The best Christmas in Milan

BUON NATALE 

     I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Truly thank you to everyone who sent me a card or little something in the mail it meant a lot to me. 

     This week was filled with lots of food and karaoke. I don't know why but people here go absolutely CRAZY for Karaoke, it is at every party. And I am not complaining.

     We spent this whole week mostly with awesome members, friends, and investigators. Our ward mission leader is  Mahesh and his birthday was Friday so he took all of us out to a really nice Chinese restaurant. Mahesh is a famous dancer from Nepal. Paparazzi used to follow him and everything! When he converted to Christianity he was getting threats. He moved to Milan and owns several stores and businesses. One being an antique shop of things from Nepal. He is amazing and loves the missionaries. For Christmas he gave me a really nice scarf and an antique singing bowl. It's the coolest.

     We met with a couple less actives this week and there was no question as to why we were there. There seems to be a pattern with several of them. Most of them are 20-30 year old girls who feel too guilty to come back to church for living unworthily. Each want the spirit back in their lives. I love the atonement because it is an infinite gift of second chances. We don't have to just remember that around Christmas time, but everyday of the year. I love it. 

     We did some door to door knocking the morning of Christmas eve after getting stood up by our other appointment. Technically we were just going to each door asking if Deilia lived there who was the woman we were originally supposed to meet with. But we always tried to talk to the person at the door as well about our message of Jesus Christ or a at least wish them buon natale, and we got denied hard core every time. Except one family who did take the book of Mormon and promised to read it.

     We gave the book of Mormon out to our favorite Japanese sushi waitress lady down the street as well. It was funny because the book is in Japanese so all the chefs, waitresses, and everyone else came out and huddled around the book trying to take turns reading it. They were just excited to read something in Japanese. I hope something good comes from it.

     Christmas Eve we were with the Coz family who are the best and the nicest and merriest Peruvians. she made turkey so I was a happy camper. We played and laughed a lot and at the end we read the story of Jesus's birth and the spirit was so strong. Each of us went around and testified of Him and his love. The family thanked us and thanked us for bringing that special spirit into their home but really it wasn't us. It was such a special Christmas Eve for me. 

     Christmas day we got up and went to church. I love that Christmas was able to fall on a Sunday this year!! Nothing better than taking the sacrament and singing hymns on Christmas morning. Afterward we watched a Disney movie WHHOOOOOOOOOOO! and then headed straight to a member's house were we had a big lunch with a bunch of people. And then I got to skype with my FAMILY!!!!!! It was the best present I have ever gotten!! I loved it so much. It felt like no time had passed and also that years have happened since May. I am so grateful for my family!!

     Monday we had a big party at the Guerrero's house and played games and shared a spiritual thought and then we taught Fernanda and then we went to Veronica's for dinner with her friend Eva whose from Romania visiting for the holiday. We gave Eva a Book of Mormon in Romanian and she was asking us so many questions! she asked where the church was in her country so we found it on lds.org and she wants us to contact the missionaries for her to come to her house! How cool is that!

     Tuesday was a WHOLE lot of passbys and we finally got into one of our less actives houses and when she prayed at the end she asked heavenly father to get her back to church. It was so cool and we know she is ready to come back. We had Family home evening which turned into just a giant "let's say goodbye to the missionaries" night because Elders Brown, Farnsworth, and Penfold are all leaving and only one is coming and he's a greenie. So now our district will be back to just 4 missionaries. it's really sad saying goodbye. 

     I hope everyone's Christmas was amazing and with New Years  just around the corner I hope you each take the time and seriously think of a way you could improve and become a better follower of Jesus Christ. And if you don't know, pray. He will tell you exactly how. 

vi voglio bene!!!

Buon Natale Sorella Williams & Sorella Castro

Christmas Eve dinner

Christmas day!

Mahesh Bday dinner

    Ciamino last district meeting

Sorella Tullis had to come to Milan and we got to visit for a few min. YAY!
3 Generation picture. Sorella Williams trained Sorella Tullis who trained Sorella Weeks,
Grandma, Mom and baby :) 

BUON NATALE

Ciao!!

     This week was crazy and packed. I'm also extremely sick and just want to throw my body off a roof top but other than that it's been great!!

