homeward

last letter

Is this real life? My bags are packed. I bought myself pretty italian sandals today and walked along Lago di Garda with my new favorite person Georgia Mistura and her daughter Anna (9) and Elena (21). Obviously Slla. Gomez was there too.

It still doesn't feel real. But I think this will be the most bittersweet moment of my life. I can't imagine leaving and being done with this chapter but at the same time I feel like the time has come. I don't know. I'm really still not thinking about it. But I can't wait to hold you in my arms!

I'll try and get two SIMM cards when I'm in Milano Centro tomorrow. Do you care if it's Vodafone or Tim or Wind??

Well, I love you. it's been a beautiful week, like always. Verona is a dream. We have to come here together.  I love this city, it's too beautiful.

See you soooooon

xoxoxo

well, here we are...

...but this can't be real life can it?

I really feel at a loss for words these days. I'm feeling peaceful and I'm happy that I don't have to do anymore scabi, I'm in Verona my final week. Summer is finally coming, the rain is letting up and the sun is coming out. I finally feel like I really know my city and I feel like I know my ward and now they're taking me away. Not really fair that I only had one transfer. At Mission Counsel on Monday Sorella Forbes and Sorella Bunker told me they fell the same way.

President and Sister Wolfgramm and the Sister Training Leaders

But I guess I've been right where I need to be when I need to be. I've been thinking about my personal orbit lately; sometimes you feel like you're just spinning along and you don't really know why and then you open your eyes and realize that God has such a perfect plan for you.

Ian, God still has a perfect plan for you. It has to be hard, because it's the only way you really learn to rely on the Lord. But I guess something wasn't right about right now, so it's time for something else but I would say you need to keep preparing youself to one day, when it's the right day, be a full time servant of the Lord. Regardless of whether you're a full-time missionary or not, it's time for you to so everything possible to become the person God knows and wants you to become.

I just got back from another miracle filled scambio in Bergamo. So many peeps that I knew just walking down the street at the right time. God loves me. But I'm happy to be back home in Verona. I really love it here. And last night we taught our beautiful family. They are progressing so nicely and last night the husband told us the coolest thing.

Sorella Gomez.  One more week...

Two weeks ago we taught about obedience and prayer and scripture study, and after the lesson he came up to ask us what was prohibited, i.e. Word of Wisdom, so we explained everything in 30 seconds and then said we would explain the rest later.  Last night we told us he had switched to orzo, no more coffee, and whenever his friends go out to drink after work he gets NA beer. Yup, they're pretty elect.

In other news my new friend in Forlì Domenico made me this really cool bag that he just finished and I got from the mission office on Monday.

Grazie mille, Domenico

I love you all! I'm hoping things get figures out for the trip because it makes me want to cry that you wont be there Dad, for reals.

xoxoxo

Hey bimbi!

Okay, so I may or may not be writing you from Venezia.  Yup, Sorella Gomez and I feel like we're literally walking around in a dream, it is so freaky beautiful!

Ponte Pietra, across the Adige River.

It was beautiful to see you parentals on Sunday. You look good.

Quick thoughts about when we come to Italy. If we want to we could maybe when we finish up tuesday in siena then head that night to Forlì and sleep at the Jeffries, see peeps there then see Ravenna or something and then go straight up to Bergamo so the Capelli's don't have to push back their trip to the mare too far, then see Sorella Beutler and maybe Verona before heading up to Varese so we're their for church... just thoughts, anyway.

Real mission life. I am the happiest. I feel like I've found some reserve of energy and am not totally on the edge of death. I had an absolutely beautiful scambio last week in Pordenone with Sorella Lofley. It was by far the best scambio I've had because I felt like I had a specific purpose and knew what I should be doing.

Sorella Lofley. Reds unite!

We still feel kind of like crazy people trying to schedule our lives, we have pretty much no time to really do our job here in Verona this week, but I'm happy, plus everything is the easiest with Sorella Gomez...teaching, talking to peeps on the train, oh mamma, too bad I'm only really her companion half the time. Haha.

We met a super cool kid on the train coming back from Genova yesterday and I met a crazy dude I think from near Napoli who know lives in Brasil, who kissed my hand when he got off the train, ha. I love everything about riding trains.

We've also had some really beautiful lessons, by some I mean three, but we've got to start somewhere! I told you guys on Skype about the incredibly spiritually charged lesson we had with our family Friday night. Act II is that Sunday night SHE texted us saying how sorry she was they couldn't make it to church and then asked us what verses from the Book of Mormon to read and I about died of joy. She texted us Monday night too, whilst I was enjoying a pesto and grana pizza in Genova to tell us that we're all eating dinner together again Friday night before the lesson.

Piazza San Marco

Last night we had a beautiful lesson with a family that had a daughter who is fifteen and not baptized. It started of kind of normal, our plan was to just teach and get to know the family via the plan of salvation and then her dad starting asking really interesting questions that we realized quickly weren't really his questions but rather his daughters, asking about why we had to forget everything from the pre-mortal life and how to find a desire to know if what the church teaches is true. He told us at the end that she's at the point in her life where she's gotten answers she just didn't really recognize them and we could be the one's that make the difference for her right now, speriamo! She's beautiful.

Traghetto tradizionale, a dying breed.

Ian you sound great, fly fishing! Too cool. I feel like I'm living in the weird fake life, because I am not a real missionary but I am and my brain is just confused. It's like I have some kind of spiritual jetlag, I can't seem to figure out exactly where I am, but life is beautiful.

Sending a few pics of Verona and then Venezia, enjoy!

xoxoxoxoxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooo

Sorella Bush!

be here now

Oh mamma, where do I begin? Life is the craziest!

