Notes About Nothing

The last days

2012-01-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

What can I say?

Thursday morning the assistants to president Kelly came and picked me and Sorella Camp up. As we drove away I did a dramatic recounting of some memories from the area..

"aw, there is the park where we taught Stefano...there is the gelateria where we taught Stefano..,there is the post office where S.lla Stebar had to pay a fine..." etc. etc.

Then we were at the train station where I saw nearly everyone I've served with which was pretty special...and heartbreaking. Talking to Anz. Holland my "son" was probably the saddest part after saying goodbye to S.lla Camp.

Then we went to the mission home. President gave me some good advice for the future.

Okay,I am boring myself, more on this later...is 8am too early for curry?

Didn't think so.

Do you believe it!!!

2012-01-26T16:14:00.000-08:00

I have less days than some of these Anziani have years in the mission.

But I feel like Rome has been extra good to me as a going away present.

It. has. been. amazing.

We haven't taught as many lessons as we would have liked, but the ones we have taught have been AMAZING. Oh my word there are some amazing people here that I just adore.

Where do I begin? We got ahold of Teresa again, had an amazing lesson the

re. Antonia is amazing. Everyone is amazing. Ha.

I don't even know what to tell you.

I will tell you that I am going to miss:

Teaching about the Plan of Salvation whilst sitting on Roman aqueducts.

Try and imagine this.

Sitting on old ruins,

the sun on our faces--even though its January-- teaching someone almost our own age and she just goes,

"I feel inside me that all of this is true and I just want to get closer and closer to these things."

I was nearly in tears.

That just happened about five hours ago.

Not bad for the last real lesson.

Tonight we just have the family night in church.

Earlier we walked into a store and Micheal Buble's I wanna go home song was playing and Slla Stebar just started laughing. Irony is everywhere these days.

Last Sunday lunch=Panzarotti party

at Maria Teresa's with Uncle Stefano

and the Brothers D'Apuzzo and Grrrreta,

aka our little family. It was so fun/funny. Even with Stefano hovering over my shoulder trying to tell me

what to do..not helpful.

Pictures with all the members on Sunday (I'll show you when I get home). I didnt even cry in my last testimony. Brigette's dramatic "I hate you for leaving and I'll never forget you!"

Fllo Perego's parting words,

"Okay, if some guy at BYU comes up and says he had a dream that you are supposed to be his wife...Don't believe him!

It doesn't work that way."

This AWESOME girl visiting from London came and brought her mostly boyfriend who lives in the area of the church and he is going to start meeting with the Anziani! She was just so cool.

Ward activities involving trying to eat pizza and play ping pong at the same time and

playing with American children. The Italians kept harassing me to eat and I was like,

"Can't you see I am busy here?"

Only Fllo D'Elia had the right solution

of bringing it to me.

Our Naptan Cage Fighting Dog Groomer who is fluent in English as a Second Language, and his son who loves singing and dancing and bought me a bell with an owl on the top as a going away gift.

Singing on Sunday outside some stores

and Vincenzo (ward mission leader) waving a white handkerchief at me as we sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again.

It's amazing. I'm horribly devasted, but at the same time. SO excited. Because, like you said mom, every transfer has brought new possibilities and things I couldn't have even imagined. And, well, all of you are involved in this next transfer and that's excited.

Plus, one of the members, who is usually kind of a tool actually said something that really struck me. He was like, No, why are you sad? You have been a good missionary. And I was like, yeah, but that's why I want to keep going, I love it. And he was just like, No. "Il Signore ha detto basta." Which is to say, no, the Lord said, that's enough. You're done. And it's true...I am done. Well, not yet, but tomorrow morning I go to the office/mission home and thus ends the days of the Sorella Laws reign in Rome.

And, I guess that's okay. That it's been enough. and I've got so many plans for the future. Everything has a time limit of some sort. Even life itself.

So in short, I maybe unexplicably bipolar the first few weeks back.

But it's not because I don't love you loads.

Con amore,

Sorella Laws

p.s.

Iz, thank you for the most amazing package ever all my companions were jealous. ;)

Greta's response to the robot socks, "Che cariiiiiiino sono!!"

2nd to last amazing missionary email you will be receiving

2012-01-23T21:09:00.000-08:00

(Small disclaimer. This should have been loaded last week but technical difficulties prevented that from occurring.

Stayed tune for THE last amazing email you will be receiving hopefully coming on Wed.)

Well, another great week.

We are very excited about some new investigators because they are incredible! One is Valentina who the Ostia Sorelle were teaching but she actually lives close to our church and even closer to a member! Okay, here is the exciting, God is incredible part of the story, that morning we were brainstorming how we could help Francesca (daughter of members) because she doesn't really seem to fit in at church, well, we then go meet the Ostia sorelle so they can pass this investigator who low-and-behold has all the same interests as Francesca! Perfect, right? Yep. And she lives right by them and they gave her a ride home from church on Sunday!

Then there is Antonia who we just hit it off right off the bat she is wonderful. She lived in the same complex as missionaries 5 years ago and she approached us on the trenino, well she is just great because she wants to "frequentare" the church, relay come and be a part of it and she got excited when we told her about all the activities we do. We are really excited about her.

There is this constant ache in my heart these days, on Sunday we were singing hymns outside of some stores and people passing loved it (it was a really great activity) we starting Each Life that Touches Ours For Good and I was like, oh, man, because I wanted to cry a little but then I jokingly changed where it says, "him" to her and then Fausto started changing all the pronouns and we sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again and he goes, "this one is for Slla Laws" on the last strofa.

Oh man, so sad. Remember how hard it was leaving each city? Well, this tops them all.

Not to mention that I just love this ward so much and have from the beginning and might be making secret plans to come live here for a year or two.

And the other night we did FHE with Maria Teresa and Greta

(who as you can see did my hair so beautifully) and oh man, I just love both of them. and I love everyone here, but that happens anywhere I go.

Last Zone Conference I gave a perfect "dying testimony" it was funny, inspirational, and just enough dramatic pauses for tears. There wasn't a dry eye in the audience. We also had the opportunity to sing the song we arranged for Stefano's baptism of the Baptism Song and Come Thou Fount. So, special, sentimental times.

Sunday was just so beautiful because everyone is officially back from vacations and everyone is all pumped for the new year to really be good and do amazing things and our beautiful new investigator came and less actives came and Tiziana came for the first time since I've been here and finally has time to meet with us again and I had never met her but i felt like I had because of how Slla Camp talked about her.

Then we went to the Vitale Manor for lunch with Stefano and his mom, she is so sweet!

And his house looks like a museum,

I know my friend Whitney would die if she saw it, we spent so much time trying to make houses look

like that with props and things

when a perfect one existed in Italy all along.

Then we perfectly ran into Fausto and Daniele and Luca on the way to singing so we all showed up together (well, not Daniele he went to some GANs thing to flirt with girls).

And we have some very hilarious videos from this week that I will show you soon! Including us singing a "gospel" version of Called To Serve--its not Gladys, but we tried.

Singing presented some great opportunities to talk to people including this lady that was absolutely blown away by my testimony of the Book of Mormon,

"so it's really helped you?"

Yes! The Book of Mormon changes lives, by the way.

Now we are off to blow with Slla Kelly and the Anziani. Yay!

Time Flies

2012-01-11T22:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, since I've written last

it has been another exciting week,

all starting with our Prepday adventure to

THE FIRST MCDONALDS IN ITALY.

Okay, that actually just happened by chance
because we were hungry.

But it was momentous nonetheless when we realized where we were.

Then we went, like we planned to the prison of st. paul and peter.

Well, I was imagining we would go down into some tavern like place and walk around and see some old cells.

Boy was I wrong!! It was so much more,

like the glowing walls that talked to us,

I dont know how to explain it, we were all like,

what just happened?

And an audio visual enhanced tour of the cells with videos

and a voice recording that made us feel like we were on

the Haunted Mansion ride.

SO hilarious.

We got to see Kevin again! Last night he met us at the Carrefour again and was like, "so what's the deal with your church" so we told him!

Also I have to say my Arab roots continue to shine through
we were teaching Achmed

and I told him and he was like, "I thought so! I was just thinking that to myself." and the other day we got off the trenino and a group of Afghanis got off with us and one just walks up and asks, "where are you from?" ha, it makes me feel like I've got real culture to me.

We got to celebrate Befana because Stefano
came and gave us giant stockings

( they were crammed full of candy, it was ridiculous)
the holiday makes no sense,

but the family we visited with on Sunday
they got scooters for the Befana,
so sounds worth celebrating to me.

Stefano came to church and asks, "Is it okay to wear jeans to church?" and all three of us at once are like, "I mean, you can, but don't" and he goes, "I'm wearing jeans right now."

He came to church in a pinstrip denim suit! I was like, "who are you??" and his vintage Valentino 70s tie. I insisted we take a picture. About his tie I was like, "what is that?" and he goes, "it's a tie." Oh, Uncle Stefano...

So we call it dying around here when a missionary is about to go home and Slla Camp is watching for me to go through the five steps, I'm not sure which I am on now, but as soon as I get depressed I will be close to acceptance. And this one punk RM member came up on Sunday and made this sniffing noise and I was like, "um, yes?" and he goes, "you stink like death." oh mission jokes. If I wasnt a missionary I would've punched him.

Slla Camp DID punch Stefano when she thought he was ordering a cappucino, that was funny. "I don't know, reflexes I guess..."

I'm trying really hard to focus but it's hard to not feel a little bit of limbo-ness these days, my days are numbered and it actually does feel like dying.

There is this desire to sort of wrap everything up even though the fantastic thing about missionary work is that there is no ending point in the work. You just keep going and then leave and let someone else take over.

We met this guy on the metro coming back from visiting a member at the hospital and he was looking at me so I started talking to him, next thing I know he is telling us all about his troubles at home, how his wife is cheating on him and said he started looking at me because of my coat and asked if it was some designer and I was like, ha, no, chinese store. Anyway, he was saying how he just feels empty and we told him we know how to help with that and taught him the first lesson in the basement of termini station.

He also kept telling me I was beautiful, not so much in a hitting on way (okay, at least not completley in that way), just in this matter-of-fact way that makes me think, what am I going to do when strangers aren't calling me beautiful and acquaintances calling me talented all the time?
I am so vain, ha.

Our magical lunch in the countryside

with the American-Italian family that just moved in.

They are so fun!

Oh man he made us laugh so much

and they took us home in the misison van that they had borrowed

and they just made having five kids

under the age of nine look so easy. ha.

We made fresh squeezed orange juice with fresh picked oranges...

it was kind of sour, needed some sugar.

Have I mentioned I adore children?

I have no idea what happened to me.

They are just so precious.

Also I totally look like a mom in my clothes

that I found when we cleaned out our death closet.

Slla Camp kept referring to me as Mamma Laws

with all the kids around me, oh dear.

So I sent a bunch of pictures and
all the stories are kind of mixed up

but I hope it makes sense.

Life is good...

I was sick with stomach things and Stefano
brought me a fruit basket...
with oranges and nuts.
Christmas never ends here!
Slla Camp was on the phone with him
and in my head I thought,
don't tell him I am sick! But it was too late.

I was only a little sick, don't worry about it,
I think I just ate too many oranges
in a small concentrated amount of time,

I am just holding on for a little bit more
and then I'll be healthy again for the rest of my life :)

Enjoy the pictures!!

You can make up some stories of your own from them.

There is nothing quite like being in Rome,

we are coming back from the hospital,

"Wait, where are we exactly--oh,

there's the Colosseum,

there is a metro stop by there."

k, loooooooooooooooooooove you,

loads and loads and buckets

and enough to fill

all the Catholic churches here.

Sorella Laws

one more thing,

Fllo Perego pointed out to us that the Rome Temple
is the first temple to be built in New Testament lands.
Thats cool to think about.

And a few more pictures:

So Slla Stebar and I love each other of course

but then the Anziani had to go and mock us.

And then there was the dog

that looked like Laika.

And a drawing Slla Stebar did of me as a gangsta.

BUON ANNO

2012-01-07T11:18:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Well, we built up a lot of hype with the new year, telling Sllla Camp there
were going to be explosions everywhere and things falling off of buildings, but in the end we really didnt see that much

..And we slept through midnight itself.

But we did pop poppers at one point and ate our special recipe apple and bell pepper pizza. Which scandalized one of the members the next day because you are supposed to eat lentils on new years so..bad luck for us all year, or something like that. There was a huge ward party we missed because we had to be home at 6.

This week was not the most exciting.
Friday we went and got Maria Teresa from the train station because she had a bunch of luggage, so we went there and Greta who just looooves me, held my hand the whole way back and we were skipping down the road while my companions had to lug a heavy suitcase with a dresser in it, heh. heh. Monday we cleaned allllllllll day. And luckily we had Brothers Bloom to serenade it because it seemed to always have the perfect song for the moment whether it was suspensefully trying to poor liquid into a small opening or dramatically facing the refridgerator or dancing in our newly cleaned front room, we were always covered.

And I found some adorable new (to
me) clothes in the death closest, so it was Christmas all over again.
Italy is great because Christmas lasts until Jan 6 which is another holiday
so even yesterday we were singing Christmas songs with Alinna and her adorablechildren (see photos) she has one of the strongest testimonies of anyone Iknow.

We also went by and said farewell to Maria who is leaving for Peru and
won't be back until Feburary. I don't even know how to begin to describe that ambeiance of that place. With Her Mexican sidekick who is taking over shop while he is gone and the flirty Italian man in the doorway who owns the Thai massage palour down the street.

We had a delicious meal with the Magnanti's. On Sunday he shared in his
talk the activity we had done with them to make a list for the new year of
things to improve, things to stop doing, and things to keep doing. That was kind of nice. No one came to church on Sunday...there were 19 people besides us, all people who had some role to play, teaching or giving a talk.
After church we went to visit the awesome African man we had set up an
appointment with but he never showed up. We had asked ex-Anziano Scotchi to come with us and we ended up just waiting on the street for ages while Brother Scotchi told me how awful it is not being a missionary and I was like, "thank you."

