love skype!

It was so nice to see your beautiful faces on Sunday! even if I got the sucky computer, I loved it.

Glad you're all happy and well. Things are still great here, the last two days have actually been really busy. It is a DREAM to be on bikes, getting everywhere so much faster and plus I just love biking.

We had a beautiful lesson with Samuel yesterday afternoon, and he was telling us how he can't wait for Thursday. He's so ready. And he said this beautiful prayer at the end thanking God for this chance to change his life and all this great stuff and I was thinking, "What 24 year-old talks like that?" Certainly not Samuel three months ago when I got here. It's incredible how the gospel just changes people when they open their heart. At the end of the lesson he put one hand on each of our shoulders and was like, "Just pretend that I gave you a huge hug." Ha.

My favorite story from finding new peeps this week is from last Wedesday evening. The member that taught with us for our lesson at 7:00 dropped us off at home and it was only 8:20 or 30 so we still had a good half hour before we could retire for the evening (i.e., eat cheese and go to sleep). I really felt like we should go to the Number 9 bus stop by our house, and there we found this beautiful Bolivian family. Mom, three daughters, 27, 24 and 11, the oldest with a baby. Tthey were so awesome. I really can't stop thinking about the 24 year-old. When we were just getting to know them a bit at the beginning they wanted to know where we were from, and how old we are and I said I would be 24 next month. This girl was like "Hey, I just turned 24 last week!" Then we taught some of the restoration and the Book of Mormon and everytime I spoke I felt like she was just eating every word I said. When we were exchanging numbers at the end she even pulled out this little book to make sure she had our names and number written down.  I talked to the mom on Monday and she's trying to find a time when they'll all be home since they all have different work schedules and I am so hopeful for them.

Yesterday we taught a cool new family form Peru who we found at a park waiting for one of our appointments to show up.  It was so funny because he told us he lived near the anziani but didn't tell us that he lives literally across the hall from them. We got there and this nice man said "Oh, are you guys looking for your friends?" (meaning the Elders), and we said, "No thanks, get to their door and see across the hall, like 4 steps away the door to the elders apartment. So we'll have to pass our family off to them because it's technically Bergamo 2nd Ward area, but we're going to teach them a few more times first because they are so cool there was a really rad spirit there and especially Carlos the husband was pretty eager to learn.

One funny story for you. Sunday night we were doing a piccolo giro and this African man selling umbrellas and stuff on the street said, "Hey do you guys want anything?" I said, no, grazie. Then he was kind of rude and said "Niente? Dai, non volete qualcosa??" and I told him I didn't have any money.  He said "Come Mai?!"  So I told him sono una missionaria, non ho soldi, solo la parola di Dio, and he paused and said "Oh. Bravo" and walked away sort of smiling to himself.

All this week I've just been riding my bike looking up at the old city or at the windy roads we're on and thinking to myself, I am on a bike, living in Italy, as a missionary, and my brain explodes. 6 months already: how in the world?

We taught a beautiful Nigerian woman yesterday who randomly came to church because she saw the sign that said it was the Church of Jesus Christ, and wanted to come. We taught about the restoration with only a few distractions here and there because once she gets talking it's at least 8 minutes for her to finish her thought. At one point she was talking about God being apart of everything and looking around at the world or whatever other good thing and she through her arm in the air and was like God is Great! It was pretty awesome. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was ecstatic. She said how in Sunday School we would always read form the Bible first and then the Book of Mormon and it was always more clear, why is that? So we explained and she's pumped to read it.

Still studying up on Patience in an effort to have more patience with myself and others and situations mostly out of my control, to cancel out unnecessary stress. I read Mosiah 3:19 again the other night in bed and just let it sink in a bit and patience is all about submitting to the will of Heavenly Father, even when it includes times of long suffering, recognizing what his will is and trying to follow it, and that is possible when we change our natural man, not just try and cover it up. Nothing super profound but something I'm trying to be better at. Also have I told you about Jacob 4:7? It's one of my favs these days.

Love you all! Praying for you and working for you. Happy paddle, Dad and Ian, and happy shuffling, Mamma.

xoxo

sorella bush