Savona-na-na

Hellllooooo everyone!!!

Today I can officially say hello from SAVONA!!! The Internet point we're using today is a little sketchy, but it works! I can't believe I've been here for almost two weeks now! I feel like I just got here, geez! Oh, and speaking of which, I'll try to only be just a little bit hurt that in those two weeks I haven't gotten ANY letters from anyone. Yesterday was a holiday, though, so I'll try and cut you all some slack...for now. The next time I'll get mail from Milan (that was sent to the mission office) will be the 17th of May. OH! But before that, GUESS WHAT DAY THE 13th IS??? Yeah!!!! Mother's Day!!!! Sor Jones wants to use Skype, but I feel like that will just be super confusing. However, if you all can set everything up and email me about it before next Wednesday, I think it could work. 

So a cool new advancement in technology that our mission has decided to venture into...we now have texting!!! We have finally entered into the 2000-teens and can text from our phone! Before we could only receive texts. The problem, of course, is that we have a little number pad keyboard so to text you have to press 2 three times to type "c" and all that. It's like a step backward and a step forward at the same time. Which made me think of my poor little neglected phone - have you turned it off yet? It has been 8 months...

Savona is so great. Except I don't know what it is about me, but I feel like the one lasting memory of my mission will be that I was always riding my bike in the rain! It doesn't ever seem to rain when we're taking the train all day, but boy does it pour when we're having to be out on our bikes! Sheesh. Yesterday was one of those days, but luckily the sun is out today. Savona is so great. The members are really great and really willing to help us with the work here - going to lessons and stuff. And they're so funny - they always want to give us food. On Sunday we ate with our ward mission leader and his family, and before we left they were like "do you want some fruit to take home??" and then gave us a grocery bag with some fruit in it. And then, the wife was like "Oh, onions! Do you want some onions???" and held up two onions. I was like "um, onions? I think we're okay" haha. It was so funny to me, but so normal to them. It's so Italian!!! One of the things that I love the most about Savona and the members here is that there really actually aren't that many members that live in Savona, but they live in the little suburb-cities around it. Basically we have to go up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere to find where these people live and it is SO beautiful. The views are amazing. It is SO ITALIAN. Like, it's exactly what you think of when you think of a little Italian town in the woods.

I gave a talk in church on Sunday about blessings. It was really short and I would've taken a picture of what I wrote so that I could send it to you, but it was in Italian. Maybe another time...

Before my time runs out, let me explain the pictures:

1. Me and Sor B with the Gallarato family my last night in Torino! I'm wearing the Swarovski necklace they gave me as a going away present...

2. Me and Sor J in front of a church we saw in Genova last week

3.Me and Sor J in front of a fountain thing we saw in Genova last week

4. Me in front of some crazy monument to Vittorio Emmanuele III in Genova

5. Me and Sor McFadden (who is in Genova with Sor Baker) in front of the same crazy monument

6. Sor J and the view from the home of one of the members here who live in Rialto

7. What I looked like yesterday afternoon when we came home after biking in the rain. Rain jacket courtesy of the member we had eaten lunch with yesterday...I know what you're thinking: I look so cute, how could anyone resist saying no to hearing our message? Yeah. Agreed.

Well! That's all the time I've got today, folks! Lots and lots and lots of love from SAVONA (and really from Savona this time)!!!!

Love,

Sorella Soh

M-m-m-my Savona! (April 25th, 2012)

AHHHHH HELLO EVERYONE!!!!!!! I would say "hello from Savona!", but at the present moment I am in Genova!!! Genova (Genoa, in English) is only a 45 min or so train ride away from Savona, so we decided to come here to spend our pday with the sorelle here. Pictures next week :)

First of all, I LOVE SAVONA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE IT love it love it!!! It is such a beautiful city - right on the sea. It is absolutely incredible! It is a pretty small city, and most of the members live in little towns around Savona, which means we spend a LOT of time on the bus and on the train going back and forth to appointments. We have bikes, but we don't use them nearly as much as we did in Torino. That's probably a good thing, though, because it means my apetite has gone down so hopefully now I won't feel like a fatty mcfatfat all the time.

