Letter #61 - 11/11/14

Ciao Famiglia! Come State?!

We are going to Milano for pday today so we had to email early!

What?! you have frost on the ground in Redmond?!! It’s just POURING rain here, haha, luckily we got Sorella Hawks some rain boots last week on pday so now we are surviving the weather a lot better, haha. Our boots are actually super cute, we are totally matching, haha – oh and we got little sock inserts for them too to make it warmer and they are like the most blessed things ever. We love them and are never cold.

This week has been a lot better, we are starting to figure our way out around the city and aren’t getting lost as much. However, we almost got separated on the train the other day which was SO scary, hahah - the doors closed after Sorella Hawks got on the train and so only I got locked out of the train when the doors closed. I had to quickly run to the front of the train to get let on by the conductor - ha it was so scary. After the doors closed we just were standing there staring at each other with pure horror on our faces through the window for like 3 seconds, haha - it was so scary... and now funny. . . #italymilanmissionprobs

We have probably lost like 5 kilo this week from all the running we’ve had to do in our big coats, haha, it’s been great. We are always worried about missing trains or buses in this city. We have a lot of little cities that we have to travel to quite a bit that are in our area so that keeps us in shape.

This city isn’t very bike friendly so we never ride them, sadly, but it’s okay. Also this Sunday in church it was the primary program and it was the cutest thing ever. Little kids singing in Italian is so precious. Oh and we taught Gospel Principles on Sunday, reminded me of the Montevarchi days. We only had like 20 minutes to prepare though, which was funny. A year ago that probably would have given me a heart attack to even think about doing but now it’s just so common it doesn’t even phase me. Miracles of the mission am I right?

I finally cut my hair! Well i asked my companion do it, haha - she was freaking out, but she did so well! I just looked at her and was like have you ever cut hair Sorella? and she was like, uhhh, I trimmed my mom’s hair a couple times in the back, does that count? And i was like yeah, good enough for me. Just cut like 6 inches off, hahahahaha so funny. But it’s so much better now - goodbye braid.

It’s been a good week :) we are working hard and seeing a ton of miracles. One of which being we are always thankful to make it back home each night. We finally got in contact with some of the old Sorelles investigators and are finding some new ones of our own too. The Lord’s hand truly is in everything we do.

I’m so glad to be here and am so thankful for my Greenie, she is so great and is so patient, even whenever I get us lost. We are definitely getting it all figured out together :)

Love and miss you so much! Talk to you soon! :)

Love Sorella Alli

Letter #60 - 11/4/14

Ciao Famiglia Mia!

Oh man. This week has been insane. We have been travelling all over the place for consiglio (training) in Milano and district meeting in Varese. As we are both brand new to this area, we have been going on an adventure all over Busto and Varese for Sorella Hawks permesso (registration), this is my fourth time doing this process and it’s never been this complicated. 

Tomorrow we are heading back to Milano for new missionary training and then I do my first scambio (companion exchange) in like a week and a half. I’m the sister training leader over the Varese Sorelle and the Lugano Switzerland Sorelle. So that should be fun :) My new greenie is Sorella Hawks! She is from New York, went to BYU, 19 years old, and super awesome. I love her so much already. She actually is from the ward where my cousin Kieonah is serving right now! How ironic is that? haha so funny!

This week has been a little hard because of everything we’ve had going on and trying to figure out the new area together. I’ve never been so tired in my whole life, haha - we have just been getting lost around the city all week in the rain, haha.  We’ve been sent on multiple scavenger hunts for her permesso and have had to go to Milano for consiglio and Varese for district meeting etc.. so basically we are doing a ton of train and bus-type finding, because we have no other choice, haha. But it’s so fun and we are seeing miracles from it for sure.

The other day we were on a train and we found this super awesome girl who is like 24 and lives here in Busto and she talked to us for the entire 40 minute train ride (big deal). She’s super awesome and gave us her phone number and so hopefully something comes of that. Greenie power, it’s a real thing.

