O Holy Night

  I have noticed and studied about how winter time is the time when most people have depression, gain weight or are the most stressed (and not stressed because of christmas because we know that sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. Yes it can be stressful trying to get christmas ready, but in the end it makes us happy) .If you think about it, without Christmas (according to me) winter would be the most dreadful thing ever! But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is Christmas. The season to be jolly, even though its really not! Why are people so happy during the winter? and what is this  Christmas Spirit? 

     I think that the reason people are so happy during christmas is because we are celebrating the birth of our savior. And I know that a lot of people don't believe in christ and only celebrate christmas for Santa and presents, but i believe that Christmas is a huge part of celebrating christ. When Christ came to earth he taught us so many things. He taught us the way we should live, good standards and virtues that we should have. When we give gifts to others, its because we love them. We love people because it is godlike gift that we as his children inherited. Like it says in my favorite christmas song ‘O Holy Night “ Truly he taught us to love one another His law is love and His gospel is Peace” We give gifts and perform service projects during the Christmas season to show others our love and our affection for them. We learned this from the Prince of Peace. 

He is the light and life of the world and of the year. He is always shinning and showing us the way. I think that it  is the light of christ. His example. When we follow his teachings and his example, we will feel the Spirit of Christmas. We will feel his love. Think of how happy you are when you serve someone. When you do the right thing. That is the spirit. That is the love. And it’s this same feeling that we get at christmas time. 

     Christmas is SO symbolic of that. we have all our houses decorated with lights and a christmas tree with a star at the top (or an angel). We try to do good each year so we can be on Santa's’ “nice list”, You’re hopefully surrounded by your family and loved ones. Christmas is all about Christ. He is the joy that this season brings and this Christmas season i would like to focus on living and doing what he has taught, and by doing that, i will feel his love and find joy in this hard time of the year. I am so grateful that we have a savior. Someone who loved us so much that he gave his own life. God has a plan for each of us and it started when christ was born. To all my friends out there He wants us to live with him again, and we needed christ to atone for us so we could make it back. I love thee Lord Jesus, my Savior, my Brother and my King. 

In Poche Parole..

Ciao tutti

Well... this is it... 

i don't really know what to wright about... Im super sad to leave the mission. Its blessed my life in more ways than i could have ever imagined. Ive learned so much and grown so close to my savior. I HAVE LOVED these past 18 months with all my heart. they really are the best months of my life.

Some of the things I've learned the most are

How important prayer, scriptures and church are. These three things will help all of us endure to the end. they help us feel the spirit everyday and they let us invite the savior into our lives. The scriptures are POWERFUL beyond measure! when we read them we have a power to overcome the temptations of the adversary. Prayer is one of the most important things we can do everyday! When we pray we can literally have the savior by our side and if we have faith we can do all things! Church is a way in which we can show christ that we accept his atonement for us. Think about it. when we don't take the sacrament we are telling christ that for that week we wont remember him and that we don't want to accept the gift of the atonement that he has given us. (thats already payed for... its a waste.) 

Ive learned the importance of the plan of salvation. and especially to have an eternal perspective in all things. in poche parole S.M.I.L.E (Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal) 

Ive learned how to show others your love for them. its called SACRIFICE when we sacrifice and do things that maybe we don't want to do (like dishes or buying the toilet paper this week even though i did it last week too.) we show those in whom we are with that we love them. Especially when you LOVE that person. imagine how selfish we are when we don't do things for those we love simply because we don't want to. check yourselves. AND ESPECIALLY DONT COMPLAIN!!! 

Ive learned how important and powerful our desires our. they can lead us to do good or evil. and we need to be careful with them. in the end if we really have a true desire to follow god but we struggle to do it. in poche parole it means that we are trying. and that we are doing the best we can. 

Miracles happen, Angels are here on earth helping us.

and a whole lot more I've learned!!!

