Michele's Baptism

Ciao Tutti!!

SO THIS WEEK MICHELE WAS BABPTIZED!!!!!! It was so amazing. He is just the cutest guy ever. He was so ready!!! He was really scared to go all the way into the water. We had to practice all week how to be baptized. So he was was so cute he walked into the font and just popped a squat, like SOOOOO ready! hahah! His hand kept coming up so he was baptized 4 times. HA! And the last time he went all the way under and the ward started to clap :/ and we couldn't really stop them... so we were like "oh well" and started clapping with them. He did a little bow. It was so cute!!!!

So i forgot to tell you last week a bird landed on my head!!!!!!!!!!! I was so scared. I was almost in tears... but anyway, that is kind of random. Yep a bird landed on my head!!

In Italian "il singore" means "the Lord" but I keep pronuncing the last "e" sound wrong. So basically, when I say "the Lord" I kept  saying "a spanish man" instead. YIKES. So I've been trying to work on that one....

So this week im sitting in the bedroom eating dinner and everyone is in the kitchen making their dinners. I then hear Sorella Mikesell say "ahhhh I hate my companion!!" and i'm like "ought oh... what did i do?" So she comes into the room and she's like "DID YOU EAT ALL THE HOT SAUCE!!!!" and I said "the hot sauce on the fridge" and she says "well yeah!" and then I said "Well yeah, because it was mine...." She started to laugh and she was like "I'm so sooorry!!!" I thought it was everyone's and I've been using it this whole time!!!" HAHAHA. She is sooo funny!! We seriously laugh all the time!

We have this less active guy that we have been working with and he is from Nigeria. He is actually a prince in Nigeria which is super cool!?!?. We met him on a bus one day and he was just like "OH YOU GUYS ARE MORMON! GUESS WHAT IM MORMON!!" Awesome! He is super funny. We had to teach him all the commandments over again, and we were explaining the law of chastity and he says "YES" "This is a perfect excuse to break up with my crazy girlfriend!!" (she is CRAZY!!!) and then he says "I'm going to find a nice pretty girl and take her back to my kingdom and make her a princess.... I LOVE THE LAW OF CHASTITY" I thought that was super funny cause when do you ever hear someone talking about that? hahah

So this week we were going to go visit one of our less actives and her daughter-in-law who is an investigator and they live in the mountains! So we had to take a two hour train out there and it was BEAUTIFUL!! It reminded me of the movie Mamma Mia but not on a beach... In the mountains instead. I'll send a picture! Anyway, she lived in this city at the very top of the mountain. So she picked us up in this teeny tiny car and it was super old!!! There are four of us and then her and her mom and we are driving up a mountain!! I thought the car was going to explode or die and then we roll down the mountain and die... but seriously though. HAHA! It was soooo fun though cause she was a crazy driver and we were all sitting on top of each other!! Then we got out of the car and the mom (who is really old) looks at Sorella Mikesell and she screams "There's a bug on your boob!!!!" So then she proceeds to hitting Sorella with her bag like eighty times... hahah! It was hilarious!! The town was called Madonna Di Pace and there was a road called the "sisters of forgiveness" so we got a picture with the street sign! Classic missionary picture, right? 

After that we went to the church and scrubbed the font clean for Micheles baptism. So we locked all the doors to the church and just cleaned!!!!

The other day we heard this music coming from one of our neighbors in another appartment building. So me and Sorella Mikesell went and looked through our balcony door. She is standing in her kitchen doing dishes and just dancing crazy to this like Italian oprah music.. It was fabulous. HAHAHA classic Italians...

Oh so another word I get messed up on a lot in italian is "buonissimo" and "benissimo" and one means "tasty" and one means "good". So I guess I've been asking everyone if they've had a tasty week! or I'll say "you are a tasty person" or like "Christ was a tasty example for us" So I've spent 8 weeks out here, and no one has told me i'm calling people tasty!!! I was so embarrassed!!!

