Monday, December 30, 2013

BOUN NATALE FOR REALS NOW!!

I can finally say it because it is here!!!!! SO BOUN NATALE EVERYONE!! It is pouring rain, and the wind is crazy. Maybe we will get a hurricane for Christmas this year! Last night we had Christmas eve dinner with the family Cangialosi which was just great. They bought our investigator Kevin shoes for church. His baptism is this Saturday... and so is Yosmairas!!! We are sooo excited. They are so prepared. Miracle is that Yosmairas husband wanted nothing to do with religion. This past week someone broke his arm... bad business, but he wants to change his life now. He is coming to her baptism and church on Sunday. Heavenly Father really works miracles. Today for Christmas we are going to members houses that have invited us over. I am just so happy to be here. It is not about presents, or really even anything that we think of when we think of Christmas...or at least i think of, but it really is all about Christ. This past week i have realized how real my relationship, and everyone's relationship can be with our Heavenly Father. When we pray its not like me sending a letter from here and hoping it will get to you guys in a week or so. When we first speak His name, He is already there listening. It is in the most real sense direct communication with the creator of all. THAT in itself is amazing... When we have the faith to really open our mouth, and talk to Him, He is there. It is just mind blowing. I started thinking  about how important the covenants we make in the temple are. We literally made covenants with God. Sacred and eternal covenants, and i am so grateful for that trust He has in me personally to have made those, and the power that it brings daily when i do what is right. Another thought this week i had is the reason we missionaries have to go through the temple and make sacred covenants before we go to wherever we are signed is because this work is sacred! It is the work of our Heavenly Father. He is so wonderful, great, and the creator of all. This work is His work. That is why it is commanded for not only us missionaries to to do, but all members of the this church to do it. This work works because it is His. I love my family here in Sanremo with my whole heart. I will know these people for the rest of eternities. I was always meant to come here. We are all preordained for something, and going on a mission is something that i was always going to do. I remember the day i got my Patriarchal blessing. I looked at both of you mom and dad and said i was going to serve a mission. I forgot about it until around last year this same time, and i really felt the call to serve. Heavenly Father needs me and all these other missionaries at this time. I just hope to be the sacred missionary that can deserve to really do this work and deserve to be here with these amazing people i have come to love. So many people ask if i am sad i am not home for Christmas.. And in truth, i am not at all. The opportunity that i get to teach about our loving Savior and his birth is more than i could ever ask for. The opportunity to be here is the greatest blessing i could ask for in this moment. I really hope that this Christmas is filled with that happy bubbles that we get this time of year for all of you!! I hope you are finding missionary opportunities. I love Christmas and will love it in 2015 with all of you, but i cannot explain in words how happy my insides are to be here. I can somewhat understand the term 'my heart is full' because it really is, in the most truest sense. I love my savior, and i love the story of His birth from His beautiful mother Mary. It all started with the light of the star that was the sign of His birth, and he is now forever that light for us! Sequiamo la luce. Merry merry merry Christmas!!!!!! BOUN NATALE! PLEASE watch Buddy the Elf, Home Alone, and Christmas Vacation! You just have to. They are too good not to watch... BUDDY THE ELF; WHATS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?!


Love Sorella Woods!


Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Boun Natale!!!

So we spent three hours making Christmas decorations for our apartment today!! We even made a tree! Stamp of approval? I think yes. :D We are just here in sunny Sanremo seeing miracle after miracle every day. We are soo lucky to be here. There is this one woman named Rizzi.. She is kind of ancient and rides her bike everywhere even though she can barely walk. Sorella Egbert and i were walking to our apartment yesterday, and we found her just sitting on a bench in Plazzo Colombo smoking away. She really doesnt know our names, but she calls us gioia. So as a district we work on a diferent Christ like attribute every day.. yesterdays was patience.. let's just say walking her home took patience. Conversation with a very old woman, who is somewhat bitter (she hates Christmas) and walks like she is walking through molasses took a very long time. But we were able to serve her, and carry her bike up the stairs for her again. How she ever does it on her own, i do not know, but the miracle in this story is, is she now has a Book of Mormon in her house, and she has invited us back!! I just really love her though... and who couldnt love a woman with the name Rizzi.. I dont think its her first name but that is what we call her. We had a zone conference in Alessandria this past week. Three missionaries are going home tomorrow.. i couldnt even imagine. I mean i still have a long time, but the thought i coming home.. ? Ugh. I am just loving it here to much. Everyone keeps asking if we miss home or miss Christmas at home, and in all reality, yeah, i miss my family and everything, but the spirit here is so different. This Christmas has nothing to do based of the material things of the world. Everything that we are doing is for our Savior. The fact that every day i get to talk about Jesus Christ and his birth to everyone i meet is such a special opprotunity. I would never trade it for anything! This Christmas is really about Christ! Its just so great. :) We are going to our Branch Presidents house for Christmas day.. he is probably one of the most funniest and loving people i have ever met! This branch here needs that. Like i have said before, this branch really is a family. Sometimes its a little weird that everyone is in everyone elses bussiness, but for the most part they just really have that love for others that Christ has... And they love missionary work. Our lessons with members present grows weekly. We are truly blessed here. We have our three baptisms coming up, and we are soo excited!! Pray for them and their progression in this wonderful gospel we have! Always remember that the sign of Christs birth was light. The star in the sky, and He will forever be that light in our lives!! Find others this Christmas that need that light, and i promiise that through your efforts, you will feel the love of Christ even more for yourself. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father. He answers our prayers daily if we truly have faith in Him. I love this gospel with my whole heart. I feel it with my heart, and that is how i know it is true! I am so blessed to be here and have this sacred opprotunity to be his servant and his disciple. I will be forever grateful! I love you all! All of you are just a great bunch of weird people that i care about.. the Italians here are even weirder, and i cant even explain the love i have for them! Tell next week! MEERRRYY CHRISTMAS!
Sorella Woods :)

