HaPpY HaLlOwEeN

Ciao tutti! I survived my first week of motherhood!!!! We almost died a few times (jk) but we both survived! Having a greenie is so fun because you get to do all of their firsts with them, like their first pizza, first gelato, first spesa, first p day, first appointment... It's so fun! And Sorella Morris and I are getting closer every day and she's getting more and more adjusted and comfortable, so that's good. 

We didn't get to see any of our investigators this week again because they were all really busy, but we got to have the youth activity as usual, teach English class, see some members, and teach some less actives. Yesterday we taught a less active member, Evelyn, in Spanish, and poor Sorella Morris was so confused with all the languages going on. Being a new missionary is difficult and I honestly feel like I was one just a couple months ago. I also got to see all my friends at new driver training/consiglio! It was so fun!

So funny story. On Thursday, doing Sorella Morris' permesso stuff in the post office, we accidentally left her passport there. So someone rings our doorbell on Sunday to tell us that we needed to go to the post office the next day to get it. So Monday we were in Milano and didn't get back until 3. And we go straight to the post office, and they said they gave it to the police station. And they didn't have it there either! So we were kinda freaking out. After a while of sitting in the police station, they located the passport and everything was fine. But to top it off we had to run for 15 minutes to our car in POURING rain. Italy was on flood alert on Monday in some cities so you can just imagine how much it was pouring haha we got soaked. It was lovely and we feel blessed to have made it out with all our dry documents.

This week I've been studying the story of David a lot (I'm not quite to his downfall yet). In 1 Samuel 17 we read about the famous story of David and Goliath. Goliath was a pretty big guy, skilled, strong, with a lot of armor. And David was just a little guy with some stones and a sling. But his faith was incredible. In 1 Samuel 17:45 we read: 
"Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied."

David knew that the only thing that mattered was that he was on the right team, the Lord's team. Sometimes as a missionary it's hard to feel success, and even in real life too. I think I often feel like the world is beating up on us all and winning. But from the story of David and Goliath we learn that evil will never prevail. God will always win. And it is just up to us to decide if we are going to play for the winning team or not. I may not baptize every transfer here in Italy, but I know that I am on the winning team and that the Lord is guiding His work.

Vi voglio tanto bene! Have a great Halloween!

Sorella Henderson

with several but not all Sorelle from the MTC group

From gioventu to motherhood

Ciao tutti! Well, if you haven't guessed from the subject line of my email, I'm training! I picked her up yesterday in Milano, and today we are doing a pday together, but more on that later. So these next 2 transfers I will be a mom, which is exciting but also kinda scary! But I'm totally ready for whatever challenges we might have to face.

This week was crazy saying goodybe to everyone for Sorella Button. We also had scambio with our lovely STLs, and Sorella Epps and I got worn out walking and doing finding/pass bys because all of their appointments got cancelled. Which was fine with me. Feeling exhausted at the end of the day is a good feeling.

We got to eat a ton of food with Fanny, have the youth activity and run around like crazy, teach a lesson in Spanish (finally), eat pizza with Chiara, go to Stake Conference, do a family home evening with the Oliveiras, visit with the Manicobas (BRAZILIANS), watch a creepy man steal a girl's bike, and get 5 new English class students and just have a crazy time managing all of that. So it was a lit week (I don't care if lit is dead I'm going to keep saying it people so stop telling me that it's dead).

Then yesterday I picked up my baby! Her name is Sorella Morris, she's from Las Vegas, she has 7 siblings and she's number 5, sews, runs cross country, and is excited to be a missionary! She also doesn't speak Italian so that's fun! After picking her up, we went to an appointment with members, Leo and Dani, and we had planned this prank (hahaha I know I'm so bad). So the plan was to buy some red juice and tell her it's wine and that she has to drink it. Which they did (in the end, I could not say it because she's so sweet and I couldn't lie to my baby) but Sorella Morris took it like a champ and wasn't even fazed. She just drank it. She knew it wasn't wine. hahaha that's what I get for trying to prank my greenie I guess. But Vito and Nicholas came to our appointment too and they are all literally insane and poor baby didn't understand anything that was going on and I think she kinda got overwhelmed but it was fine. I love all of those people so much so I thought it was fun haha. Then we went home and crashed.

Today we are taking a pday in Lodi. Baby's first pizza, gelato, and spesa are all on the to-do list today, as well as some greenie housekeeping items. It should be a relaxing day, but don't worry, next week I will be showing my baby the best city in the world: aka Milano. Weeee. Anyway, wish me luck and pray for me and my greenie this week! I think we will need it. Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Henderson

Sorella Button's last lunch with Enzo and Fanny

Chiara

Goodbyes with Cecilia Oliveira

Merenda with the Manicobas

after Stake Conference with the Ruiz Diaz Family

President and Sorella Allen, greenie Sorella Morris, trainer Sorella Henderson

Mama Sorella Mitchell, new sister (same trainer as Ashlyn) Sorella Wright, daughter Sorella Morris with Sorella Henderson

Sorella Morris' first pizza

Sorella Morris' first gelato

This is lit.

