"Your Ministry is now over"

On Thursday we passed Mondi over to the Anziani. When we said goodbye to him he said "your ministry is now over." Just another great quote from Mondi. Although I don't think it tops him telling him that she's like his mother and is a big girl after we took a selfie with him. Haha. We had fun with him and I hope the Anziani will be able to help him more! Then we went to visit a less active who has bad health. Her dog is borderline crazy. It's not a big dog but rather a small one that thinks it's big. We offer to take this dog on a walk for her because she can't leave her house. We take this dog outside and it goes nuts! It's like it was never domesticated. We were one step away from being attacked. So bipolar. It loved us in the house.

My beloved companion made bagels on Friday! They were pretty good. We also went to go see Milli and her mom. It was good to see them we had almost like a little tea party except with not tea... so not a tea party. Haha. I love them though. They are so fun to talk with. Then we got to see Maria Tacunan! Man I love that woman! She's the bomb! They had our Book of Mormon chart we made for them hung up. They're just the best.

Saturday we finally got to see the Ponce family and I just love them. They are still struggling and it just breaks my heart because it just seems like they never catch a break. But then we passed by Sorella Sacco. She's a talker. I felt bad because she kept telling her son to be quiet and then she would talk more haha. She's a cute little lady though!

On Sunday Milli and her family came to church and it made me so happy! The ward was so good at making them feel welcome and Nicolo finally warmed up in primary and it was just a miracle day. Sorella Mongiovì was a home girl and helped Milli with knowing where to go and everything. Just helping her feel welcome and introducing her to everyone. Tiziana even brought a friend to church so that was cool!

I swear I'm so fed up with smelling smoke on my balcony when I'm just trying to do my jump roping exercises. It makes me lose all patience with the people I see on a street that as you walk past they blow smoke in your face. And if I see another 14 year old smoking, I am going to lose it!

Sunday was followed by Monday. And on Monday we had an amazing appointment with Milli. She made us some amazing food from Ecuador. We had a really good lesson about the plan of salvation. They agreed with everything and recognized it as the truth! Nicolo also told us about how much he loved coming to church. Ah! I love them. They are great.

Random fun fact: we made a fort and lived in it for a straight week. Also mega bed was created in the fort. It was a blessing and a curse. We got some good practice with our army crawl though!

Okay so as missionaries we pray right before we leave the apartment every single time. You might think it might just be another part of the routine but there are seriously so many blessings! It's one of those weird things that I want to continue after the mission. Every time while we are praying, I am reminded of something that I am forgetting to bring/take from the apartment. It's a small blessing but it makes a difference. Prayer works. Take time to stop and breathe. Talk to Heavenly Father and you will see blessings! I promise.

I love you all!

Eggs are White??

This week has been pretty great. We had an awesome p day last week and went to Milan and looked at all the shops. It's was so cool and it's weird because there's really so much fur here.

On Thursday we went to help Sorellla Mangano take down her Christmas decorations. It was nice to help her and she had us over for dinner too. We got to know her daughter a bit better too. So she had the TV on and there was this weird commercial with dancing aliens, Sorella Orr and I busted up laughing. You could tell we have both been on the mission for a long time. Haha.

On Friday we had scambio. I was with Sorella Williams and it was so awesome to be with her. She is such a great missionary and I felt like I just learned a lot from her while having the time of my life. I love getting to meet the people from Cimiano too. We had dinner with this one family, the Castros. They're from El Salvador and we ate papoosas.... I think that's how you spell/say it. But it was literally so good! Then we had fun being able to talk and have fun at night.

Saturday was a miracle day. First, Livia and Guido answered our call and we will see them next week. Second, we got to see Franny, Mondi, Sorella Bassi, and a couple in the hospital. Third, it wasn't that cold. The weather was perfect. Fourth, my comp fed a peacock from her hand in a hospital courtyard. The peacocks loved us. They wanted to follow us into the hospital after we fed them. They were like Kevin from Up. The couple we visited in the hospital are members from Foggia, way down south. They are up here because the wife needed to have a surgery and they are just sweet as peas! I love them so much. We will be visiting them while they are here because they are here alone without family.

Sunday was super fun! So we went and had lunch at a fairly newlywed couple's house from the ward. They have two birds that they just let fly around sometimes and they just let them go! So they let them out after church and they were going crazy! They were flying all around the room. It's kind of funny to nervously watch and we nervously hoped they wouldn't come flying at our head. But they will land on your head, shoulder, everything. Needless to say one landed on my head and I was freaking out telling Sorella Orr to get it off. We are both dying we are laughing so hard. (All the while the couple is getting changed out of their Sunday clothes.) it finally got off and kept flying around the room and we are on the couch hitting out heads on each other trying to hide behind one another. It was seriously so funny. I was dying.

