1/9

this is probably one of the weirdest weeks of my mission.....

1. i have been sick for the entire week. and no amount of italian medicine is helping... just gotta wait it out... its cold.

2. my companion, sorella comollo, sprained her ankle, so we have been doing splits the entire week because she couldnt walk for a couple days. 

3. experienced the italian holiday, The Befana. she is a witch (santa's wife) who flies on her broom to bring kids candy or coal in their stockings on the 6th of Jan. every year. that was a new one. we even met a lady dressed up on the street giving out candy and coal to everyone she saw. haha it was hilarious. yes... i got coal..... 

4. president and sorella kelly came to our ward on sunday, had interviews with all of us after church and made the decision to switch our companions. so me and sorella ivory are back together AGAIN and sorella comollo is with sorella ehorn. so that is the best thing thats ever happened to me. considering that i LOVE sorella ivory and we work SUPER effectively together cause we can just tell what each other is thinking. its really the greatest... so i get to be with her for her last transfer. its... the.... best.........

5. some investagators (antonio and lorenza) took us to see this live nativity. it was the COOLEST thing i have ever seen. you walk through it and it takes like 30 minutes. and there are all these people dressed up and it literally was like you were in ancient jerusalem! it was so awesome. there were tons of live animals and everything. there were like shops where people were actually making candels or frying bread or making pottery or blankets. it was so cool. cant even describe it. and the baby 'Jesus' was born on the 18th of december so he was still this tiny new born infant.  was way cool...

6. i dont know if you remember our old investagator Anna? that broke my heart? cause she is so wonderful and knows its true and love us and taught us how to make yummy italian food and played sicilian songs for me on her guitar and then moved to sicily. SHE IS STARTING TO MEET WITH THE MISSIONARIES AGAIN!!! i dont think you understand how much me and sorella ivory prayed for her...... listen........ this is just a miracle........ anyway haha........ i love anna!!!! 

7. there has been some tension in our house because of this whole switch back. and sorella ivory and i know the area and these other sisters dont really... and they are just stressed about their work. and we prayed about what we could do about this.... to make everything work and be better and just FUNCTION. and........... we both recieved this answer, that we both didnt want to accept at first, but we had to follow what God told us....... SO. we gave ALL OUR WORK to the other sisters. all except antonio and raffaella. (because they would kill us if we passed them off.. literally.) so.... we are building from ground zero. and the other sisters are going to take this head on. its an experiment. but we know heavenly father will bless us for doing what he told us to do. also, we are going to have to give up our pride about numbers haha... since theyre about to go down the drain..... but thats fine... so....... these next 4 weeks will be interesting.. (and full of 'finding'.....) but it'll be good...

8. i had a really cool experience at the beginning of this week when i was still with comollo. it is so crazy just how precisely God planned all this out. 

so we have this investagator, paola. i think i have told you about her.. (''will i still resurrect if i explode when i die?'') yeah. she's fun. so we wanted to meet with her in the church so we could watch 'the restoration' with her. (theres a tv) so we set up the appointment and right before, she calls us and tells us she is sick so she cant come to the church. now, i usually answer the phone, but for some reason i gave it to comollo to answer. i also am a pushover. sorella comollo is not. so sorella comollo convinces her to let us come over to her house and watch it on her tv (we didnt know she had one at first.) 

following me? so we go over to her house and put the dvd in the player but cant find the remote to switch the language to italian. we search everywhere, for like 15 minutes.. cant find it. finally her 23 year old daughter, Ilaria comes home, helps us look for the remote and finds it finally, when she is about to leave, i invite her to stay and watch the film with us. (she never stays for lessons) and she AGREED. so she stays and watches the entire restoration with us and we all feel the spirit so strong and at the end i bare my testimony to both of them, but especially to Ilaria, telling her how important she is to God and that he loves her and that our ability to pray is a testimony of the love that God has for us. and at a point when i was telling her these things, i had to check myself to make sure i was speaking in italian, and not english, because the words were coming so easily to me. like i wasnt speaking them alone. i started crying when i was telling her this because i could just feel Gods love for her and i saw tears in her eyes as well.. 

it was such a beautiful experience. i know that God was speaking through me to tell this girl that she was loved by him. that she was important and special. it was very sweet and something i will always remember..

i also know that God is the head of this work. its not my work, or president kellys work or president monsons work. its Gods. he is leading it and moving it forward. if it wasnt his work, it would fail. 

this gospel is my joy.... 

keep it real. keep reading those scripts, fam. :) they're true. 

love you all

sorella sudweeks

pics:

