heyyyy

Buongiorno a tutti! It is a very cold morning here in Italia. Literally so very much cold and rain and wind and yah..just cold! It is going to be one of those nice in the house relaxing type of pdays for us, but we are happy about it! a good rest is very needed every once and a while! We have had another good week full of good solid just hard work and we have never been happier. I am just amazed with this transfer and the amount of pure joy I feel each day...just pure joy to be exactly where I am at doing exactly what I am doing. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else at this point in my life. The time I have out here is sacred. It is precious. And every moment counts. Just like every moment counts in a soccer game or in baking a cake...and also in life. I am really seeing the vital importance of literally just LOVING every moment and rejoicing because The Lord is SO very good to us. It amazes me, the goodness of The Lord. Day after day, week after week...He continues to pour His love upon us and showers us with blessings. This life is a time for us to not only find the joy but to BE joyful. Not only to be joyful ourselves but to SHARE that joy with everyone and anyone! We have been given so much. We too must give so much.

One beautiful human that the Lord put into our path this week was a woman named G.. We were doing some last minute, somewhat late night finding near our favorite park by our house and we stopped this woman. She was not like most people. She was absolutely thrilled to be stopped by us as she told us that we just glowed with joy and she wanted to be uplifted. We had a beautiful conversation with one of God's children, who knows who she is. She has zero doubt in her mind and she lives her religion as a part of her. She told us how her day was altered for the better because she met us and as we walked away we could not help but just smile soooo large. She had edified us, in an incredible way. It is amazing to see the incredible people that walk among us and the way that they have been touched in their lives by the power of the Lord.

C. is progressing beautifully. We were able to see her this week and she has such a real desire to be baptized and to follow Christ. She had some really good questions this week about baptism that we were able to answer and she has such a willing heart and mind! She told us that she knows that she will be baptized. The spirit touches her heart in such a special way, it is amazing to be apart of this 'journey' as she always calls it. She knows that this is the truth and she is willing to do whatever it takes to continue her journey towards the truth.

We also have a new beautiful investigator named C.. We found her on the street a few weeks ago and we were finally able to meet with her..She is from the Philippines and has really just had a hard life. We had a nice Restoration lesson with her and she was just very touched by the spirit. She too recognizes the good in our message and is willing to experiment upon the word and to find the truth. I love seeing the gospel enter people's lives for the first time, it is really a sacred experience to see how they change because of it!

In other news....I ate an entire fish this week...head and all. It doesn't sound that cool but for me it was like a milestone! I actually enjoyed it too! I took some pics on my camera I will try and send those! Mom, you would be so proud. I actually like fish now! Transfers are next week so I will be sure to let you all know what happens! I really don't have a guess, so it'll be interesting!

The guy in this pic is a new convert. He used to be Catholic priest - coolest story ever!

Early morning exercise selfies - ohhh ya don't we look good?

Look Mom - I like fish :)

I love you alllllllll. have a good week!
Sorella Burt

let's hope this one won't delete

heyyyyooo world! I am back and happier then ever! Sorry still for last week and the fact that I didn't get a group email out...I think that might have been the first time! Darn it...streak broken. Once you mess up once it is always easier to mess up again...so lets hope this isn't something that continues from here! Yeah I don't think it will but you never know I guess! HA. but yeah wifi is like my biggest enemy but I think that today we will finally conquer the beast...the solution? going to the church. it is the solution for everything..#amiright? But, anyways....we had a WONDERFUL week this week! seriously it flew by though. woah, shocks me.

