Chapter 9: The Devil wears Prada (and so can missionaries, right?)

Hi favorite people! No car chases or anything this week, but definitely some fun, difficult, and spiritual experiences (lol just me living the missionary dream over here✌🏿) P-day today was rather fun (and tiring lol). Went shopping in Torino- freaking huge and beautiful! Tons of typical stores (Prada, Gucci, and everything in-between) all surrounding the gorgeous Piazza San Carlo. Got myself some fav books in Italian, and my first official Italian shoes (the first of many, I can already tell😍)

English is weird. Yes, I do like English better than Italian most of the time since I'm at least somewhat fluent in it. But English is weird. Which is why it's easy to understand why the people in our English class get confused easily and make mistakes. I understand that firsthand (look at all the hilarious mistakes I've made in Italian) However, usually in this English class, I can keep my composure. Well, we were describing the color of objects, when this older lady stands up and says "I... is... brown!" Which she's not lol- she was referring to her hair. But I completely lost it and had to turn and face the board. I was dying😂

We celebrated Anziano Yee (our district leader) last week cuz it was his birthday! Any excuse for pizza and party hats, am I right? Never a dull moment with Italian missionaries lol! We also had an appointment with the Tribastone family. The parents are members, but their daughter is not. She & her boyfriend are super nice to us though so it's fun to visit with them & teach them. They fed us wayyy too much food as usual but it's delicious so you do what ya have to do🙃😂 did I mention they have a super cute, funny puppy? His name is Pepe & he loves toys (esp dinosaurs) & I adore him cuz he reminds me of my dogs. He kept trying to distract me throughout the night by being hilariously adorable. He's the perfect blend of yoda and dobby😍 lol now that I've spent basically a paragraph describing a family's dog, I
guess we'll move on lol😂

Not gonna lie, this has been a harder week for me. I love visiting with members & doing finding, but let's be honest; it's rough not teaching 5 investigators every day! Or even 5 every week! The language is frustrating because there's SO MUCH I still don't know or understand yet. It's easy to feel frustrated with people as well- people cancelling on us, being with a comp 24/7 (although I do adore her the majority of the time so yay!), and people being super rude when all I wanna do is tell them about Jesus! And funny story, I woke up the other morning and felt sick, but I wasn't gonna let that get in the way of our work! So I kept giving myself mental pep-talks on staying positive & looking for the beautiful things throughout the day! After all, I live in Italy so it shouldn't be too hard. As we were waiting at the bus stop, I saw a bird- super cute, totally singing. Awww. And then. A bigger bird swooped down and killed it. Yeah, screw positivity.

Just kidding though- perspective is everything! Missionary life is freaking hard. Anyone who says otherwise is smokin something (did I mention that's a huge thing here? Yep, gotta love Europe lol) Being a missionary is both harder and more fun than ya ever think beforehand. But perspective helps. I was sick of riding bikes the other day, but then I was like wait. I'm riding a bike. Through the trees (Italy is so green- they even have palm trees!). Past fields and train stations. Over both dirt trails and cobblestone streets. In Italy! And ya know what? I was happy! And not just because I felt like I was in a quidditch match or something as I flew through the trees😉 yeah life is hard (not just mission life lol but life in general!) but it's up to us to decide how to react to it all! It's up to us to trust in God's timing over our own (and to trust that, like in Mosiah 4:9, He knows more than us!) It's up to us to enjoy our lives, not just simply endure them!

Want another funny story? We have an investigator named Luciana, who’s the mother of the Sassi family in our ward (they converted about a year ago). She's darling, & calls us her granddaughters. She insists on calling us by our first names & having us call her "Nona” which makes teaching rather... Interesting. She crochets herself rainbow sweaters & hats, & makes matching outfits for her millions of dolls located all throughout the house. She brought us out some lil treats (we shortly realized that half of them had coffee in them, & the other half had alcohol lol). She likes to play "games" aka have us roll up her yarn or fix her jewelry as we teach her lol. And she's obsessed with the fact that I'm a "baby" missionary. Thus, while my comp talks to her, Luciana makes me read the Italian dictionary... Which is a
struggle given that I don't know enough Italian to even understand the definitions she wants me to learn😂 yesterday, she handed me this weird, deformed bird thing and told me to play with it! And all throughout the lesson she kept reminding me to play with this creepy bird thing, and I'm like wow what even is my life?😂😂 she left the room for a bit and my comp and I were dying bc I'm supposed to play with this stupid bird! And then we look over and notice all of Luciana's lil Dalmatian toys and we completely lose it lol😂 legit tears of laughter! Even better, she gave me the bird as a gift😂😂