-sorella ivory and i with the befana

-live nativity

-me, ivory and lorenza

merrrrrry christmas! and happy new year! 

for christmas we went to a members house where we got to skype my favorite peeps in provo! it was really fun. had the weirdest italian christmas dinner haha....... it was good though... the day after xmas was pday and we got to watch movies with our district. we watched remember the titans and the princess and the frog. and played ping pong in our chapel. (i am still the master.)

friday was transfers. ladispoli now has 4 sisters instead of 2. sorella ivory is training for the 3rd time this transfer so she has a fresh out of the mtc baby. and i am with sorella comollo who has been in italy for about a year now. she's pretty cool. she has giant frizzy hair which im down with so......... 

shes a way good missionary too. she talks to EVERYONE. which is a talent i dont have, but im learning from her...... its fun still being in the same house with sorella ivory but we are...... just a little out of control sometimes haha.... our comps just.... dont have the same humor as us.... so sometimes we just..... take things to a new level..... 

its fine though..... working hard, having fun, loving God. what else is there.

the last week has been super slow with missionary work because of the holidays. italians basically celebrate christmas/new years starting on dec. 24 and dont finish until jan. 7th. so..... there's like nothing to do around here since everyone is out of town or inside partying.

yesterday, new years day, was a cleaning day for our whole mission. basically you deep clean your apartment for the entire day since there is literally not a SOUL on the street. its probably the biggest holiday for italians, which is weird but... i mean. hah it is.

oh yeah. both our new companions are cooks. they are both half italian and... just make us stuff every day hah. sorella ivory's comp, sorella ehorn, made us banana/zucchini bread this morning. sounds weird. was way good...

its been weird spitting up the work between these two companionships... i dont really like it because whenever they're going to visit someone i know im like... dang.. i wanna go...... 

but its good cause i am pretty sure im leaving ladispoli next transfer and mine and sorella ivorys job is to just pour all our knowledge on these other 2 sisters so they can carry on the work. so i guess... its all gonna be good.

i cant believe ivory is finishing her mission....... 

i am now in the place she was when i first got here.... so crazy!

so... sorry guys haha... this weeks been real slow.

uh.. for new years we had to be home by 6pm so our chef comps made us a fantastic dinner. also we had ''champagne'' or apple juice, fanta and sprite. it was good. and lemon peal (antonio brought us back a lemon the size of my HEAD from napoli.)

then we slept :) 10:30 baby.....

my new years resolution for this year is to NEVER STOP LEARNING.

and right now i am studying the gathering of the tribes of israel so that wont be hard haha... 

if anyone has any information about that by the way, please send it my way. 

love you all. hope the holidays were special and fun :)

sorella sudweeks

pics:

-2013 will be a good one

-so much room for activities!

12/19

Fabio is baptized! it was the coolest thing i have ever seen. he was so excited and everything just went so smoothly. it was so great. and right after he got baptized he got confirmed the with the holy ghost and when that was done he hugged everyone in the circle and then he looks over at sorella ivory, arms open and says ''posso?'' (''can i?'') and she says yes! and he runs over and gives her the biggest hug. it was the sweetest thing i have ever seen... haha and the funniest. president kelly's wife was there. and tons of other missionaries. i think anyone else would have been embarassed haha... but it was so perfect. 

after the baptism, us and like 8 other missionaries went caroling at a big piazza in rome which was really cool. didnt really do anything for our work but we helped out the rome missionaries a lot hah. it was fun too. something you dont get to do at other times of the year. we're going to try and do it again this sunday.. hopefully works out. 

we had a ward christmas party the other night and it was pretty fun. we made all the primary kids do a nativity haha and it was close to a disaster but actually it turned out pretty good.. we had a ton of non members there which was great.

hm............. we are all stressing out for transfer calls (this saturday). sorella ivory has nearly been in ladispoli for an entire year and has one transfer left. (if she stays next transfer it will be exactly 1 year) and..... we have fear she is getting death transfered. (your last transfer is your death transfer.) so....... i am stressing out..... haha..... because i love sorella ivory. she is my favorite comp. probably ever. we just get along so well... gah. but i cant worry about this just yet... 

hm.......

we have an investagator from mexico. she is so great! her name is jennifer. she's like 28, married, has a 2 year old son. is just the cutest one! we actually had a lesson with her this morning. we have to go really slow with her because her whole family is catholic and whenever anyone talks about baptism it freaks her out. so... we're just not going to talk about it for a while haha... but she is so cute and really does have big desires to do whats right and her family is jsut so important to her. man. i just love her.

