December 26, 2012 - Natale! Christmas!

 Buon giorno cara famiglia! (Good morning dear family!)  How did the rest of your Christmas go? It was SO great to see all of you and talk to all of you! We have such a great family and I am so blessed. I love and miss all of you. Soon enough we will all be reunited and partying together again! MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

And yes, I'm getting transferred to the beautiful city of Savona. A city on the coast of the Mediteranean sea. I'm so excited! The region of Liguria is beautiful! And they are famous for foccacia and pesto. Two of my favorite things. :) The work has been going really well there this last transfer. We'll be praying to be able to keep that up. I'll be with Sorella Durfee! I'm a little bit sad to be leaving Milano because we have so many great golden people here! But that's alright. They will be in good hands. 

Our Christmas was so fantastic. First, our Christmas zone conference was a blast! So many marvelous things to tell... let me summarize. Our training was about opening up and bearing more powerful more personal testimonies. Then they had the "dying missionaries" bear their testimonies. Sorella Lloyd bore the most amazing testimony I do believe I have ever heard. I shed quite a many a tear. Oh I love that woman. I will miss her dearly as will the people here in Italy. Her homecoming with be Jan. 14th if you want to go, parentals. In Lehi. I'll see if I can get the exact info. She is so wonderful. We had great times in Pordenone together. Then Sorella Lloyd sang O Holy Night with Sorella Lyman on the violin. Then the Wolfgramms talked about Christmas. Then we did the nativity "alla Wolfgramm" and sang Christmas carols while everyone was getting ready. That was a hoot. It included President playing the role of Rudolf. Heel-clicks included. That was a happy moment. Then we watched some clips of the life of Christ. Then President and Sorella Wolfgramm gave us all scarves and ties to unite us as a mission. It is beautiful. I love the Wolfgramms! 

OUr Christmas Eve was quite wonderful as well. We taught a beautiful lesson with Sara, Gianni's daughter. Then we went and sang at the Duomo with the other Milano missionaries. Then we went to midnight mass. Then we went home and slept until 7:30. Then for Christmas we went to the church at Milano Lampugnano and watched a Disney movie with the Sorelle there. Then we went to lunch at the Dulin family's home. Best philipino meal ever! Then we went home and slept for a bit. Then we went and talked to you! Then we went home and I wrote a letter to myself to be opened next Christmas (our teachers in the MTC to do this last year and I've decided to make it a tradition. Mine from last year was pretty great.) It was such a fun Christmas! My favorite was singing carols at the Duomo. We sang a few others that were not quite Christmas, but still brought a good spirit (Called to Serve, the mission hymn, the Spirit of God, Joseph Smith's first prayer... ha... It was the Anziani's idea.) That was fun to spread some Christmas spirit to everyone there. 

It's been a good week. I love being a missionary. It's the best time of my life. I can't wait to talk hours on end to you about everything that happens here. There is no way I could possibly include everything. Ever. But I will talk for hours on end about everything. 

Be ready. :)

Love you so much family! Wish me buon viaggio (good trip) to Savona! Transfers actually aren't until Friday. So I'll leave Friday morning. I'm excited. Vi voglio bene! Buon Natale!  

(I love you!  Merry Christmas!)

Sorella Forbes

Sorella Forbes and Dear Sorella Wolfgramm, the Mission Mom.

 The Mission Nativity

Me and Sorella Cano, our dear RS President here.

 I may or may not have offered to let her come stay with us in a year or two. 

She wants to visit Salt Lake with her daughter. She's amazing. 

And then Via Meda on Christmas Eve. 

This is pretty close to our apartment. We are blessed.

 

 Us and the Assistenti. We've served in the same ward for quite some time! 

Now we're all being split up. Bummer deal. They are awesome. 

Anziani Herrington and Sciaretta.

 Our Christmas choir at the Duomo!

 All the Sorelle on Christmas Eve. 

Someone gave us all roses while we were singing... ha!

                                                              Me on Christmas morn. 

Christmas lunch with the Dulins!

December 25, 2012 - An Italian Skype!

     Had a wonderful conversation with this beautiful girl!  She is so happy!  and loving her missionary life!  We are so proud of her...five months to go.

December 19, 2012 - I vero spirito di Natale "The True Spirit of Christmas"

"L'amore di Cristo è il vero spirito di Natale." 

"The love of Christ is the true spirit of Christmas.

The love of Christ is the true spirit of Christmas. Says one of the first presidency. I can't remember which. But it was from the first presidency Christmas devotional. I'm trying to keep this in mind this week as we are nearing Christmas. I LOVE being a missionary at Christmas time. This week we've started a teach to find approach about how Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, and then leading that into thinking of and learning more about Christ can help it be a more joyful time. And then how the Book of Mormon helps us do these things. Something like that. But it's great. We've got some people talking to us with that. Christmas is in the air here in Milano! It's BEAUTIFUL! There is a giant tree in front of the Duomo. It's beautiful!

This email probs won't be much since I'm talking to you next week!!!! I'm so excited. I can't believe it's already Christmas. That is just crazy. 

This week has been a strange one. We're just now getting back on a normal schedule. We've been traveling around a lot and we had a scambio with the Varese sorelle, so we're trying to get back to normal. Ma va bene. My scambio with Sorella Bush was fabulous. We set a baptismal date with Karin, Martin's ex on Thursday. I just love her so much! I have a good feeling about her. Abby will not be baptized this month, but she has so much faith and knows this is right. We're praying hard for her. We also started visiting a part member family this week. The wife and oldest kid are members. They have two younger kids baptism age that are not baptized and the dad is not a member. They had a son die a little over a year ago. They had met with misisonaries before then but he was never interested in baptism. He loves the church, thinks the book of mormon is true, but never wanted to take that step. We had a beautiful lesson with them on the Plan of Salvation this week and I believe this could be the dad's time. THey want an eternal family. I love them so much!

