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. 

COSENZA

Ciao Tutti!!!

This week has been crazy!!!! First off Sorella Mikesell left me and it was super sad!!! She went down to Bari!!!!! I think I might have told you that but it's still so sad. She is going to be eating seafood everyday... and not like fish. I am talking about octopus and muscles and other weird seafood from the sea!!!!! blahhhhh! Anyway so Thursday morning she left and we went to Termini (train station) to drop her off. There is probably over 40 missionaries in the mcdonalds!!!! hahah, it was so funny!!! We walk in and we see them and we all just stop and we were like "WOW!!" It was all the new greenies coming in. So later that night (I had to be in a three some with Sorella Bradford and Sorella Pancheri) the senior couple in our ward picked up Sorella Pace and dropped her off in the special zone of God called ROMA 3!!!! So we were talking, getting to know each other, and guess what?? SHE WENT TO OLYMPUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and her Aunt and Uncle are the Mission Presidents of the Spain Barcelona mission. So he is Justin's Mission President!!! I felt so stupid because I totally knew that there were Pace's at Olympus. I should have figured it out. Anyway we counted, and in Italy there are 13 kids from Olympus serving missions here!!!!!!! crazy huh!!

That is so funny that Grandpa is from the Cosenza area because we were doing "casa in casa" (tracting) yesterday and we play this door bell game. What you do is ask a question like "will i stay here another transfer" and then you ring the door bell and if the door bell is like errrrrrrrr (like a buzzer) its a no. if it sounds like a ring than its a yes. Anyway we did one door and it was a "no" for staying another transfer. So then the next door i was like ok will I go to.......... COSENZA! (this is before I knew that is where Grandpa was from and it just popped into my head!!!!!!) and the door bell ring was a "yes"!!!!!!!! so i'm totally going down there next transfer!!!!!!!!! hopefully!!

This week Sorella Pace and i are putting up english course posters and we see this guy is looking at the poster. So I asked him if you would be interested and he was like "yeah yeah"!!! So then we tell him that we are missionaries for our church and he said "yeah, i would like to come to your church" (ok, this never happens EVER!!) So we get really excited! We were having a hard time communicating with him because he was speaking mostly Spanish. So we asked him where he is from and he says "Spain, i just moved here a month ago". Then he pulls out his phone and hands it to me and he is showing me a picture of HIS BAPTISM IN SPAIN!!!! HE IS A MEMBER!!!! He had just barely moved here and for weeks couldn't find the church. Anyway that was by the grace of God we found him!!! so neat!

This week we had this one lady I met on the street come to english course. She is beautiful! She is from India and is a Muslim. So, since she is Muslim we aren't allowed to teach them unless they ask us to. So that's fine. The next day we had an activity with the ward to watch the leadership broadcast. Afterward we would have dinner. So, I'm watching the broadcast and suddenly I look back and she is there! We have talked to everyone and no one knows who told her about it. I sat by her and explained how our church was organized and it was super cool!!! She had even brought food???? SO WEIRD, BUT AWESOME!!! Then on Sunday she came to Sacrament! This is seriously unheard of. So great. I want to teach her SO BAD!!!! But we can't until she tells us to! She is keeping more commitments then a progressing investigator, but we still can't teach her. Oh well, cool story!

At one of our english courses this week, I was saying goodbye to everyone and I said "Ciao Tutti" then turned around to walk out the door but I ran into the wall instead and fell over! The WHOLE WARD SAW IT!!!! SO EMBARRASSING

So the other day it was 40 degrees which means like 100 and it was SOOOO HOT!!! Plus all the humidity!!! I ended up getting heat rash on my neck. It's fine now, it was just super hot!

Also I think our mailman died! We haven't gotten mail in over a month!! I really like, and miss, dependable mail! haha.

So on Sunday one of the Stake Presidency people came and gave a talk in our ward. All of his kids were wearing future missionary tags!!! It was sooo cute!!!

