Week 60 -- It's a Short One

Hello..... OK, I'm going to make this quick.  I'm sorry, I love you, but I don't really remember what happened this week so we'll see what the questions bring to mind...

1. What made you laugh this week?

I can't remember.  We did a Halloween party and that was fun.  Also, I didn't realize when I came on my mission that I would be planning ward parties!  It was super fun and all the members are super awesome, they brought a lot of friends and it went well.  Super fun.

2.  What can we pray for specifically for you, or your companion, or your investigators?

Just say all the prayers.

3.  Tell me about a goal that you’ve set and are currently working on.

I'm not sure, honestly.  I don't really know what my goals are right now. I know my endline goals but I don't know what's actually reachable for me....  I'm trying to work on being more positive.  I thought about maybe working on self-control again.  We'll see.

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

How many nonmembers were at the Halloween party this week.

5.  Tell me about a tender mercy you experienced this week.

I can't remember.  Sorry.

6.  Is there much in the way of historic stuff to see in Cagliari?

It's so pretty here.

7.  Do you know how much I love you?

Yes.

8.  Are Italians big sports fans?

Just soccer.

9.  What was the best thing you ate this week? Do they eat a lot of seafood in Cagliari?

We ate two pizzas this week.  Oops!  It was my fault but it was good. I regretted it - it hurt a lot.  I've only had one meal appointment so far but we did have seafood.

10.  How much of the island does your zone cover?

The zone is the entire island.  There are eight missionaries in my city, two missionaries in a city called Oristano (sp?) and then four missionaries in a city called Sarseri (sp?), so it's a small zone and is the whole island.

11.  Give me any ideas of small things we could send to you or your companion for Christmas.

I want people to send me videos of them bearing their testimonies.

12.  How was church this week?
 
It was good.

OK, yea for weekly voice recordings!  We had some lessons this week, we served M that we always serve.  We serve because we love.  She's not a member but her sister is and she's such a good member missionary.  Anyway, that's my life....

Love you all,

Ciao, ciao!

Week 59 -- All the Miracles!

Hello to all!  I'm sorry I didn't e-mail last week.  I just didn't want to.  It was honestly a conscious choice and I would like to apologize, but here I am so you're welcome!  THis week was zone conference and it was super, super awesome and super fun.  Basically Tuesday we had normal things, obviously, and then we had interviews and then we were supposed to have a mostra in the night and I don't know what everyone else was doing but they were just, like, at the church waiting for things to finish up.  So Sorella N and I showed up on time and then we didn't do the mostra.  Whatever!  LOL  And it was President's birthday so that evening we all went out to get Mexican food because there's this Mexican restaurant here (the one where I crushed the tomatillo sauce....).  My interview with President was really good.  He gave me the analogy of running a marathon -- you know you can finish in two hours but no one that you're with can finish in less than four hours.  Are you just going to run the marathon in two hours and wait at the finish line for your friends?  They probably aren't going to want to be your friends after that and it won't be fun for any of you.  Yeah, that's true.  I'm trying to figure that out because my problem is that I'm just "go, go, go, go!" and the way I described it to Sorella Smith is that sometimes I'm just a little too anxious about being anxiously involved.  If I feel like I'm wasting time then I beat up on myself and feel like I'm the worst.  Or if I don't do something then it's wrong, like we have to be anxiously engaged.  Sorella Smith read to me a scripture and she invited me to memorize it.  It's Jacob 4:18 and it talks about how, if we're too anxious about things, then we're shaken from our firmness in the Spirit, like we don't have the same firmness that we would have otherwise.  So I'm trying to learn and I'm trying to take these things into account.  They were really good.  My interview with Sorella Smith was exactly what I needed to hear.  She's incredible.  I'm super grateful for them.  They're a lot different from the Pickerds (who I super love!) but I feel like it's things that I need to learn right now, you know?

