So maybe I had lice this week. Yup, I'm gross. Luckily I figured it out right away and bought this weird foam stuff to kill the little suckers and washed all my sheets and shiz in boiling water, but really, who goes to Italy and gets lice? This moi, gross. Sorella Simkins keeps calling me the smelly kid like we're in 3rd grade again. It already feels like 6,000 years ago even though it was only Monday. Every now and then I'm think "Hey, remember that one time when I had lice?" Sicky. Its source will be forever unknown but I have my suspicions.
ANYway. It's been a weird week. Chock full of miracles, but it took me a few days to get used to the switch of having Sorella Jacobson leave and Sorella Simkins get here. I'm 3 for 3 so far, all my companions from Utah, but Sorella Simkins is great. She's been in Italy over a year and spent her senior year of high school in Sardegna so she speaks well and is a good teacher. We already feel like we're teaching pretty well, she's just learning to pause more and I'm learning to butt in. She's chill and happy and loves to be outside, kind of like me. Pics to come next week. I kind of hate being in charge of everything, but it will even out as she learns the city and all our peeps.
Three fav miracle stories of the week:
Miriam: She is the roommate of one of our awesome members Rocio, who teaches Gospel Principles in Sunday School, served a mission in Bolivia, and is really one of the most wonderful humble people I've met. Roommate spends weeks at a time in Milano where she works taking care of a baby. Saturday evening there was no English class because of a huge GANS activity for all of Italy and some other bits of Europe here in Bergamo and the church was crawling with them.
We called a sacco of people but really couldn't make any plans for the day. But we kept finding the right people and were seriously led by the Spirit and I felt like we should go see Rocio. I was pretty sure it was just because I love her and wanted to stop by and introduce Sorella Simkins, and then turns out roommate was in town for the weekend. We taught an awesome first lesson and explained the restoration and she was eating it up. At one point she had to leave the room for a second and Rocio tells us that she's been praying for Miriam all week and then we came over at the exact perfect time. Miriam is in Milano for two weeks but she is excited to read the Book of Mormon and meet with us again and talked about how she's known for a long time that her faith isn't perfect (she's catholic). It was pretty much wonderful.
Samuele: He is the son of a member who we visit pretty regularly because she needs a bit of strength and support. He's 24, usually would listen when we would come see his Mom, and a few months ago we tried to teach him seriously, started from the begining and he basically shut us down and we were pretty surprised.
Well things have turned around. We taught him the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation since Sorella Simkins got here and asked him to pray about May 17th as a baptismal date. He calls us at almost 11.00 on Sunday night I think, and I'm mostly asleep and therefore quite confused, Simkins is worried that he's calling us, so she answers. He tells us he just wanted to say vi voglio bene and something proprio meraviglioso had happened and he would tell us about it Tuesday when we had planned to teach him again. We went yesterday and meanwhile some drama has gone down. He works nights as a cook and that night or morning or something a drunk coworker came and hit him across the head with a plate and Samuele wanted to kill him, but he just stood there shaking and white and walked away. His ear had started bleeding again coming home so when we see him his neck and chest had blood all over the place.
Well, we couldn't teach him because he went to go get stitches, but first he recounted the story of how he read 20 pages of the Book of Mormon and there were tons of things that hit him and struck a chord, and he prayed about it and got an answer like this joy and everything good pooling up inside of him, and feeling like God was real and close. Then he prayed that everything would be well at work, and it was more or less the best night at work, everyone getting along and going smoothly.
Then it was the next night maybe that the dude broke the plate over his face. He said he was not sure what to think, and we both said YOU GOT YOUR ANSWER! HOORAY! Now Satan is trying to mess with you but do now let that S.O.B. mess this up! Or something like that. We're going to go see him again this afternoon and Friday. I'm basically praying for him all the time because he is bravo and ready. A few weeks ago he even decided to stop drinking because he didn't feel good when he did. Yeah, this dude is ready.
