They have big hearts - October 22, 2015

Ciao Famiglia!

Don't worry, I am in fact still alive! Sorry about the delay, our pday
ended up being today.
So answers! Sanela is actually from Serbia. We work with quite a few
foreigners here. Ravenna's a little bit farther up north and to the
east so that might be why we have more foreigners than in my last
city. My favorite thing about Italy so far is most defiantly the
people. They have a culture of belief in Christ and almost everyone is
Christian. They can be a little hard at first, but once you get into
their hearts, they love you and would do anything for you. They have
big hearts.

So, last week, we ended up needing to do a ton of organization on
pday, so we didn't end up doing any touristy stuff. We went to see
Alessandro that night and on the way my tire popped. So we had to walk
the rest of the way to him and then walk all the way to the church. We
made it 10 minutes before English class ended but luckily our anziani
had taken care of all the students. Also, luckily, some members
happened to stop by the church and they gave us a ride home, which is
good because walking home for 30 minutes at night is never a good
idea.

Thursday, we went and took my bike to the shop to get it fixed. We
went and saw Debora and Diva. It was fun. They're this cute older mom
and daughter. They're kinda crazy and get side tracked super easily.
We also went to a paesino to see a family that is kinda new as simps.
They're really sweet, they're Muslim but not super practicing.
We'll see what happens with them. We also saw a
member family that just moved here from Germany for work, they're
super fun! The parents speak English.

Friday, we had weekly planning, as always :). We saw Sanela again.
She's so great! She had a friend over so we taught her a little bit
too and we'll see if she wants to learn more, she seemed interested.
We went and Valeria tonight also. She's good. She's a super sweet
lady. We're always really happy to see her.

Saturday. We had correlation. Our ward mission leader is great! He's
super sweet and really willing to help us. Unfortunately, today turned
into one of those days where everyone bidoned us. Also, we finally got
someone who said we could come over and my tire popped again. This
time in the middle of centro (the city center, basically the busiest
part) and since there were so many people, Sorella Burgess didn't
realize I had stopped and she kept going. I haven't gone to see this
person yet so I have no idea where they live and so I lost her and had
no idea where to go. So I waited for like half an hour to see if she'd
come back. She didn't. I finally asked someone to use their phone and
called her and she'd made it all the way to the simps before she
realized I wasn't with her. Uh oh. All's well that ends well, we met up
took my bike to get fixed. I was companion-less for a half an hour
though and that was super bizarre!

Sunday, Sanela's uncle (who is Alessandro's dad) ended up in the
hospital so neither of them came to church. Really sad. But they said
he's better and they'll come next week. We had a member invite us over
for lunch. Her name is Meris and she's super sweet. She made enough
pasta for like 8 people for just the three of us and insisted we had
to take the leftovers home. We saw Anna today. We also saw the
Tri... family. The mom and 1 daughter are members, the dad and
other kids aren't. They're fun, super crazy cause they're from Naples,
but really fun.

Monday, everyone canceled on us, except for Sabrina and Paolo. They're
good, Sabrina's really trying. She's so close to realizing how much
faith she has but she just doesn't know it! We made them a dang fine
apple pie, not relevant, but we were proud of ourselves!

At Sabrina and Paolo's

Tuesday, we met Gaia, she's a member and super sweet. She has two kids
and a husband who's not a member, so she has trouble making it very
often, but she's super sweet! We saw Sanela. We read with her. She
doesn't really know how to read, so we read aloud with her from the
Book of Mormon so she can hear it. Then we saw Alessandro. He's doing
well. He said he wants to commit himself more. Tonight, we took off
for Bologna to stay the night. I can't remember if I told you, but we
had a conference in Milano on Wednesday, so we stayed the night in
Bologna.

Wednesday, we had a conference! Sister Oscarson and Sister Burton of
the general young women and relief society presidencies came and spoke
to us. It was really good! They're amazing women and all of the
sisters in the mission came for the conference. One of them talked
about how missionary work and the relief society are connected. The
missionaries bring the simps to the waters of baptism and the relief
society helps sustain and uphold these members to bring them to the
ordinances of the temple. It was a great conference.

Sorelle Hawks & Snow

Sorelle Harris & Snow

All the sister missionaries with Sister Linda K. Burton and Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson in the back.
Can you find Sorella Snow?

Today, we did a church tour of the city. In answer to one of your
questions, the mosaics are mostly of Christian events. They were
gorgeous, most of the churches had them. They are seriously so
beautiful. It was awesome! Unfortunately, since we didn't do pday our
normal day, we had to do mutual and ward council today, and ward
council went like an hour over, so we only have like half our normal
email time to write, which is why this was done so fast!

I love you guys so much! Thanks for everything you do! Have a good week :)
Love, Sorella Snow