Week 1 - Italy, Battipaglia

Whats up famm???
> So i made it to Rome!!! What what?? how crazy is that? So let me give you the lowdown thus far.
> First day we got here we went and visited the temple(which is sooo beautiful) and then we went to the mission office to get orientated and then we went to the mission home and ate dinner with the president and then got interviewed. Then we waited in anxious anticipation for the "golden envelopes" that tell us where we are going and who are trainers are going to be... so I opened mine and am in... drumroll.......... BATTIPAGLIA!!! (now this probably means nothing to you as it did to me when i opened it.. haha) however battipaglia is in the Napoli zone!!! which is super cool because everyone always wants to go to the napoli zone! There are only 4 missionaries here. 2 anziani and 2 sorellae. It is a very small town with only about 30,000 people and our branch has about 35 members in it. our area also includes a couple of others towns including salerno, eboli, and more that i don't remember. Soo woooo!! Battipaglia. It is also home to Italys best mozzerlla di buffalo (aka mozeralla) and then also Sorella Waddoups favorite pizza in all of Italy! We have yet to go there but we are anxiously awaiting that day.
> Okay so next day I travel to Battipaglia and i meet my trainer at the train station! Her name is Sorella Argyle! She is from west jordan utah, is fluent in spanish and italian(though i'm not sure shed agree with me on that last one) and shes only been out for 4 transfers so I am her first greenie!! I feel so sorry for her ebcause i really am not good at Italian.. however she is awesome and has alot of patience and helps me alot so thats is a huge blessing. :) So we took a 4/5 hour train ride to Battipaglia. We got whats called "blown in" which means that there are only 2 sisters here and both of the old ones  left and so both of us came in brand new to pick up their work. This is kind of tricky because we don't know the area, the people, or the members! however Sorella argyle is fantastic and we are totally excited to meet these people. The sisters before us left notes on all of their investigators and we've been going through the area book to figure it all out.
> So the last couple of days we have just been calling and calling and going out and talking to people. We've set up a couple of appointments and have passed out a bunch of pass along cards around town.
> Highlights:
> Sunday: sunday we got to meet our branch!!! WOO. they are so sweet!! There were only about 15 people including us in church this week but it was so cool to meet them all. We had to get up and bear our testimonies and i was so nervous. but i just said a prayer, and got up there and the craziest thing happened! I spoke for 5 minutes! I think that all of the testimony i had been building up and all the words in italian I knew had been building and i finally had a conduit in which I knew how to speak Italian so it just like all came out. It was awesome. The spirit was backing me up 100% and was helping me remember and put together things i never had before in italian.
> Cool finding story: so we were walking around town and we say hi to people when we walk by them all the time. So I walked  by this woman with like 4 kids around her and i was just like buone sera and she was like who are you and why are you just saying good night to people, come here for a second. haha so we went over there and she was rattling off in italian so i was just like holding on by my boot straps to understand what she was saying but the gist of it was she just felt like it was really important for people to know who god and jesus christ were and she didn't understand how you could know which church was true and that she had been wondering that for a really long time, and like a ton of other stuff... and she was super fiesty and it was kind of funny and then in the end we talked to her for like 10 minutes and then sorella argyle got her number and we are going to call her later this week to see if we can meet wither her! hopefully she lets us! she seemed pretty interested :)
> So usually our Pday is monday but instead this monday we went up for zone conference! It was soo awesome. So spiritually tank filling and i didn't even realize how empty i was! I think the coolest part for me was they talked about leaving your area better than you found it and utilizing your talents given to you and multiplying them well your here. Whether you have 10 talents or 2 talents its important to take them and go with them the best that you can and to strive with the lord to develop what you've got and then the lord can be proud and pleased with  you. Thats my goal here for this area, especially because i don't really have the hang of things yet or know italian but i have a few things that i can do to be doing all i can to make a difference and so thats when I'm going to strive to work on and then the lord can help me reach those goals and develop better at the things i struggle with.
> Also cool spiritual thought I had today... In Alma 36:6-7 its talking about how through small and simple things are great things brought to pass and then how by small means doth the lord counfound the wise and bring others to salvation adn i was thinking about this and usually when you hear this you think by small and simple acts.. like praying and reading our scriptures or being kind.. but i also think that it is synonmous to small and simple people. The lord doesn't always pick the brightest, prettiest, or wisest to be his leaders. Missionaries are PERFECT examples of this. We are young, unlearned, and often immature but he picks us to go and preach his gospel and bring people the knowledge of the truth! how beautiful is that. and not only in missionaries but when you think about how christ even came to this earth. the most perfect human to ever live came in a stable, in a young poor couples family, in a manger. The lord works through small and simple people because he knows their hearts and sees their faith and capacity to love and serve.
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> Italy is amazing.
> LOVE YOU
> Sorella kennedy