THE END

I loved every second of it.

Doctrine and Covenants 4:3 

Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;

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!

Life is to be enjoyed

It was a wonderful week.
We had a lot of lessons, we were able to get more members involved in
the lessons, we met a lot of new people and saw a lot of miracles
everyday!

One thing I've noticed recently, is really just how sad and depressed
most people are. People are just unhappy, and they have absolutely no
hope. It's sad, and we meet a lot of people everyday and whether they
are the poorest of poor, or richest of rich many have a similar
negative outlook on the world.

One woman we met with this week was complaining about this, and how
"the world is so terrible and people are terrible" and also she said
"then there are people that just give you a negative energy and they
just bring you down". The last part was pretty true of what she said.
Pessimism is contagious! The Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley said, "There
is a terrible ailment of pessimism in the land. It’s almost endemic.
We’re constantly fed a steady and sour diet of character
assassination, faultfinding, evil speaking of one another. …

I come … with a plea that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy
more fully the sunlight" ☀️

With all the misery that there is in the world, we are here to have
joy? Yes! That's wonderful.

I testify of the JOY that the gospel brings to our lives. That was
definitely one of the things that pushed me to come serve a mission.
The difference I felt in my home and in church, was literally a
tangible difference from that I felt in other places. Places that
surely brought me a lot of happiness, but not really that fulness.
There's just kind of an emptiness. "Thy faith hath made thee whole."
(Matthew 9:22)

This week we had kind of a cool experience with a new investigator we
have. She is wanting to be baptized, and so her husband decided to sit
in on one of the lessons. He was super skeptical at first, but man
that lesson was a bomb. At the end when he read from the Book of
Mormon he stopped, and after he read the verses, he said "whoa" and
held his hand to his heart and asked us to wait a minute because he
just needed to digest it. Another thing that was special about that
lesson is that we brought a less active member with us who wants to
learn English. She is pretty much the prodigal son, and how we ended
up coming in contact with her is another miracle but for another time.
She was a super strong member a few years ago, and then some stuff
happened and things just went spiraling down. She told us how it's so
hard to get yourself up, but sooo easy to fall. Then even harder
getting yourself up the second time. In that lesson she bore the most
sincere humble testimony I've ever heard. It was beautiful.

We found a new hipster place to do finding. It's basically like an
Italian Hait street San Francisco. People are nice. We ate lunch there
today. Searching for a basketball court. Here's a selfie! Have a buona
settimana

This says: "You give a little thing if you give your riches. And when you give yourselves You truly give. There are those that give with joy. And this is their reward. Through their hands God speaks. Through their eyes He smiles at the earth."

Friday the 13th brings Italians good luck

It was a wonderful week. We went pretty hard, saw some cool miracles,
learned some new things and yep!
I did a scambio in Ladispoli and it was great not being the "senior"
companion. So much freedom! And it made it even nicer that Ladispoli
is on the beach. It made me miss serving in Pescara so much! It's just
a completely different vibe, and nice to get out of the chaos of the
city every now and then.

I gave a talk in church yesterday! It was the first time here in Rome
3! I don't know how I made it so long.
Also did a mini scambio Wednesday, because the Sorelle from Bari came
to do permesso stuff.

Yea, I'll just keep the email short this week. I have to save up some
stories. Here's some pictures!

"Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities"

Well, another amazing week. And an incredibly hard week. Always filled
with the pains, the sorrows the joys of missionary work. I never
thought that serving in the same area for a long time would be really
hard, but I also never imagined I would be the missionary to stay in
an area for a long time. It drives you kind of crazy in a way I can't
quite describe. It's like pretty stressful, being the companion who
does all the talking, the leading, and so basically if somethings not
going right it's all on your shoulders! I was just feeling pretty
lost, and was feeling kind of like a mess wondering what I could do
more for Rome 3, not feeling like I could carry the weight of this
area on my shoulders any longer. The week before we only taught one
lesson the whole week! You know what it's like to teach only one
lesson the whole week as a missionary? It means a lot of rejection, a
lot of getting yelled at, a lot of being outside and not inside a warm
place. It means a lot of putting your most precious and treasured
beliefs on the line everyday, and not getting anything out of it.
(Shout out to all the faithful missionaries in Russia.)  Like I've
been here since July, things should be going better shouldn't they?
Well anyways, I prayed a lot more and studied a lot more and worked a
lot more this week.

