So so sorry

Well this week I did so well at typing a few sentences every day so I would have a nice little recap for everyone. While I was on the bus I was highlighting it all getting ready to copy it from notes into my mail, when I don't even know what happened, my obviously fat finger pressed the little backspace button that sent my soul into despair. All that I had written was completely gone. After a little pep talk to myself I decided, that it perhaps may not be the end of the world.

So I recap for this week. Well, I did missionary work. I found some people, I talked to some people, I ate at a member’s house. By the way this member just had a baby and got home from her mission 3 years ago. She served at Temple Square and I absolutely adore her little family. We were spiritually fed at stake conference. And we saw Juana and Claudio. 

Oh yeah now I remember! The meal we ate with Claudio and Juana was completely seafood. Seafood risotto, raw salmon, and octopus. Yep I ate it all. And I didn't gag. The octopus wasn't exactly good but it wasn't gross either. I didn't mind it. I just tried not to chew it too much because it's chewy. Boom. I was pretty proud of myself afterwards and thought to myself "my family is never going believe this".

So I can't recount the whole week and I'm running out of time so I will leave you with a spiritual thought.

"I have reflected many times on this father’s request: “Help thou mine unbelief.” I wonder if the intent of the man’s pleading was not primarily to help him believe in Jesus as our Redeemer and in His healing power. He already may have acknowledged Christ as the Son of God. But perhaps he needed help to believe the Master’s healing power indeed could be so individual and so personalized as to bless his own beloved son. He may have believed in Christ generally but not believed Christ specifically and personally. We often testify of what we know to be true, but perhaps the more relevant question for each of us is whether we believe what we know."

This quote is from this past general conference and I love it. Often times we think that everyone deserves forgiveness, second chances, and the healing power of the Atonement, yet we deny these same things to ourselves. It's always easier to think the Atonement applies to someone else rather than ourselves. However, each of us can find freedom as we accept what Christ has done for each of us and the Atonement. Yes, even for ourselves.

Well I love you all and I hope you had a good week. I'm sorry I can't remember more of my week but I have the memory of a goldfish these days!

Inside of the Duomo from last week!

It was absolutely beautiful with all the arches and stained glass windows!

So many details!

She's a Rhino!

Two Times Better

Thursday and Friday were super busy! It's was pouring rain both days but we bundled up with our newly bought boots and were able to take on the world in warmth. We met some new people and had some funny experiences. We had some not so good kebab. So we definitely will not be going to that place again. 

We went and helped Erica make some roasted chestnuts and applesauce. Erica is American and she's married to an Italian. She has two kids 7 and 5. They are adorable we were able to play Frozen Uno with them and we had a lot of fun. It was nice to get to know Erica better and have fun with her kids. By the time we were leaving the kids were throwing themselves on us and it just melted my heart! I love them! We were able to meet Jasmin, who is studying language right now, and Bright, who is from Nigeria. It was awesome getting to meet them. Both of them were super nice. I'm excited and hopefully we will be able to continue teaching them and helping them. 

We had dinner over at Claudio and Juana's on Friday night. Wow. They are amazing! We teach them and they have a testimony. They have an 8 year old and a 2 year old. They want to get baptized and have a testimony of the church. They just are waiting for a bit because they want to get baptized as a family. Claudio is Italian and Juana is Brazilian, so she made us typical Brazilian and it was delicious. Her kids are amazing. I just love it. I love how many families we've been able to meet here. It's nice being around little kids again. They are so fun to play with!

Then on Saturday we met another lady named Graziella. We went to the completely wrong address but luckily she had patience with us and still met with us a couple hours later haha. That pretty much took up our entire Saturday with planning. It's true that no good deed goes unpunished. So I made an apple crisp and we were going to take it to the famiglia Rosa. But they were going to their grandparents at 4. So we had to be there before 4. With the bus system there was no way we were going to make it. So we had to call them and tell them we weren't coming....again. We ended up passing by anyways and just leaving it on their doorstep.