not sure if i've told you about antonio. he was found through english course (i love english course.) and is so sensitive to the spirit, its the coolest thing. he says he hates going a few days without seeing us because we are like the fuel to his life! he's so sweet. we went over to his house last saturday and learned how to make vegetarian lasagna with his wife. she is so sweet but not really interested in the church at all.. she is so funny though! when we made the sauce, i stirred while she poured in ingredients and it turned out so good and she was like, yeah! team effort! just this tiny old italian lady. yeah.....hah.. anyway......

we went to the colosseum  today because sorella buckley's never seen it. i was remembering my first time seeing it, when you walk out of the subway and its like BAM. colosseum! right in front of you! weird. haha so that was fun for her.. 

well im trying to think of other fun things to tell you but really nothing is coming to mind......... 

i bedazzled my retainter last night so it looks like a grill. sorella spicq's parents sent me a scarf so i look SUPER french. and my poor canadian boots that i bought last year are falling apart..... not cool. 

BUON NATALE TUTTI! 

family...... be at the house at 9am on christmas if you want to skype me. natalie. you're not allowed to work. halle and logan. BE THERE. emilee, bring your game face. is there any way you can make clinton skype you at that time too so that we can 3 way skype each other??? that would be cool..........

sorella SEGWICK (as sorella ivory likes to call me......) 

pics:

-fabio's baptism

-xmas at the vatican

-ladispoli and siracusa!

-il colosseo 

-xmas at the coloseum

-caroling in rome with other missionaries

12/12

alright famiglia e amici. 

so this sunday we have a baptism. his name is Fabio Roselli. and he is just so great. like i said, they found him a few days after i left ladispoli. he is the husband of a member and has never in their 12 year marriage had any interest whatsoever in the church, and usually didnt let his wife go to church because his only day off was sunday and wanted her to be home with him and their kids and never let her have visiting teachers or anything. 

me and sorella ivory went over to their house once before i left for siracusa and then the second time she went over with sorella buckley, they met fabio. and asked him to be baptized. and he said yes. 

so... they taught him all the lessons and the first time i met him was when we did the baptismal interview for him haha... i've seen him a couple times since then and he just seems solid as a rock. he is so cool. he used to smoke 30 cigaretts a day and now he hasnt smoked a single one for i think a little over a month. MIRACLE! its so cool to be about to see how their family is being affected by his decision and how much happier the mom is from when i first met her. i am so happy for their family. dang... so cool..... 

other than that i dont have much to tell you. i am teaching basic english here in ladispoli. its kind of cool being in 3 because we can do 3 levels. basic, intermediate and advanced. so.... i teach basic... and.... hah its rough sometimes but my class loves me. i just have 5 old italian dudes and.... its just... haha a lot of fun... they tell me i am a good teacher. so.... yeaaaah........... i gave a book of mormon to one of them last week so we will see how that goes! man, i love english course haha.. 

im pretty pumped to be able to be back in ladispoli. the ward is so fantastic.. everyone who was pregnant when i left now has tiny infant children hah. so thats weird. but its so good to be back. i feel like im home :)

we've been continually brainstorming what movies to watch for christmas. we get to watch 2 and so far we have agreed that one of them will be 'ELF'. because... its the best movie ever. 

anyone know what 'hot rod' is rated? haha...... also 'nacho libre'? we...... need to laugh...............

alright. thats about all for this week. 

its cold. 

REALLY cold.......

happy 12-12-12!!! this is probably the last time this week happen EVER. so enjoy it......... 

CIAOOOOOOOOOOOO

V.V.B.

sorella sudweeks  

pics:

-back with ivory! and our new addition, sorella buckley :)

-in rome again!

-the gypsy cats of ladispoli

12/5

ciao fam!

so i am in ladispoli again! and its like i never left. except for the fact we have pretty much all new investagators... but the members are still the same :) 

my last few days in sicily were pretty fun. our investagator, graziano, took us, the elders and cristian (ward mission leader) to a mexican restaurant haha it was good. i got this weird veggie burrito. it was an italian interpretation for sure but it tasted good.. 

i had to say bye to everyone at church..... that was rough.... a few people cried... i did too... i am going to miss siracusa.. maybe i'll go back one day. never know. im back in ladispoli right now and never thought that'd happen haha... 

when i said bye to nuccio he cried... he had found this weird p.e.t.a./Jesus (there is no other way to describe it) pamplet about how Jesus was vegetarian haha.. anyway... he signed it and wrote a note inside because it made him think of me.... anyway... haha.. he's such a sweetheart... 

