L Italia Sta Fiorendo!!

Ciao Tutti!

This week was AMAZING!!! So Saturday we took trains down to Caglieri and early on Sunday morning (we woke up at three in the morning) and we FLEW TO ROME!!!!! The stake conference was amazing!! Conferenza di palo! So PRESIDENT BALLARD CAME!!!! and the reason we flew in so early is because guess what?? he wanted to meet the missionaries!! He had a meeting for just the missionaries! It was so amazing he talked to us for about an hour and he said some amazing things to us, and he talked not just about missionary work in general but he talked about missionary work in Italy! it was so amazing and then after he shook every missionaries hand!!!! (just the missionaries in Rome, napoli and sardegna cause we were the only ones there for the conference (that is how big our stake is though)) SO, I SHOOK PRESIDENT BALLARDS HAND!!!!!! It was awesome|!!!!!! He is so an Apostle of the Lord!! Oh, and at the conference he split the stake!!! So we now have two stakes!!!!!! oh and guess what? He brought us up in front of the whole stake and he was said "PLEASE USE THESE MISSIONARIES!! They are here to help your missionary work! Tell your friends and your family and then ask the missionaries to help you with your work!" Which was so great because that was just what we needed!!! The members aren't that excited about missionary work here but his whole talk was about it. It was sorely needed!!! He told the members that "a missionary has never died of too much work, so put them to work" haha I'm so happy!!! It was sooo amazing!! then he gave a Apostolic blessing on the members which was really cool!!!!!!!

So the reason that it seems like Ive been emailing forever is because in the morning we go to the library, but we only have a certain amount of time on the computers for free. Then we have to walk all the way across town and finish at another Internet place, just in case your wondering.

So I just want to say HOW MUCH I LOVE ITALIANS!! They are the best!! Every Friday night there is a karaoke night under are apartment and it's a bunch of old men singing with accordions and singing their little Italian hearts out!!! It's the best! I just sit in my bed and kind of dance to their sweet tunes!! Especially the well known song "volare ohoh cantare ohohoh nel blu di.... blah blah blah"  I LOVE ITALY!!! SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!

On the way back from the conference it was raining and the plane had a bunch of turbulence!!! It was so fun!! It was so bad some people were screaming! But me and my companion were like "it's like a roller coaster" and we were just laughing! (there was like 10 missionaries on the plane.. it wasn't going down)

OH Weird thing, so during the conferenza there was a BYU study abroad group there and I saw this girl named Amy who I worked with at shabby apple and then I saw Kimberly Haymond!!! You know, I grew up with and went to back to school party's with when we were in elementary school! So weird!! Also the new greenie in our district (I'm his mission mom°) he is like best friends with Jesse walker and he knows Tanner! hahah so weird!!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE THIS WEEK!!! if I can remember right this week its Rachel's birthday (well last week) and Grandpas and Carly pacheco and just everyone! so BUON COMPLEANO!!!

So in cagliari we found a store while waiting for our train that had TACO SEASONING!!!! and even better (mom and Wesley) WE FOUND MILO!!!!!!!! You know the Australian hot chocolate that me and Wes were addicted to!!!! Anyway I gotta go but I love you all so much!!! Sorry my email I think is a little short today, LOVE YOU!!!!!

 Sorella Felice

Here on Giligan's Island

Ciao tutti!!!

I LOVE MY NEW ISLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! It is PIU BELLISSIMA!! Everyone here is super nice and there are millions of cute little old Italian men EVERYWHERE! Oh my goodness it's really just beautiful here! The streets are so tiny that cars can't drive on them and EVERYTHING is cobblestone which is hard to walk on all day long during finding. hahah But it's Italy so I really can't complain!!! I wish I could describe how beautiful it is here! It's not only beautiful but it's also very clean compared to my old ghetto!!! Rome will always be my city but I love it here!!! Sorella Kippen and I are the only sisters up here (literally we are in the middle of nowhere). Our members are the best!! They spoiled the sisters here, they set up our apartment and its new and HUGE!!! It's all furnished from Ikea. So we have all Ikea furniture and our beds are so nice. They have the cutest sheets! Our closet runs along the whole wall. It's almost like a walk in, and then we have like a bran new kitchen!!! I cant believe how nice it is! I am so grateful. 

