Sorella Cozzens

MAY IN MILAN - Models, Misadventures, Member Help, Men'sVolleyball...May 26th, 2010

2010-06-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

Ciao,

Here's a summary of the goings on this past week of May in Milan.

Models - I pretty much told you all about Sydney already. It really was so so nice to have someone to teach for a week that had a desire already to be baptized and a firm testimony of the Book of Mormon and had free time to see us! It was so sad to see her for the last time on Sunday. She was proof that there really are people out there being "prepared" to hear the message and be baptized. She explained to us one day all the miracles that happened that honestly just made right now the perfect time for her to join the church. For example...every January for the past few years she always committed to being dry for the month (as in not drinking alcohol). It was in the beginning of January that she first met the missionaries and so was able to have a clear mind during the whole process and feel the spirit easier. Plus it was easier for her to start living the word of wisdom. The other day I translated a conversation between a member that was baptized 3 years ago and Sydney. The member, Lucia, was explaining all the miracles that led to her conversion too...she had been working in a model showroom, was living with a lawyer in some town by the ocean, theoretically "living the life" but got to a point where she knew something was missing from her life and from the Catholic church. She left her boyfriend and moved to Milan and a few days later a missionary handed her a pass along card. She came to church that Sunday and was baptized a month later (her version of the story was obviously a lot more emotion and detail filled, sorry.)
Anyway, It is currently "model season" in Milan, apparently, so I have been trying to find us a new Sydney to teach, or at least more wife options for Cory. So, I try to talk to every thin, pretty girl I see. A few days ago we got the phone numbers of one model from Poland and one from Slovakia...hopefully we can get in contact with them and set something up!!

Misadventures - I kind of told you about this already too. Our bike adventure last P-day was a disaster. The bike was too heavy or something for my companion so we walked around the city with the bikes. I really would not have been a good older sibling. Good thing I came on a mission where I can learn patience, love, charity, etc. I've also learned that everything happens for a reason...because we walked the bikes we were super late to the dance recital of Ana's little girls and for that I am SOO grateful. I guess I hadn't realized how removed from the world we are as missionaries. I almost was in tears at the end of the 10 minutes we saw of 6 to 11 year old girls dancing like MTV dancers to songs like "Womanizer". It was horrible!!

Mexican Food and Member help - After our the bikes and dance class we rushed off to a Mexican dinner at the church for Relief Society. Kind of an odd choice of theme since there are no Mexicans in the ward but people from every other Central and South American country. Four investigators came, 2 less actives, and a friend of a member...probably one of the best nights everrrr. The ward honestly has changed so much in the past 5 months as far as helping out with missionary work goes. Our goal at the beginning of the transfer was to have 8 different member families working with 8 different investigators regularly and helping them in their progression...we are already at 8!!! This work is so so much easier and so much more fun when the members are involved.
Weird thing though is that 2 days later we took Sydney to an American member's house for dinner and FHE and they made Mexican food too?!?! I'm pretty sure Sydney never ate Italian food while she was here at all.

Men's Volleyball - Nope, that's a lie, there was a bit of Italian food (tomatoes, cheese, bread) at the Men's Volleyball fireside. Mostly the fireside was really long because we had to translate everything. There was one really sweet talk though that one of the married players gave. They were all talking about how the principles in the gospel are related to principles of sports. He told a story about a coach in high school that constantly yelled and him and told him what he was doing wrong. One day he yelled back and the coach took him aside and explained that he only treated him the way he did because he could see his potential and wanted him to become the best that he could. He compared that to hardships in his life and the knowledge that God is just helping him grow and become more refined as a person. He then gave a shout out to my companion and I and noted that we should be so grateful for the time we have on our mission because looking back, it was the hardest time in his life but the time when he was closest to Heavenly Father. It was a good reminder to appreciate every day here on the mission.

Here's a another good spiritual thoughts from a talk I read in the Liahona this week...mostly I liked it because it made me laugh but it has a really important message too.
When you stop and think about it from a diabolically tactical point of view, fighting the family makes sense. When Satan wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn't poison the world's peanut butter supply (this is where I started giggling), thus bringing the Church's missionary system to its collective knees. He doesn't end a plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn't legislate against green Jell-O Casseroles. When Satan truly wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he attempts to confuse gender and he attacks God's plan for His children. He works to drive a wedge of disharmony between a father and a mother. He entices children to be disobedient to their parents. He makes family home evening and family prayer inconvenient. He suggests family scripture study is impractical. That's all it takes, because Satan knows that the surest and most effective way to disrupt the Lord's work is to diminish the effectiveness of the family and the sanctity of the home." Ballard
Soo...make sure you are all doing all that you can to fight back!!!

Much love,

Big Glass Bubble of Air - June 2nd, 2010

2010-06-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

So my companion pretty much summed up the week with this one fantastic comment she made while we were walking past Sri Lankan trinket vendors at the Centrale Station who were trying to convince all the businessmen and world travelers without children that a container of bubbles was exactly the thing they needed for their trips...
She says, in the most sincere and joyous voice possible,
"It is so so nice to see bubbles as we walk through here!"

Honestly, her ability to not think negatively about anyone, not doubt, etc., blows me away daily and reminds me that the purpose of this life is to FIND JOY.

This morning I studied joy and happiness while trying to figure out what to teach an investigator, Miriam, who cries every time we come (sometimes I wish I were an Elder, I'm really just not good with knowing how to react to people crying, and women do it alll too often - more often these past few weeks it seems) and has had a pretty rough life. Basically, the simple conclusion (once again, a conclusion that most normal members of the church figure out without having to spend a year and a half on mission but whatev) I came to is that the only way to real happiness is living the gospel. Go check out 3 Nefi 17:17-18. That population felt JOY more than anyone had every felt before, an incomprehensible joy, when they were in the presence of Jesus. The way we today can come unto Christ and become closer to him is THE GOSPEL. Also read 4 Nefi 1:15-16. Pretty good script about joy. We all rush around trying to find happiness and fulfillment in life through so many different activities and rob ourselves of the things that will give us enduring joy. From what I understand in the scriptures, though, the enduring joys come trough spiritual growth, service, and hard work. I still am going to have to strengthen my testimony of this, though...I'm not going to lie - a day at the beach, a sailing trip around the world etc. still seems ridiculously more appealing to me than hard work.

Although I still have a long way to go to completely having a testimony of this concept, I've been blessed with a lot of experiences this week that have helped me really see the truth of it. For example last week on Pday I was pretty bummed after emailing because of the news about Mason and another letter I received with some un-expected news. Luckily, we had planned to go visit Ana in the middle of our Pday time because it was the only day and time during that week she could see us and we knew she needed the help, since she is trying to stop smoking and her life is simultaneously falling apart in 10 million other ways . So,about two hours after emailing, once we walked out of her house I was completely full of joy again and had 100 percent forgotten about all the bummer news I'd gotten earlier. It honestly was such a release to be able to sit there and just listen to her concerns and really feel like a mouth-piece for the Lord as we gave her advice and encouragement.

Then, of course, it just doubled my joy when Sorella Casa and I left the lesson and went on our hunt for the park of the week - Park Forlannini which ended up being super quiet, calm, green and a perfect place for p-day exploring and relaxing.

We also did Scambi, or exchanges, this week with the Sisters from Bergamo. When we got the news from the District leaders that I was YET AGAIN staying in Milan for exchanges I was probably more bummed than I was after all the bad -mail news. I have heard Bergamo is beaaaautiful. But, of course I found during the quick 24 hour scambi that being in the service of others brings even more happiness than...sit down for this one and save this email cuz I'm probably not ever going to say this again...traveling to new places. The Sister who was with me for Scambi has only been here for 4 weeks and has apparently been having a rough time...apparently her trainer is kind of lazy and isn't helping her much to get over the fears she has of talking to people. Sooo, I had 24 hours to change this Sister's view about the mission and help her learn how to talk people and I honestly was on a high the whole time. It was so fun helping her, encouraging her, seeing her change within hours, etc. Haha, not to mention how awesome it was when the man we were talking to on the metro stood up, took off his jacket to reveal a shiny tight blue shirt, then started demonstrating the belly dancing moves he was learning in his belly dancing class. He proudly claimed to be the only male belly dancer in Milan...I sure hope so!!

I've also seen the joyous fruits of hard work. Heavenly Father works in such a weird way though. We worked really hard and had really "high numbers" this week and had lots of success...but none of the success came from any of the hard work we did. For example, we must have invited about 4 people to baptism this week, trying to arrange to achieve our goal of getting one baptism during the transfer. We set a few baptismal dates but no one really felt prepared to get baptized in the next 3 weeks (before the end of our transfer). But then...Sunday the bishop called us into his office and introduced us to a woman that showed up from El Salvador. She has been going to church for the past 7 years, has had her 2 daughters baptized, has taken the missionary discussions at least 2 times, but could never get baptized because she was living with the father of her children who didn't want to get married. They finally got married last month, then she moved out here to arrange for everything for the rest of the family to move out here, and she wants to get baptized. We said sure. The last week of our transfer we're baptizing her. Good deal, eh? I honestly just feel like people are coming to us these days. Andrea, Sis Prina's cousin, called and asked us if he could come stop by the church and visit us there last night. Then, Louis, another guy we've been having a hard time getting appointments with, but who has been reading the Book of Mormon, called us last night and asked if he can meet with us tonight....

Life is good. Life should be joyous. You all should write to me and share with me the joy in your lives.

Pace.
SLC.

Happy Birthdays, Graduations, Births, and Parents Days to You. - May 12th, 2010

2010-05-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much Pop and Mona for the list of awesome things to do in Milan. I think the key is pretty much exploring the center of town. I love walking down the streets that run in random directions with all the old apartments and unique stores, restaurants, and incredible churches scattered here and there. This morning, in an attempt to find some new shoes for my companion that were affordable, we went to some store called "The used market" that she had looked up in the phone book. Apparently she didn't look up the small print words in the phone book that described the store because it was all just antique house stuff and there definitely weren't any clothes or shoes. Luckily, since the store was near the center of Milan, it was not a waste of time at all since we saw cool things walking along the way. We stopped into one really pretty church that you can google...San Carlo al Lazzaretto. Built in 1488. The store itself was pretty neat too - waaaaay nicer stuff than anything you would find at DI. They take good care of their old things here. Anyway, because of that failed attempt to buy shoes we got to find another place this afternoon. Plus, a member made me promise I would get my companion a "hair makeover" asap...Mom is probably laughing right now at the fact that someone asked me, the girl who never would blow dry her hair for church, to give someone else a hair make-over. Anyway, we are both going to get haircuts today. Moral of the story, I don't know how much time we will end up having today to do and see all those cool places.

We weren't able to go last week to any of them either because the Assistants called us and asked us to meet all the new missionaries at the Duomo and help them do their first 'contacting' there for an hour or so. At first I was really annoyed that they were taking away some of our Pday time...but it was well worth it in the end. My companion and I got there before the rest did, so we were sitting inside the Duomo writing letters. They didn't see us when they walked in. They were all gathered in a big group (there were 5 new sisters and 8 new elders) and not really paying attention to anyone else. I hid my tag under my coat and walked up to the sisters and in Italian said, "Are you Mormons? You aren't allowed to be in here. You really need to leave immediately!" Their faces were classssssic. One Sister was really impressive, though, and actually tried to explain to me that they weren't going to proselyte or talk to anyone inside. I had that same sister with me when we split up into little groups to go talk to people outside the Duomo. She was really confident ìn using the little Italian she knew and we had some great conversations with people. It was refreshing to see her enthusiasm and desire to use everything she has to do the work. Then afterwards we all got gelato...love living in Italy!

Ha, so here is a fun language fact of the week: To say the flavor of gelato you use the word gusto. Like...What gusto do you want? Gusto comes from the verb root gustare which means to please. So technically you are saying what pleasing do you want? Oh, here's another fun one...you know how when we hear someone talking and don't understand we say "Its all Greek to me!" or "It all sounds like gibberish to me." Here they say..."It's all ARABIC to me." Hahaha.

And speaking of Arabs...a man from Cairo (originally Orthodox Christian) is getting baptized next week! He is a friend of Nady, another man from Cairo that got baptized in August. This friend just started coming to church 2 weeks ago with Nady and by the second week told us he wanted to get baptized so the Elders started teaching him. He has a wife an a few kids in Cairo still that he wants to be taught too, so maybe there will be some real Egyptians in the ward in Cairo soon instead of just Ex-pats.

My companion and I had an intersting experience with another family from Cairo this week. So basically whenever you knock on Egyptian's doors they are really friendly and welcoming and will let you in and feed you because Egyptians are awesome and that's how they are. But, we try to clarify at the door before going in whether or not they really have interest in our message. Normally, once we emphasize that we are coming in to talk about Christ, they finally say no. But one family the other night understood clearly and still let us in. We chatted for a bit, shared a summary of the message of the Restoration, then asked if we could say a prayer together. The prayer is kind of crucial because it doesn't really count as a lesson unless we pray. They were all "Yeah, good idea, let's pray together! First we need to prepare ourselves though." You probably already know from all our trips to mosques that they have to wash themselves and cover themselves before praying. We tried to convince them that it wasn't necessary for our prayer, but eventually gave in and agreed to washing ourselves. The woman takes us into the bathroom and shows us how to wash all the different parts of our bodies three times...then she whips off her pants and starts washing herself in the bidea three times too!! ai yai yai...My friends in Egypt never made me do that part. Then she runs to her room and brings out a pile of long robes (galabeyas) and scarves (hijabs) for us to cover ourselves with, plus prayer rugs for the ground. Twenty minutes later after we were "prepared" and the husband had done his style of prayer we were finally able to offer a prayer. They took some pictures of us and promised to send them, but we haven't received them yet....

Shoot, that entire day was just a crazy day. We had done about 9 hours of "finding work" because no one ever wants to make appointments with us on the free days on Saturdays. A bit earlier that day we created a mob at the park...we started talking to one man and 5 minutes later there were 3 other people gathered around arguing about politics involved in the starving children of Africa situation. We also had some guy who answered the door explain to us that we couldn't be the right chuch because we didn't know the real name of God. Normally ths is the first sign that we have foud a Jehovas Witness. This was not the case, though...he continued to explain to us that God is the Sun and the constellations are the apostles. I didn't really get it. My companion was saying crazy funny stuff left and right that day too...my favorite quote was something along the lines of - "I'd like to do that - just sit in the park with a dog. Actually, I used to do that with my guinea pig. She'd eat the grass and I'd just watch for hours. It was so fun."

