Back to December

Gold star to whoever gets the reference of that subject

Happy December! What the heck how is already December?! Time seriously needs to slow down.

One of the best kept secrets of missionaries across the globe is how daunting and overwhelming the task of creating weekly emails is. Last week my email was pretty lacking so hopefully this one semi makes up for it! (Sorry for the novel.)

Carley, Anna Isernia, and Sorella Hess

I'll start with one of the many miracles we saw this week. On Wednesday night, we were walking home after a long day and for some reason Sorella Hess was explaining to me what street we were on. The name of the street sounded super familiar and I was trying to remember where I had heard that before.... then it clicked- I had gotten an email from Fratello Hatch (my MTC teacher who happened to serve in Caserta) that said we could visit some of his friends on that same street! I pulled up the email and we tracked down Maurizio and Anna Isernia at a Salumeria they own. They have 2 kids around our age, maybe younger, they're not members of the church, and we just spent a good 30 minutes talking with them and getting to know them!! They were the sweetest people, we shared the new Christmas mormon.org video with them, "Sii Una Luce", and swapped phone numbers!! Thanks for the referral, Fratello Hatch.

We walk just about everywhere we go! This mission is mainly a walking mission, some areas have bikes and there's 1 area with a car. I love walking though! Not only is it good exercise, it's the perfect opportunity to meet people, smile at everyone you see, and be a missionary!! Sorella Hess and I usually walk 6-10 miles a day. There are some instances where we take a bus or train to travel. We just got our passes for the month of December, so we can take a train or bus or the metro in Napoli (basically any public transportation) whenever we want! We have met several awesome people via public transportation as well. It's funny because there's an Italian standard time and the trains are always in ritardo (late) and then there's the occasional sciopero (strike) when the workers just take a day off hahaha. Crazy Italians!


The tap water in Caserta isn't the best to drink, I think it's fine up in Rome, but not here. So we buy huge cases of bottled water for like a euro and it lasts a surprisingly long time! Apparently Italians don't drink water like Americans do.....in the U.S. it's perfectly normal to carry around a water bottle, so naturally, I carry my hydroflask everywhere I go! I've gotten some pretty funny comments on it here. The majority of people want to know what in the world is in this pink thing I'm carrying...."solo acqua!" One woman thought my water bottle was a fire extinguisher. Enough said.

Italy has the best fruit I've ever tasted, mamma mia. There's cute little fruit stores on just about every block. Kiwi, oranges, apples, everything. It's so fresh and so delish. After district meeting this week, our district discovered a bar that has the BEST hot chocolate ever. Like they have a hot chocolate menu with multiple flavors. And hot chocolate here is way different because it's more like pudding and so delicious. That place is going to be dangerous. I'm still in awe of how this country never fails to be perfect.

Small world moment: Anziano Velardi  (my district leader from the MTC who has citizenship in Italy) has an aunt that's the stake relief society president in Caserta. Turns out she's in our ward!!!!!! I showed her lots of pictures of our MTC district and she invited us to come over during the week.

Lemme tell ya bout Veronica. If I had to describe her in 2 words it would be: Straight. Fire. Veronica is 27 and a new convert- she was baptized the Saturday before I got to Caserta. None of the missionaries knocked into her, she just showed up one Sunday during church and was baptized a few weeks later! Recently, she's been bringing her parents and younger sister to church so Sorella Hess and I are really excited to see where this goes! Veronica is a super inspirational example to me- her testimony is rock solid. On Tuesday, we invited her to come to a lesson with one of our investigators, Stefania. Stefania is like 18 years old and an investigator from english course. During the lesson, Stefania opened up about some struggles she's facing and we were able to teach about how we can overcome through the atonement. I was in complete tears by the end- every missionary dreams of having a lesson like this one. It was awesome, I can't put it into words!!

Zone Conference - Nativity Pageant

I had my first zone conference on Saturday! It was a lot of fun and I got to meet all the missionaries in the zone!! Everyone seems super nice and I can't wait to get to know them better :) I gave my "birth testimony" at zone conference, in Italian! As tradition, we reenacted the nativity... this year with our zone family! All the Sorelle were angels hahaha oh my goodness it was so much fun. Pics on my blog sorellacarleyneuberger.blogspot.com !

Our zone decided to do a secret Santa for Christmas this year. The zone leaders "randomly" assigned each person in the zone another person to buy a gift for. I got assigned to shop for one of the zone leaders, Anziano Berger. Funny huh? It's like we have the same last name or something!!!!! Maybe I'll buy him a burger.

