Un anno dei miracoli

Ciaowdy!

Well, this past week has been absolutely nuts! I have a new companion! Fresca fresca from the MTC! Her name is Sorella Heupel (Hoi-pull) and she's from California, L.A. area. She's tall (but not taller than me, ha!) and blonde and cute and has never studied Italian before! It's been a crazy last few days because we had a ton of extra stuff to get done to get her legal here in addition to the work we still had to get done before the week ended, but she's been a total rockstar and we've just been setting goal and reaching them!

I'm particularly excited for my new companion because she was told, as every missionary who gets sent to Italy, that she shouldn't expect many, or ANY, baptisms because the work in Europe is just so slow. Well, all those people are going to have to eat their hats because we have TWO baptismal dates! Giovanna and Flavia are getting baptized! So take that, haters!!!! People in Italy are just as elect as they are in any other country!

So last week Wednesday the Rimini sisters (Slle Gomez and Arume) came and stayed the night. Rimini is pretty far away and Slla Gomez had to be in Milano early because she's training, too. Slla Arume went home - all the way to Kauai!!! Poor thing, I don't even want to know how many hours it took her to get home - and then she had to give her homecoming talk in church that Sunday! I guess that's what happens when your dad is bishop! But anyway, Wednesday night I confess I stayed up past my bedtime because I was talking to the sorelle. Slla Arume told me that I can come visit her the next time we go to Hawaii and she'll show me all the cool things on Kauai.

We had a sisters only conference yesterday and everyone came to our meetinghouse in Milano 2. I about had a heart attack when Slla Nilson, who is one transfer ahead of me (she's the one who talked about cod nuggets in her blog), said "do you realize that WE are now the old sisters in the mission?" Ahhhh! It's true! I hit one year on Friday!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How did THAT happen!?!? I still feel like a new missionary! But then again, this is my second time training and my first training is now also training...but still! There are 7 sisters that are older than me in the mission, and three of them go home in 5 weeks...yikes. There are only 24 sisters in the mission.

We've met some pretty neat people lately. I took Slla Heupel to do casa in casa (door to door contacting) for the first time on Saturday. We get into a palazzo (stairwell) and start ringing doorbells. We ring one and a man answers the door (he may or may not have been wearing a shirt...I honestly don't remember because with this heat it's normal to see lots of shirtless people) and we say something about how our families can be together forever. He doesn't seem to understand Italian very well, and looks confused. The following exchange ensued (in Italian):

Him: What church are you from?

Me: We're from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

Him: Oh...uh...us too.

Me: Really?? That's so great! So have you been reading the Book of Mormon?? (we both show him the BoMs in our hands)

Him: Uh...yeah, we already got one...

Me: That is so fantastic! Could we maybe come in and read together with you and your family??

Him: Uh...um...well, no because we're waiting for some people...

Me: Oh, darn! Well maybe another time! Thanks, brother!

Him: Uh, yeah yeah...no problem (closes door)

After he closed the door and we started to walk away I just couldn't help but start laughing. He clearly had no idea who we were and was definitely not a member. It was just really funny. Slla H didn't quite understand the whole conversation, but it was just funny. There's a part in the book "Our Search for Happiness" by Elder Ballard where he talks about missionary work (and it's awesome and I suggest you all read it...it starts on page 103) where he says something along the lines of "in all honesty, our missionaries feel just about as awkward standing on your doorstep as you do finding them there" and I felt like our experience with this guy was just a case in point. Too funny.

I'm glad my Pua Olena video is still a hit on your FB, mom. One of the conditions of me keeping the uke was that President asked me to play my version of the mission hymn at our next missionary conference, which just happened to be our sister conference yesterday. So I was the special musical number. Sorella Soh and The Pink Ukulele. I was super nervous for some reason (still don't know why) and so I messed up a little bit, but of course everybody loved it. President was really impressed. Afterward he and Slla Wolfgramm complimented me on it and said how I have a great voice and President basically told me that he would buy my CD if I ever had one. Actually, he said something along the lines of "you have a great voice. That's the kind of voice I would buy a CD of and listen to". What a compliment! Maybe after my mission I'll go put together a little CD like Jen and Chad did that one time and give copies of it to all my little fans - including President!. So be thinking of good songs for me to sing!