On Monday, most of our plans fell through so we rode the bus and did finding on the bus. We met Lucretzia and we talked to her for at least half an hour. She wants to meet with us again so I'm really excited to see her again! Hopefully we will be able to see her later in the week! On Thursday we had zone training and it was really good! Then we saw Juana and had correlation. Juana is so amazing and I love her so much! She just has a desire to receive an answer and feel the spirit. It was a really good day.

This week has been a crazy but really good week. They finally turned on the heat so it's been nice to have a warm house! It makes it a lot easier waking up! Last week there were a few days where the hot water wasn't working. There was no way I was going to take an ice cold shower so I went old school and boiled water so I could wash my hair and whatnot haha. Thankfully that problem is figured out too! 

So during Zone training we talked about zone training. We talked about a lot of things and had comparisons. One of the things that really hit me was when we talked about consecrated oil. Consecrated oil is just olive oil that it set apart to bless the sick. However, once it's consecrated, it's always consecrated. A missionary who is on his way home after this transfer compared us to this consecrated oil. As missionaries, members, followers of Christ, we consecrated ourselves for the Lord. Not just for a time, but for forever.

I love you all! Have an amazing week!

Mucho Gusto Milano !!

(I Love Milan)

Halloween Package Arrives

 New District

First Week of Going Green

Hey hey hey!

So now I'm in Muggió (even though my apartment is technically in Monza). And I have my new companion! She's so cute! But before that, I guess I will tell all that happened Thursday.

So we were staying in another sisters' apartment because it's closer to Milan where we would pick up our new companions and there was another sister who is training that was going to come with us to Milan. So on Thursday morning we heading out with all my bags and a couple extras from another sister. The train got there and we were trying as fast as we could to get all the luggage on. Sorella Stevens was on the train as I was handing her my bags and it was the same with the other companionship when suddenly the doors on the train shut...... So me and Sorella McCormick just waved goodbye to them because there was nothing else we could do... Crazy. Haha. Anyways, we made it to the church where we were picking up our greenies and Sorella Stevens wasn't there. I just wanted to curl up in a corner and die! Luckily she came in a bit later! So all was well! Also a lot of people from the Sorellanza are training so I got to see them and some other sisters I know so that was great!

Then they did the match ups. And I was so nervous. But finally it was my turn and I have Sorella Nielsen! She's from Denmark and she's taken English since 3rd grade so she speaks English. She's so great and I just love her. She's a trooper. Actually getting to our apartment the first day was a mess but she stuck in there with me. We kept missing our train and so we were lugging all our luggage around the metro, from platform to platform, just trying to catch a train! And going on to the platforms and the metro are tricky because there are no elevators! Luckily people were nice. I was definitely sore the next day haha. It was kind of crazy because at one point she forgot her carry on bag by the ticket machines and so we had to go back to find it. I was just praying it wasn't stolen but nope it wasn't. Instead, the police had pulled everything out of it and they were looking through it. I'm sure you can imagine my frantic face as I said it was ours haha. They saw all our huge bags and laughed. They understood how easy it was to forget a small bag with everything else that we had. Glad to see they're doing their job though!

The apartment..... Haha well Elders definitely lived in it. It could've been worse but we are in the process of cleaning and organizing it. Haha there were a ton of suit coats and others things that elders had left here. So we made the Anziani take them.

The ward here is absolutely amazing! We had lots of warm hugs and smiling faces ready to welcome the sisters! I'm super excited to get to know them better. Then we were able to meet a new convert Franny. She's 23 and she's awesome. I love her already. She just graduated in history and she's currently working as a nanny. We've met some awesome people during finding and just getting to know these people! It's been a really awesome week. I was definitely really stressed at times trying to figure out all the buses, trains, and metro. Slowly but surely we are getting there!

"In light of what we know about our eternal destiny, is it any wonder that whenever we face the bitter endings of life, they seem unacceptable to us? There seems to be something inside of us that resists endings. Why is this? Because we are made of the stuff of eternity. We are eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless and who promises eternal blessings without number. Endings are not our destiny." I found this in a talk! Even though I was a bit sad to leave Modena after such a short time, I'm loving my new area!

I love you all!

Sorella Nielsen from Denmark

This park is the biggest gated park of Europe.

It's like the Central Park of Milan lol.

What's Italy without a little Gelato?