Without Easter there would be no Christmas

Hello everyone!

This week was full of a lot of miracles! It all started when we went to the social services building in Ragusa (it was actually a huge miracle that we found it and right on time because we went early and ended up going to the wrong building and if we wouldn't have gone early we wouldn't have made it on time....miracle). The man that talked to us about serving was so kind. He was so honored and content that there were two people here asking to help and wanting to serve and he said it doesn't happen often so he wants to put us to work. The only problem is they have to organize something for us to do so he said he will call us after the holidays in January so he can have some time to plan and organize something for us to do, so let's hope for the best!!

Then we had a lesson with a member present!!!! WOOT WOOT!! We had a lesson with this really kind lady from English course. I don't know how interested she is in the gospel though. We taught her the restoration and invited her to read and pray and come to church and she agreed to all of those things! However, she mentioned that Sorella Bicchierri had tried teaching her the lessons before, so that kind of made me curious why she wasn't already baptized haha. She said she had read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it and that she didn't get an answer so we just bore testimony about the promise that Moroni gives to all who read the Book of Mormon and tried to help her understand how to recognize the spirit. Then we talked to Sorella Rushton (sorella Bicchierri's companion before me) and she said she remembers teaching someone from English course and this lady gave them back the Book of Mormon which is super sad so hopefully this time she is ready to receive the restored gospel. We haven't had the chance to see her again since that lesson. 

On Wednesday we went to this older couple's house from the ward haha. The Micozzi's. They are a little bit crazy and it was a very funny experience. The husband has been sick and they haven't been able to come to church so we thought we would visit and hopefully bring a little bit of the spirit with us. When we got there I asked fratello micozzi what was making him feel sick and he responded by telling me that it was his prostate, and then he asked me if I knew what that was hahahaha. Yikes!!!!! Then we shared a message and asked if there was anything we could do to help them. Sorella micozzi said, "well I actually haven't been able to do my Christmas tree yet" and I jumped on the opportunity to do service for someone and insisted that we help do it and she accepted!!!! So we went back the next day and put up her Christmas tree. It was so fun!!! And also funny. When she made us tea she just put the tea bag in the pot that was on the stove and the string caught on fire because it was hanging in the flame of the stove.......luckily it stopped because the top of the string was wet, but it was a bit scary. Sorella Demann and I were dying laughing because she had no idea and I'm pretty sure she doesn't have the greatest eyesight anyway. 

On Thursday we saw another miracle. We made a goal to show the siiunaluce video with at least one person while doing finding that day. We made sure that Heavenly Father knew of our goal and went out to find the person He wanted us to share it with. We walked for a while and there were literally no people on the streets!!! It's a little bit hard to show someone a video when there is no one to even ask if you can show it. So after a while we decided to just go in a store that didn't have anybody in it and ask the owner if we could share it with her, but she said no. We decided to just start making it to our appointment and we found this 13 year old girl walking her dog. We asked her if we could share this video and she agreed. And it may just seem like something small, but for me it strengthened my testimony that Heavenly Father truly does know and love us. He is aware of us and He hears our prayers and answers them. 

This week I was studying in my scriptures and I don't usually do this because it doesn't usually work for me haha. But I opened my Book of Mormon and started reading. I had opened to Helaman chapter 13 and started reading. This chapter tells the story of Samuel the Lamanite. 

v 2-4

Samuel goes into the city and starts preaching to these people and they don't want to listen to him so they cast him out, so he decides to start heading home. However, the voice of the Lord comes unto him and tells him to go back and preach to the people again the things that come into his heart. So he does exactly that. These people of Zarahemla don't want to let him in so he climbs up and stands on the wall and teaches them the things that are put in his heart. 

 v 39 

He tells them that he hopes the anger of the Lord will be turned against them, but knows that it cannot be unless they repent. 

This story really inspired me to want to be more like this courageous man. He is commanded to go back and try again after he has already been cast out. He doesn't say to the Lord that the people don't want him there, that he already tried, and that they won't listen. He just obeys. And when the people don't let him in, he finds a way to do what has been asked of him. And he ends the chapter by showing love to these people who were absolutely nothing but rude to him. He desires their salvation and that is true charity and true conversion. 

