Happy Thanksgiving from Milan!

I honestly don't know where to begin!!

     First, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and just know I truly am so grateful for so many great friends and family in my life. I am especially grateful for the mission and the happiness that I have here. It's the best. I celebrated with a fresh, straight out of the toaster, top of the line, PB&J on Thanksgiving because we didn't have time for anything else. But it's ok because last year Christmas day we ate PB&Js in the MTC so I'm just keeping the tradition alive. BUT really I did get to eat a piece of homemade pumpkin pie from Sorella Arbon who I did a scambio with. It was so great. 

     We did 3 scambi this week....wowowowwo. un po dead. But that's ok. Scambi are the best and also the worst. The worst because you have to double book your city with appointments for two days for each scambio. And since we did three this week we had to double book just about everyday. And I had to learn how to navigate the most confusing metro system in Milan REAL quick. But they are the best because you get to learn so much from each sorella you do scambio with. Its like a mini new transfer with a new companion. And by the end of the day you're so dead tired you end up just laying on the floor and laughing your face off with them. So all turns out well. 

     I really love Cimiano. These members are all over the board. And luckily for us there is a lot of work to do. So much happened this week and I really don't know where to begin. We are teaching like crazy. We have been fasting this week for a couple who wants to be married but there are some complications with the family. They want to be baptized, but obviously cant until they are married. The spirit was so strong as we testified about how God hears and listens to the desires of our hearts. I told them that I don't know one thing more important to God than the family unit and he is with them as they try to complete theirs. We have other progressing investigators and I am excited to see them this week to hopefully set baptism dates. Sometimes you just have to be bold!

     This week was a series of events of being at the right place at the right time. We met a Ukrainian family living in an apartment the size of a closet. I felt God's love for them so incredibly strong the first time I met them I couldn't help but cry. They are in extreme poverty but don't complain. They smile and offer us whatever they have and are so grateful to just be together as a family. They had nice houses in ukraine and the dad was in the military as well. but when the war started with Russia they were forced to flee and must live as refugees here. They are incredible. We met a woman on the bus and I sat down next to her and asked her "whatcha doin today". Clearly she had been praying for someone to care because she looked so relieved to be able to talk to someone. Just a couple months ago both her parents died and she is scared living alone now without them and without a job. I hugged her and told her God loves her and she began to cry. She promised to come to church this Sunday. We were at the church when a lady walked in. We showed her the new Christmas video and by the end she was completely in tears unable to talk. She told us that the video was an answer to her prayers about a huge problem she has been having at work. We met this lady named Betti who is trying to learn English. We have taught her English only a couple times and share spiritual messages each time we meet afterward. Yesterday, while I was with sorella Burgess who I LOVE, on scambio, we taught her the restoration and she was fascinated. She wants to read the Book of Mormon and the Bible together to understand how they are both testimonies of Jesus Christ. It was such a change from the other times we have taught her. She believes that God gives his gospel to all his children, also if they lived in the Americas long ago, so why not have more than one book of sacred scripture? It was fantastic! We truly are seeing miracles here! I wish I could write everything; good, bad, crazy, funny. It's just not possible. 

     I absolutely love Sorella Castro. and I'm never leaving Italy.

     I thought leaving home would mean I could avoid my mom forcing me to get a flu shot each year. I got an email from President telling me I have to get mine tomorrow morning. I told him no. But then he said yes. boooooooo. I was so close. 

Have a great week vi voglio un mondo di bene

Sorella Williams

Back to back scambio

BENVENUTO A MILANO!

BENVENUTO A MILANO!

     Thursday I moved to Milano to be with Sorella Castro! It has been a marathon since I got here meeting people, having a new companion and trying to get comfortable with buses and metros all over again!! Just when you feel like you finally know the people, you leave that city and start a new one.  We are over the ward here in Cimiano with Anziani Farnsworth, Penfold, Brown, and Johnson. It's weird to have so many elders with us in one area, but there is a lot of work to do so it's understandable! I absolutely love my companion Sorella Castro. She was born in Columbia and moved to Italy when she was young. She is fluent in both Spanish and Italian which is SO helpful because there are huge amounts of South Americans in this area and those 4 years of Spanish did me no good. But I am pumped because 1. I always wanted to experience serving in south america:) and 2. it's a break from pasta. They make Spanish food just like my dad does so who is complaining, not me. I also have gone though most of my life believing I am Latina so being with Castro is fulfilling that desire. I'm trying to learn Spanish. I can understand a lot of it thanks to Italian, but can't speak it for the life. We'll see!

