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