September?!

Hi. It's September. I'm freakin out.

Well well well, what's new in Milano 2, you ask? First of all, it's been raining! It's been raining off and on since Thursday or so. That pretty much destroyed our plans for Saturday evening because you can't go find people in the park if the rain forces all the people to not be in the park. It did mean, though, that Sunday was a huge miracle day because we taught 7 lessons! The rain has really cooled off the city, though, so tender mercy. Also, I don't know how the stars aligned like this, but Sunday we went to teach a new convert and she was skyping with the former Slla Baker and Slla Williams!!! That was weird. I mean, it was cool to see them, but any time I do something out of the ordinary that is fun, I feel like I'm breaking some kind of mission rule...

Anyway, the work is going great. We're finding all kinds of new investigators to teach, and this past week we've given away BoMs in Sinhala (the language of Sri Lanka) and Bulgarian. That was cool. We managed to find what we thought was Moroni 10:4-5 in both of them and it was so awesome to hear these people read from the Book of Mormon in their own language...also because if I didn't already know what those verses said I would've had no idea what they were saying. Flooding the earth!!!!!! Boo-yah!!!

We've had to move Giovanna's baptism from the 15th to the 22nd. Not because of anything she did, but because they're having Stake Conference on the 16th and there's a big RS activity on the 15th. Dangit. She wasn't really happy about having to move it, and neither was I because when we set her date we had no idea that Stake Conf was that weekend! No one tells us anything!!! Anyway, the 22nd will probably be better anyway because it's a big day in church history. It also happens to be the birthday of Tiffane Russell and Emily Krueger...my freakish memory has always just kept that in my head. And speaking of Emily - I mean Hermana Krueger - I can't believe she's at the MTC!!! Who knew that the lil' ol' Fort Bragg Ward would've produced THREE sister missionaries!!! If I remember correctly, Emily took French in high school... Well, at least it's still a Romance language!

I can't believe you iPhone'd my song and turned it into an mp3, mom! You are such a groupie! But at least you know people with connections... ;) And I can speak Italian to you all when I get home all you want. I could even start writing my emails in Italian! Ce la potrei fare!  The office Elders used the mission iPad to record me singing the mission hymn last week, so you'll have to check the mission blog to see if it's there. If not, just email the mission and bug them to email it to you.

I feel like I haven't planned this email very well. Before, I used to write down during the week what I wanted to email home about so that when we finally got to pday I would know what to write, but lately I've found that I haven't been keeping up with that. It's so weird, I feel like my mission now is completely different from how it was even just a few transfers ago. It's hard for me to remember, sometimes, how hard it was for me at the beginning while I was still transitioning out of normal life and into missionary life. Now it feels pretty normal, and the things that were hard for me then don't really seem all that important to me now. I feel like that's probably normal for all missionaries, but for me the change has been so gradual that I didn't really notice it until recently. Sometimes, randomly, a song or movie quote or something will pop into my head - out of nowhere - and I have to stop and think about how I know it and what triggered it. It's really weird! Like, "ohhh yeah, I have that CD!". I guess that's why missions are such turning points in peoples' lives - because it's like a big repentance machine and you come out of it with a changed heart. Some things just aren't important anymore. They will probably gain importance again when I have to jump back into the world of normal living, but right now there are so many things I just don't even think about. I don't describe myself by what I'm studying in school or what I want to be when I grow up or who my favorite bands are or what I like and don't like. I'm a missionary. I talk to people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. That's it. And all that's important is that I give everyone I talk to the chance to hear about how a fourteen year-old boy saw God and Jesus Christ and what that means for every human being that has ever lived. Those people sometimes ask about those other things (particularly if I left any boys back in the States...why they always ask me that, I have no idea...and usually it's NOT creepy old guys that ask me, but members!) but I don't even want to answer, sometimes. Usually I don't. I just say "I don't remember", even when they ask me what my first name is. Right now it's just not important. Looking back to when I first got to Italy, I wondered if I would ever get to this point as a missionary, and I didn't think I would. But that's what happens when you try not just go through your mission, but have your mission go through you.

It's pumpkin time. Thanks to everyone who has watched and commented and liked my version of Pua Olena! I love you all very much!! Don't forget to read your scriptures!!!! (what a cheesy missionary thing to say....geez)

AMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!

Sorella Soh :)