May 26, 2014

Hey everyone :)

So great to hear from you all this week! Your trip looked so great! I'm sure it wasn't nearly as much fun without me and sonn...but I hope you could still enjoy it ;) but seriously thanks for all the pictures and videos! It was so fun to see everyone. From the pictures it looks like a beautiful place. I'm glad you all had such a great time! As for me it was an awesome week in Palermo! I have lots to tell you guys about and not a lot of time to do it... so I apologize in advance for the crazy mess that is about to be this e-mail.

First of all I want to share with you guys the training that my district leader gave to us in district meeting this week. It was on faith and setting goals. The two scriptures he used were Hebrews 11:1 and James 2:17. In Hebrews 11 it says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In James it says faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. So he used these two scriptures to create a faith cycle. First, as we see in Hebrews, faith starts with hope. A belief in something that we would like to be true. But in Hebrews it also says that faith is evidence of things not seen. So how does our hope turn to evidence? That is where the scripture in James comes in. Through action. It is through the trial of our faith that we move from hope to evidence. Afterall, faith without action is just another belief. So after we have hope, we act, and we recieve the evidence, what happens? Our testimonies are strengthened through the process. We gain more hope, and the process starts all over again.

My district leader then related this cycle to our goals. First we have to hope. We have to believe in these things that we want to be true. Then we have to act. Then we will see the results and the progress. This was something that really touched both me and sorella Mitsvotai. We talking about it later and decided that we wanted to put this into action and make a goal as a companionship. We were looking at our work for the past few days and realized that everyday we had gotten at least one number from a new contact. We decided that our goal would be to keep that up, so that at the end of the week we would have recieved at least one new number of someone to contact each day.

For a few days it was going really well! We have found a lot of potential investigators and it looked like we were going to reach our goal. Then we went out yesterday. We had been out contacting for hours and we just were not having any success. Who knows why, but people were just a titch more grumpy than usual. Haha what can ya do. Anyway, it was getting towards the end of the night and it looked like we weren't going to reach our goal. I was a little discouraged, so I did the only thing you can really do as a missionary - say a prayer. I remember thinking "Heavenly Father I want so badly to fulfill our goals. I want to be able to meet someone that we can share the gospel with. But how are we going to do that if no one will  listen to us??" Next thing you know, we see one of our members, Alex, riding his bike down the street. He pulls up to us and says that he has a friend who wanted to learn English, and who was willing to listen to our message about the gospel. So he gave us her number and said to give her a call.  And there it was. The last number we needed to reach our goal. I know when we put our trust in the Lord and do everything we possibly can, He will make up for the rest.

Things here in Palermo are going great. Sorella Mitsvotai and I have been working hard this week, and the Lord has definitely blessed us. We picked up 3 new investigators this week, which we are thrilled about! Their names are Vincenzo, Lila, and Pasqualino. Vincenzo and Lila are married and they have a son who is about 10. Lila actually has 2 sisters who were baptized about 20 years ago, so she knows a lot about the church. We have had one lesson with them so far, and it went really well. They said they would come to church this week so we are super excited about that! Pasqualion is a man we met on the street. He says he is curious in what makes our religion different from others. We have only met with him once as well, but he has already started reading in the Book of Mormon and agreed to continue meeting with us! So overall there is lots of exciting stuff going on over here :)

It has been really neat to see how much more I can participate in these lessons with our new investigators than I was able to in lessons I had when I first got here. My language and teaching skills both still need a lot of work, but it is really great to feel like I can contribute more. Slowly but surely it is all coming along!

I love you guys all so much! I hope you have a great week. Can't wait to hear from you all soon! Thanks for all your love, support, and prayers. It means the world.

love you!

sorella marsh.

hi. sorry i cant send pictures this week. the computer i am at is dumb and wont show me a preview of the pictures so i have no idea what i am sending. ill try again next week!

love you!

May 19, 2014

Ciao Tutti! 

Another week come and gone! What in the world. So great to hear from everyone! I am so glad that you are all doing well and having so much fun at home! As always, thanks for all your pictures and e-mails. I love em :)

It was another great week for us down here in Palermo! So we spent the beginning of this week getting everything ready for Sorella Nef and Sorella Mikesell to head to Rome. It was a few crazy days filled with all sorts of packing and cleaning and running all over the city, but we got them sent off! I heard from Sorella Nef today and she is loving Rome, so I am thrilled about that. We actually got to go out to lunch with our English course students before they left, which was super fun. We went and got some pane panelli, a famous dish from Palermo. Man it was so good. So that was neat! We have some really great people in there.

