CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

It would be awesome if you all would post a description of your most meaningful Christmas, or just tell about Christmas on your mission. Mom will forward the posts to me.

Peace,
L

MAMA MIA!

Cooking Italian Style!
Thank you so so so so much for all the emails this week! Unfortunately I got so caught up reading them, I now only have 30 mins. left to write to you! Ai yai yai!

Oscar came to church last week and the elders have taught him two lessons so far!!

The man that called us during Internet time last week, we have not been able to get in touch with since. That is half of our problem here. We never seem to be able to get in touch with people.

We couldn't find the address of the family that we met at the bus stop. We had an appointment with them and they gave us the address when we talked to them on the phone just hours before our appointment. We haven't been able to get a hold of them since.

Pop-
Questions for the week:
Got enough $ or need some?
Doing well. We don't even have time to shop anyway. The only thing I can think of that I'd need to pay for is a Christmas show of some sort here. Our mission president has even encouraged us to take a night off once a transfer and go to some type of show. I quote..."It's not just about being a missionary for Christmas, it is about being in Italy for Christmas!! Take advantage of it." So now I just need to convince my companion and choose what we want to see! Oh, and we have to pay to call you guys. Don't know how much that will cost, though.

Favorite thing you learned this week?
I learned a lot this week...
1) Patience. With myself, with members, with investigators who aren't progressing, etc.
In "Preach my Gospel" it says that patience is the capacity to endure DELAY without becoming anxious and the ability to wait for the Lord's promises to be fulfilled. I applied the promise in Alma 17:9-11 to me. If I am patient (not necessarily in long suffering- I'm not really suffering here, just frustrated that more isn't happening) I can be an example and the Lord can make an instrument of me in his hands unto the salvation of many souls. As a result of this patience...read Alma 26 to find out what will happen. I will look back at the end and realize that I couldn't have imagined at the beginning of the work the blessings from God that I would witness at the end (many were brought unto the fold of God!). This thought also connects to a talk by Uchtdorf called "Seeing the End from the Beginning". We have so many things in our life to help us see the end keep working our hardest - prophets, the scriptures, patriarchal blessings, etc.

2) Visiting and home teachers are SOOO important. Half of the work that we have been having to do here as missionaries are things that I am pretty sure should really be done by visiting and home teachers. We have visited many less active families, arranged for the Elders to give a little girl a blessing whose parents' didn't know anyone else to ask in the ward, WERE helping a woman do her grocery shopping every Saturday because she didn't know who her visiting teachers were, etc. Seeing now the effect that a weak visiting and home teaching program has on a ward really makes me feel bad for missing out on opportunities to serve within the ward as a visiting teacher or whatever else. If members really understood their role, the missionaries would be freed up to do what we are called and taught to do, TEACH! We all need to work together.

Best progressing investigator(s)?
We currently don't have any. Victoria and Elizabetta are not keeping commitments. Maria and the two Indonesian girls can't get baptised because their husband and dad, respectively, wont allow them to get baptized and they sometimes don't keep other commitments we leave.


We always searched out families. Do you focus on families or just whoever will listen?
I started out just talking to whoever will listen. I had actually made a goal before I got out in the field, though, to focus on families and am now trying to refocus myself on finding families. While walking down the street yesterday morning, we saw a bunch of super nice looking Italian parents walking their adorable children to school and it killed me to know that none of them knew that they could be together forever.


Best spiritual experience this week?
Zone Conference. One of the Senior couple sisters bore her testimony and told us about the most meaningful Christmas she has had in her life. Tears were streaming down my face for like 20 minutes after she had finished. Also, while I was waiting in the Police office for 5 hours on Friday I got into a conversation with two Italian women sitting next to me in the waiting room. One was a lawyer with a one year old and the other a German teacher with 2 teenagers. Since we were all sitting there waiting, rather than rushing on and off of trams and metros like norma,l I had a real opportunity to share my testimony and actually think a bit about what I was saying. When the conversation had turned to completely to me and what I was doing here, etc. I went on for about 10 minutes about what the gospel is and why it means so much to me to be here as a missionary. One of the women had been telling us how it had been such a hard time in her life recently (topped off by the fact that she was sitting there in the police office to report a stolen car...or at least that is what I got out of what she was saying). I told her we had a book that would help her during this time in her life and that I wanted to come by her house and share it with her. I also invited the other woman to let us come over and teach her more about Christ. Clearly it wasn't as spiritual an experience for them as it was for me, because they both said no. Neither of them seemed offended or wierded out or anything, though, about what I had said or about what I had offered and they continued to be friendly and chat with me. Even though they turned me down I felt like I had said and done everything that I could have which was a huge comfort to me. I generally leave every lesson, every encounter, etc. just praying that the Lord will make up the difference, because I knew that I hadn't said or done everything I should have. I didn't feel that way after this, though.


Two things you love most about your companion?
Last week we had interviews and our district leaders asked us if we could set exercising goals and English "fast" goals together. Most of the other sisters complained about the 10 minutes of running and the week of not speaking English. My companion was pumped. I love that she genuinely is dedicated to this work and wants to improve herself. We had a conversation this week and a few experiences that helped me realize that she and I really are more on the same page than I thought. I think she has been stuck with really lazy companions for the past little bit and was suffering the influence of that.

She is very very self-less.

I love you all lots and hope all is well at home. I like the name Noelle better this week, Christi. Choose that, eh?

BTW, my email address will change this week because gmail is taking over myldsmail. Thank goodness!

L

"CAZA" AND OTHER ENLIGHTENING EXPERIENCES

On the street where she lives!
Famiglia,

I have developed a Christi addiction to writing. I am about to start my second journal of the mission already. If only I didn't have to sign off every time I get online to get the most recent emails you have sent. This past time I signed off I accidentaly typed in gmail.com out of old habit and thus went to an illegal webpage!!! Yikes. Good thing my companion was distracted by a phone call...pretty sweet phone call by the way. It was a random man who said something along the lines of "you handed me a card on the metro on Monday and it really touched me. How do we do this? Do i just come to your church? Or do we meet somewhere?" My companion was completely baffled. We were just brainstorming to think who it could've been and I think we determined it was an Italian man in his mid 30s who was on the metro with a bunch of his friends, but kept looking over at me, so on my way out I handed him a pass-along card that has questions of the soul written on it or something and I said something lame like "Hi, we are missionaries". He said, "good for you," then I shook his hand and ran off the metro because it was our stop. Pretty crazy that he actually called us. I heard statistics from someone the other day about how super rare it is for people to call us from the pass-along cards but...look at us just defying the odds, eh?

