June 16, 2014

Ciao Tutti :)

What in the world how is it already monday again?! This past week flew by! It was definitely an incredible one and I have lots to tell you guys about, but first of course we have to start with a fathers day shout out to dad! I don't know how I ever got so lucky to get him as my dad but I am so grateful I did. I hope you know that I was thinking about you over here pappy. In church we had a lesson about the priesthood during relief society, and I was just overcome with gratitude for being raised in a home with a righteous priesthood leader. Then in gospel principles we talked about obbedience, and again i was reminded of what a great example dad is. Tithing in specific came to my mind. If there is one thing I will always remember about dad it is his faithfulness in paying tithing, and humility in always recognizing that our many blessings come from the lord. And as if that wasn't enough, he's also hard working, selfless, and a pretty funny guy too. All in all, I couldn't be more grateful that I get to have him as my dad! Sure love you papps, I hope you had a great day :)

Speaking of our awesome family...I GOT ALL OF YOUR PACKAGES!! Thank you SO SO SO much! Sorella Nef came down to Palermo to get her permesso so she brought down the mail from the office with her. It was like Christmas in June. Everything was absolutely perfect! I got the one from mom, the one from dad, and the one from Sonn. You guys are all the greatest. I love all of it :)

Okay, on to this week! This one was an incredible one for us, filled with all sorts of miracles. I wish I could tell you about it all but I'll try my best to get in the highlights! So to start off we got new investigators this week! The first one is Nancy. She was actually a referral from the Anziani, but we had our first lesson with her this week. She is a single mom with the cutest little boy. She has been going to different churches for a few years now searching for the truth. We taught her the plan of salvation and once we finished she said "wow...I really like this. It just makes sense." Coolest ever. We are really excited to teach her again this week. Next is Anne Marie. Sorella Mitsvotai and I met her on the street one day while we were out doing finding. The great thing about Anne Marie is that she is from America, which means we teach her in English! When we met her she said she wants to find God more in her life, so we told her we could definitely help her with that. We are really excited to start working with her. 

I can't remember if I have already told you about Maria Scalisci, but she is another investigator that we started working with this week. We also met her on the street. She was watering some flowers on a tree so we stopped and asked her what it was. Turns out that it was a gravesite for her son that had just passed away a few months ago. She and her family are having a really hard time adjusting to the loss. My heart was broken for her as I saw the pain that they are going through, but I was so thrilled that I had the opportunity to bear testimony of our Heavenly Father's plan for us and to tell her that she would be able to see her son again. It was such an incredible experience, one that I will never forget. 

We also had a really great experience this week with the less active member we are working with. Her name is Sorella Albamonte. We started working with her back when sorella nef is here, so it has been a while. We visit her at least once a week, but we havent really been seeing much progress with her. The deal with her is that she doesn't want to come back to church until she feels spritually ready. She doesn't want to do it just to make someone happy. Which is important, but she is a stubborn on that point. Haha anyway, it was her birthday this week so Sorella Mitsvotai and I decided last minute to make her some cookies and bring her flowers. We had to run to the store a few time because I kept forgetting ingredients (mission brain, its a serious problem) but we finally got them all ready. So we headed over to her studio but turns out she was super busy with work. She wasn't able really to talk to us so we just had to leave the cookies and flowers and go. So we were a bit bummed about that. Then just when it seemed like our efforts were totally wasted, we got a call from her the next day saying that she is gluten intolerant and can't even eat cookies. WOOF. haha I just about died. So we were trying to plan a time to go see her again when she said that maybe she would come to church! Then I really just about died. Haha the fact that we even got a "maybe I will come" is a miracle. So what do ya know the cookies that she couldn't even eat did the trick. Charity never fails. 

honestly though, charity is something that I have learned a lot on my mission, especially from the Italians. I have never met so many people who are so big hearted and willing to love you from the moment they meet you. I love it. For example this week on the street I met a woman at the bus stop. I wanted to start talking to her so I told her that I liked her necklace. Next thing I know she was taking it off her neck and putting it around mine. Or for example this week we had a lesson with Lili (which was incredible) and she pulled out some cookies for us to munch on, then left us with the whole bag. It's just little things like that. They are always looking for ways that they can give and serve and be helpful and I absolutley love it.

