Week 33 - Rome, 7/27/2015

Hello family!!
Well this week was another week in Rome I guess you could say. Haha
let me give you the haps
So first on Monday we had a family home evening with one of our Simps,
(he's having a hard time progressing because he's not doing anything
we ask) but we watched the restoration video of Joseph smith together
with a member and it was so so so awesome. Seriously. It is crazy the
spirit that comes when you say the first vision in the words of Joseph
smith. Like literally... It is so strong. So the video finishes and he
was clearly touched and he looked at us and he says wow, that was was
fantastic, really beautiful!! And then we all bore really strong
testimony of the prophet and how we know that everything that we just
watched really did happen. It was super cool, and the you could tell
he was really touched.
Then we have this other dude that's a simp, and he's not who you would
immediately think would be interested in the church, but he's reading
the Book of Mormon and praying and sincerely wants to find out if this
church is true!  Anyway...... so then this week we asked
if him if he knew that these things were true if he would be baptized
and drumroll..... He said yes!!! But then when we tried to set a date
with him he said he wasn't ready... So we wait on that but he said yes
so that was awesome!!
Then we were pretty bummed this week because we had set up this whole
thing to have the Bulgarian woman that we met be taught by Skype. And
I cannot explain to you what a like big deal this was, and like ugh
everyone was pulling for it all to come together and it finally did
and then we are going to the appointment with her and she says to us,
no I don't want to hear them anymore, I don't understand them, I need
to leave right now. Just totally one 100% shut down... And we were
just like... MANAGGA... (That's dang it in Italian) so
that was a bummer... But idk there was some reason that we did it
all... Maybe in the future she'll remember and will be ready.
And finally we got to meet with the woman who we found at the
information desk of the hospital this week! And it was awesome....
Seriously. So we started by giving her a tour of the church because
she had never been to a Mormon church before. And she walked in and
said, I'm excited. Ummm music to my ears. Then after that we sat down
and taught the restoration and as is said the first vision she looked
at my with eyes just so big like she was soaking in every thing and
after she told us that she believed it was true, she said she could
feel it when we said the first vision! WOOO!!! Then after we finished
we told her that in the next lesson we would explain the questions
where did we come from, why are we here, and where are we going and
how God has a plan for each one of us... And she was like wow how
beautiful, once again with eyes just in disbelief and awe. Ahh it was
so so so so cool. The spirit was touching her heart so hard and it was
so amazing to get to see.
In other news... I went to an orthopedic surgeon this week and he told
me that my sacroiliac joint is out of place... So we went to the
chiropractor and he did basically the lightest adjustment I've ever
experienced, and then told me to come back in 3 days. I'm going back
tomorrow and we will see what happens, I'm still in a significant
amount of pain, and so the nurse told me to ask him again what I can
do to help it... I don't have a huge amount of trust in him.. But,
we'll see. Other than that I've been a little frustrated with the fact
that I'm in pain and can't do things a lot of the time... Ugh. So
annoying. You know me and I hate not being able to do things, I
usually would just go on, but I'm trying to be smart and not dumb, so
you should be proud of me for that.
But I found this SICK talk that I wanted to share with you.
It's called Man Down, by president eyring. Here's the part I liked

“Almost all of us have seen a battlefield portrayed in a film or read
the description in a story. Over the din of explosions and the shouts
of soldiers, there comes a cry, ‘Man down!’
“When that cry sounds, faithful fellow soldiers will move toward the
sound. Another soldier or a medic will ignore danger and move to the
injured comrade. … Whatever the risk, someone will run low or crawl to
get there in time to protect and give aid. … The histories of such
groups are full of stories of those loyal men who were determined that
no man would be left behind. …“… Our comrades are being wounded in the
spiritual conflict around us.
“… You are under covenant to go to a spiritually wounded child of God.
You are responsible to be brave enough and bold enough not to turn
away.”
Ahh i just loved that. I think about that a lot out here in the
mission. We really are on the front lines of the battle, and it's
our job to rescue those who are out lost in the field. Just about
Everything about being a missionary is uncomfortable, scary, and
hard... But it's a battle and there are not only other people relying
on you to rescue them but the Lord your Sargent is counting on you to keep the
pact you made to help him help them. So even when you are scared, or
tired, or there is risk of pride or comfort, you push forward, because
you need to find the people that are screaming "man down."

Love you nerds!!
P.s. I love my videos!! I got all of them :)))) you guys rock. Thank
you thank you! I'll try and go pick up my package to!! Im soooo
excited!!!!!!

