Arrival In Italy (pics from the Mission Blog)

Here are some fun pictures from the mission office of the new missionaries arriving in Italy.

Collecting baggage at the airport after arrival.

All the new missionaries that arrived in September.

Hurrah for Italy (and Israel)!

First day finding on the train.

Giving his information to the missionaries.

Leaving the train station to do more contacting in the plaza.

7 of the 9 new sisters ready to go.

Finding in the plaza.

The 9 new sorelle at the Duomo with Sorella Dibb.

At the subway station.

The September 2014 group.

Dinner at last...tired but hungry!

The trainees and trainers waiting with anticipation to see who they're companions will be.

Instruction with trainers and trainees now together.

A few weeks after arriving the new missionaries and their trainers got back together for some more training.

Sorella Burt telling about her new companion.

11 of the new missionaries and their trainers.

Party Time Pavia

Buon Giorno!

Holy cow it is completely crazy that it is time again to write this email! That was like the fastest week of my life. The days go by so fast, it is a little freaky! People are tellling the truth when they say that missions go by fast! This is literally going to be over before i know it! Well it was another wonderful week here in Pavia! We saw some miracles and had some really awesome experiences! I will do my best to lay down the best details of the week! I just want you all to know alllll the details but i guess that is not really possible!

Study time in the apartment.

So last Wednesday i went on my first scambio...or like exchange. I went to one of the areas in Milan with one of the sister trainer leaders-Sorella Smart. I was definitely a little bit nervous before hand because I didnt really know what to expect or how it was going to go down. But it ended up being really awesome! sorella smart is like the coolest human, she is from draper and we just got along really well! We had a bunch of appointments set up for the day and every single one fell through, so that was a bummer. But we learned the importance of good planning and having back up plans! We did get to teach one lesson to these two super cute girls that cant get baptized because their mom wont let them! super sad. but it was a good lesson and i felt like i was able to communicate a solid  testimony and some good thoughts. The scambio was a really good experience and it was cool to see how someone else does work.

Sorella Woods and I on the bus.

This week we also had another Mostra, trying to get people to come to our big Ward Conference. We were outside for another 8 hours handing out fliers and trying to talk to people, and it wasnt that huge of a success, unfortunately. we thought it was a waste of time UNITL, we found a golden family. They are sooooo cool! We taught them a little lesson (in English) and got their information and set up an appointment! They are the sweetest little family and It was such a huge miracle that we found them! We are meeting with them this week so that should be really great! Alsoooooo we ran into a guy named L. but anyways we had met this guy at last weeks Mostra and got his information and stuff but he hadn't answered our calls all week long. But then he just walked right past us and we were able to talk to him and he said that he just was super busy but he still wants to meet with us! It was such a miracle that he just happened to walk past us! ah. so neat. And get this, he even came to church! YAY.

So Ward Conference....it was supposed to be this huge deal, a big missionary tool where everyone invites their friends and tons of new people were supposed to come. We had a table full of book of mormons to hand out and everyone was just amped....and then literally like no body came. It was soooo sad. The only one that came was L. but he didn't even stay for sacrament! It was really a bummer, but oh well we tried really hard! The mission president was even there! it was a great meeting though! I helped the primary with a wonderful musical number, We'll Bring the World His Truth, the missionaries sang with them and I played the piano and it was super powerful! i loved it. everyone is soooo grateful that i play the piano!

I got my first SIG ring.

This week we went to Milano for a New Missionary Training with the mission president and it was super awesome! I learned so much and just had a renewed vision for what this is all about and the importance of just talking to everyone. It was fun to see some of my MTC friends and we all got our own box of pizza! thats how they do it here, you just eat an entire pizza by yourself and its totally okay/expected! haha so funny. I got a letter from dad and Hailey so that was a wonderful surpirse! thank you very much!

One other miracle that we had was the other night after we had tried to contact this family that we had found, but they didnt answer their door. We had gotten back on the bus and were heading back and this suuuuuper creepy guy started talking to us. like super creepy. he wanted us to go get drinks with him and yikes it was bad. we tried to talk to him about Christ and then he left us alone! but this other guy came up to us and was like, are you talking about Jesus? i am interested! and we were like...ohhhhhkay cool! so we started telling him all about the restoration and everything...this was in English by the way, there are a lot of English speakers here, like Africans,. anways he was golden! he ate it up and even told us that he has been looking for a restoration of the spirit in his life! aah it was so cool! we prayed with him and got his info and it was such a miracle!!