Letizia: Lately I've been feeling like the only people we teach and the only people that will listen to us are stranieri, and I want to feel like I'm here helping Italians come unto Christ too. And then on Monday almost everyone we talked to and all the numbers we got were for Italian women. One woman was named Letizia. We were walking by her house and we both noticed her door so we went up and knocked (the only door we knocked all day). She let us right in and we taught a great restoration lesson, said a kneeling prayer at the end, gave her a Book of Mormon and even though she's going out of town for two weeks, she made sure we had her number and would call her as soon as she got back to teach her more. She's from closer to Rimini and is a German teacher for kids 14-18 and was pretty much awesome.
OK! Love you all like whoa, hoping to normalize myself this week and figure out pian piano what I need to be changing to be a better missionary so Sorella Simkins and I can make the best of this time here in Bergamo and I can feel like I'm really fulfilling my calling. Granted she hasn't been here even a week and I am just bad at being patient with myself. But as always, it's obviously the right thing for this moment.
Running shoes sent? Ian's job? Mom's foot? Happy anniversary! 27 years? I'm trying to remember? Have you gotten my birthday letter yet? I don't trust Italian mail for anything.
Pics from our adventure with the Capelli's next week as well as this new comp.
xoxoxo
sorella bush
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
transfer!
First the news: Sorella Jacobson is off to Milano 1, where I'm pretty sure Rachel (Noteware) spent half her mission, and I'm getting Sorella Simkins. She's been in Rimini, which she opened for sisters two transfers ago, so I think this is her 10th transfer. Prez was trying to give me some info on her and basically said that she's an all star, she works hard and then he paused and said, "Well she's just like you." I'm just hoping she thinks my jokes are funny.
It's been kind of a funny week, with lots of good byes and getting ready for change. I'm nervous to see Sorella Jacobson go, but am fully aware that I'll grow infinitely more with a new companion, and I want to be so much better than I am.
Excited about Ian's job interview and future, LOVE the zombie ducks and all the pictures, Dad. Glad the b-diddy was a success, glad your healing, Momma, even if it's not as fast as Wolverine. Since I have the Birkies I can probs live without Chacos. Thanks for cancelling that credit card Dad...so much stress relieved.
We had an awesome lesson with Paolo and his family Sunday evening on the Plan of Salvation. Paolo is interesting because he had a baptismal date with Anziani maybe a year and a bit ago and baked out last minute because didn't feel ready. The Sorelle found his cousin-in-law right before Christmas at the bus stop. They're from Brasil and I don't even know who all lives there, but we taught Francesco, the cousin, his wife Valchiria, Paolo and his girlfriend Tatiana all together for the first time since I've been here. They're impossible to commit and we've been trying to figure out what we need to teach them or what problem we need to unearth so they understand why we're there teaching them these things. Paolo has said that he'll get baptized when he knows it's right, but then didn't read the Book of Mormon this last week at all. I know we shouldn't drop them and I'm hoping my new comp can bring a fresh view and help figure it out. Anyway, the lesson went so well and there was a really special spirit there and I taught more then I ever have with them and felt confident and just loved it. We brought the third oldest Botta (they have 7 boys) Davide, who's 19, leaving to serve in England next month, and he bore two really great testimonies about our purpose to be here and be happy on the earth and why he wants to make it to the Celestial Kingdom to be with his current and future families and Heavenly Father. After the lesson Valchiria had made us a cake because Sorella Jacobson is leaving and we all just sat around this big table in the kitchen eating cake and drinking tea and learning Portuguese and laughing at who knows what, it was a pretty awesome moment.
We finally saw Jessica our other Brasilian again, who can't talk with vegetables in hand. We just stopped by and she was finally home. We read a bit about hope in Ether 12 and Romans 8 and she wanted us to write down the scriptures so she could go back and read them and I'm just happy to have seen her.
