February!? ALREADY?!?!?

Hellooooooooooooooo carissimi!!!!

Greetings from snowy, slushy Torino! It has been FREEZING this past week. We're talking it gets down to -15°C at night and during the day -8°C. Yikies! Our poor little bikes have just been left out in the parking garage-ish space behind our building to get snowed on and neglected while we try to figure out the dang public transportation system. Luckily, though, today it's pretty warm, 2°C-ish, and the snow is melting a bit. I'm super excited about this because our bikes are so much faster and more convenient! Who'da thunk, right?

A few things - 1) Tiffane, I wrote you a note last week and then realized that I threw away the box with your address on it without writing down said address...so if you could email my mom your address so that she can get it to me that would be great. 2) Mom/Dad if by chance you happen to be at the store and find a set of speakers and cheapy-ish portable CD player, that would be great. I'm also still looking for rechargable batteries that will work in european outlets. 3) Just in case anyone is on the lookout for getting me a late Christmas/valentines day/easter/early bday present, I would not be opposed to an Atlanta braves tshirt...McCann or Uggla...in a medium...just so y'all know...

My sense of time is all out of whack because I feel like I was just here writing my email home last week but at the same time I feel like a lot has happened in the past week, most of which I probably can't remember. I think we invited 4 people to be baptized last week, and they all said no. BUT! They're all still meeting with us and they'll get baptized eventually, we'll just have to keep asking them. That's something our mission president has really wanted us to start doing - inviting people to be baptized on the first lesson in a "when you know this stuff is true will you be baptized?" kind of way, and then setting an official date by the second lesson. It sounds kinda crazy and a little pushy, but in reality, it makes a lot of sense. It establishes right off the bat what our purpose as missionaries is - to bring others unto Christ and have them do so by being baptized. Obviously we do it tactfully and want to make sure that we're only baptizing people who want to be baptized because dunking people in a tub of water is not the same as being baptized. Anyway, we've been putting this into practice - inviting people early to be baptized - and it's working out, even if they're saying no. We're not trying to trick anyone into getting baptized and also people know what they need to do next when they receive their answer that the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and all that are true.

I'm feeling more comfortable about my calling as a trainer and senior companion. That's not to say that I'm any good at it, but my trust in the Lord is growing and growing. In this calling I feel like I have so much more control over what I can do as a missionary, and so at the end of the day I can feel good about what I've done for the day because I know I've done everything I can. Before it wasn't really like that because I was just trusting in what my trainer did and she had the responsibilty, but now it's all on me. I'm the one that determines what we will do and so I'm the one that has to take the responsibility for it. I don't know if Sorella Bunker has gotten anything out of the past two weeks that I've been trying to show her how I think this missionary business goes, but speaking for myself I know that I've learned and grown a ton in these past two weeks and it's only the beginning!

I was thinking today about how it's February (is that spelled right? In Italian - febbraio), and how my mission technically finishes at the end of Feb 2013. Which means I only have a year left. Which means I've been out for almost 6 months. Which means I've been out almost of a third of my mission. A THIRD! Yikies! I just got here!

Nana, I got your letter last week! Thanks for writing me! I often think about the stories you've told me about your mission. Mom and Dad, I just got the letters you wrote me from two Sundays ago - I got them both on Monday, so it took just about a week I guess. Poor Sor B has gone a whole week without getting any mail because no one had her address here. I've been reading her some of my journal entries from my first week in Italy so that she can have a snapshot of what my first few days were like. I don't know if it helps her at all, but it's helped me remember how hard those first few days are with the jet lag, lifestyle adjustments and no mail!

Tomorrow we have interviews with the mission president! President and his wife and the assistants will all be coming down to our church building here in Torino, as will several other missionaries from other nearby cities (Vercelli, Novarra, Cuneo), and we'll spend the day in trainings while President takes us out one by one and interviews us. I don't really want to talk too much about that though because that'll be in my email for next week!

Well, that's all I've got time for this week. I love you all!!! Really really! Props to my mom who actually asked the missionaries in our ward to recite their missionary purpose to her!!! I'm still waiting on your other folks!!! Don't think you're off the hook!!!

Lots and lots and lots and lots of LOVE and prayers and other good things from Torino,
Sorella Soh