5/13/15
Mother’s Day
Wbaahaaa! It was so so SO good to see you all (and Eliza!) on Sunday! I’m
really sorrrry about the [crying] breakdown, it just kind of all came crashing
down there for a few minutes, but I really am doing okay. Like really.
Sometimes I feel like my insides are scotched taped together, but for the most
part I just keep on keepin’ on and everything is good. So sorry about that. I
feel bad, you probably were all concerned and worried and probably just wanted
to give me a hug, which, I’m not going to lie, would’ve been fabulous in that
circumstance, but...eh. è la vita.
After I hung up Slla Yonk and Chiara were just so nice, giving me big hugs and
kissing my cheeks (I love how normal cheek kissing is here. its tots adorbs)
and it was all just really good in the end. Can’t wait for my—can you believe
it—last skype call at Christmas. But Sunday’s call will sufficiently tide me
over.) Also, Mom, Slla Yonk thinks you’re the bomb. She is convinced all my
sweetness come from you (no offence to Dad, you're sweet too).
On Friday there was a ward
party for Festa della Mamma and Slla
Yonk and I sang "the cup song" (from the movie Pitch Perfect) with the cup slappin’ and with new Italian lyrics
about moms. Because of our limited vocab it got a little sexist there in the
middle, about how moms clean houses and cook food, but...eh. The crowd went
wild when we finished. They loved it. The sorelle were superstars that night.
God’s Power in Margharita’s Life
So, Thursday Margharita
calls us up and tells us that she has something to tell us and that she needs
us to come over. After biking to her house we come in and sit down and she
pulls out this electric cigarette without any nicotine that she uses and plugs
into the wall to charge the little light end of the "cigarette" to be
red when she takes a drag. She said she bought it yesterday and it is working
great. We asked her how many real cigarettes she had smoked that day and she
said, "Girls, it is amazing, I don’t have an appetite to smoke anymore. It’s
gone. Whenever I do smoke, I just feel gross and think, 'what am I doing to my
body?' so I put it out and just use this." I started crying. How is this real?
This only happens on The District. We
told her that it was God’s power that was helping her to quit and that this was
a miracle. "Oh, I know." That was Thursday. She smoked her last
cigarette on Friday. I know at least for me it is hard to imagine that God can
be in the details of everyone’s life, but, well, I still don’t know how he does
it, but he does it. She is coming to church, we told her to pray about if the
23rd is the right day for her to get baptized. She said she hasn’t gotten an
answer yet and so when we go over tomorrow I think we are going to talk about
how answers come and how sometimes, God will leave us to make a decision and
then stop us if it is wrong. I know that might be really scary for me to just
go through with something without receiving an answer, but I do believe that a
lot, if not most of the time, God lets us exercise those beautiful minds he
gave us. I really believe she's going to make it.
The Ragazzi
So I think I've told you
about the ragazzi [kids] on the bus
from Pavia to Lodi that we take on Monday. They always come find us on the bus
and sit by us and we ask them questions about Italian. There's this one girl,
Sharon, who I adore. She is fifteen or sixteen, a little bigger, and has wavy
black hair and heavy make up. She has a piercing on her nose and a black stud
in between her upper lip and her nose and she is unashamedly Sharon. She is big
and loud and funny and has little to no social boundaries. She walked onto the
bus this week with a hideous purple rainbow broom that she bought her mom for Mothers’
Day. Nice. Anyway, after a few Italian questions someone brought up that we
hadn’t ever smoked or drunken coffee or tea or beer or wine or anything and
they were like "waaa?" and then they were like, "what other
rules do you have?" We had mentioned once the law of chastity in passing
and they were like "wait, so you can’t have sex?" "Nope. Not
until we are married." "Are you married?" "No." Then
Sharon says, "Wait," then lowers her voice to a whisper, "so you
have never done....SEX?!" (The last word very loudly. classy.) "No we
have not." They were very shocked that right there in front of them were
two twenty year old virgins. They were goggling at us really. One boy thought
it was kind of cool because, he said, there were kids here who were 13 and 14 and
they did it without even being in love. But then he still thought it was a
little ridiculous.
