Week 4

Caro Famiglia,

Thank you so much for all your letters! It sound's like you all are doing amazing! This week has been so great! Juliet and Princess made it to church on Sunday!! It was so wonderful! We were able to have gospel principles for the first time this transfer (the anziani were also able to bring someone to church this week). And then in Relief Society we talked about President Holland's talk from two conferences ago "The First Great Commandment." It's the one about Peter going fishing after the Resurrection and Christ asks him "Lovest thou me more than these?" Juliet LOVED it! I kept on glancing over at her and her eyes were completely lit up. It was so amazing to see!

Our miracle for this week is a man named Michelle. We met him on a park bench and started talking with him. I'm not entirely sure what happened, I was doing my best to understand but I missed something. Anyway, we were suddenly sitting on the bench with him and saying a prayer. We taught him the restoration and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and asked him to read and pray. We set up an appointment for Monday, closed with a prayer and left. The next day we learned we had a Zone Conference with the Torino Zone in Alessandria on Monday. So we had to call and cancel, but Michelle said that he was reading the Book of Mormon and was really interested in learning more! Then yesterday the Sovana Sorelle came and we had a blitz of Genova 2. Sorella Heupel was with Sorella Lopez and they ran into Michelle! He's already read to 1 Nephi 19, he's been researching the church online, and he apparently has a ton of questions for us!!! We're seeing him again on Friday and we're sooo excited!

Thanks for all your letters. I love reading them!

Love, 

Sorella Pace

Genova! This is right after hiking up to Juliet's house for the first time.

Sorella Heupel, Sorella Jameson, Sorella Lemos (the Genova 1 Sorelle we live with), and me in matching dresses

Our American lunch - hamburgers and potato salad

Sorella Heupel and Me!

Halfway Through the Transfer. CRAZY!!!

Dear family, 

Today is very exciting because I'm finally finishing unpacking my suitcases!! For the first time in two months! There just wasn't room in the MTC to unpack everything and when we arrived here, our room hadn't been lived in for a while so it was missing a lot of things. Such as drawers. We had closets and desks but no shelves and no drawers. So the traveling assistants came last night to discover all our needs and brought everything this morning. The pile of socks/tights/tshirts/lotion/pajamas/dust/hairties/jewlery/ect/ect that has lived in the bottom of my closet for two weeks is gone! We have shelves with tubs for storage of all those random items, we have a bookself by our desks, we have a mirror, we have a garbage can, we have new pillows!!! In new missionary training the other week they held up an example of what a pillow should not look like- it was gross. I had that sinking feeling in my gut as I really that was exactly what my pillow looked like. But at least I had a pillow. Sorella Heupel only had a decorative pillow roll thingy. She also got a new mattress because her pervious one was broken. About 30 min. after the Anziani left, she sat down on her bed and broke through! hahaha! It was hillarious!

The past week has been a little crazy. I've been a missionary for 2 months and in Italia for half a transfer, and I'm starting to think that I'm maybe starting to get a hang of this whole missionary thing. We now have four simpatizzante!!! YAY!!! 
I don't remember if I've told you about Juliet and Princess. We meet Juliet our first week on the street as we were trying to find a member's house. She has two daughters Princess (9 yrs) and Sucess (8 months). So we set an appointment with her and con tinued finding the member's house (which we did find!! Yes!). A week later was our appointment with Juliet so we pulled out our map and found her address. It looked pretty close to that same member's house and there was a small street conecting them so we figured it wouldn't be hard to find. hahahahahaha. That small street was actually a small trail leading up into the woods where it was muddy and steep. So we started hiking up but ended up being chased back down by a dog. We decided to try another way. We found another street on the map to get us there and started walking. One thing we learned that day is that Genova is full of mountains and our map is very flat. That road was very Very steep. We climbed it for a while but never seemed to get anywhere. We were about to turn back but decided to try one more switchback. Lesson of perserverance right here: At the top of the mountain was a random 12 story apartment building where Juliet lived. By that point we were an hour late, but we had a quick lesson with Juliet about the family. It was wonderful! And then she imformed us of a bus on the other side of the mountain. We used that bus to get to our second lesson with her. Our second lesson was on the Restoration and Princess was there! She is so cute! They both agreed to be baptized in June and to come to church this past Sunday. Which they didn't. Which was very sad. But when we had our third lesson on Monday we learned that they had been in the area trying to find the church but couldn't, and Juliet didn't have enough credit on her phone to call us. We felt so bad!! But now they have better directions and are coming next week!!! We have two actual baptism dates!!! It's sooo wonderful!!!

