Visiting the Ladies of Livorno - August 5, 2015

Ciao, Famiglia!

Answers to questions! Yeah, our church block was changed as a result
of the recommendation from the twelve. The ward seems to be receiving
the new emphasis on sabbath day observance really well. At first, they
were a little worried about being on time when sacrament meeting was
first, but they've accepted that it should help out reverence. We've
been visiting less active and inactive members talking about the
sacrament and the new change, so yeah, it's been talked about a lot.

So this week was pretty slow. I can't remember if I've already
mentioned it, but they have this holiday here over the summer called
Ferragosto and it officially starts on August 15 but everyone takes
off work starting a month early and going on until the end of August
to celebrate it, EVERYONE is at the beach. So, August is usually
pretty slow here.

Our district

Thursday, we passed by a lot of people, and did finding and made a ton
of calls.

Friday, we finally made it through the entire ward list. We have
officially tried to contact every single lady who lives in Livorno.
Usually, when we do the pass bys, we find out the people moved away or
they have no interest in seeing us, but today we found one really nice
lady who said we can come back another day, so we're really excited to
see if we can start working with her.

Saturday, we saw Sorella Car again. She's doing well. We've met her
husband a few times and he seems like a really nice guy. We did more
finding today.

Sunday, we had church. It was fast Sunday and it was really good. We
had a TON of people in church, one of the anziani counted about
70 and none of the were tourists! So we were really excited for about
that. Our sacrament meeting also changed to being the first hour
and it was really nice, I've never seen the Italians so on time in my
entire life! Just kidding (kinda). Also, yesterday night, when we were
planning for today, we had joked about maybe seeing this man again
that we've seen a few times and he's approached each time to ask about
our church. We were joking about how we might run into him again, and
we actually did! It was pretty cool! We taught him the first lesson.
We'll have to pass him to the anziani if he still has interest in
meeting again, but we were just really excited about it.

Monday, we had district meeting and then that afternoon we saw Azzura
and Giacomo. It had been awhile since we'd seen them and Sorella
Harris hadn't even really met them yet, so we were super pumped to
finally be able to get together, that night, we had the plumber come
again because now our faucet is spraying everywhere all over our
kitchen. He was just checking it out, he still needs to fix it. We've
started a list and we're taking pictures of all the things that go
wrong in our apartment. There's our broken faucet, the air
conditioning, our door handle that falls off all the time, our water
ran brown for a few hours one day, lots of stuff.

We had to boil water to wash our dishes after our hot water went out the second time.

Tuesday, we saw Sorella Iz in the morning, Sorella Harris has been
having some foot problems and Sorella Iz knows about that stuff, so
she took a look at it for her. We also saw Sorella An while we
were there. The two of them are seriously awesome ladies, and are both
so sweet and caring. We saw Sorella Car that afternoon and then
Sorella Nac. Sorella Nac is super fun. We always have really
good talks with her. Then we had English class. There weren't a lot of
people today, so we combined our class with the anziani's. It was fun.
The people who come to English class are really fun and sweet. One of
the men in our class said he's going on vacation but that when he
comes back, he's gonna bring us some blackberry jam from the mountains
that's supposed to be really good.

Today, we went to Monte Nero in the morning. It was pretty cool. The
chapel at the top was really pretty and bright inside, usually
Catholic churches are so dark and gloomy. We also may have
accidentally walked into their mass.

Pinocchio was invented in this region, they love him here!

View from Monte Nero

Sorella Harris took this really pretty view  from Monte Nero

We couldn't do a lot today, we had interviews with president and we
had to go to Pisa for it.

Thanks for the support and love, you guys are the best and I love
hearing from you all. Have an amazing week!

Love, Sorella Snow

Win Win! - July 29, 2015

Ciao, famiglia!

How are you guys all doing? Hope it was a good week! So, questions!
Yeah, when we go anywhere outside of Livorno we take a train. When we
went to San Gimignano it took an hour and 45 minutes to get to a city
named Poggibonsi and then we took a twenty minute bus ride to get to
San Gimignano. So yeah, it takes awhile! We left at seven in the
morning for that one! Pisa just takes 20 minutes.