On a sad note all of the simps (investigators) that the Sorelle had before we got here won’t answer our phone calls or texts and when we go to pass by they are never home – soooooo, we are basically starting all over, which is hard but good because it means there are new people out there we need to be finding.

I’m just glad my greenie is just so hard working and great. She’s just going with everything and super positive even though I’m like totally freaking out on the inside, haha. Yesterday we were running from place to place all day and didn’t get to eat lunch until 8:30 at night (remember how we don’t have dinner in our mission? haha still hard for me) and we kind of had a break down, haha. We were so exhausted.

Then today we got a call from the Anziani (Elders) here in busto who is also training a new missionary – right in the middle of studies, saying that we had to run to the train station so we could make the train to go to Varese because they just found out we have to go there for something for the permesso. So we literally RAN the 20 minute walk to the station in the pouring rain to make the train, go to Varese, and sit in the post office on our pday, haha. It was a little rough, but we are almost done with the process now - meno male (thank heavens).

But i think that’s everything for the week. It’s been crazy but we love being companions, are doing our best and seeing some miracles :)

Thanks for everything! love and miss you! :)

Sorella Yost

Letter #59 - 10/28/14

Ciao famiglia!!!!

So...its transfer week! And guess what, I’m leaving Ravenna and Sorella Nilsen :( so sad. But I’m going to be white washing (both sisters are being transferred out) a city called Busto Arsizio, training a new missionary AGAIN, and I am now a new Sister Training Leader - sooooo yeah, I am kind of freaking out – I really have no idea what I’m doing. I am sure it will be fine, haha, but oh man.  I will just figure it out as I go I guess!

We are leaving tonight and staying the night in Reggio Emilia so that we can get to Milano early enough for me to get to Cimiano (Milan) and pick up my new greenie! This is so weird, I already have a greenie! Haha – well now Sorella Nilsen will have a s sibling :) haha!

So with my new greenie, we will somehow make our way to Busto with both of our bags and then somehow figure out where our apartment is and everything else we need to know about the area. We won’t have a phone or anything, so the Anziani (Elders) will probably meet us at the station or something to give us our phone and keys and tell us how to get to the apartment and the church or something – I sure hope they do, oh man.  This will be an adventure.

This week has been crazy between saying “bye” to everyone and seeing all our investigators one last time before I go, and we’ve seen a ton of miracles. Yesterday we were gone from our apartment from 8:30 am until like 9:30 pm with back-to-back appointments. It was insane, haha – we are dead tired. I got my suitcases all packed and I can’t believe I’m leaving Ravenna. I’ve been here so long; it’s so weird to think about.  I’m so sad to leave some of these really amazing people that Sorella Nilsen and I found. They are so amazing and will do great things. And it was hard saying “bye” to the Branch last night too. They are all so sweet. Oh and Mom and Dad, just so you know, at least like 50% of the branch offered their homes for us to stay at if we ever come back to visit after I finish the mission, haha – so we have to come back ;) haha!!

Sorella Nilsen and I are so sad to leave each other though; I’m going to miss her so much. we were doing weekly planning on Friday and we got to the part in comp inventory where you discuss the strength of your companionship and we both just looked at each other and started crying, hahahaa – ah man. She’s so great. She’s going to do so great here in Ravenna with her new compie, I have no doubt.

Well I think that’s all for this week! It’s been cray and I’m exhausted, haha – but all is well in Zion.

Love and miss you! talk to you soon! :)

Sorella Yost

Letter #58 - 10/21/14

Ciao Famiglia!

Come state?!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDDDDD!!!!!!!!

This week was so good! We saw so many miracles! We have so many awesome new investigators that we are really excited about so we will see what happens with them :) they were definitely all an answer to prayers though. God’s timing truly is perfect and puts us in the perfect places at the perfect times.

This week we did a mostra (street display) in centro with some members of the branch and it was really awesome! I think it was really cool for them to taste a little bit of what we do every day. It was really awesome and we found some really cool people! So we are excited :) they played Grazia Lui in the background and it was so powerful (i think it’s called “Because of Him” in English? From the Easter movie about Christ?) So that was awesome.

