February 29, 2012: Le Sorelle Salvarvi! - The Sisters Saved You!!

I think I just made that expression up, but I meant it to mean Sorelle to the rescue! What a week. Again. Crazy things are happening here in Cuneo.

First of all, let's talk about Cristina and Salvatore. I just love them. Cristina is going to be baptized this Saturday! After her interview with the President, they were so incredibly happy. Salvatore came right up to me and just whispered with this huge grin "si puo battezzare! si puo battezzare!" They were so happy. I just love them. The President told them she could only be baptized if she stopped smoking seven days before the big day. We went to visit next day and she said she hadn't smoked and everything had been washed in the apartment to get rid of the smoke smell and so much more. She is so excited and happy. We went to dinner at Salvatore's on Saturday night and we were looking over the program with Peter, who is now their closest friend in the ward, and she was just looking at it with the biggest grin and exclaimed "faccio battesimo!" I'm so happy for her. She has overcome so much in her life, and she's made so many changes in her life. I'm so proud. I feel like a proud mama, even though she's in her 40s... ha! I just adore her. I can't wait for Saturday. Oh! The the Sorelle to the rescue story has to do with them... haha. I wish i could tell you the whole story, but I can't. I'll just say they called us Monday morning, we raced to them on our bikes within 15 minutes, talked, shared some scriptures, prayed, went for gelato, talked talked talked, and every thing was resolved. It's amazing to see what prayer and scriptures can do in crazy situations. I know with the Lord's help any difficulty can be resolved and we can find comfort. Wow. What a miracle they are. I'll send you pictures of them next week! From the baptism!!! :)

So we have an investigator, we'll call him Abs (that's what we sometimes call him when we're planning because we still can't pronounce his name...ha!) He's a muslim man from Morocco who is searching searching searching. Sorella Willey knew him from English class before (p.s. did I tell you we teach english class? We've actually gotten 4 investigators from it. It's so much fun.) and she ran into him again on scambio with Sorella Bunker. And then last p day we were going for gelato and he was there! He's so incredibly nice and loves to talk. Our first two lessons with him were a bit scary. He's really intense and was trying to convert us, pretty sure, but whenever we read from the Book of Mormon he was completely mesmerized and in our second lesson he read all of Alma 33 and most of 34 while we were just sitting there. Ha! He just kept going! He loves it! But again, those first two lessons were so rough because he loves talking and couldn't understand a lot of the things we were teaching. But our next lesson with him we taught the Plan of Salvation. He finally understood that he is a child of God! It was beautiful. Then after we had laid the plan out with these little pieces we have as a visual, we asked him if he would like to know if it was true and if this really was God's plan for his children. He just looked at it very intensely for a minute, then looked up at us and just nodded his head. That he did want to know. So we invited him to pray and continue reading in the Book of Mormon. He told us he feels so peaceful when he's in the church and when he talks with us. He feels and recognizes the spirit!!! Yesterday, however, we kind of went backwards. He's having a hard time understanding who exactly Jesus Christ was. They believe he was just a prophet, not the Son of God. Anyway...Abs is great.

Friday night we met with Rosy again. And we had gli spaghetti con le vongole! (clams!) It was so delicious. Shells and all. It was gourmet. I need her to teach me to cook. She's not really reading a whole lot, but she came to church on Sunday and we're meeting with her tonight. I just love her. She's such a tiny little thing. Her son is a recent convert. They're such a great family. We love visiting them.

We've seen Giulia a few more times, but the situation with her family is kind of intense right now so it's difficult. But I love and adore her. I wish everyone could meet little Giulia.

It is so beautiful here in Cuneo!!! It is like full blown spring time today. The mountains you can see crystal clear, people are out and about, and it's just beautiful. I attached some photos that I took on the way here. They're on the Main street here, Corso Nizza. Look at the mountains in the background! Gorgeous. And then the other one is of the leather scripture case that the member here in Cuneo made me for my birthday. It's beautiful!!! I love it so much.

So one last thing... did you know the Book of Mormon is true?! I do. Every time I read it I know. And, just as we teach our investigators, I pray often for the knowledge of its truthfulness. If you've never prayed for this knowledge, DO IT! We taught a member family the other night and all but the mom and one daughter had never prayed about the Book of Mormon. Everyone should do it to gain a testimony of it for themselves. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON! Today I was reading 2 Ne 29. SO crazy how I am seeing the truthfulness of the words in that chapter here in Italy. "A Bible, we already have a Bible. We need no other Bible..." I can't tell you how many times I've heard that, in pretty much the exact wording. The beautiful thing about the Book of Mormon is that it takes NOTHING away from the Bible, it only adds to it. I wish I could just help people see that better. If every one in the world read the Book of Mormon, mamma mia, what a different place it would be.