I came across a scripture in the bible. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul
talks about how he was having a bit of a trial also. He describes it
like a "thorn in the flesh", pretty uncomfortable stuff. He asked the
Lord THREE times to take this trial away from him. But in the end, he
was grateful for it. Because it made him weak, he became stronger
through Christ.  (2 Cor. 12:8-10).

Thursday night I prayed for about an hour, pleading and waiting for an
answer, but I didn't get anything. Instead I did get an answer to my
prayers Friday morning. It was a pretty awesome morning, but I won't
describe it all, but I'll just say that Heavenly Father definitely
answers prayers for all of His children. His plan is perfect and He
has not forgotten or abandoned any of us. Most of the time it's just
us who are too impatient or not really keeping an eye out for the
blessings that there are.

After my prayer was answered I felt bad that I ever doubted, or was
impatient! I felt so full of gratitude, I even felt grateful for the
capacity I had to feel so much gratitude! Like missionary work is
straight up joy! It's super humbling in every way you could imagine
and it's so awesome because of it.

Yes, there are castles everywhere, but what about that modern art? Haha, too good.

Contagion

Ciao! Okay. I don't know what to tell you, like I always say, there's
so much to say! And so little time.

Everyyyyone was sick this week! Members investigators and missionaries.

Thursday I tried basketball contacting for the first time. People were
definitely way more interested in hearing what we had to say! They
were like, who is this young nun who knows about the NBA and how to
shoot a basketball? Haha. Also, like one of the talents that I've
gotten on the mission like singing which I totally didn't do 18 months
ago, I was hittin those corner shots . Swish.

Other highlights of the week we had FOUR meal appointments! We just
balled out of control in every sense this week. Like we may not have
had hot water this morning, but that's fine because we were getting
showered in LoVe all week.
Also, so I have talked about my cannoleria, I'm sure. The guys that
work there are like our Italian uncles, they love us. They gave us
free cannoli this week because they missed us.

Aside from food, we saw some great miracles this week. I've realized
more how if we're doing what we need to be doing, Heavenly Father will
guide us to right where we need to be. Tuesday morning was pretty
rough, and I was pretty tired. Sometimes, you just get tired and you
don't feel like talking to anyone. But as we came into the park, I
said to myself, "okay, no, have faith" and one of the first people I
stopped was this woman with her children. I had no idea what I was
going to say but I just went for it. I went for he good old, survey
approach. Don't know why. And then somewhere in the conversation
something spilled out of my mouth about the plan of salvation, and
this woman just started bawling. She said 4 times in the meeting that
day that God  had sent us to her.
We actually had a lot of cool experiences like that this week. People
calling us Angels, like, it's pretty cool.

Yesterday I translated in sacrament meeting. Also, transfers happened
last week! Everyone keeps rubbing it in my face that it's my last
transfer. IM NOT DEAD YET THANKS

C'è ancora tanto da fa'

❤️sorella holiday

Pday photos. We made our own Magnum bars 😊!

Le feste

Merry Christmas!
The great thing about Italy is that the partying barely starts with
Christmas Eve. Yesterday was Christmas and today is Saint Stefano's
day, Saturday's New Year's Eve, then there's New Years and then
January 6 is the Befana. Today we got invited to 2 members homes which
is pretty awesome, kind of stressful because it's pday, but worth it
because the first is lunch with a less active family. I was there at
the hospital when the daughters son was born which is crazy because
now he is almost six months old, haha.  I have a 6 month year old
niece at home I haven't even met yet! But yea, so that will be great
and delicious food, and then tonight we're going to a little get
together and we're all going to sing Christmas carols and there are
going to be nice people to meet! So worth it.

This week was great. One of the highlights I would say would be the
caroling we did. It was hilarious because Christmas caroling is not an
Italian tradition and so people were totally caught off guard, one guy
tried giving us money, but then just let us in and we got to share a
message with his family. Another man let us in and accepted a "how to
quit smoking course". Totally random, but awesome! We also ended up
with a lot of chocolate. It was like we went trick or treating or
something, haha.