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Lesson Learned...



Do not travel on the day called Sciopero. Because this is the day where all the Italians go crazy, stand in the road, park their trucks in the middle of the road, and shut everything down because they don't like their government.. and that includes the trains. We decided to go to Savona for our district meeting. We get there thinking everything is all hunky dory until we had been sitting on the train to get back to Sanremo for four hours because all the stations are blocked. The even better part is we have to go through Imperia to get to Sanremo and that is where everyone was going crazy because that is where the union or something like that is... finally after four hours our district leader gets the bright idea to pray... 20 or so minutes later, we found another train that took us home. So what is the lesson learned here... Probably ask Heavenly Father to help first before you are in a train for four hours. Pretty sure prayer is pertinent for all troubles though! So what i am getting at is PRAY!! WOW, because really, It works! We are very lucky though that it is mostly over in Sanremo so it is safe to be walking around again.. and we can buy food again. Sometimes this thing goes on for three days or so or until the government decides to change something.. It is almost like a fiesta though. They do this every year! And still... fixes nothing. What a bummer. So our branch president called us the other night because his wife had washed her hands at the church and lost her wedding ring. The word for ring and lamb are very similar in italian, so Sorella Egbert thought what he was asking us to do was to go to the church and find her lamb... I totally thought of you mom. I will bring you home an Italian lamb so it doesnt get eaten here... but what he meant was ring. It was hysterical because we could really just imagine her carrying her pet lamb around... Why not? I mean they bring their goats into the kitchen? What would be the problem.. hahaa, anywho, the work is moving forward. We cant seem to teach the actual lessons planned with the mom and daughter who have baptism dates this month, but Heavenly Father knows what needs to happen.. It is where i need the divine gift of patience... which i lack. I will always remember what Nana told me... patience is a virtue.. Trust me, i try very hard to have it too. I just really want them to have this special day all together, but you cant push people! They just have to feel it and if we continue to teach them with this faith, i know they will be baptized. As for our other baptism date, she is soo ready and perfect. When we talk about elect people, she has a neon sign above her head. She knows everything is true. We asked her to live the word of wisdom, she said okay without a question. She is amazing! It just brings so much hope to see these wonderful people changing their lives. I was just thinking about why i know this gospel is true, and it is because there is nothing else in this world that brings this happiness, peace, or even just content feeling in life. That is the perfect way to describe how i feel in my insides. Content... with really everything.. Content to be a missionary, and just with the progression of this work.. Really more content. I bounce up and down sometimes because i am so happy!.. Sorella Egbert thinks i am a freak.. but we all know it is true. LITTLE DRUMMER BOY IS PLAYING! I LOVE NATALE! Ah, i am so excited for Christmas here. I get to be here with these crazy people that i just love with my whole heart. I made a new homeless freind. Her name is Maria. We made cookies last week and i stopped and gave her two because we always see her and she is just really nice. She sits outside our church door sometimes too so i gave her crackers today. She really is great! Just a really humble person.. i like humble people. I should be more like them... maybe just not homeless.. i dont want to be that.. Well we are just so excited for Christmas!! We are going to make sandwiches for the homeless with the giovanne this coming week, make cookies today and bring them to random people. sing christmas songs in the Plzz. Colombo with some branch members, and just bring the wonderful message of our Savior to everyone!! Because everyone needs it. I read it again in a talk by Uchtdorf. The brightness of dawn always comes when our nights seem the darkest. We need to bring that to people because we know it, and they need it. Serve someone this Christmas season! Just do what Jesus does.. he brings everyone happiness. Do the same!!! HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!
Sorella Voods (or what they all call me now)

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

It is Christmas time in Italy!!!