     We have an exciting area and already Sorella Castro and I have seen major miracles. There's a couple people we are trying to get ready for baptism if they act on the feelings of the spirit and accept the invitation. One being Giuseppe who is AMAZING but believes he needs to be perfect in order to be baptized. We are really trying to teach him the atonement and how it covers every nook and cranny of our lives even the parts where we are weak. There is also Fernando and Angela, they are a miracle couple who just walked into church one day. They want to be baptized but are not married. They want to get married, but there is some drama in the family that they are trying to work through so we will be praying and fasting with them this upcoming week and doing all we can for their situation. There are a couple of part member families and a lot of less actives that I am still trying to get to know. 

     I'm not kidding when I say this has probably been the craziest week of my mission so far. We have, for whatever reason, seen it all this week; crying, laughing, yelling, and the most random service, lessons in places I can't  even begin to explain haha.  Every night we have been going home saying "Did that really just happen?". I'm so tired!! haha but it wont get any calmer because tonight starts the fist of many scambi (splits) that I will be doing now that I am serving as Sister training leader. So that should be fun. lolz because I still don't know this city, but oh well. We are the STLs over Milano Est and Genova Zones. Usually all sorelle come here to our city for scambio and we host both of them...but since we have Genova and we are both dying to see that city we are doing scambio in Genova next week :) I will eat Genovese pesto and focaccia and die happy. 

     I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving and truly appreciates their loved ones and friends and our amazing country. I will most likely be eating beans somewhere or missing the bus, soaking wet because I, like always, predicted it wouldnt rain and didnt bring my umbrella:) Or that was just the theme of this week at least. 

Vi voglio bene!!!

Sorella Williams

Sorella Castro & Sorella Williams

Ciao Brescia!

wooooooooooooooooooow

Alright this week was the craziest week ever. 

     We got transfer calls! I am going to be an STL (sister training leader) in Milano with Sorella Castro who is a native! So my Italian is about to be tried to the max to say the least, but it'll be good for me. And I am excited to be with Castro. She and I were in the same arrival group so I met her my first day in Italy when I had just come from Provo and she had just came from the Spain MTC. I'm excited she's a cutie. And it's a little nerve-wrecking being STL (sister training leader) because I have no idea what I'm doing, but here we go! More importantly Sorella Tullis got called to TRAIN. She's my baby and shes already training!! I'm a grandma haha! So she will be staying in Brescia and we have been working all week trying to get stuff ready and not think about the horrendous divorce that is about to take place tomorrow morning at 6:56 AM I REPEAT 6:56 AM. I swear the office elders who book the trains just like to torture us. 

     First and foremost we had our Serata Musicale and it was awesome!! over 60 people showed up so we were so glad it wasn't a flop. We had a bunch of people singing and playing instruments it was great. Also hilarious because the microphone broke so we just had to use the podium mic so people were like belting Celine Dion songs up at the pulpit haha. All was well and then Davide rolled up with his heavy metal band. You guys I cannot begin to explain to you the shock that happened when we realized it wasn't just a heavy metal band...it was full on screamo. It's one of those situations were you kind of just stand there with your mouth open not knowing if you should laugh or cry as a man screams english lyrics in the chapel. We had to do a bit of damage control after that lovely performance but 3 Euro later I am a proud owner of a signed copy of their album. Who knew my first screamo concert would be in a church chapel? Good Stuff. 

     We went to Cecilia's art studio again Saturday hoping just to share a spiritual thought with her. It's been hard to tell if she actually wants to progress in the gospel or just likes our company. So we went and her husband was there and they were working on this big beautiful wooden Christmas tree. We sat with Cecilia in the back room and her husband even sat in with us TOO. We were so pumped. We had brought a simple excerpt from a conference talk by Richard J. Maynes called "The joy of living a christ centered life", which was awesome because it has a metaphor about ceramics so she really liked it. We talked about slowing life down a bit and appreciating all the amazing things our loving Heavenly Father  has given us. We really felt the spirit so strong and Sorella Tullis and I were really able to say what we were directed to say. We asked them how they felt and they began to cry. It was a HUGE 180 degree turn from how our visits usually go. I know they felt the spirit and I know it testified of the truthfulness of the message. They were truly speechless. Afterward we said goodbye (they gave us a delicious thing of pastries from a shop down the road) and we were in total shock. It was a big step for them. And we were so happy they were together as a couple to have that spiritual experience. I know they will continue progressing with the missionaries. 

     We met with Laura again and challenged her that when she comes to know (and she will as she prays with a sincere heart) that the message is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God, if she would be baptized. She accepted the invitation! She has such a good heart and genuinely wants to know the truth. I know she will find it. 

     We met with the family Cucurachi's and they are AMAZING. The wife is Brazilian and the husband is Italian. Their story of how they met is so awesome, but that's for another day. They are a family where the minute you step into the door you feel different. Their home is a place where the spirit resides. They have worked to keep it that way. We ate yummy brazilian food and she surprised us with an american dolce, brownies! with cute little american, brazilian, and italian flags! We had such a spiritual experience as we talked about the gospel in our lives and how blessed we are and by the end of it we were all in tears! They are a family so special to us. 