The Sorella's (Sisters) of the the Napoli Zone

The language: uhhhh I guess it's coming? It's hard when you have so many things you want to say but all you know how to say is "I know that God loves us". The gift of tongues is real and I'm so thankful for the atonement and the knowledge that I'm not alone in this. We had a lesson with one of our investigators, Lina, this week. She lives pretty far outside of Caserta but it was well worth the travel! I loved the lesson we had with her because she actually made eye contact with me and would say things to me!! This was a major plot twist because in most lessons the people just look at Sorella Hess (after all, she is the one that's fluent...). And some people we visit will wait for her to translate for me! Hey, I might not have been here for that long but I can understand a lot more than you think! Or maybe not. But anyways, it was awesome meeting with Lina and talking with someone who at least pretended like we could understand each other hahaha.

I spent some time this week studying one of my favorite general conference talks from October 2015, "Yielding Our Hearts to God" by Neill F. Marriott. She mentions her family motto "It will all work out". Everything will happen on the Lord's timing, things won't happen exactly when we want them to, but Doctrine and Covenants 90:24 says, "Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good". I know that as we submit our will to the Lord's we will be blessed with true hapiness.

I also bore my testimony in church yesterday and since none of you were there.......
I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that He lives and loves us. I know that through the Atonement of Christ, we can return to live with God and our families forever. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, contains the fulness of the gospel, and is the word of God. I'm thankful for prophets and the guidance they give us. I know that God answers our prayers.
I'm so thankful to be a missionary!!

Love you all and hope you have a fabulous week :)

XOXO,
Carley


P.S. Just thought I should mention that I've eaten 5 pizzas in the past 7 days #noregrets. It's casual.
And I thought pizza was my favorite food in America.....

P-day in Naples

Reunion with Sorella Barnes

Zone Conference pictures

Getting ready for the cold and windy day

Wind was so strong it blew over the vespa

Gesso - street contacting

Wrapping presents (Book of Mormons)

District Lunch

Caserta sta Fiorendo

Happy Thanksgiving family and friends! Hope everyone had a good holiday :)

The Americans in our ward took very good care of us on Thanksgiving!

My first full week in Italy was unforgettable.

Let me start by saying that we live in the most beautiful city I have ever seen. We go running in the mornings and I jog down these streets in complete awe. Everything is so cute- there's no other way to put it!

Today for p-day we went up to Casertavecchia and it was an amazing view with super cute streets, pictures attached.

The streets of Casertavecchia

The view from Casertavecchia

Something cool our zone is doing for every day of December is that each companionship is giving away a wrapped copy of the Book of Mormon to someone as a gift. It'll be over 250 copies of the Book of Mormon given away just from the Napoli zone!!

English course has to be my favorite part of the week. We have about 60 people that come and it's adorable to hear Italians speak English with their accents.

On Friday, Sorella Hess and I had plans to visit Sorella Gallardo, a less active member who doesn't live super close to us. We had a really awesome lesson with her, but it was thunder-storming when we left so we walked home in the pouring rain! Oh my goodness I was laughing the whole way home it was so much fun...even if it took 4 days for my shoes to dry!

I hit a milestone this week when I finished my first whole pizza!

We had a gesso on Saturday night and another on Sunday night! They are so much fun and we get to meet so many people on the street.

Yesterday Sorella Hess and I watched the Face to Face with David Archuleta and it was really good! One thing he said that I really liked is that "the gospel helps good people become better". I know this is true, I have seen the gospel enhance my life and so many others.

I am so thankful for my Savior, I know he loves each of us infinitely. I have never been so happy, and I know that this happiness comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love being a missionary, especially here in Italy!

Love you all and hope ya'll have a great week! :)

PS sorry for the short email this week.

We ran into Americans visiting Caserta for the day!
They are exchange students.

Waiting for the train.

XOXO,
Carley

Sorella Carley Neuberger
Via Caduti Sul Lavoro 3
Caserta CE 81100 Italia

When in Caserta

Ciao from Italy!! I'm finally here and this country is nothing short of amazing :)

​Our first couple days here were spent in Rome at the mission home! They call it "The Villa" and it's 7000 square feet, originally built for Mussolini. Huge and so beautiful. Big enough for our group of 18 to stay at! While in Rome, we got to see the Colosseum, the Forum, and the old Vatican.​

​President and Sister Pickerd are ​the coolest! I know that they have been called of God to direct us as missionaries and I can't wait to get to know them better over the next 18 months.