This morning we taught one of our less actives, Cynthia, who is this beautiful and hilarious african woman, who is more or less active again, as of maybe 9 months ago? not sure, but her friend Isaac who is a new convert was there and we were talking about faith and he was talking about how there are people in his country who sell medicine, and 85% of peeps believe that the medicine will work, and so it does, but the other 15 don't and have to go to the real doctor. I just loved that example about how we have to really believe in these things for them to change our lives. We can read and pray all we want because someone told us but if it doesn't mean anything to us it won't change us.
Ok, calling it quits for today, we're working this morning so we can spend this afternoon and tonight at the Capelli's, I'm excited. Sorella Capelli even asked for the afternoon off for Sorella Jacobson's last night in Bergamo.
Troppo amore, non ci sono parole, ma magari ci sentiamo prossima settimana,
xoxoxo
It's been kind of a funny week, with lots of good byes and getting ready for change. I'm nervous to see Sorella Jacobson go, but am fully aware that I'll grow infinitely more with a new companion, and I want to be so much better than I am.
Excited about Ian's job interview and future, LOVE the zombie ducks and all the pictures, Dad. Glad the b-diddy was a success, glad your healing, Momma, even if it's not as fast as Wolverine. Since I have the Birkies I can probs live without Chacos. Thanks for cancelling that credit card Dad...so much stress relieved.
We had an awesome lesson with Paolo and his family Sunday evening on the Plan of Salvation. Paolo is interesting because he had a baptismal date with Anziani maybe a year and a bit ago and baked out last minute because didn't feel ready. The Sorelle found his cousin-in-law right before Christmas at the bus stop. They're from Brasil and I don't even know who all lives there, but we taught Francesco, the cousin, his wife Valchiria, Paolo and his girlfriend Tatiana all together for the first time since I've been here. They're impossible to commit and we've been trying to figure out what we need to teach them or what problem we need to unearth so they understand why we're there teaching them these things. Paolo has said that he'll get baptized when he knows it's right, but then didn't read the Book of Mormon this last week at all. I know we shouldn't drop them and I'm hoping my new comp can bring a fresh view and help figure it out. Anyway, the lesson went so well and there was a really special spirit there and I taught more then I ever have with them and felt confident and just loved it. We brought the third oldest Botta (they have 7 boys) Davide, who's 19, leaving to serve in England next month, and he bore two really great testimonies about our purpose to be here and be happy on the earth and why he wants to make it to the Celestial Kingdom to be with his current and future families and Heavenly Father. After the lesson Valchiria had made us a cake because Sorella Jacobson is leaving and we all just sat around this big table in the kitchen eating cake and drinking tea and learning Portuguese and laughing at who knows what, it was a pretty awesome moment.
We finally saw Jessica our other Brasilian again, who can't talk with vegetables in hand. We just stopped by and she was finally home. We read a bit about hope in Ether 12 and Romans 8 and she wanted us to write down the scriptures so she could go back and read them and I'm just happy to have seen her.
This morning we taught one of our less actives, Cynthia, who is this beautiful and hilarious african woman, who is more or less active again, as of maybe 9 months ago? not sure, but her friend Isaac who is a new convert was there and we were talking about faith and he was talking about how there are people in his country who sell medicine, and 85% of peeps believe that the medicine will work, and so it does, but the other 15 don't and have to go to the real doctor. I just loved that example about how we have to really believe in these things for them to change our lives. We can read and pray all we want because someone told us but if it doesn't mean anything to us it won't change us.
Ok, calling it quits for today, we're working this morning so we can spend this afternoon and tonight at the Capelli's, I'm excited. Sorella Capelli even asked for the afternoon off for Sorella Jacobson's last night in Bergamo.
Troppo amore, non ci sono parole, ma magari ci sentiamo prossima settimana,
xoxoxo
sorella bush
Sunday, April 15, 2012
buon pasqua!