One thing that happened that was particularly beautiful happened with our investigator, C.! I have written about her before but not for a while because this was our first time seeing her since she returned from vacation and we just had a wonderful experience with her. We had planned to teach her about The Gospel of Jesus Christ and then invite her to baptism and give her a date because last time we saw her we did the "soft" invite, but this time we wanted to give her a date! During studies we were discussing what she needed and I felt impressed that we should study a bit about courage because I felt like she might have need of that in this moment. We wrote a scripture, Joshua 1:9 on a little sticky note and took it with us. In the lesson she expressed to us her fear of telling her mother that she wants to switch religions and how she wants to tell her but she feels so much fear. She was raised in a very catholic home and she is afraid that her mother will be very disappointed when she hears that she wants to change from what she has always been taught. But C. is amazingly prepared and she knows that this is the true church. The spirit was amazingly strong and when we handed her that scripture on the sticky note and with tears in her eyes she asked us "when did you write this??" we told her that we had written it that morning and she told us that was the EXACT thing that she needed in that exact moment. Man, it was amazing the spirit was amazingly strong and I KNOW that she felt the love that her Father in Heaven has for her individually. It was a truly amazing moment. Another one of our investigators, A., is 15 years old and has been investigating for quite a while. I don't know if I have written about her, but she is getting really close to baptism! her sister is only one year older and is a new convert but the only problem is that A. is very shy and has some doubts and fears about baptism. We were able to have two very beautiful spiritual lessons with them this week and answer some questions that they have and help A. overcome these fears and doubts that she has. It is amazing to see how the spirit works in teaching. when the spirit is there, the whole atmosphere is just special and that is how answers come and that is how the doubts and the fears vanish. A. is on date for baptism so we are hoping to be able to continue to help her progress towards that date!

This week I had the opportunity to go on an exchange to a small city near Milano called Lodi, it is close to Pavia. I am always very happy to go to new areas and help the sisters there and get a new perspective on things. All of the appointments that they had planned fell through so we were able to see many finding miracles! the sister I was with had a fear, I guess you could call it, of talking to people on the street. she was used to just talking in parks, but for some reason, the street gave her fear. I have this method called, if you have a fear of something, you just have to DO it, that is how I overcame my fear of talking to people at the beginning of the mission. So we were able to just DO a lot of strada (street) finding and we found many new people that were willing to listen to us! It was
beautiful to once again help someone overcome a fear. With all of this talk of fears and what not that we have been having with our investigators lately, interestingly enough at the mission leadership meeting that we had this week we talked a lot about fears and the scripture "have no fear I am with thee." It is by no chance that this was the topic of our meeting because this is exactly the thing we have been having to face a lot lately! I was amazed. When we have faith and courage, it doesn't mean that the fear is gone. Fear is something we all have to work through and overcome little by little. When we are close with our Savior and when we love Him with all our hearts, the fear leaves and we can accomplish anything. "Perfect Love casteth out all fear." When we trust in Him and have faith, these fears that we each have can be cast out and we can be full of faith. I am grateful for the fears I have been able to overcome on my mission, for the strength that my savior provides me! It is so comforting to know that no matter what we have to do, we will have someone right by our side, rooting us on and whispering, "have no fear, I am with thee."

Some cool news is that Bonnie Oscarson and Linda K Burton are coming to do a "tour" of our mission next month! They are doing some conferences with the members and missionaries including one for JUST the sister missionaries! I am super excited for that! they are amazing women!

That is about all I have for today! it is getting cooler here in Milano and we are as happy as ever. I am grateful for the love and support that each one of you show me. the prayers are felt and appreciated.

Till next time,
Sorella Burt

Good Companions Make the World of Difference

We didn't receive an email from Sorella Burt this week because she had typed it up and then lost it right before PDay was over. We got a few cute pics though. :)

last pday we went to this wanna-be Texas Roadhouse type place that was
just super cute and they tried to make american food and it just
wasn't the same but they sure tried their best...it was sure cute
though. #pioneers

under the Duomo...just gettin' artsy

Recharged by the Sweet Spirit

Buon giorno a tutti!