OHHHHHHH GUESS WHAT!!!!!! WE ARE GOING TO HAVE 5 BAPTISMS!!!!!!!!!! The other Sorella companionship have two that are super solid. One of the Anziani (Elder) companionship have another 2 and the other Anziani have 1! It's so unheard of here in Italy. Like it's SOOOO CRAZY!!! If only I could tell you how and have you understand how weird and unheard of this is! We were lucky to have had one last transfer!!!! Sorella Pace and I have been doing more "less active member finding" everyday this week, but hopefully we can find an investigator as well!!! We figured that we might as well help the ones we already have (the ones Heavenly Father has entrusted to us) before he is going to give us new sheep.

So one of the days we were going "less active finding" we saw this whole wall with stick figure women holding hands painted on it. So we decided to take pics of them. No big deal, right? Then we were coming back and we realized that all the women figures were homicide victims!!!! acca awkward!!!!!

oh so we took the best pics this week we took one on some ruin aquaduct and we did repentance pics like Samuel the Lamanite style, right! (see below if you are confused) hahah

So last night we were trying to decide what to do for pday and Sorella Pancheri tells us she wants to go to the city that has tons of statues........ I sure hope we can find it today here in Rome!!!! Almost died laughing! hahah

Anyway today i was reading in alma when the Sons of Mosiah were talking about their missions and I found a chapter that perfectly describes my mission!! It talks about how they were spit on, how they were smittin (almost was smote on a bus by a crazy drunk guy), how they were stoned (check), and how they were thrown in prison (only have that one left). But, at the end he said "that I can not say the smallest part of what I feel about my mission." Anyway, that is what i feel like! I can't begin to tell you how much this mission has changed me and how much I LOVE IT! I'm just so grateful that I was able to come out here... Anyway I love you all so much and NICOLE, I CANT BELIEVE YOUR GOING TO TIJUANA!!!!!! YOUR GOING TO BE SO G!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway love you all have the best week!!!!!!!!! vi voglio bene!!!

Ciao Ciao Sorella Felice

Peace & Happiness

Ciao tutti!!!!!!!

THIS WEEK WAS CRAAAAZY!!!!!!!!! So transfers came and sorella mikesell is going to bari!!!!! its like the most fishy place in italy and she thought i was going with her and so we were both freaking out cause we both HATE fish!! we always say (ci dispiace noi abbiamo un alergi a frutti di mare) haha we are sorry we are alergic to fruit of the sea! haha but turns out she is going down and im staying IN ROME 3!!!!!!!!! WAHOOOO I LOVE MY GHETTO!! ok but the best part of transfers was finding out who my new comp is!!! her name is sorella pace!!!! in italian that means sister peace!!!! hahahahhahah SISTERS PEACE AND HAPPY!!!!! I LOVE IT!!! She is as old in the mission as sorella mikesell! so just six weeks older then me but i heard she is really good with italian!!

Ok so last pday we went to the borghese gardens! its like the central park of rome and you can see all or rome from this one look out site and it was BELLISSIMA!!!! oh by the way im not the best at spelling in italian like for example last week my email was named ci amo but that means i love us hahah i meant to say vi amo which is i love you guys hahah anyway still working on my italian a bit!

So after borghese we went to the spanish steps and they were super cool but the best was the stores around the spanish steps they had gucci and prada and all the huge stores!! so fun!!!!!

Ok now for my scariest moment EVER in italy!!! we are on this bus (all four sisters) trying to find a refferal and this guy gets on and he is acting crazy like doing karote (spell check) anyway he runs to the back of the bus and just stairs at me and suddenly his hand pulls back in a fist and HE IS ABOUT TO PUNCH ME IN THE FACE!!!!!! then he just looked at me and was making these hissing noises then he backed away and we all felt we needed to get off the bus so we got off in the middle of no where hahaha but we met some really cool people!!! then like three busses later we saw him AGAIN!!! and he was running at us and we were all panicked and he pointed at us and started yelling about how he wanted to go to france...... i think he was on drugs anyway crazy thing we have seen this man 4 times this week!!!!! ROME IS HUGE!

