ancora di piu

We have had a busy week and Sorella Foote is sad to go because right now we are working with some AWESOME people. Woohoo!!
And I dont have lots of time to write because she needs to
finish packing and I need to email you all her photos
so that I have them. :)

Oh, and somebody tell Courtney that she need not fear because I did, in fact, get her wedding announcement a week after it was sent and CONGRATULATIONS to the
happy (and might I add BELLISIMO) couple.

Okay lots of pictures this week, I dont really know what order they are in so you will have to guess what goes with what.

There is me with the Valerios an awesome couple.

Us when we ate pizza with English course students and it ended up being the pizzeria of Fratello Santoro and we ate good pizza and they paid for us and it was like we were dating all nine of them (still feels like that, because they took us out again today and we went to Polignano and saw the coast and ate gelato and
talked in English and Italian and took tons of pictures :))

Us at Sorella Magnos with the Costanzos and the Curcis.
We are one big happy family.



All the people going to see the airplane stunts.

The pretty city of Matera.

Slla Foote with the Juan family, I am not in it obviously, but I love them so much and Ludo got in the picture too.

This is us with Antonia. She doesnt want to see us anymore, unfortunately.

Then us with the crazy awesome family we taught. They are out of control. The boys were smoking and staring at us the whole time. Long story, they invited us over to have panzarotti and somehow we managed to teach them AND get them to all kneel and pray at the end.
I refer to the boys as the Sons of Mosiah.
The daughter Giusi is actually legit and adorable and we are going to make saints out of them all, just wait.

Then us with the Palermos, she is a hilarious old lady and him on the left is always so happy and calls us Sorelline.

The fashionable old ladies of Bari.



That grafiti says, "Dont shead new tears for old pain"

English course brought us together, nothing can tear us apart.

Seriously, somehow we all became best friends
in such a short period of time and it is beautiful.

Us with some of the GANS. Giuseppe Jennifer Angela

Teresa crying because Slla Foote is leaving. This picture is real and not faked. And yes I am horrible because she has no idea I took it.
She also kissed me in the middle of our lesson
because I suggested we say a prayer.

Another picture I am not in, but that little ham on the couch is my favorite person in all of Bari, his name is Andrea. It was his birthday and when we showed up he threw open the door and yelled, "Buon Natale!" which would be, Merry Christmas. Then he was laying on the floor singing Happy Birthday and smiling. I love him!

That bearded man is our good friend Massimo who we have spent lots of wonderful times with.

Us with the statue of a famous Italian singer
Dominico Mondugno.
Flying.Reenacting Titanic with the twins.

Just relaxing.

We look good together,

its too bad they are splitting us up.


Oh, I completely forgot to mention that Slla Foote is going to...LADISPOLI. Thats right, she gets to go to MY city. Lucky thing. And Sorella LeCates, who was in the MTC the same time as me, but only because I had to stay there SO long so we overlapped a week, is coming here. We lived with her and Slla Pickett for a few days when I had Bronchitis and
we had to stay in Rome.

Anyway, we are shipping Footy off tomorrow and
everyone is so sad to see her go.
Especially me.
1. because she is my bestie and
2. because i dont know my way
around Bari without her.


Its going to be a growing experience. ;)

Right now we are juggling a lot of people which is good and exciting but also stressful. I hope I can explain it all to Sorella Lecates.
But, Bari is hard to explain haha.

We also got to teach Francesco the coffee man. We had a powerful first lesson where he really opened up to us about his father dying and Slla Iacovelli was there and she has also had people in her family die. She also explained the Restoration and was amazing and he said he would love to see us again he just doesnt know when because of work. He is so tender. I had written a dedica (like a thing you write in the front of a book--speaking of books Raffaele gave us this sweet [i am assuming, since i havent read it, but i feel safe doing so] book him and Fllo Curcis son wrote about Israele ) and he couldnt read it because he just had eye surgery and I wrote it in red.

And mom you said, "I prayer for you." in your last email, which means you really should be friends with all our English course students. ;)

But really they are great, we had an awesome day together today.

It was so nice because instead of waiting for trains they drove us and we had our own personal tour guide who knew everything about the city and Alessandro took tons of pictures he is going to put on a disk for us.

We listened to General Conference talks for comp study today because Slla Foote had to pack and I think it was Pres. Eyring said,
"The first, the middle, and the last thing to do is pray."
I had no idea the power of prayer until I got out here. There is a reason the mission is set up the way it is, you really learn how to rely on Him.

I am almost 22
(and yes I have been discretely slipping it into every conversation so that someone can throw me a surprise party if they want, haha) and have been on a mission for NINE MONTHS TODAY and
time is as ABBA would say, slipping through my fingers everyday.

But I can tell you I have never been more happy and more terrified about the future. I am seeing all sides of the world.
People with real concerns and real hopes for the future.
People who are stuck in situations through no fault of their own and people who have gotten themselves into trouble because of
a series of decisions put them on a certain path.


Everyday I just look at the pass-along card we have with Christ stepping out of the tomb with his hand outstretched. How do we endure?
We trust in Him and we go on. We take his hand and he leads us.
Though lately I feel more like he is pushing me from behind and together we are trying to figure out how to make me
a little stronger, a little braver,
and a little better each day.

The world is so beautiful and complicated and simple all at once.

It is almost like whoever created it knew EXACTLY what He was doing.

I love you all, can I say that enough?

I really love you.

Sorella Laws