The other day we got to go to the mission villa and sing the hymn of Rome with balloons and posters to the Kellys (Mission President and his cute wife) because they leave this week! It was so fun!! It was Rome one, two, and three!! I got to see Sorella Anderson!! It was really great. Sorella Kelly took us in and gave us m&ms and root beer!!!! It was the best!! Then after we were heading back, and our new district leader was talking to the office couple and suddenly he yells over to us "Hey guys come here, I got us a dinner appointment" and the office couple took us out to dinner!!! All 8 of us!!! (just our district)! They took us to this restaurant on the Tiber River and it used to be an inn for when people traveled to Rome. It's over 1000 years old!! We seriously had the best dinner EVER!!!! ITALIAN FOOD IS GOOD!!!!

Ok  so i dont have that much time left but here is a little joke for you!!!

Why is the Italy Rome Mission the best mission?  Because our first missionaries were Anziano Peter and Anziano Paul (Peter and Paul the apostles) HAHA. ok thats all folks!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND MISS YOU LIKE CRAZY!!!

Love Sorella Felice

Prison of the Apostles Paul and Peter

In the teeny tiny car

Teeny tiny car we all were in.

Michele's Baptism

Goodbye to the Kelly's

Yummy restaurant the Office Couple took us to.

I Kissed a Pig

Ciao tutti!!

Summer started in rome this week...... sono finito.

haha jk! I just have to get used to swimming to my appointment instead of walking because as soon as you step outside you are drenched. HAHA And if you ever get thirsty all you have to do is breath! I bought myself one of those chinese fans. I got it for 1 euro. It's the best thing I've bought since being in Rome! It goes with me everywhere... in fact im using it now! 

So this week was pretty steady, not a lot happened. However one of my investigators is getting baptized on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sooo excited for him. He is the cutest old man and he is sooooo ready!!!! His name is Michele and he is the one that fed us purple sausages. You will never believe what happened this week... we taught him a lesson and he said "can you guys come over for lunch tomorrow?" So we said "yes" because we need to see him everyday before his baptism. Ok, so we get to his house and our first course is of course pasta, and after pasta comes meat... well lets just say that pig tongue was on the menu!! We had to eat it!! Then he tells me that he bought them because they are super spicy, and Calabrians like spicy things so he made one tongue for everyone except me.... I got two ;) lucky lucky me.....

So im in my second transfer!! I don't know where the time has gone!! Sorella Mikesell is probably one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life! I just laugh and laugh all day. She is super bold and will speak her mind but she says things in the funniest ways. I just love her! We cant speak a lick of italian together but that's ok.. we will learn super fast this way!! In fact I have felt my Italian improve a lot this week which is good!

So yesterday we were on the tranino (tram). We were going to the mission office to print the programs for Micheles baptism. I sat by these three old ladies and they all had the most beautiful Chinese fans. Here I am with my really cheap ugly purple plain one! So I started talking to this one lady about the weather and how her fan was beautiful (my companions think I'm crazy for buying a fan! But they use it too, so I know they love it. But they were just watching me thinking I was crazy). Anyways, I told her I had bought it at a Chinese mall and then this lady proceeds to show me everything she had just bought from the Chinese mall... like every little item. I just watched as she showed me over thirty items she bought! So then I said "oh by the way we are missionaries and offer a free english course" and I gave her a bilitini (pass along card). She starts talking to me again, but I can see another lady looking at me. So I give her a bilitini. Then she starts talking to me. So I have these two really old ladies talking to me all at the same time! So then I turn to my side and give another bilitini to the other old lady then she starts talking. All three of these old ladies are talking to me at the same time so I'm not understanding a word they were saying!! I was like "Sorella Bradford help me!!!" (she went with us) So as I'm trying to get Sorella Bradfords attention this young guy sitting on the other side of me takes out his ear phones and was like "do you need help" HE SPOKE ENGLISH!!!! So he started translating for me and all these ladies were talking about is there grandkids and how I had blonde hair! hahaha!!! They all got off the tranino and I gave another bilitini to the young man that helped me. Anyway, thats really the only fun/weird story I could think of this week. Sorry it's so scattered and there isn't periods and it probably doesn't make sense.

