C'e Dicembre

Dear Family, 

Well it sounds like I'm experiencing much nicer weather than everyone at home. We've got blue skys and chilly days, but we left the really cold rainy weather behind a week ago, and we never quite reached 0° though the mountains are covered in white. 

Last Thursday we finished packing our bags, gave a final sweeping of the apartment, said goodbye to the shower-toilet (see pictures to come) and switched apartments with the anziani. It's always a little sad to change from living in four to living in two. Our new apartment is great. For the first time since I left home I'm not living in a giant apartment building on a main street, but in a house, in a nice neighborhood, divided into four apartments, with the landlady across the hall who gives us housekeeping advice everytime we see her. We're told that she would bring the anziani food, and her husband would make them pastries. Unfortunately, they seem to have greater faith in our cooking abilities because they haven't brought us anything yet. We have a small unit in the basement where we keep the bikes. It makes me think of Grandpa Messinger's cabin everytime I walk down there. 

We've been seeing lots of miracles this week, one of our investigators came to church last week for the first time! We've been trying to get him there for months, but because of opposition from his family and church he's never been able to come. I can't even begin to discribe how happy we were to walk out of sunday school and see him standing there. 

Saturday was our ward talent show! It went pretty well. Here's a hint for planning ward activities: don't put the missionaries in charge. We'll do our best, but we're focused on other things. Luckily, we had an amazing ward member who we picked to be the MC. He got really excited and made it a big, 'Mormon's got Talent' night with judges and powerpoint. It was great. 

 Because of transfers, we missionaries never really planned a talent, so we quickly came up with the classic idea of the little people where one person's the head, torso, and feet and then their companion is the arms. We danced around to various versions of 'once there was a snowman' by vocal point. Everyone seemed to love it. 

I also joined in last minute on the talent of a nine year old girl in the ward. She and her mom were baptized a few months ago. Last Sunday she asked us if she could play the piano in the talent show so we added her name to the list. About ten minutes before it started however, she walked up to Sorella Pond and I and asked which of us would play with her. We ran to the Relief Society Room and sat down at the piano. It turns out that she didn't know how to play anything. After trying a couple different ideas, we finally grabbed a dry erase marker and numbered the bottom hand notes of ''heart and soul'' for her to play C, A, F, and G while I played the upper part. It was probably the simplest version of that song I've ever heard, but the giant grin on her mother's face afterwords was priceless. 

Now it's Christmas time and centro is decorated with lights and trees. We found a box of decorations while cleaning out the old apartment, so we'll probably break that open today and decorate for the holidays. We've got a giant living room with a fireplace- it should be fun. 

With the Christmas season, keep in mind Anziano Ballard's talk from conference. What better way to celebrate Christmas than bringing someone closer to Christ? 

Vi voglio bene!!

Sorella Pace

Our wonderful shower-toilet from the old apartment. Gotta love Italian bathrooms.

Saying goodbye to Sorella Nelson and Hunter last week after English class with Sara in the middle. 

Happy Turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! 

Today the Keeffers took us the the Air Base. It was pretty fun and a little strange to walk on American soil. It made me think of the week before my mission when we went to San Diego. 

As for tomorrow, not only is it Thanksgiving, it's transfers! So the big news is that I'm staying here with Sorella Pond. Yay! The other sisters are leaving though, and being replaced by anziani, capi zona right in my own city. We're switching apartments though so I still need to pack my bags. We're also taking over all of the work of the other sisters because for a lot of it the anziani can't. We split the area by who's a single female and who's a single male. So we'll now be working with the American Military Ward as well as the Italian Ward. Which means our bike rides just got a lot longer and a lot more frequent. Horray for winter weather. 

This Saturday the Italians are having a talent show organized by us the missionaries! Hopefully it will be a big success. We're still not sure what our talent is, but we'll figure out something really great. 

I love you all, and hope you have a wonderful turkey day! 

Sorella Pace

Bikes...

Hello wonderful family, 

Thanks for all the letters from home. I love hearing everything- daily life, primary songs, missionary experiences, church talks, and crazy connections to Italy. Dad- Anziano Jensen is actually in my Zone. 