I'm feeling a little bit lost today because I didn't write down any notes this week of things I needed to email home about...so you're all just going to have to bear with me today. I apologize in advance.

 So! Savona! I love it! And I love Sorella Jones! She and her companion from last transfer (Sor Burgoyne, who I had an exchange with in Torino last transfer and just went home) were the first sisters in the city in 30 years. THIRTY!!! They basically had to start from square zero when they got here because there were no progressing investigators or anything from the Elders that were here before. Most of our time is spent visiting less-active members, which always blows my mind because in Torino we had tons of people who didn't ever come to church and didn't want to/couldn't ever see us, but here they actually let us stop by. Just yesterday we went to visit a woman who hasn't been to church since she got married 10 years ago (to a non member) and it was the most crazy miracle. She lives pretty far away - about a 30 min train ride from our house - and we got pretty confused on which train to take, so we ended up missing our train, then taking another train and then missing the stop and having to take a bus to get to her house. Yeah, we were pretty late. But we went and had a message about prayer that we wanted to share. We read the story from President Monson about the 5 dollars he left in his pocket (from Conference in November) and then all of a sudden she just opened up and told us about why she stopped coming to church and how she's over it and has been thinking about coming back and how she's always had a testimony and how she's basically just been waiting for 10 years for someone to come find her. Yeah. Remember how there haven't been sisters in this city for 30 years? Welcome to my life. Oh! AND THEN later on yesterday night we get a phone call from this guy and we have no idea who it is, so Sor J asks him how he knows the missionaries. Come to find out, he's a member of the church, on our ward list (less/inactive) and HE called US and wants to meet with us and start coming back to church. WHAT??? Yeah. Savona - the NEW city of miracles!!!

There is a senior couple here in Savona that are in charge of the Young Adult Center, the Robinsons, and I think I mentioned something about them last week. They don't speak Italian (which I can only imagine is THE most frustrating thing), and so we translate for them. I've never had to translate before, but man is it hard!!! It requires good listening, no thinking, and quick speaking. Too bad I'm a thinker by nature, so that trips me up a little bit. But with all the translating I'm going to have to do this transfer, I'll hopefully be semi-kinda-okay at it by the end. There is so much work to do here in Savona! We don't even have enough time to see all the people that we want to see - it's so crazy! It feels like a completely different mission than Torino. I did get a call on Saturday from the Torino sorelle, though, asking me where the spare keys to the apartment are...yeah, they locked themselves out, haha. I don't know how they got back in, but I will say that I didn't have the spare keys! I left them on the shelf by the door before I left.

I don't know what else to say, but I'll keep typing this sentence so that I feel like I'm not wasting my internet time...

Oh, Dad, you'd be so proud of me, the first thing I did when I got here (pretty much) was fix up my bike. Sorelle Jones and Burgoyne had to buy new bikes, so they're fine, but the first time I rode my new bike I felt like I had to be careful about not kneeing myself in the forehead - it is not a very big bike! So I basically just raised the seat about 4 inches and adjusted the handlebars to make it work, and then we went to the gas station on Monday to put air in the tires. Remember how I'm the tallest sister in the mission? Whoever has my bike next will for sure have to readjust everything to fit them (let's hope it's not my friend Sor Bishop who inherits my bike next).

Well, I feel like this is a super short email, but I'm out of time! Just know that I'm LOVING Savona and all is well! You are in my prayers and I love you all so much (especially my braintwin! pee ess thanks for the email!)!!!!

Lots and lots and lots of love from Savona (via Genova), Sorella Soh

CIAO TORINOOOOOO!!!

Hey there famiglia, cari e stranieri!!!