Okay, first off, SUNDAY I will see your beautiful faces! Will Sarah be around? Our plan is to be on the computer at about 3:00 our time, I think that's 8:00 for you guys?  Bo, just open up when your svegli and I'll be calling. This is going to be weird because then I'll be seeing you in pretty much a month, dang. It's been a crazy week.

Second off, Verona is beautiful! So beautiful. Too bad we're not here all that often. We figured out for our grocery shopping this week we needed to buy lunck for two days, yeah, we're never here.

I was kind of stressing out, a ton the first few days, partly because we were just inside planning so much and I missed being outside doing real life missionary work. But after we had church, had time to go out and talk to people and then after we went to the Mission Council on Monday I felt so much more peace. My priority has to be the sorelle right now and then whenever I'm here I'll just do whatever I can for Verona.

President Wolfgramm promised us during our meeting with him last Thursday that the Lord would give us compensating blessings as we fulfil this funky new calling and it's true. There was a family in church on Sunday that came to see their friends' baby be blessed and we chatted it up with them. She's from Verona, he's from Albania (so I dropped the two Albanian phrases I know) and they have two beautiful children, 5 and 9. We're going to go teach them on Friday and we are praying our guts out for them.

Other than that it's been cool to see how everyone we talk to for the most part is listening to us. They may not want to meet with us, at the end but they're all willing to take a pass-along card or a pamphlet or something. We've also been finding referrals for everyone else, so one of these days we'll have new investigators too. Nel frattempo we're visiting tons of members, building relationships with them because that's really the only effective way to do missionary work. I feel kind of like I'm in Bergamo again. All these beautiful members.

We're living with the other sorelle here in Verona and it's too fun. Sorella Hoppe is from Germany, Dad, and I told her you love it. Last night she drained her pasta against the side of the sink and looked at me and was like "Kind of gross, I know," and I said, "Sorel, I am so not afraid of germs", and she said "I can see why your dad likes Germany."  Ha. Her companion Sorella Clawson is in her second transfer and is a darling. Our apartment is beautiful but about 30 minutes on bike from our area, so basically life is crazy.

In other news I keep thinking I can't get more tired, but that is a dirty lie.

I love you all, I'm excited to see you Sunday. Mom can you tell me how my bank account is these days?

vi voglio beeeeeeneeeee

okay, guys...life is CRAZY!

I am being transfered.

Yup, I'm opening a new coppia of Sorelle in the Verona ward that has only had Anziani for 6,000 years with Sorella Gomez, my favorite! God answers prayers.

But that's not all, we are going to be traveling Sorelle training eight coppie of Sorelle in our third of the mission. Sorella Forbes and Padula are doing the same thing down in Firenze, and Bunker and McNamara somewhere west. When I talked to President Wolfgramm he said he picked his six best trainers, and it's going to be nutzo, but I'm so excited to end my mission hard.

Other nutzo news, Sorella Montagnoli is training here and Sorella Beutler is whitewashing¹ and training in Vicenza, she'll be my neighbor!  And I will be a double grandma!² So proud, haha.

Ok, so I feel like I've gotten to the point where when I sit down to write you guys I'm like ormai I'll see you soon enough and just read you my diary and give you a play-by-play. But things here are picking up.

One of my favorite things is we've started working with a part-member family that the Anziani had tried to talk to but he never wanted to meet with them. They are beautiful. They have a little four month-old baby, and we taught them on Saturday and just got to know them. We had become friends with Paolo the week before when I taught Gospel Principles and it was just us and a few other investigators and we all just because friends.

Anyway, we teach them about modern prophets and the family and it was beautiful and I said, "Paolo, I have a real question for you...why aren't you baptized, do you want these blessings in your family and for your wife and son?" SO it was great, he's just scared (and curse the dominant Italian mothers who control their children's lives), but we're teaching them again Saturday. Well, not me, but the Sorelle are, I'll be gon-zo.

I was talking to his wife after church for minute, we're the same age and buds, and I told her I could just see them all in white at the temple and she was like sarebbe bello³ and I was like no, sarà bello⁴. Anyway, I love them, sent a pic.

Well, I'm going to go kick it with 11 year-old Agnese all day. My heart broke when I told her I was leaving and we both just started crying. Blerg. Told her I would be skyping her everyday when I get home and she's going to skip out on summer camp the day I come back to Forlì, ha.

Dad, send mail to Milano, I'll have plenty of contact with them, I feel...oh mamma.  Plus I'll see you all in like a week and a half on Mother's Day!!?? Where did that come from?

SO yeah, love you all just as much as I love Italy, you lucky dogs.

xoxo,

sorella bush (on a bike)

"Seat belts and helmets save lives."

p.s. the lilacs are blooming!

<sup>1. Whitewashing is opening a new area with a new companion -- i.e., starting from scratch.
2.  Double Grandma: when you get a new missionary, you're her mom and she's your baby. When your babies grow up and become trainers, you become a grandma.
3.  "That would be beautiful."
4.  "No, that will be beautiful."</sup>

okay -- super fast

Sorry to send off another baby letter, but Giudi and Luca are here and they're more important, ha!

But this week has been beautiful, starting with last pday where we went and kicked it with out bff Elena who taght us how to do this traditonal stamping stuff (sending pics).

But our work is finally starting to pick up. We've had some beautiful miracles with our less actives and finding new people to teach and our days are filling up so they are flying by. I feel like I could be leaving next week. Got my baby and my city ready and now I've got something else to do, we'll see... there are 17 new Sorelle coming in this next transfer...oofa!

Know that I love your guts, I love being a missionary and the weather is beautiful!

Excited about all our coops and beekeeping dad!!!!!  It must be you and me!

You are beautiful and there is nothing better than being a missionary.

S.lla B