And just like that... We're Famous!

It began as a normal companion study. We sang a hymn, we said a prayer, we read rules and preach my gospel. The phone rang from a random number and I passed the phone to my collega. "Pronto, sono Sorella Killpack" "Hello, this is ___ from Salt Lake. We're filming a member of your ward in Rimini for a mormon message and learned that he helped the missionaries in the past learn Italian. We called President Dibb and he gave us permission to call you. Would you have time this afternoon to come and film with us?"

haha. What? We both looked at eachother with our make-up free faces, our ponytailed hair, our end of the week wardrobe and realized that lunch would be spent fixing all of that. 

So next time you see a film of two sorelle riding their bikes, I'm the one in the blue shirt and pink helmet. 

This week's been really good. It was a little stressfull when changes in the mission schedule ruined our plans for every single scambio for the transfer, but we've fixed it so they all fit in, even if  not comfortably. 

Yesterday I was in Bologna for a scambio and then returned home for an amazing lesson with one of our simpatizzanti, R. The spirit was super forte and we had the perfect member with us to help her resolve her concerns about certain commandments. We started out asking about her reading in the Book of Mormon, and then my collega suddenly asked R. if she knew the Book of Mormon was true. There was a pause, and suddenly and a little surprisedly R. answered, Sì. I felt the rush of the Spirit and realized that she really did know. The Spirit continued to guide us and the lesson ran smoothly. It will take her some time before she's ready for baptism, but she's moving forward with faith, really seeking out a testimony. I learned so much from that lesson. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Sorella Pace

Here's Sorella Killpack and I with our first homemade authentic Italian lasagna!

A Quick Hello

Dear Family, 

So, today we planned to make lasagna with a chef in the ward for p-day. We realized that lasagna takes time, especially in Italia, but we were completely unprepared for how long it took. so, if this letter's really really short, and completly full of typos, please forgive me. And I'll send pictures next week. 

We're doing well here in Rimini and seeing lots of miracles. This past week was Ferragosto, which basically means a big summer party where everyone goes in vacation, so we did lots of finding. But all the tourists come to Rimini so we're full of all sorts of Europeans, just not many who speak Italian or more than basic English. We did get our selves invited to a Ferragosto dinner, with an American and several people who've lived in America. We've had lots of good Italian food this week. 

We also had a wedding here in Rimini! The daughter of a less active family we work with was married on Monday and sealed in the temple on Tuesday (she's active). It was great to go and see my first and probably last Italian wedding. 

There was also the ward's summer/pioneer party last Saturday and it went very well. The rain managed to hold for the entire time. Miracles do happen. 

I love you all!!! 

Have a marvelous week!!!!

Sorella Pace

Hello All

Hello All, 

It's been a great, if exhausting week. Transfers were on Thursday, so I traveled to Milano with Sorella Clawson to drop her off and pick up Sorella Killpack. It was so much fun to see all the sisters who were going home for one last time, if a little strange. They're the first of the big groups of sorelle to leave, so it was strange to say goodbye to several companions, past sister training leaders, and all the others who I've gotten to know so well in the past year and a half. There were train line problems, leaving us all stranded in Milano for a couple hours. So a large group of sorelle went to get lunch together, and we had a blast. 

This past half a week with Sorella Killpack has been amazing. She's a super hard worker, loving, and so much fun. We're going to have a crazy good transfer together, and we're already seeing lots of miracles. We had a long day of finding last week, and were feeling slightly discouraged. We had been doing strada, so we decided to go to a neighborhood and do some casa for a little. We parked the bikes, and then decided to say a Popp chart (a little 2 minute synopsis of a PMG principle). I finished mine, and we both turned to see a man walking down the road. We stopped him, and he said that he was baptized eleven years ago in Argentina. We had a long conversation with him. His family's going through a hard time, but he has two teenage girls who aren't baptized! So we're going to try to work with them. 

It's incredible to see how the Lord moves His work forward, one heart at a time. We're working with several less-actives who are making incredible progress in returning to church. It's such a blessing to work with them. 

Have a great week!!!!

Sorella Pace

Transfers

Dear Family,

It's transfer time again. Tristemently. Sorella Clawson's headed home in two days, and my new companion is Sorella Killpack! I'm excited for her to come and to work myself to death the next six weeks.

This past week was really good. Our sweet less active came to church for the first time in months, and bore her testimony during sacrament meeting! All the ward members ran up to greet her afterwords :D

Monday afternoon we had an appoinment cancel. She lived a train ride away, so it opened up a lot of time, and we started finding. We went to one area of centro, and then after not much success there we headed to another street. After a while, I saw a man leaning against a truck on the side of the road. As we walked towards him, I noticed that he was looking at us, which is not all that common. We stared talking to him and he immediately asked for the church address. After a minute he told us that he was baptized years ago as a teenager in Perù, but after moving away, had lost the church. He's now married with a wife and two boys. He was so excited to know that the church is here in Italy and is bringing his family on Sunday! There were so many little things that lead us to finding him in that moment.

Have a great week!

Love,
Sorella Pace