I have actually had a lot of experiences this week that have kind of built up my confidence again in my ability to find people to teach. All of your thoughts that you shared with me last week about being myself and finding what works for me instead of trying to be a mini-Sister Simons (btw, that picture probably was my companion, she fits the description) really helped. My president also gave me some pretty basic advice that helped...be patient with yourself. On Saturday when we were doing our service (which i hope to talk to the president about tomorrow...isn't that something that a visiting teacher could be doing?) I had decided to make it worthwhile by letting my companion do the talking with the woman we were shopping with while I talked to other people. I ended up talking to the man sitting next to me...well, mostly he just talked to me. People tend to do that a lot here. They are big talkers. Apparently I got enough into the conversation, though, because when we got off the tram he gave me his number and said he'd see us at church and also wanted to come to English class. I wanted to call him to remind him about church, but my companion wasn't really feeling him and advised me otherwise. Then I wanted to call him after church when he didn't come, but my companion said to pass to just pass him along to the elders. So I did, but apparently they never called him. Last night, though, after sitting around for 30 minutes at the church waiting for anyone to show up for our English class, we got a phone call (as if i wasn't antsy enough before the mission about wasting time, I get even more antsy and annoyed now. I have been learning patience. I always am suggesting things like..."why dont we make flyers for English classes so people actually come." "Why don't we advertise at the library, university, etc." I'm sure my companion has to learn patience with me too, though, and gets sick of my ideas. Apparently there is a specific order to things, though, that i just don't know yet. It is really hard for me to have to base what I do with my time off of what someone else who might not have as much energy as I do thinks I should be doing!

Thank goodness there is a piano at the church. I have been getting lots of opportunities to accompany lately. I am pretty horrible at accompanying but apparently am the best that there often is available.). The phone call was from the tram guy (named Oscar). He said he was wandering around the neighborhood looking for the church and couldn't find it. He said he had tried Sunday morning to find it too, so he could come to church, but never found it!! Ai yai yai. Finally we located him and the elders are now teaching him.

Yet another awesome finding story...
So I was frustrated one night after we had gone over what our final numbers were for the week and were once again way far off from our goals. I don't like setting goals that we continually don't reach. Then i started thinking about the goals that I had set for myself at the beginning of the mission that I had to give to the mission president the first day. One of them had to do with baptizing families. I realized that for some reason i had been intimidated by families just because they were in groups and not as easy to talk to on metros as people sitting alone. So, I could for sure do more to achieve my goal of finding families and decided that the next day i would talk to at least one family. So i did. We were waiting at a bus stop for Victoria for about a half hour. I was getting antsy and kept asking my companion if we could go do caza or something while we were waiting. She wanted to stay and wait though, or had a feeling we should or something. I never really know. So we did, and a man with a little boy came along. They were hanging out waiting at the stop for a while with us, not taking any of the buses that passed by. Then the mom came and they were still waiting around more. I finally went up to them and said something like..."It makes me really happy to watch your family because i can tell you love each other a lot. I believe that families can live together forever if we follow God's commandments. Can we meet again sometime and talk about it?"....Then my companion jumped in and helped clarify what I had said...we have an appointment this Sunday!! wahooo.

So - funny/awkward story of the week:
I actually have a few from doing caza this week. Caza (door to door) was pretty awesome this week and left me feeling like a real missionary finally. The first awesome experience was on Friday. We only had a half hour for finding and we were walking back and forth on the road we had chosen, not going into any buildings because my companion said they all had doormen who would stop us. Finally I suggested we just walk by one of the doormen and pretend we knew what we were doing (the lifelong trick I learned from mom, always works). So we did - and we got in fine. And it resulted in a very awkward moment...after doing about 5 doors one lady answered and was really annoyed at us, so apparently she called down to the doorwoman and complained. From the bottom of the stairs the doorwoman started screeching at us at the top of her lungs. I have absolutely no idea what she was saying but it sounded horrible. My companion got from the screaming that she wanted us to leave. On the way down the stairs a bunch of people had their heads popped out of the doors trying to figure out what the heck was going on. We just had to smile at them all and pretend like nothing was happening.

Another day doing caza a woman threatened to call the police on us and another woman came chasing after us down the stairs after her husband had turned us away. She was wearing a half unbuttoned shirt and nothing else. she stood in the stairwell and talked to us like that for about 30 mins about some crazy dreams she has had and about our church. I feel like those are both experiences that every missionary has to have - like a sort of initiation or something. I sure wish that we could just do family missions. All of these experiences would be 100% more awesome if it were with you guys and I could laugh about them a bit. Everything I see and do, every discussion I have, etc., I just wish it could be with you all.

By the way, Mom, before I forget...I wanted to tell you that I am getting more and more excited about doing some sort of instructional design grad program. I had that thought the other morning when I realized how much I enjoy studying for and creating the lessons that we teach. If you are bored while stranded after surgery, feel free to do any research on programs.

Man, I'm almost out of time. I really want to tell you about the things I have learned in the scriptures, good talks I have read, etc. but might just wrap up with the story of visiting the Boer family last Saturday, and write details about scripture studies in the package with the pictures that I am sending today.

Short summary of Boer visit: Remember the Italian elder that my companion and I had a really touching experience with at the mtc? I got permission to leave our zone and go a little bit out into the suburbs to visit his family and tell about my experience with their son. The dad isnt a member so i got permission. En route, I discovered that we live really close to the Alps. I hadn't seen them from the city. I also had a really, really Italian meal, including an entire course of different cheeses and one type of cheese that you put honey on.

gotta go.
love you all lots!!!

read the following talks... "honorably hold a name and standing" by bednar in conference last april. and some article in the june 2009 ensign by calister about how we need to refine our language, literature, music, art, appearance, and attitude in order to prepare ourselve for our heavenly home. one of the purposes of our earthly probation is to become like our heavenly parents in every concievable way so that we may be comfortable in their presence.

Sorella C.

