Monday, January 18, 2016

Befana and more bike problems - January 13, 2016

Hey, everyone!

So last pday, it was the holiday of the Befana, an Italian witch who
brings candy to kids in their stockings, so everything was closed and
only one person came to English, but we had a good time talking with
that one dude.

Thursday, we had zone training. It's always kinda a long day because
we have to get up early and get home kinda late in the afternoon and
don't have time to see a ton of people. We saw Maria really quickly
and had a little lesson with her and then we had branch counsel. It
was good.

Friday, we saw Gaia in the morning. She's a really sweet member and we
love seeing her. She has an adorable little girl named Alice. We had a
good lesson with her, afterwards, we needed the anziani to come and
fix Sorella Arbon's bike because the brakes were putting too much
pressure and making it hard for her to ride. Turns out her wheel was
actually loose and was hitting the frame and that's why it was so hard
to ride, so it was really good we figured that out because otherwise
the wheel could've popped off while she was riding. We had an
appointment cancel on us after lunch and then went and saw Marisol and
Antonio. We hadn't seen them in a couple of weeks because they had
been out of town, so we were really excited to see them again. After
we taught them, they actually asked us to go downstairs and teach a
lesson to some of their neighbors, so that was super awesome! We had
another bidone after that and tried some more finding.

Saturday, we went finding before correlation and then did correlation
with our WML. We saw Sanela that afternoon. Unfortunately, she was
super sick and not feeling well, so we just left her with a small
message and then left her to rest. Then we went finding for a few more
hours and that night we had a dinner appointment with a less active
sister named Eliana. We've been trying to call her for weeks but she
hadn't let us come over. This week she actually called us and invited
us over, so it was a definite miracle. We had a really nice lesson
with her.

Sunday, we had church as usual. It was really nice. Afterwards, that
afternoon, we had another bidone (no show for an appointment). And
spent seriously the rest of the day finding. So our mission president
had asked us to try and get 21 lessons this week. We didn't end up
getting that many but we did triple the number of lessons we had been
getting and we finally got in contact with multiple people we'd been
trying to visit for months, so we saw a ton of blessings for all the
hard work we'd done.

Monday, we had district meeting in the morning, that afternoon, we had
another bidone. And we did more finding (I'm seeing a pattern! :)). We
also did weekly planning because we'd been too busy the last week to
do it.

Yesterday, we finally got in contact with another less active sister
and went to go see her. She unfortunately lives kinda far away, so we
left kinda early in the morning and it took us an hour and a half on
buses to get to her. It was an awesome lesson though! She promised to
come to church on Sunday! Then there wasn't a bus back until 3 that
afternoon, so we had to stay in this teeny mini village of like 8
houses until then. That night we had FHE. The branch decided to do a
movie night so we obviously couldn't stay but we went to help set up
and greet any friends or less active members who came.

Today, we went to San Marino. Almost the entire zone was there. The
Rimini Anziani had also brought a member with them who ended up
showing us all around the city, it was great!


San Marino


Sorry, the emails kinda lame/ boring. I didn't have a ton of time to
write today, promise I'll be better next week!!
I love you guys ! Have a fantastic week!
Love, Sorella Snow

It started raining - January 6, 2016

Hey, Famiglia!

So it's been a good week. We've been starting to get really busy again
because people are coming back from vacation, so we're really happy
about that.

Last Saturday, it started raining. So everyone's been telling us that
the winter has been really mild so far this year and that we'd better
buckle up for it to get a lot worse, so this week, it got worse. Still
not as bad as last year yet (finding in the snow is not an experience
I'm eager to repeat) but it's starting to rain and on the bikes we get
soaked. We did a lot of pass bys and had a few people cancel on us.

Sunday, we taught young women's in church. It was fun, kinda weird
cause I felt like I should still be the student, not the teacher :).
That afternoon we saw Maria. We shared the story of Esther and the
Mormon message about her and Maria loved it.

Monday. Okay so, in everyone's first transfer, President Dibb
challenges the new greenie and their trainer to get 21 lessons one
week, and that's this week for us. So we're kinda running around crazy
trying to do that. We saw Diva and Debora. They're really sweet and
love having us over, we also tried to pass by a less active sister and
saw a new convert, Sandra. This is the first time I've ever been able
to visit her because she's usually so busy. It was really good though,
a great lesson. Then we had a bidone (a no show) that night. Plus, it
was raining all day.