     Sunday was so hard. I didn't tell anyone I was leaving yet because I wasn't ready to talk about it and I was honestly procrastinating. But I asked the bishop if I could bare my testimony since i'm leaving (he nearly called president to refuse my leaving haha!). Before my mission when I thought about the perfect area I imagined it would be one where I felt like I had given my all and loved the people and felt like I was leaving it better than I had found it. Well I realized just how much I loved these people Sunday. And I also realized how easy it is to love people who you serve. Never had that hit me so hard than as I walked up to the stand and looked at all the people sitting, looking so sad up at me. All we had done was serve them and I don't think I've ever loved people so much in my entire life. I could barely hold back the tears! It was the hardest testimony I have ever had to give! After the meeting my face was COVERED in lipstick due to Italian mamma kisses and we had about 203929385 lunch and dinner appointments set before I leave  this Thursday! The people have been so good to us here. Monday I said goodbye to Stefania and Samuele and Manuela. Don't even get me started with them. They had written me the sweetest letters and kept saying "well milan isn't even that far you can still come to our wedding and baptism!" ugh if only it were that easy. Tuesday I said goodbye to Irene, the Di Angelis, the Garattis, and the Dibenedettos. I did my best to keep it together my word. Even though it's so hard to say goodbye I am just so grateful that the Lord has put these incredible incredible people in my life who I have learned SO much from.

     It is just a cool thing because as a missionary you work so hard for the people, plan, meet with, pray for, EVERYTHING. You love them so much. And you don't always get to see that reciprocated back, but I was shocked to see truly how sad the people were to see me go and it was a tender mercy from the Lord. 

     In other news we were walking down the road when this wicked awesome roller blader came flying around the corner in tights and a little shirt jumping in the air, doing tricks and stuff. LIKE A GAZELLE. We immediately started running after him and we got to talking. Turns out he was AMERICAN. a Texan named conor with one "n". We were like conor what the heck are you doing bladin all over Brescia and he said "I've been blading all over Europe for weeks guys". Needless to say we swapped information. 

CI VEDIAMO IN MILANO PEEPS.

Sorella Williams

Sonia with Sorella Williams & Sorella Tullis

Conor the blader

Serata Musicale

Last Sunday in Brescia

Election day and I'm in Italy

Well what an interesting week it has been.

     First of all happy election day America!  As soon as I could I ran to the wifi spot by the cafe down the street to see who won. I was so anxious. Everyone always writes to me and says "man you're so lucky you live in Italy and don't have to deal with all this election stuff". I beg to differ. Never in my life have I been involved in so many political conversations than here. The minute people hear my american accent they want to know everything. And this has been going on my entire mission. I just hope with all this excitement and happiness or heartbreak or whatever it is you feel you remember how blessed we are that we have the right to vote. Italian politics do not work that way and their government and political system is corrupt. We need to remember that God is in charge, America is His nation "The United States is a Christian nation, and the Lord has promised that as long as we keep him in mind and worship him this Country will stand--this Government will stand. No other nation can take it or destroy it". -David O. Mckay. 

     This week I was crazy sick which is soooooooooo fun as a missionary. Especially when you have to take your sick butt all the way to Verona to do a scambio and your little bag of medicine you brought with you and your comfy sick sweat pants are LEFT at the house you had been teaching at!! hahaha I had the worst luck this week. But all went well. The scambio was good. I was with Sorella Taylor and we taught these cute Dominican ladies and they fed us strange nut cake while they laid in bed. What a party that was. But all was worth it the next day when we ate sushi with these cute 14 year old italian girls. They thought it was all so gross aka more for me. Oh my gosh how I missed miso soup.

     We had a really good lesson with Stefania and Samuele Monday night. I feel like every time I write about them I don't really express how amazing these people are. They have come so soooo far. I have absolutely loved being their missionary these past couple months. Just the idea of leaving them brings tears to my eyes. Their wedding is December 10 and her baptism is January 31 and I couldn't be more happy for them. We have put our whole hearts into teaching them each week. They aren't like normal investigators, they have been taught for 2 years so they know the doctrine pretty well at this point. Which means when we plan for their lessons we take all week to pray, think, plan, and find what it is exactly we are supposed to teach them. Once we do, we study it ourselves, and then of course we study the words we will need in Italian just to teach it! It's such a long process but such a humbling one as well. I have such a testimony of Heavenly Father putting words into your mouth the very moment you need it. They ask incredible questions that even in English I wouldn't always know how to answer. But sure enough each week, each question that is asked, a simple answer is popped into either of our heads and we are able to deliver that message. Truly it is the holy ghost who does the teaching. I have learned more in those hour long lessons each Monday night with them then I think with anyone else on my mission so far. 

