Letter #33 - 4/30/14

Ciao Famiglia!

Come state (how are you)?! All is well here in Alessandria, we are seeing lots of miracles and just taking it day by day.

We met a really awesome lady while doing finding in a park the other day and we had a return appointment with her and she came to church on Sunday and to the young adult’s activity! So we were super happy :) She is really awesome and we are working a lot with her right now. She is from Nigeria.

Tell Cali congrats on the engagement for me! That is so awesome! :) I’m sad I am going to miss the wedding though, so send me lots of pictures! grazie mille (thank you very much) :)

Hey remember how we get to Skype in 11 DAYS!!!!!! I am sooooo excited! We are counting down :) oh guess what! I saw someone playing Uno the other day and it reminded me of Sunday nights, haha remember that?

Everything is good here in Italia, not a super eventful week but we are learning so much each day out here. I become even more converted to the Gospel each day, I have seen it bless the lives of so many people and I think that is why it makes it so hard to see people reject it, because we know just how much it will bless their lives.

I love and miss you so much but I know I am exactly where I need to be right now :) Love you but talk to you soon! :)

Sorella Alli

Letter #32 - 4/23/14

Hi Mom and Dad!

 

How was your Easter?! All is well here in Italy we are just learning the meaning of "perseverare sino alla fine (endure to the end)". It was a really hard week; we have had our most promising investigators dropping us left and right. It has been so sad to see people walk away when they are so close. But it’s okay, because we know someday they will be ready to hear and accept the Gospel and when they are ready there will be missionaries here waiting for them :) We are really trying so hard to be positive and see the good in everything and it is working. We are just even more determined to go out there and work and find those who are prepared and ready.

We have been doing a lot of less active work as well, we are going through our ward list and visiting those we have never seen or heard their name. Yesterday we had a ton of appointments cancel on us so we got a list of 9 names from the less active list and set out to go and find them all over Alessandria. Well, no one answered/no one still lives at the addresses on the list. BUT its okay, we know everything happens for a reason and that it will all work out in the end. We are still seeing miracles every single day and we know Heavenly Father is so mindful of us.

Easter was so great; we ate at a member in our ward's house out in the countryside and had...yep spaghetti with succo di tonna, a.k.a. tuna sauce. #italy. It was pretty good though! Oh and people here get all crazy about these cake things called a colomba. They aren’t that great...but we have like three of them at our house, haha they are famous during Easter.

But all is well here in Alessandria, last week we had scambio and I ended up being the one staying here in Alessandria with our sister training leader (after being here barely 2 weeks) and I was able to get us around and not get lost going to see some people I had never met/never been to their house ever before, haha I was so happy.

I hope all is well back home and that you had a great Easter! Thank you so much for the pictures, I loved them! :) We are doing well here, Sorella Hoffman is so great and we are just making the most of what is happening and andare avanti :) love and miss you!

Sorella Alli

Letter #31 - 4/16/14

Hi Mom and Dad!

Greetings from Alessandria! So this week was crazzzzy. But so good! I love this place so much, even though it is really different than Montevarchi. Sorella Hoffman and I are doing so good; we get along really, really well and have a lot of fun together :) she is awesome.

And we are working hard and seeing a ton of miracles. We are teaching a lady right now who is super awesome, she actually found the church because one day she was in the parking lot of the grocery store and she found a flyer on the ground for our English class. So she called and came to English class and got in touch with the missionaries and now we are teaching her! She is so sweet. One trial that we are trying to overcome here this past week is other people's agency, haha, it’s so hard. There are so many people we want to work with and want to see...but then they cancel on us and we end up having no appointments. But we know that everything happens for a reason and we have seen miracles happen as a cause of people cancelling.

 

For example the other day we were supposed to have an appointment at the church and so we were waiting there and she never showed up. So there happened to be about 5 young women at the church during that time so we gathered them together and told them that they were going to go out finding with us for an hour, haha classic. so we gave them each a pass along card and told them that in the next hour they each had to give theirs out to someone. So we went out and two of them went with me and three went with Sorella Hoffman and we both ended up finding someone to teach and then when we all got back together we ended up teaching one more lesson to someone on the street. It was so amazing and these girls were so brave. I think the oldest was 16 and the youngest was 12, the rest somewhere in the middle. They were so excited and proud of themselves that they did it. They all gave out their pass along cards and were so happy. Sorella Hoffman and I were so excited they had a good time and were able to see some miracle lessons. We were praying the whole time that they would have a good experience and someone would listen to us, haha, God really does answer prayers.

 

Church was really good on Sunday and one of our investigators even got up and bore her testimony in church, so cool.. oh! also! tell Tanner that last night we had a lesson at one of our member’s houses from Africa and she is from a country really close to Ghana. I told her about how my cousin served in Ghana and she asked if he liked their spicy food. I told her I don’t know but I know he liked cat and fufu...so she said the next time she makes fufu she is inviting us over and we are going to get to eat some real nice fufu, haha, soooo yeah. If he has any advice on that, that would be great, haha.