Christmas Eve was really special also. Saturday morning we got
together with the whole zone and just blitzed Piazza del Popolo for
like 2 hours. (You can google Piazza del Popolo if you want to see a
good picture of it). A group of people sang, while others of us went
around talking with people, stopping people, and teaching people.  I
actually had a pretty cool experience with this girl on a bench. She
will for sure read the wrapped Book of Mormon we gave her, but she
lives in the Milan mission boundaries.  My companion and I wrapped
some books of Mormons like Christmas presents, so there was also that
to give out. It was totally cool, and nice because it wasn't just
tourists, but actually mostly locals. A lot of people stopped and took
pictures and video taped us, because they were just like, what is
going on??? A bunch of random young people from around the world
singing Christmas hymns and not asking for money.
One of my favorite moments was when this little girl went out in front
and started conducting like she was Beethoven, haha, it was sooo cute.
Afterwards we all went out to lunch at this one members Philippino
food restaurant, and did our secret Santa gift exchange. Haha, one of
the elders got me and gave me a jasmine doll. (Of course the ethnic
looking princess). Hahahah. We gave the elders in our district
cinnamon rolls Christmas morning, a bottle of chocolate soy milk,
because one of them is lactose intolerant and socks to match their
suit pants. Yea, we hit a home run on that. I've mastered making
cinnamon rolls on my mission. You just make the dough at night, let it
rise during the night, then wake up early roll them up and bake them
in the morning!
Also, I refuse Christmas morning without cinnamon rolls! That is just not okay.

On Christmas Day, our bishops family are like some of the most
Christlike people so they have a big pranzo/dinner and they do it at
church every Christmas Day and invite anyone who doesn't have family
to spend Christmas with, or even if you just want a nice Christmas
meal. There was soooo much food! I was kind of sad no one we invited
came but it was still really great. It was super generous.
Also, I skyped with my parents! That was crazy. Then we played
foosball and Tombola, which is like Italian bingo.

That's pretty much all. Also this is the last week of my black out
year. Pretty special year, because I've been a full time missionary
for all of 2016.

 This is the sweet little girl that conducted our choir 😊

 My Christmas Eve lunch

 We turned on Christmas lights and watched the nativity from the bible videos before we went to bed Saturday night

 The zone ❤

 We were waiting on the stairs for a little girls mom to get home and she kept bringing us out toys. And then she told us to close our eyes and she put these things on our heads. 😊

Strait outta Torre Maura

All right, this email won't be too long this week. We did all our
Christmas shopping for pday today. I've got to keep it somewhat vague
anyways so I have something to talk about next Sunday when I skype my
family! Wooo! It's so weird that we only really talk to them twice a
year.

Well I'll just start with yesterday, because it's what is still fresh
in my mind. So, last week, we got kind of lost but as we got lost we
happened upon a new part of our area at I had never been to before. It
was so beautiful, so once we got home I double checked the map to make
sure it was still in our boundaries and yep! It's just a nice little
area of Rome. So yesterday afternoon we went and did some finding over
there. The people were sooo nice! It was so weird, one because
everyone was Italian, I was like whoa where am I? Oh yea, I guess I'm
in Italy still, not just a random European city where everyone speaks
Italian. And people were like, not intimated by us. One guy was like,
"hey you're Mormons right? Yea I have a friend in salt lake." And he
invited us to come back and even told us which doorbells we should
ring!

There was an accapella group singing in the park! Such a rare sight to
see such pleasant teenagers. I was like, man, we've got to step up our
game. I was thinking, I should have shined my shoes, and I should get
a coat that's not from the death closet that actually zips up, and why
is my hair in a bun, and why don't I wear more makeup? But it was
okay, people loved us anyways!

We went to two other places I had never been to before also this week.
We had an appointment out in Tivoli, and we visited a member in
Cisterna di Latina. The Spragues drove us to visit the member, and it
was quite the adventure. She is super forte. Also her daughter is who
brought a friend to church last Sunday. It takes them an hour to get
to church every Sunday. I love that dedication.

Friday night was the ward Christmas party. It was a pretty big hit.
And Thursday was specialized training. It was good, and really
motivating.

