09.03.14 {week 58}

Dear Family,

This week was just jam-packed (just wrote ham-packed by accident and then laughed pretty hard about it...) with wonderful things.

We started last week off with a scambio on Thursday with the Torino sisters.  I was with good ol' Sorella Lawrence here in Alessandria.  It was a ton of fun and it was really cool to be able to serve with her again and see all the ways she's improved in the last transfer and a half.  We had a great time.  And then on Thursday night, she and I headed to Torino where we met up with our comps and spent the night there.  Bright and early the next morning, Sorella Roth and I headed to Milano for mission consiglio.  It was so wonderful (as usual) and we learned a ton and I know there are just a million and one things I need to improve in my missionary work.  And I've got about five months to do it!  Woohoo!

Saturday was a really cool day because I learned about real intent.  You know, in Moroni 10:3-5 it talks about how we need to pray with "real intent."  I never really understood what this phrase meant and then when I got on the mission I started to understand it.  It means that we pray with the intent that we will act on whatever answer we receive, or that we will act in order to receive an answer...and then act on that answer.  (I guess there's lots of action involved...)  Anyway, Saturday I had a really great testimony-builder of real intent.  On Saturday morning we had planned to go to Acqui Terme (a paesino, like, 30 minutes away in train) and we decided we were going to get two lessons on the train.  One on the way there and one on the way back.  This is nothing new - we talk a lot in our mission about train lessons and bus lessons and basically just being "forever finders."  It's never been my forte, but we do it quite often and I've grown to like train finding more and more.  I've learned that it doesn't have to be awkward.  You sit down by someone.  You start talking about normal stuff.  The weather.  Work.  School.  And then eventually it comes up that you're here in Italy serving a mission and then you start preaching!  Haha sort of.  Anyway, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  But the beautiful thing about train finding is that when it doesn't work you can just pretend you're getting off at the next stop, but instead go to a different car and talk to someone else.  ANYWAY we had decided during nightly planning that we were going to get these lessons and all morning I prayed really hard that it was actually going to happen.  I was praying with real intent, I tell you what.  I wanted to meet these people who were ready to hear about the gospel.  So we went.  We walked past some people in the first car, sat down by some Asians a few cars down.  They weren't really understanding anything we were saying (in Italian OR in English), so we decided to be "socially awkward for Jesus" (our theme for this transfer) and go back to some of these people we had passed before.  When we were walking past them, there had been this lady who I had noticed smiling at us.  So we went back and talked to her and had a lovely conversation about what we believe.  It was awesome.  And then on the way home, I had a feeling we should talk to this Fillipino (I can't remember how that's spelled in English....is that right?) lady and she was awesome, too.  Anyway, it was just a really cool experience, because real intent is so....real (for lack of a better word).

Sunday was incredible because we had SEVEN investigators come to church.  It was a MIRACLE.  We've seen some huge progress in these people.  I love this job.  Monday we spent inside all day because Sorella Roth wasn't feeling well and then Tuesday was our zone conference!  It was awesome.  It was seriously just such a great week.  Gotta run.  AMORE.

Sorella Gunnerson

SICK DAY!

Probably only M. will understand this one...

Sometimes my comp has to wear a helmet around the house.

  The zone.