Transfer 7!!

Buongiorno a tutti!

You'll all be happy to know that it's cooled off to the mid-80s here, so I won't have to interject every few lines of this email to say "dang it's so hot!". At least for this week...I make no promises for next week.

Shout out this week to the FORMER Sorelle Walton and Smith!!! Please know that I may never be able to call you by your first names. Please also know that I was SO SO excited about getting your emails today! It was fun to hear both of you talk about the rooming situation in the hotel your last night in Italy...I'm the only one who got to hear the story from both perspectives! You are so cute, both a' yous! Also a shout out to Grammy and Grampa Soh who have finally discovered my blog! Don't mind the 12 hour difference between here and Hawaii!

Well, transfers are over! Even though we weren't at the transfer circle at the train station, I still got to see my dear former companions, Sorelle Walton and Bunker! They all had to be at our church meetinghouse, and I couldn't not go and see them. I hugged Sor W I don't know how many times. Probably not enough. I also got to meet Sor Bunker's trainee, Sor Lofley! We took a picture with the four of us together - trainers and trainees! A four-generation picture! The family history geek inside of me was very pleased.

Mom! Thanks for the family reunion collage! I LOVE IT!!!! When I first saw the picture of Nana and Opa with all the cousins, my first thought was "who is that tall, brown girl on the end with the long hair?" I about had a heart attack when I realized "AHH!!! THAT'S MY SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I couldn't believe it!!! And then the picture of her at the beach - that can't be her! She can't possibly the same girl I said goodbye to in Alabama last summer! And mamma mia, the picture of her looking at the beach - HOLY GUACAMOLE! She looks like a model! She is TALL!!! She is beautiful! What are you feeding her?!?!?! AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! You're right, Dad! I probably WON'T recognize her come next March! Ack! All of the cousins are getting big! Kate is getting monstrously tall. And in the cousins picture, I was like "who is that sassy thing in the front with her hands on her hips?" and yeah. It's Sammi. She's huge. And the picture of Anna and Chad? MAMMA MIA ANNA IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! Whaaaaaat! And the pic of Alex and Spencer (I assume) is so cute. But I still can't get over how brown and tall and beautiful Squeaky is. Unbelievable. Yikies.

Well, the continued miracle here in Milano is that I still understand Spanish. I just understand it. I don't even know how that happened. I understand like 80%, maybe more. That's about how I felt when I first got to Italy with Italian. If I were to get transferred to a Spanish speaking mission right now, I would be okay. It's absolutely insane. Interpretation of tongues: REAL. Mostly we only use Spanish with Karla (who can't get baptized on the 28th, but maybe the 29th), at least she is the only one Sor Silva speaks Spanish to. Karla is so funny. She keeps asking "when is my baptism??" and the other day she asked if she had to wear a swimsuit to get baptized. Sor S just laughed. And then when we told her we have white dresses, she said "oh, do they have one in my size?? Be sure to check! Do I need to buy one?" and it was just so cute and funny. And then when we were with her yesterday, she was wearing a shirt that said "Paris" on it, except apparently she didn't understand what it meant and said "oh, I thought it said 'poopy'". Keep in mind that "poopy" is not a word in Italian...but it's English meaning just made me laugh when she said it. She's so funny.

I officially am not okay with the fact that Italians decide to take the entire month of August off so that they can go on vacation, mostly because they always round up and take half of July off, too. First Alicia and Nathaly peaced out to go to Ecuador, and then on Sunday we found out that our other progressing investigator, Flavia, will be going home to Napoli for the next month. They all said they'd read the BoM while they're gone (pray that they will!), and if they keep up with their reading, they will likely all get baptized shorty after coming back to Milano. They're so ready!

The only compensation for this darn month of vacation is that all the stores have huge sales! So today I have organized another Sorelle p-day field trip to go window shopping on Corso Buenos Aires, which is near our house and packed with stores! We probably won't really buy anything, but I'm excited to get together with the other Milano Sorelle and have a p-day together. The Milano Anziani always get together and play sports on p-day...so it's only natural that we go shopping, haha.

Well, time's up. Love you all buckets and buckets! STATEMI BENE!!!

AMOREEEEEE,

Sorella Soh!

Note from Nicole:  Here is the collage of photos from our family reunion that she refers to in this letter.