Hey peeps,
I hope you all had a lovely Easter. We were fed to the max. First lunch with a family and the wife is from Peru and we ate Peruvian food, and a cena with a lady from Bolivia who cooked up some great pasta. Plus there was lots of colomba, the Easter dove cake everyone eats, and I'm still recovering from how much we ate. Plus Sorella Capelli, one of my fav human beings game us big chocolate Easter eggs that we've started working on slowly. Don't worry mom, I'm being taken care of.
Today is beautiful. I'm camped out at the Bishop's house, they live up in the mountains, and after a few days of cold rainy weather everything is beautiful and green. We took a baby hike along a river while waiting for the wife, Sorella Botta, to get home, and then discovered that they have a trampoline up behind their house. Only 1 and it's already one of my fav p-days.
Other news would be that it's almost certain Sorella J will be transfered next week, leaving me in charge of Bergamo, caspita. It'll be a rough transition but I keep reminding myself that change brings more growth and that's what this is all about really. It'll make my Italian improve too, which I'm not opposed to.
This is going to be short because I'd rather ghetto chat with dad, but Marisol and Giovanna are still doing well, pian piano. We're working with some new less actives that have started to show tons of interest in coming back to church. Monday we met with one of our new converts (who was turning 10 that day) at a park with his grandma, who is maybe the Bolivian version of Grandma Sandi, and we drew the 13 Articles of Faith with sidewalk chalk and ended up having way more fun that planned. I'll send a pic next week. Then we headed over new centro before our lesson and earlier in the day I had said how I wanted to see Leonela, my fav older lady from English class, and there she was on a park bench! So we talked to her for a while and she was asking all these questions about what we believe, and you could tell she appreciated the fact that we would even take the time to listen to her.
I'm capo this week so I've been conquering my fear of the phone, including a nice little chat with the bishop's wife Monday night on how to make a pasta with a special cheese she gave me. I love that I'm known among the ward and missionaries for my love of cheese, being outside, and style, ha.
I think I may wrap this up so I can kick it with the Botta family, and eat some lunch. Much love, as always.
xoxo
I hope you all had a lovely Easter. We were fed to the max. First lunch with a family and the wife is from Peru and we ate Peruvian food, and a cena with a lady from Bolivia who cooked up some great pasta. Plus there was lots of colomba, the Easter dove cake everyone eats, and I'm still recovering from how much we ate. Plus Sorella Capelli, one of my fav human beings game us big chocolate Easter eggs that we've started working on slowly. Don't worry mom, I'm being taken care of.
Today is beautiful. I'm camped out at the Bishop's house, they live up in the mountains, and after a few days of cold rainy weather everything is beautiful and green. We took a baby hike along a river while waiting for the wife, Sorella Botta, to get home, and then discovered that they have a trampoline up behind their house. Only 1 and it's already one of my fav p-days.
Other news would be that it's almost certain Sorella J will be transfered next week, leaving me in charge of Bergamo, caspita. It'll be a rough transition but I keep reminding myself that change brings more growth and that's what this is all about really. It'll make my Italian improve too, which I'm not opposed to.
This is going to be short because I'd rather ghetto chat with dad, but Marisol and Giovanna are still doing well, pian piano. We're working with some new less actives that have started to show tons of interest in coming back to church. Monday we met with one of our new converts (who was turning 10 that day) at a park with his grandma, who is maybe the Bolivian version of Grandma Sandi, and we drew the 13 Articles of Faith with sidewalk chalk and ended up having way more fun that planned. I'll send a pic next week. Then we headed over new centro before our lesson and earlier in the day I had said how I wanted to see Leonela, my fav older lady from English class, and there she was on a park bench! So we talked to her for a while and she was asking all these questions about what we believe, and you could tell she appreciated the fact that we would even take the time to listen to her.
I'm capo this week so I've been conquering my fear of the phone, including a nice little chat with the bishop's wife Monday night on how to make a pasta with a special cheese she gave me. I love that I'm known among the ward and missionaries for my love of cheese, being outside, and style, ha.