Ok funny story!! this week we were teaching our simp gianni and for our last lesson we taught him the law of chastity! and he read the pamphlet and the next time we saw him he comes up running to us and says (this is a gianni phrase..) "in poche parole" the law of chastitiy is....etc. and as hes telling us all the rules he says "don't look on a women and lust after her" and as he is saying that a women walks by who was pretty good looking and his head follows her and he ends up with his mouth open and not talking... hahahahah we were laughing SO hard!!! AS he was talking about not looking at women he was doing it! hahah sorry maybe that sounds a bit stupid and gross but it was soooooooo funny! then we hit him in the head with our scriptures. 

Agata is great. she isn't going to get baptized this week but she is going to get baptized. that is the important thing! 

This week i pack friday night and leave early Saturday morning to take a 11 hour train to rome. ill be in rome 3!!!!!! for church and then p-day ill be at the villa for my last interview and i should be leaving early morning tuesday.... so thats it. 

I love you all so much! i cant tell you guys how much my mission has meant to me and how grateful I've been to serve a mission. I'm truly lucky! everything i say about my mission is an understatement... and just like alma says " i cannot say the least part of which i feel." 

Con Tutto Il Mio Cuore

Sorella Felice 

pics

me on the bus today 

this guy with his pony on the sabbath

GRAPE SEASON!!! one reason i love september in italy! 

Four in a Fiat

Ciao tutti!!!

This week went well. We had my last zone conference which was really sad!! and i gave my death testimony which didn't go so well.. when i got up there i said buongiorni tutti instead of buongiorno... i was SOOO nervous! but after that it went alright.. i decided not to use anymore italian in it after that slip up. 

AHHH so during the conference we got a text from agata that said she wanted to get baptized before i left and that we should start planning it!!! and then that night we called her and she told us that she didn't want to get baptized anymore. that she was looking up stuff on line and she said that she really didn't have a testimony and that her mom was yelling at her for the decision..etc. it was like the saddest day of my life i just kept crying and crying... and then the next day she told us that all was good and that she wants to still be baptized but she isnt going to tell her mom about it cause there were so many problems at home.... so.. thats were we are with agata. she isn't going to get baptized before i go, but thats just fine. as long as its in her time and  and its right. 

Yesterday we went to church in enna. its a little city that just barely got missionaries this year and just two months ago they baptized there first member. so we took agata and our new convert (from the other sorelle that got taken out) and we went to enna for church!! it was soooo cool! the spirit is soooo strong and the chapel is the living room of the elders apartment haha but it was great i was looking at all the people there and there were 4 missionaries, 2 non members, and 4 new converts (three from catania and the one from enna) so it was super interesting, if you would have gone back just 1 year there would have only been 4 missionaries. anyway. that was fun and cool. 

last night we found two baby cockroaches which means there is some mother hiding in our house we cant find.... :( also we decided that the bakery under our apartment is breeding them so we refuse to buy anything from them. 

Nothing too exciting happened this week. besides the fact that I'm in love with italy and never want to leave. catania is sooo beautiful!! 

LOVE YOU ALL SO  MUCH!!!

Sorella Felice 

pics 

agata, new convert veronica me and cano in the back of a tiny yellow fiat on the way to enna

me and cano 

and then us at church!!!! 

Its kind of lonely in a house of two…. unless you go into the kitchen at night… then you'll have hundred of friends!!!

Ciao tutti

Well this week was just hectic! the sorelle left and now its only me and sorella cano in the big scary house of monsters. We cleaned it really well this week though and we do the dishes every five seconds so that maybe the cockroaches wont have enough food and want to leave. (thats are plan but shhhhh dont tell the cockroaches!) This week has been super stressful cause we now have our work (which was a lot! not going to lie... like less actives potentials... etc.) and now we have the work of the other sorelle which was a lot bigger!!! AHHHHHH to many people to see in to little time! Also this week is the week of death in all of the mission . FERRAGOSTO. its so hot in italy during august that everyone leaves and goes on vacation, but this week is the actual week of holiday so all the stores are closed and everyone is GONE! so not only do we have a lot of work but we cant visit them cause everyone is at the beach or on vacation... wahoooo. I'm lucky that I'm not in a small city though like foggia or sassari. (they are like ghost towns for a month) at least cantania has tourists. 

