#timeismarchingon

hollla. waddup. ciao. hi therrrrrrrrre......(starting emails is always so awk...like um..yeah ha)

I got a request last week from mia padre for a rundown on what a typical day in the life of a missionary in Pavia looks like...so i suppose that i will start with that!! Welllllll, we wake up at 6:30 and every other day we go on a little 2 mile-ish jog right along the beautiful river. it is suuuuuuch a dream of a jog, i don't even hate it! The other days we just do abs and such indoors. After that we get ready, eat cereal, and then we study from 8-10...personal and then companion! after that we hit the road. depending on what we have scheduled that day we either hop on a train to go to a persons house or a bus. Most peeps live at train distance away so that is pretty fun to ride trains! the public transportation system is not very reliable though and they are almost always late!! We come home at 1 for pranzo..or lunch...for one hour. and after that we have lingua! We do this in the middle of the day because ALL Italians go home during pranzo time and no one is outside. All shops close, everything is dead during pranzo! then after that we go back to work...more trains or buses, depending on what is planned! If we don't have appointments we will do street contacting! we don't eat dinner, and get home at 9 at night! then we plan and get ready for bed! that is the normal day for us! but everyday is different and we always are having to adapt! but there ya goooooo....a typical day for us in Pavia!

On the streets of Italia.

This week was a suuuuuper great one! we worked really hard and nothing feels better than hard work. Last thursday we had our Zone Conference with Anziano Fingerle of the 70 and his wife. It was a really great experience and I saw a bunch of my friends from the MTC! it was super fun! The ipads are a no-go...unfortunately! It was all about how we can use social media in our work without having a device! It blew my mind a little...who knew that was possible! It was pretty much about just counseling with people and encouraging them to invite their friends via Facebook and share Mormon messages and stuff with those who are struggling! it was actually really cool. Speaking of which have you guys heard of the huge #sharethegift campaign going on for Christmas?? go to christmas.mormon.org...it is the coolest thing. Lets make Christ the center of our Christmas this year...eh? go watch the video and SHARE IT WITH ALLLLLL.

They also talked a lot about using more family history in our finding work...which is something that we have really been trying to put into practice this week! It is crazy how successful we have been! well maybe not successful..but it is amazing how many more people are willing to listen to you about families and ancestors!! it really does work, sooooo cool! and it all ties back to the Restoration and how we know that families can be together forever! Who knew...family history finding actually works. #wadddddup The other big thing that I got from the conference was the importance of 1% changes. We talked a lot about the small and simple things and how crucial they are! the small things are seriously what matters. they really encouraged us to look at how we do work and improve in every category by just one percent, every day. If we strive to just do a little better each day...we will eventually get where we wanna be! i really liked that and has been something that i am really trying to focus on. just the little areas i can improve on each day! i would encourage you all to do the same! #smallandsimple ohhhhh i also got to meet Sorella Yost!!!! Beccas cousin! it was such a dream, she is soooo cool and i was so happy to finally meet her there!! she was in Sorella Woods MTC group so they are really good friends.

Me with cute Sorella Yost.

Ever heard the hymn entitled...For the strength of the Hills? ummmm yeah, me neither. I had to play that in sacrament this week and i had practiced it a bunch but it is really hard and i had zero clue how it goes....i go to play it in sacrament and IT WAS SUCH A TRAIN WRECK. like yikes. i think it was my worst musical performance of my whole life....it was bad, i cannot even explain how terrible. lets just say that i cried too many tears and then the cute bishopric gave me a sweet note afterwards to try and help me feel better. yiiiiiiikes. talk about embarrassing!!

This week is the set aside...Week of Consecration, for the mission. We have really been focusing on consecrating ourselves in every way so that we can have more success and the work can move forth here in Italy. One way we have been doing this is just talking to more people. We are talking to everyone in our path, and it has been wonderful! the only way we will see miracles is if we are doing everything in our power! Just opening our mouths is so critical..and soooo important. Sadly many missionaries don't understand the importance of it!! We succeed when we invite! It is really been a huge testimony builder for me this week. Fear is of Satan and we cannot let him into this work! We can expect miracles only when we are doing all we can!

