HALLELUJAH

I cannot believe I've only been in Pescara one week now so much has
happened. We have one of our friends getting baptized next Sunday, and
another one chose her baptismal date this week for April 9th! They are
seriously both so cool, one of them is 23 and she is blind. She
studied the Word of Wisdom (the commandment of why Mormons don't drink
coffee) and before we even taught it she told us she's already been
telling her friends and family the things she won't be drinking
anymore so that they can get used to it. Whenever we see her, (which
is often because we have a lot to teach her before next Sunday!) it
makes us feel like we are missionaries from "The District" (like a
reality tv show about missionaries that all missionaries have to watch
before they serve). It's awesome. She's just one of the most sincere
human beings ever. She told us this week about how she feels that her
not being able to see hasn't turned out being a bad thing for her,
because she feels that because of it she's able to see the world with
different eyes, and it has helped lead her to help her become the
person she wants to be and the person Heavenly Father knows she can
be.

It's sooo weird being the older companion in the companionship. I'm so
used to depending on my other companions to fill in the holes of my
Italian. But now I'M THAT PERSON. And scratch everything I said in
passato, I DO NOT SPEAK ITALIAN. Holy cow, it's rough. This week we
were teaching the law of chastity to someone and at the beginning of
the lesson she was like, ya know I'm old and divorced I'm not going to
have kids and I don't really see the point of me following this
commandment. And at the end of the lesson we were all in tears and she
was like yes I am going to do this. Let me just say, it was definitely
nothing that come out of our mouths that helped convince her that the
law of chastity is awesome. Our language skills seriously lack. But
that was the power of the spirit. That was the Holy Ghost that
witnessed to her heart the eternal truth of that commandment. I love
that woman.

There are so many soul sisters here in Pescara! The ward is great, I
think I said that last week, but still holds true haha :). Our ward
mission leader asked me to write a rap for their combined Relief
Society Priesthood class May 29th, about what we do as missionaries
and how important it is that the members help us in the work, hahaha.
Yea. So the Sistah with the d oh double g, Hdogg, strait outta
Stockton will be releasing her first single this May, of her sweet
Italian rhythms and rhymes. I'll keep y'all posted. Haha, just
kidding. But it's really happening.

Saturday night we did a gesso (a mostra with chalk) ... (mostra, I
don't know how to translate that), but I forgot to take the picture we
took from one of the Anzianis cameras and so apart from that I don't
have any pictures this week. But the Mostra went really well, we drew
a picture of the tomb where Jesus was buried and in it we wrote, "He
is not here, He is risen, HE LIVES" and we got to show some of the
Easter videos with some people and we got some numbers from people who
are really interested! Woo, Pasqua!

Today is Pasquetta, and so it is the after party of Easter in which
everyone goes out and has a picnic with their families :). For the
missionaries it's deep cleaning day. But yesterday for Easter we ate
at a members house and had lamb, and ravioli and lots of good things.
It's really awesome being in a Christian country during Easter because
almost everyone knows why we celebrate it. Christ was resurrected from
the dead! Christ lived, how awesome is that? And how much more
wonderful is it that He still lives? He gives us the opportunity to
live again, after we die, but also to start again fresh everyday if
we've messed up. I know that's true. I love this opportunity I have to
invite people learn more about Him and become closer to Him everyday
not only for 18 months, but for the rest of my life.

Buona Pasquetta! Auguri! Vi voglio bene :)

Sorella Holiday

THE DISTRICT - PESCARA

Ahh Pescara is sooo awesome! My companion is so great, the ward is so
big, and the people are amazing. The train ride to get here lasted
like forever. We had to get up at 4:30 on Thursday to get to the train
station on time, and the train left at 7 a.m., and then we finally got
to Rome at 7:35 p.m. Then we missed the bus to Pescara and had to take
the one at 9, members then picked us up from Pescara (shout out to
those amazing amazingly kind people) around 11:30 and we got home at
about midnight. It was INSANE. But yay now I'm here! I started getting
sick  Wednesday night so I've been kind of dead the past few days with
that and lack of sleep, but we're gettin by.
It's like a different world up here in the north, I kind of feel like
I left the country, haha. Everything is really modern and Pescara is
an incredibly clean city. It's really green, and where we live there's
hills of olive trees behind our house and we're like an 8 minute jog
from the sea. So morning runs are really beautiful.
I really don't know what to say I just feel really happy and really
blessed to be here. We have a baptism scheduled for April 2nd with an
amazing fabulous girl. I'm so excited for her, and so is she. She says
she's sad she's had to wait 23 years for this day (she's 23). We have
another few investigators that are getting ready for baptism. It's so
nice to be able to teach people who are so prepared and who really
sincerely want to hear.

Here we are leaving the island

Leaving Sicily

 Our final district picture. I don't know why we didn't take a normal picture, haha :)

 Palermo fam

 Cuties!

