Ciao tutti!!!

So this week was pretty good, it was a lot better than last week, that's for sure! So right after emailing last week we went to our apartment and I got all of your letters! hahah, It was so cute. I loved reading all of them! and they all came at once! it made my day getting to read all of them. So mail here is really weird because Nicole wrote me and I got the letter in six days. Yours took like two weeks! So time is a little off, but the letters will always arrive so don't worry about that!

So this thursday we had zone conference and i got to see Sorella Rossel!! I was so happy! we just hugged and jumped for like five minutes!! she is so cute! She got a picture of us printed and then wrote a note on the back of it and then laminated it and gave it to me. Seriously, she is so nice!

So last week i totally forgot to send you pics of St. Peters. I only sent pics of the Vatican so i will send those today.

We had a lesson with one of our investigators named Daniela and she lives like an hour and a half away outside of rome... so we were in this little city and we are trying to get back to the train. This creepy guy comes up from behind me and was like "bellisma" right into my ear! and it scared me so bad!! I started running... YIKES. It was way creepy!!! A lot of the men here are kinda gross... 

I left my paper at home that has all the stuff i need to write about so this email could be super short cause i dont remenber a lot hah.

I DID MY FIRST SCAMBI!! (exchange) I went to a town called Pescara. It's right on the Adriatic Sea and it was so beautiful!!! The Sorella apartment was super nice because they just opened Pescara to Sisters. I felt like I went on vacation and stayed in a condo! They had a new kitchen where i just had to turn on the stove... instead of lighting a match and throwing it in the oven and running for my life cause it scares me! ha!! Anyways, I was with a Sorella who is French. She was super nice! We went to a couple of lessons together and the people just love her!! it was super fun!! I loved Pescara but I missed my ghetto!! Oh, and a member made me some tuna spaghetti..... it was pretty interesting. On the way back to Rome we got to go on a double decker bus and we of course sat at the top, right in the front. So we had a front row seat as we traveled around Italy! It was really fun. I love scambi!!

Ok, funny story for the week!! We were going to go put up english course posters because we had an hour in this area before our english course. So Sorella Anderson said "lets get off at the stop before the church". So we all agree and proceed to get off the tram. It was super crowded because everyone else got off too! I could see Sorella Anderson in front of me. I caught up to her and was said "where is Sorella Bradford" and we turn around, the tram is starting to leave, and SHE IS STILL ON THE TRAM! She was just looking out the window like completely "zoned out" so we both just start laughing! We decide we need to call her... but she had the phone! So then we were like "well, we could put up english posters while we wait for her to come back" (because we are both greenies Sorella Bradford is our trainer. She already went over if this ever happened though, so if one of us gets left.. we stay put and she will come back to find us! Anyway she had all the english course stuff anyways, so we just sat on the railroad track more than a half an hour and kept putting Euros on the track.. and when trams would pass they would get smooshed. It was pretty fun.

ok so because I cant remember anything else I did this week, ill just send a lot of pics!! I love you guys and miss you so much!!! You are the best and i'm so happy to have such an amazing family!! and friends!!

vi voglio bene!!!

Sorella Felice!

 

p.s WESLEY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! i was going to write you a letter but i dont think it will get their in time since i just bought stamps yesterday! and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY nikki and tim... i think i spelled that wrong caps lock hurts my eyes. AND HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY STIR!!!!! love you guys!! so much happens in may!! tims birthday jills birthday stir and wesleys birthday..... LOVE YOU!!

 

Spiral Stairs!!!

Ciao tutti!!

Oh my gosh talking to all of you this week was so amazing!! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family! It literally hurt when I had to turn the Skype off!! You all seemed so great and Marley is sooooo big! Oh my gosh, it was crazy! and Nathan and Bryan are so stinking cute!!! I hope you had a great mothers day Mom!! I love you so much!!