Sorry if this is super long, but this is the last thing I wanted to share. We got the opportunity to watch the Christmas devotional and there was a talk in it that really helped me to understand Christmas and why we celebrate the birth of Christ. I had never before realized that there would be NO CHRISTMAS without the plan of salvation. He had to come to earth so that we could have someone to save us from our sins. Without His atonement and His resurrection, we wouldn't be able to make it back to our Heavenly Father. We shouted for joy in the premortal life because there was someone who would make this whole plan of happiness possible!! It was the Savior's sacrifice that made Holy that silent night in Bethlehem. The gift that makes the Christmas season sacred is His very life, which He gave that we might have everlasting life. 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Sorella G 🇮🇹🎄🎁❤️️

Sent from my iPad

The Nativity

Caio caio cari miei:

This week we had zone conference in Catania and we reenacted the nativity!! It was actually very fun. I was asked to be an angel and had a solid line or two and Sorella Demann was a shepherd. It was probably a big highlight if the week. Every zone conference, president Pickerd makes a slide show of all of the pictures of the baptisms that happened in the last transfer and he goes through and tells us the stories of all of these people and they are all so incredible. They are the craziest stories almost like you can't believe that there are people out there that are like that. And then at the end of every story he says this classic line every single time, "you can't make it up elders and sisters!"Other than that I don't even remember what happened this week. 

We are in great need of some new investigators. So we have been doing lots of finding in all sorts shapes and sizes!!! We went to the city hall building to volunteer or to do some community help or just to do something and we have a meeting with someone tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. Then we also made our way down to the hospital to try to see if I could play the violin or if we could talk to people in the hospital or sing or something and we were doing so well. There were a lot of "good idea go ask this person" and then we got to this lady and she said "absolutely not. You don't have the authority to do anything of the sort." And I asked if there was anyway we could get some type of authority and she said no. haha. Maybe next time. We have yet to find someone, but I will not give up!!! We have a lesson with a really awesome potential tomorrow so I'm hoping that goes well. 

Other than that we had a really cool experience with a less active lady this past week. 

I am constantly taken aback and also touched by the strength of the spirit that comes from a new missionary. We were in his lesson and Sorella Demann felt like she didn't have anything that was coming to her mind, however, towards the end of the lesson she bore simple, yet powerful testimony that brought this less active to tears. We were really feeling the spirit and I felt prompted to promise her some blessings and then we were able to leave her with that spirit. What was the most incredible part was that Sorella Demann afterwards told me she had wanted to promise this less active some blessings that come from being obedient to the commandments, but that she couldn't think of how to say that. And I was able to tell her that those were the exact blessings that I had promised this less active! It was just such a testimony to me that the Holy Ghost is the teacher and we are just simply instruments in the Lord's hands in accomplishing this work. 

This past week we were down in the center of Ragusa playing the violin and talking to people and we ran into an English course student. He is fairly new and he was talking to the elders and Sorella Demann. I heard her ask him, "Do you have any friends who would want to listen to our message?" And the man kind of laughed and thought she was just like being funny. Sorella Demann says, "I'm serious." Haha and then we all broke out into laughter and unfortunately he didn't think of any friends that would be interested. 

I love being a missionary. I know I say that every single week, but I honestly don't know how I could ever live my life without being a missionary haha. There are just some experiences that I would never in a million years dream about experiencing. Hard, funny, scary, incredibly uplifting experiences that are building me into the person that Heavenly Father needs me to become. It is especially fun to be a missionary at Christmas time to be able to just bear testimony that HE LIVES. And that we can share His light to the world!!!! 

Fun experience with the siiunaluce video was with this catholic lady who was at a less actives house. We showed the video and she loved it! And then she was like, I want to watch it again. So we watched it again!! Unfortunately she got on her phone and then left still on the phone before we could bear our testimonies or do anything else, but at least she saw it!!! 

I love you all and hope you have the best week ever!

Sorella g 

Sincerely,

Sorella Gochnour 

Be The Light

Hello dear friends and family!!  

Not a lot of things happened this week so I will just start with thanksgiving. It was so fun! We kind organized a thanksgiving activity for our English course and for our members and it turned out really well. We did a little activity that I remember doing in all of elementary school where you outline your hand on a piece of paper and make your hand into a turkey and they we had them write four things they were grateful for on the wings which was fun and they seemed to like it. Then we ate!! It was definitely an Italian style thanksgiving but I did eat turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy, so it was a success. We shared with them this incredible quote from President Uchtdorf about gratitude, "We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved, but how terribly shortsighted that is. How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain? Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges. This is not a gratitude of the lips but of the soul. It is a gratitude that heals the heart and expands the mind." DONT EVER FORGET TO THANK HEAVENLY FATHER FOR THE RAIN!!! 

