Some final words from America

CIAO A TUTTI!!!

Okay. Guess what? I LEAVE FOR ITALY IN SIX DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly believe that I've been here for 8 weeks already. Eight weeks! Mamma mia! Oh man oh man oh man I'm a missionary and I'm going to Italy. Cray-zee.

It's been a pretty good week! We got our flight plans on Friday, so it's all becoming pretty real. We're all getting really excited and all we want to do is just work super hard so that we can learn as much as we can before we hit the streets of Italia! My district is full of some pretty stellar missionaries, so they better get ready!

First of all, a HUGE thank you to Penny Wadham, Auntie Liesl and Nana and Mom and Dad for the packages this week! Thank you so much! The watch is PERFECT :) And the alarm clock is super cute. I feel so loved! You all are the best!

Oh, and I also need to thank Nana and Bethy. Bethy, thank you for leaving your Hanson brothers tshirt at Nana's house and thank you Nana for letting me take said shirt and keep it and love it. I brought that Hanson shirt on my mission and wear it to bed at night. Let's just say that I'm probably the most popular sister on our floor because when I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth, someone will always comment on my shirt. It usually goes something like "Oh my gosh is that a Hanson tshirt?!?!?!?!?!" and I just revel in the glory of it all.

So big news of the week is that our investigator, Salvatore, IS GETTING BAPTIZED TODAY!!!!!!!!! MY FIRST BAPTISM!!! We've been teaching Salvatore since our second or third week here. Salvatore is a real person who lives on Sardenia who F.llo Mortenson helped teach while he was on his mission. I don't know how clear this explanation is, but basically at the MTC for practice we teach our teachers who pretend to be people they taught on their missions. Does that make sense? It's kinda weird to teach F.llo M as an older man named Salvatore, but Salvatore is a real person! Anyway, we've been teaching him for a while and he finally is getting baptized. He is so great! Dad, you would love Salvatore! He talks A LOT and really fast, but he loves fishing and is a really fun, affable kind of man. SO excited for him! It's been really neat to learn how to teach with him as our investigator. Sor Sobeck is doing great with the language (...giftoftonguesisreal...), as are Sor Ivory and Teichert. Sor Sobeck has come a long way in her teaching, too, and is good to not let me talk the whole time and answer every question. She is so great at just bearing her testimony of what she knows is true and it's such a blessing to have in our lessons because her testimony just brings the Spirit. Sor S and I have to pretend to be investigators every other day so that Sor I and T can teach us. It's so cool to get to see how they teach and what they feel inspired to do and talk about. Sor Teichert's eyes just light up when she teaches and it's so powerful that as an investigator I can't help but want to do what she says because she has such a great love for my investigator self. Sor Ivory has such a passion for the church and for the Gospel that she just grins from ear to ear while she's teaching, even when she doesn't know if what she is saying in Italian makes any sense. It's just so great! They are all going to make great, super, awesome, fantastic missionaries! I love my Sorelle!

It's weird to think that we'll be splitting up next week! I'll be getting a new companion - my trainer! Ah! So cool. Oh, and it's really against the rules to try to come up and find me at the airport in SLC, so while I appreciate the sentiment, please don't come. I really want to be exactly obedient as a missionary for the sake of my investigators, fellow missionaries and also for the Lord. But know that I still love you! It's typically a tradition to call your family while at the SLC airport, but I'm not sure if that is against the rules or not. Everyone does it, but like I said, I want to be exactly obedient to the rules, so please please please please PLEASE don't have hurt feelings if I don't call. But if President Brown says it's ok, I'll call you on Tuesday! I have to report to the travel office at 6am (the Roma missionaries leave at 8am. Luckies.) and my flight leaves SLC at about 10:43am. I'll fly from SLC to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to Milan! I get to Milan at 9:55am on Wednesday morning, Italy time. It's getting so close!

Ack! I'm out of time already - I've hardly written anything! As a side note, if you want to send me a snail-mail letter, you need to mail it by tomorrow or else I won't get it before I leave. And if you write a DE after Sunday, I won't get it. Just send it on over to Italy! Woo!!!

I love you all, thank you for showing interest in my efforts and reading my emails/blog! As always, your love and support is accepted with gratitude. Your prayers on behalf of all the missionaries do not go unanswered, I can assure you. I hope to do you all proud as a missionary. Hurrah for Israel!!! Italy here I come!