Speaking of English course - quick story. So we have one student in there, his name is Enzo. I think I have told you about him before. He said he would be interested in listening to the General Conference talks so we made him a CD to listen to in the car. I talked to him about it after class on Thursday and asked him what he thought about it. He said that overall he loved it. The talks made him feel very calm and he loved listening to it. I asked him if there was one in particular that he liked and he said "yeah...there was this one where this man was talking about an experience he had on a plane. They thought the plane was going to crash and the lady started freaking out. I thought that one was really great." I had to laugh a little bit to myself when I realized he was talking about grandfather. I just smiled and said "yeah, I thought that one was really great too." :)

Anyway! We sent off our old companions on Wednesday, then I was with Sorella Jackson on Thursday. We did some of there work over in Palermo 2, which was a great experience. We went and visited some less actives and potenial investigators. It was fun to work with Sorella Jackson and see what things are like over in the other area.

Then on Friday our new companions came! My new companion is Sorella Mitsvotai. She is from Manti, Utah and is a music major at BYU. She is incredibly kind and thoughtful and I love her already. We get along really well and I am so excited to work with her. She is a diligent and hard working missionary and I think she is going to be really good for Palermo. We have only been together for a few days but we have already found a lot of potential investigators and the work is moving along. I am really excited to see what this next transfer has in store! Stay tuned :)

So things on my end are going great! We are starting to work with Erika again, which I am thrilled about. As of right now she kind of alternates between us and her Catholic church. She switches off church every other week, but still meets with us and is reading in the Book of Mormon. I am so excited to be working with her again. I love her so much and want so badly for her to have the blessings that this gospel brings. Keep her in your prayers!

I think that is about it from me! I am so grateful for all of you. Thank you so much for all of your love and support. I can't believe how incredibly blessed I am to have to guys. Love you!

Sorella Marsh

Ricardo's baptism!

 Veronica :)

 meet the english course gang. they call me super sister now because they found out I scuba dive.

saying goodbye to sorella mikesell

 saying goodbye to sorella nef

 i dont know why we havent taken a picture together yet...but here is my cute companion!

May 12, 2014

Ciao Tutti!

Gosh it was SO great to see you guys yesterday! Thanks so much for changing all your schedules around so we could make that happen. I'm sure it wasn't easy, but I loved being able to see all of you! Best mothers day ever :)

Since it was mothers day and everything, I want to start out this e-mail with a shout out to my incredible angel mother. I seriously feel so blessed to be your daughter mom. Thank you so much for your amazing example. I have learned so much from you about how to be selfless. I love that you always put the needs of others above your own. If there is ever something you can do to help someone else you don't even give it a second thought, you instantly drop everything and do whatever you can to serve. I am also grateful for your righteous example and strong testimony. I am grateful for the choice that you and dad made to be married in the temple so that our family could be sealed together for eternity. Thank you for sharing your testimony with me in your spiritual thoughts each week. Hearing your testimony strengthens mine each week :) you're the best mom. I love you so much and I can't believe I get to be your daughter!

On that note, I want to tell you guys about a neat experience that happened to me this week. So, since sorella nef and I dont have a lot of investigators right now we have been practicing teaching the lessons to the members in our ward so we can still be improving our teaching skills. This week we taught the plan of salvation to Sorella Giambona, a single mom. We went through and taught the lesson, and at the end I was bearing my testimony that I knew the message that we had shared was true. As I was doing that I got the feeling that I needed to talk about grandmother. I wasn't sure exactly why, but I felt that I needed to share with Sorella Giambona the experience I had at grandmothers funeral. I remember being in the room with all of our family before they were about to close the casket. I don't remember who exactly was standing next to me, but someone turned to me and said "that is the last time we are ever going to see her." When I heard that, I felt inside of me that I knew it wasn't true. I knew that I would see her again. And I know that we will all see her again because of the plan that our loving father in heaven has for us. I don't think I could ever express how grateful I am for that plan, or for my incredible family. Love you guys so much :)

Another great highlight from the week was of course Riccardo and Veronica's baptism! I know I talked a little bit about them yesterday, but I'll sum it up again. They have both been simps for a really long time. Each of them for about a year I think. They have both had to work hard for a long time to prepare themselves for baptism. But because of all their preparation it was such an incredible experience. The spirit was so strong there. And I honestly have never seen two happier people in my whole life. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here and to see the difference the gospel can make in people's lives, and to be a part of the process.

