20 FEB 2008

Ciao ancora una volta!

First of all a shout out to my bosom bud.......JENN.......Have a wonderful wedding! Congrats my friend!!! I'll be thinking of you Friday!

This week as really flown by, it's seems like things are getting busier and busier.

Thursday we had a Zone Blitz where all the missionaries in our Zone got together and did some exchanges and just did finding work all morning. It was fun and we taught a good amount of lessons and invited people to come to our english class. It's a good way to get all the wild ragazzi here to at least think about church things! We also stopped by Rita, one of the new investigators and she is just crazy busy! We brought her some cookies and she said for sure we'll met for a lesson this week...speriamo bene.

Friday we did weekly programming in the morning and tried so hard to get an appointment with Claudio and Maria, the other new investigators but they just weren't answering the phone. So we decided just to go drop by their house and left a Book of Mormon in Romanian outside the door for Maria. Hopefully we can see them this week.

We also met with an old investigator who was nice but not really ready to commit. Then we decided to do some house. We choose a palazzo to knock and started ringing the citofono. The second one we rang let us in. We walked up the stairs and saw this lady welcoming us in. This has happened a number of times on my mission and it's always a little scary because you don't know whether they are going to be crazy like that one hypnotizing lady in Oristano or golden like others. This one is pretty golden! Her name is Zohra and she's from Tunisia but has lived in Italy for over 15 years. She told us how right before we rang she had been in her room praying for a sign and that's right when we rang. She said to us, " you said you have a message of Jesus Christ, so let's hear it!" We got to teach her a brief first lesson and she was very interested and said she believed all of it! She said she wanted to come to church but she was sick and so wasn't able to make it on Sunday but really wants to come this sunday! She is a cristian and has so much faith in Jesus Christ. She's had her fair share of trials, like her 26 year old daughter passing away while giving birth to her second son. We are so excited about her and know that the gospel can really help her. So cool to see Heavenly Father's hand in guiding us to her that night.

Saturday morning we went with our Elders, some members and contacts to play volleyball. It was fun and reminded me of when I was in Milano and went to play volleyball with those missionaries. That night we had an appointment with Elena, that lady I met with that one Sunday night we were singing in the Piazza. We talked to her for a while and she's just not ready, she said, to be spiritual right now when there are no material things for her. Va beh.

Sunday was great and we had two investigators in church. Marilena and then the daughter of Tawna, a member. The talks were amazingly perfect for them and now we are beginning to teach Tawna's daughter, Yana. We had a family home evening with them on Monday night and hope that we can continue to teach her. She's 18 and just really with it, kind of a fireball but awesome.

Yesterday there was a baptism so that was neat to go to. Our Elders have been teaching this Romanian guy named Ivan. He's awesome and so it was his baptism yesterday. We tried so hard to invite our investigators to come but eveyone is just so darn busy that none came!


Today we went to the Zoo here in Rome with all the other Rome missionaries. It was beautiful weather and we had lots of fun. This week is week 5 of the transfer which means we get transfer calls yet again next Monday. I'm obviously staying here in Rome and we are hoping that we get to stay together but we'll see.

Life is so good as a missionary and I just have to treasure every minute because I know time is going to fly this next month!

Thanks for your emails and love, support, and prayers!

Love you all,

Sorella Boynton