Anyway, that's all I have time for, but I hope all is well back in the States! Miss and love all you! Thank you for all your prayers and support. I can feel them every step of the way helping me. Love you! Buona settimana!

Sorella Forbes

Email - February 22, 2012 Mamma Mia!

Ciao! It's me again. How is life everyone? Mine is GREAT! Let me tell you a bit about my week:

So first of all, did you know that it is REALLY difficult to have to tell someone that their baptism wasn't valid? (talking about an infant baptism in the Catholic faith). Well,  it is. We had to do that with one of our investigators last week. And it was hard for me. She wants to follow Christ and do the right thing, but she hasn't seen why she needs to be baptized again, yet. But we saw her last night and she's making good progress. And she's feeding us spaghetti with meatballs on Friday. SO happy. Love her. She'll be baptized once she gets her answer. She says she is still waiting, which is okay. But I know it will come and she will recognize it. Love Rosy!

Second, we got dropped by our baptismal date on Friday (Donatella). Talk about crushing your soul. She had a dream that her dad was mad at her because she was leaving the Catholic church. Stupid Satan... we went out and got some gelato afterwards. We were a little blue. And then some hot chocolate. With nocciola gelato inside of it. Mmmm. That helped eased the sting just a bit...haha. But it turns out that this is all okay and it is not the right time! The Lord has a plan! She's been out of work for a long time. She's a jazz singer. She called us yesterday and said she got a job on a cruise ship for 8 months starting March 23. SO, hence, this is good. We wouldn't want her to get baptized at a time where she can't continue to go to church and meet with the missionaries. She has a Book of Mormon and says she wants to continue reading. I know she'll meet with the missionaries when she gets back and maybe then will be her time. Vedremo!

Friday again was rough. With getting dropped, more bidoni, not finding anyone, we were feeling really discouraged. But we prayed that we would find more people Saturday! So we went out to work. We headed in to Old Cuneo (which I love. Classic italy with the narrow cobblestoned streets, stringed lights above, buildings that smell like the castles you go see from the 1500s... etc. LOVE). We met a girl on the street who met with missionaries before. We have an appointment with her today. And then we were doing casa and Sorella Willey rang a citofano and they came on "Chi e?" and she said "Siamo le sorelle, mi apre?" and they said "Si, ma che volete?" and Sorella Willey said "vogliamo condividere un piccolo messagio con lei." and sure enough BUZZ! Door opened. THAT NEVER HAPPENS! At least, never when we say we want to share a message with them. Ha! So we go up, AMAZING apartment btw. Dad, you would love it: wooden beamed ceiling in the living room, exposed brick in the kitchen. Gorgeous! Comunque... It was a family! They are catholic, the mom works for an organization in the church that helps organize baptisms for part member families or other families that can't do it themselves, or something. They have a little boy who is adorable and the whole time they just kept saying how the family is the most important thing to them... uh... we're thinking, ARE YOU KIDDING?! D'ORO! They fed us. We gave them a Book of Mormon, we met with Anna on Monday because Marco was at work, but they had read. We invited her to baptism, and unfortunately she said she doesn't believe that one religion is better than the other, basically. But I CAN SEE THEM IN THE CHURCH! She's going to be the next relief society president. I already know. She talked for like 5 minutes about prophets and what they do. She knows!!! We're meeting with them again on Saturday. Vedremo... Miracoli...

We did a scambio this week with the Torino sisters! They came to Cuneo with us after our District meeting in Torino on Monday and we blitzed for 24 hours. I got to go with Sorella Soh to the appointment with Cristina and with Anna, and Sorella Willey and Sorella Bunker took Osagi, Giulia, and did some casa. It was so great! I learned a lot from Sorella Soh. She is marvelous. And has AMAZING italian. She lived in Siena before this mission thing. But yeah, she was so great and I learned a lot from her. And it was a big learning experience just to see the different ways people teach. Everyone is so unique and has their own perspective. It was grand! I wish I had more time to talk about it, but I don't. Just know it was great. I love Sorella Soh and Sorella Bunker.

Sorella Willey and I are still loving Cuneo. It's finally started really warming up. We don't even need coats today, but I wore mine because otherwise the italians are like "WHY ARE YOU NOT WEARING A COAT?!" (Sorella Willey got that when we went to the grocery store). But it's a beautiful day and you can see the mountains crystal clear. I love Cuneo. 

