Week 5

Hello Lovlies!

I am so happy that everyone is doing well, I just love you all! The scambio went so well! It was so fun and great to learn how other missionaries do things. Sorella Giordano is so funny! I loved the fact that I was forced to speak Italian and their was no alternative to speak in English, I feel like just from that one day I am improving. We had Zone Conference on Friday, that was so great too! It felt like I was in the MTC again, just sorrounded by other missionaries with great talks and the feeling of getting slapped in the face, but loving it;) jk, it was not like that:) Our Mission Pres is so sweet, he told a story about how his tooth fell out and how he had to wait for a while to save up money to get a crown and how the whole time his tongue was always probing the spot where the tooth was missing. He likened it unto us:) How when we have 27 other great teeth, when we have a bunch of positive things happening in our lives, but if we always focus on the negative we cannot see the great things we have. I thought it was a cute analogy.

I did not get your package yet Rosie:( I did get your letter and another one from Olga. My Comp said that usually packages take longer to get to you, so I hope to get it this week. You are so sweet:)

So our investigator Giuseppe is doing well, we saw him and his daughters last night. The daughters like us more and are participating more in the lessons, but his wife did not come and she probably will not again, unfortunately. He saw my conference ensign the other day and asked to have it and now he is almost finished reading all of the talks. He says he loves it! He says that he is so happy when we reads the Book of Mormon and the talks and is always full of Questions. It is so great! We saw some other miracles this week! We were doing finding all day and we had faith that we would find one new investigator, well on the last street we were going to do a lady let us in and we found our new investigator! She told us that she saw missionaries singing one day in the square around Christmas time and felt so happy about the words that they sang and she wanted to know who they were, but did not ask. So she was excited to meet with us! I am so excited, it truly was a miracle because in Mistretta it seems like every door has been knocked every year for twenty years and nobody has interest. Oh yeah, wonderful things are happing:) 

We are in Palermo today for our prep day. It reminds me of Torino, being in a big city, oh joy the smell of cigarette smoke:)

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy Leap Year!

Love you tons!

Love,

Sorella Comollo

Week Four!

Ciao tutti!

Today I can only write this email because we are in Catania for P-Day because we are doing exchanges with the sisters there and there is no time today to write:( The drive here was two hours, it was lovely with the sicilian landscape, but it took up time. I also have to drive back to Mistretta, another two hours, with Sorella Giordano, the sister I am doing the exchange with. I am so excited, she is from Cunio, near Torino, and speaks only Italian and is a convert, so I am looking forward to talking to her:)

In answer to your questions: We have a mission car in Mistretta, since it is tiny our area consists of also the surrounding towns, so we drive to them every once in a while, so we drove to Palermo. I love district meetings! They always making me wanting to do better and give me good ideas on how to. Also, it is fun to be with other missionaries and hear their stories, the good and the bad, it makes me feel better about how we are doing;) One elder last week told a story about how an evangelical missionary came up and started arguing with them and how she threw a mini bible at them, he kept it as a keeps sake, they also said as she went away a bum asked her for money and she quoted from peter or something about how, gold I have not, nor silver, but what I have I give to you, and then started to hand him a mini bible, he just looked at her weird and walked away. I thought it was funny.

Dado, In Mistretta the population is mostly catholic, but the surrounding cities have a lot more evangelicals and Testimoni di Geova. The food is about the same, they have different desserts, like for carnivale this week they had these fried scone things and chiachere and conolli. They eat a lot more healthily here than in USA. They have a big lunch of veggies and pasta and fruit and then a really light dinner, usually we eat just crackers and cheese and some orzo for dinner. I do not have to get any documents for driving, my USA patente works. I drove the other week and it was kind of scary, because it is a semi automatic, which I have never driven before and in Italy no one follows the rules! My companion laughed at me when I stopped at a stop sign, she said no one does that!

I have not received your package yet Rosie:( I know it will come to the right address though, because I got Olga's letter, thanks Polga pie you are soooo sweet I like your stationary;) and now we know our post lady since we have had so many problems. Purtroppo I have not received the first letters you sent to me anocora, but I have faith they will come:)

This week has been interesting. Our investigator Giuseppe came to church and we had another lesson with him on Sunday night. His wife and daughters are super not interested, the whole time his daughter was making fun of my Italian and going in and out of the room, she is a sweet heart, not to worry I have not hard feelings:) It was funny the wife last night was sewing and the word for sewing is cucire o qualcosa di genere and I pointed to it and said Cucina, which means kitchen, o well at least I am trying:) Giuseppe said that he would TOTALLY get baptized once he finds it is true and prays and talks to his family. He is awesome!

