Sorella Gisseman: Week 45 -- 10 Months!!

1. Do people have yards and lawns there?

Lol, no. Everyone basically lives in apartments. Its a big deal to have a villa (set apart house).

2. How was church this week?

Good!!

3. How is P. doing? And your other friends/investigators?
They are doing pretty well. Basically we just need to help them really actually go forward. Be converted.

4. Have you learned to make things other than ragu? What do you most want to learn to make?

I basically only eat vegetables now. At a meal appointment a lady told me how to make another tomato sauce. This is basically it: Put tomatoes in a pot with garlic and oil. Cook it for about an hour, half an hour, but stir constantly so it doesn't stick or burn. When it comes out strain it and blend it and add more garlic and basil. This is what it's like learning to cook in Italy.

5. What was the most beautiful thing you saw this week?

The food at our meal appointment.

6. What made you laugh this week?

This will also answer number 10. So this week we had a Relief Society activity and it was maybe the most fun thing I've done in my whole mission. It was about self-improvement and talents and for some reason we sang children's songs (literally the Chicken Dance in Italian) and all the women were dancing and having so much fun. It was the cutest. And they invited us to sing something from our childhood so we sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game and they loved it. Then they presented their talents and they all supported and loved each other so much. It was so cute. And then we had brioche and gelato so, I mean, what could be better.

7. What are you grateful for right now?

I'm super grateful (and I hope I don't jinx myself) for the fact that I feel comfortable talking to people. Like it's not strange to always talk to someone on a bus or on a train and it's not scary to stop people on the street. What a blessing. Also a blessing how kind the people are.

8. What has stood out to you in your studies lately?

I am in the war chapters of the Book of Mormon right now, I just finished Alma and the thing that stands out to me is that even when we are righteous and we are fighting for what is right there will still be challenges but that we have to truly trust that God knows best. One question that we ask people on the street is "What brings you hope?" And a lot of times they say it doesn't exist. There is no hope. And I've been thinking about that a lot. Why do I have hope? Obviously we have hope for what is to come after this life, but also we can have hope through our challenges because we know that God is aware of us. We know that He wants what is best for us and that He gives us challenges to help us grow. Even when it's hard we have that hope and that faith that He is shaping us into the person He wants us to be. And with the war chapters the situations were hard and it would be easy to give up and get discouraged, but if we trust in God we will always have hope.

9. Do you know how much I love you?

Yes

10. Tell me about your best moment this week.

See above.

Other fun things -- I accidentally called a number outside of Italy so our phone doesn't work currently! Fun. Also I hit 10 months. Crazy. And I can't remember anything else honestly. It's a blur.

Love you all

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

We are addicted to popcorn