Welp, I think that's all for this week. Oh! I wanted to share a scripture. DandC 64:33-34. I LOVE these two verses. I came upon them last night and they went PERFECTLY with our lesson with Cristina, but they are two verses that everyone should read. Look it up. Love it, as I did. Anyway, gots to go, but buon settimana! Vi voglio bene!!!

Sorella Forbes

Extra Stories Sorella Forbes wanted added:

Preslee is McKell's Niece.. Preslees prayer last night.  She prayed for Aunt Kell that she will have fun on her mission and that her foot won't hurt and that she will be nice to the little children and take them treats like her home teachers do to her and Jonah!!!  Cute!

Hey mamma and papa! I didn't get to finish my time before our appointment came, so I'm back. We just had Cristina's interview with President and she passed! Well, as long as she quits smoking completely by Saturday. She'll do it. She wants to be baptized so bad. I forgot to tell you the coolest thing. She was taking us home the other night and she said "I just can't wait to be in white. I just want to be white." I love her so much. Will you put that story on my blog? She's such an inspiration. And we got to talk with Sorella Wolfgramm while they were doing the interview! I love her! She's so great. She and President drove all the way from Milano to Cuneo to do this interview. They are so grand. I love the world! Haha. But also I was thinking, if you by chance send that men of the Motab album, could you also send my Missionary Essentials album? Last I saw it it was in my car. I think. Okay. I think that's all for this week... Love you so much!!! Til next week! Give every one love from Cuneo!!!

Kell

Hey pops! Thought I'd respond directly since I have a bit of time. Yes my companion is awesome. It's not too bad being with a companion 24/7.  And the meeting we had in Torino was just interviews with a bit of training. I guess it switches off every transfer from Zone conference to interviews. But we have district meetings in Torino just about every Monday. Congrats on the new Misson Prep calling! You'll be awesome. Help them learn Preach my gospel! I wish I would have known it better before I came. It is the missionary lifeline. Seriously. I love that manual. And yeah we're back on the bikes mostly. The walks are mostly clear now so we can ride our bikes everywhere. And I've figured out the brakes now so all is well! haha. Thanks for the advice. Thanks for the email pops. Love you lots. Ci sentiamo la prossima settimana! Love ya.

Kell

Email - February 15, 2011 Abblamo fissato una data batteslmale!

Buon Giorno tutti! What a week... Let me tell you about it. And it may be brief because I have the subject of I'M AN AUNT AGAIN! to address. But I'll try to make it less scatterbrained than the weeks before. I wrote everything down this time. :)

First, a story I forgot to tell you last week that just warmed my heart (and body, because it's cold here...) right up. Last Sunday in fast and testimony meeting, we had some amazing testimonies. One of which came from Cristina, our investigator that will be baptized on March 3rd. Saturday night we invited her to, if the spirit told her to, bear her testimony in church. And she did! And it was beautiful! After the meeting she ran up to Sorella Willey and I and gave us a big hug and just said "Sorelle! L'ho fatto, Sorelle!" She was so happy. (That means 'I did it!). I love her.

Thursday we went to Torino for interviews with the mission president (and I haven't heard anything about our pres. getting stuck in the snow somewhere, but we're kind of out here by our lonesome in Cuneo...) but he is SO great. He is truly an inspired man. I loved getting those 10 minutes to just talk to him. And he had me practice placing a Book of Mormon and gave me some great advice. I love him. And his wife is absolutely great. We were doing role plays and talking about how we can find out what people's needs are. She came to our group and said "sometimes people just need to hear they are a child of God! Just look them in the eyes and just tell them and the spirit will touch them!" Then she did it to one of the sisters and she turned around with tears in her eyes and just said, "it's really powerful!" I love her! But I learned so much from our assistenti (aps). That night in a lesson with Graziella, who has been meeting with the missionaries on and off for 10 years, we really tried to use some of the things we had learned to ask inspired questions and really figure out what it is they need. She said she hasn't received an answer if this is the true church, but basically we got down to the question "have you ever prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true?" and she said no! In 10 years! We were amazed. I hope that's the breakthrough she needs. 

