A Muggle In Milan: Chapter 24: Venice is Great (And So is God!)

Hello loved ones❤️ How are you all?! I'm doing ok I guess. I mean, just hopped over to Venice for the day! No big deal. Lolol but really
though, today was one of my most favorite P-Days so far! Venezia is by far the most beautiful place I've been to in my life! So much water
and beautiful buildings and shops and cathedrals. Basically I'm kind of in love. Let's pray I'm here for a while so I can spend Christmas
in Venice, yeah?🎄 Bought myself some gorgeous Italian oxfords and, of course, a legitimate hand-painted mask🎭 Cuz let's be real, one
doesn't simply walk into Venice... Aaaaand not buy a mask😏 (10 points to gryffindor if you know what movie the first part of my statement
alluded to). Ha but more than just a beautiful day spent in Venice, this week has been super awesome!

Thursday, we had an appointment with an investigator, but she lives kind of far out so it took us about an hour to get there. Any guesses
on what happened when we were 10 minutes away? Yeah, she canceled on us. But we decided to pass by a member who lived nearby, and I'm so
glad we did! About 15 minutes after we got there, 2 of her nonmember friends showed up! So we asked if we could share a quick spiritual
thought with them. We talked about Christ and showed one of the holiday videos the church puts out! It was really a eat experience!

Friday we had weekly planning and correlation mtg with the ward mission leader. Afterwards we had an appointment with our new convert
Micaela! It went so great! She made us dinner of course, and then we went out on their balcony and had a lesson. It was super cool to be
under the stars✨ It was NOT super cool to be amid the mosquitos😶 But the COOLEST thing was that her family (all non members) were there for
the lesson! And her youngest son has started coming to church with her! It's so exciting to see the potential for her whole family to
eventually take part of the blessings of the gospel as she has!

Saturday we had an appointment in the morning with the Mateazzi family from the Italian ward! Later that evening, we had kind of a funny
experience. I've started picking a new attribute of Christ to work on each week. This week's attribute was patience... And any of you who
have ever chosen to improve in patience know it's kind of a mistake, because then God puts you in situations where you need to be patient😂
whelp, such was the case on that hot summer evening. We'd scheduled an appointment with a less active couple from the American ward... I
asked my comp if she knew how to get there. She said yes, so we headed out. Whelp, 30 minutes later, the bus full-on stopped in the middle of
nowhere... We got out, I pulled up my maps app... And saw that we were waaaay far from their home... At this point, my comp informed me that
she actually had never been to this house before.😐 But she said we could probably walk there... So I put that into my app and saw that if
we did indeed walk, it would only take us 3 short hours. Haha yay for working on patience hahahahaha. So we took the bus back a ways, and
got on the stop I thought we'd need, and then saw that the actual bus we needed wouldn't come for 30 minutes. But luckily God blessed us and
it showed up within 5 minutes (what even is Italian public transportation?!) and we made it to the Armstrong's home! I was so
glad we did, because they are amazing! And we found out the husband is going to be gone for about 6 months, and sis. Armstrong is worried
because she doesn't know anyone! So it was the perfect time to meet them!

Sunday was church with both wards which I love!! I'm so grateful to have a solid relationship with a lot of them already! That evening, we
had an appointment with a less active family from the American ward, the Carluccios. It makes me so sad, because she wants their family to
go get sealed in the temple, but her husband doesn't want to! So strange to me, but that's why we're here to help them! We had a good
lesson with them, so hopefully the husband's heart will begin to soften!

Monday we had an AMAZING appointment with our investigator Lindsey! She has a 7 month old boy, and her husband is a member! She shared
with us how she'd been having a hard time reading the Book of Mormon, but that she'd prayed for God to help her to read it. And she felt
prompted to first listen to the chapters, and then read them. So get this- Lindsey listens to the Book of Mormon every day while she runs,
and then reads the chapters she listened to afterwards. She said it takes longer, but it's worth it because now she understands, what
she's reading! And then she talks to her husband about the things she read that night when she gets home! She's so solid, and her testimony
is such an example to me! Then that night, we had an appointment with the Thompson family, where we extended the "Milano 300" challenge!

Tuesday was zone training! Holy freak I was so excited to see my people! Sorella Arndt, Anziano Rogers and Anziano McIver! Seriously
made my whole week! Plus we had some really awesome trainings! I really liked something one of the STLs brought up. She talked about
how God can do anything and everything. He could easily fix every problem and give us all the answers. For us missionaries, He could
find and teach all the people on His own. He doesn't need us to do anything for Him; no, Hes perfectly capable of doing all of this on
His own (and I can guarantee He'd do a much better job than me😂). However, He allows us to be His hands, so that we may partake of the
blessings. We get the privilege to serve others; to solve problems; to beat challenges. We get the opportunity to feel the joy that comes
with success. We get the chance to learn and grow and rise to our full potential!

So idk about you guys, but this week I'm definitely going to start treating the things in my life (missionary work, challenges, etc) as
the blessings and privileges they are. Because the fact that we have these various things reeeaally shows how much God loves and trusts us.
And that's pretty neat❤️

xoxo
Sorella Smedley