Chapter 61: "Your Mom Goes to College!"

If you don't know where this quote is from, you may as well stop reading this email.

Just kidding.

But really, I hope all you mothers out there had the best day ever! I know I looooved chatting with the fam on Sunday❤ yay moms! Moms are the best!

We met with a ton of members this week, and set a soft bap date with Carolina! We still have to finish the lessons with her and get her in the habit of coming to church, but she's on the right path! We also spent today's Pday at this famous rose garden hidden at the base of piazzale Michelangelo. It was kinda the coolest.

We also got to meet up a few times with Francesca, a less active a couple years older than us, who wants to start coming back. She's one of those people I just clicked with. Like it took no time at all for me to just love her.❤We've started working with her so that she and her husband can get sealed in the temple soon! Seriously, she is making so much progress and I'm just beyond stoked for her!

We had two baptisms this week!! Not for investigators lol, but for Sara and Katherina! Their families are members, but we'd been doing the lessons with both of them in prep for the baptisms, and it was so fun! Plus a lot of our investigators came to the baptisms which was the best!🤗

We also got a new investigator, Maryam, a friend of some of the college students in the ward! She's been to church the last two Sundays, and we've been meeting with her twice a week! She's originally Muslim, so it's been a challenge. Seriously her lessons have been the hardest I've had on my mission! We always leave them feeling totally drained haha, but she's making progress! It goes a lot slower, given that it took us an entire hour just to explain who God is (and she's still not quite getting it...), but she really is searching for the truth. She came to Sara's baptism, and felt the spirit so strongly she started crying. She kept asking what that feeling was, and how she could feel it again. *cue comp fist-bumping* She also asked for a blessing from the Anziani, and it was super neat!

In other news, we had deep fried Oreos for district meeting. Our district is the same as it was last transfer- us, plus Anz Young, Younce, Challis, and Tumblin. We have too much fun🤷🏼‍♀️ the Anziani bought deep fryers once they found out we were all staying... sooo we've been frying everything😂😅 in unrelated news, Arndt and I have started doing P90X every day...

Aaaaaanyways I've been reading in James lately, where we find the all-famous scripture that led Joseph Smith to ask the question that instigated the restoration of the Christ's church: 

James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Something interesting though, is the scripture that follows it.

James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

Joseph didn't merely ask God a simple question; he asked in faith. He asked not "Which church is true?" Instead, the question was "Which church should I join?" He wasn't just curiously seeking a response- he had faith that God would answer him, and he was already committed to act on whatever response he did receive.

That's something we've been working on with our investigators and the others we've been working with. It's essentially just having them ask themselves if they are learning solely out of curiosity, or if there is an intention to act. I feel like that is key anytime we are seeking answers from God. Faith doesn't just signify 'belief'- it's an action word. So surely we are a million more times likely to receive answers and guidance once we've already decided to act on whatever answer God gives us, no matter how difficult it may be.

xoxoxoxoxo

Sorella Smedley 

1-Mother’s Day!   2-4 Sara & Katherina’s baptisms  5- District Mtg.  6- Beautiful Florence  7-10  Pday in the gardens

  

     

  

Chapter 60: Wizards Are Too Immature for Museums

Friends... we have spent the entire day at this palace in Firenze. I have zero desire or energy to write emails. Thus, these three following lists will be comprising my sorry excuse for an email🤷🏼‍♀️ sorry not sorry, Italy problems and all that.

What has even happened this week?

- We met with my fav Carolina again! We were trying to figure out a good realistic baptism date for her, but it was hard since she works Sundays. Well, she just called us and her schedule changed so she NEVER works sundays! So we're planning to set a date with her next time we see her!

- We got to do pre-baptism lessons with both Sara (bishop's daughter) and Katerina! They both get baptized this weekend, so we're stoked! They're sooooooooo cute!!

- We met with a heck ton of members this week, really trying to help strengthen them AND help them with missionary work! It's inspiring how willing they are to share the gospel!

- We're working with one of my favorite people in the world right now... I'll share more about her next week though because we are seeing her tomorrow!

- Norca, who has been an investigator for over a year, is finally making progress! It looks like her main roadblock for getting baptized will be out of the way within the next month or two, so we couldn't be more stoked!

