Well friends, it's been a crazy great week! Started out pretty sad,
saying goodbye to Savona and the amazing Sorella Carter! Also,
traveling alone with all your luggage sucks lol! However, I LOVE
Muggiò so far!! In Milano, the days are either 100% grey and gloomy,
or it's clear blue skies. Absolutely love it! There's about 3x the
work here compared to my past cities, and it's such a blast! The ward
and investigators are so great! Still a ton of people I need to meet,
but I've honestly looooved everyone so far! My companion Sorella Orr
is amazing!❤❤❤ We have so much in common, and it's great to just be
working so hard while also having the best time ever!! Plus, it was
Valentine's Day, so here's the obligatory love-themed group email💁🏼
enjoy.
I ❤ Italian Transportation (kind of...)
- To get to Muggiò on Thursday, I took a three hour train. You would
think that'd be an awesome experience. However, it was one of those
lovely trains that has assigned seats. And my seat was on the opposite end
of the train. Which meant going back and forth with each suitcase
through eight train cars. It took 45 minutes. I got a lot of weird
looks. Idk why, I mean what's so weird about a girl essentially
dressed like a pioneer moving three bags through a crowded
train?🤷🏼♀️ I did become friends with the train conductor though. He
was a Jehovah's Witness, so that made for interesting conversation...
then I got to change trains at Milano Centrale, still with all my
luggage. Somehow I made it to my new city... I deserve a medal or
something honestly🙄
- All of Italy uses public transportation, but I've never seen it
utilized as much as in Milano. In one given day, we use the metro,
trains, a million and one buses, and the trams. We are only slightly
confused and only get lost a couple of times a day😅
I ❤ Italian Food... In Moderation
- Sorella Orr and I baked pretzel bread during weekly planning. We are
so domestic🙄😂
- FHE with the Ferranti family, was as carb-filled as it was
spirit-filled. We're talking 3 types of focaccia, 2 types of pizza, 3
types of bread, farinata, and 2 other bread-ish items I'd never had
before. Literally our plates were filled and it was nothing but
bread😂😭 the voyage home was 100% spent trying not to hurl
- I ate a whole fish, completely raw this week🐟 I honestly wanted to die.
- Gotta love how even if you aren't having a meal appointment at
someone's home, they feel obligated to feed you something. Which is
great until your days are filled with appointments... eh, guess that's
why Orr and I have started doing planking contests in the morning💪🏼
I ❤ Italians
- Literally every appointment we went to left me with such a full
heart! The people in this city are so amazing!! I never would've
thought I would be so at home sitting in a kitchen talking in
Italian with a beautiful group of people living in essentially a whole
separate world from me! It's seriously the best!
- Church was a dream. Literally it was like I was in an American ward-
so many people and they're all so strong! I seriously love them
already!
- Our investigators are awesome! And we have two families we are
teaching! Gosh, this work brings me so much joy!
- We also met with a few less-active families, and I seriously just love it!
I ❤ Funny Moments
- "Your mother and your father made you, and so you are full of sin!"
Pastor Emmanuel, an African we met on the train
- Getting Frozen temporary tattoos for Valentine's Day
- That awkward moment when you're praying before ringing the citofono
to an apartment building& someone walks into the apartment and
treats you like you're a jehova's witness or something
- "He'll come back for us- we're basically Amish" -us making
commentary as people stare at us.
- "Well... they're temporary tattoos... so... they're technically not
against the white handbook... right...?" -me
- The Cattaneos wiping us down after a powdered sugar explosion.
Also, the fact that the mother has short-term memory loss, which makes
lessons interesting lol
- "We are West of the hospital!" -Sorella Orr, using her new compass
-*random dance parties to high school musical whilst getting ready*
- "So sorry, so so so so sorry" -Orr and I, daily
I ❤ My Companion
- Yeah, I seriously lucked out. It's only been a week and yet I feel
like Sorella Orr and I have known each other for forever!
- Seriously, so many deep convos, dance parties, etc. We're laughing 24/7
- She's such a hard worker! It's so easy to teach together, and we've
made a lot of good plans for our area!
- We had the best ever Galentines Day❤ Which included a fancy meal +
gelato! And almost throwing up but then not! Also, too many laughs😂
I ❤ Italy
- I could have like 284649264 bullet points for his one, but for
time's sake we'll just talk about Pday! Sorella Orr and I met up with
Sorella Williams and my bff Sorella Anderson to go to the Milano
Duomo! And by "go to", I really mean "go on top". It was pretty much
the best ever! Brought back so many memories of my first day in Italy,
when we crazy greenies were released outside the duomo to attempt to
proselyte. Although, today was a tad different given that I didn't
nearly fall on my face walking up to the duomo this time, and I know
how to say more than "ciao" lol.
Well, I already gave my spiritual spiel on love last week, but here's
a couple fun valentines-themed gems I found during studies🤗
- 1 John 4:19 "We love Him, because He first loved us." I remember my
MTC group coming across this scripture together, and I've loved it
ever since. Pretty self-explanatory, pretty awesome💕
- When it talks in the Bible about Christ healing the lepers, there's
something pretty neat. Like, it's already pretty cool that Christ was
able to use the power of the priesthood to heal them. However, an
interesting point to recognize is how much that must have meant to
these people. I mean, the healing obviously meant the world to them-
it changed their treatment by society, and honestly completely changed
their lives! However, it's also interesting to note that because of
society's fear and disgust towards those with leprosy, and due to
guidelines in the Mosaic law, these people would've been subject to a
ton of awful stuff. The loneliness, the pain, but more than that, they
would've gone a loooong time without the comforts of physical touch.
And what does Christ do? Like always, He puts the people above all. He
was moved with such compassion towards them, and He placed His hands
on them and healed them. Isn't it just lovely to realize that along
with being our savior and redeemer, Christ is also our loving brother.
This is so beautiful to me, because truly through His loving
sacrifice, we receive the physical and spiritual healing that we all
desire and need❤
Buy some chocolates. Tell someone you love them. Take yourself on a
date to the movies. Until next time💋
xoxoxoxoxo
Sorella Smeds💌💝❣️💕💋🎀❤
1-3 Enjoying Muggio & Sorella Orr 4-6Valentines Day!
7- 23 The beautiful Milano Duomo
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