 

Also the other day at an appointment, I accidentally dropped my plate and it shattered everywhere. It was really embarrassing and I felt so bad. But the member was so nice and told me not to worry about it and that she does it all the time, haha, so yeah, I’m still a klutz.

 

But everything is going well here in Alessandria! I love it here. It’s crazy how fast time is going, then again I can’t really remember a lot about normal life out of the mission. I am tired all the time. and some mornings we wake up and don’t know how we are going to make it through the day we are so tired. But we tell ourselves that if we get out of bed then we have already won half the battle, haah, and it’s true.

 

I am so thankful to be a missionary, I have learned so much already. Everything is good here in Italia! Thank you for all the prayers and support!  Love you! and Happy Easter! He lives!

 

Sorella Yost

 

Letter #30 - 4/9/14

Hi Mom and Dad!

How are you? How was spring break?

So....I am in Alessandria! And I love it so far! Even though it is probably about as different as you can get from Montevarchi, hahaha, I went from a tiny branch with 20 active members that meet in the basement of a hotel to a WARD with 120 members that have a building! Hahah, it is so crazy. But it is so good and I love the area already. Our Bishop is Amazing and so involved in the missionary work. Last night I went on splits with some members of the ward (apparently that’s a thing) and it was so cool to see the members so involved and willing to be a part of the missionary work going on in the ward. MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK. Pass it on ;) haha!

So last week was really hard saying good bye to everyone, I had to say “bye” to the four new converts and some investigators I was really close with - AND THEN - I had to say “bye” to Sorella Jarvis, which was one of the hardest goodbyes. We really have become so close and I already miss her so much. I have been so blessed to have had such Amazing companions.

Menomale (Thank Goodness) I will see all of them somewhere between BYU and BYU-Idaho when I get back :). And I got to see Sorella Lopez when I got transferred! She waited for me to get off the train and then we ran and hugged and created a huge scene in Milano Centrale, haha, it was great! I have the best Mission Mom ever! And she was in Milano picking up her new companion...Sorella Carter! yeah Sorella Carter that I was in the MTC with! haha I am so excited for them, they will have so much fun together. And I got to see Sorella Woods! It was like the best day ever haha except Sorella Mcpeek wasn’t there :( it’s okay though, next time! Hahah.

Then I got to meet my new companion Sorella Hoffman! Oh my gosh, she is so awesome too. We get along like we have known each other for years, haha, I just love her already. She is a really great missionary and we are so excited to be together here in Alessandria because there is a lot of work to do here.

So this weekend was General Conference, aka, best weekend ever to be a missionary. I LOVED IT. SO good. I wish I had really appreciated conference before the mission. One of my favorite talks was by President Uchtdorf on Gratitude. So good. We got to watch them in English which was really nice, except the Women's General Broadcast which we watched in Italian. But I actually ended up translating for that one for a woman in our ward from the Philippines. So that was scary, but it actually went pretty well!

And I got packages yesterday at our zone training in Genova from you, Mom! Thank you soooooo much! You are the best!

Oh, quick miracle story! So on Sunday we went out to do some finding in between the sessions of conference, and we had taught 3 lessons lessons – but sorella Hoffman felt like there was one more person out there. So of course we went looking for them and I saw this bench with 2 Young girls sitting on it and I was like "this bench right here" so we went over and talked to them and they were the sweetest ever and were super interested and want us to come over and teach them and their families. AND they already know one of the young women in the ward from school. It was a huge miracle and we are so excited to see them again :)

Well, I think that is everything for this week! All is well here in Alessandria, I love it already :9 but I know a part of my heart will Always be in Montevarchi. It’s kind of funny, you just kind of leave a little piece of your heart with people everywhere you go along the way.

I love being a missionary, I have learned SO much and I know I have so much more to learn too. Good thing I have 11 months left to do it :) love and miss you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK ABBI!!!!!  Love ya!

Sorella Alli

Letter #29 - 4/2/14

Hi Mom and Dad!

Okay so guess what...I am getting transferred to....ALESSANDRIA!!!!! I am super excited! I leave tomorrow morning for Milano and then from there to Alessandria. I can’t believe I am actually leaving Motevarchi. This place really has become my home here in Italy and I love the people here so much. Saying goodbye is really hard because you really don’t know when you will see them again. But I know that my time here is now done and that I am needed somewhere else now and that these people here need the new Sorella.

This week was really really good. Sorella Jarvis and I both gave talks in church, haha. So that was fun. Did I tell you that last week I was the chorister? Haha. Yep that happened. Oh! So miracle story for the week. We were sitting on a bench outside the train station and there were lots of people around us on the bench and then this young girl came and sat down close by us and she totally stood out to me and I knew I had to go talk to her. So I did. I went and sat by here and started talking to her and turns out she is from Japan! She was super sweet and I felt like I loved her before we even started talking. We told her we are missionaries here and that we talk to people about Jesus Christ and she was like “oh okay, so teach me about Jesus Christ." Haha. She didn’t have to ask us twice. we taught her a lesson and she let us pray with her and it was one of the coolest experiences ever. She was so great and the Spirit totally prompted me to go talk to her and I am so thankful I did.

