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

"Sorelle!...Let's go!" - December 2, 2015

Hey, family!

How are you all? I'm doing well. This transfer is just going crazy fast!

So, last Wednesday, we went and saw Maria after pday ended. It was
good. She had gone a whole afternoon without smoking, which for her is
big, so it was pretty exciting. Then we had English class. It was fun.
The students are all really funny.

Last Thursday, it was Thanksgiving! It was a really good one. We tried
to do some passbys and finding, not a ton of success, but the ward had
a Thanksgiving party so that was super fun! A lot of simps and members
and friends of members came so it was super awesome. They even made
turkeys for it. We have a super awesome branch.

Friday, we did weekly planning, area book and a lot of organizing. We
did more passbys but no one answered.

Saturday, we saw Anna and had correlation with the branch mission
leader. It was good. The members apparently are going to do a
demonstration or something for Christmas in centro so they're really
excited and planning that, it'll hopefully help us find some new
people. More pass bys.

Sunday, church, it was good, we had a couple of simps come so that was
really exciting. We saw Ben and his family that night. They're really
cute, they just had a baby and she's adorable! Then we saw Valeria
after them. We wanted to explain the apostasy to her again and the
need for authority from God, so we made her cookies without using a recipe
that turned out gross and then cookies with a recipe that turned out
well. The recipe was the authority of God. It was a good lesson, we
made some breakthroughs with her.

Monday, district meeting. That night we saw Antonio and Marisol.
They're really fun. So, while we were there, Marisol just all the
sudden says, "Sorelle! The lady who lives below us is ready for the
gospel! Let's go!" So we went down with her and set up an appointment
to go teach their neighbor next week. Marisol's so awesome! She's a
really good member missionary.

Tuesday, we had to spend all morning working on Sorella Bastian's
bike. The brakes weren't working so we thought it'd be a quick fix to
change out the brake pads but it ended up not being so easy and we
were working on them for hours and they still don't work so well. I
guess we'll have to ask the anziani for help. Then we had FHE. It was
a lot of fun. It was a small one this week but two of the people there
were Napoletano and they are just always the funniest but half the
time they're speaking Napoletano and its crazy trying to understand.

Today, the Rimini Sorelle (Sorella Yonk and Carducci) came over to
Ravenna and we did a church tour. It was really cool. At a few of the
spots we went, they're were workers who were explaining to us
symbolism of things and it was so insane. I'll have to send a few 
pics:). Plus, it's always so fun to hang out with Sorelle Yonk and
Carducci, they're both awesome.

Sorelle Snow, Bastian, Carducci and Yonk

Sorelle Bastian, Snow, Yonk and Carducci

Well, it's been a good week here. We're excited to see what'll happen
when we get transfer calls this Saturday. I love you guys, I hope you
have a great week!
Love, Sorella Snow

"I lost my greenie..." - November 25, 2015

Hey, Famiglia!

Its been a good week!

So, last Wednesday night, we had English class like normal and we had
to switch the classes around a bit because the new anziano doesn't
really speak English and couldn't teach a class by himself, so I ended
up with a new class and they're so fun!

A youth in the branch

Last Thursday, we had mutual and it was fun, there aren't a lot of
youth but they're all so awesome! That night we had branch counsel and
it was good. They're so focused on missionary work! They wanted to
make sure every simp was personally invited by a member to come to
stake conference this past Sunday and they want to establish a pattern
of going out on splits with us every week.

Sorelle Snow and Bastian

Friday, it was Sorella Bastian's birthday! So we wanted to do
something a little special for it for her and we found this pretty
nice restaurant,like it serves three courses status(but we're
economical, don't worry, it was cheap). Anywho, right after were
served our second course, we get a text from the anziani and Anziano
Olsen says" I lost my greenie...." So we called him and he tells us he
lost his greenie while they were biking and hour ago and can't find
him, so we call the waiter over and tell him we need to split and he
bagged up our chicken for us and we took off to go find Anziano
Marataro. Pretty soon, Olsen got a call from the office, apparently,
Anziano Marataro called his parents(!) because he didn't have any
mission numbers and they called the office and told them he was
waiting at the train station. Luckily he's Italian and could, you
know, speak the language, otherwise that could've turned out bad!
Anywho, that was crazy, after we went with Sorella Gentile to do
visiting teaching and then saw Sanela with Marisol. And after Ben and
his family invited us over for cake for Sorella Bastian's birthday, it
was way fun! Oh, also, we saw a less active sister in the morning and
it was such a good lesson! Last minute, we felt like we should share a
talk about a mom with her kids in sacrament meeting and how even
though they can be crazy and hard to control, it's worth it because
you want them to know they belong. Any who, it was perfect for her,
she loved it!

