Phonecall I got on Monday at lunch from one of the Assistants:
Anziano Osborne: Sorella Forbes, I have some bad news...
Me: uh, okay?
AO: Your companion is dying.
Me: NO!
AO: Yes. She is going the way of all the earth.
Me: No! What do I do, Anziano?
AO: Well, I have some good news. You're training at Milano 3.
Me: silence...
AO: Yes. Congratulations Sorella. You are going to be a mother!
So that's how it went down. I am training here at Milano 3! I'm so excited, yet SO nervous. That's a lot of responsibility. I don't know who my companion is and won't until Thursday morning at Milano 2. I get to meet her today though! (we're going to the Duomo to proselyte with all the new Sorelle today). I'm really excited. I have nervous butterflies. I'm gonna be a mamma!!! Anyway, don't know what else to say about that. I've been praying for me and I've been praying for her. I'll let you know who she is next week! This means I'll be in Milano for at least 2 more transfers. So much to see and do and so many people to find!!!
Sorella Soh is also training at Milano 2. Can you say party?! Everyone in our district will be training (Anziano Scheurn has a greenie from last transfer). We will just be having too much fun! ha!
So anyway, it's been a good week. You might have noticed how last week, I didn't really talk about any of our investigators... because we didn't really have any. We dropped Nickel as a baptism date because his football playing has taken over his life. Va bene. His time will come. Stephen has been in and out of the hospital with a problem with his leg and won't get baptized before he has to go home to LA. But we now have Benedetta and Sorina! I just love them both. They both accepted a date this last week. Benedetta is a referral from Milano 1 and Sorina we met in the park by our house on Friday. She came to church on Sunday and loved it. She invited her neighbor to come with her next week. The GANS leader of the ward was talking to her and asked how she met us, and she just said "Dio l'ha fatto." (God did it). Both Benedetta and Sorina are worried about being baptized again, but are ready and willing to pray and to read the Book of Mormon to find for themselves the truthfulness of what we teach. They are so beautiful and amazing! Sorina is my age from Romania and Benedetta is from Peru.
It is SO HOT!!! We have been hit by a heat wave from Africa this last week. And it is SO HOT. Sorella Bishop and I wake up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, and lay there awake for a while praying we can cool down enough to sleep. Last night I got up, drank a whole bottle of cold water from the fridge in 2.4 seconds, splashed my face with cold water, and went back to sleep. Luckily it did cool down a bit. It cools down pretty good by about 3 AM, but before that... misery! It's okay! We are surviving! They say it will end by Friday. Speriamo! But still everyone tells us it's hotter here than Africa and Peru, among other notorious hot spots in the world. Italy is on fire!
The city is still pretty dead. People won't start coming back until the end of next week. But I'm SO excited for some of our potentials that will be coming back. We'll be spending a lot of time calling potentials come September.
They're closing Pordenone to Sorelle! Anziani are taking over. Crazy! Both of my previous cities have been overtaken by Anziani... I know they're doing good work. Next transfer they'll have to open 2 cities for Sorelle I think. Cool!
I've told you before that I love Philipinos, right? I LOVE them! We went to the Albello family's house on Monday night. They wanted to say bye to Sorella Bishop. They are so funny! Fratello Albello made her a sign that said "farewell Sorella Bishop" and then they wanted to sing a song but couldn't remember it so they broke out singing God be with you til we Meet Again instead. I just can't describe how awesome this family is. Sorella Albello answers the phone yellings "SISTERRRRRSSS!!!" And when we walked in her house she yelled again. It kind of reminds me of our family... ha!
So anyway, I'm loving Milano and learning a lot. Sorella Bishop gave me this talk called "the fourth missionary" and I think it is going to change my mission. I'll share more with you about that another time, but it talks about four different types of missionaries and the choices the fourth one makes to become an amazing missionary. It was given by a mission president about 10 years ago in England. But it's amazing! One of my favorite quotes, if I can remember it right, is "Life is hard, not the gospel... there is no part about the gospel that is beyond your capacity." Or something like that. But basically it talks about consecration and how giving everything to the Lord, all our hopes desires dreams wants... everything we have, is not just the best choice, but the most intelligent. It is the easiest way to live. The easiest way to do missionary work. It's true! Because when we do that, the Lord has promised to immediately bless us! And He does in ways we don't always see right away, but they are always there. Anyway, I just read it quickly today but I'm going to study it more and I'll share more thoughts with you later.
Love you family! I hope you are all well. It seems that all of us have been facing different trials these last couple of weeks. I PROMISE you that all will turn out well. One of my new favorite chapters in the scriptures that I've been turning to often lately is 2 Corinthians 4. Specifically these verses:
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the athanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man (natural man) perish, yet the ainward man (spiritual man) is renewed day by day.
17 For our light aaffliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and beternal cweight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are aseen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen aretemporal; but the things which are not bseen are ceternal.
Sometimes all we can see are our trials and the hard things we have to go through. The negative things, the things of the natural man. These things are the temporal. But if we strive to look beyond, to put on our "spiritual glasses" as President Wolfgramm would say, we can see that everything is for our eternal benefit, to grow our spiritual man. We are being refined through our trials. God knows us and he knows what we need and he will place us where he wants us and make us face the things he knows that we need to become more like Him. Who are we to disagree? As Sorella Walton wrote to me... "Chin up, Charge the mountain." I'm learning a lot about this subject these days...
Anyway, love you all so much! Have a good week!
Sorella Forbes
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