Sister Anderson Mission Blog: Has it been a week already?

So after our very relaxing P-day in the apartment, we had a lesson with Quin. She's from Nigeria and she has the most beautiful smile. She has three kids who are living in Nigeria and she's so strong. She confirmed that it would be alright if I bought an African dress and wore it. I now have directions as to where I can find one. Stay tuned for updates. We were supposed to have a family evening at the church but no one came so instead us four missionaries just ate the cinnamon rolls that Anziano Brown made.

Thursday we cleaned the entire apartment. It was the semi-annual deep cleaning day. We took 4 hours and scrubbed all the nooks and corners. It feels so nice to be in a clean apartment! It reminded me of just a regular old Saturday morning at home! After English class, Anziano Brown gave us arancini that he made because he knew we hadn't tried them yet. Needless to say that the Anziani keep us well fed.

Friday we celebrated our 6 month mark by going out to eat. We finally tried the famous Modenese tortellini and tortalone. It was homemade in the restaurant and it was so good! The tortalone was filled with pumpkin and it was delicious. I've never had it like that before. Saturday was really great because we were able to meet some more less actives. One of the people we met is an old lady from Mexico. She's so sweet and just loves the missionaries. She has a really strong faith but her health is struggling. Now I see why my brother-in-law always talked about how great Mexican mom and grandmas are. (By the way her name is Connie too!)

Sunday was amazing!! First of all, I got to see the entire Sorellanza and Sorella Visconti again at the Holland conference. Sorella Visconti was actually on the same train as us heading to Milan so we got the whole train ride to catch up and talk. It was a joyous day! Hearing Elder Holland speak to us was amazing. Before the meeting even started he shook everyone's hand and so did his wife (le Sorelle were lucky enough to get the Italian bacii from his wife). He just spoke with so much power, made it interesting, and simplified it. I could really go on and on about everything that he said. Anyways, we finally arrive home to the Modena station to find that both Sorella Steven's and my bike have been stolen. Dangers. Well, the Anzinani lent us theirs for the night so we could get home. Even with our bikes getting stolen, I was on cloud nine!

On Monday we were able to see Marta. I love her so much. We talked about testimonies and why it's important to have one. She has a desire to get baptized but she also realizes that it's a big deal. She's working on quitting smoking and working her way there slowly. She's such a hard worker and she does it all for her family. I really love that about her.

Not too much else happened on Tuesday. We had our district meeting and we did some finding before English class. While we were walking home for the night, we got caught in the pouring rain without an umbrella. We were completely soaked head to toe. At one point we just gave up trying to avoid the massive puddles and just walked straight through them. It was actually really fun haha.

Whenever we go walking in the park, the nice old men always tell us to be careful. We meet the nicest people and it just makes me grateful, with all the bad that's in the world, that people are generally good. I can't remember where but I read recently that charity is the pure love of Christ. When you love someone you assume the best of them and doubt the bad things you hear. Our goal is to have charity towards all. Doubt the bad you hear about others and choose to look for the good.

"Behold, the Lord hath forbidden this thing; wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing. Wherefore, if they should have charity they would not suffer the laborer in Zion to perish." 2 Nephi 26:30

Vi voglio un mondo di bene!