Oi! This week can only be described in one word... LIT. So last p day we had a good time in Milano with some of the

Anziani in our zone... Maybe too many Anziani haha Anziani are kinda weird but it was fun. We ate some food, did

some shopping, and saw the Duomo (for the billionth time). And then some old man gave us some papers written in

strange English so that it's not even comprehensibile. I'll attach a picture. You definitely meet some strange people on

your mission.

On Friday, service was really funny because I had to help Francesco write down notes for the art history lab. He is 55

years old and has down syndrome. He also believes that he is Jesus Christ. He hated writing notes and so he kept

complaining about how he was sweating so much from having to write so much and that it was Christ's blood that he

was sweating and he was atoning for everyone's sins. He also thought that I was the Madonna, which is virgin Mary.

It was super funny and I was dying laughing the whole time. He was really dramatic about writing though and he is

super excited to go on vacation.

Then on Saturday, Honey called us and said she had a free afternoon! We met up witth her in a bar (Italian bars are

not like American bars! Don't worry!) and taught her the Plan of Salvation. She loved it, and accepted our baptismal

invitation... just not our date of December 1st. She doesn't wanna commit to a date with her crazy work schedule. So

we will see what happens in the near future. She is so solid though. It's crazy to think that she met Sorelle on the

street 2 years ago! (Not many people here get baptized through street contacting) So she's super cool.

We also saw the Pegorettis on Saturday and then again yesterday! On Saturday we read 1 Nefi 1 with them and just

kinda talked about prayer and the Church and stuff. We challenged them to read and pray together as a family. Well,

they hadn't done it yet when we saw them yesterday. They are having a lot of problems with this big life change of

moving to Italy. But we shared with them the Plan of Salvation, and they said that they feel so much peace when we

share our message with them. After explaining to them that these feelings are the Spirit testifying to them that it is

true, we invited them to be baptized, and they said yes! Unfortunately, they don't wanna commit to the date that we

chose until after they come to church at least once. And this Sunday is stake conference in Milano, so we will have

to wait a little while until setting a date with them, but we feel so good about them. And Cesar said his first prayer

with us and we all kneeled together; it was just like a little child praying. I love an investigator's first prayer. They

love us and Mariana even posted about us on Facebook so they are just golden and I love them so much.

BRAZILIANS.

Those were the highlights from the week. Of course, every week, every day, amazing little moments, miracles, and

funny things happen, but to write them all would take years so I'll save myself and you guys the pain of that. Oh

also, I don't know if you all remember about me talking about someone I was teaching named Karem in my last city,

but just a couple weeks ago she was baptized! I wanted to include that the last few p days but forgot so I'm doing it

now. It was sad not to be there but Karem is so dope and I'm so happy for her. I know that the Plan of Salvation is

true! It is so very simple and yet so profound that it strikes to the core of all who have a sincere desire to know the

truth. I love this Gospel and this mission so much! It's a fine fine life. Vi voglio bene.

Sorella Henderson

October 10 Pday in Milano

lesson with the Pegorettis (Cesar and Mariana, far left) and the Oliveira family

selfies with Beatriz Oliveira

Teaching Honey the Plan of Salvation

found a cute river while out working on finding

GC with the real Gs

Ciaoooo tutti! Well this week was LIT (some greenie told me that people don't say lit anymore and it made me sad) because of General Conference!!!! (How about that 2 hour church, everybody?!) It was honestly so amazing and inspiring. I had a really great weekend, and I hope that you all have watched it, and that if you haven't had the opportunity yet that you are making some plans to be able to watch it soon because it was really impactful. And life-changing if you apply the things that they talk about, which is always the hardest part for me haha.

Last p-day we went to Crema with 3 of the giovani again, Rey, Marcos, and Eze. They're so dope haha and they love practicing their English with us. It's hilarious. We got ice cream and chilled in a Catholic church with them. Then that night we had gotten permission from the commune to do a mostra at the station but then the Jehovah's Witnesses were standing there right next to our spot so we abandoned ship on that real quick and did finding somewhere else haha. It was pretty funny.

