Adventures in Milan: La Vera Bora

Buon Giorno tutti!

Trieste is infamous for what they call "The Bora." It is pretty much just INSANELY strong winds that come every february. I can proudly say that I, Sorella Burt, survived the bora...which is actually a large accomplishment! I cannot even explain it, it is CRAZY. you literally feel like you are in a hurricane..or tornado, i dont remember what the word is. But anyways the bora came this week and lasted for about 4 days, making missionary work a little bit difficult. Most people stay inside during the Bora because it is miserable and actually very dangerous! One night we were walkiing to an appointment and we were in this particularlly super extra windy area and we were trying to walk up a hill. A huge gust of freezing cold wind came and Sorella Hawks got blown backwards, i luckily got ahold of the nearby building and was holding on for dear life, but sorella hawks was literally like 2 feet away from getting blown in front of a passing car! We were both like screaming and some how she was able to turn to the other side of the building where the wind wasn't as strong...but holy cow! It was literally soooooo scary! We were just screaming and then laughing and kind of crying because the wind is so strong that your eyes just like tear up...ha we were quite the sight i am sure! And there was a man just standing there holding a pole, watching the whole thing...his face told us that he found us rather strange...but hey everyone thinks we are strange! It was crrrrraaaazzzzzzy. the bora is real. but we survived. barely. hip hip HORRAY.

This week i hit my 6 months in da mission....so naturally you gotta celebrate with some gelato. It was a little bit of a rough day and we were just really tired and things were just weird...and on the way home sorella hawks was just bound and determined to get some gelato...but naturally zero gelaterias are open in the freezing cold bora so we had to resort to the boxed gelato, still good but not the same! there were 6 cones in the box...6 cones for 6 months #perf It is cray that i have already been here for six months...like where has the time gone? fast, that is for sure.

Karli's 6 gelato cones - for 6 months in the mission

I GOT THE BOX OF LOVE. and can i just tell you all that it was the single most perfectly timed, most needed package i have probably everrrrrrrrr recieved??? we had another hardish week...wont really talk about that, but one morning we were just doing our studies and our doorbell rang and it was the post lady with a beautiful little package from home! OH MY GOSH. thank you allllllll so much. i cannot even begin to express the level of appreciation and love that i was feeling. It was perfect and just so kind and i loved it SO much. I have the greatest family ever. punto. literally those little hearts on the string...i about died. It was the exact thing i needed to make it through the week. and mom thank you SO much for taking the time to put those pictures together. they were absolutely puuuuuurrrrfect. ah i love you all more then words can say.

We sent Karli a garland of hearts with love notes on them

This week we had some sweeeeeet miracles! two of the greatest came from doing casa, believe it or not! We found this super golden place where the houses are like acutal houses, not apartments. They are small and connected but they have like little front porches. The actual houses are way better for doing casa because the people can actually see you rather then trying to talk to them over a little intercom thing. annnnyways, we were ringing the doorbells and we made it to this really adorable little green house (all the houses in italy are different, bright colors #toomuchfun) anyways this little lady came out of the house and when we asked if we could share a message with her, she was like , yeah sure...no one EVER says ya sure...they normally just shake their fingers at us and say...no mi interessa. BUT she said SURE. so we proceed to tell her about the restoration and she was just like listening and very kind and open! it ruuuuuuled. we asked if we could come back and she said YES. woah. it was just really cool. It doesnt sound super cool, but holy moly it was a huge miracle for us to find a human that would actually listen to us and that wanted us to return...her name is S. btw :) a few days later we went back to the same area, just a few streets away from S. and found a girl that was 13 named I. she was soooooo cool and also very open to listening to us! AH it ruled. the young are golden. she also said that we could come back. Heavenly Father is really helping us out. I KNOW IT. they were just some really great lil tender mercies from Heavenly Father. I know that he is watching over us always. He sees our efforts and He is proud when we work hard. and when we dont let the discouragement get the better of us.

This week i really learned the importance of being grateful. When we are grateful no matter what...not just for the physical things we have but IN our situations and FOR everything that we go through...He showers even more blessings upon us, even more things to be grateful for. Every single little experience that we have in this life is given to us for a very specific reason, we need to be grateful for each and every one! I am grateful for the experiences that i am having each and every day out here. i know that my Heavenly Father is shaping me into the person that He needs me to be. Positivity is the key, and that is really something i am learning.

As always, i love you all. I love being a missionary. I love Italy. I love each and every opportunity that i am being given to serve God's children. I couldn't be happier!

Con amore per sempre,
Sorella Burt