The Adventures of Sister Holiday: Training Ragusa

My new companion has arrived in Ragusa! Last week we got up to drop
Sorella Battezzato off at the airport on Thursday and then the three
of us that were waiting for new companions did a scambio in Catania
until they came around 6 and then I met my new companion and we took
the bus back down to Ragusa. I LOVE Sorella Roberts, she is just
really genuinely awesome and I feel like we have a lot in common but
she's way cooler than me, haha. It's crazy how the work in a city
changes with a different companionship. We've already been able to
contact a couple families that haven't been coming to church whom I
haven't been able to meet with since I've gotten to Ragusa. You're
definitely called to a certain area at a certain time for certain
people.
Another cool thing about my companion is that her older brother served
here about 18 years ago, when the mission was at the time the "Catania
Mission". One of the cities he served in was Ragusa! He might of been
one of the Elders that helped teach and baptize one of the women in
our ward and she was super happy to hear that and got really emotional
when Sorella Roberts told her.
When you're training a city you start to see the city with different
eyes. When I got to Ragusa I was just kind of thrown into it all and
I've never really taken the time to just see how beautiful it all is!
So for P-day today we did a little sight seeing. We saw one of the
touristy churches and my companion graduated in Art History so she was
able to explain a lot of the pieces. It was like things I walk past
everyday became brand new!

Yesterday I played the piano for our wards primary program it was just
WAY TOO MUCH CUTENESS. I wanted to barf, but just because it was too
much cuteness I couldn't contain it. Also, I was really happy because
if you could choose your calling in church, my dream calling would be
primary pianist, it's kind of the best.

Last night our ward watched the Christmas Devotional that was last
week in Salt Lake, it was all translated which obviously made it
harder for me to follow but it was really beautiful nonetheless. Our
ward really loved it. So the Christmas Devotional, for those of you
who don't know, is this meeting they have every year where a lot of
the general authorities of the church speak, about christmas, the
tabernacle choir sings, and everything is all lit up and beautiful and
the talks are really beautiful. There is usually a talk followed by a
musical number and it follows that pattern. At the end of it, they
invited the congregation to join in on the last verse of silent night.
One of the men in our ward passed out hymn books, and we all joined
in, and even though they were singing in English and we were singing
in Italian, it was really awesome. The spirit was so strong in the
room after the devotional, no one wanted to leave, haha.

Sorella Roberts and I were talking about this morning how awesome that
is that you can feel that same, wonderful spirit all over the world.
It's just another testimony of the truth of these things.
There are a couple quotes that I have on sticky notes on the inside of
my ipad case, and one of them is, "The real voyage of discovery
consists not in discovering new landscapes but in having new eyes."
-Marcel Proust. I was reflecting on that because after having a new
companion, Ragusa really does seem like a completely different city.
I've learned so much new stuff about it here in just the past few
days! Yesterday we ate pranzo at a members house, and the husband was
telling us a Sicilian tradition about how if a young girl who's not
married yet can peel an orange with a knife, but it has to be done
perfectly! Like you can't break the ring and it has to be completely
white, you cant cut into the pulp. If you can do that perfectly you're
ready for marriage! Then they made us try it, haha. That was totally
random, but I just thought it was intersting how much I've been
learning that I didn't even know before! We sometimes get really
comfortable with what we know, and feel like we've got all the answers
and we're just content with that, but there is always more to learn.
Somethings we may have already known, but when we go back and study it
again with new eyes, it has new meaning.
I can't tell you how many times I've taught the lesson of the
restoration, but it has never been so wonderful to me now as it has
been at any other time in my life.

I love you all and I can't believe it's almost Christmas! I get to
talk to my family in two weeks!! I hope you all find a way this
Christmas to remember the Savior and how amazing it is that He was
born.

Sorella Holiday