We did un sacco di finding this week since our appointments kept getting canceled. It was divertente to hear the different excuses, There must be some bug in Mistretta because everyone has a mal di testa;)  another one is I am busy, oh I feel sick, oh I am just about to leave, oh I have to cook lunch(at 10 in the morning), my favorite was, I need to take my pills or else I will start seeing delusions:) But we prayed for a miracle and we totally found some. A lady named Nella let us in and she told us how she loves how our eyes are clear and we look so happy and she wants to hear more about our message:)

I am also learning how to listen to the spirit more and be guided by it in the lessons. The other night the story you told me Mamma, about saria in the desert, came to my mind during a lesson, I felt like I needed to relate this story to help a Mom who feels bad about things that have happened. It was awesome because she said that it was exactly what she needed to hear!

So lately I have been learning a lot about prayer. I read in 3 Nephi 16, 17, and 18 about how Christ prays with the nephites and how he kneels and cries and is so sincere. I have been working on that, making my prayers more sincere and specific and it is incredible what a different it makes. We are so lucky to have the knowledge of the nature of god, that he really is our Heavenly Father and wants to hear from us. Most of the people here just say a memorized pray, they have not tapped into the potential of divinity pray holds.

Oh I love you all so much! I love your emails!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep them coming! They are a huge high light of my week and they buoy me up for the week to come!

Sama pie should write me an email:) Does he know my email address?

Sorry I have not written any hand written letters, there never seems to be time, but I promise to make some next P-day:)

I love you all and I am so happy all is well! Give the babies kisses for me:)

Have a good week!

Love you!

Sorella Comollo

Seconda Settemana a Mistretta

CIAO!!!! TUTTI!!!!
Thank you so so much for your emails, they make me so happy and lift
my spirits up so much! I am so glad the babies are so cute and SO
smart! I knew they would be ahead of the game since I am their aunt,
jk;)
Oh my goodness has it snowed! Mistretta is on the top of a mountain
and man does it snow! We were coming up from Palermo Monday night and
on the way there we had to get out of the car and push it up a hill!
It is so chilly here too, I did not think I could wear so many layers
of clothes! The people here make up for the cold weather, they are so
warm and friendly. They always touch my face (ecco perche' I have so
many zits;)) and say how I look like a beautiful lady who they know
and ask if I am from Germany. Lovely no?
This week has been so great, really different. We had to go to Palermo
for district meeting on Monday and then stay there the whole day to
pick up a sister in order for her to come to Mistretta to get her
permesso di sogiorno, her pass to stay in Italia for the duration of
the mission. Palermo is pazzesca! I am so glad I was not driving, no
one follows the rules, people just make up their own lanes. Plus it
was hailing really hard. So we had to drive there and back twice in
two days, it is about a two hour drive. I was feeling so bad that we
were not doing "missionary work", but later I realized that in order
for us to do it we have to do all the little things, like helping
another missionary stay in the country in order to actually be a
missionary there.
The other day we were doing casa in casa finding and everyone kept
saying there is no time or they are not interested:( we decided to
leave a little earlier from that area than we planned, to go and do
finding with the phone, calling old contacts and what not. Well, thank
goodness we left early because on our way back this lady said good
evening(crazy no?jk)...in english! We talked to her for a little and
set up an appointment to talk to her again!(she teaches english at the
high school). She invited us for tea (I was stressed out after
thinking oh dear she is going to make the tea than we have to refuse
oh dear:), but my lovely companion said we can tell her about the word
of wisdom! I must be a missionary if I get so excited over these
little opportunities to share the wonderful commandments:)) I thought
this was a miracle, because all that time we spent finding we did not
get an opportunity to teach, but the Lord led us to some one!
We went to an old investigators house last week too. She had not seen
the missionaries for years, but seemed happy to let us in and talk
about the family and the plan of salvation. During the lesson the
wierdest/embarassing thing happened to me... I started sobbing! First
off, I do not like to cry in public, second I hardly ever cry, so it
was so crazy that I just started sobbing in front of this lady that I
had just met, and they were like the big heaving sobs where you cannot
breath. I guess when we were talking about the family I was missing
you guys more than I realized, I wanted a hug from my mamma so bad.
Well, I finally calmed down a little and bore my testimony of the
gospel and how it blesses families and about the book of mormon being
the word of God, during my testimony I started crying again. The woman
we were teaching put her hand on my shoulder and then she started to
tell us how she lost her mom last year and how it was so hard, she
really opened up to us and invited us back and she gave me a much
needed hug. After the lesson I realized that I needed to cry during
the lesson, I think now it was a spiritual prompting, because after my
sobbing she poured out her soul, so that we would know her needs and
how to help her come unto Christ. I am really excited to teach her and
get to know her more.
 I have a few requests to ask of you all. Do you think you can email
me my pedigree chart or send it in the mail? Also, could you email
some recipies, like risotto and bread and just lots of yummy things:)?
Grazie!
Oh I just love you all so much! I am so grateful for the gospel in my
life! I have to tell you that I know that this church is true! I am so
grateful for my relationship with my father in heaven and how I can
grow closer to him and have his guidance as I keep the commandments
and keep enduring to the end and how everyone can have this in their
life if they choose! I challenge you all to pick a commandment this
week that you are weak on and work on making it your strength, I know
you can do it through prayer and faith in Cristo!
I love you so much!
Have a great week!
Con tanto affetto,
SORELLA COMOLLO

