and may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten...

Guys, things are good.

The first few weeks here where a little rough, but I feel like I'm finally doing what Heavenly Father wants me to, I'm loving my baby companion and my city and my members and life is good. Plus it's sunny!!! Huzzah for summer! I know I'm going to hate being a hot sweaty mess in a matter of weeks, but right now it sure beats being rainy and cold and blah.

Ok, so I feel like I've already written a few emails and I'm running our of words, but I will tell you about a beautiful surprise conference I got to go to on Monday in Milano. I headed up with a Sorella from Rimini and we abbandoned our babies for the day on Forlì and headed north again.

It's always the weirdest to got to Milano after serving in Lombardia for a year. Elder Allen (who's an area seventy and heads the missionary department) spoke and it was awesome. We learned a lot about repentance and my mind was blown. He also told the sorelle that were there to calm down, we're too good at stressing ourselves out when this is a joyous work and we need to have fun. Good for me to hear from a higher source, ha.

Piazza Aurelio Saffi

PLUS I got to spend the whole day sitting by my Sorella Beutler. I was the happiest. When I see you in a bit I'll just give you the rundown and what we talked about, ha.

Agnese.

In other news my plan of bringing hope to our branch and our people is in affect and is working and it is great. My companion is starting to calm down about the fact that our numbers leave something to be desired because we're doing exactly what the Lord wants us to. There was a different spirit about church on sunday and we're visiting our people and they are smiling! Ha. I love it. It's really rewarding even if we're not getting people ready for baptism right now.

Laura's kitchen, my favorite place in Forlì.

I'm still obsessed with Laura and Alberto and family. We have a couple other peeps we've started teaching that are cool and I'm just trying to love every day because I don't know what will happen next transfer. With 15ish more sorelle coming in I could get another baby to train at the same time or go open another city, who knows.

Buon compleanno, Gloria!

Love you all dearly. these are some pics with Agnese, Laura's daughter, and a birthday party for Gloria, our only Young Woman who's a rock star.

xoxo

s. cespuglio

time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin'

Steve Miller Band keeps running into my brain these days because time is the craziest.

I hate that I know that on Sunday I have two months until I'm home. Oh mammmmma. But I'm finding sollace in the fact that I will be heading right back here to hug all the freaky people I've had to just shake hands with. I've also fallen into apostasy and hardly use the Lei form with anyone anymore, haha.

Life is good. I feel like I have the ground finally under my feet. I know what God wants me to do here in Forlì, I got a beautiful blessing last week from Anziano Jeffries because I was just dragging and it was exactly what I needed. God loves me, did you know? haha. But I've really been feeling that.

Then conference blew my mind! Plus we had Laura and Alberto with us at one of the sessions, we watched in Rimini and I love watching conference with investigators and watching them get their answers. I can't tell you how much I love this family. They can't get baptized for a while, like over a year, waiting for divorces to go through so they can get married, but I am obsessed with them. When I sit in their home I feel like I am exactly where I need to be and there is such a spirit of love in their home. I think about them all the time. I'll tell you their whole story when I'm home but really, they're incredible. Credetemi.

Anyways, besides having them at conference with us, it was exactly what I needed and Whitney Clayton came out of nowhere and totally blew me away. Maybe my favorite talk. "Marriage is a gift from God and the quality of your marriage is a gift to God." Shoot. Loved it. There's just nothing better than living apostles and prophets.

It's been a really interesting experience figuring out what the heck to do with this city. I feel like I knew from the beginning but didn't trust myself and just got to work knocking on doors and doing what have you, and every time we went out to do finding I literally felt empty. It was weird. I could tell I wasn't in the right place but I didn't know what I needed to be doing.

Conference just flooded me with peace and I'm realized that I just need to teach and love these members for now. You have to plow the field before you can plant before you can harvest, and these people need love and joy, and that's why I'm here right now, so I better get to work.

Ian can't believe you saw Travis and Korey and didn't say anything! hahaha. Love your guts. Still waiting on someone to give me Ian's address...

Well, I'm sure I had 6,000 other thoughts to tell you but ormai sono vecchia e la testa è troppo piena. Life is good, even better for us because we have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Appunto!

