Verona - Transfer 7 - Week 1

September 28, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

 

It's another picture week!!!

 

1. Sorella Cazier, Baptismal model: Alex Igho, Sorella Willey

2. Sorella Wolfgramm, Sorella Hanks, President Wolfgramm

3. Sorella Willey with the jewelry store "Frey Wille."  Actually members always call me "free willey" when I'm in my first transfer in each city.  But I thought the jewelry store was even better.

 

I loved my short time with Sorella Cazier, and it was hard to see her go!  She was so patient with me, and she taught me to "bear mine afflictions" with hope and patience.  I will never forget that transfer that flew by where we got to celebrate with our African brothers who joined the fold of God!  One of them within 4 weeks of meeting the missionaries!  WOW!!!  What a rockstar!  That's Alex, and yes, he really is the perfect model of a new convert.

 

Sorella Hanks is my new companion!  She's from Boise, Idaho, and they tell me I'm supposed to be training her.  But really she's training me!  We are being as obedient as we can possibly be together, and seeing ALL kinds of miracles!  Obedience really is the best way to live.  It's so much easier to be 100% obedient than 90%.  Obedience helps us to be more obedient.  And then we see more blessings and miracles!  I know that God gives us commandments for our good and to make us happier people.   I'd like to recommend Mosiah 2 as a great chapter to read to help us be more obedient and prepare for GENERAL CONFERENCE this week!!!  Can't wait to go had listen to the words of our leaders!  In English!  YAY!!!

 

Our dear Dorina and Cristian just set a baptismal date yesterday!  Today we're teaching them again, and also our cute family: Agostino, Natalice, and Jonathan who will be getting baptized next month, and the younger kids Gabriel, Kaiki and Tais. They are SO cute!  It's been incredible to watch people use the Atonement and change their lives!  It really is all about the atonement of Jesus Christ, and if we have faith in that, we can love everyone, even when it's hard!  I read a few different things this morning, but one I loved was from Elder M. Russell Ballard.  He said that our conversion to the gospel of Christ is distinguished by the way that we feel.  If we are truly following Jesus Christ, we will have that peace in our hearts, love for one another, and excitement for life.

 

Anyway, I'm going to try and attach more photos. 

 

Thank you all for your support and prayers as always!  I am changing in so many ways out here, and I am grateful for this chance to watch miracles happen, be touched by the Spirit in modes I never imagined possible, and meet beautiful people who's testimonies have strenghthened and solidified mine so much!

Have a wonderful week, and I think I might get a couple more photos into another email before time runs out.

 

Keep the faith!

-Sorella Willey

--
Sorella Willey

elizabeth.willey@myldsmail.net

Sorella Elizabeth Willey

Missione Italiana di Milano

Via Gramsci, 13/4

20090 Opera MI

ITALIA

Verona 1 - Transfer 6 - Week 6

September 21, 2011

Dear Family and Friends, WOW!!!!   I get to stay in Verona ANOTHER transfer!  This will be my first third transfer in a city!  I hope that made sense.   :)  AND I'm training!  Mamma mia!  I'm so excited to get to meet someone who's fresh from the MTC and filled with the spirit of obedience and fresh energy!  I've been loving all of my companions, and I've learned a lot of really incredible things from each one of them.  It will be a new challenge, but I bet I get more 'trained' than they do!  There is just so much to learn in this mission!   I have loved serving with Sorella Cazier, and she will do an amazing job in Reggio Emilia.  She's been so patient this transfer, and really helped me to see things from a different perspective.  I'd love to serve with a sister for longer than 1 transfer, but I am also happy to be able to get to know more people! I think my emails get shorter and shorter.  It's not that there's less to talk about, just that Slla Cazier still needs to pack a little, and today there's less time on the internet card.  Somehow I only got 40 minutes instead of 1 hour today.  Hmm... Oh well.  :)  Hopefully we'll actually have more time next week.  I did want to share a thing that I heard this morning.  Charles and Alex (who were very recently baptized) study the scriptures every day alone and TOGETHER!!!  It's so fun!  They both have been so strong, and come to lessons with us and the Elders almost every day!  They just bear testimony after testimony, and I am amazed by their faith! I love this work.  It really is teaching me how to live with total peace.  There are lots of challenges and heartbreaks, but each time I go to the Book of Mormon in prayer, I feel that God really is in charge.  He is guiding this work.  He is leading me, as long as I let him do so!  I love in Alma 32 how if we nourish our testimonies, we can enjoy the fruit.  And in 1 Nephi 8 and 11, we have to hold to the Word of God to reach that fruit.  I know that this journey is possible EVERY DAY!  Not just at the end of our lives. I'd encourage each of you to go to the scriptures and ask what God wants you to learn today! Love you all! -Sorella Willey -- Sorella Willey elizabeth.willey@myldsmail.net Sorella Elizabeth Willey Missione Italiana di Milano Via Gramsci, 13/4 20090 Opera MI ITALIA