Well, I wanna see if you guys have written anything else to me in the past 15 minutes since Ive been writing this....So I'll send this and write more later if there is nothing interesting from you to respond to.

Tanto amore-
SLC

NON-TEACHING - May 5th, 2010

2010-05-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

The week:

Last night we had a cancelled meeting with the bishop so we ended up with an extra hour to do door to door. We had picked an "inspired" area as a backup plan last night where we wanted to do casa so off we went, trekking across the city in the POOOURING rain to this area. We got in super easily to the first apartment complex we found...all 3 gates were opened already without us having to talk people into opening them for us. On the second floor we did a super cute family with three little kids opened the door. The dad was all...no, no, thank you, we already found Jesus in our own way and shut the door. Then as we were walking down the stairs the mom pops back out and says "Make yourselves comfortable!" I thought she was being sarcastic and meant like "Hurry up, get out of this apartment building you scoundrels" like most people mean when they pop back out of their doors. But after her saying it about 5 times I realized she was inviting us into her house. This was about to be my dream come true. We chatted for a minute, watched the 'Finding Happiness' video, gave a quick minute tie in to our message about the Restored gospel....then the next 20 minutes they spent trying to convert us to their neo-Catholicism movement.

Maybe its just because that was the last big thing that happened this week, but right now in my mind that kind of sums up the entire week. People trying to convert me instead of me being able to fulfill my calling invite them to come unto Christ by accepting his restored Gospel. A few days ago we sat down to eat in a park because we didn't have time to go home for lunch. A Jehovah Witness came and sat down next to us and for the entire lunch hour chatted away about the proofs of his movement. At the end he said a prayer, asking God to help us find the right way, then thanked us because he knew God was pleased with him for sharing his testimony with others.

A few hours later, we knocked on the door of a man that had seen us sitting in the park getting lectured by the JW. We laughed together about the experience at the door, then I peeked in their house and saw that it was a sewing studio. So, I got his wife to sew my skirt (the one I ripped in the MTC) up again while we shared a message with them. The man was a hard core atheist though, and I probably got two sentences in total. The next day our new member Ludmilla called to see if she could meet with us once more before she moved back to Genova. She spent the first 30 minutes trying to sign me up to join her Xango pyramid scheme (isn't that based out of Utah). She had done a whole astrology based background research on me and decided, based on my birthday and characteristics she had observed, that I would be the perfect partner with her. Nothing I could say to divert the conversation would get her off the topic.

We did have a few appointments with people who weren't hard core anything and trying to convert us. But we didn't really teach in any of those appointments either for one reason or another it seems...
We visited Luciano's (the park friend that died) wife. I tried reading one scripture but she was way too depressed and everything was going straight over her head. So we spent the rest of the lesson just asking questions and trying to show our love for her.

We had lots of lessons with investigators and the members house...mostly all of them turned into story times with the members explaining every detail of their conversion. Marco's story literally lasted 1 hour.

I was frustrated at first by all of these experiences but started reading\researching Christ and his ministry today. It seems like half the time he taught people they were distracted by other things and didn't really listen to what he was saying. And to teach, mostly he just asked people questions. So somehow I guess I just need to work with these opportunities I am given and leave the rest up to the Spirit! Aka, have more Faith. I liked the explanation in the Gospel Doctrines manual that I read about faith which connected it to motivation...It is a principle of Power that motivates our daily activities, It is a strong belief of truth that motivates us to do good. If we have faith and righteous desires, Heavenly Father will work miracles. For example...Heavenly Father revealed the Book of Mormon to us today because he promised he would to others in the past who had righteous desires and asked him to. See D and C 3: 19-20 and Enos 1:16.

Hummm, this e-mail so far kind of makes it seem like it was a bad week, eh? It really was quite the contrary...

Victoria and Rafaella came to church for the first time as well as another guy that we met at the ward picnic who we invited to meet us and come with us. Victoria went to another baptism with us (for another ward)...unfortunately we missed the actual baptism part because I've had a sick stomach for the past 3 days due to the meat I ate at the Ward BBQ. Luckily she has a good sense of humor and wasn't upset about it at all.

I made Christi's Carmelitas.

A friend of the Relief Society president who I was talking to at the picnic and who has been coming to ward parties for years but never has met with the missionaries, invited us over to teach her the lessons. She has two adorable little girls and we started teaching them on Sunday.

Out of time. But...by the way, transfer calls were last night. I'm here in Milan with Casa for another transfer.

Love, Peace, charity, etc.
SLC

TRIPS NOT 1/2 AS EXCITING AS POP'S AND BOBBY'S, BUT..... April 28th, 2010

2010-05-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

Pop - Pretty sure I haven't been to San Diego ever. Tell Mom she'd better do a good job cracking down on the alcohol thiefs so that I can go to San Diego when I get back. I did have a crush on a kid in my 2nd grade class at Dogwood, who moved into our class half way during the year from San Diego, though. Those few months I was genuinely grateful for Mom's Nazi Kuman regime she had made us follow growing up. Because of my superior math skills I was able to go to a special advanced math tutor twice a week with the San Diego kid. Just him, the tutor, me and some worksheets. Basically a second grader's dream.
- There is a big store right down the street from me that is called 'North Sails' or something. They sell super preppy sailing-ish outfits and had a big picture of the Oracle sailboat in their window a few weeks ago. Or maybe that was at the other super preppy sailing-ish store a few streets down. I sometimes get confused with all the super preppy sailing-ish stores here.

Crust - The picture of Rio running on the piano stairs in Penn reminded me of probably one of the coolest things I have seen in Italy yet, but somehow totally forgot to tell you all about! Back around Christmastime there was a set of stairs leading out from the Metro stop right in front of the Duomo that had piano keys painted on them. When you stepped on them, they actually played notes!! Unfortunately there were a million people walking on them at once so it was like the worst 5 chords at the same time that you could imagine. A really cool idea though.
- I am glad that you bring your own bag to the grocery store! Here they make you pay for every grocery bag and I think they need to adopt that everywhere in the States.

Bobby - See the comments I left for Pop. If I never thanked you for Kuman, consider yourself thanked now. If you were thinking of slacking off on your new job, don't. I need to go to San Diego still. I'm jealous you got to go to a Keleman get-together. They are the best! I remember having some super good salad and homemade pizza at the last one. Did you go to Cafe Rio while you were out in Provo? Any news with the Petersons these days? Anything changed in Provo?

So, I was inspired by Mom's and Pop's crazy travel plans that they had described they were going to have in their last e-mails, so I snagged myself a few trips outside of the Milan 2 boundaries again. Immediately after I emailed you last week, we got a phone call from a man named Andrea. He said he had gotten our card from a friend at work who wasn't interested in our message at all but knew that he was trying to learn more about Christ. He told us he would come pick us up from the church on Sunday. He came and got us with his 20 year old daughter after church as he promised...then he drove us about 45 minutes away to his apartment that was for sure not in our Zone, or in any of the Milano Zones for that matter. Whooooooooops. Super interesting guy, though. Within 10 minutes of the car ride we knew way more than I know about a lot of people we have been teaching for weeks. His wife left him 18 years ago and that's when he started "searching for Christ", he has been chaste ever since then, even though many woman at work try to get with him, has taught his daughter, also, the importance of being chaste in order to become "sanctified" of Christ and subsequently she has zero friends, etc. Basically he was SOOO excited about everything we told him, had 10 million questions and was super upset that we could only be at his house for an hour and a half and was begging us by the end to come on a day trip with him and his daughter to Como. Somehwere between teaching him basically all 5 of the missionary lessons, we had one of the best Italian meals ever...7 courses! Three of the courses were dessert. I kind of felt like I was at a 5th grade birthday party with all of the desserts, being peer pressured to eat more. The first dessert was strawberries with whipped cream, and the minute I took my spoon out of the bowl to put some strawberries in my mouth he would dodge in and refill it with whipped cream. Out of control!

After being prepped by him about how to teach the law of chastity we hurried back to our part of Milano after to teach Tito and his girlfriend the law of chastity. We are waiting for his decision now about whether they want to get married or if he wants to move out.... we will see what happens.

Also, last Wednesday after doing e-mail, I was skimming through my planner and remembered that I had Luciano's house phone number. He had given it to me that first day we had met at McDonalds but then got scared and crossed it out in my planner because he didnt want me to call and have his wife answer. But...I was able to figure out what the numbers were and we called the wife and have an appointment with her this week! She lives outside our zone, too, but the President's heart was softened by the news of the loss of Luciano and is letting us visit her a few times to see if she is interested. Of course she will be...her husband is now on the other side working for us!

We also visited Elder Boer's family this week. Out in the outskirts of Milano where there are houses and the mountains can be seen. Since I was back in Milano prez said we could try with them once more and see if they would be interested in meeting with the Elders. Like last time...the meal was great but the lesson not so great. We only had a 5 minute window to do the 15 minute lesson we had planned for them because of crazy, family Saturday schedules. It was as we were walking out the door that I was able to bring up the whole baptism topic...suffice it to say we didnt convince them to start meeting with the Elders there. BUT...yesterday we left the house a little early and saw the dad walking down the street! Aparently he works at a building 2 minutes from our house. Ha. He's totally trapped now1

I read a really good talk in an old Ensign about the importance of laughing. You should look it up. You should also look up the talk that Kristen sent me last week. Hummm, never mind, I cant find where I wrote down the name of that talk that Kristen sent me. Ask her. Anyway, heres a few attempts to get you laughing...
- We were on the metro around the time of day when High School kids are going home. One kid pulled out a "Jesus pen" from his backpack. Another kid grabbed it, stuck it in a bottle of water and was all...." look, Jesus is walking on water!" I only giggled in my head because I didnt know if it was "sacrildge" or not. Use your own judgement before laughing out loud at it.
- We were doing casa and a woman opened her door. I start talking to her. Sorella Casalino is standing a bit behind me where I couldnt really see her then all of a sudden I hear her doing one of those snort laughs that people do when they are trying to hold a laugh back. Then she just full out bursts and stops even trying to hold it back. I quickly wrap up the convo with the woman who wasnt going to let us in anyway then turn to Sorella to figure out what had happened. Turned out nothing at all had happened....yeah. Thats the end of the story.
-Last names in Italy are awesome when translated. As much as I hate citophanos (the little buttons on the outsides of apartment buildings with peoples names that you have to ring in order to get into the whole complex) because we normally spend a lot of time waiting at them and getting shot down through them, I love reading the names on them. Here are a few favorites (translated into Eng) I wrote down from yesterday...Bitter, badwater, little turkey.
- I got stuck in the metro door. It was bound to happen sometime with all of my last ditch efforts to give someone a pass along card after wasting too much time trying to build up to my invite. Taught me a lesson, that's for sure.
- I got proposed to by a Muslim who came to church on Sunday. Maybe next week I'll have time to tell you the whole convo. It was classic.

Alright,
gotta sign off,
L

TITO AND "LESS-ACTIVES" April 21st, 2010

2010-05-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

So there I was in Sacrament meeting, freaking out about where Tito had gone, scanning the room every couple of minutes trying to find him, when all of a sudden Tatiana reaches over and just gives be the biggest hug ever and cuddles her head up to mine. I completely forgot about Tito and just was filled with an overwhelming feeling of love. Tatiana was baptized about a year ago and is a super gentle and ridiculously elegant Russian woman who is living here without her family, and takes care of a really horribly cranky old Italian woman that basically emotionally abuses Tatiana. I had sat down next to her at the beginning of Sacrament meeting because she was chillin' all alone and I couldn't find Tito anywhere. After like 10 minutes she sat up a little bit and said something really sweet like... "Oh, how long has it been that I have been yearning for someone to hold and love. Thank you so much for being here."

Normally after Sacrament meeting I would jump up and spring around the chapel trying to talk to everyone that we needed to make appointments with, get to come with us to appointments, or ask about referrals. This time I just felt to stay and talk with Tatiana and not worry about all that, or about Tito. She started spilling her heart out to me then, and after a few minutes left right when Tito came strolling over. The day before, when I had called and asked him about his Book of Mormon reading, praying, etc. he had said, "Yeah, I have some things I want to talk to you about. Can we talk after church?" Hence my freaking out when I didn't see him after church. When I saw him I just said something lame like, "So, what are your thoughts?" ...the next ten minutes was practically him bearing his testimony! Apparently he had come to church with a bunch of questions and in the first lesson in Priesthood they had addressed them perfectly. He told about how he loves hearing everyone's testimonies at church and hopes that one day he will be able to bear his own. He straight up told me, I want to be baptized when I really feel I have my own testimony...blah, blah, blah...finally I couldn't take it anymore and just said, "Tito! Let's just choose a date! What do you think about May 15?" He said, "I don't really feel righteous enough yet...". I explained that we'd have May 15th as the goal and we could change it if necessary, but we'd work together to prep for that day. He got this big goofy smile, accepted the date, wrote it down really big in his planner, and that was that. Then, I found out that one of the members had invited him over for FHE the next night without us even having to ask them too!!!

In Zone conference this past week we learned about making plans inspired by the spirit and CONSTANTLY being guided by the Spirit so we can EFFECTIVELY accomplish the Lord's work. I swear, every Zone Conference they talk about exactly the concept that I had been pondering during the previous week. Or maybe I just get the message out of it that I am looking to hear. Who knows. Plus, right after Zone Conference I got a package with letters and an old-school BYU devotional talk from Kristen Moore. The talk also spoke exactly about everything we had discussed in the Conference. Anyway, those few hours of church were a good example to me of this concept. Along with like 20 million other experiences we have had this week...

