Senior Companion Week!!

Hello hello hello!!!

Hi. I'm sick, so as you hear my voice in the words of my email today, kick it down a few octaves and weaken it because I sound pretty pathetic. It's not too horrible, but I have a little cough and my throat hurts some and I have a little bit of a headache. Pretty much I'm just sick enough for it to be annoying. Good thing it's week 5 of the transfer, because that means it's Slla Heupel's turn to be senior companion! She's not thrilled about it...but neither was Slla Bunker and she turned out alright...even if she was ready to strangle me at one point during the week. 

Shout out this week to Grammy and Papa Soh, who sent me a letter this week! At least someone in my extended family writes to me!!! It was happily received :)

I forgot to tell you last week about two pdays ago when we went to the Duomo - we each shelled out 4 euro to go down to the old baptistry that is now underground. I don't know how long ago it was found/excavated. It has a baptismal font in it. And what's that you ask? Is it a baptismal font in which they did baptism by immersion? Why yes, yes it is. It was pretty cool. You can see some of the tiles on the floor of the font, and there is a hydrolic system that they used to use to fill the font with water. The info plaque said that there were four "faucets" where water came out to fill the font that represent the four rivers in the garden of Eden. Cool, right?

It terms of my ever-changing appearance, I cut my hair again last week! It's not anything super special, but say that you to Sister Howard for giving me an easy haircut before the mission so that I can now just cut straight across to get rid of the dead ends. Also, I've had two people this past week tell me that I've lost weight. It wasn't "have you lost weight?", but rather "you have lost weight." Oh so very Italian. But it's true. Since being in Milano I have lost weight. Overall, however, I've gained weight as a missionary. Guess that just makes me an official missionary, right? :)

Speaking of weight and Italians, we had lunch with an Italian member couple on Sunday. Oh. Mamma. Mia. Itwassogood. We had roasted bell peppers and FRESH buffalo mozzarella as an antipasto (appetizer? is that how you said that in English?), pasta with a napoletano sauce (aka Napoli-style, because this couple is from Napoli) which was made from scratch...as in the husband took tomatoes and made the sauce from scratch, then we had these meat roll things and then we had another kind of roasted bell peppers with olives and capers and then we had grapes and a fruit called fichi d'India, which I've never seen in the US before. It was delicious. I'll try and duplicate some of those things when I get home. But I'll only make you Italian food if you have written to me while I've been in Italy. Ha.

Well I guess you're all waiting to hear about Giovanna's Baptism! So I'll tell you about it. It didn't happen. She didn't get baptized. Not because she's not worthy - she didn't even have the interview - I guess she just isn't ready yet. So that was a bummer. We spent the last few days of last week feeling pretty crummy. Actually, it was probably the worst I've felt on my mission. Here's the short version: She had her interview scheduled for 5pm last Wednesday, we were in the car with the guy who was gonna do the interview and got stuck in traffic and were late, she got mad because she had made a ton of arrangements to be a the church for the interview, and when we weren't there after having waited for a long time, she left. There's more to the story, but that doesn't really matter. In the end, she just wasn't ready to be baptized. She still wants to, I think, but since we already had to reschedule once already, I don't know if she will. We're still meeting with her and all that, so the story isn't over, but we've just had to regroup and now we're trying to figure out what we need to do to help her continue progressing in her faith. I had made brownies last week and so we gave her some with an "I'm sorry" card as a peace offering. So that's where she's at.

About Flavia, who also had a baptismal date, she is still doing good. She doesn't have a date anymore because she has been bouncing back and forth between Milano and Napoli (which is where she's from) for the past several weeks, and currently she is in Napoli. She gets back to Milano on the 3rd, though, so we'll be able to make a new plan with her after that. She is incredible and asks us awesome, profound questions about what she reads in the BoM. She's so great. I can't wait for her to get back! 

Transfers are next week, but unless President really feels strongly about changing us up, we'll be staying together her in Milano. You're right, mom, that as a training companionship we do two transfers together. However, at the end of this second transfer I'm about 98% sure I'll be transferred because I will have been in Milano 4 transfers, which is usually the max in one city.

Is there such thing as an opposite shout out? Maybe a wall of shame? Because I would like to put Slla Walton, Slla Baker and Slla Williams on said wall. And since they all speak Italian, I'll spare the English speakers and write to them in Italian - Biblical Italian: Ora ecco, disse la povera sorella ancora in missione: Vergognatevi tutte!!! Non potete dire che mi scriverete e poi non farlo, sì, non potete dire a quel giorno "mi pentirò, scriverò a mia sorella". Poiché ecco, questo giorno è il giorno in cui dovete compiere le vostre buone opere e mantenere le vostre promesse a prescindere dalle difficoltà. VERGOGNA. Pentitevi, pentitevi per poter stare senza biasimo dinanzi a me al giorno quando finisco la missione. Amen.

Anyway, I guess if you're super curious you can google translate that. As for now, I'm out of time! I always feel like I haven't conveyed any worthwhile information in these emails. I even made a list this week! Just keep reading the Book of Mormon. It'll bless you life more than you can imagine.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Con tanto amore,

Sorella SOH

p.s. sorry no pictures this week (not that I have any). This computer's CPU is hiding from me so I can't upload any pictures.

p.p.s. Thanks, dad, for the picture you drew of an example jalapeno in your letter this week, even if it wasn't to scale or in color. It really gave me a better idea of what they look like..