Oi. Yeah.

I've been home for six weeks already. I don't really have anything blog-worthy to say, but I figured I'd change up the layout of my blog to reflect my new post-mish life. Maybe once I re-train my brain to have a more blog-friendly mentality, I'll start cranking some new posts out.

So, to thank you for stopping by, here's a little evidence that some things never change:

Circa 1995

Ritornata!!!

Hello everyone!

I'm back!!! Did you miss me?...don't answer that.

Well, I have no idea what to say, but I figured I should at least write something. I've been home about a week already. I've been sucked back into the black hole of Facebook, so you can find me on there, and I've also got the same phone number that I had before I left.

Seeing as how I don't know what to say because I have no idea what I'm doing with my life anymore, I'll just post a couple of airport pictures. :)

 With my MTC Sorelle! They all served in the Rome mission, so I hadn't seen them for about 16 months! My mom got the travel office to book me on their same flight!

Seeing the fam for the first time in 19 months! 

My GIGANTIC little sister got the first hug...while I just cried and cried

Mom got the second hug! (With my sister crying in the background)

Barbara, it's time to come home...

Buongiorno a tutti!

Well. This is it. The last email. My last pday. My last few hours in Italy. My suitcases are mostly packed. The new missionaries are here. My ministry as a full-time missionary in the Italy Milan Mission is ending.

So you're all dying to know - how am I doing???? To be honest, I've been doing okay. Well, at least up until the past few days. Mostly I felt like the end of my mission would never come, but now here it is, right around the corner. I'll kind of randomly start feeling major butterflies in my stomach, and today was the worst because transfers are tomorrow. But I'm doing alright. Mostly because I know that my time is up. I know that I've done all I could. And I've done a lot. I feel so satisfied with the past year and a half of my life. I feel fulfilled. I've been so beyond blessed that I can't even believe that my life is real. I've learned how to love. I couldn't be happier. That doesn't mean that I've been happy every second of the past 19 months, but I know that every one of those seconds has contributed to the missionary/person/woman that I've become. Dad, I know that you keep telling me about how Squeaky has grown so much that I won't even recognize her, but to tell the truth, I'm not sure if you'll even recognize me. I am 5000 times better than I was before, if you can believe it. I feel like the fulfillment of the scripture in Luke 9:24: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." What I have now is better than anything I left behind.

Well, now that the mushy part is over (for now), practical things! Transfers!!!! I'M GOING TO BE A DOUBLE NONNA!!!! Yep! Slla Bunker AND Slla Heupel are BOTH training!!!!!!! Slla H is staying in Rimini and Slla Bunker is training AND opening in Bergamo! There are all kinds of wonderful things happening all over the mission with all of the new sisters coming in. I'm so proud of Slla B and Slla H. Slla Lyman is obviously staying here in Milano, and Slla Stewart (who was in the same MTC group as her) will be coming up from Genova to be her new companion. I'm super excited for them.

Oh! And the Sorella conference! It was awesome! I was so nervous the whole time because in the morning Slla L and I played our duet of the mission hymn and then in the afternoon I had the incredible opportunity to bear my testimony to all the sisters. It was the first time I've cried about going home. I wasn't the only one crying, either!

This week has positively flown by. We've been super busy with appointments and stuff. At the end of church on Sunday, at the end of RS, I asked if I could say something and so I stood up and told everyone that I was leaving and thanked them and told them that I loved them. Some of them clapped...and yes, it WAS awkward...and I had a lot of people come up and talk to me after. Everyone told me how much they'd miss me and how I had brought so much joy and happiness into the ward. I feel kinda bad for Slla Stewart who is coming to replace me here because I'm a tough act to follow!!!

I spent most of this morning packing (or rather staring at my suitcases feeling overwhelmed), and then this afternoon we went to meet all the new sorelle that just got here - all ELEVEN of them - and take them to the Duomo. I met Slla Lopez! She is AWESOME!!! I had actually written to her in the MTC and she even wrote me back. I kinda selfishly hope that Slla Bunker or Slla Heupel will be her trainer so that she can be part of my training family tree!

I feel like I don't know what else to say. Partly because I want to be able to talk about SOMETHING when I get home, but partly because everything seems so trivial with respect to the end of my mission. I told Slla Lyman this morning, "I can't believe that when I get home I'll be able to tell people that I'm a returned missionary." It's true. Who woulda thought that little Katie Soh would grow up one day to be a full-time missionary in Italy? My full-time mission isn't over - just completed. Next comes the new mission of "real life". I'm excited. I'm excited to put into practice all of the things I've learned. I'm excited to be a full-time member missionary. I'm excited to have a new calling and help other people. I'm excited to see my family. I'm excited to be able to talk with the friends I've made on the mission and my former companions. I'm excited to just love everyone I see. I'm excited to speak in English, even though I probably won't be very good at it at first.

Thanks for reading along, everyone. I'm sure all these emails have been probably mostly just boring, but I just can't express in words what has happened to me. You'll see it when you see me...you won't have to wait long. 

I love you all, really truly.

Con tanto tanto affetto,

Sorella Sobeck-Walton-Bunker-Jones-Silva-Heupel-Nilson-Lyman-SOH

***note from Nicole that the title this time comes from a song from the LDS musical "My Turn on Earth."  You can listen to it here if you're interested.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmR3DNBRrzo

The Final Countdown

Hello everyone!!!

Well the biggest news is that the Church has just changed the email policy and so now missionaries are allowed to email friends and new converts in addition to emailing their family members!!! And now we have 90 minutes of internet time instead of 60!!! Of course this news is coming on my second to last pday...dangit! [Note from Nicole: she said I can give you her email address, so if you want to send her a short message here it is: katherine.soh@myldsmail.net - send it by Tuesday night, probably, since we never know what time on Wednesday she'll get online and she will be home NEXT FRIDAY!]

Yeah. It's my second to last pday. Tomorrow is the sorelle conference. And then I start the "last days" - "my last Friday in the mission", "my last Sunday in the mission", etc. YIKIES!!!! To be honest, I haven't really been freaking out about it. I thought I would be, but I'm not. Mostly I just feel like my mission will never end. We had a Zone Training Meeting on Monday and I had the opportunity to bear my testimony in front of the zone (dying testimony) and it went fine. I think a few people kinda cried, but it's because I talked about moms, haha. I already asked President and he said that he's going to let me and Slla Hanks give our testimonies at the end of the sister conference because we're both going home next week.

Next week. Yikes. It does mean, though, that I have to ask something I've never asked you all before. I have to ask you to NOT send me any letters! Any letters that haven't been sent already probably won't get to me, so if you have a letter waiting, just send it to my house in AL...not that there are any.

