A Muggle In Milan: Chapter 18: Around the World in 80 Days

And by "world", I mean "northern Italy"... And by "80 days", I mean 3 hours... Because we took a frecciarosa... But I'll get to that later😉

Hello loved ones, and welcome to another weekly email of craziness featuring yours truly❤️ Italy is still great, although it's hotter than hades right now... I kid you not, my ctr ring tan line is coming in quite nicely🙃 For those of you with little time, here are the 5 biggest events of this week. 1- I haven't gotten us lost yet! 2- We found maple and so my comp made syrup. 3- We had to go to the anziani apartment again. 4- I got "baci"ed by a dalmatian. 5- I went to Firenze (Florence, for you non-Italians) and I'm shocked I didn't drop 100€ in the first 5 minutes...

Okay, so a lot of this weekend was filled with the necessary but less exciting endeavors that come with transfers (getting bus passes, giving a brief overview of our investigators, members, and area, etc.). And *gasp* there was yet another thing in the anziani apartment that needed fixing, which took up half a day. Love life. But that's ok- we had a long chat with their landlord, and she's planning on coming to our English class which is exciting!

Our ward and the Torino wards were having a primary activity one morning, so we went with our less active Barbara and her kids. It was super fun, and a good way to introduce? McHardy to some of the people in our ward. Plus I just love the kids in our ward waaaaaaay too much, so it was basically paradise for me😍

We met with another one of our less actives, S. Vicedomini (the voodoo lady haha). The lesson went kind of crazy, because she just wanted to rant about something someone in our ward said on Facebook that offended her. Wow I hate Facebook😂 Kills me how people read too much into comments, or how people put rude stuff on there that they'd never say in real life lol, it's kind of ridiculous🙄Lets step away from the phone and go do something else, like serve someone or eat gelato or go to the zoo or literally ANYTHING else😂😂 Anyways, she finally finished her rant and we just told her that God loved her and that we loved her and then we were out haha. With some people, you just do what you can💕

We had another lesson with our investigator Gabriele. We know he's ready for baptism, but he doesn't think he is. He knows it's an important step, and he wants to be worthy and ready. So I had the idea that we use the baptismal interview questions as the framework of our lessons, and let him teach us. We went through the first half on Saturday, and he did amazing! He has such a strong, beautiful testimony, and he expressed that he wants to get baptized! So this week, we're going to go over the last half of the questions, and then show him that all the things he's born testimony of to us are the qualifications for baptism, and that we believe he's ready! Our hope is to give him a solid bap date this weekend, so prayers on our behalf would be much appreciated!

We had another lesson with Machi on Sunday. He's reading the Book of Mormon and likes the doctrine we've taught him so far. We aren't really sure yet how strong the desire is, but he said he's going to try to come to church this week! The rest of Sunday evening, we baked a freak ton of cookies. Our plan is to take them with us to members, investigators, less actives, and potentials. We printed out Polaroids of us baking, and wrote personal messages on the back.

Monday we met with the Aramu family in our ward, which means I got to see my darling Camilla again❣. Update: she can finally say my last name, and she loves it now haha. All during the meal, when her parents would serve her her food, she was like "no, we have to give it to Sorella Smedley first" (said in cute 4 year old Italian of course) haha. They also were babysitting Peggy the dalmatian, who literally tackled me and insisted on trying to lick me to death lolol. Best Monday night ever.

Tuesday, we had district meeting in Torino. Then that evening, our appointments cancelled on us, so we did some finding. Not a ton of success there, but we knew we'd worked hard so it was fine🤗

Now for my email title. This morning we took a frecciarosa train from Torino to Milano to Firenze... Why, you may ask? Well, shortly after S. McHardy arrived, she got a notification that her permesso was ready to be picked up... In Prato... Haha... So thus, we arrived in Firenze, took a train to Prato, got the permesso, and then spent the rest of p day in Firenze! Plus we get to stay the night with the Firenze STLs which means... I GOT TO SEE MAMA SMITH! Lol, has it really only been a week since we separated?! Haha I miss her!

My love for these people grows more and more each day. I pray I'll get more transfers here in Collegno, because these people have become my family. This love is both a blessing and a curse, because the amount of stress and heartache I have over these stubborn Italians is kinda overwhelming a lot of the time. But I wouldn't trade it for the world! I've never related more fully to 2 Nephi 33:3-4

3 But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.

4 And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.

This applies in large to the people here in Collegno- my people❤️ But it also applies to you amazing family and friends of mine. I hope you all know how important you are to me, and that you are in my prayers and thoughts constantly.

XOXOxoxoXOXOxoxo

Sorella Smedley