AHHHHH also big news!!! I SAW ANZIANO BIRBERG THIS WEEK!!!! it was so exciting!!! he is going to palermo which is on the other part of the island also its another zone so that was the last time ill see him on the mission :( but it was super fun!!! love that kid! 

What else happened this week. Church yesterday was CRAZY!!!! first off we get there and all the members are waiting outside waiting for someone with the keys to come and open the gate. and sorella cano and i ask all the members if they can greet our simps that were coming to church and make them feel welcome (cause they don't... its a huge problem. last week we had someone new come and not ONE person said hi.) anyway then the members got in a huge fight and they were like sorelle how are we supposed to love these new people when we don't even love each other.... ughhhh so frustrating!!! i think its for this reason that this city used to be THE MISSION OF CATANIA and now its a city with four missionaries. anyway that stinked but then everyone brought a friend to church and we have TWO NEW REFERRALS!!!!!!!!!!!! crazy!!!! and we have appointments with them this week! so that was cool.

ok other than than nothing to exciting has happened (besides the fact that I'm getting fat here in sicily with all the good food!) look for the rolly polly at the airport in five weeks! LOVE YOU!!!!!! 

Sorella felice 

pics

a giant leaf i found 

all of us at a phillipino party with a priest 

me and birberg

Agata!

Ciao tutti!!!!

I'm losing me desire to write emails so... bear with me this might be really short.

This week we had a AMAZING lesson with one of our simps! last sunday she said that she was thinking about not taking the lessons anymore cause she wasn't getting an answer and we talked to her for a long time and then this week we had a lesson with her about testimony. Anyway long story short she asked me when i was leaving and i told her blah blah blah and she said OH NO you wont be here!! and i said for what? and she said i got my answer last night and IM GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH we are trying to see if we can have her baptism on the 13th (my last saturday) but she is leaving for vacation soon and not coming back till a couple days before that date.. but oh well. Im just soooo happy!!!!!! she told us that she prayed and asked if she should get baptized then started reading in the bible and she was reading a part where john the baptist was preaching to the people and tells them to be baptized and converted unto the true gospel of christ. and she said i felt peace and i KNEW! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh im so excited!!!!!

other than that nothing really exciting happened..

Anyway love you all!!!!! hope you have the best rest of the summer EVER!!! (i don't think that really made sense.) HAVE A GOOD WEEK!!! 

Vi Voglio Bene

Sorella Felice 

my comp hahah

me and agata (our simp thats getting baptized!!!!!) we went to a restaurant today called old wild west hahah

IM ON TOP OF THE WORLD!!!!!

Ciao tutti!!!

TODAY WE WENT TO MNT. ETNA!!!!!!!! it was sooo cool!!! its one of the tallest and most active volcanos in the world!! ahhhhhh so cool! and you can see like all of sicily..... well not all but a lot!! and it has been going off all week so there was still lava at the top (which we couldn't see but you could see a bit of red and then just smoke. ) it was super fun!!!

this week was FERRAGOSTO! which is the week most dreaded in all the mission. everyone leaves. we didn't have one appointment with any of our simps... so that was cool. but its better here then being in a small city so i cant complain. We cleaned our house all day for ferragosto (cause there is no work so the mission does a cleaning day). what else happened this week...

not much im just going to send pics today.. really nothing happened this week so... I LOVED THE VOLCANO super cool!!!!! 

ok also fun fact in the catholic church. sometimes that put out priests (dead priests) on display and this week we found one that you could actually see he was disintegrating (is that the right word?) anyway love you all!!!!!! 

mwhahh

sorella felice 

Catania…. continued

Ciao Tutti!

Well this week not a lot happened....

ok really I'm just looking in my planner and really NOTHING excited happened. We've just been visiting our homies here in catania and teaching the gospel...