On Friday there was a strike, so the busses weren't running in the morning, meaning that we had to ride our bikes out to Cordenons for a member visit and lesson with an investigator. It wasn't going to be a big deal, but we woke up to rain. So we bundled up and headed out. We were pretty wet pretty fast, but I just turned my face down, let the water run off my helmet into my skirt and kept peddling uphill. I suddenly heard what might have been a faint, ''sorella!'' So I turned around to discover that Sorella Pond was nowhere in sight! I quickly headed back, around a curve in the road, and saw my companion climbing off her bike and examining the front tire. The breaks were hanging off the tire at a strange angle, and the metal covering over the tire was completely detached from the frame. The brakes were caught in the tires, so we couldn't even push the bike along. Luckily we were pretty close to the member's house, so we were able to half drag, half carry it along. By the time we arrived at the members, they took one look at us, plugged in a space heater by our feet, stuck some pizza in the microwave, and then the mother ran, grabbed a blowdryer and started combing  and drying my hair. Well, after about fifteen seconds of all of these appliances in use, the power suddenly went out and they couldn't figure out how to turn it back on, so we gave our lesson in the dark. Sonia just gave a little sigh and said, 'oh yes, I forget we're in Italy.' 

Everyone metioned the baptism challenges in their letters, so far we've gained a lot of potenial investigators for the anziani. One of them did come to church last week which was pretty awesome. 

I love you all and pray for you sempre. Have a wonderful week. Happy Thanksgiving next week! We have an FHE each week with the ANS (single adults) and this week we made gratitude turkeys by outlining our hands. It was pretty fun. 

Love, 

Sorella Pace

Baptism Invites

Dear Family, 

Wow! It sounds like you've been having a wonderful weekend together! I was excited to get on internet today to see how it's been going. 

Our week has been pretty amazing. I think I mentioned last week that Anziano Teschera told us to invite everyone to baptism, even random people on the street. Then for district meeting on Monday, the anziani from Udine gave a training on giving bap invites. At the end they had a do a role play with a preset (where we tell them at the start that we'll be asking them at the end to be baptized, so start thinking about it), a quick restoration lesson, and a baptism invite. A few months ago we President Dibb had us practice giving the restoration in five minutes, so we quickly whipped out our role play in around five minutes. After we finished, the elder we were teaching (who was in the companionship who gave the training) said, 'that was really good. But when we planned this roleplay, we wanted you to be able to do it faster. Try to do it in two minutes.' I was a little flabbergasted. Two minutes for the preset, lesson, and invite?? So we tried. It was a little more choppy and unclear, but I think we were able to do so in about three minutes. 

Then they invited us to try to invite five people to baptism each day this week. Wow! That scared me too. 

 

Yesterday we had three lessons planned where we could invite four people to baptism. So we knew we needed to find atleast one other person on the street to invite. The baptism invite has always terrified me a little. It just seems so big, and maybe they'll be offended or think we're only there to convert them, or never want to see us again, or... the list never ends. I must admit, I wasn't completely on board with the five baptismal invite a day thing. 

So we started a little finding time in the park yesterday and started talking with a man. Sorella Pond was amazing. She immediately went into explaining our purpose as misionaries giving a perfect lead in to a baptism invite, but as always, he got distracted on some little thing and so we established the fact that we were from America, he was from Congo. ect ect. But I knew I had to quickly get back to the invite. So I acted with faith and asked him to be baptized. Without skipping a beat he replied, ''well, I think I should probably know something about your church first. Can we set up an appointment or something?'' 

I think Heavenly Father knew I needed a miracle to go with my first of these baptism invites, but now I'm repented, converted, and will never look at the baptism invite in the same way again. We're still waiting for a yes, but we've yet to have a negative response. I'm impressed. 

I love you all! Have a marvelous week!

Love, 

Sorella Pace

Missionary Efforts

Cara Famiglia, 

This week has been wonderful! We've been doing a lot of finding work, but are pressing forward with faith. Keep up with your missionary efforts at home. I know the missionaries there really appreciate it. 

We had a blitz Friday and Saturday from the Mestre Sorelle. It was fun to work with them and be a 'junior companion' for a day. All of our appointments Friday night were cancelled, so we ended up doing casa for a while before corellation meeting. And we had a lot of success! We would have been able to teach three different lessons, but they were all male without a woman at home, so we GEMed the Anziani with some great referrals. 

