BUON ANNO!

Ciao tutti!!! Well it's already been another wonderful week living in Italy. I am still so amazed by the fact that I live here and the things I get to see and eat and the people that I get to meet. Even though this week was super difficult due to everyone and their dog being gone for the holidays, it was a good time. Sorella Mitchell and I always find little things to laugh about together in spite of the working being a little slow this time of year.

This week we hiked in the rain for P-day with one of the Anziani's simps who is from Nazareth. It was a pretty lame hike and the road up the mountain made all of us super carsick, but it was definitely an interesting experience that I am glad that we did haha. We also had a lot of member lessons, and I just love my ward! I think a lot of the reason why I am in Bologna right now is for the members and the less actives here. I have loved working with them (and being fed by them hehe). So even though we didn't get to teach any investigators this week, we had a lot of member lessons which was awesome. Also, the Sorelle baptized Ife and Lucas on Saturday! It was so fun to see the ward come together and celebrate the addition of 2 new members and also to be able to see how happy Ife and Lucas were to be baptized.

New Year's Eve, we had to be inside pretty early. But we did some finding during the day, which actually turned out to be pretty effective. We also got to be close to some university students who started letting off firecrackers. That's what happens when you proselyte near campus on a holiday lol. I wish that I had more cool stories for you all. But we did find some promising potentials this week that we are excited to meet with in the next couple of days! Also yesterday we had new missionary training, and it was a blast to see my old MTC friends and be all together one last time. It sort of made me miss the MTC but also not at all haha. 

I am sure that most of you have heard about the recent passing of our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. I just want to testify about the reality of living prophets and how grateful I am for them. Even though it's sad that President Monson has passed on, I am so grateful for the other apostles and the fact that we will soon have another prophet on the Earth! We should all try to remember everything that we have learned from President Monson during his service and pray for his loved ones at this time, as well as all of the Apostles. Thank you all for your love and your examples for me.  You're the best!!!! Until next week!

lol half these pics are blurry sorry i'm the worst photographer

Inside Bologna Duomo

(new missionary training photos taken from the mission blog)