9/26

well to start off, last p-day we went and saw the terni waterfall. only to find out it was TURNED OFF. yes. the WATERFALL was turned off............... like....... do they have a faucet up there or something? no.. i dont get it. 

anyway..... it was still really beautiful......

it was super fun too cause GIORGIA got to come cause she finally stopped working from 8am-8pm everyday! AND! she came to church on sunday!!! which was the best thing that has ever happened to me. i've been in italy 4 months and never seen her in church. it was GREAT. there were legit talks in church too. about sacrifice. 

a member (francesco) brought up an interesting point that there is only ONE thing that we can truely sacrifice to God, because got gave us everything. nothing we own is ours. our money, our things, even our time is God given. the only thing that is 100% ours is our WILL or our agency. we always have the choice of what we do and if we sacrifice our will to God, this is the greatest sacrifice. 

loved his talk. 

still attempting to learn how to cook. its a good excuse to get lessons haha... 'but how are we supposed to learn to cook italian food if you dont teach us?!' we went to rita's house for the first time in months. we had a fantastic lesson about temples and then she taught us how to make tomatoes with rice (perfect- vegetarian and gluten free!) it was super fun. i love being able to build relationships with all these great people. rita is so funny....... 

'that's not how you peel a potato!! oh....... your poor husbands..........'

we arent sure what happened with Anna... she suddenly moved to another city and doesnt want us to see her anymore....... its really sad.... i freaking love anna... i think she just felt pressured by corada (the member she was living with) because anna kept telling us over and over that she knew the church was true, but then was having a really hard time quitting smoking and i think corada might have just pushed her to hard. things like this are difficult. no one can expect someone to change overnight. its a process. for all of us..... anyway... she'll come around one day.. she's just not ready yet. and patience is a virtue. (really..)

also in church on sunday was maureen. okay.. she is this skinny african woman from nigeria (speaks english.. best thing ever..) and she randomly showed up to church with her 2 kids so we went to visit her yesterday and turns out she had met with the missionaries like 2 years ago, her sister is a member and she knows the church is true and wants to be baptized. so we set a baptismal date with her for the 27th of october. the one problem is that she is living with the father of her children but he has been going through a divorce with another woman for the past, who knows how many, years and so they are not legally married. SO we are praying for a miracle to happen..... PLEASE pray that she will be able to get married to her companion before this date! she wants to be baptized so bad and be able to raise her children with the gospel but cant unless she gets married first. so pray for her!! haha...... okay but i just have to tell you all.... if you've ever seen the cartoon Thumbelina, she is LITERALLY the mother toad from that movie. its perfect. im serious.

well.. we visited maria again this week. my favorite one haha... 

'ma chi é?' (who are you?)

'sono sorella sudweeks.' (i am sorella sudweeks)

'eh?!' (what?)

'sono sorella sudweeks!'

'AUGURI!' (more or less- CONGRATULATIONS!) 

oh my gosh... so funny.......... she cracks me up every time........ BEST old lady ever.

okay.. gotta write president now. transfer calls are in 3 days. and i am freaking out... its fine.... we'll see. i'll let you konw next week whats happening. 

LOVE YOU ALL! vi voglio un MONDO di bene!

ciiiiiiiiiaooooooo

sorella sudweeks

1594 - waterfall

1619 - tomatoes with Rita

0204 - Giorgia, Ivs and Suds

we had stake conference last sunday and it was SWEET. Elder Nelson came and spoke to our stake which was ridiculously cool. he spoke a ton about families and it was so perfect cause we had a few less active families come (which is legit because the conference was in the middle of rome (about 1.5 hrs away) 

anyway.. it was awesome. i loved it. its getting me pumped for general conference haha. 

Crostada

um...... so a few days ago we were doing some house and there was a citof with 60 names on it. we rang 58 with no luck and the 59th one we rang let us in. moral of the story.... start at the bottom next time (nah nah... just kiddin...) but really sometimes you have to keep going, even when you dont want to.. but anyway, this guy was sweet. he was this super old dude and had pillows all over his house with his wife's face on it and told us about how she'd passed away and his whole story. he used to be an olympic runner for italy back in the day, like 50 years ago and showed us all his trophies and stuff. it was awesome. he doesnt seem to have much interest in the gospel but well see how things go with him.. ma speriamo bene.

we did another exchange this week. i dont know, somehow we got really popular really quick and everyone wants to do exchanges with us. (obviously... have you SEEN us?) it was pretty fun. our first one was with Rome 2 and this one was with Rome 3. i did it with sorella winward. she is so sweet. i can tell things are hard for her in the mission right now but she is just so patient and loving and just doing her very best, which is all we can really do. so... that was fun. Rome 3 has two companionships in their apartment so that was weird. hah.. but fun anyhow.