1) I had been debating in my head when to call Andrea, Sister Prina's cousin, for about three days. Finally, at some random odd hour of the morning when we were running to the metro, I decided to just call him. He answered and asked were we were. He happened to be sitting on the metro right then at the stop we were headed towards. So, he got off and waited for us. He said, "That was the weirdest thing, I am never on this metro at this time of day and when you called I was right there and the doors were open." Anyway, we ended up being able to chat for a bit, weasel in a conversation about the plan of salvation we had taught him last week (using some awesome muffins I had made from a Sis. Prina recipe), and invite him to come to the church that night for the first time so he could drop something off for us that we needed.
2) We did a lesson with a member couple who live out in the boonies. The purpose of the lesson was to get them to choose an inspired Zone for where we should do finding work. After they said the prayer asking for where we should go, the husband immediately suggested an area that came to mind and the wife said a bunch of inactive names came to mind. So they walked over to the area with us and took us door to door visiting inactive families. This past week we had been trying to visit less actives by going through a long list we had, but we had always ended up just wasting time because the addresses were incorrect, the people didn't live there anymore, etc. In like 30 minutes we were able to visit and make appointments with a handful of families that really are searching for the strength to come back to church.
3) Last week after e-mail we went to the public garden nearby our house to enjoy the sun and write letters (you should google it, its beautiful!). Normally the park is filled with a bunch of families but for some reason on Wednesday afternoons apparently it is a haven for university age couples. I felt like I was back at BYU again with everyone scattered around us cuddling - except the couples here are a lot better looking, generally. Honestly, every other couple I pass by could be a JCrew model couple. Anyway, besides the point. We had decided to end our relaxing in the park a bit early and get back to work so that we could go to a free planetarium show that night. As we were walking back home some random drunk and homeless woman sitting on the side of the road with a couple of other drunk and homeless friends shouted something at us. So we stopped and talked to her. She whipped out some picture of her son who is or was (not much of what she was saying was very clear) a missionary in Peru. She was standing with him at the airport in the picture. He was wearing the tag, suit, and everything and she seemed normal and well-kept. She didn't have a phone number but we gave her the info for church and bore our testimonies that she could change her life again for the better....we'll see what happens.

Oh jeezz. Internet is almost up again. Here's a few other random quick thoughts from the week...
- Yesterday we went to find Luciano (the old man we first met at McDonalds with the member then continued to meet him and teach him in the park every week) at the park. He had gone on a trip down south and said to come find him in 3 weeks. When we went to the spot where he normally is and asked his friends where he was, one woman bluntly told us without blinking an eye...Oh, Luciano, he died... ?!??!??!??!??! Turned out he had just had a heart failure on the way back to Milan a few days after Easter. I guess he'll be taught by some other missionaries now. In the meantime we got an appointment with his friends to read some scriptures from the BOM about what happens after this life.
- People here in Italy these days seem to be really caught up in a lot of physical evidences of the truth of the Bible that have been revealed these days....if anyone wants to do some research on the following and give me some brief thoughts, I'd appreciate it....the Arc of the Covenant found in Ethiopia, the Sacro Sindole (the sheet that Jesus was supposed to have been wrapped in that they have in Torino right now), Noahs ark in Turkey. etc.
- The planetarium show we went to was hilarious. I'll send you the brochure that describes it.
-my favorite Casalino comment of the week: our work is like an orthodontist's. always just gotta keep calling people and calling people to confirm appointments.
-favorite old Italian man comment of the week: (while we were running on the way to an appointment we were late for...) Girls! You don't have to worry about running! I already won the prize!
- another thing we talked about in Zone Conference in connection with having inspired finding plans, was not to get in ruts. Earlier this week we had some old man shouting at us through his door for 5 minutes after we knocked on it and said who we were. One of the things he said was..."Why don't you go sign yourselves up at the hospital to teach people about Christ who really need him!" We remembered that that was actually one of the ideas listed in Preach My Gospel. So, we did it. Yesterday morning I opened up the white pages and made a bunch of calls to hospitals to see if we could get on the list of people available to offer religious guidance. Didn't work so well. At each hospital I got passed to the office of the priests who are hired to help people at the hospital. They were just thoroughly baffled by who we were and why we thought the people at the hospital would need someone other than them to guide them religiously. Made for some good laughs every time after I finally hung up the phone.
-Luigi and his mom, Brenda and her family, and the Brazilian family are all doing well and reading the book of Mormon!

Anyways, Thank you all for your letters this week! When I got here to do internet I was in a bummed mood because I had forgotten all of the notes Id written down about the amazing experiences this week I wanted to share with you, PLUS my plan for today's Pday to go to Lake Como or Maggiore which are only about 30 mins away had been shot down by the Assistants last night. We aren't allowed to leave Milan. So, I was about to just complain a lot in my email. But then I got an awesome email from Mona talking about all the amazing things there are to do and see here in Milan, plus her testimony that God really has a hand in everything. That reminded me of all my great experiences this week and got me excited again to be living here in Milan, even if I don't see nature ever. If anyone wants to do research for me about where I can find all these things Mona was talking about, or any other sweet things to do, I'd appreciate it...Emperors Palace (maybe that's the castle I went to to do finding work the other week??), where Constantine walked, etc.

Love you all lots and lots and lots.

COMPANIONSHIP UNITY - April 21st, 2010

2010-05-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

I think this can be applied to the family too, eh?

Love you all.
L

Cari Anziani e Sorelle,

I have felt to share the following quote from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland with you all. This is from the devotional address in June 2009 that he gave at the MTC. You will recall that I played this for you in our zone conference last transfer. Those of you with Italian companions, would you please translate it for them if necessary.

Thanks for all you are doing in the Lord's service.

-Presidente Dunaway

Unity is so crucial in this work. If there is disunity or a lack of harmony of any kind or any sort of break between a missionary and his companion, the work is crippled... Now whether we are children playing in the sandbox, teammates in an athletic contest, members of a symphony orchestra, missionary companions, or a husband and a wife in a marriage, we all have seen some form of this principle at work. The Lord has said, “I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine” (D&C 38:27). So that is one definition of “The Divine Companionship” I want you to think about as you prepare to teach by the Spirit. I would ask you to leave this devotional determined to be the best companion—the most “divine” companion—you can be to that elder or that sister or that spouse, regardless of what problems arise and however fatigued or stressed you may feel. Leave tonight promising to take the idea of Christlike attributes literally. If you have not yet learned that it is more important to help someone else succeed than it is to focus on your own success, then please start learning that divine lesson now. It will help you understand the Atonement of Christ, among other great lessons that have come down to us through the dispensations.

THE ELECT - April 14th, 2010

2010-05-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

Last week I was kind of annoyed with my President because he basically told me that park contacting was a waste of time and we should be trying to teach people in their homes. He explained that we would be more likely to find "the elect" this way. To be honest, I don't think I really believed there was such thing as "the elect" or people just waiting for me to knock on their door. From what I had seen, it was up to us as the missionaries to be interesting enough, spiritual enough, ready enough to answer their questions, etc. If all that was in place, then anyone could be converted. Based on this theory, park contacting worked better, especially for Italians, because we had more than the 20 seconds yelling through the closed door to do all of the above and touch people's hearts.

This week I was humbled. There is such thing as "the elect". We did lots of door to door this week, even though it was so hard to walk by all the groups of families chillin' in the parks, walking along the river. We even took the time the night before to pick out exactly what road we wanted to go to. Here are a few of the people we found...

Luigi, a 20 year old Italian, model-esque, semi-professional soccer player living at home with his family while recovering from knee surgery invited us to come back and meet with him and his mom. When his mom, Sylvia learned of the Book of Mormon she was in shock and couldn't believe that she hadn't heard of such thing before. She was really upset that no one at the Catholic church had taught her about it. We told her all of her questions and concerns about life could be answered in it and in faith she continued to ask us about a million questions she has been pondering. We will try to answer them all tomorrow when we go back.

Mirella - a 25 year old Brazilian with the cutest 2 year old boy ever after Rio. She invited us in without hesitation and had her husband, uncle, and cousin at the next 2 lessons.

Brenda - a 30 year old woman who lives in the same complex as her sister and mother so invited them all to come over and meet with us. We only had a 5 minute lesson with them but they all were so excited to set the next appointment with us. Brenda was all "Yeah, two days from now should be perfect. We are going to need that time to reflect about all that you have taught us."

Hamda - An Egyptian Muslim who wandered over to us while we were talking to an old Italian woman through her window. He joined into our conversation and by the end was asking us for a Book of Mormon. We said yeah, wed bring one by that week. He called us the next day to ask us when we were going to be able to bring it. Then he came to church on Sunday to get it and stayed for 2 hours of church.

As I was pondering this new idea of "the elect" and what exactly that means. I have been trying to read all the Ensign articles possible about converts and what converts feel during the finding and teaching process. There are some incredible stories. Mostly what it seems like is that the elect are those whose hearts are not hardened against learning the truth. When they hear the truth and the Spirit testifies of the truth than they readily accept it.

This lead me to start studying the spirit a little more. My favorite phrases I read about the spirit is that it is a "foretaste" of eternal life and a record of heaven. When you put that in perspective using the scripture in D and C 14 that says that eternal life is the greatest of all the greatest gifts of God...that means the spirit is a foretaste of the greatest gift ever!! And we are told that, based on our worthiness we can constantly be tasting of this greatest gift. Then working in the opposite direction...in Galatians 5:22 we read that the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith - meaning that eternal life is all of that times a million. That is what we are working for. That is why we need to keep the commandments and make covenants.

I was also pondering this week about Mom's favorite section from the Harvard lecture where Oaks talked about the 3 fold sources of truth. I read an enlightening paragraph in Jesus the Christ that said something along the lines of...Christ was able to progress and develop during his youth so rapidly because he didn't have the retarding and dragging weight of sin. He loved and obeyed the truth and therefore was set free. This really impressed upon me the importance of being sin free. We cant receive knowledge when we are not cleansed from our sins because the spirit can't be with us to teach us. 2 Nephi 32:3-7 goes along well with this thought.

Hopefully you all find these thoughts as interesting as I do. I feel like they are probably things we are all taught from day one, but some concepts seem to just take a few years till they finally click for me. I am glad that I learned at least these few concepts this week. I was really having a hard time during personal study because our president had assigned us a handful of scriptures from the Bible to read and every time I start getting into a story in the bible I start reminiscing about various vacations we have had to Biblical sites.

Not really anything funny to report from the week. Sorella Casalingo has started talking quite a bit more. She actually probably talks more than me when it is just us two together. We'll just be walking along, then she'll tell some completely random story from her life that is related to nothing, then we walk some more in silence until she thinks of another story. One of my favorite stories was about how the highlight of every week during high school was going to the homeless animal shelter nearby her house where they LET people take the dogs on walks. Mostly it is her giddy smile and light in her eyes that makes the stories awesome.

I'm going to send you some pictures from last p-day. It was her birthday and she wanted to go to the cemetery to celebrate. Her mom had served a mission here in Milan and went to the cemetery and told Sis Casalingo about it so she has been dreaming about it since childhood. I also tried making Sister Prina's bread pudding recipe for her for her bday. Didn't turn out half as good as Prina's, but I tried.

After internet today we are going to go enjoy the sun in the park nearby us and write letters. I basically have the best friends ever and have about 15 letters backed up that I need to respond to, so I'm going to try to get them done while getting some sun.

Love you all,
SLC

WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG - April 7th, 2010

2010-05-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

First things first, then I'll explain the title:

TO DO
- find out when the missionaries PDay is and invite them to come with you all to activities or sites in DC.
- make arrangements necessary to have the family in Napoli for March 26, 2011 (I think i should be done with the mish then?) for Marco and Valentina's wedding ceremony (they have only had the technical state wedding but haven't celebrated it yet or had a ceremony that the church recognizes so that they can go through the temple). They are the new convert couple that we do stuff with all the time...I think I sent a picture of them from Christmas Eve.

GOOD LAUGHS FROM THE WEEK
- when the angry old woman who called us because we had given our phone number to her married husband. It was poor Sister Casalingo who answered the phone and as patiently as possible explained who we were and our intent. The funniest part of the whole situation was that afterward Sister Casa couldn't stop giggling for about 20 minutes and just kept shaking her head and repeating, "I can't believe it, I can't believe that woman thought we were trying to hit on her husband, I just cant believe it."

-best April fools joke anyone has every played on me: we were on the metro on our way to do casa at a specific stop we had previously planned. when we got to that stop the metro stopped for abot a minute, everyone lined up at the doors, then the train just moved on without ever opening the doors. Everyone was getting really upset, a few started to run up to the front of the train to yell at the driver, then one of the passengers standing near us started cracking up and said, "It's April Fools Day!!!"....which in Italian is called "the fish of April." I'm sure that's not why the doors didn't open but it sure helped to lighten every one's mood.

The not so funny part of the story... When we got to the next stop, Sorella Casalingo and I were about to hop on the train going back in the opposite direction so we could go to the stop we had chosen, but then I remembered what one of you had told me last week about the missionaries in Oakton Stake always assuming that if they got lost it was for a purpose. I told Sister Casa about that and so we did casa nearby the stop we had been taken to instead...it was hailing and raining and no one let us in. Maybe someone just needed to see us??? who knows.

FAVORITE PEOPLE OF THE WEEK:
- The Italian flower man (still don't know his name) that owns the fancy flower shop down the street and that I have been inviting to church every week for the past 3 months. This week I tried bribing him with chocolate to come to church. Unfortunately he said he'd just trade me some free flowers for the chocolate instead.
- The old construction worker Italian man that randomly burst out into song as my companion and i walked by with our flowers. It was some song about roses. we invited him to church. he didn't come :(

FAVORITE MOMENT DURING CONFERENCE:
- Tito came to both sessions on Sunday which was awesome! During the Japanese mans talk when he mentioned that the missionaries had told him that he needed to take up the challenge at the end of the book of Mormon and really read daily and pray to know the truth Tito leaned over to me and said as if he had just had some big epiphany "hey, that's what you guys keep telling me!" Afterward the conference he said something to me about how now he understood why i was always so persistent in asking him if he had read in the BOM whenever we called and he really appreciates that we do so.

Alright...so back to the title. Why can't we just all get along instead of it being necessary for us to all accept one religion. This is something that a lot of people have been asking us recently and as someone who likes to study other religions, cultures, etc. it is often difficult for me to answer. There are so many Italians turned atheist, Buddhist, or just have their own theories because they just want peace. And indeed, they do seem more peaceful in a lot of ways than those who are hard core into whatever other religion. On Easter, before we ran off to Conference, my comp and I went to a Multi-religious Easter potluck lunch. We were invited by the Arabic professor that is friends with the BYU Arabic professor who is now the mission president down South. It was mostly a bunch of super open minded Syrian and Moroccan Muslims, a few Jews, a Catholic priest, and a few random other people that were doing there own thing religiously. It was nice to be in an atmosphere where people weren't yelling scripture verses at us to prove to us what "the real name of God is" or "what time of the day Jesus was really crucified."

