PORDENONE!

Im now in Pordenone with my two companions. I met them at Zone conference yesterday which was in a town called Mestre where they have the most beautiful church building I have ever seen. Apparently it used to be a stable of some type of plantation, then it was converted into a theatre, then into our church. One of my companions is from California. The oldest of eight children...so super easy to get along with, live with, and a pretty hard worker. The other is Italian but has lived in France for most of her life...so very talkative, bubbly and very loving and hard working also. They are both about the same height (which is not very high at all). I feel like a giant with them. We will probably not all be together for more than two transfers because the Sister from California will be going home then. I for sure am going to have to buy a bike, though. There are two bikes at the apartment already and the other two sisters have already had to buy a bike and leave them in other cities. So, based on how the rules work in our mish, it's up to me.

Pop, yes, I can go to Venice!!! Thanks so much for the list of things to see and do in Pordenone! Last week in Milan on pday we met the sister I did splits with at the Duomo to get a bunch of clothes from her that she didn't want and a sweet Kalai cd of hymns. Then she was able to convince everyone to go check out this awesome bone chapel that was in a random church by the Duomo...google it since I wasnt able to get a picture.

I havent seen very much of Pordenone yet since we arrived back from Zone conference late last night and were inside cleaning all this morning (this city has been an elders city for the past 30 years and just a month ago was turned into a sisters only city. The apartment has been rumored for years to be the nastiest in the mission. But I already know the members are incredible (last night one couple picked us up at the train station and took us to the grocery store and another met us at our apartment with a bed for me). Oh, man, last night I also saw the biggest bonfires ever...so this has got to be a cool town, right? Apparently last night or today was the festival of a witch type woman called Befama who brings gifts to people who were forgotten on Christmas. Im not sure how the giant bonfires are related, but I like it. Honestly, they were about 10 times bigger than any bonfire we have ever had at our house. I think we should adopt the tradition, though, of making a giant fire and celebrating this Befama woman. Do some wikipedia research, eh?

Speaking of traditions...when I was sitting inside the apartment back in Milan waiting for one reason or another to leave, as often happened, I made a list of family traditions to add to our list that you all made a few weeks ago:

1) Hardcore house cleaning and organizing on the day after New Years Eve. We all had to be in by 8pm on New Years Eve, and all New Years Day everyone in the mssion had to clean. It was such a good way to start off the new year. Sounds like this is what you all ended up doing anyway, yeah?

2) About a month ago my mission president challenged us all to start reading the BOM and underlining the references to Christ. By doing that and also spending as much time as possible reading in "Jesus the Christ" and reading conference articles about Christ, the month of Christmas became so much more spiritual for me. The tradition here...to focus on learning about Christ during the month of December, not just the night before Xmas.

3) Always attend and bring friends to the events that the church holds for Xmas...the devotional by the first presidency, the sacrament meeting, the ward party, etc.

and thats all the list for now...

As for this past week...It didn't quite turn out how I expected it too. There ended up being a lot less time for teaching all the new investigators that we had lined up or doing any other real missionary work. But, I benefitted a lot from the extra time to ponder about the new year as well as the time spent living with and speaking Italian with Sister Simons' new companion who does not knows English.

Thursday we picked up Sister Simons new companion. The rest of Thursday we went from store to store finding food that the new companion needed and letting her unpack. Friday was cleaning day. Saturday we waited in line to get the new companion a metro pass. Sunday we were in church. Monday I went to an hour of the zone conference then to the police station with Grace ( a 20 yr old member of the ward who was my "companion" for the day ) to pick up my permit. We waited there for an hour, were told to come back in 4 hours, went back to Grace's house to eat lunch with her family, returned to the police station, waited for 2 hours, were told to come back to Milano on Januray 27th to pick it up because it was not ready yet, then waited outside my apartment for two hours because Grace's phone was out of batteries so we couldn't get in touch with Sister Simons and the new comp. Tuesday I drove out to Modena and was in Zone conference all day.

In our limited time working, though, the Lord still dropped in a few miracles here and there. A Romanian girl that we met last week on Monday already came to church, we have been able to teach her twice, and we have invited her to be baptized. The first time we met with her was technically English class, but it turned into her bearing her testimony about Christ's atonement. I'm not sure how it got to that, but it was incredible.

We also did an hour or so of door to door one night and met some man who is good friends with one of the Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic teachers at BYU who is currently the mission president in the Catania, Italy mission. The man we met is an Arabic and Islamic studies teacher here, had visited this professor in Salt Lake, knew exactly who we were, and told us we could come back to teach him the next night (I sure hope the other sisters ended up going back!!!).