So, last Thursday, we saw Viviana. We haven't been able to see or even
talk with her in awhile, so she didn't even know that Sorella McMurray
had left. So Sorella Harris got to finally meet her. She's really
cool.

Friday, we did weekly planning and it was good. I've realized that
when we do weekly planning and actually do a good job, the rest of our
week is so much easier as opposed to when we don't have time and just
rush through it. Then we saw Sorella Car again. She's doing well.
We're still meeting with her about two times a week.   Then we saw
Sorella I, an active member. She's really sweet. She just got called to be
in the Relief Society presidency here and she's super excited to serve.

Saturday, we saw Sorella Nav in the morning. It was awesome. I
seriously love her, she's so funny and has such an amazing testimony
and even with all the difficulties she's passing through right now,
she knows everything's gonna turn out all right.

Sunday, we had church! It was good. I'm getting pretty proud of myself
because I can sit in sacrament meeting and name just about everyone in
the ward, including most of the kids. We're establishing really good
relationships with members and I know it'll really bless the work.

Monday! We had district meeting, as usual. That afternoon we saw
Sorella Car again. She's doing a lot better now, her arm is out of
her cast from her broken clavicle and she's moving around a lot more.

Tuesday, we were supposed to help someone in the ward with English in
the morning, but we got a bidone, so that's always frustrating. So we
instead spent the morning trying to find Decathlon, a super cheap
sporting goods store because the brakes on my bike need to be replaced
and we also need new helmets. That ended taking us HOURS. But that was
the only place we could go. Everywhere else was asking for 100+ euro
for helmets (because Italians don't ever wear them so they only have
in stock the expensive nice ones for serious bikers). So that was
frustrating, but we did it! Then we saw Sorella Nac that night.
She's so awesome and so sweet! I love seeing her. We talked about the
sacrament. We're super excited for next Sunday when church will start
with that meeting. Then we had English class. We have four people
regularly coming right now and they're all super awesome so it's
really fun. It helps us learn a ton of non gospel related vocabulary as
well, so it's a win win! (Name that movie!)

Well, it's been a long but good week! I'm glad you guys made it home
safe and that you had such a good trip! I love you! Have a great week!
Love, Sorella Snow

It's really HOT here! - July 22, 2015

Buongiorno tutti!

Here it's been crazy as usual. Last Thursday, we saw Sorella Nav.
We ended up talking with her about genealogy. She's done a ton of her
family's and seriously loves it. (Kinda thought of Mom) Then later we
went and saw Sorella Car. We watched a video of Elder Holland
talking about the intro to the Book of Mormon. That night we went and saw the
Ner family. They are super awesome! They speak English as well as
Italian, so we kinda spoke a strange mixture of both, but it made
sense in my head.

Our zone

Friday, we had our zone training in the morning in Pisa and then we
had to hightail it back to Livorno to eat lunch really quick and then
begin our scambio.

Sorelle Snow & Ince

I stayed in Livorno with Sorella Ince and Sorella
Harris went to Prato with Sorella Welch. We went and saw Sorella
Nac and we talked about the talk from last conference, "Is It
Still Marvelous to You?" Sorella Nac is always super fun. Then we
went to a member family because they had a referral they wanted us to
meet. The Fratello said we overcame the first obstacle of getting her
to say she'd come, but we couldn't overcome the second obstacle of her
actually showing up. In other words, it was a bidone. Afterwards, we
went out to go finding, but my bike chain fell off and then as we
walked home, pushing the bikes, I twisted my ankle. Not fun. So then
we hobbled home.

Saturday, in the morning, we went to take my bike in to get the chain
put back on. We couldn't do it ourselves because it has a chain guard
around it. Nice for keeping your skirt from getting caught, but a pain
when you have to do any repairs. Then in the afternoon we switched
back, but of course it wouldn't be a complete scambio without some
sort of train problem! So while we were on our way to Prato, I guess
there was a fire on some tracks somewhere and our train got canceled.
Luckily we made it there only an hour late but then our train back was
delayed a half an hour. We were pretty happy to make it home!