Vi voglio beeeeennnnnnne. Statemi bene!

sorella cespuglio

pasqua

Hey guys. Love you.

This week's email is going to be short because really there's not much to report. I got sick last week and am still just kind of dragging. It'll be a miracle if my body lasts this last 2.5 months, haha. Thank heavens I'm not in it for 17 years. Oh mamma, Alma, you're a stud.

We had a beautiful Easter lunch, filled with way too many chocolate eggs, at the house of the Rossi's. He's Pres Wolfgramm's counselor and I actually met him when he came to Siena a few weeks ago, and they're so cool. They have a daughter who served in Temple Square (knows Laura Otto) and is now married with two little kids, and then they have a son who served in England. Without them the branch of Forlì could not exist.

It was nice to be in a home and then share our little lesson with them because we haven't been teaching as much as I like to and it just felt good to do my job.

Today we're just going to kick it here (we went and saw San Marino last week with the Jeffries) and tonight we're going to go teach Laura and her beautiful family. Her daughter Agnese, 11, soon to be 12 on June 3rd, is my new bff. Love her.

We've started working with some really beautiful less active Nigerian women that have solid testimonies but just don't come to church. We're teaching everyone the restoration and pushing them to read the BOM and then after a few lessons we're going to figure out what is going on with all of them. It seems like some of them have just felt pushed lately so we're going to work our Sorelle power and love the crap out of them and then invite them to get their act together because we want their salvation, not because I like telling people what to do.

You are all wonderful and I pray for you everyday. Be good!

xoxo

sorella b

oh mamma... forlì!

Oh hi family, life is the freaky craziest these days. I have so many thoughts! Where do I even begin?

Okay, so I'm training. Yup, and it is SO different than last time and I'm learning so much.

Sorella Montagnoli is from American Fork (so check that stretch of I-15 off my companion bingo card). Both parents served in Catania, late 80s, so she understands Italian pretty well. And she's younger than Ian, yeah I feel like a grandma, but so it goes.

And these days I live in tranquil little Forlì and I feel so good about being here. We've already made great plans about uniting and loving this little branch because they are in need. I'm starting to feel like a normal missionary again, the first few days I spent too much time doing through lists of lists and calling peeps and looking at maps and I feel like I have a rough outline of the city in my head, meno male because my baby never knows where we are.

We got her a new bike, one of the anziani bikes was totally shot, like had no breaks, so we're back biking again and yes my butt is sore and no I've never been happier. We've found some great parks that hopefully will be more full of people once the rain lets up. Did some rainy casa yesterday, the funniest. It wasn't rainy when we had left the house and we had gone to visit these great less actives from Nigeria, Veronica and Betty, and they insisted we take this huge funny not quite rain coat and I looked a right fool in giro, but hey, people are starting to learn who we are, the only two bikers wearing helmets and skirts that greet everyone as they pass. But Forlì is such a bike friendly city it's awesome. It doesn't feel all that like Italy sometimes, more like Madison in some areas.

Another cool thing I wanted to say, on our train down here last thursday I was talking to the woman sitting across from me, heading home down south now lives in VARESE! I was the happiest I was like "Wait really, I lived there for 6 months and LOVED it, seriously!" SO we chatted and I realized at the end that in the hustle of packing up my whole life again I had no pass along cards (cool move, Sorella Bush), so I had this little book where I had stamped in the sorelle info in Varese, so I wrote here this little note that had the church address, website and the sorelle's number and told her about English class and stuff, she was the nicest, I'm praying she does some how get in touch with them.

I'm sure I'll tell you all about Laura and Alberto in the future, this great family the anziani have been working with for awhile who are literally beautiful. There's supposedly one other solid investigator the anziani were working with but we can't see her til next week. But today I wanted to tell you about Serena and Francesco.