OH DUH! transfer calls came and IM STAYING IN CATANIA WITH CANO TO DIE wahooo. however the worst part is that they are blowing out the other sisters. Sorella stephens is going to rome to train (which i am really happy about cause she hasnt been able to see rome and she has been in the south her whole mission so it should be super fun for her to die up there. ) and then sorella furlanich died this week... :( ...(ok when someone finishes there mission we use the term to die.) so me and cano will be all alone here in this HUGE city!!!!! Besides the two elders. (the crazy part is that sassari has 8 missionaries and its a tiny tiny tiny city that used to only have one set of elders there, and catania is a HUGE HUGE HUGE city that used to be a MISSION!!! and now there are only four missionaries here. However the sisters were blown out cause the ward doesn't deserve 6 missionaries. no one helps the missionaries here and so pres. decided to take them out, which is super sad. 

Also i have to defend myself all alone against the mother cockroaches!!!!!! this morning we found one that i killed that its antennas were like 4 inches long!!!! AHHHH so gross!!! we all woke up at five cause the sisters had to get to the airport to fly to rome to die and sorella stephens just starts screaming and all of us are up on chairs just screaming at 5 in the morning trying to figure out how to kill this beast of a cockroach.... (wow my adventures here are sooooo exciting) 

This week we did a lesson with this less active family (they are my first less active family that i really believe they are doing the best they can and they literally cant get to church. i love them so much!!! its a single mom with two little girls... ahhhh i love them!!! but we did this lesson with them this week where we made a cake and all the "ingredients" were the things we need in our life like flour = prayer.... etc.. and the little girl who is nine came up to me and gave me the biggest hug after and told me that she loved the church!!!!!!!!!! it was soooooo cute!!! and she isn't baptized but she wants to really bad but she cant :( anyway that was fun!

This week one of your simps dropped us (it happens super often but this is one I've praying for and i had a lot of faith and hope that she was going to get baptized.) anyway we called her and she was like i don't want to learn about the gospel anymore sorry. and we asked her if we could at least go and get a gelato with her, saying we really just want to be friends (cause that is what she needs. she is super depressed and never leaves her house and never hangs out with people) and she told us that she didn't want to do that.... it was really sad... and then today we saw her on the bus and she SPRINTED off!!! AGHHHHHHHHHHHH i don't understand!!!!!!!!!!! Its sucks when you know how to help someone and they wont let you!!! and I'm devastated that she wants to remain in this state of depression.... :( 

Yesterday we ate dinner with an american family that works on the military base here in catania and they made us chicken enchiladas!!!!! wahooo soo good AND REFRIED BEANS!!!!! and dried mango and a betty crocker chocolate cake.... ahhhh troppo americano!!!! 

anyway really thats all that has happened love you so much!!!! have a great week

Sorella Felice

Ps i went on a cereal shopping spree and bought a ton of master crumble (mom) that will last me till the end of my mission hahah 

pics. me and kimberly making the cake (well frosting the holy ghost hahah) 

a little boy trying to shoot me when i was doing an english lesson to this cute family

Some priest with the name felice

The Start of Armageddon

Ciao tutti...

Well this week was just beautiful.... NOT. lets just say it was very interesting to say the least.. ill start with Wednesday

So wednesday we have correlation and one of the member missionaries said he was talking to one of our investigators (who I've been praying all transfer to accept our message!! she is so ready and so amazing i really just love her!!) and she told him that she didn't want to see us again and she didn't want to hear more.... :( but we will see. we still have to see her.

