Chee-yow!!!

CIAO CARISSIMI!!!!

What a great time to be alive! I made a list of things to talk about this week to help facilitate the writing of this email.

First of all, I LOVED the "we'd like to talk about cheeses" and ghostbuster costume pictures that you and dad sent me!!! Loved them so much. I love getting letters. We usually get mail when we get home for lunch and so we read them as we eat lunch. The best part, though, is getting to read them over and over and over again throughout the week before bed. They are the best! Oh, and dad, it's okay that you didn't make the time limit for the krispy kreme challenge. I don't think I could even attempt it, although Sorella Walton and I do run around our block every morning for excercise and it's not as horrible for me as it was at the beginning! One day I might even get to like it! And thanks for telling me all about your Thanksgiving festivities! It sounds like you all had a good time.

I was thinking about where I was at this time last year, and I remembered that I had already gotten home from Siena by this point and was somewhere between Alabama, Wisconsin and Florida. Wow. I can't believe that was a year ago. Who would've thought I'd be back in Italy again - and in Torino of all places! Heavenly Father really does have a plan for each of us.

Mom, question: now that your stake has split, do you think they'll finally get a singles' ward?

I'M A COUSIN?! (again) Huzzah! Spencer is a great name. Spencer Smith has a great ring to it. And he's destined to be super cute. All those little nutheads I have for cousins are all cute. Email me a picture!

I. Have. Eaten. So. Much. The past few days. We've been fed dinner 4 nights in a row. Sat, Sun, Mon and yesterday. Oh man. Of course the food is all so good and I'll tell you why. It's because it's been made by Italian women who learned how to cook from their mothers, who were also Italian women, who learned how to cook from their mothers who were also Italian women. There's no way you can go wrong. It's all been incredible. But it's a dang good thing we're biking all over the city all day because we really can't afford to eat all these extra calories! Haha. The members are SOOOOOO great, though. Last night we went to visit Sorella Bocca, who joined the church back in 1968 or so. We didn't know she was going to feed us dinner, but she did anyway (she's Italian. Feeding people is what they do) AND she gave us Christmas presents!!!!! Can you believe it!? She is SOOO GREAT!!!!!! We decided to save the presents to open on Christmas. I still can't get over her giving us presents. I just love her so much! And she's just ONE of the tons of super duper awesome members that we have in our ward who have such SOLID testimonies and just go out of their way to make us feel loved. And boy, do we feel it!

So last Sunday was our Stake Conference! We all had to travel to Alessandria, which is about an hour away from Torino, but where the Stake is centered. Anyway, we got to see all the missionaries in our zone (including Sorella Nilson!) and we got to see a TON of members! It was SO awesome to be gathered together as saints in Italy. I just felt so happy. Pure joy. And of course we're sister missionaries and not all of the cities in our mission have sisters. So. We had several members just fawn over us. They saw us from afar off and would just say "OH! SORELLE!!!!!!!" and run over and greet us with the kiss on the cheek thing. There was one woman from the Philipines who is a member of the Alessandria ward who met us as we were waiting for the bathroom and she just clung to Sorella Walton like a candy cane on a Christmas tree! She took Sor W to where her family was sitting and wanted us to meet her sons and daughters and husband and sister and the whole fam! It was so much fun to see how excited the members were to see us, even if we're just little sister missionaries in Torino and nothing particularly special. But to these members we were just like candy, it was funny. (p.s. Sorella Walton is slowly getting accustomed to my strange expressions such as "clinging to her like a candy cane on a Christmas tree" and "sweating like a sinner in church". Slowly. Slowly.)

So this week is the last week of the transfer! Aka I have been here for SIX WEEKS. Hokey smokes! I can't even believe it! We had our transfer calls last night and our district is staying the same except for one Anziano (Nielsen) who is going to Firenze to train next transfer. He was a zone leader, so we'll get a new one in a few days. I've been thinking the past few days about the end of the transfer and what I feel like I've learned. I don't think I could even begin to write down what I've learned. But I think what I've learned most is that I still have a lot to learn. I want so much to just be a good missionary and I know that there are a lot of things I need to work on to be better. It's not a discouraging kind of "I have a lot to learn", but I feel like now I have a better vision of the kind of missionary I want to be and some of the steps I need to try and take to get there. Good thing they've started this new double transfer training program because that means I still have six more weeks to learn from Sorella Walton!

I just need everyone to know how awesome Sorella Walton is. And she probably will never read this (even though she's sitting right next to me), but I just want you all to know that she is great. She is a great missionary. One of the first things my mission president told me about her is that he thinks she is one of the best sisters in the mission. Perfect! I learn so much from her every day and she has been really patient with me trying to pick up on what this missionary business is all about. I probably drive her nuts, but she is just so so great and we get along really well. I'm so blessed to have another transfer together with her!

It's almost Christmas, and I know all of you are just dying to know how to best shower me with your love. Well. Let me help you. First of all, I will refer you back to the list I made back while I was in the MTC of things that I love to get in the mail (kitkats, sharpie pens not markers, etc.). Now that I'm here in Italy, I would LOVE to get any of the following things from you: peanut butter (Sor W seconds this motion), treat mixes (brownies, cookies), jello packets (the members LOVE and are also disgusted by jello), post-it notes, lucky charms and fun American things.

OH!!! AND CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SEND ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR HUNGRY, YOUR CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!!!!!! Please.

Okay. That's all I've got time for. I am so blessed. I am blessed to have all you in my life - family, friends and internet creepers. I am blessed to have a great companion. I am blessed to be in the perfect city for me to start my mission. I am blessed to be a missionary. The blessings that come from that are endless. I am blessed to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am blessed to be loved. I am blessed to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and I am blessed that I get to share that message with the people I meet here.

I love you all so much! The gospel is true! Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Sorella Soh

p.s. the pictures are of me by the river Po, the wall of our apartment where all the sisters have marked how tall they are, and also of our Christmas tree (which has cookies and kinder eggs hanging on it)

Note from Sorella Soh's mom: If you want to send ONLY a Christmas card, it can go directly to her apartment. Email me at nicolesoh (at) yahoo (dot) com and I'll send you her address - it's only good for another six weeks though. If you are sending a package (watch out, it's wicked expensive, $45 for a medium flat rate USPS box - and be sure to check the list of restricted items to Italy on the USPS website, it's kinda hilarious) then it HAS to go to the mission home address that is posted on the left side of the blog.

And, so that the rest of you can know what she was talking about, here's the "cheeses" cartoon I sent her:

And the Ghostbusters picture of her dad and little sister from Halloween:

Merry Christmas! Thanks for reading about Katie's mission adventures!