Sister Anderson Mission Blog: Lucky Number 7

To my beloved family... none of you are allowed to read this until you hurry and send me an email of what happened to Jimmy.

Highlights of the week:

1. I completely fell on my face. I was straight up belly on an Italian city street. Two things go through your mind: one- you die laughing with your companion and two - you wonder if you need to drench your clothes in hand sanitizer because you never know where dogs pee.

2. Sorella Orr was finally able to meet Juana and Claudio. We were able to talk to them about the importance of reading the scriptures, praying, and going to church.

3. We had zone conference! It was a combined zone conference which means that I got to see Sorella Nielsen! She seems to be happy and doing well and it was so good to see her!

4. I made my first homemade lasagna! And it was good! We also made biscuits and gravy which were amazing. Biscuits, everything from scratch.

5. We met Alfredo in the park. He was a miracle. We had decided to do 15 more minutes of finding and then we met him. He has a Book of Mormon from a long time ago. I'm convinced he was prepared by God. He ask us which scripture he should read that day.

6. We laughed until we cried in our lesson with Sorella Sacco. It all started when she pulled out her Book of Mormon that was centuries old and it said different words than ours did. (This is in Italian.) Anyways, it was good for us all to laugh.

7. We met an American! Her name was Meredith. She was struggling to put some black garbage bags into a donation bin on the street. We actually heard her speaking English... American English.... on the phone. Sorella Orr and I both got big eyes. Apparently she's moving tomorrow back to the States with her family and she was really nervous. She seemed a bit frazzled. She said after seeing us and talking to us she felt better about it all. It's always such a blessing to know that you were in the right place at the right time.

This week has been a weird one. There's been lots of laughter and to be quite honest there were some really hard times. I found this quote just hanging in our apartment, probably left from the Anziani before us.

"We don’t always know the details of our future. We do not know what lies ahead. We live in a time of uncertainty. We are surrounded by challenges on all sides. Occasionally discouragement may sneak into our day; frustration may invite itself into our thinking; doubt might enter about the value of our work. In these dark moments Satan whispers in our ears that we will never be able to succeed, that the price isn’t worth the effort, and that our small part will never make a difference. He, the father of all lies, will try to prevent us from seeing the end from the beginning."

It's from the May 2006 Ensign and it's called "See the End from the Beginning". It's a great talk and there's a really good story about how President Uchtdorf had a lung disease as a boy but because he worked hard for his family, huffing and puffing on a bike, the disease was healed. Everything has a purpose. Sometimes our seeing the end from the beginning can just be clouded.

I love you all!

The Famous Fort