- We had concilio (leadership council) on Monday! Which meant a) Sleep over in Reggio with my MTC comp Sorella Fife! b) amaaaaaazing trainings from Presidente and the assistants c) seeing some of my fav missionaries d) ROOOOOAD TRIIIIIIIP from Florence to Milano, and then back! Haha Arndt and I road tripped it with our zone leaders and had too much fun. You'd best believe I created a super dope playlist of Disney and Christian music and everything lol. Anz Young gave me the dj name 'DJ Asmedic' because smeds🙄🤷🏼‍♀️

Pday today was a Palace woohooo. I loved it! Well the palace part at least. There was also a hecka long museum inside. 

Palaces = awesome 

Museums for 30 minutes = fab

Museums four hours = you've lost me

My experience can be summed up in a couple of quotes:

- *sees completely red throne room* Omg its gryffindor!

- "Hey that sketchy guy in the painting looks like Snape!"

- *sees completely green sitting room* Ew slytherin!

- "Are these staircases gonna move or nah?"

- *sees completely gold room* Heyyyyy its hufflepuff!

- Me: "Omg its the golden snitch!"

Arndt: "Yeah no... that's supposed to be the Holy Ghost descending like a dove..."

- *sees completely blue ballroom* Nicely done gryffindor

Basically do take me to Harry Potter world. Also palaces. Probs not art museums though..."

Concilio was the best and here's why!

- Presidente talked about the importance of being anxious without anxiety! I love this principle so so much because it's so pertinent not only to missions, but to life in general! We need to be anxious- we need to careful about things and constantly be working towards something good. However, it serves no one to get overly stressed about it. Maybe by the time I finish this dang mission, I'll finally have learned to apply this idea ;)

- "Christ says, “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. … Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”’ -cs Lewis

- I got to chat with some buds from the MTC during concilio, and it was just fun to realize how much we love the mission. Seriously stuff is still hard. People are frustrating, the language kills you sometimes, and honestly we are pretty inadequate most days. However, I'm just kind of at that point where I love what I'm doing more than anything else. I miss all my peeps and my movies and whatnot, but I'm not wishing I was home. Anz Wilkinson said that people often asked him if he was trunky or ready to be home, and he said "I would be embarrassed if I felt that way". I love that. I feel that. I know that day will come, but right now I'm just loving where I'm at❤

Also, President Allen did a He-Man impression for us. Oh, how I love this mission!

xoxo

Sorella Smeds

1-2  Rooaaddd Ttrrriipp!  3-5Concilio! Saying bye to Anz. Wilkinson & Sorella Williams and seeing my favs Gibbs & Jones

6-10 Combined District mtgs. lol  11-20 Palace Pday!!

               

Chapter 59: Fish are Friends NOT Food!

Well friends, what a week it has been! This week marks one year in this beautiful country🇮🇹❤ It feels like it's been forever, but also like it's been only a week😂 Shockingly, I've grown accustomed to a lot. It's normal to see models on the metro... aaand also people willingly wearing adidas or crocs. I'm used to seeing cathedrals every 10 steps, and sitting next to nuns on the bus. I thought I was used to eating both amazing Italian food, aaaand super weird food... eh, I guess that one won't ever be completely normal, buuuut we'll save that story for a little later...🦑

We had our last scambio this week!! I got to be with Sorella Zombra, my comp from last August-September. It was crazy seeing how much we've both changed in the last 9 months! We met with a couple of less actives, which was super fun! A majority of our less actives here are only considered less active because their work schedule makes it impossible to come to church. Thus, our goal with them lately has been getting them to read from the Book of Mormon each day. We also had another appointment with Carolina Cabezas! Sorella Zombra and I taught her the restoration and it went so well! She doesn't have a ton of religious background, but she is learning and progressing so well!

