I love you all!

Ciao Tutti!!!!!

Vi voglio un sacco bene, sapete!?

Questa settemana e' stata bellissima! Scrivo in inglese pero, perche' e' piu' veloce;)

So guess who I saw at Zone conference yesterday!? The Caruso family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are from Torino and when they saw my name, Comollo, they both happily exclaimed, "Ma sei la figlia di Adriano!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The husband (I do not know his name) wanted to hug and kiss me, but he is not allowed to since I am a sister missionary, so his wife did for him! They say hello, tanti salutoni, and say they love Adriano and Jerrilynn and how you two were the kindest people and always willing to help. Also, they give you lots of kisses:) 

My testimony of getting others' numbers has grown! About three weeks ago we were doing finding, strada, in Sant'Agata, and we made a goal to get one number. Well, we got it! After much tribulation. It was this old man, about 70 years old, he said that he likes to learn about other religions. Usually the older folk here just turn us down saying they are too old to learn, or that they will by dying soon so it daint matter or they say no and then load us down with fruit, like cheeries, oranges, nespole, kiwi, watermelon, and the list goes on (needless to say, we eat lots of good fruit!). Finally this week we found time to give him a call. We set up a place to meet. It was near a gas station. We waited for him for a while and thought that he maybe was not coming, turns out he was on the other side of the street, oops. We ran around the block trying to find where he was, because he called us saying, dove siete!? He is so wonderful! His name is Salvatore. He lost his wife to breast cancer 7 years ago and misses her so much. He showed us a picture of her when she was 21 and on the back of that yellowed aged photo was a cute note that said, "Ti amo per sempre". I almost started crying when I read it and heard the story behind that beautiful young women. I felt so happy and priviledged to be the one (along with Sorella Sobeck of course) to tell him that those sweet words are true and that he will get to, with out a doubt in my mind and heart, see his wonderful Pina again. This experience has made me realize how important everyone is to God, even the old man who lives off in the country and only comes to the city to shop every once in a while (it was a miracle we found him even, since he hardly every comes to Sant'Agata). I love how in 3 Nephi 11, Christ allowes all to come to him, one by one. He loves the individual. That is what missionary work is, it is us as a society(for the church) going out and preaching the gospel one by one, to the individuals who are ready to receive it.
I have been struggling lately with my confidence in the Italian language. It is frustrating because I understand almost everything, but I feel like I am not improving in speaking. I am going to start focusing my language study more and start praying more specifically for help, instead of just a general gift of tongues. It is more that I stumble not speaking about gospel things, becuase I am not used to it, like talking about the wierdo sounds the car makes. We went to get it checked the other day and the conversation we had consisted of, La macchina fa cosi', and then making an ugly gurggling sound. So intelligent;)

Giuseppe came to stake conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We crammed like sardines in the back of Antonio's little car, sweating because Antonio doesn't use the AC, but we got him there! It was in Palermo and we were going to go with him and his daughter in his car. That morning he told us his daughter was sick and that his tire was flat and if we could car pool. We are not allowed to take people in our car so we called Antonio, his car was already full, oh the stress. Well, he called us back a few minutes later and said the people that were going to go with him bailed (sad for them they did not get to go, but great for us), so we could go with Giuseppe! It was so great, it was for all of Europe and was a broadcast from SLC. President Erying spoke on the Family and then Anziano Nelson spoke on the missionary lessons, like the restoration, plan of salvation, gospel of Christ and commandments. It was perfect for Giuseppe. He was so funny, he slyly picked up some Ensigns off of the table, oh Giuseppe!

Zone conference was so great! We learned about not getting offended, because it is so easy to get offended. Pres. Kelly told us something that I have never really thought about before. He said why would you give the person who is being rude to you that much power over you, to make you sad or to make you not keep your covenants. Do not give them that, you have to choose to act to overcome what ever they did to you or said to you. They are not worth you losing your faith and all that you have worked for.  I know that it is hard, but I pray that we can all overcome those who offend us, we can do it as we go to the Lord in prayer and read the scriptures for strength. I have an example. We were doing so house the other week and a lady came out telling us to go away because we just want to brain wash people... That hurt me so bad. I could have just reacted and gotten sad that people just view me as that, but my companion and I both decided to pray, to help us overcome that offense. It is so amazing, we both felt a comfermation that we were meant to be here, on a mission, for the Lord.

We hiked mount Etna today, not the whole thing, just pieces. It was so pretty and rocky, lava rocky. I slid down a hill, it was so fun, but all the rocks grated my bottom and my pants ripped...Embarassaing? Just a tad!

I love you all so much! I am glad that all went well at the reunion! 

Have a good week!

Love you tons!

Con tanto amore,

Sorella Comollo

PS Pappi! Antonio ha ricevuto la tua lettera. Ti dice grazie mille e tanti saluti.

PS Sam, I think I had a different Chemistry Teacher. Are you going to SLCC next summer also, because I think I want to too, that would be fun if you went together!?