Sunday, church! There were plenty of tourists this week, so our
sacrament meeting was nice and full. It was good though, one of our
new converts came and a less active person we're meeting with. Then we
were finally able to do weekly planning!

Monday, we had district meeting. We talked about sanctity of Sunday
because of the huge push for it that the church is doing. It's super
important and a thing saints kinda struggle with here, so I'm really
grateful for it. Then that night we taught Sorella Esp. She was
super fun! Also, when we got there, there was a returned missionary who
I served with in Torino who was there! So that was weird to see him
for a minute! But yeah, Sorella Esp was really cool and we're
going to go see her again Saturday!

Today was pretty busy! We saw Sorella Caro in the morning and shared
a message with her. She was super sweet. Then we did a few pass-bys.
We saw Sorella Car again that afternoon and then we went and saw
L an ex simp. She stopped investigating but asked us to come see
her today. She's nice but still has no desire to commit herself to
actually investigating. And then, we had English class. That's always
fun and it helps us learn a lot too! Also, one of the people from
English class had been gone for a week because he'd gone to Sicily,
but he brought us back some souvenirs! He got us some Sicily magnets!
So, I guess I don't need to go there after all! Scherzo!

Anywho, today, we went to San Gimignano. It's this castle city that's
outside of Siena. It was really pretty. We just basically walked
around it and got some gelato from a gelateria that has won a few
awards for world's best gelato. It was fun. But man are we tired! It's
really HOT here and the humidity is often above 80, but it sounds like
you guys understand what that's like!

San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany

Panoramic view of San Gimignano

Anywho, I love you guys! Thanks for the love and support and for being
such examples to me! Have a great week!

Love, Sorella Snow

Italian ladies talk A LOT! - July 15, 2015

Ciao Famiglia!
Sorella Harris is great! She's super sweet. She's been out 6 months
and just came from Montevarchi, a super small city, so she thinks
Livorno is huge, which I think is funny cause I've been in Milano
and Torino!

So! This was a kinda long week! We had our transfer day on Wednesday
and we went to Firenze where I dropped off Sorella McMurray and picked
up Sorella Harris and then we came back to good old Livorno. That
first day we just kinda went around and I showed her the church and the
city. Her last area was a branch and they didn't even have a church
building, so she was pretty excited to see it!

Thursday! We were supposed to have correlation with our ward mission
leader but he had to bail at the last second, so we helped out
cleaning the church instead. We also went to a funeral that afternoon
for someone in the ward who'd died. Then we went and saw Sorella
San.  She was super cute and really happy to have us. Plus, her
balcony is huge! It wraps around three sides of her apartment and it's
all covered in plants, it was super beautiful. That night we went down
to the terrazza on the sea and we got some gelato and then watched the
sun set, it was pretty beautiful!

Beautiful sunset in beautiful Livorno!

Friday, we saw Sorella Nav in the morning. She's an amazing
woman, super strong. Sorella McMurray and I didn't get a chance to go
see her before she left, so Sorella Nav was joking about how evil
she was for not saying goodbye. Then we came home and did half of our
weekly planning. Then we had Sorella Nac. She's super cute too. We
watched a Mormon message.

Saturday, we finished the second half of our weekly planning in the
morning, and while we did it, we made some ragu for a lasagna. Then we
threw that together for lunch.it was pretty good, if I did say so
myself! We also fasted that day for a person we're working with.

The park next to our house used to be a zoo

Another beautiful sunset on Saturday night

We had church on Sunday, of course. It was good. One awesome thing
about having a new companion is that you can tell them to go talk with
specific people and ask them their names. So, we found out the names
of a ton of people that Sorella McMurray and I were sneakily trying to
learn last transfer!

On Monday, we didn't have district meeting because we're going to have
zone conference this week. But we all had to go to the church still to
use the Internet there and turn in our numbers for the week, so it was
kinda like we still had it.... Then we saw a sister that night. Man
I've gotta tell you, Italian ladies talk A LOT. It's kinda hard to get
a word in at times.