We did some finding in the park yesterday, and invited Deborah with us. She's in our ward, and just got back from her mission in Rome last year. I adore her- she's seriously just the best! We talked to a lot of people, although got rejected 90% of the time. It's kinda a struggle when the people don't even want God or Jesus Christ in their lives, let alone organized religion. Just kinda breaks my heart. But we try nonetheless😊 I found myself understanding Deborah's Italian for the most part, which made me feel better about the language. However, at one point we asked her opinion on an investigator we have
named Berta (she and her sons believe all that has been taught & are ready to be baptized- the only holdup is that she was baptized in her old religion, and doesn't understand why she needs to be baptized again. She's just not understanding priesthood authority). Deborah was speaking faster at this point so I couldn't really understand. However, I felt the spirit prompt me as she was talking. I felt the impression that if Berta wasn't getting this concept, she needed to be taught about the restoration of the church (specifically priesthood authority) in a different way. A specific object lesson came to mind. We said goodbye to Deborah, and on our way home, I decided to tell my comp about the idea. After I finished, she was looking at me strangely and I was like oh crap. And she was like "Sorel, how much of what
Deborah said did you understand?" I told her I understood pretty much everything up until she was talking about her advice for teaching Berta. So S. Smith told me what Deborah had said; the EXACT same things I'd just told smith I'd felt prompted about. Legit the exact same object lesson and everything. Wow the spirit is cool, am I right? Wish us luck as we teach Berta this weekend👍🏿😁

Sorry for the long email. Again. I love and miss you all. In fact, the only thing stopping me from swimming across the ocean to be with y’all is this amazing gospel I'm so blessed to share. I know it is God's true, restored church, and that at its center is our brother and savior, Jesus Christ. Have an amazing week, my favorite humans, and remember that I love y'all (and so does God! Yay!)

XoxoXOXO
Sorella Smedley

1&2-visiting a new family in the area, playing with Omar & Zachariah  3&4- Anziano Yee’s birthday!  5- I love it here!  6-Me and Pepe the dog  7&8- Apparently I’m fluent in Italian Lol   9-12- Riding our bikes to the church and enjoying this beautiful country!

   10- Cleaning the baptismal font  11-We found the Golden Arches in Italy! 12-Studying the dictionary at Luciana’s house :)  13-Piazza San Carlo

   14-17 Pday shopping at Piazza San Carlo

   18-20 Shopping, the ginormous bookstore and a video of Piazza San Carlo

   21-23  A productive shopping day: My first Italian leather shoes, The Hobbit & our family’s favorite Where the Wild Things Are

  

   

    

      

   

   

Chapter 8: The One Where Kaylee Was in a Street Chase with the Relief Society President

Hi friends and family! Somehow I've managed to live another week outside the US (shocking really lol) and what a week it has been! Sorry for the long email again, but legit last night I witnessed a miracle so just try to "endure to the end" cuz I promise it's worth it😂

Thursday, we did our normal missionary stuff. Then that afternoon/evening we went with our ward's relief society president, Sister Quaresima, to visit some of the older sisters from our ward,which meant long drives to apartment complexes and resting homes. (Side note - the nursing homes are WEIRD! Legit nurses with crazy
colored hair and wearing crocks, meanwhile an old man is screaming and mass is being held in the hallway and the oldies not attending are watching dance moms lololol) Nonetheless, the women were super sweet. And small. And old. Sister Quaresima took us back to her family’s apartment for dinner. (Side note- they have millions of snakes… I swear every family has dogs, cats, snakes, turtles, birds, or all of the above. They say we get to hold the huge snakes for a picture next time... I say we'll see how brave I am lol😂) they fed us tons of yummy pasta and then a rather interesting large bowl of tomatoes and tuna… Luckily, it was followed by gelato so no complaints here!

AND THEN
Sister Quaresima and her son were driving us home. I was super out of it; like just tired as heck bc that's just missionary life lol. All of a sudden some dude's motorcycle hits our car and someone else's car and then takes off through the intersection. And so what does one do in this situation when in Italy? Swerve between cars and go after them of course! I was wide awake at this point haha. The best part was how into it cute lil sister Quaresima was! Keep in mind, she's one of the
quieter, less crazy Italians I've ever met! Aaaand she's yelling at her son to go faster lol! The other car had joined in with us at this point. Sadly, the motorcyclist cut through a park so we barely lost him! Then the Quaresimas had a nice chat with the other car, and then they calmly got back into our car and essentially acted as though nothing had happened lololol... Never thought I'd be able to say I’d been in a street chase with the relief society president, but when in Collegno I guess haha!