Transfer 6 - Verona 1 - Week 5

September 14, 2011 Dear All, What a week!  Alex got baptized, and he's scarily strong!  He still wants to come to church and see us every day!  And now the Anziani are also teaching him about priesthood responsibilities, so sometimes he sees the missionaries two or three times in a day!  It's crazy!  But he's great!  During the baptismal service, he bore his testimony to his friends of Joseph Smith.  Three times during the past week, our investigator Michael has been with Alex and Charles as they've borne testimony during lessons.  Two days ago, Michael said that his uncle essentially told him to come to his church instead, and he wasn't sure exactly what to do.  We had a lesson planned around the Restoration and told him again of the Book of Mormon promise.  We read from Moroni and explained how he'd recognize his answer.  Then he said, "Actually I already know that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  I already know that the Book of Mormon is true.  But I'll pray anyway.  And I'll pray that He'll help me in deciding what to do still."  He really has gained a strong testimony, so I know he'll receive his answer. That's one thing that is for sure.  Joseph Smith WAS a prophet.  The Book of Mormon IS truly the word of God.  I knew it before, but my testimony doesn't stop growing.  I definitely haven't 'arrived,' and probably never will.  But I do know that this work is the work of God.  I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and I KNOW that my life would never have been nearly as worthwhile if I hadn't had this opportunity to come here on this mission.  I had a pretty amazing life before, so many blessings, so many opportunities, and so many wonderful people who helped me become who I needed to be.  But now I only pray that I can keep remembering all of the things I have learned and am learning here.  My life will never be the same. I pray that my people, God's people whom I've been able to meet, will continue to pray and feast upon His words to keep their souls nourished by the Spirit.  I pray the same for all of you. Keep the faith, and remember that you are loved more than you can ever realize! With love, prayers and thanks always, -Sorella Willey P.S. Pray for Modena! -- Sorella Willey elizabeth.willey@myldsmail.net Sorella Elizabeth Willey Missione Italiana di Milano Via Gramsci, 13/4 20090 Opera MI ITALIA

Verona 1 - Transfer 6 - Week 4

September 7, 2011 Dear Family and Friends, We had a great week this week, and it's been great to hear from all of you!  I have tried to respond to a few letters from this week, so hopefully I get most of you.  :)  Thanks for the updates and miracles that you've shared with me!  I just love you all so much, and I pray for you often!   This week we have been working with our new convert, Charles, and he is AMAZING!  He bears his testimony to everyone, and he has also introduced us to two of our investigators, Alex and Michael, who are getting baptized this transfer also.  But I got a phonecall a couple of nights ago, and the man introduced himself as Charles (I thought), and asked if we could send our people to fellowship him because he found a job and was moving to Sicilia.  We both were so sad to see him go, but told him how happy we were for him to get work.  Then yesterday in the lesson, we asked Alex if he'd heard from Charles and knew how he was doing in Sicilia, how he'd found the job, etc.  He said, "He's great!  He was at the Questura with me this morning. But I don't know what you're talking about with Sicilia, etc."  Then we tried to explain the phonecall, and he said, "How many Charleses to you have in your church?"  So we called this number again of the guy who I thought was Charles, and we had Alex ask his name (because sometimes the accent is hard to understand for me).  He said it was Stanley! Which maybe doesn't sound a lot like Charles in American English, but they sounded almost identical to me with the awesome Nigerian accent.  :)  Stanley was the friend of one of our ex-investigators who we passed to the Anziani because he (Mavin) had a crush on Sorella Smith.  But Stanley had also come to the lessons, and he was so touched that when he moved away from Mavin, he called us to send missionaries to him!!!  We then had a double celebration that Charles was still here, and that Stanley had felt the Spirit enough to ask for missionaries!  Hopefully the Rome mission gets on that referral!  He's pretty golden!  :) Alex is getting ready for his baptism on Friday, and we looked at his progress record yesterday and realized we've seen him EVERY SINGLE DAY since the day we met him!  He just can't get enough of church, the gospel, and the Spirit!  On Monday, we gave him the homework to start working on his family history, gave him a pedigree family group chard to start filling out, and encouraged him to call his mom or someone to help him get started.  YESTERDAY (Tuesday) he brought it back nearly half-way finished, and said, "I would have done more, but the network was bad when I called my mom."  He's the oldest of his family, has 8 siblings, and I wish I could remember all the names of his siblings.  First or all, his parents are Mary and Joseph.  Then some of his siblings names are: God's Gift, ABlessing, Little One, Mercy, and I don't remember anymore.  But it's so funto start learning about his culture and hear about his family.  They don't seem to have last names in general, but his name, Alex Igho, is actually special because he got his Grandfather's name!  SO COOL!  I want to do Nigerian family history work!  It sounds incredibly difficult and therefore full of miracles and really fun! Hopefully we'll be able to have enough to teach him.  We're nearly finished teaching him the new convert lessons, and he's already learned a lot about the temple, getting REALLY excited to go, and today he's learning about the priesthood!  SO FUN! Anyway, I'm about out of time now, so I've got to wrap it up.  But it's been really incredible this week to feel the Spirit teaching with us.  I've really felt that the Lord has blessed me with special talents and gifts here that I know I never had before the mission.  I hope that I can develope them and use them enough that even after the mantle is taken from me I can have a little extra help getting back to normal life.  I still see my weaknesses, they're definitely still there, but I feel the help of the Lord in overcomming and resisting temptation. I love you all, and I thank you again for your support, friendship and love! Keep the faith! -Sorella Willey -- Sorella Willey elizabeth.willey@myldsmail.net Sorella Elizabeth Willey Missione Italiana di Milano Via Gramsci, 13/4 20090 Opera MI ITALIA