Having two companions is still so weird, I am not used to using everyone's
names all the time. But we found out that because there are three of us we can go in cars with people of the opposite gender and all of that so we now plan on having Stefano chaufer us everywhere.

We are about to embark in on the of the greatest preparation days ever
because we are going with two of the most energetic Anziani ever and going to the prison were Paul was kept! We just got to make sure they don't shut the doors on us ;)

And I still just love all mormon.org

videos so much because isn't life just wonderfully grand when we are doing
something we love? And even when it's hard we can find the peace and joy in what we know and in the people we love. And EVERY phase of live is wonderful no matter where we are. I also just got an email from my old roommate Alyssa reminding me how awesome we were that semester, performing Shakespeare outside on our porch for the masses and generally making people's lives more entertaining. I am just so in love with life, it's a fantastic gift we have. Do you realize God has a perfect plan for all of us, and that it is just that...a plan. He's got it all figured out, and He'll help us a lot, if we let him.

Love, love, love you all.

Sempre.

Sorella Laws

Post Christmas

2011-12-30T12:21:00.000-08:00

Well after we talked to you on Christmas eve we went to Vescovo's house and it was just as magical as we hoped.

And one of the many Christmas miracles was that

we did not have to eat fish!!!

Thank goodness he married a French woman!

So there was a giant turkey

and one of
his sons was wearing a vest and poofy shirt

so my and Slla Camp's dreams of a muppet Christmas Carol really did come true! minus the muppets...but there was a dog there too, it was really cute and like a miniature version of our old dog Laika.

So we gather 'round the table all of us and we are eating and laughing and
enjoying every moment

and then we sing Christmas hymns altogether and I was called upon to say the Christmas Prayer...again. So I am the official Christmas prayer sayer for the year and that's why I feel like it warrants capitalization. It was honestly the most Christmasy feeling Christmas ever...probably just because of the giant turkey, but it was great.

Sunday we woke up

and opened presents,

I was convinced Stefano

had gotten us some glass scultpture of the Colosseum or something,

but it ended up being a box of Christmas sweets and orange soda...It was a nice thought. Then we bitterly (just kidding) watched Slla Stebar open her presents and got ready to go.

We went to church and the night before bishop has asked two of us to give
talks and I had just given one and no one else really wanted to so I was like, we can do a musical number! But I didnt really take into account that a musical number would just replace the intermediate hymn and not actually the talking time so it gets to be time for church and we havent actually prepared anything because we had gone straight to bed and the anziani weren't there so we couldn't even tell them and the usual piano player was gone so it ended up Slla Camp on the piano and Slla Stebarand I (no musical training) singing Come, Come All Ye
Faithful. It was a hit. Old ladies were crying and young people were impressed and Alma filmed it to send to all the other Phillipinis that were gone for Christmas, we couldnt have asked for more. The main chorister was gone too and I cannot explain how much joy I got out of conducting a joyous chorus of Italians (and South Americans and French) singing GLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORIA. It. was. the. best.

And everyone gave us chocolate!

Actually, too much chocolate,

it's not sogreat anymore, haha.

Christmas plans fell through so we slept some (much needed)

and then I made sausage and scrambled eggs

for our American Breakfast.
Yesterday we got to teach a part member family. The
parents were baptized 3 years ago and the teenage daughter wasn't ever all that interested in changing her life. Well, back last transfer I was reading a little blurb about her that said she likes anime and wants to be an animator and I thought, Slla Stebar needs to come here. Well, she did and so we went over there with our "secret weapon" and it worked! They hit it off and now they want us to come back again as soon as possible and keep talking with her and showing her that you can be a member of the church and still be cool too.

Last night we found a really nice African man on the metro. He was helping some Chinese tourist find their way and after they got off I went and sat by him and asked him a little about himself and then if he had ever heard of the church and he said, "would you like to discuss it with me?" and I said, "Yes, I would." And he said, "Every morning we must wake
up and praise God for all he has done for us." I definitely agreed with that and then taught him about the Book of Mormon, he wants a copy of it and said to come by Saturday or Sunday. He works at an Embassy and is here with his wife and two kids!

We are still having lots of fun and seeing miracles always.
We have been talking to everyone about the new year and how each of us needs to decide now the things we will always do and the things we will never do. It started in study one day when I read a talk to the Young Women, I decided to make a list, and then my companions and now we are sharing the idea with members and some investigators because every new convert knows that when they get baptized they are commiting some very important things and as members there are things we need
to remember that we have already agreed too and also other things that will make us better people, for me, since I am going back into the "real world" soon I decided I willevery day read and pray, not spend too much time on Facebook, etc. etc. Not downloading music illegally. Those little things that we let slide, but really aren't doing us any good even if they aren't inherently evil. The idea is to make all that I have learned these past months something that sticks.

I think 2012 will be a good one, what about you?

Sorella

Laws

There's no Place Like Rome For the Holidays...

2011-12-23T13:37:00.000-08:00

Wellllll,

Okay so from the pictures you can see that the baptism was off to a rough start,

the power went out right as church started so the water wasn't getting warm. Stefano was freaking out about whether or not the post baptism lunch would all work out, which of course it did because we have the Relief Society! And all worked out well there and everyone is fed even though this week we probably had 3 hours worth of phone conversation and discussion about lasagna...

I dont want to talk about it.

Then they took forever to change and the guy who baptized him wanted to have this big pep talk and so they locked themselves in the bathroom and we didn't hear from them for an hour or so.

Then we sang a beautiful arrangement of Come Thou Fount and the baptism song which everyone loved.

Then the man baptizing him, who is giant by the way, dramatically stepped down into the font and Stefano followed and it was the most dramatic baptism I have ever seen...

cant explain, I'll have to reenact it for you.

But he bore an amazing testimony after and is soooooooooooo happy,

he keeps saying, "why did I wait so long??"

He is great and EVERYONE stayed for the baptism,

it was truly the Baptism of the Year.

The baptism planning took up most of our week but there were also other nice encounters we had, like teaching Achmed this great Muslim guy who when talking about the Bible said, "the Bible cannot be from God because there are things in there you cannot share with your children, or read [at this point he turns to Fausto, a member we brought with us, with a "you will understand what I am saying look" ]in front of the women..."

We got Slla Camp's permesso,

I still haven't gotten mine, and probably never will.

We saw my favorite girl, Teresa who just loves us and gave us Napoletano Pizza, yum.

We all love the Joy to the World banner you sent

and are doing our best to share joy and peace in this time,

it doesn't feel like Christmas in a lot of ways, every day on a mission is like Christmas.

Okay, that sounds cheesy, but it's true in a way.

So Friday there was another strike, which means that things are running but only every once in a while so we bought McDonald and sat on the train tracks waiting.

Then we get on the train and we are super close to everyone and I end up (I am only telling you this because it's my companions' favorite story) pushed up against this gray haired guy with my back to him, facing Slla Camp. And he points to her tag and asks about the name of the church, and I wait for one of them to respond because I am not even facing him and have no room to move, but they didn't really hear so it was up to me and I turn and look up at him, inches away from his face, and begin to explain about our church. Apparently it looked hilarious from their point of views.

Okay, we are off to see Vatican Christmas decorations because I am going to talk to you in a few days anyway.

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Love,

Sorella Laws

The Sorella Laws Tour of our Apartment

2011-12-20T20:22:00.003-08:00

Buone Feste

2011-12-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, I was getting pretty sad about coming home but now that I know that there is a FOOSBALL table in my room I guess I will be coming home in January! Though I imagine me trying to get over jetlag while Will and Caleb are battling. Do I have a bed still? after much thought and prayers and counseling with President, who just told me to make the decision myself, I decided to come home then.
He said that's when they had me to go home anyway.

So, you can start counting down,
I just don't want to hear about it :)
because as much as I love you,

I will NOT be counting down these last six weeks.

So sort of funny that you were confused about why I was with Slla Stebar, I guess I forgot to mention we did a scambio...which is now referred to the scambio-that-will-not-be-mentioned by me and Slla Camp because it seemed like everything went wrong. But turns out...In about two hours I will be officially companions with..

.BOTH Slla Camp and Slla Stebar. wooooo.

I am terrified, never say "I never want..." when you are on a mission, because I specifically decided I never want to be in a threesome and here we go, my last transfer as a final test. I'm sure it'll be great. We just need a new name because Laverne and Shirley are adding one more! But we have already written her a welcome song to the tune of "All I Ask of You". Transfer call made me sad though because I know the next time they call there'll be no news for me just "well, ciao."

When we got our transfer call we were washing windows

for a new/old investigator, new to us, but she knows missionaries from before. She is great, just really, really, busy with two kids and about four jobs she is balancing. People here are incredible, everyone is feeling the effects of the crisis and somepeople face it so well with a "well, let's get to work attitude".

And while we are stressing about how to fit three into an apartment for two (not that we can say that when all our Romanian friends are crammed 3-4 in a room without complaint, so I wont complain either) we are stressing even more about OUR BAPTISM THIS SUNDAY!

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Was that enough o's to show our excitement?
Well, we are excited and even better than that HE is excited. He just called us this morning and told us how he can't stop thinking about it and how he is just so excited and he told us we have to invite everyone. And he stopped drinking tea and he doesn't care that no one outside the church is supporting him because he knows it's true and what else matters??

We are starting to feel the Christmas spirit here, especially after the most Christmasy Zone Conference ever.

We got to go to the villa (mission home)

for lunch and

there were stockings hanging up for all of us!

We just adore Slla Kelly.

I brought the spirit more abundantly on the walk over there getting some of the other sorelle to join me in a joyous chorus of, "It's in the singing of a street corner choir it's going home and getting warm by the fire." and some joyous muppet inspired dancing...well, I find out later that Slla Camp was on the phone with Stefano who was on his way to a funeral for a friend of his and she is trying to console him but all she can hear is me singing and dancing in the background. Oops.

For part of Slla Kelly's training we reinacted the nativity and I was Mary, there are pictures on someone else's camera, but basically she came up to Slla Camp and I and was like "have any of you ever been Mary in the Nativity..." and we were like, um...Because all I could remember was that one picture from Christmas long ago and I think I was a sheep. Then she asked if we had ever been an angel and I was like, "Yeah, when I was seven or something" and well, she told Slla Camp she would have to be Mary and I say, "Um, she can't be Mary, she doesn't look Jewish at all." So I was Mary and Slla Camp was the angel.

She also talked about how each of us are innkeepers who get to decide if we are going to make room for Christ in our lives. I liked that a lot.

Zone Conference was also exciting because Anz Wright was in Rome getting a surgery and I saw Anz. Peideira who came to get his

We went to the First Presidency Christmas broadcast and that was so good too. I like how they talked about simplifying Christmas, I remember last year when I woke up and it was cold and there were no presents or cinnamon rolls and my first thought was,
"Santa isn't real
but my second thought was,
"I am so grateful for the blessings that aren't temporal"
for...myself, for lack of a better word, that I am me that I have a body created by God and a spirit created by God, that I was raised well and have a testimony and the power to overcome difficulties and find joy in almost any situation, that I am loved, even by people far, far, away and that I can feel that love even without physical manifestations of it. That as much as I LOVE presents (because I do) they aren't, of course, what really matters. That love is eternal and isn't constrained by time or space.

The festivities continued when we decided that we had to open ALL the presents because we didnt want Slla Stebar to feel left out,

so we were opening like four a day. And this picture shows the stress of being a missionary

and celebrating Christmas at the same time. haha.

There was also a Relief Society activity where we got put in charge of making the Christmas cards. They provided us with some white paper and stickers and we blew their minds, "Americans are always good at these kinds of things." Thank you, mom, for the scrapbooking skills. Meanwhile at the other table they were gluing pinecones to baskets and we still don't really know why.

After the activity there was a scuffle between a husband and wife who are getting separated and we went home with her for a while to talk and I felt like a Relief Society president and I am just so grateful that my capacity to love has grown from being awkwardly like, "um, i don't know how to help you" to learning that listening really isn't hard at all.

Well, Slla Camp and I just laugh and sing all the time and it's the best and everyone thinks we are nuts, but we've decided that we are just Italian. And Italian=passionate and they aren't phased when you start banging the table while you're teaching or waving your arms about. That's your heads up, you may want to invest in helmets before I come home. Or at least sturdy furniture.

Sunday I gave a talk and I felt like I wasn't prepared at all but it ended up going well, they called and asked me to talk about the Final Judgment, but I just focused on Repentance because that's the important thing, what we do to prepare for that day. I shared some thoughts from Anz. Christofferson's talk, that was a really good one.

For the baptism I came up with this sort of cool arrangement where we sing the words to the Baptism song from the primary to the tune of Come Thou Fount and then come in with the original words at "Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God". Because that's Stefano's story. He just felt one day that he needed to come back, he felt a "call" he said. We are just so glad we have been able to play some small part.

Tell Caleb to get a haircut, Ringo and give Molly a kiss for me. You know what they call babies here? Little meatballs. Like as a term of affection. Everythings about food.

Okay, Christmas is kind of up in the air, but I will call either Christmas Eve or Christmas day in the morning-ish...are you going to the Smiths? Will Zoe be there? Will Katie be there? We just got to figure out where we are going to be and if they have Skype, but they should. We are having dinner with the bishop. But I'll be seeing you soon anyway, so...maybe I don't need to call.

that was a joke. keep breathing.

I love you all, hear from you sooon.

bacio,

Sorella Laws

p.s.

i heard lion king came out in 3d...is it still in theatres? i am eating lion king chips right now...aka regular potato chips with a lion king toy inside.

P Day on D Day

2011-12-08T08:34:00.001-08:00

It'ssssssssssssss alive!!

Yes, I got the package so the camera is up and running again and these wonderful pictures are brought to you by the great package I got! Yay, thanks. I shared the granola bars with Slla Camp but she doesn't know about the fruit snacks yet, can't decide if I am willing to share. That really might be the only thing I miss about America now that I am in Rome and can eat all the Indian food I want. Oh, cinnamon bears, I miss those too. But anyway, this week has been...INCREDIBLE.