It was a good week and i just really feel like I am learning so much every day! I feel like a kindergartener, having to start at the very beginning! but it is great. I love learning and i just have to remind myself daily that I have only been here for 2 weeks...i got a long way to go and soooo much to learn! i love being here and I love being a missionary! It is such an amazing work and such an incredible opportunity to just be able to give everything that I have to The Lord! what a blessing!

I am SOOOOO stoked for General Conference this week! we have to go to Milano to watch it, but its gonna rule! i love you all and I thank you again for your continued support! oh also, I need some pictures of the fam for these family books that we are supposed to make, so if you could send some in the mail, that would rule! kay kay i love you all and i hope that you have a wonderful week! remember to humble yourselves each day and look for The Lords hand in your life in every moment! You all rule and I pray for you daily!

love,
Sorella Burt

Our nice kitchen.

PAVIA....The City of DREAMS

YO YO YO.

Well hi, yes it is a little bit completely crazy that I am actually in ITALY. It has probably been the craziest week of my entire life. I don't even know where to begin! SO MUCH TO TELL.

Just chilling in front of the duomo in Milano.

Okay yes, as you heard I am serving in the beautiful little town of Pavia. It is just 45 minutes south of Milan and is just the cutest little place. It is just sooooo Italian, it is unreal. My companion is cute Sorella Woods. She is 21 and is from American Fork. She has been here for over 12 months and is really an amazing person! i have learned soooooo much from her already and it has only been one week! It is crazy that it has been a week. The time has FLOWN. like holy cow.

There are 6 of us here in Pavia, so lots of work to be done!

Okay so we are in Pavia right? Well we are doing this thing called pinkwashing. It is where both of the sisters that were here before are gone and they just bring in 2 whole new sisters. That means that neither of us knew a single thing about Pavia before we got here which has definitely made things a little bit interesting! Its kind of hard to be in a completely new country doing new things speaking a new language and have no clue who anyone in the ward is or how to get around! It has been an interesting week to say the least!

Both of the sisters that were here before went home so they did not really care about cleaning the apartment and stuff, so therefore it is super messy and all the food in the fridge was rotten! We have had to do a lot of damage control which has not been the funnest, but thats life! On the 1st day we were here we had to buy food because they left us nothing, so we went and bought food and put it in the fridge, only to find out the next day that the fridge was completely broken and ALL of our food went bad! Complete waste of money! and we had to get a new fridge! We have literally been surviving on nasty italian cereal, and peanut butter on tortillas. (they dont have peanut butter here but slla woods got it from her parents and it is GOLD. send me some if you love me...haha creamy. large. amazon. ha) anyways the food strugg has been real but somehow we have survived! It has been a nice little adventure. Today we finally got to go to the store and buy new food and the cute missionary couple serving in the mission home went and got us a nice new and big fridge so we are in buisness! oh and mom they brought me that little package that you sent me! Thank you very much! I LOVED it and i really cannot wait to hang up all those pics on our walls! we loved the candy too, it was just so wonderfull and creative! love you and your thoughtfulness! Oh our water is nasty too, it tastes like sulfer, but whatev! Our apartment is super cute though! its just sooooo Italy. We have an awesome balcony with an incredible view!! AH i love it here. It is such a dream.

The duomo in Pavia.  The pic doesn't do it justice because it is way awesome!