So, getting over here was an experience. Let me tell you about it. We took a plane from Rome to Cagliari and then 3 trains until we reached Sassari (with all my suitcases). So I left Rome at 6:00 in the morning and I didn't get to Sassari until 11:00 that night. I have yet to see a flamingo because apparently they are only in Cagliari, but we are going there this weekend. Guess why?  ELDER BALLARD IS COMING TO ROME!!!! So all the missionaries in Napoli e Sardegna and Roma are going to go to the Conferenza Di Palo with him!!! I'm so excited!! I get to go back to Rome!!!!! Oh and I get to see Elder Ballard!!

So my card reader broke, so no pictures of the BEAUTIFUL Sassari today. I'm sorry! Just imagine the most Italian town you can think of with everyone hanging their clothes out to dry and little cobblestone streets everywhere!! OH YEAH, THERE IS ALSO A BEACH (not that we get to enjoy being on it, but we can enjoy looking at it)!!!!!! LOVE IT!!

It's interesting being with someone younger then me in the mission. We are really working on our Italian! Luckily the people here only speak Sardo (Italian-Spanish mix) to each other and they speak Italian to us so that is good. I did learn that "ciao" in sardo is "ajuice"!!! You can tell it sounds a little more Spanish than Italian. Oh and Sards are very proud to be Sards!!! They don't say they are Italian they say they are Sards. hahah Which is funny. They name all their food with the word Sard in front of it.. like "dolci" is a kind of sweet and they call it here "sard dolci" or "sard potate" (which is just potatoes) They are hilarious!! I already love them so much. they eat a lot of snail here though!!! help me! I refuse to eat snail!!!!

Fun fact our apartment are by these old baths (you know in history when people would go take there "yearly bath" well we live by those) they look super gross, but very pretty and old!! Another fun fact, in the Internet point this lady is listening to "girls just want to have fun" right now. hahah good times!

Ok next thing about Sassari!! So you know how Milan is like fashion capitol of the world? Well, in Sassari they have all of the Milan fashion stores :)  I might be broke when I leave this island!! I have never seen such beautiful clothes. That sounds so weird, but it is true!!! Everything is just soooooooooo nice the clothes are such good quality!!!! ahhh the shoes!!!!!! The SHOES ARE TO DIE FOR!!! Mom we might need to come here when you guys pick me up!!!!!!!!

Another thing I am so grateful for... WE HAVE A REAL CHURCH BUILDING! It's like real!! It has a steeple and everything!!! It's beautiful!! Rome 3's Church was actually and old prison... so there were bars on the windows (hahah so our investigators couldn't escape mwahah jk)! The members here even bought our apartment for the missionaries to use. They are so nice!! and there are even big families, and ok well there is one huge family! and that's about all the members hahah In fact it's not even a ward it's a branch but its soooooo amazing I JUST LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!!!

TELL NATHAN TANTI AGURI ON BEING BAPTIZED!!! I wish I was there! I'm so excited that you guys are so close to being sealed as a family!! You are the best and I have THE BEST nephews in the whole world!!!!!

Ok, so there aren't as many foreigners here... So I don't have very many fun stories like there was in Rome so I'm sorry if my emails might get more boring.  hahah (this Internet point is great, she is now listening to (whats the song that goes "listen to your heart when hes calling for you") it is just a bunch of old women 80s songs hahah)

So my district here has Anziano Wozl who was in my first district. He is Austrian and he has an Anziano who is from Sweden hahah its kind of strange. Sorella Kippen is from Ogden, and we get along really well! We have been working super hard! We do a lot of finding because the branch doesn't actually have that many less active members. It seems like everyone knows who we are already though, we talk to a lot of the same people everyday! hahah Well anyway, that's about all i have to say. Oh, JK this week we were finding and we heard this huge commotion and we went down a couple of alley ways and we found an ITALIAN RAP CONCERT!!!! let me tell you Italian rap is pretty intense!!!! Then we found and old Spanish castle??? Ok, that is all. Anyway I love you all so much. Thanks for all the emails I love hearing about your lives sooooo much. I love you all like crazy and oh my gosh I only have a year left :(....... (gulp) i need to learn Italian... I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

con affetto

Sorella Felice

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale....