I say that every week, but this week really has been jammed full of fun and adventure!! Doesn't that sound exciting? Okay, so...

Wednesday we did scambio and I went to Ostia. There house is by a popcorn factory which is exciting and we--well, we taught a lesson Wednesday night and then met this cool Eygptian who is studying Muslim and Christian relations, so we told him he needs a Book of Mormon and that we would get him one and then--Sorella Tutt has bronchitis! Probably. So we went to the Pharmacy and then stayed in and for once I wasn't the sick one! So we made the Kellys a Christmas card (which they really loved) and then switched back Friday morning.

Friday we went to the office because we had to figure out some things because Sorella Camp got stolen from, did I ever tell that story? We were on the bus on the way to the church holding brownies and some guy was standing super close to me and nicked her wallet. The ironic thing is I thought he was trying to rob me because he had his arm like against me. Then, every time she told the story she started with, "there was this guy that had his arms around Sorella Laws..." and I kept being like, "Stop explaining it like that, you're making me look bad!"

So she got all her cards cancelled and we had to go get her some cash from the office. Which we did and as soon as we got back home they were like, "Your new card just showed up!" Of course. But anyway, we were in the office and then I was helping them with something or other and yesterday I was helping them with a printer and now the office couples want to hire me because I know how to use a computer, because, let's be honest, it's not easy for most retired people to navigate these new fangled things, but I wrote out some post-it note instructions and told them they can always call if they need.

Writing this email has become a huge headache because my English skills are deteriorating so badly I don't even remember correct grammar principles. I just keep writing and stopping and thinking, I dont know if that's right, and I don't know if I care enough to try and figure it out. And some of these sentences just never end.

So after the adventure to the office we got McDonald's and went home. Yep. I am a McDonald's fiend actually. Those 1 euro cheeseburgers do me in every time. And every time we go there we run into Americans. Which is actually kind of embarassing, why are Americans in Italy going to McDonald's? I know I can't talk, but I've been here over a year and just barely caved. And it started because it's cheaper than pizza. Okay, I sound like a fatty, I promise I eat vegetables too, here's a picture for proof.

That is the world biggest pear that I just bought down the street.

Friday night we taught my girls. I love them. These two college girls, one is from Napoli, the other we don't know, who are just incredible and lovely and SO cool. Well, we went and we talked about the Plan of Salvation, that God really does love us and look out for us and I promised them that if they put him first and read the scriptures and prayed every day he would help them in all the other things they have to do in their life. They agreed and said they would do it and that they really appreciate that we bring a peace and a tranquility when we teach them.

Meanwhile, during all this we have been seeing Stefano. And he has been a whirlwind story. He is getting baptized on the 18th!!! He set the date yesterday and we are so, so, so excited because he has known the church for 25 years and known lots and lots of Anziani but he said with us he has finally felt the real authority of the Church, that it is true and nothing else matters. We have taught him everything and he begged Anziano Larsen to get him a baptismal interview and since he had been taught first by the Anziani a few times we had Anziano Quiroz come and do it and now he is all set to go! He knows who he wants to baptize him and who to give the talks because he knows ALL the members (after 25 years, he should) and he is giving up English Tea even though it's really hard for him.

Every lesson just went really well, but the thing that helped the most was that he started reading the Book of Mormon everyday and he really got his answers through that. He wasn't sure, because he knows getting baptized means giving up his old life and all his Catholic friends and traditions so he has been ignoring his desire to be a member of the church and he has been coming and going for 25 years now. But he read a scripture in Alma when they were baptized and received the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands and he knew that he needed to be baptized by the proper authority. So cool, there is a lot more to that story, but I don't even know how to explain, it all happened so fast.

Um, they are kicking us out of the office, but I have some embarassing stories like when I was trying to speak French and I said "I hate Sorella Laws" instead of my name is, or when I decided that I really needed to get some courage and talk to this guy on the metro so I was like "Sorella, we can't get off, I gotta talk to this guy" and later found out the lady between us speaks perfect English and probably thought I was trying to pick up on him, rather than share the gospel with him. And last night I had too many things in my hand on a packed bus and I ended up smooshed up against this guy with no way of moving myself away from him...companion didn't help me at all. Thanks for nothing.

We had a ward fhe

and played foosball

and got cornetti

and someday i'll explain all these people in the pictures.

And Sundays are always amazing and we love everyone in our ward and we are going to Bishops for Christmas eve.

Also, don't know if maybe I might want to stay until March, don't freak out though I am not sure. Just if there is an odd number of sisters. I have to ask president.

Love you bye.

Sorella Laws

Okay, they didn't actually kick us out and we are here until our investigator comes at 6 (did I mention I am in Roma2 with Slla Stebar...again) so here's some quick picture explanations.

My hair is still falling out,

but if it stops soon I'll be happy, because it looks normal and it's kind of nice not having a gianormous mane of hair that takes a million years to blow-dry.

Slla Camp's mom sent us a "16 days of Christmas" package

with little presents and a Nativity, so cute!! Each present has a scripture on it (She's an only child).

And then there's Brijeet, my new companion.

Always stealing our nametags and dancing with the college boys, "No, I'll be the guy" and then they danced right into the Christmas tree and knocked it over, haha, most of the ward thinks she's a terror, but you gotta love her still. Yes, the yellow accents are probably a little out of hand, but it was a good conversation starter, got me to be friends with all the members.

Then there's Punjabi the cornetti place, never been there,

but we always drive by and Santa+Cornetti for me is probably the merriest Christmas I can imagine.

Teaching tithing...and the Word of Wisdom.

Stefano just happened to bring us chocolate coins, which became the perfect object lesson! And we brought him HERBAL tea, we'll see how he likes it, he was hardly convinced, ha, I drink probably three cups a tea a day these days.

And some pictures of our apartment, for fun.

And in the mission home there is a model of the Rome temple grounds!!!

How cool is that? I haven't seen it, I stole that pictures from Slla Stebar.

And a picture with Slla Foote for the last time!!!

I can't believe she is gone, hasn't hit me, even though this transfer is almost over already! We get the transfer call Saturday, if I leave I will probably die.

Some last pictures from Ragusa with Gabriella,

the greatest thing that has ever happened to me and me knocking on Romeo's door

Saying goodbye was so hard, but that's alright.

And then us when we first got here

going to see the Colosseum while we waited for everyone else
(because we got in at 7am)

happy Holidays....

2011-12-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

Okay, my mind is a little bit exploded because I got an email from Jenkies, Kelsie, Babzy, Diana, AND Angela AND my mom. Wow, love. And you are all crazy amazing and doing awesome things that make me proud. And what on earth RAVEN is on a mission??

And I have to freak out for a second about Babetta's capstone because the stills look AMAZING. Do the caps really do it? I am not sure, let's try this UH. MAZE. ING. I'm so proud of you and your legitness. Sei tu fossi un uomo ti sposero subito. Slla Camp thought you got the actress from Gossip Girl--or did you? ha. IT LOOKS SO COOL. the end. I have cool friends.

And thank you family for the season's greetings. I love when mom makes everyone write me :) I thought it was funny that you mentioned Christmas in Rome as a once'in'a'lifetime thing, because don't you remember I was here last year? Ha. But it's great, the Chinese stores are full of fake christmas trees and Nativities are everywhere and we've got Gladys Knight to sing to us, but somehow I still haven't eaten chesnuts roasting on an open fire! But we've got all of December still for that...and January.

Also, tell the Lathen's hi for me and thanks for the support. I don't have loads of time for writing people back...being in ROME and all. ;) but I'm going to try and get a postcard their way.

No pictures again this week because the charger still hasn't come and we just haven't been on the ball with it these weeks, but you will have to carefully follow my great descriptions to follow, but this week was a good one. Just kidding we have a few from the museum last week,

me and man's best friend and then pointing to...

I dont even know, something on an ancient map of Italy or Sicily...I'm either pointing at Bari or Ragusa probably.

Wednesday night we were at the Buccolini's for dinner and we talked about the first principles and ordanainces of the gospel, faith, repentance, baptism, and the holy ghost, and enduring to the end! Fabrizio even though he comes to church every week didn't know what baptism is for or the sacrament so we got that cleared up and committed them to pray--which he still won't.

Then on Thursday we went to the mission office to make some programs and then during lunch we watched the mormon.org video of Brandon Flowers, the guy from the Killers--really cool you should all go watch it. and I got some new music on my ipod...Lord of the Rings Return of the King has been playing almost nonstop in our house along with EFY 2009 and 2010. The Anziani were making programs for our activity and afterwards we had to go straight to the church so we grabbed some McDonalds and wished each other a Happy Thanksgiving. And then these American kids came up to us! It turned out to be American day afterall because on the way back while we were walking through Termini (the main station) I overhear this guy saying in a perfect nerdy voice as he walks by, "Oh, I understand, I also at first found Tolkien a touch dry, but--" and I waited for him to pass and bust out laughing.

Then to English Course where some amazingness happened because Slla Camp and are were rocking Advanced...aka...two middle aged men that come and we were talking to them and well, I am talking to Andrea about bridges and building roads from Napoli to Milan or something like that and trying to explain the difference between American and Italian style, which was hard because no one believes me that I don't remember what America is even like anymore--whenever we run into Americans I am like, um, what....because I don't know how to communicate in anything but broken Italian or English as a Second Language. Anyway, meanwhile Slla Camp is talking to Stefano about how he WANTS TO JOIN THE CHURCH. And I am trying to pay attention to bridges, but really listening in to their conversation.

Friday we went to the activity and Greta the five year old tried to run away with all our programs and throw them all over the floor. And then the sound for the DVD wasn't working and no one really came and everyone was concerned that it was a complete disaster...Except for...the Brownies. We made brownies and they were a huge hit and now all the members love us even more than ever. That was easy.

Saturday we went and saw Maria and she asked how we celebrated Thanksgiving and I said we didn't because you can't celebrate Thanksgiving not in America because it's about family and eating turkey and mashed potatoes and we are waaay too lazy for that.

That night we saw Dimitri at Alinna's house and had a big Romanian party because her mom joined in and her mom is hilarious and next thing we know she is telling about giving birth and all kinds of crazy stories. She makes us laugh a lot. And we are all crammed in a little room and it's just so cozy. We saw them the next night too and Alinna's mom comes home with this cart they use for groceries (we call them the granny cart, I think I've sent a picture before) and she just starts pulling all these things out of it, clothes, a nativity scene (that she is pulling out piece by piece amongst other things, a candle, cowboy boots...I dont even know how to explain how wonderful it was. Meanwhile we are teaching and Alinna is explaining every story in the picture book to us (so I guess, we weren't actually teaching--like usual). And Davide, her son is shooting us with pieces of the Plan of Salvation.

Sunday...The Primary Program. I am SO sorry we don't have pictures, but use your imaginations a moment...

It's 9:30, when church is supposed to start. One child is there, the primary presidentessa's daughter. Slowly more come, but the presidentessa is in a panic, where are the children? Her 1st counselor is on the phone, calling moms. By the second half of them have shown up, some are refusing because they are scared, one girl is crying in the corner. Jackie (who we thought was Francios, but isnt) is holding a baby, coaching them on their voices, and doing Brijet's hair all at once. The poster with the theme "I know the scriptures are true" gets hung up. There are cheribum on the corners--are we in Rome? Enter a lady we don't know, but she's got a big smile...The Stake Primary Presidentessa. She is there to support the children. She gather's them together for a pep talk and then, with Willy Wonka-esqe flair pulls out a scripture marker for each of them, one by one. But it gets better--there is one for each of the leaders too and even for the Sorelle! The children are filled with more courage--or at least their leaders are. Jackie tells them they can sing with out the words, they try, it doesn't work. I agree to hold up the posterboard so the audience can't see it, but they can. The compromise is made.

Jackie gets emotional when they practice I Love to See the Temple, he just loves the song so much. Presidentessa is trying to not get upset about the people who haven't showed up. Slla Camp fearlessly mans the piano despite the toddler who has come in with the accompianment on the other end, nothing I can do because we aren't supposed to pick up children.

In the last moment one of the mom's shows up with...bonnets! Yes! We are all pioneers! I don't know how scriptures inspired pioneer attire but they were adorable. The leaders are wearing them too. Sacrament starts and they are using their scripture markers, not to mark scriptures but to color the programs. Everything goes well until they start to sing a song from the hymn book, but no one has books. They get passed around, but not to Jackie the fearless director, so I dart over and grab him one and he is conducting and flipping pages at the same time because it had started without him and he is shaking, but it all turned out good.

Oh, and don't worry about my end of things, I held those poster boards real good.

Jackie gets up and bares his testimony of music and children and we are wondering, since when do 16 year olds like this exist? It's a hit, everyone is touched and love it.

After church we play foosball with Brijeet and Carmela. Brijeet kills us repeatedly as she fights her nine year old desire to be fair but also always win. Meanwhile she is singing "I've got a feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night" and she taught me some good tips. We decided we have got to practice before we play with her again.

Monday. We teach Stefano for the first time and these is an amazing story that takes up most of our lives now, but I don't even really know how to explain. There is just this connection there that no one really knows why and he has known the church for 24 years and said that lots of missionaries have told him to get baptized but that when he heard it from us he finally really felt it and felt the authority and power in our words. The Anziani taught him a couple times but we and he and them eventually all felt that we needed to teach him. And now he is always talking about how he is getting baptized, but he wants to finish the Book of Mormon first so he is reading about 30 pages a day, sometimes more and we will see when he finishes. We are reading it along with him in our personal study and talk about what he has read each time we see him, along with whatever we are teaching him and he says that he is just feeling it all so much more powerfully than he ever has and that he will get baptized in January.

Then we went and saw Fernada and Gabriela, two members, and I look up on the wall and see a picture of Gabriella's baptism and she is with four missionaries and I know all of them. with Anziani Reyes and Cardiff and Sorelle Zeller and Hansen ALL of whom I served with in one way or another so that was kind of cool for me, because I felt even more of a connection to her, through that, in a way and she said she wants to come back and I asked her how she felt on her baptism and promised her through repentance she can always feel that clean and pure. They didn't know we were coming (miscommunication) but they were so happy to see us and they are just great.