Tuesday, we saw the B family, a family of members and had a great
lesson with them. They're really cool have a lot of faith, they asked
us to start giving out the ward Facebook page to all our simps and
everyone we meet and they want to post "inspiring messages" to help
bring people closer to the church. It's just really great to have
people who are trying to help in any way they can think of. We saw
Gabriella also. To get her, we take a train ride, then a bus ride and
then walk a little, so that took up a lot of the afternoon. But it was
really great. She's really nice and has a lot of faith and trust in
the Lord and it was really beautiful to see. That night we had FHE.
For the past month, we've only had one new convert who's been showing
up to FHE, but people are finally starting to come back from vacation
so we had a good group this week.

Today, it's an Italian holiday, the befana. She's a witch who brings
presents to kids and puts them in their stockings. So basically
Italians take their holidays seriously and every single store was
closed today and it was also raining, so we stayed inside most of
today.

Well, it's been a good week so far, we've been keeping busy! I love
you guys and I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Sorella Snow

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Happy New Year! - January 1, 2016

Ciao Famiglia!

Hey, I hope you all had a fantasic Chrismas! It was pretty good here ;).

So, last week, after pday, we had English class. It was getting pretty
close to Christmas,so not a lot of people showed up, only a few of the
advanced course people, but it was fun. We played hang man

Last Thursday, it was Chrismas Eve! So, we made some brownies and then
spent a lot of the day biking around to all of our members and simps
houses and caroling and giving them brownies. We went with the anziani
and ya know, it's always kinda funny when we have all four of us
biking around with our church dress and helmets and we're sticking out
like a sore thumb, we get a lot of strange looks.

Friday, Christmas! It was great! We went to the P family for
Christmas lunch and ate too much food. Sorella Arbon's face was pretty
funny when I told her that we ate a relatively light Christmas lunch
(it was only like 4 courses, Italians are crazy!). Then we got to
skype with our families!! That was super great, I was really happy to
see you all, it was definitely the highlight of Christmas.

Saturday, we did a lot of area book and phone calls. We went outside
and the streets were literally deserted. So, that was a little rough.

Sunday, we had church! We also were recruited to teach the lesson in
relief society. Trying to keep an Italian lady from talking too much
is hard when you have a one on one appointment, trying to keep them
from dominating the conversation when it's 10 of them versus one
"seasoned" missionary and one greenie is even more difficult. But it
went well in the end.

Monday, we had district meeting like usual and then had a lot of
finding and area book and trying to set up appointments. This week was
kinda the awkward time between Christmas and New Years where
everyone's still out of town.

Tuesday, in the morning we had to go to the police department to work
on stuff for Sorella Arbon's visa. I'm the afternoon we did more
finding until Sorella Arbon's brakes broke. Luckily, Anziano Olsen is
amazing at fixing stuff and loves doing it too, so he worked on them.
We're so lucky that he's here to help us because that bike has broken
about once a week since I've gotten here! Then we had FHE. Samuele and
Sandra, two new converts, were the only ones to show up. We had a
really awesome lesson with them though.

Wednesday, we had new missionary training in Milano, so we had to wake
up at 5:30 that morning to catch a train and make it there in time. It
was great though. We both learned a lot and got new ideas for
missionary work. It was really good. One cool miracle, on the way
there, there was a young man who started a conversation with us. He's
a less active member. He was really cool and we had an awesome
conversation with him. We left him with the site for the Christmas
video. Hopefully he'll look it up. Then on the way back that night I
met a nice little old man on a train, he gave me a sudoku to do but he
also tried to convince that I should be Catholic, so that was an
interesting conversation :).

Thursday, we had to go to the police office again to do more stuff for
Sorella Arbon's permesso. Then we saw Sanela! She's so awesome! Turns out
Serbians celebrate Christmas the 31 instead of the 25, so we kinda
went over on their Christmas Day, oops. But she was happy to see us
and we had a great lesson. Afterwards. Her nine year old son was super
interested and asking us a lot of questions, so we're hoping he wants
to start investigating as well. :) then we had to be inside early that
night because the festivities for New Years can get a little insane
here. Such as people launching fireworks out of their living room
windows.


Today, was pday! Unfortunately, literally every store was closed in
town because it was the day after New Year's Eve. Equally as
unfortunate is the fact that we have run out of food because we had to
delay an extra two days to do our pday. Luckily, we found an open
place to get lunch and everything should open up again by tomorrow :).