We were getting home late from Mexican food because it took a long time to get 20 missionaries Mexican food and then we gave President Smith a cake because it was his birthday and sang to him.  So we were going home late.  We had some sorellae at our house and the others needed to go get their stuff from the zone leaders' car but we didn't need to.  Usually we would wait, but we felt like we should go home so we did.  We kind of got lost getting to the bus but we finally got to the bus and I walked on the bus and I was kind of surveying the bus to see if there's anyone I feel like I need to talk to, you know, or anyone that I could talk to, and I see this man reading a book and thought maybe I could talk to him, like "You like reading -- cool -- we have this book!"  So I walked past him a little bit and I looked over at the book he's reading and I was, like, WHAT??? Are you reading the Book of Mormon???  And he said yeah, and so we got to sit down and talk to him.  It's a very interesting story -- it was a huge miracle that night for sure because everything kind of lined up, you know?  His name is M and he told us he used to meet with the missionaries and had been thinking about the baptism thing again and that he just wasn't sure....and we're like, whoa!  So we got to talk to him and he has a lot of questions.  He's really into yoga and he said he doesn't undertand why he needs to pray when he can get revelation when he meditates.  And we're like, that's true, but prayer is our way for us to communicate with God.  Yes, God responds in different ways...I've rarely gotten an answer directly from God exactly at the moment when I'm praying but I'm opening up my heart to Him and trying to listen to the Spirit and align my will with His and learn.  I'm asking for things and I know that He'll give them to me but I have to ask first.  So then we had another lesson with him and it was so interesting.  He talks a lot and asks a lot of interesting questions.  He said something about it's like there's one street of Christianity and and a lot of times it takes you there to the end and it's the fastest way to get there, but there's another street where you get to try everything and do all of this stuff and it gets you there, too.  And I'm like, "yoga doesn't have to negate Christianity in any way, I don't understand what you're talking about.  You can do yoga and be Christian!  And he was like, no, you don't understand.  Sometimes you just get so far in and you have to be strong enough to pull yousrelf out.  And we're like, what????  And then he told a story about how he had to go to the hospital and they thought he was crazy but he just felt like he had to deliver a message for God.  None of us really understood what he was saying, like we understood the idea generally, but I wasn't sure I really understood because that's a little whack, you know?  And he looks at us and is like, "what do you think?"  I said "I didn't understand. Can you explain?" and so he said it again.  It was just strange.  Iconic line from the lesson -- he's like, "we baptize ourselves".  Yeah....that was interesting.

Also, we finally got to do a lesson withour number one progressing friend that we teach, her name is E and she's incredible.  She's actually dating a member in our ward and she came with all these questions and she loves reading the scriptures.  She's like, "I'm almost done with 1 Nephi and I'm so excited to start 2 Nephi!  It's so incredible!  I'm so excited!"  Our invitation to her last time, because she wants to make sure she's doing this for her, was to pray about Joseph Smith to know if he's a prophet and she did and she's like, "yeah, I actually realized he's not just the founder of this church, he's an actual prophet!"  And we're like, "YES!"  Sorella N had a really good impressiom during the lesson to invite her to write out her testimony and so that was our invitation to her.  She has a testimony -- we all have testimonies -- jut a lot of times we don't realize it because we don't think about it and we don't sit there and ponder, you know?  And so we invited her to do that and so I'm super excited.  Also we got to meet with a super cutie older lady.  We went to visit her with a member to do a little bit of service.  Her name is L.  There's a couple that was baptized like a year ago who have a gelateria here and they're friends with L, and L used to come to their gelato/bakery shop and then one day she didn't come and they were worried, obviously, and it turned out she had fallen in her house.  She's in a little house and doesn't have kids, but the members are on vacation in Canada and so all these other ward members are pitching in and helping to go visit her.  So we got to do two things with her because we went to visit her with a member, Sorella B, and also had a member appointment with another family and we were waiting for them to arrive at the house and we saw that they had a Nona with them and we wondered who it was, and it was L!  And she's super cute.  She likes to sing.