Life goes on in Italy...i hope some of you caught the reference of my email subject...time is marching on indeed! we only have like 2 more weeks of this transfer. it is nuts how quick the time flies! I am loving my mission and loving Pavia and being with Sorella Woods. It is going to be sooooooo sad to part! we have literally become so close and will def be friends forever! i am just in love with this country and these people and with being a missionary! it is the best thing EVER. I hope you all are doing well and that you have a good Thanksgiving! i really wish thanksgiving existed here...def not! we bought a candy bar to celebrate...ha. eat some turkey for meeeeeeee! I am so THANKFUL for my incredible family. you all mean the world to me!!!
have a good one!
love,
Sorella Kar

just posing with the pavia famous grafiti...fat boy qui.....

Everything is all decorated for Christmas and it makes me sooooo happy! Buone Feste errybodyyyyy!!

Our cute district....look how well we color coordinated! Not even on purpose. #preshhhhhhh

   

We Survived a Natural Disaster...‏

Ciao tutti! Come Stai??

This week was another good one here in the wonderful world of Pavia. I love it here, more and more. Every day i fall more and more in love with this beautiful country. I am so lucky to be here, AH i cannot get over it!

I love living in Italy!

Sooooooo...yes, as some might have heard there haas been a ridiculous amount of flooding going on in Italy lately, and even in Pavia. We have a river that runs right through our town and this week it got SUPER high because of the ridiculous amount of rain. There are a bunch of paths that run by the river that were completely covered and it was just crazy! The river even started overflowing and flooding some of the houses near by. We luckily dont live super close to the river, so we were safe...but we like to joke that we survived a natural disaster!!! #hurrrrrrrah they had tons of people working to try and fix the problem and then somehow the river has gone done a huge amount the last few days! We were lucky that the water didn't really come into our streets and stuff, it was a lot worse in other places, we hear!

River waters getting high!

So the Zone conference is actually not until tomorrow so we don't know yet if we are for sure getting ipads...but we are pretty sure it has something to do with that! We will find out tomorrow. I am super stoked to go to Milano for the conference it should be a great time and I am really looking forward to learning things from a member of the 70 that we can put into practice in our work here in Pavia.

This week we had a ward party...or a Festa della Zucca...or a Pumpkin party! It was pretty much just a Halloween party, just a few weeks late...ha that is Italians for ya! All the little kids dressed up and they had tons of fun little games for them to play and then they fed us Pizza...naturally! It was a blast and one of our investigators, P., actually came! We were so stoked and it was a rad night and made me feel like i was in america for a sec, which ruled. love those american moments!

We had a cool miracle this week with this lady named A. We actually found her a few weeks back...probably like a month ago, just sulla strada. We have been trying to meet with her since we met her but it finally happened this week! We went over to her house and taught her the Restoration. She was super interested and involved and asked us all sorts of questions. The spirit was very strong and we were really able to testify of the magnitude of this beautiful message. She was so sincere and when we invited her to baptism, she accepted and said...but i have to read this book first!!! haha we were like..uhhh, yeah. ha that would be a good idea! please do that!! She just rules. And we both left her house just really happy and feeling like she has been prepared by the Lord. It was an amazing miracle and we are excited to have someone new to teach!

We were also able to have a similar situation with a woman named G. She was also so sincere and prepared and we actually able to set a baptism date with her! It ruled and we are really excited about these things and the miracles that God is providing us! I know that hard work and diligence pays offfffffffff!