Lots and lots of love! Vi voglio bene!

Love,
Sorella Soh

Um. Seven Weeks. Yep.

Buon giorno a tutti!

Wellllll well well guess who has been a missionary at the MTC for SEVEN WEEKS? Yep. Me. And also all of the other missionaries who got here on the same day as me. Zoiks, no? Yeah.

I have a hard time remembering what all happens during the week, but then again I sometimes don't remember what I ate for lunch, either. Alles gut. So last night was our weekly devotional and it was..........Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!!! YEAH!!! His talk was. So. Awesome. I took two and a half pages of notes in my study journal during his talk and will have tons of things to think about based on some of the things he said. So so so great. We get together as a district after each devotional and each person gets to share a thought or two about what they felt/thought during the devotional, and last night it was so great to just have a contiunation of what we had all experience at the devotional and talk together as a district - as missionaries headed to Italy in two weeks.

TWO WEEKS. AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I. Am. So. Excited!!!! (can you tell?)

So a funny thing happened yesterday - we were all sitting in our classroom during our personal study time (I just finished Alma - go me!) and then all of a sudden the fire alarm went off! So the four of us sorelle left our classroom and headed outside to the parking lots. It was really cold out, but luckily I had a cardigan and a jacket. I took off my cardigan and gave it to Sor Sobeck, though because all she had was a short sleeved shirt and a scarf on. Once outside we heard ALL of the fire alarms in all the buildings going off, and we realized that it was an MTC-wide fire drill. So after we met up as a district outside, everyone had to march across the street to the playing field in front of the temple and meet up with our zone. Then we all had to stand around to make sure everyone was accounted for. This happened at about 9 am, and the sun hadn't broken over the mountains yet so it was SO COLD - especially since we weren't quite prepared to be out so long (although I did grab my scriptures). By the time we were allowed to go back to the MTC, the sun was officially over the mountains and things were starting to get warm. But also, our personal study time was over and we had to go to the next thing on our schedule. No fair! The best part of my day is when I have time to just sit and read my scriptures and it got cut short. But it's okay because devo was awesome and also this morning we spent 4 hours at the temple.

Oh. Yeah. We were at the temple for 4 hours today. It was awesome! Our new Albanian anziano hadn't been to the temple yet because the closest temple to Albania is in Germany (soon to be ROME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and so he went for the first time today. All the sorelle went to the same session as him and it was just so great to have that spiritual bonding experience with him.

So we finally met our new teacher last week - the one who is replacing Sor Swensen. His name is Fratello Merrill and he served in Milan! Apparently his Italian accent is a lot easier for my sorelle to understand than some of the other teachers who've served in the south. Sor Ivory always tells me that when we get home and I hear her speak Italian for real that I will just be disgusted with her southern accent - the northern accent is just clearer, especially Tuscany! Haha. It's weird to think that I'll be parted from my sorelle in two weeks. I've grown to love all of them so much. I can't wait to see how much they've grown after we all get back, and to hear them speak Italian with more confidence and clarity! Mom and dad, I told Sor Ivory that since her parents are coming to pick her up from her mission maybe we can all meet up in Rome at the end. We'll see!

Every Sunday we're supposed to write a 3-5 min talk on a topic that they give us - a talk prepared in Italian. Then, in church, they randomly pick 2 or 3 people to give their prepared talks in front of the branch. No one ever knows if they will speak until their name is announced. I've prepared talks every week and guess who was the lucky winner this week? Oh, that's right - ME! So I gave my little 5 min talk, in Italian, about baptism and why it's important and what makes our baptism different from other churches. My branch president said I did a really good job, so you can all take that for what it's worth.

Oh yeah, I got your package, mom! The cookies made it safely :) We've all been enjoying the treats you sent. Oh, and about the alarm clock you got - don't worry about sending it. They have alarm clocks for sale at the bookstore here, but I'll just wait and pick up an alarm clock that another sister in Italy has left behind. I really just want a digital watch with indiglo that can be on my wrist at night (I have no place to put an alarm clock that's easily accessible, really) and that is quieter so I don't have to wake everyone else up. I've used Sor Sobeck's watch a few times and it has been perfect.

