Sorella Cherrington's Italy Rome Mission Blog! :D: Questa è una dura lezione, perseverando sino alla fine

This week was great! :D I absolutely loved it for many reasons (that doesn't mean that it wasn't hard though). Well, the summer sun had finally arrived! And it is getting hotter and hotter by the day. The other day, when we went to Lama to go look for a menoattiva called "Fia", we got a bit lost and had to walk in the sun for what seemed like dayayyyyyyys! Lol, we started seeing mirages, and we both got sunburned a bit. And, I don't know why, but I think that that morning, however frustrating it was, was one of my favorite mornings here in Taranto. We had tried so hard to accomplish our goal, but we just could not find Fia's house. The point was, though, that we had tried. And I felt really accomplished just having done our best to do what we had planned. In the end, we found that the address that we had for Fia was messed up, so that was why we could not find her. One of those peculiar things that happens on the mission, you know. It was a great experience all the same.

Annnd, our friend, Brendon, is getting baptized! Here is his story (have I already told you all? I don't remember :). So, Brendon is a contact that we found through a young man that we invited to English course from the bus. We invite this other young man, Francesco, and he came with Brendo one day. Then, Brendo began coming by himself, and he wanted to attend the advanced class (the class that we teach) so he could have "full-immersion" in the language. And, one day, after we had all read the Book of Mormon together as a class, he approached me and asked me, "Can I have a copy of that book?" From that point onward, he became very involved in the church, came to the Easter activities, and started meeting with the Anziani (we passed him off to them because we thought it would be a better fit for a 16 year old boy to talk and be friends with other young men). Annnnd now, he will be baptized within the next couple of weeks! XD And he is suuuuper excited about his baptism! We are pretty good buddies, so he comes and tells me things like, "Hey! Sister Cherrington! I am getting baptized on the 1st of June! My baptism will be so great!" He really is the best! He reminds me a little bit of Joesph Gonzales back in California. :)

Otherwise, our work has been a bit sparse lately, and we have been doing a lot of work with less-actives, with the members, and finding in general. It has actually been really great because we are getting to know all the members better and we are building a support system for the work to go really well in the near future. Maybe we don't see all of the results now but, in missionary work, there are a lot of results that one never sees!

Oh! And we are becoming better friends with a half-active family. They are seriously the coolest! But, there are some things that we will have to work on with them. The Dad loves the church, but he does not like a lot of people who come to church, nor does he go in d'accordo with many of the dirigenti in the church... But we love him and his family, and we hope to help him see that, even if there are imperfect people in the church, we can be good examples ourselves and we must remember that the church itself is perfect, even if the members still have a lot of work to go towards perfection. Each of us has a ton of work to do. If we were prefect, we would not have to have the opportunity of this life to work our hardest to become better people. The word "perfect" means "complete." I wouldn't say that any human being is "complete" or perfect when it comes to this business of Eternal Progression. We all have work to do! :)

And, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you guys who have sent me letters, e-mails, ecc. It is really encouraging to feel your guys' love. Especially in hard times, this helps me. I just got a package from Ms. J the other day, and I was so happy to see her Italian-translated letter that she had written for me. :) I love her so much. And, famiglia, thank you for all you do. I really feel like I don't tell you that enough. I know it is hard to set aside time in your busy lives to send me e-mails or letters, so I want to tell you all how grateful I am for you. Ma and Dad and Andy, I am especially grateful for you guys, and for all the faith, love, and support that you give me. Tell Sisiter Chisam too that I am so thankful for her letters and notes every now and again. I love you all, and I can't wait to see you all again someday soon.

Vi voglio taaaaaanto bene,

Sorella Corey Cherrington