So this week on Monday, I had probs one of the worst days of my mission so far. I am not even 100 percent sure why...it was just not good at all. Everything fell through, it was cold and rainy and miserable, and it was just one of those days where your heart just isn't in it, sadly enough. We were both just having a rough day and nothing went well. I came home that night feeling awful...knowing that i did not do all that i could have done to be a good missionary. I felt guilty and that i had let a lot of people down but especially The Lord. I prayed a lot that night for forgiveness and that i would be able to get back my drive and desire. The next day i woke up determined to just make it a good day, no matter what. To literally just go hard and not hold anything back. That is exactly what we did and yesterday was literally one of the best days of my mission! Everything went great and we saw lots of miracles! We talked to tons of people and just were a thousand times happier! I know that Heavenly Father allowed me to have that bad day so that i would snap out of it and work harder. There is opposition in all things and i truly learned the importance of that. i am grateful that each day I can improve and do better and I know that Heavenly Father is with me every step of the way! I am SOOOOO grateful to be here. Sometimes days are hard and things just don't go well, but you just keep going and doing it anyways. When I actually do what i am here to do i am a thousand times happier!! This gospel is completely incredible. It has changed my life and I don't know where i would be without it!

Well that is about all that i have for this week! I am doing great and just LOVING my mission. I love the good, the bad...all of it! This is the greatest journey i have ever embarked on and I am so grateful to have the support of the greatest humans ever backing me up and cheering me on along the way! never stop that. SO MUCH LOVE.

do ALL things that lie in your power.

have a great week!

sorellllllllllllla kar

#justdoit‏

okkkkkkkkkay, so to start off....we actually did not end up getting a new companion this week! We went like 2 days thinking that we were getting a third and then President called us again and said that we would not be anymore.  Everything is just staying normal, so i guess that is good! It sounds like everyone is doing really well and life is going on, as usual...so that is a relief! We had a really good week as well, being a missionary is just the best thing! I am so happy.

The big thing that happened this week was that we had a scambio...or exchange, i guess. Our sister training leader is training which means that she is a solo STL. We have to do a scambio with a STL every transfer, so we have to do two so that we each get a chance to be with her...if that makes any sense? Anywayyyyyz, for this scambio they decided that it would be a good idea to put both of the trainees together...so Sorella Woods went to Milano with Sorella Smart, and Sorella Skinner came here with me. Sorella Skinner is only in her 2nd week in Italy, so I was the one in charge! I was realllllly nervous for this beforehand! Having to be in charge of the phone and getting around and teaching the lessons for an entire day!! Pretty intimidating. But I prayed a lot and I had a LOT of faith that Heavenly Father would help us out and everything would be okay!!!

We had a really cool miracle right off the bat. We were trying to find the house of this lady that we had found on the street the other day to give her a Book of Mormon. We got a little lost, but after a little bit of time, found the house. We didn't know which ci telefono was hers so we just started trying all of them, and none were her. We tried the last one and were just about to leave, and the lady that we had been looking for just walked right out the door of the apartment!!! I just got supppper excited and started talking to her and she remembered us and I gave her the book. unfortunately she was in a hurry, but she told us when we can come back! It was such a HUGE miracle and just really pumped me up for the rest of the night! I know that happened only because Heavenly Father made it happen. He blesses us soooooo much when we have faith, people!! don't forget it! Anyways, we had like 3 other lessons that night and they all went really well! It was so weird to be the one talking the most and leading and stuff. I really shouldn't have been able to say half the things i said, but i can truly testify that the spirit was with me and Heavenly Father truly did guide my words!! The power of the gift of tongues is so real and I cannot even believe it.

We were even able to find two really awesome ladies on the street and teach them lessons. Oh man, it was just SOOOOO good. It was the exact confidence booster i needed. I can do this work, I know more than i ever give myself credit for, but the only way is because of faith and because Heavenly Father magnified my abilities! It was the coolest experience ever and it taught be SO much.

We had an interesting experience at one of our investigators houses this week....she gave us some cake, that was fine but then after that she poured us up a nice glass of wine......we were like, uhhh. and she was like oh don't worry it is wine for the Saints! Only a tiny bit of alcohol. We were like...um no thanks we don't drink alcohol (we obviously haven't made it to the word of wisdom yet...) but she was SOOO insistent that we drink it...we said no like a thousand times and it finally just kind of died away...but that was def a first for me!! STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE. also, don't drink wine....ha

So our cute little investigator with what we thought was a for sure baptism date, is no longer for sure...sadly enough. The last few times we have been over there, he has not really been very interested and hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon. We just don't want to push him into it, because it needs to be his decision. He doesn't seem all that excited about all of this anymore, so we are sad about that! But we are going to keep trying and help him to understand the importance of all of this, and hopefully he will understand!

