Letter #44 - 7/15/14

Ciao Famiglia! :) Come State??

This week has been so crazy and so good! We have seen soooo many miracles. First of all, Ravenna has been having some crazy weather issues lately. One day its wicked hot and we are sweating and dying and then the next day (or even later that night) there will be a crazy random full-on rain storm and we just get drenched on the bikes, haha, it’s hilarious.

One of the worst ones this week happened on our bike ride to the church; just out of nowhere this huge storm started and the rain was coming down so hard we like could barely see the road in front of us, haha. We finally make it to the church, just laughing the entire way because we are ridiculously wet, and we get to the top of the hill before you go down the drive way to the church door and..the Anziani come rolling in, in their nice dry car, and they see us and just start laughing, haha. We got down and parked our bikes under the little covering and I just start ringing out my skirt and it’s like a waterfall, haha. They felt so bad, it was hilarious. I wish I had a picture of how wet we were, sooo funny.

We had a really awesome Young Women’s activity last week! We learned how to sew! Hah,a it was so fun. We love being the Young Women's leaders and teaching the lessons and planning the activities and everything, it’s really fun. And our two young women are just so sweet. One of them came up to us this Sunday after church and just told us how much she liked our lesson that day. It was so cute. Remember how I just barely graduated from Young Women’s like 2 years ago and now I’m the second counselor? Weird, haha, but I love it.

And we did some really good Family Home evenings with some members this week and it was such an amazing experience. One of them was with a family from Nigeria and their aunt and cousins that were there visiting for the week. So we were teaching a room full of like 15 people from Africa. It was crazy. Teaching in English is so weird, but it went so well and they loved it! We even did a game, brought a treat and everything. None of the extended family are members of the church so it was a really cool way to introduce them to the Gospel and teach the little kids. We loved it, all the little kids were just giving us hugs the whole night; I love our Nigerians.

Oh funny story, so last night we were eating dinner at a less actives house and guess what I ate.... ANCHOVIES. I thought I was going to die, haha. The lady was teaching us how to eat them and she took the smallest ones and put it on her toast. So because I love my companion cosi tanto (so much), I took the big papa anchovy and slapped it on my toast. It literally had hair on it and everything, ew. And then I took a big old bite, haha, so nasty. The taste was so strong; luckily she didn’t make us eat all of it but I brushed my teeth so well afterwards, barf, haha!

But guess what? One of our less actives we are teaching came to church again for a third time! AND she got a priesthood blessing and LOVED it, miracle. And our investigator with a baptismal date finally moved out of her apartment with her ex-boyfriend so now that’s not stopping her from being baptized! Whoooo! Only thing is now she doesn’t live in our proselyting area anymore so a different set of missionaries will be teaching her but that’s okay, we are just sooooo beyond happy she finally moved out! The Lord really does change people's hearts, so many miracles.

Well I think that is all for this week! I hope Abbi and dad are having a good time in London! I can’t believe how close they are to me right now! Same time zone and everything, right? :) I’m so thankful I am a missionary right now here in Ravenna, Italia. I love it so much and I know it’s exactly where I need to be, with exactly the people with whom I need to be.

The Lord’s plan for us is really so much better than our own. I am so grateful for that. The Gospel is so true and I am so eternally grateful for my Heavenly Father and for this opportunity he has given me to share that happiness with others. love and miss you! have a great week! :)

Sorella Yost