Friday was a rough day for me. We had 5 bidoni! (appointments cancelled or they didn't show up) and we did casa for a long time and couldn't find anyone! I was feeling really discouraged at the end of the day, but my GEM of a companion just said "Sorella, it's okay. Everyone goes through their special trials their first transfer. Maybe yours is to get a lot of bidoni, or doing casa and not finding a lot of people, but just keep the faith and that's when miracles happen." I love her! I felt so great after she told me that. And the next day we found 2 people to teach while doing casa and we set a baptismal date with Donatella!

My birthday was grand. Thanks for the presents mom and family and the birthday emails and cards! Yes grandma and grandpa I got yours! Loved it! Thanks so much. And thanks for the cds! Heaven song is my favorite! Sorella Willey has it and I always put it on. But now I have my own for when we're not companions anymore. I got a lot of "Auguri, Sorella!" and baci (cheek kisses) in church. I LOVE the members here. Have I said that? and Sorella Willey made a fantastic birthday lunch of chicken pasta and a cake we bought at carrefour. haha. It was such a good birthday. Yes I did hang up the banner. I have pictures I'll try to send you if I have time today. 

Funny story of the week. A lot of people think we are Testimone di Geova (Jehovah's witnesses) and we get a lot of doors slammed in our face because of it. So I'm used to saying "No no no! non siamo testimone di geova!" as soon as they ask. The other day we were doing casa and a nice couple opened their door and said "siamo testimone di geova." And I immediately was "no no no siamo della chiesa di gesu cristo..." And they all just laughed and I realized what I had said. Haha. They were Jehovah's witnesses, but I thought they had asked us if we were. Ha! Oops. Guess I should be better at listening. I just get nervous doing casa sometimes! haha.

Okay, now...BABY HAZEL IS ADORABLE! Such an adorable little Jacobs baby. Can someone mail me pictures? I can't really print them out. We use the church computer and I don't want to use all the ink and paper... I'll print off one little one. But she is SO cute. Congratulations Tam and Todd! And Jonah and Preslee! How are the kids? Do they love having a new little sister. I'm glad you got my italian pregnant lady card, Tam. I laughed when I saw it. Had to send it to you. So great. I'm glad everything went well for you this time. You deserve it. I'm so happy she's here! And I LOVE the name. Hazel Ruth. How great. And adorable. And happy. Congratulations Jacobs family!!! I can't wait to meet the little gal. When she's walking around and starting to talk... haha. Make sure she knows who I am! :)

I still love Cuneo. It's been SO cold some nights. someone told us last night that it was -20 degrees celsius sometime this week, i don't know when, but that explains why i felt my toes were going to fall off and I couldn't move my face! But for the most part I'm keeping warm! I wear at least 4 layers every day, so all is well. 

Know that I am doing great here and absolutely love this work! It's hard, but oh so rewarding. I've already seen so many miracles and know there are many more to be seen. I was talking to President Wolfgramm on the phone on Saturday after we set up our baptismal date (he likes us to call him when we set up dates) and he told me about the Miracle fence that is in our mission, and how we're pushing it back every day. So great. I have no doubt in my mind that this is the true church of Christ restored to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith. There's no way it could be anything else with everything I see and experience here! We are so blessed!

Love you all! Have a great week! Give that new baby kisses from her (future) favorite auntie! Ci sentiamo!

Sorella Forbes.

Baby Hazel

Video of Sorella Forbes and Her Italian Sorella's

Found this on You Tube...Sorella Forbes with her Italian Sorella's!! I believe they are in the MTC cafeteria. Love it!!

February 12, 2012 Happy Birthday Sorella Forbes!

Happy Birthday Sorella Forbes!

We are thinking of you on this special day 

and so glad you get to celebrate your 

big 22 

in the land you love!!

love,

your family

EMAIL - February 8, 2011 Che Freddo! (That cold!)

First of all, Man oh man has it been cold or what?! This last week...mamma mia. I thought I almost lost my toes and fingers one night. But all is well! I am fine! Seeing miracles every day! And meeting amazing people! And loving life! Cuneo is so great. I love it more and more every day. It finally cleared up on Monday and i could see the mountains that surround us! Yup, we're in the Alps. It's awesome! I love mountains. It's been snowing on and off again this week, but nothing like there was last week. That was pazzesco. Anyway, not really sure where to start with everything I want to tell you! 

Okay, the italians know how to cook. We already knew that, but now I'm living in it. We had a couple of meals with investigators this last week and they were amazing. Pizza, pasta, bread, salad, cheese, prosciutto, walnuts... ecc. So delicious! These italians know what feasting means. Every time I would say "no I can't eat anymore!" They'd insist no no no you must! So i did. Wow. I was full. But it was so delicious. I love italians!!!