There was so much that happened this week, I don"t even know where to begin!! first off after my email last week we went to St. Peters square and climbed to the top of the Basilica! It took over an hour to climb and my legs were shaking! It was so far up and the stairs were tiny. It was a spiral staircase with no railings, but a rope that came down the center instead. Seriously it was really like rock climbing.. haha! It was super fun but way scary because when we got the the dome part, it started to curve and all i could imagine was falling thousands of stairs to my death! But I didn't so we are all good! I'll send pics of the Vatican.. it was just so amazing I can't describe it in words!

So this week we were teaching one of our Phillipino friends, Dexter. Sorella Anderson was talking about the members and missionaries and she said "by their works shall you know them" and as soon as she said that a bird pooped on her head. HA! I almost peed!! She was just like "oh my goodness a bird just pooped on my... I just got pooped on!!" it was super funny!!

Yesterday we were trying to find a less active named Beniamino and we passed by a karaoke bar and this drunk old Italian man was singing..... it was pretty great hah

Also if i haven't told you about pranzo yet, it's crazy!! So pranzo is lunch time and the whole city closes down from about one to four and takes naps!! No joke!! They just go home and NAP!! I wish the US would do that! but it kind of sucks for missionary work because we have to go back to do language and training study because no one is out to teach :(

We have this one investigator named Lucy Daniela and she makes us pray holding hands. All of us have to pray too. So we take turns and she is the kind of person that is like "amen" and "praise the lord" in the prayer. So the first time I taught her I was so shocked and I almost laughed which would have been bad!! Also this week while I was praying she told me to pray for her to know which boyfriend she should choose to keep. YIKES! That was weird... I think our next lesson might be the law of chastity. HAHA

On Sunday, a member invited us over to eat! His name is Dennis and he is from Nigeria.  We were eating and guess what I HAD TO EAT LAMB! I was going to cry!!!! (editors note... just incase you are wondering why Paula was going to cry. She loves lamb's and the thought of eating one just made her super sad) It was so funny we are sitting at this table eating Ghanese food (ghana) listening to Cuban music (the kind that you hear as a car drives by and you can hear the base and all you want to do is dance) in the middle of Rome with our member.... when will i ever have that experience again in my life!

So we have another new member we went to go visit this week and she lives in a Nigerian refugee camp. We got there and everyone was gathered outside the camp. They were all screaming "we will survive" or " we will win this fight". We are just like  what the hannah is going on.... apparently the camp was giving them bad food and they hadn't given them baby food to feed their kids for like two weeks!! The food truck was coming and they were going to fight!!! So we had to leave fast but we did see Dorris before we left. We told her we would see her another day this week. I felt so bad for them... :( They have been through so much!

yesterday was kind of sad we worked super hard but we had all zeros at the end of the day. Every single one of our appointments fell through. But we tried as hard as we could, and we got to talk to A LOT of people which was good.

Also, yesterday we were talking to this guy and we said we were from America. He started screaming "America" and then he like lifted up his shirt and was saying "America, America....." That was a weird moment.

today we went to the Vatican museum and oh my heck, they have soooo much stuff there!!! We saw a real mummy!! and tons of Michael Angelo paintings!! We went to the Sistine Chapel too. It was to die for, gorgeous! We couldn't take pics in there, out of respect, but I still can't believe how cool it was!!! I will send pics of the rest of the things we saw! (editors note... if you're wondering why Paula and her companions have so much free time to go see the sites like this, it is because they can do laundry all week in there apartment. So there P-days are not just spent doing laundry all day)

While we were walking to the Vatican this guy started walking next to and he said (probably five times) to me "what a beautiful waste"???? He was creepy, so I started to run! We also went to the best Gelateria in the city. "Old Bridge Gelato".... YUMM  :) and then we walked past a store and they were playing "Call Me Maybe" on the radio!! hahah good day!!

ok so I think that was about it that I could think of that you guys would think interesting. Well I love you all so much and miss you like crazy!! you're the best

vi voglio bene!!

Sorella Felice

Anyone Want Some Gelato

Ciao tutti!

