Adventures in Milan: Strength Through the Struggle

CIAO!!!!

Hey fam how i sure hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying their lives! i surely am! I am sooooo happy, it is unreal! week two at the MTC was full of beautiful and very hard times but that's just mission life i suppose! I'll hopefully be able to fully express my ideas in a way that it will make sense and is also somewhat enjoyable!

A temple selfie for your viewing pleasure!

With my companions.

To start off, i officially got my first real life MTC gym injury...drumroll please.......... I jammed my finger while playing a mean game of bball with the sisters...it actually hurt super bad and was all fat and nasty! but no worries, i have had a smooth recovery and i am happy to report that my finger is back to its normal size, no need to worry momma! also i fell down while playing bball and i got a mean bruise in the shape of a "Z", yes a z it acutally rules so yeah. be jealous that you all don't have one of those as well!

This week we taught our last lesson with our first investigator, "Chiara" it went super well and we extended the baptismal invite and she accepted! she just said that she wanted to learn more. although it is all role play, we were SO excited and just felt so much joy! I can't even imagine how it will feel when we have real life investigators progressing and wanting to learn more! We got two new investigators this week(well they are just both of our teachers) their names are Claudia (Sorella Nilson) and Walter (Fratello Guest) it is actually really cool because they are portraying people that they actually taught on their missions. Claudia is super easy to teach and really sweet and kind and receptive to our message. I'm pretty sure that Walter is out to get us because he is just really offish and not receptive at all! we've only taught him once so hopefully things will improve as we get to know him more and stuff!

Sorella Schoenhals and I in our classroom.

teaching is really fun, even if its in Italian! it's a struggle but if i learned one thing this week, it would be that you only develop strength through the struggle! we all come here to the MTC as caterpillars and hopefully leave our missions as beautiful butterflies! breaking out of the coocoon is part of the process. it is really the only way that we can grow...through the struggle! and the most beautiful thing about it is that our Heavenly Father will be there with us, helping us every step of the way!

Our teacher, Sorella Nilson...RULES. like she is the most amazing person. She has such an incredible, humble spirit about her and you can just tell that she is 100% invested in everything that she does! I literally have learned so much from her already, and it's only been like a week since we've had her! She just testifies with such amazing strength and i can really tell that she was an incredible missionary! i am so grateful for her! our other teacher is good too! I am grateful for teachers! they help us learn and improve so much!!

Studying done right...ha!

We had a couple really neat experiences this week that i wanna write about real quick! so first off on one of the days It kind of started off on a rough note for whatever reason. I don't really know why but i was just having a weird day. I didn't know what was wrong, i just had like no motivation and the smallest little things were just bugging me! Sorella Schoenhals was kind of feeling the same way and so after lunch we decided to just go for a walk and try and clear our heads. we kind of talked it out and we really couldn't figure out what was wrong, just a lot of weird feelings!i had the impression that we should kneel down right then and there and say a prayer. So we did, we just asked that these weird feelings could leave us and that we could be filled with the peace and motivation that we knew we needed and that we wanted so bad. after the prayer we went back to class...still kind of feeling the same way. But as the class went on, i could literally feel myself changing! it was incredible! i was so excited to be learning and i was just SO happy. it was such an incredible change and i know that it only could have happened with the help of The Lord. It was such a testament to me that this is His work. and if we are humble, and obeient and we just ask Him for help, he WILL help us. We are doing his work, and if we are doing all we can, He will make up the rest!

The other neat thing that happened was this... the other day we had a few extra minutes to study, so Sorella Schoenhals and i decided to go outside and study. We have a table that we usually sit at but i was randomly just like, lets sit on those benches. So we did and this guy was sitting on a bench by us...he had an investigator tag on and he just started to talk to us. We got to talking and said that he wanted to meet with us and just talk with us about why we are so happy (most of the "investigators" here are members but some are real, but you just don't know) so we set up an appointment to meet with him. As we studied and prepared what we would teach him, we were super excited to be able to teach in english and just say the things that we were actually feeling rather than just like memorized lines. We went in there and the spirit was so strong from the very beginning. all we brought was a scripture and some thoughts in our heads and left the rest up to the spirit. It was INCREDIBLE. like one of the best experiences i've had here yet! we were just able to get to know Lance and truly testify to him why we are so happy and how we KNOW that this gospel is true. The spirit was guiding everything we were saying and it truly was amazing! we got out of there and were like on clouds! we are gonna be able to do this in ITALIAN in no time.I cannot wait for the day that we can do that. I cannot wait for real life investigators and the opportunity to help them to come closer to Christ! this work is incredible and i am so so soooooo glad that i get to be apart of it!

Jenny Oaks baker did a devotional this week and it ruled! also sister Oscarson the general young women's president did the one last night! i love the devotionals so much! especially singing in the choir!!!

Being happy makes all the difference here! happiness and patience and obedience! that's what it takes!
i am so grateful to be here and for all the support that you all show me!! please pleaaaaase keep it up! ya'll rule!!!!