CIAO TUTTI!!!

SO GUESS WHAT!!!! I GOT TRANSFERRED!!!!! and I'm being transferred to somewhere I never ever EVER thought I would go!!!! also if you want to know i have to fly to my new area and i am only allowed ONE SUITCASE!!! OK here we go! my transfer call is that I'm leaving Rome three obviously and I'm going TO THE ISLAND OF SARDEGNA!!!!!! (i wish you could caps lock on the caps lock to make it bigger!!!) MY ZONE IS SASSARI!!! its a super small city and the very top corner next to SPAIN!!!!!!!! also you ll never guess!! THEY SPEAK A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE!!! ITS CALLED SARDO!! AIUTAMI!!! It's a mix of Spanish and Italian...... I don't even know Italian!!! oh and even a bigger twist! MY COMPANION IS YOUNGER THEN ME!!!! im her follow up trainer!!! It's going to me and my new comp Sorella Kippen in a little town in the middle of NO WHERE!!!! and also the people in my ward said that they don't even understand sardo and they are Italians!!!! PRAY FOR ME!!!!!!! oh and my city is pronounced "sauce a ree" I am actually really excited for it!!! I really wanted to go somewhere down in Calabria but I'm excited!! I can't wait to learn Spanish Italian and I'M JUST REALLY EXCITED!!!!

So this last p-day we went into Centro and we bought gelato and guess what flavor we got!!!!" BASIL!!! It was really weird eating like basily ice cream... hahah but it's soooo Italian!!! Also fun fact about gelaterias (gelato stores) in Italy. if you ask to try a flavor they get REALLY mad so you don't usually try flavors before you choose.

Did you ever find out if they have calabreses sauce at Grenatos??? Because I will die without that sauce!! I learned how to make it but I'm worried i wont make it as well!!!

OK, so last week I did a huge long scambi (when they switch companions) and on pday we went to piazza del popolo. We were sitting there watching everyone drive around on Segways and this gypsy comes up to me (I know another gypsy story (que roll eyes)) and he hands me a rose!! and I was like "non grazie" (No Thanks) but he kept shoving it into my hands. So I told him I wasn't going to pay him for the rose. Then he said "for free just for you!!" I said "Ok, if you want to give me a free rose, thats fine with me". Then he pulls out a friendship bracelet out of his pocket and ties it on my wrist (which im still wearing!) So I told him "Thank you" and then he leans in really close to me (like really close!!! I almost fell off my bench) and he says "a kiss is all it costs!!" hahahah!! Anyway I kept the bracelet but he got mad when I told him telling him I was a missionary for God. hahah he did take the rose away, but left the bracelet. funny story!

oh yeah and on this scambi I went to ostia which is right on the beach!!! it was really fun except we went to a dinner appointment and the members gave us meat and mozzarella balls (which is such a typical Italian meal) however for some reason they gave me 7 MOZZARELLA BALLS AND UNCOOKED BACON!!! NEVER EAT UNCOOKED BACON! It does some funky things to your stomach!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone else got salami and like 4 mozzarella balls! Why do I always get served the funky stuff?? 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I FORGOT TO TELL YOU!!!! FLAMINGOS COME FROM THE ISLAND OF SARDEGNA!!!!!!! IM GOING TO FLAMINGO LAND!!!!!!

So something funny about Italian fashion!! So Milan is THE fashion capital of the world, but by the time the trends reach Rome they are a little different.... the show "What Not To Wear" would be a very good asset here!!! However once the trends hit Sicily they just become HORRIBLE!! That was super random....