Then we had some time so we tried to stop by Miriam's cousins and they weren't there, but I remembered I had written down an ex'investigator that lived on the same street so I thought, well, let's pop by, I couldn't remember anything about her and her name wasn't on the door, but the door was open so we got in and I was like "maybe its too late" but Slla Camp was like, "No, people eat dinner at this time." so I rang the thing and she comes to the door and I was like, "Um, we're new, but are you Teresa?" and she said yes and let us in and her and her roommate (because turns out she's a student) are incredible. Her roommate came in and was super interested and we talked a little bit and got an appointment to go back Friday! Yay! I love young people. They are both SO cool. And it was just all so inspired we showed up at the right time.

Yesterday we thought we were going to die because we ate at 3 with Stefano (he brought lasagna) and then at 6ish Alinna asks if we can come over for a bit so we do--she had made cake and wanted to share it with us!--so we ate that and then we were talking with everyone in her household, including her husband who usually runs away from us! and then she brings out some soup, meanwhile I've drank about 5 glasses of grape soda because it keeps getting refilled. There was a hilarious moment where her mom was convinced it was wine and refused to drink it. And she brings out some soup...we I eat really fast because we got to go so of course she brings out another bowl of soup. And now we are in trouble because what are we late for? A dinner appointment. Usually I am concious of our appearance to the public but I was at the busstop doing football hops, jogging in place, and stretching side to side trying to make room for the pasta that I knew was coming and I slept awful last night because I was SO FULL. it was all tasty though. I'm still full. I think I wrote the other day about how we had three appointments for dinner lunch and dinner, but I think this lunch dinner dinner tops that.

Sounds like your holidays are a little boring without me, don't worry, I'll make sure the not holiday season is an absolute riot.

I love you all. My advice for the week: Just do it.

A JW tried to convince me yesterday we can't listen to our hearts because of some scripture in Jeremiah, but guess what. I think they're wrong. You gotta be true to your heart.

(not that Mulan is more factual than the Old Testament, but we've got to make our own interpretations sometimes)

But if you feel you should do something, do it, because unless it's breaking the commandments or the law what's the worst that could happen.

Also, our motto for the week is Truth Matters. thanks to a letter from Babetta ages back and a quote from a View From the Bridge.

Hope you enjoyed. this week was a good one and the next will be too.

Con troppo amore dal cuore,

Sorella Laws

Dear Beautiful People

2011-11-27T07:51:00.000-08:00

Well, like usual life here is nothing short of grand. We'll leave out the boring stuff like how I got sick again and once again another poor companion was stuck inside for a few days, at least she got her fill of church produced movies and I was very good and rested and drank juice and now I am almost completely better. I drank a lot of juice. But then it started making my stomach hurt, maybe something about moderation applies here, haha.

Meanwhile, we have still had our fair share of miracles.

For example, just last night we met up with this guy who called us because he had gotten a passalong card back in JUNE and he just called us up, thinking we were the same Sorelle, well, we aren't, but we hit it off anyway and met him in front of the grocery store by our house and started asking him about what he believes and he told us how he doesn't study much, because he's just not really a studier, never has been, which was great because Slla C and I were talking about that very thing that morning how we just weren't that great at studying, that we like learning, but not the sitting down and studying part.

Well, he told us that he likes going to church because he feels good that he prays in the morning and at night and before AND after he eats. Pretty legit. He doesn't know hardly anything about the bible, not even about Moses (we need a copy of Prince of Eygpt over here!) but we just adore him, there is something special about him. And he has all sorts of amazing face wrinkles when he smiles/laughs. We are already planning (of course) who in the ward we can set him up with and we think we know a good match. This ward is mostly full of boys though.

Sunday we helped with the bambini in primary, because they are preparing for their primary program this sunday! Oh was it hilarious. There is brijeet (french pronounciation) who is the diva of the ward, she steals our nametags and wears bright pink earmuffs that match her tights and she just flounces around, she is like Madeline.

And then there is her brother, francios who is 18 and was conducting the choir, perhaps with the most passion I have ever seen from a primary chorister. He was up in front of five little girls getting every ounce of emotion he could from them. When they were singing I Love to See the Temple he goes, "No, no, no, you have to LOVE the temple. more passion!" and he looks like one of the Jonas Brothers, skinny and wearing a cardigan sweater speaking Italian and French alternatingly and at one point he was even holding a baby while he was doing it. That's a real Renessaince man if I have ever seen one. Teenage girls everywhere, we have found you the perfect man.

We have almost every Disney channel character represented in this ward, everyone is just so beautiful, in these super normal yet also exotic sort of ways, it's sort of overwhelming. We also have a member who looks like just the mom from My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Fausto looks exactly like the main guy in North and South (are you reading this Evann...yes, he looks like THAT guy). I guess I just need to make a movie here, that's the only option. I loooooooove this ward. And not just because they're goodlooking but because they've got good hearts too ;)

Then, we have another Romanian who is an old man and a friend of a member who came to church, just because he wanted to. Always a good sign. We got to talking and he thinks that all churches are the same but he agreed to meet with us. He really liked church. Even when people think its the same, they subconciously feel a difference, it's just getting them to realize it that is the hard part. All churches are great, but there is something special because this is the church of God. He is really open to learning and really loves God, we hope to see him this week. He said he doesn't know his schedule so to call when we want to come, but I don't imagine he's doing much. He is also great.

We taught someone else who really wasnt interested. and we went to a baptism at Roma 2.

Also Sunday this other guy came to church who studied 25 years ago and said he never got a testimony but he loves the church so much that he had to come back. We just love him, and he said he would try and find an opera during the day that we could go to. Slla Camp and him are a match made in heaven. Literally. We were kind of mad because Anziani swiped him, but they can teach him and we'll be the fun ones who are friends with him. haha.

Also, sidenote to everyone, I make 22.5 years today so happy half birthday to me! I tried to get the Anziani to celebrate and they said it was stupid, but they did bring us cornetti last night...

mostly because I was sick but I am counting it towards the half celebration, especially because they brought us 5, so 2.5 each. Which we are not sure if it was a ploy to pit us against each other or just a miscalculation. Also, mom, I loved that comment about how food is also the way to girl's hearts, because it's true. Those cornetti really won us over--Our anziani are just the best, you can see by the photo

and the thank you poster we had ready for them when they showed up. Today we are going to the Sistine Chapel (for preparation day, but I am also counting it towards the 1/2 birthday celebration), so there will be better pictures coming, I am still waiting for my battery charger to show up.

Thanksgiving won't be the same without the sweet pataters but it should be interesting with English Course students (including our Muslim friend from Sinagol) and Peruvians and Romanians and the most unAmerican cast I have ever had in my life. I am grateful to know them all and I am grateful to be here serving people that I love. I am grateful that I don't have to know them or having something specific in common with them to love them, that we can all love each other just because we are human and that is enough to link us together. And I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and that he loves us enough to give us a prophet and the scriptures and the Holy Ghost and all these things we have to guide us so that we can be happy. And I am grateful for the commandments, that he loves us enough not to let us just do whatever we want, because he can see the big picture that we can't see. And I am grateful for every day that is filled with joy, because every day IS filled with joy, you just got to look around a bit.

I love you all, so so so so so so much. I am endlessly grateful for every person that has been a part of my life, big or small, because you are the ones who've made me who I am. "I will hold you close with a Thankful...Heart!"

Sorella Laws

p.s. Christmas season has officially begun! go ahead and start sending presents now.

p.p.s. buy me some socks on Friday :) make sure to elbow your way in there. we were thinking of standing outside the IPERCOOP at 4am, but I don't imagine they'll open for us. but seriously, its cold here. but we got our heaters working and they're nice and toasty. still the best apartment i've ever lived in.

Week 2 in Rome 3

2011-11-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

Our life is the best.
Still. Always.
I don't know what else to say.

We had an amazing first lesson with a lady from Colombia who is totally adorable and was very interested to know more about the Book of Mormon, we only got to meet with her briefly in Termini (the main station) though so it wasn't the most spiritual experience, but it was still pretty special. But then we said we'd see her Monday and she didn't pick up her phone. Sad. But we should still be able to see her this week.

I have been a little sick...again, today I've got a sore throat nothing serious. I've been keeping bundled up and it's actually been pretty warm, until yesterday. And I'm loosing lots of hair from my head. Which concerns me, because I am vain, and everyone knows I've got (had) great hair. But it should grow back. If not,
there are lots of places to buy wigs around here.

We advertised English Course like mad this week, and still only the usual 4 showed up, plus an extra member that came for part of it. So Slla Camp and I just talked to this guy who taught himself English before he started coming to the courses, he is way cool. He asked us what we do all day as missionaries and we explain how we get up at 6.30 and some of the workout things we do, haha, and talked about how we teach and find people who want to listen to us and do service things. Jonathon, a member who learned English on his mission in France was there too and was like, "you can listen to Enya!?" ha, our mission president is the best. We hope more people will come though, we have been inviting everyone and put up fliers everywhere.

Fabrizio, the amazing husband of one of our members is, well, we don't even know, it is crazy because he comes to church, loves it, is an amazingly loving husband, probably the best I've seen my whole mission, but he doesn't read and doesn't really pray. She says they take turns praying at dinner, but he isn't very serious about it. So we are thinking maybe he doesn't even really believe in God...it's a mystery, but we are going to crack it.

Yesterday was hilarious because his wife had tried to cook dinner and everything failed, the rice in these shrimp tomato things she made was undercooked and the potatoes were burned and it was nothing short of comical because it was just that bad. So he comes home and says that its fine and goes to taste it and then goes, "no, this is not eatable" but that he still loves her and would remarry her 100 times over (cute, right, Italians...gosh) starts cutting up tomatoes and mozzarella (the fail-proof Italian standby) and she starts frying eggs and the potatoes weren't really that burnt (we only broke a few teeth) and it all turned out okay and we tried to convince her we cook even worse but she wouldn't believe us. Man, we have been fed more here in 2 weeks than I was in all 4.5 months in Ragusa.
I love Romans. :)

Contrast that with Marco, the almost husband of another member, Alma, he...talked at us for almost 2 hours about how our church isn't any better than any other church and that we have rewritten the Bible, etc. etc.and that we "love bomb" (he was speaking english so he really did say love bomb, haha) people into joining our church but that we don't actually love people. I don't get offended all that easily, but when someone I have just met is telling me I don't love people. Well, I told him he was wrong, in a nice way I think, and that I had actually left everything I loved to come here and love people I don't even know and that I do really love them, but then he just wanted to bible bash so we are going to send the Anziani over there instead, because they are better at that kind of stuff. And their little boy, Gabriele spit in my face...twice. Feeling more and more like Paul every day ;) that same night our bus came super late and we got home late and it wasn't the greatest thing ever.

Another investigator, Maria, the next day told us our church doesn't do anything to help people and I am just thinking, do these people know anything about the Welfare Program? I just didn't say much to that. But she was kinda mad because she hired someone who was a member and she wasn't that great and now...she is blaming the whole church? I don't know. As humans we love to generalize, I guess it makes us feel good.

We had a miracle ex-investigator adventure we'll call it, on Sunday, where we looked up this lady who had met with the Sorelle a year ago but then got busy, we called her up and she said that she had more time now and she would love to meet with us so we met her, and her whole family, and all her friends.

We get on a bus, that we are not sure if its right, because she didnt repeat the instructions when I asked so it was all sort of up in the air, then we asked them if it went close to the street, they said, "not really" but okay we are used to walking, as long as it gets close. So some nice lady tells us where to get off and that we need to ask directions at the farmacia, well its Sunday so its closed, but we walk a bit past it and the street is right in front of our faces. Alright. So we get to the house, but there are several names and we don't know which was her's so we call and she doesn't pick up so we are waiting and this African walks up and asks if we are JWs and we say no and he introduces himself as "Jacob the Beloved" so we invite him to church and he says okay and walks away before we can say anything else.

Then these two guys come up and say, "its been forever since you've come to see us!" and we are like "yeah, but we are actually different sorelle" and the first one goes to kiss me and I say, "oh, we cant" and then the second one goes to kiss me and I say, "oh we can't" and he does anyway, full on kiss on the cheek which threw me off because it's been a while since that's happened and Sorella Camp is just watching, equally confused, and they tell us their mom is home so I start following them and Slla Camp is like, "wait, what's happening?" So then we are going up these stairs and I am listening and luckily hear a woman's voice, so they are not leading us away to kill us (unless she's in on it too) but it turns out to be the daughter...dressed in a pink jumpsuit...all different colors of pink, shirt tucked in, everything. She asks how old we think she is, we dont know what to say--she looks about 35 at least, but she tells us she is 22 and introduces us to her boyfriend who is 23 but looks 18. Meanwhile they invite us to sit down and the other two have long since disappeared.

Veronica comes home and invites into the kitchen where there is--just my luck--fried fish...luckily no heads, but everything else is there and chicken. But I did manage to eat it and did manage to read some scriptures while we were eating.

We realized that she had forgotten most of what she had been taught so when we go back on Friday we are going to re-explain the Restoration. But she wants all her kids to come to church with us and her daughter wants us to get her boyfriend to come to church and he was actually really interested because we showed him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he opened it up and started reading and his expression changed, like something out of a church movie, it was like he'd found a long lost friend, it was incredible. So we are bringing them a copy in Romanian this week.

Then on our way out, Veronica (the mom) ran into two of her friends and introduced us to all of them, one was in a car so we didn't talk long, but he was very interested to come to English Course and another was someone who had trained to be a priest for 8 years and was really interested, he was walking the other way but then he went to do whatever he had to do and met us back at the bus stop, we got to talk to him for a bit before the bus came and gave him a Restoration pamphlet. He was really interested to talk, but we didnt get his number before the bus came, luckily we can get it from Veronica. Oh and right before we jumped on the bus he tried to kiss Slla Camp goodbye and she sort of shoved him and ran onto the bus, haha. The rules make our lives fun.