Week 32 - Rome, 7/20/2015

Hellllooo family.
I miss you guys a lot. I don't know what it is about Rome but it is
hard in a homesickness kind of way. Like seeing the tourist families
everywhere and living in a place that is more Normal instead of like
super cultural shock.. Idk I just miss you guys all the time. There
are days when I wake up and I'm literally like if I don't talk to my
family today, I'm calling president and going home. But it's not in a
like I want to go home way its in a like my heart just aches all the
time because a piece of it is missing kind of way. Like I feel
literally like a part of me is not here, (which is the truth) but ya.
Moral of the story is the mission is hard, and I miss you guys every
single day.
In other news, I went to the doctor again this week because my back is
still hurting pretty bad. They did an X-ray and found that nothing was
wrong all though that fracture from years ago is still present, they
were worried that it was new from my accident but they called a
specialist and he said he's about 98% sure it's not new. So in the
meantime, I got some new drugs. Well just one, it's like a super
antiinflammatory that I take once a day. I'm not allowed to carry
anything. This is really annoying because I just feel useless. Also
I'm not supposed to sit, stand, or walk for extended periods of time.
Sitting hurts really bad, like after an hour or an hour and a half, I
have to move. So after they told me this I was like uhh am I supposed
to stand on my head? And the nurse just awkwardly laughed... And was
like well ice, lay down, and don't push yourself. Ugh. So this has
been super frustrating for me because my back hurts just in general
a lot of the time. I've also been exhausted,.. Like literally hailey
coma status exhausted... I asked the nurse about this and she told me
that as my body telling me I needed to sleep to heal. So... Idk it's
just so hard because like I want to work and go out and like do that
but then I want to sleep and I'm in pain
But today I slept
for an hour and a half and we just hung out at home so I'm hoping that
will help me get back into normal mission tired instead of body
healing tired.

Sent from my iPad

Week 31 - Rome, 7/13/2015

ON 7/7/2015 WE WERE EMAILED BY THE MISSION PRESIDENT AND INFORMED THAT HAILEY HAD BEEN HIT BY A CAR.  WE WERE TOLD THAT SHE WAS NOT CRITICALLY INJURED BUT HAD ABRASIONS, BRUISING AND HAD HURT HER BACK.  THAT'S PRETTY MUCH THE ONLY INFORMATION WE WERE GIVEN EXCEPT THAT SHE WAS IN THE CROSS WALK AND A CAR DID NOT YEILD WHEN TURNING RIGHT.  WE OF COURSE WERE INSANE WITH WORRY. THIS IS THE FIRST LETTER WE RECEIVED AFTER THE ACCIDENT........

Hello family.
So I am alive and functioning :) let me tell you what
happened. I was crossing a street where cars turn down and there is no
light or anything so I crossed and this car came down really fast and
side swiped me. Really I was protected a lot. He didn't hit me head on
but side swiped the whole left side of my body and ran over my foot.
Luckily it was going so fast nothing happened to my foot except I have
a burn on my leg from the metal, but it's not super bad, I've been
scraped worse, and it is bruised around it.  I walked away from it,
thanks to the shock, but after wards my back was in pain. I went to
the doctor and he said nothing was broken, and that I would just be
sore for s couple of days. So I came home and I was definitely sore. I
have a big bruise on my lower back so that hurt if I walked on it to
super long. Then I think my sciatica was irritated because that whole
area was irritated, sooo that was annoying but nothing too serious. I
stayed home for two days because walking all day was hard, but I've
been on A TON of ibuprofen and I ice it every time I am home. When I
wake up it hurts the worst and if I've been standing for a long time.
But I'm being really good about resting and I don't feel like anything
is damaged, just bruised. When we walk a long time I make sure I sit
down. I'm really sorry that you've been worried all week, but really I
was protected by Heavenly Father.