when i went to say bye to annamaria she still hadn't found her ''lettera d'amore'' (love letter) that she'd been looking for (did i tell you about that?) haha... so funny... poor thing... she made is go into her son's room (where she thinks she lost it) and say a prayer. it was so funny. i felt like i was doing a voodoo. nah not really.. hah.. i had her make a voice recording (thanks for the recorder mom :) and she started off with ''dear heavenly father'' and i was like ''oh, no.. i just record your voice and it goes to my parents.'' and she said, ''i know. i was just sending the message through heavenly father..'' SO funny... 

anyway... i took the plane up to rome with sorella miles. she is sweet. she was just coming up for permesso stuff but it was so cool cause we had some weird experiences on our way up. like this random dude saw us and was like, hey do you guys have a book of mormon? PSSSSHYEAH. hah.. we talked with him and found out he was baptized like 20 years ago, and went inactive for some silly reasons in the past but just missed the book of mormon so much and was just so happy to have a copy. it was so weird though cause he was like, i jsut love in doctrine and covenants when it talks about eating meat sparingly. (we're like.. okay?) come to find out he's like huge into animal rights and the church him and his wife go to now tell him its a sin not to eat meat and all this stuff and so he's trying to find someone who's okay with him being vegan and it was just weird that me and sorella miles were there because she is the missionary who would teach his family because she's in that area, and i am probably the only vegetarian missionary in the entire mission and i just felt like God is just moving us around like chess pieces and putting us in certani places to meet certain people. really cool. and THEN the dude sitting next to us on the plane lives in catania (sorella miles area) and works in ladispoli (my new area) so.......... how perfect was that. it was just the weirdest things........ 

anyway...... traveling..... got to rome all safe and sound and FLIPPED when i saw sorella ivory cause i was so stinkin excited! 

we had zone conference yesterday and obviously it was the best day of my life because i LOVE zone conference hah.. anyway.....

anyway... i miss siracusa. i miss sorella spicq. but i know i need to be here. and..... im here. so that's good..........

we have a baptisimal interview tonight. so thats weird. his name is fabio. and from what i hear, he's fantastic. they found him 3 days after i left ladispoli. and he will get baptized the 16th. crazy...

thats really all the updates i have for you folks. 

hope everything is well and you're all getting excited for christmas! i know i am....... love your GUTZ!

vi voglio un MONDO di bene!

sorella sudweeks

shoutoutz: 

clint! i got your birthday card! thanks!!! 

steph rhodes! im in ROME! and i heard you will be too on your honeymoon! come find me! ;)

pics:

-sorella spicq and i at the madonnina

-package from mom!

-me and graziano

-showing off my mexican ancestry..

-saying bye to my favorite peeps in siracusa

-all i own for the next 9 months.

-my new comps! buckley and IVORY! (zone conference)

11/28

so it was my compleanno... im 22 now...... so thats weird....

i bought myself perfume from zara. and an investagator got me a little water pillow thing that heats up when you plug it in hahah. yes. graziano is legit. :)

we ate dinner with maria aliano, my favorite member/new convert (of a year). she cooked us weird sicilian food... man i love her! she just is like my tiny italian mama here. 

happy thanksgiving! i ate pizza. :) with all my family in english course. it was really fun. we had a party. and got some new investagators!!! i love the book of mormon!  

sabastiano dumped us. at least he made a decision... goes to show god can only bless us according to our desires. its just so sad because he couldnt tell us that he believed the catholic church was right, but he was just satisfied with what he had. which is fine... god is not going to infringe upon our agency. that is something we will always have. so..... he made his decision. life goes on..... 

important note.. i am being mid-transfer transfered. i am going back to ladispoli!!! and i am SO EXCITED!!! i cant even explain it! i am going to be companions with sorella ivory again and her greenie, sorella buckley. (jenny buckley. from timpview. crazy.) so..... i am pretty pumped about that. i leave for rome on sunday. so this is my new address:

sorella sudweeks

via flavia 21 

00055 ladispoli - RM

italia

sorry this is another lame letter. things have just been kind of coasting lately. 

i had a weird/cool experience the other night though.

i was laying in bed trying to fall asleep but i started feeling really anxious and almost scared. i started praying that i would feel better and stop having these feelings but they wouldnt go away. a thought came into my mind that i needed to go and lock the front door. this was silly to me because sorella spicq always locks it.. i said ''sorella?'' to ask if she'd locked it, but she was dead asleep... and i couldnt get the thought out of my head so finally i went to see if it was locked, and it wasnt. the keys were in sorella spicq's bag.. which never happens. 