The snow is coming down hard here. ON Friday we had to go to Bergamo so Sorella Lyman could play the violin in a concert there. That was fun. We're just getting to share all of our talents! I love it. Sorella Lloyd and Brown from Milano 1 also went, and the Bergamo Sorelle both have studied classical voice. Sorella Padula will be a famous opera singer some day, and I was in heaven listening to her on Friday at Bergamo. Beautiful!!! That was fun. We all stayed the night with the Bergamo Sorelle. Then our train the next morning was cancelled because of the snow, but we caught one not too long after. But that was fine. Didn't get much sleep because I was on the floor and it was cold, and loud neighbors, but we have amazing sorelle here! I was grateful to get to spend some time with them and hear all of them share their talents. I was the page turner for the piano players. :)

About that call, dad... sorry about that. Here's the story really quick. We were at correlation with our ward mission leader. he asked us what we were doing for Christmas and I said we had to find someone to help us out with a computer to skype. He said he had it on his phone and we could use that. He said "let's call right now and see if it works!" I said no no no fratello... and he kept saying "Dai! Facciamo!" And so i didn't think he could  call a house number from skype so i gave him the house number. He was calling and a voice machine came up in english and he passed me the phone, but it had ended by the time I got it. I was thinking "IT doesn't work!" And he said "facciamo un'altro. Vediamo cosa dice." So then he dials again and hold the phone up to my ear. I was expecting to hear a machine again, instead I hear "Hello?" Uh.... that's my dad... "HELLO?!?!" "HII!!!" "AAAHHH!!!" Fratello LaFranceschina takes back the phone really quick I'm up running around the room laughing with Sorella Bush and he just yells "Ciao da Italia!!!" in the phone. And hangs up. Oh gosh. My heart.... I hope it didn't scare you too bad. All is well. haha.

About the call next week. If all else fails we are coming to this internet place about 4-5 PM our time. 8-9 your time i believe. I'll send an email from the phone booth again if that has to change. I'm excited!

Something to think about this Christmas season: 3 Nephi 1. The Christmas story in the Book of Mormon! Read that chapter. I like to categorize the people into 3 different groups. Those with different levels of faith. I'll talk more about it next week. Thoughts?

Love you family! I'm so excited to talk to you next week! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS E BUON NATALE TUTTI!!!

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!

Sorella Forbes

 Going to see the "Last Supper" Painting.

Beautiful Italian Sorelle

 Creepy bone Church...

 Sorella Lyman and Sorella Forbes at Christmas time.

   Me at the Duomo! Christmas!!!

 Snow outside our balcony. 

The Albello family! I love them. 

They are from the Philipines. They made me wear a Santa hat. ha! They are the greatest. One of the families I always want to be in touch with. 

December 12, 2012 - I Saw Sorella Willey!!

Well, just on the Christmas devotional, but I was so happy and excited it merits the subject of this email. Sorella Willey, I hope you read this. And I hope you got my letter. I just love Sorella Willey. 

Buon giorno tutti! I'm still here in Milano. Still loving my life. My life this last week has been great. Well, it's great every week, but I live in Italy. So that's expected. We've been so busy! 

Friday we had the dance activity with the youth! It was great! We had about 8 youth come (including Karla, our investigator, Martin's daughter) and an older member who's kids wanted her to come check it out so they could come the next time if it was good. We're doing it again on Saturday. And they're coming. I guess everyone had fun. It was so weird teaching hip hop! I've been a missionary for a year now. And I haven't really danced for a year. But oh, it feels so good to dance. I'm so grateful. This Friday we are going to Bergamo so Sorella Lyman can play the violin in a concert there. We're just going all over the place. I'm so grateful for the opportunities we have to share our talents on our missions! We truly are blessed. 

We had our first snow this last week! It has  been so cold! We are layering up like crazy and staying warm. We've spent a lot of time outside ringing citofonos. We're always really grateful when someone let's us in.

I'm really excited about a lot of these potentials we have right now. They seem to really be prepared. It's still just been a problem trying to set up appointments with them. Especially at this time of year it seems everyone is working doubly hard. It's quite frustrating sometimes. 

Abby is still so great and wanting to get baptized. She wasn't able to come to church one week so we told her we would have to postpone the baptismal date, and she was disappointed, but then just looked up and said "okay when can I baptize?" And we told her the 22 of December. And she said she would be gone so "I will baptize the 29." Okay! We can do that. ha. She's reading the Book of Mormon every day and is praying and really sees that this will change her life and bring her closer to God and Christ. She's a champ. We just need to finish teaching her all the commandments and hopefully she'll have her interview next week and she'll be good to go. She's so sweet! Our philipino members all love her. They were so excited when she walked into church on Sunday. They'll take good care of her. 

Remember how last week I told you we were going to a big fair? Well, remember how it was the greatest thing ever?! They had stands from every part of the world. Italy had it's own pavilions. It was huge! Every region of Italy also had their own section and we tried a lot of food samples. I bought a wood carving from Alto-Adige, Fiorentino paper and journal, really warm socks from i don't remember where, and some goodies I'm actually sending home. I don't know if I can even describe it fully to you... I want to come back to it. Every year. It was amazing! Mom, you told me to buy a nativity. I tried. They had woodcarved nativities that were SO BEAUTIFUL! And I wanted one so bad. But they were way too pricey. We're talking 200 euros for a little one. So I just bought a hand carved Holy Family, With Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, a cow and a donkey. I like it. It's small, but means a lot to me. That's what's important. All the wood carving stands reminded me of all the wood carvings in Oberammergau when we went to Germany. I was in heaven at this fair! I think I spent all of my Christmas money. ha! We went to the Europe pavilion. I heard bagpipes. And we speedily walked towards the sound. They were calling to me. I'm scottish. I loved it. I wish we could have had more time there because we didn't even get to the Asia or Africa pavilions! BUt mama mia, it was beautiful. I'll be returning some day to that. 