We have had another wonderful week of miracles and beautiful experiences and have seen the hand of The Lord working directly in our lives. The work is sweet and the field is white! By far my favorite thing of the week however was the mission conference that took place towards the beginning of the week. We had the special opportunity to have President Patrick Kearon, a member of the first quorom of the 70 and the president of the Europe area come and visit our mission! On thursday, we had the conference here in Milano. A little bit before the meeting began they asked all of the ZL's and STL's to go to the back room and meet with President Kearon for a minute. We all stood in a little room and had the opportunity to shake his hand talk with him for a bit. He is an amazing man of God, holy cow. I cannot describe the spirit that was in that room and the things that i felt. He is so humble and you can just feel his love and gratitude like radiating from him! This special spirit that we felt in that little room is the same spirit that was felt throughout the rest of that day and into the next day when we were given the opportunity to have a special leadership meeting with him. The spirit was incredible and honestly taught me so many things. It spoke to my soul and helped me to realize many things that i personally can and need to improve in. A few things that stuck out to me were that we as missionaries must be happy and courageous but MINUS the worry. Worry is a thing that often effects soooo many missionaries. we worry about so many things and something i learned from the conference is that this worry is a self-inflicted wound...it is something that we do to ourselves but just like every other type of suffering we can be healed from this worry through the power of the Atonement. The atonement is what heals all wounds, self-inflicted, wounds from others, wounds that just happen as a part of life....all wounds. The atonement is a gift that has been given to all of us, but it is a gift that we must ACCEPT, EMBRACE in order for it to have any effect at all in our lives. It is like if mom wrapped up a nice big package and put it on the fireplace and told you that it was for you...i know that i personally would be very curious about what that gift was, knowing that it is especially for me. But i cannot enjoy the gift until i walk over to the fireplace, pick it up, open it, and accept it into my life. Before i make that action of walking over there...the gift has no part in my life...yes the knowledge of it is there, but i don't get to bask in the blessings of it. That was something that i really loved and learned from the conference. There were obviously many other things that i learned, but that was the one that remained with me the most.

We are continuing to work hard and see miracles! The Lord is blessing us more and more each day. It is amazing how much a happy attitude makes the difference. I am also learning how much setting worthy goals helps to grow our faith. When we set goals that stretch us and then do everything we can to accomplish them, exercising our little particle of faith...when we actually accomplish that goal our faith has grown and we see how much the Lord wants to help us in our lives and especially in this work. I love you all so very much! I pray that you will have a beautiful week and act on the faith you have.
Con tanto amore,
Sorella Burt

Hey

Heyyyyy everyone! I have just been so very excited to write you guys this week and share with you some of the INCREDIBLE experiences that have been this week. Ah. Literally i do not have the words for how wonderful this week has been. The Lord has been pouring out his blessings and miracles and just beautiful experiences down upon us.

It all starts with my incredible new companion, Sorella Hibo. She got here on Thursday and from that very day we have been seeing so many beautiful things happen. So just a little bit about her, she was born in Ivory Coast and moved to Italy when she was 5 years old. French is her first language, Italian her second, and she is also fluent in english. She is 23 years old and has been on her mission for two more transfers then me. She is a mission hero...just one of those missionaries that everyone knows and everyone loves because she is literally just incredible. She knows the Bible and the scriptures and just the gospel like the back of her hand and is an amazing teacher and just has a way with people. We clicked from day one and literally are just a wonderful companionship. I love her so verrrrrrry much and we haven't even been together for a week. I love her because she knows how to do missionary work...how to do it efficiently and with her heart. I don't know, we just have the same vision for the work and it is just a huuuuuge blessing. I cannot really describe it but since she got here there has just been a fire in our work. an excitement, a great energy! We are working hard together and Heavenly Father is blessing us so very much. I have realized and learned a lot this week, one being that there are no excuses in missionary work. none. zero. the fact that everyone is gone out of town? yeah it really doesn't matter. The amount of people that we taught and found this week is amazing. Yes, we didn't have like lotttttts of scheduled appointments...but we went out and just talked to so many wonderful people and found so many potentials and beautiful miracles.