While Sorella Arndt and Ruby were together on scambio, they found a new investigator named Pilar! We've met with her twice since, and she's awesome! It's been a challenge, because she's had a lot of really tough questions. However, the spirit has been soooo strong in these past two lessons! Sorella Arndt and I have really been trying to play off of each other well and be better at discerning the needs of our investigators. It's hard because with Pilar, the lessons are a bit of a roller coaster😂 but hey, nothing like telling the amazing account of Joseph Smith's first vision whilst sitting in a beautiful garden in Toscana🌻

We met with various members this week, including my favorite Sorella Larrain! What a gem, that one❤ I don't remember if I explained any background on her... basically, she's the most amazing member. She has two kids- one is active in the church, and the other is not. About three months ago, her husband passed away from cancer. And yet, Sorella Larrain is the most caring, positive, funny person I've met. Well, her son Peter came home from his mission yesterday! We helped her a lot with the preparations on Monday, so she invited us to stay for lunch... well, she thinks it's hilarious that I'm not much of a fan of fish, so she decided it'd be funny to have some after we'd finished lunch... literally she plops this big ole squid up on the table, chops it up into pieces, and hands me this bowl of tentacles. Lolol so naturally I decided to try it... and it was all nasty and rubbery and fishy... and it was taking me FOREVER to finish my tentacle... and then I did something I've NEVER done in my entire year here in Italy... I TOTALLY HURLED. I kid you not, I vomited that whole tentacle right into my empty bowl. Omg. I have eaten raw meat, scallops, cat, raw fish, and a million and one naaaaaasty things, but never ONCE have I thrown up in someone else's home😳😳😳 thank goodness we were with Larrain and not someone else😂😂 she literally laughed harder than I've ever seen someone laugh😂 we were all dying.🦑🦑🦑

We also had an amazing appointment with Maria (formerly known as "Car Maria"). We were a bit worried going in, given that the last lesson ended up being a catholic tea party, but it ended up being one of the best lessons we've had!! We taught her about the restoration, and the spirit was just so strong. She had a ton of questions too, and I just felt the spirit totally guiding us to know what to say and how to explain things. At the end, she hugged us and told us we were like daughters to her❤

There's been a pretty continuous trend I've noticed in our lessons this week. And I mean, technically it's always been there, but I guess I really saw it a lot this past week.

The true, restored gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives.

There hasn't really been a time in my life when I didn't know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was true. However, this week has strongly reconfirmed to me that's not only is it the true church, but that it is the only true church on the earth today.

In preparing for these lessons this past week, my companion and I have been studying the talk "The Blueprint for Christ's Church" by Callister. https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2014/01/what-is-the-blueprint-of-christs-church?lang=eng This talk breaks down the essential elements of the church Jesus Christ established during His life. It's super interesting, especially since I've been studying the New Testament lately. There are some essential parts of the church that Christ established, including but not limited to: the calling of 12 apostles, Priesthood authority, baptism by immersion, commandments, temples, the sacrament, miracles, an unpaid ministry, the Holy Ghost, the scriptures, missionary work, praying to God alone, the nature of the Godhead, ordinances for the dead, etc.

These are the elements that made up Christ's church.

Interestingly enough, there is only one church on the earth today that contains every single one of these elements.

In the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord makes this bold and significant statement: “[This is] the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth” (D&C 1:30). What does this mean? It does not mean that other churches do not have some truth, for certainly they do. It does not mean that other churches do not render good, for they render much good. What it does mean is that this is the only church that has all the truth that has been revealed thus far in this dispensation—the only church that has the ordinances necessary for exaltation and the only church that has the priesthood of God to perform those ordinances with divine validity. 

I mentioned the interesting trend of this week. With both Maria and Pilar, we asked them how there lives have changed in just the short time we've started meeting with them. Here are the already-translated responses

Maria: My family is doing better. I am more at peace. I finally feel that I have a relationship with God.

Pilar: I feel peace and other feelings I've never felt before in my life. I have to continue meeting with you, because I have to have these feelings in my life. I can't go back to where I was before.

Why is there a change in their lives? Why were these feelings NOT in their lives before, with their current religious practices? Why are people like Sorella Larrain able to find peace and joy in life, so soon after having a loved one pass away? These are all just blessing that come with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I mentioned before that all of our investigators (But especially pilar and Maria) have a ton of questions. We know the answers to a lot of them, but some things are hard to move past. However, Callister brings up something that I believe to the core:

Suffice it to say, I can live with some human imperfections, even among prophets of God—that is to be expected in mortal beings. I can live with some alleged scientific findings contrary to the Book of Mormon; time will correct those. And I can live with some seeming historical anomalies; they are minor in the total landscape of truth. But I cannot live without the doctrinal truths and ordinances restored by Joseph Smith, I cannot live without the priesthood of God to bless my family, and I cannot live without knowing my wife and children are sealed to me for eternity. That is the choice we face—a few unanswered questions on one hand versus a host of doctrinal certainties and the power of God on the other. And for me, and I hope for you, the choice is an easy one and a rational one.