Well...I'm getting transferred!!!!!!!!! I will be going to...drumroll, please....SAVONA!!!!! I honestly don't really know anything about Savona except that it's in the province of Liguria (between Piemonte and Toscana) and apparently it's a little city on the sea! I will still be in the same zone! They have a little branch there, as well as a Senior Couple who work at the Young Adult center/institute there, with whom we apparently work pretty closely (they don't speak much Italian, I hear). Basically they will be my Italian Nana and Opa!!! And as for my new companion...it's Sorella Jones!!! If you remember, we did our scambio (exchange) with the sorelle from Savona a few weeks ago when they came to Torino. Sor Jones was companions with Sor Bunker, but now it's my turn - and this time it's for realsies! I'm super excited to get to be companions with her (and to also not be a trainer OR senior companion! Woo! Stress-free, right?? Ha.) I'm excited. A Sorella Sloan will be coming from Pordenone to take my place in Torino and be companions with Sor B. Funny story - I know Sorella Sloan! I didn't know her on a last-name basis, so I had no idea she was here, but when I saw her at our sorelle training a few weeks ago I knew her instantly - we were in two Italian classes together at BYU! And even crazier, we did a project together one time about Piemonte and Torino! I KNOW!!! Heavenly Father is a funny guy. I like him.

It's hard to believe I'm really leaving Torino. It doesn't feel that weird, maybe because Savona is not that far away. I still have a ton left to do before we have to leave tomorrow morning! There's a new convert that we teach who is from the Dominican Republic and she wants to feed us lunch today - Dominican food! We were going to eat with her last night, but she forgot. Instead she just fed us Italian food. But she insisted on feeding us food "from her country" today. We really don't have time to go all the way over there, but guess what. We're doing it anyway because I just couldn't say no to her pleas! Hope it all works out! I told a couple of the members I was probably going to get transferred (I didn't know for sure until President called me on Monday night about it) and so consequently we've had a la couple of meal appointments in the past bit. Saturday we had lunch with the Varela family. They're from Peru.

Then we stopped Sunday afternoon to visit the Espinoza family and the daughters latched onto my arms for the picture, so I look super awkward in it, haha. But they are fantastic and I love them so much.



The last picture is of me and the chocolate bunny that our Dominican new convert gave us last night. Something I've learned about the people in this country - regardless of their nationality - is that if they insist on something, you have to oblige. No choice. ESPECIALLY when it comes to food. Oh, which reminds me that we also had lunch yesterday with a member family. I went up to the mom on Sunday and said (in Italian) "hi, this is kind of a weird setting and I'm not sure if I can say all of this in Italian the way I want to, but I don't know what it is about you, I just love you" at which point she kind of said "awwww!" and hugged me. She served her mission in Temple Square and I just think she's awesome. They have three young kids and live pretty far out, but we ate the most amazing pasta (pesto and ricotta...together...life=changed) and I was again reminded of how much I don't like eating in front of people because I spent most of the meal feeling awkward and trying hard to get her to like me. Yeah. I'm pretty sure being a missionary only fosters my awkwardness. Dangit.

So, news about Antonio our baptismal date! Well...he's not getting baptized on Saturday. Because we haven't seen him since we set the date! But! The sorelle here have an appointment with him on Friday. Here's the story: The day after we set the date with him was Monday. We had planned to see him that day, but that morning he called us and said he just got a call for a job and wouldn't be able to make it. Drat. But good! Jobs are good! So we didn't hear from him until Thursday when I called him to see how he was doing. He told me he had read half of the BoM (in less than a week...yeah...golden). And then our phone conversation went a little something like this:

Antonio: Do you remember how we met at your church the other day?
Me: Um, yes...?
Him: And do you remember there was that guy there (I can't remember his name)??
me: yeah, Fratello Giardino?
him: Yeah, and you remember how he prayed?
me: um. yes.
him: and you remember what he said?
me: uh......
him: he prayed that I would find a job, and then the next day - no! The next morning - I got that call about a job!!!
me: (in a state of surprise) well...prayer works!!!

Yeah. That happened. Unfortunately since that time we haven't heard from him, but he told our ward mission leader (Fratello Giardino) that he had left his phone in Milano or something and that's why he hadn't answered our calls. I'm just gonna have to stay on Sor B's case about Antonio and make sure that he gets baptized next transfer! He knows it's true!

Well, I'm out of time. As a side note, ERILYN HEINTZ. WRITE TO ME. Also, Sor Walton is getting transferred to Pordenone to be in a threesome with Sorella Forbes (who I did my scambio with last transfer) and Sorella Lloyd (who I don't really know but is 2 transfers ahead of me in the mission). Pordenone is basically on the other side of the mission, so pretty much that means that I won't see her ever again! Well, at least until the next transfer circle we're both at, which will probably be in July (when she goes home) and then after the mission. CRAZY. Sor B I'll get to see because we'll still be in the same zone, so that'll be good.