This coming Sunday is our ward's primary program and i am the pianist for it! Horrayyyyyy. it should be very interesting! Our primary is so great but literally the loudest primary in probs the whole world! I love them though and am really excited to be able to play the piano for it! hopefully i do alright!

We are doing really well here in Pavia and are finding people and having really good experiences with our current investigators! This cute little couple, H. and V., have been investigating the church for 15 years and this week THEY FINALLY READ!!!!!! Holy cow, it was the biggest miracle and we are hoping that we can help them progress. They are from Peru and gave us the BEST RICE EVAAAAAAA. yum yum.

Things are moving a long and it is a wonderful time to be a missionary!! We have a big zone conference this week with someone from the 70 and the rumor is that we are gonna be getting ipads soon, but who knows! it should be a really good conference though, I am very excited!

I wanna share a quote with you all from President Gordan B. Hinckley...It will be a great day when our people not only pray for the missionaries throughout the world, but ask The Lord to help them to assist the missionaries who are laboring in their own ward....

I want to challenge you all to do this! get involved BE MEMBER MISSIONARIES. this work does not work without the members and we alllllll need to be involved! Pray for opportunities and they WILL BE GIVEN, I am not kidding,. do it! you will be so much happier! it is scary, yes...but the blessings and happiness far outweigh the fear and the awkwardness. Just DO it. i promise you will be blessed!

Have a wonderful week! THANKS FOR BEING THE BEST PEOPLE EVER.
lovveeeee forever and EVER.
Sorella Burt

Miracles Are Real

CIAO MIA FAMILIGA!

Another wonderful week over and done here in Pavia! I am loving my life and just SO happy to be a missionary! It is literally the best thing ever. Everyone needs to try it sometime!!! We had the most incredible miracle ever this week. The story is a little long, so i will try and condense it...but you gotta know all the deets and it is def worth hearing!!

At the train station....where it seems like we always are!

So the other day we were on a train headed to a little town to visit one of our less actives. This girl next to us all the sudden just started asking what train she was on in a panic...we told her and she was very flustered because she had gotten on the wrong train and had to be in Voghera in about an hour and a half. (she spoke English and Italian...she is from Texas but has lived in Europe most of her life). We had her get off the train with us so we could help her figure out how to get back to the city she needed to go to. There was not another train for about an hour so, and Sorella Woods had the impression to invite her with us to our lesson. She agreed, and as we were walking there, she just let us in on ALL of her life, pretty much. Her name is L., and it turns out that her Dad is LDS and her grandma, she was pretty much raised by her grandma but she is not a member. She has a lot of tie to the church, which was pretty crazy! She is going through a hard divorce and has a lot of things going on in her life. She needed to get to Voghera to pick up some paperwork. We got to the members house and she was not there but her husband was. He was so kind and made a bunch of phone calls to find a way to get this poor lady to Voghera in time to pick up her paperwork. Finally he just decided to have his son drive him on their little scooter. L. had a big bag, so we told her that we would take it and she could come and pick it up in Pavia later. It was crazy, and I did not do a very good job at explaining it...but yeah.

