10/31

we had zone conference last thursday. it was the best. i love zone conference. president and sorella kelly are just awesome. i love hearing from them. sorella spicq and i did the musical number. she played and i sang ''this is the christ'' and everyone really loved it. man i just love zone conference haha. we went to catania for it. catania is beautiful! but i love siracusa... we did a split with sorella christensen (my other comp in the mtc) and sorella fuller (my old roomie at byu) and it was weird haha but fun. we had a good time. i usually dont really like splits but this one was fine. it was only for a morning so.. it was good. 

saturday night we went to listen to this family in our ward who have a band (they mostly just cover music) and they were playing music from the beatles haha it was the BEST. i loved it. reminded me of velour and muse in provo.. but... italians... singing british music.... the best. 

so the elders in siracusa have this investagator named giovanna and she is just the cutest one! i love her so much. they found her through english course and she is the greatest. haha i wish we were teaching her. but i always compliment her outfits and i dont know.. shes just so cute! and she has these earrings that i really love and she BOUGHT me some! look at her! cutest one! haha anyway... i dont have a picture with her yet but ill send one soon. i told the elders that i want to teach her hah.. :) well see.

so we are thinking about switching up english course so sorella spicq can start doing a french course, which means i will lose my bambino (children)'s course and have to teach basic which will be pretty hard...... gah........ well see haha....... but yesterday for english course i taught my kids how to play ''big booty'' (big booty, number one! number one, number four! etc..) and ''jig-a-low''

 haha, yes, basically we just play girls camp games in english... its the best though...... they are CRAZY. i have three 8-year-olds right now and..... man..... haha...... its fun though. they love me hah

we have this one investagator named vincenza and she is just.. so funny...... she is so old and pretty much only speaks sicilian so we literally can only understand about 10% of what she says, and its funny cause after every sentence she says ''hai capito, gioia?'' (do you understand, joy?) and we're just like ''si, si..'' haha no........ we dont understand sicilian. sorry....... so funny though. shes great. 

hah there are just so many good ones here.. graziano. he is SO funny... he works for nuskin and speaks nearly perfect english. man i am so excited to hangout with him in utah haha.. he's insane. he left for japan yesterday on a business trip and wont be back till the end of november so i said bye to him cause im not sure if i will be here next transfer and he said ''i will just pray for you to stay..'' and i said ''you have to!! do you pray everyday, graziano?'' and he said ''i pray sometimes.. you know.. God is a pretty ambitious guy and i like ambitious people, so i talk to him sometimes..'' haha... man. he is just the funniest one. 

we'll see though. from the looks of things i am going to be transfered out. but you never know with these kinds of things.. 

vediamo. 

alright.... not much else to write. i miss you all a lot..... things are getting better... still hard.. but better. 

YOURE THE BEST ONES!

sorella sudweeks

pics:

Siracusa/the island of ortigia

Ortigia

Vincenza

10/24

This week started out pretty tough but it got better as the week went on.

sabastiano bought sorella spicq and i catholic prayer plaques haha. man.. he's the best one... mine is of the holy ghost illuminating the scriptures because i ''have the gift of illumination'' and sorella spicq's has baby angels on it cause she ''has the gift of tranquility''.

yes.. sabastiano is the greatest one. he told us he didnt get the plauqes blessed so that we can have our priests bless them haha.. man.. so perfect. dont worry, its hanging above my bed. :)

on saturday we had a really fantastic lesson with a 17 year old kid named Elia. he is super open which is rare here and just so great. he said if he gets an answer that this church is true he wants to be baptized. elia is really an answer to my prayer. he helped me remember that there are still people here that need me.. when he prayed after the lesson he thanked God that the practice room was closed (where his band plays) so that when he was walking on the street, he was able to meet us.

monday we had FHE with the Gubilisco family and ate some DANG good sicilian pizza. man.. americans just didnt quite get it right. this pizza is heaven.

english course is sweet here. i never have to teach anymore haha. since there are elders and sisters here, the elders teach advanced and intermediate, sorella spicq teaches basic and i teach the childrens course, so basically i get to hangout with two 8-year old kids, singing songs and playing games. we played UNO yesterday haha... so funny...... i love with italians speak english. probably just as funny as me trying to speak italian...

after english course on tuesdays we have FHE with all the young single adults in church. i have the spiritual thought. usually one persons starts off the spiritual thought and then whoever wants to can say what they think or give insights and we all just learn from each other. its really cool. so i read the scriptures in mattew 27:46 and then read parts of elder holland's talk ''none were with him''. man...... so good!!! everyone's got to read it..