Well, that was my week! It was a long one! I hope you all had an
amazing Christmas and New Years. I love you!
Love,
Sorella Snow

I'll be home for Christmas...next year! - December 23, 2015

Ciao Famiglia Mia!

How are you?! Sounds like things are going great with another brand
new niece and a baby blessing :) Things are going well here.

Last Wednesday, we had English class. I have two ladies in my class
and I just love them! They're super sweet and kind. Also, a few of the
students brought us and the anziani pandoro and panettone, some
traditional Italian Christmas treats, so they're just really sweet to
us

Thursday, we saw Sorella A, a member, in the morning to share the
Christmas video with her. It was great because she was just so open
and willing to share the message. We asked her if she'd give a
Christmas pass-a-long card to a friend and she was like, psh, give me
more than one, I need a stack to give to people! That afternoon we saw
Sanela! We haven't been able to see her for awhile because she was out
of town but we're really excited to start working with her again. W
also helped clean the church that night.

Friday, we did weekly planning and made cookies in the morning for our
Christmas party. That afternoon, we were supposed to have an
appointment with a new person but she didn't show, so that was a
bummer. That night, we had our Christmas dinner! It was so fun! And
there was so much food! We ate the cappelletti we helped make and had
some awesome tiramisu!

Saturday, we had correlation in the morning. That afternoon we had a
ton of appointments fall through, so that was a bummer. I love
Christmas season as a missionary because everyone's way more open to
religion, but on the other hand, a ton of people leave town or want to
take a break from seeing us because they're with their families, so
that's kinda rough and we get a lot bidoni.

Sunday, we saw the Christmas devotional in Italian, that was cool
cause I didn't watch conference in Italian so I got to test out my
language skills listening to legit talks. I was able to understand
basically all of it, so that was cool. (Granted it was all religious
vocab)

Monday, we had our Christmas zone meeting. It was fun. We talked about
the Christ like attributes. We also sang some Christmas carols and I
got my Christmas package!! Thanks mom! I'm super excited to open my
presents on Christmas.

Tuesday, we went and did some finding for awhile and weren't having
success, so we were leaving but decided to talk to one last guy. We
walked up to him and asked him if we could share a Christmas video and
he told us some other missionaries had already beat us to it! He
apparently had seen the anziani in Padova a couple of days before and
they'd stopped him also. So, that was really cool, we had a good
discussion and we told him that there are church meetings in Padova
and invited him to call the anziani there :) We also saw Maria. Then
we had family home evening.

Today, we went to San Marino. It was fun. It's really pretty. It's a
teeny town though, so we probably walked it like 3 times.
San Marino


Well, I love you guys so much! Thanks for your love and support
throughout this year. I'm so grateful for my Savior and I'm happy to
celebrate his birth at this time. Have a Merry Christmas!
Love,
Sorella Snow
PS check out the video the church made in addition to A Savior is
Born, it's super beautiful!
https://www.mormon.org/christmas/purpose-of-a-savior

I'm a mom! - December 16, 2015

Hey, Famiglia!

So, exciting news for the week, I had a child! You know, with all my
sibs having baby girls I figured I'd have one too! Just joking, but we
really do call our trainers our mission moms and the trainees are our
mission daughters, sooooo.... :)

So, last Wednesday night,  Sorella Bastian and I had to head off for
Milano because I had to be there bright and early Thursday morning to
go to the mission home and get matched up with my greenie. We stayed
the night with Sorella Hawks!

Thursday morning, I said goodbye to Sorella Bastian (really sad to
have spent such a short time with her) and headed off to the mission
home, my new comp's name is Sorella Arbon and she's from Kaysville,
Utah (she said she doesn't know any Snows living there). She's super
sweet, really funny and sooo excited to work, so I think we're gonna
have a great time! The rest of the day was super long getting back,
just basically all day on trains but we talked to quite a few people
and it was fun.

Friday, weekly planning as always. We also went and saw Maria and
tried to see a couple of other people but it's getting close to the
holidays and people are starting to take off for Christmas and New
Years.

Saturday, we had correlation in the morning and that afternoon we went
and saw Amelia and Morena. They're some simps who I hadn't ever met
before but they finally answered when I called and said we could come
over. They seem really sweet and said they'd like to come to the
branch Christmas party so hopefully they will. We passed by some more
people but still no luck.