Oh but it was so funny, this man yelled at me from the gazebo telling me that the Madonna ( Mary, Jesus's mom) is my mother too and that I have to know that. He just shook his finger at me and yelled it at me for like 30 seconds. Probably like 75 year old man. I had no idea what to do so I just tried not to laugh and tell him I hope he has a great day, ahha, oh man.

And then today we went to the mare (ocean)! it was soooo pretty today. Don’t worry; we didn’t go on the beach or near the water, just on the wooded path. But it was so fun. We took some funny pictures. enjoy :)

Transfer calls are this Saturday so we will see what happens. Other than that, I think that’s all for this week.

We are doing well; I just love Sorella Nilsen sooo much. She’s just so great and I’m so glad she’s my verdina (Greenie) :) We have so much fun together and work really hard and see a lot of miracles too. She’s so brava (good).

We are doing well; our investigators are doing well and we have lot of faith in them. Ravenna is the best. I just love it here :) The mission is the best!

Sorry, another short email! Hopefully the pictures make up for it :)

vi voglio benissimo! statemi bene! (Have a great day)  :)

Sorella Yost

Letter #57 - 10/14/14

Ciao Famiglia!

Sorry this week my email is going to be really short because I am totally out of time because we went to San Marino today! It was so fun!

This week has been literally crazy, a huge rollercoaster ride. But we are so happy and doing well! Sorella Nilsen invited one of our investigators to be baptized (for her first time ever) and our investigator said yes! Whooo! Huge miracle. I don’t have time to tell the story of how we found her but it was a huge answer to our prayers, it was so incredible.

Sunday was a little rough, we had a lot of problems with some investigators at church but everything is totally fine now and all is well all is well :)

Then last night I had literally one of the scariest experiences in my mission, and I’m not just saying that to scare mom, haha but we are now safe and totally fine; and that will be a great story in about 4 months ;) ahha

It was Sorella Nilsens birthday so like everyone in the whole world wanted to throw her a festa (party). It was fantastic and our branch did a really cool activity gathering chestnuts in the mountains so that was really fun. I’ve never done that before, it’s super interesting and it was really beautiful.

I got your packages (four of them)! Thank you so much! I LOVED them all!

There was a giant ice storm yesterday and today we went to San Marnio with Sorell Jarvis and Sorella Killpack and it was so awesome, we had so much fun.

Oh and guess what, tomorrow I will have officially been in Italy one year! Weird right?

Well I think that’s all! Sorry again it’s so short today but i gotta go!

I love and miss you so much! Talk to you soon! :)

Sorella Alli

Letter #56 - 10/7/14

Ciao Famiglia!

Come state?! :) This week was so good. We had General Conference! Whooo! So great. Because of the time difference we didn’t get to watch Sunday afternoon and majority of the women’s conference because of technical difficulties at the church but everything that I saw was so so good.

So last week we had been praying all week to have someone put in our path that was ready to hear the gospel and then one night we were out doing some finding work by centro (town center) and we stopped this lady who spoke English and she was super funny and talked to us for a little bit and then when she left this guy came up to us and was like, "hi! do you speak English?!" and we were like "yeah!" And then we just started talking to him and he’s soooo legit. He’s from Barcelona and is here in Ravenna for work for a few months at least and doesn’t know Italian yet and doesn’t know anyone. He even has friends who are members of the church back in Spain and had so many good questions about the church. AND he came to conference with us! How cool is that?! it was so awesome. Definitely an answer to prayer.

Then last night we had a dinner with this cute little Italian couple and had homemade pizza with them and guess what else....fried pig skin. It was so gross, as we were eating it (and initially had no idea what it was) they were explaining to us how they make it and it was so disgusting. Sorella Nilsen asked me what it was and I told her I wouldn’t explain it to her until after we were done eating, haha so gross. Oh my gosh, also at the end of the meal they gave us a pomegranate from their tree in their yard and I went to open it and....the berries flew out EVERYWHERE. Haha we were all laughing for like 5 minutes straight. we were finding pomegranate berries everywhere the rest of the night. They kept calling it "the pioga". haha so funny and so embarrassing, haha oh well.