We are trying to be braver about talking to people all the time so on the way back I started talking to people and everyone was Muslim. Which is always interesting because usually we don't teach them because they can get killed if they convert.

Meanwhile why we were eating with Veronica our mystery man called, someone who actually called because we had given him a passalong card, well, he thought we had given it to him because we liked him (we still have no idea who he is) and so I explained we were here to talk to people about Jesus and he said, "I'm already religious" and I said, maybe we could talk a little bit and then he could decide if he wants to learn more. I get off and Veronica is going off about how we can't trust people because Italian men are trouble and I go,
"Oh, actually he is Romanian" ha.

Oh and Sunday was Stake Conference!!! I got to see everyone from Ladispoli and I was convinced no one would remember me but they were like, "wait, didn't you just leave?" and it was soooooooo happy because I love them all and three of the girls are going on missions!! Ukraine, Uruguay and...Temple Square!!! So exciting. And there were some really good talks and it was great and I just love everyone! And they were like, "you can speak Italian" ha. Man, I love those people!
It was the best ever.

Monday we had district meeting and Anz. Larsen made this really good honey bacon pasta, they said mostly they always eat pasta with bacon in it, not a bad way to go. It was delicious, though at one point I made a comment about "too much bacon" that as soon as it came out I knew it wouldn't go over well. It didnt. Also, when we were in the grocery store I dropped a can of honey and that was embarassing because it broke everywhere.

Oh, and I thought I found one of those physical therapy massager things, so I bought it, but it ended up just being a vibrating pillow. We are not sure if we like it or not, but it's baby pink colored, which is fun. .

Oh! And I met our long lost uncle, his name is Ziod and he is from Syria and he sells paintings at the top of the Spanish steps. He is...fantastic. He doesnt look all that middle eastern, more like Paul Newman than anything. But he is soooo cool. I just want to be best friends with him, but he lives outside our zone. I told him I was Syrian and showed him a picture of grandma and he was like, "wow!"

Also, we met some Bristish ladies who are members while waiting for Juri they were like, "Sisters!"
I love being famous.

Love, love, love,

Sorella Laws

Roma ra-ra-ra-ra Roma

2011-11-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

Well, Rome is GREAT!

Seriously, I love it here.
I always think it can't get any better and then it does, or at least comes equal. The Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps and central downtown Rome are all in our zone. And at first I am like, yeah, whatever, old stuff, but there is such an energy here. People everywhere and they are all fantastic and I am so glad I am here at this point in my mission when I've got more confidence and got the language down. The other day I started a conversation with some musician guy by telling him he shouldn't be smoking because it's bad for him and then he is telling me how God exists but doesn't know us and I am telling him he's wrong.

But then there is the slight problem of the people who don't speak Italian. Like the man on the metro who just stared at me and didn't respond. He sort of nodded his head when I asked if he spoke Italian but that was it. Or the Peruvian who I had an entire conversation with him speaking in Spanish me in Italian, turns out that middle school Spanish paid off afterall. But it was still pretty hard to understand. But there is definitely no shortage of people or adventures.

The journey here was long and a bit cramped on the overnight bus, but we swapped stories about Sicily and africans and contemplated the adventures ahead of us. Then the assistants came and got us and it was 7am so we sat in the office for a bit and then went to see the colosseum while we waited to meet with everyone (pictures are on Slla Stebars camera, maybe someday we will see them again).

Then we went to the main station to wait for everyone to show up.
Happy reunion time. And...I saw Sorella Foote!!
She's gone now, so weird. But her memory lives on, in my heart. That night we went to corralation and I pitched (film flashback) the referral idea we got from Anz. Pedeira so we are going to do that this month and we want to do some awesome activity with the ward something that only Americans could come up with to blow their socks off...we just don't know what yet.

Then it was English Course and apparently the two missioniaries that got transferred usually taught so we were just winging it and I told them busses was spelled with two s's and Anz. Larsen was like, "um, no" but then I ended up saving the day with my mad improv skills and we pulled a lesson out of it all anyway. And when I sat back down Slla Camp leans over and says,
"I am so glad you are here."
We have plans to advertise like crazy, especially around the university because right now we only have three students.

After that we went to the magical cornetti place by the church where they make cornetti by the masses and they are SO good and only 50c. Changing my life.

Sorella Camp and I are having a fantastic time,

we're like Shirley and Laverne, we're like the Professor and Gilligan, we are like Batman and Michael Cane, we are like Simba and Nala.

We have everything important in common, love of musicals,

chocolate, pizza, elbow patches on tweed jackets, singing in the shower, and gelato, desire to work hard and change lives, I only have pictures of us eating...Which we do a fair share of that too.

Rome has everything and pizza on every corner and forget six months to sexy (I dont have that much time anyway) because I am going to enjoy it while I can. And you will all be so excited to see me you will have to love me even if I am fat. We are very unified...except for that time she got off the bus and I didn't. And we had to meet up halfway between the busstops. We were both laughing so hard by ourselves everyone probably thought we were nuts. It was a glorious reunion after 130 seconds apart.

I have to explain one of the photos.

Our second day together we finally saw each other in the morning and I said, um, we match. Because we had perfectly coordinated tan,black,purple. We are just that tight.

And then I know its weird that I am wearing purple, but I have been wearing Slla Pearsons clothes she left so I dont have to iron.

And don't worry about us being in the ghetto,
there are bars on all our windows. And I feel like I am living in the lap of luxury because...I HAVE MY OWN BATHROOM. And unlike Ragusa there is water pressure. And I am in the fabled Roma 3 that I have heard so much about from different missionaries I have served with. It's crazy coming across old records that say Reyes and Cardiff on them or meeting the people Slla Hansen talked about or the young women that swooned over Anz Garcia when he played a song from twilight on the piano.

There is all kinds of history here in Rome. So I am excited about the shower, but then we saw the entryway of the Anz. apartment (the old Slle apt) and it's got paintings framed in gold frames and is super posh and so I got just a little bit jealous.

We have the Anz right down the street

and there is an IPERCOOP and a fruitstand next door. We have got to made here. I dont know what I did to deserve this. And there are parks everywhere and the busses come every 15 minutes (except on Sunday). But it is crazy because we are always on busses-metros-trains but its fun.

We just saw a poster for Twilight and I am glad I'm missing that because the last book was disgusting, I don't want any of those images in my mind.

The ward is amazing, I am already in love with all of them. It helps that half of them are named Fabrizio and the other half are named Jose. It is just such a warm and welcoming ward and even though the building looks a little like a prison it's the inside that counts.

I got to sit in on sunday school with the teenagers because I was translated for a family that was visiting from Saudi Arabia (but they're American--Dad did you meet a Casey Clements when you were there, they were there then too).

Waiting for the bus I looked down the street and taught, "Cute. A nun walking with a little boy" ...turns out it was one of our members, she was wearing all black and a huge white headband. haha. The whole day I kept mistaking her for a nun.

We had a family night with one of the Fabrizio's who isn't a member, but his wife is. They have the cutest baby and he is the most adorable father I have ever seen, he loves that baby SO much
He comes to church every Sunday, she (wife) gave us the impression that he doesn't want to be pushed. We weren't sure what his situation was but we decided to teach the whole family the Plan of Salvation, he knows he is not going to go to the celestial kingdom if he doesn't get baptized, but he seems to think that he just isn't good enough--which we know is one of Satan's best tricks, convincing us we are not good enough. We found out that he hasn't prayed since he was a kid! We committed them to read and pray as a couple every day for a week and that we would be back next week to see if they did it. He agreed.

Zohra, member, is probably the most amazing person I have ever met. I wish I had taken a picture because she reminds me a little bit of Sybil. She is from Tunisia. And she was talking about how her friend was racist against blacks and she was like, "well I am black too, there is no sorta black." even though she is more or less Italian looking. So does that mean I can be a little bit Black too? I hope so. But she is just fantastic she was teaching us about how children are not private property and you have to let them grow. How God always gives us miracles and we just need to have faith and how she would want to make something for dinner and her mom/daughter/whoever would say, "there's no bread" and she would say, "have faith" and open the fridge and there would be something left in the corner of the fridge, and so she has always had faith that God will provide. She used to be Muslim but she now has an unbreakable testimony of Christ.

And we are doing lots of finding!
Life is great.
I love you all.
It's sunny and we have both seen just about everything
in Rome so we are going to go sit on our roof and write letters.
Doesn't that sound magical
And I am so happy to be in the capital of Italy
teaching people from all over the world.

My. Life. Is. The. Best.

I'm never coming home.

Still love you all though. Muchos.

LOVE, Sorella Laws

p.s. Expect a miracle.

There's no place like Rome!!!

2011-11-05T16:09:00.003-07:00

So ready to hear about this is the most insane transfer day ever??

Well, I am going to Rome.

Roma 3 is the ward I will serve in (the ghettoest part of Rome according to people who have served there, so I am excited to say the least).
It is so crazy to be going back to Rome.
I was going to Rome a year ago!

I am NOT training, but my companion has only been here for one transfer so she is still pretty new. And Sorella Kelly has already invited us to have lunch in the mission home some day ;)

It's crazy to go back to the mission headquarters after being exiled on the island for so long.
What makes this so crazy though?

Sorella Stebar is coming with me!
Not to the same ward, but we are both going to Rome.
Today. On an overnight bus.

And it has been craaaaaaazy trying to get everything organized for the new sorelle coming in, because, turns out we actually have A LOT of working going on here and it is rather inconvenient timing because there really is a lot going on with a lot of people who are really progressing and we are nothing short of heartbroken.

I spent a lot of the mission being heartbroken.
It's always worth it.

And our washing machine did something crazy so all our clothes came out sopping wet and it is raining so they will neeeeever dry and we have to pack themmmm.

Sometimes you can't help but wonder if you are doing any good, not because we don't see miracles every day, but sometimes it feels like these people mean SO much more to us
than they could possibly understand,

but you discover as you are leaving just, how, much.

you have touched lives,

because it's always obvious how much they are touching my life.

But Sunday as I got up in front of this little ward and I bore my testimony to them with my entire heart

and I saw everyone looking back at me teary eyed just like my farewell talk back home

I was filled with even more love for the lovely, lovely members here
.
They are family. They were my family for 4.5 months,

they took me to the doctor and made fun of my skin disease and gave us rides to remote ends of ragusa

and we there with us as we got stood up over and over and every Sunday they kissed us

and loved us and loved our investigators that we love.

Thats the way to a missionaries heart, love their investigators.

Thank goodness for Facebook.

Last night almost no one showed up for English Course--because everyday here is a holiday AND it was raining, two things working against us-- which was super sad because we wanted to say goodbye to our gang, but Valeria

(the adorable girl in one of the pictures) showed up and is now our best friend because she is so cool and was kept saying, "che tristezza!" how sad! that we were leaving and kissed us like a million times--I never actually thought I would get used to being kissed all the time, but I have. And instead of talking about English we taught her about how the church was restored and she is super great.

Speaking of tristezza, saying goodbye to Corrado was heaartbreaking, he started tearing up, and so did I, and he shook our hands for about five minutes and told us how he would never be the same because of us and how grateful he was. It was beautiful but awful.

In church, fllo Dimartino shook my hand and then goes,

"I am going to hold on so you can't go"
and Ana said,

"and I am going to hold on to your other hand." And you dont know who these people are but they are amazing.

And we havent even said goodbye to Gabriella or Romeo yet.
It. is. so. saaaaaaaaaaaad.

And our ex-member that we have been teaching totally changed our lives with his incredible story, about how he has just been waiting patiently for the leaders to decide that he was ready and how it has been hard for him to not be able to renew his covenants with the sacrament every Sunday because he knows how significant it is and how he wants to make those commitments and covenants with God. And he is super inspiring and legit. and if we had more than 30 seconds I would tell you all about it.

Halloween, didnt happen. Holidays on the mission are the worst. ;) But we got to be with our amazing district.

which does not exist anymore because t
he Anziani are getting blown out too.

We killed this zone and they're shipping us out!

And Raposelli completely decided to change his life! And we got to go into an old man clubhouse in the park when it started raining and we taught them all about the church and the Book of Mormon,
I am going to miss old Sicilian men!!

OKay, I love you all looooooooooooooooooooooooads. and loads, and loads. Trust in the Lord and do what he asks (even though we have thought about just not getting on the bus tonight, who can stop us! Not the Zone Leaders, they're not even here anymore, haha!)

Okay, enjoy the pictures with the lack of substance to this email.

un bacio,

Sorella Laws

my new address:

Viale Alessandrino 250
Roma 00172
Italia

But I am also super close to the office, so that works too.

here are pictures that show how i match the curtains in the church

not just fllo Magrograssi who has the match pants (he is amember of the bishopric, married to our favorite Brasilian woman).

and a picture of me washing dishes at the communita with Andrea one of the boys that lives there.

People Pictures:

they really change your life.

every one of these people has an incredible story,

someday i will tell you about all of them.

Another full week...

2011-10-30T21:33:00.001-07:00

At first I had typed another long week,
but I changed it to full, weeks are always the same length,
even if it doesn't feel like it!

Well, it has been an interesting week. Last night we had English course and their grammar is nearly better than mine these days. New people keep coming and they are always awesome. We have decided now to ask them what they want us to talk about for the spiritual thought (that we do at the end of each lesson) and had them write down questions on a piece of paper we got some good questions
that we are excited to answer.

I try not to get stressed out, but we had a few "everything is over!!" moments this week. Romeo and Corrado both didn't show up for their baptismal interviews. Then the bishopric rescheduled the baptisms without telling us. Corrado we did the interview and he passed, but then later we discovered there was one of the commandments he didn't understand and so we have to postpone again and go over that some more. Romeo has been unreachable because he is working essentially from 7am-10pm. No one came to church. etc. etc.

But with all these interviews we have gotten to spend some time with the Anziani from Gela, they get lonely too all alone out there.

And the Adams came to check out our apartment and do a little training.