DOING THE WORK

Lauren's first gelato in Italy
Famiglia,
i have developped a christi addiction to writing. I am about to start my second one of the mission already. If only I didnt have to sign off everytime to get the most recent emails you have sent. This past time I signed off I accidentaly typed in gmail.com out of old habit and thus went to an illegal webpage!!! Yikes. good thing my companion was distracted on a phone call...pretty sweet phone call by the way. It was a random man who said something along the lines of "you handed me a card on the metro on monday and it really touched me. how do we do this? do i just come to your church? or do we meet somewhere?" My companion was completely baffled. We were just brainstorming to think who it couldve been and I think we determined it was some Italian man in his mid 30s who was on the metro with a bunch of his friends but kept looking over at me so on my way out I handed him a pass along card that has questions of the soul written on it or something and said something lame like hi, we are missionaries. he said, good for you then i shook his hand then ran off the metro cuz it was our stop. Pretty crazy that he actually called us. I heard statistics from someone the other day about how super rare it is for people to call us from the pass along cards but...look at us just defying odds eh?
I have actually had a lot of experiences this week that have kind of built up my confidence again in my ability to find people to teach. All of your thoughts that you shared with me last week about being myself and finding what works for me instead of trying to be a mini-Sister Simons (btw, that picture probably was my companion, she fits the description) really helped. My president also gave me some pretty basic advice that helped...be patient with yourself. On Saturday when we were doing our waste of time service (which i hope to talk to the president about tomorrow...isnt that something taht a visiting teacher could be doing?) I had decided to make it worthwhile by letting my companion do the talking with the woman we were shopping with while i talked to other people. I ended up talking to the man sitting next to me...well, mostly he just talked to me. people tend to do that a lot here. they are big talkers. apparently i got enough into the conversation though because when we got off the tram he gave me his number and said hed see us at church and also wanted to come to english class. i wanted to call him to remind him about church but my companion wasnt really feeling him and advised me otherwise. then i wanted to call him after church when he wasnt there but my companion said to pass him along to just pass him along to the elders. so i did. and apparently they never called him. Last night though after sitting around for 30 minutes at the church waiting for anyone to show up to our english class we got a phone call (as if i wasnt antsy enough before the mission about wasting time i get even more antsy and annoyed now. i have been learning patience. i always am suggesting things like...why dont we make flyers for english so people actually come. why dont we advertise at the library, university, etc. im sure my companion has to learn patience with me too though and gets sick of my ideas. apparently there is a specific order to things though that i just dont know yet. it is really hard for me to have to base what i do with my time based off of what someone else who might not have as much energy thinks i should be doing. thank goodness there is a piano at the church. i have been getting lots of opportunities to accompany lately. i am pretty horrible at accompanying but apparently am the best that there often is available.). The phone call was from the tram guy (named oscar). he said he was wandering around the neighborhood looking for the church and couldnt find it. he said he had tried sunday morning to find it too so he could come to church but never found it!! ai yai yai. finally we located him and the elders are now teaching him.
Yet another awesome finding story...
So I was frustrated one night after we had gone over what our final numbers were for the week and were once again way far off from our goals. i dont like setting goals that we continually dont reach. then i started thinking about the goals that i had set for myself at the beginning of the mission that i had to give to the mission president the first day. one of them had to do with baptizing families. i realized that for some reason i had been intimidated of families just because they were in groups and not as easy to talk to on metros as people sitting alone. So, I could for sure do more to acieve my goal of finding families and decided that the next day i would talk to at least one family. So i did. we were waiting at a bus stop for Victoria for like a half hour. i was getting antsy and kept asking my companion if we could go do house or something while we were waiting. she wanted to stay and wait though, or had a feeling we should or something, i never really know. so we did. and a man with a little boy came along and were hanging out waiting at the stop for a while with us, not taking any of the buses that passed by. then the mom came and they were still waiting around more. i finally went up to them and said something like...It makes me really happy to watch your family because i can tell you love each other a lot. i believe that families can live together forever if we follow gods commandments. can we meet again sometime and talk about it....then my companion jumped in and helped clarify what i had said...we have an appointment this sunday!! wahooo.

so funny/awkward story of the week:
I actually have a few from doing caza this week. Caza (door to door) was pretty awesome this week and left me feeling like a real missionary finally. The first awesome experience was on friday. we only had a half hour for finding and we were walking back and forth the road we had chosen, not going in any buildings because my companion said they all had doormen that would stop us. Finally I suggested we just walk by one of the doormen and pretend we knew what we were doing (the lifelong trick i learned from mom, always works). So we did. and we got in fine. and it resulted in a very awkward moment...after doing about 5 doors one lady answered and was really annoyed at us so apparently she called down to the doorwoman and complained. from the bottom of the stairs the doorwoman started screetching at us at the top of her lungs. i have absolutely no idea what she was saying but it sounded horrible. my companion got out of the screaming that she wanted us to leave. on the way down the stairs a bunch of people had their heads popped out of the doors trying to figure out what the heck was going on. we just had to smile at them all and pretend like nothing was happening.
another day doing caza a woman threatened to call the police on us and another woman came chasing after us down the stairs after her husband had turned us away. she was wearing a half unbuttoned button up shirt and nothing else. she stood in the stairwell and talked to us like that for about 30 mins about some crazy dreams she has had and our church. i feel like those are both experiences that every missionary has to have. like a sort of initiation or something. I sure wish that we could just do family missions. all of these experiences would be 100% more awesome if it were with you guys and i could laugh about them a bit. everything i see and do, every discussion i have, etc i just wish it could be with you all.

By the way, mom, before I forget...I wanted to tell you that i am getting more and more excited about doing some sort of instructional design grad program. i had that thought the other morning when i realized how much i enjoyed studying for and creating the lessons that we teach. if you are bored while stranded after surgery, feel free to do any research on programs.

man, im almost out of time. i really wanna tell you about the things i have learned in the scriptures, good talks i have read, etc but might just wrap up with the story of visiting the Boer family last sat and write details about scripture studies in the package with the pictures that i am sending today.