I hope all is well at home! Thank you all so much for your love, support, and prayers. I dont think I could ever put into words how much it means to me. You are all the best and I can't believe how blessed I am. Love you!

Until next week!

Sorella Marsh

Mt. Pelligrino!

 Surprise birthday party for Sorella Anderson

 Reunited with Sorella Nef!

 Broke down and bought a fan this week.  Turns out it's not so easy to assemble when the instructions are all in Italian.

 This is Ape.  Funniest little cart things that the people drive around.

 This is Irene Aiello.  She is a ward missionary, and works in the Strasburgo zone 

with Sorella Mitsvotai and I.

 Yay for new clothes!  The elastic waistband works wonders :) Thanks again!

June 9, 2014

Hey everyone!

I'm so sorry but we are running short on time today so it is going to have to be a short one. The senior couple who is serving here had some family in town so we took them up to Mt. Pelligrino today but we had some bad luck with the busses and it took us a bit longer than we thought that it would. So I don't have much time but I'll do my best to get everything in here!

This week was SUCH  a great one! It was zone conference and stake conference for us, so we got a double spiritual boost. We'll start first with zone conference. This week for zone conference we talked again about finding. Our zone leaders gave us the challenge of always keeping our purpose in mind, and being forever finding missionaries. Sorella Mitsvotai also spoke for a little while because she is the STL of our zone, and she did a follow up on "being the message" that elder kerin talked about at mission conference a few months ago. Then President Waddoups spoke to us about family history and using it as a finding tool. All in all it was a great conference. It is always the perfect motivation to get us out and back to work. There was one down side though - unfortunately, I didn't get my package. I think they have it at the office, there just wasn't room to bring it down. So hopefully I'll be getting that soon! I'm sure I will love it :) But more importantly I learned a lot from the conference and got some new ideas of how Sorella Mitsvotai and I can get to work here in Palermo!

On to stake conference! So our stake is the entire island of sicily, so for the saturday session of stake conference everyone just meets in the middle, which is Enna. So we got to take a little missionary field trip! For stake conference there was a womens meeting and a general meeting. I'll be honest, for the general meeting we were sitting in the back and it was really hard to hear, so I didn't understand much. But I absolutely loved the womens conference. The stake primary, young womens, and relief society presidents all spoke and their messages all involved member missionary work in some way or another. But what really hit me was that they all also emphasized the importance of raising righteous youth. It just made me so grateful for the home and the circumstances that I grew up in. If there is one thing I have learned being out here on my mission it is that I have been so incredibly blessed. There are so many people here who have to work so hard to have so many of the things that I took for granted my whole life. Thank you all so much for your righteous examples and influence in my life. I seriously could not be more grateful. For the sunday sesson of stake conference we watched the broadcast from Switzerland, where President Uchtdorf and Elder Andersen were speaking. But little did I know I also got to see two other familiar faces -  Brenda and Dick! That was a great surprise for me :) all and all the conference was a great success.

Okay one more other quick story from this week. So this week was a little bit of a downer for Sorella Mitsvotai and I. We weren't able to see any of our investigators and we were just getting cancelled appointments left and right. One of those days we were supposed to have an apointment with Pasqualino. So we headed to the church and waited for him to come. After about 15 minutes we were started to lose hope. Haha we called him a few times but never got a response, so we just decided to go out and do finding. Right as we were about to walk down the stairs a woman comes in the church, asking about information for english course. We started talking to her about it, then offered to give her a tour of the church. Next thing you know we were talking about the Book of Mormon, when she agreed to sit down and read a little bit with us. We read the introduction and she agreed to continue reading and talk about it with us again this week! Her name is Lili and she is incredible. We have only met her one time but you can already tell that she had an amazing amount of faith. The whole experience was just such a tender mercy from the Lord, and such a testimony to me that He is aware of us in each and every moment. In our moment of trial He literally placed a new investigator in our hands. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but I am so grateful for that. In the end His ways and His ideas are always better than ours.