We met this super lit lady.  Sorry -- we just had all the miracles this week!  So we met this lady on the bus.  We had gone finding that day in a park and we had that member appointment so we were coming home and we sat down on the bus.  We were both kind of beat and it was such a tender mercy -- we definitely didn't deserve it.  We sat down next to a little cutie girl so we talked to her but weren't actively trying to find on the bus. We talked to her and got her number and she had questions about the Plan of Salvation so we got to talk about that with her.  Then I was getting carsick so I moved seats to sit by Sorella N so this lady got on the bus and sat where I had been sitting and her hair was in a braided bun on her head and I told her it was so cute.  Her name is P.  She's from Iraq and we basically taught the whole restoration to her, and she was obviously born in a Muslim country, and she was like "I believe in Christianity" and we're just like, what?!?!  And then there was a Jehovah's Witness who kept saying that Joseph Smith was a false prophet and Sorella N distracted that lady and I kept talking to P about the restoration and Christianity and it was just such an incredible conversation.  We talked about the Book of Mormon and gave her one and she said she would read it and asked if our phone number was in the book and we said yes, but we can also exchange numbers.  I am so excited!

OK, answering the questions...

1.  How was church?

It was good.  I had to lead the music.  It was rough.  But that's ok.

2.  What made you laugh this week?

During the lesson with M when he said some...interesting things...we apparently had physical reactions and we talked about it after.  I kind of stumbled back in my chair, Sorella N just covered her mouth trying not to laugh, Anziano A just looked at the floor with really wide eyes, and Anziano P was like, "Can you come to church this week?"  It was so funny.

3.  Tell me about a tender mercy you experienced this week.

Already done.

4.  What is the best thing you ate this week?  Did you try any new foods this week?

I did try a new food!  Today we ate something that looks like a ravioli and it kind of is but the outside is like a pastry and the inside is cheese.  We made those today and they were good.  The best thing I ate, though, was zone conference fake Cafe Rio taco salads.  SO good!

5.  How do the people in Cagliari differ from people in your previous areas?

The people here a different because the're just on it and they can name signs of the apostasy and they're actually interested in what we have to say.  It's incredible. 

6.  What have you learned to do that you didn’t know how to do before your mission?

I've learned to study.  Wow -- I was horrible at studying!  I feel like I've learned to be genuine.  Also I feel like I've learned to cook ok.  I've learned a lot of things.

7.  What is the name of your mission song and what are the words?

"Hymn of Rome" (obviously in Italian, though).  The words are in Italian.  I can translate them for you. One time we sang this in Catania outside and we were all like, "are you sure those are the words?"  The chorus is about having faith, doing His work with strength, we bring back souls to God, we'll save the world, faith in our mission, with honor we serve Him.  That's just the chorus.  (Note -- she was translating on the go....)

8.  How did someone serve you this week?

We've been alternating foods with the other sorella in our house.  They'll cook one day and we'll cook one day and we've got a good system going so we get to serve each other.

9.  Have you seen any dachshunds in Italy?

Yes!  Actually, I was petting one this week when we were waiting to go to an appointment with someone named R. I talked to the dachshund's owner about how Sadie had back problems and we talked about dachshunds and it was cute.

10.  What have you learned in your studies this week?

I'm reading in Isaiah.  One thing I have been studying is self worth and I'm trying to go through things and learn about it.  I feel like I kind of ignored that before. It wasn't that it wasn't presented to me but I just kind of ignored it.  And I tend to base my worth on the things I do, the things that I can do, but that's not where you get your worth.  That's your own pride, you know?  And so I've been working on recognizing my worth from God because I'm his daughter and I'm doing His work.  I've also been studying my patriarchal blessing. I'm learning!

11.  Do you know how much I love you?

Yes,  I do!

12.  Now that you’ve listened to all of the conference sessions, what talk(s) stood out to you the most?

Literally all of them.  I'm going through and rereading and I'm like, dang, this is awesome!  This week I read a talk by the general authority from the South and it was really good.  I can go through themes.  It was so good!  I loved all of the talks.

