Leaving for Italy

Ciao Tutti!

 

so we got out travel plans this week. uh....... what??? yeah. so we leave the mtc tuesday morning around 8am and we fly out at 11:30. crazzzyyyy! i am so excited but also very very VERY nervous. my district leader shared Deut. 31:6,8 with me on friday night which really helped me feel peace about going to a new country and trying to somehow communicate the message of salvation to italians. God won't forsake me. ever.

 

in sacrement on sunday i sang "Be Still My Soul" ("Anima Mia") and it went really well. i'm getting pretty good at singing in italian ;] after i sang, my branch president spoke and shared one of my favorite scriptures that i've had written out by my desk- D&C 6:36 "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." man.. i feel like his whole talk was directed toward me. it was awesome. my branch presidencey is awesome.

 

so i have been super stressed about the language and praying and praying and PRAYING for help and i know that God has been guiding me through this whole process but it hasn't been the least bit easy, and i know its because He had a lot for me to learn. I have been struggling and stuggling with the language but for some reason, since this past monday, the language has been a lot more fluid for me and coming more easily. for the first time i talked the majority of the time in one of our lessons, after which, my teacher pulled me aside and asked what i did to prepare and told me that that was my best lesson i had taught up to this point.

this later monday night we had TRC (talking to returned missionaries and native italians) and i shared an experience in italian and i talked for like 15 minutes straight. i didn't even know i had 15 minutes of italian in me! ;]

anyway- after TRC, the volunteers write little evaluations of how we did and both of our slips mentioned me personally and said how good my italian is. yeah. God's blessing me...... a ton.....

 

okay well this will be the last email i write from the provo MTC. keep the letters coming to me in Italy!

Sorella Sudweeks

Italy Rome Mission

Piazza Carnaro 20

00141 Rome, Italy

 

vi voglio bene!!

 

Sorella Sudweeks

Real Investigator

lots to say and not much time! here goes!!

so this last week has been the hardest but the best! at the beginning of the week i had started to get a little discouraged because of how the language isn't coming along as fast as i had hoped and how i didn't feel adiquate enough to be teaching this gospel. and i was just overwhelmed..... i got a blessing from one of the elders in my district one night and i didn't even really tell him what was bothering me and the blessing he gave me was amazing and addressed every fear and concern i had about being here. it was the craziest thing. after the blessing i talked to my companions about it and sorella christensen said "its cause they weren't his words..." i know the priesthood is real and that those who are worthy to hold it hold the power of God. what a beautiful blessing!

this last sunday was fast and testimony meeting and our entire ZONE got to bare our testimonies in italian. it was so cool and so powerful! at our last fast and testimony meeting non of us could speak hardly any italian and now we are bearing witness of what we know in a very powerful way. its really awesome to see our progression.

so we have been doing this thing lately where one companionship teaches and the other companionship and the teacher get to watch through this mirrored window and observe our lessons. in preparation for our lessons, i usually write out sentences of things i need to say during the lesson cause i dont feel confident in italian. one of the elders in my district challenged me this week to not bring my notebook into my next lesson. i really really didn't want to but i knew it was necessary so i took the challenge. the lesson went AMAZING. it was SO hard but so awesome because i had to rely completely on the spirit to help me know what i should say and how to say it. it was awesome.

so now i am not allowed to bring my notebook into any lesson haha.... its good for me though.

okay! so remember Gabrielle, the cardullo's italian friend who came over for dinner that one night? who isn't a member? well he came to TRC monday as a REALLLLLL investagator!! it was sooo awesome and i hope he comes back. some elders in my district got to teach him which is UNREAL for the mtc. so cool! we sang to him in italian and it was just remarkable.

a couple nights ago one of my favorite sisters here left the mtc. Sister Mackenzie Gannon! montreal mission! shout out! love you girl and hope you are doing well. see you in 18 months ;]

um...... well we got our new district yesterday!! that means we are the old ones. i remember when we first came in, the old district seemed like they were YEARS ahead of us and now.. that's how we are to them. weird.

well i have less than 3 weeks left! i love you all!

Sorella Sudweeks

Right now, I'm giving up fear for faith

hey everyone!

 

so sorry that my letters are super unorganized. we have a certain amount of time we're allowed to be on so i just kind.. go........