Kate Adams (long story, she is sort of a missionary because her parents are here on missions and she came with them, so she is like a half-breed because she doesn't have to follow all the rules but can come into our apartment but also has an iphone and goes out with boys)

cut my hair as you can see from the pictures.

Gabriella LOVES us still.

We know because she tells us.

But we haven't seen her because she has been, really, really, sick and can't hardly move without getting massive headaches and we just wished we had the priesthood so we could go give her a blessing but instead we are in the process of arranging to get
two fratelli over there in the soon future.

And we have some new people in our lives who are cool. Mostly old men who we found ages ago but have finally picked up again. Then we had a life'changing Family Home Evening with Rita monday night. I don't know why we ever go over there thinking we are going to teach her. She told us crazy stories from her life. So many times where she nearly died. Her family left her for dead when they were travelling from one country to another because she had hurt her leg, but she kept walking and hitchhiked to one city from another until she FINALLY made it home.

Then she was pregnant and felt like she needed to go to Italy, even though she was nine months pregnant she said she trusted God would get her there safe and she made it, even though half the people on the boat drowned when it started sinking. She prayed every day and never lost faith. And from that point on she told us how she has given her life to God. Despite EVERYTHING. All the hardships she has had and still has, she trusts God and never stops praying to be more like Christ.

I am not sure I have ever met a more consecrated person in my life. She is the most faith'filled person I know, and
she still always prays to be better.

Very different than another person we know who is convinced that God owes him because he has had a hard life, even though he is breaking just about every commandment and therefore cannot get blessings.

Still going strong over here,

though, don't you worry.

Especially after we listened to Pres. Eyring's talk to the Priesthood this morning. Wow.

"Great priesthood trainers have shown me how to build that strength: it is to form a habit of pushing on through the fatigue and fear that might make you think of quitting. The Lord’s great mentors have shown me that spiritual staying power comes from working past the point when others would have taken a rest."

When we are on the Lord's errand, we don't really have time for fatigue or fear or anything else that gets in the way. Mortality is so short, we have to spend our efforts, not worrying so much for temporal needs but building up our spirits for the eternities.

--But we still get 8 hours of sleep every night. It is amazing to me, how there is always that last push in us, always one thing more we can do when we think we are finished, and that one more thing is always worth it, and always a step above who we think we can be, to who He thinks we can be.

I don't know if we will ever really comprehend our potential in this life, but especially not if we don't even try.

God loves us, he wants to talk to us.

I love you all,

Sorella Laws

What a week!!

2011-10-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

It feels like it has been a long time since I was sitting here writing you, because SO MUCH has happened. Right now I am eating gummi rats which seemed like a good idea, but probably isn't. Just to give you some background to this email.

So Wednesday and Thursday we saw Gabriella and she is so amazing.
She told us,
"you have saved my life"
and how she always feels so good when she comes to church and after we come by and talk with her. She has been searching her whole life for the true church to join. Super legit, etc. etc.

Except the member we took with us to a couple lessons is now telling us not to go see her and to give her space and not push her, etc. etc. To not talk to her about the church, but that SHE (this member) would keep in contact with her every day and invite her to things, etc. etc.

And I was like, wait, what? She talked to Slla Stebar for about 20 minutes--that's not an exaggeration, from 8:35-9, only a break for her to cut cake, she also gave us a ride home) straight about it ("I have to talk to her because you can't hide your facial expressions"-Slla Stebar). And basically told us we can't go see her...Even though she told us seeing us makes her very happy, and we are friends, and...since when can random people ban you from seeing someone you pretty much introduced them to? She told us we don't need to ask, to just come over whenever, that she feels so good around us and that she really hopes that this is the true church. She said that since she has met with us she has felt more allegra and has started putting things in order.

Meanwhile, this Slla is telling us we have to leave her be so she can get things in order. But this is what is helping!! We are used to members giving us advice and being helpful, but this is something that just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. She told us we couldn't watch the Restoration with her, that we need to watch another movie, that is more "subtle" and I said, "We already talked to her about it and she wants to see it." So as much as I have become a humble and meek servant of God there are some things that are just too hard to agree with because they are so completely wrong.

It is hard to believe that Sorella Stebar and I have been together almost a month now. It still feels like we aren't really companions, that we are just pretending still. And I always knew it was a bad idea to put old missionaries together, we are both sort of insane, for lack of a better word. We have an entire list of song titles we have come up with from things people have said or things that we have said that are just not normal enough for normal conversation.

The transfer has gone by really fast. I am trying not to think about it, but I am terrified I am going to get shipped out of Ragusa, I am far too in love with all these people (I know, that sounds familiar right?) but with two transfers left only

(ahhh, i want to be a missionary forever),
it is looking likely, but then there is the fact that SIX NEW SORELLE (out of 24 that will be in the mission) are coming in so I am not sure I am going to dodge training much longer, who knows what will happen!?!!!!???

Also, this was a week where EVERYONE was in love with us. There was this guy on the street that ran into me(literally) while he was passing and then starts to go into a store but instead turns around and goes,
"Ma, SEI BELLISSIMA! Where are you from?"
And then asks if I have a boyfriend, to which I said, without hesitating,
"Yes. In America."
"Oh, and do you have a boyfriend in Italy?"
I thought, what? Thats not how that works! But instead I said,
"I am a missionary. We are like nuns."
"But you will get married someday right?"
"Yes, the family is very important, it is part of God's plan for us"
"Good, because it would be a shame YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL."
And then he said,
"Okay, but I can come find you sometime, right?"
And I said,
"This is the address to the church, the services are Sunday morning."

And that was after the text from an investigator we haven't seen for a month or two but who we called the other day,
"I am faithful to God, but when I met you, I liked you.
Your eyes enchanted me."

But it is also hard to know, because here in Italy they are just very honest when they see beautiful things. And then the nine year old on the street who said, in English, "I love you!" as we passed. We try not to break hearts, but it's not easy.

I miss having a blonde companion. Usually the comments were never directed at me. But we also have a lot of not-in-love (or at least we hope) men in our lives that are incredible.

The other day Slla Stebar was looking at her planner and said,
"I have never had appointments with so many men in my life.
Welcome to the mission of Sorella Laws."

We met this great guy Antonio who is a theater actor and just wants to help his family be connected with God. He is a real thinker and makes really intellectual comments while we are talking and is just so deep. And you know how I love deep people. Then there is Carmelo who talks ridiculously fast and never lets us get a word in edge-wise.

"You speak so well, I always understand you, even on the phone."
"Thats because he doesn't let us say anything!"
Even when he was sick it was like, "
Sniff-okaysoIhaveafever-sniff-butIshouldbeabletoseeyoutomorrow-sniff-ifIambetterafterwork-sniff-doesthatworkforyou?"
"Yeah, how--" "Yougottatellmewhatworksforyou,Idontknow,eightthirty,orearlier?"
"How about--"
"I just don't know, wait, tell me, go."
etc.

Basically it is amusing to try and watch my companion talk to him on the phone because on our side there are never quite complete sentences. And he is paranoid he can't come to church unless he wears a suit (not a probl
em, most people don't) and we ran into him in the park and he was like, "Not like this, its too sporty"

He was wearing jeans and a button-up shirt. I guess the standards are different here.. We have tried over and over to set something up with him but it has yet to work out, fingers crossed for tonight. Fingers also crossed that we don't catch whatever he had earlier.

And, there is Raposelli who we went by the other night to sing some songs with him. He does the most interesting versions of hymns and...JOHNNY CASH.
Raposelli: Johnny Cash, you can't touch him!
(sounds cooler in Italian).

We were singing hymns to his guitar accompianment and then he goes, "Do you know this one?" and next thing I know we are both singing Folsom Prison Blues and Slla Stebar goes,
"wait, what? what is going on?"
because she is slightly less Johnny Cash literate and had no idea how we somehow both knew this song. The look on her face was priceless. But if I end up with lung cancer someday I am blaming Rapo.

We also got back in touch with Mara which was a miracle because she told us that the very day we called she was feeling sad and lonely and she agreed to meet us in the church, which she had never been to (she works almost 24/7 for an older lady and only has 6 hours off a week). We watched the Restoration film and she was very touched.

So the work is going better than ever, like, ever in my whole mission, but no one around here seems to believe us because they only see problems but we aren't letting that get us down.

And our shower is fixed so we are not taking bucket showers anymore (though I did appreciate the touch of 3rd world living)! And that was an exaggeration, we have some really incredible members here who are always willing to help us with lessons, namely Monia, the greatest ever and Tina. There is one plus to no one having jobs, more time for missionary work!!

Oh, and to explain the pictures

there was a bambini choir in church on Friday and though we thought it would never work, it worked! And all the families went home with a copy of the Book of Mormon and the l
latest Liahona all about the Book of Mormon.

Somehow we got put in charge of decor,

but I just told slla S to use her mad skills and it worked out grrrreat.

Other picture: Slla Palermo looking at my pictures. Or examining them for fingerprints, still not sure about that one.
She is in love with baby Molly.

Love,

Sorella Laws

p.s. Everyone, if you are waiting for a good time to write me DO IT NOW. Slla Stebar is way too popular and I need letters for these next two weeks so I have physical evidence of my equal popularity.
Via Michaelango Bounarotti 201
97100 Ragusa

p.s.

Just read a talk by Bednar while waiting for my comp to finish. It is about the dangers of virtual relationships replacing real ones.

“Hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.

“Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God” (Mormon 9:27–28).

As we heed that inspired counsel, we can and will be blessed to recognize and repel the attacks of the adversary—today and in the days that lie ahead. We can and will fulfill our foreordained responsibilities and contribute to the work of the Lord in all the world.

I testify that God lives and is our Heavenly Father. He is the Author of the plan of salvation. Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer, whose body was bruised, broken, and torn for us as He offered the atoning sacrifice. He is resurrected; He lives; and He stands at the head of His Church in these latter days. To be “encircled about eternally in the arms of his love” (2 Nephi 1:15) will be a real and not a virtual experience.

p.p.s.

i had to submit a miracle story to slla kelly, I'll send it to you to

EXPECT A MIRACLE.

Corrado Sambito is one of the many people I have taught on the mission that has been a living example how true conversion can change a person. His story is a series of miracles starting with when Sorella Lewis saw him on the street, another scruffy looking Italian man, but she felt prompted to go back and get his number. He has been carrying around that pass-a-long card for months now. His wife had died six months earlier and he was absolutely devastated. But he will tell you that the day he met Sorella Lewis and Sorella Ashman everything changed.

Teaching him went a little slowly at first, we called him when I first got to Ragusa and he wasn't always there when we set up appointments. His father didn't let him go to much school so he can't read that well, but he remembered everything we talked about. He started reading the opuscoli one page at a time, now he is reading the Book of Mormon, page by page. The first time we invited him to church he said he wanted to come, but that he had to work until noon. That Sunday he came, with five minutes left in sacrament meeting, dressed in his bright orange work clothes. "I thought for sure they weren't going to let me in, but then one of the brothers had me sit down, I will never forget that."

After a few weeks he started to get Sundays off and told us he would always come to church, but that he would never wear a tie because they really bother his neck. We said that was okay. Soon he was accepting all the commandments and wanting to pay tithing. He loves the last scene in the Restoration film where they show the baptism. He wanted to be baptized, but wasn't sure if he was ready. Sorella Lewis suggested he buy a white shirt, the next Sunday he showed up in a white shirt and neatly shaved.

On September 21, the "deadline for expecting a miracle" we invited him to be baptized. He said yes, of course, but that if there was a fee to pay he would just have to wait until his next paycheck. We told him it was free.

He drinks aqua frizzante now at dinner instead of wine, but that he would give up that too if we told him it was against the commandments. His friends try and buy him coffee and he always says, "No just orzo, I don't drink coffee because I am Mormon." He has told everyone he knows about the church and has introduced us to anyone who will listen. He has given up so much of his old lifestyle, including working on Sundays, because "I could go to other churches any day of the week, but this is the only church that interests me." Last Sunday, he even wore a tie.

In every single lesson he thanks us for helping him change his life. He always says,
"Non smetterò di dire mai, grazie a Gesu prima, e poi voi altri per avermi fatto conoscere questa nuova famiglia, e questa nuova vita."
We are all looking forward to the day that he is baptized and
really starts his new life.

Anothe epic week

2011-10-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, so taking a step back to Wednesday
I had a dream that the testimoni di Geova came back to our house and were mad that I lied to them--hold on, did I tell you how JWs knocked on our door and that I was so taken aback that I told them to come back some other time even though we are very much not allowed to let people in our house and, um, we are full time missionaries for another church. Well I had this actually kind of scary dream I think as a result of guilt because I feel so bad I didnt just tell them we aren't interested.
Yes, missionary guilt.

Anyway, so Wednesday night I left all my clothes in the Anziani car and so Thursday I had to walk to Zone Conference in Slla LeCates clothes and some shoes I found in the closet and I managed to get my stuff and slip into the bathroom to change before too many people noticed, but it was yet another me entertaining the rest of the world moment, I meant to take a picture but didn't get around to it.

Zone Conference was amazing as usual.
President talked about how missionary life is not normal
and that there is a reason we only do it for a year or two because it is not normal but that we still have to do our best to follow all the rules and give it our all. It was just nice to hear someone acknowledge that what we do isnt easy. But then he also said that when he was set apart as mission president Pres. Eyring told him, "Your missionaries are lucky to be sent to a hard mission, because they are going to come back stronger and be prepared to lead the church."
He likened it to the early Saints,
"Utah was a bad place to grow food, but a good place to grow Saints."

I don't know why it has to be so hard for us to grow, but it is. I think about our investigators right now. Some of them are having a REALLY hard time. Example: We have one investigator who recently found out that her husband has been cheating on her...for 12 years...with her best friend... And she has always been a sweet, faithful person. And you wonder, why? Why do some people get the easy life and some people get the hard life? But we have to trust that God knows what we can become and that through the Atonement of Christ we can be HEALED not just from sin but from heartache. She is amazing by the way, we taught her the first three lessons three days in a row and she has been coming to church for a month now. She is the sweetest person I think I have ever met and I am completely in love with her. Her phone has been off but we are going to pass by her tonight with the talk:
The Atonement Covers All Pain.