Also. Sorella Jarvis and I came up with a plan to help people get to church. We just have to convert all the train conductors, haha. We have taught a few so far – so we will let you know how that goes. Oh my gosh. WAIT IM LEAVING. Dang. Haha!

I really am so excited for this new adventure. I’ll let you all know how things are in Alessandria :)

I love you Mom and Dad!

Sorella Alli

 

 

Letter #28 - 3/26/14

Ciao Famiglia! :)

Well, This week was crazy. But what else is new? Haha. SO first of all, Sorella Jarvis and I both got proposed to this week in English class, haha. Remember that funny 80 year old man that is always super enthusiastic? Haha. Yeah, so we were teaching them about families and asking them questions about their families and things like that and he asked us if we were married and we were like "no, we are not," haha. And then he was like "hmmmm, you are single (pointing at sorella jarvis) and you are single (pointing at me). You marry me (pointing at sorella jarvis) and you marry me (pointing at me)." Hahahah, oh my gosh, it was sooooo funny. We both lost it and just starting dying laughing and were like "uhhh...NO!" haahaha so funny.

 

Then Saturday was Sorella Jarvis's birthday!! And we celebrated by going to visit one of our investigators! She is so, so awesome; she is the mom of our new convert that got baptized in February. We are teaching her and her son now. The mom is from Nigeria and she is married to an Italian and their son is 11, so Will's age! He is super funny, we love him. He always asks us to make him brownies, haha. But anyways, we went to go see the mom on Saturday and we were in the middle of our lesson and she was bearing testimony of how much she loves the book of Mormon and then all of a sudden she looks at us and is like "do you want to see my chickens? I bought 7." Hahaha. We were like "yeah! sure, let’s go see your chickens" hhaaha, so she takes us outside into her backyard in the middle of nowhere-Tuscany and there are just chicks running all over the back yard, haha. Then she took us into the coop and bent over and came up with 3 eggs and just put them right into Sorella Jarvis’s hands and was like "Happy Birthday!!!" hhaahaha, it was so cute.

 

Then the buses only come to her little city once and hour so she took us on a walk, aka, we went off-roading through a vineyard of olive trees, hahaha, so funny. We love her so much and she always bears testimony of how much her life has changed since she started learning about the gospel, it is so incredible.

 

Then Sorella Jarvis and I made tiramisu for her birthday and we came home and she opened her presents and I sang to her and she blew out the candles and we ate tiramisu, haha, it was a super fun day. I just absolutely love Sorella Jarvis, she is amazing.

 

Next week is transfers so I will find out on Monday or Tuesday what is going to happen. We will see. We had zone conference on Monday and I got your packages Mom! Thank you so much! My companion would like to know who picks out the cards, Mom or Abbi, hahahaha. So funny, I love them! Thank you so much! and I love the Seahawks shirt! I will wear that proudly, haha.

 

I think that is everything for this week! love and miss you all so much! thank you for everything! talk to you soon! :)

Love you!

Sorella Alli

Letter #27 - 3/19/14

Ciao Famiglia!

 

Okay so this week was crazy, I don’t even remember what happened, haha. So last week on Wednesday we went to the cinque terre and it was so beautiful! It is these 5 cities on the ocean and it is up by Le Spezia so the only way we could go was from Pisa after our scambio last week (hence the huge bag I am carrying in all the pictures...and trying to throw into the ocean in one of them haha) – but sooooo worth it, haha. It was so fun; we had a blast.

 

Also, the search for a cappella is still on here in Valdarno, we are still looking for a new place for our Branch to meet and this week our Branch President asked us missionaries to help him look too. So we are trying, we really want to be out of the hotel sometime soon. But the branch is still growing and doing so well! The new converts are such a huge part of the branch now, it’s like they have been here all along. I LOVE IT.

 

Another fun adventure we went on this week was to a children’s dentist office....hahah Sorella Jarvis had to get her permanent retainer removed so we got to go on a little adventure around Florence and ended up in a waiting room with like five 7 year olds. it was great. We also had district meeting in Siena this week so we were on the train like all day. But it was a really good district meeting, and I am so used to the trains by now it doesn’t even bother me.

 

So our new convert’s mom and brother are still doing so, so well and come to church every week! They are really progressing and love it so much, especially the mom. She is so cute. We absolutely love her. She has taught me so much about faith. She has so much of it.

 

We had a really cool experience last night on the train in Arezzo, we got on the train and were just sitting there like a minute before the doors closed and all of sudden Sorella Jarvis turned to me and was like "Sorel a,I don’t have my wallet!" aka she doesn’t have her abbonamento, aka if our tickets get checked we would have like a 45 euro fine! So I looked at her and was like "we have to get off the train NOW!" So we ran off right before it left and went a bought a ticket for the next train. It was so crazy but definitely a prompting from the Spirit for her to randomly check for her wallet. We were SO thankful.

 

Well I think that is everything for this week! Everything is great here in Montevarchi, I love it here so much :)  I love and miss you! Thanks for all your prayers and everything you do for me! Love you mom and dad!

 

Sorella Alli.

 

p.s. Also, I knocked over a completely full glass of water in the middle of a lesson this week. Classic.