 

so first- Sunday for relief society we had a guest speaker. Ann M. Dibb. the prophets daughter. um. so cool! she basically just told us stories about her childhood and some lessons she'd learned and then she was like "so last night i was taking a drive with my parents..." all casual. so with the prophet. no big deal............ haha anyway she asked the prophet what advice she should share with us. she told us a bunch of stories. the one that stuck out to me, i had heard before, but she told the story about when president monson was a bishop and he had a prompting during a sacrement meeting to go visit one of the ward members in the hospital. but he didn't want to leave in the middle of the meeting. he got the prompting again and ignored it, telling himself he'd go right after sacrement. as soon as sacrement was over he rushed to the hospital where he found out that the guy he went to visit had just passed away and was asking to see him. moral of the story- never ignore a prompting. no matter how stupid you may feel. always, ALWAYS, follow promptings.

 

then in sacrement with our zone, i sang a musical number with another sister and an elder. we sang "i know that my redeemer lives" in italian. it was powerful and i wont lie... we sounded amazing ;]

 

at the sunday night devotional Steven B. Allen of the missionary department came and spoke. it was one of the most intense talks i have listened to. like.. ever.. he talked a lot about enduring hard things on your mission and pushing through the hard times because no matter what, it will be worth it. then he called us all to repentance. it was so intense. he is such a fantastic speaker.

 

on monday we had class with one of our teachers that doesn't normally teach but is over the italian department. Brother Bullouch. he is amazing. and for about an hour during class he pretty much bore his testimony about how SYL (speak your language) is amazing and helps missionaries so much and is what we all should be doing.

he sold it. the whole time he was talking i knew he was going to challenge our district to only speak italian. now this may not seem like a big deal but when you think abuot it.... it is...... i started crying.. out of fear of losing my personality and not being able to express what i really feel. i mean... its a scary thing! we decided as a district we were only going to speak italian from that point on. we set up two chaires in the room and one side of the room was english and the other was italian and you had to walk through the chairs and it was like leaving the english language behind and you say your last words in english. SO INTENSE!!

so............ i was the last one to go.. i said "right now, i am giving up fear for faith." and walked through the chairs. man... chairs have never scared me this much. so i have been struggling through the last few days, trying be best to speak italian..... messing up a lot but hey...... its actually been really good. i have been learning a lot faster and realizing the things i need to learn in order to be able to talk day to day.......... its crazy. it has also kept us more focused, cause lets face it, the only thing we really know how to talk about in italian is the gospel. so that's good too.

 

um...... lastly- on tuesday night, we had a devotional (we have them sunday and tuesday nights) and Russel M. Nelson came and spoke. 2 things from his talk:

"there is cleansing, healing, enabling power in the atonement."

"true testimony is irrefutable"

 

well anyway... i love you all and i miss you a lot. keep writing me!

and keep praying!!! HE ANSWERS!

 

Sorella Sudweeks

Laura said Hi to David Archuletta

CIAO!!

 

how is everyone doing!? this last week at the mtc has been awesome! we got to hear from M. Russel Ballard on sunday and then Larry Gibbons of the 70 on tuesday! something that general authorities have been repeating (at least that i've picked up) lately is to go forward without fear and in faith. i am trying so hard to make this true for myself. i have a lot of fears right now about teaching people in a language i can hardly understand, but at the same time, doing the things i am doing right now is forcing me to put ALL my trust and faith in the lord. its all a big process and i know in the end, if we all can just increase our faith in Christ, our fear will be defeated.

 

so i know mom's wondering (no he's not going to italy) david archuletta.. wait.. elder archuletta was in the mtc with me. he entered on the same day but he left to chile on monday. he sang in the devotional on sunday and man....... that kid is SO shy and SO timid but i am telling you... he is powerful. he sang The Spirit of God and i know the entire congragation felt the spirit. he sang the second verse in spanish which was really cool. monday morning i saw him walking and complimented him. ah yeah ;]

 

after the devotional we watched The Testiments. i forgot how much i love that film.