Speaking of mission presidents, the dad of the second cousin of ours who is serving with Sorella Prina right now in Torino is the mission president in Rome.

Like I said, though, the great thing about this week was all the time that I had to be still and think a bit about this new year and goals that I want to set. Crust mentioned that you all had a FHE on goal setting and I'd love to hear what you came up with. I also read through my patriarchal blessing to get an idea and identified that I really needed to work on my prayers. After searching the scriptures more, thinking more, and participating in a mission wide fast this Sunday to prepare ourselves to hear the words of Elder Paya (the Area Seventy Authority) I determined that I needed to expand my goal to be something more in line with, "Developing my relationship with my Heavenly Father". Some of the scriptures that I read that I was deciding between to be the theme of my goal are as follows:
D&C 88:63-65, 67, 68
D&C 19:38
D&C 10:5
Alma 34:27
Alma 37:36-37
2 Nephi 9:50-52
1 John 2
John 15:4

I was a little bit overwhelmed by this and didn't really know where to start with it...
Then I rode in the car with Elder Paya yesterday morning and he clarified it all for me unintentionally, and expounded on it in the Zone Conference. My mission president was asking me what I had learned from the last transfer and was trying to give me advice about serving with a threesome when Elder Paya popped in and said something like..."I think the most important thing to remember is that as you develop your relationship with your Heavenly Father, everything will fall into place and you will certainly become more united with your companions. Think about everything in terms of the relationship triangle." Then in conference he explained this whole formula which I got so excited to share with you all when I thought my nieces middle name was Zion...too bad you faked me out and have changed it. Anyway, the formula goes - Spirituality + Love = Unity, which leads to (can't find the arrow on this computer) Zion. He showed us a bunch of scriptures where people went to Joseph Smith to ask him what they could do to help out more. Joseph Smith then got the same instructions from God for them...see D&C 6:6, 11:6, 12:6. 14:6. Also Moses 6:31-34 and D&C 109:57.

For me, this formula means...Spirituality is how I grow closer to the Lord, Love is what I will get in return, Love is how I will grow more united with my companions, those I am teaching, my leaders, etc. And Unity is how I will do my part to develop Zion. When I do my part to develop Zion I will be happy and feel successful.
I probably can't explain the formula sufficiently, and how it affected me, but suffice it to say that the Lord really had prepared me to hear Brother Paya's message, and I feel like Ive gotten the key to getting along with all of my companions and finding success as a missionary.

At the end of Brother Paya's message, my mission president got up and said something along the lines of..."Wow, you all really just got an inspired message. That was not the same thing that the Zone yesterday heard, but I have no doubt that it was exactly what you all needed to hear." Then my mission president went on to teach us about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how we can find answers to any problems we have at any point in our lives by delving into the Book of Mormon.

I really have grown in my testimony of our ability we have to recieve personal revelation from God. He loves us and wants to help us be successful both in this life and the life to come. We need to allow him to help us by truly seeking his guidance and an understanding of his will for us through sincere prayer and study of the Book of Mormon.

Im so excited for this new town, these new companions, this new year, etc. Life is good.

Oh, and For mapquest purposes...My new address Viale Della Liberta 19, Pordenone 33170.


And one last thought...as you mentioned to me in your letter, there is an American military base here. Thus, there is also an English speaking ward here. And subsequently a missionary couple who teach and serve on the base and in the English ward. Yet another sweet missionary couple mission calling..Mom and Pop, start saving up your money!

And, the awkward moment of the week: It was late at night and had been a long day when we were riding the metro back home. There were only two other people on the metro, a mom and her son, and after five minutes of sitting in silence using the excuse that i was tired, I got up and talked to them. I said something about families and then the woman rambled on for about five minutes about something I didn't understand. As a last ditch effort before I got off the metro I bore my testimony about eternal families and explained that she could be sealed in her marriage for eternity. My companion had gotten really quiet and I was kind of annoyed that she didn't back me up with her testimony. She explained once we got off the metro that the woman had been telling me all about what a lousy man her husband is and how he cheated on her, won't let the rest of her kids come live with her in Italy (they are in Peru), etc. Whoooops! She still smiled at me, though, as I got off, and took the Plan of Salvation pamphlet- so hopefully not too much harm was done...

Love you all.
Sorella C.