Well, folks, that's all I have time for this week! Today we are going to the Duomo and the baptistry (apparently the font is an immersion font!). Slla Forbes, who is in Milano 3rd ward, is also training (Slla Mancuso), so we are taking our trainees to get their first gelato and kebab! Aaand the sorelle from Milano 1st ward (slla Nilson! who just got here and Slla Lloyd) are coming, too. We are excited! Oh! And mom, thanks for the package!!!! I'm sure my companion was tired of hearing me say "MY MOM IS THE BEST!!!!!!!" every five seconds as I pulled things out of the box. The socks are PERFECT! You are the best mom in the whole wide world! Anyway, all is well here in Milano. Still hot, but cooling down. I am a missionary!!!!! Livin' the dream!!!! 

Love you all buckets!

Sorella SOH

Great Expectations

Hi.

I'm expecting. Oh, what? That's right. I'm training. AGAIN.

I'M TRAINING
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't believe it! Well, I can...I kinda have to, but I'm going to be a trainer again! At least this time I feel a little bit more confident about what the heck I'm doing as a missionary. We're going to the Duomo again later on today to greet the new missionaries - 5 sisters and 3 elders - but they won't know that I'll be training one of them! I'm only a little bit nervous, but mostly excited (so I sang a song called "Nervous, but Excited"...get it? Okay...SNL skit with Zac Efron. Google it.)

So yeah! Sorella Silva is getting transferred to Collegno, which is right by Torino, and she's pretty excited about it. In any case I'll see her again next Tuesday at the Sister Conference we're having here in Milano on the 28th. Oh which reminds me, mom, your package got here, so I'll get it within the next few days. Customs was 16 euro.

Our new Assistant to the President is Anz Herrington who was my district leader in Torino! I'm excited about that because he is probably the best Anziano that I've met in the mission.

I'm so glad that you got the video from Nuccia! She told me that she had recorded me singing and had tried to look for you on FB, mom, but got confused because dad is in your profile pic and thought she had the wrong person. Anyway, we went to visit her on Saturday and before we left I remembered she had the video. I was actually standing right next to her when she sent it to you. She wanted me to correct the English in her note to you, but I thought the grammatical structure was endearing because she really doesn't speak English but really wanted to talk to you and let you see the video. The uke is cute, huh? I wasn't kidding when I told you it was pink! I'm glad to hear that I have lots of new adoring fans although I'm sorry it's been making people cry!!! :p One of the funniest things about the video is the guy who is holding the sheet of paper with the lyrics to the song on it. I didn't really need the words because it's not like anyone would be able to tell a difference, but I didn't want to mess up, and right at the part when I was trying to look at the words, I look over and the guy was reading the lyrics and started turning the paper towards him! I was thinking "um, hey! I kinda need to see that paper!" Haha. At the end of the talent night he came up to me and was just starstruck and told me how much he loved the song and how it made him want to cry. He really couldn't even express what he wanted to say. Haha. I wrote down the name of the song for him and he said he would look it up on youtube because he really really liked it. Then I saw him a week or two ago and he was like "where's your ukulele???" and told me he found the song on youtube and listened to it. Sorella Silva really likes it, too. Any time I have my ukulele with me (the members have started to request it), she always says "play that Hawaiian song". It's a fan favorite. 

Yesterday a new convert and her 16 yr old daughter took us out to lunch at a place called Yummy Wok. No, really. Even in Italian it's called Yummy Wok. The daughter, who speaks some English, asked me "what does 'yummy' mean?" haha. Anyway, it was really good and I even ate some sushi (Sor Silva doesn't like sushi because she had a bad experience with wasabe a few transfers ago when she was here with Sor Williams...fyi, wasabe is NOT a salad and it's NOT a good idea to eat a whole spoonful of it plain...). It was a buffet, but get this - they fine you if you waste food! Seriously! There was a note on the little menu plaque on the table that said if you leave a ton of food on your plate they'll fine you! Between 5 and 20 euros! Can you imagine what people would do in America if they got fined for wasting food at a buffet?? Just another way that Italy is different from America, if you didn't have enough examples already.