So this week has been so amazing! I can't believe that i'm finally here! My first night here we had an english course (we teach english and its the biggest tool for us to find people. Right now we have 5 investigators just from english). So we have the option to either take the tram or the bus to class (the bus is way better because it takes us right to the church. The tram drops us off about a mile from the church). So we are waiting for either the bus or tram and the tram comes so were like ok. So we run for the tram and right at 1 the bus came so we took the bus. Little miracle however, when we got on the bus this guy from peru came and sat down next to us. He said he wanted to come to english courses and learn more about the church! So, i'm glad we didn't get on the tram. hahah. That night I had my first real pizza (so yummy) and then I got this egyptian mango juice which was to die for!!!

Its really interesting, we don't actually teach a lot of italians. Half of our investigators are either Nigerian or Phillipino and they all speak english! haha! wahoo!! also a lot of the italians speak English! The Phillipino are amazing though! We have a huge Phillipino population in our Ward and on Sunday we had a little get together with all of them to break our fast. They are just the cutest people! However, I am now fluent in Phillipino English! I wish Italian would come as fast as that did. haha. Anyway our little get together turned into a testimony and everyone was crying... it was great!! I don't think I would have ever imagined me in this little room in the middle of Rome having a testimony meeting with a bunch of Phillipinos in my life! The things i've seen so far are just crazy!!! I just can't believe where I am!!

Oh yeah, so if you haven't heard, Italy is pretty humid! So basically i've been wet since i got here. Our laundry takes like a week to dry. So thats pretty fun! You just have to plan really well. Also i'm so angry. So I wore my shower sandals EVERYWHERE in the MTC. And I get to Italy and guess who gets athletes foot... this girl! hahah. Oh well, I just wash my feet every night in this lovely thing called a bidet ( it's next to a toilet and Europeans use it to clean their bums, it's the thing that squirts water at you. haha) anyway we never use it for it's actual purpose.. so we all use it to wash our feet. It's perfect!!

Oh i have a funny story for you!! So i'm sitting in Sacrament meeting and this lady next to me grabs my hand and starts looking at my nails. Then she turns to me and is like "bad nutrition, no eat pasta, no eat sugar!" " eat only protein, frutta e veggies!" I'm just sitting there laughing in my mind because i hadn't even eaten pasta yet. and then she continues "look at all these zits! you need to fix your face" then she points out all my zits.. which turns out to be only like five, and three of them were actually mosquito bites. haha! My companion was just like "yep Italians are a bold people" haha! I just thought it was funny!!!

So with skype, I will be skyping Saturday night which for you is Saturday morning about Nine! Im not sure what your skype address is.. but i will try looking for your emails! Also if you see that I have a skype, add me to your friend list that will make it easier! I hope that Saturday morning works for you. If we can't figure things out then i'll call and try to set it up or get your addresses for skype! Also will you put my apartment address on facebook. If you haven't already.

So we had a member dinner (pizza) on Sunday and they put all these green olives on it.  They didn't cut them up either, so there was just these huge olives! I would take a bite and just swallow the olive whole! I'm so proud i didn't choke! haha.. but the pizza itself was super good!

Anyway mom you will be happy to know that I like tomatoes now. They taste like candy here! K, so I have to go but I love you all so much. You are the best and I miss you like crazy!! I'm so happy to have Christs name over my heart! love you and miss you!!

Love Sorella Felice!! vi voglio bene!!!

ps dad i will be on email saturday morning real quick to see your response for skype so email me before then with all the info i need about skyping you guys love you!!

Here is Paula's address if you would like to send her a letter or package

Letters:

Sister Felice

viale alessandrino, 250

00172, Roma Italia

Packages:

Sister Felice

piazza carnaro 20

00141, Roma Italia

She found an Orange with the leaf still on it. Yep... she had never seen this. So she bought it! 

Her District minus two Sisters

ancient ruins everywhere!

Holy Nutella!!

Harry Potter in ITALY!!

Yummy Gelato EVERYWHERE!

Pretty! Random Church in her zone

ITALY!!!!

Ciao!