Right now the lights in my life are Martin's family. Karla and Karin. His daughter and his ex. They are so beautiful and ready for the gospel. They've both accepted soft invites. Karla doesn't really understand baptism or even much about Christ, so tonight we're talking about that. And Karin loves talking about God and has so much faith! We're talking more with her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon tomorrow. I love them!!!

Oh yeah, I went to Como on Monday. Remember how I love my life? Como is gorgeous! And the chapel there is even more gorgeous! It's the old italian villa of a cardinal. But they've redone it all nice and it is wonderful. There is still a panel with the Madonna and Christchild on the outside of the building. I love that they left it. It's beautiful. Ha. I'll send you pictures. 

Tonight Sorella Bush and Sorella Beutler are coming here for scambio. And I finally get to be with Sorella Bush! We're really excited. Finally on our fourth blitz together, we get to be companions. Happiness and joy. We're all going to see the Last Supper today too! It will be a fun day.

I'm good! The work is good! We're working hard. I'm really excited for the way things are going. Milano is doing great. The Lord is preparing so many people here to receive the Gospel.

I'm so grateful to be a part of it!

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Forbes

December 5, 2012 - HO BALLATO! I DANCED!

Yes. I danced. Want proof? Here's a picture: 

We had a ward talent show. Martin and some members knew that I danced and had actually found me on YouTube, so they said I had to dance. I called President last Wednesday. I told him the situation and asked him if I could. He said, "well, OF COURSE!!! Sorella Wolfgramm and I are coming!" Haha. I asked him if I could listen to music to practice and he said "well, I would expect you to!" Haha so Martin found me the song "Somebody to Love" By Usher and Friday morning for exercise I choreographed a bit to add to what I could remember. It felt so good to dance again! Ah! I loved it. The ward loved it too. We announced after we'd be doing an activity where I would teach the youth to dance modestly this Friday and all the adults were saying "Anche vecchietti?!" (also for the old people?) It was fun. So maybe we'll be doing this dance activity a few times? I have permission. They've done two in Firenze with and Anziano that break dances and it's been a big hit. They are finding alot of people to teach through it. I'm excited. The Wolfgramm's are the greatest. THey came and after Sorella Wolfgramm gave me the biggest hug and said "I hope I get to see you dance again!!" And Presidente shook my hand and said "è fantastica!" I just laughed. It was so much fun. I call them my parents away from my parents. :)

Yesterday we got invited to attend Consiglio with all the zone leaders, the assistants, and President in the Mission Home. That was fun! First of all because Sorella Wolfgramm made breakfast AND lunch for us (Those zone leaders are so spoiled. Nobody cooks like Sorella Wolfgramm cooks), and second of all because it was really neat to get to see the overall scope of what's happening in the mission. I have a better appreciation for numbers! ha. We also set the Standards of Excellence for next year and we got to give some input. It was a great fun experience.

So the last two weeks were SO ROUGH, work wise. We're keeping our spirits up and trying to keep working in faith. Literally ALL of our appointments we set up with potentials fell through and we haven't had a whole lot of success in finding. We only taught 7 lessons last week. And that was with 1 progressor, our new converts, and some random things here and there. It was hard! Sorella Lyman hadn't even been able to give her first real baptismal invite! Which is strange. We invite to baptism every day, most of the time. But our faith and hard work is paying off. Yesterday we got 3 new investigators. 1 is a woman we found doing casa last week. She seemed really open and was understanding and accepting, but then to baptism she said absolutely not... vediamo. We have another appointment with her next week. Sandra is the cutest golden girl! A member brought her to the talent show on Friday and she was curious to know more so we set up with her and Monday we had the greatest lesson! The spirit was so strong! I recited the first vision and after the spirit hit us all in the face SO STRONG! It was one of the strongest times i can rembmer feeling it after the First Vision. We sat in silence for a second and I just asked her "How do you feel right now?" And she said "Meravigliosa!!!" She accepted everything. Including baptism. She said she already believes everything. She's the cutest. I just love her! And then we had an FHE with Martin's family and our member family, the Ramos fam. It was so great! We shared a story from the Book of Mormon and Karin at the end said she never really got what the Book of Mormon was and thought it was just the Bible but now she sees that it's different and is interested! We have an apointment on Saturday with her. Not to mention Martin's daughter of 15 years that we are seeing tonight! I'm so happy! That was a miracle.

Last Thursday Martin brought his daughter to the church so we could help her study for her english test she had next day. So we studied a bit with her hoping that there would be an opportunity to ask if she wanted to learn more about the church (Ammon approach!). There was never a moment and she kept running in and out of the room (there were a lot of members there practicing for he talent show and she has made friends with a lot of the youth) and I was getting frustrated because we were wasting time. But something kept telling me to just wait and be patient. So I did. Then I was making calls and she came back in the room and was sitting down, asked me who I was calling and I just told her all the people who might want to learn more about what we teach and she said "can we talk for a second?" So I said YES!!! And we went in another room away from her dad and all the noise and she poured her heart out to me. I was able to bear testimony of some basic principles and express a want and the ability to help her. Needless to say, she is being prepared to accept the gospel. She will really be able to see the blessings. I'm so excited to teach her!

So this week things are picking up. We're feeling really good about it and still think we can have at least one baptism this month (Abby!). We just need to get people in Church!!! We're working hard and being blessed.

Love you family! Hope you all had a good week! Happy Christmas time! There are lights all over Milano and it's beautiful! But with that has come the COLD! It's cold. I'm layering up. And I bought some really warm boots. 

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!!!

Sorella Forbes

November 28, 2012 - Da quaggiu...