Okay our ward is so awesome! They are literally the coolest people ever. The first night we were here we went to a ward council and met a bunch of them, and mom get this! They havent had a piano player in their ward for like YEARS. they were all SO stoked when I told them that I play! Oh man they were soooooo excited and just started asking me if i can play this and that hymn. oh it was so great to be able to help them with something that i can do! i cant speak but i can sure play. Tell Sister O'Very THANK YOU! haha

My first Sunday here was definitely an interesting experience. We went to church and I didnt understand anything. yay! It is pretty hard to not be able to understand. They talk so fast, it is unreal. I even had to get up and bear my testimony in front of the ward which was TERRIFYING. I dont even know what i said but everyone loved it and they were just sooooo kind to me! Italians LOVE it when you try and speak. Even if you are terrible they just love it when you try! That is great for me! ha

Woah it really is just completely crazy to actually be here. I love it though. I love the Italians. I love this work. i love the struggle. It has definitely been very hard but that's okay. I can handle it and I know that my Heavenly Father knows that I can handle it. That is why I am here! I have seen sooooo many miracles here already. Each and every day. He puts people in our paths for REAL. oh man it is so cool! I am slowly starting to get over my fear of talking to people. Slowly but surely. Its just hard because I don't understand what they are saying and I hardly know how to say anything! But i just need to try my best and It will come. I have made a goal to start 5 conversations every day with someone, and that has been going really well. It pushes me and has helped me get out of my comfort zone for sure! My trainer is really good about giving me opportunities to talk and that is exactly what I need! It really has been so good and I have learned loads. We are still just trying to figure out who everyone is and get appointments set with people. It has kind of been a struggle but nothing we cannot handle!

My first lesson was so great! It was with this lady named C and her daughter N. N is a member but C can't get baptized until January but holy cow they are the coolest people! i loved it and our lesson went great. AH Italians rule. I cannot even tell you! they don't even care that i cant speak Italian very well they just love me! It is so fun.

Oh and hi the gelato here rules. It is true. Oh and the pizza and everything else you hear about italy...IT IS ALL TRUE. ah i cannot even explain. It is just surreal.

My first real Italian gelato!  YUMMM!

okay well i think I covered pretty much everything! I probably didn't but so much has happened that there is not way that I can tell you about all of it! i wish i could but...ya no way! Just know that I am in good hands. It is hard, but i have a lot of faith, and I know that it will get better! this has already been the most amazing thing of my life and I cannot wait to see how much I will learn and grow from this experience! I love you all. Thank you for your continued support and love! holy cow i loved ALL the pics you sent me! you should print some and mail them to me?eh? ha i love pics and i love my fam!! haha

kay i love you all so very much and I hope that everything is goin well!! i pray for you every single day and I am so lucky to have such an amazing family! keep praying and just being the best you can be every single day! Have a great week!

Sorella Burt

Founds some chickens on our 30 min walk home from church.

Yooooooo

Well apparently we have an hour to email today...who knew! ha so we are taking 30 minutes right now and we'll get back on later for another 30. I'll send a bunch of pics then because i've taken loads this week!

Cleaning showers for service - our job every week!

It is completely insane that tomorrow I will be getting on a plane to Italy. I cannot even believe it. My time here has gone by soooooo fast, i am sad that it is over! but holy cow i am so stoked to get out there and to start this crazy adventure!

This last week here has been incredible. I don't even know what to say about it. I am almost done packing, so that is nice!  Mom i'll probably call you from SLC and Dad i think i'll call you from Chicago...idk, we'll see how things work out but that's the current plan-ish. But yeah so stoked to talk to you all! and i wish everyone else didn't have school. darn it.

My Romanian companion, Sora Weaver , left this morning at 4:30 in the AM. We woke up to see her off and it was really sad actually! i love her so much, i am so grateful that we got to be companions here! it was such a blessing and I learned sooooo much from her. She is so sweet and i will definitely miss her! But she will do wonderful things in Romania! i don't know if you know but she was supposed to be here for 8 weeks but they cut back her time because she is picking up the languange so quickly! she has learned it sooooo fast and towards the end she was actually teaching the teachers the lessons! she is amazing and I learn so much from her!

It's weird to only be in a 2 companionship-this is how it'll be! it's weird to think that we'll be getting new companions and such, awh change is hard but this one will especially be hard! I'm super stoked though and i have a ton of faith, I know that it'll be okay! It won't be easy but nothing that was worth it was ever easy!

Sorella Schoenhals - I'm gonna miss this gurl!

I cannot wait to see what my mission has in store for me!!! tomorrow is the day and it is completely insane! i love you all so much! i hope you got my letter, very sorry that it was super strange and terrible. but i still love you all! momma thank you so much for the package! i LOVED it and so did my district! it was so super cute! i love you all so much! send me an email if ya have any questions or whatever and i'll be getting back on later today and i can respond! love you allllllllll. have a super duper day!
love,
kar

Our cute district - I love them so much!