As for this next week we will be getting things ready for transfers! Sorella Nef will be heading up to Rome on Wednesday and my new companion should be here thursday or friday. I am grateful for everything that I have learned from Sorella Nef. She has been a great trainer and she will be awesome in Rome. I haven't heard much about my new companion, but from what I have heard she sounds really nice. So stay tuned for the updates with all that next week!

Thanks again for all of your love and support everyone. I can't believe how blessed I am to have you guys as my support system. How did I ever get so lucky?? You guys are the greatest. LOVE YOU.

Until next week!

sorella marsh.

May 5, 2014

Salve!

Happy cinco de mayo everyone! I hope you guys do lots of fun things to celebrate. Eat some cafe rio for me. Thanks everyone for all of the pictures and e-mails! I'm so glad to hear that everyone is doing great. I can't believe that Sonn made it to London! Welcome to my side of the pond bummie :) so fun to see all the cute pictures of her! Can't wait for it to be for reals in SPAIN! Woot woot! I'm glad to hear that everyone else is doing well too! I can't believe how blessed I am to have such an incredible support system at home. You guys are the greatest. Love you so much.

As for me, this week was another great one! This week we actually got to go on a little missionary vacation and do exchanges in Siracusa! Siracusa is on the other side of the island and it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. But the best part about Siracusa is that Sorella Vickers is serving there right now! I don't know if you guys remember, but Sorella Vickers was in the MTC with me. She was actually in my district. So it was super fun to see her again! We actually got to be companions for one day of the exchange! That's right, they put two greenies together who don't speak the language and let us go for it. Haha it was super fun, and I think we only did minimal damage. It actually really was great though to see what it was like to go through a day without my trainer. Don't get me wrong, I still have tons to learn, but I was surprised by what I could do. It's a slow process, but it is definitely coming :)

Another highlight from the exchange was that we were able to be trained on the family history work course, which I am super excited about. I'll be honest, I haven't always been the best about doing family history but I think it will be really great. When Elder Kearon came for the mission conference a few weeks ago he said that Sicily is sitting on the edge of a cliff. If it tips one way it will just explode with work, but if it tips the other it will crash. He said that the key to pushing it in the right direction is family history work. He also said something about family history work being one of the greatest tools for retaining new converts. So we are excited to get things going here! It was also great to take a chance and think about my own family history. I am so grateful for my heritage and for my ancestors who have come before me. I have a lot to live up to, that's for sure!

So overall the exchange was great. It was super fun to be with the other sisters and it was nice to get out into a new area for a few days. It was definitely a much needed break, but we are excited to get back to work in Palermo! Actually, funny story about that. So as we were on the bus ride back to Palermo I was starting to think about the work we have cut out for us to do. I was excited to get back into my own area and get back to work but I was starting to get a little nervous and overwhelmed. Right at that moment "we will rock you" came on the radio on the bus. Haha I seriously just starting laughing out loud. Heavenly Father has a great sense of humor. He knows just how to pump me up.

Anyway, we had the greatest thing to come home to in Palermo...a BAPTISM! Two of the anziani's investigators were baptized on saturday, and it was incredible. Their names are sesay and hawanatu and they are the greatest people. They have so much faith, I admire them so much. The greatest part was when they bore their testimonies after they were baptized. It was so simple, but so powerful. It is so incredible to see the difference the gospel can make in people's lives. It still just amazes me that I get to be apart of it! I love being a missionary and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here.

Also, another cool thing going on in Palermo -  their soccer team beat Catania this week, so the town is just INSANE. Rosa e Nero flags everywhere, and people are just loving their lives. Haha it is crazy, but so great. 

Thank you guys again for all your love and support. I love you so so much! I can't wait to skype on sunday! Best mothers day ever!

sorella marsh.

Mt Pelligrino with the sorelle and two of the anziani in my district

Us in Siracusa!