That means from down here... ha. We're on a bit of a low this week. I don't know what happened, but these last two weeks have been crazy! All of our people have disappeared. We have taught maybe a total of 14 lessons in the last two weeks. Which is SO weird. Usually here in Milano we are running around like crazy people because we are so busy! But not anymore. Nope. I keep telling Sorella Lyman "Sorry. Usually our lives are more exciting." I feel bad that she hasn't had a whole lot of teaching experiences. All of our appointments we set up with potential new investigators fall through. I'm not kidding. ALL of the appointments these last two weeks with potentials have fallen through. The only people we are teaching are our new converts, less actives, and members (which don't even count as a real lesson anyway...) It's rough! Abby is still progressing towards baptism but has just been crazy busy with work. But she's still planning on the 15th (if we can teach her everything in time) and she asked if she could give our number to 5 of her friends who are also open and willing to learn. (THAT'S FINE!) Patrick we're still not sure about, but he took a HUGE step of faith and came to church on Sunday. Even though it meant turning down a day of work (he doesn't have a job). HE CAME! We felt impressed to promise him in his lesson on Saturday that if he would make that sacrifice to come to church with faith in the Lord, he would be blessed. So he did. We were walking to church and he turned the corner ahead of us and I said "NO! Sorella! That's Patrick!" He came to all three hours. I was really happy.

But with all these appointments falling through, it means we are doing a LOT of finding. A lot of ringing doorbells. A lot of doors slammed in the face. I think on Monday we knocked on about 200 doors. From that we have 2 numbers. So our finding efforts aren't really seeing a lot of success. Which is really frustrating. Last night we had a bad experience and I almost cried after we left this woman's home. She let us in thinking we were catholic misisonaries. She is an older woman of about 88 years old. Her badante was there too and they invited us in to talk. We sat down and started talking and she told us a bit about her family how she is catholic how she taught the catechismo and everything... we started talking about prophets and we got this know card with a picture of the first vision that says "OGGI DIO HA CHIAMATO UN PROFETA." And she laughed at it because this supposed prophet was on the ground. she kept saying not even in a chair. We were trying to bear testimony and I showed her the Book of Mormon and she went off on Mormons and how they aren't Christian and how they don't read the Bible and how you can only have one wife and where did their church come from Christ lived in Israel etc. etc. etc.... I pulled out a Restoration pamphlet to give her. On the front it has a picture of Christ and says "La Restaurazione del Vangelo di Gesù Cristo." And she went off about how the mormons should teach what was in this pamphlet it talks about Christ and I just said... "well the Mormon church produced this pamphlet..." Then she went through and saw the picture of Peter James and John ordaining Joseph Smith to the priesthood and said "Why do they need three? The pope only needs one." And on and on about that. Then I just thought we had to get out because she wasn't listening to us so I stood up and said something about how we needed to go teach the mormons about Christ and I said "I'm a mormon, signora." Then basically she told us we were going to inferno (hell). So I just said okay enough we're leaving and we basically walked out with a "Call us if you want to learn more" to the badante because she actually did seem kind of interested. But that was a real downer experience to top off a really bad week of not having much opportunity to invite people to come  unto Christ. 

But, luckily, we have the scriptures. I have found alot of comfort in the scriptures, come solito. But it seems I've come across things that just help "heal the wounded soul" (as Jacob says). First on Monday when I was SO tired and didn't want to knock on any more doors, I just kept running Helaman 10 through my head. "Benedetto sei tu (Sorella Forbes), per le cose che hai fatto, poichè ho visto come hai INSTANCABILMENTE proclamato a questo popolo le parole che ti ho dato..." (that's verse 4) I just kept saying to myself and Sorella Lyman "INSTANCABILMENTE!!!" It helps. And then during studies yesterday I read in Alma 6-8 where Alma is preaching the word and is refused by the people of Ammoniha. It talks there about how Satan had hold of the hearts of the people in that city, so they didn't want to listen to the words of Alma. But nonetheless, Alma "s'impegnò molto nello spirito, lottando col Signore in possente preghiera affinchè volesse riversare il suo Spirito sul popolo che era nella città, affinché gli accordasse anche di poterli battezzare al pentimento." So I'm working on more powerful prayers. And then after Alma was rejected and left, he was commanded to go back and he did so "rapidamente." That's all in chapter 8... anyways... the scriptures are great. Our great capi gave us the challenge to read Alma 32 and put the word "work" where it says "word". I learned alot from that about working with diligence, patience, and looking forward to the fruit with faith. So that's what we're doing! We've got to see some results from all this finding sometime soon! Until then I guess I'll try to be patient.

WE bought a Christmas tree! It's cute. and little. And I get really happy and jolly every time I look at it. ha! I like it. And we listen to Christmas music (even more so than usual). All we have is two MoTab Christmas cds (Thanks Sorella Willey!) and then the one of the Christmas concert which is actually also MoTab, but with Nathan Gunn and Jane Seymour. It's great. We're jolly here in Milano. They are starting to hang up a lot of lights around the city, but we haven't seen any of them turned on yet... supposedly they put a GIANT tree at the Duomo. AWESOME! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Let me tell you about something dumb that I did.... Sunday night I was an hour ahead for three hours. It just didn't register in my mind the hour. Just the minutes. So we came home, made a progress record, made some calls, and then we started planning at 9 (or what I thought was 9.) WE finish, i get ready for bed, make Sorella Lyman and I some tisana, brush my teeth, say my prayers and get into bed by 10:30. (or what I thought was 10:30.) All this time Sorella Lyman was studying in the family room and I was thinking (why isn't she getting ready for bed?) at about 10:25 she starts coming in and getting ready. I ask her if she's ready to turn off the light and she's a bit confused but says uh, yeah. So i did. I'm just laying in bed. At 10:43 the capo distretto calls. I'm thinking "Anziano! You're late! It's past curfew! Why are you calling?!" So I let it hang up. Then  I look at the phone... 21:43. "Wait... that should say 22:43..." WHAT?! Then I figured it out. My poor companion, I ask her "Sorella! Why didn't you say anything?!" "well I was confused but i don't know!" Goodness... so I repented real quick of that one and tried to make what time I had left in the day useful... mamma mia. My brain was somewhere else.

But anyway, I'm good. Love you family! Thanks for the letters love and support!

Buona settimana!

Sorella Forbes

November 22, 2012 - BUON GIORNO DI RINGRAZIAMENTO! HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!