Yesterday we had a big multiple Zone Conference in Verona with Elder Teschera, the Area Seventy for Europe. So Tuesday night we traveled to Vicenza to stay the night with the sorelle there, and then continued on to Verona in the morning. It was amazing and exactly what I needed. I've been feeling a bit in a rut lately and while I'm happy with the progress I've made and that I'm a good missionary, I feel like that progress has slowed down and I've just been floating. Yesterday was the perfect wakeup call I needed. One of the things that Anziano Teschera talked about was making sure that we as the messagers are in sync with the message. He talked about making sure that we're continually changing, improving, and repenting to bring ourselves more in harmony with the gospel. So I've been thinking about the little things that I can change inorder to be a more effective missionary. One of the principles I've loved studying on the mission is repentance and the idea of changing to match God's will. It means changing more than our behaviors and actions. It means changing our thoughts, our beliefs, our hearts. It's changing our entire being. And that's what I love about the gospel. It's a gospel of change. Through Gesù Cristo, we can change and improve our lives. 

I love you all, and pray that all's well at home. Have a wonderful weekend with Melanie and Steve at home!!!

Love, 

Sorella Pace

Perdenone Week 2

Dear Family, 

Well, two weeks in Pordenone are almost up and I'm settling in to the city. I'm loving it and my comp. Sorella Pond is wonderful, she's a hard worker but super fun at the same time. 

We're also working to get to know the ward better. We just created a new ward mission plan so we're going around and presenting it to all the members. We also hosted an FHE Monday night where we carved pumpkins! Sorella Pond and I didn't really feel like buying pumpkins ourselves, so we took a page from family history and carved pineapples. I'll send some pictures. 

Tomorrow we're having a trunk or treat at the church with the American ward which should be fun. Today I had a pumpkin gelato. It was pretty good. I think it would have been better however with a nice dark chocolate instead of the chocolate pear walnut flavor that I also got, but it was fun to try. 

While I'm on the food subject, Yesterday the stake president's wife made us broccoli pizza. It was delicious! I don't think I would have ever put broccoli on a pizza, but I loved it. 

The work is going well. We ended up giving lots of our invesitgators to the Anziani when they showed up, so we're currently doing a lot of finding. But we're full of faith that we'll find ourselves a lot of new simps. 

We have a wonderful less active from Ghana that we're working with. We meet him twice a week in the park and each time we sing several hymns together. I love it! 

Today we traveled to Venice and went to Murano, where they blow glass. We were able to watch them make a couple pieces. On the train ride over we could see the Alps. It was beautiful. 

I LOVE hearing about everyone's missionary experiences and thoughts. There is nothing better than sharing the gospel. It just fills your whole soul. 

I love you all, Have a marvelous week!

Sorella Pace

A glass maker, unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of them blowing the glass

The Sorelle! Minus me. My companion Sorella Pond is the one closest to the camera and then Sorelle Nelson and Hunter are companions.

Venice

My pineapple!

Sorella Pond with her pineapple

Perdenone

Cara Famiglia, 

I've said my final goodbyes to Savona and am now in Pordenone! Thursday was a long day of trains. We woke up at five in the morning to make our train to Genova where I left Sorella Bringas and travelled to Milan with Sorelle Lemos and Eaton. At Milan I was able to see almost all of my MTC district for the first time in six months! It was great! Then I hopped on another train with Sorella Nelson and headed to Pordenone. 

It's a bit of a change to go from speaking almost only Italian to speaking a ton of English. Not only am I now with three american sisters, we're really close to an American Air Force base, and about 99% of our investigators are from Africa so we teach in English. 

Pordenone has two wards, one Italian, one American. We work exclusively with the Italian ward, and then the other sisters and a set of anziani work half and half with the americans. There's also a senior couple here who have the same call that Grandma and Grandpa Okeson had in San Diego working on the base. 

I had my first casa success ever! I have knocked on lots and lots of doors with nothing to show for it besides maybe a phone number. But, Last night we started ringing citifoni and a lady let us come in to talk to her. So we headed up the stairs to her apartment and talked to her at the door for a minute before she let us in to share a message. 

I'm doing great- happily eating PBnJs and rejoicing in the fact that we have a bishop and ward council. 

I love you all! 

Sorella Pace

Drumroll...

...And the big news is that I'm transfered! After four wonderful months here in Savona, tomorrow morning I'll hop on the train, travel across Italia way over to the complete opposite side where I'll get off in Pordenone. Wow. Sorella Bringas tells me that Pordenone is perfect for me cause it's cold. It will be a bit of a shock leaving the sea and the climate here, but I'm excited. Hopefully I'll see lots of snow this winter. Also, I've heard that there's an English branch there because there's a military base. 