Ok so last pday we had a gypsy try to steal our bags and this one guy saw her and slapped her!!!! and then this huge fight broke out and it was CRAZY!!!

So this week in english course we have started to ask our students to say the prayer and we had a new student this week and they volunteered to say the prayer and we were like oh how awesome is that and suddenly she says she is going to do a certain prayer and ALL the catholics in the room start doing a recited prayer with the cross and everything hahahah we found out who was catholic which was a good thing!!!

This sunday one of our less active families (who are starting to come everyweek and they are going to the temple soon!!! soo excited!! ) they brought a dog to church!!!! and no one was like you cant have the dog here!! they just loved the dog and they wanted to feed him sacrament bread!!!! but our district leader went up to them and told them that was not ok hahahh anyway thats what the wards are like in italy

We got a phone call this week from this guy who was asking for the nun maria hahahah he thought we were sisters from a convent and he wanted to find his good friend maria!!!!! SO ITALY!!!

So interesting fact for the week!! we have started to knotice that sometimes when we get on busses people will look at us and start praying and they wont stop praying till either we are off the bus or they get off the bus and someone told us that they are trying to either pray for us because we think we are doing good but we are not like the "forgive them for they no not what they do" or they are praying to ward off our evil spirits...... you got to love catholics!

So the other night we got home and i put my retainers in and then we did planning and i was trying to speak in italian with my retainers in and it was the worst thing ive ever heard! it sounded like i was speaking russian!!!!!!!!

So last night we went over to the family who broght the dog to church so sorella mikesell could say good bye and we had dinner and a little testimony meeting and it was super fun we had lasagna and it was my first lasgna in italy!!!!!!!!!!!! anyway when we were leaving we like to race one of the kids jhamil down the stairs and we are running like jumping four steps at a time and all of these people were like "Who are these people!!! Why are they running!!! THE GOVERNMENT!!! and then everyone started to flip out cause they thought we were government hahahha

We went to micheles this week and had bruschetta (prounounced bru sket ahh, not a bru chet ah) by the way. anyway it was super fun but its the middle of summer which means its SUPER HOT!!! and the misquitos are out.... i counted my misquito bites on my leg and i have 14 on one and 17 on the other!!!!! aiutomi!!!!!

Anyway im sorry that this letter is so scattered and weird i dont have much time cause we have to do a picture exchange and there was so much that happened this week i didnt want to miss anything. I LOVE MY MISSION SO MUCH!!!! This week was just so good and so fun!!!! i love getting to meet new people and i love this gospel so much!!!! im just so happy out here!!! my district calls me sorella sempre felice (sister always happy) haha not kidding i havent heard sister felice in like six weeks! anyway im so thankfull that i was given the oppurtunita to go on a mission it has changed my life forever and i feel like im learning so much!!! I love all of you so much and miss you like crazy!!!! you are all da best!!!!

Sorella Felice!!!!

Buffalo Pizza... says it is way good and she puts Balsalmic vinegar on it. She says the pizza in Italy tastes NOTHING like the pizza in Rome

She found a Voldemort statue in the park!

 CARS

 Her district.

 Sorella Jedi

Warm Milk

Ciao Ciao!!!!

So this week was really good! we found 3 new investigators!!!! im so excited!!!! one of them is named blessing and she is from nigeria and she is so cute and she has the chubbiest baby in the whole world named gift and she has another girl named destiny and they are the cutest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i would have taken a picture but ive learned my lesson about taking pictures in camps so yeah.... anyway then we have another two who are in our english class and they are romanian and they are so cute and nice!! one of them asked us in our first lesson if she could be a missionary and asked if she needed to stop being orthodox to do that hahah i love them so much!!!!! the picture i sent is of them and i look super creepy in the pic so dont look at me haha

We went and saw a lot of members this week! we went over to this one coupls house and they had the cutest cat named horris and he was a part of the family!!! when we said a prayerhe husband put his arm around the wife and then the wife grabbed horris hahah it was like a cute little chain of love!!! They were super cute and super italian!!! they showed us pictures of their wedding and there cake was the colleseum!!!! hahah it was perfect!