So here in Forlì I have another senior couple to take care of me, the Jeffries. He's Branch President, and they did a service project at the pharmacy with the anziani a while ago and met this beautiful couple. They're Italian, 25 and MARRIED* and beautiful. They had initially said they would be down for meeting with the missionaries but then changed their mind. Well last night we had dinner with them at the Jeffries, and at the end we had a little thought from the Book of Mormon, and then explained what it was. There was a beautiful spirit and somehow when I testified of the Book of Mormon it hit him (he even said, mi colpisce tanto) what I had said about not always being good at reading, it but something changing and now it's changed my life and we was like what changed, what happened to make you open the book,

We had a beautiful discussion and at the end, Sorella Montagnoli said that we wanted to keep seeing them to see the blessings that would be coming into their lives and they were like, "Yeah okay." They are the coolest. They remind me of italian speaking versions of some of my best friends. Love them.

Got the most beautfiul email from Chiara about her baptism, made my heart explode, about how she literally felt reborn and how she was so sad I wasn't there and how she's already preparing to serve a mission! This work is eternal, love it.

IAN! I'm excited for your baptisms coming up, it's the coolest to see people change and how that short moment of baptism determines eternity and just opens the flood gates.

Life is good. I feel like I drag through the first bit of a new transfer trying to not miss the chapter, or chapters I've already finished, but now that I feel like I have my feet under me and ADVENTURES and miracles are happening, time is starting to slip between my fingers.

BUT JUNE 18TH!!** MOM I am the happiest!!!!!!!  Okay, with out thinking too much about it I'll try and figure a bit of a plan. Forlì doesn't have much to see really so I bet we can spend a day here just to see everyone, organize an evening in church or something, and the Jeffries said we could stay in their apartment here. So yeah. Couple days in Siena, to see the city my peeps and especially the Gori's. Bergamo, hop over to Venice with the Capelli's if your down and Varese...bo...***

Love you all madly.

s.b.

Explanatory footnotes notes from the amanuensis:
*Italians never get married before their 30, and many are not getting married at all. 25 married couple is unheard of.
** Stephanie bought tickets for her and Whitney to fly back to Italy a few days after she gets home.
*** Not a typo. Bo (the vowel is a schwa sound) means something like "I dunno...we'll see...not really sure...not important right now..."

cor magis tibi sena pandit*

Oh mamma, guys... so much has happened since I last emailed, I don't even know where to begin!

• Baptism? 
• Transfers?
• Sorelle Conference?
• My crazy anything but normal life in Siena?

Hmmm maybs I'll tell you about...

Transfers.

I feel strangely calm about everything. As much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE Siena I really feel like I need to leave. If President Wolfgramm had told me I was staying another transfer I would have told him he was wrong. Even teaching the Gori's for the last time yesterday I just felt like I had done my part, it's someone else's turn.

I am the saddest to miss Chiara's baptism friday. I could have pushed for it to be Wednesday but I felt like I shouldn't. Sorella Willis is training and it will be really good for her baby to see a baptism right off the bat.

As for me, well the nest 12 weeks are going to be an adventure. I'm being shipped off to Forlì.

There have been Anziani there forever so I'm headed in to take over, get this, while training a new Sorella. Oh mamma. Looks like the Lord has more fiducia in me than I do. The assistants and President Wolfgramm basically told me I need to go down and liven things up. It's a branch that hasn't grown, kind of like Siena, and that's kind of dangerous for everyone. So here I go!! haha we get bikes, so I'm the happiest, and I'll finally be able to see the sea. Funny things too is Anziano Lambert is there right now, finishing his first transfer. Small little world.

The baptism. 

It was beautiful. I don't even know what to tell you. Hopefully the pictures will help. But it was quite the adventure, filling and emptying that little font. We didn't get home until about 11 and we were both too wired to sleep even though we were so tired.

The most beautiful moment that I will never forget was when Cinzia came out of the font (we need to put one chair in and one chair out for climbing purposes) and as Sandro got it I put a bathrobe around Cinzia and put my arm around her and she just put her wet little face in my shoulder and started to cry. They are beautiful, and can't wait to meet you guys. They gave me a darling note when I left and then Chiara gave me a letter that totally made me cry on the train. Apparently all you have to do is tell me I've changed your life and the waterworks start.

Chiara, Sandro, Cinzia, Sor.s Bush and Willis

The Sorelle Conference.

The Sorelle Conference was beautiful. It felt good to be there all together and obviously good to see all my peeps. As of Friday I, along with Sorelle Bunker and Forbes will be the oldest sorelle. How the freak did that happen?? I mean really. I feel like I'm still running around like a crazy person making it up as I go.

