(not so) Healthy but (very) Happy

Happy days are here again! 

This week was way too much fun. Because all of our investigators are new converts.. Our work is a little slow but that's okay. Spirits are high.

dying
Literally everyone in our distict is sick, hahaha. We're all dying. It's ridiculous because it's every single one of us (including our ward mission leader), so we'll be having a missionary meeting and after the prayer we all start coughing and blowing our noses and there is not a moment of peace. 

But it's okay because we all feel each other's pain.

peaceful
This week was Giorgia's baptism! Literally the most peaceful, easiest baptism I've ever seen. The only thing we really had to do is fill up the font & I had to say the opening prayer.. 

So sweet, the Giorgia..

lecco

For pday we were going to go to Bellagio, but then it was kinda rainy and we were running low on time so we just went to Lecco. 

I still liked it.

Shout out AGAIN to Sister Gillespie for sending those Hot Cheetos.. soooo yummy. 

I may or may not have eaten them all.

#winsomeyoulosesome
On Thursday we had to stay inside because neither one of us could function properly.  Our district leader was disappointed with us for not teaching that day, but I felt okay about taking a sick day because we were preparing for a baptism that weekend. 

& on Mom's birthday... 

twist my arm
We went to Ronald and Mariuxi's house and I love them soooooo mucchhh. They're getting married this month so they can get baptized and they love the missionaries. 

They had us over for lunch and she made me some reaallllyyyy good soup then they twisted our arms and begged us to go with them to pick out their wedding cake.. (How could I say no?) 

Then they bought me and Slla G a frappe (which in Italy is just a milkshake) 

and drove us to the park where we met up with other members and their neighbors and friends because it was a holiday. We sat on blankets, got eaten alive by bugs, and made some new contacts! 

#membermissionarywork 

ragazze
Then they drove us to English class and FHE & guess what...?  The two ragazze I think are so cute (but I thought got scared away) came back!.... on a holiday!!  That never happens. 

The elders taught them this week because it was their turn for conversation class... It was good though because Anziano Quinton did this spiritual thought with juggling that is actually pretty cool... 

"I would have been a great proficient (at juggling) if I had ever learnt..."

better cheddar
Saturday was Marisol's baptism & we got invited over for Mothers Day by a member NOT in our ward, so idk if it's real or not. But they're American, so if I could go there.... I would. cheddar cheese, you know?

They're trying to make us speak all Italian all the time now, so we've started having district meeting in Italian and it's just not as fun.... and our district leader invited our ward mission leaders... weird but whatev. 

I dont know about Mothers Day calls yet.... ooopppsss

&&&&&&& HAPPPPPPPYYYYYY BIIRRTTHHHDDAAAYYYYY DAAADDD! 
(too dramatic?) 

BDE
Anyway, tanti auguri.. You're the bomb and I miss you like mad. seriously. You're the 
best dad ever.

(Email Sent - April 30, 2014)

Jus me n Gesù

BUONA PASQUA<3

I'm trying to think of all the weird things that happened this week... 

So on Friday we have our English class and then right after we have FHE (to make our English class contacts hang out with us) & these two super cute 19 year old girls started coming to our conversation class. 

(It was so fun because Slla G & I taught it this week & then we had a spunky girl from Young Women's there and we just chit-chatted the whole time) & then afterward they said they wanted to staaayyyy!!! we were so happy.  like so happy. 

 I hope the ragazze come back. 

pasqua

For Easter we had lunch at a members house & it was so yummmmmy.  This was my first Italian Easter because I was in the MTC for the last one. whaadduppppp

pizza

For district meeting we had to go to Merate because President did interviews (I passed) but then Anziano Chipman bought us all a pizza from his personal funds ($$$$) and President brought MAIL! yaaayyyy 

package

I got my Easter package. Seriously Mom, you're such an inspired woman; it had literally everything I needed.  You sent me suuuccchhhhh a good package.. the makeup was everything I needed! da vero & socks even... how did you know? 

pinwheels

The elders took my pinwheels and put them on their bikes (so eldery) and Reeses Pieces.. so good. and I was so happy for my mascara because I bought a crappy kind in Genova and I hate it everyday. 

so I just feel happy. 

Slla G got a package from her parents & they sent me one bag of HOT CHEETOS! heaven. 

pavia

Straight from Merate we took a train to Milano and met up with the STLs and scambied our hearts out. I went to Pavia and Slla G stayed in Monza and held up the fort quite well!  

Oh scambi story.. so we walked out of our apartment in downtown Pavia and literally everyone was dressed up like a wizard.. or a medieval princess.  

We were soooo confused. like it was really quite a sight... so we stopped one of the wizards and I was just like 

"I'm not trying to offend you... but why are you dressed up like a wizard?" 