On sunday we went over to the benitez famiglia and they are from bolivia and they are the funnest family ever!!! it was the moms birthday and so the son put together this huge suprise dinner for her and it was the cutest thing ever and she was crying and we had this AMAZING meal that her daughter made and while we are eating they are playing music like jason derulo and M&M and they played fun and it was just so fun!!!! they started playing backstreet boys and we were singing to it and they thought it  was so funny and they werer filming us singing backstreet boys hahah so embarasing but funny!!!

So make sure that someone films lauryn and nicole getting there calls because if they send me the video i can watch it!!!! im so excited!! everyone is going on missions hahah also make sure that when carly and rex get theirs to film it to!!!!

So this other day we were at this investigators house and she is probably the saddest thing ive seen in italy she is half paralyzed and cant get a job. she is pretty old and she lives in this rotting appartment and i dont think she is all there so we really just go to see her twice a transfer to make sure she is still ok we bring her food cause she isnt eating and its just so sad!!!! i think she might die soon and its just heartbreaking that no one takes care of her!! anyway we went to see her and she told us that she doesnt eat butter and that i should stop eating butter cause im too fat!!!! hahah thats the fourth time that has happened hahah so make sure you dont throw the treadmill away cause im going to need that when i get home apparently!!!!

Yesterday we had extra pday hours cause a couple weeks ago we didnt have pday we just did emailing and shopping so we went to centro and saw the vatican and the colleseum and went shopping at H&M again cause i need more clothes!! but it was really fun!!! it was just me and sorella mikesell!! the sad part about it though is we were in the middle of ancient rome all day and today i was going through my pics and the only picture i took of us is us eating at mcdonalds!! hahah it was weird though eating at mcdonalds it taste super different but the italians love it?????

Ok random fact about italy.... We do not refrigerate the milk........ weird huh!!!

Anyway i think the language is coming along better im still not there though but i feel like this next transfer i will get it down ahahh i think that i might be the only one staying out of the sisters in rome 3 which will be weird ill miss sorella mikesell tantissimo!!! but i think it will be good!!!

Ok anyway i love you all and i hope that you have an amazing week!!! make sure you never take for granted this gospel and the knowledge we have!! it means so much to people that therer heavenly father loves them and they cherish the church here!! make sure that you always realize what a blessing it is to be able to be apart of the church! make sure you always read the scriptures!!! they are EVERYTHING!!!!!! the scriptures are so important and make sure you read them every day! i love you all so much and i miss you like crazy and im so thankfull that i can be out here serving and i love you!!

Ci amo tantissimo!

Sorella Felice

Ciao Ciao

Soaked to the bone!

Ciao Tutti!!

HEY we just got back from the vatican because Sorella Pancheri had never been and it was sooooooo cool!!!!!! We got to go underneath the Basilica this time into the CATACOMBS!!! We saw all of these cool coffins that the Popes are buried in and THEN GUESS WHAT WE SAW!!!! THE BURIAL PLACE OF THE APOSTLE PETER!!!!! It was so cool!!!! And even though it's in a Catholic Cathedral you could totally feel the spirit!! Everyone was quiet and respectful and it was just so cool!!! One thing that is ironic though is that they consider Peter the first pope of the catholic church, but they are the ones that killed him??? Weird... there is a car on the street outside the internet point (cafe) listening to what sounds like a new Rihanna song. Yuck!

So I read the coolest talk this week!! You guys should read it! It's by Pres Monson and it is his talk from April 2011 General Conference called "The Holy Temple, a Beacon To the World"!!! The ending is the BEST!! (I cried like a baby!!)

