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!!!
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