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. 

11/13

ciao famiglia e amici!

so i am staying here in siracusa for another 6 weeks with sorella spicq. its going to be a little hard but i know in the end it will be a huge blessing. i know im going to learn and grow a lot this transfer, and i will really be able to work more on my italian (sorella spicq speaks perfettamente) so that will be good.. 

here's my address if anyone doesnt have it:

sorella sudweeks

via polibio 17

96100 siracusa, sicilia

italia

a few nights ago we ate pizza in church with one of my favorite people, nuccio. he is this old man we found through english course. he is just so funny... he said the prayer to bless the food and included.. ''thank you god for this food and hopefully next time these missionaries will let me bring some beer. it would just make everything better...'' haha so funny..... sorry nuccio... anyway. he is so great. his wife passed away i think about a year ago and he is just lonely and doesnt know what to do with his life.. he doesnt believe in god or anything but we're taking baby steps. we've been talking about what it means to have faith lately and its been really cool. one day he's going to believe. in fact, i think parts of him believe. i think he knows his wife isnt really gone.. just on the other side of something he cant see... haha man nuccio.... i love this man......

sunday was a 'holiday' for sicilians. everyone makes/eats zeppole. which are basically fried balls of bread with whatever you want inside. (nutella zeppole are my favorite :) so we went over to a less-active's house and she taught us how to make them. it was way fun. her name is maria aliano and she is just my favorite, tiny sicilian woman! she's so great.. we're having a zeppole activity with all the women in the ward tonight in church. making zeppole 4 DAYZ! 

right now we are in 3 because one of the sisters in catania got transfered to rome and we are waiting for her companion. so an italian sister, sorella rosato, has been with us for a few days. she is so great. and its been helping me a ton with italian because she doesnt speak a lick of english. i was pretty nervous for her to be with us but she is so hilarious. its been great. i hope i get to serve with her one day. she is bomb. 

not much else to say. its finally cooled down here. for some reason it has rained on p-day 3 weeks in a row now. probably so we dont go jump in the sea. sorry... its tempting sometimes.. haha... no.. but it is...... anyway.....

miss ya. love ya. prayin for ya. tell me where jill is going on her mish! man. so crazy. EM! when can you put your papz in? haha

CIAO. VVB!

sorella sudweeks

photos:

-sebastiano

-making 'zeppole' with maria

-UFO church

-doing 'casa in casa' in ortigia

-pizza with nuccio

-sudweeks, spicq, rosato

11/7

usually i look through my journal to see what we did during the week so i will know what to write you guys but i didnt have time today... so....... this will be interesting haha... the days all blur together so sorry if i tell you things you already know.

i learned this morning that obama won. thats a bummer. cant say im surprised though.. italians LOVE obama. its kind of hilarious. since they literally know nothing about him haha... whatever.

i forgot to say happy halloween last week haha. so........... happy halloween.

we did p-day in a town called Noto. its really beautiful. we wore normal clothes :) first time i've worn jeans on my mission! (yes they still fit.. haha geez..)  

we got dumped this week by elia. (he told us he doesnt want to see us anymore) 

not really anything new i guess but i had high hopes for this kid... oh well.. one day he'll come back. at least he has a book of mormon now.

still kind of stuggling to get through this transfer but its been okay at the same time. some days are harder than others. some days are really fun. its all just haha this mission roller coaster. 

sorry.. scattered thoughts.. 

transfer calls are this saturday. i really have no idea what is going to happen. we'll know saturday. 

wow.. sorry this letter kind of sucks. 

well miss you all. love you all. praying for you all. 

VI VOGLIO BENE.