Tearin' it up in Torino Nov 23, 2011
CIAO CARISSIMI!!!
I think I'm going to stop saying what week I'm on because I've already lost track. Maybe it's my 3rd or 4th week? No idea. Anywayzzz...
Wow! I'm in Italy! Still! Missionary life is finally starting to settle in with me, and I feel like I'm kinda getting the hang of things. I'm still not ready to stand on my own feet yet, but that's okay because Sorella Walton is stuck with me until January! (You might want to pray REALLY hard for her...poor thing). But my district is awesome! There is a set of Anziani in our ward - Anz McMahon and Anz Nielsen. They are also our zone leaders and they are really great. And then the only other missionaries in our district are the Anz from a little city called Collegno - Anz Herrington and Anz Higgs, the latter being our district leader. They really are all FANTASTIC missionaries. It's pretty humbling to be with all of them because they are all so great and I am still just kinda an okay missionary so I get to learn from them, which is really really great. (My pool of adjectives has apparently evaporated since being in Italy because everything is either "cool", "great", "fantastic" or "awesome". I'll work on that.)
So cool event of the week is that we had a multi-zone training in Milano last Friday! We somehow got left out of the loop and didn't find out about it until Wednesday, so that added to the fun. It was really great to get together with a bunch of missionaries from the mission, especially since I didn't know anyone! I finally had the chance to get to talk to some of them. I was really excited especially because I got to see Sor Nilson (blog: ktinitaly.blogspot.com)!!!! We were at the MTC together for three weeks (she's one transfer ahead of me) and we get along really well. She's in Genova, so we're in the same zone, so we might get to do exchanges with each other! Or, at least with each others' companion. But still! It was so great to get to talk to her about her experience so far and was just really comforting for both of us to have the chance to chat about things! Love her!
Since I was the only new missionary at that training (as in Anz Moh and Hatch weren't there), I was the only lucky one who got to do a mini teaching drill in front of EVERYONE. So every day we are assigned a topic from Preach My Gospel that we study and then do a "2 minute drill", which means in 2 min or less, we try to teach that PMG principle with a brief statement of truth, a scripture, and a question - all in Italian. The goal is to do four 2 min drills a day. And yeah. I got to do it in front of all 50 or so missionaries. I was so nervous! The topic that day was "pray to know the truth of the gospel" which I think is the last point in lesson 1, chapter 3. Anyway, I got up there and did that two minute drill and tried my best to make my trainer proud! It was pretty good, but I am still working on being better - as always!
As part of our training, President Wolfgramm had us all watch that new movie "17 Miracles". I saw posters for it in Utah, but didn't really know anything about it. Well, we watched it! It's about a handcart company and the miracles that they saw. It was really cool. It made me really grateful for all of the hard times I've had on my mission so far because they are nowhere near as hard as all the crazy things the pioneers had to do. Way cool.
Also way cool was what our investigator, Rosa, told me the other day. She is one of the Italian women getting baptized on Sunday!!!!! Anyway, her Italian is EXCELLENT. I mean, she obviously speaks Italian, but even in English there are people that speak with better grammar than others. She has excellent Italian grammar. Anyway, we were talking the other day about speaking and she told us about how she's noticed that I don't talk much, but that "I'm always listening and thinking" which is funny that she noticed because it's true. Anyway, then she said, about me speaking Italian, "ma tu hai un accento quasi perfetto" which translates to "but you have an almost perfect accent"!!!!!!!!!!! I was so impressed! Everyone I talk to always says "tu parli bene l'italiano / you speak Italian well", but I think it's just because my Italian accent is pretty good. I've been working on it! Those two years weren't for nothing! In any case, it was just very comforting to know that even though the language is still getting stuck in my brain, people can understand me and they think I have a really good, clear, Italian accent! That's a huge accomplishment for me! WOO!
Wow, I am way out of time. We went to the Mole today (google it) and went to the little cinema museum inside. And then Sor W got her hair cut and now we're behind on our schedule. BUT! You are all fantastic. A HUGE shout-out to Aubry who sent me a letter this week. You are DA BOMB.
Well, gotta run, but I love you all! Your support and prayers and felt and appreciated! God speed the right!
TANTO AMORE,
Sorella Soh
The Last Day in November?!?! November 30, 2011
Ciao famiglia, amici e stranieri!!!
I can't believe another week has already gone by! Mamma mia. Our Thanksgiving was pretty low key (seeing as how people here pretty much have no idea what Thanksgiving is besides what they have seen in movies and stuff), but we did have turkey! Granted, it was turkey lunch meat, but it was turkey nonetheless. Woo! And today is Sorella Walton's birthday! The big 2-3! We're celebrating by going out to get pizza for lunch and then making a cookie/ice cream thing later on tonight. Party!