So thursday we go visit a contact/investigator and we do a little lesson with her then we had off to go home. so Catania is HUGE and to get anywhere it takes at least an hour and a half.. so we took three busses and then walked for half an hour. (i had run out of money so i couldn't buy water so i just felt dead and dehydrated.. we take an hour for lunch and then go back out again cause we had our interviews with president waddoups. So i check my bag to see if i brought my planner and I'm like HOLLY CRAP MY WALLETS NOT HERE!!! but we didn't have time to go back to the house to see if it was there so we had to wait till after all of our interviews 6 bus rides and a long walk back to the house to find that it wasn't there :( so then the office told me to call and get my cards cancelled... anyway. I wasn't super upset that my wallet was stolen i was just like... die whatever... then we go out to go use the pay phone so i could call you guys and my shoes breaks..... so that was fun i looked like a hobo with no shoes and putting pennies into the stupid pay phone hahaha

The cutest part though is that the other sorelle come home and THEY BOUGHT ME SHOES!!!! how cute is that! they are the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

ok so thursday i run out of money. get my wallet stolen. and my shoes break.(they only got  my temple recommend cause all my money was gone haha) 

Friday we travel to siracusa which is BEAUTIFUL|!!!! its where paul landed after being stranded in malta. he taught the gospel in these cool rock temples that we found. so ZONE CONF is always the best!! loved it! except during the conference sorella cano gets up to give her birth testimony and I'm like OHHH i need to film this so i get my camera and it wont turn on.... long story short something happened to my camera and ITS DESTROYED!!!!!! I don't know what happened cause it was in its case but..... its utterly destroyed.. so that one was a little sad. then that night they had all the sisters sleeping in there apartment and i slept on the floor and it was so hot that i never actually fell asleep. :( 

Saturday, we had a baptism!!! it was the elders and the kid is 18 and is american but lives on the army base here. HE IS SOOO COOL!!! he was searching mormon.org one day decided he was going to be baptized. talked to online missionaries in england and then they contacted us. (the anziani) anyway he is AWESOME! sorella furlanich asked hime if he was excited to be baptized and he says .. yeah but I'm more excited to go to the temple hahahah 

so during his baptism... there were two italians and then a lot of the members from the branch at the base. the closing hymn we sing "How great thou art" and the one italian lady is singing opera style and she is like crying and all of us are trying to keep cool and not laugh.. then the other italian is sitting next to me and sorella furlanich and he is singing like this (HoW GrEAt THou ArT ) i don't know if you understand that but his voice did that... and he sounded really nasally. and he was super quite so no one else could here him but furlanich and i. then the worst part is that instead of "art" he was saying "fart" hhahahahahaha we were dying i was in tears!!! hahaha how great though fart hahah so ooooo good!!! the baptism was the most spiritual that I've ever been too. sooo amazing!!

Then sunday we go to a members house and they feed us... then there is a baptism of three little girls in the ward. the chapel WAS PACKED!!!! and during the baptism the guy who has the talk on the spirit instead decides to be a comedian and tells two stories about one, a cat peeing in his hat and then him putting it on his head, and then a story of what happened while he was in the bathroom taking a dump...... how it related to the spirit.. i do not know. 

then the ward mission leader gets up (who does NOT understand social Qs) and starts talking and in the middle this girl stands up AND STARTS THROWING UP!! And she bends over and is just puking and she is wearing the shortest dress ever and.... lets just say everyone saw her weggie. it was sooooo sad!!! AND FRATELLO BRUNO JUST KEPT TALKING!!!!!!!!!!! then one of the little girls when she was baptized her legs came flying up out of the water and she was wearing a dress (it reminded me of my baptism) then after the baptism we go to ANOTHER meal appointment (i literally had a food baby!!) 

So that is what happened.......... everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong.... but I'm still smiling and just laughing through it cause when life gives you lemons you got to make lemonade... (even though i don't have money to buy lemons...) 

Well i love you all so much!!!! I cried when i saw the picture you sent me!! and mom i cant believe you actually make shirts that said i love paula HAHAHAH i literally cried!!!!!! ill show you all next week what I'm doing with the photo!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Love sorella felice

pics

baptism

meal appointments on sunday (so you guys will believe me how much we eat) 

first course HUGE PLATE OF PASTA

Second plate MEAT

Cationic Catania

Caio Tutti!!

