.  One of the girls was especially excited about this and she asked us at the end, "Can I hug you guys?"  (She loved us because we are from America). So we hugged her and then we were on our way when she called back to us, jokingly saying, "Hey!  When you go back to CA, you will take me with you, right?"  Then, I responded, lifting my eyebrow and joking back with her, "Hmmmm... ci pensiamo."  They all laughed, said Ciao and walked away.  It was a really cool experience.  :)

Hmmmm... what else can I share with you all?  Allora, we also have these new investigators named Cornelia and Vittoria who I absolutely loooove!  :D  They are both from Romania and they are here in Italy for work.  It has been really nice teaching them because Cornelia is so positive about our message and she invited Vittoria to come listen to us with her.  It was really cool!  We are not quite sure how much Vittoria Understands, but we took President's advice from Zone conference and we invited them to baptism right then and there!  :D  They agreed and we set a date for the 5th for them both.  Before anything is certain though, we want to make 100% sure that Vittoria understands our message.  Cornelia capisce, me we want to make sure that, if they are converted to the Gospel, that they understand and are able to have a lasting and true conversion through which they can be converted by the Holy Ghost and not us.  That is truly the purpose of our work; to invite people to come unto Christ, and to explain things to them and to tell them how they can make progress towards having a testimony if they so choose to make those steps.  

Hmmmm..... I believe that is it!  :D  I love you guys and I hope that you all have an amaz-a-zing week full of miracles!  Miracles happen to each one of us every day, we just have to open up our hearts to our Savior, Jesus Christ and recognize that He really does have a huge presence in our lives.  Ciao for now!

Vi voglio beeeeene!  ;D
Sorella Cherrington


PS- Sorry for no photos this week, I forgot my camera in casa...  Next week, though!  :D  Love you guys!  And solo 1 month and a half till I hit my year mark! woo hoo!  

Taranto Zone Conference March 6?

Taranto Zone Conference March 6?

Taranto Zone Conference - Mission President on the right: President Waddoups

Taranto Zone Conference.  Love this picture of Corey! 

Corey's current companion is on the left, Sorella Bradford and on the left is Sorella Hibbert who was one of her first companions in Ostia.  

Trying to Connect the all the dots!

Zone Conference Hymns!!

The Senior Missionary Couple in Taranto:  Anziano and Sorella Franceschini!!  :)

Everyone at Taranto Zone Conference.  Smile :)

Monday, March 3, 2014

Servire il Signore è il nostro Salvatore, Gesù Cristo è qualcosa che non avete mai provato


Sooo, this week has been ricerca, ricerca, and some more ricerca (Finding).  It has been really fun!  And we have gotten soooo many bidoni this week, even from the members!  But it has really been great because me and Sister Bradford have sooo much fun doing ricerca together and we have had some really cool, spiritual experiences with sharing a lesson with people sitting on benches and with getting tons of new contacts!  We have filled up the entire front side of a contact paper with numbers and info about people who are interested in hearing more about the gospel!  The only thing now is getting to meet with them... It has been really difficult to set appointments with these people because they are so busy with work, school, or other things.

Lol, my favorite excuse was this:
(We tried to meet with the Anziani and this man named Carmine so we could pass him off to the Anziani.  We were exactly on time to the appointment, but we found the man just walking around on the street...)

Us: Ciao, Carmine!  Do you still have time to meet with us this morning?
Carmine:  Oh, sorry, but no...  I have to go in Giro now. (To go in giro means to basically go on a walk just passing the time).  Lol...  It has been really funny here. :)  Buuut...

I absolutely loooove this place because the people are sooo nice and so... idk, warm.  There is also amazing focaccia here and something called panzerotti!  :D  It is all sooo good!  Sorella Bradford and I often take our breaks on the road to go to one of the awesome Focaccerie!  :D  She has introduced me to so much cool Pugliese stuff!  She is really a great companion and we work really well together.  And we are both really determined to find some new simpatizzanti (investigators)!  :D We meet people from around the world everyday and it is really exciting for us to hear their religious point of view and also to tell them about our lovely message!  I absolutely love it.  I love my mission.

OH!  One last story!  
So, we were getting ready to meet with a man named Albert from Nigeria who... barely understands what we are saying but he accepted an English Book of Mormon and agreed to meet with us again.  It ends up that, last minute, he was stranded at a bus stop somewhere, so he could not meet with us...  So, me and Sorella Bradford, just having skipped out on going home for lunch just to meet with this man when he could sank our sorrows away by...  buying what I think to be the WORLD'S largest orange!  Lol, it was probably as big as Sorella Bradford's head!  XD  I have pictures that I will send you all.  :)  Love you, guys!  Have an amaz-a-zing week!  :D
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif


Sorella Corey Anne Cherrington

Bello!!!  

Sorella Bradford and Sorella Cherrington

Castel Sant’Angelo

This Castle is at the opening of the entrance in Taranto and was used to keep enemies out.  It has been there at least since the 1400's and was built on top of an ancient building that was used for the same purpose.