I think I'm still waiting for it to sink in that I wont me going to church here any more, I wont be wandering into the campo anymore. I feel like I finally really know this city and I'm leaving it.

I'm sending you guys a little box. It was my winter coat in it, I decided I wanted to keep it for memory purposes but didn't want to lug it around, and there are some ties for E-man and a little something for both Mom and Dad.

Pics this week include out jaunt around Montepulciano last week, the Sorelle Conf. and the baptism and probs that's it.

Beutler and Bush, S.C.

Mom, totally down for going to the temple the 15th and as far as order of cities. I was thinking we should do Varese last, so maybe start south. It's rather convenient that my two sets of two cities are decently close. We could do Siena, Forlì, Bergamo, Varese? Or something like that.

Bo.

Love you all,

sorella boosh

*Siena opens to your heart wider than this gate.  Or something like that.

true or false: i'm leaving the dream

Guys, where do I even begin!!!!! Gah!

Siena is literally the talk of the mission because we are a living miracle. Remember when I got to Siena and we just knocked on doors all day everyday and now we don't have time to do everything we need to?

Le Sorelle Bush e Willis, Firenze

We'll start as always with the Gori's. Chiara has decided she wants to wait another week or two, she just doesn't feel quite ready. BUT THEN out of the woodwork, Sandro is getting baptized Friday night with Cinzia. He stopped smoking, didn't say anything to anyone and then went and said to Cinzia that he all of a sudden felt like he wanted to get baptized with her.

So P-day doesn't exist today really. We went and caught him up yesterday afternoon since he had missed a few commandments, and he is so ready. His answer to every question I asked was beautiful. We're heading out to see them again in a half hour with the Capece's and then Sandro will have his baptismal interview. As sad as I am that I probably wont be here fro Chiara's baptism, I don't think it could get better to have Sandro and Cinzia do this together. They are incredible (and they can't wait to meet you guys...)

Una passeggiata a Volterra

Thursday will be nutzo taking trains all over high heaven to go to Milano, and then Friday we get to figure out how to fill our little pop-up baptismal font, and then even more exciting, empty it! Oh mamma...

And have I told you about Rosanna? She's Bianka's best friend and doesn't actually live in our mission boundaries. She lives in Potenza I think? But she's still a student here in Siena so comes up for exams and stuff. She and Bianka used to be roommates here. Well we taught her once when she was here and she's awesome. She's three months older than me and beautiful and so elect. But lives way far away from the church down south and doesn't want to go by herself the first time so she's waiting for the next time Bianka comes down to visit, and in the mean time, we're teaching her on Skype. We did the plan of salvation with her Friday and Monday the gospel, and she's just the greatest and really thinking about baptism because she's seen the change in Bianka. Plus before the skype lesson monday night, we were at Bianka and Lorena's house and Rosanna was getting home late from work and we had some time so we all sat on the floor and read Jacob 4 together and talked about it and I could have just stayed there content, forever. I think I became friends with Lorena's husband too (praying my guts out for him to be ready for the gospel because they will be the most beautiful eternal family) but I won him over when I stuffed half a tomato in my mouth because we had to run to catch our ride home, ha.

Brain freeze, Piazza del Campo.

We have a new woman from Colombia named Diana, a referral from Enrique, a member we've started teaching more and she's super excited to learn the gospel.

Basically life is great and I'm enjoying my last week of it because I'm pretty much bound to be leaving next week. It'll be awful because Siena is home, I see the tower and the duomo in the skyline and I know I'm home, but at the same time I can kind of feel like I've done my job here.

Oh and I'm totally becoming even better friends with Luigi, my old man cheese dude, and Mario, my old man book-making dude. We saw both of them last night and Luigi loves us because I'm like "Tell me about this, tell me about this...I trust you and will totally try whatever." Last night we bought burrata and some pane pugliese. yummmmmmm...

 Okay, we're out to see the Gori's!!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

p.s. pics are from pday in Firenze last week (yes, I use a child's umbrella, it's totally is the best option) and a chocolate festival at the campo. Oh, and these great fresh pistacchio ravioli's we bought.

p.p.s. I learned that all people who work with chocolate are the happiest.

p.p.p.s. love you. be good.

formaggio!