     Saturday we have a big party that we have been planning called Serata Musicale! Anyone who can play an instrument or sing has been invited to do so while the rest of us un talented people sit and eat. I'm so pumped. Davide is coming with his band. I asked him what kind of music they play, he says they base themselves off Metalica...so I'm pretty excited to see what that's like haha!I love surprises. Especially when they are in the form of rock shows in the chapel. We should just invite all our African brother and sisters in the area because their churches are just like that here!

     We also get transfer calls Saturday and I am already shakies pizza. I don't have a clue what's going to happen. But either way we will be happy. Its just been me and Sorella Tullis here the whole time and truly whatever happens we can say that we gave our heart and soul to this city. I have never been so utterly mentally and physically exhausted in my life. But there is no better feeling than walking into church and every person you see, you have a personal relationship with. We have worked so hard and I am forever in love with Brescia!

I hope you all have a great week!!!

vi voglio bene!

Sorella Williams

Scambio

Massive cemetery in Brescia 

You better believe I've been listening to Michael Buble's Christmas CD everyday

Happy Halloween!

Ciao tutti!

     I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Italians don't really do Halloween. And it doesn't help that the pope came out and said Halloween is a no go. So the only people celebrating were the rebels. And even then, their idea of celebrating is wearing zero clothing with some crazy makeup and taking a little giro around centro But it was still a big holiday weekend because it was la festa dei Ognissanti, which is a Catholic holiday where they recognize all the saints of the church. So everyone had Monday and Tuesday off work and school aka we were stood up 28482884 times because no one wants to hang with the missionaries on vacation days. Va bene.

     We met a new lady named Egle this week (pronounced egg-lay, she's Italian but it's a Greek name). She is a school teacher and is new to Brescia but loves studying philosophy and religion and is anxious to learn more about our church. We have a bunch of people right now we are trying to meet with who are potential investigators as well. So the work is going well!

     We met with Caro again finally! We were able to get to the bottom of the mysterious Norwegian guy who was at her apartment last time we were there. We definitely 3rd wheeled that party because he was in town from Norway for just the weekend to see her but she's never home so when we came by and she was there we took advantage of the situation and just cozied up right with them hahah. I love third wheeling. Anyway turns out they are engaged. So eventually (maybe next year) she's moving to Norway. So that's that! We saw her again later in the week and she promised to read the Book of Mormon and pray. So we are excited to see her and follow up.

     Saturday we went by cecilia's art studio. We taught her and asked if she is willing to continue with us as we help her progress towards baptism. She is very comfortable with her Catholic community but says she wants to continue learning and taking our lessons. We will see how it goes! Then Sorella Tullis SHOWED HER UP on the ceramics wheel it was the best hahah!! I don't think Cecilia understood that Sorella Tullis truly does study ceramics at a university level. So Cecilia was absolutely floored as Tullis threw some clay down and made the most beautiful cup and bowl in 10 minutes!! I loved it. It's so fun showing others we are just normal people with hobbies and passions just like everyone else. It really connected us and now we've been invited back so Tullis can teach her and her husband more pottery stuff....and the gospel;):););)):):)/):);)/););)); 

     We ate well this week. If I explained what we've been eating I would make you cry. So I won't. The Italians know what they are doing I'll just leave it at that.

     Our other investigators are progressing well too. We had stake conference this weekend which was aweeeesssoooommmeeee. Really though super good and all geared at the Italian saints and exactly how they can better build their faith and prepare for the Rome temple. I can't tell you guys how badly these people are praying and fasting for the Italian temple. We are so blessed to have so many near our houses in America. Two families Saturday drove 5 to 6 hours at 4 in the morning to do two sessions in the temple just to turn around and drive right back home. They didn't complain, they didn't talk about how tired they were. They were just grateful and beaming with light as they told us about how they did the work for their siblings and parents and how now they are an eternal family. It really brought tears to my eyes to see how at peace they were now with some of the tragic deaths that have occurred in their families. Patrizia couldn't even talk about her sister who past away 3 years ago without crying, but now she feels relief and knows her sister is happy. What an incredible gift we have to truly be with our families for now and eternity.

     Today for pday we went to Verona to have a zone party and then we skipped out a little early and walked around the beautiful city. It is ANCIENT. the duomo here is massive and because of the time change and how dark it gets so early the entire thing was only lit on the inside by candles making it the most incredible mysterious ancient dark glowing duomo. When you walk inside it feels like you've gone back in time centuries. I cannot explain the things I am seeing here in Italy. It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life. I feel so lucky to serve here. It's hard work, but worth it. My STL says "enjoy the sacrifice" I feel like that sums up a mission perfectly.

Vi voglio bene con amore sorella Williams!

Exploring Verona on P-day

Sorella Tullis on the ceramic wheel!

The wonderful Brescia District

Making tortillas to have an Italian food detox