Within spitting distance of December

Hi...or should I say ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHA!!!!!!!

Well, I have about a bazillion things to write about in this email! First things first, shout outs this week to the fantastic Penny Wadham who sent me a fantastic package full of treats! (Just so you know, I counted everything up to make sure there were really that number of each item! You are the best!) Also shout outs to Nana and Heidi Van Etten who sent me letters this week. And of course my lovely parents who write me faithfully. And Slla Baker who finally sent me her address. 

So, if any of you happened to read the conference Ensign from this most recent conference and happened to see the picture in the midst of Elder Nelson's "Ask the Missionaries! They can help you!" talk, you may have noticed that the picture of the missionaries on that page was taken in Milan! No, I'm not it in, but YES, I know who they are!!! Probably half of those missionaries are home by now, but it's still cool to see that our mission was represented! Go Milano!

Oh! Also thanks to the Madison Stake Activity Days girls who sent me letters!!! It was the BEST to get letters from them! And a girl named Erin sent me her address and asked me to write her back, so I've got a postcard written to get mailed to her.

I'm so glad it's pday because it POURED rain ALL DAY today. It's still raining. It's been raining for our 24 hours straight. And raining pretty hard. Yikes! Welcome to Tuscany in November, I guess!

I finished the Book of Mormon this morning! That makes two times this year! Now my new BoM goal is to read the whole thing in Italian before the end of my mission. Yeah!

We had a zone meeting yesterday and I met a new Elder who just got here last week or two weeks ago or something. He's in Livorno right now and his name is Anziano Locklear. Yep. Guess where he's from? Pembroke!!! Well, now his family lives in Tennessee, but with a name like Locklear, I knew he had to be a Lumbee!  We kinda know the same people...which is weird!

We put up our Christmas tree today! It looks really cute! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!! I can't wait!!! They've already hung up the Christmas lights in the city. That's probably the best part - seeing the city all lit up with Christmas lights. Yeah! Our Christmas Zone Conference is on the 17th, so any Christmas cards, letters or packages have to get to the mission office BEFORE THE 17th!!!! If not, I have no idea when I'll get them, but it'll definitely be AFTER Christmas, which is no fun.

Does anyone know what snooker is? I'd never heard of it before in my life, but someone told us that it's really popular in China (at least where he's from). Apparently it's like pool/billiards. Yeah. Snooker.

Coolest news ever: I got a letter from Slla Sobeck, my MTC companion. She's serving in Roma 3 right now and she said that there was a baptism last Saturday of a guy who - get this - is a construction worker on the Rome temple!!!!!!!!!! YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! A CONSTRUCTION WORKER ON THE ROME TEMPLE JUST GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!! When I read that I wanted to jump out of the car and run around like a crazy!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!?!?!? Ahhhh!!!! BOO-YAH!

Well, last thing - the Luau!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!! Probably the biggest success of my mission, short of a baptism. Seriously, it was that good. First of all, we spent hours cutting out flowers from colored paper and then poking holes in them so people could make leis. It was a huge hassle, but it was a huge hit and totally worth it. So when people first got there we had them make paper leis and that was good to have something for them to do while we waited for more people to show up. Then we had a prayer and brought out the food. After everyone was done eating, we went into another room and I taught them how to hula to a verse of Pearly Shells, and EVERYONE participated! No party poopers! And then they all sat down and I played a few songs on the ukulele - Over the Rainbow, Hey Soul Sister/I'm Yours mash up, Pua Olena and then Kawaipunahele. Pretty much everyone was floored. And then we had a spiritual thought about "aloha" meaning "love" and then we said a closing prayer and had dessert. I made haupia! And Slla Capece made cupcakes and stuck little umbrellas in them...and I had the suggestion of putting red gummi bears on them (sunburnt bears!). Anyway, it was a huge success because we had like 30 people come! (keeping in mind that we have like 20 active members...if that) and TWELVE-read it-12 were NON-MEMBERS. It was awesome!!! It was so much fun. I could go on and on about the miracles, but alas, time is up.

Well, I love you all very muchly a lot! I am in the best mission in the whole world, and the best city in that mission! What a great time to be a missionary - the hastening of the work has begun! Keep reading your scriptures!!!

