Letter #48 - 8/12/14

Ciao Famiglia!

Well everyone, she has arrived! Her name is Sorella Jenny Nilsen, she is a blonde, 5'6" gem from Salt Lake City Utah. She’s 19 years old and just so great. I’m just obsessed with her already. Man, I haven’t realized that I am getting old in the mission until this transfer. I guess life has been going on back home this whole year and no one told me?! Haha, scherzo (joke). But really - REALITY CHECK! I’m like a year done with my mission, I can’t believe it. Good thing I have 6 months left ;) oh man.

So first of all - last week was crazy fun. Sorella Carter and I were trying to get to Milano, but of course our train was in ritardo (delayed) so we only had 4 minutes to change binarios in Bologna with her 2, huge suitcases - that only had half their wheels! IT WAS CRAY, literally no other way we could have made the train other than a straight-up miracle from Heavenly Father. We had to each carry one of the suitcases down the stairs through the crowd of people, drag it behind us as fast as we could in the underground, and then each carry a suitcase up the stairs. It was intense. Sorella Carter was struggling and told me to go on without her and stop the train (the power of a missionary). So I ran as fast as I could with the bag and got on the train and then she got up the stairs and ran and just made it on the train before they closed the doors. We were sweating, and almost crying; There are angels among us, people. I have a huge testimony of that. Then we made it through Milano, and then through the metro, and then to the church in Cimiano. It was such a miracle.

I met my new collega (companion) on Thursday and we have seen so many miracles together already. Yesterday we set a goal to stop 35 people when doing street finding and we did it! We finished like 10 minutes before we had to go in, so we were talking to everyone we could, trying to get them to stop. It was so great! And on Sunday, I gave a talk and played the piano, haha that was fun. Also our less active member came to church and our investigator also came to listen to my talk! So that was a huge blessing :)

We are surviving ferrie Agosto (August), a.k.a. everyone bounces for a last minute vacation over here before school starts, haha. It’s been crazy, but so fun. And with the school year starting up again so that will be good for missionary work.

Oh and one last little story! Yesterday we had one of the coolest lessons with one of our investigators. We taught the restoration and her two little granddaughters were there and they loved it! We did this little cup lesson for it that I had learned on the mish from Sorella Hoffman – and they were just so in tune and the spirit was so strong. We asked them how they felt and they said that they felt really happy. It was so cute – then the grandma said that she thinks she is about to discover something really great with us. It was such a powerful lesson, and then at the end we asked one of the little girls if they would say a prayer and she was scared to so I told her I would help her so she came over by me and I helped her say the prayer.  It was like the cutest thing ever, oh man.

Crazy week! All is well here! The mission is the best, I am so thankful every day I am out here. I am so tired but still have so much more to give.

Love and miss you all!

Sorella Yost