So Im finally in my zone and unpacked! My zone is called Roma 3. my Trainer told me its compared to the projects in new york hahah its SOOOOO beautiful!! It's really what you would think Rome would look like however graffiti on EVERYTHING! one of the graffiti's that I saw was in English so i could read it.. and it just said "hot boys" over and over again haha it was kind of funny! Lets see, we take the bus and trams everywhere! and walk a lot! This morning I left the Villa (there is a mission home and a mission house. The mission home is the one you send packages too but it is also one of our only church buildings. The mission house or the villa is a house that Mousillini (spell check i don't know how to spell his name) built for his niece a very long time ago. I will try to send pictures of it! its very beautiful! So I love my area already, it really is kind of a ghetto, but ahhh its gorgeous!!! i have two companions right now because they didn't have enough sisters to train all the new sisters. haha. Isn't that funny! AHH I REALLY LOVE IT! Mom you would love it here! they have honeysuckle everywhere. The city is super humid and the air taste like honeysuckle! e molto bella!!! Also there are a lot of random statues everywhere with like latan carved into them! Also another cool fact, there are a ton of huge walls (like great wall of china big, but no really!) and then there will be a huge archway in the middle of the wall kind of like how the Vatican is. Anyways, long ago they had gated cities so everywhere you drive, you can only drive in by going under the arch! The walls are beautiful, they all have ivy and they are super old!!! Lets see, what else could i talk about... OH so the lady I sat by on the plane over here was so funny. She was Irish and like 110 years old and all she kept asking me if i was a "virgin" and how bad it is that people dont get married these days. YIKES! So I got to share with her the law of chastity. So that was kind of funny, we also talked about the word of wisdom. So yeah, pretty interesting!

So when we flew into Rome there was no one their to greet us so we had to find the mission home phone number. Then we would just walk around with the number saying "per favore aiuto?" till someone dialed the number for us and let us borrow their phone. haha! So we arrived about 12:05 and they came to pick us up about 4:00! So we got to sit and watch people for a while!! haha

The pizza is amazing!! The pasta was food for my soul and we are going to get gelato after this! hahah, so yep better then MTC food!

There was so much that happened in the last couple of days that i dont even know where to begin! ahhh all i can really say is that rome is SOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!! ahh I really can't even tell you how pretty it is!

Oh so guess what! There are a lot of mosquitos here like so many that sometimes you see huge swarms that make it so you cant see your companion! I have a lot of bites already, hahah! Also its SUPER humid!! my hair is like SUPER frizzy! I washed it last night and its still not dry!! Well i guess my hair will be in a bun for the next 17 months! We get to go to meet some of our investigators today! We have a lot!! so i'm SOOO excited!! Also half of them speak English. We also are teaching an english class tonight!

Oh i also love when you see the old men yelling on the sidewalks at cars in italian haha its sooo funny

The keyboard im using right now is in italian so if I spell things wrong know that i have no idea how to use this thing, alright! haha

Ok so with letters they go straight to my appartment so will you post my new address on facebook. All packages go the the mission home or they will get stolen! So send them to the mission home! ok love you guys I miss you like crazy!!!! I LOVE MY MISSION SO FREAKING MUCH!!! ok love you u!!

Sorella Felice!!

So before Paula left she made pillowcases for all her friends and family for Christmas. Her friends got together and went to the fabric store, found all the fabric she used for their individual pillowcases, and made her one. So she has a piece of them with her! She said she bawled when she opened it. 

We learned that Paula's companions first name is Audrey. So "Audrey and Paula"... they sound like old women!!  We will miss having her in all the pictures. I'm sure they will be lifelong friends!

Classic Paula face.

All of the Romanian Missionary's minus a few. They could not find them. 

Classic Paula

Go Utes

Protecting their luggage from the Gypsies. Yes.. the Gypsies!

Tiny cars everywhere!

Some random pretty building in her mission.

The mission house

Mission President and his cute wife

So happy to not be eating MTC food. Look at this bakery!!

A cat that lives outside her building and looks like her "Tig" that she misses with all of her heart.