     We had our last scambio of the transfer (what what) laaassstttt scccaammmbbbiiooo (uh uh) last last last sca sca scambiooooo YA! Man, what a time to be alive. 7 scambi in 4 weeks. And because we are such amazing STL and such loving, beautiful and, humble people, we did it that way so everyone could be in their cities for the week of Christmas. It's a great time to make friendships with members.

      Anziano Johnson of the quorum of the seventy come to visit our mission so we had a big mission tour. He is the general authority over the church in Europe. Aka he's a busy man. Basically President just split the mission right down the middle in two and had two big conferences on Wednesday and Thursday. It was awesome and they all spoke and inspired us so much. I had a chance to speak with him one on one. Prettttty neat.

     We also had Consiglio which is a leadership meeting with the STLs and Zone leaders. That was super fun because I got to see old friends! It was also my year mark. Which is so crazy. Anziano Johnson came to that as well and gave us really helpful advice as how to be better leaders over this mission. 

     This Christmas season has been really fun for me also. The whole city of Milan is really beautiful with trees and lights and shopping. This year's Christmas video made by the church is truly amazing and has been shared with almost everyone we have talked to. On sidewalks, metros, streets, and proselyting and the duomo. We had our church Christmas party which was really fun. I even got to ride one of those weird hover board things..and completely fell. We had a couple investigators come so it was awesome. 

     We saw Fernando and Iglida a couple days ago and it was AMAZING. the spirit was strong and they are making big moves towards marriage. They know this church is true. We talked about the importance of families and had them read The Family A proclamation to the world. There truly are no ifs, ands, or buts, in that. Fernando wants to be married and said he would tomorrow. She is scared to offend the parents but we reassured them that it was the right thing to do and that it would bless their family tremendously, but ultimately it's their decision. They are making a lot of progress. 

     We have other progressing super exciting investigators right now as well and I really hope I can just stay in Cimiano and keep working with them. We receive transfer calls Saturday and I don't know what will happen!

Sunday we were all invited to a massive Filipino party in a tiny apartment. I'm still dreaming of the food. It was so fun. Filipinos go crazy for karaoke so that was probably the highlight of the party. 

     I hope everyone truly appreciates that this year Christmas falls on a Sunday. We cannot choose a better place to be or a better gift to give Christ than by going to church as a family on Christmas day. Everyday I meet people who are so lost, so lonely, or just without family. Their Chritmas will not be anything special and when we tell them that we are having a special hour of church on Sunday they get excited to have somewhere to go. Reach out to those around you and invite them to come. I read something this week from President Monson and it really made me think. He talked in a conference about Alice in Wonderland how she walked up to the cat and asked him what road she should take and he said "That depends on where you want to go". Let's decide that our end destination is Christ. We are given promise after promise that the road will be paved for us. Complicated decisions suddenly become more simple when we ask "Does this take me towards Christ? Temple attendance? church attendance? the spirit? my family? or does it take me away from those things?" 

     Have you ever given someone a present that you thought a lot about, put a lot of work into, or spent a lot of money on, and they were just kind of partial about receiving it? They Didn't understand how hard it was for you to give them that thing? Or maybe they accepted it but now its just kind of sitting collecting dust. We were given that gift. Jesus Christ gave us EVERYthing he could, his life. Do we accept it gratefully? happily? humbly? promising to take care of it always with love because we know what it meant for him to give it to us. Or the fact that the Father gave us the gift of his own actual child as sacrifice? I don't think any one of us appreciates it to the magnitude we could. This year let's take that present and treat it with respect. We take the name of Jesus Christ by being baptized, we follow Jesus Christ when we persevere to the end. Let him have the heavy burden he already paid for, he wants to take that off our shoulders. Follow Him and his example and we won't just have a happy life, but our happiest life. It is truly the greatest gift of all. 

I know this is the church of Christ on the earth today. I love my Savior.

BUON NATALE

Sorella Williams

Consiglio (Leadership conference)

Merry Christmas from Sorella Castro & Sorella Williams

Consiglio and one year mark with other people from my group!

Sister Allen & Sorella Williams

One year mark!