SO. heavenly father is looking out for us... hopefully nothing would have happened if i didnt lock the door but the best part is knowing he is looking out for us and protecting us. 

anyway......

nothing left to write. 

if you have sent me letters or packages to siracusa, sorella spicq will give them to the assistents at zone conference so i should get them within the next month or two. haha we'll see. 

from now on always send packages to the mission office in rome:

Piazza Carnaro 20

00141 Rome, Italy

and you can send letters to my ladispoli address that's up there ^^^

CIAO TUTTI! vi voglio bene. 

sorella sudweeks

pics:

-buon compleanno, sorell!

-maria aliano on my birthday

-paying our respects to the madonna

-bottled coke for dayzzzz

11/21

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! tomorrow....... ma comunque...... have a good one :)

this week was the beginning of transfer #5 for me. which means that half way through this transfer, i am half-way through my mission (sisters do 11 transfers). so.... that's weird. 

things of this week... 

just got a hair cut... so thats cool.... ha...........

sorella rosato went back to catania. i miss her. she is really great. and REALLY helped me with italian. didnt think i could speak straight italian for a few days but she proved me wrong. i need to be her comp. then i'd really learn this language...

nuccio is softening his heart! which is the best... he says he is super athiest but.. i know he believes.. he just doesnt want to :) but he cried when we watched ''finding faith in christ''. if anyone can make someone soften there heart, its Jesus. haha.. nuccio is so great. he is just sad and mad at the catholic church/italian government and its making him mad at God, and for him, its just easier to believe that God doesnt exist. but.. i know there are parts of him that know he exists. and that he's listening.. man.. i love nuccio. he told us last time that he stopped smoking and on our way here, we saw him riding his scooter, cigarette in mouth. haha so funny... he asked if he could bring beer to our last lesson too..... ha...... we're working on it alright... 

we started meeting with a less active named lucia (everyone here is named lucia. because of saint lucia.. look up the story.. hah brutal.) who never showers and wears a puffy rainbow jacket every day. she's so funny.. she LOVES us. like.. after every phrase i said she would tell me the words im saying are holy. hah yeah... alright lucia.. calm down.. shes funny.. we love her! 

i found a treasure of siracusa!!! BOTTLED coke light. yes....... i havent had one of these since the coke factory in vegas.. 

anyway..

sabastiano is just breaking our hearts. he is just content with what he has even though he knows the book of mormon is true and he loves it but he just thinks he cant change, to the point that he doesnt even want to know if the church is true or not. he even told us he doesnt believe the catholic church is true.. but just likes being a part of it. we were so sad after one lesson that we went and got pizza and ate it by the sea. (we talked about our sphere's of influence during district meeting... haha...) so...... i guess we are getting a taste of what heavenly father feels about us... when we KNOW something is true, but dont do anything about it. its like we have the tree of life right in front of us but we dont want to reach out and taste the fruit. just look at it..... doesnt make sense........... but i mean... we all have our agency. so..... his choice in the end. and no one can make his choices but him. 

i think i've told you about annamaria. i dont know if i told you but like a month ago we made her a ''i've read. i've prayed'' calendar, where she has to make off the days she's read and prayed. (she's a bit slow) and she lost it so we said a prayer and the next time she found it and it was like a miracle for her because God answered her prayer. so last time we gave her a proc. to the family. and she lost that too. so i suggested again that we say a prayer. and RIGHT after the prayer she found it and she started crying because she really realized it wasnt just a coincidence and that heavenly father really was answering her prayers. it was the cutest thing! i love annamaria... she is just..... man...... you need to meet this woman..... she is HILARIOUS. she makes everything better.

so i taught BASIC english for the first time without sorella spicq's help (she started doing french course). and..... haha man...... im a disaster.... advanced english.. that's different. cause people already english. and you can teach english in english! but when you teach basic, you have to teach english, in italian. (make sense?) so...... its just........ haha difficult........ but its fine....... they think im cute and i gave away 2 books of mormon!! one to a girl thats probably a little older than me and one to a mom who comes to english course with her husband and two daughters! so... we wanna teach them! a family! that would be SWEET.

it FINALLY stopped raining............ so thats good....... 

im tired ALL the time. its the worst.......... 

dont know what else to write.....

vi voglio bene!

s.lla sudweeks

pics: 

-the black pearl and sorella rosato

-bottled coke. best day ever.

-feet.......?

-filled up one whole journal! starting number two!

-hair cut. and church.