Short summary of Boer visit: remember the italian elder that my companion and i had a really touching experience with at the mtc? I got permission to leave our zone and go a little bit out into the suburbs to visit his family and tell about the experiecne with their son. the dad isnt a member so i got permission. en route, i discovered that we live really close to the alps. i hadnt seen them from in the city. i also had a really really italian meal including an entire course of different cheeses and one type of cheese that you put honey on.

gotta go.
love you all lots!!!

read the following talks... "honorably hold a name and standing" by bednar in conference last april. and some article in the june 2009 ensign by calister about how we need to refine our language, literature, music, art, appearance, and attitude in order to prepare ourselve for our heavenly home. one of the purposes of our earthly probation is to become like our heavenly parents in every concievable way so that we may be comfortable in their presence.

Sorella C.

ANSWERS!

Milan Duomo
GOT LOTS OF QUESTIONS TO ANSWER THIS WEEK SO HERE IT GOES...

ANSWERS FOR POP
What is your favorite scripture of the week?
I DONT HAVE MY SCRIPTURES WITH ME RIGHT NOW OR MY SCRIPTURE STUDY JOURNAL, BUT I HAVE A POST-IT WITH SOME OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES FROM A CONFERENCE TALK THAT I READ THIS WEEK. I HAVE KIND OF MADE IT A THEME FOR MYSELF FOR THIS TRANSFER. IT IS FROM LAST CONFERENCE (WE HAVEN'T RECEIVED THE NEW ENSIGN YET) AND IT IS CALLED "UNSELFISH SERVICE". I STARTED THINKING ABOUT SERVICE THIS WEEK FOR TWO REASONS: 1) OUR PRESIDENT INVITED MY COMPANION AND ME TO COME TO THE MEETING WITH HIM AND ALL HIS ZONE LEADERS AND ASKED US TO BRAINSTORM WAYS THAT WE COULD IMPROVE OUR WORK DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON. I GOT REALLY EXCITED ABOUT BRAINSTORMING THIS, AND SERVICE WAS AN IMPORTANT TOPIC THAT WAS COMING TO MY MIND. 2)OUR WEEKLY SERVICE PROJECT IS TO GO WITH A MEMBER IN OUR WARD TO THE GROCERY STORE FOR ABOUT 3 HOURS EVERY SATURDAY AND JUST STAND AROUND UNTIL SHE IS DONE SHOPPING AND HELP HER CARRY HER GROCERIES HOME. I WANTED TO SOMEHOW CHANGE MY MINDSET ABOUT THIS PROJECT OR CONVINCE MY COMPANION THAT WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING ELSE.

ANYWAY, THE TALK IS CALLED "UNSELFISH SERVICE" AND IS BY DALLIN H OAKS. A QUOTE IN THE TALK BY PRESIDENT HINKLEY'S DAD WILL NEVER GET OLD FOR ME - "FORGET YOURSELF AND GO TO WORK". I THINK THIS WILL BE A HUUUGE KEY TO STAYING HAPPY EVERYDAY HERE. A GOOD QUOTE BY CS LEWIS THAT WAS ALSO IN THE TALK GOES - "THE MOMENT YOU HAVE A SELF AT ALL, THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF PUTTING YOURSELF FIRST, WANTING TO BE THE CENTER, WANTING TO BE GOD IN FACT. THAT WAS THE SIN OF SATAN". THIS TALK NOT ONLY APPLIES THAT QUOTE TO GIVING SERVICE, BUT ON A MUCH GREATER SCALE TOO...YOU ALL SHOULD READ IT.

I ALSO READ THE PART IN "PREACH MY GOSPEL" ABOUT SERVING TO FIND PEOPLE. THEY HAD REALLY GOOD SCRIPTURES LISTED TO SHOW HOW SERVING OTHERS WAS A HUGE PART OF HOW CHRIST TAUGHT AND HOW PEOPLE WILL RECOGNIZE THAT WE ARE CHRIST'S DISCIPLES WHEN WE SERVE WITH CHARITY.

AFTER READING THIS TALK I CAME UP WITH LOTS OF GOOD IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO USE THE HOLIDAY SEASON TO FIND MORE PEOPLE TO TEACH. I MADE A LIST OF THINGS THE MEMBERS COULD DO TO HELP US TOO DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON AND WE ARE GOING TO GO GIVE A 5 MINUTE PRESENTATION IN RELIEF SOCIETY, PRIESTHOOD, ETC. AND GIVE THEM ALL A LIST OF THINGS TO DO. IT'S QUITE A LARGE WARD SO I'M PRETTY SURE WE'LL GET AT LEAST A HANDFUL OF REFERALS FROM THIS PUSH. IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS THOUGH, LET ME KNOW.


How are you keeping up your enthusiasm?
SEE ABOVE. JUST TRYING TO MAKE A GAME OUT OF FINDING PEOPLE TO SERVE. ALSO, I HAVE THIS NEW GOAL TO MAKE MYSELF AS UNCOMFORTABLE AS POSSIBLE IN ORDER TO FIND PEOPLE TO TEACH AND HAVE AT LEAST ONE GOOD AWKWARD STORY TO TELL EVERY WEEK. SO HERE IS THIS WEEK'S STORY...WE WERE WALKING FROM THE TRAM (SAN FRANCISCO STYLE TRAM) TO THE METRO WITH A CHUNKY OLD BRITISH MAN THAT I HAD STARTED TALKING TO ON THE TRAM. WE WERE CHATTING ABOUT HIS LIFE, WHO WE WERE, ETC. AS USUAL I WAITED TOO LONG TO EXTEND AN INVITATION AND ALL OF A SUDDEN I HEARD HIM SAY...OH NO, THAT IS MY METRO!! I FREAKED OUT BECAUSE I HADN'T GOTTEN HIS NUMBER OR GIVEN HIM OURS YET SO I REACHED INTO MY BAG TO GET A PASS-ALONG CARD. WHEN I LOOKED BACK UP HE WAS SPRINTING (I WISH I HAD A VIDEO OF HOW HE WAS RUNNING, IT WOULD MAKE THIS STORY 20 TIMES BETTER) TOWARDS HIS METRO TRYING TO GET ON BEFORE THE DOOR CLOSED. WITHOUT THINKING TOO MUCH, AND DETERMINED TO EXTEND MY INVITATION, I START YELLING - SIR, SIR! THIS IS FOR YOU!! SIR!! AND I WAS LITERALLY CHASING HIM THROUGH THE METRO STATION. HE BARELY GOT ON THE METRO AND THE DOOR CLOSED RIGHT AS I GOT THERE. THEN I LOOKED UP AND REALIZED HOW RIDICULOUS I MUST HAVE JUST LOOKED AND SOUNDED AS I NOTICED THE FACES OF THE PEOPLE ON THE METRO THAT LOOKED EXTREMELY BAFFLED. THAT EXPERIENCE ALONE WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO MAKE ME KEEP AT IT. STAY TUNED FOR NEXT WEEK'S AWKWARD MOMENT...