So I'm going to tell you about some of the missionary "problems" we have. Like "first world problems but this is a "First missionary problem". When one of your investigators has cute nail polish and you say "your nails are so pretty" They will then give you the bottle and say paint your nails and i'll come on Sunday to get the bottle back... Then, not thinking, you have another investigator who for some stupid reason I said the exact same thing and she got the same idea as the other investigator and now they both expect me to be wearing their nail polish in church on Sunday.... please help me..... missionary problems

Oh, So also on scambi this week I learned how to make EGGPLANT PARMESAN!!! its SOOSOOO good!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went over to our Filipino friends this week and they were having a girls night where they do each others hair and make up and stuff, so they made us join in. Then they made Filipino food for us ( SOOO GOOD) And then at the end they told us that our district is the closest district they have ever seen in Rome 3 EVER!! and it's so true!! at our last district meeting we were all crying. We even all bought matching scarves and ties and took pictures. EVERYONE said that they don't think they'll ever have a better district. We had 10 missionaries!! It was so fun and we had good traditions!! Its going to be SOOOOO sad to leave them tomorrow!!! By the way, one of the elders is coming to sardegna with me. Oh and SORELLA BRADFORD IS OPENING UP PALERMO!!!!!!! FOLLOW UP TRAINING ONE SISTER AND GETTING ANOTHER GREENIE!!! You probably don't know this but Palermo hasn't been opened for sisters for over 15 years. And when it was, it was closed very fast because its SOOOO dangerous (mafia)! It's in Sicily and she will be one of the only sisters that have ever served there!!! So cool!!!

One more story.. so last night we went to one of our ward members homes (WHO I LOVE!)!!! She told me that she wants my family to come over after my mission to have a huge pranzo (party)!!! Also they are Spanish and they love music so we always feel apostate going over there for dinner cause they listen to music during dinner. and Sorella Benitez said that I have the most beautiful voice she has ever heard?????? (bwahahah) She really meant it too?!! So weird!! Anyways, so we are over there and her daughter came in with their new dog and the dog runs and jumps on me on the couch and IT PEED ALL OVER ME!!!!! and our phone!!!!! That's our punishment I guess for not telling them we can't listen to music during dinner!!!

Also they told us that the US attacked syria?? is that correct??

Anyway I love you all so much and I hope that everything is going well at home and where ever else you might be!! I just want to say really fast how much I LOVE this work!! I LOVE IT!! I love that everyday I get to learn about our Savior and his love for his children!! I have such a strong testimony about the Book of Mormon! I know that small things are great things brought to pass. I have a testimony of this because before my mission I used to read my scriptures every night! But just by studying them instead of just reading them, I have grown SO MUCH closer to my Savior then I would have ever had if I had continued to just read! I promise you that if you study your scriptures every day you can over come anything!! Through the enabling power of our Savior Jesus Christ we can be strengthened in any situation!! All of this starts by just doing the little things!!!! I'm sorry that was really scatter brained!!! I just want to say that I love my Savior and I'm so thankful for the opportunity I was given to serve! I love you guys so much!!!

vi voglio bene sempre

Sorella Felice!

This is Doris - let me tell you about her for a sec. Doris is from Nigeria she left home at a very young age to go to school to read and while she was at school her Mom died. The lady she lived with beat her every day! She finally graduated elementary school when we was a teenager and left. She met her husband Sunny who is a member. They lived in Libia she was pregnant with her fist child Millicent and she was beaten several times while pregnant from people in the camp she lived in. So Sunny took her to Italy. While they were coming to Italy their ship sank and she and Sunny and her girl Millicent were on a raft for four days in the middle of the Mediterranean. Then when they got to Italy she found out  she was pregnant with Divine. She ended up going into early labor which she almost died from and Sunny ( I love him) found out she was in the hospital, he dropped straight to his knees and prayed for 5 hours. He knew it was better to pray for her then try to make it to the hospital and end up not making it in time. Doris lived and now they live in a mafia owned refugee camp. I have so much respect for her and I have learned more than I ever thought I would!

Saying goodbye to our cute ward :(

Sorelle Pancheri and I blowing out Birthday Candles cause we are one day apart and I have no room in my "one suitcase" for the cake mix we bought to celebrate in October. So we decided to have a joint birthday party?!! haha. 22 was the only candles we have even though we are turning 20 and 21, So we just made do!

Rain is a GOOD thing

CIAO TUTTI!!

So this week was awesome!!! the heat is finally going away and we are getting A TON of rain!!! i love it!! the thunderstorms are SOOOO intense here! are power has gone out quite a few times!! which actually kindof stinks cause we will come back and all of our food will have gone bad in our fridge, oh well though ITS RAINING!!