So what happened this last week... oh, we had a ward party last Friday night - an international dinner! We have several Peruvians in our ward, so basically we had Peruvian and really REALLY good Italian food at this party. And of course being Americans, we had to bring something American! SO! We made brownies (from scratch!) and they were pretty good. Not quite the same as in the states, but still good. The funny thing is that Italians LOVE brownies. THEY LOVE BROWNIES. I can't even tell you how much they love brownies. It's just so funny! We had a ton of ward members ask us before the party if we were going to bring brownies. They said "Sorelle...brownies???" and had this kind of desperate longing in their eyes. Haha. They love them! AND, we brought a special treat. A special American treat. A special Mormon treat. A special Mormon delicacy. Can you guess what we brought? .... GREEN JELLO!!!! Ha ha! There's an American woman in our ward who happened to have a box of green jello that her parents had brought from Texas when the came to visit her last and she gave it to us to bring to the ward party. It was SO funny to see the Italians look at it jiggle and then see the look of utter disgust on their faces. Some of them refused to eat it, most of them, actually. Haha. But the people who did try it liked it! They WHACKED that jello! There was none left! So funny.
Italians are such interesting people. On the one hand, they are so private. We are always smiling at people and saying "buon giorno" to them. Most of them don't even look up at us when we do. And then there are some who look at us and give us a funny look and ask if we know each other. When we say no, they say "oh" and then walk away. They are so not into talking to strangers (which makes contacting work a little bit tricky). But then on the other hand they are SO OPEN. Once you can get someone to talk to you, they will basically tell you their life story. When you ask someone "how are you", they don't always say "good" like we do in the states. They'll tell you exactly what's going on in their life, the good, the bad and the ugly! It's amazing what some people have told us even after just barely meeting them. You gotta love them for it. It's also interesting because the people here really struggle. They really just have no hope, and it's so sad. We were teaching a woman in her home the other day and she told us that she has no hope and doesn't believe there is any happiness in her life. It was so sad! And then we talked to a kid at the bus stop the other day and we asked him what he wanted to do with his life and he said "uhhh, go to work and hang out with my friends" and that was it! He didn't have any dreams or goals or anything! I just want all these people to hear about the gospel and know that there IS hope and happiness and joy in this life! Adam fell that men might be and that men are that they might have JOY!!!!! For such a passionate people, the Italians are really depressed. All they do is work and work and work and don't have (make) time for anything else. I'm excited for the Christmas season so that we can get people thinking more about hope and joy and just rock their socks with the gospel and Christ's love for us!!! That's what keeps us going every day - we've got to cheer these people up! Remind them of the happiness that is in this life - happiness that lasts and is real! We're still working on it :)
A cool thing happened the other day. We were teaching this woman, Anastasia, on the street. She is from Romania (I think) but speaks Russian. (I'm glad I learned all those Russian words at the MTC!) Anyway, she read the Restoration pamplet and really liked it, so we wanted to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon. We gave her a copy in Romanian because we didn't know she spoke Russian (she still understands Romanian and we'll give her a Russian copy the next time we see her). Anyway, we were flipping through the pages are talking to her a bit about what the BoM is and all that. Well then the book was just open to a random page and then she decided to read, out loud, in Romanian, the first verse on the page. So she read it and then said "I really like that!" and then pulled out a little pencil from her purse and circled the verse number. Sor W and I were a little bit concerned because we had no idea what verse she had read and didn't know if she just liked the verse because it sounded cool or because she actually liked the message. So I nervously pulled out an Italian copy of the BoM and read the verse she had just read - Alma 37:35: (O remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God.) I think my mouth actually opened in surprise. That is a FANTASTIC verse! I really couldn't believe it! I mean, I have that verse highlighted in my English scriptures even! It was so so cool. We're hoping to be able to meet with her again on Friday, but she works random hours doing whatever job she can find, so it's been hard to meet with her. But she is so great and I'm confident that she will love the Book of Mormon.
Oh, Mom, you'll appreciate this - I had to go to this place called the Questura yesterday to apply for the little card that says I'm allowed to live in Italy legally (after my visa expires). Yep, more red tape. BUT! It went off without a hitch! I had to get fingerprinted and stuff, but we didn't have to wait that long and no one even yelled at me. I was actually really surprised, and the fact that everything went so well does concern me a bit. But it was great and I should have my "permesso di soggiorno" in a few weeks. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Pretty miraculous, if I do say so myself! Very cool.
Quick shout-out to Auntie Bethy who sent me a letter! It took a while to get to me because I had to get it from the office in Milan, but I finally got it! You are great!
I'm attaching some pictures - the first one is from our awesome baptism on Sunday! Rosa and Isabella finally had the chance to get baptised and it was so cool. It's pretty rare that Italians get baptized here, if you can believe it. But they were so happy and excited and Rosa bore her testimony after her baptism and cried and said that she never felt at home in the other churches she went to, but that when she came to church with us she finally felt at home. It was so cool. And Isabella was a practicing Catholic before, which is surprising because 1) there are hardly any practicing Catholics in Italy (people always say "sono cattolico, ma non practicante" / "I'm catholic, but I don't practice it" and 2) she got baptized and she's so happy! Sor W always tells me aobut how much happier and friendly she's gotten in these past few weeks. Anway, the first picture is from the baptism: Sor W, Isabella, F.llo Mazzolari (who baptized them), Rosa and me.
The next picture is of the sunrise from the balcony of our apartment at about 7 am this morning and the last picture is of Corso Agnelli, right outside our apartment. Tons of trees! You can see our bikes in the foreground :)
Well, that's all I've got time for this week! I love you all so much! The prayers and love are felt and mutual!!!
VI VOGLIO TANTISSIMO BENE!!!
Love,
Sorella Soh
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