Well im being SUPER lazy today!!! and i don't really have much to write about.... besides the fact that we did a zone blitz (where all the missionaries in the zone go to one city and do finding all day) it was super fun!!! the city has a branch and the branch consists of the anziani (the elders) and then one new convert they baptized three weeks ago.... and thats it. (also the chapel is the elders apartment) We went to church there this week and it was crazy!!! it was so cool to witness it!! sacrament was SUPER fast! and the anziani do the talks every week haha then some times members come from catania to help them out. so this week we broke church record with 9 people in church!!! CRAZY!!! 

So it gets so hot here (in italy in general) that in august and in july people just leave. all of august is given as a vacation month and then people just start leaving before that. so... there are no people to teach.. all of my investigators have already left to go to the beach for the rest of the summer :( and all the people that are here are on vacation from germany! ahhh but it could be worse. when i was leaving foggia the people had already started leaving so... im thankful I'm at least in a big enough city that people come here for vacation. aka germans and other Europeans in which i cant communicate with... 

um nothing else really happened this week.... BESIDES I GOT MY DEATH PAPERS!!! how scary!! some other sorelle came down to do there visas. and they brought down stuff from the office and they brought me this packet of papers that i have to fill out for the end of my mission!! how crazy!! it also had the schedule of my last day in the mission... blahhhhhhh

ok well thats all. i love you all so much!!! 

Sorella Felice 

pics

Enna - cemetery ( italy has the coolest cemetary- us reenacting the statue- calishibetta (a really cool city that is on a mountain we could see it from enna- street full of missionaries- me doing chalk finding.. hahah it says "are you happy?? haha get it.- more cool finding in enna

me getting my death papers... :( sorella perkins from perth australia delivered them to me (dont mind my ugly lego leggings that i wear to bed ) 

Mount Etna (the volcano) this is from about two streets away from our house 

ddm at our house. the senior couple brought ROOT BEER!!!! WAHOO!! also the training was about sports... well are district leader compared the gospel to soccer and he made all these figurini for us hahah they are hilarious!! I'm beckerman with dreads!!!

Milly!!!!!

CIAO TUTTI!!!

IM SO EXCITED I HAVE A NEW NIECE!!!!!!! oh my goodness I've been waiting all week to get on to see pics!!! its been killing me!!!!! We were at a lesson on friday or thursday i cant remember and it was a really good lesson and are phone kept going off during the lesson. so finally sorella cano looks and its PRESIDENT WADDOUPS! i was just like holly crap! and we kept teaching this guy and at the end we say a prayer say our goodbyes and call him back... and I'm thinking.. what could it possibly be... (president NEVER calls) so then I'm like.. OH the other sorelle have a baptism today he probably got our numbers switched. so i call him back and he is like who is this and I'm like sorella felice... and then he's like HELLO PAULA! it was so weird he called be my name!! haha but he was like i just want to tell you that you have a new niece!! AND THEN I SCREAMED AND CRIED!! the guy was just like what the heck (cause he was talking to sorella cano after the lesson) anyway i took a pic right after the i hung up so i can remember where i was when she was born!!! AHH im just sooooooooooo happy!!! last night i had a dream that she had really long brown hair haha ok thats all

So this week definitely wasn't as exciting as last week. haha but it was still great! We taught our new simps that we met last week that we found at the boardwalk.. lungo mare. And we had a more formal lesson about the plan of salvation and it went SUPER well!!! at first the son (hes like 50) kept asking all these questions about adam and eve and i was like (in my mind) "shoot these are the type of questions i have ha ha" but we kept explaining to him that god loves us and that his ways are higher then our ways and how he has a plan for all of us. we had to go deep into free agency cause he just didn't understand why god would let some of these things happen that we see here on earth. anyway SUPER good lesson!! at the end we asked them what they thought and what they believed to be true and they just repeated everything back to us that we had just taught!!!! so they are definitely improving!!! they told us that they want to start coming to our church! but then yesterday they didn't come :( it was so depressing!! it was one of those missionary moments when you just pray all through sacrament meeting that they'll come and every time the door opens your head turns like a dog seeing a ball fly through the air. Anyway 

