Well friends, it's been a week. Lots of awesome people, lots of laughs, aaaaand lots of stress because {transfer calls}🙃🙃🙃 What's happening to me this transfer? I am... going to make you read the entire email to find out😉🇮🇹
Thursday was the much anticipated one year mark! It also happened to be the biannual deep-cleaning day for our mission. We were stoked. Blasting the music and cleaning the apartment was too good... I think we enjoyed it far more than we should have. Plus pizza and the traditional year-mark skirt-burning that almost resulted in a small house fire... yeah, we didn't really think that one through... oh whale.
Friday we spent the morning with Franny, our new convert. Pizza, again, plus talking with her about the possibility of her serving a mission one day! Pretty fun! That evening, we met with Juana and Claudio. Seriously one of my absolute favorite families I've met during my time out here! This time, we took their responses from our baptism interview lesson last week and made an action plan for moving forward. They are going to get baptized, I just know it!
Saturday was spent with weekly planning and passbys for the first half. That evening, we met first with Sorella Bassi, a less active in the ward who seriously just warms your soul. Then we met with our investigator Milli and her family! Ate some amazing South American food and talked about the importance of aligning our will with God's. Also, there was a baptism for 5 people in Lecco on Sunday, so that was super fun as well!
Monday we got to visit the Huapaya family from Peru! It was awesome, and their family just makes me so happy! However... they wanted to sing hymns. We were down obviously, but then things got a tad out of hand... Turns out, the Huapaya family is 100% tone deaf. I was dying inside but told myself to keep it together. The problem was, Orr and I were sharing a hymn book, so I could literally feel her starting to lose it. We were dying laughing, but the best part was that the family didn't even notice😂 it was the kind of laughter that is literally silent, because you're laughing so hard. Oh my heck it was so bad! Lolol family, you know I legitimately can't stop laughing once I've started, and that's how it was this time. I kid you not, we were just crying by the end of it😂 and yet, no one noticed a thing. So all was well! Until the closing song, that is...
The we went and saw the Cabezas family, another one of my absolute favorite families in Italy. We talked about how we can use the Atonement every day- how not only do we get to live again after this life, but that through the Atonement, we can have a 'new life' every day! Also, I just have to say again how much I adore this family. Valeria is literally one of my favorite people in the world! She gave me a little card saying goodbye, and that she was glad we were best friends💔
Yep, I had to say 'goodbye'.
Transfer news. Last Friday during language studies, we got a surprise call from president. And the verdict is: I'm leaving. Yep, another "one and done". My mission thus far has literally been a transfer trend of 3 (Collegno), 1 (Vicenza), 3 (Savona), 1 (Muggiò). I'm pretty dang heartbroken about leaving Muggiò and Sorella Orr. It was seriously a dream. However, I'm also stoked... because tomorrow I'm heading to *wait for iiiiiiiit* FIRENZE⚜️⚜️⚜️ AKA Florence, the land of leather and fancy ties and art and just awesome Tuscany. I'm stoked. I'll be a Sister Training Leader (STL, which is equivalent to a Zone leader for Elders) with *wait for iiiiiiiit* Sorella Arndt! Funny story, so I've literally just served basically my whole mission with her. She's a transfer above me, and we overlapped in the MTC. She started out in Torino, and I was in Collegno (neighboring areas) so we did Pdays together all the time. Than she headed to the base in Pordenone and I later followed to the base in Vicenza. Then we both headed down to Liguria to whitewash train (her in Genova, and me in Savona). And now, we'll be together in Firenze. Super hilarious because it's been our running joke for the last year that we'd be STLs together, and now it's happening!
So yeah, I'm beyond stoked for this coming transfer, buuuut I'm also sad. Transfers are exciting, but they also suck. Saying goodbye is the worst. I'm so bummed about leaving the awesome (and hilarious) missionaries up here. I definitely do not want to pack again. I'm basically distraught about leaving Sorella Orr- it's been a fun ride together. Jamming to high school musical, Les Mis, and everything in between. Having amazingly cool lessons together. Way too many laugh attacks and inside jokes. Seeing miracles every day. Lip sync battles and funny vids. Literally too many awesome memories to list, and so it sucks to say goodbye to that. And don't get me started on the people here. It's only been six weeks, and I've met some of my favorite people! Amazing members, insanely cool investigators- just a ton of stellar people! And so in some ways, I was feeling a little bit ripped off honestly lol. Like, six weeks is not much time to fulfill your purpose for a group of people, let alone to realize what your purpose was for them.
Then, we had church. I had to go up and say my goodbye testimony, which is always rough. However, those 3 final hours with the ward were seriously such a gift from God. I felt so much love as I said goodbye to these amazing people who've literally become my family these past six weeks. More than that, I felt their love for me. I know that was seriously God helping me recognize that although I may not know ALL the reasons I was here in Muggiò for such a short time, I was meant to be here. I needed to be here, and they needed to be here. And as I look back at how my mission has gone, it's always been this way. The city and the comp and the other missionaries- its been the way it had been because we all needed each other at that point in time.
It got me thinking the other night (shocker) about Jesus. Lol how typical missionary of me, but just bear with me for a sec. He's obviously the perfect example of, well, everything, but especially of missionary work. His entire life was one big mission, but especially His last three years of life. I was reading a couple talks this week in addition to my New Testament study, and one talked about how three years was such a short time for Jesus to accomplish all that He did. Not long at all to establish His church, teach the truth, and prepare the people for His eventual sacrifice and the apostasy and persecution that would follow. Above all, it wasn't enough time for the people to be with Christ, or for Christ to be with the people. However, that's one of the beautiful things Sorella Orr and I have been talking about lately. As people, we pass in and out of each other's lives. Some people stay for long, and others are there for only a short season. We cross paths to fulfill our role in each other's lives and once that's been achieved, God moves us over to the next person. And it's sad but it's beautiful. Sometimes it involves saying goodbye which sucks, but you never forget those people God puts in your life.
I'm beyond stoked to see why God needs me to cross paths with Sorella Arndt and the people of Firenze. I'll keep ya'll updated. It'll likely involve lots of awkward moments, miracles, and leather
xo
Sorella Smeds
1-4 Year mark celebrations 5-Juana, Claudio 6&7 love these Italians!
8-10 Lecco baptism 11&12 Cabezas 13&14 District pics 15&16 Pday
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