Sorella Ashlyn Henderson: He dun chop fufu

Ciao a tutti!!! Happy late Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that you're now getting in the Christmas spirit. I had the best Thanksgiving ever because I got to eat with the Brazilians who are the best and the Americans brought American food and I wanted to die of joy. But now I'm ready for December! I've been listening to Christmas music since July so I am very excited. Also today is my 1 year mark in Italy! It's crazy to think that I arrived an entire year ago, and I'm glad I still have more time left in this amazing country and as a missionary.

So this week we had some cool experiences. We set a baptismal date for January 19 with one of our new friends, Francisco! He's so solid and to us just seems super prepared for the Gospel! The hardest thing is meeting with him, but hopefully we can meet his wife and we can start teaching them together. We've only taught him 1 lesson so far, so we'll just keep an eye on things and see how it goes!

Other big news this week: a less active woman we've been working with, Evelyn, has really been struggling with he testimony and inactivity for the past 30 years, basically since she was baptized at 18. Well after some confusing conversations with her and some research, turns out Evelyn was never registered as a member of this Church because she never received the gift of the Holy Ghost! This was a big shock to us and she still doesn't know yet, but we are working on figuring out the situation and hopefully we can bring her back and baptize her again! Also she brought a friend to our last lesson named Yoconda, and it was so cool to teach them together but also a little stressful considering Evelyn doesn't have a testimony anymore but still thinks she's a member... So hopefully we can get this all sorted out with her by next week!

We also ran into some cool people doing finding on Monday, and they wanted our contact information! So after them calling us 3 times during new missionary training yesterday, they sent us an email with their plans to unite all Christian churches into one belief by merging all the ideas and churches together (kinda like how the great apostasy got started) based on current scientific and psychological ideas. And they want us to give this thesis paper to the Prophet... That is definitely not happening and I'm pretty sure we won't be talking to this crazy couple again...

Oh also can't forget to mention that I made fufu (this really weird african food that you just swallow and aren't supposed to chew) for President Allen! And Sorella Allen ate it too!! It was hilarious and they hated it but I know President is secretly proud of himself.

Next week marks the start of the Light the World campaign! Don't miss out! Go to mormon.org and check out the service advent calendar and get started! Christmas is an amazing time that we can think more of Christ by serving and helping others. So I'm inviting you all to participate and share your experiences with me via email or fb messenger. I'm excited to hear about how you all light the world this Christmas season (:

Vi voglio un sacco di bene! Have a great week everybody!

Sorella Henderson