Sorella Williams: SALVE and Happy Bday to ME

SALVE

This week was crazy.

Last week on Wednesday Sorella Rowe came back to visit Siena with her parents. They took me and Sorella Barlow to Eunice's house to have dinner all together!!! I was so happy to see Sorella Rowe again (even though it had only been a couple of days). That dinner will forever be one of the highlights of my mission. Eunice, Adriano, Nicole, Jason, Doris, Luciano, and Danielle were all there and we had the best food and laughed all night. I love the people in Roccastrada with my whole heart.

This week we have been doing a lot of finding!! We had many denials and many people who listened! I was on the bus and felt so strongly to talk to a woman standing near by. Her name is Daisy and she agreed to meet with us again! We are really excited about that.

My birthday was Sunday and I want to say thank you to all of you who reached out to me and made my day so special for me!!! Your letters and emails meant so much to me and really made my day so great!! Birthdays on the mission are weird because you literally do nothing different haha. You still do missionary work all day. But it's a great feeling knowing you're serving the Lord before you serve yourself.

Sunday we had to wake up at 5:45 AM just to get to the conference in Florence on time. To describe how tired I was, I realized when I got to the hotel (where the conference was held) that I was still wearing my pajama shorts under my skirt! I got dressed in bed and clearly had forgotten to take them off hahahah. So that was a pleasant surprise. Other missionaries were so sweet to wish me a happy birthday and Elder Harris had even bought me the sweetest bore t-shirt and chocolate. The conference was really good. On the way home we talked to this guy on the train for the whole 2 hours. It gave me a confidence boost with the language because my companion was totally passed out asleep hahah. In the end though we misunderstood each other because he thinks we are going out for gelato sometime this week...we can if he'll let me teach him the restoration with my companion hahah.

The baptism for Eunice has been THE BIGGEST STRUGGLE for the past week. We needed to figure out if our blow up/assemble-it-yourself baptismal font even worked so Saturday morning Sorella Barlow and I worked to find all the pipes and screws and try to do a 4 man job all by ourselves. We almost peed our pants laughing at how helpless and pathetic we were. Then we got a phone call from Eunice saying that Adriano has to leave town for three days to Rome and she no longer has a ride to get down to Siena for her interview with president who is already coming FAR out of his way to meet her. There is a bus coming down, but there isn't one returning to Roccastrada that night. She has two young kids and wouldn't have anywhere to stay that night or find a ride home. The next time president said he would be able to come down all the way to Siena for the baptism interview would be July 4. So we will have to postpone the baptism until then. I just feel like the odds are always against us in this branch. Problem after problem keeps arising and I don't know why. But I'm still working hard and trying my best to help.

In other news Sorella Barlow and I got lost for almost 2 hours trying to find this guy named Paolo's house who hasn't been to church in about 3 months. I couldn't even be mad about it because the area we got lost in was this BEAUTIFUL Tuscany country side with green hills for miles and giant mansion villas all with old stone work and grape vineyards. I still can't believe I live here. We agreed we are going back soon to do some casa:)

As I have felt a little defeated this week I read Psalms 118:6 & 8. We have strength unknown to us because the Lord is on our side. Trust in him, and see the miracles work. I know I am.

I hope you all have great weeks!!

love Sorella Williams