Last weekend, ten of us lil missionaries got the opportunity to help with a project for refugees! (Side note- ever since general conference when they talked about the efforts to help refugees, I've been semi-obsessed with wanting to be part of it! So you can imagine my excitement when we got a call from the zone leaders to come help out!) the church was hosting an event in Torino and had invited ward members from the Collegno ward and Torino wards, as well as representatives from various organizations. So we got to meet everyone (and of course we had plenty of Books of Mormon and pamphlets for them, just like good lil missionaries😬) and we put together refugee kits, ate food and mingled, and watched Meet the Mormons! Super fun and crazy way to spend the weekend!

Monday we had zone conf in Torino for 5ish hours. Tons of good training from President Dibb, the Zone Leaders, and the Sister Training Leaders! Pres Dibb had me introduce myself (which was a struggle cuz I'm awkward lol) and then give my "birth" testimony. Then we had lunch which was fab as per usual (bc Italy😍) and then we had 2 "dying" testimonies from Sorella Harris and Anziano Blazzard (both of whom leave after this transfer, and are in my district) and needless
to say, it was hard to not leak from my eyes lol. Cuz here I am JUST BARELY starting my lil adventure called a mission, and these two humans whom I love are FINISHING theirs! It's seriously crazy!

After the zone conf, my comp & I hopped on a train with the STLs to do scambia (exchanges) which was super tiring but way fun (as is every mission-related thing!). So for the next 24 hours, Sorella Smith was comps with Sorella Fuller, and I was comps with Sorella Stephens. Oh how I freaking love S. Stephens! She goes home this transfer too which is rather tragic because I love her!! We got to their apartment in Milano later that night. Then that morning, it was off to work! S. Stephens & I studied and then headed off to meet with Paula, a new convert. We checked up on her, and then invited her with us to teach at another appointment. It went great! Paula was so solid and confident despite being so new in the church! Then she joined S. Stephens and I for pizza at Rossopomodoro- my first super-legit Italian pizza! The verdict: totally in love! So freaking good!! Plus a much more enjoyable alternative to the oyster pasta S. Smith and Fuller had at a member's house... (Really though, I'm fairly sure God just knew I couldn't handle eating oysters, so he let me have pizza instead:) prayer works guys! Lol)

We then had more study & prep, and then got to teach Sonia (who we had passed earlier that day, saw her working, and set up an appointment). She, like most Italians, was fascinated with my hair lol. It didn’t help that it was rainy, which meant humidity, which meant my hair was more of a mane than usual lol. But the Italians love it and always want to touch it, so I guess it's the poodle life for me!🐩 After teaching her, we got gelato (cuz why not) and then met up with the others so we could head home. I was super sad to leave Sorella Stephens, but I learned a ton from her and got some new ideas for us to use in Collegno! So our 24 hours of scambia in foggy, rainy Milano was a lovely success!

Also we had a minor miracle. So traveling home from Milano was super hectic and stressful, and we freaking missed our train! So we had to catch one a half an hour later. Then our train kept getting stopped, so we got to the station late. And then the metro took 5ever. And then we got to the bus stop at like 9ish😪 buuuut guess what? Things happen for a reason. We're sitting there exhausted, when I look over and see this woman (probs in her 50s) sitting alone on the bench. And all of a
sudden, I feel this super strong impression from the spirit- just like a clear mental message. Wanna guess what that message was? Yup, clear as can be, "go talk to her". And I'm like, no. Cuz talking to people is a normal mission thing, but here, most the people typically not so kind. If they do talk to you, they're pretty much never interested in our religion. Again, I get the same message. Again, I'm like no. I don't know enough Italian to chat with this lady. Again, I get the same message, but more urgent. "Go talk to her NOW!". And so i turned to my comp and I was like "hey Sorella I'm supposed to talk to this lady" and she's like ugh and so I just go sit and then she follows.

And I'm awkward as heck.

And I have 0 confidence in the language.

But I try.

