Remember November

We had Scambio this week from Wednesday to Thursday and it was such a good Scambio! Our STLs are Sorella Castro and Sorella Williams. Sorella Castro is from Colombia and she's so awesome! I love her. She's full of love for the work and she's just an inspiring person. Sorella Williams is from Colorado and she went to Utah State. Funny thing because we would have lived right by each other when I was up at Utah State because she had an apartment in the same complex as me but she sold her contract to go on a mission. Sorella Williams is hilarious. She's one of those people who just has a natural talent to tell stories and make you laugh. 

After Scambio we went to visit a sister from the ward in the hospital. It took us forever to find her room but we were finally able to see her. She's so sweet and it was good to see her. A lot of our plans fell through on Friday. But we did a lot of pass bys and a miracle happened! So we were looking for this apartment building but couldn't find it anywhere and we were completely exhausted. So we took a break and sat down for a second and ate a brownie that we were going to take to someone before they cancelled on us. Good thing we took that break because after we ran into someone walking into the apartment building. We got to talking and we were able to teach him a lesson in his apartment with his wife. I don't know how happy his wife was that we were there but we were there anyways! 

We were able to see the Tacunans this week too. Ah I just love them so much! Adriana will be baptized on the 10th. Maria, the mom, is so amazing. She works so hard to support her two girls and she's an amazing mother. They were asking what Black Friday was really like haha. 

Sunday we ate lunch with a couple of elderly ladies from the ward. It was way fun to sit and talk with them. One of them is quite the talker and I just love her! It's hilarious. So here's a little side note. Ward temple trips here in Italy last at least 24 hours. They usually take a bus together or rent a few vans to drive the five hours to the temple. Then they go to the temple and spend the night in a little lodging where you can reserve a room. (I'm assuming this lodging is church owned... I don't really know). Each room is filled with bunk beds. And they spend the entire day at the temple. It's awesome. But one of these old ladies was telling us all about the little drama and confrontations she had on this temple trip. Haha. You just nod and smile and remind her that we ALL have weaknesses haha. They're great. I love the ladies in our ward. 

Then we were able to meet with Joy again. She's from Nigeria and is currently living in a refugee camp. She's so sweet and nice. I'm excited to continue teaching her. She was so excited when we told her about the ward Christmas party. 

Monday we went to go visit Corrado (aka gelato man). It was nice talking to him and he introduced us to his nephew. It was pretty funny because his nephew was asking if we went out on the weekend and whatnot, but then Corrado told him off for us saying "would you go up to a nun and ask her that?!". Haha it was quite entertaining. And we met the Seclen family too. They are a family from Peru and they shared some chicha with us. It's a Peruvian drink and it's so good. They are such a great family! They just aren't able to come to church because they have car problems. 

It's been a pretty great week I have to say. 

"Too often we pray to have patience, but we want it right now! As a young man, President David O. McKay prayed for a witness of the truthfulness of the gospel. Many years later, while he was serving his mission in Scotland, that witness finally came. Later he wrote, “It was an assurance to me that sincere prayer is answered ‘sometime, somewhere.’”

We may not know when or how the Lord’s answers will be given, but in His time and His way, I testify, His answers will come. For some answers we may have to wait until the hereafter. This may be true for some promises in our patriarchal blessings and for some blessings for family members. Let us not give up on the Lord. His blessings are eternal, not temporary."  ("Waiting Upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done" by Robert D. Hales) 

I found this quote this week and it was one of the moments where I read it specifically because one of my investigators needed it. I think I needed it too. Our prayer will be answered someday, somewhere. We will have answers but during this time while we wait, we need to search for the Lord's will and what can be even harder, submit ourselves to His will. 

I love you all un Sacco! I miss you! 

Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday was a great day! We got to see the Tacunan's and teach them about the Word of Wisdom. They were absolutely adorable. Adrianna, the 9 year old, ran into the kitchen, grabbed a juice box and desperately asked "can I still drink this??". Haha then I felt bad because the kids definitely threw Maria under the bus and ratted her out for drinking coffee. They're a great family.

But we also had another miracle! We stopped to get a gelato while we were doing pass-bys. You need some comfort when you search for 3 addresses and none of them are there. The guy who owns the gelateria started talking to us and we ended up teaching him the Restoration. He wanted a Book of Mormon and he was going to try to buy one off the internet but we told him not to fret because we have 20 at our apartment! 

On Friday we had dinner with the Ferranti family and they had a friend staying with them who had been baptized in Muggiò. Her family had been in an accident and so it's a miracle that she's alive. Her husband passed away though and she was left with her one year old son. She's incredibly strong and has a great love for the people around her. 