So I have really been trying to strengthen my testimony of Jesus Christ this week so that I can respond with more ease. I learned a lot about the importance of the atonement. Every time anyone sins they are lead to unhappiness and feelings of guilt and shame. If people aren't feeling good about themselves then there is no way we can all get along as well as we should! It is only through Christ that we can have those feelings taken away. From what I understand, Buddhists believe that overcoming cravings stop us from suffering. It is also through Christ that we can easiest overcome carnal cravings.

Also, it is ONLY through the priesthood authority restored on the earth today that we can feel the joy of having the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The Fift of the Holy Ghost is literally a foretaste of eternal life and a record of heaven. When we get a glimpse of what heaven tastes like we can more fully achieve the goal of just having peace.

Plus, see Mosiah 24:5-7. This population loved each other, were well behaved, etc but they were not taught in the ways of Christ/God. Therefore, when it came to interacting with other populations they were not fair, and they were selfish, mean (sorry, I don't have the scriptures in front of me right now so I don't remember the exact words). Without the grander perspective and deeper understanding that we are all Children of God that need to use Christ's atonement through the teachings of the restored gospel we may be good to those that are similar to us or close to us but won't have the drive to be good to EVERYONE.

Ughh, internet time is never long enough to really describe my thoughts clearly.

Love you all.
Hope you all share the gospel with your friends so that we really can have more peace.

Love,
SLC

Silence is GOLDEN - March 31st, 2010

2010-05-02T07:53:00.000-07:00

This week I have fallen in love with silence and Italians.

I absolutely love serving with Sister Casalingo. We walked for about 30 minutes in silence the other day trying to find an apartment of a member. First we had to walk along a river , cross over a bridge, then through the most beautiful neighborhood ever and I got to just look around and enjoy the beautiful Spring weather, look at the neat old Italian buildings, etc. and not have to worry about entertaining or listening. Then, when someone walked by with their dog, neither of us were distracted and we both knew that we both wanted to talk to her. Being with Sister Casalingo this week has reminded me about the comment that Dave made when the Prez was over at our house to set me apart. He said the companion that he loved serving with the most was the one who he could tell really wanted to be there on the mission and reallly loved doing the work. Sister Casalingo may not talk a lot but she is also ridiculously focused on the work (but in a calm way that doesn't make anything stressful), super humble, and never has wierdo emotional problems that come from thinking too much about yourself. Plus, I asked her the first day if we could speak only in Italian and she has been super dedicated to that and it has helped my Italian so much just in this one week.

The best part is that since she doesn't talk much, when she does talk the things she says are soo so memorable. Both in lessons and just in the apartment. For example...instead of trying to say something enticing when a person opens the door when we are doing casa she just says, "Hi, I'm Sister Casalingo, can I come in for 5 minutes." And when she does invites to people on the metro or park or whatever I can see her working on building up the courage, slowly sneaking out a pass along card, then she pounces,and just says "Hi, I'm Sister Casalingo, I want to invite you to church." At first I thought for sure no one would respond well. But who am I to judge? In the scriptures we learned that anyone with desires to do the work is called to the work. I've found by watching her, that if a person really does have interest, really is being prepared, it doesn't matter how awkwardly we approach them. Well, to some extent...

Anyway, on to why I love Italians. Mostly I love them because I have started talking to them more and more instead of following the normal missionary trend of picking the foreigners to talk to. Also because they do what they say they are going to do and tell you they won't do something if they really don't want to. They really do call you when they are interested. Plus, they are hilarious. I think I am just discovering this recently because I am understanding more of what they are saying these days. Also, they love being in the mountains and being active...automatic bonding points.

A few highlights of awesome Italians I met this week...
- Francesco: A super sporty, young dad at the park with his daughter who had his dog tied up to the sign that said no dogs at the park. Later on in our convo he admitted that he switches sides of the roads whenever he sees the Elders. I died laughing and burst his bubble, explaining that he is not as smooth as he thinks he is and we definitely notice everytime someone tries to dodge us.
- The old crippled man who walked by in the park while we were talking to a woman with a baby and shouted something like "they're the Mormons!" I shouted hi and invited him to come join the chat. We asked him what he knew about us and he rambled on about how kind and well dressed the missionaries that he talked to for 30 seconds like 60 years ago were.
- The woman who swung open her door when we knocked, shouted hello, gave me bacci (the kisses on the cheeks), then took a step back and realized that I was not the person she was expecting...mumbled something like "who are you, no, you like like..." then slammed the door and double locked it.
- Tomas: A short Italian man, in his 50s, standing right in front of me on the bus. I was looking around the bus for someone to talk to and almost missed him. Then I heard him say something like "I'm reading your tag." We had like a 30 second conversation then he had to get off so I gave him a card. He called us a few hours later and asked if he could come to church. The next day he took the hour long trip to get to our church from his house and was early.
- The old men sitting in the park that we talked to about bocci ball, then the church. We said a prayer with them at the end of the "lesson." The one saw me bowing my head and closing my eyes so he asked if he needed to do that. I said sure. Then at the end of the prayer he shouts out to his friend "Pascuale you are such a faker! I saw you with your eyes open!"

Well, as you can see, all is well here in Milan. I have had about 10 million other tender, funny, exciting, humbling, etc. moments this week that I wish I could share with you but the time is too short and I'm sure your attention span also.

Much love,
L

Threesome to Twosome - March 24th, 2010

2010-05-02T07:35:00.000-07:00

Assignment - can someone compile a list for me of where different fruits and veggies should be stored? ie - fridge, bottom pull out drawer of fridge, out on the counter.

Recommended reading - the speech that Oaks gave at Harvard in Feb. of this year. I think you can find it online.

So I had to use most of the email time today snagging pictures from Sister Prina and Simons because we got transfer calls yesterday and they are both leaving :( I normally am completely excited for change and it doesn't upset me at all, but I am super, super sad about this one. I really have enjoyed being in this threesome, especially being with SIster Prina again. We were talking last night and both confessed that we are baffled why we get along so well because we really are completely different in a lot of ways. Anyway, she's off to Como without me. We had plotted in the MTC to serve there together, because that is where there is a whole village of Prinas for us to convert. Simons is going to Bergamo. And what is coming my way will be a HUGE change, especially after being in so many 3 somes. Sister Casalinga, who has been serving in another part of Milan will be my new companion. She is a native Italian (but moved to the states when she was 10) and so speaks Italian perfectly...maybe it'll help me out a bit!

On another note though, here are some highlights of the week...
- On Friday we had a repeat of Tuesday with tons of bidones and lots of time running around from point to point talking to people on the way. (yes Pop, we do call and confirm with people 2 days or one day before, and often a few hours before). We met lots of awesome people though...
A personal favorite was a woman on the street walking her dog with her daughter. She had a bag with music notes on it that we complimented her on. After talking for about 10 minutes we knew that she was a singer of sorts but did not know much more than that. As she was walking away Sister Prina shouts out, "Do you have any concerts coming up in the area that we could go to?" Without looking back or stopping the woman shouts out "yeah, at the Scala..." Sister Prina almost hyperventilated and was so sad that all we knew about the woman was her first name (we had tried to get her phone number but she said she wasn't ready to hear our message. booo.) . Then, A few days later when doing casa for a few hours and not getting in anywhere, the last door we were going to knock on let us in. They were an old Chinese couple with a bunch of ballet pictures everywhere. Turned out they were ballet dancers at the Scala for years. We are going back to them on Saturday.

Also when we were out and about on Friday a woman pushing a stroller does a double take when she sees us, then stops and with a ton of enthusiasm and asks who we are. We explained briefly and she was just so giddy and asked if she can hug us,then continued to thank us a million times for our work. We were completely baffled. More often than not Italian mothers literally run away shaking their heads no at us when we even say salve (hi)...not kidding, we did park contacting the other day and had this happen several times. We never really figured out in the end why she was so excited to see us. She had never heard of our church before, didn't really want to go to our church or meet with us when we explained why our church was different, etc. Oh man, then just a few minutes after this woman had stopped us there was another woman that responded super enthusiastically when i said hello then stopped as if to chat. Turned out she thought I was some Russian friend of her daughter and didn't really want to talk much when she discovered I wasn't. At least we were able to give her a little pamphlet though.

- We went back to Sister Prina's cousins house and this time went MUCH better. There were only 2 of his friends there so it was a much easier crowd to teach.

- In the middle of a lesson with Doris (an El Salvadorian woman who has had a super hard life and does not smile much or ever seem happy), during a pretty crucial spiritual part of the restoration movie, she shouts. I think she is creeped out by Heavenly Father coming down to visit Joseph Smith or something, but then I follow her pointed finger...the floor is COVERED with a white liquid substance. We had bought a container of Soy milk on the way to our appointment with her so we could make a dessert to bring to dinner at Andrea's house and I had punctured the container when scooting back my chair. It was awesome, though, because we all just busted out laughing and it was the first time I had seem her really smile. Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways...

- We had 5 of our investigators in church for all 3 hours which was saweeet. Tito and Luzmilla, Vincenzo (a Bolivian man that we had just taught the night before because he was randomly at the house of someone else we were teaching), and Lilia with her daughter (we met them on the street a few days before and had one appointment with them).

Alright, I'm out of time.

Thanks for all your love and letters and prayers.

Sorella Cozzens

CAN'T THINK OF A GREAT TITLE THIS WEEK

2010-04-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

We rarely have member lessons and\or eat with members but somehow yesterday on scambi we ended up with two (Luckily we actually had a bit of time because we got bidones, or cancellations?, from the other 7 lessons we had planned). We showed up to this woman expecting just to give a brief lesson before running over to a lunch appointment with another member and our hearts sank when we smelled food cooking. I said, "oh, how nice, are you cooking for your husband? He gets to come home for pranzo?" She shakes her head. " Oh...so this is all for us? We really weren't expecting anything. You really don't need to worry about it..." She then launches into a million and 5 stories end on end about how she used to do so much for and with the missionaries but this horrible thing and this other horrible thing and some other horrible thing are happening in her life these days. And she knows that there aren't many Bolivians here and so she decided she needed to run out and buy all the ingredients for this special Bolivian dish. The she continued to fry everything in sight (potatoes, hot dogs, eggs, etc...) while telling us another million tragic stories about her less active children, her non member family members, etc. We then were encouraged to add mayo and ketchup to this heart stopping Bolivian combo. I have developed some really handy food dodging skills here on the mission. I was able to stop her from serving me the 5 scoops she gave my companion then sneak all of the hot dog slices back into the bowl and steal all the veggies from my scambi companion who doesn't like veggies while the member wasn't looking, then pretend like i was using the mayo. In then end I enjoyed a really delicious, hopefully only heart slowing rather than stopping version of this Bolivian surprise and somehow was able to direct her tear jerking, life is hopeless stories to the passage we had planned on in the Book of Mormon.Then we sprinted over to the next member and the games started all over again....

This time it was heaps of boring pasta that I had to escape from and really crude stories mixed with semi apostate theories that we had the challenge of directing towards a conversation and message about following modern day prophets. On the bright side, we came out of the appointment with a whole slew of new ideas on how to use Bideas (I'm not sure how to spell it but am referring to those things that go next to the toilet that spray water as a means of cleaning up instead of using toilet paper) and a big slice of home-made focacia. My scambi companion is going home next week (I seem to always be put with the ones going home, eh?) and had not used a bidet during her whole time here so decided to try it last night at our house...apparently she is not the only missionary who doesn't use Bidets...the faucet spouted out nasty brown water for like a minute.
If any day is a good day to eat as much unhealthy food as we ate though, yesterday was it. We for sure walked it all off going to all of our back to back lined up cancelled appointments. I was so tired at the end of the day that it was kind of a big relief when I realized we had been going in the wrong direction on the bus for 30minutes trying to get to our last appointment of the day and would have to sit for another 40 minutes to get where we needed to go (one of my real companions had taken my map with them on accident). Of course, didn't even matter we were late though cuz...you guessed it, the woman wasn't even home and hadn't been all night and no one knew where she was. booooo.

Also encountered a few people of interest yesterday during all our running around...1) a drunk man sprawled out in the middle of the sidewalk at 12 in the morning 2) two really creative campaign workers who were dressed up in renaissance clothes with a trumpet and one of those announcement scrolls and were going from one metro car to the next giving a hilarious announcement about some big political debate the next day. A few days ago Prina Simons and I used the car hopping technique on the metro for contacting and it was kind of effective but now I see that we could improve our work by leaps and bounds. I will be suggesting a trip to the local renaissance store when I see my companions tonight. 3) Diana. We actually met her a few days ago, not yesterday, but she definitely has a story worth mentioning. Her mom is from Eritrea, her dad from Ethiopia. Because of some political issues and this ethnic background she and her brother were not allowed to stay in either of the countries. So, they fled from the South of Ethiopia, worked their way up through Libya (or maybe it was Algeria) to the ocean, got packed onto some boat and 5 months after their journey started, ended up in Northern Italy. The kicker is that she was pregnant during all that. And now, since she doesn't have a job she has had to give her son to the "soure" or...I guess in English that would be like a monastery, or place where the nuns live so that he can at least get a little food. She is only allowed to visit him once a week and if she doesn't find a job and a way to take care of him herself in the next few months then the Soure will have possession over the kid somehow and he'll have to grow up a priest.

And a few interesting people while doing only 30 minutes of casa...1) A Milanese woman hard core into occult sciences in order to communicate with God or the dead or whoever. 2) An American girl here on a mission for another Christian church who wanted us to go out to a club together later on. ha ha, apparently her mission is a bit different than ours. 3) A 90 year old woman who, well, I'm not even sure how to describe her. She grew up really poor in Rome, had a really rough life, but has some incredible stories and the biggest heart ever.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the other pictures...

Anyway, other highlights from earlier in the week...
We had dinner with one of Sorella Prina's distant cousins and a group of 5 of his other single adult Italian friends. It was the cousin that a few months ago had said that one of his friends had met me on the metro. That friend was at the dinner too. The dinner was super chill and a good time, at least for me. They were all big skiers and travelers. A few had been to Cuba...pretty jealous of that one. We planned a ski trip for a year from now. Then we sat down to have a lesson. Oh jeez, for sure the most awkward lesson ever. Sorella Prina had been stressed about it for days so we had tried really hard to plan a perfect lesson but we had realized at some point during the dinner that what we planned wasn't going to work at all....so we tried to improvise. Didn't work. We were all sooo bummed and just in shock when we got home. Sister Prina said something along the lines of..."Thank you Heavenly Father that we made it through that night" in the prayer when we got home and then I just busted out laughing and we continued all laughing for like 10 minutes straight in order to keep ourselves from crying.

We have a few really promising new investigators. Marcella and Roxanna. A mom and daughter from Peru. The Elders found them doing casa then passed them over to us. We have only taught them 2 times but they have already read a ton in the Book of Mormon and also brought up baptism. Normally we have to force that conversation into lessons...nope, they just rolled right into it. Plus, they already have member friends because I accidentally tricked (does it count as a trick if it was on accident) a member into coming to a lesson with us. There was yet another transportation strike the night of our first lesson with Marcella and Roxanna so I called a member family to ask if they could meet us for the lesson then give us a ride home. Clearly my Italian still is not very good because they had no idea they were doing a lesson with us when they got there. But they were good sports and changed their plans a bit so they could do it. I might use this strategy more often so members have less time for excuse making. My favorite excuse I got this week for why a member couldn't come to a lesson with us was something like "I really am not feeling up for it because my dog died four months ago..."

And in my last few seconds here's a bit of food news for pop - Sorella Simons and I made home-made Eggplant Parmesan a few days ago. Sooo good. Recommend trying it.

Love you all -

SLC

I NEED SOME AIR March 10th, 2010

2010-04-10T18:42:00.000-07:00

That little trip to the countryside last week and beautiful day in the park gave me an insatiable need for fresh air and nature. Last P-day we planned to go to the park after email so Sister Simons and I could go running while Sister Prina wrote letters but by the time we got out of email it was POURING RAIN. It was still a treat, though, because I got to wear sweats outside for a total of 3 hours because we had the intention of doing something physical. Oh man, I almost forgot how much I love sweats. I've decided that when I get back home I want to go hike the entire Appalachian trail. After a year and a half of wearing skirts and being in cities I will probably need 6 months at least of the extreme opposite - only nature and sweats. Then I will be ready to live a more equilibrious lifestyle.

So yeah, we weren't able to go running. Then we had a whole day inside for Zone Conference (which, as always was really enlightening...details to follow), then about 3 or so days mostly inside because Sister Simons was sick. Even when we were stuck inside Sister Prina was up doing the charts for our investigators with me, teaching me how to cook various healthy treats (got another good cookie recipe for you Crust) , making phone calls, giving me private voice lessons, etc. Then we had another day inside for Interviews yesterday. And today....we planned on going back out to Ludmilla's to go hiking for Pday, but then it started snowing last night and hasn't stopped since?!?!? Instead, to satiate my craving for fresh air and movement, I read an article in the Ensign during study that related skiing to some gospel principle and we stopped by a book store for a bit and looked through some books with incredible nature pictures. I was inspired by the Ensign article to be better at making up real life personal examples to teach doctrine principles in lessons. It will be good practice for me and help me get more creative. I read something else in the Ensign the other day talking about how creativity is a Godly attribute (he designed the world, us, etc). Mostly looking back at the week what stands out is all the things I have learned from the Ensigns...
I will spare you all my detailed thoughts, though, and just let you explore most of them yourselves. Here one though...
- There is one article (Putting Families First) about a family that started a "Family Club" instead of doing all the extracurricular activities that were causing them all to go crazy and taking a toll on them individually and as a family unit. The story demonstrated that we can have less stress and more joy when we prepare EVERY NEEDFUL THING versus EVERYTHING. I think I am naturally drawn to the latter of the two and then I end up pushing my companions too much and take a toll on them and their patience. But if I really learned to follow the Spirit to know what the needful things to do are, then no one would be drained and sick at the end of the day, but we will still have been diligent in getting what needs to be done done.

Despite all the indoors time, we have taught a few noteworthy lessons too...
Tito and Ludmilla: We found them our very first week of the transfer doing Porta. Ludmilla was the only one home and just peeked her head out the door. She said no to us like 10 times but we just kept talking to her, asking her about herself, etc and after about 10 minutes she finally opened the door all the way. Being in three is pretty useful...If the door is just cracked opened people can't see all three of us and get curious about the mystery voices. After about 15 minutes we were inside talking about the Book of Mormon. After 20 minutes the guy that she lived with came home and after 25 minutes he had scheduled an appointment for us the next day and said he would be in church that Sunday. He has come to church every Sunday since but has not let us come back to teach a lesson because he only wanted a lesson when Ludmilla was around at the same time...which is never. People work soo so much in this city. Especially foreigners. FINALLY on Monday they called at 5 and said we could come over at 7. So we cancelled our other appointments and made it there. We taught the plan of salvation and...I'm not even sure what else to say. Mostly it was just a miracle that we were able to teach them both. Tito is awesome. From Ecuador, has a long pony tail, always kickin it in sweats, super sincere, looks you right in the eyes when he talks and does exactly what he says he is going to do.

Haha, funny language story for the week happened at this lesson...My tag broke, Ludmilla asked if I wanted some glue (cola) and I said, "No, I'm fine, but maybe some water...".

Neyusa: We found her also a couple weeks ago doing door to door during a time of the day that is normally not super productive because doormen are working and won't let you in, plus no one is really home anyway. She was one of the doormen that we went up to to ask for permission to go in...we ended up talking to her for about 30 minutes about the importance of families. She is from Portugal, married to an Italian, and is pretty much an Ensign style mom with an Ensign decorated house. We have taught her two times since then but leave having learned more from her about mothering than she has learned from us about the church. During my study the morning before teaching her the third time, I was lead to two different scriptures from the BOM that I thought would really relate to her...Mormon 2:23-26, a story of moms and families that loved each other and wanted to protect each other but couldn't because they did not have faith in and the strength of the Lord VS Alma 56:45-48 where the children had been taught to have complete faith in the Lord and succeeded in defending themselves because of it. Then, when we planned our lesson, we decided we shouldn't share that because she really just needed a basic Restoration lesson. Turned out when we got there and got into the convo, though, those scriptures were EXACTLY what she needed.

Sister Malinverno: Her last name is translated Badwinter. She is one of the few Italian members in our ward and invited us over for lunch when she noticed Sister Prina singing during sacrament meeting. This woman is obsessed with Opera (but does not sing at all herself) and the second we walked into her house started pulling out piles and piles of opera cds then for the next hour and a half while we ate an Italian style 7+ course meal and taught our lesson we listened to opera in the background. I actually really, really enjoyed it. Sister Prina is always so calm, super genuine with everyone, really dedicated to speaking the language correctly, and an incredibly clear and engaging teacher. I have felt so much more joy and love and enthusiasm for life just having her around me for the past couple of weeks again.

Well, that's about all I have to say.

Love you all, miss you all, hope someday I will get the package from you all...

Sincerely,
Sorella Cuzz

OUT OF MILAN! April 3rd, 2010

2010-04-10T18:22:00.000-07:00

Pop, you complained about my letters getting boring since I had been in the same city for three weeks in a row. I was not able to get myself promoted to Assistant to the President yet, but I was somehow able to work out two trips outside of Milan. Neither were really on purpose. The first one was pretty close to Lake Como (not to the city of Como, but to the part near the city of Lecco) and at the foothills of the Alps. We have this crazy (but in a really good way) new convert named Ludmilla who was baptized in another city but recently moved into our ward...or so we thought. She has been begging us to come to her house for some native Belarus food and relaxation (she is superduper into health, yoga, massage, etc.) and we finally decided to go the day after her birthday for our 2 hours that we have everyday for lunch and language. She didn't tell us exactly where she lived but told us to go to the train station then call her to find out where we should take the train to. Bad move. We found out that she lives about 45 minutes outside of our zone. Long story short...our Mission President and Ludmilla had a battle, and Ludmilla won. Our good fortune. It was sooo sooo sooo nice to breath fresh air, see a real Italian village, sit in her kitchen with the window open looking out on the mountains, rolling hills, etc. and listening to the stream rush past her house. It is no wonder the people in Milan generally don't think much about God! If they can't see any of his creations ever it would only be natural to forget about him and focus on the things that are constantly surrounding them...clothing stores, money, food, etc. Speaking of food...Ldmilla made some really good potato pancake things that I loved. She said it was a Russian dish. If you want to google this town, the train stop was called Olgiate C.B.

Our second outing this week was to Torino. It was not quite as relaxing as the other. We got a call from the office on Friday saying to go on Monday to pick up Sister Prina's permit. We got up at 4am to get there when the office opened at 9, wait in a giant hall with about 600 other people for 5 hours, then got back home around 7. We had a few really nice experiences, though, while waiting. There was a family from Romania sitting next to me with 2 little kids. The parents were completely ignoring the kids and the kids were super duper intrigued by me writing in my journal, so I started drawing with the kids and entertaining them. In normal life I probably would have been annoyed by them for distracting me...that's the great thing about being a missionary...in the end we are called to love and serve people and there really isn't anything more important that I should be doing. A little later on we talked to this awesome family of gypsies from Yugoslavia that live in a "camp" here. They had about 6 of the mot beautiful children I had ever seen. Haha, one of the little boys was telling me he wanted to be a police man when he grows up and I thought he said he wanted to be a house cleaner so I started telling him about how much I love vacuuming and miss having carpet and asking him about which chores he liked to do most. Lots of confusion during that conversation. Anyway, we shared a little bit of our message with them and left them with the Torino missionaries address. I didn't see too much of Torino...we stopped by one of Sister Prina's favorite chocolate shops and to 2 different train stations and that's about it. To get to one of the train stations, though, we went through the center, older par tof town which was really charming. I think I saw the spot where Pop took the picture when Mom and Pop were there on their mini trip.

On our way back on the train we met my favorite Italians yet. There was a big group of businessmen that work together in the city and during their hour long transit every morning and evening they play a very roudy game of cards on a big piece of cardboard that they set on their laps and bring with them every day. Since we don't get into many houses of Itaians doing door to door (or even have many of them open the door...they prefer to just have conversations yelling through the door) it is always really nice when we have positive interactions with them out and about and get to learn a little more about the culture, etc. In fact, yesterday we had another really nice native Italian experince. Last week after doing email my comps had a very odd craving for McDonalds and were positive they couldn't make it until we got home to eat. So, even though our day time was over, we stopped by McDonalds. I was kind of frustrated, but Heavenly Father, as always, was merciful and taught me another lesson on patience and placed a golden opportunity for work in my path. One of our Italian members was sitting in McDonalds with a group of about 6 friends and had just been talking to them about the church. So, I was able to chat with them while my companions had their "McItalians". Then we had a return appointment set up with this group of retirees yesterday at a park where they all hang out together in the afternoons. If we would have just approached the group and started trying to explain who we were, what we were doing, etc. no way they would have listened to us. But because of the member they were way way more open. Haha, except for Pascuale who is really aethiest and really didn't think there was a need to pray to invite the spirit into our lessons. I had to convince him to let me pray by saying I would just pray for the people in Chile... by the way, I really have no idea what happened in Chile so if anyone wants to update me Id appreciate it.

Remember the girl that was starving herself...we finally had an appointment with her and a friend this week and it went really well. They are meeting with us again but are afraid to talk to tell their parents about it just like our group of underage Filipinos...

OK, I am going to try to send some pictures now so I'll wrap this up and write more after if I have time. I am really sorry if this letter is not understandable...the keyboard is really horrible.

Favorite scriptures of the week: The whole book of Ephesians.

Love you,
Lauren

CARNIVAL WEEK - February 24th 2010

2010-04-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

This week was Carnival week in Milano. Apparently every city in Italy has a different Carnival week or day. From what I understand Carnival is kind of like Halloweeen...or at least that is what the 60 year old woman wearing a bright pink bunny rabbit outfit while riding the metro to go to the hair salon told me. I didn't really see many other people dressed up, though, so maybe she was a bit confused. Either way, she made my day. When are other holidays this year by the way...like Easter? General Conference? Mothers Day?

Here are some other highlights of the week besides talking to the bunny rabbit lady...

Food: Sister Prina's Chocolate Bread Pudding. Instead of stopping at Pastry shops she took to the kitchen this week and whipped up some amazing desserts.

Most touching moment: We didn't see as much success this week doing door to door. One old couple let us in the other night, though. The wife was really reluctant to let us in at first saying that her husband wasn't well, she didn't need anything, she prays already (while holding up a picture of the Madonna situated by her door as proof), etc. Finally we convinced her to let us in and say a prayer with her and her husband. She wasn't kidding - her husband really wasn't well. He had some problem with his chest that made it so he couldn't eat and he was probably like 70 pounds at most. It was really, really sad. We chatted a bit, shared a comforting scripture with them from the Bible, and said a prayer. After the prayer he just had this glow about him and you could really tell he was touched. They didn't really understand anything we tried to explain about he Restoration but at least I really felt like we helped them feel Heavenly Fathers love a little more.

Most entertaining moment: Encounters with Italian men from the South. They are hilarious. I think I already told you about the Man from the South that helped us last week...We were looking for someone but couldn't find their exact address. I had asked him for help but when he couldn't find the address either he said..."Well, this is how we'd do it in the South, then started yellling out the name of this contact while walking up and down the super busy street. Then this week...we were trying to get into an apartment building one morning to do porta porta (tracting) but weren't getting past any doormen. One doorman we got stopped by looked at our tag and immediately said "You won't find any work here Sorellas. We are all Gay, Hebrew, atheist, and murders." We then continued to have the most amusing conversation ever, figured out that the apartment building was mostly photography offices for models and in the end (after setting up an appointment with us and his family for Friday...woohoo!) he advised that we go try working a couple streets down where we could find a few apartment buildings witout doormen and people who eat a little more.

Most disturbing moment: We walked past a man standing outside the gate of an apartment building. I felt like I should go talk to him. So we did. After we inroduced ourselves he jumped right into explaining that he was waiting for some woman he didnt know to let him into the apartment building so they could...make love. He knew he shouldn't but God hadn't been helping him out with any of the things he needed and this was his last resort for finding happiness. We bore testimony of a few gospel truths and then left. I felt bad for getting my companions into the situation but my companions after both said that they had felt like we needed to talk to him too and were glad we did. Sis. Simons said when we walked by the first time she had gotten an image in her mind of him teaching the Young Men's class or something. Who knows what will happen...

Favorite scriptures of the week: We are teaching the commandments (starting with the 10) to the high school philipeano girls so I read the story of Moses and him getting the 10 commandments. Super fun to read, imagining all the places he was in that I have probably been to or at least near. Highly recommend it for the fam and Kristen. Might make you all appreciate more the jaunt I sent you on over to the Siani even though you were all dying at the time.

No more time.
Love you all lots.

Sorella Cozzens.

EMOTIONS AND FOOD - Feburary 17th, 2010

2010-04-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

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

Another Three-some - Feb. 10th, 2010

2010-04-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

So real transfer announcements (as opposed to the transfer announcements that I tend to get in the middle of transfers early in the mornings) were made last night and....drum roll...Sister Prina is coming to join Sister Simons and I here in Milano 2!!! Yeah, I am pretty excited. I screamed for like a minute when the Zone Leader told me. Kind of weird though that I have been in a threesome now for all but 9 weeks of my mission. They say that having a companion is supposed to train you for marriage...what exactly am I being trained for if I always have 2 companions?? I'm trying not to read too much into it...

Anyway, she arrives tomorrow morning. It will be interesting to see how different it is being companions in the field than the mission. I'm excited to have her good eating habits again. Sister Simons and I have been cooking together during this transfer and it has been pretty fun. We went grocery shopping last week right after we had both eaten entire pizzas (sick right? Italians and missionaries think it is normal though. I guess its a little different because the crust is super thin here. Still though, I tried to get someone to share one with me but they all thought I was crazy) and so didn't end up buying much food because we were both about to explode. Thus, we have been forced to be super creative this week. It ended up being the best food I've probably eaten all mission though. My favorite thing we made was a cake with coconut milk, a can of pineapple and the juice, craisins, flour, sugar, a bit of butter...sooo good. We have been trying to cook more with spices and less salt too.

Our attempts in finding this week have been a roller coaster of excitement and disappointment. One day we decided to do street contacting at a big open air market that is open every Saturday morning near our house. In about one hour we were able to set up about six appointments for the following week (this week). Turned out that most of the phone numbers and addresses given to us were fake, (or we can give them the benefit of the doubt and just assume my Italian is still really bad and I didn't write down the phone numbers and addresses correctly...).

On the bright side, though, one evening in one apartment building we were able to get in three times to teach lessons. For those of you who served in South America or somewhere where this is normal...its not normal here. At all. We are lucky if 3 people even open there door rather than just yelling at us through their door to leave. One lesson was to a group of three 40 year old woman who had left there children behind in Russia and Ukraine to come here and work and send back money to support them. It was pretty sad listening to them talk about their children they hadn't seen in years. Same situation, though, with a lot of the foreigners in our ward. Many of them, especially the Philippinos have left little children behind with grandparents. Yay for the plan of salvation eh?! Eternal families anyone?

We have also met a lot of super interesting people this week from doing all of our finding...a Peruvian Ballet dancer that is here for a show at Le Scale (the main opera house), a 98 year old man that helped build some important Duomo (or main cathedral) in Sicily somewhere, a man that has been inactive for about 20 years and isn't even on the ward records (started a conversation with him and his wife by complimenting his Merrel shoes. If he gets reactivated and his wife gets baptized we owe it all to you, Pop, for instilling in your children a love for high-priced outdoors apparel).

Learned a lot in the scriptures this week...since we have not really had many investigators to plan lessons for I have been able to take more time to just read the scriptures and apply them to my life. And your lives...here's a thought I had for Jo, Mom, Cory, and me in a year. Or anyone else who is looking for a job or something to do after graduating. Read 1 Nephi 16:18-32. The spirit can help us provide for our physical needs. And our fathers can help us receive this guidance from the spirit (vs 23-25). Also see the talk "Father and Sons: A remarkable Relationship" by Ballard. In the talk it explains that we must trust our fathers because he loves us and wants the best for us. PLUUUS, key point, he is ENTITLED to receive inspiration on our behalf. But, we must tell him we want him to by asking. This can not only help us but help him because it motivates him to be better (not that you need to be better at all Pop, that was Ballard's thought, not mine. Clearly his dad wasn't as awesome as you are). Before all of this seeking guidance from the spirit, though, we must arm ourselves first so that we are prepared or eligible to find the provisions for our physical needs (ie...study hard for tests, prepare good resumes, etc). See vs 22 I think for that reference. The spirit knows exactly where we need to go to find the right job, education, etc. that will help us provide for our families. If we don't seek the guidance of the spirit ourselves and with our dad's help it will be like searching for something with a blindfold on.

And mom - I did study your new favorite scripture in Mosiah 4:14 but had too many thoughts so I'll send you a written letter hopefully.

Christi - you said it was easier for you to apply the scriptures to real life when you were on a mission. Maybe when you read the scriptures you should do again what you did on the mission and think of someone you know that needs help and try to find a scripture or story that would relate to them. For example people at work, family members, Riv, etc. Then share the scriptures of course.

We've had a bit of snow and rain here the past week but nothing like you all are getting out there in DC. I'm pretty dang jealous. Well, maybe not... Do the missionaries keep working when everything is closed down there or are they shut into their apartments too?

The best funny story I can think of for the week was a lame excuse that someone gave us at the door for why they couldn't listen to us...He answered the door, then after we explained who we were he was like "I'm sooo sorry but I really need to use the bathroom. I cant wait anymore. I really gotta go. OK, bye."

Love you all lots and lots. Can't wait til I get the package with the pics :) Thanks for all of your hard work to get that delivered finally. I was told it was the vitamins that caused the problems this time.

Happy Valentines day!
Sorella C.

2010-02-07T17:56:00.000-08:00

2010-02-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

2010-02-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

2010-02-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

2010-02-07T17:43:00.000-08:00

2010-02-07T17:39:00.000-08:00

CAN'T BEAT THE SYSTEM

2010-02-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

That's the lesson that I am getting out of this package fiasco at least. Not only do we not have any idea where the package is but the package people now have no idea where I am right now either. Or, where I could be in 1 week when we have transfers again...Sunday night I was told that I would be going to Verona for 2 days for exchanges while my companions would stay in Pordenone. Monday morning at 8 am my mission president called me and asked me if I could go to Milan in 4 hours instead. I thought he meant that they had figured out a way for me to get my permit, but I thought wrong. I had to pack up all my bags, trek across town with all of them, then travel alone to Venice (well, Mestre, which is about 5 minutes from Venice) and from Venice to Milano. Hopefully I'll go back to Pordenone sometime so I can actually see Venice on a pday. And now I am back in Milano 2 serving with my first companion again. Her companion went home a bit early and they needed another body here at least until transfers which are in a little less than 2 weeks. I sure am glad I didn't end up spending money on a bike in Pordenone!

I am really, really happy to be here though. And Sister Simons was nearly in tears when she saw me. I think she and I have learnd a lot the past couple weeks of being apart about the importance of appreciating and loving one another and being humble in order to do the Lord's work. We are basically starting from scratch here again and it's a fun adventure.

As for Mom's questions..

Where did you and Crust do yoga? Did you go to a class or just use a video? I try to do yoga at least 1 time a week. All of my companions that I have had have started exercising with me about a week into every transfer. The first few days they just look at me funny (rightfully so, I generally do those exercises from the 30day shred video which are kind of random - not as wierd as the Jane Fonda moves though, at least) and keep doing their stretches. About the 4th day they ask me where I learned all the exercises. And by the end of the week during companionship inventory they ask if they can do them with me. Today for Pday here in Milano all the sisters from the other wards wanted to get together and have me teach a yoga class (I guess my companion mentioned something to them while i was gone)...but then 20 minutes ago they called and asked if we could postpone it until next week and get pizza together instead. My companion and I have gone running together the past two mornings, though, and she seems pretty determined to keep it up. Plus, it is nice to have the wieghts again here in the Milano apartment. In Pordenone I had to make some really ghetto weights with old hot chocolate containers filled with rocks and batteries.

Here in Italy the missionary couples never teach the English classes. Maybe in other countries, though. Did I tell you about the missionary couple in Pordenone? They worked mostly on the American military base nearby, primarily doing reactivation with those working there.

Please forgive me, I did not write down Mosiah 4:14 last week so I did not remember where it was that I was supposed to read and respond to. I will this week.

I wear the black coat you sent me and sometimes my tan one on warmer days. I generally am warm enough if I am not lazy in the moring and put on all necessary 5 layers under my clothes.

In Pordenone I only ate at members homes 2x. Well, one of the members was a very less active. Eating with members in Italy really takes up too much time so we try to avoid it. We really don't get that many invitations anyway, and it is always super large amounts of pasta that they feed us...I am still not sold on pasta despite what everyone said about liking it once I got here and had real Italian pasta. The desserts though here are killers! I told you about the Tiramasu already, I believe, but not about the chocolate ricotta cheese cake concoction that I ate at the other members' house in Pordenone. Oh man, so good. It is nice when members want to feed us but really the thing we need most is for them to come with us to appointments or give us referrals for their friends who we can teach. Or, it would be incredible if members would just drop food, or just desserts, off to us like our ward does back home.

Completely heathy thanks to airborne (or the Italian brand thereof).

We did teach the Congolese family finally...it was incredible! The father wasn't home yet when we got there so we chatted with the mom and the 2 daughters for a bit first. The mom was telling us all about how important it is for her to teach her daughters from the scriptures, the daughters were sharing their favorite stories from the scriptures, and they mentioned that their dad loooved one of the talks that they heard in sacrament meeting and sat them all down when they got home from church and shared his thoughts on the talk. When the dad finally got there he basically taught our lesson. We sang 'I am a Child of God' first then I asked him how God leads and guides us today. Then he literally, point by point, went through the entire first lesson talking about how God loves us all, called prophets to help guide families, sent Jesus to show us the way, people rejected Jesus and killed his apostles, we can know the truth of things today by the Holy Ghost, etc. All we had to do was fill in the story of Joseph Smith, then hand over the Book of Mormon. Heavenly Father really is preparing people to hear the message of the restored gospel.

My hair is not super short but shorter than I expected. She first tried to do layers, then realized that cutting straight hair is way different than cutting her sister's curly hair. so just had to chop off all the layers she attempted and make it straight.

Unfortunately, since I didn't have a camera in Pordenone, I didn't get any pictures with the bike, helmet, skirt combo. Hopefully my comps will send me some eventually. I am attaching some pictures to this email though that Milano companion has on her camera from my last weeks here in Milano last time. The random couple is who we spent Christmas Eve with.

Whew, ok, I think that answers all of Mom's questions...On to the amusing stories of the week:

Prayers are my favorite. Not only am I personally learning how to really use prayer as a real conversation with our Heavenly Father, but I am also learning that there are about 10 million ways that people in this world say prayers. In a first lesson with a family we found doing casa last week in Pordenone, we asked the dad to say an opening prayer for us before we started the lesson. He got this really serious face then stared straight ahead and started talking about God. His wife and kids remained silent with their eyes opened so we did the same. Then he stopped after about a minute and everyone was still silent for about a minute and looking at us. Finally Sorella Barufini jumped in and was all..."So, was that your prayer or were you just talking to us?" Turned out it was the prayer.

Second awesome prayer of the week was during another lesson in Pordenone with a mother and daughter (11 yrs old) from Ghana and their Italian friend who they live with. Actually this entire lesson was classic. I love teaching them. We had been teaching them for about 2 weeks and the daughter always reads the chapters in the Book of Mormon we asked them to read and highlights all over the place. Plus, She watched the Restoration DVD about 5 times before we came for this lesson and recounted the entire story to us when we asked a brief question about it. Probably the best part of the lesson was when we asked her to share one thing she liked from the chapter we left her to read, figuring we could easily tie it into our lesson on the Plan of Salvation...she got really excited and explained that it would be hard for her to choose just one favorite. Finally she choose 3 Nephi 2:4-7. First of all, that was definately not in the chapter we had planned on her reading. Secondly...go read it and tell me how you would have tied it into the plan of salvation.

Anyway, the closing prayer. The young girl asked to say it. She started by trying to thank Heavenly Father for sending us to her house, but she forgot our names. So she stopped, said sorry to Heavenly Father and asked him to wait, looked up and asked us what are names were. Then the Italian woman she live with, who was eating fries drenched in oil and downing a can of beer in the kitchen but still had been participating in the lesson, shouted out that she should just call us the sisters. A couple of sentences further in the prayer, the girl had another question that she turned and asked us. Then her mom got all upset at her and starts yelling in the loving African mother way, "JoAnnA! You don't ask questions during a prayer. Just keep talking to your Heavenly Father! He gets it. Just keep saying the dang thing."

Well, I better write to my President and maybe I'll have some time to write more later. But for now, Adios!

Sorella C.

NEW MISSION BOUNDARIES

2010-02-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

Pray for me that it is Heavenly Father's will that I go to Cinque Terra and Florence!! As of July they will be in my mission!!! wahoooooooo!

Sorella C.

Cari Anziani e Sorelle,

One of the signs that the Church is maturing in a country is a reduction in the number of missions. As the number of stakes increase and as the local leadership matures, the need for large numbers of missionaries and missions is reduced. We have arrived at a point in Italy where the need for three missions is no longer necessary. For this reason, the First Presidency has determined that the number of missions in Italy will be reduced from three to two. On July 1, 2010 the Catania Mission will be disolved and become part of the Rome Mission. The Rome and Milan Mission boundaries will be adjusted so that the Firenze District (which consists of the Toscana region) will become part of the Milan Mission. This change is being announced to all priesthood leaders in Italy this week and will be published in the Church News on February 13.

These changes are a sign of the growth of the Church in this land and will result in the Lord's work moving forward at an even greater pace. This past year, the number of baptisms in Italy has increased significantly. I am confident as each of us does our best to focus on the Lord's work and consecrate all of our efforts in finding, teaching and baptizing, we will see many more miracles. I encourage you to seek the Lord's guidance as to what you can do to continue in our effort to take his work to the next level.

I am grateful for each of you and the dedicated, faithful service you are giving.

Tanti calorosi saluti,
Presidente Dunaway

BIKES AND STRIKES

2010-01-31T05:53:00.000-08:00

Hey hey -

I have great hopes for email writing in the future. Google has taken over my myldsmail email account officially PLUS since Cory sent me a link to his talk which was written on OpenOfficeWriter I was able to download the program. So, I am typing up my email on the program, saving it regularly, then will copy and paste it to the email. Actually, that might not be necessary, eh, because GMail saves emails as we type.

Anyway. Its been an awesome week. A not so awesome morning, though. I woke up at 5:30so that I could exercise and shower before being at the train station at 7 to go to Milan for my permit. All three of us were going to have to go and we had bought our tickets the night before just to be safe (35 euros per person each way! ai yai yai, thanks to everyone who pays tithing!). When we got there, though, we were informed that our train was not coming due to a strike. We were not going to be able to make it to Milan on the next train until 3 (2 hours after my appointment to pick up my permit and 2 hours before the last train would leave from Milan back to Pordenone). So we hung around the train station for another hour trying to get our tickets reimbursed. The mission office is in the process of getting me a new appointment to pick up my permit now.

On the bright side, there are basically 2 things that have made this week awesome. The first being that we are on bikes now. I thought I loved walking. And I thought we looked ridiculous when we were sprinting home at nights with out big bags to get in before 9. But biking with skirts and giant bags just takes everything to a whole new level of excitement. I have seen so much more of the city in the past few days than during the first two weeks on foot...turns out there is a gorgeous river just a few streets away from us and a lake not too far away also. We found the lake a few nights ago while on what turned out to be a wild goose chase looking for an address of an ex-investigator that the elders had commented in the records was “golden”. Unfortunately the Elders did not record the contact information very well and we ended up on the edge of town by this lake where there was a long stretch without any houses nearby and no lights.

I think pop asked about what kind of bike i have...A couple in the ward I had talked to finally gave me their old grandma cruiser bike last Saturday. We were all on our cruisers for the first day, then my companion's bike broke. Luckily I discovered that the apartment actually already had 2 other bikes that my comps just had not wanted us to use because they are men's' mountain bikes (this city just changed over to sisters a few months ago). So Ive been on the men's' mountain bike for the past few days and I am pretty sure my legs are 20x stronger already. I just ride standing up in hopes that everyone doesn't see up my skirt...I'm pretty sure it is a lost cause, though. I normally have on about 20 pairs of spandex and tights, though, so whatever. And yeah, like mom said, in Milan all the old women wore skirts (which were always surprisingly short compared to what old women wear in the US) and rode their bikes too, so no big deal.

The helmets are the most ridiculous part, though. I have started laughing out loud a few times when I look in a window and see my reflection or try to have a serious conversation with my companions while they are decked out with their scarf, hat, helmet, riding a bike with a skirt. Ive been debating about whether or not I should top it all off with my head lamp on my helmet for nights like that described above (where we ended up in the middle of nowhere by the lake).

So, second source of awesomeness for the week – a training session that we did during Interviews this week was about doing 'door to door'. Our zone leaders were explaining that we need to show people that we really believe that they need our message and make sure they understand that we don't just want to stand at their door until they shut it on us. They had us practice being bold, enthusiastic and brief at the door and just stepping in, etc. Not only have we gotten inside homes and given way more lessons this week, but with this mindset door to door has become much more entertaining. People's reactions are priceless. Some pretend to not be confused. We were inside one house last week for about 5 minutes chatting before the woman really asked us who we were and what we were doing. By that time we had already gotten her to gather her whole family to hear our message. Other people are completely baffled and show it. One family (that we ended up finding right after our wild goose chase by the lake,) even after asking a million questions, couldn't figure out how we ended up inside, but we were so confident and acted like it was completely normal and eventually we got them to sit down and listen to a message.

OK, so three sources of awesomeness. We got an entire family of non-members to come to church this week. We hadn't even had a lesson with them yet (and in fact still haven't). They are from the Congo and have 2 daughters in middle school. Speaking of Africans, I LOOOVE their prayers. They are so passionate and interactive when they pray. Those that aren't saying the prayer, but are in the same room always give 'amens' and 'Thank you Jesus' and add little things to the prayer when it is being said. I tried to add something to my companion's prayer this morning, but then I wasn't sure if it was only OK for Africans to do...any thoughts on the topic?

And a few very minor sources of awesomeness...I discovered some Crystal Light hidden in one of our cupboards in the house. Must have been left over from one of the elders from a package from the states. I also found some gum here that is very, very similar to Trident Tropical Twist. The only problem is that gum here loses flavor after 5 minutes. Did you really send candy in my package?!?! What happened to the 'Coalition of Skinny Returned Sister Missionaries'? And FYI, so you don't worry too much because of that fat picture I sent last week, I weighed myself this week and I have lost weight since I left home. Must have just been a odd angle, bad camera, bad lighting, I dunno. Oh, and on the shallow topic of my appearance...my French companion cut my hair this morning because she said I was picking my hair too much. She sounded exactly like Mom... “Sister Cozzens! If I see you picking your hair once more, I'm going to cut it all off!” and then while she was cutting it today....”I better not catch you picking it again (and then she added some analogy to baptism that I would just feel ridiculous sharing because only those of us with the missionary mindset would probably actually think it was funny).”

And of course Scripture Study is always the main source of awesomeness in my weeks...so here is a bit about what I have learned:

In following up with our advice from President Paya to work on increasing our individual Spirituality (which he defined as our relationship with Jesus Christ) so that we can be more effective in building Zion, our President at 'Interviews' asked us all to read the conference talk “To Acquire Spiritual Guidance” by Richard G Scott. In the beginning of the talk he asks a few questions which I brainstormed:

What can you do to enhance your capacity to be led to correct decisions? What are the potential barriers in your life to receiving spiritual guidance? For me, I determined that pride was the number one barrier and I think it is for many of us. The reason why prayer is so important in increasing spirituality is because it humbles us. It makes us admit to the fact that everything we have is because of God's and Christ's mercy and everything we need we can only get by their help. (quote from the talk – "as you pray with all the fervor of your soul and with humility and gratitude, you can learn to be consistently guided by the Holy Spirit in all aspects of your life"). Pride is generally what leads to contention with my companions which keeps me from feeling the guidance of the spirit. And Contention in turn keeps me from feeling the joy that can be felt by doing this great work. (Some awesome scriptures on the importance of not having contention – 3 Nephi 18:34, Alma 31:5). When we are not feeling joy we need to do a self check - see Alma 5:26-20. If we really are humble we can always feel the joy that comes from God's love. Oh man, I have a million more good scriptures to share on the topic but I have probably confused you all already and this thought is probably more for me than any of you. So, I'll just summarize...be humble! And be patient with others as they are trying to learn humility!

Love you all so much.

Thanks for the letters.
Write more.
Help the missionaries more.
Read the Scriptures more.
And send more pictures.

Sorella C.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS?

2010-01-31T05:38:00.000-08:00

Hopefully you all buy into that saying because I now don't have very much time to write due to the time wasted waiting for slow public computers to load pictures (have I sent one email yet without complaining about computers or Internet? Maybe I'll make it a goal next week to not do that).

I know I should bear my testimony and uplift you all spiritually in every letter, etc., and I have learned a lot this week in the scriptures, but I really just want to share my funny stories...maybe look back to past letters if you have forgotten that I have a testimony that God is our loving Heavenly Father, Jesus is the Christ, Christ's Church has been restored through Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and we have a living prophet today whose name is Thomas S. Monson (although two times now in lessons I have said Hinckley on accident).

Remember that man that ran away from me to chase down his train? And remember how ridiculously awkward it was when I looked up and saw all the people on the train staring at me. Well, a few days ago a woman sprinted away from us...and she was not trying to catch a bus or train...and it was right in front of our apartment with all of the store keepers and everyone that knows and sees us everyday watching. All I had said was something like, "Hello, we are disciples of Christ and have a message to share with you that comes from your Heavenly Father. I see that you are in a hurry but can we walk with you..." And off she went...

We did "door to door" on accident this week at 2 more offices and a fire station. The buildings really are tricky here.

Other highlights and notes of interest of the week:
I ate the best Tiramisu ever.
My companion has noticed my lazy eye wandering 3 times in the past two days...I thought I had grown out of that.

OK, there is time for a spiritual thought:
All of my companions here so far have been super good examples of not saying repetitive prayers and really taking time out of the day to say really good, well thought out prayers. I realized that I am probably missing out on a lot of divine help by having weak prayers, so I have started doing what we do with some investigators who have never said anything besides a memorized prayer before...make an outline of things to pray for. I literally kneel down with a page of 'Preach My Gospel' open (it is in the following the spirit section) and go through the nearly 2 page list, thinking of specifics, while praying. It is exhausting. I am finally starting to understand, to a small extent, what it means to pray with all your heart, might, mind and strength. I highly recommend looking up that page in 'Preach My Gospel' and giving it a go.

Love you all,
S.C.

PORDENONE!

2010-01-08T15:01:00.000-08:00

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.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! and on the road again....

2010-01-02T04:27:00.000-08:00

On the balcony of Lauren's apartment in Milan
Surpise of the week: I AM GETTING TRANSFERRED ALREADY!?!?! The zone leader called last night for transfer updates. He calls everyone, though, whether they are being transferred or not. He asked to talk to me first. We thought he was just joking because obviously I wouldn't be transferred after six weeks into the mission. That never happens (or so they say). But nope, I'm off to Pordenone - six hours away by train, opposite side of the country, smaller city where I will be riding a bike and I'll be in a threesome.

I may have complained a little bit about how the work was going here in Milan initially, but I have honestly had the best past two weeks and am really pretty bummed to be leaving right in the middle of the momentum that I feel like my companion and I have just got going. BUT, I lucked out big time and at least don't have to leave tomorrow when transfers are supposed to happen. I have to be in Milan next Monday to pick up my permit to live in Italy, so my President is letting me just stick around until next Wednesday and drive to Pordenenoe then with him and a member of the Seventy who will be here for Zone conferences. SAWEEEET!!! And this means that I get to be here for the six or seven new investigator lessons that we have lined up for the next four days. I am so thrilled. I feel like my companion and I finally figured out how to free the work up from the waste of time traditions that had been set here, and subsequently have had so many blessings the past week and a half. We have taught the first lesson five times in the past eight or nine days, whereas my first four weeks we didn't teach any first lessons. I LOOOVE sharing the story of Joseph Smith.

Probably my favorite experience this past week with sharing the Restoration lesson happened three nights ago. My companion and I had received a phone call from a lady who said she had met us on the metro about a month ago and we had left her with a pass-along card. She said that she was out of the city and that her mom had just been admitted to the hospital. She also explained that her sister is still around the city and would be visiting her mom in the hospital, but she was worried about this sister because she had already lost a son this year. This woman was practically begging us to go visit her mom and sister at the hospital and share our message. So we did. We showed up and there were actually several relatives visiting the sick mom. She was really agitated so the nurses asked us all to go sit in the waiting room...where there were two other families waiting. About five minutes into the conversation in the waiting room, we were able to bear our testimonies about the Plan of Salvation and Eternal Families. At this point the other two families started talking to us. Twenty minutes into us sitting there and chatting we were given the perfect opportunity to explain the Restoration. And for the next 30 minutes all three families gathered in the waiting room were asking us genuine questions, explaining what we were saying to one another, passing the Book of Mormon around, reading through the introduction, etc. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!

On another note, a few days ago I started writing in my journal a list of random observations from Milan that I don't want to forget. I am sure glad I wrote them down now that I know I am leaving! As a little tribute to this city before I head out, I'll share a few with you all...

1) It is not normal to greet strangers in Milan. Every time I say "Hi" or "Good Morning" to a random person on the street who is Italian and over 30 yrs old they give me a head nod, trying not to show how completely baffled they are, take approximately six steps, then completely stop and stare for at least 30 seconds. I love catching them doing that and often go back and talk to them which confuses them even more.

2) Shopping bags from name brand stores make you cool. I initially thought everyone was just constantly shopping at those stores, but that is not the case. They just save bags from a select few name brand stores like they are gold and re-use them continually.

3) It is taboo to have a dog bigger than 15 pounds. Even more taboo is having a dog but not putting a jacket or sweater on the dog.

4) There is no limit to what you can put in a vending maching in Milan. Just in metro stations I have seen a special vending machine for books, another for freshly squeezed orange juice (squeezed in front of your eyes inside the machine), another for toy cars, one for mini travel toiletries....the sky is the limit.

5) You can see the Alps from one spot inside the city!! I found this spot by chance on Christmas Eve when wandering from one side of the city to another caroling to members and asking for referrals. I hope to return often to that blessed spot.

6) All Milanese women over the age of 40 here must have a brown or tan fur coat.

There are more, but I don't have time and you are likely bored already...

Awkward moment of the week: I was getting bored of all the conversations starters I was using one day and so tried a new one while walking next to a lady with a crazy, huge fur hat. I asked her if the hat had fur on the inside too. She said "no". I kept trying to pry and start a convo off of this silly hat. She just power walked away. Maybe that doesn't sound very awkward, but trust me it was. I made my companion turn on a street earlier than we wanted to just to escape.

Pop - I talked about Oracle twice yesterday. Once was with a man who worked for SAP that I met on the tram. I told him my dad worked for Oracle, but I liked SAP's advertising much better. He didn't believe that I knew what I was talking about so I further explained the comparison of Oracle's boring posters at the Frankfurt airport and SAP's posters with good pictures. He was pleased and said he'd pass the word along to his marketing crew. Then I demonstrated our advertising methods as missionaries by giving him a Book of Mormon pass-along card.

Ai yai yai, so much more to say, so little time.

I love you all so much. Don't ever hesitate to share your testimonies with each other or with friends. I know that the knowledge of the restored gospel is what can bring happiness to everyone, no matter what age, background, economic level, whatever. We all need the atonement.