Our investigator, Giovanna, has commited to baptism on the 15th of September! There's still a little bit of uncertainty about it, but this time I really think she's commited and will actually go through with it. Initially we had her scheduled for the first of Sept. She's progressing so well, but she really needs a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon, so if you're looking for things to pray for, pray that Giovanna will read the Book of Mormon and gain a spiritual witness that it is true!

Well, it's kind of a wimpy email this week, but time is up. I love you all very much! Pray for Sorella Silva and for my new trainee who I haven't met yet! The work just keeps rolling along! 

LOVE YOU ALL BUCKETS!!!!

Sorella Soh

Pua Olena

Remember Katie talked about some ward members giving her the gift of a pink ukulele?  Well another ward member has given all of us a gift - the video of Katie singing Pua Olena at the church talent show!  Enjoy!

Ferragosto!

Hello hello hello!

It's weird to be writing on a Thursday. I feel all kinds of mixed up (maybe I should play a little blue flute with the no-friends club to make me feel better...get it? It's a joke. Free to Be You and Me. Look it up.) Anyway, it's week 5! Ah! Transfers are next week!!! We really don't know what's going to happen with us because Sor Silva only has one transfer left, but she's already been here 4 transfers and we've been together for 2. So whatever happens next week will be a surprise! Get excited!

So I had my interview with President Wolfgramm yesterday, and it  went really well. The Wolfgramms are so great. I love them a lot. I also asked him about the ukulele situation...and he said I can keep it! Well, obviously I can keep it, but he said he didn't have a problem with me having it in the apartment. Yeah! I told him, though, that I might want to leave it at the mission home when/if I leave Milano because I don't want to have to lug it around with me (which is why I didn't bring my own ukulele), and then I can just pick it up when I go home. We'll see. But I told him that I already  wrote an ukulele version of the mission hymn and the look on his face was pure shock! It really caught him off guard! But then he said "well, that means you have to bring your ukulele the next time we have a conference!" The next time we're all in Milano happens to be Aug 28th because we are having another sister conference! All the sisters will be coming to our meetinghouse in Milano 2 and I'll just be bringing along my little pink ukulele so I can play the mission hymn...no big deal. Which reminds me, mom, I didn't get the package yesterday, but the sister conference is in two weeks so I should get it then. The roxy socks are like super no-show socks...I had to search pretty good for them online, too. Basically I wanted little cotton socks that I could wear with dress shoes...so we'll see. Thanks for getting that box in the mail. I'm so excited for peanut butter I can hardly stand it. Yesterday after interviews we had a sort of potluck lunch (we brought a watermelon) and Sister Wolfgramm brought Jif peanut butter that she got from some members in Pordenone (where the military base is). Ohhh man. It was so good. I just wanted to eat the whole jar. Sor Silva is a big fan of crunchy peanut butter. A big fan. She asked me if crunchy PB is expensive and I said "um, no. Not in America!" and then was like "oh, well when you get back to America you can send me some and I'll send you money for it." Haha. So I don't know if anyone is interested in sending my companion some crunchy PB, that would be the most fantastic, amazing, awesomest thing of all time. Her family is all in Peru and her siblings are all inactive and I don't think they even write her emails, let alone snail mail. It would really, really make her day. I'm sorry I didn't mention it before you sent my package, mom, but I didn't know until yesterday.

My scambio (exchange) with Sor Simkins was really great. Not only did she serve in Milano 2 at the beginning of her mission, but she also was companions with Sor Silva  for 3 transfers in Genova! It was fun to have other sisters around. We had a really productive day, too, so even better! I've always wanted to do a scambio/be companions with Sor Simkins, so it was neat for me. And she is going home next week, so it was my last chance!

Sunday I taught the lesson in Relief Society. In Italian. Yikes! It was chapter 14 in the George Albert Smith manual...I don't know what the title is in English, but I would imagine it's something along the lines of "how to preach the gospel effectively". It went really well and I had a lot of sisters thank me for it afterwards. My main point, basically, was that to preach the gospel effectively, you've got to talk about the things YOU love about the gospel (temples, plan of salvation, how to repent...) - things that are DOCTRINE - and not try to just dispell rumors and weird stuff that isn't related to the doctrine (how we're not Amish or Jehovah's Witnesses, whether or not Adam had a belly button...). In any case, the lesson was well received and I was happy to do it. RS teacher really is the best calling in the church.