As their bus stop
approached, Sharon was putting her bags together and pulled out a cigarette and
a lighter--poised to light it up once she stepped off the bus. Something in my
head clicked and I realized that these are not normal kids. One girl said, "Yeah,
we've all smoked, but Sharon has a problem." Sharon started laughing and
agreeing that she had a smoking problem. She sauntered off the bus with her
purple broom and her backpack and yelled "Ciao sorelle! Ci vediamo la prossima!" "Bye sisters! See
you next week!" with the unlit cigarette bouncing happily between her
lips. It was a weird haunting moment. Her life is so different from any life
I've known. I’ve seen the ragazzi smoking here. From as young to ten or eleven.
And it is sad, but it changes when you really know the person. The child. I
dunno. I love Sharon. And I don’t judge her at all cause I’m 100 percent (okay,
stat dad) I’m 99.9 percent sure that her mom and dad both smoke and that the
way things are now, children in Italy have a vicious cycle that they don’t
really even want to break. Smoking here isn’t trashy like it has become in America.
I don’t know how long it will take, but it won’t be in Sharon’s life.
5/20/15
Margharita’s New Plans
Margharita is not getting
baptized this Saturday. The members got to her before we did and now she wants
her baptism to be in July after everything with her divorce is set and done.
She wants this start of her spiritual life to be at the same time as her new
life without Leonardo. I can see why she wants that and honestly I think I’d do
the same thing too, but I did want to see her baptized. And I still do believe
that God helping her stop smoking in 4 days could’ve been a hint that he was
preparing her for this Saturday. And we told her all that, and she listened to
us, and she still really wants to get baptized, but not now. And I guess that
is fine. In the end it is her decision.
News of Success
So on Sunday night the
anziani [elders] in our ward called us and said that the referral we sent them
(from a guy we met on the bus) they were able to have a lesson with him, set a
bap date with him, and he and his whole family want to start taking the lessons
in ...some country in Africa (Nigeria?). So that was pretty cool.
Street Shopping in Milan
After the iPad distribution in Milan we went to go to Luini's to have
lunch and it was, tragically, closed. But, back story, all the ragazzi here
have these really thin, delicate African bracelets that the African guys at the
duomo sell. And I’ve been wanting some for a while. And I found one guy with a
bunch and then all of a sudden there were like three of them tying on bracelets
around our arms and asking for money and I was like, Woah. Chill. Stop. I have
two euro and I need 8....somehow that turned into 14 bracelets for 4 euro.
but...eh. è così. I am mailing a bunch home (one for each of you) and a magnet
with Mary and Jesus on it and some La Romana [gelato] spoons and some random
stickers from the grocery store and...anything else random I find.
She Will Find What Is Lost
Natalie B sent me a
Kershisnik poster entitled "She Will Find What Is Lost." It depicts
angels coming out of heaven in hoards to touch the neck, back, arm, and head of
a woman who looks a little downtrodden. I don’t really know what was lost, or
why, but I know that a lot of the time I feel a little like her. And as I
unrolled the poster for the first time I thought "Natalie B. That sweet woman. She knew I needed this."
So, I have a little obsession with things that can be a constant (e.g., plants,
pday, posters, etc.) and I’m taking this poster around with me for the rest of
my mission. I’m really happy about it. I
might not be the best at realizing when angels are around me to bear me up, but
the poster on my study room wall is a constant reminder of the heavenly support
I get when I feel lost.
5/27/15
Expo in Milan
This week was pretty fantastic. It started with Expo. Holy moly it was
amazing. It was huge. And overwhelming. We spent almost 7 hours there and we
still only saw probably one eighth of what there was to see. It was set up
really simply. There was the main road that was 1500 meters long. And off the
main road there were sick dope fancy buildings of all the countries
represented. And then about halfway down the main road there was another road
that crossed the main road like a "T" and that road was completely
devoted to Italy. It had each of the regions like Lombardia and Tuscany. And
then at the end they had "The Tree of Life" which was the Eiffel
Tower equivalent of this world fair. But way weirder and less impressive. For
me, the coolest part was just being at the world fair and seeing and hearing
all the people and all the languages that were being spoken. Seeing all the
food stands and food trucks with succulent smells wafting through the air.
Tempting me and my frugality to spend six euro on three very mini pancakes from
Holland. I ended up buying some lavender flower and curry chocolate from
Azerbaijan (shout out to Justin!) and some Bangladesh curry. Holy mamma. It was
good. Even if it was way overpriced. But it was part of the game. And it was
worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I'm glad I blew the bank on it.