My teacher Sorella Nilson...so much love for her!

Tanna - her room was right across the hall so I've seen her a lot!

Me and Alexis, AKA Sister Kempner!

Sorella Defranchi and I. She is from France

SOLO CINQUE GIORNI

Buon Giorno Famiglia!!

Oh my heavens it is literally so hard to believe that I only have like 5 days left here at the MTC. It is all so surreal but each and every day it hits me a little more that I will literally be living in Italy next week at this time! Mamma Mia!! This week flew by just like they all have! It is crazyyyyyy. But of course it was a super good week as usual! The MTC still rules and I am really going to be sad to leave this place!

Flight plans - We're leaving on a jet plane!

We have gotten to be sooooo close with everyone in our zone, It'll be so sad when we have to leave! buuuuuuut WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS! Yipppppppe. It was literally the happiest thing! Best trip to the mailroom ever! So here they are....We leave the MTC at 6AM on Tuesday morning to go to the SLC airport. We fly to Chicago and we have a 3 hour layover there. Then we fly to London and are there for like an hour, and then to Milan! We'll get to Milan at about noon the next day so it is almost exactly 24 hours of travel! pretty nuts but I am soooooo stoked! I cannot believe that it is real! So all of our zone is on the same flight from SLC to Chicago and then we split from there, Rome/Milan. It's super crazy that it is coming so soon. yikes i keep saying that but i can't wrap my head around it!!

This week I also learned this mind blowing fact.... I am the youngest sister in our whole zone of like 35 people! idk why but it completely shocked my brain! #justalilyoungin #young&spry #eh?
sooooo, hmm what happened this week? well um we taught a bunch of lessons, naturally! kind of what you do as a missionary! Our lessons have been really solid lately and we are definitely getting more and more comfortable every time. I'm still pluggin along with the language, still a strugg but i haven't been feeling as much defeat about it lately. I am just trying to find joy in the small successes rather then see how much i don't know. that has helped me a lot this week. I know that i've probably learned just about all i can here at the MTC, I've studied, worked hard, and now I just gotta get into the field and become immersed in it. They tell us that you learn so much faster when you are completely immersed in it. So i'm stoked for that. I know that the Lord will help me and that I will learn it! It just takes a whole ton of hard work and patience and FAITH on my part. Just working hard each and every day! i'm not too worried though, i have a lot of faith and I know that I will be guided and helped!

This week I was feeling a good amount of fear for going to Italy so soon. I was feeling a lot of it. I went into fast sunday with a really desperate prayer in my heart to just figure out how to make the fear leave and replace it with faith. I had the most incredible fast sunday EVER. Literally i felt like all of the talks in the Mission Conference were directly for me.I had sooooo many impressions from the spirit that were just straight answers to my prayers. It was truly the most amazing thing!! I can truly testify of the power of fasting COMBINED with sincere and honest prayer. With a true purpose. I know that when we fast with a purpose and a prayer in our hearts and in our minds, we are better able to recognize the promptings from the spirit. It was literally such an incredible sunday! I know that I have absolutely no reason to fear! I am a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints! i am a representative of Jesus Chirst!! That fact alone means that i have no reason to worry or fear! He will be with me! Not matter what happens. I am going into this crazy adventure next week, I have no idea where I'll be living or who my companion will be, but i KNOW for a fact that I am not a lone and that I will we watched over and protected! I know that! It brings me so much comfort and joy!!! On sunday i could literally feel the fear leave me. I have sooooo much faith and absolutely no doubt! someone said this week...doubt and faith cannot exist in the same mind. Oh isn't that soooo true? We cannot have faith if we have even a hint of doubt in our minds! Everything comes back to faith! That is why it is the first principle of the gospel! It is so crucial for anything else in this gospel to work! FAITH is the key.

 {D&C 128} {Moroni 8:16} {Helaman 10:4} Scriputures of the week! look um up! ponder them! pray about how you can have more faith and courage in your life! We alllll can have more! And when you feel worry or fear, REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!!! we are ALL children of God and He will NOT leave us alone!

i love you all so very much! thank you for the love and the support! I cannot wait to talk to ya'll on Tuesday!! Have a wonderful week and don't ever forget what your purpose is in this life!!