And so I start small talk. And I'd like to say I got the gift of tongues right then and there, but I so didn't lol. But I still had the spirit, and my comp pitched in with her AWESOME language skills and totally made up for my weaknesses in the language. This woman's name is Doina, & she's from Romania! We found out about her family and her job. And then she asked about what we did as missionaries, and get this- she's never heard of Mormons (whaaaat) and we were more than
happy to tell her:) my comp gave her our number, and then started to look for the bus. But the Holy Ghost was like "lol you're not done Kaylee" and I'm like aw danggers. So then in my awful broken Italian I tell her how much we've enjoyed talking with her and ask her if she’d like us to meet with her sometime to talk some more about her church. And get this- she said yes! And we got her number! And basically there's never been a person happier than I was! Because there are no
such thing as coincidences. And because after a week and a half of no success with finding investigators, we found someone who is ready for the gospel- someone who not only needs Christ, but who is at the gateway of being prepared to accept His atonement. And to a lot of you, this little experience is probs small and insignificant, but I feel so blessed to have been able to witness a small glimpse of God’s hand in our lives. Because as I look back, everything that took place
during the day on Tuesday was leading up to this 20 minute interaction. The role plays from zone conf; the things I'd learned from S. Stephens; missing our train literally by minutes; and a million other things. All for Doina. Oh how much love God has for her; how much love He has for EACH OF US INDIVIDUALLY.

And that is something even more beautiful than any castle or city I’ve seen here.

How great is our joy in bringing but one soul unto Christ. And even if I only find but one soul in all of Collegno, or even all of Italy, my joy will be full!

Have an outstanding week, you amazing humans❤️

XOXO
Sorella Smedley

1. We have to pass by this billboard almost daily-so tempting, but I’ll be strong! 2. Gelato on the daily  3. Mother’s Day

4 & 5. Views of Collegno and the mountains  6. In front of our church- yes, we have an actual LDS chapel in Collegno!

7. & 8. At this weeks Zone Conference  9. Street car in Milano (Milan, for you Westerners:) )

10 & 11. My first real Italian pizza with Sorella Stephens & Paula  12. Yes, I’m eating gelato again- but with Sorella Stephens this time:)

13, 14 &15. The streets of Milano

      

   

  

   

  

Chapter 7- What NOT to do on your first day in Italy

Yep that's right- I'm finally in Italy!! Super heartbreaking to say goodbye to the Roman district... And the teachers... And of course my amazing Sorellanza district... And America... Buttttt it's okay because ITALY!!!!!!! And what a fantastical, psychotic, indescribable journey it's been thus far... (Sorry in advance for the lengthy email
but I have lots of awkward experiences lol so it's worth it!)

Ok first of all, traveling was CRAZY! I was able to sleep quite a bit and call the family which was nice, but I was tired and nervous and was just so not ready to leave 'Murica lol... Plus our plane landed late in London... And we already only had an hour layover anyway...And then they made us go all the way through security AGAIN... so our group got split up, with 5 of us on the 1st plane, and the other 3 left waiting.... And I'm sitting there on the plane with S. Lo Russo thinking "okeeey what hecking thing have I gotten myself into?!?” Like forreals, maybe I should just go back home to my beautiful comfort zone (after all, there's Netflix there!) And then guess what
happened?! I look out the window and I saw the Appalachian mountains!! We were finally coming over Italy... And wowzers it was love at first sight!!!!! I sat there glued to the window and then we finally landed! I legit did a high school musical jump off the plane onto my beautiful new homeland!

Ok remember in tangled when rapunzel keeps going back and forth between "yay I'm so glad I left my tower" to "I never should've left” to "Best. Day. EVER!" Yeah this is basically me the first 24 hours before meeting my trainer... Like yay for Italy but also what the fetch am I doing??? Plus my brain was tired so it just made everything
worse... Pres. Dibb and his wife picked us up and we dropped our stuff off at the mission office, and then we were off to the duomo to start proselyting. We get on the metro and I see a lady and I'm like "hey I like your scarf!" And she totally just glares at me and moves away (I even checked later on to make sure I hadn't accidentally said something wrong or offensive in Italian... Nope, this lady just hated me haha) Luckily the next lady we talked to was nicer and even wanted a B of M (whoot whoot!) lol but remember in the movie "The Best Two Years" when the greenie first gets to the mission and he's like "Elder, what language are they speaking?" And his trainer is like "That's Dutch..." And then the greenie is like "That's not the language they taught me at the MTC!" Cuz yeah that was me… We finally get off the metro and walk up some stairs to see the beautiful, massive duomo! And I was rather fascinated by this beautiful, massive duomo! And you know what happens sometimes when you're fascinated by a beautiful, massive duomo? You tend to stop focusing on your footing, and typically end up falling down dramatically... Yup, day 1 in Italy and I'd already tripped lol…      It's gonna be a long 17 months...

