Ciao

Ciao a tutti!

We had a good week this week! Sorry again that last week I sent like the worst email on the face of the planet. I learned my lesson and am starting with the main email this week! This we started a new transfer, the weather got super cold, we saw a guy got robbed on the bus, I made a drastic decision that I still can't decide if I regret, we saw miracles, we met with some great member families, we did some finding with one of our members, and handed out SO many fliers for the new "Conosci I Mormoni" film or "Meet the Mormons" that is finally in Italian! It was a good good week. Most importantly, I feel like we laughed a lot. Things didn't go perfectly but we were just happy and that made all the difference.

I'll start off with one miracle that I would like to share with you from our week. This was one of those beautiful pre-weekly planning finding miracle! I have truly gained a testimony of that 30-60 minutes of finding that we are asked to do before planning because we have truly seen miracles. We went out to a certain street that we had previously thought of and as we were walking down the street, we see two men up ahead standing at a bus stop. Since we have been trying especially hard to be super brave and talk to everrrrrrrrry person no matter if they are men, they didn't scare us a single bit! Without discussing what we would do, as we approached the men, Sorella Nedelkov started talking to the man to her right and I started talking with the other man. It turns out that these two men were both super bravi and we both had really great conversations with them! The man I was talking to told me that he has been wanting to go to church but hasn't because he doesn't know anyone and doesn't know where to go. I explained that he is welcome to come to our church and that there we are as a large family with many friends waiting to be made! He was excited to come and to learn more and at the end when I asked if there was something I could pray for in his life, he told me that he really really wants to quit smoking. I bore my testimony on how I know that through the help of the Savior we can overcome anything. It was a really neat moment and I got his phone number and he said that next week he will come to church. Sorella Nedelkov had a really great conversation as well and we walked away from those two men knowing without doubt that we were supposed to meet them in that short amount of time that we had. The Lord literally placed them in our paths. I love The Lord! I say it time and time again, but He literally makes us instruments in His hands.

Two quick funny/crazy stories from the week: first, as I mentioned above we witnessed a little robbery first hand on the bus and it was some intense stuff! two teenage gangster boys stole a guys phone out of his pocket and when the bus stopped, they got off but luckily the guy noticed and got off and started yelling and shoving these two boys. Another courageous bystander jumps in to assist the man in getting his phone back and tells the bus driver not to drive away. Meanwhile everyone on the bus is just freaking out/shaking their heads/mumbling under their breaths things like "what is this world coming to." The man gets the phone back and hops back on the bus to face an entire bus pretty much just in straight awe at what had happened, treating this man like he had just saved the world. We all clutched our bags a little tighter after this and it was a good reminder that there are silly people that do silly things. hahaha but yeah it was just an intense little moment. second story happened the other day as we were trying to get to the church for correlation...we were running late but we had to run home to grab our one and only bike to take it to the church because the ward is going to fix up that one along with the new one they are giving us. We live about a 45 minute walk away from the church, a 15 minute bike ride and like a 20 minute bus ride. Having to take the bike but only having one, we tried to have one ride on the back but that didn't work...feeling desperate I had the brilliant idea of having one ride the bike and the other jog along side it all the way to the church, switching off when the runner got tired. Keep in mind we are sister missionaries so we are wearing skirts and boots and just not the best running gear in the world....we did this all the way to the church, run, switch, ride, run, switch ride, and we were just suuuuuuper tired by the time we got there. We make it literally only one minute late and then we look at the phone to see that the correlation was cancelled...naturally. Everything cancels on us, even correlation! We ran all the way to the church for nothing...but at least we got a good laugh and a good exercise out of it!

Other then that this week...we have really been trying to hand out as many "Conosci i Mormoni" cards as we can because it is free to watch it in Italian only until the end of the week. That has been a really cool opportunity for us to try and help people understand who mormons really are! Everyone thinks that we are the ones with lots of wives or without technology but we are here to show the world who we really are! We have had some really good experiences with it! We have also been visiting more member families lately in effort to really strive to strengthen our ward and get them excited about the work. We have had some really good experiences with that and we feel the ward coming together a little bit more and getting excited about the work! One of our cute little members from Ecuador came out and did some finding with us for like an hour the other day and it was just the greatest experience, for her and for us! Members make all the difference!

And last but not least, I made a drastic decision this week in the evening when one of the girls we live with just really wanted to cut my hair and give me bangs...idk if it was just a weak moment or if I am just getting careless about somethings but I agreed, honestly without thinking too much about it. so yup that is that. I have bangs and I like literally think I hate myself for it. but whatev I guess I learned that we have to live with the consequences of our actions! I will send pics. don't judge. or hate. ha

Kay well I love you all so very much! I hope you have a great week and remember that Jesus Loves YOU!!!!
Alma 37:36-37
Con tanto amore,
Sorella Burt

This is the adorable Sammaccica family! I literally adore them so
much! Mom, they want Laura's husbands information so that they can
write to him :)

This is the adorable Sammaccica family! Our good friend's husband (Jim Korth) baptized him over 30 years ago.

Hiiiiii

FAM!
Hello I am super sorry I don't know where all my time went but it is pretty much gone so this is going to be super short this week! SORRY. next will be better I promise. I don't know why I saved this one to the end. so silly.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting last week and I thought it went well. I really felt like I was guided by the spirit and that I was able to say what they needed to hear. The spirit was very present and many members thanked me for it. There was a special spirit in the meeting in general so it was really a good experience! we are doing follow up because I also invited the members to pray to find a friend that they can introduce to us and we are hoping that we will see some good things!