So this week Sorella Mikesell and I went to go visit this potential investigator named Adesuwa (she is Nigerian. We honestly mostly teach nigerians cause they speak english and they are THE BEST!!) Anyway so we go on sunday and it is super hot outside and i got really sick this week so we are sitting on this bus and I was just praying my little heart out cause I felt like I was going to die. And we get to her house in like 45 minutes!! Which never happens! It usually takes an hour and a half, to two hours. But every time we had to switch buses, the other bus was right there! (which never happens on a regular day, not to mention Sundays when the buses only come every 1 to 2 hours!!!) Anyway THE LORD ANSWERS PRAYERS!!! SO PRAY!! I was just reading Alex's (one of Paula's best guy friends serving in Peru) letters and I thought to my self "His miracles are like we found a family of ten to baptize and mine are like YES THE BUS CAME!!!" HAHAH! You can tell that Italy is a little different! Anyway, we get to her house and she isn't home! So we are heading back, and suddenly we hear thunder! Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense cause I felt like I was cooking over a spit! So suddenly out of no where it starts to pour!!!!! And we get on a bus right then so we weren't too wet. Then we meet this cool Nigerian women who is friends with Dorris and Monday!!! So we talk to her for a long time, and get her number. It was great until we have to get off the bus.... we got back to the apartment and the other sisters open the door and just laugh!! Sorella Bradford said "it started raining and we just prayed for you but i guess it didn't work" hahah, as we walk in with our shoes squishing water out of them! hahah We looked like two wet dogs!!!

Ok so monday (the day, not our investigator) we had to go to the Questura to get my finger printing done (visa stuff) and we have to cross under these rail road tracks to get there (its where the gypsy camp is.... the ones that stoned us!) So we get everything done and we walk out and guess what we hear thunder again!!! So we run for like 20 min to the train tracks. We get to the tunnel underground and it looked like a scene from "i am legend!!!" the tunnel lights are flickering and its flooded with water.. we can hear all the thunder and at the very end of the tunnel is the BIGGEST german shepherd I have ever seen!!!! It was hurt but it was super muscly and it had red eyes!!! No joke! It looked like a zombie dog!!!!!!!! and im not kidding about the red eyes!!! So me and Sorella Mikesell scream and run back up the stairs and the other sisters are like do you want to stay here with the Gypsys or try to get passed the dog? So we went with the dog and it was the scariest moment of my life!!!!!!!! The dog followed us for another 15 minutes... I was basically in tears it was so scary!!!

So we went to Dorris's this week and guess what?!? She said she would make us African skirts!!!!!!! im so excited!!! I feel like I might be in Africa instead of italy!! But i'm super excited because those African skirts are sooooo pretty!!!

So for the 4th of july we had a party with our english course and it was super fun!! We tried to make rootbeer floats with coke and gelato but it tasted like toothpaste :( but it was great because the ward was there with a BUNCH of our simps!! (investigators)

So about two nights ago Sorella Mikesell and I are doing language study and we notice that there is an abnormal amount of bugs in our apartment and a lot of them are by my corner of the room, right by my bed! I just got a new mattress so I was hope they weren't in it! So I lift up my bed to see and my pen falls between the wall and my mattress. So I move my whole bed out and guess what is there??... food storage!!!!! but there was also millions of these little weevil bugs!!! Then there was this huge pregnant spider! So Sorella Mikesell and I are trying to get the spider onto our broom (cause if you smash it all the babies go everywhere). Finally I get it on and run out onto the balcony and shake the broom off... and suddenly our down stairs neighbor is yelling at us! So hear we are trying to describe that there was a pregnant spider in Italian and he just started to laugh cause we couldn't say it in italian anyway we cleaned up all the bugs and bleached the house!!! Yikes

So did you know that catholics believe in a St. called Padre Pio who apparently atoned for 1/3 of the sins of the world.... random fact.

Anyway sorry this letter was so long I love all of you so much!!!! And always remember to pray!!!!

Sorella Felice!

SOAKED!! and I'm not sure why Paula is wearing Sorella Bradfords Missionary Badge???

We are crying because Mom sent us flaming hot Cheetos and Good and Plenty's!

Our Slushy's looked like the Italian Flag!