Ciao Week 7

Hello once again family!!

Guess what...TWO WEEKS. Yes, in two weeks I will be on a plane back to the beautiful Rome that I know and love. Yes, I am stoked. Yes, the rest of us are spazzing out hardcore.

I love my district because we were SO pumped for conference. The Portuguese sisters went with us (when I say "went with us" I mean to the gym, we didn't REALLY go anywhere…like usual) and between the 8 of us (older) Italians it was a little crazy. Sis. Michael said she could feel the energy. We just talk really quickly and really loud, especially when it's in Italian.

HOW GREAT WAS CONFERENCE!?!?! I'll be honest, this is probably the first time I actually paid attention the whole time. But, man, LOVED IT. Caleb, did you listen to L. Tom Perry? Pretty sure that talk was for you. I loved Pres. Utchdorf's talk about slowing down when things get tough instead of pushing through them, like a speed bump. And I liked Pres. Eyring's comment (I think it was him) about having patience to endure small trials and courage to endure big ones. I think it's hardest for me to have patience for small things; I just want them to be over.

The new Italians came!! Do I love them? Of course. The day they were coming I burst into the Hermanas room, "Do you have any pictures of Jesus I can have??" Because I realized my room is quite drab, they looked at me like that was an irrational question to ask, but I don't think it was.

As Coordinating Sister I got to go to their welcome meeting. It was great because they all introduced themselves, talked about their family and why they decided to go on a mission. It's so cool. We have some from different countries and people who recently joined the church and all sorts of cool stories. I LOVE THEM. Our branch president, president Shippen continues to be hilarious and unpredictable. The presidency was going to leave for a bit to decide who the new district leaders would be and he turns to me and goes, "Sister Laws, have you born your testimony in Italian to them yet." "Um, not in Italian." "Okay, well, teach them the first lesson or something." So classic Pres. Shippen. I did not teach them the whole first lesson but I did give an animated testimony of missionary work in Italian.

I continue to be my hilarious entertaining self.

Example: Fr. Sk. was explaining something to us (like he does) some grammar principle and he asks, "What is a clause?" and I said, "Babbo Natale" which means Santa Claus. Then he pretended to throw a pen at me, but Anz. Mauldwin got a kick out of it. And so did I.

After conference on Sat. the Portuguese Sisters and a couple French sisters let their two companions play piano and sing together while the rest of us chatted outside the room. When we came in they demanded we sing with them, which none of us wanted. I found a hymn book in German and started singing dramatically, I couldn't figure out why things weren't quite working out and then I realized that I was trying to sing Silent Night to the tune of The First Noel. Which I will blame on the fact that it was in a different language, but I think there was more to it than that.

The Hermanas are having a hard time dealing with the fact that I have new Sisters in my life. We had a sort of dramatic break-up but now we're working on being friends again. The other night I was in my old room talking to the Port. Sisters and I hear "Sorella Laws! Sorella Laws! We can hear your voice, what room are you in?" I opened the door and there were the Hermanas, they wanted me to take "Jedi" pictures with them (don't worry you'll see soon). They are such the best.

We had the most entertaining activity the other day. Fr. Sk. took us all outside and half of us had to close our eyes while they other half spoke directions...In Italian. Well, Anz. K was directing both me and Anz. M and we kept running into each other, so Fr. Sk took over and started leading me and yelling at me because I was taking the smallest steps and looked like a blind zombie. I admit, I did not have faith in our team. Well, the tables turned and we switched roles and Fr. Sk. kept opening his eyes because he didn't trust me. When I opened my eyes, I busted up laughing at how Anz. M looked with his eyes closed and his arms in front of him. And then everyone told me I looked the same.

Sorella Swensen had us do an activity where we wrote vocab on the windows and we watched the sunrise over the mountains. BELLISSIMA!! There are a few advantages to get up early all the time. I got some awesome pictures of that too.

Fr. Sk. is leaving us because he got promoted and we met our new teacher Fr. Tate yesterday. But if you ask him he will tell you that he will never truly leave us and that we have no way of knowing how much he loves us and that his heart cannot go onward and forward without us.

Fr. Tate is awesome, I can already tell and he served in the SOUTH! Holla. (Not that I don't love the North too and we learned the Milan Mission anthem and it was sort of epic--so I'll give them that) Also, Sis. Michael was friends with him, so that's kind of cool. Our district is so excited, I told him he has no idea what he's getting himself into. We'll break him in good, I think. :)

I am really getting the hang of the missionary thing; I said I like planning the other day and Fr. Sk. gasped and wrote it on the board because we all thought I'd never come around. I love it though. And I continue to love teaching. I taught Sis. Michael the 4 minute version of our TRC lesson in the bathroom the other day because she was stressing about how she was going to teach it. I just can't get enough of it. I will teach anyone anywhere anytime. Good thing that's what I'll be doing for the next 16 months, eh? Can you believe it's been 2 months? Well, 1.5?? So crazy. And I've just learned SO much. I love everyone. Life is beautiful, etc. etc. etc.

I love you all! As Fr. Sk would say,,

"What makes you think you love me more than I love you? You don't."

Sorella Laws

T. Live - Got your letter, thanks for thinking of me, not sure I'll have time to write back so wanted to say "hey!"