Love,

Sorella Soh

Giorno di Ringraziamento

Hello dear ones! (as my grandfather would say)

My email is coming a little later than usual today because this morning we went with the Capeces to San Gimignano. Bellissima. I'm really grateful for the Capeces - they cart us around in their car to appointments and are always making sure we're all right. I really don't know what we would do without them. They are awesome!

Mom, thanks for the package you sent! I about died when I saw that massive bag of Lucky Charms. I LOVE LUCKY CHARMS. They're even more delicious than I remember them. Maybe one of these days I'll open up my selfish heart and let Slla Nilson have some :)

Shout out to Auntie Kim who sent me a snail mail letter this week! Thank you! And if you find that you've seen everything there is in Istanbul and Constantinople, maybe you could swing by Byzantium...you know...if you have time :)

I am so grateful to be in Siena. It is BY FAR the most beautiful city in our mission. Sometimes I'll catch a view of the Tuscan hills as we are out and I just can't even believe that I'm here and that these things are real. I'm grateful for our amazing Branch and their testimonies. We love them and they love us and we couldn't be happier! We are having our Hawaiian party on Friday and almost everyone said they are going to come! We are super excited for it.

Thanks to those of you who wrote me letters of encouragement this week. I can't even begin to tell you all what it means to me. I am grateful for all the letters/emails I've gotten because it really has shown me who really means it when they say that they love me and miss me.

I am thankful for Slla Nilson! We are like sisters! I mean, we have the same first name. We talk about everything, we drive each other nuts and we love each other a lot. I am thankful for ALL of my companions, especially my mom/trainer Slla Walton, who I don't think knows how much she has influenced me as a missionary - for the better! We are going to be friends FOREVER! I'm even thankful for the sisters who I only scambio'd with or was never companions with at all. We really do have the best sisters in the world.

I'm grateful for my health and that my poor body hasn't sent my spirit an eviction notice...heart, might, mind and strength! I'm grateful for my ancestors and my good genes! I'd also like to thank my excellent Soh ancestors, because Soh is an excellent last name and Italians never have a problem pronouncing or remembering it!

I love President and Sister Wolfgramm. They are the best. I am so grateful for all that they do and all of the sacrifices that THEY make for us. 

I am grateful for my family. I have the best family in the world. My parents are incredible. I love them. My dad is my hero, my role model. I want to be just like him. He is wise, powerful and so fun. My mom means everything to me. She is so smart and strong and has such a strong desire to just do what's right. I am grateful for my brother who has always loved me and never, EVER criticized anything I've ever done, not even as a joke. He's always respected and encouraged me in anything I've ever wanted to do. I am grateful for my sister. Without her I would not be where I am today. I love her more than anyone else in the world. I am grateful for Sarah Hafen! She is my best friend, and I don't know what I'd do without her.

I am grateful for the miracles that I've seen and the things I've learned on my mission. It's the hardest thing I've ever done, but I've learned more here than I could have ever learned anywhere else at this time in my life. I am SO grateful that I still have 4 months left! I'm grateful to have a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, to know that there IS a God and He is my Father. I am grateful that He has allowed me to be one of His representatives here in Italy. Called to serve.

I love you all! Have a very happy Thanksgiving! Eat some pumpkin pie for me!

Love, 

Sorella Soh

p.s. Sorella Baker! DAI! L'indirizzo tuo! Mandamelo!!!!!

Blitztract

Hyello!!

Guess what? It's transfer week! Crazy, right! It should come as no surprise that Slla Nilson and I are staying together in Siena, but boy, there are some CRAZY things going on with sisters! The good news is that they are opening a companionship of sisters in Firenze, so there will be sisters close by! Right now I think the closest sisters to us are in Rimini...and that's not really close at all. But the end of this transfer means that I am about to enter into double digits in my transfers - transfer 10! Slla Nilson was talking to one of the Anziani on the phone yesterday who is going home the same transfer as her. He said "it's weird to think that we only have 12 weeks left, huh?". It seems like such a short amount of time when you put it that way! As I was thinking "man, I'm glad that's not me!" it occurred to me that I only have 18 weeks left! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only 18 more pdays!!! Only 18 more emails!!! I might pass out.