Love,
Sorella Burt

Be Patient in the Lord's Plan

YO FAM.

Sorella (Jeni) Griffin and I.

Welp another week, over and done! And of course, it was absolutely wonderful as usual! I'm still really
loving my time here and it is crazy how quickly it is coming to a close! Less then 2 weeks and I will be in Italy. Completely mind blowing but i am soooo stoked! Of course i don't feel ready, but i feel like its a lot like how you feel before you come to the MTC or before you go through the temple. It is just a big new unknown world and there really is no way that you can fully be prepared for it! You just gotta prepare your very best and learn as you go! I am just really excited though! yeeeeeeee! oh and we get our travel plans tomorrow so that is SO CRAZYYYYY.

I learned an incredible amount this week, as always! The amount of growth and learning that happens here is actually so unreal but so amazing! We had TRC again last thursday and this time it went SO much better! i didn't even cry at all! horray! I feel like i am definitely starting to become more comfortable with teaching and although my Italian isn't super good, teaching is definitely becoming easier! Each lesson is different, but we learn and improve each and every time and that rules the most!

I absolutely LOVE my collega. We just have this companionship unity that is really undescribable. We are able to feed off each other in our lessons, and it truly is amazing. The spirit literally guides. You hear that so often, but IT IS SO TRUE here on a mission. If we didn't have the spirit there is no possible way we could teach or speak any italian or do this work at all!!

We had this really amazing experience the other day in class. We were talking about how important the Holy Ghost is in conversion. We studied some scriptures and just talked about the importance of it, but then it was time to practice. We always talk about a concept and then practice it...practicing is the key! practice practice practice! So the 4 of us Sisters went into a different room with Sorella Nilson. She told us the name of the investigator that she was portraying and we just had to go from there, asking her needs and just getting to know her, then teaching her something from the spirit. We got to know her and she told us what she was struggling with. I don't even remember the majority of the things that we told her, but holy cow the spirit was incredibly strong as we testified and taught her things as directed by the spirit. It was literally the strongest I have probably ever felt the spirit...it was incredible. After we were done, she had tears in her eyes as she told us that she was not pretending to be anyone, she was there as herself, telling us her real problems. She was crying as she told us that everything that we told her was exactly what she needed to hear. She has been going through something hard but whatever we said was the exact answer to her prayers. By this point we were all crying and the spirit was unlike any other. To see a real person with real problems and we were actually able to speak with the spirit and help her out...was amazing. The spirit is the teacher. There is NO way we would have been able to say the things she needed to hear if it weren't for that spirit. ahhhhh. I cannot wait to get to Italy and be able to help real people and bring this happiness to them! Ah. It was such an amazing experience that i will always remember and hold dear!

Sorella Griffin, Sorella Brunson, and I having fun at the temple!

Thank you all for your emails and dear elders and such! i know that your lives are busy, but thanks for never forgetting about lil Kar over here in the MTC! You are all the bomb. I am so grateful to be a missionary! This week it really hit me the reality of that calling. I, Karli Burt, was called of God to be right here right now! I love D&C 25, It is talking to Emma Smith but in the last verse it says that it is for all. I love how it says, You are an elect lady and you are called of God...or something to that effect. I am elect and I was called for a very specific purpose right here, right now. It really is incredible when you stop and thing about it!

Just remember Alma 17:11 this week...Bear with PATIENCE thine afflictions. We must be patient in the Lord's plan and his timing. Everything is how it is for a very specific reason. Keep that in mind this week as you face your day to day challenges. How can you develop more patience? Think about that and then APPLY it. There is no growth in this gospel without action!

I love you all so very much! you are always in my prayers!!!
Sorella Burt

Believe in the Impossible!

Buon Giorno!

Well another week is over and done! it literally feels like just yesterday that i was sitting in this computer lab writing my wonderful family! The time here FLIES BY. I really can't believe that I am already halfway done with my time here at the MTC. It is a surreal thing to think that in just 3 short weeks I will be in Italy. WOAAAAAAH. Crazy. I am SO STOKED. I cannot wait to get there!!! But I also still love it here. I really do. It one of the most challenging things that I have ever done, for sure...but also the VERY most rewarding thing ever as well! And just thinking about how even more rewarding it will be when I am actually teaching real investigators and talking to real life Italians. That will seriously rule!