Ok so this week we were leaving our appartment and sorella pace and i start heading down the stairs and sorella bradford is locking the door and she goes "oh crap we need your keys we left ours inside"(side note the doors lock here as soon as you close them even if you dont have a key) so i look through my bag and i realized i had left my keys inside too!!! and the bad thing was that we had a baptism that day and i had left my talk and sorella pace had left her violen in their cause we were planning on comming back to get them! so we tried to call the office but they didnt have a copy of our key so we went onto our roof and we were like maybe we can repel onto our balcony and somehow breakinto one of those doors (well i wasnt going to let anyone do that cause i just have this mental picture of someone falling three stories!!) anyway so we tried for about an hour to break in and we couldnt so finally the assistants came over and they had like xray paper and they slid it into the door and then just went crazy on the door (like kicking it and stuff) and the door just popped open hahah anyway thats about the only thing exciting that happened this week besides some guy last night called us and asked if i would go to egypy with him and marry him????? we have gotten all of these SUPER creepy calls lately and its probably cause we have been doing a lot of finding haha but if it gets worse we might have to switch phones with the anziani.

SO THIS WEEK WE HAD 2 BAPTISMS IN ROME 3!!!!! it was soooo awesome!!! they were both the anziani baptisms but one of them was a phillipini named joyce and she is 19 (SAME AS ME!) And we just bonded really well so she asked me to talk at her baptism so that was really fun!!! phillipini are the best people ever!! and they make REALLY REALLLY GOOD FOOD!!!

So the other sorelle have this golden investigator who said the first time she saw the book of mormon she knew it was true and started crying!!! she is awesome! but she has THE CUTEST little boy in the whole world and on sunday he sat next to me at church the whole time!! i love that little kid!! he is about the same age as marley!!

So this week sorella pace and i did a but load of bus finding!!! (cause it was raining and no one was in the parks) so we have found that if you talk to someone who is south american they already know who we are!!!! so we have this new stradegy of talking to every south american we see! and we have gotten A TON of numbers and potentials from it hahahah there are a ton of people from columbia and peru here its crazy!!!! in fact there are just a lot of people here!!!! we have given out BOM in arabic, tagalig, bengali, romanian, russian, polish, and of course spanish and italian!

So the other night i guess i was sleep talking A LOT and everyone said that they couldnt go to sleep cause i was like talking really loud and i was talking about bread hahah random

ok so i dont have a lot of time today cause im actually going on a scambi to ostia right after this (WITH AN ITALIAN COMP!!) But my random fact of the week is that in italy they use army time!!! so its going to be weird getting use to like regular time again!! anyway  i love you all so much and miss you tantissimo!!!! VI VOGLIO BENE!!!

Sorella Felice

She finally got her card that says she can live in Italy! 

Joyce's Baptism

"Carlo Felice" Street. Funny cause her Sisters name is Carly!

Cool building with Christ and his apostles on the rooftop

Cool Door?

Cool Graffiti?

Paulas whole zone after Joyce's baptism

I got spit on by a GYPSY!

CIAO TUTTI!!!

Ok so every ones emails this week were SOOOO FUNNY!!! People think something is wrong with me at the Internet point cause I've been laughing for like a straight twenty minutes!!!

Ok I'm going to start with what happened last p-day! we went into centro to buy gifts and shirts and things for people and we noticed on the way there that there were tons of Gypsy's on the metros. So we are coming back and I see this group of teenage girl Gypsy's (they are the worst!!!!! so catty). They were spotting out people with wallets in their back pockets and I usually just stare them down and they go away because they don't want to be caught. OK, so this one looked super evil, in her pink sparkly tank top, and I was glaring at her and she was glaring at me and then she started dancing???? Then the metro came... dum dum dum!!! so she runs up to this old man from Chicago (they get them as they go onto the metro so that the doors shut right as they pic-pocket them) and so I follow her (were like running at this point) and she goes into his pocket and I push her so she doesn't get his wallet... she pushes me.. I push her again off the metro. Then she hocks a luggi at my face! Then Sorella Bradford elbows her in the stomach  :) and the man from Chicago thanked us.. prego!! also her spit was super stinky..not that you wanted to know that. (**Editors note** In the MTC they were trained on how to react when getting robbed or seeing another person get robbed by Gypsies. They are told to be very aggressive. If they are not aggressive the Gypsies will know that they can take advantage of you. Plus, it probably helped this man from Chicago have a good outlook on the LDS church.) 

