EMOTIONS AND FOOD - Feburary 17th, 2010

Thinking back about the week those are the two things that stand out. I feel like everyone I came across was an emotional wreck (so many tragic stories that are pent up inside of people!!) and I feel like I have stopped in every pastry shop in Milano in the past week. Somehow, Heavenly Father was still able to use us as instruments in his hands to teach some 21 lessons, get 17 new investigators, 5 people in church, and give a lot of much needed spontaneous acts of service...incredible considering that last time I was here in Milan 11 lessons in one week was our max. I learned some really useful tools while in Pordenone and I think applying them here has really helped us out. But even with those little tips I still couldn't have imagined how well things turned out this week. Honestly, looking back at how many pastry shops we stopped in, how much time we spent looking for massage therapists around town, how many unexpected disasters came up (like loosing Sister Prina for an hour in the Metro System0, and how little time we spent doing what I, based on what I learned in Pordenone, thought needed to be done to have "success" it was an incredible week. While the last threesome I was in seemed to be steamed by pure hard, hard work and diligence I think what allows for success in this new threesome is love...as cheesy as that sounds. Even though we aren't running around as much and inviting as many people, I think these two Sisters focus more on loving more each person they do invite and teach and that may be even more important. Plus, they take the time to show love to each other and be concerned for each other (and me of course). So quality rather than quantity?

So the emotional wreck trend started on Friday. We were walking to an apartment building to do porta porta. We had chosen this specific apartment building because it was the address given to us by one of the many people that gave us fake phone numbers at the market last Saturday. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a girl leaning against a pole bent over. I went over to see if everything was ok and then saw that she was shaking, and having a hard time breathing. Long story short, we sat with her in a store for about a half hour waiting for her dad and the ambulance to show up. In the meantime we found out she was only 15 and had not been eating all week because she wanted to lose 15 pounds. She had about 10 million hard things happen in the past month and just couldn't take it all anymore. Super duper tragic. On the bright side, we are teaching her a lesson tomorrow. We also have been teaching 3 high school age Filipino girls (they are all cousins of each other and babysit for a member family) that are so so incredible and progressing way more than any of the adults we are teaching. About 3 days after we first gave them the Book of Mormon we had a lesson with one of them and she was all embarrassed when we asked her what she had read in the BOM. After making a million excuses of why she wasn't able to read very much she told us she had read the first 10 chapters of 1st Nephi...ummmm, yeah, that's more than I read this week probably. I'm thinking from now on I'm just going to talk to teenagers on the streets, in the metros, etc. Way more open than the adults here.

We ended up making it over to that apartment building to do door to door eventually and were let into 3 different doors again out of the first 9 we knocked. And there were families in each of them. On the same road that we found the girl shaking and not breathing and where this miracle apartment building is a few days ago apparently there was a huge fight between some Egyptians and South Americans and one Egyptian was killed...hear anything about that out there on the news? I'm a bit bummed about it because we had a return appointment with an Egpytian family we had gone in doing door to door with and they were going to make my favorite Egyptian food when we went back but now my companions don't think its a good idea to go back because of the recent events...

As for food this week...We had incredible Peruvian hot chocolate 2 nights in a row at the houses of 2 different new investigators. They use a couple chunks of dark chocolate bars, fresh cinnamon sticks, cloves, milk, and lots of sugar. So good. Also had some incredible home-made tiramisu at the house of a less active. And some really good Filipino dish at a members. I am really horrible at describing food, definitely should not be a food critic. Moral of the story, I have had way too much sugar this week. Oh, I also discovered Polenta. I don't think I will ever eat rice again. I recommend making Polenta with Parmesan and rosemary someday. I also recommend reading the Book of Mormon (as in the book written by Mormon that is within the Book of Mormon). Super powerful. You can feel his emotion and love for the Lord and the people just pouring out through the pages.

I love you all and miss you all really badly and although I love being here I really can't wait to see you again in exactly one year.

Love,
Sorella Cozzens