We met with Rita a new convert and she is having similar problems as the rest, just feeling hopeless with all her struggles in life. She is far from her family with no work and hardly any food. We decided to stop by her after we got back from Palermo and it was perfect timing because she was feeling extra sad, but we told her we know God loves her and it will work out in the end. I believe that every time we say it to someone, but it is hard to get them to really believe it. She still loves God and her son Destiny and somehow keeps up faith even though she told us it was too hard she still ended the lesson by bearing powerful testimony that God loves her. And Destiny greeted us with his usual growly-chomping noise.
We think he is part bear.

Then there is our boy Johnny, who also has had a hard life
and wants so badly to change but just doesn't know how. We had a few out of control lessons with him asking millions of questions, switching languages every few moments, and impersonating a machine gun (which ironically a machine gun impression happened again the next day in another lesson, I promise the people we teach are normal) but just yesterday, he finally had broken down completely and was just like,
"what do I have to do to be free again?"
and we told him and we read with him from a talk
about how no one is too far gone and
we brought him 6 cartons of grapefruit juice
so that he could stop smoking and he said he would do it.

Like you said mom, sometimes, and often,
it is the people who take some time that end up being the most fully converted. These people just need patience and love and although we start out as strangers that come into their life out of nowhere they become so important to us in a matter of moments.

Corrado, wow. He told us the first time we invited him to church that he would come to church but he would never wear a tie, because he has only worn a tie two days in his whole life and he doesn't like feeling strangled. We said that was okay. But, this Sunday, he showed up in a tie. On his own. And he is reading the Book of Mormon page by page, even though he can barely read because his dad didn't let him go to much school. He called us today because his daughter had another baby.

These people just blow my mind with their incrediblness.
I feel so lucky to know them. And if anyone knows the story of Paul-->Saul. ANYONE can change and become incredible.

On the way back from Catania I talked to this awesome girl on the bus that looks like the Italian version of Babetta and was super cool and thought I was cool (which was a plus) and we talked about life, etc. We will be facebook friends someday.

In English Course we made them give us directions
to their favorite pizza places. We have tons of new fun people.

So, life is great!! I want to be a missionary forever.
I love you all.

Love,
Sorella Laws

Okay, let me explain some of these pictures.

Me, apparently directing and/or producing something
at the same time. Don't know what that was about but I am SURE it was important. And who ever was on the phone was probably confused.
You can take the Laws out of the film program for a year and a half
but that filmmaker face still shows up now and again.

Shout out to Slla Jenkins, because there should be some people you recognize in THESE photos (namely one amazing Peruvian Italian) and guess what, we went to Palermo AGAIN. Always think of you cruising the streets, teaching the gospel, when I am there.

There is all the sorelle at Zone Conference. There are a lot of sorelle in Sicily.
We all love each other lots. As you can see.

Reunited with Anz. Avesani!! Him and Anz Perry are Zone Leaders, greatest thing ever, even if its not actually my zone. We are currently being led by Anz. Scotchi and Anz Knutson from the MTC (he's back again).

And this is the elephant that is HAUNTING us.
We first HEARD it when we were saying a prayer in the church.

"Um, was that an elephant during the closing prayer?"
"Yes, I believe it was...
remember how we aren't really in Italy but
a mix between South America and Africa?"
"Oh, yes, I remember now, jungle noises during lessons are normal."
"Good prayer though."
"Yeah, good prayer."

And then we saw it the next day...several times!
And it drove by twice during church. It is haunting us and we are afraid something bad might happen to us if we don't go to the Circus while it is in town...

Then we were surprisingly invited to Palermo on Monday even though we had just been to Zone Conference in Catania for a SUPER district meeting that was really the whole zone. But the Zone Leaders asked us if we wanted to come, it was mostly for people who hadn't had interviews and we already had, but we went anyway even though it meant 9 hours on a bus for 5 hours in Palermo, it was still pretty fun. And to link these two pictures together there is this quote,

"With Anz. Scotchi leading us and
an elephant following us we don't stand a chance."

This artsy shot of me walking down the street, look to your right, that fence is made out of bed frames. "How many beds does this guy go through?"

Palermo is a very special place, it is unfortunate we only spent a few hours there. Its very clean most of all.

And it actually just looks like Provo...

..except for the seaside.

Ciao!

2011-10-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a really crazy week,

but we just got back from
CLIMBING A VOLCANO!!

So that is awesome.
More on that momentarily.

And Slla Stebar and I celebrated our One Year Anniversary
(okay, she was celebrating her one year on a mission and I pointed out that I met her her first day and so now it is officially
a holiday for the both of us!)

Okay, this week is crazy because at one point we had
THREE baptismal dates,
but then we discovered a few problems with some of the commandments and we are going to have to move some things around.

But my/our motto for the transfer
(partially because Slla Stebar caught me saying in my sleep) i
"Non ci sono problemi" There are no problems!
No matter what happens.
Or however you would eloquently translate that

The past two weeks Slla S has pointed out several times that my English is become Italianified. Like that last sentence. I'm struggling. But it is okay. Back to me talking in my sleep, I was explaining to someone that they could come to Relief Society
"even if you are not a member of the Society."

Add to that, we have received a record number of "bidonnes" that is people who stand us up this week, because people just kept cancelling. One would cancel, we would set up another appointment and that person would cancel too! Over and over. We even double booked ourselves once on accident, but no worries, they both cancelled!!

And then, conference, the one thing you think you can count on, but what happens? We get to the church and it starts raining and we think, "Well that was lucky!" except for the fact that we were watching by sallelite and it kept cutting out! We thought "it'll come back for the prophet, it'll come back for the prophet!" Wrong.

Romeo laughed as I waved my arms about willing it to work, as if I was holding an antaena and when it cut out us and the three African men we were with sang hymns in the bad Italian that we speak until it would come on again, only to hear the crowd laugh at some wonderful Pres. Monson joke that we had missed. Awful. But we just downloaded them onto the mp3 player, along with all of Sunday afternoon session, because that was playing at 10pm and we missed it.

Conference was great though, wasn't it?? Pres. Utchdorf's talk to the Relief Society was SO wonderful and lovely and heart warming.
God loves us. Punto. Period.

The other bad news was that WE BROKE THE CHURCH. Okay, not really, but I went to close the garage door that is our church entryway and it slammed really hard and the next day we couldn't open it. Problem. But once again bishop saved us and got it fixed.
He has saved us a lot lately.

Mom! When you sent me that email about the man we met who didn't think he could change that he was too far gone, I couldn't remember who you were talking about, but then one night we were sitting in the park making phone calls and I scrolled through all the names and stopped on one and said, "johnny, be our miracle" because his phone is ALWAYS off. But he answered! And we went and saw him the next day! In his house with his girlfriend and it was really awesome.
Step by step we will help him change his life.

Like the photos?

Guess who hasnt cut her hair

since the mtc...yeah,

out of sheer laziness.

We wore normal clothes because it was a "hike"

but it was easier than our walk from Romeo's to the church,

which we trekked with him to get to conference.

And of course as we were hiking the volcano

many a Mordor reference was made.

This mission is full of nerds.

Everyone but me had lots of lava dust in their shoes,

mine were squeeky clean.
And my old comp Slla Lecates is in Catania!
Reunion.

After Conference we were on our way out when

Emily starting harassing us

(she started it, promise, haha).

You can see that Slla Stebar was the victim of beauty parlor.

This is why they don't let missionaries babysit.

Especially not the bishop's kids.

And this is a picture of us eating, guess what,

smurf-infused-rice-crispie-treats...

on top of a volcano (okay, not really the top).

Love you all, bye!!!

Sorella Laws

Rain drops are falls here too...

2011-10-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well, Thursday was one of the most uneventful transfer days I have had in this mission. I got on the train with Slla Lewis at 8 in the morning and went to Siracusa, rode the train for two hours, and then arrived at the station, said goodbye, and got on a train with Slla Stebar, and came back to Ragusa.

No dramatic early morning trains/busses from Rome to Sicily or the Puglia or anything exciting. It was just like scambi. And now Slla Stebar is here and we already know each other and we are slowly and surely getting Ragusa all organized. She called a bunch of people we have had on our "to call" list for ages and she set up a bunch of appointments.
She is magic.

Right after I emailed last week we set another baptismal date with Romeo. We were telling him how Corrado was going to be baptized the 21st and he said, I am getting baptized before that! And we were like, oh, okay. Bishop would like that they get baptized the same day if possible because the font is hard to fill up, so we will see if we can get a compromise going. Romeo might have to wait.

Corrado is amazing and still wants to see us every day. He brings Salvina and Aurelio with him and the way all their schedules line up we can usually only see them for 30 minutes, but it works out pretty well. It is just taking a little bit to get through everything, with the short time period and everyone's comments. But they are all so happy to meet with us! Corrado and Salvina have told us probably 100 times
now how good they feel in the church and how much they
love coming to church and reading
and how they feel like new people.
It is incredible.

Sunday was a never ending ward lunch. But it was SO fun. We drove up with Fllo Guastella (the younger) and Slla Magrograssi who is always hilarious and her ADORABLE baby. I took this picture of the two of them, but Slla M was making this awful face and forced me to delete it and called me a terrorist.

We went to Slla Rollo's house out in the countryside

and picked fruit and almonds and ran around.

It was very fun.

I love all the kids here (and the adults)

they are just so fun!
Remind me when I get home
to do some impressions for you.

And then Slla Stebar got to meet Raposelli, who tried to get us to sing hymns in different key changes which did not work for me. But he is very excited to have someone who sings alto in Ragusa.

Slla Palermo is still in the hospital, she is so sweet when we come visit.

It has been raining and a bit cold but usually it clears up for a least part of the day. The other day we got caught in a huge storm and had to take shelter in a caffe and of course
our friend Pablo was there to be like,
"you can't be out in the rain, you'll catch a cold!"

Yesterday we taught English Course and there are three guys that come that are just so hilarious. One of them has a British accent and was telling us about his adventure in Japan and another one was telling us why he never shouuld have studied Japanese and how the first day when they taught the alphabet he ran away.
We are always very amused listening to them.

Life is great,

everyone is wonderful, and most of the most wonderful ones
never have time to see us,
which makes us sad, but we go on ahead.

LOVE YOU ALL,

Sorella Laws

Extra pictures:

Pictured here is the whistle man, who walks around and whistles.

And us picking figs!

My favorite of all fruits.

Bus driver smoking = classic Italy.

Me and Destiny

Me and Romeo.

Best drink ever!

I forgot to mention a fun new recipe we came up with...So they dont have rice crispies here in ragusa and they dont have marshmallows, but they DO HAVE...coca puffs and SMURF (i Puffi) marshmallow'like candies.
The result of the two combined?
MAGIC. very sugary magic.

In these pictures you can see the results of some games

that were invented

and Slla Stebar supervising the whole thing.

ADORABLE baby Ivan.

And the wheel chair I always sit in when we visit Slla Palermo, yes, it is very entertaining. I will be like, hold on, I didn't hear that, let me roll closer to you.

Some pictures of what I look like when I wake up,

for your viewing pleasure.

And a picture of the grey hair I found. No, not grey, silver.

In these pictures you can see

that we are serving in South America

just like everyone else.

Still in Disneyland

2011-09-23T06:33:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, I am still in Disneyland,
though it will be a little less so without my Disney princess companion. But, guess who is coming...

I don't think you can.
I thought it was a joke when Slla Kelly called
and told me. I am going to be with...SORELLA STEBAR. The very Slla Stebar that I have ranted and raved about for, well, almost forever, who since the MTC has been in and out of my mission life with regular consistancy in all kinds of wonderful ways.

AKA. The best.
Even better because I was sort of terrified
I was going to have to train and I don't know if I should be trusted with the upbringing of a fresh young missionary.

I was looking at the last email and it looks like it got cut off, I dont remember what all else I said, but I remember saying something like, "Sorry this is so short, but I am on the computer in the church and everyone else is playing in the other room, which is selfish I know, but I want to join them."

It ended up being a super fun day. Slla Lewis beat everyone at Sorry (I am so proud) and then I mastered a duet on the piano that I of course butchered when we filmed it so the mastery that once was is not captured. And the Anziani dropped us off just as the last bus to Ragusa (because there are only three a day) was pulling away, and the bus driver let us on mercifully.
It was an epic sort of moment.

Forgot the camera cord, so no pictures, even worse I misplaced my battery charger, I know I have another one at home, but I dont know where. I am hoping I find it when I unpack my winter stuff, because it is getting cold here already! It changes throughout the day but we left the house the other morning in a HUGE rainstorm. Two mornings actually, it has been crazy, I need to find some boots that dont have holes in them. :)

We set a baptismal date today with Corrado!
Because he started talking about how he wanted to be baptized and wanted to watch the part in the Restoration where they have a baptism at the end over and over again.

He is amazing.
He has completely changed.
Sunday he came to church in a white shirt and was clean-cut. He keeps telling us how his life has been completely turned around. He invites everyone he knows to come listen and now his friend is super interested too and SHE wants to be baptized, she just doesn't know if she can come to church because of work.

With Aurelio we haven't really said anything,
the bishop wants to do an interview to get to know him,
we dont really know the situation still and are trying to figure out a good way to bring it up. Corado is really sad that Slla L is leaving but he is excited to meet Slla Stebar so it should be good.

Things are exciting here in Ragusa!
We met up with Salvatore again and he wants to be baptized still,
he said at the end of October, but we didn't the date "officially" he still needs to come to church! But he really loves how he feels and he also has been inviting everyone he knows to hear about the church.

And why do they want to be baptized?
Because they FEEL it, we aren't doing anything here.
We just teach and invite and teach and invite and people say,
"I dont know why but I like this"
It is SO real, it's incredible.