Ok so this week we didn't really do anything!! we had p-day then it was ferr agosto (big Holiday in Italy)!!!!!!! every store was closed, no buses, no trams, no metros, no NOTHING!!!!! NO PEOPLE!!! It's one of the biggest Holidays! and so we were told not to go out because contacting would just make people mad. So we cleaned our apartment for 6 hours!!!!!! Then the next day we had zone conference which was sooooooooo fun!!!! I love zone conference!!!! I'll send some pictures!!! the next day was Saturday and everything was still closed and Friday was supposed to be our weekly planning day so we planned Saturday then went finding for hours!!!

I FOUND THE BEST GELATO IN ITALY!!!!!!!!!!! ITS SOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!! Also random fact, have I ever told you guys that Italians put cream on top of their gelato... no joke they scoop your gelato onto the cone then put a huge thing of cream on the top!!??? I also found the best cereal in the world!!!!! its called master crumble and that is seriously all I ate this week besides tomatoes (I'm serious all I ate was tomatoes with vinegar and cereal) OH jk I did had a sandwich one day!

Oh by the way i need someone to check for me if they have mozzerela di bufala in the states. Its buffalo mozzerela and it it the best thing I've ever eaten!! also master crumble :) oh and check if they have calabrese sauce at granatos?? thanks!!!

So my comp and I have this new game for language study when we are on buses and stuff (not are real language study but just through out the day) So we sing a song and the other one has to translate it into Italian hah its soooo funny!!! Also we figured out how to do the hunger games bad lip reading in Italian and we were laughing about it for hours!!! Like one is adesso sono loco crazy!!!! Sorry, that was random!

So the Anziani (Elders) had a BAPTISM this week!!!!!!! and they have another one on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!! our district is on FIRE!!! We have five baptisms scheduled!!!!!!! this NEVER EVER EVER happens!!! (which reminds me of t-swift never ever ever... "noi saremo emo emo mai piu inseime") ok anyway i just cant believe how much progress our zone is making!!! My companionship is still really dead (as far as investigators goes) but we do a TON of less active work!!! We do have the biggest district in the mission (ten missionaries) and we can definitely see the results of the increase of missionaries. IT'S SO AMAZING!!!! Usually in our mission we get 10 to 15 baptisms a month and our district has 5 scheduled!!!! It's soooo cool!!!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! one of the girls getting baptized this Saturday is this cute phillipino. She asked me to speak at the baptism!!!!!! It's in English though, cause she is English. hahah She also asked me to bake brownies :) hahah she is so cute!!!

SO I AM NOW OFFICIAL IN ITALY!!!!! I got my PERMESSO!!!!!! (it just means i can stay here till next September but WAHOOOO!! The weather is starting to go down which is nice!!! it rained yesterday it was soooo nice to escape the heat for a day!!

Anyway random fact of the week.... Italians consider it rude to eat fruit with your hands (like eating and apple) so they cut and eat their fruit with knives. Which sucks cause that means you can't take an apple and eat it on the way because they will look at you like you've killed their child..

Today we went to this castle and it was beautiful!!!! We then ended up at the Vatican some how... that always seems to happen... and yeah

Anyway (I'm sorry i use anyway a lot) that was what happened this week!!! I love my mission so much!! It's just the best! we found some new fun ways to find and its been super effective and I just love being able to talk to so many people and share with them things that can help them!!! I love you all way too much and miss you like crazy!!! I wish you could all be here in Italy with me while I worked!!!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!

Love Sorella Felice!!!!

This was a picture my Mom drew for Paula after Paula's Super Hero run in with the Gypsy's this last week. Paula always loved the PowerPuff Girls and Blossom was her favorite, so what better of a super hero to draw her as. So my Mom translated Blossom into Italian (Fiore) and put a missionary tag on her. 