Well, I'll be honest, the work here is slow. We were talking to the Capeces last night, and Anz Capece (who served as a young missionary in Italy 45 years ago) said "the Church has ALWAYS had a hard time in Tuscany. It hasn't grown very much in all these years." The circumstances are such that we should probably be discouraged...but we're not! Actually, it's pretty opposite. We LOVE being here! Our desire and motivation is still way high, even though our "success", numerically speaking, hasn't been super hot. Sunday night we had nothing to do - no appointments, no members to visit (they all live like an hour out, by car), nothing - so we decided to do the only thing you can do on a rainy Sunday evening when it gets dark by 5pm: knock doors! So we had planned to go to Via Michelangelo. It took us about a half hour to walk there and there were no sidewalks, only a very slim road shoulder. So we get to this street and decide to start at the far end and work our way back. It took us two hours, but we rang every citofono(intercom)/doorbell we saw. In the end, it was over 100 doors. Over 100 doors, over 100 rejections. No one wanted to talk to us. No one on the entire street. Usually we can at least place a pamphlet or pass along card or something, but no one wanted anything to do with us. And though it probably wasn't the funnest thing I've ever done in my life, all I could do is shake my head a bit. I mean, what else could we do? And to be honest, it really could've been worse, even though it was raining. As we were walking back down that little road with no sidewalk, in the rain, in the dark, I was feeling pretty bummed. But then as we turned with the curve of the road, the view opened up and we had a killer view of the city lights and a little bit of the green hillside. Slla Nilson turned to me and we both kinda looked at each other with a "man, we are so lucky" kind of look. I mean, hello! We live in Tuscany!!!! It's only one of the most beautiful places in the world.

I don't think I've ever felt more like a D&C 4 missionary more in my entire mission. Serving the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength? Check. Times four. I have never been so exhausted in my entire life. I've been tired before, but this is past tiredness. My body just aches. In the morning when the alarm goes off, we've gotten in the habit of just saying some form of public transportation - car, bus, train, vespa - to measure our level of tiredness. And I mean that in the sense of "I feel like I got hit by a bus" or "I feel like I got hit by a tractor". Just saying the vehicle saves us from having to say the whole sentence. Even if we have nothing to do, we go out anyway and try to talk to people we pass on the street. It hasn't been very fruitful, but I know that the Lord is keeping track of our efforts, even though they don't seem to be making any difference. 

Since no one really wants to talk to us about the gospel, we're focusing on just getting people in the church. We've been trying to leave genealogy pamphlets with people and we just started up an English class. We had two people come to the class last night, but we're hoping for more. One of the new converts here put up some English class flyers for us in some of the universities here and just a few minutes ago we got a call from a girl who is interested in coming. 

I feel like most of my pleas for counsel and advice have gone unheard/unanswered, but if you're still reading my blog after over a year and you are not either of my parents, maybe I can count on you to send me an email/write me a letter! I've only got three transfers left. What counsel would you give an old missionary with three transfers left?? In any circumstance - keep in mind my companion only has two transfers left. As members, returned missionaries, parents, children, members, non members, less active/inactive members, church leaders - people NOT living in a missionary mindset - what advice would you give me? And don't procrastinate! My time is a'tickin'! (and mom, ask President Draughon, too!)

Speaking of time a'tickin', my internet time is up. I love you all very much. Your prayers on my behalf are more valuable to me now more than ever. Thank you. You are the best!!!!

Lots of love from the best city in Italy,

Sorella Soh

p.s. sorry this email is short...don't know what happened!

{Note from Nicole - I've been asked not to post Katie's direct mailing address online, but if you email me I can give it to you.  Or if you really can't bear the thought of snail mail, if you want to send your email to her to me I will forward it - not supposed to give out her missionary email address either, by her request, since she only gets an hour a week online.  nicolesoh (at) yahoo.}

The seventh day of the eleventh month

Hi. 

It's November. I've been in Italy more than a year. Yowza.

First things first, I've already heard about the elections - one of the benefits of having a senior couple (with internet access) close by! To be honest, I'd basically forgotten about it being election day. Voter apathy, I suppose...or that I'd much rather just focus on my work here than what's going on in the political sphere. Eh.

Dad, you remember how you told me you'd like to go to the American Military cemetery that is just outside of Florence? Well we drove past it a few weeks ago and then I saw it again yesterday as we were driving back to Siena. It looks pretty cool. We talked to the Capeces about going for a pday so we can go scope it out. And thanks for the luau advice. I was thinking that maybe I would go and buy some stuff to make a real flower lei and then give it away as a door prize or something, but I dunno. 