It says Choose the Right in Italian

mm........ how much else to report on........ missions are weird. they teach you a lot. about other people. families. relationships. but mostly about yourself. and how to be your best self. its pretty sweet... and also weird. but i love it. 

sorella ivory is still awesome. still the best one. still working hard and doing her very best. i love her so much. 

transfer calls are a week from saturday so no.. not sure what's happening yet.

i love ladispoli though. its seriously the best city. i hope i stay here at least one more transfer. with sorella ivory with be awesome, but i just dont see that happening..... mostly cause she's been in this city since february.. but you never know with these kinds of things. 

love you all. miss you all. jealous that you get to go to disneyland and lake powell. (thanks for the postcard, nat!) and im trying to get stuff off in the mail to halle and logan soon. 

also thanks for the necklace kim! so cute!! 

VI VOGLIO BENE! mi scrivete! 

send more peanut butter! ;) 

Sorella Sudweeks

we had zone conference this last week. i love zone conference. president and sorella kelly are awesome and i love hearing them speak to us. (not to mention sorella kelly gave us an amazing bread recipe)

right after zone conference i did my first exchange with the sorelle in rome 2. that was interesting. haha... they didnt have any appointments set up so we ended up just doing a ton of finding.. which was fine.. but it also just made me appreciate ladispoli so much more! i love ladispoli. we just have the best ward and the sweetest investagators! speaking of-

we had a fantastic family home evening with Anna (the golden one from Sicily) and corada, and zortzi (members) and anna taught us how to make these weird cheese/spinach bread things (see picture) and they were SO GOOD. OH MAN. it was so fun. we had such a great time and just spent time getting to really know her and build that relationship with her. we had a great lesson with her and then after she pulled out a guitar and started singing traditional sicilian songs! it was so awesome! i loved it..

we started english course again. some girls that were in my class a few months ago started coming again. they had all taken a vacation during the summer to Puglia and brought me and sorella ivory necklaces from there! how sweet!! 

its starting to cool down a bit.. not too much yet but its not deathly hot anymore. 

uh.... cant really think of much else to write. 

we see maria once a week now for service. i LOVE maria. she is the funniest woman i have ever talked to. i was trying to teach her some english words last time we went like 'sicily' (in italian cecilia) and i was saying 'SI-SUH-LEE' and after a couple minutes of her trying she gave up and said 'tu stai li. oi sto qui' (you are there. i am here.) it was so funny... maybe you had to be there..

anyway.. 

not much else to report on this week. GIORGIA STOPS WORKING SOON! so she will be able to come to church again. GAH! so excited... anyway...

vi voglio bene!

sorella sudweeks

ps. if you write me letters in the next couple weeks, send them to the mission office because transfer calls are soon and i may not be in ladispoli next transfer. (i hope so... but... well see..)

Banner Laura made for Sorella Ivory's one year mark

1 year left! this week sorella ivory completed 1 year in the mission and tomorrow i will hit my 'no repeat day'. 

so.... that's pretty weird haha. 

so arcangelo still isnt making progress... which is frustrating because he knows its all true. he brought his whole family to church this last sunday even without the wife (she had to work) and he was wearing a suit which he doesnt usually do either so that was good but its just frustrating because he knows exactly what he needs to do to change and be baptized and be sealed to his family in the temple but he just doesnt want to do it yet. and... this has just made me think about how many times in my life when i knew exactly what was right and what i needed to do or not do but i went against what i knew and just did what i wanted and not necessarily what was right. and i thought about how frustrated God must be with me! so..... hopefully i can be better and keep moving forward and trying my best and just remember that its important to follow the right path, even when sometimes its not the easiest to do or its not what we necessarily want to do... 

boh. 

anyway.

Disinfecting their room

the other day during studies, sorella ivory went to get something in the room and screamed at me to come look at something. at first i didnt see anything but she made me look really close at her comforter and there were hundreds of tiny tiny insects crawling around on it. needless to say we then spent the next couple hours cleaning and disinfecting our room of bed bugs and other insects. so that was fun hah... she's still paranoid. rightfully so.

so we met with our golden anna the other day and she told us this crazy experience she had. she said that 20 years ago she'd been praying to know what path heavenly father wanted her to go because she was searching for the truth and really just had big desires to do whatever God wanted her to do. she said she had a vision or dream of two young men with white shirts, ties and name tags. and this happened 20 years ago and she still remembers it. anyway, right after our first visit with her she opened a Liahona magazine to a page that had 2 elders and their testimonies on it. she was in shock. then, on sunday she and corada (the member she's staying with) went to church together, but to a different ward (corada's son's ward) and they had elders in their ward and she said they were the answer to her prayer and she knew that this is the right church and the church that God wanted her to be apart of and she said that we were her angels that were sent to her to help her understand and become part of this church. 