My new companion is Sorella Pond. I don't really know anything about her yet, but I think she's a transfer behind me in the mission. I'll be living in four again which will be a bit of a change, especially since I've been asked to be the apartment coordinator. So basically I just have to make sure that everyone has time to shower and organize meals, but that means I'll be the oldest missionary in the apartment. Crazy! I'm still just beginning my mission. I arrived here just the other day right????

Saying goodbye to Savona is much more difficult than it was to say goodbye to Genova. Probably something to do with the time spent, and the ability to talk and understand the members. I'm also pretty sad that I won't be able to see our baptism in two weeks. But I'm excited to see a new city, a new companion, and a new part of the country! 

I've seen a lot of miracles here in Savona. I've also seen a lot of rough stuff. But wouldn't trade it for anything because I have learned so much. Especially this transfer. The mission truly is incredible. Everything happens so fast and you grow a bucketload each time. Investigators spring up like a flame and then disappear into the shadows. Others remain for a while and slowly fall away. Then there are the ones that make progress at their own pace until they're finally ready to be baptized. Our investigator getting baptized in a week and a half has known the church for three years. I've watched his progress the past few months and it's been amazing. I'm so proud of him and know he has a bright future ahead. 

Thanks for the letters and support. You're all in my prayers each night. 

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Pace

The Sorella of Geneva Zone

Missionaries of Genova and Savona

I don't know if I'll have a bike in Pordenone. If not, my skirts will shout for joy! and maybe it will finally be worth my while to try and clean of the brake stains

Karen with Sorella Bringa, her companion

Conference!

Dear Family,

Wow. Wasn't conference amazing??? I unfortunately wasn't able to see it all, but what I saw was incredible. Our little branch is small, so they didn't broadcast the conference here in Savona. I think everyone watched it at home via interenet. We went to Genova where I was able to run into a few old faces from my transfer there. It was fun to see and finally understand them! (David- Kyoto Tinoco says hello) There was also a huge herd of missionaries, almost all our zone. Most of them watched conference in English on the church computer. Sorella Bringas and I were with the members and watched in the chapel in Italian. As the conference started I realized I was faced with the problem of how to take notes, in Italian because that's what I was hearing or in English because I can actually write quickly and record my thought easier. I ended up with a wonderful mix, but by the end I had a system figured out. 

We were able to watch the Relief Society Broadcast and the Saturday Morning session on Saturday night. Then Sunday we were to watch the Saturday Afternoon and Sunday Morning. Unfortunately we somehow got the hours mixed up and missed the first half of Saturday Afternoon. Now we get to wait until the Liahona to read the rest. 

I think my favorite talk so far was that of Elder Uchtdorf in the Saturday Morning session it was absolutely beautiful! 

We're into week five on the transfer which means it's Sorella Bringas's turn to be senior companion for a week. I must say that she's doing an excellent job. It's fun to see her putting into practice the thing's we've studied together. 

I love you all! Keep being amazing! Find ways to share the gospel. It's all in the small and simple things.

Love, 

Sorella Pace

Cara Famiglia

Cara Famiglia, 

Well another week has flown by and I'm not sure where. It was a bit of a shock last night when I realized that we were planning for P-day. 

Sorella Bringas and I are preetty excited for General Conference this weekend. We'll be headed to my old area of Genova 2 to watch it. Sadly, we won't be able to watch the Sunday Afternoon session because that would mean staying up till midnight and then travelling back to Savona, but we'll be able to watch the Relief Society broadcast on Saturday so I'm excited for that. It's crazy to think that a year ago I was sitting in Grandma Pace's living room and decided to go on a mission. And now here I am. 

This week we had a blitz from the Sister Training Leaders and it was exactly what I needed. Sometimes it's just nice to be the missionary without the most experience. I was with Sorella Eaton who will finish her mission in two and a half weeks. She took my spot in Genova so I've had the wonderful opportunity of working with her the past three transfers. She's amazing. 

Have a wonderful week! You're all amazing and I love you!

Sorella Pace

Italian or English?...