Well, I don't really even know what else to write. Every day is pretty similar - I go to class, have gym, spend time learning new Italian words - even though each day I learn something different. I have takens lots of notes and had lots of thoughts as I've read my scriptures and listened to talks and participated in class and stuff, so that's we're all the reall things I've learned are. I've just recently realized that my study journal will likely end up as the most precious, tangible thing that I'll take home from my mission. It's so amazing to see how much help and insight Heavenly Father will give you if you just listen. Elder Scott talked about that last night - how it's SO important that when you have spiritual promptings and ideas pop into your mind that you write them down. It reminded me of a talk he gave in conference a few years ago about the very same thing.

Now my time is almost up. I love you all! Thank you, as always, for your love and support and prayers. They are truly making a difference in my life as a missionary. I honestly don't know how I've been able to do some of the things I've done here. You all are great!

Vi voglio tantissimo bene!

Love,Sorella Soh

Mamma Mia. Six weeks.

Ciao cari famiglia, amici e stranieri!

I apologize in advance for the grammar of this email. I have a hard time switching back and forth between Italian and English sometimes!

First of all, thank you for your letters! Even you stranieri who have sent me notes, grazie tanto! :) And thanks to Nana and Liesl for sending me treats! The rest of my district thanks you as well.

Alllllllora! This week has been crazy! I can't believe I've been here six weeks already. On Sunday we decided to try and do SYL Monday, Tuesday and today - that's three days straight of only speaking in Italian!!! We've done pretty dang good, if I do say so myself. It has been SO HARD to only speak Italian, especially for the other missionaries who didn't speak any Italian other than "ciao" six weeks ago. They did great! It's totally nuts that they can speak in Italian! *coughthegiftoftonguesisREALcough* It's been hard for me, too, even though my Italian is way more advanced than theirs, not only because it's sometimes difficult to understand what they're saying (i.e. they speak English but use Italian words) and also because they often times don't understand me when I speak. I told Sor Sobeck last night though that even though she thinks her speaking skills are behind the other sorelle, in reality her grammar is better than theirs because she picks up how to say things from me. Sor Teichert took spanish in college and so she speaks mostly spanish with italian words here and there. Sor Ivory, her companion, didn't take any spanish before, but she now speaks in spanish sometimes because of what she picks up from Sor T. Haha. But it's all good. Everyone is doing so well.

Now that we've officially hit the 6 week mark, it means that new italian missionaries are coming in! There are five total coming in - 4 elders and 1 sister. The sister already speaks italian so she won't be in our class or district, but she'll leave with the other sorelle for Rome in three weeks. There were supposed to be 5 anziani coming, but one is coming the next time, so we only have 4. And one of those 4 is the anziano from Albania that was supposed to come the same day and me but had visa problems or something. Because he's international, he came in last night and we got to meet him. The poor kid only speaks Albanian - no Italian and hardly any English. I don't envy him, that's for sure.

Last Sunday was our musical number! It went really well. The song, "My Kindness Shall Not Depart From Thee" sounded really good and we had a lot of people in the branch comment on it to us afterward. It was great! Very, very cool. I wish you could've heard it, especially you, mom, but I told the other missionaries that they might all just have to come to AL so we can sing it in sacrament meeting! Oh, so we sang with Elders Crook and Clark who are both going to Brasil. Well, eventually they will. They finished their time here at the MTC and their visas still weren't ready so they got reassigned. Elder Crook got reassigned to the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission! So! If any of you Wisconsonites meet Elder Crook, be nice to him!

OH! Super cool thing. So last night was our weekly devotional and guess who it was??? SISTER JULIE B. BECK!!!! I was so excited! She is so cool! So any time that anyone speaks, they always let that person's spouse speak for a few minutes first. Well. We got to hear from Brother Beck. His first words were "This is the part that scares my wife the most" and then he said "dove sono gli italiani??" which means "where are the Italians??" We were sitting kind of in the back, so we all shouted "hey!!" and waved our arms. And then he spoke to us in Italian, while still up in front of everyone, and talked about how cool it was that there is a temple being built in Rome. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!?! Bro Beck totally served his mission in Italy and gave us a major shoutout! It was totally rad. And then after the meeting all the sorelle went down to the floor to meet him. We introduced ourselves and he spoke to us in Italian and it was so cool! AND THEN he introduced us to his wife. So.... GUESS WHO GOT TO SHAKE HANDS WITH SISTER BECK???? Oh that's right. ME!!!!! It was awesome! Her talk was so so so good, too. Afterwards, Sor Taylor looked at me and was like, well your companionship was completed tonight! I was confused until she explained "Yeah! Sorella Soh. Sorella Beck. Sorella Sobeck!!!" Haha. I guess so!