Basically that was my week.  Thanks for listening to my ramblings.  I'm super grateful for this week.  I'm super grateful for Cagliari and to be with Sorella N because I am learning a lot. And I'm super grateful for the interviews I had with President and Sorella Smith.  I'm trying to learn things even when it's hard, and I think the thing I'm learning the most right now is that the thing that's most important is charity, and it's love.  Sometimes that's the thing that's on the back of my mind that I don't really care about because I want to play off of my own strengths because I know I'm working hard, I'm being obedient, but the gospel isn't about check boxes.  It's about really being genuine in everything you do and doing it because you love God and you love those around you.  So I'm working on it.  It seems to be working!

She found a Bob Ross!

Pane Sardo

I got all of the mail!  My birthday package, Easter package, and some things I had asked Mom to send to me.  The Anziani helped open the packages.

Zone conference lunch -- SO good!

With the family from church that had L over (L is in the gray sweater)

The sebadas we made

Mexican Restaurant with the zone, celebrating President Smith's birthday

Zone conference

Week 58 -- No e-mail but lots of pictures

Hi friends and family!  Brie didn't send a voice memo or e-mail today but she did Facebook video chat with her this morning.  We are all very excited that the missionaries in her mission can now Facebook chat with siblings!  Yea!!  She is doing well and getting acclimated to her new area -- she sounds and looks wonderful and happy.

Scambio gelato.  This is Sorella C.  She is Ecuadorian fro Torino and I love her and we had so much fun.

Our plants...

We did some gardening for the sister of a member of our ward.  I loved it!

The four of us in the elevator in our building.

Mexican food!

We got Mexican food and I had to get sauce to go (the Anziani wanted tomatillos and I was like, "Listen, it's easy.  Just play cute American" and they were like, "OK, you do it."  So I did and we went and asked the people at the restaurant where they got their tomatillos (they import them directly from Mexico) so then we changed to trying to get some of their tomatillo sauce.  So the super nice worker at the restaurant gave us a free tomatillo sauce and we finished it and asked if we could buy more and he was like, "Yeah, do you want to take yours, too?" (it was halfway finished) and he went and refilled it and then brought all three back and I tried to close the lid and squished it all out.  Oops!  But he was so nice and refilled it for us again.  It shouldn't have been free the first time but he was so nice and refilled it and then I broke it and then he gave us a new one....

In the elevator again...

Trying to get a new picture for Whats App

We were out doing a Mostra (a street display/contacting thing) and these people came and danced with us.

Pranzo yesterday

We went to a candy shop...

We got these little candies and they were SO spicy!

Such a beautiful place...

Week 57 -- Cagliari is Lit!

Good morning to all!  So...I have an opportunity right now wherein I could make individual voice recordings for everyone but it's kind of late.  It's almost 4:00 and we still have to go do speza, and so I'm just going to make a voice recording and usually I just make a weekly voice recording and send it to my Mom and she sends it out in email form, but today it's just going to everyone.  So, warning -- it will be long!

We have arrived here in Cagliari and Wow!  It is so different than Palermo.  It's so beautiful.  I got here and I was like, "Are we in America?" (which, like, I obviously forgot what America is like, hahaha), but it's so clean and the sidewalks and the streets are so wide and there are nice clean buildings and the bus systems work and there's a sign that says when the bus is going to come and the most common bus literally takes five minutes.  It comes every five minutes.  Are you kidding me??!!  The first half of the week was super cutie...obviously I had to fly here so I had to drop so much stuff.  I left so much stuff in Palermo and already -- shout out to Sorella S -- on her and her new companion's picture on What's App they're both wearing my clothes.  And I'm like, "reap!"  That's ok -- someone else can use them.  Basically, long story short, I had to drop so much stuff and so I spent a lot of time with my sweetie, patient companion Sorella S, finding some way to be ok with my stress and telling me to calm down.  In Palermo we didn't have a scale so I had to use the luggage scale that Robin gave me for graduation and it said that it was 23 kili so I had to drop so much stuff and then I got to the airport and they were 19 or 20 kili, and I was like, "Dang it! I could have brought more things!"  I left things that I could have brought.  But that's ok because I don't need things, you know. 