funny story. This week there was a baptism but it was in siracusa cause we don't have a font. so we take a almost two hour bus ride to siracusa and have this GREAT baptism. the girl is SOOO strong she used to be testimony di geova and she is like 25 and just so cute! anyway great experience. then we go to catch the bus home and we had missed the very last one for the night by like five minutes.... so we walk for an hour to get to the train station and we buy tickets for a train that leaves at 840. so we wait for half an hour and then sorella cano is like "OH NO OH NO OH MAMMA!!! and we are like what! and she says these tickets are for 8:40!!!!!! and we are like yeah... and she's like it should say 20:40!!! ..... we all felt like idiots.. italians use military time so we had bought tickets for 840 the next morning hahah so have that waste of money we realize there were no more trains either (and we had to get to catania because the confirmation was the in church the next morning. So the anziani came in their car all they back to siracusa to pick us up. so first off we are WAY late! it was like 11 something when we got home because on the way home WE RAN OUT OF GAS!!! hahah but god loves us and as we ran out of gas in the MIDDLE of nowhere there was a gas station haha. anyway thats all. 

also i think catania is called CATania cause there are hundreds of cats here. and it always smells of dead cat... its horrible. 

This week for some reason I've been obsessed with studying!! i feel like whenever we are at home I'm always reading or writing in my study journal. Ive learned so much this week and i feel like every time i study I'm having a hour conversation with god. I just want to tell you all that i know that god loves us and that even if we don't know why things are happening in our life. he does. and if we keep our foundation strong (a foundation built on the atonement) we can overcome everything. and we can accept the fact that we will NEVER understand the meaning of all things. but we just have to remember that god does. and his ways are perfect and for the benefit of man... anyway.

things are good I'm so happy and... I'm just happy. i love you all so much and hope that you are enjoying life and enjoying that cute little bundle of joy!! (milly) LOVE YOU!!!

Sorella Felice 

pics

us eating smoothies today 

the district minus cano cause she is behind the chair

me and salvo when i found out milly was born 

us getting gas

this was the third carriage I've seen this week 

us at the train station oblivious to the fact that there were no trains 

my new dead friends… :)

3 Dead cats and a Port-a-Potty

Ciao tutti!!!!

I really don't know how to start this email.... this has been the most adventurous crazy action pack week of my life... every minute something happened that i never expected... first off to start off the week I've seen over several dead cats in very random places... one was in a plastic bag on the bus next to the guy i was sitting next too... ill never get the smell out of my nostrils.. and then we also saw a porta potty on fire (that was self expanatory) 

ok so first off I LOVE SICILY!!! its so crazy and SOOOOO beautiful!!! the people here are crazy and the island is like paradise!!! from our apartment you can see the see with all the sail boats on it and on the other side of the house you can see mount etna (the volcano) which is super cool cause at night sometimes its red cause the lava is coming down. its a super active volcano and its going off constantly (sorella stephens said that a couple of weeks ago it shuck the house haha) the only bad part about it is that its always kind of smoky/foggy. but its still BEAUTIFULL!! oh AND THE FRUITS AND VEGGIES ARE TO DIE FOR!!! do you know the mafia actually sells the dirt from sicily so that people can grow veggies and fruits like they have here. the other day i had a bag of tomatoes and i ate all of them like candy!!! 

Second the people here are SOO open so they always listen to us!!! its great ive never seen anything like it on my mission!!!! we've met the coolest people this week!!! 

Ok one of the coolest moments of my mission (when i walked away i thought thats the reason I'm here) (not like here in sicily but just in general. like moments like that make the mission worth it!) So last night were going to go finding and i felt like i should ask sorella stephen were to go and she tells us to go to this one zone that is right on the sea. so we are down there and we run into this family who is sitting on the bench just staring at the ocean. and we ask them if we can ask them a couple of questions on happiness cause we are doing a "survey" and they begin to tell us how a member of there family had died just a couple of days ago and the mom started crying and we sat down with them and read Alma 40. we talked about the plan of salvation and they were all just crying and saying thank you and how jesus and god were looking out for them by sending us to comfort them it was such a cool moment!!! THEN THEY GAVE US A SNICKERS BAR!! not that important but i cant describe how amazing it is to help someone like that and to know that you were led by god to find them. anyway we have a return appointment and want us over for dinner!! super cute! 