here is the link to his talk:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/04/none-were-with-him?lang=eng

anyway... this week was better than the last.

and i miss/love you all so much.

youre all the best..

and hang in there.

if time doesn't make things better, at least you'll get used to things being hard..

my prayers are with you :)

sorella sudweeks

10/17

alright.. so this week is an improvement from the last. thanks for all your prayers.. 

so i am in siracusa. its really beautiful. my area includes the city of siracusa as well as a little island (you cross a bridge to get to it) called Ortigia. which is italy like you dream it will be. seriously. its so beautiful. its been really rainy and humid but i think thats normal for this time of year here. there have been some pretty sweet lightning storms as well. not so sweet when they last the entire night and i have to run around the apartment shutting doors and windows at 1am so our apartment doesnt flood with rain ha... but... its okay. its been good. 

and yes, i am with my first mtc companion again, sorella spicq (from france) and we are just... doin work here. just makin it.. 

in our district there is anziano lacey and anziano smit (greenie).... so......... its different. not sure how i like having elders in my city. in ladispoli it was just us... (sorella ivory and me.) its just going to take some getting used to..... its fine though.......

well.... investagators...... there is sabastiano. he's about 60 i think and he is our one and only progressing investagator. and he is just the best.. he always comes into lessons having read something in the book of mormon that he really loved or telling us something that he's learned. he's so great. he came to church for the first time last sunday and when we asked him how it went yesterday he started talking about how he's been to many churches. and heard many people's preachings and studied many religions, but he almost started crying when he talked about his experience in church. ''theres something different here..'' it was a really beautiful lesson. he's really great and has such a big heart.. 

i really cant think of much else to write. its so hard to understand people down south in sicily. i think thats why i started near rome. cause they dont really have accents up north...... but here....... it sounds like a scottish person speaking italian. so weird.... 

love you all and miss you all like crazy. 

keep praying for me. i really can feel your prayers.... i think youre all the greatest. 

sorella sudweeks

10/3

hopefully this is your email... my email isnt working so i am sending it from my comps email address... hopefully i will get this all fixed by next week... 

allora..

i got transfered! so i am going to Siracusa tomorrow. in Sicily. and guess who will be my companion? sorella spicq! again!! so sweet... i am so pumped... i was super nervous about transfers, didnt sleep at all the night before we got our calls, but this is going to be so sweet.. and i heard siracusa is ridiculously beautiful so it will be good.. and sorella ivory is going to train in Ladispoli! shes going to do amazing..

my new address is:

sorella sudweeks

via polibio 17

96100 siracusa

italia

so.......... write me! 

well other than freaking out about transfers this week... we played soccer on thursday with a few ward members and investagators. it was so fun! i killed my knees a few times haha but it was great. we had a really good time.. our team dominated. giorgia came haha it was the best day... 

friday i hit my official '6 months in mish' mark. thats weird to think about..

we had a sweet fireside on sunday. Carl Champanie came who is the project manager of the Rome temple. it was so cool cause he brought a bunch of pictures of the construction and also projections of what it will look like. the ward members loved it and we had a ton of investagators in church because of it! so rad..

after we got transfer calls we went to see a few people for the last time.. one was maria. oh man, maria... she was just being so funny and at the end she grabbed my hand and yelled "FORTZA!!" (strength!) best thing... 

we saw andreina and she was so cute! she gave me one of her 'flower/fruit' paintings hah and bought me all these random pastries from a pasticceria to say goodbye. shes so cute hah.. 

yesterday RAFFAELLA called us. what?! we havent gotten a hold of her for like 3 months... so we are seeing her today. 

im going to miss giorgia the most though... i wrote her a nice note and printed some pictures for her... man.... also sorella ivory... after we got the calls i may or may not have cried just a little when i realized i have to leave sorella ivory... and also during district meeting.... alright, we both may have had a few breakdowns in the last few days haha..... but..... i mean its all going to be fine. we are both coming to peace with everything. so... dont worry hah..

uh...... not much else to say.. nothing too crazy.... i am all packed as of about an hour ago... pretty nervous.. its a 12 hour train ride and im going down with a bunch of greenies.. lead the way, sudweeks.. 

i love you all

miss you like mad

but doing well, anyhow.

keep keepin on everybody.

sorella sudweeks

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..)