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.}