This past week Sorella Demann and I had to discontinue teaching (I don't want to say drop because I hate using that term) three of our investigators this week. They are not ready at this time to accept the message that we have to offer and although it is really sad at times, I just felt like that was the thing for us to do. We had to stop teaching Ida and nida because it is dangerous for them and for us, but it was really sad because she has such a big desire. Now is just not the time. I felt so at peace with stopping teaching every single one of these people. We have been set apart and called to find those who are ready to accept this message and if we continue to teach these people who aren't ready right now, we are losing precious time!! There is never enough time!!!! 

This past week we have been trying to do some really good planning to find new investigators and as we have contacted people on the streets I have been incredibly amazed by how kind the people have been to us. We have yet to find someone who has wanted to learn more about our message, but every single person has been so kind and I know that is a blessing from Heavenly Father. Sorella Demann is doing such an incredible job. I can only imagine what it must be like to be in your first city for a week, you don't know the language, you lose three of your investigators in one week, you're doing finding everyday, on top of adjusting to living in a different country and she is killing it!! We are having a lot of fun and just trying to laugh. She bore her testimony in church on Sunday and she gave the most heartfelt testimony and I just had the biggest smile on my face the whole time. Proud moment. 

We also saw the BIGGEST miracle in church this week. We showed up to church and had figured out a way for one of our less actives to get to church so she was able to be there (first time in about four weeks), then our investigator noemi was there and she wasn't really going to come, AND THEN we saw Sorella Ferraro! She is a less active we have been working with and I have never seen her in church except for yesterday she came and brought two non member friends and her non member husband!!!!! Fratello Lomonaco (our ward mission leader) was sitting on the stand and like got my attention and mouthed something about Sorella Ferraro and I said, "no she's not here again" and then he like motioned behind me and I turned and looked and saw all four of them and was so happy!!! I can't describe the joy that comes when you see people taking steps toward coming closer to Heavenly Father. It is a joy that is indescribable. 

On December 1 the church's Christmas program for this year will start. If you don't know about it, then go look up Mormon.org. It is an incredible program that will help all of us to grow to be like our Savior. And it is a chance for us to be LIGHTS in this world of DARKNESS!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As you all could probably tell I was kind of freaking out about training and I would like you all to know that every single one of my fears has been wiped away. I have felt your prayers and Heavenly Father has blessed us with so many miracles every single day. It is incredible to be able to just soak up this experience everyday. To be able to laugh about the hard and awkward times and to be able to feel the love of the savior lift the burdens from my back. I feel so blessed to be on a mission and to be taking the steps toward coming to know and understand my Savior. 

There are a lot of times in my mission when I have asked the question, WHY??? W H Y. But the thing that I automatically do when I ask that question is smile. Because I don't have to know why. All I have to know is that there is a plan. He knows. Not me. I just have faith in Him. Trust in Him. Jesus Christ knew very well before performing the atonement that not all of Heavenly Father's children were going to return back to Him. But He suffered for EVERY SINGLE one of them so they could have the CHANCE to return to Him. That is an amount of love that no one on this earth will ever be able to understand. 

Like it states in the living Christ:

God be thanked for the MATCHLESS GIFT of His divine son

I love you all and hope you will always be able to remember just exactly what He did for us during THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR (polar express)

Con tantissimo amore

Sorella G ️️🇮🇹

WE CAN DO HARD THINGS

Before we heard about our Transfers...

After we heard about our Transfers!!!

Hello beautiful family and friends!!!!

Well this past Monday I received a call from my mission president that I would be receiving a new missionary straight from the MTC that I was to train in Ragusa. My first thoughts were, "WHAT?!?!? Are you sure you are talking to the right person? My name is Sorella Gochnour and I am almost positive you are talking to the wrong missionary." But as it turns out he was not. I now have a new companion. Her name is Sorella Rachel Demann. She is from Murray, Utah and actually knows the Gochnour's that live in Murray. So that was pretty cool. She is really cute and we are going to have a lot of fun and a lot of adventures together these next two transfers!