& then he told me it was Fantasy Day in Pavia... Italians are so funny.  

Then someone jumped in front of one of the trains, so it took foreveerrr to get back to Monza and I was a little frustrated but I think I'm over it now. 

Also on my scambio I was with Sorella Baer, whom I really like, & she served in Como so I decided that I think I want to finish my mission there. 

PRAY FOR IT.  

Today we're going up to Bellagio<3 sooo stoked. pictures next week.

Can someone tell Sara I say hi & I think about her often? graz milll

Sara and the sorelle on her baptism day

Also Carmen is still doing so good, but she's going out of town next week so I'm sad. but it's cool.

Sorry your present is so tiny.. I always want to buy you things but it's always like kitchen stuff or things that are hard to send.  I have such good ideas of things that I'm gonna have you order when I come home. 

Just because I love you... I want you to go to Youtube... type in "happy days mom and paige" you won't regret it.  

A member found it the other day & showed it to me.. (probs bad but...) I was so happy (Italians are like way good at stalking.. whatever) 

Seriously, can you pray for me to get sent to Como next.? The Beckhams have a house there and George Clooney.  

So I think I'm the only one that can convert them. Thanks babe.

parents

Literally I talk to you in 2 weeks soooo that's happy.  I don't know which member's house I'm going to.  Slla Gillespie can skype anytime of the day because her parents live in Italy.. no time change.  So probably in the morning for you again.. then after that I see you in the flesh! weird. 

TVB so hard.

& happy birthday

EAT SO AMERICAN!

happy days are here again,

xx paige

"Let your heart be not faint now the journey's begun.  There is one who still beckons to you, so look upward in joy and take hold of his hand.  He will lead you to heights that are new - a land holy and pure, where all trouble doth end, and your life shall be free from all sin, where no tears shall be shed, for no sorrows remain.  Take his hand and with him enter in."  (JFSmith)

(Email Sent - April 23, 2014)

Monza

I really should start writing things down to tell you all.. this week was good.  I still love Carmen.  Her daughter came to church for the first time.  She was less than impressed, but she'll grow into it hahh. 

Carmen was so happy about it. Everyone loves her just as much as I do and I'm trying not to get jealous hahah.  She was confirmed on Sunday & it was the most beautiful blessing I've ever heard. 

very appealing person
No one has invited us for Easter... none of the missionaries have invites yet... sooooo that's a little sad. It's like... I would invite me for Easter... I think I'm pretty personable.. but whatever. 

So I feel like I told you.. that I don't actually do missionary work in Muggiò?  It's just where the chapel is.. 

chapel in Muggiò

We live in a city called Monza & it's way better & I like to do finding here because there is this park that is literally bigger than Muggiò... 

It's huge & they have this race track where in the spring\summer all the Italians bring their nice cars and race them around.   

So it's like finding and complimenting the Italians on their Ferraris (they love that).  And then they ask if we wanna get in their car & we have to tell them that we can't unless there is another lady... hahah jk we go. 

hahah okay, no we don't. 

There is also Villa Reale where it's pretty and royalty used to live there. and they have horses.  EVERY DAY IS PDAY! 

sacrifices
But not really because the girl getting baptized next week can only meet us on Wednesdays.  SHE PASSED HER INTERVIEW YESTERDAY (not surprised.. she's ten).  

So we have to sacrifice half our pday every week to go see her & Slla G has a promesso appointment today so after this we have to go sit in hell for 3 hours... pray for us.

Oh yeah, I love all the pictures mom sent me.  They're my favorite 20 toes too... 

& it's weird how much Sale looks like the perfect mix of his parents... Bekah is so beachyyy<3 

This week a member taught us how to make pomodori secchi... get excited September 2014... coming for you all!

going the distance
Also, the office called me this week and asked me if I wanted to go home the 19th of September or the 21st of August....... I still told them the 19th.. don't be mad.. gelato, dad. 

Next Monday Sorella Gillespie is doing her first scambio in Muggiò.. alone... without me.  She's not happy about it hahahah.

identity theft
I told you Slla G got her identity stolen?  Someone was running her mission card in Berlin... weird I know.  Well she hasn't had a card because of it, so I've been having to support the both of us and I ran out of my mission money... not really, I just hadn't turned in my 100 euro reimbursement form.  But I did yesterday, so I have to wait until that goes through then I'll reimburse myself... it'll be ok.  I'm sorry. & I think customs for the package mom sent made my mission money go out because they pull it out of that fund... seriously my bad.  I'm trying to be frugal. 

v.i.p.
Mom sat next to MITT ROMNEY on the plane? hahahahahh weird?  I was just thinking about him the other day.. What did you even talk to him about?  Did you ask him if he ever saw that one New Girl where Schmidt pretends to be his son?  Did he think it was funny? hahah.  Tell me more.