One of the first miracles that we saw this week was when we went to visit one of our members and her less active daughter. We get to their house and just as we finish praying before going upstairs, she calls us and says that we cannot come up because they have to leave. We told her we were already there, but she just tells us that we have to come back another day. We were kind of bummed, but stood there for a moment trying to decide what to do. Like 3 minutes later, she calls us back and tells us that we can come up. So we go upstairs and low and behold..SHE HAS A FRIEND OVER...what. we were like so stoked. Her name is P. and we just sat down and went right into the Restoration. It went beautifully and P. was so wonderful and very interested. She is from Ecuador and had already met with missionaries in her country and was just very wonderful and open to our message. We got her phone number and set up a date that we could come to her house and start teaching her!!! We were walking on air after that appointment and this excitement that we felt just continued and continued.

The key is literally just talking to everyone. We live in the  most wonderful city for doing that. There are alwaaaaaays people around...Milan is just huge and full of so many wonderful people that are actually willing to listen to us and accept our message. I am growing such a real and deep love for this city and for the amazing potential and beauty that it has in store. Another day we had an appointment set with a Philippine lady so that morning we had gotten out a Book of Mormon in her language and had it on the table all ready to go. She cancelled the appointment a little bit before so we had some time to go out and do finding. We decided to grab the Book of Mormon and Sorella Hibo was like, we will find a Philippine person that needs it. We went to the park near our house and literally the first person we talked to was a Philippine lady that loves reading religious books and has heard about our church and wants to know more. Coincidence? I think not. Heavenly Father Literally has been PLACING so many people into our path it is incredible.

One of my favorite parts of the week was sunday...We called Sorella Dibb (Our mission president's wife) to see if she wanted to come and do some proselyting work with us on sunday afternoon. She agreed and we had a few appointments set and we were really excited for it! As we were walking to the church to meet her, one of our appointments gets cancelled and it is also raining so I was like a little bit worried about what we would do with Sorella Dibb. But Sorella Hibo was just her calm and cool self and said, don't worry it will be alright. We parked the car and got out in an area that we had selected, said a prayer and started finding. We had about 2 hours and we told Sorella Dibb that we wanted to teach 6 lessons on the street before our appointment and then we just started talking to people. I cannot really describe that two hours but lets just say that it was the best sunday i have ever had on the mission. It was such a special opportunity to be able to do missionary work with Sorella Dibb, her bearing her simple, but powerful testimony on the family and seeing how it touched people's hearts. We were happy and we saw miracles and by the end of that two hours we had met our goal. It was an edifying experience. We saw that prayer touches lives as we prayed for a man that was sick with cancer and tears rolled down his face. We saw that Heavenly Father helps us reach worthy goals. We saw that missionary work is the happiest thing on the planet. Man, i could go on for ages.
Literally there have just been too many amazing experiences to count...maybe one day I will tell you all of them...but this week i really learned how it really feels to give your heart to the Lord. He requires our heart and a willing mind ( D&C 64:34) and we are imperfect instruments in His hands and He uses us to orchestrate His perfect work. I could not be happier and I know that the power of prayer is real. The gospel is the only thing that can truly change the world...and we are changing it, one person at a time.

As a side note...Sorella Hibo knows the Motyer family!! When they lived here in Italy, they went to her ward and they are just suuuuuper close with her family! We were like freaking out when we made that connection. It is such a small world.

As another side note...i started this email in the church and then we had to leave to buy some cream for Sorella Hibo's cool hair and we were like rushing to catch a bus so we could hurry home and finish email before pday ended and i like TOTALLY biffed it on the side walk. Like a straight face plant, shopping bags in hand...straight on my face. I was like crying but laughing and just like overwhelmed and we missed the bus and there was a suuuuper cute little old lady that was just so worried for me and giving me candy and so many people were watching and it was just one of those experiences...yup.
Have a happy week! I love you all so very much. thank you from my heart for all the love that you show me.
Con TANTO amore,
Sorella Burt