I know this and believe this so deeply. Yes, we are faced with the mysteries of God and the imperfections of man. They can easily raise some doubts, but any number of questions or concerns is merely a drop in the bucket compared with the waves of blessings that come from this true church of Jesus Christ! It's not just something I want or believe- it's something I need. It's a need that Maria and Pilar have recognized. It's something we all need.

Ew, I was never going to be that overly preachy missionary that tries to extend invitations via email (yes, to all two of you who might have made it down this far lol) buuut I'm making an exception for this week. Study the "blueprint" of Christ's church, whether through this talk https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2014/01/what-is-the-blueprint-of-christs-church?lang=eng or just straight through the Bible. Whether you're reading this as a missionary, an atheist, one of those weird Mormons, a catholic, or if you're of no religion at all, put it to the test. But I'm going to  echo Callister and warn you...

If one were to match the blueprint of Christ’s original Church against every church in the world today, he would find that point for point, organization for organization, teaching for teaching, ordinance for ordinance, fruit for fruit, and revelation for revelation, it will only match one—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If one rejects this Church after studying the blueprint, then it will likely ruin him for any other church because he knows too much.

Sorry not sorry.

xoxo

Sorella Smedley 

1-Bringing out the Disney side of this missionary!  2-“I’m not Muslim”-Sorella Zombra   3-‘Spleen’ graffiti  4-My comp is a crazy cat lady!

5- Sunday❤︎   6- ‘Babe’  7-Food from the Philippines  8-I love visiting Sorella Larrain…   9-…but I hate when she feeds me squid🐙😷

10- time for our massages!    11- District Mtg. & burgers, so much better than squid!

   

      

Chapter 58: Gelato is an Emotion, Yeah?

Well folks, it's been a week. Like literally one of the funniest/weirdest weeks ever. Oh hahaha as I'm writing this on the train, this guy just came to check our tickets lol... and as we tried to grab them, all these Jesus pass along cards just leapt out of the bag... and the train guy was like "oh! Hallelujah!" Hahaha, oh how I love Italy.🇮🇹

Also, idk if I've ever been more tired. Literally Arndt and I are up in the night like every hour thanks to the mosquitos buzzing in our ears. Also, we've been having issues with sleep talking with each other in Italian😑 this morning at 2:17am I apparently went off at Arndt for trying to teach the resto for a girl named Deborah...? Literally she was sitting up in bed sleep-teaching. Missions are weird, and I'm tired😂😴

We had scambio this week with Sorella Johnson and Sorella Roloff from Rimini! I was with Sorella Johnson, which was cool since it was her last scambio before going home! I seriously learned so much from her, and it really makes me sad knowing she goes home next week! I think the thing I loved the most is that she's let the mission change her and better her, but she's stayed true to herself! The highlight of that scambio was definitely visiting Ida again! She made us bread that tastes like animal crackers, and we talked about Jesus. It's the best. I feel like she's my crazy nonna or something❤❤❤

It's been an interesting week in regards to food... When you think of Italian food, you probably think of delicious lasagna and pizza and gelato and everything in between. It's all so good. You probably don't think of mayonnaise. I didn't either, back when I was innocent and naive. Well friends, there is far too much mayo running through my veins right now. Saturday, my bff Sorella Larrain invited us over for lunch. The meal was amazing, except for this random bowl of purple death that resembled jello... it was literally sliced beets and carrots... in like 7384927 pounds of mayonnaise. Kill me. Ugh, it's a good thing I love the heck out of this woman. Even though she died of laughter when she saw I didn't know how to make coffee😂 sorry that's not in my skills set🙃 we also had a sweet member who wanted to make lunch for us and the Anziani after church. Bless his heart, he brought out a couple of vending machine sandwiches that had nothing on it except a few little chunks of ham and tuna floating around in- you guessed it- an inch-thick slab of mayo. I think I felt my heart literally stop😵