 From the Christmas party. My favorite quote from this, Sam: "I'm a geek!", Haha

Part of the members vineyards. She gave us Kiwis and homemade apricot jam.

We sang together for zone conference

Happy Immaculate Conception! It was Thursday :)

Well, this week was definitely trying. Like, it was really hard, but
it was a week of growth.
Throughout the week there was always at least something that gave us
that extra push to keep going on. Like Thursday, we got a new
investigator! She's this wonderful woman from Nigeria, who actually
accepted our visit to meet with her because she had set up an
appointment with missionaries from another religion. We stole their
appointment, oops! But she wants to meet with us again, so that's
awesome.

Wednesday we did companion exchanges and I was with Sorella Jarnagin!
It was so crazy to be reunited with her, many months later. She was
the first sister I trained, and it was so awesome teaching with her
during the scambio because her Italian has gotten so good! She's all
grown up.

Friday we went caroling with the senior couple and the Anziani. A
woman in our ward asked us to sing to some elderly women in her
building. I don't think caroling is really an Italian thing to do, so
people were kind of confused, haha, but it was fun.

Saturday, Saturday was really long. In the morning luckily we didn't
get yelled at, just a lot of rejection, in the afternoon we met with
an investigator we haven't been able to see since Sorella Graff has
been here. The lesson went well, and then she said she'll see us next
year, haha. We continued on with our day of searching the souls who
are ready for the prepared gospel, and really it was just rejection
aaaalllll day. Like not even the nice people that are like "no, but
thank you", well okay there was one of those but only because she was
from Sri Lanka and didn't speak English or Italian yet. She was way
nice!
And so we pressed forward. Coming home at night, a man at the metro
took the Book of Mormon out of my hands, and just as he begins
talking, I was thinking "oh no, he's crazy. Like I don't know exactly
what this guy is going to say but I know I don't want to hear it.
Heavenly Father I'm at my opposition maximum for the day, please right
now I really don't want the gift of tongues and I don't want to be
able to understand him" then I realized that is a pretty bad thing to
pray for, I probably can't pray for that. But don't worry we made it
out, he was a total creep, but all is well.
So I was feeling kind of down, and then yesterday was our fast and
testimony Sunday and Vescovo's mom bore her testimony. She shared how
the missionary who found her family faced a lot of opposition that
day, but how she was grateful that they overcame the opposition so
that they could bring the wonderful blessings of the gospel to her
home. That really touched me, and as I thought about it, and if there
is opposition I think it just means something really great is about to
happen. Like in swim practices we would sometimes do an exercise where
we would tie a bungee cord to us and to one side of the pool, and we
would try to swim to the other side. The closer we got to the end, the
closer we got to the other wall, the harder it got.
In life, and missionary work, it is like that sometimes when we verge
of something great, life's opposition comes at us pretty hard.

After church we went and ate real quick then we headed back out
fishing. Still, nothing, the whole afternoon. Then just as we were
headed to take a bus to go to another area, I was thinking, "man, if
this is really our whole day I'll probably cry tonight. I'll probably
sit on the sidewalk and cry for like 5 minutes. But I'm
training....that would be pretty traumatizing for a sister in her
first transfer. Maybe I won't." Then the thought came to my mind to
stop by this one woman who was in the area. She had been an
investigator in the past, I had never met her yet. I've tried stopping
by a couple times since I've been here since July, but never had luck.
This time however, she let us in! She even asked us to pray with her!
She seemed kind of reserved at the beginning but by the end we were
friends and she wants us to come back.

She asked us, "I don't understand. How do you missionaries keep
smiling even when people tell you no straight up to your face? How do
you just keep smiling?"
We smiled, we shrugged. She then said, "this has to be the help of
God. I want to know about this! I want to learn about this!" Then she
excitedly invited us back!

I love this woman we met last night soooo much! She shared some of her
life stories with us and she is literally AMAZING. I'm so excited that
we got to meet her. In the end, it was her 7 yr old daughter who let
us in, because we always see her playing outside and say hi.

2 weeks to Christmas! :) have a wonderful week, remember who your
greatest fountain of help is, and learn more about Him this Christmas
season!
Vi voglio un MONDO di bene ❤️

 Also this girl from China took a picture with us at a park.