There's a guy that is relatively new to our ward named Edison. He has the craziest story. He's about 60 yrs old and from Peru. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but a two years ago or so he was in some kind of accident that wiped his memory and left him in the hospital for a long time. He's been in all kinds of rehab to help him get his memory back, and in the process, he remembered that he was a member of the church, so the next Sunday, there he was in our ward! He is so cute. He looks confused a lot of the time (can you blame him?), but he's always smiling. I don't know why, it always just makes me really happy to see him. Maybe I'll get a picture with him one of these days.

Speaking of pictures, I'm attaching two. The first one is of me and Sor Silva with Karla before her baptism! And yes, I really am that monstrously tall... 

The second picture is of me from two or three p-days ago when we went with all the Milano sorelle to a pizza place called "Fratelli la Bufala". I got an eggplant parmeggian pizza and ohhhhhh mamma mia was it good! Everyone got a different kind of pizza and so we all got to taste the different kinds. Man it was good. 

And dang, now I'm hungry! It's okay though because we are doing our grocery shopping right after this!

Well, out of time again this week! I hope all is going well for everyone and that you all enjoy these last few days of summer. I know I will, because it means that the heat is dissapating (I don't remember how to spell that) and everyone is returning from vacation! Yesterday was Ferragosto (a holiday...who knows why) and this whole week Milano has been like a ghost town. ALL of the shops on our street are closed until next week. Every single one, and I'm not exaggerating. It's nutz! 

Anyway, lots and lots of love for you all from a little sister missionary in Milano!!!!

Love,

Sorella Soh

Oh, let's get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France

Ciao everyone,

Are you all ready for the loaded stuffed baked potato of an email this is going to be? Good. First of all, before I forget, next week Wednesday we are having our interviews with President, which means that our P-day will be THURSDAY and NOT WEDNESDAY. So don't freak out when there's no email next Wed. Also, transfers are in two weeks. Yeah. That fast. It's week four. And week four means that our scambio (exchange) is this week! Tonight the sorelle from Bergamo (Sorelle Simkins and Padula) are going to come stay the night with us and then do a scambio with us tomorrow. I will be with Slla Simkins and I'm super excited about it! Milano 2 was her first city, so basically she knows this area like a champ, so maybe she can give me some tips or something.

Shout out this week to Erilyn who finally wrote me! I got your letter on Monday! Thanks! Also a shout out to my Mom and Dad, who will have been married (to each other) 26 whole years as of tomorrow! Happy anniversary! Thanks for getting married and having our family! Oh, and also a shout out to Squeaky aka mini Sorella Soh. My companion told me that you look like my twin. Weird. It's like we're related. Or something.

Well, there are two big pieces of news from this past week. Number one: KARLA IS NOW A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH!!!! She got baptized on the 29th and then was confirmed last Sunday. I was going to send pictures, but Slla Silva didn't bring the cable thing for her camera and mine is long since lost. I'll try again next week.