I cant believe that Wes is home!!!! It's so weird!!!! The video was so cute. I was crying in the internet cafe and my Comp was staring at me laughing! HAHA! He is such a good brother!!! By the way Mom your hair is super cute!!! Did you get it done for your birthday? Nikki you look soooooooooooo good!!!!! and Carly you are still on crutches!! when are you going to have surgery? Stir you need to shave! Matt your laugh always makes my day!!! When Matt and Wes hugged it was so cute!!!! Marley looked happy to see Wes! hahah and Nathan and Bryans mohawks were AWESOME!!! Jill you looked BEAUTIFUL as always!!!!! Tim thanks for the video!!

So the work is going good this transfer. We basically have to work with the other companionships because we are having a hard time teaching our investigators in italian. So President Kelly told us that next transfer they are probably going to sweep out a sister companionship becasue that was the plan for this current transfer but there wasn't any room for us any other places. We also got a new companionship of Anziani (Elders) so now we have four Anziani, four Sorella, and a senior couple just in our ward! CRAZY!!!

I love my mission so much!!! I can't believe how lucky I was to come on a mission. It is the best decision I've ever made in my whole life! I know that this gospel is the true gospel of Gesu Cristo! I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. As I read it everyday I learn so much. The Book of Mormon can help us in our everyday life with any problems we might face. If anyone needs any help from our Lord. READ THE BOOK OF MORMON! It's the fundamental base for EVERYTHING!! If we can have a testimony of the BOM then we have a testimony of Joseph Smith, a testimony of the gospel, and most importantly a testimony that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that no matter what... HE LOVES US!!! Ok I have to go but just remember to love everyone!!!! EVERYONE!!! Every single person on this earth is a Child of God and just love them!

Love Sorella Paula Felice

us picking up our new greenie OH who by the way does hair so she gave me a hair cut yesterday and does my hair every morning haha I LOVE HER!  oh so we picked her up and the mission home and sister kelly showed us how to make mormon tirimisu!!!!! it was so yummy!!!

Ok so this is probably one of my favorite investigators!!! her name is Moira and we found her through english course!!! (we are standing in our ward chapel) she loves cats (hence the cat purse) the first lesson we had with her I asked if you would like to learn more about the gospel and she said yes so after english course we had a lesson and she told us that we had a light in our eyes and she knew we had truth. And the first time in my mission I cried while bearing my testimony to her. Like I bawled and she was crying and everyone was crying and i just LOVE her!!! and she loves cats!! and so do i!!!!! there are millions of cats here its the best!

this is my new district, we were at our district meeting and we ran down stairs and ordered a pizza for all of us (so eight pizzas) however i couldnt eat all of mine so the elders ate the rest. the pizza here is very thin so its extrememly possible to eat a whole pizza

Church Bells and Crop Dustings

Ciao tutti!!

Ahhh so this week has been SO crazy! It's the end of my first transfer and guess what??? I'm going to...... stay in Rome three! But I'm leaving Sorella Bradford!!!!! :( AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH aiutami!!!!! I'm going to be with Sorella Mikesell! Which is going to be super fun (and mom you know her). The only problem is that she just finished her training this week. She has only been out Six weeks longer than me, and we both speak the same amount of Italian YIKES!! I don't know how we are going to talk to people, but that is ok, we will learn faster this way! I'm really excited because she is the funniest human being on this planet!

ok, so what else happened... So last P-Day we went to try to find this healing waters church and one of the members was like "oh i'll show you where it is" and then ended up taking us to her work??? Anyway she works in the congress library for Italy!!! So it turned out super cool. There were the oldest books you could ever imagine!! They had the original blue prints for St. Peters and the Vatican!!! And they had ancient war accounts,  but the coolest part was that it used to be a convent. And hundreds of years ago guess who lived there? GALILEO!!! We went and saw his room!!!! so cool!!!