Her favorite thing to get in Rome

we also went and visited old lady maria. she is my favorite... usually she's not very aware of things going on and just says 'mamma mia! mamma mia!' over and over or 'aiutomi! aiutomi!' (help me!) so we usually just ask her questions and try to get her to focus on anything but she was super aware when we went and visited her this last time and was just being so funny. we asked her how to many lasagna from terni (where she's from) and she said 'why don't you go there and ask THEM.' oh man.. shes a funny one..... haha i love visiting her though. she's so cute and just.. is the sweetest one. i was showing her pictures of my family and whenever she'd see a picture of logan, my baby nephew she'd say he was a cute little meatball. haha. 

allora... things are going well in ladispoli. it was a pretty hard week but heavenly father is blessing us so much. its crazy. i know numbers down matter but............ our zone leader told us we had the best numbers in the zone this last week. and i literally dont feel like we did anything different but heavenly father really just blessed us with so many opportunites for lessons and getting new investagators. it was insane. 

oh yeah! we contacted that family referral last wednesday and they loved the first lesson and came to church and everything! and they said when they come to know its true they will be baptized and we're meeting with them tomorrow to set a baptismal date so they can have a goal to work toward. hopefully all goes well with that. 

uh..... the hot weather literally changed overnight on sept. 1st to being chilly and rainy. cant complain. i love it WAY more than being hot.. but i heard next week should get hot again.. but after than its gonna start getting pretty cold, pretty fast. so.. i'll enjoy this weather while i can. 

shoutout:

brittany eliason - i sent you something in the mail. email me if you get it! (its important.. :)

not much else to say but i love you all!

VVB.

Sorella Sudweeks 

Arcangelo

okay so i've told you a bit about arcangelo. his whole family is members but he doesnt want to change. well we had a lesson with him this last week about eternal families and it was SUCH a good lesson. the spirit was so strong and i know he felt the spirit but he'd never admit it (cause that'd mean he'd have to act hah..) but he started tearing up at one point when i was talking about how i knew that my family was going to be together forever and how it meant so much to me to know that and we asked his 7 year old daughter sara if she wanted to be with her dad forever and she said 'sì!' and he couldnt hold it in any longer but then started fanning himself saying it was hot hah... the point is he felt the spirit so strong and we invited him to be baptized but he said he didnt want to have a date. the thing is sara will turn 8 in a little less than a year and i really think she will be the one who will help him the most. because right now he doesnt have a job and is just at home with her all day and we gave her a kids book of mormon and a regular book of mormon for her birthday about a week ago and committed her to read with her dad everyday. (we're so sneaky) anyway... in his time, i know he'll get baptized. just not yet.. he's just not ready so change yet.. but one day! we are going to have a sweet lesson with arcangelo and a convert member tomorrow which will be awesome because i know arcangelo really respects this guy. i'm pumped! 

Trevi Fountain 

paola. so great. haha..... we set a baptismal date with her this last week but.. we'll see with her haha. she is just a little crazy and i think she's on a different level of understanding than most people. after we set the date with her she said that her biggest fear was to be born into another world after she died. (dont worry, we've taught the plan of salvation like 3 times to her) so...... we just need to go over a lot of things before that happens..... but also just make sure she really understands and see if this is something she really wants to do. for herself. not for us. anyway. she's great. she came to church sunday!! but slept through pretty much the whole thing hah...... we're working with her. love her. 

also, we have a dinner appointment tonight with a family referral (mom, dad, kid) so..... its pretty big and is making me pretty nervous. we were practicing teaching this morning and sorella ivory felt like i need to invite them to be baptized. and... then i got really nervous and maybe a little nauseous haha.... nah nah... but really... but it'll be good. im so excited for it and the family seems so prepared! 

The Pantheon

so monday was pretty rough, i wont lie.. sorella ivory and i both had just a little bit of a what we like to call, breakdowns, after district meeting, mostly because we both have this problem of comparing ourselves to other missionaries. and monday was just mostly all around an awful day. 

when it rains, it pours....

but also it means things can only get better. and the best part is that they did. tuesday we went to visit a less active (corada) and when we got to her house she was getting her mail (which never happens) so we got to walk up the stairs with her and she explained that her friend/sister (not sure which) was at her house and she had given her a book of mormon and she said she wanted to learn more so we went in and taught lesson zero to a GOLDEN investagator. seriously. wants to meet with us twice a week. so ready and so open. her name is anna. she is so great and im so pumped to start teaching her.

New haircut

um........ there was a tornado in ladispoli during church on sunday haha... it was POURING rain like i've never seen. of course it only lasted about an hour and was gone... but giorgia got a picture of the tornado (it was on the sea, chill...) 

we went and visited maria, this super old italian lady who is SO funny. she's a member but obviously cant come to church (or get out of bed hah.) she started singing us all these funny italian songs and when we asked her to pray, she said the lord's prayer..(she's like 98)  and her daughter who was watching her busted up laughing so hard. it was the best thing.. so.. monday, worst day, tuesday, best day. seems to be how things go around these parts lately..... 

dont worry, i still love sorella ivory with all my heart. she is the best one and we keep each other in line. but.... we have a good time too haha..... 

miss you all

V.V.B.!

Sorella Sudweeks