Another Week Another Change

A beautiful miracle that we saw this week was actually at church! We got to church and one of our members said to us, "Sorelle! My dear friend is coming to chuch today! We ran into her at the river this week and invited her to come back to church!" We were super excited that she had invited this less active friend to come back to church and she actually came! She and her boyfriend came to Gospel Principles and she was like really happy to meet us and I was able to talk to her a bit and she told me that she is really trying to come back to church! After church we were invited over to the Bishop's house for lunch and this less active lady, M., and her boyfriend were there too! We had a wonderful lunch and shared with them a nice little lesson and afterwards I was talking with M. and she just said, "Sorella, here is my phone number! I will hear from you this week and we can set something up!" I was really excited, it was just a beautiful miracle, especially because we have really been trying to work with more less actives and this gives us the perfect opportunity to do so! I love when members do missionary work and when beautiful results come of it. Also, as a small side note, today I was reading in Helaman 3 and I just thought it was suuuuuper neat and talks about the beauty of member missionary work! The church grew a looooot in a certain year and I was thinking...well the church doesn't just like grow over night on it's own...it grows because members share the gospel with their friends! I love verses 24 and 25 because it talks about how BLESSED the people were...the blessings were just POURED upon them, and that was because they were sharing the gospel. Many people were baptized, and that is because those in the church did their part to bring new people in. I loved that.

I went on an exchange in Piacenza this week and it was another just cute little bike city which we all know I love cities of that type a little bit too much. It was a good lil' exchange and we were able to have appointments and do some finding work and have some good teaching opportunities! One little miracle that we saw was we were doing some finding by their house right before we were supposed to go inside for the night and we met this woman named M. P.. She was from southern Italy and that means that they are usually wayyyyyy more willing to talk! this was true in her case and we were able to talk to her and really have a good teach with her. She ended up crying and telling us some things she has been struggling with and it was just neat to be able to testify of God's love for her. We had to go home, but we gave her a restoration pamphlet and the cool thing was that we actually saw her the next day in town while riding our bikes and she was like suuuuuper happy to see us and said that she had been thinking about us and that she read the entire pamphlet the night before! we were so surprised and it was just such a blessing to be able to see her again and hear of how much interest she had #miraclefind

This week was full of a lot of finding work, passing by less actives, and our favorite...casa! We had another miracle find the other day named L. that was suuuuuuper great. We were just walking around in this little town outside of Milan and this woman walked past us and I said the usual, "buon giorno"...she excitedly replied in the same manner and I just felt like I needed to stop her. So I did and she turned into a super human that just lovvvvves serving others, is open to hearing about religions, loves and wants to follow Christ with all her heart, is from Brazil, asked US for the address to our church...and as we were leaving she said to us the thing that we normally say to people and no one EVER says to us...if you need ANYTHING, just give me a call! she was absolutely amazing. an incredible person with an amazing spirit. We were able to set up another appointment with her this week and she is going to come to church. miracles abound.

In other news.....we got our transfer information on Friday night and sadly enough Sorella Roper is leaving me and going down south to Siena. I am getting another STL companion named Sorella Hibo. She is an AMAZING missionary, I have met her a few times and she is pretty much just one of those stellar mission legends that everyone just adores! so I am suuuuper pumped to be able to learn from her and ALSO, she is a native Italian speaker too. She was born in Africa and then moved to Italy or something when she was little...so ya I am reallllly excited for the second chance I have to really learn the language super well. a huge blessing! and she speaks english too, so it will be good. I am REALLY sad to be loosing my beautiful Sorella Roper though. We have literally had a life changing transfer and I am and will forever be grateful for the things she has taught me.. She is my best friend and I know that this transfer was completely and 100% inspired, she was the exact thing I needed.

I am seriously going to miss this girl soooo much!

That's about all from me today. Changes are coming, but it is always for the best! We have a mission conference coming up next week with someone from the first quorum of the 70 so that should be pretty cool! Also we found an absolutely magical vintage shop by the duomo today that literally just was too amazing for me to handle. so that was good for my soul. I am happy and things are goooooood.
love you all
Sorella Burt

This is our massive district. It is going to be split so that is a blessing!