We weren't able to see that
many countries cause there were really long lines outside most of the cool ones
(Germany's line was RIDICULOUS. Sorry MC we didn't go...but their building was
sick). But the coolest part was all the exteriors. On the inside they had
little movies and exhibits and then at the end some kind of food or souvenir
shop, but the actual buildings...I felt like I was in the capital city of Panem
from Hunger Games. There were crazy ones (Ecuador) there were super modern ones
(Poland) and there were straight weird ones (Kuwait). We only went inside
Nepal, Brazil, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Israel, Kuwait, Japan,
and Oman. And the best one by far was Kazakhstan. After their exhibit and live
sand art presentation and 3D movie and presentation I was convinced that
Kazakhstan was the best country is the best country in the world....and still
am. The world fair is going to be in Astana, the capitol of Kazakhstan in 2017
and I seriously want to go. That city looks amazing. Anyway, that was
definitely the coolest part of Expo for me. Also it was pretty funny how
brainwashed I felt after some of the countries movies: "His royal highness
of Thailand is the greatest humanitarian worker the world has ever known. Every
person in all countries is indebted to his service and his kindness to the
world." "The king of Oman has
blessed the lives of not only the people under his domain, but also the people
of the world. Let us all give thanks for the work he has done."
"Everyone is indebted to the grand chaplain of Malaysia". It was
pretty funky.
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| Look! Gabon! |
Transfer News: Trieste!
Holy cow! I almost forgot!
Transfer news! I'm going to Trieste. :) It is the farthest city
east in the mission. The city is jutted out into the Adriatic sea on a little
peninsula. It is dream land. One of those cities that every missionary wants to
go. Like Firenze or Como. I'm so excited. I don't know really anything about it
except for the following--it has an awesome ward (but everyone says that. And
after Lodi... It's going to be hard to top.), there aren't bikes :(, it is a sea side city which means it will be 1) humid (yay), but 2) not
very hot and quite windy (yay!). Geography and pictures and whatnot you can all
look up and next week I'll email you the address of my apartment. I'm so
excited though. I am heading out
tomorrow to take a Freccia Bianca [high speed train] (legally) to Mestre and
then to my new city with my new comp Sorella Hawks. She is one transfer ahead
of me—Slla Yonk and she were in the same room at the MTC and Slla Yonk said
that Slla Hawks is really nice and small and cute and hilarious. So I'm really
excited. Happy Sarah.
Goodbye to the Ward Family
But also it was really hard to say goodbye to my ward family here in
Lodi. Especially coming here and needing a family so badly, they filled that
hole. And leaving them was hard. I took lots of pictures and told them all to
find me on Facebook. I was surprised at how many people were really sad. It
doesn't feel good to make people sad, but it does feel good for people to
sincerely thank you for coming on you mission. Yesterday I went to go say a
personal goodbye to Chiara and I cried. She really has been like a surrogate
mom and sister to me here. I'm going to miss her a ton.
Goodbye to Margharita
Margharita’s baptism is now
scheduled for the 29th of August which is after the separation. And probably
after Slla Yonk will be transferred. Both I and Slla Yonk tried to be fair and
not sway or try to convince her, but at the same time, we told her that these
three months were really going to be a trial as Satan would try to use anything
he could to stop her. She is pretty set though...I cried leaving her too. I was
fine until we said the closing prayer and she asked if she could say it. She
did and was thanking God that he had put me into her life. There is nothing
better as a missionary than hearing the people you love thank God that you came
on a mission. She wished me all the best and said that she would find me on
Facebook. I'm really going to miss her. But I'm so glad I got to stay in Lodi
to see the amazing transformation that took place in her these past weeks. She
is happier, brighter, more stable, more loving, and calmer. All because of
Christ and his atonement for change and bettering. I'm am grateful today.
Thank you all so much for
your love and support to me in this mission. It means more to me than you could
possibly know. Congrats to all the finishers of tests and finals and school and
work!! Happy start of summer. Go get some sunny sun sun. I'll be joining you in
Trieste in that endeavor :)
A dopo [see you later].
Love you all heaps,
Sorella Sarah
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