This past week was spent mainly in Catania. I will explain why. My old companion got sent to Rome. She was blown in, meaning she and her companion are both brand new to the area, and her new companion is a greenie, and she is also the sister training leader in Rome. So that's a lot of things. Anyway her flight up to Rome was on Wednesday so we had to leave Ragusa on Tuesday after she said all of her last goodbyes. Wednesday and Thursday I spent with Sorella Rushton in Catania. I actually really like Catania. It's a beautiful city and there are tons of people that you just get to talk to. Most everyone is super friendly so it's really fun to talk to them about the gospel. One of my favorite things about being a missionary is being able to talk to people about what they believe and why I am here. 

Thursday night I received my companion and we rode the bus back to Ragusa! Friday was spent weekly planning and in correlation. We had our first lesson together!! And then Saturday we had to go back to Catania for stake conference on Saturday and also Sunday. 

This past week I have been very blessed to have had many prayers answered. I can honestly say I am not exactly sure why I received this call. I feel like I am still a brand new missionary. I am in my fourth transfer and I don't know Italian yet. I don't know how to be a senior companion let alone train a new missionary. But I do know that there is a plan and that Heavenly Father loves me. He knows what is best for me and there were truly some things I studied this past week to help me accept this call. 

The first thing I studied this week was humility. I read this quote from President Uchtdorf about our savior Jesus Christ. I am here because I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and my ultimate goal is to become like Jesus Christ, which includes being humble. He says,

“The greatest, most capable, most accomplished man who ever walked this earth was also the most humble. He performed some of His most impressive service in private moments, with only a few observers, whom He asked to ‘tell no man’ what He had done [see Luke 8:56]. When someone called Him ‘good,’ He quickly deflected the compliment, insisting that only God is truly good [see Mark 10:17–18]. Clearly the praise of the world meant nothing to Him. … We would do well to follow the example of our Master.”

The second was found in a talk given by Elder Carl B. Cook this past general conference titled Serve. This talk helped me grow the faith that I need to trust in the Savior. To hang on to my faith because sometimes that is the only thing that is guiding us in this life. He says,

"The natural man or woman in all of us is inclined to allow us to excuse ourselves from serving for reasons such as “I am not ready to serve; I have more to learn,” “I’m tired and need a break,” “I’m too old--it’s someone else’s turn,” or “I am simply too busy.” Brothers and sisters, accepting and fulfilling a calling is an act of faith. We can trust in what our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, repeatedly teaches: “Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies” and “When we are on the Lord’s errand, we are entitled to the Lord’s help.” Whether we are overwhelmed or underwhelmed, whether we are scared to death or bored to death, the Lord wants us to gear down, power up, and serve."

The third inspiration was found in the Doctrine and Covenants. The Lord is speaking to Joseph in Liberty Jail. It is incredibly humbling to read this group of scriptures. It says,

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

The fourth inspiration came this morning while I read in Mosiah 23:21. The people of Alma had just escaped the guards of King Noah and they had been baptized and were walking in the ways of righteousness and keeping all of the commandments and then we read this verse 

21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith. 

Heavenly Father needs to give us these experiences because they will ultimately be for our good and they will help us build our faith and our patience and help us to become the people we are meant to become. 

The last inspiration was from a couple emails I received this past week from my siblings. One was from my sister grace. She said, 

I know that the work is sometimes hard and it doesn't seem like anyone wants to listen or progress but all that matters is where your heart is. You can't fail on the Lord's errand if you are trying your best." And then she shared a quote that a friend shared with her that says, "I hope you always feel weak and inadequate because that is when god can truly use you and shape you. When we are weak, then we are strong."

And the last quote comes from my older brother will. He said, "I'm convinced that you learn the most about yourself when you have to deal with hard things."

I'm sorry this is kind of long and might be boring, but I am so grateful for the trust that Heavenly Father has in me. Sometimes I don't feel like I trust myself to train this brand new missionary and make sure she has the best experience possible. This doesn't mean that I am better than any other missionary because I am training "young" in the mission. It doesn't mean I can speak the language. It doesn't mean I necessarily know how to be a missionary or even that I did something or didn't do something to receive this call. All it means is that this is what Heavenly Father needs for me right now. I feel weak and I certainly feel inadequate, but luckily I don't have to do this alone. 

And I have never thought of my family motto so much in my life.......

WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!!!!!

I love you all dearly. I hope you know I would be lost without your love and support. 

This is me wishing you a HAPPY THANKSGIVING with lots of love and gratitude from Italy 🇮🇹 

Sorella G ❤️

🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

Hello everyone!!!!

This week was so full of stuff I don't even remember what happened, but I will do my best to include all of the important details. 

Just a quick update on the lice......they are all gone. I think haha. 

Sorella Bicchierri was telling me how when she had her fifth week in Ragusa she tripped and fell and Sorella Rushton (who was here before me) did the same thing. Well this week Ragusa gave me the good old five week welcoming fall too. It was totally my fault though and was so hilarious. We were walking to find a less active member and Sorella Bicchierri said something about me not pushing something and immediately the scene from Happy Feet came into my head where the little penguin says "don't push me cause I am close to the edge". Yeah. My foot slipped off the sidewalk and I was on my hands and knees dying laughing. It was so hilarious. I am now officially welcomed into Ragusa haha. Also. It's FREEZING!!!

We had a really cool experience this week with a less active. Sorella Bicchierri had told me that this woman didn't like the Book of Mormon because of the war chapters. Because she doesn't believe that God wants us to go to war no matter what. So we enter into her house and sit down and she immediately starts talking about how the Book of Mormon is not true and how she stopped going to our church and started going back to her old one, but that one wasn't right either. She said she is really trying to find a church that only talks about Jesus Christ. No prophets. No wars. No anything, but Jesus Christ and his gospel. That's why she only reads the New Testament. But I tried asking her if there's anything we can learn from the war chapters in the Book of Mormon "No." haha so we talked a little bit more and Sorella Bicchierri and I were able to bear strong testimony that this book is true and that the only way we can get rid of our doubts, the only way we can know if it is true is if we ask in prayer. She went from at the beginning of the lesson not wanting to have anything to do with our church anymore to agreeing to read 3 Nephi which was really a miracle. It is so incredible to be able to see the spirit work through you and into the hearts of people you are teaching. 

We also had a frittelle party!! They are basically just like donut holes with raisins in them rolled in sugar. They make them in November and February for catholic holidays, but we just did it to basically have an activity and of course to eat haha. So we had everyone bring frittelle and we played this speed dating get to know you game so that people would kind of be forced to talk to people they wouldn't necessarily want to talk to normally and it worked out great! I think they liked it for the most part. 

This past week we also had an incredible lesson with an investigator named noemi. I don't remember if I've talked about her or not. Basically she is 15 and her parents won't let her get baptized. She had a boyfriend who is a member, but they broke up which was hard and she kind of stopped reading her scriptures, but we had this really cool lesson with her and she just realized how important it is to read the scriptures because when we don't, we lose that light and happiness, the peace that they bring to our lives. 

Update on Ida, she said she wants to get baptized if she finds out that these things are true. The problem is all of her friends are Muslim and it could be very dangerous for her to get baptized. She was like, I don't care. I will hide it. So I am a little nervous about that situation. We are still meeting with her though so I will let you know. 

We had a funny lesson with one of our ex investigators. She is 73 years old and is an ex investigator because her son won't let her get baptized, but she reads the Book of Mormon so intently and loves it. She's also very catholic at the same time though haha. She was asking all of these questions and wants to know the difference between this and that. She wanted to know if I have ever met President Monson haha and then she asks, "have you guys talked to the pope about this stuff?" Hahaha I just started laughing. Sorella Bicchierri says all the time how she wants to talk to the pope and convert him. 

Also my companion found out that she is not staying here for the next transfer so we have been doing quite a few, and by that I mean four trillion goodbyes. This next week is transfer week and I am pretty sure I will be staying here which I am happy about. Needless to say we have seen a lot of miracles this week. And I can say there will continue to be miracles. If you look for them, they are there. 

There was something that I came across this week that I wanted to share with you. It says:

An old saying teaches that you can count the number of seeds in a single apple, but you can’t count the number of apples in a single seed. The harvest is the Lord’s. Your responsibility is to thrust in the sickle. 

I just realized that yes missionaries and even we as members are to plant seeds, but I never really thought about what happens when those seeds grow up into big beautiful trees that are full of apples full of seeds. Our responsibility is to THRUST (to move or advance forcibly) in our sickles. The harvest is the Lord's. We do the best that we can and He will do the rest. 

How grateful I am to have a Savior who is with us every step of the way. 

