When in Rome...Sorella Gochnour: Fortune Favors The Brave

PACKAGES!! THANK YOU!!

Ok here we go. Onto the week and so much to tell you and literally NO TIME! If this is so scattered, please forgive me.

I don't even remember what happened at the beginning of this week. I got Adelide's wedding invitation and it is so cute!! Sad I am missing it, but very nice of them to send me one. ALSO the church is true. On Monday, takeout out night we got CHIK FIL A!!!!!! What??? Haha it was so good. I can't believe no one told me it was Father's day. Our teacher on Saturday was like oh yeah tomorrow is Father's Day. WHat??? Haha I probably should have known that so shout out to JLG (the older JLG) for being the best dad ever and all of the other awesome dads. And Heavenly Father who, with all of the titles of deity, he asked us to call Him, Father. That is so incredible. Anyway.

I am so grateful for the packages. Honestly I really feel bad for everybody else and every time we go to the mail room all of the elders are like oh typical mail run today, Sorella Gochnour got another package.

Ok now I will dive into my week a little bit. Like I said I don't really remember what happened at the beginning of last week. I said goodbye to Elder Blackham which is really sad. It was a, "see you in two". Haha with a handshake. Terrible, but it's ok. We miss the loud french people across the hall.

The MTC is CRAZY right now. I feel so lucky to be here at this time. It's like so lucky. This week at the MTC all of the quorum of the twelve will be here except for Elder Hales. I believe the first presidency is here as well, but not President Monson. There were 758 NEW missionaries that entered the MTC yesterday and 171 new mission presidents that entered the MTC yesterday. We are not allowed to go in 1M because that is where they are holding the big mission president seminar. 1M is literally where everything is so our meals have now been moved to the gym, which is also where we have devotionals so I'm not sure how they are going to handle that.

My mission presidents, the Pickerds are here now!! We get to meet them on Saturday night so I am very excited about that. We are the first missionaries in their mission that they will meet!!!! That's pretty lucky. Also, rumor has it that we have a special devotional tonight where one of the twelve will speak to the missionaries, which doesn't happen often. I believe it is Elder Anderson. My companion knows who it is, but she can't remember his name hahahahaha. So we'll see how that goes tonight. I have now heard from Elder Bednar and will hear from another Apostle of the Lord, which is pretty special. Again. I feel very lucky to be at the MTC right now. ALso due to all of the change, the food has become MUCH better. Last night they catered this place called Aloha Barbecue which is basically just Hawaiian plate food, not as good as Mo Bettah's but still good. So that is super lucky actually. And we had WATERMELON!!! That is very different from the cantaloupe and honey dew that is there every other day.

Yesterday was crazy with all of the new missionaries. We were asked to host and there were like 368 missionaries hosting 758 new missionaries. I only hosted one person the whole time. I saw HEATHER CHARD!!!! I was so happy. I saw her and just ran and like started crying kind of because I was so happy. Some other girl was already hosting her, which I should have just taken her, but it's ok. She's so cute. She's right across the hall from me now, all the new frenchies!!!! And I felt bad because this morning we were like walking past and she was like what do we do if our teacher isn't here? There teacher hadn't been there and class had started one hour ago so I just told them to study their french books haha I have no idea. Tell Allison that she is doing great. I will attach some pictures of her. So then I was just standing there on the curb hosting, sweating because it is SO HOT. And I have a farmer's tan now, so that's fun. It honestly is pretty heart wrenching to watch though. These families just come and are so sad and the missionaries look so scared haha it's so sad. But I saw this car pull in and Leticia Da Silva was in the back and I was so confused because she's not serving a mission, as far as I know, and her sister is already on a mission so I just ran after their car. She took a picture of me and put it on her snap story and I look so frazzled haha, but it's ok. The girl was really good friends with Leticia's sister Alana in her mission so Leticia and her dad dropped her off so that was exciting. Then, the Johnsons came to our classroom building to talk to Tanner and it was really fun to see them. They are so nice and are going to be great missionaries. I took a picture with Camille on the way to TRC.

TRC is so awesome. They bring in members that speak Italian and we teach them a member lesson and I honestly love it. Our teachers watch our whole lesson, which is kind of creepy and intimidating, but it is nice to get feedback. One of our "investigators" served with our teacher Fratello Hatch and we gave him a lesson about hope and asked him to share a story about when he had to have hope in his life and he shared a story about when his dad died. It was really cool because my companions dad also died and they were able to connect through that and we were able to feel the spirit so strongly. Fratello Hatch said he had only heard our investigator share that story like one other time so it was really special that we were able to have him open up to us. The spirit is real and the spirit is the teacher. I testify of that.

Also I just wanted to leave with a spiritual thought kind of this week. You can skip this part if you want, but it is something I really learned that is super necessary for me. It comes from something my mom sent me from a book written about Harold B Lee. In John 16:33 it says, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." This is so comforting for us in our lives and in our day. Christ has overcome this world. He has overcome the terror and the sickness and the hardships of this world. We have the opportunity to become like Him and that too means we can overcome this world. There was a quote in this book that says, "Rarely, if ever, is there a truly great soul except he has been tried and tested through tears, and adversity - seemingly pruned by a master gardener." As a missionary we are VERY pruned. We are pruned down to our very foundations and the purpose of that is so that we can bear fruit. So that we can grow and become what it is that Heavenly Father has destined us to be. In a devotional we had this past week the speaker said, "Sometimes we think our successes as missionaries depends on those two years or eighteen months, but in reality, it is measured in terms of ETERNITY." All of the fruits of our labors don't happen just in those 18 or 24 months. That is something that is so important for me because who knows if I will even baptize one soul in Italy, but I will be planting seeds. Heavenly Father is the master gardener and He knows what it is that needs to be done. I am grateful for that testimony.

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week. Thank you for all of your love and support. I miss you.

The Italian is coming. I have a lot of stuff memorized, but I know when I get to Italy I won't understand anything. I am doing well. I miss you all more than you know.

VI VOGLIO BENE!!!!!!!

Ciao! Ci vediamo! Arrivederci!!!

Sorella Lucy Ann Gochnour

ps it's funny when people try to say my last name haha. And SOOOOO many people have asked me where it comes from so good thing I know the answer to that. Also I met a guy this morning who went to Coast Guard Academy with Gretchen and he knows her! He is in Heather's district so I am sure I will see much of him. I'll let you know how everything goes this week!!!! I hope all is well. LOVE YOUUUUUU

Always remember that FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE