off the rock

Yo yo yo. Goodmorning to all my most favortist people ever. I took my flight off the rock of the island Sardegna  and I am now here in Pescara.   

I LOVE THIS PLACE. ♡♡♡ It is full of beauty and joy and everything awesome and beautiful. My companion is a runner and i AM NOT A RUNNER.  So we made a deal to go running 3 times a week, but the destination is worth it. We live about a mile from the beach so, I get to run there 3 times a week. CHE BELLEZZA!!!!! 

Just a couple of days after i got here we had to head to Rome for MISSION CONFERENCE!!!! I got to see all of my absolutely lovely friends from the mission, my whole district from the mtc, and THE AZ homie Anziano brimhall. 

We had the honor of hearing from Elder Nielson from the Presidency of the 70. (I think its presidency but i could be totally wrong. Vabbe)It was so uplifting and edifying. It was one of the first conferences where I actually didn't get a headache or get tired of sitting for billions of hours. 

It was focused on the redeeming and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Something I loved was that he talked about the importance of our trials. As missionaries we are asked almost every day "if there is a God, why would he let all these bad things happen to good people?" 

We discussed the importance of Christs Atonement in all of that. Without these trials, what is the point of Jesus christ's atonement? In John ch. 9 it talks about through trials the works of God may be manifest. So basically people, if we don't have these sucky things happen in our life, these heavy heavy burdens that we just feel as though we can not bear WE COULD NOT ENJOY THE BEAUTY OF OUR SAVIORS PERFECT INFINITE ATONEMENT. becuase guess what, we have the honor in being included in that "yoke" with our savior Jesus christ. He is standing right there next to us helping us pull. And lucky for us that man is STRONG and no load is too big for him. Gosh i just love the atonement. Its awesome. 

Anyways Spero che stiate bene. Go study the atonement of Jesus christ bc yall should be using that every single day of your life. And if not, yelp, I'm sorry to tell you but your life's gonna be pretty gosh dang hard. 

OKAY CIAO ALLA PROSSIMA 

Le foto

View of Pescara

Mtc group

Nother view of Pescara

Me walking in Pescara

ANZIANO BRIMHALL

Cutie comp and I. 

BIG OL FISH 🐟 🎣

Ciao a tutti!! 

I'm currently packing up everything i own into 2 suitcases because im being transfered to Pescara. Basically im leaving my island to live my dream of being a fisherwoman and catch some big ol fish in my new area.

 Pescare - means to fish, therefore

 Pescara = im going fishin 

Im a little bervous but also excited for a little change. 

Thank you to every who wished me a happy birthday. It was nothing too crazy but was overall a good day. Thank you to my mother who birthed me. I LOVE MY MOTHER. Everybody go hug your mom right now because i cant. That's my birthday wish. So now you have to go do it. 

I am going to miss my dearest companion sorella gugler. Even though were almost the same age in the mission shes taught me so much. I learned how to be a better missionary from her everyday. I learned how to find joy in the little things from her everyday. I learned how to laugh through all the times members yelled at us, lessons getting cancelled, doors getting slammed in our faces, and people posessed with devils look at us and tell us they hate christ. I love you sorella gugler. Thank you for being an example to me. See you next tuesday.  

MIRACLES UPON MIRACLES. boy did i see gods hand in my life recently. Honestly I've been a little emotianally weak these last 2 transfers. Honestly the hardest time of my whole mission. I came home every day and just dropped to my knees in prayer because i just felt so defeated. I felt as though I was working my hardest i had been working my whole mission. Not letting ONE single person pass me on the street without talking to them about the gospel, not letting ONE single door get shut in my face without giving them a picture of Jesus. Not leaving one meeting without bearing my testimony of the atonement of jesus christ. And then i would go home that day and nothing. See no fruits from my labors. No numbers were taken. No new investigators were found. Our numbers on area book were not increasing. I felt so defeated. I would go to church every Sunday and see the members look at me and ask me how the work is going and I could tell them nothing.

Then, the lord sent me Gianni. We went door knocking one night after pday for just a quick 30 minutes. We went in to the apartment building and chose to go to the 4th floor and knock on a random door. We knocked, and the cutest little smiling face opened the door. She kindly welcomed us in and immediately gave us chocolates. Then she called into the room her husband, Gianni. He wheels his wheelchair into the room, legless but a heart full of love. Gianni told us he had talked with missionaries centuries ago, has a book already that talks about Joseph smith and the travel of the pioneers and said as long as we weren't jehovas witnesses we can come over to his house anytime we want. He gifted me and Sorella Gugler each a painting, painting is his passion and he's insane at it. Then we left just feeling so uplifted and loved. I felt like I just spent time with my grandparents. He sent us a text that night and told us he felt as though we were his daughters. We had made an old, broken, lonely man so happy.

 Gianni was my angel that day that made me feel like I could keep going. 

It's not only been that 1 experience but I've seen little rays of light every day. 

If you think God is not present in your life, I promise you he is. It's just a little hard for us to see it sometimes. Dang imperfect humans. 

Anyways, sorry you had to read that Ted talk. I love being a missionary and I love the opportunity I have in these 18 months to talk about my savior every day. 

Love you all ♡♡♡

The Nap cough

Yo amici e famiglia. Come state??? 