Hi! Remember how last Thanksgiving I was in the MTC?!?!?!

 

I've been a missionary for a year. I kind of had a panic moment last week. GAH! Crazy. Time flies.

 

First of all, let's talk about how today is Thanksgiving. What did we do you ask? We went to Fratelli La Bufala. And ate a LOT of food. A lot. I ate like this yummy mozzarella cooked in cous cous for an apetizer and then a full pizza with Parmigiana di Melanzane. MMM. And then, I ate the BEST cheesecake of my life. Remember how cheesecake is my favorite? Well, Fratelli la Bufala style, is made from latte di bufala. Most freshest delightfullest thing I do believe I ever had eaten. I won't lie and say I don't miss the home made turkey potato yam stuffing feast of years past (I don't count last year because that was th eMTC version...) but I'm pretty grateful for the excuse to eat A LOT of good italian food. I am not complaining. AFter this we are going to go buy a christmas tree. And then I hope to write the family some letters. P day flies by SO fast here in Milano! I really have no idea how I already only have 2 hours left! I don't know what happens. Grandma and Grandpa, I've been working on a letter for you for two weeks now. Hopefully I can finish it and get it to you subito!

 

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAT!  I missed it yesterday. Sorry. But I hope it was a good one! Buon compleanno!

 

Second, my new companion!!! Her name is Sorella Lyman. She is from Raleigh, North Carolina and is GREAT! She already basically speaks italian. She studied for 2 years at BYU too. She speaks really well. We're really excited about this time we have to serve together here in Milano. I was really surprised I am training again. I did not expect that. But I guess the Lord knows what he's doing. I'll tell you what President told me about it in interviews later in this email...We have had a CRAZY first week. A lot of things out of the ordinary that happened. It's been good times. On Sunday, our first night doing casa together, we had a miracle. THe night before we chose two streets to try. We went there and it was dark and I won't lie, a little scary. But we had to be there! We rang the first building, no one answered. So we moved to the second and an old lady leaned over the balcony and yelled at us, "don't you have anything better to do?!" So I yelled right back "WE ARE MISSIONARIES AND WE TEACH PEOPLE ABOUT GOD AND JESUS CHRIST!" I think that's pretty important.... BUt she kept yelling, we kept ringing, got someone who told us to come back another time, then moved on. I didn't feel good on that street so we got to our second. We almost went left but something told me turn around and go to the one with the big light in front of it. So we did. Sorella Lyman was ringing the citofonos. WE got in the first door. We're ringing at the second and someone leans out the window asks who we are we tell him and we hear a woman inside "tell them to come up!" So we went up. AT the door we started our teach to find about having peace in this life. They invited us in. 4 young adults. We sat down and they said "so who are you again?" WE told them we were missionaries and carried a message of peace and one of them said "well tell it to us." So we did. We had a prayer. Taught them the restoration, invited them to read and pray, set up a return appointment for sunday, said a prayer and left. It was a miracle! That never happens doing casa! That was maybe the second time on my mission I think. Greenie power! As Sorella Gomez said when we told that story to them... I love my collega!

 

Martin is a rock star. He may or may not have a surprise coming your way, family. I'm really excited about it. I won't tell you what it is, but you'll be happy. Mom will probably cry. Just sayin.

 

Patrick hit a road block this last week. We're trying to work through it.

 

Abby came to church! And all the philipinos love her! She's already best friends with all of them. She's going to get baptized on the 15th!

 

Have you seen the Conference Ensign yet? (ps mom can you send me that?!) Open to the talk by Elder Nelson about missionaries. And then look at the picture of the missionaries. And then look at where those missionaries are. Yeah, those are just my fellow Milano missionaries representin. We made the conference issue! Well, I didn't, but my friends did. :) We're a great group. If I do say so myself.

 

INterviews were yesterday! REmember how I LOVE trainings and conferences and interviews becasue my mind is BLOWN every time by the Wolfgramms? Well, it's true. They are amazing. (can I just add a side note... last week I learned that last year the Italy Milan mission had 319 baptisms. That is triple what it had three years ago. Just sayin...) I had a good chat with President during my interview. I told him I was really surprised to be training again. And he said "Me too." He said he didn't want to have people train back to back like that and that initially he had moved me, but then he went back and started thinking with his heart and inspiration instead of his head and had to put me back. I guess I'm where the Lord wants me! I was really grateful for him and for the things he told me. He is the greatest mission president in the world. I'm convinced! But President and our Sorella just came back from a Conference in Madrid. President said that the Presiding authority there told them that at their training before conference the first presidency and quorum of the twelve said "The Lord is hastening this work." And then President quoted a scripture from DandC about how the hastening will happen in its time and then followed that up with "It is hastening today." HE told us we will have a 30 percent increase in missionaries in this mission next year. We will probably have up to 50 sorelle! (we have 30 right now). I had chills. Yesterday they talked a lot about preparing ourselves for this hastening and correcting what we need to to be able to help in this hastening. It was such a good conference!!! I am so excited for how the work is going in Italy right now and there are so many miracles! And there will only be more!!!

 

I wish I could tell you more, but there's too much to tell! ha!

 

I love you lots family!!!! happy thanksgiving! I am so grateful for you. I am so grateful for this gospel. For this mission. For my Savior. For the Book of Mormon. For my Father in Heaven. For the miracles I see everyday. For the amazing people I've met this last year. For the amazing experiences that are to come. For all the good times but also the difficult. I'm grateful I have the opportunity to grow and to change and to learn and become more like my Savior. I know that He is real and that He lives. And I'm so grateful for the chance to share this testimony every day!!!

 

VI VOGLIO BENE!!!!!

 

Sorella Forbes

 

(imagine me doing my turkey noise...)

November 14, 2012 -Trasferimenti sono sempre pazzeschi...Transfers are always crazy...

Monday. We're waiting to hear what our fate is for transfers.

Every time the phone rings we're on edge. "WHO IS IT?!"

I call the assistants at lunch to ask them what time their baptism is on Saturday and other ward business.