I'm getting better with the language I think. I still have a hard time understanding a lot of the time, but we're to the point where Sorella Willey and I take turns making phone calls. It's scary everytime, but she sits next to me so she can hear in case I don't understand something. haha. Have I mentioned I love my companion?! I love my companion. She is marvelous. I learn so much from her every day. I love the moments when we're studying and she gasps and says "Sorella! I just learned something!" And then we talk about it. It's so great! And she really has helped me build my faith more and more. Here's something that happened Sunday night: We were at 19 lessons at 8:30. The mission standard is 20. We had been doing Casa (knocking on doors) for almost three hours and no one had opened up for a lesson. But she said the president promised that if we work clear up to the end, we will get the 20 lessons. She said "I have faith in the promise sorella! We will find someone!" We said a prayer and started walking toward our apartment. We talked to every one we saw but it was SO cold and no one wanted to talk to us. We were at the corner that we live on, and we saw two girls. So we went and talked to them and taught a little lesson and set up an appointment for the next day. It was a miracle! we got our twenty lessons. All because of the faith of Sorella Willey. I love her! And she's a really great cook. I eat well here in Cuneo.

I love the people we teach more and more everyday. It's crazy how as missionaries we just happen to come upon the downtrodden and broken, those searching for something more in their lives. They are all amazing! I wish I could tell you ALL about all of them, but there is just not enough time. But Monday while doing casa we met someone that said to come back Tuesday. We went back yesterday and it was the house of a woman that is 100 years old! She couldn't really understand anything we were saying or get what we were talking about, but her bidante (spelling?) from Brazil accepted my soft baptismal invite! The spirit was so strong. We're meeting with her again later this week and we'll see if we can set up a date. We have three people that have accepted baptismal invites in the last week and a half, but haven't set up dates yet. Most of them say they're just not ready, but they are! That's something that's hard for me, is they know that our message is true and they've said it! But they won't commit to baptism yet. But it's okay. I know that eventually they'll really accept it and continue to receive confirmations from the spirit that this is truth. 

I love being a missionary so much!!! I can't even tell you. There are highs, and there are lows. Most of the lows for me so far have been when an investigator has a low. A lot of them are out of work right now and have a lot of issues, but it's comforting to me to see the comfort they find in the Book of Mormon and when they meet with us. This gospel is the best thing for everyone in the world! 

We have really great members here. They love coming to lessons and bear such strong testimonies. They really make the difference in this work. Peter is a convert of 4 months and was just called as the assistant ward missionary leader. He's from Ghana and has been in Cuneo for 4 years. He is awesome! He is always willing to come to lessons, or give calls of encouragement to struggling investigators or less-actives, he gave me a cake for my birthday (as seen in the photo)... he's wonderful. He loves this gospel so much and wants to share it with the world! Cuneo will never be the same now that he has this gospel in his life. :) Everyone here is wonderful! I love Italy!

Welp, that's all I have time for this week. I hope everyone is well! To all my friends: I've only heard from maybe 3 of you in the last 3 months... just sayin'...i'll take it that no news is good news and that you are all still alive! haha. Love you all!

Vi voglio bene tutti! 

Sorella Forbes

First Email from Italy! AMO LA MIA VITA! (I LOVE MY LIFE!) February 1, 2012

Buon giorno tutti! OH MY! I don't even know where to begin with this crazy awesome amazing week! I love being a missionary!!! First of all, it was so great to talk to all of you my family! I miss you guys. But it sounds like you are doing great. As you know, I am in the city of Cuneo. It's a pretty small city. We call it the wedge. You'd understand if you saw pictures. I absolutely love it. No I'm not speaking french, but I've heard some pretty awesome accents here.

Let me start from the first day: You already know the basics from the phone call from the President, but when we were proselyting we met some awesome people. One had been given a book of mormon by her member sister for Christmas, but hadn't read it yet. One was a very faithful Evangelist who wanted the missionaries to visit her son. Then we met a woman who started reading the Book of Mormon a few years ago, but stopped. But she said she would meet with missionaries again. That was all in the Piazza del Duomo and the metro! It was awesome. Then dinner at the Mission home was great. I absolutely love President and Sister Wolfgramm. They both are truly inspired and I love them so much. Thursday morning we were taken to one of the Milano chapels, told a little bit about the mission, told who our companions would be and where we would be going, had some lunch, and then were on our way.