We were really grateful that Heavenly Father placed her in our path and that we were able to help her make it to her appointment on time. BUT it does not end there! We were sitting on the train home and Sorella Woods and I both had the impression that we needed to put a Book of Mormon in her bag, we thought that might be a little weird but hey, we are missionaries and everything we do is pretty weird! And you cannot ignore a prompting! So we wrote a heartfelt note in a Book of Mormon and slipped it in her bag. That night we went to meet her at the train station and she was soooo kind and said that she wants to keep in contact with us and that she was SO grateful. We were hoping that she would find the BOM and that she wouldn't hate us! We didn't hear anything from her until the next morning when she sent us the most incredible text that i have probably ever received in my WHOLE life. i wish i could write it word for word...ahhhh it just gives me the chills every time i think about it! She said that morning she had opened up her bag and found the Book of Mormon along with our note. She said she cried many happy tears and had very many emotions of gratitude to Heavenly Father for placing us two very special young ladies in the right place at the right time...she said that she has never taken the wrong train, ever and that she knew it was for a reason. She said that she looks forward to continuing on her path to find her purpose and keeping in contact with us...the best part is, she said...My grandma always told me when I was small that I would be the wife of a prophet...who knows!

Ahhhhhhhh it was the most amazing miracle ever. It had absolutely nothing to do with us. It really taught me how much we are simply instruments in Gods hands in this work! (Mosiah 23:10) He makes it all happen. There were so many things that happened that day that were just perfect so that we would meet her and that this could happen. I know that God placed her in our path for a reason and I am SO grateful that we were in tune enough with the spirit to follow its promptings and to be able to change someones life! This work is the most amazing thing ever and I am so incredibly blessed to be a part of it. I know that people are being prepared and that this work WILL GO FORWARD.

We also had another cool miracle..we were able to get a BAP DATE. holla. It is with the son of one of our less actives, J...well she is not less acitve anymore...HOLLA! anyways...he is 10 years old and his name is N. He RULES. He loves coming to church, singing in primary, and reading and praying! He is really excited about his baptism and we are really excited about helping him prepare!

We got a new bishop in our ward this week! Which was crazy and unexpected! It made me think a lot about you guys though.The new one will do a wonderful job!!

We are in Italy and we do LOVE gelato!

Halloween...well it doesn't really exist in Italy...unfortunately! But we sure celebrated it....well kind of! We wore black and orange and took pictures with pumpkin cookies...and that is all! I have never missed American candy so much in my entire life! You all are lucky! the candy here just is not the same!

Our Halloween celebration!

We just barely like 20 minutes ago got a call from President that we are going to be getting a new sister in our companionship...i don't know her name or much of the details but apparently she has to be closer to Milano...she is coming on Friday, so that will be interesting!

Our last spoonful of peanut butter!

I am doing really well! I LOVE IT HERE. Italy is a dream and we are being blessed! I am really trying to focus on putting my ENTIRE heart into this work and truly becoming consecrated! I love you all and I hope that things continue to go well!! It is a crazy time, it sounds like for you all and i am very happy for you all! I love you all and I hope you continue to remember what is important!

Read D&C 88:41-86
Psalms 40:8

Have a wonderful week! i love you all so very much!!

con amore,
Sorella Burt

Transfer one...over and done!

HELLO ALL.

Grettings from Pavia! I hope you are all doing well and that you had another killer week! I surely did. This week was full of much goodness and joy and I am so STOKED to tell ya allllll about it!
First off, we got transfer calls on Saturday....drumroll please.....Sorella Woods and I are staying in PAVIA! HOLLA. Not really any surprise there, but it still made me really excited! I love Pavia and I love my wonderous trainer!

Sorella Woods and I in beautiful Pavia!

It is crazy that one transfer is already over. Crazy I tell you! That was literally the fastest 6 weeks of my whole life! We are stoked for the next 6 and are really just gonna KILL it. We are getting a brand new greenie in our district though, so that is exciting! I am just excited to not be the youngest anymore, it will be weird but i am excited to hopefully know more than someone for once! haha This week was what they call Senior Companion Week...that means that the junior comp becomes the senior comp...which pretty much just means that I was in charge of the phone and making calls and kind of deciding what to do and where to go. I was terrified for it at first, but it actually was not as bad as I thought it would be! I made loads of phone calls and was just like a pro...ha only like 4 people hung up on me...meno male!

Sorella Schoenhals is in our district with Sorella Gillespie.