We had dinner with the mission pres and his wife, and then went to the hotel. Jet lag has been kinda killing me so I don't remember much other than that there was a huge spider in the bathroom and that I totes passed out on top of my bed... The next day we had more training, and then we got to meet our trainers! I got the amazing
Sorella Smith (who I adore cuz she's nice and funny and she loves all my movies and books!) and we are living in Collegno, a city inside Torino. So I get to see the mountains (which I love!) and we're right by the French border. Our apartment is super nice, plus it has 2 balconies. It's close by a gelato shop and a lil comic book/nerd shop like on Big Bang Theory (tons of marvel and Star Wars stuff!!).There's also a street market right outside our door every Saturday! Like for reals, I just love my new home!

A bit about Collegno... It's not a super successful city honestly. It's a poorer area and there's hardly any progressing investigators, and rarely any baptisms. A lot of people say it's one of the lesser-pretty areas in Italy. Aaand I absolutely love it! It's a pretty huge area, so although we walk a lot we also take the bus, metro, and train (which I love cuz Italy is just beautiful). The ward here is amazing! They were super excited to meet me cuz there hasn’t been a greenie Sorella here in almost 2 years! My comp and the anziani here have really been working on strengthening the ward here and working with the non-active members, so I'm super excited to continue
working with them and finding potential investigators through them. It's kinda crazy, cuz our last pday in the MTC, we went to the temple for the last time😪 while there, I just felt such a love for this country of people I hadn't even met, and a desire for them all to experience the love of Christ and the blessings of the temple. And I
remember having like a mental conversation with God, where I kinda just promised Him "okay Heavenly Father, I promise I'll do whatever I can to help the people in whatever area I'm in. I'll do my best to put Your will above my own. If You put me in the area You need me in, and promise not to leave me alone, I'll focus on all the people- not just worrying about baptisms or statistics, but putting my focus on helping the needs of non-members, members, and inactives equally." And lemme
tell you, the minute I stepped foot in Collegno, I knew this was where God needed me. And boy, am I excited to figure out what things He wants me to accomplish here!

As with all missions, life is busy and tiring but good! We have studies and planning like always. We teach English class Wednesdays and Fridays (yay cuz I actually know English). It's fun cuz we teach it with the Collegno anziani, Anziano Rogers and Anziano Yee. I just love them- they're awesome, obedient missionaries and are just super fun! Sundays are crazy and fun- our ward has close to 100 people which is awesome! The bishop had me introduce myself and bear testimony and
whatnot in church this week which was definitely an experience lol😂 my comp and the anziani all said my Italian was better than theirs at 2 transfers (I'm thinking they're lying but they're adorable nonetheless lol). And the members are all super patient with my lack of language skills haha so it's all good! During the week, we meet
with members a lot (a few of them have other family members and friends we get to teach next week!) they always feed us a ton! It’s hard to get a lot of lessons in during the day, because travel time can take up to an hour each way, and they typically keep us for like 2-5 hours haha! They just love talking about the gospel and life lol! I love these people! The youth we have are darling- we're planning an activity for the them that they can invite friends to so that'sexciting!

A couple fun things about Italy I've learned during my first week:
- There are dogs EVERYWHERE! S. Smith said she never saw dogs here until I showed up, so evidently God loves me lol🐶 I always speak Italian to them which is basically my winning method for talking to strangers about the gospel haha!
- Fizzante is my new fav. Basically it's carbonated water and its weird but awesome. Also Fanta is way better here- like it's legit orange juice with bubbles lol
- There are lizards everywhere! And also pigeons.
- Remember how I have an irrational fear of escalators? Yeah same…   And we ride them constantly...
- The food is okay I guess... Just kidding like wow I love it! The members feed us so much (like there's no such thing as a meal with less than 3 courses) and it's all just great. And don't get me started on the gelato cuz dang I could eat that stuff for every meal😉🍦

P day today, we went to Stupinigi, a palace that was used as a hunting retreat for royalty. It was huge and gorgeous, plus we got to go with the Torino Sorelle: s. Ardnt (who I met at the MTC and is one transfer ahead of me) and s. Harris (she's on her last transfer!)

I love this country. And this city. And these missionaries. And this food. AND of course I adore these crazy Italians! Sorry mom and dad-
I'm never coming home!!!

xoxo
Sorella Smedley

1. Goodbye America-hello Italy!  2.Contacting on the Metro  3.The Duomo where we proselyted 

4. President and sister Dibb & I   5. My trainer, Sis. Smith, & I at the train station   6. Sis. Smith and I on our apartment balcony

5. GELATO!! Yum!!  6. Little mint green cars everywhere-I need one!  7. Sis. Smith & I taking a break on the swings  8. Lunch appt. & chilling with Francesco (& his adorable dogs!)

9. The rest of the pictures are from Stupingi Palace- it was beautiful!!