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Jan 27, 2011

The Blown-in Siters of Bari

Well, here we are!!! I am in Bari and the address is

Via Luigi Einaudi 25
70125 Bari

We arrived to Bari Friday night. Friday all the Zone Leaders were going back after their training with president. Sorella Kelly called and was like, "Itd be nice if you could go with them." I was listening to the conversation in the other room so when Sorella Foote came in and asked, "How are you feeling?"
I said, "Lets get out of here"
and we packed and were on our way before we knew it.

We got first class on the Eurostar train (we were first class because they really wanted to get us out of there and everything else was sold out). We had to wait a little bit for the train to come and I was like, "Well theres always McDonalds" and right after that the Crawfords came back and were like, "Do you all want McDonalds" So I have now had my first McDonalds in Italy (a hamburger with pecorino cheese).

Luckily the ZLs were with us to take all our luggage and be awesome. Anz Gurney was in the Army Intelligence and is way legit so the whole time we kept making jokes about how we were on a train with Jason Bourne (which he didnt know because his seat was a ways off).

Anyway, he has a cool story because normally people in the army cant go on missions but he knew the right people and it all worked out. And he was trained by Fratello Tate so pretty much we are all connected.

Speaking of connected Zone Conference was Tuesday and half our Zone was in the MTC the same time as me. Me and Anziano Knutson and the two Anziani in the district ahead of us and over half of the district below us. Including Sorella Stebar!!

Turns out we have a really young mission. Come July 70% of missionaries will have been in the mission a year or less. Crazy, right? But the stripling warriors were young too. So it was this big reunion but there also wasnt much time for conversing because we had some AWESOME training from our fearless leaders.

Our mission motto for the year:
"Fill the Rome Temple With God's Children"

Because we want people to have ALL the blessings of the gospel, not just baptism (though thats a good start) and the Assistants talked about "growing up now" and not waiting around because there arent going to be older missionaries to fill all the leadership positions. President talked about acting versus reacting. Because really, we are in charge of how we feel about life and what we do with it.

Funny story. So we are teaching a 7 year old who is getting baptized at the end of Feburary. Her parents wanted us to teach her all the lessons and it is good practice for us. So we were talking to her about (I dont even remember what) and she tells us about a story she read in the Liahona about a girl and she says, "Scusate, ma devo direvi, lei e un idiota...scusa, Dio" translation: "Excuse me, but I have to tell you, she was an idiot, excuse me, God." We did our best not to just bust up laughing.

Monday we met with Antonia. She is this sweet old lady who just wants to know everything. The Aniziani stole her out of our Area Book before we got her and taught her a lesson and she wants to be baptized. She cried and cried because her life is hard, her family has abandoned her and shes not in the best health but we just promised her that it would all be okay and that she could find comfort and peace in prayer and in the scriptures. Shes getting baptized in Feburary!

Its kind of weird being in the same ward with Anziani, its like an awkward double date all the time. Ha, not really, but we are always calling them because we are lost or dont know when we have meetings and then they dont trust us so they get the assistants to come pick us up for Zone Conference (who then also got lost--tangent). But we are learning to work together and I am trying to not turn everything into a competition.


We also make Chuck Norris like jokes about one of them because he has a rep for being one of the more intense missionaries
(he also doesnt know we make fun of him--Sorella Foote and I both really enjoy making fun of people,
its probably a bad thing,
but we spend a lot of time enjoying life,
which is good)

Yesterday we taught English Course. It was the best! They are all hilarious and lovable and love us and we just talk about whatever. A lot of them are musically inclined so we are going to teach them an English song on Thursday.

Bari is nice. Big. Not even that big, but bigger than Ladispoli...or Ragusa, We always say
"we're just two small town girls in a big city"

The other day we turned down a street and it was straight out of an old Italian movie, and all the sudden there were no people, it was intense and beautiful. So we have been here four days but we have the highest of hopes. And no time because the Anziani finished before us and are making faces. (Also, they are both natives(more or less),

Im going to learn Italian this transfer!!
Okay, lots and lots of love.

Dont forget to pray.

He will help us with anything...and also everything.

more love,
Sorella Laws


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