14th floor 72nd door

First off, what is trunky? Second, everyone needs to stop stressing me
out and telling me not to be! Saturday night I was talking to my Mtc
companion, she's the only other sister dying with me (that's mission
language for finishing your mission. And yes she's in a different zone
but I asked permission first from president. Don't worry.) and we were
just both freaking out about everything! I was like, ya know I don't
really want to go into this last week because it's too sad I don't
want to say goodbye to everyone because my face is just going to be
depressed instead of smiling and then if I don't smile they're going
to think I don't care and that I don't love them but I really do!
Sorella Taylor has served in her last area since July also so she
understands and then Sorella Taylor was also freaking out about other
things. So we vented and laughed and then came to the conclusion that
we just have to mentally accept that we are going home. And then I was
like, "whoa. I think I can do this."

Also if anyone else is going into the last week of their mission,
everyone is going to tell you to not think about home, but that is
such a lie! Forget that, and start thinking about it, because last
week was zone conference so I had an interview with president and
turns out the deadline to do my ecclesiastical endorsement is
WEDNESDAY. I almost couldn't go back to college! This is madness!!!
Also, I was thinking, "oh this will be just like another transfer, so
I'll just pack Saturday night before I go." Nope, good thing I checked
the "death packet" they gave us two months ago that I never really
looked at, because packing includes listing EVERYTHING YOU BOUGHT and
how much it costs if you're going back to another country. Yep, let's
just say if there was a movie made about the last 18 months of my life
it would either be called, "Eat Pray Love" or "Confessions of a
Shopaholic" yea, I don't know, things just add up! So that is going to
be a bit tedious but it's okay because last week there was a worldwide
mission conference and the church changed the missionary schedule so I
have two more hours of pday to worry about all this tedious stuff.

Okay, enough about all that "trunky" stuff. I'm sorry. Don't stress
yourself out if you still have at least 2 months left. Just accept the
imminent stress that will come in the last two weeks. Find, teach,
baptize and be merry, for you still have at least two months before
you die.

It was a great week but a little weird with all the things we had
going on. Tuesday was zone conference, Wednesday was world wide
mission conference and Thursday was going to the questura to do
Sorella Graffs fingerprints. It was luckily the smoothest fingerprint
appointment I've had at Rome so that was a huge blessing! During this
week unfortunately almost no one was able to visit with us! But it's
okay because that means we had a lot of "ca$h money $wag flow" days,
hahaha. So I'll explain, in October our mission started using the
"area book app" and so we plan out our days and what not on the iPads.
And this app has the different types of activities you can do during
the day, color coated. Studies is purple, teaching appointments are
blue, and finding activities are green, service is yellow, etc. So we
sometimes are blessed with very green days, and so I joked one night
and I was like "it's okay, it just looks like tomorrow is going to be
a pretty cash money day....cash money swag flow".
There were some cash money days this week.
One day we went to go look for a former investigator and then we
happened upon these palazzi (buildings) that were just absolutely
enormous. FOURTEEN FLOORS! 72 homes inside. And there were seven of
them! Gold mine, right? Our ward mission leader suggested we do more
house finding. We walked up to the first one, the intercom was broken
and the gate wide open and so it forced us to come in and actually
knock on people's doors! We could just hear the choir singing "come to
Zion" there was bound to be at least one person to let us in, but
there was no time right then so we planned to come back the next day
and try.
Went back the next morning and we just went for it! Door by door,
floor by floor no one let us in! Granted everyone now and then someone
would accept a pamphlet and another woman invited us to maybe come
back and "chitchat". We got closer and closer to the top, and then we
arrived to the last and final floor and knocked that last door,
then.... still nothing.
So we went to the next building 11th floor, 1st door, before we knock
a woman came around the corner and we were like "hey! how are you?"
Salute everyone, it's better to not be awkward if you're in someone's
apartment building. It's just better to act like you know everyone.
Turns out the woman was going to visit her aunt, and then she stopped
and looked at us a moment and said "hey I know you!" she is 33, and
when she was a teenager she was an English course student! She invited
us over to her house! She was in the 3 building, 7th floor. A tender
mercy we didn't have to knock all the way up to that one to find her!
Haha

Also, I will try to write an email next week for my last pday, but
guess what, another miracle! So remember from like August? We met this
guy in a park who was an investigator 10 years ago when he was a
college student? But now is married and we met him when he was walking
his baby in the park? He kept coming to my mind and so I emailed him
and asked if he would be a tour guide for the missionaries for our
last pday and he said yes! He was so happy that we remembered him and
the details about his family. He's taking work off for this. So cool!