Oh mamma, Ian you're letter was the best! You are incredible! I am just the happiest that you are loving the MTC, half way!  I was there for an eternity... 10 weeks of that milk, I always busted into the gluten and lactose free section and stole soy milk, ha. And man does that feel like a LIFETIME ago.

Life here is beautiful. As always. My right eye twitches pretty much all the time and I get at least one tired head ache a week, basically I'm learning why the mission doesn't last forever, my body would shut down. Is shutting down. Ha.

But really, this city is exploding with miracles. We're having a hard time finding time to see everyone we need to. A little different that the first few weeks of casa casa and more casa. The Lord loves these people, I can tell because he's given me just a fraction of His love for them and I feel like I'm going to explode.

Did I tell you about how at the beginning of this transfer I felt so clearly that we needed to be working with our members more? We've been going through and teaching everyone we can the restoration and realizing that there really isn't a single member here that does't need sostegno. So we're loving our peeps and in return there really seems to be a different energy around these parts. The members are giving us referrals, teaching with us more and befriending our new investigators we're bringing to church.

It was super cool because last week literally was beautiful, and then Saturday came and it was a really hard day. Don't really know why but there was just something really off. Then I had found out that that night Giudi, my friend from Varese that we started teaching English to and then started teaching the gospel, was getting baptized and Luca was baptizing her and I was sitting on this train going to Poggibonsi (funniest name of a city evs, am I right?) and I just felt the sickest and would have killed a man to be in Varese with the people that I love. But we made it through the night.

God loves me and plopped a tender mercy right in my lap.  As we got off the train, this man asked me for help trying to buy a ticket to go to Modena on the little machines so we figured out the problem, helped with the ticket, and told him and his friend we were missionaries and give them pass along cards and started feeling so much better.

Then Sunday was awesome. First we picked up our casa miracle Marisa and brought her to all three hours and she became bff with half the branch. Then Emily came to all three hours of church. Then half way through Sunday School I see the face of Lucy, an inactive member that we work with who hasn't been to church since 2008 I think, pop in the door. Then Bruna, another woman we're working with that never really comes to church (and when she does comes for the last 10 minutes of sacrament meeting) came in as sacrament meeting was starting and was the first up to bare her testimony. Just so many little miracles.

We got home and Sorella Willis was like "Hey, remember how we just had an amazing week, then God threw in one tough day because it's only fair, and then blessed us with the most beautiful Sunday morning?" And I was like yeah, I remember.

We're teaching some really cool people these days and the baptismal interview for Chiara and Cinzia is on friday. Next week is going to be NUTZO because we're in Firenze Monday and just found out we're having a Sorelle conference next Thursday! Hip hip! So we're off to Milano and back in a day, ha. Then on Saturday, we'll be spending the whole day filling up our pop-up baptismal font for the baptism that night! And then it's transfer calls. Oh mamma, time is flying.

My other great news is my new bff. His name is Luigi. He owns a cheese shop called Forte Forte. He's from the province of Salerno and just sells southern cheese and sausage and bread. We walk by all the time and we finally made time to stop by last week. Told him I loved cheese and he told me it would be his pleasure to present all his cheeses to us. We bought one that had these amazing little olives tucked away in the middle. Yesterday we went back and got some mozzarella di bufala, because Sorella Willis had never had any (I know, I don't know what she's been doing since she got to Italy last October).  It was the best I think I've had. It was our dinner last night, I just ate these three little balls of cheese and was the happiest. It tasted a little like the way a good farm smells. Anyway, pian piano I plan on converting him to the gospel thanks to our common love of cheese.

There's also a fresh pasta place by my house and the woman who works there I think needs to be my next bff/ next new investigator. I think we're going to buy something from her this week. They have pistachio ravioli, I am beyond intrigued.

Can't believe it's Canoecopia! Give my love to all who deserve it.

APT! So excited.

Sorry for the word vomit.. my brain is literally the fullest these days. I need to get a pensieve subito.

Love you all madly, I am the happiest/luckiest!

sorella bush