I heard through the rumor mill that Flavia got baptized!!! Down in Battipaglia, probably. Is it true!??!?!?! I hope so. She is so awesome!!! I love her so much!!!

I got letters from Slla Walton, Slla Lopez and Erilyn this week! It was a great week! OH!! And Slla Nilson - I met Claudia!!!! She's in my Stake and so I met her at Stake Conf this past Sunday. I went up to her and was like "are you Claudia?" and she said "how do you know?!" Apparently she saw me last year while I was serving in Torino...I was SUPER surprised about that - I didn't think ANYONE would remember me from Torino, let alone someone who wasn't even a part of our ward! She is a total babe and loves you a ton. OH, and I also saw Fllo Fergnani there! They just moved to Milano 1 a couple of weeks ago! I was SO shocked to see him.

This week has been kinda nuts. Let's be real, my whole last transfer has been kinda nuts. We had a scambio with the sorelle in Varese last Thursday and I was with Slla Pearce again! I scambioed with her a few transfers ago down in Rimini. She is a rockstar and contacting and I learned a ton from her. She told me "I know I'm not really that cool of a person, but if you ever want to hang out after the mission, I would be down." I told her "...I'm not really that cool." haha

So our Zone Training Meeting on Monday was in Como. This time we took the train to a different station in Como and it stops right by the lake. Holy quack, Como is BEAUTIFUL!!! I always wanted to serve there...and not because George Clooney has a house there! The church building there is really cute, too. It looks like a former villa or something. Super nice.

I feel like I don't really know what to write today. Most of what I remember about the past week is just how much I love all these people that we teach. Jennifer is so awesome and is still progressing so well, even after her baptism. I ordered a Spanish Triple Combination for her and we're going to give it to her next week...after I attempt to write a note in the cover in Spanish! Good thing we have some native spanish speakers around that can check it to make sure it makes sense! Mishell is so cute and I love being with their family. The members all keep asking me how many days I have left. They're so funny. When I was in Torino, I picked up a coat that used to belong to a former sister and I've had it all my mission. I'm wearing it in a few pictures - it's a black and white speckly pattern kind of . coat. Anyway, I never planned on taking it home with me, and I told that to Jennifer's mom, Crista. Well, Crista said "Well then I want it!!!" and she even tried it on, haha. So in exchange for the coat (which wasn't even mine to begin with) I told her that I want a meal! So on Tuesday we're going over to have a typical El Salvadorian lunch with her! Not a bad deal, right?! haha

Well, that's about all I've got time for. Hopefully I haven't bored you all to death, but even if I did, you've only got one more email left from me to be bored with! OH!!! I FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON IN ITALIAN!!!!! I finished on Sunday morning. Keep chugging along in your reading! Ce la fate!!! I love you all very much! See ya real soon!

LOVE,

Sorella SOH 

Marching Along

Hi.

Well. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what to write this week. It's not that nothing has happened, but it just seems bizzare to me that my release date is this month. Like, in two weeks. That really weirds me out. I don't really know if I'm "trunky" because I don't even know what is going on in my brain anymore. Mostly when I think about going home I think "What the heck am I gonna do all day??" because the thought of sitting around doing nothing because there isn't anything for me to do kinda weirds me out. Good thing Slla Lyman is here to help me out! I had a mini panic attack last Wednesday night and she helped talk me through it, haha. 

We've been going scambio (exchange) crazy these past few weeks, and this week is the craziest of them all! Yesterday we scambioed with the Milano Lampugnano sorelle and then tonight and tomorrow we are doing another scambio with the sisters in Varese! It's definitely been keeping me on my toes, that's for sure. And the best news of the week? We're having another Sister Conference!!! Next Thursday!!! Apparently mission presidents are discouraged from having sisters-only conferences, and so I think this'll be the last one. I just got super lucky because they're having it before I leave! I'm really excited to be able to see all of the sorelle in the mission one last time. President has already asked Slla Lyman and me to do our ukulele-violin version of the mission hymn for the conference, so we're excited about that.

Geez, I feel like the week has gone by so fast that I don't even have any cool experiences to share this week! Oh! Wait, Mishell was confirmed on Sunday! That was cool. She's officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! We were a little bit nervous because this past Sunday was the first Sunday on the new schedule - that is, the first Sunday of having Sac Mtg first and RS/EQ last. Mishell lives kinda far away and is usually a little late to church, so we were just praying really hard that they would be able to get to church on time so they could do the confirmation and it worked! They walked in just as we were about to start singing the opening hymn. Whew! Last week we went to go see them and we gave Mishell her own Triple Combination scripture set. She was super excited about it, but probably mostly because the edges of the pages have gold on them...her little brother was super jealous - "I want the gold book!" haha. Slla Lyman and I both wrote a little note in the front cover. Hopefully she'll be able to make out my handwriting!

I don't know what it is about this ward, but I feel like I'm friends with everybody! Even the kids! During Sac Mtg, three Primary kids were sitting in the row behind us...that is, they were sitting behind us until we sat down and then they came and sat with us. I had like three little Filipino kids hanging all over me, cuddling up next to me and drawing pictures of me and Slla Lyman in my planner. And then after church as I was scrambling around in the hallway as usual trying to talk to everyone, I kept having these two tween-aged girls (sisters) come up and hug me around the waist from behind saying "this sorella is my favorite!!!". And then later on that day we were visiting a less-active sister who has three kids. We watched a little movie called "Il Mediatore" (which might be called "The Mediator" in English, but I'm not really sure), and sure enough, the kids snuggled right up next to me on the couch while we watched it. One of them even climbed up on my lap, which is against mission rules, haha. Next week is Stake Conference, so we'll see if any little bambini come and find us...

Wow. I've written like four gigantic paragraphs. I hope my emails don't just bore everyone to death!

On that note...time's up! Is anyone else really freaking out about how I'll only be sending two more emails after this?? Hope they won't be as boring as this one has been! Have a great week! Keep reading your scriptures! I read Ether 10 and 11 today - I should be finished by next week!!! I love you all lots and lots and lots!!!

BUCKETS O' LOVE,

Sorella Soh

Yowza!

Hi!

I can't believe how fast Wednesday got here. I know I say that every week, but it really does surprise me. First of all, Slla Nilson, the news from your email this week got a gasp-and-groan from me...good thing I'll be hiding in Alabama when I get home! Also, Sarah, I'll be happy to finish off your bag of Cadbury mini eggs while I cheer you on along the finish line of your half marathon...and afterwards I'll buy you a cupcake :)

Well, Mishell has been baptized by water! She'll be confirmed this Sunday. The baptism went really well. I gave a little talk about the Holy Ghost and then Anz Herrington and I sang the "I like to look for rainbows" baptism song while Slla Lyman played the piano. The Italian translation of that song is a little weird (they have to add in an extra note and it kinda throws me off), but it was really good and Mishell's mom got all teary-eyed while we were singing. But it was good. There were a pretty good number of people there and even a handful of primary kids. The only weird part was later that evening when Slla Lyman and I were out knocking on doors and I looked at her and said "remember how we had a baptism today? Weird!" haha.

Oh, I'm attaching a couple of pictures. They're all from Slla Lyman's camera. The first one is a self-portrait of me in front of the famous Teatro alla Scala. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the inside is super cool. 

The second is from right before Jennifer's baptism. Me, Slla L, Jennifer, Crista (Jennifer's mom), and Fllo Ramos (who was the one who baptized her...as apparent from the white clothing). 

The third one is of us and Mishell. Poor thing, she is really shy and I don't think she liked having all the attention on her, but she was a good sport about it. 

So last week we were walking down the street and we walked past this guy who had just walked out of a store on the corner with two bottles of beer in his hand. He passes us and then says, "Hey, wait!" and so we turn around and he says "Are you from God?" and we say yes. So he puts down the just-purchased beer and walks over to us. I introduce myself, offer a handshake and he accepts, then kisses the back of my hand. Then he starts going off about how awesome God is and how everyone needs to know about Him and he's a missionary too and how no one cares about spiritual things anymore and all this stuff. He asks us what church we're from and we tell him and show him our nametags. He was super impressed about the nametags. He said "Hey, how can I get one of those?" so I tell him that he should talk to our other missionary friends and give him a pass along card with the Anziani's phone number on it because I could smell the alcohol on his breath. Then as we go to leave, he kisses our hands again, and then pulls us both in for a double hug. It was so awkward, but he was just happy to talk to us. He really was harmless, but it was a fun, kind of crazy experience.

Then the other night we were out in the middle of nowhere and it was snowing. We decide to catch the bus and get back to where there would be more people. Unexpectedly, there was a woman at the stop, so I started talking to her. We ended up following her around from bus to bus (she knew we were following her but she was okay with it...we didn't follow her all the way home) because she wanted to keep talking to us. She'd heard of Mormons before, but didn't know anything about them. So in the end we gave her a pamphlet and got her phone number. She was busy this week, but said that we could call and set up something for next week. It was really cool and she was really really interested and wanted to read the Book of Mormon because she'd never heard of it. Anyway, it was just really cool.

Well, I'm out of time this week! I feel like this is a kinda short email, but I take comfort in the fact that I've included some pics, so hopefully that'll help make up for it. I love you all very much! I read Mormon 2 this morning! I'm on track to finish in two weeks - a week ahead of my goal! Manca poco, eh!

Buckets of amore,

Sorella SOH

Take me to the water

Chee-yowwwwwww!!!!!

Hi. Well, first of all, shout out to the exmissionaria Slla Nilson who is flopping around like a fish out of water on out there on the other side of the mission veil! Love your emails! And I'm STOKED about Cinzia and Chiara!!! Forse dovrò dare uno squillo alle sorelle...haha. Also shout out to Slla Baker, my faithful correspondent. And I think everyone in the Internet point looked at me as I gasped at the engagements of Anz Osbourne and Slla Jones!!!! (not to each other, haha). I can't even believe it!!!

Well, before I forget, Dad, I'm pumped for the color run! When I first read about it in your letter, I looked at Slla Lyman and said "Um, Sorel? I think we're gonna have to start running in the mornings..." and she just looked at me and said "well, I guess I'll have to go buy some tennis shoes...I don't have any" hahaha. I'm hoping, though, that the fact that there's no time limit means that the actual running involved in our family will be minimal...if not, let me know ASAP so that we can go buy Slla Lyman some new shoes! 

Last week for pday we met up with the Milano Cimiano sorelle (Hanson and Eaton) and went to the this DaVinci Science Museum place. It was super cool, but I don't remember what it's real name is. Google it.

So this week...BAPTISM!!! Jennifer is now a baptized and confirmed member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!!!! YEAH!!! She's a pretty low-key kinda person, and her baptism was really nice and spiritual, nothing too crazy. She felt really good and was really happy. It was awesome! And a cool story about that - I had the chance to announce her baptism at the pulpit the Sunday before (when we had the missionary sac mtg) and I said "yeah! Jennifer is getting baptized on Saturday!" The problem, of course, is that I didn't say her last name, and the Anziani are teaching a family with a teenage daughter who is also named Jennifer. When I made the announcement, the second Jennifer was freaking out because she thought I was talking about HER! Well, the young women had an activity right before the baptism and the second Jennifer went. Her member friend, Allison, invited her to stay for the baptism, so they did. Then later that night I had to call the Anziani for something and they told me that they had just had a lesson with the second Jennifer and her family. They said she really liked the baptism and was really involved in the lesson that night and even accepted a soft invite to baptism ("when you know these things are true, will you be baptized?"). So miracle upon miracle!

It's been a crazy week planning for the baptism and then also getting plans together for Mishell's baptsim on Sunday. We saw Mishell yesterday when I was on scambio (exchange) with Slla Morley, and she's really excited about getting baptized. We're seeing her again tomorrow. I love having baptisms, but I don't know what I was thinking planning two baptisms in two weeks - I've been CRAZY busy planning out the program, calling people to give talks, planning baptismal interviews, trying to prepare a musical number, washing the dresses, filling out the baptismal certificate and making sure that people actually come! And to top it all off we had two scambi (exchanges) in the past six days. Whew! Talk about going out with a bang!

I've gotten some really positive feedback, still, from the missionary sac mtg from two Sundays ago. Before the baptism, one of the men from the ward came up to me and thanked me for my talk and then said "anche volevo dirti: grazie per esistere / I also wanted to tell you: thank you for existing"...kind of a strange comment, but from him it was definitely a compliment. And then that sister who came up to me after and wanted us to come over to her house? She brought her non member cousin to church last Sunday and introduced us to her. And I guess after the mish sac mtg a sister came up to Slla Lyman and said "sorelle, do you want to come over for lunch today? Or do you already have a lunch appointment?" Unfortunately (or maybe not unfortunately) we already had one. And then someone else told me after "Sorella, ci porti la gioia! / you bring us joy!". It's probably because after church I just run around like a crazy trying to talk to everyone we want to see before they leave. Eh. Who knows.

Well, that's about all I've got time for. I've read up until 3 Nephi 11! Hope your reading is plugging along as well! I love you all and I love the Gospel - that's what REALLY brings the joy!

Have a fantabulous week! 

L.O.V.E.

Sorella Soh

The Final Countdown

Hi.

I'm writing to you from my 12th transfer. The last one. I can't believe it. I got a letter from the mission office in zone mail yesterday about having to declare stuff for customs as I leave Italy. When I think about it, it makes my stomach burn and I don't even know how to feel. Slla Nilson is home! Ciao bella! haha. As we were eating lunch on Friday the thought popped into my head "Slla Nilson isn't in Italy anymore" and it made me want to just barf everywhere and I could barely finish eating. And then on Saturday the thought came "Slla Nilson is released by now" and on Sunday "Slla N is giving her homecoming talk" and it kept freaking me out more and more. I don't think I'll be able to eat or sleep by the end of all of this. It's a good thing we have lots of scambioes (exchanges) and baptisms and stuff for me to stress out about because I don't think I'd be able to function otherwise.

Shout outs this week to Slla Williams, who finally wrote to me (and yes, I do like bagels), Fllo Morenson, whose letter unfortunately got ripped in half somewhere in the postal system (they taped the envelope back together, but the letter was still in two pieces), and Mary Carleton, who sent me a very nice New Years' letter (Sloane Sparks can't really be 16, can she???? Please say no!!". I finally got all the Christmas cards and letters that had gotten sent to Siena, so that's why it took so long. One of the Italian Anziani, Anziano Scisci saw my huge stack of letters and said "ma Sorella, quanti ragazzi le scrivono?? / Sorella, how many boys are writing to you??" and I just gave him a little smirk and shrugged my shoulders, haha. (Slla Baker would've been proud of me!)

Oh, I forgot the big news about transfers - I'M A BISNONNA!!!!! Aka I'm a great-grandmother! Slla Lofley is training...IN TORINO!!! So I trained Slla Bunker, who trained Slla Lofley, who is now training Slla Palumbo!!! And we all link back to Torino!!! I'm so proud. So proud.

Well, the work here in Milano Navigli Ward is chugging right along! Jennifer is getting baptized on Saturday!!!!!! She is so ready. We have been so blessed to be able to teach her because she is just awesome. I've almost been a little worried because she seems TOO awesome. The other day we had a lesson with her and at the end I always ask if "hay preguntas?" which is spanish for "any questions?" and she said "No... ma solo volevo dirvi questo.../ No... but I I just wanted to tell you something..." and I prepared myself for the worst. I thought, "here it is, she's got a friend that's talking bad about the church or she's got some kind of doubt" which was probably bad of me. But instead she said "Solo volevo dirvi questo, che tutto quello che mi avete insegnato, è vero. Tutto è vero. / I only wanted to tell you this, that everything that you all have taught me, it's true. It's all true." And as she said it was just stupefied in my chair. She is set up so perfectly to receive so many blessings in her life, I can't even stand it.

So Jennifer is getting baptized on Saturday and then Mishell is getting baptized next Sunday, the 24th! She's only 9, but she's really opened up to us over the course of these past few weeks. We're really excited for her and she's really excited to get baptized. It's been really cool for us to teach her with her mom because we just know how much being active members of the church is going to help them. I'm kinda sad, though, because after her baptism we'll go from seeing them twice a week to just once a week, so we won't see them as often! But that's just the way the cookie crumbles I guess ;)

One last thing, on Sunday we had a missionary-themed sacrament meeting. It went awesome! There are lots of missionaries in our ward - us, the assistants, the traveling assistants, the office couple and the Wolfgramms. Each of the younger missionaries gave a little 5 minute talk, and then we did a musical number, which rocked the house. We sang "Bisogno ho di te" aka "I need thee every hour". Slla Lynch (from the office) played the piano, Slla Lyman played the violin and I sang with Anz Herrington. I saw at least 4 women in the congregation crying through the whole number. When I told Slla Lyman that, she said "well, I guess it was a success, then" haha. I got up and talked about how the Gospel has blessed my life. When I first got up I said "buongiornoooooo!!!" and was just smiling like crazy and then I said "volete sapere un segreto? Quando sono nervosa, sorrido. / Wanna know a secret? When I'm nervous, I smile" and then just smiled at them. Everyone was laughing and smiling right back at me. It was really great. And then right after the meeting was over, I got swarmed by members and they all wanted us to come over. One sister basically told me that she wanted us to be in her home. So that was really cool, and we had 3 member appointment set up in about 5 minutes! It was really great. Everyone wanted to baci us (do the kiss on the cheek thing to us) and have us come over to their houses. I was a little stressed because all of our investigators were leaving and I kept getting stopped by members so finally I had to say "Un attimo! I nostri simpatizzanti!!! / Wait one second! Our investigators!!!" and then dash off to go talk to them before they walked out the door.

Well, that's the excitement of this week! Oh, well I guess the other excitement was that it snowed ALL DAY without stopping on Monday. That's why our pday got changed back to Wednesday this week because President had to rearrange everything because they didn't want to have to drive all the way to Venezia in the bad weather. Anyway, it's been a busy week and will continue to be busy! Pray for Jennifer on Saturday, it's her day to shine! I love you all very much - I finished Helaman 14 today (and I didn't even cheat ;) ). 

Treasure these last few mission emails from me;)

LOOOOOOVE,

Sorella SOOOOH!!!

The 11th dimension

Hi.

It's transfer week aka the end of my 11th transfer aka the beginning of my 12th transfer aka my last transfer. Yeah. Sort that one out.

We're staying the same! I will be finishing my mission in Milano 3 with Slla Lyman! I'm excited about it. Milano is the best city to work in. I've also been given a special assignment to help the sorelle in Milano 1, so I'm excited about that as well. It's going to be a crazy, busy, awesome transfer. Two of my favorite Anziani (Herrington and Sciarretta) are going to be traveling assistants this transfer, which means that they'll be in our ward on Sunday for church each week, even though during the week they will be out and about in the mission. This is the last transfer for all three of us! Yikes! Slla Nilson is going home in TWO DAYS! I can't even believe it. Craziness.

Last week was Senior Companion week for Slla Lyman! I don't think she was expecting to have to do so much (I hardly did anything to help) but I know she learned a ton and it's gonna help her more than she even realizes now, because I can almost guarantee that she will be training next transfer! 

So I think the ward likes me. I've really made an effort to try and get to know the members, and it's been really fun to visit them and talk with them. Everyone always asks me how much time I have left, but I suppose that could be that as soon as they hear me speak Italian, they know I speak too well to be a new missionary. I guess it wouldn't be better for them to ask how long I've been in my mission as opposed to how much I have left because As of last Thursday I've been a missionary for 17 full months. SEVENTEEN. Technically I'll do 18 months and three weeks, but geez loo-wheeze that's crazy. I don't know if I really feel trunky, but I do feel like I've still got some energy left in me and I'm excited to just blow the roof off of these last few precious weeks I have. We're going to start this next transfer off with a bang, because Jennifer is still on target to get baptized next week Friday. She's so ready! She already knows that everything we teach her is true. And then the week after that, week 2, Mishell should be getting baptized as well - Feb 24th. The Anziani also have a woman who is getting baptized on the 23rd, so I guess it's just baptism season in Milano Navigli Ward!!! We are so excited to be able to help all these people and I personally feel just so blessed to be able to teach people who are so open and accepting of the Restored Gospel!!!

Oh - before I forget, Slla Baker! Got your letter! The Assistants gave it to me last Wednesday night before ward council. We all felt very well informed about our peepz, so thank you.

I feel more busy now than I have in a really long time. This week especially because we are having a missionary themed sacrament meeting on Sunday and so I have to give a short talk and also we have to come up with a special musical number. Then on Friday we have planned to do a kind of missionary/friendship night where we'll have a spiritual thought and an activity (we're gonna watch "Legacy") and just give members the chance to come to the church on Friday night and have something casual that they can also invite their non member friends to attend. We hope it will become a weekly thing, so we're looking forward to that. And then to top things off,on Monday we got a call from the office and were asked to host one of the new missionaries for the night last night. The Italian missionaries all get here a day before the other missionaries because they come from Spain and not from Provo, so last night we went and picked up Slla Vardeu (who is from Roma 2nd ward and knows Slla Teichert because she is serving in that ward!) and were with her last night. Then this morning we went out and talked to people on the street for a little bit and then took her to the Milano 2 meetinghouse (it was weird to be back there!) and dropped her off again to be with all the other missionaries that just got in. That means that we had to reorganize our schedule at the last minute, and most of our pday we will have to do tomorrow. It's a good thing neither of us is getting transferred because I just couldn't handle that! Too much to do!

Anyway, it's been a crazy, busy week. The rest of the transfer looks like it'll be pretty busy, too, so that should be really fun. I'm so excited to have this chance to be "anxiously engaged in a good cause" - that cause being the work of the Lord! I just want my last transfer to be full of working and helping and teaching and growing and all kinds of crazy, wonderful experiences. It's gonna be great!

I love you all! Have a great week! Keep on reading your Book of Mormon - I finished Alma this morning!!

Un sacco d'amore,

SORELLA Soh

Missionaria alla milanese

Bon-jurr!!!

Wednesday again? Yikies! Last week the Bergamo sorelle (Slla McNamara and Slla Harward) came down and had pday with us. We went to the Teatro alla Scala which is the famous opera house here in Milano. IT WAS AWESOME!!! First of all, the guy at the box office let us in for free! We went up the stairs to the little museum thing that had a bunch of paintings and stuff of famous composers and opera singers, and then we got to go into one of the audience boxes and see the theater. Unfortunately, the lights were all out so we didn't get to see everything in detail...BUT! It was dark because they were doing a dress rehearsal for the opera "Nabucco" so we got to watch part of it!!!! It was so so awesome!!! It wasn't with the orchestra, just with the piano, but we heard some of the singers - a soprano, a tenor, a bass, and a mezzo soprano. It was really cool. Slla Harward was a vocal performance major at Utah State and so it was even cooler for her to be there.

Oh, and mom, two weeks ago I bought new boots. They were on sale for 40€ and they've turned out to be probably the best purchase I've made all winter because they're super warm and also waterproof! They're not super attractive, but such is my life. Sigh.

I'm happy to hear that the fam is reading in Alma 50ish right now because I just read that chapter today! I guess I'll finish before you guys, but that just means that I'll get to read the end of the BoM with you all again. Hopefully that will help start to make up for all those times I've read 1 Nephi 1 and never gotten to Moroni 10...

So scambio this week! I went to Bergamo! I really liked it. Bergamo is really beautiful, and really clean! It's an interesting contrast to Milano, and the two cities are less than an hour apart on the train. Slla Harward is really good friends with my friend Mary Kremer who studied abroad in Siena with me, so that was cool. Slla Lyman and Slla McNamara stayed here in Milano and they set a baptismal date with Mishell (aka Michelle), the 9 year old girl we are teaching. February 24th after church! That brings our total baptismal dates up to 3! We're super excited to have so many people who want to get baptized. We've also had a lot of referrals from members of less-actives that they'd like us to go see. The best part is that these people are really in situations where they want and need our support and so that has been really neat for us as well. Ideally the ward takes care of teaching new converts and less-actives, not the missionaries, but it's definitely nice to feel needed.

Our awesome investigator, Jennifer, is doing really great. I almost feel bad that we have to wait until the 16th so she can get baptized - she's ready right now! I feel so blessed to be able to go over and teach her because she knows everything is true. I feel like we don't really do anything! I just feel really good when we have lessons with her and I know it's because the Spirit is there. We just all feel really good, really comfortable when we're in our lessons.

Um. It's week 5 of the transfer! It also means that Slla Lyman is senior companion for the week!! I know she's not particularly excited about it, but none of my trainees have ever been excited about it, so she's in good company. She's doing great though and hopefully she'll make it to the end of the week without wanting to strangle me! We did have kind of a weird experience yesterday, nothing to freak out about, but extra prayers of protection and safety would really be appreciated.

I hope everyone is enjoying the weather! Here it's been pretty much just foggy and cold every day. The other day it rained and rained and then snowed and then rained again. Luckily our heaters work really well in the apartment, so we're safe from that! I've just been extra glad to have these new waterproof boots! One day of walking around with soggy boots and socks was enough for me!

Well, it's that time again. Keep reading your scriptures and look for the miracles in your lives! I asked Slla McNamara last week what things she felt like she has learned on her mission and she said "Miracles. Before my mission I kinda glossed over them and was like 'yeah, whatever', but they are real!!! They are so real!" So! Look for 'em! I love you all very much! Have a fantastic week!

AMORE,

Sorella SOH

The Fourth String

Buoooooongiorno!!!

Yikes. I can't believe it's Wednesday again already, even though a ton of stuff happened this past week! First of all, shout out again to Slla Baker...75 lessons in one week...last week we had 6. Yeah. That bites. We were talking to one of the YSAs here and she has a friend who is serving in Mexico. Apparently this friend had 30 baptisms in one month...and their goal was 50. She told me that and I almost passed out. I was like "how many lessons a week do you have to teach to be able to baptize 30 people???" Seventy-five lessons a week? That's like more than 10 lessons a day!! Oh my gosh.

Well, like I said, it's been an exciting week! We had specialized training on Friday and all got new bank cards! So now I have a brand new Bank of America card...oooOOOooo. The Lynches are the senior couple in the office and they've been traveling all around the mission to do these trainings. They were also the ones who drove us down to Siena and witnessed first-hand all that went down in our apartment! I talked to Slla Lynch a little bit and she said she was talking to Slla Capece earlier that week at their training and Slla Capece told her "I miss Sorella Soh!". Well I miss the Capeces! The training wasn't anything particularly special, but the most exciting part for Slla Lyman and I was the special musical number we performed! Yes!!! A violin/ukulele duet!!! Yep.You read that right. Violin and ukulele. That's right, folks, the Fourth String Sorelle performed their spectacular rendition of the Italy Milan Mission Hymn!!! I had joked with President about doing a violin/ukulele thing because Slla Lyman is a STELLAR violin player and studies it at BYU and stuff. Well, last week in his email to me he said "if you and Slla Lyman come up with something for the training on Friday, let me know!" so then I started to take it seriously. So Thursday for our language study/lunch, we spent an hour and a half or so writing a violin part to the mission hymn. I wasn't sure if it would work at first, but we decided to try anyway. As I had been thinking about how we could make it work, I kind of came up with a little tune in my head that would sound cool with the mission hymn, and then when we acutally got the violin out, Slla Lyman is a boss and could just play whatever I hummed out. The end result was AWESOME!!! Seriously, it sounded so cool. Everyone was pretty much blown away when we performed it at the training (don't worry, they filmed it and I'm working on getting a copy). The sound probably wasn't that great because the violin is pretty loud, but we got a standing ovation at the end. It was really fun. Slla Lyman told me it was the first time she's ever written anything on the violin - I'm glad I was there to write it with her! It's super awesome.

Other exciting news, we set a baptismal date on Sunday night! So the sisters here before us (Slla Forbes and Slla Mancuso) met a guy named Atilio and taught him the Restoration. Then he was out of town for a few months working and then moved and all kinds of crazy things so they didn't ever see him again. Anyway, long story short, we got in touch with him again and on Sunday night went with a member to his house and talked to him about the Book of Mormon. He said that he hadn't really read it, but really liked the story about Joseph Smith and Christ in the Americas and stuff. We always invite to baptism our first lesson with someone, so Slla Lyman asked him if he will get baptized when he knows that what we teach is true. He said yes without any hesitation, and I was kinda surprised. I also thought that if he accepted so easily that we should go ahead and try to set a date with him. Since it is Slla Lyman's job to invite people to baptism because she is the trainee, I whispered to her "Date! The 23rd!". Unfortunately, as I was saying that, Atilio had gone off talking about prophets or something and so I carefully tried to wrangle the conversation back to baptism. Once I got it set up, I handed it over to Slla Lyman and immediately she said "terremo una ceremonia battesimale il 23 febbraio. Si preparerà per farsi battezzare quel giorno? / we will be having a baptismal ceremony the 23rd of February. Will you prepare to be baptized on that day?" And he responded "Sì. Dove? / Yes. Where?". Haha. I wasn't sure if he really understood what he had just agreed to, so I kinda followed up with things like "well, you need to read and pray and come to church if you WANT TO BE BAPTIZED ON THE 23rd" and he was like, "yeah, yeah, I understand". And then we set up to see him twice a week - we have an appointment with him tonight! But he seems to understand that we want him to get baptized and he wants to do it, so we've just got to make sure we help him get ready! 

Today the Sorelle serving in Bergamo (Slle McNamara and Harward) are coming to do pday with us, and then I'll be going back to Bergamo with Slla Harward to do a scambio (exchange) with her. Slla Harward was companions with Slla Lyman in the MTC. Neither she nor Slla McNamara have served in Milano, so we're going to go out and take a little tour of Milano with them - the Duomo, the creepy bone church, etc. I'm also excited to scambio in Bergamo! I've never been, but I've heard it's really beautiful. They also seem to have a lot of work there, so it's going to be a really good scambio, I'm sure of it!

Oh, mom! I got your Christmas package! THANK YOU! YOU ARE THE BEST!!! Slla Lyman also appreciated the Reese's trees you sent. As I stuffed mini kitkits into my mouth I kept saying "my mom is the best!" and she seemed to pick up on that trend because as she unwrapped a Reese's tree, she said "man. Your mom is the best." and savored every last bit of that chocolatey peanut butter goodness! So mom, it's been said in the mouth of two witnesses that the word shall be established, and Slla Lyman and I both have declared that you're the best! Thank you! We've had lots of fun sorting out jelly beans...Slla Lyman told me "I feel like I've just learned so much about you" as I told her all about my jelly bean preferences. And don't worry, I also shared some of the treats with the Elders in the ward, Anz Sciarretta and Anz Bedzold (sp?)...it's a hard life being an Assistant to the President...but they were also very grateful. "Those were the best jelly beans I've ever had!" Anz S told me (he only eats orange jelly beans). 

Well, we're off to go do our grocery shopping for the week! Oh, and another thing, shout outs of awesomeness to my second cousins who just got called to the Peru Lima and China Hong Kong missions!!! Yeah! That's three of those Hafen cousins with mission calls! Word.

Keep reading your scriptures! I finished Alma 37 today! Be a GEM!

Love,

Sorella SOH

Time keeps on slippin'

Guten Tag!!!

That's German. 

Anyway, happy Wednesday! I feel like the weeks are just flying by...which maybe isn't a good thing! The assistants to the President are in our ward and I had to call them last night for something - they're out and about this week doing trainings - and Anz Sciarretta told me that Slla Nilson gave her "dying" testimony yesterday aka it was her last mission gathering so she got to bear her testimony in front of the zone. AHHHHH!!!! That means I'm next!!!! At least I have another six weeks or so to prepare. Whew.

Additional shout outs this week to the future Slla Lopez and Slla Baker who emailed me this week. Also, shout out to MAMMINA WALTON!!! I got your letter on Thursday...the day after I sent YOU a letter. You're such a babe. And you look so thin! Thanks for the Christmas card...tell Laura I wish her good luck on finding "the perfect male specimen" haha.

Well, remember how I thought all of my Milano memories would be about how dang hot it was? I feel like I'm getting the opposite now because it is getting cold! The weather has been really gross and yesterday it rained and rained and rained. Unfortunately these cheap-o boots I bought are not waterproof...last night I felt like I was walking around with an Icee slushie in my shoes. My socks were completely soaked! We are going to a little mall place thing today, though, so hopefully we can sort that out...hopefully.

How's your Book of Mormon reading going? I just finished Alma 25 today in Italian. I'm still on track to finish before the end of my mission!

Speaking of the end of my mission, I had a dream last night about how I was supposed to give my homecoming talk in church but I didn't have anything prepared (obviously, because I still have a transfer and a half left in my mission), but luckily Lauren Hafen was giving her farewell talk that day and everybody loved it. It was a weird dream. 

Well our awesome investigator, Jennifer (who I wrote about last week), is doing great! And guess what? She's getting baptized on the 16th of February!!! We went with her last Saturday to a baptism in one of the other Milano wards and she was totally down. She said "Sono pronta / I'm ready". She's already almost finished 1 Nephi and totally understands everything we teach and it is so awesome. She is the best! 

That hour on Sunday right after church is probably the most hectic hour of my week. We run around trying to talk to everyone and set up appointments and thank people and whatever, and it's really exhausting!This Sunday I was talking to someone and then Anz Sciarretta said "Hey Sorella Soh!" and waved me over to talk to the woman he had been talking to. He just said "here you go!" and so I introduced myself to this woman and she said, basically, "Hi, my 9 year old daughter wants to get baptized. Can you come over and teach her or something?" and of course I said yes! And guess what the daughter's name is? It's Michelle!!! The mom has been kinda less-active for the past few years but she has a super solid testimony and knows the church is true and she told us yesterday that she really wants to do good and get reactivated and be that example for her kids (she also has a 5 year old son). So basically we have two people that have just fallen out of the sky and into our laps and we couldn't be happier about it. I just love being able to help people and fulfill my calling at the same time...IT'S THE BEST!

So for my daily language study I've been working on translating my patriarchal blessing from English into Italian. I started when I was in Firenze and now I think I've got it translated the best I'm ever going to get it. It has been SO cool to translate because I've really had to think about what each word means. The only bad part is that I can't really have anyone look over it, so I'll never know how good my translation is! Haha, but it's been really neat nonetheless.

Well, my time is up this week! Keep on keeping on! I love you all very much and hope all is well in the U S of A. Go give someone a pass along card! :P

AMOOOORE,

Sorella SOH

Me Lawn Know

BUONGIORNO!!!!

First of all, MAJOR shout out to the future Sorella Lopez!!!! WRITE TO ME!!! I'm so pumped that you're coming to the mission! The Italy Milan Mission is the best in the whole world! Send me all your questions and I promise to write you back (and that's a big promise from me!). You can email me if you want. Also a shout out to Slla Baker - I love getting your emails. You are the light at the end of my tunnel, haha!

Man, Slla Lopez. I'm so pumped for you. I can't even stand it.

So the big news of the mission, in my opinion, is that the number of sister missionaries in our mission will be skyrocketing in the next six months, and a big chunk of them come in when I leave! I told President on Monday that I feel bad for up and leaving the mission when they'll need all the help they can get with training sisters. I told him "you can keep me for 30 days!!!!" and he just laughed. But I'm serious!!! Even though I know he won't keep me, dangit.

Guess what? I went to Como on Monday!!! Our zone leaders are in Como and so we went up there to have a zone training meeting. And no, I did not see George Clooney there. Nor did I see his villa on the lake. Dangit. But we went there and also had interviews with President! I had no idea we were having interviews, but it was definitely a pleasant surprise :)  My impression from President was that Slla Lyman and I will not be companions again next transfer...so we'll see what surprises await me in my last transfer!

Guess where we went yesterday? Corsico!!!! You know that little island north of Sardinia? Yeah, that's not it. That would be Corsica. We went to Corsico. It's a little town outside Milano. Yeah. But it sounds cool, right?

So about the mail drama...sorry if you've gotten any letters returned to you that you had tried to send to me. It it's been opened and then taped shut, rest assured that I've already read the letter and no one wanted to steal anything out of it. Before I left Milano this summer I sent a big box home with a jacket I never used and all of the letters that had been sent to me in Italy (and some others). Apparently that box was opened somewhere along the road and half of the letters were stuffed in a bag and put back in the box and the other half got put back into circulation. I've been getting tons of letters - but they've all already been opened and read by ME. The office has gotten several and the sisters in Savona and Milano at least have gotten a bunch of letters sent to those apartments. I'm so upset about it. The jacket I sent didn't get home either, and I had bought that in Siena when I studied abroad there. It was like 40 euro!!! But I can replace anything EXCEPT my letters. Grr. I'm so upset!!!!!

Sigh. Well, wanna hear a miracle story? This is what I sent to President in my email this week:

"I was supposed to serve in Milano Cimiano. I am supposed to be serving right now in Milano Navigli. At church on Sunday I saw a face I recognized, and it turns out she lives in the Milano Navigli area, but went to the Milano Cimiano ward. Well, that is she went there up until recently when the bishop of Milano Cimiano told her that she needs to go to the ward in her area. So I greet this sister at the beginning of church and she says "hey, didn't you serve in Milano 2?". It was nice to see a familiar face - for both of us. After church was over, I went to go speak to this sister before she left, and that's when she introduced me to her daughter who is 22 years old. She said, "hey, this is my daughter. She's not baptized yet. Do you want to come over and teach her the lessons?". Of course I said yes and we set up an appointment for the next day. When we showed up and had the first lesson, the daughter told us that she's decided she wants to get baptized! MIRACLE!!! We didn't even do anything, but I KNOW that this member would never had approached me and asked us to come over and teach the lessons if I had just been a stranger. It's only because we knew each other from Milano Cimiano that she would have ever felt comfortable to have us come over!!! INSPIRATION IS SO AWESOME!!!! Thanks for transferring me back to Milano, President!!!"

Yeah! The daughter's name is Jennifer and we are SO PUMPED to teach her!!! She's been coming to church for a while now - she has come every week with her mom since she got here in September, but apparently nobody knew she wasn't a member! We're seeing her again tomorrow and hope to set a date with her. Pray for us!

Well, my time is up! I love you all very much! Keep reading your scriptures! I'm in Alma now!

Loveeeee,

Sorella Soh

Life North of the Arno

Buongiorno a tutti, belli e brutti!!!!

Well, I'm back in Milano! Currently I'm sitting at a tiny little computer space in a sketchy Internet point, but that's just how it goes in Milano. The city isn't really anything like I left it - it's cold! And here I thought all my memories of Milano would be scorching hot summer days... There's actually a really big canal that stretches down our area, and it reminds me a lot of Venice. I didn't even know it existed in Milano! Today is one of the sisters' birthdays and so after we do our grocery shopping we're gonna go up to the Duomo and get lunch together. Man, it's so crazy to be back here.

My first Sunday went pretty well. The ward is HUGE! I mean, by USA standards it's not huge, but dang, when sacrament meeting attendance is about 10x as big as it was in Siena, it feels huge. We had combined RS/EQ meeting the first hour and before the lesson started the bishop let me and the other new Elder in the ward get up and introduce ourselves. Of course I took that as an opportunity to bear my testimony instead of just rambling on about where I've served and how long I've been out and how many times I've trained and all of those other dumb, petty things that no one cares about because they don't matter. Instead I told them about how I'm excited to serve here and how I want to get to know everyone. I had been thinking about what I wanted to say that morning and so told them: "Sono venuta in missione perché volevo servire il Signore, ma sono rimasta in missione perché voglio servire voi / I came on my mission because I wanted to serve the Lord, but I've stayed on my mission because I want to serve YOU". Anyway, I did that and then had to get up and lead the music while Slla Lyman played the piano and then I was asked to say the closing prayer in Sac Mtg. So I guess it went over well! Lots of people came and talked to me after (also because we had come to church early so that I could greet everyone as they walked it) and so I've already started to get to know some of the members. I was complimented on my smile (thank you, Dr. Prewitt and thousands of dollars of orthodontal work!) and also on my Italian accent! It's so funny, no one can guess where I'm from anymore. This YW aged girl came up to me after I said the closing prayer in sac mtg and was like "your accent is SO GOOD!" haha. You might say I have skillz...I would say it's the gift of tongues!