OH so funny story!!!! so i was going to name this email rodents of unusual size.... they exist!!! because the other day me and sorella cano were picking blackberries on the side of the road and eating them cause they were so yummy and then we saw this HUGE thing!!! it was either a cat with no tail, a rabbit or a rodent of unusual size! and then it ended up with the two of us running with hands full of berries screaming at the top of our lungs. hahah good times.. good times 

So interesting fact... when you train someone you do this twelve week program with them and it involves like training videos.... well the only languages available are english and spanish so... I'm training my greenie in spanish hahah al least she understands it. 

this week i bought fifteen dollars worth of cerial cause its to hot outside to eat anything else

i got purposed to three times this week

... i think that is it... 

Anyway love you guys!!! thanks to everyone who wrote me this week! i got a crazy amount of emails so if you don't get an email today I'm sorry! i cant wait to see you guys in two months! MWAHHH 

Sorella felice 

pics

less active that gives us ice cream in silver cups 

no church so we teach english in the park 

all of us at the market today 

death closet (every appartment has a closet were missionaries throw there clothes they dont want... and we cleaned it out this week and we found these sylish clothes 

this guy asked me to marry him so i asked to take a photo and he got embarresed 

this guy is our new investiagot salvatore (savior) and he gave me a gift! 

this guy asked us out and bought us cannoli! (we didnt go out with him we just got the cannoli hah) 

typical sicilian.... riding down the street 

good sicilian desserts 

portapotty 

repunzel foto with sorella furlanich and a random guy 

Sicilia

Ciao tutti!! 

So catania is CRAZY!!! Ive never seen anything like it in the world. the people here are crazy!! anyway ill start from the beginning

so i left sassari and we took a ten hour bus ride to catania!! it was super cool we got to stop in cosenza for like five minutes so that was super fun then we got to cross the Mediterranean on a boat to get to sicily so that was a fun experience. except for the fact that it was super windy and i saw a girl wearing a skirt and then BAM there is her butt. that was gross. then we took another bus to get to catania and when i arrived there were no sisters here. so i hung out with 15 anziani in there apartment for about four hours... i felt sooooo apostate but thats what the zone leaders told me to do hahah but we did go out and eat HORSE BURGERS!!! i was really sad at first to eat it but as soon as that sucker hit my taste buds i was in love! IT WAS SOOOO YUMMY!!! so new fact about me, i love horse burgers. then the sisters arrived and i met my GREENIE!!!! SORELLA CANO!!!! she is super sweet she was born in columbia and lives in milano so she speaks italian already thank goodness! she is super short and sooooo cute and nice i love her!!!! and then I'm also with SORELLA STEPHENS! she is awesome I'm way happy we are living together!! 

ok the apartment.... i almost had a panic attack when i saw it... I've been cleaning for days. it is so gross. there is mold and cockroaches everywhere!!! i might be high from the cleaning products. i feel like that place hasn't been cleaned for months!!!! And there is sooo much junk!! there are video cassets to pass out from like the 80s (just an example of what type of things you will find) (also there are a couple of christmas trees) 

We haven't really met any of our investigators yet. only one and she was crazy and an eternal investigator. so we don't know what to do about her. 

the food is good the island is burning hot and humid the people are crazy and the apartment is gross. thats about it. I love you guys so much thanks for all the emails!!! mwah!!!1

Sorella felice 

pics

crazy lady (member ) that gave us a ride home

me and greenie doing finding 

first time i saw sorella cano! also sorella kippen was there

bus ride to catania 

boat

good bye to foggia 

this is the best! everyone in the mission says i look like this anziano cause we have "big eyes" so when we met we took a pic hahahah