Believe in the Impossible!

Buon Giorno!

Well another week is over and done! it literally feels like just yesterday that i was sitting in this computer lab writing my wonderful family! The time here FLIES BY. I really can't believe that I am already halfway done with my time here at the MTC. It is a surreal thing to think that in just 3 short weeks I will be in Italy. WOAAAAAAH. Crazy. I am SO STOKED. I cannot wait to get there!!! But I also still love it here. I really do. It one of the most challenging things that I have ever done, for sure...but also the VERY most rewarding thing ever as well! And just thinking about how even more rewarding it will be when I am actually teaching real investigators and talking to real life Italians. That will seriously rule!

Me and my wonderful collega! I just LOVE HER SO MUCH!!

I am learning so much about myself through this process, and I've only been here for three weeks! I sit down to write this email and i can hardly remember what happened this week! I guess we have journals for a reason! First of all, i feel as though i might be getting a little bit sick. I woke up today with a sore throat and i slightly stuffy nose...not too bad just that awkward feeling when you know a cold is coming? ya. but i'll be okay! Everyone gets sick here, so yeah i guess that I'm just normal?? ha But other than that I am doing great!

We had a super great week this week! We now have 2 regular investigators that we teach pretty much every day, and that has been a really amazing learning experience. They are both our teachers and one is much easier on us than the other. Fratello Guest or "Walter" is much more like our investigators probably will be in the field. He is a practicing Catholic and not very open to new ideas. Teaching is definitely becoming more comfortable as time goes on. As we practice and practice more, i can definitely feel myself improving! This week we didn't memorize any of our lines, we just studied the vocabulary needed for what we were teaching and prayed for the spirit to be with us, and just went in there and it was amazing the result! i truly learned this week that if you study your very best and are obedient, that the Lord truly will give you the words that you need to say! And its not like i go into the lessons and am able to speak perfect Italian, but I am able to go there and say how i feel in the very best way that I know how, and the spirit literally just makes up the rest! I don't know how to formulate sentences very well or all of the correct grammar, but that doesn't matter! That will come with time. For now i just have to be confident in myself and in The Lord and go for it!

Another great day for learning!

The only way that we can learn is if we just dive in! Yesterday in the Devotional, the speaker told this story about these divers...I won't tell the whole story but the gist of it was that one of the divers kept comparing his diving to the others, and he was only discouraged an down because he never felt like he would be able to reach the same degree as difficulty and accuracy as the other divers. You here that all the time here in the mission, "Don't compare yourself to others" which for me is a little bit easier said than done! It is very hard to not look at everyone around you and get discouraged that you aren't up to their level. But this week I think i figured out how i can do this...i just need to work the very hardest that I can, and literally only worry about myself. That sounds very much normal and not very profound but it is TRUE. I choose the outcome of situations. I am in control of what I do, and that is all. I've known this my whole life but it just really hit me this week! People just learn at different paces and that is fine!

I just know that this isn't supposed to be easy. It's hard because we are doing the Lord's work and what He went through was not easy by any means. We are His servants and therefore, we are going to have to work harder than anyone else! We just have to push ourselves to the veryyyyyyy edge. Go the extra mile every time. Never give up. It's not easy but it is alllllllways worth it! I also learned this week that we MUST have patience in this process! it is a process, meaning that it doesn't get better or happen over night. We have to suffer and struggle if we want to make it the the beautiful end! We push ourselves to the very edge of that cliff, and then through the help of The Lord, we can literally FLY. We must beleive in the impossible! It should be impossible for me to learn Italian or to know as much as I do right now, but through the Lord, nothing is impossible! I really feel like I am improving and moving forward in this each and every day! baby steps is how we reach great things!

I am so grateful to be a missionary right here and right now. I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that I was called of God and that I was fore ordained for my mission to Italy Milan! I know that because i was called of God, He knows that I can do this and He is gonna help me do this!!! i really truly know that!!!

Our district.

Also, you can do soooooo much more with a smile on your face! so remember that this week as you are all going through something a little hard or a little new, just put a smile on your face and YOU CAN DO AMAZING THINGS. Believe in the impossible! Through the Lord we CAN fly! I hope that all is going well with starting school and such! i want to hear all about how that is going kay guys? so write me dear elders or something TODAY. And mom thanks so much for the Dear Elder, I LOVED IT. I hope that you are doing alright! you are so incredibly strong and i look up to you so much! i am SO proud of you for being so in tune with the spirit and being able to act on that prompting! man I just have the best family EVER! keep it up, you guys rule!!! Have a great week!!

Love,
Sorella Burt

Ready for a run!

Emmie was here...now she's gone!