I got super sick this week which was fun... Especially at dinner appointments when i had to eat those huge olives! But I couldn't taste them cause my nose was clogged... mwahhahahahha! Oh so I'm pretty sure that the Lord has blessed me during meal appointments to have the biggest throat in the world!! Because Italians never cut their olives, they just eat them whole! So I basically have become pro at just swallowing them whole so i don't have to taste them!

So we have an investigator who is getting baptized in two weeks! It's super exciting! His name is Michele and he is from Calabria so he calls me Calabria (its really cute)! I think I might have told you about him. Anyway, so this week we went over for a meal appointment and he always makes Calabrasian food for me. You won't believe what he cooked us......... PURPLE SAUSAGE!  I was sooooo scared to try it, but it was so yummy! It really was purple though!!! Italians are so funny, they always have a five course meal for us! It always goes pasta dish first , then they serve you meat, then after a pane (bread so goood), then a salad, then usually dessert! The worst is we have to tell them "ok so we have already eaten so don't cook dinner for us" then we get there, and they have a five course meal for us! AHHH so full!!!

So obviously since we are in Italy there are churches every fifty feet! All day we can hear church bells and I used to think it was really pretty and so Italian, but now it is sooooo annoying! They seriously NEVER stop ringing!!!!!!

Ok, So funny! So we are coming back to our apartment this week.. and there is this huge guy that was standing by the gate. So we opened it and he walked in to the courtyard and suddenly he crop dusts on us!!!!!!! (farted on us) and it was the worst thing i've ever heard and smelt!!! I think he might have had that purple sausage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So since we all got sick this week everyone has had a hard time sleeping (except for me cause i can fall asleep anytime anywhere!). So I guess I talk in my sleep every night! Everyone now waits until I fall asleep and then they try talking to me.. Its SOOOO embarrassing!!!! One night I was sleeping and I guess I said "don't stay here, come with me". So they were like "where are you going" and it's so embarrassing, I said "i'm going down into iniquity!!!!" Then they were all laughing, and asked where I was now and I said "prosperity and happiness". Well, I guess I have no proof of this happening since they told me the next morning... but you know you're a missionary when you talk in your sleep about iniquity and prosperity! haha! Also, they said that the other night I was full on speaking Italian!!! I was saying "I'm not guilty (senza colpa senza colpa)" haha. Good thing when I'm sleeping I can speak Italian, cause I definitely can't when I'm awake!!!

So the other night our apartment smelt like burnt toast. We all kept saying "it smells like toast" "it smells like toast" for like over and hour.. and suddenly right as we are alll about to go to bed, Sorella Andersen screams "shoot it smells like toast cause I'm making toast!!!!!!" She had left her bread in the toaster for over an hour!!!! hahah... she is funny!!!

Sorry everything is like twenty explanation marks and caps lock everywhere.... and sorry this is really long! I might not have time to wright letters today, but I love you all so much! I hope that you all have the BEST WEEK EVER!!!

Love Sorella Felice!!!

 

PS.. MAKE SURE YOU FILM AND TAKE PICTURES OF WESLEY COMING HOME!!! i cant believe he is dying from the mission. Sooooooooooo crazy I'm so excited to (if you film him) see him meeting Marley, Nathan and Bryan!!! love you guys!!!

Gaileo's Room

 These are called BOMBA!!!!! best donut thing in the world!!!! they are really hot donuts (freshly made cause its italy) then they put sprinkle suger on them then fill them to the brim of explosion with nutella!!

(ps... paula said that you can tell that she is sick in this picture, red eyes and all)

My Aunt Margaret always blows rasberries into hydrangea while smothering her face in them. So this picture was Paula trying to do that.  

