Week 4

Sorella's Decker, Black, & Argyle

Nicole's District:
Anziano's Pope, Fullmer, Zappettini, Sorella's Argyle & Decker, Anziano's Maxwell & Tew

Jessica here: Sorry for the late posting - we were obviously a little busy Wednesday when Nicole emailed us. I was able to send her a quick email at 7am, letting her know I was in labor and that Milo should be here that day; hence her first comment in her email :)

Before I start anything I would like it to be known that I have a nephew on the way and I am glad that happened today, because it's my p-day and otherwise I wouldn't have been able to focus on anything else. Also Jessica and Kyle have officially won mom's favorite child award, because they are giving her the best birthday present ever....her first grandchild!!!

I love you all, and I hope that you are all safe and sound.

Two of the sisters in our zone have been having a really hard time, they're actually companions. One of them is super homesick and having a hard time figuring out what her purpose as a missionary is supposed to be, the reason why she is here. She's been off and on depressed and her companion felt like she wasn't being a good companion and that there wasn't anything that she could do to help. She felt really useless. So we decided to start something called dedicati, which means "dedicateds" (not a typo) in Italian. They are like yearbook journals for other missionaries to write notes to you. Our teacher Sorella Urban originally suggested them to us as a way to express our love for the elders since we can't write them letters. The idea behind that is that no one else can read a personal letter, but since anyone can write in the journal you'll censor whatever things you would otherwise say...I guess. I just know that this is kosher haha. So we got two cute notebooks for them and had each sister in our zone write a note of encouragement, it was wonderful to really feel like I had the chance to really serve someone who needed it. Here we do two service projects a week, but they are really just cleaning assignments. This little act for these sisters really helped me to feel like I have a purpose here, too.

Funny story from the week: since we've been in the MTC my companions and I have only wanted to meet the Bulgarian missionaries so that we could yell "HERE COME THE BULGARIANS!!!!!!" like they do in Harry Potter. Well, we were coming back from the field below the temple where they let the missionaries play soccer and volleyball (I PLAYED BEACH VOLLEYBALL TWO DAYS IN A ROW), and a bunch of missionaries were headed up to the field. We asked them casually where they were going, as has become our regular practice, but to be honest we'd given up hope of meeting real Bulgarian missionaries because it just hadn't happened yet. So imagine our surprise when they responded with "Bulgaria!" We stopped dead, looked at each other, and screamed "HERE COME THE BULGARIANS!!!!!!!" at the top of our lungs and now they think we are crazy which I am totally fine with.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I don't know how I haven't mentioned this yet, but one of my dearest friends, Sister McKenna Wright, came in to the MTC on the 9th of July, and her residence room is RIGHT NEXT DOOR to mine!!! Like I'm room 417 and she's room 419. We see each other almost every day and I love hearing her speak in mandarin, she's going to Taiwan Taipei. The gospel truly is flooding the earth!!

Overall, I am growing a lot more spiritually than I thought was even possible. How did I ever survive without this strong a testimony?! And obviously it's still weak, but the amount of learning and growing that has happened since being in the MTC because I am relying on Heavenly Father and Christ's atonement is astounding. 

We had another crazy experience yesterday that was a little more frightening...we were getting ready in our residence hall and someone called for my companion Sister Argyle over the intercom. We had to go and meet with the district president, but they didn't tell us what for. And then it took him about 40 minutes to get to us because he was on the phone. So naturally we all went through various scenarios of why Sorella Argyle was needed: someone had died, someone had cancer, she was getting reassigned to Milan (I would have DIED), she was a visa waiter and would never actually end up in Italy....but the district president met with her family the night before, because they served together in Argentina when her dad was a mission president there, and he promised them a photo and he let her text her mom from his phone. So all the adrenaline and panic were for nothing, and we got to skip part of class on top of that. But we had to go the rest of the day with not-done hair or makeup because we booked it from the showers to get to where we were supposed to go to meet him. Oh well!

Sorry for not responding to all the Dear Elders, the temple here in Provo finally opened back up so we spend a good chunk of our afternoon there on p-day, which is the time I would otherwise use for writing letters and emails.

Overall, things are going really well. I am learning the language at a pretty incredible rate, given that I have only been here a month. I am really sick of cafeteria food, because I have been here FOR A MONTH. We should be getting our travel plans between today and Friday, so next week I will update with that information and I'll be able to coordinate a phone call with my family. Usually, from what I've heard, they have the European missionaries fly to either Chicago or New York, then to London, then to where ever they are headed. Can't wait to finally be in Italy!!!

Speaking of being a European missionary, Tuesday night's devotional was incredible. A member of the 70, Elder Ellis, brought his family and spoke to us. They have 9 children, 8 of whom are RMs and the 9th is in the Korea Suel mission presently. Each one bore their testimony and shared a thought or 5 about missionary work and gave us really good advice. One of my favorite things that I heard was to put aside the preconceived notions about the work in the mission you are going to, which was important for me because I have always thought that Italy, Rome specifically would be really hard. But it's God's work, so let Him decide how it's going to happen. I know that if i put my faith in Him and lean not unto mine own understanding, that I will be able to accomplish whatever the Lord has need of me for.

I am so grateful for this gospel, I know that it's true. I know that God and Jesus Christ visited Joseph Smith and through him brought about the restoration of the fullness of the gospel of Christ and the book of Mormon. I know that Thomas S. Monson leads the church today. I know that through the atonement of Christ, every single person can return to live with God again, so long as we keep the commandments and our promises to Him. I know that God loves each of us and that He will help and guide us in everything.

I love this work, I am so grateful and happy to be a missionary! I wish I had more time, but I am saving a bit of my email time this week so that I can check my emails later and be able to see if I have a nephew yet! A HUGE congrats to Jessica and Kyle, I love you both!

I miss you all, and I love you so so so much! You are in my prayers every day.

Ciao!

Sorella Decker