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