Thanks everyone for all the love and support. Sorry I didn't have time to respond individually to everyone this week, but I am so grateful for all of the pictures, videos and e-mails. You guys are the best.

Until next week!

Sorella Marsh

These pictures were from the Zone Conference and were taken by Steph's mission president/wife.  (Yes, I am that kind of mom that took them off their blog.)

 1 set of Sorella, Sister Waddoups, Steph's companion and darling Steph!

 Ever wonder what Steph really eats?

June 2, 2014

Ciao Tutti!

I know I start every letter off this way, but I just have to say thanks again for all of your e-mails this week! Just when I think you guys couldn't be any greater somehow I am still amazed every week at how lucky I am to have you guys rooting for me back home. Thanks for all of your love and support, seriously it means the world. 

It was another great week here in Palermo! I wish I had time to write about everything, but for now I want to tell you guys a little bit more about our investigators we are working with right now. So first there is Vincenzo and Lila. I know I told you guys a little bit about them last week but I'll try to give you a little more details.So Lila has two sisters that are less active members of the church. What is really neat about that is that she remembers a lot about the church. When we first met her she was like "hey I know you! You have a golden bible that was hidden under the ground!" You don't get that response as a missionary very often. Haha anyway, she remembers a lot about the church so she is a lot of fun to work with. What is really cool is that she heard these things over 20 years ago, and still remembers so much. Obviously a lot of this stuff really struck her, so it's been so awesome to see her rediscover a lot of the things she heard her sisters being taught about. Vincenzo is also really great. He doesn't have as much faith as Lila, but he is much more open to the idea of the Restoration. All in all they are an awesome couple. We had a great lesson with them this week about the Book of Mormon and they both agreed to read it and pray to know if it was true! So we are really excited to be working with them.

Next is Pasqualino. I dont remember exactly what I already said about him, but we found him one day doing finding on the street. Basically he had to main questions - why god allowed bad things to happen in the world and what made our church different than other ones. We have only been able to meet with him once so we haven't gotten to talk much about his questions, but we did leave him with a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and he said he has been reading both! Unfortunately he is moving right now so he doesn't have a lot of time to meet with us, but hopefully this next week will be better!

The last person we are working with right now is Erika. As I'm sure you guys remember we have been working with her for a while but she is starting to make some progress again! We went over to visit her earlier this week and she had the Book of Mormon up on display in her house. Turns out she's been trying to get her family to read it. Coolest, right?! She also wants us to start teaching some of her friends about her church. She seriously is so great. The only problem is we still just have to keep working on that baptism thing. She has so much potential, and Sorella Mitsvotai and I both feel that she is so close. Earlier this week we were all in the church a little before FHE. Sorella Mitsvotai and I were talking to Erika when Suzy came in (Suzy is the new convert who just got baptized about 3 months ago). Next thing we know we are talking about Suzy's conversion story. Then John and Riccardo come in, 2 other youth who are recent converts. They bore their testimonies about the truthfulness of the gospel and the blessings of baptism as well. The Spirit was so strong, it was such a great experience. Erika felt it too. She is such a great girl and has such a strong desire to do what is right. I know the gospel would bless her life so much. This seriously is the craziest thing for me...I have never wanted something for someone else as badly as I want Erika to accept the gospel. Please keep us and her in your prayers this week. 

So all in all we have a lot going on over here! The work is going forward and I am so grateful for the chance I have to be a part of it. Sorella Mitsvotai and I have been working hard and keeping busy. In fact we have literally been running from appointment to appointment. Haha and I absolutely love it! It is so crazy to me how much I love this work. Never in a million years would I have ever thought that I would spend all day everyday going out and trying to meet new people and actually be happy doing it. Another miracle of the gospel! Thank you all so much for your love and support. I am so grateful that I have such an incredible family supporting me back home. How did I ever get so lucky?! Keep up all the good work at home! You guys are the greatest.

Until next week!

Sorella Marsh.

this little guy has stolen my heart. He calls me sorella sorridente, which means smiley sister. cutest ever.

 Sorella Mitsvotai and I at chefalu!

 Meet alessandra! she is an investigator of the other sorelle.

 playing the minute to win it oreo game for FHE :)

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!