I love and miss you all and hope you know you are in my prayers 

Con amore,

Sorella G ❤️️🇮🇹

This is a picture of mount Etna and you can't see the volcano. Nice!!

p a t i e n c e - la parola della vita

Hello everyone!!! 

I'm going to start off this week with a question! Which parasite did you get this month??? Because I got lice. Haha SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! I will spare you with the details, but it was quite a traumatizing experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone haha. And we'll leave it at that. How did I get lice, you may ask? From traveling to Catania for zone conference at the beginning of the transfer and sleeping in a cockroach infested apartment on sheets and pillowcases that have been sitting in that apartment for at least twenty years. Haha oh man. Missions. Also this week Sorella Bicchierri's tooth was really hurting her so we took her to the dentist. (So incredibly incredibly grateful for American dentists) but we found out that her tooth right next to the front tooth (I don't know what it is called) is dead. So she is going to have to get a root canal. Not fun. We still don't know yet if she will stay in this city to get that done, or if president will transfer her. She's not in pain anymore with her tooth though so that's good. She has also had back, feet, and eye problems while being in good old Ragusa haha. 

This week we switched our area book to our iPads. And our planner is now on our iPads as well. It is soooo strange. I don't know how I feel about it yet. It's very convenient, but also is so weird not to have paper planners anymore. And figuring out weekly planning took the whole day. Hopefully I won't have to spend that long on weekly planning again haha. 

We have been working with a couple of our new investigators, Ida and Nida. They are from Tunisia and are of a Muslim background which is dangerous in some situations if they become Christian so we don't exactly know if we will be able to continue teaching them but this week In one of our lessons we wanted to focus on Jesus Christ so the she could kind of know and understand a little more about who He is and what exactly He did for us. We began to talk and she had some great questions. She had picked up on us saying "He suffered for our sins" and she wanted to know why we still sin and why we still have pains and afflictions. It is one of my very favorite things to help people understand that this church has answers to questions like this. That we have the opportunity to know that yes, Jesus Christ did suffer for our sins and our pains and our weaknesses so doesn't that mean we shouldn't have them anymore? It actually just means that there was someone who loved us enough to go through every single one of those things so that we don't have to go through it alone just like He did. It is something that is quite hard to comprehend at times for our mortal minds. I feel so incredibly and humbly grateful that I have a knowledge of and have felt and seen that love in my life. At the end of the lesson she expressed how she wants to feel the same way we do about Jesus Christ. That she wants to be able to know the things that we know and she has started on the path. I hope that she will just continue along that path. 

This ward in Ragusa is struggling a bit and I don't exactly understand why. They have all of the problems that every other city has, but it just seems like everyone has lost their hope. There are a lot of members that don't want callings and they don't want to do their visiting teaching. There are less actives who would rather do anything else but go to church on Sunday. Our leaders are very exhausted of dealing with the same problems and we had a very depressing correlation meeting with our ward mission leader. We as missionaries are doing our best to help people be unified and excited about missionary work! To find hope and faith despite all of the problems that are happening. I heard recently that there was a tornado in Lidispoli which is near Rome and two people lost their lives. Haha and right now I am just pretty convinced that either something really big is about to happen in the Italy, Rome mission, or Satan is doing everything possible in his power to stop this work from progressing. 

And this is where the title of this weeks email comes into play. There was an article in the October ensign titled "The Miracle of Medium Heat" and it talks about making a perfect grilled cheese. And if you have ever eaten one of my mom's grilled cheeses, you know what a good grilled cheese tastes like. Basically he talks about how to make a grilled cheese you have to be patient. Yes maybe if you turn the heat up it will cook faster, but your grilled cheese will come out looking burnt on the outside and with unmelted cheese on the inside. So the secret is patience and medium heat. There is a quote from President Uchtdorf that I love. He says, "Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can--working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!”

In order to go reach it to the celestial kingdom we have to endure. And do it well and that requires patience. Every single person in this world struggles with something. Whether it be lice, a dead tooth, no desire to do anything, pride, or making a good grilled cheese. But how lucky we are to have ONE who understands us all. He knows us BY NAME. And He is standing there at the ready to endure with us. 

Although I feel at times like I have no idea how I could solve any of these problems, I have been set apart as a full time missionary to help others come unto Christ. And that is exactly what I will work my hardest to do. I love this work and we are CHOOSING HAPPY!!!!!

I love and miss you all very dearly. 

Good luck with elections!!! ✔️

- Sorella G ❤️🇮🇹