Anyway, get pumped for tante belle cose (lots of good things) from Savona.

LOVE LOVE AND MORE LOVE (for the last time) FROM TORINO!!!
Sorella Soh

p.s. mom I got your letter. I'm glad I misinterpreted your comment about feeding missionaries because I was stressing out about the email I sent home! I CAN'T BELIEVE SQUEAKY IS GOING TO GIRLS' CAMP. She's not old enough!!! She still has at least 6 more years before she can go, right??? Sheesh

p.p.s. DAD. YOU'RE GOING TO HAWAII WITHOUT ME?!?!?! Can't Grammy wait another year to have a birthday?? Sighhhh. Alright alright. Just as long as you tell everyone how much I love them (which is a lot). And then to Italy. Giuseppe is SO excited for you to come to Italy. He reminds me pretty much every time I see him that I said I would bring you and mom over to their house for dinner.

Week the Twenty-third

Chee-yow fam-eeleeyuh!

This is my 23rd week in Torino. How do I know? Not because I counted, but because next week is TRANSFERS!!! So basically we're quasi at the end of my 4th (read it - FOURTH) transfer in the field. So here's the warning: any letters you planned on sending to my Torino address you better send TODAY or just send it to Milano. Otherwise it may take a while before I get it. Yeah. Of course, transfers are never set in stone, but I'm 97.26% sure I'm getting transferred next week. I won't know where until next Monday or Tuesday, but that's just how it goes. Crazy, right??

So transfers are a week from tomorrow (Thursday), and tomorrow we have zone conference! The Anziani in our ward are the zone leaders and guess what - they got a car! Our zone is the biggest in the mission, apparently, and so they finally got a car instead of having to take the train everywhere (apparently when they take the train to San Remo they have to take a little detour into France, so this is a good thing that they have a car). Which means that they are taking the car to zone conference and giving the other companionship in our district (the Anz from Collegno) a ride. And the Sisters? "Sorry, you have to take the train." Yeah. Feelin' the love. Anyway, I'm pretty excited for zone conference tomorrow because it's always really good to get to hear from President and get trained in things we're not good at!

The weather has been CRAZY this past week. It's cold and rainy out today, as it's been for the past few days. Friday night we were at dinner with the Gallarato family (Giuseppe's fam) and the bottom FELL OUT OF THE SKY. And not only was it pouring rain, it was also HAILING and raining. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. There was water flowing down the street, but it looked like a giant washing machine had overflowed or something because there was white stuff all in the water - it looked like suds or something. Absolutely insane. I didn't have my camera, but I wish I had because I'd never ever seen anything like it before, ever. On Saturday it started raining again and we were on our bikes and it was so cold and we were all wet so we decided to stop by a member's house. Her husband died a while ago and so she lives alone, so luckily she was home. She warmed up some milk for us and gave us cookies and chocolate. Tender mercy! The first picture I've attached is of me right after we got home from her house. It was still raining when we left, so she gave us each a scarf to cover our heads with. She also gave Sor B a wool coat to wear home because all she had on was a sweater. We looked a little ridiculous, but then again we always look a little ridiculous, so it was fine. I love Mormons.



Happy late Easter! We didn't do anything particularly special for Easter, but we did get invited over for pranzo/lunch at a member's house. Mamma mia she made the best lasagna I've had so far on my mission. It was so good. And she made lamb. (cue movie clip from My Big Fat Greek Wedding: "HE DON'T EAT NO MEAT?!?! That's okay. I make lamb.") Italians take FOREVER to eat meals, especially on holidays, but it was really nice to be over and eat with them.