They were bored at the bus stop so they were doing funny poses for the camera. This one is the a Sistine Chapel imitation

Dionsaurs

It was so hot and humid, her hair actually went "wavy"! She was shocked! 

Her tan line

 

PSS...  I NEED RACHEL LAYS EMAIL ADDRESS PRONTO COME ADDESSO!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH IM SOOOO EXCITED!! IM SO MAD IM GOING TO MISS HER WEDDING!!!!! CURSES!!!!!

I Threw a Wish in the Well

Buon Giorno tutti!!

Ciao. So this week was pretty slow. A lot of our investigators couldn't see us and so we did A LOT of finding!!!!!!! On thursday, we went to this park and we were just talking to everybody we could see! ( I chased down a lot of people! like full on sprinting saying s"cusa singore scusa scusa"!!) but a lot of fun stories came out of it!! Sorella Andersen and I saw this old lady in the distance, and we could see that around her she had like five cats! So we told Sorella Bradford that we wanted to go talk to her. So we walk over to her and like three of the cats scurry off! She starts screaming at us in Italian saying "LOOK WHAT YOUVE DONE! CAN'T YOU SEE IM BUSY!!!" So we are like "oh sorry we are just offering a free engl...." "I DONT WANT ANYTHING YOU ARE OFFERING! I HAVE WORK TO DO" "ok well we just have a free english course..." "GO AWAY" "ok good luck" "ITS NOT LUCK, THIS IS WORK!!!"! So that was interesting she was just feeding all these stray cats... lesson learned, don't disturb the working cat ladies!! Then later on we were talking to these guys, and they were not interested and we were walking away and you will never believe what happened... They started throwing stuff at us!!! AGAIN!! Hahah I think i will call that succeeding though. Then that night we were going to our english course and this crazy lady who we see all the time came running up to us screeming.... she was crazy thats all i have to say about that one.

We had another scambi (splits) this week but the Sorella came to our zone this time. So she went with Sorella Bradford. So Sorella Andersen and I went out alone together. Anyway, that was fun and really interesting.

So last pday we went to the la fontana di trevi (famous Italian fountain)!! It was so big and I threw a wish into it!! So happy, and the we went and saw the collseo (Colosseum) it was HUGE!!! and its right in the middle of centro (ancient rome)! There were tons of cool things to see around it!! When you guys come to pick me up that is where we are going to go, cause its really fun!!

Im sorry it was a super slow week, and we really just did a lot of publicity and finding. I just want to say though how freaking happy, and just honored I am to be on a mission and to be a tool in the Lords hand. I feel like I have learned so much and have grown more than I ever had in my whole life! People are so amazing, and if you just take the time out of your life to talk to people, you will be amazed. I never thought I would say this, but I love just talking to random people (editors note: Paula is super shy if she does not know you, like painfully shy) and I love learning who they are and their story in life! Its so amazing to be able to see Gods hand in everyones life. To be able to just be a little part of helping others come unto Christ is the biggest blessing I could ever ask for. I'm so grateful that the Lord asked me to serve a mission. That he had a plan for me to do this, a plan that I couldn't even see for myself. The Lord shapes us so much and if we just listen to the spirit, he can help us be the person he wants us to be. Im sorry this sounds so jumbled... I really just want to say that a mission is one of the best things anyone can do in their life. You learn to love others and develop so much charity. You learn to be humble when no one will let you "in" for days and days. You learn how much the Lord truly cares and loves others and yourself. And you learn that the only thing that truly matters in you life are the people you love.

I love all of you so much and i'm so thankful for all of you in my life. I have the best family and friends I could ever ask for!!!

vi amo!!!