Un povero viandante

Yayyyyy! It's almost Christmas! It didn't really feel like it until
today, because the sisters who lived in our house before left a
Christmas tree and lights and so today we set all that up it was
pretty awesome.

So who's doing the Sii Una Luce advent calendar? (Be the light) it's
been super fun sharing that with people, and I love the theme of it.
Service! It's how we become true followers of Jesus Christ.

Saturday we went to share it with a member, the wife is the only
member and she has two children and a husband. The husband was an
investigator in the past, and since I've been here he's never listened
in on the lessons, but Saturday he stayed and listened.
He really enjoyed the video, but then he decided to ask a lot of
questions, like A LOT. Mostly he was looking to start a fight. I'm
typically a pretty calm person, I've always been that way, basketball
coaches hated me for it because I wouldn't get mad, but I also knew I
especially had to stay calm for this lesson.

This week during 12 weeks we studied, "Teach People, Not Lessons" and
it focused a lot on the aspect of the spirit. There was a quote I
liked a lot from Elder Christofferson and he said that if we listen,
the spirit will tell us what to say even in hostile venues. (I'm
paraphrasing). Sorella Graff and I did our best to stay calm, and
listen, and follow what he spirit prompted us to say. His argument
started with Mormons not serving enough, and ended with blacks and the
priesthood to give you an idea what he was like. In the end, we did
our best. And it was awesome because the wife is Filipino and the
husband who is Italian, lived in the states a few years so he was
wanting to practice his English, which allowed Sorella Graff to be a
full participator in the lesson.

Also Sunday was a special stake conference! They called a new stake
presidency, and it was super exciting because Pescara's ward also came
and so I got to see all the people I love so much from Pescara! I miss
that place, it was so good to see them, they are all such fantastic
people.
Yesterday in stake conference I was thinking, "wow, this talk about
the atonement would be perfect for that one members husband. And right
after that, I noticed, the member we visited Saturday. BOTH
children,AND her husband. IT WAS AWESOME.

We continued to see many miracles throughout the day. We met a woman
whose husband passed away, but was a Mormon so she gave us her address
and invited us over. And we met a young girl at a park while
contacting, about 25 years old, who says she's searching right now to
find out the role of Jesus Christ in her life. We'll be seeing her
Wednesday!

Friday there was a funeral for a boy in our ward, he was just 2 years
older than I am. The church was absolutely packed. All the seats were
filled, the hallways were just filled with people standing all huddled
together, and it was so flooded with people that the doors were kept
open and also people waited and stood outside the whole time, and they
even filled classrooms with people. It was incredibly sad. This was
the fourth funeral I've been to on my mission, all of which have been
here in Rome 3. The missionaries were asked to sing, so we sang I am a
child of God. The bishop gave a really fabulous talk, I was really
grateful for the plan of salvation and what he said, I think it was
good for a lot of people to hear. Most of the people there were not
members, there were hundreds of young people about my age.

Our bishop had a pretty home run week because he also gave an awesome
talk at the baptism Saturday, and we ate his lasagna and tiramisu last
week, and wow, honestly the best lasagna and almost the best tiramisu
I've ever had. His wife was saying his cooking is what won her over, I
second that. #bestbishopever #rome3forlife


Okay well, I love you all!
Be a light!

Pictures from 2 weeks ago

Post Thanksgiving

I'm still debating if this is going to be a really long email or not,
so we'll see.

Well yes it was thanksgiving last week and of course we celebrated,
and no they don't celebrate it here, but we're American, and it's a
good excuse to party. We threw a party in place of our English
discussion group time, and invited all the ward and English group and
it was a pretty big hit. Our bishop is such an amazing cook! He made
the turkey, and also yesterday we went to his house for dinner and had
lasagna and tiramisu and it was some of the best that I've had.

I don't really know what to write, if I went into detail about the
week, you'd probably be like, oh my goodness that's crazy why do you
do that? And I really don't have the answer, but I know it's true and
it makes me happy and I want everyone to have the chance to hear it!

Saturday was pretty cool, it was a day full of service! I think it was
a national event, where they had this huge food bank collecting at
every grocery store. So we helped collect food and advertise for it on
Saturday. The other people working there were like, "oh sorry, people
can be kind of rude sometimes when they're not interested", we were
just like, haha, yea, this is nothing. They probably thought we were
crazy because we were smiling the whole time. It was a lot of fun! And
we got to meet a lot of people.