Dear Family, 

Well, this past week the unbelievable happened. I hit my six month mark and now have only a year left in the mission. Sorella Bringas likes to tell me the date and then inform me that I'll never have a September 25th in the mission again. Grazie Sorella.

This past Sunday we had an appointment with a man from Africa in English. He was a referral from the anziani who had met him on the train. After talking for a while, he was shocked to learn that I'm from the states. ''Really? That's strange, cause you don't speak English very well.'' Ouch! Though my wounded pride wants to say that it's only because African English is worded slightly differently, I have to admit I might have slipped a few words such as 'ogni', 'alcuni', and even 'obbedienza' into the conversation. I have come to realize that my language is no longer English and isn't Italian. It's something inbetween that only a speaker of both languages can understand. 

Lets see, Savona is wonderful as always and I've been blessed with an angel for a companion. Before the mission I remember feeling slightly nervous about being with the same person 24/7, but there's something truly wonderful about constantly sharing experiences together. We lift each other up and move forward together. 

In other exciting news, tomorrow I'll return to Genova to pick up my permesso! It's been a long process, but I'll finally be legal. Horray! 

I love you all. Thanks for your prayers, letters, and support.

Love, 

Sorella Pace

Savona

Dear Family,

School has started again here in Italy, signaling the end of summer.
That's clearly evident as we travel past the beaches, they are looking
very abandoned lately. The weather has started to follow the autumn
trend leaving the mornings, evenings, and nights cooler. I'm content
with the change, I think it's the perfect temperature. Sorella Bringas
is not. She's not very excited for this winter.

This transfer our little district of San Remo and Savona has grown! We
now have a booming three companionships, with a new area being opened
in Imperia relatively close to San Remo. I think it's the first city
to be opened in the mission for a couple years.
The big wave of sisters has ended and now we're being flooded with
elders. I think this past group was the same size of mine in the MTC,
but only 4 sisters arrived in the Milan Mission.

We're keeping busy with our investigators, less actives, and the
constant search for new people to teach. We would really love to find
a family this transfer.

This morning I was thinking back a couple years when Dad returned from
education week with the list of motivation factors. Love's at the top
of that list. How true that is, expecially in missionary work. We can
go through the actions, but without that love the crucial piece is
missing. When we have that love, the pure love of Christ for everyone
we meet, is when the miracles occur.

Vi voglio bene!!!

Sorella Pace

Picture!

Savona's Coastline

Dear Family,

This week we're back on bikes! The first night we took them out I was shocked at how hard it was to ride again. I didn't think I had gotten so out of shape! Then I thought maybe my bike at home is just much nicer than this one and I've been spoiled my whole bike-riding life.Then I realized that my back tire was incredibly flat. Once we pumped it up the next day everything was much easier. 

Last Sunday I gave a talk in church, my third here in Savona. I felt much less nervous than I did the first time, and hopefully I made a little more sense.

The work here continues as always. This Saturday we found a new investigator and then on Monday we had another lesson with him. He isn't a native italian, but he speaks enough Italian and Sorella Bringas speaks enough French that we can comunicate quite well. The Spirit was very strong during that lesson and at the end we set a baptism date with him! 

Before I left for the mission I knew that I would enjoy it, but I never realized how much joy and contentment I would find every single day, regardless of what happens or how hard the day may seem. I've never been so content or at peace with what I'm doing. I truly have never felt such joy everyday. I feel so blessed. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week. 

Sorella Pace

Transfers!

Dear Family, 

It's wonderful to hear from you all! It's crazy to think that it's already the start of another school year. 

For me, it's a new transfer and I'm staying here in Savona! Sorella Hanson is leaving to be a Sister Training Leader in Milano with my first companion Sorella Heupel! Which means I'm staying here with Sorella Bringas to finish training her and to be the senior companion. AAaaaah!!! It's a little nervewracking. But with lots of prayer and scripture study, I'm going forward with faith and no stress. I think that's going to be my motto for this transfer. No stress. Actually, I was reading the conference Ensign and read the talk by Elder Porter regarding beautiful mornings. So I think that will by my theme: Oh What a Beautiful Morning. That way I can join in on the music fun Mom's having, and focus on my blessings, because I think that's the greatest help for no stress. 