Week 30 - Rome, July 6, 2015

Well this week was pretty cool! Let me tell you the highlights :)
1. Well Tuesday morning we woke up and sorella cano told me that the
night before she couldn't sleep so she was just laying there and she
heard me talking in my sleep...But I wasn't speaking in English...I
was talking in Italian in my sleep!! How nuts is that??! So crazy. I'm
pretty sure it was because I was dreaming we were doing street
finding... Kind of like when I used to dream anatomy while I slept....
Now I'm dreaming missionary work... Not super effective for sleeping
but I was pretty excited to hear I was speaking in Italian in my
sleep. Then we went to a district meeting and I seriously love our
district leader. He is just so so intune with the spirit and it's
awesome. He came in and said today I want to talk about when we hear
our leaders talk about faith and we feel like they tell us that we're
not hitting the numbers because we don't have enough faith and I'm
going to tell you that that is not the case. You have faith. And he
basically said that when you get sent to areas that are hard and
heartbreaking and no one listens you are not the people without
faith... But in fact the people with the strongest faith, faith enough
to handle that. People that get sent to missions where they see 40
baptisms... They need to see that. You are different. I cannot tell
you how much I needed to hear that. It was just such a breath of fresh
air. And I just felt like Heavenly Father was talking directly to me
because I had basically been sad about this exact thing for like a
week. It was super awesome.
2. We had a lesson in a post office... Haha
3. I went to the eye doctor and it was basically the least useful
thing ever. Well a) My prescriptions in both of my eyes are worse but
not like super bad... But I was really wanting to find a solution for
this whole close up thing and he basically told me I just need to move
things farther away from my face like an old person... Not super
helpful or effective. But whatever...
4. While we were coming back from the eye doctor i saw This woman on
the metro who was reading my tag and she was like what kind of
community are you from? And I was like well were the church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints or the Mormons. And she was like what time
is your church? And I was like uhh Sunday's from 9:30-12:30, and she
was like what's your phone number I would love to meet with you. And I
was like uhh... Okay here's our billitino, what's your number so we
can call you too? And she was like "oh I don't remember my number but
expect my call because I really want to talk to you". And I was like uh
"okay sweet". So then we left and like that was that. Now people tell us
they will call us all the time and then they forget and all that
stuff. But Then Saturday morning rolls around and she calls us, and is
like "is this sorella Kennedy"? And I was like uh ya, and she was like
"I'm Lydia from the metro, I told you id call! When are you free so we
can meet?" And I was basically just having a heart attack on the other
line that she legitimately called us back with the intention of
meeting. So we are meeting with her tonight in the church. Pretty
stinking nuts. So I'll keep you posted on that, it'll be super
interesting to talk to her.
5. We taught 3 lessons in one day. That was amazing... :) a new record for us!
6. Fun fact.... It's about 1000 degrees here with 110% humidity,
seriously. You walk outside and you're sweating. When I shower, I literally turn it on cold.
Because the only way to cool down is to do this. It's crazy. When we
come back we should come in the winter, because seriously it's like
Palm Springs WITH humidity.
7. We found another miracle. We felt like we should go to the hospital
to do finding. This may seem odd but it is listed in preach my gospel
as something to do so we've been meaning to do it literally for like
the whole transfer sooo.. Saturday we went. So we get to the hospital
and we go and ask the front desk woman if there is like a list where
we can sign up to talk to people or where people can call us if they
want to talk to someone religious, and she was like who are you? And
we were like we're the Mormons, and she was like oh my gosh.... The
Mormons... They used to come to my house years and years ago. I can't
believe you're here. And we were like "uh we can't believe it either...
Now we know why we came."  And so sorella cano told her that God had
sent us to her and this was not a coincidence and she was like "I know,
I can feel something inside my heart telling me that, it's this
feeling I can't describe, look I have goosebumps!" And we were like ya
that's the Holy Ghost telling you that this is good. And she was like
wow. And so then we got her number and she said she wanted to meet
with Us . We walked out of there and we're just like whoa. God is so
aware of his children.
8. Sooo yesterday we had this secret special conference in Rome for
just the Rome missionaries. One of the sorelle that is going home is
the granddaughter of elder cook, so her whole family came to pick her
up and he offered to do a fireside for the missionaries in Rome. So it
was like 50 of us and anziano cook in a Room. It was super cool. He
talked about a couple of different things but one of my favorites was
just that we don't need to worry so much about teaching exactly the
order of the lessons in preach my gospel. Like we need to listen to
the spirit and teach to our investigators and I just thought that was
cool because I've been feeling lately that sometimes we need to just
stop and like tell people that there is a loving Heavenly Father. Like
how much power and comfort can we as members feel from that message
alone? That we are literally spirit sons and daughters of a Heavenly
Father... Of a king, who loves us infinitely and perfectly. Just so so
cool. I feel like sometimes we get so wrapped up in teaching the
lessons that we forget that people need to hear that and understand
it. Even if they don't join the church, that knowledge alone can
change their life.
9. So at the conference I saw this elder couple that I had met when I
went to the mission office on Wednesday for my apt, and they had been
in battipaglia for 18 months before sorella argyle and I went and they
were here because they heard stefano was getting baptized and they
were super close to him and they can fly for free because of their
son's job so they came and I got to meet them which was super cool
because when we got there they were just like a legend. But anyway....so
at the conference I saw them again right after they had seen the
baptism on Saturday so I got to see pictures and everything and then
they said to me, sister Kennedy you are famous in Battipaglia. 
And that was just basically the coolest thing ever.
The woman gave me a huge hug and was just like I'm so glad that we met
you, we really feel like we know you, thank you for all you and
sorella argyle did for the people there. So that just was the best
thing ever.