I think I may wrap this up so I can kick it with the Botta family, and eat some lunch. Much love, as always.
xoxo
sorella bush
Saturday, April 7, 2012
sono contenta
Hey err'body,
Here are all the reasons why I am ever so content.
1. I just bought a pair of wonderful birkenstocks that are now on my feet that I will be wearing quite regularly.
2. I am sipping some san pellegrino aranciata.
3. We are doing our e-mailing in the church so I'm playing some conference right now too.
To answer your question about General Conference, they broadcast it in the church, but we only got 3/4th of a session between Saturday and Sunday evening, which would have been the morning sessions, because of our various appointments. Dad, do you think you could fandangle a CD or something with conference talks, because reading them is nice but I missed listening.
4. Today we went to Lecco. There's a senior couple here in Bergamo that got here a week or two after me. They're in charge of checking apartment conditions in the area and loved Lecco and wanted to take us before Sorella Jacobson is transfered, so the got permission from the Prez and we had a little day trip. It was rainy and misty but I loved it. It reminded me of and made me miss England. Everything just barely turning green with granite mountain jutting into the lake with these tubling clouds. It was pretty majestic.
5. Yesterday we had an awesome first lesson with a man named Rohelio who's Filipino. We had a blitz last week, where two sisters from Milano came to work with us. The Sorella Jacobson and Maciel had a lesson fall through so they did some casa and found a small palazzo where they both felt pretty confidently that they would find someone. And ecco, here comes Rohelio. We taught in a funny mix of Italian and English but mamma mia he is so great. He told us about how he's been praying for more faith. We talked a bit about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon and just tried to get an idea of where he was. He asked all kinds of great questions including if we believe people can really repent and be forgiven. When he said the closing prayer he thanked God that He had sent to him Sorella Bush and Jacobson. He wants to come to church and read the Book of Mormon and I'm excited to go and see him again.
6. We're going to go see Marisol tonight and have dinner with her and she is still just so awesome. She's progressing slowly, but she is for sure progressing.
In other news...The musical fireside that we had Friday went so well. Our pregnant less active/new convert Marlin came with her fiance which was so so good, because she's been kind of too embarassed to come to church, so we were happy to just get her in the building. We went to their new apartment yesterday and they're both way more receptive to have us come and talk with them and the made us lunch and we just talked for a while.
Giovanna came to conference with us Saturday. I taught her during the blitz and she opened up even more and told us about how she fears she isn't getting any answers to her prayers because she doesn't desire it enough. I'm so glad I'm not 14 anymore, but she really is in gamba. Since we've started teaching her even her Italian is getting better and the Spirit is working in her life. I asked her why she thaught we keep coming back to her house and she was like, uh I don't know, because you want me to know God? And I said Yes!! Pian piano.
One more great thing was Sunday evening we had a dinner with our three older ladies that come to English class every week and are so funny. Dinner was good except for this seafood salad thing at the beginning that had like whole baby octopuses in it. I felt like I was eating aliens and wanted to die. But we laughed so hard. We were at Virginia's house with Angela and Leonela. They made Leonela sit at the head of the table and she just kept accidently saying the funniest things and we would laugh so hard and then by the end of the night she would just look at us and start laughing.
She seems a little bitter about life but now she has a Book of Mormon and I'm hoping we'll be able to keep seeing her outside of English Class. Angela got into Buddhism somewhat recently and talked to us about that for a bit which was cool and Virginia has been taught the lessons before and is kind of a space cadet. Her house is full to the brim with books and I fear for her life everytime she drives anywhere.
Life in Bergamo continues to be crazy and great. The days are long but the months are short and whenever we have a hard day I just remember that I get to go home and go to bed at the end of it and that my time already feels like it's flying here. May 16th will be 6 months. Oh my h-face.
Lots of sacci of bene coming your way. Keeping you all in my prayers and going a little crazy that we still don't know about Ian's call. My guess is it will come today and I'll have to wait until next thursday to know because we have a conference in Verona wednesday.
xoxo
sorella bush
Here are all the reasons why I am ever so content.