 Scared??

Tuscany and Talking Donkeys

Ciao Tutti!!

This week was SUPER GREAT!!! We did a lot of missionary fun!!! (get it "misionary work" but instead of saying work, we say "missionary fun!!" ok sorry, not that funny. There is a possibility I might be going crazy) We will start at the begging (this sounds like its going to be a great story but really its just what happened this week)

Something funny, I guess I talk in my sleep every night. So in the morning everyone always tells me what I was saying. This week I woke up and they were all laughing. They told me that I kept saying "siamo missionaria per la chiesa di gesu cristo dei santi degli ultimi giorni, e noi abbiamo una messagio per tu!!!" That is my testimony. They told me I kept bearing my testimony in italian. hahah! Yes, I am truly converted now!! I can now not only dream about bearing my testimony, but its in Italian!!!! hahah! One time they told me I kept saying "senza colpa" over and over which means "i'm not guilty" haha. anyway... 

EVERYONE in Italy smokes, I SWEAR! So Sorella Pace and I are going to ciampino (a little city) on the train and we are we at the train station and we noticed a guy that was walking in the train tracks picking up cigarettes that aren't smoked all the way so that he can re-light them and smoke them. So sad. It must have been on both of our minds that day because now we have this new game where we try to find good cigarettes for that man.. we will be walking and be like "oh look at that one!!" anyways, like i said "missionary fun!!!!" (thats me being sarcastic!) 

OK, SOMETHING SUPER FUNNY!!! Sorella Pace and I were trying to find this lady named Zhora!! We are clear out in the middle of nowhere and we are sitting on a bus **ok side note , there are foreigners in Italy that will sit at a stop lights and when cars stop they will try to clean their windows for money**  So one of these people come up to the bus we were on and they take their rag and draw a heart around me and Sorella Pace's faces with soapy water on the window. hahah Anyway, everyone is just starring at us on the bus cause we have these soapy hearts by our faces.... that might be hard to understand. I'll try to send a picture!! It made our day! 

So this week i've realized when people are speaking Chinese, for some reason when i'm not really listening it sometimes sounds like they are speaking english.... something is wrong with my ears!!! It has happened about 4 times this week! I'll turn and say "hey they are speaking english" and then we  will all listen and they will be speaking Chinese.. Seriously! What the! 

OK BEST PART OF THE WEEK! I WENT ON SCAMBI WITH SORELLA BRADFORD TO THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE!!! We got on a train to find a referral and we go out to the mountains near Rome. When we finally get off the train, we have a little map book to try and navigate with. Within ten minutes we are walking through vineyards and groves of olive trees! it was so amazingly pretty!!!!!!!!!!! Then we realize that we have to walk pretty far. By the time we got to this referral's home it had been over 5 hours of walking!!! I really didn't mind though! We were walking past this grove of olive trees and these dogs come running at us barking, then out of no where COMES A DONKEY!!! Sorella Bradford looks over and she like "hmm, oh look olive trees.....and a donkey...how jerusalem...." hahah! Anyway, it was a super fun journey! We got to the referrals street and we were on house 24.  We looked at the address and her house was 701! So, we walked a little longer and it was just so fun! It seriously looked just like Tuscany!!!!!! We ate some grapes along the way and just had a good time doing missionary work!!!!!

So this week is "ferr agosto". everyone is on holiday here and all the stores are closed, ALL OF THEM!!! There is nothing to do here for our P-day. So our President is actually having us stay in for a whole day this week to just clean our apartments, which i'm stoked about. I've been dying to clean that place for a while now and we never have enough time on p-day to deep clean. It will feel so good!

So my companion Sorella Pace went to Olympus and it's super fun. We will be talking about stuff and she'll say something like "oh, its by the s curve" or "this granite (slurpy) tastes like Bobs Brain Freeze" or "shivers is the best burger place".. It's just so fun to be able to talk about the same things about home when we are all the way across the world, and we know exactly where each other grew up. It's just fun!

Anyway that was my exciting week. I hope you are all having a great week!!! i love you all so much and miss you! Every night when i'm on my knees I pray for all of you!!!!