We have been biking so much this week. SO MUCH. SO. MUCH. BIKING. I'm so tired! And I'm a little worried that my leg muscles may just take over my body because we bike alllllll day long. Every morning when my alarm goes off I think to myself "No way. It cannot already be 6:30. I need to sleep for at least another 12 years." But biking is good because it means that we have places to go and people to see! Things are really looking up in Torino for us, and even after I get transferred I know that whoever comes to replace me will at least have something to go off of, so hopefully she won't be too upset with me :)

I'd like to apologize to Sorella Bunker's mom really quick because Senior Companion week has rolled around again aka Sor B's least favorite week of all time. BUT! Lucky us, we just happen to be in the city of miracles. Torino. Maybe you've heard of it. And yes. I have another incredible miracle story to share from last night. Hold on to your socks because they just might get rocked off.

So way back at the beginning of last transfer aka when I first started training Sor B, I had decided to go through and call all the people on the ward list. A lot of it wasn't very successful (remember the Mormon turned Jehovah's Witness who yelled at me on the phone? Yeah. Not pleasant). Anyway, it wasn't really fun, but it got me really familiar with all the people on the ward list and stuff. So, flash forward to last night. Sor B is in charge, it's raining and freezing cold, and we're biking around the city with no direction because our evening appointment cancelled on us. So we lock up our bikes and walk around and pick a few palazzi (stairwells) to do casa (door-to-door tracting) in. As we're walking around, I recognize one of the street names as a street where a less active lives. I tell Sor B this and she says "let's go visit her!" so we do. There are no names on the citofono (intercom thing), only numbers, so we randomly pick one and plan on asking if they know what number we should ring to find this woman we're looking for. Well, they did. Why? Because it's her apartment. Oh. Right. She couldn't hear us on the intercom because it was too static-y and so she just buzzed us in. We go up to her apartment and find that she's not an older woman like we thought, but a girl in her 20s. She invites us in and apologizes for the stuff all over her room because she says "I just got back from France". Oh. So she was in France. And here's the subsequent conversation:

Me: "Cool, how long were you there for?"
Her: "A year and a half". (What???? No wonder she hasn't been in church)
Me: "Oh! When did you get back?"
Her: "Today."

WHAT?!?! Are you kidding me?!?! She's been in France for the past year and a half, got back THAT DAY and we just happened to be in the area and think to stop by. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!!!! A quick look at the MFC.....MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!

Yeah. That happened.

Anyway, I'm out of time. It's been a good week and next week will be even better. Last week in Torino (probably)!!! Keep looking for miracles because they're there. It just took me going on a mission to figure that out...

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Sorella Soh

p.s. the second picture is of our district! Our battle cry this transfer: Destroy the Natural Man. L-R Anz Ostler (Torino 2, zone leader), Anz Walsh (Collegno, from England!), Anz Herrington (in the back, also training, District leader, Collegno), Anz Frustaci (Torino 2, zone leader), Me and Sor B.

Happy April! (April 4th)

Ciao a tutti!

I hope my love for all of you is manifest in the fact that though it is raining today, we still got on our bikes and biked out to the Internet Point to come write our emails this week. What was that about March going out like a lamb? Maybe that was a reference to Easter or something. Boh. ("Boh" means "I dunno" in Italian, unofficially)

Oh, Sorella Bishop who I met at the sisters only conference last week? The one I have the picture with? Yeah, forgot to mention that apparently she was a CP at Disney, too! She was friends with Mickey or something I think. Yeah.

I was craving strawberry PopTarts this week. Of all things. Totally weird, I know. Oh, and maybe mom if you could chuck in a pack of Tide pens in your next package, that would be great. And Dad, I'm glad that Squeaky doesn't like shopping with you because that means more fun for me when I come home and she and I can go shopping together! I'm happy that she's reading so much. I feel like all the reading I did as a kid not only filled my brain with things to think about, but I feel like it made me a better speller. Tell her she should read all the Amber Brown and American Girl books we have. I always loved those and they were quick and fun to read. Oh, and dear Auntie Liesl, I've been thinking that I might start calling Leah " little half shiblum" from now on. Alma 11:17. Look it up. :p

So the Saturday before last there was a YW activity at the church and the YW president asked us if we would come, so we stopped by. I don't really know why she wanted us there, but I think it's mostly because they all just really like us. I love them right back. The YW president and all of the girls except 2 or 3 are Peruvian, and so at this activity they were speaking a mix of Italian and Spanish (I was reminded, though, that "perro" in spanish means "dog") and they're all just funny. Well the sister of the YW president is also in our ward and was there helping out. I don't know what it is about them, but they all just love me and think I'm hilarious. Go figure. Anyway, in the midst of the whirlwind of languages I told them that my first initial is K, so that makes me K. Soh aka queso (sound it out). Oh man. I still haven't decided whether or not that was a good thing because on the one hand they all like me and will never forget my name, but on the other hand now they all call me "Sorella Queso" or, even better, "Sorella Formaggio". It could be worse, I suppose.

