Monday, October 26, 2015

I shouted for joy:) - October 14, 2015

Hey,Famiglia!

Woah, super crazy week, it feels like it passed super quick!

Last Wednesday! We went and saw some of the sites around Ravenna, it's
super gorgeous here! We actually see tour groups all the time around
town, which is kinda weird. We live right next to the tomb where the
famous writer Dante is buried and we pass it every night on our bikes,
so we went and checked it out for pday. Also, we went to this cool
church with a basement filled with mosaics and water. Ravenna is
apparently famous for mosaics. Then we checked out the duomo. After,
we had a lesson with a simp, Debora, she's really cute. Then we had
English class.

Thursday, we had zone training! It was good! It's not a very big zone
but we have a senior couple, which is fun. I also got my package!
Thanks so much! I saw the peanut butter cornflake treats and my comp
can attest that I shouted for joy :) Then we had mutual, it was fun.
And then branch counsel that night. It was good, we have some super
solid members here.

Friday, weekly planning! We went with Marisol, the Relief Society
president to give a sister her visiting teaching, it was good, they're
both super sweet ladies. That night we saw Sanela, a referral from
another simp. She's super legit, she is so open to learning and
totally understands what our purpose is and that we're here to teach
about the gospel, which is good, cause some people don't understand
that.

Saturday, we had correlation with our ward mission leader in the
morning, he's super awesome. We have some branch activities coming up
and he's really trying to get the members excited to bring friends. We
saw Anna that night. She's really sweet. She's an older lady and not
really very interested in changing but she asks us to come and read
the Book of Mormon with her each week. After we went and saw Angelica.
She's a twelve year old girl and her family's not interested in
investigating but she is, so we're teaching her. She's super legit.

Sunday, we left home early to go pick up a simp for church and they
ended up backing out :( she had a valid excuse, her bike tires got
slashed, but still sad, she said she would next week. Church was good,
I was super surprised afterwards when I loaded my email and had like
30 birthday ones! I thought it had messed up! Thanks so much to
everyone for sending those, it really made my day :) We saw Marisol
and Antonio that afternoon. Marisol is the sweetest and Antonio is
super funny. There was a baptism for an 8 year old this afternoon and
the family was super sweet and when they found out it was my birthday
as well, they made me a cake :) it was tiramisu. We saw Valeria that
night. She's a simp I hadn't met yet, she's super sweet! Really fun.

Monday, district meeting! It's weird to have anziani again in my city:).
Their names are anziano Olsen and anziano Diego. We did finding
and met some really cool people, no one gave us their number, but we
got some pass along cards out there. That night we had Sabrina and
Paolo. This week, Sabrina taught us how to make gnocchi. Soooooo good!
It was a fun night. Sabrina's super awesome and she's having some
breakthroughs, she just has to really want it! 
Making gnocchi


Tuesday, we went with Marisol to do visiting teaching for Lucy. 
Then we met up with Sorella P, the ward mission leaders wife so she 
could go with us to a lesson with Monica, a simp. Having members at 
lessons is seriously so important! They can relate so well and really be 
friends to investigators. That afternoon, we hopped on a train to a 
paesino to see Liri, a less active member, but when we called her, she had
forgotten and wasn't at home, so that's a bummer. We saw Sanela again.
She's so great! She loved the plan of salvation and she was like,
listen this stuff is super important, so can you guys come when my
kids are at school so I can concentrate on it, and we said, of course!
Then FHE tonight. That's always really good.


Whew, and we've arrived to today! We're going to go see a few churches
and stuff around town, it should be really cool!
Well, thanks so much for everything you guys do! I love you all! Have
a great week!
Love, Sorella Snow

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Making pasta and playing telephone - October 7, 2015

Saying good bye last week to wonderful friends in Livorno...


Sorella Car.. and her mother with Sorelle Harris and Snow

The Bus... family
Sorella Nav... with Sorelle Harris & Snow

Viviana, Sorelle Snow & Harris

Sorella Nac... and Sorelle Snow & Harris

Ciao, Famiglia!