Sorella Felice!!

p.s (to my friends) you should go over to my house this week. My dad got the pinball machine working, but he is going to sell it soon so you should go over and play it!!!

so this week we put up over a thousand english course posters so this is our 1,000 poster and then we had 2 hours of pday cause last p day was cut short so pres kelly gave us two extra hours so we decided to celebrate by going to go get peruvian food cause apparently its the best food in italy????? all of the members told us to go to this place so we went but they spoke spanish and the menus were in spanish so i accedenlyt ordered just a bowl of rice... but it was really good rice!!! um the other picture is the a lake that is right by the popes summer house so it was really pretty so i tooka  pic . oh and guess what!! im done with my first transfer next week!!!! so wierd

Gypsies and Prostitutes!

Ciao Tutti!!!

This week was super interesting!! We had so much happen!! we had this random day this week where we taught over six lessons!! Which is crazy for this mission. I was so excited we got so many numbers, and talked to so many people that we ran out of pass along cards!!! Ahh I loved it, and now we have two new investigators!! We called it our miracle day!

So we had a lesson with one of our investigators, and we were sitting on this wall/ ruin in the park and suddenly my comp starts screaming. There are ants all over her! haha it was kind of funny, but sad i was laughing! Then I looked down and they were all over me too! So I guess I deserved that one haha.

We had a lesson with this lady named Beatrice. She told us how she was vegan and how she believes that taking good care of your body makes you more spiritual. So, we were like "YES" "lets talk about this thing we believe in called the word of wisdom" and she loved it. She then took us to her house to eat lentals for lunch. We were all healthy for about four hours, then we got gelato, so....  I was healthy for about four hours one day this week! hahah.

We went to dinner at Darios house this week and his Dad just calls me "Calabria". Its super funny! They made us mushroom pasta..... yum??. They made it just for me though, and they bought these expensive mushrooms from Calabria. So i was sitting there while he kept asking me "Calabria, do you like it?" and i'm just chewing on all these mushrooms like "yeah its great"! haha that was a fun night. (editors note: Paula hates mushrooms.)

OK FUNNIEST STORY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we had to go get finger printing done at this police station for our permesso di giorno (visa stuff). We are walking in the middle of no where to get there, and we run into a GYPSY CAMP!! It was crazy! So I take a picture of it, yikes! Then we go get our finger printing done, and we start to head back. As we pass it again Sorella Mikesell was like "I need a picture of this too". So she makes sure no one is watching her and takes a picture of the camp.... well, there was someone watching her! These two boys come running and they keep asking her why she took the picture?? Probably over forty times! Then one comes up to me and sees my YW medallion and GRABS IT!! He kept tugging at my necklace trying to break it off (probably cause they thought it was real gold, haha). Then they go for one of the sisters bags, and they get in a full on tug a war!!! No joke! So we start walking a way real fast, and then suddenly we hear a thud. They HIT SORELLA MIKESELL WITH A ROCK!!  So she starts running at them clapping her hands screaming... basta basta!! (enough) Then they get bigger rocks (like huge stones) and start throwing them at us... so yeah we got stoned this week! It was super crazy!!! Anyway, their aim was horrible! I don't know how they managed to hit Sorrela Mikesell in the first place. She had an afro though, so she was alright :) She is going to right a book called "My Afro Saved My Life" haha. So, right after we got through the gypsy camp we passed a lot of prostitutes.... at this point we decided that was a bad part of town!!!

So some how every week we seem to find a creepy guy, but this week it was funny. We were walking and this guy comes up to us and he says some bad things to us in Italian. All three of us at the same time make a throwing up noise and walk away. Then he screams at us in attempted english "but I lovvvvve you!" haha! It was too funny.

anyway i dont have that much time today but that is what happened this week :) I love my mission so much! I get to talk to all these people and learn the coolest things about them... and then on top of learning about them, I get to teach them the gospel in the most beautiful language in the world!! I LOVE IT!!

 Sorrell Mikesell's afro on the left :)

They got super hungry on day so they went to the grocery store and bought chicken. Paula must have been super hungry because she does not even like chicken.

(Gypsy Camp)

 They got to play volleyball on P-day.

 One of their investigators.

Love Sorella Felice!!