So we planned, figured it out, and packed Monday and Tuesday.  It was so cutie -- everyone was so nice, and this is something that Italians -- especially the women in Palermo -- would say all the time.  Sorella Sarantino said it, and Emilia would say it -- that everybody loves me.  That's literally how I felt this week.  I can't even lie -- people were so, so, so sweet.  We had going away appointments with people I wanted to see before I left obviously, and so we got to see the bishop's family, we got to go visit L and E and -- miracle! -- we didn't think we would have time to go see F also (we haven't seen him in a long time and he's not completely feeling better yet) and so we didn't know when he would be at work or when we would have time and logistically it was confusing.  And then we were deciding to take the bus or the tram to go home.  We usually took the tram but we took the bus and then right before the bus is about to leave F gets on the bus!  It was such a miracle.  It was SO good to see him again, you know?  Just to talk to him.  And he was SO sweet and said the sweetest things and thanked me and said he would miss me and we had this cute moment and he told me to be brave, and I was like, "F, you have to be brave, too!"  It was just really cute.  And that was a huge, huge, huge blessing and then of course we were running around doing all the things.  Everyone wants to feed you when you're leaving your area, I guess!  So S (from English class) wanted to take us out to pizza so we went out to pizza with him, and Sorella S and I were walking home and talking about how a year from now we're going to be home and wishing we could be in Italy having that sweet man S take us out to pizza.  And then also we had a cutie meal appointment with the bishop's family (I love them!), and the next day we had a cutie appointment with another family that was like, "Come over!" and then Sorella L invited us over and said she would make pizza for us. And we had really good lessons with people, a really good lesson with the bishop's family about member missionary work, and they're totally on the grind now.  They were excited about it and it was awesome because I felt like I got to use the relationship that I've been able to build with them to help the work, which is obviously the reason I'm here.

What else? Oh, cutie story from the next day! This family, Familia A, we went over to their house and they live in compagna, in the country, and so they have land and he has olive trees and a bunch of other types of trees, but he has olive trees and that's the most important to me.  He makes his own olives and they are SO good.  And so he makes these olives and I'm always eating them when I'm at their house and so we were there and I was eating them and I was asking him questions, like "How do you do this?  I don't think these are olives but I really want to know how you do this!" And so he told me how and it was super fun. And then he asked if I had room in my bags and I said "I wish! I'm having to leave so much!" and he had asked me again, "Are you sure you don't have room in your bags?"  And I asked why and he said, "Because I want to give you these olives that I made. Do you think you would have space?" and I said, "yeah!  I"ll make space!"  And so he pulls out this bottle of olives and prepares them for me to take, vacuum seals them, and his arm is hurt right now and so afterwards he said "I"m sorry -- I need to go rest.  I've done too much" and he was doing all of this to give me these olives and he told me what I need to do to season them but it was SO sweet and I was like, "Awww!!" and then in the evening we went and saw F and E.  I said in last week's e-mail that S from P3 gave me this beautiful green African fabric and so I went to F and E and asked if they could make me a dress and they said yes.  So I went to go pick up my dress and they weren't quite done with it so we hung out and got to talking.  The missionaries used to teach them and they are friends of the missionaries so I actually got to hear more about their story and how he's a convert from Islam and just really talked to them about that and how we love everyone and we accept everyone, we just want to help them and help everyone and give everyone the same joy that we have.  It was just really cool because I've been there before.  We've tried to kind of work with them but they're not really interested, but I feel like I was able to leave him with a good feeling in his heart.  And the dress -- it's super cute! 