Please tell me all the wedding plans Dal Pal has.. Is Shaila totes stressed?

What do I even get Scott for his birthday?

xx Sorella Paige O

(Email Sent - April 16, 2014)

Best Week

Vi Voglio Bene 

This week was so good.  Best week of the mission. 

My baby girl Carmen got baptized & it was so so good.  She was so cute & so so happy. 

cleaning the baptismal font

Carmen with the sorelle

& then right after we got to watch Women's Conference & Saturday Morning Session & the elders brought us gelato.

Then we went home & went to bed.

We woke up on Sunday & got to do allllll our studies. Then Mariuxi (one of the anziani's investigators) drove us to church & we ate lunch with all the South Americans and the elders & then we watched Saturday Afternoon Session. 

The Italians made us stand outside on the soccer court and get more sun because we're all still too white until Sunday Morning Session started.. 

The elders brought blood oranges and beef jerkey from America. hahah. It was just a good weekend.

gelato plus

Then on Monday we went to stop by and see our good pal Leo who owns the gelateria and he gave us free gelato.  We just sat at the bar and chit chatted about sweet nothings while he kept putting scoops of gelato in our cups and adding whipped cream (so much better & so much worse for you) and chocolate syrup on top.. we felt sooooo sick after hahah but also so happy. 

happy testimony
We saw Carmen yesterday and she wrote out her testimony and asked me to read it in sacrament meeting so everyone could know how happy she is without anyone knowing how bad her Italian is. hahaha.  She speaks well, she just has a heavy accent.. & it's not like I speak Italian well hahahah.

Baby Holland is so beautiful.  I pray for her every day.

sisters
Oh we had zone conference on Monday and I got to see Sorella Stevens, who also has a sister serving in the Rome mission (Bari), and Kaitlin slept over at their house the other week. cute huh?

Vi Voglio Bene,

Pajina

(Email Sent - April 9, 2014)

Still Much to Do

Penso che e una bella idea di parlare soltanto in italiano per la settimana di trasferimenti affinché solo kaitlin può capire e voi siete troppo bisognosi. #lecosesegretedellesorelle (hash tags in italian are almost impossible to decode) 

ALLORA sono in Muggiò ancora. che sorpresa! ho ancora tanto da fare? 

(Editor :  I believe it says: "I think it's a good idea to only talk in Italian for transfer week so that only Kaitlin understands, because you are too needy.  I am still in Muggio.  What a surprise!  I still have much to do.")

This week we had the baptism di Kiara! 

It was so cute because her whole family came, even her non-member dad & we were so happy.

It was a stressful day because there was another baptism from Merate (they don't have a font so they have to come to use our chapel) at 2:00 which is good because then we didn't have to fill the font up all the way (it takes sooooo long). But it would have been so cold for little Kiara so we emptied it out halfway then filled it back up with hot water & basically we spent the entire day in the church. 

The anziani are a strange breed of problem solvers.. 

get ready
Next Saturday is Carmen's baptism! which I'm so excited for.. We went over to her house yesterday and she had me put in new film into her camera so that she could take so many pictures.. She is just so sweet. 

A lady from our ward bought her an abbonamento (I don't know the word in English) for the Liahona and she reads everything we give her and it's refreshing.. she's in Alma right now for the 2nd time! Let's talk about it... 

proper pranzo
Then on Sunday we were about to go home for lunch when our Relief Society president (Sorella Sorgacomo, whose son was serving with Kaitlin) asked us, "siete invitati da qualcuno per pranzo?" ("Has anyone invited you to lunch?) & then she invited us over for lunch and it was sooooo nice! She lives in this gated community and has a backyard! 

So she was cooking lunch she told us to go prendere un po di sole (take in a bit of sun) because we are so ghostly white and she cooked a solid Italian lunch with 3 courses. 

We got to talk with her cute 18-year-old daughter who is so cool & she showed us all these pictures from her 18th birthday party on her macbook pro. Then she was stroking her mom's face after lunch and sitting on her lap and Sorella Sorgy hateedd it and it made me miss Mom. 

get excited
Then Sorella Sorgy was like "Okay, go do your homework and meet me back here at 5 and we'll have a tea together." (because they have programmed snacks here & I love it) and then I decided I was gonna make it a rule when I come home... 5:00 tea time. It's happening. get excited.

ALSO she told me Kait was getting transferred and I'm soooo excited for you! #forzasicilia 

thanksgiving anytime
That reminds me, we had a meeting with a man in our ward who was an assistant in the Rome mission and he was gonna give us all these new ideas for finding people. But mainly he just asked us if we could have a Thanksgiving party and buy turkey and make it for him\the ward. 