Saturday we met with Livia and Guido! They are so sweet. So Guido absolutely loves American history. He talked to me about that and his ideal place to travel is to Virginia so he can see Gettysburg. They bought us a pizza and they gave us books from their library as gifts haha. We told them thank you for the pizza and they were like "are you kidding me?!" They're just those kind of people. It was awesome because we were able to have them pray and the end of this lesson. Livia is catholic but as she prayed she thanked Heavenly Father that we had reminded her of the importance of prayer and even Guido, who isn't religious, prayed. You know there are some people who you feel like are prepared to hear the message of the Restored Gospel and I feel like it's them. 

Sunday we had lunch with Maria Nante and her son. They're members but haven't been to church in awhile. It was fun getting to know them better and talking with them. They are so loving and open. Maria made us some delicious cheese wrapped in bacon. Haha and I'm not joking. It was delicious! Then we finished doing some paperwork finally before the new transfer started! 

Monday was rainy all day. We were able to visit Grace and Massimo. Massimo is 14 and he's so shy. We are trying to build a relationship with him and to help him break out of his shell a bit. Then we saw Sorella Bassi. She's a cute little old lady who I love. Okay she's really not that old. But she has this habit when she says something funny or exciting she sticks out her tongue a bit. It's hard to describe but it's not weird. I love it! Then we passed by Corrado, the man who owns the gelateria. I think us meeting him just goes to show why it's important that missionaries stop to get gelato! We had a really good lesson with him and explained more about the Book of Mormon. He's another one who I feel like is prepared to hear our message. It was a really good lesson and I think just the introduction of the Book of Mormon hit him. 

Tuesday was another rainy day. The past couple nights we've been arriving home completely soaked! But hey it's rain, so I guess it means it's not too cold! The Alvarado's unexpectedly fed us which was super nice! They're the sweetest! I love them. 

Today we are in Milan and we are going to see a castle. We will see what happens. We are kind of just going where the wind takes us! 

I love you all and hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving! 

Doesn't the train station look grand?

A cool church we walked by

The castle we visited today!

Time Flies!

Friday we did some weekly planning and went to go visit some people but they must have forgot because no one was at home. But that's okay! Because on the way to visiting them we met this little old lady from Peru who didn't speak Italian. Lucky for us I took two years of useless Spanish. But she got the point that we were missionaries and was happy to see us. She's only here on vacation but she was happy we stopped to talk to her and gave us a hug goodbye.

Saturday was another day of things falling through but falling into place at the same time. We met a 15 year old girl on the bus and she gave us her number so hopefully we can get her involved. She was super sweet. And then we went home a bit early to do some calls but the first potential call we made told us we could come over. At that very second! We booked it as fast as we could. It was about a half hour walk. And it gets cold at night. Humidity cold is so much different. It really does hit you to the bones. My eyeballs were literally cold! It was a great lesson though between my glasses fogging up because they were defrosting and bearing testimony of the restored church. Their names are Livia and Guido. They invited us back for next week and so I'm excited to see them again!

Have you ever eaten so much that you're in pain? Haha. Although I have to say, no regrets. We went over to the Mongiovì's for lunch on Sunday. Here's a little Italian culture lesson for y'all. So they eat in courses. We eat the pasta, then after that they usually bring out the meat and put it on the table. Usually it's with potatoes or some other type of side. Then they usually finish with fruit or a dessert. In this case we had both. We tried a new type of fruit from Asia called cachi and it was delicious. The Mongiovì's are amazing. They are like the mission parents. They have always been involved with the missionaries and Sorella Mongiovi was the one who wrote our mission president to ask for Sorelle in Muggiò.

Monday we were able to see the Ponce family again. They are from Ecuador and have a son who is 15 who still lives there and they are trying to get him documents so he can come live with them and they can live as a family again. As people they amaze me. They work so hard and are content with the little things in life. They don't want anything grand or big but just to be together as a family.

Tuesday we were able to see Juana and she's doing great. She said she received an answer! She said she wants to get baptized she just needs to pick out a date that she feels is good for her. She doesn't want to have a date and then not go through with it. It's amazing though because she received an answer the same day that we were fasting for her! Then we were able to see the Alvarado's and Marzia after that. They were really good lessons. It was a great day!

This week I found this quote and liked it so much that I thought I would share it with y'all. "To fully receive these gifts our Savior has so freely offered, we all must learn that suffering in and of itself does not teach or grant to us anything of lasting value unless we deliberately become involved in the process of learning from our afflictions through the exercise of faith" It's from last general conference from the talk called "God Shall Wipe Away All Tears". 

I love this quote because no matter who you are, you're going to have problems in life. Just because we have problems and sufferings does not make us better. Instead, it's our attitude and what we strive to learn from our problems and the faith that we develop as we pass through the trials.

I love you all!

 

                                             

No worries I'm not holding the little boy 

he was just really close to the camera. He loves it haha :)

 This is the closest I will ever get to holding a baby

 

 Today we went to a racetrack in the biggest park. 

They were practicing racing the cars. It was awesome. 

I kid you not this park is bigger than Disneyland.