There is nothing better than teaching people the gospel. I love it so much!!
I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Love, 
Sorella Pace

Week 2 in Genova

Caro Famiglia, 

Well this week has been very interesting. Honestly, not much has happened. All of our wonderful potential investigators either don't want to talk to us, won't answer the phone, won't answer the door, ect. Saturday night we called to confirm an appointment for Sunday and the lady seemed nice and happy to see us- but, when we rang her doorbell thingy ( I never remember the name) Sunday afternoon she started yelling at us that she didn't want to talk to us and leave her alone! Our backs are sore from all the Book of Mormons we plan to give away at appointments that fall through. But, we press forward with faith. Opening a city is hard work! But we know the blessings will come as we work hard to reach our goals. Yesterday was one of those days when nothing seems to happen. So we ended up doing strada (street contacting) for an hour. In that time we found two people who had member friends, one in our ward! It was a miracle. 

I'm not sure if I've told you about Ediola. One day our district leader called us during lunch to let us know that they had made an appointment for us in an hour. So we cancelled our appointment with a new member and headed off to find Ediola. The anziani of course gave us the wrong address (story of my mission!) but we were finally able to find it. Ediola's friend Gennie was there so we gave them the first lesson. Ediola has investigated many churches in the past but never found what she was looking for. She's also currently studying with the Jehovah Witnesses and they walked in on our lesson. haha. We invited them to be baptized and Ediola said that if she learned that this was the true church then she would be baptized on 8 June. Gennie is Catholic and didn't know why she had to be baptized again, but before we could answer, Ediola jumped in and beautifully explained that if this was the true church then of course you had to be baptized. So Gennie sort of accepted a baptism date. We were soo excited! Ediola seemed like the perfect investigator! But when we tried to set up a return appointment she wouldn't because of her work schedule. Then we ran into yesterday on the street and she said she wanted to read the Book of Mormon and discover if it's true before she would meet with us again. So we're planning how to best approach her again. The funny thing is that we have 2 sort of baptism dates, but neither of them are investigators (because we don't have a second appointment), so we have no idea what to call them! Our zone leader said we could count them as investigators with a baptism date in our key indicators, so we did but we always stick in a question mark. So we have 2? investigators with a baptism date. It drives Anziano Christensen crazy! 

On Monday we had new missionary training in Modena. If you look at a map of Italy, Modena isn't too far from Genova, but then you realize there is a wall of mountains in the middle. So we had to take a train from Genova north to Milan area and then back south to Modena. It's a four hour train ride, and we aren't sure why they sent us to Modena when there was also a new missionary training in Milan. We had to catch our train at 5:54 am. and we returned to the train station after training in time for the 6:30 train out of Modena- meaning we didn't get home until 10:30. It was a looong day and I learned that there is a reason we're supposed to be at home by 9 and in bed by 10:30. The training was so wonderful! I love President and Sorella Wolfgramm so much! Plus it was great to see some friends from the MTC, though no one in my MTC district was there. 

My trainer Sorella Heupel is wonderful! I love her so much. I'm starting to have a fear that she'll leave in 4 weeks and I'll be here opening, training, and still unable to speak. It's great motivation to learn! :)

I'm working on having greater faith in the Lord and the Spirit. It is so easy to let my fear of the language keep me from speaking but I am learning to open my mouth and speak anyway. The words don't always come easily, but they do come. I love in Ether 12 where it says that you receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. There are so many stories in the scriptures that illustrate this point as well. I love the scriptures so much! They bring such comfort and peace!

I love being a missionary. There is no where else I would rather be than right here in Genova. 

I love you all, thanks for all the letters, and have a wonderful week!!!

Love, 

Sorella Pace

GENOVA 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carisimo Famiglia!!!!

I'm in Italia!!!!! Most importantly, I'm in Genova 2!!!! which is the western half of Genova. My companion is Sorella Heupel. She's amazing and has been on the mission for 10 months. We're sharing an apartment with the Genova 1 Sorelle. One is a greenie like me- Sorella Lemos from Argentina. Her trainer is Sorella Jameson and this is her second transfer. Six weeks in Italia and she's already training!!
We're reopening Genova 2 for sorelle. The last sorelle left about a year ago. So when we showed up we had no area book, no names, and no idea what to do. It was kind of crazy!! We called our district leader Anziano Christiansen (we have 2 sets of Anziani in Genova 2) and he tried to tell us over the phone which part of Genova 2 was our specific area. But he abbreviated the names of all the areas so we had no idea where to go. Also, our map was horrible!! We couldn't find anything on it. So the first few days we spent wandering around trying to get our bearings. Our goal for Friday was to find the church, and that evening we finally did. haha. We were able to find a few potential investigators though! We met a wonderful lady named Stella last Saturday and we have a return appointment this Saturday.
Sunday we attended our ward and I bore my testimony in Italian. I was terrified! Hopefully it made sense. I'm not really sure. The ward is wonderful! A sister invited us over for pranzo after church, but we had a correlation meeting so we couldn't. It was a bummer because I would have enjoyed my first real Italian meal. Oh! Our ward mission leader is Fratello Tinoco and he served in Rome with David!!! Plus they're facebook friends so yesterday when he brought us a key for the church he told Sorella Heupel to give my a big hug from my brother :)
We're trying to meet the members because they are vital in missionary work, but it's hard when they're so spread out. The bishop lives about 30 min. away on the train. We didn't know how far it was so one day we decided to try taking a bus up there. hahahahahahaha. We finally had to get off and turn around in order to get back home on time. Tonight's ward council so we'll be going and hopefully make some appointments to visit the various members. 
Our area is tall and skinny. Which is a problem because we have yet to find a map of the upper part, We're still figuring out how to cover everywhere. It's crazy!!
yesterday two of the new sister training leaders came and we did a blitz of Genova 2. It was wonderful and exactly what we needed! They gave us wonderful ideas of how best to open this area and grow our investigator pool. I was with Sorella Padula and she's incredible! We spent some time doing finding work and she helped me so much! The first few days I basically said nothing and understood nothing. It was pretty discouraging because I felt like I should say something but I didn't know what or how. Sorella Padula really helped me gain the courage to just speak up and the results were amazing! WE met a couple in a park, Silvia and Mariamo. At first Sorella Padula did most of the talking. They were nice but not really interested. Then I just opened my mouth and bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I told them that reading it would change their lives. They opened up and started really talking with us. They're going through a ton of trials right now. It was a testimony to me of how important it is to work as a companionship. 
Now that I'm out of the MTC I have more time for email and can email anyone. Yay!!
I am loving Italia! The work is hard, especially since we don't have any investigators or lessons. But we're building up the foundation and the blessings will come. Genova is beautiful!!!!!!!! The city is great, but I love it when we go farther north out of the main city and you can see the mountains. Bellissimo!!! I haven't been able to see the Mediterranean yet, but we're planning on going to Cinque Terra one of these P-days. :)
I love you all and love hearing from you. Thanks for the emails!!!!!
Sorella Pace

Safely Away!

Karen has safely arrived in Italy!

She left Tuesday from the MTC, flew from SLC to Chicago, from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany and from there to Milan. While in Chicago, she could call us. Mom and I both talked to her and she is doing GREAT; I loved hearing her voice. She loved the MTC and couldn't wait to get into the mission field. Wednesday morning we received a call from the Milan Mission Home, a Elder Anderson informed us that Karen had arrived safely and was currently at the Duomo in Milan before eating dinner and crashing at the hotel. He also gave us top secret information that Karen didn't even know! So...

Karen's companion is Sorella Heupel from California and they will be serving in Genova! That is the last city that my Dad served in on his mission, so where one Pace left off, another picks up. We are so excited for her.

Here's a letter we received via snail mail a few days before she left the MTC.





Caro Famiglia,

Well this is it!! In two days time I'll be on a plane ride to Italia! Hopefully I'll also have the chance to talk to  you. :)

I just realized that you probably won't get this until Tuesday or Wednesday. Crazy!

I love you all, I love this gospel!

For the first time in my life I have no  idea where ll be in 4 days time. I have no idea who my trainer will be. But I have never been so excited in my life! I woke up today feeling like Christmas morning and I couldn't keep a smile off my face.

Enjoy the next 17 months! I know I will.

I don't know if having the Sisters live with you will work out, but I remember when Veroonica (not sure if I spelled that right) lived with us when David was on his mission. Dad was working with the missionaries so we saw them a lot. Our home was filled with the missionary spirit and it was incredible. I can only imagine what it would be like to have the sisters live with you, but that would be far beyond incredible - it would be a great blessing.

I've been praying for you to have missionary experiences at home. I love missionary work more than I ever imagined. If I don't return home in 17 months, that's why. I'll just preach the gospel in Italia for the rest of my life.

I love you and miss you! Good luck with the sprouts, the garden, work, and school. If the lilac tree is blooming, go smell it for me everyday. :)

Love Sorella Pace