Yesterday we hit our goal of 70 people which means that WE GET GELATO TODAY. I am so excited i cannot even explain. We figured that we haven't eaten Gelato for a whole 2 weeks and we are dying...i am pretty sure that it is a mission-wide record! It is pretty neat that in 11 days we had 70 conversations with new people about the Restored gospel and about Jesus Christ! Not many accepted, but we did our job. All we can do is invite, thanks to our agency! It was a really great experience though and I am definitely coming out of my shell as far as talking to people goes! It is so great and I feel so much better when I just talk to someone rather then when I don't!

We had a really hard time getting a hold of people this week...like for someone reason NO ONE will answer our phone calls or call us back...which makes setting up appointments a little bit difficult. This means that we had lots of finding time this week, which was actually really great! We were able to see some pretty amazing miracles. One of them was the other day when we were out doing some finding. We take turns being the leader and deciding where would be the best place to go. This particular day was my turn. I was praying a lot to try and figure out how to discern the promptings of the spirit while finding and how to know where the Lord needed us to go. I had a thought of a specific path on the other side of Centro, so we started walking in that direction. We got on the path and there were hardly any people on it. As we got to the end of the path, there was one lady and her dog. We stopped her and started talking to her, her name was Y. and it turns out that she is a member of the church!!! She is less active and hasn't been to church since she moved to Pavia from Ecuador. OH MAN, it was SO cool. We just found a less active on the street, no biggie! There is NO WAY we would have been able to find her if it wasn't for the spirit! Oh man it was just a really neat miracle for me to see how understanding and following promptings of the spirit works. I know that Heavenly Fathers hand is in this work and that He will help us know where to go.

There is a LOT of less-active work here. If everyone in our ward was active, it would be double the size! Lots of work to do! Another cool miracle was a different night when we were finding. We walked past this lady sitting on a bench and by the time we got to the corner, Sorella Woods and I turned to each other and both said...yup we need to go talk to her. We went over and started talking to her...and oh man, she was SO nice and SO prepared. She was so accepting of what we were teaching and wanted to learn more and receive a Book of Mormon! The spirit was so strong and it just felt so natural and comfortable! I even felt comfortable with my Italian! oh man, it was just the coolest experience to find someone who was so prepared. We got her info and set up another appointment, her name is A., and we are just really excited about that! It was such an amazing miracle for us!

Italy is so beautiful!

So there is this really awesome New Convert family in our ward...the D. family. We went and visited them this week at their bar...bars are different in Italy. They are more just like small restaurants. They are just the coolest and they are actually trying to sell their bar because they are moving to Utah! They want to go and start a restaurant there! It is pretty crazy, and they are 100% serious about it. They are just leaving everything and moving to Utah! I really hope that it all works out for them, they are just going for their dreams, which rules.

This week we also went to Milano for Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday! It was really great...well for what i actually understood! We go to Milano quite often for various conferences and stuff. I like going there, but we go a looooot.

I just feel like really super happy! This week was really good for me and I am truly just very happy to be here! I love it actually. One scripture that I wanted to share with you all is in Mosiah 8:18...go read it! I just love it so much. I know that our Heavenly Father has prepared a way for each and everyone of us to make a difference....and to work miracles through our faith! We can ALL be a benefit to our fellow men. I would encourage each of you to strive to do this, to have the faith and to ask God how he needs YOU to help those around you. I know that if we do this, we will ALL be able to work miracles. There is a work for us to do, in every aspect of our lives. It may be that you are supposed to be there for a friend, or just be a good example! If we strive to find what our work is, Heavenly Father will make us instruments in His hands. We are different because of this gospel! Own that, and be an example to those around you! Make them wonder why you are different and then TELL them what makes you the way that you are and why you are so happy! The Lord will bless you so much. We have to share what we have with others!

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I love you all so very much! I hope that you have a very happy Halloween and eat lots of yummy american candy for me and carve me a pumpkin or something! You all mean the world to me and I hope that you know that! Thanks for everything!
Till next time!
Sorella Burt

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