​Our second night at the Villa, we had a big "golden envelope" ceremony. Each of us was called up in front of the group one by one, was handed a golden envelope, and opened the envelope to discover our first area! It was surprisingly intense... I didn't realize how big of a deal that would be. It's probably just an Italy thing, I don't know. 

My first area is.....CASERTA!

​It's a city right outside of Naples. I had a short, 2 hour train ride down to Naples and my trainer/first companion in the field, Sorella Hess, was waiting there when I got off the train- she's literally the cutest! ​I am so excited to spend the next 12 weeks with her, she is hands down one of the coolest people I've met. Sorella Hess went to BYU last summer/fall semester. She's been here in Caserta since July and before that she was in her first area, Taranto. Her Italian is flawless and I know that I'll be learning a ton from her in the next couple months!! 

Sorella Hess and first Napoli pizza

As you probably know, Naples has the best pizza in Italia. So being the amazing trainer she is, the first place Sorella Hess took me was to a pizza place in Naples. Best. Pizza. Ever. I will for sure be eating as much of it as I can while I am here. It's a little different, because unlike American pizza, Italians don't cut the pizza. Instead, 1 pizza feeds 1 person. You just pick up the pizza, fold it in half, and eat the entire thing. IT'S HEAVENLY. That's the best way I can put it. Guess you just have to try one for yourself! The gelato is also to die for. We may or may not have had 2 gelato trips in my first day in Caserta. No regrets whatsoever. 

​The ward here is awesome! It's a nice transition for me because all of the meetings are translated. There's a military base in our area ​so a large portion of the ward is American, which is awesome! I can actually communicate with the ward members if no one else!!!! 

The missionaries here do English Course every Tuesday and Thursday night and it's been really fun! It's a super good way to get people into the church buildings and it's way easy to just walk up to people on the street and invite them to english course! We have basic, intermediate, and advanced classes and the Italians come to learn English from us missionaries! I'm excited to be a part of this for the rest of my mission. 

On Saturday night we had a Thanksgiving party with everyone from english course plus a bunch of ward members and it was super fun!! Funny moment from the Thanksgiving Festa: when Salvatore takes a big forkful of butter and eats it plain in one bite. Oh my goodness I thought I would never stop laughing. He seemed totally chill about it though! Whatever floats your boat, Salvatore.

​For Thanksgiving on Thursday, we, along with 2 anziani in our district, will be eating with some members that live on base! Our district is made up of 4 anziani, us, and a senior couple. Everyone is really awesome and nice and I'm just so excited to get to know them all and become a family!! 

​Last night our district had a ​gesso which is where we go to a busy-ish strada with lots of people and draw on a sheet with chalk. It gives us plenty of opportunities to talk with people and hand out pass along cards--- it was way fun! Last night we drew a Christmas tree and shared the video "He is the Gift" (https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-00-1460-he-is-the-gift?lang=eng). Sorella Hess and I had the opportunity to share this video with a sweet girl named Rosa and by the end of it, we were all in tears. We got to bear testimony of the love our Heavenly Father has for each of us as His children and prayed with Rosa right there in the middle of the street. It's amazing how the Spirit can be felt so strongly no matter where you are! We are looking forward to meeting with Rosa later this week :)

​The language is coming slowly but surely! Something I learned from Fratello Hatch in the MTC was that your potential will only be limited if you limit it. Otherwise it's infinite and eternal!!​ I am excited to strive to live up to my potential every day in the mission field. I know that as we turn to our Father in Heaven He will help us become our best selves! I was reading a talk this morning called "A Pattern in All Things" by Marvin J. Ashton and really like this quote: "Many times true winners in life are those who have been hurt and disappointed but have risen above these challenges. Very often in life, God gives us difficulties to bring out the best in us. It is true, life does not determine winners. Winners determine life." This week I challenge you to strive to have a winner mentality! I know that as we look for the good in life, we will be blessed beyond comprehension.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary and a representative of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, here in Italy! I love you all and hope you have a great Thanksgiving.

At the mission home.  Serious jet lag.

All 18 new missionaries at the mission home.

Train ride from Rome to Naples

Meeting my trainer Sorella Hess
for the first time at the train station.

First cornetti

First gelato

XOXO,
Carley


Sorella Carley Neuberger
Letters:
Via Caduti Sul Lavoro 3
Caserta CE 81100 Italia