They ask me "Have you talked to President yet?"

Me: pause... uh, should I have talked to President? (we only get calls from President for transfers if it is a big deal, ie training or opening or closing)

Them: AAAhhh ha she hasn't talked to President yet!

ME: Anziano, you have to tell me what's happening now...

Them: No no, President will call. But I'll tell you this, we're still doing the dance activity!

So there I was. Super anxious all day. Knowing that something was changing, just not sure what.

A few hours later we see the assistants to give them the key to the church. Again, all they say is to Sorella Mancuso, "You're going to one of my old cities!" (Anz. Herrington)

So again we knew something was happening, but not what.

Finally, an hour later, we get a call from President.

Me: Pronto?

President: Pronto, Sorella Forbes?

M: Si sono io. Salve Presidente, come va?

P: Va benissimo, grazie! Listen, sorella, I'm calling about transfers.

M: Oh?

P: Yeah. I'm having to split up a lot of coppia that I didn't want to split up. Like you and Sorella Mancuso.

M: Oh?

P: Yeah. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to have you stay here in Milano Navigli. You have really done some great work and I'm very pleased. You're just so happy all the time and so enthusiastic and everybody just loves you!

M: Wow, thanks a lot President. That means a lot.

P: So what I'm going to have you do is kind of re-tread yourself...and...... train again!

M: OH WOW! Okay!

So I'm training in Milano 3 again! Sorella Mancuso is going to Collegno to finish training Sorella Willis, because her trainer is going to open Firenze! I feel really good about this transfer though. It feels right. So I'm happy. Plus so many good things are happening in Milano Navigli right now and I'm so happy!!! I don't know who my new companion is. I'll meet all the new ones today when they come to the duomo, but I won't know who mine is until tomorrow. So I'll let you know next week!

As you can see, we had a baptism! MARTIN GOT BAPTIZED!!! Last Thursday. And it was so beautiful. I felt the spirit so strong. There was a really good turn out by the members also which made it so much better. AFter he was baptized he just stood there with his eyes closed for a second, then he turned with the biggest smile on his face. Then he leaned over the edge of the font and gave his son a kiss. It was the cutest! He bore his testimony after and I wanted to cry. And his family came! His two kids and their mom. They are such a beautiful family! Karla, the 15 year old daughter, came with her dad to his lesson the night before the baptism and asked a lot of questions. She was really curious to know who we were and what we do. Then at the baptism some of the youth really fellowshipped her and got her number. They invited her to an FHE on Monday, and Martin gave her his Book of Mormon. She said she wants to come to church!!!! And the mom of the kids Karen, is so beautiful. I was able to talk to her at the baptism and she kind of poured her heart out to me. I really want to teach her. They want to get married but have to resolve some things first. It's complicated. But I want to teach them! I think there is a great possibility of them becoming an eternal family in the next year or so. Vediamo.

These last couple of days I have been SO HAPPY! I have felt like Ammon in Alma 26: "my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy... I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." Last night after Martin's lesson, he wanted to stay for another we had with Fernando, a Sri Lankan man who is having difficulty understanding why he needs to get baptized again. I think Sorella Mancuso and I went in there with too much "He has to understand!" And I will admit, I don't think I was loving enough. But Martin interrupts while we're talking about the authority and bears the most amazing sincere testimony. The spirit filled the room. He just poured his heart out to Fernando and told him how he just needed to pray to know. About how he was baptized just last week and how he has recommitted himself to follow Jesus Christ. How he doesn't know everything but that he knows this is the truth because he prayed. I welled up with tears. I was SO overwhelmingly happy. I can't even describe it. Last night when I was praying, I had tears of joy and gratitude instead of the tears of heartache that seem to be a bit more common throughout this experience. I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!

And as I am writing this... We had planned to go to lunch with Martin today because he's sad Slla Mancuso is leaving. And we hear him yelling at us from outside and we look... he's here with his whole family!!! So beautiful! I'm so excited! I feel really good about them all... Happiness!!!

So things are good. I have a lot of pictures to send. But they might have to wait. We climbed the Duomo last week. That was fun. Great beautiful clear day.

Sorella Forbes

 

 Martin's new buddy Jose who baptized him.

 

 

 Filling up the font...

 

 

So happy!  Walking home at night from the baptism!

 

 

 Some of my area from the top of the Duomo...I didn't realize how HUGE Milano is!

 

 

 Made it to the top!

 

 

 Sorella Forbes and Sorella Mancuso

and the rest...

just speak for themselves!

 

 

 

 

 

November 7, 2012 Il tempo vola...

Yes. Time flies. I can't believe we are already in week five. I feel like I haven't done anything this transfer! And yet we've been so busy! Crazy. Transfers are next week. I have no idea what will happen, but I know that it will be right. It's probable that I will be transferred, however.

Milano is strange, sometimes. Something that's weird here is that I feel our investigator pool is changing constantly. We set dates with people and then we don't see them for weeks if we see them at all ever again. Every week we are planning for different people, and then those plans don't even get carried through all the way because the next week we are seeing all new people. I'm trying to figure out how to balance that... it's a bit frustrating. We have really amazing people with a lot of potential to accept the gospel! But they're schedules are crazy. I feel like Italy has declined so much even since I've arrived here. There are SO many people without work. The ones who do have work work 14-16 hour days monday-sunday with maybe a day free every 2 weeks. Or they work 3 hour days but those three hours are not set so they could be at any time of the day and they don't have any sort of regularity in their schedule. And there are other scenarios too. It's so sad. We are really seeing a decline in all aspects of life here: Spiritual, physical, familial, psycological... It breaks my heart a little bit. But despite these difficulties we still come upon people who are ready and willing to listen to the gospel every now and then.