One of our investigators has gone a little crazy, but she gave us two
referrals! So even if we can't meet with her anymore, at least we can
meet with her friends!

There were two random ponies at a park one day when we were
proselyting. Our hot water broke, and our heater  for the house is run
on hot water and so we didn't have any heat in our all tile cement
home! It was so cold, and I saw how it broke and so I was pretty
discouraged because I knew it would take a while to fix and the guy
who comes to fix our house is going to get so sick of me, but then
Saturday night, in the middle of the night, our hot water fixed
itself!! I have no idea how, but it's working. So yea, you can count
that as a pretty great miracle.

The new senior couple moved in, their name is the Spragues, pronounced
like plague, and it confuses everyone because we all think it should
be pronounced like Prague, like the city. But yea, they're awesome and
super adorable! It's like greenie fire times 2.

Yesterday was the primary program in church! I was the pianist. This
is the second primary program I've been a pianist for on my mission,
basically living the dream. :) So for those who don't know, the
primary program is the one Sunday of the year where the children from
ages 4-11 run the sacrament meeting (the first hour of church), like
after we finish with the important stuff like taking the sacrament,
the kids take over and it's the cutest thing ever. If you have an LDS
friend who wants to invite you to church, and you don't really want to
go, at least request to know when the primary program is. It's like
one of the best Sunday's of the year, probably next to general
conference, or the Christmas program.

 Sorella Graff had her first good pizza of her whole life

 Also, traditionally you have to try a bomba.

Our humble Thanksgiving

I'll be in Roooome for Christmas 🎶

Yep, so there were transfers last week. After we got our call Sorella
Dustin and I were like in shock for a little bit, so she got
transferred to Bari, and I'm staying in Rome 3 still as stl and I'm
training again! Which means this is my last companion and my last city
and whoa, yea, because I only have two transfers left. I can't believe
I'm training a third time and I can't believe I'm finishing my mission
in Rome 3, like the transfer has already happened and I still can't
believe it. So that's that! I love Rome 3 and the people here, Sorella
Graff (my new companion) and I are going to go so hard!

Last week one of our members passed away and that was really sad, so
there was a funeral and I played the piano and the missionaries did a
musical number. She was such an amazing woman, but had been suffering
a really long time, she had been in the hospital since agosto. I'm so
grateful for the plan of salvation! It was interesting because this
was the first LDS funeral I've been to in Italy. Like even though she
was a member we all kind of assumed it was still going to be at the
Catholic Church. It was cool though, she was the only member in her
family, so it was very different.
The Sears couple finished their mission as well last week, I'll miss
them so much.

Training is really different each time, kind of hard, but always an
opportunity for growth.
Last night when we were doing some park finding, we were walking up a
hill and I saw this woman on a bench and she just had light ☀️ in her
eyes so I knew we had to talk to her. She was very open, and said she
was searching for ways to become closer to God. We started talking,
shared the message of the restoration and she said she hopes it to be
true, and that she is very religious, but doesn't practice with any
religion, nor has the desire to because she doesn't want to follow any
"rules" and she prefers to do what she wants. She's more one with
nature. And so she made me think, why do we follow rules? Well, even
the plants and all the elements of nature follow some rules. The rules
of the universe, which are also rules of God. Different from the
plants that grow or the sun that always promises to rise, we are
agents, and we are free to choose. We are free to choose good or evil.
The rules of God that we have are special and I've seen the blessings
come when I choose to follow those rules. He doesn't give them to us
to make us miserable, instead they are there for us to discover joy
like we've never known before. Being a missionary has really deepened
my love for the commandments.

Well that's your weekly update! Today I got all the black mold out of
our house and showed my new companion around Rome. Haha, she's so
doe-eyed still it's great.

 I love Sorella Sears sooooo much!!!

 MLC Burgers

 Here's Sorella Graff doing her first door to door. I don't know, I don't think she was scared, haha.

 Me last pday

More pictures from last pday

 Our American members live on this street

 This is THE Appia Antica

 We made friends with the people that work at this farm