 Bishops family

 Nonna. I love this woman, we found her on the tram. I hope everything goes well for her and the missionaries of Palermo.

 Such a miracle!

Isn't she so pretty? Like an African queen <3 :)

 Our morning run in Pescara

This is our kitchen window and it perfectly describes everyday

MIZZICA!

A couple weeks ago my companion told me she knows a place that sells
brown sugar. I started freaking out because like brown sugar means
banana crumb muffins, cinnamon rolls, CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES, and so
many other buoni American dolci, but really most importantly and above
all else, CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. I was a little skeptical because I
had searched before for brown sugar in Ragusa, and Sorella Roberts and
I found the closest thing was jaggery, which is an Indian sugar and
made our Christmas cinnamon rolls very interesting. But my companion
was like no don't worry, I bought this kind at home, it tastes sooooo
good, this is the real brown sugar. So like, of course, last week I
bought seven bags. I had to stock up because you never know when
you'll come across that again! So last week we decide to make
chocolate chip cookies, I opened the bag, tasted it, NOT BROWN SUGAR.
Bleh, haha. So I have seven bags of that, but we decided to make the
cookies anyways and they were still really good. But like in a year
and a half when I get home, I'm expecting a bowl full of brown sugar
and a spoon waiting for me so I can just dig into that deliciousness.

This week was fantastic! I gave a talk in church yesterday, it went
really well. Last time I gave a talk in church was, aha unforgettable
for sure. I never wrote about that because it was so embarrassing lol
but yesterday made me realize like wow! I've been out here for a good
amount of time now! I can speak. Having an Italian companion really
does help, she's so great.

This week were transfers, and I'm getting transferred to Pescara! I
hope that was as much of a shock to you all as it was to me! I had a
feeling I would get transferred but at the same time, weird because I
only did 6 weeks here. Everyone was shocked, and it's weird but at the
same time I feel like I was here and I was able to do what the Lord
needed me to do in this time. We got blown in here together and there
was literally nothing, and things were really crazy, but I feel like I
was able to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to help find
some of the people He has been preparing. Even if I won't have the
opportunity to be here and help teach those people, I feel like I did
the work I needed to.
I'm going to miss Palermo dearly, but I'm excited and I've heard good
things about Pescara! It's on the north end of the mission, and
another seaside city. Thursday I'll take the train to get there.
Sorella Workman, who is serving on the other side of Palermo right now
will be getting transferred to an area in Rome, so at least I'm not
going alone! It is 12 hours to Rome and so weird to think right now
I'm as far away from the mission home as my home in Stockton is from
Provo. Weird! My next companion is Sorella Anderson from Alaska, and I
will be her follow-up trainer! Which really just means I'll be her
first companion after her trainer.
There are good things waiting in Pescara :)

Since we have like an easy bake oven and not a real one, we just bake our cookies in a pan like brownies annd everyone was like, oh brownies, thank you! And we were like nooooo, these are cookies shaped like brownies because we could only make like 2 cookies at once if we did them as circles

windy day

Selfie :)

Greek Temple Ruins

We went to Agrigento today, better photos on the camera maybe you'll get those next week.

It's so beautiful!

On the 8th of March there were special flowers that they gave to all the women in Italy. We got some :)

Vida

Sorella Holiday, Vida and Sorella Rossi

Sister Mannino

Ginerva

Haha :)

Ye fre me Yaa (in Twi, My name is Yaa )

Wow thank you for all the prayers, because this week we made it, 7 for
7, a meal appointment EVERYDAY. Perfect week. Haha, but jokes aside
this week was soooo fantastic!

So like I said last week I was feeling kind of down and really just
being a loser, and I was pretty much sad when I realized that everyone
I've taught on my mission somehow disappeared or wouldn't commit
themselves to anything and so they never progressed. And I was like
what the heck! Like the joy missionaries talk about from serving a
mission they say comes from seeing people change and the joy they
receive from accepting the gospel. But then Jen emailed me, she's so
fabulous and wise, and she told me to read a section from preach my
gospel. So I read it and it really broke my boxes about being lame. So
I was like, okay, why am I sad?! Well like of course I'm sad because
all those people disappeared, but I get to serve Jesus Christ with all
my heart for 18 months! That's awesome! So I decided to stop focusing
on the bad things and remember how blessed I am.

This week one of our investigators accepted to be baptized! April
23rd, we're really excited for her. In church we had 10 members, who
never ever come to church, that came to church! Also the wife of one
member, he has been praying for years that she would come, she's not a
member and the Elders had been teaching her and they passed her off to
us and we saw her this week and she came to church for the first time!
Samuel was so happy it was so sweet.

