August 25, 2014 - Willing

This picture was a year ago or so. As Mom/Editor, I
had to add it because I found it again and love it so much!

Okay,

This week was good! Training is HARD. I am SO TIRED. Haha,I am not going to sit here and complain, but just know that sometimes I feel like that pioneer guy that said "We went west willingly because we had to." 

Her first gelato (and my fruit and
Silvanos, the gelato man who always
gives us freebies)

My companion is awesome. She is picking up on the language super fast, pretty much how I did except she never studied for 1.5 years before the mission! She is awesome. We are seeing so many miracles together it unbelievable but totally believable because it is His work. Expect Miracles! 

A day-mission with Alessandra.
She is finishing up her mission papers
and is the best. But she can't come inside
our apartment :) We study through the window :)

Random cool thing that is not significant to anyone but me: a member from Rome 3 (where I served earlier) just moved to Rome 5 (where I am now)!! He is so awesome, about 65 and the sweetest old man ever. His son (not a member, but has taken the lessons a ton) came with him and told me when they randomly showed up to English Course that he is quitting smoking and wants to get baptized. WHAT. That was incredible. They are such good people. We went to visit them this week to encourage them to share their love of the gospel with the new people they will be meeting in their new town. Dario, the son, introduced us to some friends with whom he had already spoken about the church. Incredible. I love these two. 

 My district of strippling warriors.
 (Smith, Pingree, Bee, Blair)

Okay, well, that will suffice for today. I love you all. I hope that you are doing wonderful things with everyday you have and that you can see the miracles all around. Have a great week!

Sorella Patterson

August 18, 2014 - Always short on time!

Aloha!!!

Sorry it is short, we had to come up to the office for more supplies today. Free internet, but less time! :)

Okay, no weekly email, no time. Tell everyone I am doing INCREDIBLY well and loving it all and so exhausted and wouldn't have it any other way. And tell them I love them all. Also, training is REALLY HARD but I have never seen so many miracles so consistently. It is great. And exhausting. And great. Aaaaaaaaaand, yeah. That is about it. I love this work. I love inactive members who find you on the street and tell you they are ready to come back to church, I love hours of knocking on doors to find the family at the last building that was practically waiting for you. I love watching my companion have a perfectly understandable conversation in Italian in her 2nd week in Italy. I love my Father in Heaven!!!!!!!! 

Love,

Sorella Patterson

August 11, 2014

Zero minutes left, so just want to say that all is well, I am alive, the food is still good, and it is still too HOT. Training is different... I will have more to comment on it next week I am sure.  I am just ready for bed at about 6.30 pm every day. It is great. :) Yeah, we played sand volleyball against Rome 1 and it was BOMB and now I am going to go print off like 5 talks to have for my personal arsenal. Sorry!! But I love you guys!!!

Sunshine is being scattered :) Love you all!!

Sorella Patterson

August 4, 2014 - When in Rome

Dear Family and Friends, 

I only have a couple minutes because we are going to Rome today to spend a pday with some other sisters. Tomorrow, about 8 sisters are finishing their missions, and it is so sad!! I will miss them so much!! So we are going up to see a couple and to explore the Coloseum and the Roman Forum. Woohoo!!

So, transfer calls happened on Saturday. Here's how mine went:

President(never a good sign when he makes the call personally): Hi Sister Patterson, how are you?

Me(lying): Great! How are you?

President(probs knows I'm lying, is also probably lying): I'm good. The Lord wants you to stay in Rome 5 and be their Sister Training Leader. Can you do that?

Me(bigger lie): If He wants me to, then yes! 

President then tells me the sisters that will be in my zone that I will serve.

President (snuck in before hanging up): Oh, also, the Lord wants you to train. Can you do that?

Me(not breathing): uh... If He REALLY wants me to... then yes...

President(probably laughing and/or second guessing himself): He does :) 

Well, I'm having a “baby” (meaning newbie)!! I have no idea who it will be and won't know till the day I pick her up at the mission home this week. Am I nervous? No. I am freaking out. But the Lord will help me. I hope :) Any parenting advice??

Other than that... yeah that is all I can think of right about now... Haha. I hope everything is well at home. I love you all! 

Random thought, I just listened to a talk by Hugh B. Brown. He is incredible. Feel free to send me anything by him. Ever. That is all.

Love,

Sorella Patterson

July 28, 2014 - Picture Overload!

Howdy yall!!

Just hanging around...

I realized it's been a while since I have sent pictures, so maybe I will just send a picture email. All is well here in the land of olive oil and yellow melon (these are a few of my favorite things). I got to go back to Pescara and see some old friends and church members and it was really nice to work there again. I am definitely not the same person that showed up there a year ago. Also, I got to pass my one year in Italy mark back in Pescara, so that was a nice little blessing. 

More interested in his phone than my message...
What?! It's okay, totes got that number.
He is so coming to church :)
 (if you haven't noticed, my comp takes lots of
pictures of me when we're out...)

I am learning a lot about patience and love these days. I don't have a scripture or anything for you, just a promise, that if you can somehow manage to stay faithful and just wait until you don't think you can wait anymore, and if you wait well (patiently), that God really will take care of you and give you EXACTLY what you need, which is probably different than what you thought you needed. And then, while you are waiting, look around and see who you can help along the way. Observe than serve. It will take your mind off waiting and you will develop more love! Just don't ever give up on the Lord. Never stop waiting and seeking! He PROMISES us that if we ask we will receive, and if we knock it will be opened, and if we seek, we WILL find. So ask, knock, seek. Go! Show some trust in the one person that has never let ANYONE down! :) 

I love you all.    

Sorella Patterson

the pizza that the Torre family made me my
last night there. Their shop was right
 under our house so we were pretty close... :)

What I looked like when I went back
to Pescara...I was a little excited... :)

Headed back to Pescara!

