Chapter 45: "I'm A Hot Mess! Except Not Hot..."

Note: This week's title is indeed a quote from yours truly💁🏼

Family and friends, hello once again. Hope you're all staying warmer than me, because although Savona is by no means the coldest city in the mission, the wind is horrendous and like nothing Ive ever experienced! Definitely not the funnest weather option when you a) wear a skirt and b) have crazy lion-mane hair🙃 

Friday and Saturday, we had scambio in Milano with Sorella Williams and Sorella Castro! SOSOSOSOSO great! I was with Sorella Williams this time, and it was the absolute best! We met with a couple of families, and it was honestly just amazing! One of the families we visited just immediately stole my heart. The lesson was great, and we were all pretty much crying by the end. We came in with a plan, cioè, various principles to teach and some important commitments/invitations. Honestly I was almost a little nervous going into the lesson, just because the things we were going to ask them to commit to doing we're going to be extremely difficult for their family, personally. Buuuuut I've been out here long enough to know I shouldn't have been worried lol. The spirit was there from the minute we entered the home. Not only did they accept the commitments, but they had actually started doing a couple of the things on their own just that day! It was seriously amazing. Plus, I've never been able to feel as comfortable teaching with someone after so little time as I was with Sorella Williams. We have so much in common, it's almost kind of scary lol. Let's just say, I wouldn't mind becoming comps with her for more than 24 hours... we'll see if Presidente feels that way as well hahaha😉😂

Funny story... we all know that prayers work. It's both a fact and a miracle. But we also know that sometimes God blesses us with what we need rather than what we want...

Well, Saturday night, our train didn't get in from scambio until 10 and I was as tired as could be😴 I KNEW I was going to struggle getting up the next morning... so I prayed specifically asking for help to not only wake up in time for church, but to wake up at 6:30 like normal, feeling well-rested.

Whale... I woke up and indeed felt well rested. 

Although, that was probably because it was 9am.

Oh, our church starts at 9am, btw.

I was only a little bit stressed.

Lol, yeah not exactly what I was praying for. Alarms had been set and everything so honestly idk what happened. I'm just gonna say that God felt we needed more sleep but honestly I got nothing😂😂 ah, life.

We redeemed ourselves that day by going over for another lesson with Constanza. It was a bit hectic, as the 90 year-old lady she takes care of was in a mood... she has Alzheimer's instead of teeth so that makes all conversations very interesting🙃 Haha at one point Constanza stopped mid verse during our Book of Mormon reading and asked the old lady if she could understand what was being read. The lady nodded her head and then Constanza started dying laughing about how obviously that wasn't true because this lady is not all there. And because she was reading in Romanian. Definitely a weird appointment and I was fighting not to die laughing at the weirdness😂 comunqs, I love discussing the scriptures with Constanza and seeing the little changes week after week that I'm hoping will eventually develop into a testimony of the restored gospel❤

Monday, there was a strike for the transportation systems, which means we couldn't leave the city. So we got creative and baked a ton of cookies to drop off to all the members and less actives who live within our lil city! Granted, it involved walking for like 5 hours total in the freaking wind. Up a mountain. Through sketchy alleyways. The works. And only one person ended up being home after all of that. But that one person was Silvanna, the amazing lady who teaches institute and seminary. And even though she's an extremely strong member, it was definitely a needed visit. Plus fun to chat with her crazy husband who's obsessed with geography (esp of the US). And we all know how much I love geography🙄😂 But we came home tired and happy from a good day of missionary work, so all was well💕

Tuesday was full of cancellations, followed by a couple of shining moments. First, I found a wooden shark on the beach. After confirming it was, indeed, wooden and not fleshy, I sat upon it. Then while arising, I hit my head on a palm tree. That is what my life is like right now, folks. But after that 48 seconds of childish nonesense, we were ready to be missionaries again and headed to our appointment with Sorella Nieddu. Oh, how I love her. By far one of the strongest people I've ever met, while also being extremely sassy. You could say we get along real swell💁🏼

Aaaand that brings us to today! Pday spent in Genova doing some last-minute saldi shopping. Afterwards, we had the worldwide missionary broadcast. Tons of amazing things were said, and changes to our daily missionary schedule were announced so it was pretty dang exciting!

 Its been kind of a stressful week, honestly. However, personal study has been rather on point so I can't complain🤗 I made a goal when I came into the mission that I wanted to read every book of scripture again; once in English, and once in Italian. Not just reading, but fully studying. Right now, I'm reading in the New Testament. As I've been studying the first four books, I decided I didn't want to just study the history; instead, I wanted to study the characteristics of the people. The characteristics of Christ, His disciples, the people, etc. Anyways, I'm learning a lot. But there were a couple things I really liked from the last few days.

You see, I'm kind of a super stressed out person.

And based on some things I found this week, I'm thinking God wants me to be a bit less stressed. Here are a few of my favs

1- In Matthew 6:34, it says "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." #preach We have enough to deal with right now in the present- it does us no good to spend all our time worrying about things in the future.

2- Presidente Uchtdorf said "I think of our Lord and Exemplar, Jesus Christ, and His short life among the people of Galilee and Jerusalem. I have tried to imagine Him bustling between meetings or multitasking to get a list of urgent things accomplished. 

I can’t see it. 

Instead I see the compassionate and caring Son of God purposefully living each day. When He interacted with those around Him, they felt important and loved. He knew the infinite value of the people He met. He blessed them, ministered to them. He lifted them up, healed them. He gave them the precious gift of His time."

3- Uchtdorf, again said "Doesn’t it seem foolish to spoil sweet and joyful experiences because we are constantly anticipating the moment when they will end? Do we listen to beautiful music waiting for the final note to fade before we allow ourselves to truly enjoy it? No. We listen and connect to the variations of melody, rhythm, and harmony throughout the composition. Do we say our prayers with only the “amen” or the end in mind? Of course not. We pray to be close to our Heavenly Father, to receive His Spirit and feel His love. We shouldn’t wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available--all the time! Life is not meant to be appreciated only in retrospect. “This is the day which the Lord hath made … ,” the Psalmist wrote. “Rejoice and be glad in it.”

Yeah, I'm a fan of this idea of life. No clue how exactly to make it happen yet, but I'm sure it'll come up in next week's studies😉

xoxoxoxoxo

Sorella Kaylee Smedley🇮🇹