Sorella Ashlyn Henderson: 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