I LOVE CUNEO! It is really the perfect place to start. I'll send pictures of our apartment next week, but I love it. It's big. We have a room where we keep all our book of mormons, pass along cards, etc, our bedroom, a room where our closets are, a kitchen, and a bathroom. I'll send pictures. We started on bikes on Friday and ran to the edge of the wedge for exercise Friday morning, but Saturday the snow started coming down and now were are on foot, trudging through the snow. literally. We have had a good 2-3 feet of snow since Saturday. It's insane! But yes, mother, I'm staying warm. Thank goodness for Anna's advice on how to stay warm. But Cuneo is so pretty and even though I still haven't seen all of it, I already love it.

The people! Oh my, I already am in love with the people in Cuneo. Especially our investigators. I'll tell you a little bit about them. First, we have a 42 year old woman who is an absolute miracle. The missionaries have been teaching her for about 5 weeks now I think? She's set to be baptized March 3. She has had a rough life. She was really heaviily in to drugs for a long time. Her husband is a fugitive that nobody knows where he is. she's trying to get a divorce but they say it will take probably 3 years. She lives with Salvatore, a recently reactivated member who introduced her to the church. I love our visits with them. Salvatore is from Napoli, so his accent is really hard for me to understand, but I'm getting the hang of it. My first lesson I taught in Italy was the law of chastity. It went really well and they said they are going to do all they can to figure out their situation, because if this divorce would just go through they would be married tomorrow. And a miracle that happened, after we taught this lesson, she said she understood and the blessings from it were ones that she wanted. She had met with several missionaries before us and she said she always dropped them after this lesson with them. But she said she would continue and they're figuring it out. Monday night we had a very emotional lesson. We watched "together forever" and after she bore a very powerful testimony about how she had nothing before she met Salvatore and started learning about the church. How she had absolutely nothing. But now she has all she needs. THAT is the Doctrine of Christ. To see someone change from where she was to where she is now, bearing that testimony, it was amazing. There were some tears all around. I love her!!!

We were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday, but he came to us Friday night and said that something had happened and he had to postpone. We talked with him for 3 hours about repentance and the Doctrine of Christ, but still he said he needed to wait. We haven't heard from him since... but we have hope.

Oh my Giulia! We are teaching a little 9 year old girl who lives across the hall from a member family. We took the bus out to them to teach her about the ten commanments on Sunday. She wants to be baptized and could be tomorrow, but her mom says she's too young to decide. So sad! She came into the members' home crying because her mom had told her she only had a little bit of time with us. It broke my heart. I started to well up. She's so adorable!!! I love her so much. She knows everything and gets everything that she's been taught. And at the end of the lesson she said the prayer and prayed that her mom would stop smoking. Broke my heart again! We're praying her mom will soften her heart and she can be baptized. Oh and at this lesson the 6 little kids from the member family saw a picture of my family that I have in my scriptures! So I went through and told them who you all were and they just looked and Miriam, who I think is 4 went through "sorella, mama, sorella, sorella, fratello, papa, nipotini..." it was the cutest things. My children will speak italian! haha.

I wish I could tell you about every moment of every day! I absolutely love this work. It was awkward the first day going up to random people, knocking on their doors and stopping them on the street, and wanting to talk about Jesus with them, ha! But as everyone keeps reminding me, this is our calling! To be awkward! So embrace it! I'm doing that and it gets easier every time. The joy I feel at the end of the day makes up for everything. Because I know I'm doing the right thing and the Lord wants me to talk to everyone I can, no matter how uncomfortable I may feel. I'm learning so much every day!

My companion, Sorella Willey, is amazing! I'm learning so much from her about following the spirit to know what should be said and how to know what people need...she is so inspired and I'm so grateful to have her as a companion. She's also helping me a lot with the language. I love her!

Crazy week, but so great. I already crashed on my bike (my first night here...) I got the front brake and the back mixed up and went flying over the handlebars. Luckily I'm protected! It should have been a lot worse than it was. All I've got are some small bruises here and there. And I also had an encounter with my first African bible basher. That was scary. Sorella Willey handled it very well. I bore my testimony in sacrament on Sunday. That was scary. But I think it went well. I got some nice compliments on my italian from the members. I love them. They're too nice. We have a branch of about 30.

I have so much to tell but I must go! I love you all family and friends! Hope all is well at home! Oh and here are some pictures too. I didn't take a whole lot, but maybe you can understand the mass amounts of snow we have...ha!

Love you! THe church is true!!!

Sorella Forbes

PHotos: first day in Milano at the Duomo, our street we live on in Cuneo (behold the snow), My collega! Sorella Willey!