Wednesday, April 18: Pistacchio 🤌

April 18, 2024

Wednesday, April 18, 2024 Pistacchio

Ciao my lovely friends and family! I hope everyone is doing well!

GUYS I FOUND MY FIRST PERSON THIS WEEK!!! Her name is Elisa and she is a hoot. I love her. We found her doing a phone flush (calling everybody in our contacts) and drove about 40 minutes outside of Catania through the most beautiful green countryside to visit her. We walked into her house and the all white walls were chock full of her super cool abstract paintings! She's an artist living in this little Italian coastal town living her best life!! She took us around to each one and explained the symbolism/her inspiration it was so cool. She's searching for the truth right now and had so many different books and different bibles from different churches she's looking into. She was SHOOK when we told her God has a body but I think she really liked the Book of Mormon. Please pray that as we teach her more of the restoration she will feel the truth of our message!

This week we also found Alice!! Our first lesson with her was at a little cafe in centro catania and we got pistacchio croissants and chatted about the Book of Mormon! (It's moments like these that I think WHAT IS LIFE I'M TEACHING A LESSON AT A LITTLE OUTDOOR CAFE IN ITALY EATING A CROISSANT!???!!) She is sooo kind and gentle and her style is goals for me- she always pulls off the cutest outfits haha. At the end of the lesson we told her she could have the Book of Mormon for free and aw man I wish you could've seen her face! She started to cry and kept saying "for me? really for me?" It was like we were giving her a million dollars she was so touched. I know that Book is going to change her life. I'm so excited to see and be a part of her journey.

And then she literally pays for our food SHE'S SO NICE ah i love her.

This week was my first zone conference! It was so powerful and spirit-filled. We hosted 9 sorelle in our tiny one room apartment haha it was chaotic but SO FUN. Pretty much every inch of floor space was covered with mattresses haha, it was so fun to be with everyone. Also I got to see my dear Sorella Davis!!!

We like to joke that the Lord just really needs us together because I mean come on: what are the chances- random roommates at byu-> same mission-> same time at the mtc-> same island-> same ZONE. We just know Presidente Morris is scheming and we're going to end up comps one of these days- stay tuned

The Lord is doing big things in Italy. When I got called to Italy a lot of people told me "well you'll get good food, see some amazing places, and plant some seeds!" But you guys- the gathering is happening here IN ITALY! Yes it is hard (we're locked out of our apartment right now lol), yes there are a lot of catholics, and yes it is a grind to find people: But the Lord is truly working miracles. It is crazy to hear during our weekly mission family home evening over zoom all the stories of baptisms and miracles. Last month we had the highest number of baptisms since covid! And last week we found 191 new people as a mission! Is that because there are crazy amazing missionaries here? Well they are pretty amazing haha but it's because this is truly the Lord's work!! He wants every single one of His children to have a chance to choose to receive the gospel and He is making that HAPPEN here in Italy and throughout the world! It is so humbling and amazing and motivating to be a part of it. If you're thinking about a mission: know the Lord wants and needs you to be a part of His work. Go get your shoes dirty, go walk in places you've never walked before, go testify boldly of Jesus Christ and His gospel. Go do hard hard things with the help of the Lord. The Lord and this world need you!

Haha I love the mission, can you tell?

Quick adventures:

-My latest obsession: pistacchio. Pistacchio gelato, pizza, aranchini, cream on toast (kinda like nutella), granita ah man I could go on and on. If it's got pistacchio, give it to me and I will eat it up!!

-More on food lol: had probably the best fast sunday meal of my life: 4 courses 1)pasta 2)meat 3)vegetables/potatoes (yay) 4) strawberries and gelato

Also the members who fed us have been to the Boise temple because their son served his mission there!! Talk about a small world huh?

-Had my first baptism on the mission!!!! (Kind of haha) My companion's dad got baptized and we got to watch it over zoom! She is a convert to the church (she was baptized when she was 17!) and her story and testimony are so beautiful and powerful. There was such a sweet sweet spirit at the baptism even over zoom and I felt so honored to be a part of it!

Another week in Italia under my belt! We're doing this thing folks!

Sending love