Random fact. Sorella Orr pointed out that eggs in America are white. They're only brown here and it blew my mind that eggs are so white. It's so weird!

Monday was a good day. We went to see Sorella Mollica in the hospital and had dinner with the Ferranti family. Sorella Mollica is so strong and despite all of her major health problems she was excited to see us. I love Sorella Ferranti because she reminds me of how my dad dishes up people. Ask for a bit but in reality you get a whole lot. Haha. She's like a good mission mom with a giant heart for everyone. Miracle. We were doing finding and found a less active on the street from Peru. Apparently he's never been to the church in Italy and it's was such a huge blessing!

Tuesday was hard... we went to see one of our investigators and she let us in and asked to hear our message. So we started telling her about the plan of salvation. Then she started yelling saying that we weren't telling her anything new and that everything was the same. That is not true though. She said she read the Book of Mormon but I really don't think she did because we are the only church that claims that Christ visited the Americas and that is definitely new. But we bore our testimony and got out of there. It's just frustrating when they won't even let you speak and just yell at you. We grabbed a pizza and shook it off. I just really hope that she truly can find peace in her life because she says she's peaceful but from the things she said you can just tell she hasn't come to peace with the world or her life. She has a lot of things she needs to work out.

Finally, on Tuesday we went to Young Women's. We talked to them about why we are here on a mission, showed them pictures, and just talked to them. It was really fun and they are all great girls! I could've just talked to them for ages and I love the leaders. It was funny because they were talking about how loud Italians are and I was just thinking to myself "yeah, these are my people."

I found this quote this week and I can't even remember where I found it to be honest but it says: "Being sincerely Christlike is an even more important goal than being authentic."

I think I might make it my new life motto. It is definitely good enough. For me, I'm content with my personality and who I am as a person and it's important to be real. But it's always good to have the "real you" more loving, more understanding, more patient, and more Christlike.

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

Unanswered Prayers

So last pday we just had a chill pday taking naps because Sorella Orr still wasn't feeling too good but we did take a venture out to try "Barbecue Hooligans". It was really good but Sorella Orr was very disappointed when we didn't get a bun. I think we accidentally ordered it healthy style haha. They we went and saw the Cattaneo family. They were all sick but Daniele said he wants to come to church this week so we've got some high hopes there.

We passed by a few sisters this week like Sorella Huapaya. I always love seeing Sorella Huapaya. She told me about how when we went to visit her in the hospital and we shared a message that the girl that she shared a room with was listening. We talked to her too. But she told about how that woman really needed that message and how she had given up on God a long time ago. Hearing our message she decided that maybe it wasn't right and that God still cared about her even though she had not gotten everything in life that she wanted. When I remember that, I remember how frustrating it was. We could not find the hospital room that she was in, it took forever to get to the hospital, and it was the only thing we did that day. In the end it was worth it. I think it's funny to look back at the days because usually the most frustrating days are the ones that pay the most.

Saturday we had a baptism. It wasn't a baptism for our ward but the man getting baptized has a lot of friends in our ward and comes to our ward about half the time. His name was Simone. So that day we spent mostly filling up the font. The heating wasn't on in the church and we didn't know how to turn it on but in the end it was a special day and at least the water was warm! He asked me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and so I did that. All went well!

So on the 6th it was a holiday. They call it the Befana. Really what it is is a Christmas witch. And if you were good the year before she brings candy in your stocking or coal if you were bad. They don't do stockings at Christmas, really more for this day. It's funny though because guys will joke around and say "tanti auguri" like happy wishes to you and basically they are calling you a witch... or the befana. Anywho, the holiday resulted in less buses and we missed the last one home (or it never came, you can never really tell) so we bundled up and made the hour walk home. Surprisingly it went by really fast! We were both wearing 50 layers so it was okay. We felt like Ralphie from the Christmas Story walking out the door haha.

We got a lot of bidone this week but also a lot of miracles. (Bidone= getting stood up) we were let in doing pass-bys and we got to meet some new people. We got to see Milli, one of our investigators, and get to know her and her doubts more. Mondi, another investigator, introduced us to his friend.

One thing that someone brought up in church this week was the song by Garth Brooks "Unanswered Prayers". That really hit me this week because with things falling through, it gets really frustrating. Sometimes you feel a bit desperate and are searching for an answer. He's there though and He loves us all more than we can imagine. I'm grateful for the "unanswered" prayers that I've had personally because they've always led me to something better. And most of all, just because we feel like we don't get an answer does not mean that He is not here with us every step of the way.

Oh and attenzione! It snowed on Tuesday. Granted it was wimpy flakey snow that didn't even cover the ground but it snowed. Right now it's crazy though because there's a ton of snow in the south of Italy which is weird because it never snows there.

Peace out! I love you all!

Tanti auguri Befana!

Sticking our feet in the tub to defrost

Simone

We love our burgers!