So last Saturday our teacher, Sor Swensen, had her last class with us. We are gonna miss her! She is a FANTASTIC teacher and we've all learned a TON from her. Apparently on the last day of class, it's tradition for the teacher to guess where they think your first city will be. She said that as soon as I came to the MTC she thought I would go to the biggest city in the mission. She served in Catania, which is now in the Rome mission, so she wasn't really familar with the cities in Milan where sisters can serve, so her guess was that my first city would be Milan. We'll find out in three weeks if she was right! THREE WEEKS. Can you believe it????? AHHHHH!!! SO EXCITED!!!!!! For my other sorelle she guessed: Sor Teichert - Mistretto, Sor Sobeck - Ragusa and Sor Ivory - Taranto. We shall see!!!! Sor Sobeck's older sister also served in the Rome mission and I really hope that she gets to serve in Cagliari (on Sardegna) which is the only sister city in the mission that her sister also served in. How cool would that be if you got to serve in the same city as your older sister (especially when you have the same last name and look like twins). Maybe one day Michelle will serve a mission and get called to Italy and get to serve in my same cities!!! Ahhh!!!!

It's been cold out lately so we've been going inside for gym time this week. I've been playing volleyball and it has been so fun! There are quite a few people who play that are pretty good, and I've gotten a couple kills in. I forgot how much I really love playing volleyball.

Well, I'm out of time! I feel like I haven't really said anything! These 30 minutes just fly by! However. I love you all! Thanks again for all your support, letters, and prayers! You are great!

Have a fantastic week! Vi voglio bene!

Love,

Sorella Soh

Wow. Week FIVE.

Ciao cara famiglia!

Happy (belated) birthday (again) mommy! I'm glad you got my card and I'm glad you liked the little notes my sorelle added in for you :) Sor Sobeck was nice enough to let us come to the computer lab before going to the temple today so that I could send my email before you all left for Disney. I hope you have a great time!!!

Alrighty. So updates of the week. Here we go.

First of all, I'd like to apologize to all 14 million church members in the world because every talk in General Conference was for me. So, sorry. But really, conference was fantastic! We had all our classes and things cancelled on Saturday and just watched the sessions. The sisters got to watch the RS broadcast on Sat night while the Elders all went to the priesthood session. Okay. President Uchtdorf? He's just fantastic. Seriously. Both of his talks. I just pulled out my conf notes so I can share a few thoughts. Okay. So when Pres Monson announced that they are going to take the Provo Tabernacle (that burned down last year) and turn it into a temple, I audibly gasped. Like, people turned and looked at me gasped out loud. TWO temples in Provo??? AWESOME!!! As I thought about it, this is what I wrote in my study journal: "The Lord has to tear down what's there in order to build something up that is better. The Provo Tabernacle was beautiful, but it had to burn down in order so that it could become a temple. It will look the same but it will be better. I am a daughter of God, but the Lord needs to burn me down in the refiner's fire in order to build me up into the woman/missionary that I need to be." The Provo Tabernacle would never have had the potential to become a temple unless it had burned down. Awesome, right? So cool. Oh, and I was sitting next to Sor Teichert during that session (we both gasped at the Provo Tabernacle announcement) and THEN Pres Monson said that they're building a temple in Star Valley, WY. Sor T is from Cokeville, WY and as soon as he said Star Valley she said, out loud, "NO WAY!!!!" Haha. It was really awesome. I'm so excited for her! I love Sor T so much. It's a good thing we're not companions because as she told me last night "we'd never get any work done!" We would be too busy laughing all the time. Love that girl - uh - sister. Yeah.

