Buon Natale!

CIAO CARISSIMI!!!!

I really can't believe it's p-day again. Of course, that also means that I've been here another week. Yikes! Auntie Kim, I got your letter this past week! It took a little longer to get to me because I had to wait for someone to get it from the office in Milan, but transfers were last week and so I got it on Sunday when I saw our zone leaders at church. But yeah! Transfers! I already knew I'd be with Sorella Walton still because we're in double transfer trainings now, and the only change in our district was Anz Nielsen who went to train in Firenze. Now we have Anz Ostler as our new zone leader. And all of the sister companionships in our zone stayed the same, so that's pretty cool.

So a funny thing - we had a lesson this past week with a man named Luigi who is the friend of a member (who also came along to our lesson). And guess what the member's name is? Yes. It's Mario. We had a lesson with Mario and Luigi. !!!!!!!!!!! Isn't that awesome?! Sorella Walton apparently never played Mario Kart growing up, so she didn't get why I was so excited about it. Haha. Luigi had a piano in his house, and lucky for him, Sor W plays the piano. So Mario asked if she would play and she said yes. She actually had some piano music in her bag because she sometimes plays the church piano while we wait for investigators to show up at the church before lessons and had been playing earlier that day. She always wants me to sing along while she plays and sometimes I oblige. Well. You know what that sneaky companion of mine did? When she sat down at the piano in Luigi's apartment and said she'd play and she roped me into singing the song she had had me sing earlier that day! And what could I do, say no? So here we were, this little companionship of sisters in Torino, in the home of a non member and it's just Mario and Luigi and then Sor W playing the piano and me singing "I know that my redeemer lives" (in English) in his living room. Definitely not a scene I ever thought I would be a part of, but there we were. And I didn't see it, but Sor W said that Luigi had tears in his eyes at the end. It really did bring a good spirit. Luigi has had a rough past couple of years since his wife died. We're hoping to stop by again before Christmas and just check up on him. He's such a great man.

So! We have an awesome new investigator!!! Her name is Alina and she is from Moldovia (Maldova? I think I'm combining languages here...), but moved to Italy when she was 8. Anyway, she's 16 and we met her as a referral from her grandmother who we met on the street. Anyway, she is so great! She is cute and smart and studying to be a dentist/dental assistant or something. Anyway, she doesn't have a ton of friends and mostly just studies all day. This past Sunday we went to her house to pick her up and accompany her to church. She really liked it! We have a ton of young women in our ward and no young men, but the young women were all so great about talking to her and stuff. She really liked them and had a good time. We're excited to get to see her again tomorrow. The bummer part about this time of the year is that everyone is leaving and going to visit family so we don't get to see them! Okay, that's a selfish thing, but I just want to see them!!!

We had another ward party last Saturday! No green jello this time, but it was still good (and we made brownies). Our new convert, Giuseppe, was asked to play Babbo Natale (aka Santa Claus) and come and give all the primary kids little gifts. He told us about it a few weeks ago and was not excited about it, but Sor W and I both know that deep down he loved every second of it! It was so cute to see him call up all of the kids and give them their little present and have them sit on his lap. We KNOW he loved it! It was fun. And of course there was food. Italian food. Made by Italians. Need I say more? OH! And guess what the AMAZING ward members did for us?? They gave us a HUGE, I mean HUGE, box full of food! Six jars of pasta sauce, six kilos of pasta, 3 Italian Christmas cakes called Pandoro (google it, they're delicious and we eat some every day now, basically), a huge bag of chocolates, 4 cans of tuna (I know, weird), a big bag of clementines, a pizza, more chocolates (gianduia - also google that because it's a special kind of chocolate made in Torino) and a bunch of other stuff I can't even remember! Aren't they so great!? The Torino 2° Ward is SO GREAT!!!

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY DAD!!!! Do you feel really old now? You probably should ;) And Happy Almost Birthday ALEX!!!!!! You should also start feeling old. A quarter of a century already, sheesh! To celebrate on Friday, I will be going to Milano! Also we have zone conference that day.

Oh, and let's talk about how Sunday is CHRISTMAS!!! I can't believe it! It can't be Christmas already!!! I only entered the MTC a few weeks ago and that was August 31st! Still trying to figure that one out. I feel like I just barely got to Italy, but apparently my first transfer is already over. Hm. Weird.

Well, I confess that I didn't make a list of things to talk about this week, so I don't really know what else to say! Things are good here. It's gotten pretty cold the past few days, but Torino is basically right by the mountains, so that's not a huge surprise. I had a really bad sore throat last night, but it's much better now and I've basically downed an entire liter of orange juice today. Also I bought a little knit hat today at a market. I would send pictures, but the only ones are on Sor W's camera. Next time!

Anyway, I love you all dearly! Have a great great great week and a buonissimo natale!!!! This is the Lord's work and His hand is ever-present in our lives!

Love, etc.

Sorella Soh