LOVE YOU!!!!! Sorella Felice!!!

Window hearts the guy drew around our faces! 

Vinyards

DONKEY! Miniature Jerusalem

The street name was "Island of Cyclops" 

I was eating some grapes, in the vineyard! 

We were tracking and this lady had a sign on her door that basically said how God loves all his children and had a bunch of scriptures on it. We thought that would be a good door to knock on! 

La La La Whatever

Ciao Tutti!!!

So not that much has happened this week. The week just sort of flew by i'm surprised it's already p-day!!! So last P-day there was this huge capi conference (for all the zone leaders and sister training leaders) Everyone came up to Rome that was a zone leader or sister training leader. So since most of them had never seen Rome we divided our district and acted as tour guides to all the other missionaries. It was super fun. Even though i've been to all the sites like ten times. We went to the vatican again and the colosseo (colosseum) and it was just fun talking to other missionaries!! One of the sisters that came up was from Cosenza so I asked her a billion questions about it! haha.

So last thursday we decided to have this big soccer game and our english course came and all the anziani (elders) and all of their investigators and all of ours! PARTY. So we get to this big field and there are a bunch of old Italian men that are like we come here every night ready to play people. So (oh yeah and since they are old italian men of course they weren't wearing shirts) Anyway, the elders played with them while I went to a separate field with all the kids. Mostly because I suck at soccer (very much!!!). It was super fun. I only made one goal but hey... i'm surprised I even did that! It was really fun though and everyone brought drinks and we had our lesson on an aqueduct.... good times

So the other night Sorella Pancheri and I did a scambi (splits). We were putting up posters and we were going up to this pole to put up a poster and there was this HUGE bee! So we stare at it for a while then I decide i'll just tape the bee to the pole, then we can put a poster up. So I tape the bee to the pole and little did I know there was a beehive in the pole (sono non intelligente)! Anyways, Sorella Pancheri and I run away screaming. Then a dog started chasing us. Super fun! After everything calmed down we realized that are roll of tape was still stuck to the stupid pole. hahah!! I'm learning how to be brave out here, that is for sure!!!

So yesterday we had this investigator named Arthur (I had never met or seen him but Sorella Mikesel and Sorella Openshaw used to teach him A LOT) So we meet him and we find out he is a Catholic Priest who has a congregation........ of course! Anyway we are teaching him and some things were said (I think he was trying to pick a fight) so the spirit left and it turned into the worst lesson ever!!!!!!!!!!!!! The most we could share with him was our testimonies... then we left and got gelato (it was needed!!)

So we have an "investigator" named Mary who i've talked about before, but we went over to her house this week. We were teaching her about our loving Heavenly Father and she is so cute... she starts singing a song about it (she is from africa so one of the songs that they sing in church?) anyway she is full on singing and clapping and Sorella Pace and I are just sitting there like "hmmm, what do we do???"  hahah, I love moments like that!!! Oh yeah, so after she was done singing she told us that we needed to wear head scarves because it was too hot outside and that if we ever wanted to come back we needed to be wearing our head scarves. hahah! She told us it was for our own protection! So that night Sorella Pace and I tried to wrap scarves around are heads and it didnt work out so well!!

Also this sunday we went over to a members for dinner and it was super fun except for the part where he gave us non alcoholic beer! hahah. We didn't drink it though. We gave it to our elders with a little bow!!! haha I think they just ended up throwing it away.

Anyway im sorry i dont have any fun stories this week we have literally just been finding the whole week and it just went by sooooo fast!!!!!! Anyways, I love you all so much. Thanks for all the letters! It's the best to get letters from everyone! I hope that you all have the BEST WEEK EVA!!!!!!!!!!

Love Sorella Felice!!!!

Drinking water from the fountain at the vatican. Paula says that the water in Italy is so clean. Even the mission President told them to take advantage of the free water everywhere you go. 

Gelato

This is her new companion Sorella Pace but it is hard to see her face in this picture

(the fake beer)

Trying to get our normal scarves to work like a head scarf so we can still teach Mary

Paula is not a real big fan of meat.... especially looking like this. It grosses her out. I'm guessing this is why she took this picture.