Christmas time in Milan

     This week was good! Genova was beautiful and amazing and so was their focaccia and pesto even though we were only there for a little bit. We had a big miracle on a bus. We were talking to the lady in front of us and we said that we were Mormons when this lady behind us says "you are Mormons?" And I said "yes have you heard of our church before?" And she said chuckling "yes, I was baptized in 2002" WHAT. She was a less active that didn't even know where the church was in Genova. We swapped information and now she is found! Also the lady we were originally talking to was extremely interested. Her name is Elena and she is amazing. Her parents died not too long ago and she feels extremely lonely. We told her that God loved her and that our church members are like a big family because that's what we really are. She told us there was a light in us that she had never seen before and that she wanted it too. It was such a tender mercy meeting her! We taught her and when I told her I was going back to Milan she was so sad and offered her spare room to me for as long as I want haha. I almost accepted. Luckily we had gotten lost and were in a strange part of town otherwise we would have never taken that bus and met those two ladies.

     2 new investigators came to church this week!! Fernanda and Janet. Fernanda has been challenged to come to church for a while and finally did for the primary program. And Janet came to all three hours of church! We are excited about them.

     We taught a less active family Guastella. She is extremely sensitive and if you are too strong or too bold she never lets you back into her house. It's been a year since she last let the missionaries in so we are being really careful. Which is different because I am not necessarily a very patient person. Especially when you look around her
house and she has pictures of Jesus and temples all over. We found out that she had served a mission in 2001 in Rome and loved it. We couldn't believe it. She has two cute kids ages 10 and 13 that need the youth and the activities of the church in their lives. She still has such a strong testimony so I don't get why it's so hard to come back. But they invited us for dinner next week which is a huge step.

     Saturday we had a breakfast party with Fernando and Iglida which was hilarious because I made pancakes and they could not understand it. Syrup made them very confused. Well I was just whipping it up IHOP style in the kitchen and they were like ENOUGH THERE'S LIKE 10 PANCAKES. and I was like I KNOW YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO STACK THEM. they only put like one dot of syrup on their plates. Hahaha oh my goodness it was so funny.

     We went with the Anziani to Edgar's house to give him a blessing for his leg and it was such a great experience. Edgar got hit by a car a year ago and has had multiple surgeries. He is still home bound and it is so hard for him. He is an amazing person I love him. His wife Teresa is an investigator. He had funny Christmas hats so that was a
huge plus in my opinion.

     We taught Betti our investigator and it was a big step. She did not read the Book of Mormon but we taught a lesson on Jesus Christ and the spirit was strong. She said she feels different with us in our church. We bore testimony that it was no coincidence and that this is truly the church of Jesus Christ and that she can know so too if she reads and prays about the Book of Mormon.

     We had youth stake activity and it was THE BEST. each kid wrote their testimony in a Book of Mormon and then we wrapped them up with Christmas wrapping paper and went to the duomo and gave them to people. Since we are missionaries we were assigned with groups of kids to help them do it. It was a lot of pressure because they all speak perfectly but when it came down to stopping them or answering questions they would get so nervous and not know what to say. But my little group handed all of theirs out and it was such a cool experience for me and
them. We got some numbers of people and I really hope they read the books. By the end they had a lot more confidence and were able to talk to people. I loved it so much!!!

     We had a scambio with Savonna yesterday and we taught Helen and Mamma Repoyo. We were two hours outside of Milan on a bus in the middle of NOWHERE when I hear "ciao Sorella". I look up and it's Sorella DiCriscito from BRESCIA!!! It was the best moment of my life I think. I was so happy to see her and to hear about how Brescia has been. Oh how I miss that celestial kingdom. Then we had a funeral to go to which was sad, but then we helped this funny lady Marta move which was fun and she fed us so it was worth it. The poor Anziani had to move all her furniture down 6 flights of stairs all the while all the neighbors would poke their heads out doors or windows and shout at them how to do it the right way hahah. Italians are so funny.

     Today we have a member of the 70 visiting the mission so the whole mission is coming together over the next two days!

This work is true and I know it!

Love Sorella Williams


Youth activity


At Edgar's house with his Christmas hats


The member from Brescia I ran into 2 hours outside of Milan, what are the odds?!?


The Duomo at Christmas time


Conference

South America in Milano

Ciao tutti!!!

     This week went so fast! Unfortunately I don't have a ton of time to email because we have to take a train to Genova today to do a scambio! 