Mom, I've been thinking about the comment you made in one of your letters about how the rule there is that missionaries can't come over for dinner unless there is an investigator present. We have the same rule in our mission. We can eat lunch with members, but at dinner there has to be a non member or less active there. I feel like in the church we have such a weird view of missionaries and missionary work. I mean, who knows what the heck a missionary does all day unless they've been a missionary? Why do we even have a "feed the missionaries" calendar? I talked about this with Sor Walton, too, because we both said that for us growing up feeding the missionaries was more like a form of service, like "aw, those poor missionaries are eating Ramen every meal. We should have them over and stuff them to the gills so they don't keel over on their bikes this week." Now, as a missionary, I look at eating with members as "Great! An appointment to teach this family and bring them closer unto Christ and help them figure out how to share the gospel with their friends". We have plenty of food and eat pretty well. We get money every month that covers all of our needs (unless you count kebabs and gelato as "needs"...). I really, honestly have no idea what the members here think we do all day. I think they think we just sit around our apartment all day reading our scriptures or something. No!!! We're out in the park talking to strangers! We're out on our bikes riding to appointments! We are working! And as an advisory to any members out there, if you invite the missionaries over for dinner and they eat and hang out at your house and play with your kids and don't try and teach you something (spiritual thought, message, whatever), that should be a warning sign that those missionaries aren't very committed to what they do. Yesterday we had a meal appointment and I was STRESSING out because we didn't even start eating until almost an hour after we got there and then it took us another hour to eat and we hadn't even gotten to the lesson yet! Missionaries are for TEACHING. That's our calling! That's what we want to do! Yes, I LOVE members, but I can't afford to spend 4 hours of the Lord's time hanging out with people who are active members when I could have spent that time finding and teaching other people who need the gospel and don't have it. Anyway, my point is that when they say they want you to have an investigator at dinner, really they mean they just want to use their time teaching somebody who needs them more than you do. And I know I've brought this up before, but let's maybe not get caught up in defining what a "referral" or "investigator" is. A referral is anybody who will talk to the missionaries and not slam the door in their face. An investigator is anyone who has every asked a question about the church. Sometimes we think "oh, that person smokes and drinks and doesn't go to church so they're not ready for the missionaries. But my other friend who is super active in her church and doesn't do any of those things and already believes in Christ is super ready, maybe" but when you think about it, which one of those people needs Jesus Christ more in their life? Okay, I feel like maybe this hasn't been the most effective paragraph/use of my internet time ever, but once I started it I couldn't just delete it or else I would've been left with an empty email.

I'm sorry, I feel like this email hasn't been very good. I guess the real point is that as a missionary I've been required to think a lot about things I never thought to think about before. I was telling Sor B the other day that I kinda feel like those really old trees in LoTR that take forever to talk, but in the sense that it takes me forever to think about things. I have a post-it on my desk with a whole list of things that I need to think about. I just don't have the time to think about them. I really could probably just sit on my bed all day thinking and it still wouldn't get me very far. Oh well.

Shoot! My time is up and I didn't even talk about conference!!!! We didn't get to watch the Sunday afternoon session because it started at 10pm our time, so we'll just have to wait until the Liahona/Ensign comes out and we'll read them then. I'm sad to lose Sister Beck, but I'm excited for the new RS president!

Anyway, sorry again about the lame email this week. Things are picking up in Torino. Antonio got a job and so hasn't been able to see us this week, but the last time I talked to him on the phone he told me he'd already read half of the BoM! He's still going strong! And we have met lots of new people so there's hope yet! I love you all! Thanks for your love and support!

Un ABRACCIONE from the city of miracles!

Sorella Soh