Sorry to hear about Squeaky's hurt wrist! Personally I think she should make up a cool story about how she hurt her hand, like she was fighting dementors in her ninja class or doing a backflip off the back porch or something.

Slla Nilson's dad emailed her a link with pictures of the Rome temple construction - it is really coming along! One of the members got up on Sunday and said that the Rome temple is the second largest infrastructure development in Italy right now, behind the Metropolitana in Milano...which basically means that hundreds workers have jobs right now because they have been able to work on the temple. Just another way that the temple blesses families. 

We had interviews with President yesterday during district meeting, which means that I got to get a big hug from Slla Wolfgramm! They were in Spain last week for a mission president something or other and they talked about the age change for missionaries. She said that they were told to prepare to receive 200 missionaries!!! We only have 135 in our mission right now! She also said that the church went from processing 700 mission calls a week, 14% females, to processing 4000 a week, 50% females. Can you even believe it??? Slla Wolfgramm told us "and they'll be here sooner than you think. So be ready, because you'll all be training!!!" Crazy!!! She also told us that the church is sending us four new senior couples - all of them speak italian (at least one member of the couple) and they are all going to Verona. Why? Microfilm. They are bringing 20% of the Church's camera equipment and will be working with the Italian Government to put all of their records onto microfilm. Isn't that awesome?! We had decided last week that we are going to try and push genealogy in our finding work because we have a family history library here (that's the computer I'm using today) and no one ever comes! We're gonna be putting that spirit of Elijah to work!!!

Slla Wolfgramm also told me some great news about the work in Milano...which I confess I illegally confirmed via text message last night...but it made me so happy I couldn't help but dance around our kitchen like a crazy person. Slla Gomez and Slla Heuple had a baptism last week!!!!!!!!!!! It was Nathaly, who had been in Ecuador with her mom, Alicia, for like two months. NATHALY IS BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!! And that's not all!!!!! Giovanna has a baptismal date schedule for THIS WEEKEND!!!! GIOVANNA IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! For realz!!!!! AND THEN they told me that they have a baptismal date with a guy that Slla Heupel and I found last transfer!!!!! AWESOMENESS!!!!!!!!!! So super exciting I couldn't even stand it!

Well, I am loving Siena. I would write all about it, but they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm just going to send a bunch of pictures. I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Love,

Sorella Soh

Me and Sorella Nilson on the train to Firenze

By the ponte vecchio

Almost Cafe Rio... but not

junk food junkies

piazzale michelangelo

cleaning

trained to kill

kitchen chaos!

our Firenze district, Anziani Proctor, Ramjoué, Mendel Francom and us

in front of the church in Siena our first Sunday!

bundled up before the heaters turned on 

happy halloween!

the Halloween crepe Slla N made for me!!!

me and Anz Scheurn standing awkwardly next to each other 

me and Giovanna the night before I left and she was crying 

Jacinto, Giovanna, Andy and me

in front of the Duomo in Firenze!

in front of Santa Croche

me and Amerigo Vespucci!

ponte vecchio

ponte vecchio

on the ponte vecchio - and probs my xmas pic for this year...

again, but with the rowing team in the background

in front of something in Firenze... I don't know what it is

in front of Santa Maria Novella

piazzale michelangelo

the sisters in Firenze and Bologna Zones! And Reggio.

making phone calls... we only get service outside

Rainy Days and P-Days (Oct 31)

[So sorry readers!  I got distracted with Halloween and somehow forgot to post this one!]

Well ciowdy!!!!

Well, I feel like it's a tradition that my new cities welcome me with torrential rain, and Siena has been no exception! It started raining on Friday and hasn't really stopped since!

A few notes scribbled in my planner: mom, nana, someone - can you send me that recipe for haupia? I think I pretty much know it, but it'd be nice to be able to check. Also, if there's room in that package, mom, could you throw in some hawaiian punch drink mixes? I really like the orange ocean flavor. I like drinking juice and stuff, but not when I have to carry 5 liters of liquid a quarter mile from the grocery store to our house... 

It's gotten REALLY cold here lately. Some big cold front just blew/is still blowing through and so we've gotten down into the single digit celcious degrees - it was 5°C on Sunday! Good thing the Capeces like us because they have a car and picked us up on their way to church so that we didn't have to make the half hour walk down there. I've had to bust out my coats! And boy am I glad that I splurged on that 15 euro rain jacket in Milano last transfer! It has definitely served me!

