Week one in the field

[Email from 8/17/11]

Hey everyone!

So this is my first p-day in Italy. It's so extremely hot here! I have been dying of the heat. AND there are SO MANY mosquitos. They eat us alive. I really cannot stand it. I wake up in the middle of the night scratching my legs so bad that the bites turn into scabs. And then I fall asleep again and wake up with more bites. It's very frustrating. Not going to lie, I'm kind of miserable right now. I can't understand
anyone, no one can really understand me (actually I am just to nervous and mess things up), and I am always tired. I've also been having really bad headaches lately. Since the plane to London and it makes me feel like throwing up. I've been drinking alot of water, but I still have a headache. It won't go away. I'm really worried about it actually. I wonder if maybe it's because it is so hot and I am
straining so much every minute to try to understand everyone around me. And I haven't been sleeping well. I don't know.

But even though I am kind of miserable and wonder what I got myself into, I get distracted by all the blessings we have here. My area is actually booming with investigators. Since I have started teaching in my area, we have gotten 4 new investigators. And they all are really solid people. One of them is Anna Morgia and she is catholic and is quite influential in the church. She is a "queen" in africa and has a humanitarian orginization there. She totally agrees about the apostasy
and stuff but hasn't quite grasped the concept that the truth has been restored. But at least she agrees that the truth was lost. She loves the family unit and was having a priest guy staying with her this last week and hated him. He gave the sisters a hard time when they first contacted her and she chewed him out bigtime. Then she was telling us how he preaches one thing and does the opposite and how corrupt he is. He it's funny.

We also have this lady Concettina who is a single mom and dresses like a nun or something. Super Super modest and reads the bible and prays all day long. We were teaching her and she asked to see sorella foote's bible to compare to hers. She found a picture from the ensign of conference and concettina got so excited. We explained conference and the prophet and apostles to her. She really was SO excited about it. So she will most likely come watch conference with us in october. And she does not watch tv or listen to music because she says it's all gross and evil.

Then yesterday we got stood up by three people so we went to contact a lady whose door we knocked on and she let us in. We were teaching her when a good male friend of hers came in. Sat down and asked what the difference between us and jehovas witnesses (TJ's). We told him we don't know all their beliefs but we can teach him ours. So we started teaching and he said he studies with the TJs and didnt like it because they couldnt answer his question of where we will go after this life...Funny how they avoided it and we hope people will ask that because we have the answer. Then he was saying that the bible is the word of god but that it has been translated so many times there is some truth missing in it. ECCO!! Because we know that too and so we taught about the BOM. he liked that. Then he said he doesn't think it's fair that we are all sinners because of what adam and eve did. Ecco! We have an answer to that too. Read from 2 NEphi and he loved it. Gave them a BOM and will meet with them Monday. The Lord truly does know where we are and even if an appointment bombs, he's got the plan figured out and we just need to follow the spirit and we will find someone who will be ready to hear our message.

I know this work is of God an I am excited to share it with people. i just need to learn the language. It is so hard because I have such a strong testimony and desire to share it, but the language is a big barrier for me.

Love you all,
Sorella Heiner