So, wow, the first week of a new transfer always feels like it kinda
takes super long. Okay, answers! Yup, it's a branch! That's kinda
exciting cause it's my first branch in the mission. Yeah, it's smaller
than I'm used to but they're almost a ward, they just need two more
priesthood holders or something so they're working really hard for it!
We have four missionaries, US and two anziani. We're in the Rimini
zone, so unfortunately Venice isn't a part of it :( our STLs are in
Venice so maybe I'll do a scambio there though :) Sorella Burgess is
one transfer below me. She's from Colorado and she's super sweet.
She's a convert and she has a really amazing testimony and it's really
helpful for Italians to see, hey, she joined by herself, I can do it
too! We watched all the sessions of conference except the Sunday
afternoon. We watched Saturday morning live and they did a broadcast
of the women's session Saturday and then we watched Saturday afternoon
on Sunday morning. It was sooooo good!

Last Wednesday, we saw Azzurra Wednesday night. She's super cute, I
was really sad to say goodbye. We also ran over to the Zerbi family's
place so I could say goodbye. They're awesome, I'm gonna miss them a
lot. Then I had to finish packing, always a stressful experience!
Giacomo, Azzurra, Sorelle Harris & Snow

The Z family

Sergio, Sorelle Snow & Harris

Thursday morning, we took off! Some members gave us a ride to the
train station, meno male! And we took a train to Firenze and then
hopped on another one to Bologna. There we met up with some
missionaries and I had to say goodbye to Sorella Harris, super sad, I
miss her! Sorella Burgess was waiting there so we hopped on a train to
Ravenna and we made it home abastanza early. We went to mutual (I
guess my mutual days are NOT over) and did a ton of pass bys and
finding to finish the night. It's another biking city but Livorno was
pretty flat and Ravenna's got a lot of up and down, so I'm slowly
adjusting to that. Plus, we live on the second floor (which is
basically the third floor because they don't count the first one here,
don't know why) so lugging my suitcases up that was NOT fun, but we
survived!

Friday, weekly planning like always, the branch also asked us to pass
out English class fliers at schools so we did that too. More pass bys
and then we went and saw Alessandro and Nino. We teach them because
we're also teaching Maria, Alessandro's mom. That went
well. Maria's house is always super crazy because there are groups of
people who will walk in and out during most of the lesson and some
will stay and join for a few minutes, leave, come back. It's good
though, they're all super open.

Saturday, finding in a park for the morning and then that afternoon,
we saw the women's session of conference and then the Saturday morning
session. They had it broadcasting in English as well for some members
who speak English, so we watched it in there. It was really good! I
liked the women's session a lot.

Sunday, we saw the Saturday afternoon session in the morning, I think
that was the one where Jeffrey R Holland talked. That was really good!
We went and saw Anna that afternoon. She's the mother of another simp
we have and she likes to read the Book of Mormon with us. Then we went
and watched the Sunday morning session. It was amazing! I love
conference!

Monday, we had correlation with our WML in the morning, he's adorable,
he took us out to get gelato. We did some pass bys and one person let
us in but she's not really interested in actually investigating, she
was really nice though! Then we saw Paolo and Sabrina that
night (Sabrina is Anna's daughter). Sabrina wanted to show us how to
make pasta, so she broke out this cool little machine and taught us how
to do it. The lesson went really well. Sabrina said we brought a
message that was perfect for something she's going through right now.

 


Learning how to make pasta from Sabrina

Sabrina and Sorella Burgess
Anna

Tuesday, we did some finding in the morning. We went to a paesino in
the afternoon to see a less active. She's from Albania. She's super
legit and wants to come but has a job where she has to work on
Sundays. We had FHE this night, it was really good, we played
telephone and likened in to the apostasy. The members here are really
up for doing missionary work, it's great!

Today, we haven't done much yet. We have some stuff that has to be
done, so we probably won't do a ton of sight seeing. Ravenna is
serially gorgeous! It apparently used to be the capital of the Roman
Empire for a short time and it's an ancient city! Soooo many churches.
We're gonna try and check out a lot of stuff this transfer!

Well, I think that's it for me so far! I love you guys., have a fantastic week!
Love, Sorella Snow