Sorella Forbes, Italy Milan Mission: January 17, 2012 - Ho sentito la tua voce!!! I heard your voice!

I'm talking to you Sorellina! (Sister!) I got mom's "music" package (loved the theme mamma) and I was SO happy!!! I called President last night to ask if I could listen to it and he said "Well of course! That's like listening to a letter from home!" He's the greatest. Um, Hi. Westward the Tide is my new favorite band. I wanted to cry I was so happy! Ask Sorella Durfee. She will be a testimony. You guys are amazing! And I haven't heard bug's voice in a YEAR! I was so happy. I can't wait to be your biggest groupie in 5 months. I love Westward the Tide! ha!

Now back to my world... I'm here in Savona. It's cold. And windy. The wind is rough. Our windows aren't the best and we live on a busy street, so between that and the wind, sleeping at night is kind of tough. But! We got ear plugs. And they work pretty well. So we're doing good.

Things are getting back to normal here in Savona. We're trying to get ourselves back on a regular schedule (with conference on Wednesday that hasn't been the easiest, but I'm not complaining. We had a great training yesterday.) We have found some really great and wonderful people.

Remember Delia from last week? (the woman we met on the street and then again at her palazzo and she invited us in and we taught her and her daughter?) Well she came to church on Sunday. AND she brought a friend. AND she read all of Alma 32. AND she accepted a baptismal date on Tuesday. She'll be baptized February 16! She is so wonderful! She was so excited when we told her there was a living prophet today. She wanted to see a picture of him and know his name and she asked us what he says... it was a beautiful lesson of the restoration. Her daughter was ill so we havent' seen her since last week, but Julianna is also wonderful and beautiful and we have good feeling about her too.

We set another date this week with Happy! A beautiful woman from Nigeria who just had a child! She's the cutest. Happy has been investigating the church for a while but she has never accepted a date. But she is truly prepared! I love her. She's wonderful.

And Lita is our other baptismal date from Cambodia that is doing great. She's super busy with school right now (it's exam season) and so that's kind of a difficulty. But we're working towards February 9 for her baptism. She is wonderful. I asked her why she liked reading the Book of Mormon and she said because it was "a cure for the soul." YES! It's true. Jacob 4:23 (I think...) The word of God heals the wounded soul. We all need to be healed in some way. The scriptures help us do that as we learn more of Christ and put into practice his teachings!

Our training yesterday was great! It was themed Missionary 101, and we just went over all the basics of missionary work in the Milan Italy mission. It was so wonderful. I received some great inspiration of things I can do to better myself to be a more effective missionary, and I'm excited to really strive to put everything into practice. Our leaders are inspired!

I only have a few pictures. One I took real quick of my collega Sorella Durfee and then one of me and Sorella Lloyd at the station at transfers. (Miss you Sorella Lloyd!) P day has been a day to kind of just rest and get ourselves organized at home. We have some ideas of things we want to do, we just need the energy to do it. ha! One needs p day to recover and re-energize for another week of work sometimes.

This Sunday our ward mission leader, Fratello Montalto, invited us over for lunch after church with his family. It was beautiful! First of all, delicious. But remember how they have my dream home?! They live out in the country up in the mountains in this little town called Montemoro. They have a big terraced garden with apple, orange, lemon, olive trees, a dog, and it's just this little house but it is beautiful! I wish I had a picture! I'll take one next time. They offered to teach me how to make homemade pasta one p-day. (Finally! That was one of my goals when setting out for Italy. ha.) I love that family.

This little branch is so wonderful. I have a really good feeling that this next year they are really going to grow. We're looking for a young strong family to help them do that.

Wish you all the best! Have a good week!

Alla prossima! (At the next!)

Sorella Forbes