Patrick (or in albanian, Petrit) is one of our awesome progressors right now. He doesn't have fixed work but a business will call when they need him, so when they call him he has to go or they won't call him ever again. They call him every Sunday so he can't ever come to church. But he accepted the word of wisdom this week and has already noted the blessings that come from reading the Book of Mormon and praying. He says he feels lighter, more peace, more knowledge... just all the blessings we promise people when we introduce the book of mormon but they don't want to take the time to start reading it and say things like "well, peace is relative. happiness is relative..." NO! These things come from this book and so much more!!! I've kind of been a bit frustrated this last week with encountering many people that just don't care. About anything. It's really sad. I still love them, they just make me sad.

Anyway! Patrick is doing great. Martin will get baptized tomorrow! We re-fixed everything and we're all set up. They announced it in Sacrament meeting and made him stand up so everyone knew who he was. I was real happy. And today is his birthday. So tonight we are going to make him brownies and watch the Testaments and the member that will baptize him will come and practice with him. We're excited. It will be a good day tomorrow.

Yesterday we did scambio in Varese. My third blitz with Sorella Bush and we once again were not companions... I was with Sorella Beutler and we did a lot of finding. We had some pretty good success. But Sorella Beutler is so great and so sincere! She was Sorella Mancuso's companion in the MTC. It was a really fun day. And Varese is GORGEOUS. Someday when we come back to Italy, family, we are going to Lago Maggiore. Close to Varese. Beautiful.

Anyway, it's been a good week. Kind of slow, work wise, but we're happy and having fun and working hard. I'm anxious to know what will happen next week with four new sorelle coming in and none going home. More Sorelle! Sorella power! So they will probably open 2 Sorella cities? Who knows what's going to happen. I'm still hoping for Firenze. :)

Oh yeah... I HAVE A NEW NEPHEW!!!!! He's so cute!!!! Little Bridger. I can't wait to meet him. Send me pictures!!!! I want lots!!! Auguri Famiglia Mason!!!!

Love you family. Miss you, hope you are well.

Sorella Forbes

pictures: The view off our balcony on Monday. Gorgeous!

And then scambio in Varese with Sorelle Bush and Beutler (their apartment is brand new and gorgeous. I was jealous. haha.)

October 31, 2012 - la settimana del battesimo... the week of baptism

First of all, have I mentioned how baptism week is always crazy? Well it is. Crazy. Martin was supposed to get baptized this Saturday, the 3rd, but we have to postpone it until at least sometime next week. We're not exactly sure when, but we'll figure that all out. Remember how last week I talked about how we just love people so much as missionaries and just desire so much for their salvation? Well, along with this love comes the heartbreaks as well. Last night I felt like Nephi in 2 Nephi 33. This mission is hard. But the phrase from Elder Holland keeps running through my head: You wonder why the mission isn't easy? Because salvation was NEVER easy. Someone suffered a lot more than we suffer. So when we ask ourselves why this is so hard and why can't it pass from us, we have to remember that someone greater than us asked that same question a long time ago. A little heartbreak involved this week. A few tears shed. But all is well and we will go on! 

This hard time comes after a whole week cold wet weather and of being sick. I didn't do a whole lot of missionary work this last week. I slept a lot. It's the worst being sick on the mission. Because you are faced with decisions like "okay, All our appointments just fell through... do we go out in the freezing rain and do casa for three hours? Hoping we can get inside where it is dry? Or do we go home and I sleep?..." Most of the time this last week I chose the latter. And it's the worst. But I felt like that was better than getting worse out in the cold rain. I'm feeling better today. Still a stuffy nose and tired, but the gross cough and sore throat is gone. It was miserable though. I was so drained after we went out in the morning for just 2 hours. But I feel really rested and ready to get back to work! We have a lot of work to do here right now!

Our other difficulty, or at least mine, is that I am feeling completely overwhelmed by our potential list. Being in Milano, you usually have a lot more potentials because you are constantly surrounded by people. Our potential list is a mile long and there are so many we want to meet with and could be ready, but we can't get a hold of or find a time to meet with them. (Here in Italy right now, those who have work work 12-14 hour days usually with the weirdest schedules. Hence, it's very difficult to see them. Others just go work when someone calls them so they don't have set schedule at all and appointments fall through. Frustrating). Hence with this stress that comes from all these potentials, I think it's why I have had a hard time contacting people this last week. I think it's the subconcious stress from our hundreds of potentials we already have and want to see! But that's bad. I'm trying to be better. 

Despite being sick, we still had a pretty good week. We set a few more dates for November. We've got some really awesome people, it's just a matter of getting them on solid schedules to teach them all they need to know to be ready for their dates and make sure they are making and keeping solid commitments. But we're doing good!

Miracle story for this week: A few days ago, we went out to contact someone we didn't know on the ward list. First of all it was a miracle we found her address. And she was home just about to leave when we rang her bell. We found out she has been inactive for 30 years, and no one from the church has contacted her in quite some time. She told us she is not interested in the church anymore and is now Evangelist and content. We told her maybe we'd pass by another day but she didn't want to set up an appointment. Yesterday we were waiting for the tbus to go home for lunch, and a tram passes and I see her in the window about to get off. She saw us and made this face like "oh great" and I giggled. No way is it possible that just by chance a few days after us meeting her we see her again! This is Milano. That doesn't happen very often. And then we find out she was taking the two busses that we were taking. Ha! So we got to talk a little bit more and talked a little bit about the restoration just to remind her. She's still not very interested, but we left her a pamphlet on the restoration and told her we would be stopping by another day. She said fine. It was funny. 

Remember how I have the most bomb mission president ever? Well, the assistants found out that I am a choreographer, they talked to President about it, and he approved a dance activity for the youth and YSA in our ward. I'm going to teach them some hip hop! I'm really excited! So I've got a member gathering some music for me and we'll probably put it on in the next couple of weeks before transfers. Excitement! Although it's been almost a year since I've really danced... so that's a bit scary. I don't know anything! Vediamo.

Anyway, it was a pretty good week despite feeling abbastanza giù (pretty down). I'm still doing great and loving Milano! Transfers are in two weeks. I feel like I'll be transferred. But then again I'm always wrong about transfers, so we'll see! 

