Food is my love language and Palermo really loves me

This week we had zone conference! So awesome, so inspired.
I hit six months! Scary, time flies. But I also feel super old, it's weird.
Sorella McPheters made delicious lasagna this week, holy cow that girl
can cook!
Today I met someone from Oregon, crazy! Palermo is a totally different
place from Ragusa, same island but seriously, a different world. In
Ragusa we walk everywhere, but Palermo is too big so it's all about
the public transportation, and instead of walking it's RUNNING to
catch buses and trains. Like seriously, yesterday we had a couple full
out sprints. Ragusa is more country side, traditional, and older. And
Palermo is more industrial and way more diverse. We meet people from
all over the world everyday! But the girl from Oregon was the first
American so that was cool.

So as missionaries we have a general set of lessons that we teach to
people who are investigating the church. The first lesson we always
teach, unless we feel prompted otherwise, is the message of the
Restoration. The second lesson is always the Plan of Salvation. This
week, for the first time in my mission, I had the opportunity to teach
the entire plan of salvation to someone for the first time on my
mission! We've just never made it that far before, or with our two
people we had continually met with in Ragusa, the sisters had already
taught them the plan of salvation so I just came late in the game. Man
it's been hard, and it's been a lot of Restoration the past six
months, which is great because I do love the message of the
restoration, but the plan of salvation is what really ties it all
together and gives people the perspective. It happened because we were
at a new converts home one evening and we had planned to do the
restoration with her. Her boyfriend was there and the grandma too, and
his mom is visiting from Milan with her new husband. The new husband
hadn't even heard of the Book of Mormon before, so it was a lot of
fun. It was funny seeing his surprise when he heard me speaking
Italian after being in Italy for only a few months, and realized the
depth of the things we were talking about being only 19 and 20 years
old. It was awesome watching as his mind made more connections, like
"yea that makes sense", and it was also really cool having 4 other
members there to testify and explain each part of the plan.

I LOVE Jesus Christ SO much. How lucky are we to have someone who
gives us a perfect example of what our Father in Heaven is like? So
patient, so humble, so loving. When we talk about Charity, we define
it as the pure love of Christ. And we usually explain it by saying we
have that pure love when we love others as Christ loves them, and
serve them etc. I never really thought about it until recently as a
pure love of Him, like you having a pure love FOR Christ. It's
something I still need to work a lot on, but that love helps me push
forward,and helps me love others. I know that Christ lives, and that
He knows understands and loves each one of us individually. If we love
Him, He has paved the way for us to follow Him. How awesome is that?

Sorella Holiday

Selfie :)