Buon Natale and Merry Christmas!!

Buon Natale tutti!!!

È un bellissimo giorno qui in Italia per Natale! E sono molto grata per l'opportunità di essere in Ostia con la mia collega e anche le belle persone!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

This is such a special opportunity we have. Today is a day we can dedicate to family, service and focusing on Christ! (So pretty similar to Sunday, just add presents and lots of goodies.) This week has been especially beautiful and an amazing experience to center on Christ. We have been able to reach out to lots of people and invite them to the temple open house.

This last Friday we had Zone Conference. For those of you who haven't heard, Sisters all over are now allowed to wear pants! So the Church will help the sisters who are already out to buy a few pairs. I'm excited to try that! We also had a special training for the sisters so we can help out at the Temple Open house. We start VIP tours on the 12th of January, so it's coming up. We have been instructed to be the World's friendliest tour guides. That will be a really special experience. I can't wait to welcome people to the house of the Lord.

We then were able to have a good conference about effective finding and about the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was beautiful. We then enjoyed a feast of cookies and Hamburgers, and then got to do a nativity. My favorite part! I was assigned as an angel. (: So I and two other Sorelle got baptismal dress and dressed up for the part. It was lots of fun.

We had the special Sacrament Meeting. I had the opportunity to play the songs for the meeting. It was beautiful. I didn't understand everything but I knew they were talking about my Savior and the Spirit was there.

 For Christmas eve we were able to spend the morning with Danielle. That was a special bonding moment with her. I can't remember if I mentioned, but she has a baptismal date of March 8th, so keep her in your prayers! But I'm glad we got to do that with her, so she didn't have to spend all of Christmas eve alone. Christmas eve night, we wrapped up gifts for Angela. We gave her a hymn book, so she could sing the hymns at home. And then she really enjoys book marking her scriptures, and never using a pen. So we got her a cute spiral book of Sticky Notes and I gave her my YW Ribbons. We wrapped those all up and tied them with a cute bow. We did some finding and also called Sorella Harmon's family. They are just all so wonderful. It made sense why Sorella Harmon is also so wonderful. I am so blessed to have my trainer. And then at night we stuffed each other's stockings and told the Christmas Orange story and shared an orange. We opened up our Christmas Pj's. They have cats we had little mouse fuzzy socks!! It was a blast.

Today we woke up and opened gifts, and made breakfast for the other missionaries! While we were making pancakes at the church, this little old lady wandered in. She had seen the church was open and came in. Her husband had died two months ago and she kept saying he was with Jesus. It was really sad, but we offered her love and an invite to come eat with us. She was headed to her sons, but said she would come to church. We hope to see her. We were able to eat Christmas Pranzo with Angela, her son and neighbor. Boy, they fed a lot. It was a little overwhelming but we made it through. She was so touched by our gifts. It was special because we were able to share some of the gospel with them. And then after being stranded at the metros trying to get home, I was able to video chat my family outside of the Burger King. We only had one slightly crazy man stop and interrupt the call, so it was good. I was grateful to talk with my family and share my testimony with them. It was a really special experience.

This Christmas season has been a wonderful chance for us to gift Book of Mormons to those we love, and offer them the gift that gives us the most joy. 

I challenge you to give a Book of Mormon away to someone you love. Let them know how much it means to you and the joy you've found. This gospel is the best gift that could be given. I love you all.

Merry Christmas!

Buon Natale!

Vi voglio bene ❤️

Sorella Thorup 

There's No Place Like Rome for the Holidays

Ciao ciao!

This week is tight on time, and was fairly uneventful. But we went to Rome, and you can tell Christmas is just around the corner! So I've made this weekly mostly photos! I also met Donny Osmond. So that's cool too!

Buon Natale!!

Cooking Corner with Sorella Thorup:

This week's menu, 

Carbonara Pasta!

Preparation:

Step one:

Boil your linguine pasta as normal.

Step two:

Fry your cubed bacon bits (or pancetta if available)

Step three:

Whisk two eggs and stir in some parm. Cheese. 

When all is prepared, mix bacon bits into whisked eggs. Drain pasta, and pour in egg mixture into pasta. Stir around, then portion onto plates. Buon Appetito!!

International Day of Service

Ciao i miei amici!!

This was quite a packed week! We had the Light the World International Day of Service, my first scambio (or companion exchange) and I had my fortune read!

To start things off, I will tell you of my scambio. I went with Sorella Palmer to serve in Rome 3. We were able to talk to lots of people, and also sing in an African Spiritual choir. It made me think of my bestie Emma and her love for Spirituals. It was really fun. We went to the Friendship Center, which is a place that holds classes for refugees. We were able to help out with the choir. It was quite the experience. It was magical(: 

As far as my fortune being told; we were taking the metro, and this old man was persistent in talking to me, despite me saying I don't understand haha. I told him I was a missionary and I was from the United States, and then he would say one word in a questioning tone, and without context. I couldn't figure it out at like all. Apparently he thought I said Sardinia or something. But finally the lady on the other side of me (who I had tried to talk to and failed miserably, ((and Sorella Palmer didn't sit by me and I was completely alone in trying to talk and understand what they were saying))) said that I was from America and then he understood. After that I was quiet because he was particularly hard to understand, but he tried to talk to me again! So finally I'm like "va bet. (which means whatever) if he wants to talk, I can talk about the gospel", so I launched into the scriptures and how now we have a prophet who receives the word of God.  And he seemed interested, he asked where the prophet was, what his name was etc. So I kept talking. Then all of the sudden he grabbed my hand and studied the palm. The lady sitting next to me, and Sorella Palmer (who was across from me) started laughing too. The old man then proceeded to read my palm. Apparently I have a good fortune ahead of me. I'm going to be a nun! Lol, he then refused to read the palms of the lady by me and Sorella Palmer. Apparently I was more "important" and yeah. So that was funny. He was either mocking me or crazy, or maybe a bit of both.

And finally, for the International day of service, my district cleaned the streets of Ostia. I can not count how many beer bottles and cigarette cases we picked up. But a lot of people stopped and asked who we were. One father and son even got our information to set up another service day where the boy could bring all his friends and help. It was pretty cool. We made friends with some punk ragazzi and they offered me weed when I said I knew who Snoop Dog was haha. When we politely declined, they said since we don't drink or smoke, and that we were living the strong life.

As far as miracles go, they were happening left and right. But one in particular that stands out was when we were teaching Roberta.  Roberta and her son Andrea. He is in his 20s, but has a younger mental age. We had really struggled trying to teach Roberta. She loves music, and every time we go, we play a song on the piano and sing. We pick a primary song or hymn arrangement. So that's been good. We then go over the English words we sang, and teach her what they mean. Then we do a mini lesson. But every time the Spirit would come, Andrea would drive it away. So we were stuck with this problem. And Roberta wouldn't come to church because Andrea didn't want to. So, we took the Anziani to our last lesson. Anziano Payne played guitar and the rest of us sang. Then the anziani went and hung out with Andrea, and Sorella Harmon and I had a really good quality lesson with Roberta. She was so touched that we brought people to be Andrea's friends. Apparently he has none. So she was touched and she agreed to try and come to church on the 23rd, and to come to the Osmond Devotional. Hopefully Andrea will want to come because he has become friends with the Anziani. So pray for them! It was a miracle that things clicked so well between them. :)

It's been a wonderful week and I've learned so much. I'm grateful for all of you and for all of your examples. I love you much!

Vi voglio bene!! 

Sorella Thorup