Sorella Lyman and I have gotten along pretty good so far. She was a CP! She worked at Colombia Harbour House, quick food. So we've had fun reminiscing about Disney a bit. And she's from Cary, NC! She even taught me that the name Cary is an acronym for "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees". WHO KNEW??? Well, Slla Lyman, apparently. So, neato skeeto.

Oh, Happy New Year!!! Can you even believe it's 2013!?!? I spent the ENTIRE year of 2012 in Italy as a missionary. How crazy is that!? We didn't do anything, really. We had to be in our apartment by 7pm New Years' Eve and then were supposed to stay in and clean New Years' Day until after lunch. I tried to go to bed at 10:30pm like we're supposed to, but I forgot that we live in the largest city in the mission and sleeping before midnight would be quasi impossible. People were shooting off fireworks from their balconies and noise makers and who knows what all night. It started pretty much as soon as it got dark. It was SO LOUD! It was like being in a war zone or something - non-stop explosions for hours. I didn't ever look at my watch, but I knew when it was midnight because the people in the apartment next to us were making tons of noise and then went out on their balcony and shouted out the countdown to midnight. Which was then of course followed by incessant explosions. Sleep finally overwhelmed me by about 12:30am and I was able to sleep through the remaining explosions. Last year when I was in Torino I guess we lived in a much more peaceful area because it wasn't nearly as bad. I saw a few fireworks but that's it.

I like Milano, but boy was it hard to leave Siena. I may or may not have done a lot of crying...I just love Siena so much! And it was really hard to leave Slla Nilson, too! And the Capeces! We went to the church on Thursday night and some of the members came by to say goodbye. Everyone was like "You just got here! You can't leave!". There were even some suggestions that they chain me to the church and tell President that I couldn't leave, haha. So definitely gonna have to go back to Siena like every year of my life and see everyone! I told Slla Bush "I don't wanna be mean or anything, but I'm gonna be a tough act to follow...I mean, I WAS Joseph in the live nativity..." haha. I think the ward will really like Slla Bush, though. She's fun and has a lot of personality.

Well my time is winding to a close. Also, it's really hard to focus right now because the guy sitting next to me is watching spanish rap videos and his headphone are so loud that I can hear everything. Not pleasant. However, we're off to a new year and another week of missionary work! I'm fairly confident that mail will be coming for me to the Siena apartment until the end of time, but that's okay. It'll just make going to zone conference more fun because there'll be mail waiting for me! I love you all very much! Keep up your BoM reading! I just finished Mosiah 25 today!

Buon Anno!

Love,

Sorella Soh

Happy Santo Stefano! (from 12/26)

(Sorry!  Missed this one, it came the day we left Hawaii and I just forgot!)

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

We had a lovely Christmas here in Siena! We ate Christmas eve dinner with the Capeces and then went back over to their house at about noon on Christmas day. We're allowed to watch a G-rated movie on Christmas day, so our RS president hooked us up with a great musical - SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS!!!!! It was pure bliss. Slla Nilson and I spent the whole movie singing along and saying all of the lines with the movie. We even rewatched the "Sobbin' Women" song with subtitles...did you know that at one point Adam sings "They kept occupied by sewing lots of little old togas for them tots"? I had never been able to understand what he was saying at that point, and so now I feel so enlightened. And then a couple of times yesterday I leaned over and told Slla Nilson: "Nice night for a coon hunt." It was great. Then we mostly just loafed around until it was time to Skype our families. I told the "brown chicken brown cow" joke to Slla N's family. I practiced telling it like every day so that I wouldn't mess it up. It went over pretty well, I guess, because Slla N's fam kept asking me when I'm gonna come over and visit. At least after March...

The Capeces Skyped their daughters on Christmas Eve and on Christmas before it was our turn. I had brought my ukulele, and so the Capeces and Slla Nilson INSISTED that I play my ukulele for their families on Skype. It was kinda weird, but I did it anyway. I played my Hey Soul Sister/I'm Yours mash-up and of course it was a big hit. One of the Capece's daughters said afterward "wow, that was a lot better than I thought it was gonna be" ...which I tried to take as a compliment! 

Fun story, today we took the bus to come do our internet and there was an old man waiting at the bus stop. He saw us and said "Quanto siete belle!!! / How beautiful you two are!!!" and then proceeded to pinch my cheeks. Then he asked if he could kiss me. I said no. But he kept insisting "dai, un bacino! Per l'affetto fraterno! / come on, a kiss! For brotherly affection!". Instead I went for a handshake...and then he just kissed my hand. It could've been worse, I suppose.

I'm feeling pretty scatterbrained right now. Also, I'm not quite sure who my audience is because I just talked to my family on Skype yesterday and feel like I need to fill everyone else in. 

Oh! I forgot the biggest news of all! I'm getting transferred! On Friday! Yep, I'm on the outs. I'm headed back to Milano! Milano Navigli aka Milano 3rd Ward. Before I served in the Milano 2nd ward. And guess who's in my ward? Yep. President Wolfgramm. That means I can get hugs from Slla Wolfgramm every week!! Woo!! The Assistants are also in my ward! My new companion will be Slla Lyman, who is just finishing her first transfer. That also means that I will be her secondary trainer and will have the finish the 12 week training program with her. I'm taking Slla Forbes's spot. So that kinda makes me a trainer for the third time. Kind of. Slla Bush, who is from WI, is coming down here to take my spot in Siena, that lucky duck! 

A big shout out of everyone who sent me Christmas cards! I haven't been able to keep track of everyone who has sent me stuff, so I won't list out everyone, but the cards were all very much appreciated. Also a mondo super huge shout out to the Nilson fam and Grandma Harley who graciously included gifts for me in their packages to Slla N. It was nice to have something to open on Christmas since my mom's package didn't arrive in time!

Well, time has quickly run out. I love you all very much and I thank you for all of your prayers and support. Keep reading your scriptures! I'm now in Mosiah 6 or so (in Italian). Still on track to finish before the end of March! Well, at least I think I am. I don't really exactly know how much time I have left because I refuse to dwell on that. Yikes.

Happy New Year!

Love from Siena (for the last time),

Sorella Soh