I Often Go Walking.....

Adriano chillin at the park

Ciao carissimi!!!

First of all. Family. I love you all so much. Seeing your faces and hearing your voices makes me so happy. I miss being with you all. I felt like a proud family member when we discovered that four members of the family were wearing duke gear, three members of the family were in church clothes, and the other two are in Italy!!! THAT'S WHAT I CALL A FAMILY!!!

This week I don't have very many exciting stories to tell. I will tell you that I have never had so many cancelled appointments in my whole mission!! What is with these people???? We make appointments and then we get there......nothing. Sorella Wood and I were kind of laughing because we were going to be SO BUSY Friday and Saturday and Sunday and actually every single appointment we had cancelled haha. So at least we got weekly planning done!! We also made sugar cookies for all of the mothers in our ward and we had some extras so we were handing them out to all of these mothers on the bus and in the streets that we saw and they were so happy. We also gave them to all of our neighbors and I don't think I have ever made so many people smile. Successful missionary moment. Making people smile is the best!!

New missionary quote of the week: "feeling discouraged?" After she watched me get shut down for about two hours of finding haha Also I really walk too fast I think. Poor sorella wood always asks me, "why are you walking so fast?" I blame it on you mom and dad!!!

Sometimes when all of your appointments get cancelled you get a little discouraged. I think it's pretty natural so I'm not too worried about it. Or I guess I'm like the worst planner in the history of the world. I am such an imperfect missionary. Last night was particularly bad however, and I was a little bit at a loss of what to do. Well Heavenly Father blessed me with a little tender mercy and a little lady from Columbia named Betta. We were at a bus stop (the second one because after waiting for forty minutes of the bus not coming we decided to take the bus that brings us within walking distance of our apartment)
and she asked us if we knew when the bus came. We started talking and I was able to testify to her that someday she will be able to see her son (who passed away) again and explain some of the things we believe in and where our church is and talk to her about what she believes in. She said she works for an old lady who doesn't let people come over and so she can't really meet with us, but for me just to be able to speak to someone who wanted to listen in Italian and to hear testimony and to testify of the things we believe in was such a tender mercy. Heavenly Father loves His children!!!

This week I was studying in chapter nine of preach my gospel (how to find new investigators) and I was highlighting the things I need to do, and the things Heavenly Father will do in return if I do those things. I was looking for a goal for this transfer and I cam across this sentence

If you will look for opportunities to love, serve, and teach, the bishop and ward members will be more likely to trust you with their family members and friends.

Sorella Gochnour needs to LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES to LOVE, SERVE, and TEACH

In return: the bishop and ward members WILL BE MORE LIKELY to trust you with their family members and friends.

I made this my transfer goal and as a weekly goal to help me accomplish this transfer goal I want to have a family home evening with one member family every week and as a daily goal I want to call a member every single day and talk to them and just ask them how they are doing and offer service to them. I think this will help them to feel like they are more loved by us and they will be MORE LIKELY it's not a guarantee to trust us with their family and friends. But I am confident in the promises of God and know that if He makes a promise, He will fulfill that promise.

As I was contemplating how grateful I am for mothers this week I had a couple of thoughts. There are some incredible talks given by general authorities and prophets about mothers but the thing that really sticks out to me is the connection between the love of the Savior and the love of a mother. It is a divine love. Elder Holland says, "Maternal love has to be divine. There is no other explanation to it." Thanks mom for being a savior on mount Zion. Thank you for shaping souls and for demonstrating the pure love of Christ. There's a primary song that comes to my mind whenever I think of you and it goes like
this

I often go walking in meadows of clover,

 and I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue.

I gather the blossoms the whole meadow over;

Dear mother all flowers remind me of you.

O mother, I give you my love with each flower

To give forth sweet fragrance a whole lifetime through

For if I love blossoms and meadows and walking,

I learned how to love them, dear mother, from you.

I hope all of you mothers know how much I love and look up to you!!!
Especially you JBG!!!

Love

Sorella G ❤️🇮🇹

Mother's Day call SLC NYC LAKE COMO AND ROME

cookies we made for Mother's Day and then extras we passed out to our neighbors and people on the bus - missionary miracle, we got smiles and thank you's