Ciao!

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...

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

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