I don't think he understands that we only do Thanksgiving in November. It's fine though, hahah. 

country all the time
Also we're teaching another 10-year-old and her dad is obbsseessseddddd with country music--like loovvees country music--and we went to his house and he told us that he's going to see Garth Brooks in Dublin and he cried when he bought the tickets.  

Then made us listen to "River" by Garth Brooks and convinced us it's mission approved (we literally could not say no) and sang along to the whole thing and cried again... it was gnarly. 

This is my life.

xoxo Sorella O'Connor

(Email Sent - April 2, 2014)

Concussed

I think I'm better, hahah.

This week was nuts. 

I'm going to tell you a story that will freak you out, but don't be..

(In the missionary world, that's called a "preset.")

hit in the head

So I hit my head.. hahahah like, pretty hard & when I woke up the next day I couldn't see that good and one of my arms wasn't working really and my whole left side of my body kind of was in a lot of shooting pain. 

So I called the mission nurse & she told me to go to pronto soccorso (emergency room) but I decided it was better that I just slept all day because that's how much time it would be to go to pronto soccorso on a Saturday morning.  #YOLO 

sleep it off

So then I slept until like lunch time & it wasn't really better so I went back to sleep until like after language study time... and it wasn't all that better so I called Sorella Dibb so that I could tell her I had a concussion, but not to worry because I'm not going to go to the pronto soccorso. (Seriously, they don't do ANYTHING for you there & you just waste soo much time). 

So she said okay & that I didn't have to go but she was going to have a doctor call me and just talk to me about what to do... so she called the doctor & because everyone is sooooooo dramatic they MADE ME go to pronto soccorso... but we had an appointment.... 

So I convinced Sorella G that we could still go to our appointment then we could go to pronto soccorso AFTER. & because I've been companions with a law student she said okay... 

emergency room

So I went there and I checked in (and Italian hospitals are way different).  They give you a quick check up then assign you a color to decide how pronto soccorso you are.  (That's mainly because everyone here goes to the emergency room for no reason).  They gave me yellow, whatever that means.

I sat there for two hours next to a man who cut his finger and there was a lot of blood & I hated it. Then I told them I hit my head and they started freaking out and made me do a t.a.c. (whatever that means in English--I don't know). 

scanned

I had to wear something weird and lay down on this thing and go through a circle & they looked at my brain then they did some weird thing where they took an x-ray I think of my back/neck.  I was kind of happy because my back has been giving me problems..

But after waiting forever, they said my brain was okay.  They found out I have a sinusite in my sinus.. which means nothing.. and then they gave me a neck brace and told me to wear it for three days.  I looked chubby and awful.  Because sorella Amorosu took me home I really did have to wear it to church & district meeting... 

but I'm ok. bottom line... everyone is just super dramatic. & I hate my neck brace 

yolo

I LOVE BABY HOLLAND!  She's so beautiful.  I really just want to speak Italian to her in a high pitch voice & pinch her cheeks.  I'm glad she's doing so well.  Seriously, she looks so good. 

upside

On the upside, I'm not as grumpy, hahaha.  I'm less tired because I got to sleep for like an entire day & Sorella Dibb told me to take naps instead of language study this week (meno male) and that I don't have to do exercise.  

Sorella G and I have compromised where I don't get up before 6:30 anymore and I just sit on the sidewalk in my big coat and three scarfs in my nightgown while she runs up and down the street t>=) it's da bomb. 

Carmen is doing SO GOOD! She's getting baptized the hour before Saturday morning session of conference & she's so awesome. 

dedication

I called her on Sunday morning to see if she needed a ride to church and her husband, Pasquale, answered and said,"Sta arrivando" which could be taken a couple of ways but I took it as she was already on her way to church--which means she found a ride.  

When I got there and went to talk to Carmen, she told me that she left the house at 7:00 that morning and WALKED to church.  That would be like walking to the Redlands Building (at home in CA)... She doesn't even live in Muggiò. 

So I was kind of mad because she is like 55 years old and has a limp in her legs because she was in a car crash a long time ago & there are people who can give her rides.  But then I was also so happy that she would do that.

She said she had prayed for it not to rain on her & right when she walked into the chapel it started raining... she didn't even get wet.  She's awesome & so, so ready.  

glue

Also because I broke my brain, I ate my entire stash of peanut butter to glue it back together... #imoutofpeanutbutter

We're getting GAS installed in our apartment today (no more crappy hot pad), so I have to go.  But I love you all long time. 

Have fun in Los Altos.  Give Mitch a kiss for me<3

Oh remind me to tell you about the funeral we had to go to this week... so weird. hahah 

p.s.  It is Sorella G's week to be senior, so I have to give up control.  We have two baptisms to plan.  What's up with that?

p.s.  Amazon.uk will ship american goodies in bulk and Italians loovveeee it. 

xx Bey

(Email Sent - March 26, 2014)