The week in a little recap

This week went by so fast!

We started it off by doing a scambio in Genova, a more common name is home of focaccia and pesto. There are two companionships of sorelle in Genova so we went to Genova for one companionship and then the other companionship in Genova came here to Milano to help us out. They went really well! For the one that I was in Genova it was pretty great. I got to know Sorella Clark and she's such a good missionary. We did some finding, pass bys, and we were able to meet with one of their investigators. I was happy because I was just praying in my heart that we would meet someone on the bus who was willing to exchange numbers and right before we went home from Genova we met a lady on the bus and we were able to exchange numbers.

For the other scambio I was with Sorella Harris and she's so awesome. She is from a big family too so we had fun talking about that. Her companion is Sorella McCormick from my MTC group so it was fun to get to see her too. On that scambio we went to go see Mama, or Sorella Repoyo, and we watched a bit of the Youth Face to Face event with her. It was so good and I was sad I did not get to watch it all.

On Saturday it was Carnivale so we went to the Duomo to hand out a few Books of Mormon. We were able to hand out 3 despite the fact that it was raining and there weren't many people there. I still really enjoyed handing them out! Carnivale is just a holiday 40 days before Easter. Different regions in Italy sometimes have different days that they do Carnivale. People just dress up and throw confetti everywhere. It's pretty cool but it was not super big this year because of the rain.

Marilena is doing well. We asked if she would be baptized and she really wants to! She just isn't following all of the commandments that she needs to. She is in a really hard situation at this point and so right now we are trying to help her strengthen her faith so that she can take the steps of faith that she needs to. I know that if she does then Heavenly Father will be able to do His part.

Rachele was baptized!!! It was such a beautiful baptism. There were lots of tears and it was a beautiful service. I'm grateful for all the members who played the piano, gave talks, and put together the program for her. This family as gone through a huge change. The mom of Rachele bore her testimony and it was so beautiful. This is one family whose lives truly have been blessed by this gospel. They were ready for a change and I'm grateful that I got to be here to see that change.

On Sunday I ate a baby duck from the egg. Yep. I almost puked. But we went to eat at the house of Sister Tina. She's from the Philippines and she has been telling us for weeks that she was going to make Balut for us. When we went to lunch with her after church and we ate normally with her. But then she pulled out the eggs and we went into a panic. Haha.

On Monday we met with the family Castro and ate Papusas with them. They invited their non-member friend and so it was fun to laugh, talk, and share a little message with them.

This week has been a really good one. I can't remember when we were talking about it but at some point I heard someone say “A lot of people ask what my best day on the mission has been, but I tell them I don't know because I haven't had it yet.” It made me think about how that every day in life is a blessing. Every day is amazing. But I'm grateful for a life where I know that there will be something better. Our lives aren't meant to peak. We aren't meant to plateau. We can continually progress, grow, and learn.

Well, I love you all and I miss you a bunch! Right now we are headed off to go to some museums for free because women's day. Only women get in for free so I'm pretty stoked.