ANSWERS FOR BOBBY:
Is your apartment building pinkish stucco? I DON'T THINK SO. I THINK OURS IS BRICK. TO THE LEFT OF IT IS A MONGOLIAN RESTAURANT AND TO THE RIGHT A LITTLE BAR CAFE PLACE. And next door to the right is the building white on the first floor and red brick on the upper floors? It looks like a really nice building and neighborhood. On google maps I can do a full 360 degree rotation and see up and down the street. What floor do you live on? WE ARE ON THE 4TH FLOOR Do you have to walk up stairs? YES WE GET TO WALK UP THE STAIRS EVERYDAY!! 30 MINUTES IN THE MORNING IS HARDLY ENOUGH FOR EXERCISE. ESPECIALLY WHEN I JUST HAVE TO MAKE UP EXERCISES BY MYSELF AND GET REALLY BORED. I REALLY REALLY REALLY JUST WISH I HAD THAT SHREDDING VIDEO WITH ME. What are your neighbors like? DONT SEE MUCH OF THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN MY BUILDING. THERE IS ONE REALLY OLD LADY FROM FRANCE THAT TALKS A LOT WHENEVER WE SEE HER. I'M SURE THERE ARE A LOT MORE THAN JUST ONE REALLY OLD LADY THOUGH. THIS TOWN IS FULL OF REALLY OLD PEOPLE WHO ARE STILL OUT AND ABOUT, TRIM, AND SUPER SNAZZILY DRESSED. OUMA WOULD'VE LIKED TO LIVE HERE. THE ONLY NEIGHBORS WE REALLY KNOW ARE THE GUYS THAT WORK AT THE RESTAURANTS ON EITHER SIDE OF OUR BUILDING AND THE OWNERS OF THE ANTIQUE SHOPS THAT LINE OUR STREET WHO ARE ALWAYS HANGING OUT WITH THE RESTAURANT OWNERS AT NIGHT WHEN WE COME HOME. THEY ARE ALL PRETTY HILARIOUS AND HAVE A TON OF CHARACTER. Where do you go grocery shopping? GROCERY SHOPPING IS JUST A BLOCK OR TWO AWAY. THERE IS ONE STORE CALLED NATURALSI THAT IS SUPER CLOSE AND HAS REALLY GOOD NATURAL FOOD AS THE NAME IMPLIES. MY COMPANION LIKES THE NORMAL STORE THOUGH. I LOOOVE GROCERY SHOPPING HERE. THE STORES ALL SMELL SO GOOD AND HAVE SO MANY INTERESTING FRESH VEGETABLES, BREADS, ETC. I THINK I COULD REALLY LEARN TO LIKE COOKING HERE IF I HAD THE MONEY AND TIME AND SOMEONE TO EAT ALL THE FOOD THAT I COOK SO I DON'T GET FAT. How far is your church building? ABOUT 20 TO 30 MINUTES AWAY USING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. Any modeling scouts asked you to sign up with them yet? NOT YET. ILL HAVE TO LOSE ABOUT 50 POUNDS FIRST.

How was your member dinner appointment? SOOO GOOD. THEY ARE ITALIAN, ORIGINALLY FROM A CITY DOWN SOUTH. What did they feed you? IT WAS REALLY LIGHT BUT INCREDIBLE. THEY HAD FRESH MOZARELLA BALLS THAT A FRIEND HAD BROUGHT BACK FOR THEM FROM NAPOLI THAT MORNING. WORD IS IS THAT THAT IS WHERE THE BEST MOZARELLA COMES FROM BECAUSE IT IS MADE FROM BUFFALO MILK INSTEAD OF COW'S MILK. THEN WE ATE PROCIUTO WITH IT AND SOME TOSSED SALAD WITH A REALLY GOOD PASTRY FOR DESERT. THE GUY WORKS AT SOME FANCY PASTRY SHOP AND HAD BROUGHT THEM HOME FROM WORK FOR US.

Are you feeling more inspired as to who you should speak with and are you making progress in leading the conversation towards the gospel? ISH. Who are your investigators and how are things going with them? WE JUST DROPPED MOST OF OUR INVESTIGATORS THIS WEEK AND ARE CURRENTLY DOWN TO JUST ONE PROGRESSING INVESTIGATOR, VICTORIA. SHE IS SALVADORIAN AND IN HER LATE 20S. WE ARE A LITTLE WORRIED THAT SHE JUST LIKES US FOR COMPANY THOUGH. WE AREN'T EVER GOING TO HAVE LESSONS AT HER HOUSE ANYMORE OR ANY WITHOUT MEMBERS PRESENT. SHE CHATS WAAAY TO MUCH WHEN WE DO ABOUT RANDOM THINGS. REMEMBER HOW I COMPLAINED ABOUT THAT HORRIBLE LESSON MY LAST WEEK AT THE TRC WHERE THE GUY JUST CHATTERED ON THE ENTIRE TIME. THAT IS PRETTY MUCH WHAT EVERY INVESTIGATOR LESSON HERE IS LIKE. SORELLA MILLER HAD A GOAL AT THE MTC TO STOP TALKING OVER PEOPLE BUT I WROTE HER A LETTER TODAY TELLING HER TO STOP WORKING ON THAT GOAL IMMEDIATELY. THAT IS A SKILL THAT IS MUCH NEEDED HERE WHEN TEACHING LESSONS. Are you doing well with your Italian? I CAN GENERALLY GET ACROSS MOST THINGS I WANT TO SAY, BUT I PROBABLY ONLY UNDERSTAND LIKE 70 ISH PERCENT OF WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING. How about Spanish and Arabic? CAN'T SPEAK EITHER OF THEM ANYMORE. MY MISH PREZ SAYS NOT TO WORRY ABOUT IT THOUGH AND JUST WORK ON ITALIAN. Which do you need the most there? SPANISH IS USEFUL BECAUSE THE SOUTH AMERICANS WE TALK TO OFTEN TALK WITH A SPANISH ACCENT OR SPANISH WORDS MIXED IN.