Sunday, we had church( poor Sorella Arbon, the first Sunday is sooooo
exhausting because you have no clue what anyone's saying and you're
trying so hard to understand that you're mentally exhausted) and then
all that afternoon and night we did a gazebo (as they call it here).
It was like a stand set up and a ton of members came and all four
missionaries and we stopped basically every person who passed. They
had a TV set up showing motab and church videos. It was great! The
members were super awesome and excited to help do missionary work and
we got some new people we can try to contact from it.

Monday, district meeting in the morning. We're back down to just
having the four Ravenna missionaries in our district(last transfer we
had Forlì as well). That afternoon we had to go sort out permesso
stuff for Sorella Arbon. Basically making it legal for her to stay
here. That night we saw the P family and helped Sorella
P with a service project.

Yesterday, we saw Debora and Diva. They can sure talk. That afternoon
we went with Sorella Gen- to do visiting teaching for Sorella
Gre-. Afterwards there was a branch activity to make cappelletti( a
type of stuffed pasta) for the Christmas party, so they asked us to
come help out with that. It was so much fun! The members kept telling
us we had to go home and make it for our families in America :). Then
we had FHE that night.
Sorelle Arbon & Snow

Today! We kept it pretty chill. Sorella Arbon needs some new
stuff (boots, sweaters) so we did a little bit of shopping and we also
had to go work on her permesso stuff again today.

It's been a good week. We're working hard and we're really exciting
for Christmas. I love you guys, have a great week!
Love, Sorella Snow

Ravenna is decorated for Christmas - December 9, 2015

Hey, Famiglia

Whew, another crazy week.

Last, Wednesday, we went and saw Maria. She's doing well, lessons at
her house are always kinda insane because there are tons of people
coming and going throughout the entire thing. Then we had English,
which is always really fun.

Last Thursday, we went out and did some finding. Unfortunately, with
winter and the cold, it's a little harder cause not as many people are
out. That night we had branch counsel. It was good, hey we're making
their goals for the new year and talking about who they want to
concentrate on, they all are really awesome.

Friday, we hopped on a train to get to Mestre to do a scambio with the
STLs. I stayed in Mestre with Sorella Schoenhals again. We spent the
entire night doing pass bys in Venice! It was sooooo beautiful, we
even got to use the water taxis to get around.

Saturday morning, we drove back down to Ravenna to scambi back. It was
a shorter scambio because the train ride getting there is just so
long. Then, we got transfer news. To our surprise, Sorella Bastian is
already leaving... And I'm training! I wasn't expecting that. That
means that I'll spend the next two transfers here in Ravenna and
finish my mission here. Pretty crazy. After that, we had an
appointment but it canceled on us and then we did a lot of passbys all
night.
Sorelle Snow & Batian

Sunday, we had sacrament meeting in the morning only and then went to
Marisol and Antonio's for lunch so Sorella Bastian could say goodbye.
Then we had a mini stake conference recap in Rimini (which is why we
only had sacrament meeting) because when we did the actual stake
conference, they showed it on skype but the quality was really low and
we couldn't hear much. I got to translate at that, so that was pretty
bizarre. Then we went and said goodbye to Maria.
Lunch at Marisol & Antonio's

Sorella Bastian, Maria & Sorella Snow

Monday, last district meeting. The Forlì anziani are getting taken out
of our district so we're back down to just the four Ravenna
missionaries next transfer. 
District

That night we went to the P family for
dinner because they wanted to make pizza for Sorella Bastian before
she leaves. It was a lot of fun.
P Family

"That plate is the size of the rotating one in the microwave.  It was big..."

Tuesday, we found out that we'd have to leave pretty early on
Wednesday to go up to Milano for transfers. They're trying to do them
more spread out this transfer to avoid big groups of missionaries. So
we had to do a ton of stuff to get Sorella Bastian ready to go since
we wouldn't have much of Wednesday to do anything. We did some area
book as well and had FHE that night. Most of the members are on a
temple trip right now, so it was just us the anziani, Fratello
P and Daniele and Rosa.
The city is decorated for Christmas!



Today, we have to run a ton of errands still this morning before we
get our train. I'm going to stay the night with Sorella Avila in
Cimiano and Sorella Bastian is going to travel the rest of the way to
her new city, Bergamo with my mtc comp, Sorella Hawks!

Man, it's been a crazy week! I'm really excited for the next transfer.
I hope you're all doing well. I love you!
Love, Sorella Snow