I also was preparing for a talk this morning that I have in church on Sunday and was thinking about service and sacrifice. They go in hand and hand, but though service at times requires sacrifice, when we do it, it only feels like a blessing. I thought about the Widow of Zerepheth and the Widow's Mite and how their sacrifice of all they had brought more blessings than they could imagine. It's when we give of our lack, of our weakness, truly of ourselves that we truly follow Christ's example of service. So I'm giving my little best to Savona and Sorella Bringas and trusting that with the help of the Lord it will be enough. One things for sure, my Italian is really going to improve, because now I don't even have Sorella Hanson to talk to in English. Which also means I'll probably forget some. Sorry in advance for my future letters of bad grammer and poor spelling. 

In other news, the work in Savona is progressing and so are our investigators. I love seeing their growth and seeing them discover a love for the gospel. Everyone has dificulties and challenges, but through the gospel everything can be overcome. We've had a simpatizzante who's been acting pretty much on blind faith the past few months, trusting that the answers to her prayers will come and she'll feel the Spirit. It's been hard to watch her struggle when she felt it was going no where. Yesterday she told us for the first time that she had felt the Spirit the other week in church. For the first time she told us that this is something she wants in her life. It was such a miracle and blessing to see her growing faith. 

I recieved an email from Sorella DeCoria today and she told me that Zach Birch and Ben Crapo are leaving on missions. I can't believe they're old enough! But tell their families congratulations from me.

I love you all and pray for you everyday. Good luck with the start of the school year, internships, work, etc. 

Love,

Sorella Pace

Life's Wonderful!

Dear Family, 

Today I'm feeling very grateful for the gospel and for the church. We attended the funeral today of the father of a less active family we've been working with. He, his wife, and daughter are members but because the rest of his family isn't his funeral was at a different church. The cerimony was nice, but there was something missing. I thought back on the other funerals I've been to and remember that dispite the sorrow, there wasn't a heavy atmosphere, but one of peace and hope. I'm grateful for the perspective and knowledge that I've been blessed to have. 

This week has been wonderful. We've seen lots and lots of miracles. One of which is my Italian! Grazie a Sorella Bringas, my Italian has improved immensely. I'm now at the point where I'm finding myself speak without thinking and it feels natural. Several members have commented on the improvement. I didn't realize how horrendous my italian was when I showed up here. I thought it was pretty good, at least much better than it had been in Genova. perspective, perspective. 

Our plates are full with balancing everything we need to do and everyone we need to see. As my language abilities grow, so does my understanding of missionary work and the gospel. It really is amazing how perfect God's plan is. I feel so blessed that I'm able to share this knowledge with everyone I meet. 

I love you all. Have a fantastic week!

Sorella Pace

5 Months!

Dear Family, 

Five months ago yesterday I entered the MTC and began my mission. It's hard to believe it's already been that long and that half of that time was spent here in Savona. I feel so blessed for the experiences that I've had and the things I've learned. 

This past week we started teaching a man from Africa so the lessons were in English. hahaha. I can talk to Sorella Hanson in english without much problem, but to teach the restoration was hard! I kept on finding myself slip and use italian phrases. We both spoke slowly and with pauses as we tried to think of the words in english. It probably hasn't helped that we've been speaking almost completely italian with Sorella Bringas. But I am so grateful for that. I'm finally starting to feel semi comfortable talking to people on the street in italian. 

It's the end of August which in Italy is Ferie and Everyone's gone on vacation. Luckily most of the branch left after church on Sunday so it wasn't like when we were in Pistoia a couple years ago. Finding members to come to lessons however has been difficult. We have literally called every single active member and several inactive to come to specific lessons with us without much success. Everyone is gone, working, or there's a family that's moving out of the city to a small town over half an hour away. Because of the distance they'll only come to Savona on Sundays for chruch. They've been a huge help to us the past two months and we're sad to see them go. 

Yesterday our amazing investigator came back from vacation! We've been teaching him for about a month and I've never taught anyone like him. Since we're still without a branch president, we like to hunt for ''our new branch president'' when ever we're finding. About a month ago Sorella Hanson found this man during a scambio and we think we've found him. He has such a desire to change his life and eats up the gospel. It really is a joy to teach him. Anyway, he left on vacation for ten days leaving us a little worried since this is a critical time for him as he's trying to live the word of wisdom and prepare for baptism. But on Monday he texted us to let us know he was back in town and we could meet whenever we wanted! So last night we had a lesson and it went pretty well. Now we're just praying he'll be able to live the word of wisdom in time to be baptized in a couple of weeks. 

