October 24th

What an adventure it has been this week. I am slightly ill, slightly suffering from intense nasal congestion and furious sneezes, but all is well. I don't think I have laughed as hard as I have laughed this week in a long time. The other night, I was beginning to get sick and we were out knocking doors. Our plans had all fallen through and we walked through an odd twilight zone tunnel that took us to an entirely different part of Milan, and as my companion said, it was like the map folded. We had been doing ricerca for a while and no one wanted to listen except a woman who only spoke Chinese, so our efforts were momentarily fruitless. Little did we know that would change, though we still would not find anyone. I said I needed to sit down, but there was no where to be found, so we started to leave the area. A young girl walked past us in the opposite direction and I said, "let's talk to her." She was walking fast and as I said before, I did not feel well, so we didn't catch her. But, we found a place to sit down. Miracle. I tried to make some phone calls and my beautiful companion gave me a pep talk from heaven. Really. She made me feel so much better by telling me how great it is to not be perfect. We do our best and it is good enough and we have wonderful experiences. Even if nothing works out. And she is right. Miracle. Then two Chinese men motioned to us to open the gate for them. I did and then tried to talk to them, but they did not speak Italian. Sweetly, one of them showed me what was in the bag he had, pulled one out, and laid it in my hand. He had given me a kiwi. With the stem still on it. And then walked away laughing. It gives new meaning to the scripture "take no thought before hand what ye shall eat..."That was another of our many "God loves us" moments and how He turned our rather fruitless evening into a fruitful one. Miracle. Every time something goes wrong, we look for the silver lining and just remember to say, "Dio ci ama" "ci ama ancora". It is a beautiful practice and makes each day great. In other news, I nearly died laughing recounting this story and our very silly week in district meeting. I was crying I was laughing so hard and then I sat down saying "I really don't feel well guys". I was a nutcase. Oh well. I blame the nasal decongestant. It expires this month. Other great things...After Benny did not show up to her appointment with us twice and we were discouraged, she begged us to come over and really opened her heart to us. She wants to meet with us again and I am so excited! She is so great! We met a neat lady named Saturnina who joked about her name meaning little Saturn and how she isn't really human. We had a very tasty kebab with a piadina made right in front of us. I bought boots today! And Anziano Webb and Torgerson gave me a blessing and as always, I am really appreciative of the love that God has for us and that he makes manifest through the power of the priesthood. All in all, it has been a wonderful week. My companion and I are both doing relatively well, at least we get along splendidly even if my health deteriorated mildly this week. I love Sorella brown! She is so great! such a good missionary and so fun! If nothing else, I hope you have all had a good laugh reading this and that in the future you will remember to look on the bright side, sing a song, eat a kiwi, and remember God loves you!