Spero benissimo. 

These past like 3 weeks my Comp and i have been sick as dawgs. So that's been really fun. An elder brought a cough here from Napoli and it hit our whole district so we've all been struck with the "Nap cough" thank you anziano Johnson.  

We went to go visit this crazy lady at her house. It felt like those scary movies when they walk into the house and the persons nice at first and then they lock them in their basement for 40 years. The spirit was telling us to leave so we gave her a book of mormon left her with a prayer and then sorella gugler literally sprinted to the front door and tried to unlock it for like 5 mimutes (italian doors all have either weird locks or you have to find the button to buz yourself out.) An adventure to say the least.  

We're on that finding grind right now. We have no friends and every time we've set up a lesson for the past 2 weeks we've gotten stood up. NO NEED TO WORRY OR GET DISCOURAGED. it just the lord TESTING us cause he knows we can grow and become the most insane missionaries ever. Not gonna lie the work gets pretty hard when you go out and grind for hours every single day, talk to hundreds of people and you see no fruits from your labors. I'm just trying to focus on the little things i can be grateful for and just getting outside and go and DO. I also have the best comp ever that keeps me going and we still have fun along the way. #MylifeisJacob5GOWORKONTHATVINEYARDEVENIFYOUWEEPSOMETIMESTHATSOKAY

MIRACLE: okay so this saturday we were lowkey not excited for the day becuase we had literally nothing to do but street contacting for literally the whole day. But THEN our angel Juanita called us and invited us over for cena!!! Yay. Bless up. (She'll be baptised soon dont even fret.) But we had like 10 minutes before we had to be at her house so we decided the visit this one less active lady that no one has heard from in years. We pull up to her house, knock on her door and she opens. She is this old lady with white hair lookin like she got electricuted (i have no idea how you spell that) with only one giant tooth. She tells us to come in and sit down. We start talking and with the most emotionless monotone voice she says we'll yeah today's my 92nd birthday and I'm all alone and I guess God sent me two angels here today. Like WHAT. we didn't even know it was her birthday. And even though she didn't look like it she was so happy God sent her a little miracle on her birthday. 

Then we went to jaunitas and ate some bussin cibo. 

This week was crap 💩

Hi everyone!!! How are you all?!?! Seriously let me know because I love getting emails and messages throughout the week. Its like a little present. Also I am now over 2 months in the mission. That sounds like nothing but is so crazy that it's already been 2 months!! Um anyways lets get to the knitty gritty. 

First let me explain the title "This week was crap" hehehe. So basically everywhere on the streets in Caserta is poop. Like seriously people don't pick up after their dogs and they just poop and pee everywhere. Its literally a game of Mario cart dodging the bananas. Anyways, there I was walking happily along, doing a great job of dodging each piece of dog shazzz. Then we sat down for some din din and I start smelling something reallll bad and im like "Sorell, do you smell that like that smells terrible. She literally says "yeah it smells like cacca." Well folks it was in fact a huge ball of cacca. Joy  Okay now time for a cool story frfr. Okay so Sorella Crane and I decided to do some good ol knockin of the doors. We picked this random apartment building and this was a Padre pio LAND MINE. I seriously have never seen more Padre Pio shrines in my whole existence. If you don't know who padre pio is, basically he stinks because hes like Jesus but he only pays for 1/3 of your sins and he wears gloves because he has like the marks that Jesus has on his hands. I personally don't understand it but ya know jesus said love everyone so I guess I love padre pio. ANYWAYS, we get door after door slammed in our face and then we decided were going to do one last apartment building. We walk up all five flights of stairs and no one gives us the time of day. And then we knock on the very last door and BAM SHE OPENS WITH A SMILE?!?!?! She literally knew where our church was and we exchanged numbers and were going to visit her on Saturday!!!! LAST DOOR LAST FLOOR FOR THE WIN!!! I thought that was just a myth but i guess it's real. 

Okay last story and then I'll let you all go. Pov there we were 6:30am starting the 30 min walk to the train station for Zone Conference. Sorella crane and I are just talking and jollying along, halfway to the train station, when Sorella Crane goes "Do you have your name tag." Well folks lets just say we started running the fastest I've ever ran at 6:30 in the morning with a full face of makeup on and in a dress. It was awful to say the least. We made it on the train as the doors were shutting. 

This week has been tough for me with the language. It's especially hard when we teach lessons and I just want to be their friends so badly and tell them about how much I LOVE JESUS and how much jesus loves them and how this Gospel can help them with every single need they have. but instead I sit there like a mute unfortunately because I literally speak English. This week were doing an English fast too (every conversation, every district and zone meeting, and every waking second is all in Italian) so the only thing keeping me going is that there's coke in Italy and prayer. Anyways, anyone who has learned a language, don't be shy, give me tips on how I can be people's friends even when I literally can't speak to them. Grazie. Sorry this was a long email. I think I'm getting all the English out that's in my mind. So thanks if you read all this. Now enjoy some silly photos. 

Pictures: 

- Sorella Crane and I's performance of "tequila" 

- our awesome friend Oscar got the Priesthood WOOT WOOT

- poop

- Padre pio shrine (find the jesus i put there)

- me and my cutie collega

- district and I with gelato  

- ZONA DI CAMPANIA!!! FORZA ITALIA!!!!