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!

Happy New Year!

Hey champs! How was your New Year? Mine was the best! So we had curfew and had to be in the apartment by 7 but that's okay because we ended up making a scripture reading chart for Juana and Claudio's family and the Tacunans. It took forever but it will be worth the effort. Haha. Sorella Orr and I were both so tired so we didn't do much. Poverina was sick and coughing up a storm. At 12 I was woken up by the sound of fireworks but I was too tired and couldn't pull myself out of my warm bed to go see them haha. Kind of sad? I was perfectly happy. So Italians have a cool tradition of eating a big meal at midnight or a big meal at least the night of New Year’s Eve. I think that this tradition should be adopted.

Other than that, my new companion Sorella Orr is great! She went to Skyline High School. I picked her up on Thursday and sending Sorella Nielsen off on her train was sad. I kind of just got that nostalgic feeling but knowing that she will be alright. She is an amazing missionary and will be a great blessing to the people wherever she serves. Man, I love that girl!

So then this past weekend a lot of our plans fell through so we ended up doing a lot of pass bys and finding. It was sad because I wanted her to meet everyone so she could see how amazing everyone is. Plus, she was feeling sick but she trooped through it all with a smile on her face. We got the opportunity to talk to lots of different people as usual. We met this one guy and he told us he had been smoking since he was 13! He had been smoking 2 packets of cigarettes a day for a few years before he was finally able to stop. It is crazy to me because I can't imagine a 13 year old walking down the street smoking a pack of cigarettes. We also met some awesome older ladies. They had been friends for their entire lives and it was so funny to see them together. It reminded me of the movie "Steel Magnolias". They were a crack up. We tried a new approach in talking to people. We just ask them to practice our Italian but it's inevitable that the reason we are here gets brought up because they always ask why we are here in Italy. You meet some really great people and start to wonder how you can care so much for someone who is practically a stranger.

We saw the Gabancho family who are from Peru. They haven't come to church in forever but are a great family. It was fun seeing them and getting to know them better. The daughter, Georgette, is about to finish personal progress so props to her!

On Monday, we saw the SeClen family and they are great. They have a resolution to come back to church by mid-February. He just has to figure some things out with work.

Tuesday we had lunch with the Reyes and also a new couple to the ward. It went really well! We went and said hi to Marzia because it was her birthday. After, we went to see Grace and Massimo. Massimo is still so shy and doesn't talk much. Good thing Sorella Orr came with some fresh ideas because I'm definitely running out.

As for the people of Muggiò, I would say they are doing pretty awesome. The work here was a bit slow during the holidays but it will pick up now that New Years is done with. We have a lot of members who are willing to help.

This week I've been thinking about goals. It's so easy to get into a routine on the mission but a mission is anything but routine. So I set some goals to help me. I really just don't want to waste a minute. It's going by so fast. But I have to follow through with the goals I guess. That's always the hard part.

Anyways, personally I love goals. I love planning. I think that we seriously grow when we push ourselves to reach our goals. It doesn't matter what we do if we don't know where we want to go, what we want to do, or who we want to be. When we have an idea we can continually push ourselves and make adjustments.

So Happy New Year everyone!

 Me and my Cousin Josh Chapman

He just arrived in Italy and we are also in the same zone!