Love you lots,
Sorella Cozzens

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

2009-12-18T11:43:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-18T08:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-11T19:14:00.002-08:00

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

2009-12-11T19:14:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-11T16:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

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

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

2009-11-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

Lauren with her first companion, mission president and his wife

Well, it's been a roller coaster of a week. To start it off, we had a really odd TRC teaching experience last Monday. In both lessons we taught (both Sister Miller's lesson and my lesson) we had a guy who is schizophrenic. In our first lesson he told stories about his life the entire time (for example, about going to the doctor that day to pick up his meds for his schizophrenia) and we had no idea what to do. We couldn't figure out how to insert any parts of the lesson we were supposed to give him and we literally just sat there the entire time listening. The second lesson there were two other people with him and so things went a little better. We just left the TRC baffled as to what had just happened.

Tuesday was an awesome day though. Sis Miller, Prina and I went to the Temple early to eat at the cafeteria there. It was soooo nice to have a change of food. Ive been eating Grapenuts with bananas 2X a day for the past week because I'm so bored of all the other food here. Then we had a great session in the temple and sat in the celestial room for quite a while. Last time in the temple for 16 months. I don't think I ever told you that sister Prina is half Italian so we have been doing sessions for her Italian family names that her mom prepared the entire time here. That has been a neat experience.

Tuesday night was equally awesome. I already told you about the temples fireside. Our bishop told us some more information this Sunday about the temple. Somehow he got a picture of the design of the temple and was going to bring it in to show it to us but his wife convinced him otherwise because apparently he wasn't really supposed to. But he said the church is spending more money on the Rome temple than any one thus far.

Wednesday night Sister Prina and I had a very encouraging experience. Our teacher had signed us up to teach a lesson to one of the other Italian teachers and had forgot to tell us until that day. And he wanted us to teach the 3rd lesson, which we hadn't taught before (for some reason they only focus on the first 2 lessons here, even though there are 5). But we did it. And it was incredible!! Words were just coming out smoothly, the lesson flowed into the things he was telling us about his life, the guy committed to baptism at the end, and both my teacher (who was in the lesson with us pretending to be an investigator) and the teacher we were teaching were literally tearing up in the end and said that it was for sure the most powerful lesson they had been taught in the MTC before and reminded them soo much of so many real experiences they had in the field. Sis Prina and I just walked out of the lesson shocked at their reaction. We hadn't necessarily felt different but looking back realized it had gone pretty smoothly. Shock seems to be the key word of this week.

Thursday we got all the elders that are leaving with us today together to practice singing "All Creatures of Our God and King"(their choice) in Italian, with all the voice parts, for Sacrament meeting. ( I was unofficially called to be the music coordinator in the ward a few weeks ago.) The hour long practice was a disaster. One Elder refused to sing, a few couldn't read music, etc. We practiced again on Saturday and got a little closer to performable. On Sunday, we got yet another shock. Our ward of about 15 ish Italian missionaries grew to about 70 people. There are a ton of missionaries here that are supposed to be in the Brazil MTC but are having a difficult time getting visas. So, they stuck a bunch of them in our ward, reorganized our presidency, and changed us to an English speaking branch. We still performed our song in Italian, though, and I was about to cry when I heard the Elders start singing. They were singing So loud (in a good way) and confidently and trying so hard to get all the notes of their parts. When I looked down at Sister Miller during Sis. Prina's and my part she was crying and then I got all choked up and just hummed along to my alto part for a line because I couldn't concentrate on the words. Then we had INCREDIBLE talks. We got 2 new counselors in the presidency so they and their wives all bore their testimonies. One of the couples just got back from a mission a few weeks ago. They were in...CAIRO EGYPT!!! Do you remember meeting the Lindsey's at the ward??? I knew them all summer long. It was sooo great to sit and talk to them a bit about Egypt.
Sunday's fireside was also Wonderful. Sheri Dew came. She is such a comfortable, confident, powerful speaker. I wish I could tell you everything she said but I only have 4 mins left. So one line I liked was..."Sometimes we act as though we are going to stay here (on earth) but we can't and we won't so we need to stop acting like it."

Then yesterday...my companion found out she has to stay at the MTC for 2 more weeks. She had resolved all the other medical problems she has been working with while at the MTC but 2 days ago she got a new problem where she can't swallow properly. So finally we went to the doctor yesterday, then the Stake president, then the doctor again, etc. and the decision was that she has to stay. We are both still kind of in shock. All the Elders are flying a different way since they are going to Rome, so I'm just gonna be kickin it in the airports for the next 24 hours without any other missionaries. I'm not really worried at all, it's just gonna be weird wearing a tag in public but not having a companion.

Well, I love you all. I'm so pumped to be off to Italy in an hour!
L

Sorella Cozzens arrived, by herself, in Milan today. Her mission president's wife, Sorella Dunaway, called to give us the news and to tell us that upon arrival, Lauren was sent straight out to the Milan Duomo to search out someone to give a Book of Mormon to. Her first area will be the Milan 2nd Ward. The following is an email from Sorella Dunaway:

Sister Cozzens,
Your daughter's address will be:

Via Pisacane 47/15
20159 MI, Italia

Often, if the name on the mailbox is not the same as that of the package (and it won't be), the post office may or may not deliver a notice that a package has arrived. It is much safer to have packages delivered to the office.
Via Gramsci 13/4
20090 Opera, MI
Italia

We will be seeing your daughter and delivering mail from the office on Nov. 26 for zone conference, (Thanksgiving is not a holiday here) and Dec. 16 for interviews.

Sorella Dunaway, Italy, Milan

Lauren's P-Day is Wednesday.

SO JEALOUS THAT YOU WENT TO ITALY!

2009-11-04T15:07:00.000-08:00

I honestly can't wait to go. Only 2 more weeks!!

Thank you for the package Cory!! And for your efforts as the president of the Coalition For Skinny Return Sister Missionaries. Luckily the moms of both of my companions seem to be members of the Coalition, so I have had good influences and think that so far, there is hope for me.

Thanks for the news about baptisms in the Milan mission, Mom! We have had so many lessons here in our zone about fearing not and ignoring rumors that we have heard from people about Italy going to be a hard mission where we won't teach anyone. I actually never believed that or was worried about it, so the teachers always bringing up that such rumors exist make me more worried than I would have been in the first place. We had a Zone Conference this past week and that was the main goal - to dispel fear that is put in our mind by Satan. I guess I owe you a big thanks, Mom, for making all us kids believe we can do anything and not really fearing anything ahead of us. There must be some other way that Satan is trying to get to me though...guess I better figure out what that is. There was one quote that they shared during the Zone Conference that I really did love, though, and that motivated me. Eyring has said that,"When you find out who you are, you will be sorry you didn't try harder." We all have sooo much potential as children of God, we just need to trust that we do. Also, someone mentioned that when we are making goals we need to not think about what we by ourselves can do, but what WE AND THE LORD can do together.

It was especially neat to hear that you saw they were baptizing Arabs in our mission. Mona just wrote me a letter and shared some awesome news about the church in the Middle East. Apparently Lebanon and Jordan were dedicated last week for preaching the gospel by Elder Holland, and the first district of the church was organized in Iraq. As excited as I am for all of this happening, I'm not sure I'll be much use for teaching Arabs anymore...yesterday in the TRC I told the lady we were teaching that I was studying Arabic before the mission and she asked me to say something to her. Honestly, the only thing I could sputter out was, "My name is Lauren and I am from Virginia," in Arabic. No matter how hard I thought, nothing was coming to mind. It was pathetic.

We have had some really great mission wide meetings this past week. Elder Perry spoke at the devotional last Tuesday. They never tell us who is speaking at the fireside in advance. When he walked in,though, as I am sure all of you have experienced before when in the presence of an Apostle, the spirit just overtook me. We always sing hymns for the 15 minutes before any entire mission meeting starts but I litereally couldn't sing because my heart was pounding so hard from the Spirit. I am sad to say that I didn't get a ton out of his talk because I was dozing in and out. I'm not sure why I was so tired that night...maybe that's how Satan is working on me!! The main thing that I liked was that he talked about praying for specific things...such as retentive powers to be able to remember the things that we have learned. I've definitely gotten better at praying for specifics since I have been here at the MTC. Although I don't have a huge pool of vocab to use (since we always say our prayers in Italian), I try really hard to make every single one of my 20+ prayers a day different and it has made a HUUUUge difference.

Oh man, there are so many thoughts from this past Sunday's mission conference that I want to share with you too, but there just isn't enough time! Maybe I'll hand write a letter. We have had some really great firesides, devotionals this week!

SEND LETTERS PLEASE!

2009-11-01T04:30:00.000-08:00

Well, I am back to bad luck in the e-mailing room. The printer was down so I just spent the past 15 minutes reading your e-mails. It is times like these that I wish I had typing skills like Christi. I don't know if I can type fast enough to fit in everything that I want to say about the week.

Good thing there are a bunch of e-mails here from you guys, though, since I didn't hear from you via Dear-Elder at all this week. Yesterday at the TRC, during the part where we were supposed to try to get to know the investigator, they asked us how our families were doing and I expressed my annoyance that I didn't know how they were doing because I hadn't heard from them in A WEEK! Speaking of letters though... I got a letter from Anne Collins today with an awesome picture from Lucy. If you see her, thank her for me! And have Rio start drawing me some pictures.

First of all...glad to hear you made it to Italy Mom and Pop!! Is it freezing there this time of year? If you see any black shoes while wandering around there...feel free to buy them for me:)

One of our sisters left for Italy yesterday morning. She was the one that was in a class etc. by herself. As crazy as she drove us all when she first became our companion, turns out we really grew to love and appreciate her and genuinely miss her now. It was really quiet and awkward getting ready in the morning today without her off the wall and repeated daily comments like, "Oh, I just think I'll go like this today" when she was wasn't dressed, or her talking to inanimate objects that she was using to get ready, or asking us if we had eaten various objects that she couldn't find. I tried taking over and repeating some of the classic lines but it just didn't have the same effect, unfortunately.

We are getting 4 new sisters tomorrow, though, that will be in our Italian Zone! And our zone has been asked to be "hosts" for the new missionaries tomorrow...so we will be the people that stand at the side of the road and pull bags out of the cars for the missionaries while waving their families on who are trying to say last minute goodbyes.

We also had a new girl move into our room yesterday who is from Japan. She is awesome! She speaks some English but seems to get confused between when she is speaking English and when she is speaking Japanese. She gets really excited sometimes and starts making crazy noises thinking that we understand what she is saying. It is awesome to say the least. She is probably on my top 5 favorite people at the MTC list. Have I told you about Brother Clegg? He is my absolute favorite. He is in the presidency here at the MTC. I went up to talk to him during the first week because he was a mission president in Milan and we have basically been best friends ever since. Every time we walk by his office he makes us come in and listen to a bunch of hilarious stories about being in Milan. He is so un-like anyone else here...he gives us giant hand shakes even though there are big signs on the doors saying we aren't allowed to. Plus he gives us chocolate covered nuts.

LIFE IN THE MTC

2009-10-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

As for life at the MTC...it's actually been a pretty exciting week. Exciting in the sense of things not being routine and boring because of very odd circumstances. My companion has some health problems that she is always having to deal with. Apparently her problems got worse this week and she has been having really bad headaches. She doesn't like conventional medicine, though, and has a bunch of specialists she has to work with. So, we spent about 3 of our mornings wandering around from the health center to the front office to meetings with our branch president, etc. trying to get permission for her to go see them. It was a glorious day when we finally convinced them to give her a "phone permission slip" yesterday so she could call her mom and have her mom figure out things with her specialists.

We also had a new sister randomly show up on Friday. She was supposed to arrive six weeks ago but thought she was going to marry a guy she had been dating out here at BYU. So she moved out to DC for a month or so and postponed her mission. Obviously she didn't get married because she is here now. But everything is really confusing because now we have 2 "single sisters" who my companion and I have to coordinate with and teach at the TRC with. It is really neat to be able to teach twice in the TRC though. And I am super glad the new sister is here because she is pretty athletic and will run and stuff with me during gym. She is also really laid back and funny...reminds me a lot of Kristen.

As for spiritual experiences here...we went to the Referral Center for the first time last Wednesday. I started by making call backs (calling people to make sure that they received their free videos they had asked for etc., then trying to invite them to have the missionaries over). After a few answering machines, an older gentleman from the heart of Detroit answered and I had an AWESOME discussion with him. He had gotten one of our videos to "learn more about Christ" but didn't think he had learned much from our video. So I told him about the Book of Mormon and how it had a lot more information about Christ. He was excited until I told him the missionaries had to bring it over and I couldn't just mail it to him. He was super worried about that and asked if maybe just one missionary could come. He explained he lives in a rough neighborhood and doesn't trust people coming into his house. If only one of them was there he could probably "take him on" if anything happened, but two was dangerous. Somehow from that I was able to take the conversation to modern day prophets, the priesthood and revelation restored to the earth, etc, and by the end of the conversation he was all pumped to meet with the missionaries and invite 10or so of his neighbors. Then, at the end of the conversation he wanted me to pray with him. So we said a prayer together (literally together, after almost everything I said he had a comment like..."oh yeah", "good idea", "I need lots of peace in my life - can we ask for more of that?") Then I called him the next day and talked to him again. The last time I called, though, he didn't answer, so hopefully the missionaries will take the reigns and get in touch with him!!

On Sunday we had a devotional which brought a big realization. He was mostly talking about why we shouldn't be depressed and hate the MTC - which I don't at all -so I was kind of getting bored. But then the speaker called my row of the bleachers to come up to the mike and say what the biggest sacrifice we had made to come on a mission was. The only two things I could think of were time with my family and flying benefits. Really, nothing else has really seemed like a sacrifice. I have it so easy and am getting so much more out of this experience than I was required to put in. I know I am so lucky to be here and really appreciate all of your love, support, and advice in the process of me making this decision to come on a mission. I definitely would have regretted it if I hadn't.

Mom- as for suggestions of what to read...get yourself a "Preach My Gospel" and work your way through the lessons. Look up the scriptures, etc. One of my favorite sections I have read this week was 3rd Nephi 17, focusing on how much our Heavenly Father loves ALL of us and wants to heal everyone! Also, read the bible dictionary explanation of prayer.