Christmas!!!
The highlight of mine was definitely... sleeping in! Haha just kidding... of course it was talking to the fam!! I got to talk to Mom, Dad, Tom, Andy, Ell, Paul, even little Cash (okay maybe I just heard him breath into the phone : ) , Marg, heard Nate speak some great Italian ; ) , and cute little Maura and Cameron! It was great to hear all of your voices! It always seems a little surreal the next day because now we are back to email... but thanks all and next time I talk to you will be face to face at the airport in April! Yikes!
Here's a quick update on the week...
Last week was great. We had an English class party on Thursday. We had our students watch Mr. Kruegers Christmas in English! haha. I really wish we could have watched a different one but, hey, we're missionaries and our movie collection is limited! People brought food and it was a lot of fun. Some students gave us some nice gifts... this one guys gave us a bottle each of olive oil that he made and that had been sitting since 2003! Yum... I'm currently thinking of a way I could possibly save it and bring it home with me! Vediamo...
Friday was had a couple inactive appointments and shared a nice Christmas message with them. Saturday morning we had another appointment with our golden investigator Maiken. We taught her the end of the second lesson and then also watched the restoration movie with her. At the end we left her with the invite to pray. We also asked her if she wanted to say the closing prayer to end the lesson. She was really shy about it and was scared. It's something I've noticed a lot on my mission!... that people don't just grow up like I did praying all the time and then when they see and hear the missionaries praying all the time they are kind of intimidated to pray in front of us. We explained to her how to pray and she finallydid! She got kinda stuck at the end and forgot how to end it so she looked at me I I just said... "good! now just end 'in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.'" So that was a little miracle. It's so neat to teach people how to pray! Something so simple that we sometimes overlook but also one of the most important things to do... pray and have a relationship with Heavenly Father!
Sunday we had great meetings! Maiken came to all 3 hours of church! She is so awesome and is sooo humble and teachable and WANTS to learn as much as she can. I taught the Gospel Principles class and talked about one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon... King Benjamin's address and how the people had a change of heart. Sacrament meeting consisted of all the members, including sister Harvey and I, bearing a testimony of Christmas and Christ. We also did a musical number! haha. Imagine me in a trio singing "angels we have heard on high!" Good times that only happen in Oristano! I love it! Sunday afternoon we headed down to Cagliari to sing carols with all the Cagliari missionaries. We spent the night with the sisters and then woke up and went to our Christmas Eve district meeting together. It was great fun. We had a lasagna lunch together and then had a fun little white elephant exchange. Harvey and I then headed back to Oristano for the night. We had to be in our appartments by 6. So we waited till 8:30 and then went to our Christmas Eve dinner apt with the Angius and their whole family!
We ate a ton of really really good food...tortellini with tartufa (some really expensive mushroom broth stuff....(i know the cooks are laughing) and veggies and meat...the whole italian deal. Half the family was drunk on wine so you can imagine when we tried to share our spiritual thought, which included playing a song on the cd player, the crazyness that arose! The mom and sister just started belting out "silent night" in Italian and so pretty much that was that and our thought fizzled! haha. It was actually pretty hilarious. Sister Angius was just rolling her eyes and laughing at her poor crazy family! We finally got out of there by 11:30. Chrismtas morning we woke up at 9:00 (president gave us to sleep in of course!) and then opened gifts. We got ready for the day, did some studies, and then headed over to the church for the phone calls home! We got to watch "the nativity story" as well. Fun day.
Yesterday was p-day and also a holiday here in Italy so everything was closed (ecco perche the mission is emailing today!). But it was also Sister Harvey's b-day. We spent the day up the coast in a city called Bosa. We went with Maiken and her friend Severina. They are so cool and so nice to us. They are about the skinniest people ever because they are really into physical activity. That's fun for me though because we talk all about running and they are training for a marathon! They ask for tips and all I tell them is that it's do-able but pain is required! We had a little picnic on the beach by the mare. It was a beautiful day, really warm and sunny! So that was a blast. While we were walking, I was talking to Maiken. She told me that she had read a little more of Mosiah (what I taught on Sunday) and that if she were to get baptized that she would want to get baptized in our church! I was like freakin out and and she kept talking and I said okay, you can get baptized here in Oristano! Then she was like, but I want to get baptized in YOUR church. I was like, what do you mean MY church. And she say, in Utah! And I was like, what? She has done a lot of research on Utah and really wants to go there. So, I told her she doesn't have to wait and that she can get baptized here. oh brother! We are just going to take things really slow with her... no rush whatsoever. So anyways, she's incredible and there is no doubt that she will get baptized soon. We'll try to set a date with her this week to be baptized in a couple months! It has been such a miracle to see this all unfold. While we have been so concentrated on finding a family, it has been crazy to notice the small things that have led up to Maiken meeting us sisters and being able to be taught. We still search for a family to bless this branch but that fact that sisters were sent here at this time, right when Maiken was starting english class is just incredible. This is Heavenly Father's work and he really leads those who are looking for the truth to us. Well, now starts the after holiday diet. I really think I've gained a couple pounds throughout the last week so I'm starting the "Harvey" diet and will be eating like her for the next while!
Hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you and thank you for your many prayers and great examples!
Love Always,
Sorella Boynton
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