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