1. I just bought a pair of wonderful birkenstocks that are now on my feet that I will be wearing quite regularly.
2. I am sipping some san pellegrino aranciata.
3. We are doing our e-mailing in the church so I'm playing some conference right now too.
To answer your question about General Conference, they broadcast it in the church, but we only got 3/4th of a session between Saturday and Sunday evening, which would have been the morning sessions, because of our various appointments. Dad, do you think you could fandangle a CD or something with conference talks, because reading them is nice but I missed listening.
4. Today we went to Lecco. There's a senior couple here in Bergamo that got here a week or two after me. They're in charge of checking apartment conditions in the area and loved Lecco and wanted to take us before Sorella Jacobson is transfered, so the got permission from the Prez and we had a little day trip. It was rainy and misty but I loved it. It reminded me of and made me miss England. Everything just barely turning green with granite mountain jutting into the lake with these tubling clouds. It was pretty majestic.
5. Yesterday we had an awesome first lesson with a man named Rohelio who's Filipino. We had a blitz last week, where two sisters from Milano came to work with us. The Sorella Jacobson and Maciel had a lesson fall through so they did some casa and found a small palazzo where they both felt pretty confidently that they would find someone. And ecco, here comes Rohelio. We taught in a funny mix of Italian and English but mamma mia he is so great. He told us about how he's been praying for more faith. We talked a bit about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon and just tried to get an idea of where he was. He asked all kinds of great questions including if we believe people can really repent and be forgiven. When he said the closing prayer he thanked God that He had sent to him Sorella Bush and Jacobson. He wants to come to church and read the Book of Mormon and I'm excited to go and see him again.
6. We're going to go see Marisol tonight and have dinner with her and she is still just so awesome. She's progressing slowly, but she is for sure progressing.
In other news...The musical fireside that we had Friday went so well. Our pregnant less active/new convert Marlin came with her fiance which was so so good, because she's been kind of too embarassed to come to church, so we were happy to just get her in the building. We went to their new apartment yesterday and they're both way more receptive to have us come and talk with them and the made us lunch and we just talked for a while.
Giovanna came to conference with us Saturday. I taught her during the blitz and she opened up even more and told us about how she fears she isn't getting any answers to her prayers because she doesn't desire it enough. I'm so glad I'm not 14 anymore, but she really is in gamba. Since we've started teaching her even her Italian is getting better and the Spirit is working in her life. I asked her why she thaught we keep coming back to her house and she was like, uh I don't know, because you want me to know God? And I said Yes!! Pian piano.
One more great thing was Sunday evening we had a dinner with our three older ladies that come to English class every week and are so funny. Dinner was good except for this seafood salad thing at the beginning that had like whole baby octopuses in it. I felt like I was eating aliens and wanted to die. But we laughed so hard. We were at Virginia's house with Angela and Leonela. They made Leonela sit at the head of the table and she just kept accidently saying the funniest things and we would laugh so hard and then by the end of the night she would just look at us and start laughing.
She seems a little bitter about life but now she has a Book of Mormon and I'm hoping we'll be able to keep seeing her outside of English Class. Angela got into Buddhism somewhat recently and talked to us about that for a bit which was cool and Virginia has been taught the lessons before and is kind of a space cadet. Her house is full to the brim with books and I fear for her life everytime she drives anywhere.
Life in Bergamo continues to be crazy and great. The days are long but the months are short and whenever we have a hard day I just remember that I get to go home and go to bed at the end of it and that my time already feels like it's flying here. May 16th will be 6 months. Oh my h-face.
Lots of sacci of bene coming your way. Keeping you all in my prayers and going a little crazy that we still don't know about Ian's call. My guess is it will come today and I'll have to wait until next thursday to know because we have a conference in Verona wednesday.
xoxo
sorella bush
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