News number 2: I HAVE A UKULELE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not kidding!!! So last Thursday was crazy. First of all, I lost my companion because we got off at different metro stops and so I was walking around Milano by myself for about an hour...not a pleasant experience, but she had the phone and I went to a member's house and eventually got in touch with her and we met up right before our evening appointment. Anyway, at said appointment we were with a member family that we've only visited once before. The last time we were there, the husband, Marco, asked if I played the guitar and I said yes, so he let me play his guitar a little bit. He's way into music and all that, so he was happy to let me play. Well, so we go over on Thursday and have a lesson, and at the end Marco says "we have a surprise for Sorella Soh!", goes over to where his guitar is and pulls out a little instrument in a black case. He gives it to me, I open it, and it's a pink ukulele! At this point I'm thinking "dang, they went out and bought an ukulele!...why did he buy a pink one? It's not very masculine..." but in any case I tune it and play a few things for them. They loved it! When we had to go, I put the ukulele back in the case and thanked them for letting me play. As I got up to leave, I left the uke on the table and they were like "what are you doing? Take it with you!" and after a moment of confusion, I realized that the surprise was not that they had bought an ukulele, but that they had bought it FOR ME!!! They went out and bought an ukulele just for me. I couldn't believe it! I was pretty shocked, I mean, who does that?!?! So now I have a little pink ukulele. And as far as timing of this goes, the next day, Friday, the YSAs were having a talent show and the YSA leader in our ward had asked us to come and perform something. I had been racking my brain all week with something I could possibly do (she said she'd try to find me a ukulele, but could at least guarantee me a guitar), but with no success. And so within a day of getting this ukulele, I was singing and playing my little heart out at this YSA talent show. And yes, everyone DOES love me for it. I played "Pua Olena" first (thanks for sending me those lyrics way back when I was in the MTC, dad!) and when I finished everyone was cheering and clapping like crazy and I think I saw some people just sitting open-mouthed. Then later the Anziani wanted me to play the mission hymn (which I had already composed on the ukulele without having one...) while Anz Rodriguez beat-boxed to it...yeah. And then at the end they had a little bit of extra time, so the YSA rep from our ward was like "is Sor Soh still here? Can we have an encore?" and so I got up again and played my infamous "Hey Soul Sister/I'm Yours" mash-up. I may possibly be the Milano YSAs' new favorite missionary :) (Apparently they filmed me singing, so if any of them end up putting the video up on facebook or youtube I'll try and get you all the link). Anyway, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do, because we're not supposed to have instruments in our apartments, but it was a gift and I can't not bring it over to their house the next time we go over. I plan on talking to President about it in my interview next week. In any case, I am now the owner of three ukuleles and each one of them has a very special place in my heart.

(Note from Nicole: here's the post where you can see/hear Katie playing the uke and singing: http://katiesoh.blogspot.com/2010/10/i-and-you.html )

On Sunday I fasted for one of our investigators, Giovanna. It was so dang hot out that I had to drink water, but I tried to keep it to a minimum. I broke my fast after church and chugged about a half a liter of water. Almost instantly after having drunk the water, I began sweating because my body could finally use water. It was crazy! But my fast was really good and Giovanna is so amazing. We've been teaching her for about two or three months now, and I know she will get baptized. And when she does, she's going to be an incredible member of the church. We took her to a member's house for FHE on Monday (and two of her sons, Andy, 4, and Jacinto, 6) and we walked them part way back to their house when we went home (they live really close by). The member had given us some cake to take home, so we were carrying tinfoil covered plates. As we were walking, there were two homeless guys sitting on blankets. Andy and Jacinto kinda looked and them, and they said hello. Then the two men asked if we could spare the food that we had in our hands. Usually it's best to just ignore situations like this, but Giovanna heard them, looked at me and raised her eyebrows and kept walking. Then a split second later, she stopped, turned around, and handed the cake to the two men and said "it's dessert, but you can have it" and they accepted. Andy and Jacinto weren't happy about it ("hey! that was my cake!") but when Giovanna explained to him that those men didn't have anything to eat at all, Jacinto and Andy ran back to the men and said "it's okay, you can have our cake. We can eat something else." I walked back to our apartment with my slice of cake in my hand feeling like a big jerk. I don't know if I've done anything on my mission, but boy has this mission done things for me.

Well, time's up. I love you all very much and thank you for your support and prayers. Happy August! I hope you enjoy your air conditioning!!!

Love,

Sorella Soh

Feelin’ hot hot HOT!

Ciao everyone!

It. Is. August. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AUGUST?!?!?!? HOW DID THAT HAPPEN???? Yesterday marked my 11 month anniversary of having a spiffy black nametag. ELEVEN MONTHS. It doesn't even seem possible. Yaow-za.

I have to add my testimony of the likeness between me and Michelle, mom, because yesterday I showed my little family picture book to a guy in our ward and he saw the pages of Michelle and said "wow! It's like looking at pictures of Sorella Soh's childhood!". And that was after he saw our 2010 Christmas card picture and pointed to Michelle and said "is this a picture of you when you were little??" I tried not to think about how ridiculous it would be to send a childhood picture of me on our Christmas card picture, but I refrained because they don't do Christmas cards here, really. Eh. Oh well. The funny thing is, though, that when they see our 2011 family picure, people ALWAYS say that dad and Alex are the ones that look most alike. They always say dad and Alex are "uguale / the same".