Saturday, we had correlation, went to the hospital to visit a member
who had a surgery, we had a session of stake conference that night and
then we saw Valeria. She's doing well, she's an amazing woman! Also,
it was pouring rain all Saturday! It was insane, we were soaked!

Sunday, we had stake conference, they did it over Skype, so we didn't
get to go to Firenze, which was a bummer, also because Livorno is in
the same stake and I would've loved to have seen some of them, oh
well. Augustine and Patience, two simps who have a hard time coming
were both able to make it with their two daughters, so that was super
exciting! We also saw the Tricarico family that night, they're really
fun.

Monday, we had district meeting, we have two anziani from a different
city in our district this transfer, so that's fun, to have some new
people. We saw Antonio and Marisol that afternoon. Then we went and
saw Maria and Alessandro. We challenged them to give up smoking and
drinking, respectively, for twenty four hours. They said they would
start Tuesday, we're going to go check tonight, so we're praying that
they're going strong!

Tuesday, we did splits with some members from the ward council. It was
great! They wanted to do straight on finding, so we went out and just
tried to stop people in the streets. We got some people to stop, so
hopefully we'll be able to meet with them again. The members were
great though, they were just so excited to go out with us! Actually,
at one point, the member I was with ran up to some random people and
gave them a flier and in English, they said they were members from
Utah! So that was kinda funny, the lady I was with didn't speak
English so she didn't understand for a minute that they were already
members and was trying to explain our church. It was fun. We had FHE
last night, it was great.

Well, family, it's been a good week! Thanks for your love and support,
I'm so grateful for you guys! Have an amazing thanksgiving tomorrow!
Love, Sorella Snow

New companion - November 18, 2015

Ciao, Famiglia!

Hope you all had a great week! Everything's going well here.

So, last Thursday morning, I took Sorella Burgess to the train station
and she met up with another sister and they took off, I spent the
morning and afternoon here in Ravenna with an Italian sister while we
waited for our comps to arrive. That was interesting, hanging for so
long with a sister who really only speaks Italian, it was cool to see
how much I've learned :). Our comps arrived and I met up with Sorella
Bastian! She's really great! We have a similar sense of humor and
we're both big readers, so we bonded quickly :). We went to mutual
that night and met the new Anziano. Anziano Olsen is training and he
got an Italian greenie named Anziano Marataro, so that's fun, to have
a legit Italian in the disrict.

Friday, we started weekly planning and we went and saw some people. We
saw Sanela and Maria. They're both doing well. They both had promised
they'd come to church (in the end, Sanela ended up needing to go the
the doctor Sunday but Maria came!)
We also did a ton of passbys, I'm just basically trying to help
Sorella Bastian get to know the city and people as quick as possible
because this transfer is going to be so short and we don't know if
I'll stay another.

Saturday, we saw Anna and also Valeria. They're both doing well.
Valeria is kinda insane and she's super funny, so we always have a ton
of fun when we go see her.

Sunday, we had church! Maria was there and also a few less active
people we're working with, so it was exciting. Augustine, another simp
showed up for the second two hours, so that was good as well. We were
super bummed Sanela didn't come though.

Monday, we went and saw Sanela again. We're trying to think of good
ways to help her quit smoking, it's just such a problem here! We also
saw Maria and Alessandro. They're doing well. That night we went and
saw Sabrina and Paolo like usual. We read a talk from conference
about Turing to Christ to find the answers and the steps you can do to
find answers, they really liked it.

Tuesday, we had zone conference! It was good. We went to Rimini and we
had to take off pretty early in the morning to make it in time. It was
really good. We talked about a lot of cool ideas to use our iPads to
the fullest in lessons and studying. Also, Meet the Mormons is finally
out in Italian and is on YouTube for this week only, so we're going
crazy trying to help publicize it. That night for FHE we watched it in
the church. It was really fun. The members are getting involved in
helping to publicize to their friends as well.

Zone conference

Today, we took it pretty easy. Neither of us was feeling too well so
we basically just stayed home for pday and got organized. It was nice
to chill for a second.
Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love you!

Love, Sorella Snow