Me and my wonderful collega! I just LOVE HER SO MUCH!!

I am learning so much about myself through this process, and I've only been here for three weeks! I sit down to write this email and i can hardly remember what happened this week! I guess we have journals for a reason! First of all, i feel as though i might be getting a little bit sick. I woke up today with a sore throat and i slightly stuffy nose...not too bad just that awkward feeling when you know a cold is coming? ya. but i'll be okay! Everyone gets sick here, so yeah i guess that I'm just normal?? ha But other than that I am doing great!

We had a super great week this week! We now have 2 regular investigators that we teach pretty much every day, and that has been a really amazing learning experience. They are both our teachers and one is much easier on us than the other. Fratello Guest or "Walter" is much more like our investigators probably will be in the field. He is a practicing Catholic and not very open to new ideas. Teaching is definitely becoming more comfortable as time goes on. As we practice and practice more, i can definitely feel myself improving! This week we didn't memorize any of our lines, we just studied the vocabulary needed for what we were teaching and prayed for the spirit to be with us, and just went in there and it was amazing the result! i truly learned this week that if you study your very best and are obedient, that the Lord truly will give you the words that you need to say! And its not like i go into the lessons and am able to speak perfect Italian, but I am able to go there and say how i feel in the very best way that I know how, and the spirit literally just makes up the rest! I don't know how to formulate sentences very well or all of the correct grammar, but that doesn't matter! That will come with time. For now i just have to be confident in myself and in The Lord and go for it!

Another great day for learning!

The only way that we can learn is if we just dive in! Yesterday in the Devotional, the speaker told this story about these divers...I won't tell the whole story but the gist of it was that one of the divers kept comparing his diving to the others, and he was only discouraged an down because he never felt like he would be able to reach the same degree as difficulty and accuracy as the other divers. You here that all the time here in the mission, "Don't compare yourself to others" which for me is a little bit easier said than done! It is very hard to not look at everyone around you and get discouraged that you aren't up to their level. But this week I think i figured out how i can do this...i just need to work the very hardest that I can, and literally only worry about myself. That sounds very much normal and not very profound but it is TRUE. I choose the outcome of situations. I am in control of what I do, and that is all. I've known this my whole life but it just really hit me this week! People just learn at different paces and that is fine!

I just know that this isn't supposed to be easy. It's hard because we are doing the Lord's work and what He went through was not easy by any means. We are His servants and therefore, we are going to have to work harder than anyone else! We just have to push ourselves to the veryyyyyyy edge. Go the extra mile every time. Never give up. It's not easy but it is alllllllways worth it! I also learned this week that we MUST have patience in this process! it is a process, meaning that it doesn't get better or happen over night. We have to suffer and struggle if we want to make it the the beautiful end! We push ourselves to the very edge of that cliff, and then through the help of The Lord, we can literally FLY. We must beleive in the impossible! It should be impossible for me to learn Italian or to know as much as I do right now, but through the Lord, nothing is impossible! I really feel like I am improving and moving forward in this each and every day! baby steps is how we reach great things!

I am so grateful to be a missionary right here and right now. I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that I was called of God and that I was fore ordained for my mission to Italy Milan! I know that because i was called of God, He knows that I can do this and He is gonna help me do this!!! i really truly know that!!!

Our district.

Also, you can do soooooo much more with a smile on your face! so remember that this week as you are all going through something a little hard or a little new, just put a smile on your face and YOU CAN DO AMAZING THINGS. Believe in the impossible! Through the Lord we CAN fly! I hope that all is going well with starting school and such! i want to hear all about how that is going kay guys? so write me dear elders or something TODAY. And mom thanks so much for the Dear Elder, I LOVED IT. I hope that you are doing alright! you are so incredibly strong and i look up to you so much! i am SO proud of you for being so in tune with the spirit and being able to act on that prompting! man I just have the best family EVER! keep it up, you guys rule!!! Have a great week!!

Love,
Sorella Burt

Ready for a run!

Emmie was here...now she's gone!