Thrust in your sickle with all your
might... :)  also,that's the hat the member
that owns the plant shop gave
me... Fratello Marras. Great guy!

Fourth of July lunch

Mama Gigante's birthday :)

Happy Fourth of July!

Shot from the house of a referral. I love Italy.

Me getting Matt's letter! Sibling Love!!!

My dear sweet Alessia!!! Quanto mi manchi!!

Proselyting to the bus driver. 

he was actually really nice and might stop by

 church some day. That would be pretty cool!

The temple! It's getting there...

That girl is Sara, that was my last day in Sassari,
waiting for the train. I sure miss all those kids! 

My companion (Sorella Mathews) and I
at Zone Conference!

July 21 - 2014 - Tender Mercies

Dear Friends and Fam,

I'm sorry this week wasn't as awesome. It started out a little rough and I kinda faltered a little because I thought my load was too heavy to carry and that Heavenly Father wasn't helping me like I needed. But then He very kindly showed me that I need to put more faith in Him and have a little more patience in waiting for the answers and the help. He is so right! One of the "helps" He gave me this week was in the form of an awesome greenie (new missionary) named Sister Pinkston. She is from St. Louis MO and is incredible. She has the best sense of humor and my abs were literally hurting after our exchange. Being, the more experienced missionary, I went into this exchange thinking I would teach her a thing or two about missionary work... WRONG. I spent some of the best 24 hours of my mission doing nothing but learning and being extremely humbled. We all come into the mission with different degrees of 'preparedness', and if I thought I was at all prepared... yeah... seriously, these new missionaries coming in are just blowing me away. I can hardly believe it. I have never felt more inadequate! Pazienza. 

In other news, we invited like 6 or 7 investigators to come to church... and Sunday morning, no one was there. Pazienza. Then... KEVIN CAME!! He took a bus all the way to Fiano Romano from his little paesino and made it in time for Gospel Principles. He only speaks English, and the teacher didn't know enough English to talk about Gospel subjects, and since Kevin was the only investigator, we made the Anziani teach it. Really it just turned into one of the Elders and myself tag-team teaching. It went pretty well and Kevin liked it-he got a lesson tailored completely to him and his needs, in his language! Then, in sacrament... the members literally made me cry for joy- I was a little bit nervous that since Kevin is a very different demographic than 99.9% of all our branch members that they might not mesh. But. Every single brother in the church that knew a single word of English came up to him and said hello and made him feel so welcomed and so loved. Andhe really did love it! He asked me afterward if we did anything during the week and I said no, just Sundays, and he said he'd be there. !!! That is the power of the members!! They just have so much more control over helping our investigators have a positive experience in church. Man I am just so grateful to be here! 

And tomorrow, I am going back to PESCARA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can hardly believe it!!! My companion has to do exchanges so we are driving down Tuesday night and might make it in time for English Course... :) One of the sisters there said the members are excited to see me and are planning to come to English Course. I could cry. I know I will cry. I am WAY more than aexcited to see them all again and to return to my "birth city" of the mission. This is seriously just the hugest blessing I could ask for right now. My Heavenly Father really loves me, a LOT. Holy Cow. Yeah.

OH!! Also, we were waiting for a train the other day that comes every 15 minutes. For some reason, it didn't come for about an hour. I have never seen that before. BUT. It meant that we met this group of American tourists from..... AUSTIN TEXAS!!! I could not belive it!!! Seriously, Heavenly Father LOVES me. Their accents made me feel right at home. We just were friendly to them, and eventually they asked some aquestions about who we are and stuff and I got to explain some things and I ended up getting an email of one of them and we will hang out when I get home. They are all professors at UT, all women, and all hilarious and awesome. What a tender mercy, for them and for us. 

Sorella Patterson

July 14, 2014 - Easter Package Finally Arrived

I got the package :) And Matt's letter :) :) :)

(This was supposed to be her Easter package!)

Zone conference last week with pictures courtesy of Sister Waddoups:

Okay not a ton of time but to answer your questions:

How is Rome? I don't know how Rome is, haha. We have only been there once, for Zone Conference, but we are going back on Wednesday for an exchange. I am excited because I will be able to be with Sorella Udall again! She was with me in Sassari, and I just ADORE her. She is one of the most incredible missionaries I have ever heard of. So much Faith. 



 
How is your companion? Where is she from? Are you the "senior" companion? My comp is awesome. Her name is Sister Mathews (Mathews and Patterson! Haha) and she is from upstate New York and knows Jonathan and Derek, my college friends. Crazy. She is half Phillipina and it is a great finding tool!
What do you do on your pdays there? Pdays, we do Parkour. No joke. There is a member that does it, so we asked to do it too, and now we are teaching three of the friends. It is my favorite finding tool ever!! A little missionary work, my style? Haha. We don't do the crazy stuff, but my body is still a little sore from last week. Pazienza. 
What kinds of service do you render? Just English course. That has been the struggle of my mission (one of them): that we don't get to do lots of service. It is hard. But we always look.




Was it like Christmas when you got your suitcase you had left behind and the mission office when you went to Sardengna??? YES!!! But I still haven't had time to open it. We are so busy all the time! It is the BEST! When I got here, there was nothing. Last week my companion and I beat both of our personal records for new investigators and we are just taking off! She is getting a little sick though, so keep her in your prayers so we can keep up with our work. Heavenly Father is doing wonders here as we increase our faith in him. I love it. 

It's really hot here.

Love you all! I hope you have a great week! Thank you so much for your love and support, I hope I can be everyday the missionary that you all think I am/can be. I am SO grateful for you all and for your love and care.

Sorella Patterson