Last week we went to go visit the RS president. She lives within the city walls! She lives in the Oca contrada, which is the Goose neighborhood. She told us that we'll have to come by another time so that she can show us the contrada museum!!! She takes care of her invalid mother, who is like 90-something, and after our little lesson, she let us say hi to her mom in the other room. She was in her bed and pretty much just trembling. Another woman was in the room with her and they were watching tv. Old Italians have a really hard time understanding us when we speak because of our accents, and to add on to that, she couldn't hear very well, so basically Slla N and I just stood there smiling at her (the mom). Then Slla N gets this genius inspiration and says "should we sing her a hymn?" and I was like..."yeah! Except the only one I really know is 'nearer my god to thee'". So we asked the RS president if we could sing and she said "yeah! I'll go get my hymn book". So the three of us - me, slla N and the RS pres - all sang "Nearer my God, to thee" for her mother. It was a really sweet moment. I sang soprano with them on the first verse and then the last two I sang alto. I would've sang tenor on the third verse (I know the tenor part because we sing that song all. the. time.) but I thought it would been too low for me considering that we started out a little bit low. Anyway, that was cool. And then on Sunday President Capece asks us to give talks because he doesn't really know anyone else yet. So it was Slla N and me on the program. We both had like 20 minutes! All in Italian! I talked about the Spirit and recognizing the Spirit and Slla N talked about remembering and forgetting. I received another cool analogy revelation for my talk, and compared the Spirit to a phone. Being able to feel the Spirit is like having a landline phone - you can only hear it ring if you're in a certain location. The gift of the Holy Ghost is like a cell phone that you have with you at all times and you can hear it ring anywhere that you go. But, you have to be worthy to feel the Spirit, so if you have your cell phone and go somewhere that doesn't get reception, you can't hear it ring even if you have your phone on you. So, moral of the story, don't go where your Spiritual cell phone doesn't get service!!!

We had to go to Verona on Monday night because Slla Nilson had to go and pick up her permesso di soggiorno aka a little ID card that says she's allowed to live in Italy as a missionary. She served 8 months in Verona! Anyway, we took the train Monday afternoon and got to Verona like 4 hours later. A member family fed us dinner and drove us to the sisters' apartment there where we stayed with Slla Oakes (who was companions with Slla N in the MTC) and her trainee, Slla Hanson, who is from Windemere, FL! Anyway, it was fun to chat with them and also really really cool to see the changes in Slla Oakes. My one-year in Italy mark is coming up on Friday. Can you believe I've lived in Italy for a whole year? Crazy. Anyway, Tuesday morning we went to the place to get Slla Nilson's Italian ID and then had some time before we got back on the train and went back to Siena. It took us about 6 hours to get home because we missed a few trains and things, but now we're back and we don't have to make any other trips for the rest of the transfer!! (Except when we go to district meeting in Firenze, but the Capeces drive us to that. Woo! They are awesome!)

I have a bunch of pictures to send, but we are using computers at the library and therefore can't upload ANYTHING. Slla N has her camera cord, but it does us no good because the uploading feature is blocked. Dangit.

We were walking past a book binding shop last week and I stopped to look in for a second and the guy who owns the shop saw me and called us in as we were walking away. So we went back and talked to him. It's kindof a long story that isn't really worth spending email time on, but the point is that I'm thinking that I might buy myself a new set of scriptures (in English) and have this guy bind them in a handmade leather cover. We'll see. I haven't decided yet, but it's brewing in my thoughts.

Speaking of brewing, Happy Halloween, everyone! Italians don't really celebrate Halloween, although they do acknowledge its existence. Mostly the celebrate tomorrow, All Saints Day, where they go to the cemetery and honor their dead loved ones. (Guess we'll be talking about the Plan of Salvation while we contact tomorrow!). They make a special kind of bread for this holiday - pane dei santi / bread of the saints - and the RS pres gave us a loaf of it on Sunday! I think the branch really likes us. We already love them a ton, so it's all good. I have a really good feeling that all of our 100% genuine love for these people is really going to help the work here and in turn help these people. I love it! It's so great!

Well, outta time! I love you all so much! Pray for the missionaries in your ward - by name!!! Put some real intent behind those times when you've prayed for "missionary opportunities" and then haven't done anything to look for said opportunities. 

LOOOOOOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorella Soh