I love you all! Have a marvelous week!

Sorella Pace

Back in Three

Dear Family,

This week we're back in three with Sorella Bringas! Which means I've
been speaking straight Italian for the past week. It's been one of
those trials chuck full of blessings. My italian is improving so much.
Sometimes my brain is fried and I can't think, understand, or speak by
the end of the day. But as the days pass, it becomes easier and I find
myself instictively using Italian. I think my grammer is still pretty
scary, but I'm starting to get some of the verb tenses down.

Our greatest miracle this week was with one of our simpatizzanti this
past Monday! He's the only simp. remaining from before we arrived in
Savona and we have a standing appointment with him for 'fhe' every
Monday night at the home of a member family. I think that in the two
months we've been here in Savona we've maybe missed only one Monday
with him. But in all that time, he has refused a baptism date. We have
talked about baptism ALOT. And he knows he needs to, and he even wants
to, but he won't accept a date. Two weeks ago, we had the whole heavy
metal music experience, but he still wouldn't accept a date. So we let
it sit for a week and then this Monday, we finally finished teaching
all of the commandments. We brought up baptism again and his answer
was the same as always. 'I want to get baptized, but I don't want a
date.' We were trying to figure out why, when suddenly the member
spoke up and bore a Powerful testimony. All three of us felt chills.
And then he finally said, 'Okay!' All the emphasis on member
missionary work is true. We can't do it without you. I love hearing
about every and all missionary experiences you're having at home.

Vi voglio tantissimo bene!

Sorella Pace

Missionary Stories

Caro Famiglia, 

Well we finally fixed our bikes, so we were able to use them yesterday! The funny thing is that Sorella Bringas returns today, and since we only have two bikes we'll be on feet for the rest of this transfer. But since we had our bikes yesterday, we decided to really use them and go find a less active in a small town up in the mountains. It was steep, it was hot, it was humid, and our bikes aren't really that great so it was hard. But after an hour we finally found this tiny town and started asking for directions. It turns out, that there are two little towns with almost the exact same name and we of course went to the wrong one. The write town was in the complete opposite direction along the coast. In the end all we were able to do was give out a few pass-a-long cards and head back to Savona. 

Then that afternoon we had an appointment out of town with a member. Most of our strong members don't actually live right in Savona. We usually take the bus, but we decided to save the money and take the bikes! We had a great lesson and left with more than enough time to return to the church for an appointment that evening with one of our amazing progressing investigators. We wanted to be sure to arrive on time because he hadn't been answering the phone for four or five days and we were feeling more than a little worried. But we had a while, so we stopped and talked to a lady on the street. It turned out that she was having a really hard day, so we ended up talking with her for much longer than planned. When we ended, we realized that we only had twenty minutes to get to the church, and the bike ride would take thirty to forty mintues! We took off peddling as fast as we could and praying as hard as we could. By the time we arrived at the church we could barely walk because our legs felt like jelly, but we were only five minutes late. Unfortunately, he wasn't there yet, so we collapsed on the chairs and just breathed. Five minutes later, our investigator walked in the door! I don' t think I've ever been so happy in my life. 

We meet people everyday with a huge variety of problems. I never realized how blessed my life was until I really saw how hard life can be. And yet I'm here working hard everyday to bring people hope that dispite all the hardship, dispite all the sorrow, we can have joy. Now and forever. I remember in the months before I left talking with Mom and Dad about the Plan of Salvation and how people really don't understand it. But when we do come to understand, everything makes sense. Every commandment, every doctrine, every trial clicks into place and we see our full eternal potential. When people see and understand the Plan, their lives change and their desires change. 

I love you all! 

Sorella Pace

Investigators

Dear Family, 

This past week has been amazing! We've been blessed with amazing investigators who are really making progress!

We've had an investigator from before we arrived in Savona that we've been working with the whole last transfer. He loves reading the scriptures and has a testimony and knows that he needs to get baptized, but he's been unwilling to accept a baptism date. He kept on telling us that he has ''things to fix'' but wouldn't tell us what. So this Monday we decided to teach again about baptism and really find out why he won't accept a date. We talked about the importance of baptism for a while and were asking a lot of questions, but I could tell that there was something specific he wasn't telling us and he was trying hard to avoid the subject. But finally the truth came out. We held our breaths, prayed that it wasn't something too bad, and then listened as he told us that he couldn' t be baptized because he listens to heavy metal music! You can not believe the relief I felt at that moment! It definitely wasn't the response I had expected. We told him that he could still be baptized even though he listens to heavy metal and the relief was visible on his face! 