     We have been teaching Fernando and Iglidia. They are amazing and cute and young with a little baby! They have such great questions and truly want to learn. In between lessons they always search for information themselves about the church so when we come they have questions like "We saw that you guys don't eat or drink certain things? Will you tell us what those things are so we can stop eating and drinking them too? We just want to do this the right way" We have to keep from laughing when they ask us questions like that because they are so perfect and so ready for the gospel in their lives. It's so easy to feel the spirit in their home. We bore testimony that we knew, that they knew that this is Jesus's true church on the earth today. They also said they knew that it is true. The one obstacle from keeping them baptized is that they are not married. And they can't get married until he has a stable job (long story). We spoke briefly last week about considering doing a fast together to find some clarity in their situation. Well Sunday they came to church and they were so excited to tell us that they were fasting all day. They said "We aren't really sure how long we should fast for so we just decided 24 hours. We thought we weren't supposed to eat or drink anything in that time so we didn't. We also started it with a prayer so we can feel the spirit while we fast today. Are we doing it right?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME. We were in shock. The miracle was that Fernando (who is studying web design) was given an incredible opportunity for a job interview at a really nice company. It was an answer to our fast. When I was with them and we were all starving naturally we were just talking about all the foods we love. Which I said how much I miss an American breakfast. One thing led to another and now we are having a big american brunch Thursday hosted by yours truly;)

     So far all my scambi have been with, a Danish, an Argentinian, a Canadian, a German, an African, and I'm companions with an Columbian Italian. haha! how crazy is that?

     A couple days ago we had Sorella Zombra with us because she lost her passport so we had to go to the African embassy place for her country and do all this paperwork and such. While we were there, there were all these Africans waiting in the waiting room staring at us.  Sorella Castro and I were the only non Africans there. We started talking to them and next thing you know we were teaching the restoration to the whole embassy including the workers. It was the coolest!! I felt like an actual preacher haha! I have never had such a big audience before. I hope something good can come from it!

     We ate with like 3 Peruvian families this week and I'm in love with their food. It is AMAZING. So they gave me a bunch of peruvian rice and honestly I'm set for the rest of next year haha. They are the nicest people. And they were good to me and spoke Italian to each other the whole time so I could feel a part of everything. Every time they started speaking spanish (I can understand a little but not everything) I would just tell them to stop talking bad about me behind my back haha. It made them so frustrated because they definitely were not. It's just really fun messing with them.

     We went to a huge South American birthday party for a one year old. I was planning on keeping a low profile and talking to people who were around me. But they hired a clown. Clowns freak me out and I feel like they are like horses, they sense fear. Clowns always gang up on me!! The clown had me center stage the whole party!!! Every time I sat down he would pull me back up in front of the whole party to do something stupid or play a game it was ridiculous haha! We met some cool people at the party though and we hope to teach them soon!

     I also had to eat an entire fish head this week. Every last piece of it. And that's all I'm going to say about that. 

     We had zone conference this week with President and the Assistant President's. Usually the STLs have to give a training, but because President needed more time than usual we didn't have to. What a miracle that was because we had NO time this week to do ANYTHING. Scambis are so time consuming...but good. 

     There was a family this week where I just loved being in their home and I couldn't understand why. Once we started talking to them I realized it was because they have the spirit with them so strong. They are just a happy family who love each other and laugh so much. They have a son preparing to go on a mission to Rome next month and while talking about it, the dad got teary eyed thinking about having to say goodbye. Which made me think about my family and how difficult it was to say goodbye. I was able to talk with them and bare testimony that God loves his missionaries and that this is the most important work in the world and the Lord will not leave him or them. We as missionaries are away from home and our families, so when we walk into a house where the spirit resides and a happy family, it's easy for us to get emotional because for this little bit of time, that's something we don't have. Or at least it's not the same. Don't take for granted having the spirit in your home. Pray as a family, read scriptures as a family, and truly thank God for what you have. I can honestly testify that those who walk into your home can feel that difference as I have so many times on the mission! 

you all are great!!!

vi voglio bene!

Sorella Williams

A South American sandwich

Milo East Zone Conference

A huge Christmas tree with real crystals

A family has a bunny that acts like a dog