On Thursday, we went to the house of one of our families in the
international branch, they're from Ghana. The father and the daughter
are members, but the two sons and the mother are not. The daughter
invited us over to eat Fufu, on Thursday but her mom said it would
take a while to make the sauce...soup,broth? Boh. Comunque, that thing
for the Fufu, so she made us another food from Ghana with yams, and
invited us to come back Friday. But long story short, we've become
best friends in those two meal appointments and she invited me and
Sorella Rossi to come to Ghana next year with her. So that's on the
agenda for 2017. But what was even cooler was on the second day,
Friday, she read the Book of Mormon with us! (The mom) it was a
miracle because she has been very very against the church. Also, she
doesn't speak very much English or very much Italian, so for her it's
pretty much just Twi, but her daughter and her daughters friend who is
also a member was there and translated while we read the introduction
of the Book of Mormon together in Twi. We brought the Book of Mormon
in Twi just in case we had the chance to do something with her and not
just her daughter. It was awesome. I was so proud of those girls
translating and explaining everything to her, they're going to be such
great missionaries some day! I also learned that my Ghana name is Yaa.
Haha. The subject title of the email means "My name is Yaa" in Twi.

Other highlights, I got to teach someone how to play "I am a child of
God" on the piano. I went to a Chinese buffet. Teaching a woman from
New York, grew up there but is Italian and lives here now, and just
goes in and out of English and Italian when she speaks. Haha, what
soul sister.

Yay have a great week, and special shout out to the women because
tomorrow is woman's day in Italy!

Sorella Holiday

 It's been really windy lately

 This area is behind our church building

 Selfie

 Fufu party

 The Fufu

For pday today we went to Monreale. It's really beautiful and we saw a

church that is almost all gold on the inside. It was so cool

 Outside the church in Monreale

 Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob

 Inside the church it tells almost all of Genesis starting with God

creating the world, and ending with Jacob having his name changed to

Israel. And then there is the whole story of Christ's life behind the

pillars. IT WAS SO AWESOME. Especially being able to understand the

bible and my companion understands Latin so who needs tour guides!

 Fish slayer statue outside of the church

Too cute

 Typical Italian missionary lunch

This is the train station

Happy Leap Day!

Woah, we had FOUR meal appointments this week, almost 5 but one got cancelled. Needless to say, it was a great week. The "Perfect Week" missionaries joke and say is getting a meal appointment each day of the week, I've only heard of it happening once but hey, we got pretty close, haha :).
 Today we ate really yummy Palermitano sandwiches with liver and panelle. Panella is fried chickpea flour, it's really good. And yay today's leap day!


 Friday I was feeling really down and depressed, and questioning everything. I wanted to work hard, and I was out there going to appointments, but the energy was gone and the will to open my mouth and talk to people just wasn't there. I was just feeling really discouraged for a lot of reasons. We're talking no-teeth smiles to strangers and only English to my companion because English is like comfort food, and you can't really carry a spoon and jar of Nutella with you in the bus going places. After pranzo we headed out to see a contact that we had met on the TRAM (tram is kind of like a BART that only runs through Palermo), we had set up an appointment but we weren't really sure that she would be at home. But we got there and she WAS! And I can not describe the joy I felt when she opened up her window and smiled when she saw us outside and welcomed us in. It was a small thing but it really helped lift my spirit and strengthen my faith. It reminded me of the scripture in Alma 26:27, "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Siciliani, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."  (It doesn't exactly say that but pretty much) It was really in that moment that I needed it the most.

So this woman's name is Annamaria, she is 70 years old but could seriously pass for 60. (Side note, why does everyone in Italy look so much younger than they actually are?! We need to add more olive oil to our diets). Anyways, she has 6 children and 7 grandchildren. She has one child who lives in Chicago. Two of her children live at home with her right now. Her daughter actually recognized who were are because she used to go to English Course, but in the Palermo 1 zone and said it was too far so she stopped, but she lives right around the corner from the Palermo 2 building so yay! And her son walked in and recognized us from the bus, crazy! Annamaria lost her husband a few years ago, they had been together 51 YEARS, they got married at ages 15 and 16. She shared with us how hard it was, because he was a really good man and a good husband and father. And we shared with her how we have a message that will bless her and her family. She needs the plan of happiness so bad, and I can't wait to share it with her!

Heavenly Father is really aware of us, don't ever forget that! We saw so many miracles this week I can't believe I took those all for granted and felt the way I did on Friday, but it's normal and we all feel down once in a while.

Okay have a great leap day because you can't celebrate it again until 2020 which seems like a lifetime away!

Sorella Holiday

Here we are on Rita's baptism Friday, she is an investigator of the Anziani

Here's where we live now. I've really got to send you more pictures because Palermo is really beautiful. Big mountains, really old attractions and the ocean. I'm not able to get my pictures from my camera onto my iPad right now.

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 :)