All We Are is Dust in the Wind

Hello my family and friends,

Another week has come and gone, and here we are on P-Day again. This was a good week here in Ostia. 

Sorella Brown hit her year mark this week. So what did we do to celebrate? Well we started it off with an appointment with Marie Louisa. And it went super well, and now she's a new person we're teaching. Then we went out finding on the beach, and when lunch came around, we got some pizza. And we ate Italian Pizza on the Italian beach. It was pretty poetic, and the best pizza I've had yet. Then we went and got some gelato. We've gotten gelato a couple times this week... All the shops are opening back up so yay!

We went out to do some casa a casa (house to house) in Infernetto. No one let us in. But a couple people said we could come back later. But that's okay, cause as we were exploring the neighborhoods. We found a tree with really pretty blossoms. So we snatched some. On Saturday we were at the temple again. It was an extention day of the open house. It was slower, but a quality crowd. It was mostly Italian nonmembers. And a lot of people requested a visit!! It's been a lot of fun and a blessing to be able to see so many people go through the house of the Lord. Italy is going to be pretty blessed. Now we just wait for the dedication. 

OH yeah, I forgot to mention last week. I'm sure it's old news now but missionaries can call their families every week now. So last Monday, I called my home phone and surprised my parents in the early morning. Haha it was so cool to be able to just talk with them. We were all pretty shocked by the change. But yeah. :)

Other than that, it was a pretty ordinary week. Just casually living in Rome, ya know- the usual. 😂 

Anywhosies, I love you all♥️♥️

Ciao ciao!

Sorella Thorup

PS- over 50,000 people have been through the Rome Italy Temple Open House! 

Dearest Fans

My dearest fans,

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of The Adventures of the Sorella Thorup in Rome!

It was quite the week, filled with parties, chocolate, confetti, and priests!

This week was a week of finding. That entails talking to as many strangers as possible and trying to get them to listen to you. This is hard in English, and has proven to be even harder in a language one barely speaks. However, it was really fun and we were able to see a lot of really cool things. We did temple finding hard core for the first half of the week to hand out the rest of our temple invite cards. And so we met up with the Anziani, picked a metro stop and said "Prego" to everyone who came out, and tried to hand them a card. It was funny, because if the first person took a card, everyone behind them did too. But if the first person from the metro said no, all the people behind would say no. Then we would hop onto the metro, and walk up and down trying to just hand them out to the people sitting. I handed out the most cards of anyone in Ostia I think it's because I know how to look sweet. I just smile allll the time, even when no one is around, and then I feel happier, and people are more trusting to take a card. Because, I'm a girl standing out in the cold, who is really happily handing out little cards to random strangers. Whatever I have HAS to be good. And then I end up having gospel conversations because more people will stop and ask me what it is.

 In normal street contacting, people rarely want to actually listen to what I have to say. But we did that until we handed out all of our temple cards, and switched to normal finding the rest of the week. We did video finding, which is exploring Ostia, and inviting those we pass to watch a short video about the Savior. We have had some success in that. But I think the best finding thing we did was last night.  Right now is Carnival in Italy, So yesterday we did an English Course jesso and there were people EVERYWHERE. How a jesso works, you have one person drawing on a sheet on the ground, and the other missionaries go and talk to everyone nearby. That's kinda scary, because that meant I had to go talk to people by myself. But it was wonderful. I invited so many people to come learn English with us, and so many of the conversations turned into gospel related. I taught the Restoration multiple times, and there were some pretty interested people. I even gave out my first Book of Mormon by myself. It was to this nice older gentleman, we had a good gospel conversation. He took the book and said he would come to English Course for sure. So I hope to see him this Tuesday! But it was a lot of fun, and the rejection doesn't really bother me anymore, so all I really remember is the people who listened lol.

One interesting experience I had this week was when we were on the metro to meet up with the Anziani. I sat in a different spot than Sorella Brown (still within sight and sound-don't worry) so I could try and have a conversation with someone. Well long story short, a family walks in, the parents and younger daughter sit in the bench across from me, and the son (who is maybe is a couple years older than me) ends up squishing right trying to talk to me in very broken English, flirting very hard-core. Turns out he's a priest from Poland. Super awkward experience, but I invited him to the temple. We made oreo balls for Valentine's and taught English Group how to make valentine's day cards and it was adorable to watch a bunch of grown men try to make them. A photo is attached haha.

Anyways, I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!!

Sorella Thorup

Benvenuti!

Hello folks!

I'm back in Ostia! All of this last week I have been helping at the Rome Temple Open house!! Let me tell you, I am so exhausted but it was a week I'll never forget! I don't have much time, but I've included some pictures from the week and a couple voice recordings. I learned how to say my name in Danish, so that's cool! And the talking points are what I would say before every video. I say the same video a lot. But it was a magical experience. I love you all :) 

Struggles

Anyways, family mine, I'm not doing a real group email, just to the fam-bam and a couple friends. I am at the temple this week and so I don't have a real pday, so I have to try and email during slow times, thus the group email. I'm going to try to respond to the individual emails you guys sent, but I'm sorry if I can't. 

So the temple. It's pretty special. We had Zone Conference yesterday and I sang in a musical number and arranged the other musical number. But one of the elders who is dying this transfer translated the hymn Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise, and I sang that. It was pretty beautiful. It was a quartet and all of the people there had lovely classical voices and I felt like I stopped the group from being better. But I am glad I got to be part of it. We had some really good training and the Spirit was killer strong. I got a lot of personal revelation.

Also, I know you already know, but my time in the MTC was really really difficult. Me and my companion there had a lot of issues. And so, since we have been out in the field, when we have to see each other, we don't talk. This has been wearing on my mind. And you are rarely companions with the same person twice, but I kept having this sinking feeling I was going to have to be her companion again some time in the mission. Yesterday, we were given time to sit on the grounds and just focus our thoughts on Him. It was dark and rainy, and I couldn't tell who anyone was. However, I looked over and saw Sorella Gisseman (my MTC comp) siting alone. I was hit with this immensely huge impression to go talk with her. I did not want to. I did not want to go near her. But I knew I needed to. So, I took a deep breath and went. I sat by her and asked to take a moment. I apologized for the rough times we had, how I thought she was a wonderful missionary and it was terrifying. But she said she had had the same thoughts and was planning to leave a note for me in the villa. She mentioned she knew she had issues with patience, and she was sorry for the MTC. She said she felt like we were going to be companions again, and she would love to go again and do it the right way. I shared I had similar impressions and things were solved. I have had things that were hard to forgive, but my time with her was REALLY hard, and I held a lot of resentment. However, last night, in front of the temple, all that melted away. I can not tell you how much weight was just gone. And now things are civil. We aren't best friends but it's a start. A good start to healing. We will see if we are ever actually companions again, but I hope God gives me a chance to do that over. Because, when I first found out she was my MTC comp, it felt right so I wonder if there is more I will be able to learn from her.

This past week was honestly pretty hard. I struggled a lot. Sorella Brown is a Sister Training Leader, and she had to spend a LOT of time planning in Rome. This last week, I spent one day is Ostia. And the rest I was stuck in a room doing nothing. However, Sorella Brown is lovely and makes up for it. She honestly is so amazing. I'm so so lucky she is my companion. I love her to pieces. I will let you know how everything goes next week. OH AND I JUST SAW THE CHAFFINS AND GOT THE PACKAGE THANK YOU. I love you all lots. Pray for my Italian! Also I got my eyebrows threaded so that's what the photo is.

LOVE YOU ALL ❤️❤️❤️SORELLA THORUP