Annndddd, we are so excited because we have three baptisim dates all on the same day this month. MIRRRACLESS every day! We are so blessed. Sanremo is supposed to be warm year round, but it has actually been freezing. I keep telling Sorella Egbert that we are going to wake up and there is going to be snow on the ground!... even though it hasnt snowed here in years upon years. Hey, but i can hope, and hope i do every day. So the Cangiaolsi family made us Thanksgiving last week.. They even brought an American flag to hang up. They are seriously some of the two greatest people i have ever met. We had pasta... very italian, and lasagna.. more italian, and lots of bread... so just Italian. The food wasnt thanksgiving food, but it was probably the best Thanksgiving evaarr. We listend to a CD Ciro bought in Zions called Indians Dream with my all time favorite jam, Under the Eagles Wing... because that is what all Americans listen to on Thanksgiving.. I cannot explain how great it was. And miracle was that two of our girls that we teach in English class came!! And now one is a new investigator, and the other we are helping her with family history, so hopefully this next week she will also be a new investigator. Tonight we are decorating CHRISTMAS sugar cookies that Sorella Egbert and i are hopefully going to have time to make today. They love when we bring our american food. It is so funny how they are all so fascinated by how we do things. So we were walking up the street the other day, and i saw a really cool leaf on the ground.. and i just like leaves(Sorella Egbert calls me a gatherer)... i do not know why, but these are Italian leaves, so i grab it real quick to show Sorella Egbert, i turn around and she is gone. My first thought was... Sorella Egbert.... BASTA. I literally thought she had booked it or something. So i turn the other way, and she is just standing there watching me like i am crazy. So this got me thinking what would i do if she just dissapeared and i was in Italy all by myself. That is a horrifying thought.... There is not really much more that happens that i can really explain in email. Writing emails is kind of hard because there is just so much that happens every day that there is no way to explain everything, or even how i feel. Heavenly Father is in everything here though. It is amazing how much closer we get to Him by being emersed(emmersed..idk, i dont write in english anymore) in this gospel. That is probably one of the coolest things about being a missionary. You feel so much closer to Him, and that allows us to reach out to other people and bring that love because we just feel it sooo much more every day. We have to rely on Him here to do this work. Back when i was at home i could get by every day without needing Him in everything, but now i cant walk out the door without His direction. Something really cool that i read in the Liahona from Anziano Uchtdorf was, it is not our job to convert someone. That is the Holy Ghosts job. Our job is to share what we know, and not be afraid. That is not just for missionaries, but EVERYONE!! YEah! So great!!! Share what you know, and bring people the hope we have every day. You will be soo happy. (: So just one more amazing story that we saw Sunday with Ciro and Francesca.. First we had a coming home party for a girl named Jessica!! She served in Rome! That was great.. and really sad. I am never giving up the tag. It is mine foooorrevvveeerrrr. But anywho, Ciro and Francesca drove us all the way to Imperia to see a woman in the hospital. She has gone through some really hard things, and now her mind just cant really handle things now. but we were able to share a message with her and bring her the hope and light back in her life of this gospel. We drove the hour or so back to the church.. So the thing is about our church, it is not a church building, it is actually just over a grocery store, but i lovve it. We have a lot of homeless people that like to hang around the door of the church though.. They are everywhere all the time. There was one on Sunday that rang up on the phone, and Ciro answered. The guy wanted food, so Ciro went and grabbed his wallet and headed down. He asked the guy what he wanted and went into the store to buy him food. I dont think i have ever seen someone do that. And our whole branch here would do the same thing. I am surrounded by some of the most greatest members i think i have ever met. They live this gospel. It is not something that they have to work on every day or convince themselves to live. They just live it, and it is so simple to them. Live the gospel, and you have happiness. Everything really is so simple.. we have our guide and the way. That is why people can accept this. It is so simple, but so true! We are planning on just singing at the doors of people. They may slam the door on hi, we are missionaries... but who would shut the door on Christmas songs??... that is our next tactic in line. Well my brain is out of words. HAve a happy happy CHRISTMAS MONTH at home! I will be here in Italy enjoying the snowless warmth!!! (which actually is a really great blessing when you are outside ALL the time) Just remeber, the shadows in our lives cannot stay when we have the light of the gospel! I loveee everyone. BYE!
Love Sorella WoodsLove Sorella Woods