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!

Ribs in Italy!!

Buon Giorno tutti!!!

So this week we got our new mission president!!!!! PRESIDENTE WADDOUPS! He is super nice and really tall! on Saturday we went to the mission office with all the other Rome Missionaries and welcomed the waddoups and we sang the hymn of Rome to them and they were crying and it was the best!! You guys have to hear the hymn of Rome one day!! When we sing it we all put are arms around eachother, sway (and like all italians) SING AS LOUD AS YOU CAN!!! literally we scream the song!!!! Anyway, it was really fun!!! That morning we were getting ready and we all had to look nice and presentable the the new mission president and I was wearing my hope necklace (you know the one that says hope on it) anyway we are getting ready and suddenly Sorella Bradford starts to look at me and she just starts busting up laughing and i'm like "ought oh" what is wrong. She was like "Sorella Felice" are you going to wear a necklace that says "HO" to meet the new pres. I look down and the P and the E are gone and my necklace says HO! good thing she noticed that!!!

This week we went to go visit one of our new converts. Her name is Dorris and her husbands name is Monday. I think i've talked to you about them before. Anyway there refugee camp closed down and I guess all the refugee camps here that are government run were closed? So they found a private camp to live in. We went over to visit them and we asked them if they liked the government camps or the private ones better and they said the government ones. Because they actually give the refugees the money that the country has provided and in the private ones they don't (for example in the regular camps they get like 30 Euro a week for food and in the private they give them like five cartons of milk and some rice). Anyway so we asked why this happens and they said that the UN trys to think of ways to help so they hire these men who own an apartment buildings and then they give them money to turn it into a camp and take care of the refugees.....well guess who the UN has hired to take care of them? the Mafia!!!!!!!!!!!! no joke!! So these men smuggle money out of the camps for the Mafia!!!! so basically the mafia is very big and very much alive still in italy!!!! And the UN knows about it but its between trying to help and not helping at all so they rather just feed mafia money!!! It was really sad everyone in the camp was begging us to take their children! Like they followed us into Dorris and Mondays home saying like "please please take them!" and they were all kids under the age of 1 and it was just so sad! Did you know that southern Italy can almost be considered  a 3rd world country?? Crazy huh!

So this week we were playing do you love your neighbor(you ask someone do you love your neighbor and if they say yes then their neighbors switch seats and if they say no then they say but i like people who are wearing black t shirts and then everyone in black t shirts switch places and there is one seat missing so one person is always "it") in english course and its Micheles turn (the one that was just baptized) and he says "no but i like sh***" haha he was trying to say "shirt" it was sooooo funny but sad! He was so cute though this week. He stood up in english course and was said "I was baptized on Sunday and i'm sooo happy!!!" i love him he is the best!!!!!!

So yesterday we had zone conference and we were at termini which is the biggest train station in italy... we always are there to catch trains and buses out to visit members and such. Anyway, so we are down stairs going to the metro and I hear this screaming noise and I look over and I see this man who is bent over with his pants down PEEING!!! INSIDE!! Never seen that before! It was crazy! Then on the way back from zone conference this crazy old lady comes up to us and is telling us how nice we look and she is proud that we are modest then we get on the metro and she starts screaming at these two teenage girls about how they aren't modest! Then everyone on the train got involved and this huge fight broke out..... Termini is a really fun place!!!! We did talk to the two girls afterwards and we told them that we wear pants too when we aren't on the mission! haha.

Last week for Pday one of the members took us shopping at this HUGE mall. We went to H&M and gap and some really cool italian stores and I bought some clothes it was super fun! Then we went to eat at a place called old wild west!! hahah. I had a rack of ribs!!!!!!!! soooooo goooooood!!!!

So Sorella Bradford and I have come up with the funnest game ever!!! When we get on pubic transport we guess who all the American tourists are!!! its really fun!! and then we talk to everyone on the bus/tram/metro/train cause we are missionaries and thats what we do!!!!

So i just want to say how much i love all of you guys!!! you are the best and im so thankfull for all the support I've been given! I know I've said this but I LOVE MY MISSION!!!!! its the hardest thing i've ever done but everyday when I say my prayers I thank my Heavenly Father for this experience. and I thank him for all of you!!! Im so thankful that I can feel Gods love for his children here in Italy! Every single one of them is a child of God and I cant help but love them.... even some of the crazies at Termini.. I love my mission so much and I will treasure it my whole life. It is the best thing anyone can do is to go on a mission no matter what the circumstance! I love you all so much (vi voglio bene tantissimo!!!) I miss you and pray for you everyday!!!!

Ciao Ciao!!!

Sorella felice!!!

PS did you know Nicole and Lauryn are going on missions!!!!!! IM SO EXCITED FOR THEM!!!

RIBS!! YUMMY

They could not go in the Apple Store. Not sure why! 

This pole had a sticker with Felice on it so thy hung an english poster on it too!

Dorris and Sunny 

Writing a letter to Mom on the "Crazy Train"

The Gap!

So this one is cool. This is a picture that was found in the mission home of her new Mission President. In the row above him and two to the right is our Uncle Mike from when he served his mission in Italy!