I cant believe you are in Cali! Crazy. Idk what time it is there, Its 2 pm here, so i think its like 6 am there haha. So again, these keyboards are weird so I am just going to write and not worry about punctuation much. Send me photos of the house! how did the animals take it? is it bigger? are you going to start going to church? how was moving? i am so excited for you guys! get ready for a novel!
So we were watching an episode of the district yesterday and one of them was like "I am so tired all the time. I dont understand why I am so happy because I am exhausted." Me and Sorella Bunker just cracked up. I am constantly exhausted. I fell asleep on the tram the other day while she was talking to a nun haha I could hear the nun saying "Aww shes sleepy." But I was in the limbo stage where I couldnt respond. getting up at 630 is an even bigger struggle here than the mtc. the mtc we had to be out by 7 to go to do studies but here we dont start studies until 8 cause we are supposed to work out, breakfast and get ready. needless to say i need to work on that because i havent been working out and i just have yogurt while i study.
today we officially have 2 investigators. Bak, who I told you about before, we met up with him again and watched the Joseph Smith restoration video at the church. it went well, tho we couldnt get any form of technology to work. all the other missionaries were in the building too cause on sat we do family home evening where we invite investigators to have a spiritual thought and some fun. so everyone was super friendly to him which was great, tho he didnt stay for the fhe part. also theres a recent convert named justin who is also a french-speaking african like bac, and he came to the lesson so it was rad.
we are supposed to invite people by the first lesson...which sometimes doesnt work out. this was our second, and i was inviting him, but because i didnt fluctuate my sentence right, i said "when the lord answers your prayers and you feel this message is true you will be baptized." hahaa i didnt ask him i just told him lol.
ill have to keep you posted on him, my comp told me after that he said he felt good when he watched the video and wants to watch the whole thing, and when he hears us pray because he knows we believe it.
today we taught a first lesson with a very nice lady, she is a jehovas witness that really knows the bible. we were there for almost 2 hrs. even tho i didnt understand a lot of what she was saying, i felt like i was bold and did the best i could. she told us beforehand she would only let us use the bible because she didnt believe in the book of mormon. But towards the end of the lesson i pulled out 2 nephi 33:10-12, she let me read it. then later she was trying to pull out another scripture for us to talk about (half the time it was her trying to teach us and making us flip around the bible) i kind of stopped her while she was searching for a scripture and shared a mini testimony about the book of mormon and then i asked her to read moroni 10:3-5. which is like the best scripture ever. she read it and as she did she slowed her pace, and you could tell she was actually thinking about what she was reading. it was pretty rad.
the whole time i was praying for her heart to be softened and i think for a little moment it was pricked a tiny bit.
she still wont read the book of mormon so she wouldnt let sorella bunker leave one with her, but she is going to meet with us at the same time next week. which happens to be pday morning but whatever haha its way more important.
so far its been difficult because we have had people bail on us for lessons, people not follow through with committments, people give us their number then never want to meet with us. or some peeps seem totally chill but then wont give us their numero! ahh. but hey we are laying the seeds! im getting better about talking to people and being more direct. we hand out pass along cards everytime we talk to someone. we even saw one on the ground at our tram, shoots im not picking that up, someone could have a bad day, look down on the ground and bam! all their answers are a phone call away.
Sorry i am writing a ton, i know not everyone will read this far, but i get an hour and a half now to email so i am taking advantageee!!
okay so on sunday it was pasqua, easter, and we went to the bishops house, he lives in a huge house out in the middle of the mountains. it was super picturesque. us and the elders were there along with a few other members of the ward. we were there for way too long but it was so fun and the food was SO GOOD. i sat next to two of their sons, one is 14 one is 17 haha they talked to me the wholeee time and it was so funny. Andrea, the 15 year old just started talking to me about movies, which was like majority of our convos. we even had a battle of who was the best superhero and talked about superhero movies a lot. lol every few seconds he would nudge my elbow and say "ha visto..?" "ha visto..?" haha which is like have you seen... it was pretty difficult cause i didnt understand a ton, but they broke it down stupid style for me and we would work together to translate or sometimes have other people jump in the convos to translate for us haha. it was super nice of them to talk to me for like 4 hours even tho im still a bambino in la lingua.
OH. another funny moment. somehow they started talking about my hair and asking if i colored it. then the little one says something and everyone laughs, but idk what he said! so my comp translated he was like "My brother likes blondes." hahaha. they have a brother on a mission in london who gets home in a few weeks i guess. haha i laughed and then i was saying im a missionary and i am too old. then the 17 year old (goele) was saying how im the same age as him. little andrea comes back to the table with a picture of his brother on his mission hahaha. then goele is like "good luck." and i was like "good luck with what?" and he said "my brother." haha. i guess you had to be there but it was pretty funny.
i try to write down a funny moment and a miracle moment in my planner at the end of every day. its so hard to email you cause so much has happened. maybe you can divide this email into two parts or something.
quick side note: i am learning how to cook. i cook everyday. like full on.
Friday we had a new missionary conference in milano, so i got to see all my best friends again! ahhh i was so excited. sorella bucco, lopez and i all ran into each other at the train station, it was awesomeeeee. especially because i was worried i was the only weirdo talking to my comp all the time about how much i love my mtc peeps and all of our great stories, but when i got there i realized they loved and missed me as much as i loved and missed them! it was so sad leaving tho because we all went our seperate ways and i have no idea when or if i will see them again in the mission! the mission is so huge they dont really do things with the whole mission. so i almost got a little sappy saying bye to everyone, especially lopez. some kids are in my zone so i will see them once a month. i talked alot with anziano sloan, and at one point i was like "can we be best friends?" and hes like "i thought we already were!" haha. we were at the train station and i gave him a handshake goodbye and it was just sad! even my old comp sorella montagnoli, she has a lot of good news going on with her family and i cant even write her to ask about it. we cant talk to anyone, male or female in the mission. which reminds me to send you the names of the folks who wrote you.
you can email them too, it always goes firstname.lastname just like my email.
jerrick.sorensen who is in rome along with tyrell.gemmell.
(this is all by memory ps so i might screw up, i didnt bring any of the info with me.)
teerah.lopez
francesca.montagnoli
mary.clawson
matt.fuller
i believe that is all of the peeps who wrote you.
OH. one last funny moment from yesterday. the senior couple teaches english class twice a week, 3 companionships ended up going, so we actually outnumbered the people in the class last night ha. but sorella peterson, the senior lady who is superrrr sweet, they were teaching irregular verbs and dont really speak italian so she is explaning every verb. they just printed a list from the internet. the word is breed haha so her example is when 2 horses get together hahaa and she explained it twice and i was dying haha sorella mcnamara and anziano heron were trying to hold back some laughter too lol. just a weird word to teach to beginners in english, and the best way to try and explain it lol.
well its 14:41 now...ya italy does military time...i hate it.
sorry i wrote sooo much! but i didnt have that many people to write and theres just so much to say! i loveeeeeeee youuuuu allllll soooooo muccccchhhhh.
Io so questo vangelo è vero! Sono molto grato essere qui in Italia. Noi dobbiamo avere fede in il Signore. Padre Celeste ci ama. Grazie Mille per tutto. Voy siete un benedizione in la mia vità.
Ci Vediamo!
Ti Voglio Bene!
Sorella Gillette
Hi, so this is kinda creepy of me, but I met Slla Gillette her first day in the mission! She is awesome! I just got home, but I actually trained Slla Bunker, so that makes Slla G part of my mission family!
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