I thought it was really cool in conference how they talked a lot about being personally responsible for our personal testimonies, so powerful. And actually yesterday Sorella Nilsen and I really had our testimonies tested at one of our appointments. It was with this woman who was super sweet that we met on the street way back when Sorella Carter was still here. And we were finally able to set a return appointment with her and so yesterday we got to her house and her husband was home too. It was a really tough lesson. He just kept questioning everything we said, pointing his finger at us and diminishing us and what we 'thought' we knew – he kept telling us we were just convinced and that we didn’t really know, we weren’t old enough or experienced enough to really know. It was so hard, he didn’t really give us a chance to speak or defend ourselves. But I will never forget the moment where I just looked him in the eye and said "IO SO, con tutto il mio cuore che Joseph Smith era un profeta (I KNOW, with all my heart that Joseph Smith was a prophet)." The spirit was so strong and we know he felt it too. We just both bore our testimonies and left them with that. It was one of the hardest but coolest experiences. Sorella Nilsen and I both were tearing up as we left the palazzo (building), having your faith questioned is not a fun experience, but if we have that rock foundation like in Helaman 5:12 we will never falter.

Vi voglio bene (I love you)! I hope you all have a great week! talk to you soon! :)

Sorella Yost

Letter #55 - 9/30/14

Ciao Famiglia Mia! :)

Come state?! (how are you?) first of all...BUON COMPLEANNO ANNA!!!!!! :) (Happy Birthday Anna) I hope you have an awesome 15th birthday! It makes me feel old to think that when I left you were still 13... ahhhhhh. Stop growing up! Don’t worry; we will eat gelato for you today ;)

So guess what! Last week 45 people came to our English class! It was a HUGE miracle! It’s a little intimidating teaching them all but we have a lot of fun with it, haha, it’s great. So we are hoping that we can find a lot of people to teach from them so speriamo bene che quello vada bene (well hopefully one that goes well).

ALSO - remember that peanut butter gelato I told you about? Well I am a genius and I got that the other day with fragola (strawberry) and it was literally like a peanut butter and jelly gelato sandwich. I have to stop myself for getting it every time now. It was sooo good.

On Sunday our branch had a big pranzo (lunch) together after church and it was so fun! Sorella Nilsen and I made these cookies that everyone LOVES. We were requested to bring them to every branch function forever, haha.

Also Sorella Nilsen got her permesso (paperwork) this week! She’s official! and I’m almost done with the renewal process so we have had to spend quite a bit of time at the questura (police station) and posta (post office) this week. And this morning we passed our apartment cleaning check, another miracle. Haha!

Our investigators are doing well! We have one investigator who is sooooo ready to be baptized, but because of some legal things we have to wait a little longer, so it’s been a little heartbreaking for us the past few days. She’s so ready and wants it so badly but we have to wait a little bit. But she just has the biggest heart ever and I love her so much. She asked Sorella Nilsen and I to come back to Italy and be the witnesses at her and her fiancé’s wedding when they can finally get married. HOW CUTE IS THAT?!?! I literally almost cried. I just have so much love for her.

Sorella Nilsen is a rock star and I’m just so glad we are companions. We have so much fun together all the time. Italy is great. I’s getting a lot colder now for sure, though. I can almost say that I have survived all the mosquito seasons on the mission! They should all die fra alcuni settimane (within a few weeks). That will be a blessed day.

All is well here :) Being a missionary is the living best. Our zone has been focusing a lot on the Atonement of Jesus Christ this transfer and I am learning so much. I feel like especially during my time here in Ravenna, I’ve grow so much closer to my Savior and gained so much more of an appreciation for Him and all he did for us. Everything we do should be for Him. He is so aware of each one of us because he has literally been there.

Vi voglio tantissimo bene! (I want so much good).  Have a great week! :) Love and miss you!

Sorella Yost

p.s. sorry my emails are always so scatter brained, hahaha, love you!