Did the mission office give you a note from ME? (I left one with them). NOPE. I THOUGHT THAT WAS KIND OF ODD THAT THEY DIDN'T What do you have to do to get your residence card? I HAD TO GO WAIT AT SOME POST OFFICE FOR LIKE 2 HOURS WITH A BUNCH OF FORMS THE OFFICE HAD PREPARED FOR ME THEN PAY THEM LIKE 100 DOLLARS JUST TO SEND THE PACKAGE OF PAPERS TO WHOEVER IT IS THAT NEEDS THEM. NEXT WEEK I HAVE TO GO WAIT IN SOME OFFICE ALL DAY TO GET FINGERPRINTED.

Did you have any sort of Thanksgiving celebration? HECK YEAH WE DID. WE DIDN'T HAVE ANY MEAL APPOINTMENTS OR ANYTHING PLANNED, BUT I HAD TOLD SISTER SIMONS ABOUT OUR THANKSGIVING LAST YEAR AND TURNS OUT SHE IS A BIG FAN OF INDIAN FOOD TOO. SO WE CARRIED ON OUR FAMILY'S TRADITION FROM LAST YEAR AND PICKED UP SOME INDIAN FOOD FROM A PLACE DOWN THE STREET (ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT THIS CITY IS THAT YOU CAN FIND ANY TYPE OF RESTAURANT OR GROCERY STORE YOU COULD EVER THINK OF WITHIN ONE OR TWO BLOCKS OF ANYWHERE YOU LIVE)

When you get a chance, write to us and describe the miracles. THE MIRACLES THAT I MENTIONED LAST WEEK. ITS KIND OF WIERD FOR ME TO USE THE WORD MIRACLES FOR SOME REASON, BUT RECOGNIZING MIRACLES IS SOMETHING THAT MY COMPANION IS REALLY GOOD AT. WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN I JUST GET EXCITED, BUT SHE GETS THIS GLAZED OVER LOOK IN HER EYES AND LOOKS AT ME REALLY INTENSELY AND MAKES SURE I UNDERSTAND THAT WE HAVE JUST BEEN BLESSED WITH MIRACLES. I THINK LAST WEEK WHAT I WAS REFERRING TO WAS THAT AFTER A BUMMER OF A MORNING WE GOT OUT OF THE MEETING A WOMAN THAT HAD CANCELLED ON US ABOUT 5 TIMES DURING THAT WEEK WAS WAITING FOR US OUTSIDE THE MEETING AND WANTED TO HAVE A LESSON BEFORE ENGLISH CLASS. THEN OUR OTHER INVESTIGATOR, VICTORIA, SHOWED UP FOR THE LESSON WE WANTED TO HAVE WITH HER BEFORE ENGLISH CLASS RIGHT WHEN WE FINISHED WITH THE FIRST LADY. AND SHE HAD BROUGHT A FRIEND WITH HER! AND WE GOT A MEMBER TO COME INTO THE LESSON WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE INCREDIBLE. WE BASICALLY JUST TALKED ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON AND DID A LITTLE EXAMPLE OF HOW TO APPLY IT TO OUR OWN LIVES BUT THEN IT TURNED INTO A LESSON ON THE RESTORATION SINCE HER FRIEND HAD NO IDEA WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT. WE DIDN'T REALLY HAVE TO DO THE TEACHING OF THAT PART THOUGH - VICTORIA BASICALLY EXPLAINED IT ALL AND BORE HER TESTIMONY OF IT ALL TO HER FRIEND. THEN, RIGHT WHEN THAT ENDED, SOME GIRL THAT WE HAD FOUND DOING CAZA SHOWED UP FOR ENGLISH CLASS WITH A FRIEND AND THEY SAT IN ON THE LAST 5 MINUTES OF THE LESSON WITH VICTORIA. ENGLISH LESSON WAS AWESOME AND ON THE WAY BACK HOME WE TALKED TO TWO GIRLS WHO WERE REALLY INTERESTED IN THE CHURCH. ONE GOOD THING AFTER ANOTHER. I FEEL LIKE I ALREADY TOLD YOU ALL THAT THOUGH -IF SO, SORRY. (By the way, did you send us a letter? We didn't receive it yet if you did). NOPE. DIDNT SEND ONE. BUT I AM PRINTING PICTURES THIS WEEK AND WILL SEND THEM OUT NEXT WEEK FOR YA.

Where is your trainer from? ALL OVER THE PLACE. HER DAD WORKED FOR THE MILITARY. CURRENTLY HER DAD IS ON SOME ASSIGNMENT WHERE THEY MOVE EVERY 3 MONTHS. SHE LIVED IN SOUTHERN ITALY FOR 2 YEARS SO IS REALLY GOOD AT ITALIAN WHICH IS A BLESSING.

Where are you teaching English? AT THE CHURCH. Do you have a large class? NOPE. NEVER MORE THAN 8 PEOPLE AND WE SPLIT INTO TWO CLASSES WITH THE ELDERS. THEY TAKE ADVANCED AND WE TAKE BEGINNERS. How often do you teach it? EVERY TUESDAY.


THOUGHTS FOR CORY -
I CAN JUST IMAGINE YOU BEING ONE OF THESE CUTE OLD MEN HERE THAT SHOPS AT THE NATURAL FOOD STORE DRESSED IN YOUR NICE KHAKIS AND DRESS SHOES THEN RIDES YOUR BIKE HOME. YOU'D LOVE IT. AT LEAST COME CHECK IT OUT.

CHRISTI AND JO -
THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL THE NEWS AND THE ADVICE! FOR SOME REASON I GOT ALL TEARED UP WHEN I STARTED READING YOUR EMAIL, JO...MAYBE IT WAS JUST NICE TO KNOW THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE LIKE ME AND WHO UNDERSTAND ME. CRUST, I THINK I LIKE SEQUOYA BEST OUT OF THOSE BUT AM STILL SOLD ON SORELLA. MAYBE JO CAN USE THE NAME SORELLA IF YOU DON'T.

EVERYONE - SOUNDS LIKE AN AWESOME THANKSGIVING!!