Then the best ever, on Thursday we finally got to teach this Brazilian family that the Brazilians referred to us ages ago at the Oliveira's home. And it was SO AWESOME. Holy they are so prepared for the Gospel!!! It's kinda awkward because they don't speak any Italian or English, so all our communication has to go through other people, but luckily we can understand Portuguese and the Spirit helps so much too. They are seriously so dope. And also we got Brazilian food. And then today Mariana messaged us and asked us to come over to their house on Saturday and she wants to feed us! YAY FOR BRAZILIANS.

Then on Friday we did service as usual and one of the little people who go there got super mad at us for showing up. We don't really know why, but she tried to kick us out. She's funny. We also did the youth activity and played kickball then night games with them. It was super fun as always because I love these youth so much.

Then on Saturday night we watched conference with Chiara and learned about 2 hour church! On Sunday night we watched it with the Flores family and they're Americans so it was super dope yet interesting to chill with them. I LOVED conference you guys. It was lit.

Everyone, go listen to my favorite conference talk! It's Elder Rasband's from Saturday morning. He talked about fear and why we shouldn't be afraid and how to overcome fear. Sometimes I feel like I have so much fear of things but that's dumb because I shouldn't. Basically I can't explain myself eloquently on this subject but Anziano Rasband did a good job so go read that talk.

Vi voglio bene! Go slay this week! Byeeee.

Sorella Henderson

Pday in Crema again with the YSAs

When Jesus fell

General conference cinnamon rolls are a Henderson family tradition, maybe even in Italy!

WEEK 50: The week where it got cold

Ciao a tutti! So this week has been super crazy! Maybe the first reason being that it's COLD now! Okay maybe chilly is a more accurate word, but you can definitely see that it's fall now, which I am happy about because that means we are closer to the Christmas season! 

The first awesome thing that happened this week was after our P-day in Crema last week, we saw the Ruiz Diaz family and they threw me a surprise birthday party!! Hahaha it was super lit and I love them so much. That was the last party though. ): I will never forget my Italian birthday because it was the best ever.

On Friday we did service at Bergognone and 2 men with Down Syndrome got in a fight over Sorella Button, which was pretty hilarious. Then we taught Italian/made brownies with the Manicoba family. I love them!!! They want to help the missionaries so bad, but they don't have a car. But they have so many ideas for us because Brazilians know how to get missionary work done and done right, and our ward mission leader is inactive and our bishop kinda has beef with us. :/ But it's okay because the Brazilians are super legit. Then after that we played Ultimate Frisbee with the youth which was SUPER fun because my team slayed. Then we ate all-you-can-eat pizza with the Relief Society and I got pineapple pizza!!! Italians think pineapple pizza is the grossest ever. They're all so dramatic about it which I find super obnoxious but whatever.

On Saturday we did a mostra for the 21-day challenge that's now over, but we're gonna keep advertising it for the rest of the year. I gave away 2 Books of Mormon! And one lady I talked entirely to in Spanish, so that was super cool. And the other girl was African. And no Italians talked to us (: Sometimes I wonder what missionary work would be like here if Italy had closed borders and I honestly can't imagine it working.

Then on Sunday we did our activity to close the 21-day challenge and it turned out well . . . not as terrible as we thought it was gonna go! Our activity was super well-planned and awesome, but for some reason the day before none of the members were gonna come except the Brasilians. But at the end, a lot of people came but they didn't bring food! So the Brasilians think they saw a miracle like in the New Testament when Jesus feeds the 5,000 because everyone ate and was filled! Hahahaha it was super funny. We also fed everyone salted brownies and people got mad because they're dramatic but oh well.

We also taught Honey a lesson on Sunday, and she's so cool! She has a testimony of everything, she just needs to re-learn all the lessons, and then she will be good for baptism! She accepted a baptismal invitation, but we didn't have time to set a date because she was like "Aaah I have to go to work! Will you say the prayer?" And we were like uhh okay so we prayed and she left haha. But next time we see her she for sure will have a bap date! Honestly at this point we could probably just text her about it; she is so ready for baptism. I love herrrrr.

Basically I love Lodi because of the Brasilians and the youth! And I'm never leaving! (Sorry, Sorella Button) Sometimes I have mixed attitudes about this place, but that's the mission. Every day is different and you just have to take it one step at a time. But the good deifnitely outweighs the bad.

Also, with the end of the 21-day challenge, our mission president has challenged us to read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of the year! That's a little less than 90 days if you start right now! I challenge you all to do it with me! Remember it was translated in just 60 days, so we can definitely read it in 90. Vi voglio un sacco di bene! 

Sorella Henderson

Scenery Pics from Pday in Crema

More Gelato with Sorella Button on the pday in Crema

At the "zoo" on Pday in Crema

Birthday cake #3

Bday with Ruiz Diaz Family in Crema

"Everyone ate and was filled"

Ward activity to end the 21 day challenge

District anziani