Tuesday, well, our air conditioning guy was supposed to come and fix
that, but he didn't end up making it, so that was kinda frustrating (no
worries he came this morning!) So, originally, our house was like 90+
degrees inside, now it's freezing. It's still that hot outside, but
come in our apartment and you'll find Sorella Harris wearing
sweatpants and a sweatshirt. It's kinda funny.
Then we were supposed to go see Sorella Nac again, but when we
pulled up in front of her house, there was some kind of demonstration
going on with tons of police officers there and cameras and angry
shouting people, so we thought it best to avoid that, so we
rescheduled with her. Then we had English class. It was fun, we had
two new people come this week. It was really good actually, and it
helps us with Italian too cause we can ask them questions about how
they would say something.

Today, we are going to Pisa and Lucca! It's gonna probably be a long
day, but we're excited for it!

The tower in Pisa

One of the many churches in Lucca, San Michele in Foro. 
Lucca is called "The City of 100 Churches"

A garden on top of a tower in Lucca

Anywho, it's been a loooong but good week! I love you guys a ton! Have
an amazing week!
Love, Sorella Snow

Happy Fourth of July - July 7, 2015

 

Ciao famiglia!

Hey, so transfer news! I'm staying in Livorno but Sorella McMurray is
leaving. She's going to Trieste and someone called Sorella Harris is
coming here. Kinda surprising. There were a ton of missionaries who
went home this transfer and not a lot who came in, so there were a ton
of changes all over the mission.

So last week! Last Thursday, we had an electrician come to fix our ac
unit. It's been blowing out hot air and our apartment has been about
ninety degrees. But he fixed it up so it's not doing that anymore and
later this week he should come fix the actual ac and we'll have air
conditioning! So we're pretty psyched about that!

Friday, we saw V again. She's doing well, she just needs to find
the motivation to come to church. Then we saw Sorella Nav. She's
super cute. She showed us all of her artwork. She's actually pretty
good!

Saturday, Happy Fourth of July! We tried to get all fancy. We made
hamburgers and carved out a watermelon and put a fruit salad inside of
it. We made peach cobbler and homemade beans, it was pretty crazy! We
had a really fun time doing all of that. We also got our transfer
calls that day.



I kinda skewered my finger while cutting something!  Sorella McMurray patched it up!

Got red, white and blue covered for the 4th!
 

Playing with ribbons from some poppers we exploded for the Fourth of July

 

Sunday, we had church, it was a really good fast and testimony
meeting. We also had district meeting that night because we were going
to have an appointment the next morning. It was a fun one, the anziani
brought some homemade pizza and we brought the rest of our cobbler and
gelato. Both the anziani are staying here next transfer also.

Monday, we saw Sorella Fra. She's from America and speaks English
so it's always fun to go see her. Then we went and saw Sorella
Ani. She's such a sweet lady! While we were there she suddenly
asked us if we wanted to see the ocean, so she piled us in her car and
we took off to drive a little along the coast and check out the view.
It was beautiful, plus we had the windows down and air blowing through
our hair, so it was super fun! Then we went home so Sorella McMurray
could pack some more.

Today, we took it easy. We packed, we did a little shopping. We're
going to go see some more people Sorella McMurray needs to say goodbye
to and then we'll have English.

Well, it's been a pretty crazy week, and this next one's gonna be
pretty long! Our pday will be moved back to Wednesday.
I love you guys! Have an awesome week and enjoy your next vacation ;)
Love, Sorella Snow

Another Week! - July 1, 2015

Ciao, tutti! Come state?!?

So this week has been pretty crazy! It just seems like this transfer
has seriously flown by. We get our transfer calls this Saturday (plus
it's Fourth of July!)

Last Thursday, we visited a sister in the ward who had a surgery this
week. It was pretty fun, there was that sister and two other Italian
ladies who were joking around and crazy with hand gestures. The sister
had the surgery for her eyes and she was joking about how now that she
can see, she sees how ugly everyone in the ward has become since she
went blind. They're all a hoot. Also, we had a member come over to fix
this drain out on our balcony that had clogged and our balcony was
flooded. We spent all of Wednesday night waking up and dumping filled
buckets of water every two hours because the drain was clogged. So we
were pretty relieved to get that fixed! Then we saw Viviana and her
mom. It was a pretty crazy day.

