Dear Friends and Family,
Week 2 in Italy is complete! This week we had some adventures, including
- Starting the process of getting my permesso! It's like a permit from the Italian government to live in Italy for a certain amount of time. In addition to your visa. As you may or may not know, sometimes these kind of things can be a little finicky, bureaucratic, crazy, here. So it was a lot of paperwork, and then I'll have a fingerprinting appointment in a few weeks too. We started on Tuesday and spent hours getting all the right things printed, signed, stamped, scanned, etc. and I was almost done, just turning everything in at the Post Office, when the worker noticed that there was a mistake, the papers were made out for Rieti, Italy, not Roma! So several phone calls to the mission office later we found out we had to start all over again the next day with new papers. Mamma mia!
- There was a huge rainstorm a couple days this week. We got a text from the Zone Leaders saying it was a 'code red weather alert' and we were recommended to stay home, most Italians stayed home from work too! It would just on and off start pouring BUCKETS and at one point gumball-sized hail was falling from the sky. It made it kind of hard to get anywhere that day since the buses were very very unreliable.
Sorella Marsh and Sorella Clyde got caught in the rain on the way back from a leadership conference!!
- The Vatican was great! We got there in the late afternoon and left right during the golden hour. We got greeted a few times by random LDS tourists from around the world 'Hello, sisters!' (imagine a British accent) and 'Hola hermanas!' Perks of being in one of the tourist capitals of the world. When we were walking out I think there had been an aerial bird fight or something because all these feathers were falling from the sky. People started running to grab them like it was a sign from heaven. The other sorelle were like 'ew that is gross' but I grabbed one and I call it the 'Holy Feather', it is proudly taped into my journal.
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| Holy feather |
- Inside St Peter's is written on the walls around the inside the scripture from Matthew 16:18: "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church" in latin and I could read it since Italian comes from Latin!
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| Inside St. Peter's Basilica |
- Zone Conference! So all the missionaries in the Rome East Zone got together and got some training. It was so inspiring. But it took 1 1/2 hours by bus and metro to get there! Public transportation is long, but it gives you great opportunities to talk to people.
- We visited with a couple families from the ward this week, the Alabastro and the Rossetti families. The Alabastro's are a Filipino family who have been in Italy for some years, but are more comfortable speaking English. They have two teenage daughters. Such a wonderful family!
- The Rosseti's- Stefano is Italian, joined the church 2 years ago, and a year later married Cristine in the Switzerland temple! She is from an African country, met the missionaries several years ago in France. She speaks Italian with a French accent! They also live with Cristine's sister Odette and teenage daughter Marilene. Also a fantastic family, so strong in the gospel! They are so great! the members here are AWESOME and it was wonderful to be with them. I wish I had gotten pictures, next time!!
-Mamma Mia! Moment: Well this week has had several. As we've been out doing contacting, or talking to people on the bus, men just seem to be really interested in us- but not in the way we would hope! It's our foreign/American-ness and especially my blond hair. They stare, they try to hit on us, they blow kisses, they cat call, etc.! One 60-something year old guy named Andrea who I had been talking to on the bus kissed my hand as I shook his hand to say goodbye! Mamma mia! Luckily in Spain I got pretty used to that stuff, so! But it always keeps it interesting!
-The four of us (top picture from Left to Right):
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| first Mission Gelato |
Me...
Sorella Argyle- From West Jordan Utah. Also studying at BYU! My age, this is her 3rd transfer in the mission. We actually had a Writing 150 H class at BYU together! She lived in Argentina for 3 years when her dad was mission president, so she's fluent in Spanish too! We like to practice Spanish together sometimes, to keep it up. It's still so hard to keep Italian and Spanish separate. I think I'll speak Spataliano for the rest of my life.
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| Selfie with the four of us in a Metro stop |
Sorella Marsh- from Bountiful, UT. also studying at BYU, majoring in Exercise and Wellness! Super fun and also a very positive person, loves to laugh! She's about halfway through her mission. She's Elder Nelson of the Quorom of the 12 Apostle's granddaughter.
-As far as the work goes, we're still working hard to try to find some investigators, and we lost the 1 investigator that we did have. But we have faith that if we work hard to talk to lots of people and put our trust in the Lord, then He will bless us with work, bless us to be inspired to find those people who are prepared to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!
-I was reading about Paul in Acts today during personal study! When he was in Corinth. I think I found my mission scripture. Acts 18: 9-11: the Lord tells him not to 'hold his peace' or keep quiet but to speak and not have fear, which is what we are trying to do! And he says he 'has many people in the city'.. to me that means prepared people who are ready to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! Then in verse 11 he says he was there a year and a half... I'M on my mission for a year and a half too! I love it!
"Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, 'Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:
For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.'
And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them."
I hope all is great for you and yours!!
LOVE YOU!
The Sorella formerly known as Brie
Email: brianne.frandsen@myldsmail.net; Mailing Addresses: (see below)
ps The pictures are from the Vatican on Pday last week! today we are going to San Giovanni!
classic Sister missionary name tag shot!
ps The pictures are from the Vatican on Pday last week! today we are going to San Giovanni!
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| classic Sister missionary name tag shot! |
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| Outside St. Peters |
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Beautiful evening light through an archway just outside of the Vatican
and then I made Sorella Clyde take a picture of me with it:) (see above)
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| Our Charlie Brown-esque little Christmas tree! We can't wait for Natale! |
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| This is me at our favorite GIANT Chinese store (it's hard to explain exactly what a Chinese store is) |
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| and just a pic of what Montespaccato (our neighborhood) looks like! |
Sorella Frandsen's Mailing Address: LETTERS
(they take about one week to arrive)
Sorelle Missionarie Frandsen
Via Villata, 28
00166 Roma, ITALIA
Sorella Frandsen's Mailing Address: PACKAGES
(they take 2+ weeks to arrive & Brie must pay a 22% tax on arrival of the inspector's appraised value~so nothing too expensive please :)
Sorella Brianne Frandsen
c/o Missione Italiana di Roma
Piazza Carnaro, 20
00141 Roma, ITALIA
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