Everyone is sad to see Slla Lewis go,
but it means that we have been VERY busy teaching like crazy because everyone wanted to see her in the last couple days.
I am so tired, but so happy.
We just walked down the street with our arms around each other, because everything just feels so perfect right now.

Did I tell you about the beautiful perfect family of our favorite (one of them) sandwich man? Because they are perfect and beautiful and so warm and inviting and we just love them but they both work allll the time so we can't see them much.

Lorenc the husband was like,
"I really like what you are telling me, but I am not sure how to tell my wife about it, I know she will like it too, I just got to think about how to present it, but we really like these things you have explained about the family." and then a few days later he tells us that he talked to her and that we can come over the next day and when we get there she says, "I love your church! I used to go in Albania" and he was like, "I had no idea!" and then they started arguing...about how great we are. Her: These people are incredible, you will see when we go to church. Him: I know, that's why I wanted to meet with them. Her: No, you don't even understand... etc. It was hilarious and wonderful.

And I have met my new favorite thing, Gassosa,
it is like Sprite but BETTER.

There are so many wonderful things that I will have to explain next week because Slla Lewis is leaving tomorrow early and we have no time today for anything.

but I love you loooooooooooooooooooads,

Sorella Laws

Ciiiiiiiiao!

2011-09-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, bad news,
I may have lost my magical photo uploading thing,
I need to find it!

Because we took some awesome photos

today with some old greek ruins

they are delightful.

We are with the Anziani

from Gela and Agrigento, in Agrigento.

This week we have seen tons of miracles
like the old man who walked up to us,
"Are you Mormons?
I used to come to church, I think I'll come again"

or the other old man who talks our ear off,
but is really interested.
Or the old man in the hospital where Slla Palermo is
who just broke down and started crying and asked us
what he needs to do to follow Christ

(p.s.everyone cried this week,
we just kept making people cry...
and then we cried in ward council)

Slla Lecates told me she wanted to help convert an old Sicilian man, I told her it would never happen because I had heard they were stubborn.
I am starting to think maybe I was wrong.

They are amazing.
Everyone is amazing

We are friends with this Adventist man who is incredible. A
ll he wants to talk about is the Bible
and he studies it all day long,
he is amazing.
And Anz. Franceschini is doing a class
on the New Testament so he came and loved it.

We met an Australian
who became our friend and made me miss KELSIE,
amore mio, and Bree.

Again we feel like celebrities because everyone knows us
or knows someone who knows us
and Ragusa has this amazing small town feel to it.
And we are really good friends with the sandwich truck guys.
And the crazy thing is that TRANSFERS are coming up.
We get the call this Saturday
and I dont believe it but we are kind of hoping nothing changes,
because we are waiting for some people
to come back from their vacations
and it would just be sad to not see them again.

But that is kind of how mission life is,

you fall in love,

and they tear you away,

over and over and over.

AND OVER.

Okay, I am being dramatic.

All my love,

Sorella Laws

we were moving mountains long before we knew we could

2011-09-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

Hello!!

Well, I forgot my thingamajig, so no pictures this week, but as always there are stories.

Like the other day we had a family night with the Sorontinos who have the greatest children ever (4 of them, all fun and well-behaved) and there 6 year old son who conducted, "Good evening and welcome to this Family Night, we will sing hymn number 114 and then the prayer will be offered by Sofia" He's good.

During the lesson he kept coming up to me and whispering in my ear "are you going to stay for dinner?" "I dont know, what are you having?" then he would go over to his mom and ask, she would tell him, and he would come back and tell me. This happened a few times. He was pretty excited to have us there, though he ended up falling asleep at the dinner table, tortilla in hand. Meanwhile Fllo Sorontino recounted the hilarious story of how they met, he was looking for a job because he was engaged to someone else!

We are actually 4/4 for meals this week because everyone has invited us over for lunch and dinner. I dont think I can keep it up though, I feel like there is a balloon in my stomach. Luckily it is a balloon that tasted really good. Like pasta and more pasta and salad and chicken with this really good milk sauce.

Random, do they have cooking cream in the states, I think its 23% fat.

Sunday we helped in the Nursery, i.e. crowd control. We have to keep the kids from beating each other with colored pencils. And they all just want to sit in our laps because they are sooo tired by the last hour, but we can't :( so the members in there have 50 kids hanging off them and we just sit there (okay, not 50, 5).

That was only after I translated and directed the music in sacrament meeting and then taught the English Sunday School class. Which was a delight because Isaac pretty much took it away talked about how great the Holy Ghost is. And we talked about how people talked in tongues in the bible and how God is great.
I love Africans.

Sunday after church we went home and snagged a nap, it felt well deserved. Did I mention we had FIVE INVESTIGATORS in church!? Happy days! Corado is still just as amazing and we had an amazing lesson with his son last night, they love the church and how it is a big "family" that they really want to be a part off. Romeo came too and told his boss that he had to go to church. Yay!! Sundays are a lot less restful here on the mission, so I hope you are all taking advantage of the day of rest.

The bishop makes fun of us because we are always sitting in the church waiting for someone to come when he comes to the church, but people do come! We have had some good lessons lately, and like usual,
I just love everyone so much.

We spend our service hours on Friday making meatballs. Which sounds easy, right? Wrong. It was a battle between us and hot grease, I wont tell you how many casualties there were. They were well appreciated, however. We also washed Slla Marataro's windows, which was an adventure. She made us this delicious egg, cheese pizza.

We also visited Slla Palermo in the hospital, but only after some nuns directed us to the WRONG hospital (how Italian does that last phrase sound?) and we searched every single floor and asked everyone where she was (and made lots of friends) and it turns out she was in another hospital all along and we went later with some members.

Now a spirtual thought from Mary: "We have to be happy every day so that Satan will be sad." This is coming from the lady with problems back home in Africa, no money, in a country where she doesn't like the food, etc. etc. But I agree.
We have to be happy.
There is far more good in the world than bad.

Okay, so not too much excitement, mostly this week was just the usual, with a lot more good food. more adventures and pictures next week.

Love, love, love,
Sorella Laws

Greeting from The Luckiest Missionary in the World

2011-09-04T22:04:00.001-07:00

In the picture from last week it's not a gold skirt, silly. They are genie pants, of course. From Israel. The magical traveling genie pants. Traveling pants. It's an idea we came up with all on our own.

I don't know if I mentioned when we went to Taormina we were told to go tagless and blend in. It was weird, like loosing my identity a bit, I managed to tell everyone we encountered that we were missionaries anyway.

Speaking of fashion I also forgot to mention that the green skirt you made me is also a crowd pleaser, the amazement came from everyone, "there are pockets in your skirt!!" "If I had to wear a skirt I would wear one like that." I guess the Anziani dont realize that with their suits they have 5 times as many pockets as anyone and that they wouldnt look good in a skirt, no matter how many pockets it has.

So, why am I the luckiest thing in the world?
SO many reasons.

Also sorry if the pictures are ultra gross
but I feel like every missionary has to have their

"look at this gross thing I saw/happened to me"
and I want you all to have the full effect.

It was while I was in Siracusa so Slla Stebar kepts going,

"ew, gross!!" and then taking pictures.

But as you can see in another picture

I am rubbing my arms because they are just so baby soft smooth now! Even my elbows, who ever has soft elbows? Well, I do.
My legs/feet are still in the process of shedding,
It is really quite ridiculous.

Sunday about a billion people (5) said they would come to church, as in SATURDAY we talked to them and they said, yes, yes, I am coming!
And how many showed up? None.

And one of the members got ticked because we asked him to give someone a ride who ended up not wanting to come and somehow everyone ended up offended and I just wanted to cry
(which doesn't happen often)
because I was sad enough no one came
and just what I needed was an angry member on top of all that
who asked us to never ask him for help again.

But I was sitting there as the sacrament was being passed and I just had an overwhelming feeling that God loved me and he was so proud of what I was doing even though the results aren't always tangible. Because we had done everything we could, we had made calls, gotten rides, made sure everyone knew how and where and what and why, but sometimes, things come up that are out of everyone's control.

And sometimes people just choose not to do what they say they will. Which stinks, but agency is just that great that
we put up with everything that goes along with it.

Okay, so that doesn't sound all so lucky, does it...BUT! We met the greatest most fabulous person everrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Friday after we finished scambi we went and made cookies for the boys at the communita and then we thought, okay, what now...because with scambi(exchange) nightly planning did not get done. So we went to visit Park Boys.

And they were their usual selves. Pablo was there without the dogs so they so arent even a good excuse anymore. And I was like, "okay, this isnt productive" but I didnt feel like we could leave and then Carmello shows up with Pablo's(his brother) dogs. We start talking and he says, "Oh I am very catholic, I am one of the pallbearers in the St, John the Baptist procession on Monday" and then all the sudden he is telling us all the things he doesnt like about the catholic church, how the priests are paid and dont have families and how some things they teach aren't from the Bible, and then he is sitting down next to us on the bench and we are explaining Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and how our church is organized and he says, "So your church is like ours, but purer."

And he said the things every missionary wants to hear,
"I will read this book." "I pray every day"
"I will tell all my friends about this and see if they are interested"
"when can I meet with you"
and "I don't work on Saturday or Sunday."
and as he left, "you can call me whenever,
it won't bother me."

While we were talking to him this man and his little boy walked up and he excused himself to go talk to them, when he came back he told us how they are from Africa and the mom work all day long and how he just loves the whole family, especially the little boy and how he is not racist. Which is just icing on the cake since 20% of our ward is African with little babies running around.

So we had an appointment for yesterday but he couldn't come because he was taking his brothers dogs to the vet
(thats the problem with charitable people)
but he was like, "when can I see you???"

And he was super upset that he accidentally slept through church and when he woke up he realized he didnt have a tie and we explained of course he could come without a tie. And his name pretty much means candy so it couldnt get much better.

We got permission to go and watch the procession on Monday

and we saw him and I yelled and waved and then I actually got a video of him waving back, which of course we just love.

Slla Stebar's mom sends her my blog posts sometimes and she asked me how I always end up teaching 30-something year old men.
I dont know,
but the same day she said that we found another one.
:D

We also saw Corado at the procession walking along with his arm in a sling and we were confused as to what happened but we saw him yesterday and he. is. amazing. He is not the best at reading but the is going through the pamphlets word by word, paragraph by paragraph really trying to understand and he always tells us how since he met us something has changed and how he really wants to change and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, he usually works on Sunday so it's a mini blessing in disguise that he broke his arm because now he can come and he is so excited to come.

He used to always bring all his friends with him to lessons, we never knew how many people would show up, but the past couple of times we have been able to meet with just him and he has such a sweet, gentle spirit, he brings us watermelon and comes with all the pamplets and his reading glasses ready to learn. He always tells us to be patient with him because he is slow but he really wants to understand and to be baptized when he knows.

Of course we are patient, because we love him to death.

Right before the procession we went by Ziu Pinu, our favourite sandwich truck and two of them were just sitting outside at the table and we sat down and started talking and two of the workers, from Albania were very interested, one of them has a big family and we told him about how important the family was, etc, and he was very interested.

Ziu Pinu (sicilian for Uncle Pino) is the eccentric sandwich man that is always in his bright orange shirt and refers to himself in third person and drinks Tabasco sauce.

There are something that are just so Sicilian.

He calls Slla L "gioia (joy)" and is always excited to see us. We are glad he is back because he took his truck and went to the seaside for the summer, but he came back Friday.

Oh, and the best part of the procession...No joke.
The tuba player in the marching band
was smoking.

The past little while when I have been praying I have asked Heavenly Father to send us someone who really wants to meet with us, who really wants these things. And we have found them. Because all the sudden everyone wants to meet with us and is making appointments with us, even people we don't know, like when we tried to call a lady we met in the park and a man answered and he said, "She's at work, but I know where your church is, I'll come meet you there when I am not working" and we were like, "Um, okay" we still don't know who this person is, but we will find out tomorrow. So even though we still get stood up a lot there are miracles everywhere..

Not to mention I was very sad because it is fig season and there are none in Ragusa and I was thinking, of course, I am in the one city in Italy without figs. And I resigned myself to the fact that you can't have everything, but guess what, you can. Corado brought us figs last night and I said, "My favourite!!!" and he said, "Oh, really?
Ill go get you more, five minutes"

so he left his pamphlets and glasses (see picture) and went and got more. I dont know if I have ever met anyone more tender hearted.

Ragusa is more and more like Disneyland...the day of San Giovanni there were fireworks...the night before, the night of and...THE MORNING OF. Yes, fireworks...in broad daylight.

And there were booths run by old men selling stale candy and not stale nuts and sausages and I even saw cotton candy. And everyone waves at us and we pose for pictures.

I wake up and do aerobics to Prince of Eygpt and..did I mention they gave us DVD players to use for companionship study? They are fabulous and makes my job as senior comp way easier because we can watch and discuss, not to mention the user guide is written in...not quite english, such as "Avoid of Thunder."
"Put not near water source or vase nearby." etc.

We also devote 10-15 minutes to singing because we are trying to sing our way through the hymn book before the transfer ends).
So every day starts out great.
And we meet new fantastic people every day
some who want to be our friends
and some who want us to get lost
but it is always a pleasure.

And Carmello sent us a text telling us we are wonderful. And the African babies never cease to be adorable even if they come close to hitting us in the face with objects on a regular basis.

I am just so very, very happy. And its because no matter what afflictions I have or what comes our way there is always someone to love and I wouldnt trade anything for those moments of seeing people's eyes light up as they realize they have found something
they have been looking for their whole lives.
Faith and love change lives,
they can even change human nature if we let them.

I love you all.
Always have. Always will.

Sorella Laws

p.s.

do you like our matching 3 euro dresses?

we are VERY unified.

even if she falls asleep while i am talking to her. ;)

p.s.s

also a picture of us picking MULBERRIES.

i have never known what a mulberry was before
except that awesome band Mulberry Drive.

and a member of our ward is running for mayor.

and that cute little jacket is thanks to clothing exchange during our companionship exchange.

woohoo! it totally didnt fit slla Stebar,
but fits me,
thanks Slla Stebar's mom.