We got district ties from a member and owls that fit our personalities.

THIS WEEK WE:
-went to Milano to get my permesso! I got to see Sorella Hibo one last time and it was just super happy!

Sorella Hibo goes home tomorrow - CRAZY!

-ate at one of like the 3 Subways in all of Italy! it was a little slice of home and just made me suuuuuuuper happy! it literally was just like the subway in america and made me think loads of my amazing family. I will send pics of it next week.
-Got transfer news! we are staying together for the next 4 weeks! I am Sorella Nedelkov's last comp and that means that I will end my mission here in Torino. crazzzzy.
-saw the cute family C. and A. and it was greattttt! He accepted a baptismal date and they are progressing nicely!
-A BUNCH of less actives and new people came to church and it was just a super happy missionary Sunday. the spirit of missionary work was SUPER present and it was just super happy.
-We WORKED hard. laughed. cried. saw miracles. are just loving life!

I am seriously sorry this is so short but yes. I still am alive and everything is going well!

Congrats Hailey on earning your YW medallion!! I wore mine today in honor of YOU!

Have a splendid week and know that I LOVE YOU ALL.
Love,
Sorella Burt

Finding Joy in the Small Things

CIAO!
My purpose in writing this email is finding joy when things are rough. This week was one of those weeks where you just feel a thousand emotions and things go wrong and you just don't really know what to do. So then I had the thought/impression that I should write a list of the positive things that happened throughout the week and dwell on those things rather then the problems. As I followed this impression, I realized that the Lord really was working with us this week and it was really not as bad as I thought it was in the moment. I would like to share this list with you all as we all learn together the vital importance of looking for the joyful things in life and recognizing the hand of the Lord in our lives each day!

-For Pday last week we decided to go up to the large catholic church on the hill called Superga. You can see it from pretty much anywhere in Torino and when you are the top you can see the whole city. The other Sorelle that we live with had the brilliant idea called taking pumpkins up with us to this mountain and carving them up there. And that we did. It just turned out to be probably the worst weather for doing so. We got up there and the fog was so thick that we couldn't even see the massive church while standing right in front of it. We carved pumpkins in the rain and just had a supppppper great time enjoying the beauty of the mountains in the fog.

-After we got over the disappointment of the stolen bike last week, one of our wonderful members called us and said that they have an old bike at their house that they don't use anymore. They are going to fix it up as a mutual activity and then donate it to the sisters! We were so grateful and so happy to receive such a loving and thoughtful phone call.

-I finished my second full mission journal and it brought me so much joy to look back through the pages and remember the amazing experiences that have made up my mission. Each day recorded is so very special.

-We passed by the work of this potential African lady named J. this week and it turns out that they work out of this small little garage FULL to the top of old clothes. They receive old clothes and then send them to the people in Ghana that need them. I cannot really describe the experience that we had there...they are just joyful people that LOVE life and love Jesus and just love to laugh with new people. Unfortunately they are not interested in our message, but they are wonderful people and we had a joyful 30 minutes of our lives spent with people that enjoy life.

-We had an appointment set up with an american member of our ward named S. We went over and showed her the bible video of the Lost Sheep and talked about how we need to look after those around us and search after those that our lost. The spirit was there and we had a nice discussion, but the beautiful moment came when, with tears in her eyes, she told us a story about a girl near her hometown in Texas was recently killed and how much it has effected her. This girl was preparing to serve a mission and just had the biggest heart and loved to serve others. S. cried as she told us how much she just wants to carry on her legacy by serving others and doing the small acts each day and how our message came at the exact time she needed. We were joyful that the Lord made us instruments in His hands to comfort His daughter.

-We were doing some finding near the church and the only person near was a woman named R. sitting on a bench. As we talked with her and got to know her she shared with us how she had recently lost her "very special husband" and how alone she felt. We testified to her of the reality of God's plan and how she never needs to feel alone. She had tears in her eyes as she told us that we had lifted her soul and gave her the hope she needed.

-We did a ward-wide fast for the sake of the missionary work in our ward and during fast and testimony meeting many members got up and bore powerful testimony of the ways missionary work has blessed their lives. I felt a beautiful spirit in church this week. It was the exact spiritual re-charge that my soul needed and i received answers and just learned MANY good things about the plan of salvation and how beautifully perfect it is.

-I found a less active lady on the bus! I just told her that i liked her scarf and then she said thanks, I am a member of your church! I was stoooooked and we had a great little chat and I got her phone number. It taught me that nobody falls through the cracks. The Lord put her in my path.

My list was longer then this and I honestly could go on and on...but it is already super long so I will stop there. All I know is that I learned a powerful lesson this week...The Lord is in the fine details. When we feel like everything is going wrong, all we need to do is take a step back and realize how much is going right! I am so grateful for all the things that I am learning and for the Lord's plan for me. It is personalized, He knows what Sorella Burt needs in every moment. He knows because He is my Father. And I witness that this is true! I love being a missionary. It brings me so much joy.

Con tanto afetto,
Sorella Burt

ps in other news i got a call this week saying that I can go to Milano
to pick up my permesso!! (this is my second one because I had to renew
the first one) we are going tomorrow and i am just so happpppppppy.