We also have two other investigators who have baptism dates! We've been working with a man for the past week and a half and he's amazing. Sorella Hanson and Sorella Heupel found him when we had a blitz the other week and set up an appointment. We taught him the first lesson and invited him to church and he came and stayed for all three hours! That night we taught him the Plan and he loved it. He really thinks about what we're telling him and you can see when something makes sense. We invited him to be baptized with a date and he didn't accept it then, but he was willing to pray about it. So by our third meeting with him last night, he had read to 1 Ne. 8 and accepted baptism! He's praying, and they're prayers straight from his heart. 

We've been wanting to see the Missionary Broadcast for the past couple of weeks. Most of the wards and branches here have watched it during church, but since we don't have a branch president we haven't. We're talking to people to try to organize to watch it one Sunday, and no one had even heard about it. So our zone leader told us to just take some time and watch it ourselves, which I was content to do so that we could watch in English and I could understand everything. So last week after a lesson fell through we headed over to the church to watch it. But... the speakers on the computer are really old and don't work. So we're still trying to figure out how to see it. Last Monday we had district meeting in San Remo and we always have about an hour after district meeting ends before we can catch a train back to Savona (it's about a two hour train ride) so we were able to watch the first 45 minutes at their church building and it was soo good!!! We had heard a little about what it was about, but there were lots of things that we just hadn't heard. It's crazy to think how much missionary work is developing around the world!

I feel so blessed to be apart of this work. My understanding and love of the gospel increases everyday, and I am blessed to be able to share that knowledge with everyone I meet!

I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Sorella Pace

Karen's zone with Presidente and Sorella Dibb

Transfer 2 Done!

Dear Family, 

The good news for the week is that I'm staying in one area for two transfers in a row! Sorella Hanson and I were both glad to offically hear that we're staying put because we've both been moved around quite a bit the past couple transfers. I'm excited to finally have the same companion and city for more than six weeks! We'll still have some adjusting to do when Sorella Bringas returns from the MTC in a week, but we're excited! 

The big wave of new Sorelle has really slowed down. I think there's only 5 new sisters this transfer. That plus a new president means that the mission is staying pretty stable without the large changes that the last few transfers have brought. 

This week we've been busy traveling. Now that we're knowing Savona better and are feeling more established we're starting to travel out of the city more to visit the less-actives that live in little towns around the area. Our branch is still without a president so we're working hard to strengthen our members. 

It's fun to hear that you're passing out pass-a-long cards, whatever language they're in! We'll occasionally run into people who don't speak Italian or English so we give them a card, point out the internet site and try to tell them they can change the language. I'm learning more and more about the importance of member missionary work every day. We have one member in the branch who is really gungho about missionary work. One week in church she told us that she had invited a random person on the street to come to church, he couldn't but she got his address so that evening we dropped by for a visit. He turned out to be really angry with God and religion and was not interested in hearing anything about the church. But as we left Bruna just smiled and said that maybe he'll be more open next time. Then a few weeks ago she found an amazing lady! We've taught her three times and she's always over at Bruna's discussing the scriptures. This last lesson we planned on teaching her the Plan of Salvation. When she started showing us some scriptures she had read we spotted a small paper with the plan already drawn out! It turns out that they had discussed it the night before. Bruna invited her to the baptism of an eight year old in the ward last week and she came! It was a wonderful experience. 

Speaking of that baptism, our branch doesn't have an actual font but a big pvc pipe font in the YM's room. When they drain the water they can't get the final inch of water off the bottom. We found out the day before the baptism that the missionaries always took care of cleaning and filling the font. The problem was that no one had cleaned it out since the last baptism three or four months ago. So that last inch of water had just sat there collecting dirt, grime, and dead flies. It turned out to be a good thing we didn't end up going to Firenze with Sorella Bringas so we could dedicate a couple hours to scooping out water, scrubbing the grime, and filling the font. By the end the water was beautiful and clear. A member told us that it was the cleanest the water had been for a long time. Neadless to say, we took the time the next day to fully empty out the water. 

Vi Vogliamo Bene! 

Sorella Pace