Other notes from conf.... Mm, loved President Packer's talk and Elder Bednar's talk. And Carl B. Cook. Okay. I LOVED Sister Dalton's talk. I think everyone in the whole entire world should hear/read her talk. For those of you who missed it, her main point was "The most important thing a father can do to raise his daughter is to LOVE HER MOTHER." So sweet, right?! Also I loved Matthew O. Richardson's talk about teaching BY the Spirit, not in front of or behind. Oh. And during Kazuhiko Yamashita's talk (which was FANTASTIC) about missionary work, I think the whole auditorium in the MTC wanted to just die of awesomeness. I looked over at Sor Ivory during his talk and said "I think my mom might be crying right now" and she said "Oh, I KNOW my mom is crying right now" Haha. SO GREAT. Loved when he said "The people of the world are waiting for you. Please go quickly to where they are." I'm going as fast as I can!!!! Only four weeks left!!!!

Alright, last note about conference. I LOVE PRESIDENT THOMAS S. MONSON. HE IS A PROPHET OF GOD!!!! All you have to do is listen to him speak to know it, too. Just look into his eyes and you can FEEL the love he has for everyone - the love he conveys to us from our Father in Heaven as the Lord's mouthpiece on the earth. He. Is. AMAZING.

Okay, with my remaining 12 minutes I'll talk about my week!

Thanks to everyone (mostly my mom and dad) who wrote to me this week! It's the best thing ever. I love it. So thank you! Oh, and mom I got your package! Thanks so much! The letter was great (everyone was jealous that I got a 7 page letter!) and we've been thoroughly enjoying the chocolate covered pretzels :) You're the best! And I shared my extra nametag magnets with my sorelle so they say thank you as well.

Oh! Also. Big news. I ATE A COD NUGGET!!!! Haha. They had them at dinner Monday night and so I got some. I only ate one. Haha. I think they're made better than fish sticks, though, because when I bit into it I could see the fish lines. That makes no sense. Hm. Well It seemed like they just cut up a cod filet and then breaded it or whatever. Fish sticks seem pretty processed (not that that comes as a surprise to anyone).

Our roommates left on Monday! They were here just shy of 3 weeks and now they're both in New Hampshire or wherever they've been assigned in that mission (it encompasses several states). Also, my friend Sister April Atkin got here last Wednesday. It's been nice to see a familiar face. She is going to the Missouri Independence Mission and will be working at the visitor's center there. Woo!

Can someone PLEASE send me Sister Brooke Baker's address? Or could someone just send me the address to the mission home in Melbourne, AUS? That would be great. Oh, and also can you send me the address to the Milan mission home? I have no idea what that address is but I want to be able to give it to my friends here at the MTC so we can stay in touch - especially my sorelle who are all going to Roma!

We did a cool thing last Friday called "SYL". I hadn't ever heard of it before getting to the MTC, but it stands for "speak your language". So all day Friday all the Italians only spoke Italian. Even when someone spoke to us in English, we had to respond only in Italian. It was hard, but really great practice. We're going to do it again tomorrow. The other missionaries can pretty much understand us when we speak Italian because they can understand most of what we say since it's so similar to spanish and portuguese. Typically when we would speak to them in Italian they would respond in their language, not in English, which was neat. And if I've said it once, I'll say it again, the gift of tongues is real. It is a veritable miracle how well everyone in my district can speak Italian. It's only been 5 weeks and we speak English half the time here anyway! It's real. SO real. I can't wait to see how much better their language skills will get in the next few months when they finally get to Italy.

I'm pretty much out of time. I love you all so much! Thank you for all your support and prayers. I can feel the strength that those prayers have given me as a missionary. The Lord has heard your requests and has subsequently granted me the patience, humility and charity that I so desperately need as a missionary - things that have strengthened me so much. I would not be able to do this work without them, so thank you. I, in turn, pray for all of you. This gospel is true. I know it. I hope you know it, too. If not, I hope you find out for yourself that it is.

Vi voglio benissimo!!!!

Love,

Sorella Soh

p.s. I know you're all desperate to shower me with love and send me packages but hesitate because you don't know what to send me. Therefore, I've made this list to help you:

-orbit sweet mint gum

-mini kit kats

-pens (particularly sharpie pens)

-COOKIES

-post-it notes

-stickers of any kind

-peanut butter M&Ms

-rolos

-pumpkin flavored anything

LOVE YOU ALL :D