 

okay so crazy experience-

well not really but read this anyway...

monday night the fire alarm went off in the girls building at 1:30am. i think we all about died. the sound was SO loud and we were all just so dazzed. it think we layed there for like 5 minutes (still half asleep. and hoping it would just go away...) and finally i was just like 'what IS THAT!?!?!" i was pretty mad haha......... then one of the sisters in my room went to the door and there were sisters just BOOKING it out of the building. she was like 'uhhhhh........ sisters?! i think we should go!" "WHAT?!" i said... yeah........ so we threw on hoodies and ran out the door. we got evacuated to the parking lot and were all freezing our butts off in the mtc parking lot so they opened the gym for us which is right next to our building and went in there. we waited for anyone to tell us what was going on for like 20 minutes, thinking of who would pull the firealarm and hoping that whoever did gets sent home for being a fool.... finally they let us back into our building. literally the second we got back into bed all cozy, the alarm started going off AGAIN. i think sorella christensent about died. haha.... and then off a minute later. but we were all so mad. it took us all about 2 hours to fall back asleep and we still had to wake up at 6:30.........

 

turns out of was some sort of an electrical malfunction. but man.......... that suuuuuuuucked.

 

haha anyway.. i'm running out of time. but i love you all. write me!!!!!

dearelder.com is so easy!!!!!!!!  

 

oh i got 2 new companions yesterday (my companion left to italy cause she already knew italian)

they are pretty cool. its hard but it will work out.

sorella christensen and sorella openshaw. they're the coolest.

 

okay well................ i love you! stay strong in the gospel!

emilee. i want a letter.

 

i'll write again next week!

 

sorella sudweeks

Ciao Famiglia!!

Ciao famiglia!

 

i hope everyone is doing well. this week has been jam packed with italian, gospel and all sorts of other crazy. we work hard everyday. everyone is exhausted by the end of each night. so i sleep well here. even though the beds aren't super great.

i think about you all every day. and all your wonderful spirits!

 

on easter sunday, we had a devotional and got to hear the words of Boyd K. Packer! it was amazing! also- easter night, the byu men's choir came and sang to the missionaries and i was crying by the end of it. music is such a blessing and brings the spirit so strong.

 

last night (tuesday) bishop mcmullin came and spoke with his wife. they talked a lot about replacing fear with faith. they gave beautiful talks. i got to say the closing prayer!!! that was really awesome. i really felt heavenly father helping me know what to say. it was weird too cause i haven't prayed in english in 2 weeks so i had to concentrate on that. =]

 

anyway.. i am thinking of you all!

 

write me! (dearelder.com)

 

God loves you! and listens to your prayers! pray always and be generous in baring your testimonies!

 

Sorella Sudweeks

First Letter!!!

Hey family!

 

so i dont even know where to start. my first week at the mtc has been crazy. and i feel like i have been here for months. they days have all kind of just smashed into a whole bunch of days and if someone asked what i did on friday, i would just have no idea.

so i love my district. and everyone here. its really cool cause everyone says hi to everyone in their respective languages. so i say "ciao!" about 50 times a day. its awesome. and its not weird if you start up a conversation with a random person. in fact, its a little weird if you dont, because we are being trained to be some of the most social people on earth and always trying not to be shy or held back. its really cool. i have met so many new people and i just love it.

i had a really crazy experience this week. so my first day here i felt the spirit super strong and my heart felt like it was going to beat out of me chest! then for the next few days i didn't feel the spirit as strong and i even wrote in my journal about how i felt like the spirit has withdrawn from me in a way. but i prayed and something was brought to my remebrance that the spirit withdraws before emense spiritual growth or an important event in one's life. like when the atonement was taking place and Jesus said "why hast thou forsaken me".

anyway- we went to the TRC and got to speak and teach real italians from italy and it was really hard because my companion, sorella spicq ("speak") who is from france, and has studied italian for 6 years, and is amazing by the way.... she mostly talked and i honestly couldn't follow hardly anything they were saying and i just felt very small and it was just difficult to be in that situation. at the end of the lesson, the "investigator" prayed and he blessed me in his prayer and i understood everything he said. and i just started bawling because the spirit was just so strong and i just felt God's arms encircle me. it was amazing.

 

well i dont have much time, but i love and miss you all.

write me!!! dearelder.com is so easy!!!!

thanks for all your love and support!
Sorella Sudweeks

Mission Photo