And then in the morning we finished packing and finished packing more that night and in the morning Sorella H and I flew out.  In the airport I ate my first ??? which is a weird cake thing and it was good.  It was really sweet.  I won't eat another one.  But I finally ate my first one after being there for six months!  Then I got to Cagliari and we went to English course with 10 missionaries (we have 8 missionaries here in this city -- it's crazy but it's so awesome!).  Sorella N (my companion) is the cutiest cutie.  It's funny because we're very, very similar and so we're trying to figure it out because we have a lot of the same weaknesses and sometimes I'm like, "wow, this is what I'm like" and it's super awesome because we understand each other very well.  I'm super excited.  Super excited!  My goal for this transfer -- low key goals -- is that I want to become more positive because my mind is a little negative, and I want to stop comparing myself to other people because that does you no good ever and it just destroys you and why do I do it?? I don't know!  Because I'm very competitive.  So I'm trying to rid myself of that this transfer.  Stay tuned! I'm super excited because I feel like sometimes you're put in situations and the situation is uncomfortable, kind of, with a companion maybe that you can't be 100% who you want to be, who you are, you have to learn from the situation and learn to adapt.  But I feel like here with Sorella N I feel like I can be 100% who I am because we're already friends.  I got the call that we were going to be companions and I was so excited! And being able to be myself and choose the ways I want to progress and progress instead of the situation make me progress, if that makes sense. So that's good. 

General Conference was this weekend, and I went finding for the first time in a long time because in Palermo we really didn't go finding because we had a lot to do all the time.  So we've done a little bit of finding because there's a new set of sisters that also came in -- Sorella H and her greenie -- and so we divided the work up and so we've got to fill that work.  So that's fun and I forgot how much I love it.  Then conference this weekend -- it was really so good.  It was SO good!  It's crazy because all of the questions that I had going in to conference I feel like I got some degree of answers for all of them in the very first session.  And it's so interesting because all of the things Sorella N and I have been talking about in our comp studies and when we're walking around, were things that they also talked about.  It was crazy.  It was so incredible!  I'm excited to go back and study, because on Sunday we literally watched eight hours of conference because the timing is different. And so I was a little bit dead by the end, so I'm excited to go back and read some of those talks.  My takeaways from conference -- joy.  They talked so much about joy and how there's so much joy in progression.  And definitely broke my boxes because one of my questions was how can I keep progressing?  Even after my mission, what are things that I need to get rid of, what are things I need to do in order to maintain the progression that I've had and make sure that I continue to progress and have the Spirit always with me.  It just broke my boxes and it was, like, just get over the world.  Elder Holland's talk about focusing yourself on Christ...then the third talk in that session was, like, fix your priorities -- your priorities shouldn't be on the world.  And then President Nelson invited us to read D&C 25 and I read that today in my personal study and it's just forget the things of the world and look for better, you know?  And that is something that I'm going to be thinking and pondering a lot about and how I can implement that in my life.  I make it so stupid because I'm just dumb sometimes and I made it so complicated.  And here's the thing -- it's not complicated!  It's very simple, what we're asked to do.  And I think we hold on to the things of the world and we hold on to the things that are in our comfort zone instead of actually doing what's asked of us.  Why?  That's not where we have joy, that's not where we have happiness, that's not where we have growth, that's not where we feel safety.  And so that's something that I'm excited -- for the general conference talks to come out -- so I can study a lot.  But I don't think my mission got extended to two years....I was ready!  I was hyped for it!  But Mom is probably happy about that!

Here's what we did for P-Day -- we went to the beach!! We went to the beach early, early in the morning but it was freezing cold but it was so fun.  We couldn't go between sessions of conference but we could go after and we built a sandcastle and played beach soccer and we tried to play frisbee but we were all cold and tired by then.  But it was super fun.

This is already pretty long so I don't think I'll answer questions this week.  You kind of got the answers in a roundabout way.  I love you all! I'm super excited and Cagliari is lit, and I'm super excited about the work we do have an the ward is super big and I'm excited to work with them.  And I'm just so grateful!

Ciao, ciao, ciao!

With E -- She is a less active that I've worked with a lot and she came back to church while I have been here.  She has a shop on via Roma and we WILL go visit her!

The bishop's family's pet bunny

With the bishop's family

English class

With S.

With P.

With F and E -- they made my new African dress for me with the gorgeous fabric from S.

With L and S

I and also F. This is the family whose Dad gave me the olives

I with her cute baby

Cassata -- it's a Palermo thing.

On the beach in Cagliari for P-Day

It was cold!

Our sandcastle