Prima settimana a Mistretta

Ciao tutti!

I am so distraught! They gave me the wrong address! AHHHHHH!
Hopefully, you have not sent me lots of things already. However, not
to worry I will still probably receive what you have sent me, since we
are going to find the address that I gave you last week and turn it
into a missionary experience as I plead for any mail sent to that
address to be sent to my real address! So here is the right address:

Strada Concordia 2
98063 Mistretta (ME)
Italia

(Fratello Taylor won the premio of guessing where I would go.)
This week has been splendid!!!! I love Italy! I love Italians! You
know how they always say, love the people you serve, well check me off
on that! I love the vecchiete with wiskers, I love the cheek kisses, I
love how sicilians call everyone Gioia, I love the old men who stand
on the side of the street smoking and chiacaroning(chatting). I also
love missionary work! The church must be true because I am so happy,
even when I get doors slammed in my face, which by the way happened
for the first time yesterday! This lady answered the door when it was
my turn to do the introduction and all I heard after I said my part
was, sorelle missionarie blah blah blah satana, then she slammed the
door, my companion started clapping and said now I am a true
missionary! It has been raining so much! We had to do a lot of finding
yesterday, since our appointments fell throw, so we walked all day in
the rain, cold with soaked feet. Even after this I am still so happy,
we twirled with our umbrellas smiling all the while:)
I love it here! The church is super small, but super strong. On Sunday
there were only eleven people, including the missionaries. We got to
teach primary and young womens (the YW consists of two and primary
consists of one, all three are the daughters of the branch president).
The members are always so willing to go out and teach with us, they
always bring us dinner and make sure that we are taken care of.
So there was a miracle that happened this week, I must tell you about
it! We were doing finding one friday. We knocked on a door and a man
that looked like dad(only he had a white combover:)jk dad, I love
you!) answered that door. He said he was catholic and did not want to
waste our time. My companion said oh we never waste time talking about
Cristo. He said fine we could come by another time. So on Saturday we
went back and his wife answered, she let us in and we taught about the
family and prayer! We prayed with her, oh mamma mia the spirit was so
strong, after we prayed she said she felt so good and really liked how
we pray and have this close relationship with God and she wants us to
come back! She asked us to return, hurray!
I am doing alright with the language. I can understand most of what is
going on, but man, sicilians speak sooooo fast and some times they
switch between Italian and sicilian and it is hard to keep up! I am
learning cute phrases in sicilian like chi sta ca e mia suor, which
means, that over there is my sister. It is amazing though how the
spirit can speak to us even if we cannot understand each other.
My Companion is from Logan, Utah, her name is Sorella Johnson. She has
been on the mission for 10 months and her Italian is amazing! She is
amazing in fact! She is so good at listening to people and applying
the gospel to their needs, all in italian too!
I hope all is going well at home! (ALEX! one twenty one guns is
playing in the shop I am in!!! It makes me think of you! I have to
resist the temptation to sing along!)
I love you all so much!
I know with all of my soul this church is true! I encourage all of you
to read the book of mormon daily and pray! I know if you do it you
will feel God's love and will have a happiness you cannot find
anywhere else!
Love you!
SORELLA COMOLLO

Mamma, can you add these people to the list to send my emails to. They
were my teachers in the MTC.