On the better end of the food spectrum, we also went to Europe's annual gelato festival!! ASHFKDJWHAKDK!!! I heard about it so much in the MTC, and boy did it live up to expectations! We took some of the youth and it was seriously a blast. Just picture food trucks set up in this palazzo with every kind of gelato imaginable. We got through 16 cones of gelato... idk if I should feel proud or embarrassed about that🤷🏼‍♀️ they had normal flavors but then there were others made of flowers, curry, cheese, etc. It was delicious and crazy, and I think I need to go on a gelato fast for the rest of the summer. Walking back, I told Arndt that if I were to die suddenly and they did an autopsy, my blood stream would be filled with mayo and gelato.

She laughed.

But I wasn't joking.

Meno male we had so much gelato, because it was much needed after Sunday's fiasco... church was amazing as always, and Norca came to sacrament meeting!! Theeeeen it all went downhill... our ward was hosting a classical music concert for members and nonmembers. Most of the performers hadn't heard of our church before, so you'd think it'd be the perfect missionary activity. 

BUT THEN

One of our members, bless his heart, decided to bring some of his nieces and nephews- ages 6, 4, and 2... because we all know how much toddlers love classical music concerts🙄🤦🏼‍♀️ oh my heck, it was horrendous. I kid you not when I say it was probably the most stressful experience of my mission. And that is saying something because I am a pretty stressed person. Ok well the two older ones kept slapping each other and asking when it was gonna end, but the real kick in the face was the 2-year-old girl. Holy freak, she kept getting up and running around. During one piano performance, she started rolling all over the place. Literally Arndt and I just closed our eyes and tried to ignore the chaos. It worked up until I heard a little "ciao!" and opened my eyes to see that she'd rolled all the way over to our side. Ah man. Finally someone caught her and took her to the back to color. All seemed to be well... that is, until this crazy Russian lady in the ward asked for an encore. And then the two-year-old dropped the whole bin of colored pencils everywhere. Twice. Finally the concert from hell was nearing its end. My comp and I finally relaxed thinking the nightmare was over, but we were once again mistaken. A guy from the stake stood up to share what we thought would be a short spiritual thought. However, he awkwardly targeted the nonmember guests and performers... and then he took it one giant leap further and brought up baptisms for the dead...?? I think I gave myself an aneurism from all the stress. It was easily the longest day of my life🙃

In happier news, we started visiting bishop's fam to do lessons for their daughter Sara who is getting baptized this month. They are like my favorite family in firenze😂❤ we have all these deep gospel convos + watch vids of bishop and his wife's wedding + bishop wore a star wars shirt the whole time. All over an amazing Italian meal. I love my life💁🏼❤ Haha seriously I haven't laughed so much this whole transfer! And bishop promised to show me a movie trailer each time we come as an incentive for us to keep visiting😂😂😂😂

We also met with Carolina this week, and she is progressing so well! Seriously, she's just so ready! We had some appointments with a few other investigators and members and whatnot, so it was a pretty good week! And Pday today was spent touring cute little Arezzo, which is where they filmed the movie at the top of every Italian missionary's bucket list, "Life is Beautiful"/"La Vita è Bella"😍😍😍

Aaaand I'm too sleep deprived to give any cool gospel stuff (which is quite a shame since I'm still studying stuff from Paul and he is the BEST!) soooo here are some fun quote things instead haha! Sorry not sorry...

"This is a simple story, but it's not an easy one to tell. Just like a fairytale, there is pain, wonder, and happiness..." -Life is Beautiful 

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

I'm so sorry for this sorry excuse for an email... but hey, at least you got to hear about my super crazy Sunday concert🙄 oh whale. God loves us all, even if we don't know how to behave in public.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Sorella Smeds

1&2- Scambio with Sorella Johnson  3&4 Valentino & Sara  5-8 Gelato festival!

9–17  Pday in Arezzo  18&19 Currently dreaming of Netflix & Taco Bell   20-I’m a missionary, what’s your superpower?

21&22 Only God can judge :)