Make it so that HAPPINESS never ends

This is a letter written by Lucy to her Aunt Natalie Gochnour in response to Natalie's article she wrote in the Deseret News on July 5th, 2017 entitled: 

Goodbyes are hard, but they are also meaningful

Hey Nat!!!

I just read your column and I absolutely loved it. I think you are an incredible writer and you should really give yourself credit. 

It actually made me feel kind of sick because I've felt that pit in my stomach when I've said goodbye to people. I have lived every experience that you described in your column and I was thinking WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE TO CHANGE??? Haha sometimes it's like "do I really have to change this much? I'm comfortable where I am," but the reality is that when we do say goodbye we also say HELLO!! In Italian you can use the word CIAO interchangeably which is so cool. I think of all of the people I love here in Rome and all of the goodbyes I have had to say to these people that I have served with. Sometimes I think. It would have been a lot easier if I just really didn't get to know anything about these people or if I would have just focused on the work so much more than helping the ward. BUT then I stop myself in my tracks and thank Heavenly Father for the blessing to getting to know those people. To have those experiences. The good ones. And the bad ones. Those are the moments that have made my mission all worth the sacrifice! To me it's so important to just LIVE IN THE MOMENT. To enjoy every second that you have because that's another one gone. Hello's and goodbyes are part of life and if we do our best to put all of our heart, might, mind, and souls into everything we do, the middle will be so much sweeter. So let's just say CIAO!! Goodbye and hello!! And remember that everything in the middle helped us to grow :)

Thanks for the prayers. They really are felt. I love and miss you all

Sorella g 

This weeks email:

Hello everyone!!!

Another week gone by just like that!!

I felt very grateful this week to have celebrated the Fourth of July!! I can't express the gratitude I feel for having been born in the americas.

We had a little bit of a rough week. We weren't able to get ahold of our investigator this week Magdona. Hopefully we can see her today. We were supposed to do a scambio and we even made it all the way to termini, but then they announced that there would be a strike the next day, so we wouldn't have been able to switch back companions so we decided to postpone it to this coming week. There was another sciopero (strike) this week!!! We consisted of a lot of walking in a lot of heat! We went to visit a member on her birthday and she wasn't there because she had swollen legs and had to go to the hospital. Well yesterday we went to go visit her in the hospital and it was super far away and our ward members gave us the wrong directions haha so we found out really which bus we were supposed to take 30 seconds after it passed by and then we only had ten minutes left where we could visit her and we would have had to wait for another bus to come, so that was a major bummer. We had a relief society activity and there were four sisters that showed up, which was a little sad because we really had hoped that some more would come.

Haha I hope you all realize that missions are not all miracle lessons and baptisms and flowers and golden investigators. BUT THEY ARE STILL THE BEST THINGS EVER!!!

And instead of focusing on all of the negative things let's look at the miracles of the week!!

• We were able to get home on time (9pm) for the majority of the week this week which was super awesome because where we live is pretty difficult to travel and we also rely on the mezzi (I don't remember how you say that in English means maybe?) to get us around everywhere and they are actually like the most UNRELIABLE thing ever haha.

• There was a man who stopped us and asked about English course and actually we passed out SO many bigliettini. Actually we had two different people ask for a stack of bigliettini to hand out to their friends so that was really cool. I just have to figure out how to get those people to actually come now

• We were able to give a Book of Mormon to a lady in Termini that is from Ethiopia and speaks Amharic? That was really cool. We still need to follow up and see if she has had a chance to read it.

• There was this lady as we were doing finding one day and I don't think there has been anyone who has let us talk or share our message in a couple of weeks so when she said "si, ascolto" I was SHOCKED. I stumbled over my words haha but she gave us her number and we haven't been able to contact her but that was a miracle!!

• Our cinnamon rolls that we made for the relief society activity were the most ghetto cinnamon rolls I have ever made haha. We forgot all of the measuring cups and we didn't have enough time to let it rise and stuff so we just guessed and put in what we thought was correct and they turned out to be super good!! That was thanks to Heavenly Father. And all of the sisters that did come to the activity really enjoyed it, so that makes me really happy. Here we say "SIAMO POCHI MA BUONI!!!!!"

• When we were on our way to try to go to the hospital yesterday, this man stopped us and actives like he knew us. We talked to him for a little and he said he has a friend for us that he wants us to talk to with him so we got his number and we will see where it goes. He said "I will be expecting a call from you" I kind of think we did this whole nightmare of a journey to maybe just talk to him. And if that was the case, I would be very happy.

All in all it was just kind of an average normal week in the life of a missionary. I like average weeks. There are ups and downs. Good things and bad things. The hard days make the good days better. And they make the experience into something that you love and is even more dear to your heart.

This week I was reading a talk given by elder Richard G Scott and he said, "A famous Brazilian song repeats a falsehood many believe: Sadness never ends, but happiness does. I witness that with faith in the Savior and obedience to His teachings, happiness never ends, but sadness does."

I know that if we have faith in the savior and our obedient to His commandments His promises WILL COME!! We have to remember that those promises are eternal and not temporary and they may come in this life and they may come in the next. Whichever case THEY. WILL. COME. And I
really hope we can make it so that happiness never ends and our sadness does.

Have a great week!!

Con affetto,

Sorella g ❤🇮🇹