Sorella Sarah: 07.16.14 {week 51}

Lesson in biking: Falling hurts. And now my bike makes weird noises. Lesson over.

This week was actually kind of normal, which was really refreshing. After going to Milano, Torino, Vercelli, and Collegno all in basically one week, it was nice to just...hang out in our city for a little bit. And we have seen SO MANY miracles this week, mamma mia. But I'll get to that a little later.

First things first: Last Wednesday night it started HAILING. In the middle of July. In Italy. I thought the weather in Utah was bipolar, but I think Italy might take the torta. We were in the church, finishing up English class and there were just rocks falling from the sky. It was actually really fun. And then the ceiling started leaking, which confused me a lot because we're not on the top floor. And then Italians started freaking out. Hahaha I love Italy. And then what did we do? Well, we had a lesson, so we got on those bikes and did work. And, no, this is not when I learned my biking lesson this week.

Second things second: I got sick this week, too! Just like Dad and Mitch. We ate lunch with a member on Sunday and when we got home, I was just....not doing well. But we had a lesson to go to and I thought the nausea would just go away, but it definitely didn't. So I barely made it through that lesson and then we got on our bikes and headed to the church for another lesson. Luckily we made it to the church, though. I literally ran in, threw my helmet on the ground and quickly found the bathroom. And then....the rest is history. I felt better afterward though! At first I thought it was the lunch we had, but then we found out that one of our investigator families didn't come to church that morning because one of their girls had been throwing up the night before and guess who we had a lesson with on Saturday night? Yep. So I'm pretty sure that's where I got it. But it only lasted a few hours, luckily. We had district meeting on Monday morning and then one of the Anziani had the same thing happen to him on Tuesday morning. Whoops. Anyway, we're all good and healthy now. Unless you count millions of mosquito bites as unhealthy. The mosquitoes here love me so much. I bought some really intense bug spray yesterday, though. So I'm all set.

We've seen so many miracles this week. And most of them came on days when we didn't have a ton planned. But we really tried to follow the Spirit and it totally paid off. On Saturday we went to see an elderly lady in our ward who had fed us lunch last Thursday but we weren't able to give her a spiritual message because we were late for an appointment. So we said we would be back another day. We showed up on Saturday and she lives by this family that's half less-active/half investigators. Basically the mom and dad are members, but less-active. They have two daughters. One of them was baptized a couple of months ago, and the other is one of our investigators. The day before, during weekly planning, we were really trying to figure out how to help this girl. She's twelve and has had bap dates in the past, but they've just never worked out. And whenever we try to teach her at her house it's just a disaster. Chaos reigns. So, anyway, we were at Sorella B.'s house and all of a sudden she gets a phone call from T., this girl. And basically T. was like, "Hey, are the sisters at your house? Can I come over?" She had seen our bikes and wanted to come hang out with us. So we taught an awesome lesson and it was just great. It was like Heavenly Father just handed us the answer - teach her with Sorella B. at her house. So that was a miracle. Another miracle is this family that we've been seeing pretty regularly, like 3-4 times a week. They're incredible. There's a mom, a dad, the mom's daughter (who's, like, 30-something), and then two other daughters who are 9 and 11. Anyway, we've been trying to help the mom and the older daughter quit smoking so that they can be baptized and they are making strides! It's incredible! The other day, the older daughter was like, "Sometimes when I think about smoking, I get nauseous and I think to myself: It's because the sisters are praying for me!" Miracles, people. Anyway, there are seriously countless miracles from this week. And then last night, we had the most incredible ward council ever. I don't even know why - it was just so spiritual. Everyone was coming together to try to help the members of our ward who are struggling - especially the youth. And a lot of the parents of the struggling youth were at the meeting because they're leaders in the ward. It was just a really touching experience. Both Sorella Hoffman and I walked away from it in awe. And our bishop is inCREDible. I've never seen a bishop like him here in Italy. He's just so on top of everything. He's aware of who we're teaching and what we're doing. He looks at our numbers. He asks us where people are when they haven't been to church for a couple of weeks. And he really does just care about the people in our ward. He's an incredible example to me. I mean, I've been realy fortunate because the bishops in my last two wards were incredible, too, but this bishop is just on TOP of it. Anyway, we've seen the hand of the Lord every single day this week, usually multiple times a day. It truly is His work. I'm so happy to help.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. I hope you're all doing well. AMORE.

Sorella Gunnerson

One of my last views of the Mole! Ciao, Torino!

The missionaries of Torino 2 with our ward mission leader, Fratello Giardino.

Me with one of the people I love most in this country - M.! She was one of our English students in Torino and I just love her. She told me that I MUST stay with her someday when I come back to visit. :)