Friday, we saw Sorella Nav in the morning and then did our weekly
planning. We also helped Federica make some treats for members in our
ward who had lost a family member. Then that night we went out to a
fish dinner with her. I thought it was pretty gross, but Sorella
McMurray and Federica assure me it was pretty good.

Saturday, we saw Brother and Sister Mas. They're a super cute
married couple we had a really good lesson with them.

Sunday, we had church and it was good! I love our members here, they
are seriously awesome!

Monday, we had district meeting and then saw Azzura and Giacomo.
They're always super fun to see. We also went to this cool fortress
that's built in the middle of the canal with Azzura and Giacomo, so
that was really cool!


Fortezza Nuova in Livorno

Yesterday, we saw Sorella Ani and Sorella Car and Sorella
Arm, so it was a pretty hectic day! We also had English course
that night. That was fun! The people who come to our class are super
nice.

Today, we've taken it easy so far. We did some window shopping and
have hung around town. We're kinda tired out after all the running
around we did this week.

Sorelle Snow & McMurray with a new convert

Anywho, everything's good here! Thanks for the love and support. I
love you all!
Love, Kim

Now we feel super Italian - June 24, 2015

Buongiorno tutti!

Wow! Sounds like you all had a crazy week! Okay, so answers to
questions. Yeah our STLs are based out of Prato. They cover the Sorelle
in Firenze, Pisa, Siena, Montevarchi, and Livorno (I think that's
all). So they're pretty busy, they have to do exchanges every week!

So, last Thursday, we got to see Stella again! It's been a really long
time since we've been able to see her (she's had to work a ton) so we
were super excited to get in contact with her. She's a seriously
amazing woman and honestly has a heart of gold. Unfortunately, we
don't know how long it'll be until we can see her again. We also saw
Sorella N again and we got her to read a little bit of the Book
of Mormon in Dutch to us (is that the language from Holland, I don't
remember... It's called Holandese in Italian).

Friday, we saw Sorella D in the morning. She's really
cool. She told us her conversion story and subsequent inactivity and
then reactivation. Then we saw Sorella B and then our new
convert Federica.


We found this super crazy flower...



...and a wasp nest next to it!

Sunday, we were supposed to have a ward lunch, but I guess most of the
ward forgot about it, so we all went over to a member's house instead.
It was us, this member and his family and Federica, and the anziani's
new convert Jim. It was still a ton of fun!

Monday, we had district meeting and then we saw Sorella C again.
We talked with her about the prophecy in the Book of Mormon about
Joseph of Egypt predicting the birth of Joseph Smith.

Tuesday, we saw Azzura, our other new convert and her boyfriend
Giacomo, they are super cool and we went with them to get a gelato.
It's been awhile since we were able to see her too. So we were really
happy to be able to. Then we saw Sorella N. We watched the video
about Esther with her and it was a really good lesson. During it, we
were talking about courage and how it doesn't mean you're not
afraid, and right then this huge way flies in the window and we also
starting screaming and trying to hit it or shoo it out the window, so
that was kind funny, that that happened right when we were talking
about courage! Then we saw Federica again and then we went to English
class, which was really good this week. The group we have speaks
pretty well, so we can do a lot of conversation and it's fun. Oh also!
So we live across the street from a Catholic Church and last night we
saw them doing this weird march and chant around the neighborhood. They
were pulling around this boat on wheels with a huge picture of Gesù on
it with a million candles... Kinda cool, but also kinda creepy at 10
o'clock at night...

Today, we went shopping in the markets for fruit and it was super
intimidating, there were tons of people running around and going crazy,
but we faced our fears and did it,and now we feel super Italian :)
Then we did some more grocery shopping and we actually took a nap
today, cause we were super exhausted. So yeah, that was our week!

Any who, thanks for the emails this week! You guys are seriously the
best and I appreciate all the love and support!  I hope y'all have an
amazing week!

Love,
Sorella Snow