It's gotten hotter again these past few days, but we should be getting closer to the end of the insane heat because it's already August! Yikies. On Friday we had a member come to a lesson with us, and after the lesson the three of us walked together to the metro stop by our house because she was going home and we had another appointment. As we were walking down the steps to the stop, she stopped and said "do you guys want some gelato?" and of course we happily accepted. So we turned around and went to a really yummy gelateria (accent on the i, mom, ge-lah-teh-REE-uh ;) ) and it was so good and so nice because it was so hot. I got two flavors: fig and peach.

There was another funny/cool story from this week that I send to President in my email:

 "Last week we were on the metro and I saw a woman I wanted to talk to. The only problem was that she was sitting down and I was standing up and there were people awkwardly placed between us so I couldn't talk to her. I could tell she was looking at me and my nametag and we kept catching each other looking at each other. When we got to our stop, I prayed in my heart "please get off the train, please get off the train!" but she didn't get up. I was trying to figure out what to do - stay on the train and talk to her and be late to our appointment, or let the situation slide (neither option being a particularly good one) - when we got to the stop and lo and behold, she got up at the last second and got off the train! After that I knew it was game-on and I was almost taking people down trying to follow this woman. I finally got her to slow down by making some dumb comment about what stop we were at, but as soon as I talked to her, she kept telling us about how she had seen me on the metro and liked me because I had been smiling and whistling and happy. She had wanted to talk to me, too. So, don't forget to be happy - people notice!" Her name is Hilda, and we got her number and are still trying to find a time when she can see us.

Oh, S.lla Williams or S.lla Walton, can one of you (or both) send me a copy of that "sacred missionary" talk? The one that talks about social missionaries, honorable missionaries and sacred missionaries? I welcome your comments on it, as well. Thanks, GEMs! Also, you both and my cousin Sarah should all listen to a song for me because it keeps getting stuck in my head: "Soldiers without an Army" by Everybody Else (album First Class). Kgreatthanks.

About a week and a half ago we were teaching a 16 yr old girl named Laura. Usually we teach her and her 11 yr old sister, Rebecca, but Rebecca wasn't there. Since they're both underage, we can't go in their house if there isn't an adult woman with us, and since their mom is usually always at work, we just sit on the steps of the stairwell by their front door and teach there. Anyway, we had read the first few verses of Enos with Laura and were talking about prayer and stuff and I don't know what happened, but the lesson turned into me just trying to figure out how Laura was doing, like how she was really doing. It came out that she was having a really hard time feeling Heavenly Father's love for her. I don't know how it happened, but the whole lesson I felt like I was back at the MTC, focused 100000% on helping this person feel God's love without any lines from Preach my Gospel or Zone Trainings all mixed up in my head with people telling me what it means to be a good missionary and what I have to do in order to fulfill my calling and everything I do wrong. In that moment all I saw was a daughter of God who needed to feel the love of her Father in Heaven. And before I knew it, I was opening my mouth and making promises to her and I have no idea why or where they came from. I promised her that if she would kneel down and ask God the big question "why?", that He would answer her and she would feel His love for her. She said she'd do it. After the lesson I was a little bit dumbfounded because I couldn't really explain what had just happened. Anyway, we went back a few days ago and, with a little bit of hesitation, not knowing what to expect, I asked Laura if she had prayed like I asked her to. Her response? Yes, she had prayed. "And...?" She told me that she had prayed, and that night, she had a dream. She dreamt that she was with her Grandfather, who passed away a while ago. She said she was really, really happy. And then so I asked her "do you know that God loves you?" and she said "Yes."

Well, I still have a few minutes left, but my companion is done and wants to go. She's waiting for me by the door already We are going out to eat pizza with Sorelle Forbes and Bishop, who are in the Milano 3rd ward. I'll try to remember to take pictures. I often bring my camera when we go out on Pday, but I don't always remember to use it...

I love you all tons and tons and tons! I'm still waiting on your letter this week, Dad, but I guess I'll just have to wait. Happy late Birthday, Squeaky! I love you so much and I can't believe you are 12 years old! I'm glad you had fun at girls' camp!

AMORE,

Sorella Soh