Mom! We showed up to our Irish investigator's house for the first time in months and I had my long black coat and big scarf and she said I looked Irish! I was happy. :)

Love you family! Buona settimana! HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Today for Halloween we are going to the what we call "creepy bone church" (the entire inside is covered in bones. Real, human, bones. Creepy! And then we are going to check out this Burger joint, and then maybe going to go play around in a backstage vintage shop with costumes and stuff. Fun! I love being in Milano with other sorelle for p day!

Sorella Forbes

 Sorella Forbes new leather 'Italian boots"!

Lovin' the Italian Halloween cookies with Nutella!

October 24, 2012 - Io. Amo. La Gente. I. Love you. People.

Yes. I. Love. People. I feel like every day my capacity to love grows so much. Who knew I could love so many people so much! I really do! We walk away from people after talking to them for a bit and I just have to say "Sorella! I love them SO much! I want to teach them!" I've really had some amazing experiences this last week where we have been guided to the people that really need to feel the love of God. Our approach for finding these last couple of days has been something to the effect "I know that you are a child of God! How do you feel about that?" We get a lot of "Non mi interessa." (I do not care.) But we've gotten a surprising amount of people who want to talk about this subject. Even if they say "Non sono un figlio di Dio," (I am a child of God.) a lot of them have been stopping and talking to us. A lot of them actually respond to the question! I've learned a lot about people this last week and it's really sad to see how many people don't know/believe they are children of God and that He loves them. But I know he does! Because I feel it! I have felt SO MUCH the love of God for these people this last week! It's the greatest thing! And I just hope and pray while I'm talking to these people that they can feel it too!

We went out to Corsico this week and we have a lot of return appointments for Saturday. I'm excited! Corsico is just a little ways outside of Milano. We did casa. Can I just say I LOVE doing casa with Sorella Mancuso? She is so funny! I think she secretly really hates casa, but she does it! And does it hard core! I love watching her face when we suon the citofonos. It's the greatest. We laugh a lot while we do casa. Which is really good. Because otherwise I would be miserable. Our teaching pool seems to be shrinking, and we don't have a lot of solid people to teach. So we're doing a lot of finding. But that's okay! Because I have re-found the joy in finding! And We're working on developing more faith to find the elect! I'm really excited for these appointments on Saturday. One is with Chiara. We had picked two streets to do casa. We walked down the first and rang at just one door, b ut then kept walking to the end because I felt like we needed to move on to Garibaldi. We rang at the first gate, someone opened up, so we went in to try to find them. Well, we couldn't find them, but we ran into Chiara out on the balcony. We told her God loved her and she wasn't sure. She wants to believe in God but says she hasn't had many experiences with feeling that He loves her and doesn't really have a relationship with him. We bore testimony to her that with our message she will come closer to God and be able to develop a strong relationship with him, and that the Book of Mormon would help her better understand his plan for her. She told us she is rarely home and it was lucky that we caught her there (not by chance!). We will see her again on Saturday and take her a Book of Mormon! So excited. Here's what's great about this... if we hadn't walked down the first street and THEN turned to Garibaldi, if we would have started at the end of Garibaldi, or if we would have taken any other route, we would not have had time for her door. And if we had arrived later she probably would not have been home. Miracles! Did you know this is the Lord's work? I'm just reminded more and more every day.

MARTIN IS GETTING BAPTIZED NEXT WEEK! He came to sacrament meeting! And Loved it! He loves church! And all his member friends that we bring to lessons were so excited to see him in church! He has his interview tonight, we're going to set up the program for the ceremony tomorrow and try on the white clothes, and all will be set. So if all goes well with the interview and he comes to church again on Sunday, and there will be a baptism at Milano Navigli next Saturday! He is so solid! And he has seen so many blessings in his life since he started making these changes. We love teaching him. A)because he has had a set schedule for the last month where we see him every Tuesday and Thursday and he ALWAYS lets us know if something changes and B)We just have fun! We have really spiritual lessons, but then it's also so fun and relaxed and every one trusts each other. He loves teasing Sorella Mancuso. It's way too fun. Last night we taught him about the priesthood. And then we just sat and talked for like 45 minutes about what is going to happen from now until his baptism, his worries and fears, etc. etc. He is doing so good. I can't wait for next week. 

As for our other baptismal dates, they all fell through... don't want to talk about it.... But it's okay! Our schedule is freeing up for the elect!

I wish I could tell you about ALL THE people we teach. There are so many. Maybe some day.

Let me tell you about Gaber really quick. He's from Egypt, he's Christian, speaks arabic, and not really italian. But he wants to learn and we think he understands things, but then we're not really sure because we don't actually know how much he's understanding. We ask him comprehension questions and then he rambles off and makes no sense. Most of the time. Sometimes I can get it really easily. But he will come to the church even when we don't have appointments just because he wants to learn. It's great!  I get really frustrated in lessons sometimes, and then Sorella Mancuso and I just laugh after. It's quite fun. But we're trying to figure out how we can make sure he really understands. Because we don't understand him. Ha! He accepted a baptismal date, however. We think.

Zone Conference was SO GREAT! We talked about Real Intent and Desires. Did you know you can't get to the Celestial Kingdom without real intent? Do you know what that MEANS? Once again, as always at conferences with the Wolfgramms, mind BLOWN. Maybe I'll try to explain more next week. But I was sitting there in Zone conference and the thought "I could stay here forever" came to mind. I want to be a missionary for EVER! I love it so much. Happiness! 

I'm doing good here in Milano! I love it so much! I'm scared I'm going to get transferred in three weeks. Gah! I'll cry. I hate transfers.

Love you all! Hope all is well! Thanks for the love and support!

Sorella Forbes

Picture: Colonne e Basilica di San Lorenzo. 

 Our Church - Milano Navigli Ward 

It's in a palazzo - 2nd floor
Yes, I live in Milano!

Our Zone - Milano OVEST! 

(Milano West)