I FEAR AUGUST.....jk jk

Hello beautiful family that I love so so much. This week was quite the week. As I thought about what I could title this email it was either that (note from editor, lucy's mom, August is the hottest time of the year and also when all of Italy goes on vacation - also in her last letter President Uchtdorf visited Rome and gave this message to the Rome Italy missionaries "Invite them to come and see. Do not fear August!!! The people you do find will have more time to hear your message.") 
or "Blame it on the rain" or "Heavenly Father is really funny"

This week EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR PLANS FELL THROUGH. Starting on Wednesday haha. Well it started off really great. Sorella Lahaderne came over to our apartment and taught us how to make REAL Italian meatballs!!!!! They were so good and I can't wait to make them for you all when I get home!!!!!.......in like 16 months haha. 

Anyway, then we had a lesson with a member that was super awkward because we just wanted to go over and share a little short family home evening lesson
with her and her family, I think she thought we were going over there to ask her to do something specific for us but it ended up being all around awkward. 

Then we went finding and the Italians were NOT having it. Usually we can get people to at least say hi to us, but no one had the capacity to say buona sera to us apparently. On a bus ride there was a man standing up and I tried asking him how his day went (in very very horrible Italian) and he just said looked at me, gave me a pity laugh and shook his head. Ok. Cool haha. Felt like a real big idiot after that one.

The next day we went to an investigators house in citta vecchia and she said she couldn't see us and so we turned around and then this HUGE mob of Taranto soccer fans started coming through the streets just yelling and screaming and cheering and honking their horns haha. Taranto's soccer team isn't the greatest we'll just put it that way and they finally moved up a rank and felt the need to get dressed up in all of their gear and parade through citta vecchia all the way to centro (which is the center of the city) which was actually really funny and fun to be a part of. Add it to the list of funny Italian things. I took a video of it and I was watching the video while we walked and I stepped in my first pile of dog poo!!!! That's what you get when you don't watch where you're walking.

We cleaned our apartment also because we had cleaning checks this past week and our apartment is so clean!!! It is crazy how much more you feel the spirit in a clean house. I am pretty sure our apartment hadn't been cleaned for like fifteen years it was so gross.

We had a lesson with our investigator Cristina and she is awesome. It was kind of a sad lesson though. She wants to get baptized at the end of August, but she lives with this man and that's a problem obviously. She doesn't like him and they're not dating or in a relationship at all, but she doesn't have enough money to have her own place so this guy lets her live at his house. We had to tell her she has to move out if she wants to be baptized and it was the saddest thing ever because she really wants to be baptized but we love her and are praying for her. Heavenly Father will not leave her alone.

THEN SATURDAY!!!! That was like one of the funniest days of my life haha. 

• Cleaning inspection in the morning which went well.
• Supposed to go meet with our member friend Tanya, but fell through.
• Walked to the less actives house and it's the wrong address.
• Went to visit a member in the hospital, not in her hospital bed.
• Go try to find the less active again. We find her house/ring the citofono (that's like the doorbell to get into the apartment) usually they answer the phone and say "Chi è?"Meaning who is it? But instead this person just unlocked the door. We go up to the door and knock and hear the tv -no one ever came to the door. 
• Go BACK to the bus stop and the bus didn't come for another half hour. 
• Pranzo (lunch)
• Then a lesson with a less active scheduled but she lives in the sketchy part of citta vecchia. Luckily....it was looking kind of stormy and I was like "I'm going to just grab my umbrella". 
• The bus ride is great haha. Literally the bus is JAM PACKED with people that all smell so bad and Sorella Flansberg and I are sitting in these two seats and there are two seats across from us that NO ONE will sit in. They're just frightened of us apparently. One lady sat there because she really needed to sit somewhere and then as soon as a seat opened up she moved so quickly haha.
• At four stops away the bus turns off. All these Italians start yelling and get really angry and then it turns back on!!! Miracle! BUT then the next stop its turns off again and so the bus driver said  - everyone off. 
• We walked the rest of the way and it started lightly raining. We couldn't find her house and Sorella Flansberg had never been there and the address was taking us down this really creepy looking alley way and Sorella Flansberg was like, "I'm not going down that. I don't feel good about it." So we go out and call the lady and she gives us these directions and we follow them and end up in the EXACT place we started......
•  At this point it is SO windy and I'm pretty sure my umbrella broke and we're just soaking wet and we had to be out of citta vecchia by dark so we just called her and said we would have to come another time so we went to the bus stop.

 AND THEN THERE WAS A RAINBOW!!!!! It was awesome. That was quite the day haha. We just laughed the whole day long. Anziano Friedman told us that rainbows are covenants from Heavenly Father telling us that He will never flood the earth again like he did with Noah. I thought that was cool. I had never heard that before.

Then on Sunday I had my second meal appointment!!!! I can honestly tell you that meal appointments with members here have been a  traumatic experience with me this far haha. The pasta was really good. It was like spaghetti with mozzarella di bufala and little mini meatballs. Then we had sausage, and salad. And they don't put dressing on the salad so it's just leaves haha. And I figured out that I don't really like eggplant that much. After eating all of that food they bring out huge slices of watermelon and then they give you gelato and a pastry and then finish it all if with a cherry drink!!!! I literally was sitting in my chair just like thinking I look six months pregnant. Walking home was a struggle. I was literally in pain!!!!! 

This probably just sounds like I am complaining but I just don't know how else to describe it. I love it. It's just a very interesting experience. Sorella flansberg told me I was waddling haha. It took me six hours to feel like a normal person should feel after they feel full after a normal sized meal. I seriously need to master the skill of eating slower so I can eat less food. But it's really good food. Just too much of it makes me feel soooo sick.

My aunt Natalie sent me a talk this week given by Neal A Maxwell on patience and it was really awesome and very much needed. This week was once again a testimony builder that everything happens for a reason. I don't know why that all happened this week, but I know that whatever happened this past week was for a reason and we have to just be patient until we can understand what Heavenly Father has planned for us. We can never give up on anyone, including ourselves.

I read a talk about the atonement this week and something I loved from it was, "When we comprehend His voluntary atonement, any sense of sacrifice on our part becomes completely overshadowed by an overpowering sense of gratitude - simply for the opportunity of serving Him."

I love that. It reminds me of some of the lyrics from an amazing church hymn

I STAND ALL AMAZED at the love Jesus offers me
Confused at the grace that so fully He proffers me
I tremble to know that for me He was crucified
That for me a sinner He suffered He bled and died

Oh it is wonderful that He should care for me enough to die for me
Oh it is wonderful
Wonderful to me

That is how I feel about my dear friend Jesus Christ. I wonder how many drops were shed for me and my imperfections. I am working on being able to comprehend his voluntary Atonement so that I can feel that overwhelming sense of gratitude for the chance I have to serve him as a disciple and representative. I love this work. It is hard and super discouraging but luckily we have a friend WHO HAS DESCENDED BELOW IT ALL. and for that I will forever be indebted and incredibly grateful.

It is SO important to smile and laugh through the hard times. We can choose to be happy and that makes our lives so much more enjoyable. I promise. Look for the good things in life. The small miracles. They are there. I promise.

I miss and love you all. 

Love

Sorella Lucy Ann Gochnour

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The RAINBOW TO END THE DAY!  MIRACLES!