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT. ESPECIALLY FOR PAYING MY BILLS MOM AND POP! BE GLAD THERE IS A STANDARD PRICE FOR MISSIONS...MY COMP SAID SHE HEARD SOME STATISTICS ABOUT OUR MISSION BEING ONE OF THE TOP 5 MOST EXPENSIVE AND MY SPECIFIC APARTMENTS BEING ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE.

CIAO
SORELLA C.

FIRST WEEK IN MILAN

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORY AND RIVER!! Exactly one month until I can talk to you again on the phone...wahooo, get pumped! Crazy that it has only been a week since I talked to you at the airport. This week has seemed sooo long. A WEEK AGO I WAS SURROUNDED BY SISTERS DROWNING IN THEIR LONG FLOWY SKIRTS AND WELL FED BY THE DAILY HAMBURGERS PROVIDED AT THE MTC (don't get me wrong, I loved them all and everyone there was guaranteed happier than the people here)...NOW, I'M PRETTY SURE WE ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE IN OUR ZONE (POSSIBLY THIS ENTIRE CITY) THAT ARE NOT MODELS. NOT EVEN EXAGGERATING THAT MUCH...YESTERDAY WALKING FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES DOWN ONE ROAD THAT IS A BLOCK FROM OUR STREET THERE WERE AT LEAST 12 GIRLS THAT PASSED US THAT WERE HOLDING MODELING PORTFOLIOS OF SORTS AND FOR SURE LOOKED LIKE MODELS. LUCKILY (in a way) SINCE THE SISTER HERE BEFORE ME WAS TRUNKY AND MY COMPANION WAS SICK FOR THE PAST 2 WEEKS WE DIDN'T HAVE MANY APPOINTMENTS THIS PAST WEEK AND SO I HAVEN'T BEEN FED MUCH YET AND DON'T FEEL TOO BAD ABOUT MYSELF WHEN WALKING BY THE MODELS.

WE HAVE OUR FIRST DINNER APPOINTMENT WITH A MEMBER TONIGHT THOUGH! ITS ABOUT TIME I TRY SOME REAL ITALIAN FOOD. WE HAD PIZZA TWO DAYS AGO THAT WE BOUGHT FROM A PIZZERIA RUN BY EGYPTIANS (SO I'M NOT REALLY SURE IF THAT COUNTS AS ITALIAN FOOD).

THERE ARE SOOO MANY EGYPTIANS HERE. I PROBABLY HAVE TALKED TO MORE SOUTH AMERICANS AND MIDDLE EASTERNERS (ESPECIALLY EGYPTIANS) HERE THAN REAL ITALIANS AND EVERY TIME I DO I GET SOOO FRUSTRATED THAT I CAN'T SPEAK SPANISH OR ARABIC ANYMORE AND AM MORE CAPABLE OF SPEAKING IN ITALIAN WHICH I HAVE ONLY STUDIED FOR 9 WEEKS. UNFORTUNATELY MY COMPANION TELLS THEM ALL THAT I HAVE STUDIED ARABIC AND SPANISH SO I JUST FEEL STUPID WHEN I TRY SPITTING OUT ONE WORD AT A TIME. PROBABLY ONLY A FOURTH (IF THAT) OF THE WARD IS ACTUALLY ITALIAN. AND WHEN WE DO CAZA (DOOR TO DOOR CONTACTING) THE ONLY ONES THAT HAVE OPENED THEIR DOORS FOR US ARE THE SOUTH AMERICANS OR MUSLIMS FROM AFRICA. WE'VE HAD TO DO QUITE A BIT OF DOOR TO DOOR AND STREET CONTACTING BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT WE DON'T HAVE MANY APPOINTMENTS THIS WEEK.

THE FIRST TWO DAYS I STARTED OUT REALLY PUMPED ABOUT CONTACTING...ON THE AIRPLANE FROM FRANKFURT I SPENT ABOUT 2 HRS TALKING TO SOME CRAZY MAN WHO WAS GOING TO ROMANIA TO GET HIS GIRLFRIEND OUT OF JAIL. TURNS OUT HE HAD GONE TO CHURCH A FEW TIMES YEARS AGO AND HAD READ THE BOOK OF MORMON AND WAS INTERESTED IN GETTING BACK INTO IT AND FINDING OUT MORE SO I GAVE HIM A NEW BOM. I TALKED TO A FEW OTHER PEOPLE BUT I DIDN'T END UP REALLY INVITING THEM TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE CHURCH (A TREND I AM TRYING TO CHANGE. I am too good at talking to everyone about themselves and never quite get around to fulfilling my purpose as a missionary and inviting them to come unto Christ).

WHEN I FIRST GOT TO MILAN MY PRESIDENT AND HIS WIFE PICKED ME UP AND BROUGHT ME BACK TO THEIR HOUSE WHERE I IMMEDIATELY HAD AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT, A RUNDOWN OF WHAT I HAVE TO DO TO GET MY RESIDENCE CARD HERE AND HOW TO TAKE CARE OF FINANCES BY THE JENSENS IN THE OFFICE (WHO GAVE ME A BIG HUG RIGHT AWAY AND SAID HI TO ME FROM YOU TWO), THEN MET THE TWO MISSIONARIES WHO HAD ARRIVED FROM THE SPAIN MTC THE DAY BEFORE(THEY BOTH LIVE IN ITALY SO THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO LEARN ITALIAN AT PROVO. THEY SAID THERE ARE ONLY LIKE 6 PEOPLE AT THE SPAIN MTC NOW...WAS IT LIKE THAT WHEN CRUST WAS THERE??), THEN WE WERE SHIPPED OFF TO THE DUOMO WITH THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT. THIS WAS ACTUALLY REALLY FUN...I WAS PARTNERS WITH THE ITALIAN SISTER SO I JUST PICKED RANDOM PEOPLE TO START TALKING TO THEN SHE'D CARRY ON THE CONVERSATION ONCE I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT WAS GOING ON ANYMORE. WE ACTUALLY WEREN'T ABLE TO GIVE OUT ANY BOMS BUT WE GOT A LOT OF PEOPLE TO TAKE BROCHURES. WE ALSO TALKED TO PEOPLE ON THE WAY TO AND FROM THE DUOMO ON THE METRO...IT WAS AWESOME AND GOT ME SOO EXCITED TO DO THIS FOR A YEAR AND A HALF...

THE SISTER AND I STAYED AT A HOTEL THAT NIGHT THEN IN THE MORNING HAD A MEETING WHERE WE FOUND OUT WHAT CITIES WE WERE GOING TO AND WHO OUR COMPANIONS WERE. LUCKILY, SINCE I WAS THE MINORITY AS THE ONLY ENGLISH SPEAKER, THEY DID THE WHOLE MEETING IN ITALIAN ALTHOUGH THEY NORMALLY DO IT IN ENGLISH. THEY ALL APOLOGIZED AND ASKED ME ABOUT 20 MILLION TIMES IF I NEEDED TRANSLATION... I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY I HAVE TO BEG PEOPLE WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING ME LEARN ITALIAN TO SPEAK ITALIAN TO ME. AT THIS MEETING I MET THE REST OF THE OFFICE CREW AND GOT POP'S NOTE (THANKS POP!!).

AFTER THE MEETING WE HEADED OFF FOR OUR APARTMENT! IT IS IN SUCH A NEAT AREA (AS YOU CAN PROBABLY TELL FROM GOOGLEMAPS). IT'S ABOUT 1 BLOCK FROM CORSO BUENOS AIRES WHICH APPARENTLY IS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SHOPPING STREETS IN MILAN?? WE CAN ALSO SEE THE TOP OF THE DUOMO FROM OUR FRONT DOOR. INCREDIBLE! I'D CHECK OUT THE MAP TO LET YOU KNOW IF YOU GOT THE RIGHT APARTMENT BUILDING...BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED TO USE ANY SIGHTS BESIDES MYLDS.ORG. NATURALLY, I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE DEEMED MAPQUEST OK BUT I AM PRETTY SURE I HAVE BEEN PAIRED WITH THE COMPANION I HAVE SO THAT I DON'T EVER SUCCUMB TO MY NATURAL SELF. SHE IS ABOUT AS OBEDIENT AS CAN BE AND MAKES SURE THAT I AM TOO. KIND OF AN ADJUSTMENT FROM MY FUN LOVING, OUTGOING, ENJOY LIFE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE COMPANIONS THAT I HAD AT THE MTC BUT, I SUPPOSE IT WILL BE GOOD FOR ME. SHE IS EASY ENOUGH TO BE WITH, THOUGH, AND FROM WHAT SHE SAYS EVEN THOUGH I'M A GREENIE I'M A BIG IMPROVEMENT FROM HER OTHER COMPANIONS WHO HAD MULTIPLE MONTHS TO GO AND WERE ALREADY PRETTY TRUNKIE.

I AM DEFINITELY HAVING TO LEARN THOUGH HOW TO BE HAPPY AND FIND JOY WITHOUT LAUGHING AND JOKING AROUND AS MUCH AS I LIKE TO BECAUSE WHEN I AM NOT HAPPY, I'M NOT A VERY GOOD MISSIONARY. LIKE I SAID, THE FIRST TWO DAYS WERE AWESOME AND I LITERALLY TOOK TO HEART THE TALK TO EVERYONE YOU COME ACROSS STUFF THAT WE HAD BEEN TAUGHT AT THE MTC...I'D GET ALL FRANTIC ANYTIME I ENTERED A PUBLIC AREA BECAUSE THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE AROUND ME TO TEACH AND NOT ENOUGH TIME. SO I'D JUST START A RANDOM CONVO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. AFTER THE FIRST FEW DAYS OF THIS, THOUGH, I GOT ALL SELF CONSCIOUS AND FELT LIKE I WAS INTERFERING WITH OUR PLANS AND SUCH BECAUSE MY COMPANION WASN'T REALLY TALKING TO ANYONE, UNLESS IT WAS TO STEER MY CONVERSATION AWAY FROM WHATEVER IT WAS I WAS TALKING ABOUT AND TOWARDS THE GOSPEL (WHICH I REALLY APPRECIATED AND LIKE I SAID, I REALLY NEED TO LEARN HOW TO DO THIS MYSELF). SHE LATER EXPLAINED IN A CONVERSATION THAT SHE TRIES TO FOLLOW THE SPIRIT TO KNOW WHO TO TALK TO AND I STARTED FEELING USELESS BECAUSE I HAD JUST BEEN TALKING TO WHOEVER ABOUT WHATEVER.

YESTERDAY NIGHT, THOUGH, AND THIS MORNING WE HAD SOME INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCES THAT GOT ME SUPER EXCITED FOR MISSIONARY WORK AGAIN AND READY TO JUST BE ENTHUSIASTIC AND TRY MY BEST EVEN IF I WASN'T DOING IT PERFECTLY RIGHT BECAUSE I CAN JUST IMPROVE ALONG THE WAY (ANSWERS TO POP'S QUESTION). BASICALLY LIKE 10 MIRACLES IN A ROW...I WANNA TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT BUT MY COMPANION IS LEANING OVER AND TELLING ME I NEED TO STOP WRITING YOU AND WRITE MY LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT BEFORE OUR 2 HOURS ARE UP SO MY SUMMARY IS THAT WE FOUND 3 INVESTIGATORS, HAD 2 REALLY GOOD SPONTANEOUS LESSONS WITH PREVIOUS INVESTIGATORS WHO SHOWED UP AT THE CHURCH LOOKING FOR US, AND A REALLY GOOD ENGLISH LESSON (TEACHING LANGUAGES IS SOMETHING I AM ACTUALLY GOOD AT). THEN I HAD AN AMAZING PERSONAL STUDY THIS MORNING.

I DON'T THINK I HAVE ANSWERED ALL OF YOUR QUESTIONS...THE MOST IMPORTANT ANSWER, THOUGH, IS THAT I DON'T BUY BREAD AT THE FRANKFURT AIRPORT BUT OH MY GOSH THE BREAD AND CHEESES HERE ARE INCREDIBLE. TODAY FOR LUNCH I MADE PESTO BREAD WITH FRESH PESTO FROM GENOVA AND AMAZING WHOLE GRAIN BREAD. THEN I MADE A SALAD WITH THE BEST PARMESAN EVER, BROCCOLI, SUPER SWEET TOMATOES AND VINEGAR...SOOOO GOOOD!

OK, REALLY GOTTA GO.

MUCH LOVE,
L