LIFE IS GOOD

LIFE IS GOOD.
yup it is. there are many things that could be getting us down but you know what? life is what you make it...and if you want to make it happy, you just do it! Attitude is everything. We had a good week, just like normal things! Not a lot of super exciting things to report, but i will just highlight a few of the flakes of gold we mined this week.

and the mission destroyyyyyys all things that are nice. i literally
have no clue how this happened.

Miracles:
-This week i saw a cool miracle with a lady that i met on the metro. I got right on and started talking to her and it turns out that she is a member, inactive. She was baptized when she lived in Peru, but then she moved here and only went to church like once and then stopped going a lot of years ago. I was able to have a nice little chat with her and we exchanged phone numbers. She said that she would like to come to church, she just doesn't know where the nearest one is. She lives in the Cimiano boundaries (another church in Milan) so we passed her phone number over to them. It was a neat miracle though, i was grateful that i was in the right place at the right time to be able to talk with her!

-Another little miracle came and once again we were in the right place at the right time. We were passing by a potential that we met a few weeks back while on scambio. On the way there we were talking to a woman on the bus that happened to be an ex investigator and was really nice and willing to meet with us again. that was neat, we got off the bus, having missed our stop and started walking to the house that we wanted to pass by. On the way there i felt prompted to stop a man, and we were able to teach him a small lesson on the street about the power and importance of prayer. We left him and made it to the house we were looking for. We said a quick prayer, and as we were about to ring the doorbell, this old man standing by the door said..."you are mormons aren't you?" we told him that we are and then he proceeded to tell us that he is a mormon too...or was, he said! We were able to testify of the church and invite him to come back and he said that he wants to. We also asked if the Anziani could stop by and he agreed. It was a neat miracle and we were definitely in the right place at the right time, thanks to Heavenly Father! All of those little events leading up to it, happened perfectly so that we would be at the door at the precise moment of that nice little inactive member guy. Heavenly Father is involved in the little-est details in our everyday lives. It is impossible to comprehend, but it is true and it is amazing.

-Another miracle this week came in the form of church where we miraculously had four investigators there and two less active ladies that we have been working with! It was a huuuuuuge blessing for us and showed us that the work still does move forward...no matter the circumstances. I also had to give a talk in sacrament and it was a miracle that i did not like throw up or cry not even a single time. #blessings

Our week was full of pass by's, knocking on doors, stopping every human we see because we don't see many of them, working on updating the massive ward list, eating gelato, cleaning our apartment, exchanges with other sisters, eating more gelato, learning how to iron from our 75 year old new convert named M.....she is such a hoot. no matter how we iron, we are doing it wrong! She was very worried that we didn't know how to iron...she said that we HAVE to learn or we will be single forever. No worries everyone, i successfully ironed a shirt and it got her approval. #thereishopeforme
I am happy to say that i am happy! I got a letter this week from our stake president and it just really stuck with me. He talked about how we as missionaries are like like those that rescued the Martin and Willey handcart companies from that terrible winter storm. We have been called to be the rescuers in our day, to find those that are wandering...hungry and helpless and cold. We need to respond to this call with urgency and just really give it our all...or else they will never be rescued. i am just trying my best to remember that always and find those that i am meant to save. I love you all and i hope you remember who you are and what you stand for!
love,
sorella burt

A fun finding technique we call....WHITEBOARD. yeaaaaaaah. we love it.
we get some interesting looks but also some prime conversations.

We saw this on a door while we were doing some knocking...
translation:
Jehovah's Witness? No, thank you!
We knocked anyways...it just cracked me up

YAY for awkward graffiti pics! This is right outside of our apartment - #milanoisbeautiful

annnnnd scambio selfies in train stations...yay i love sorelle

Sorella Montagnoli...we did a scambio together and had a lot of
small world moments. she is a cutie and a good lil' worker!