Week 23: Best day of 2020

- November 18, 2020

Ciao!! What's up everyone? Hope you all are doing good and staying safe cuz Corona is getting crazyy lately! I'm just happy for every day I get to still go out and see people...praying we don't have to be locked in our apartment anytime soon🙏 These past 2 weeks have flown by. Here's some highs and lows:

- The two people we were teaching completely ghosted us so we've been working our tails off to find new people

-Been doing a TON of raking leaves...I woke up one morning & thought I had broken my wrist in my sleep lol turns out it was just sore from raking for hours

- Taught some AMAZING member lessons! We have been doing this thing where we teach lessons to members in our ward who were converts to the church and they act like their "old selves". This way, we get to practice teaching and they can give us feedback. Plus the spirit in these lessons has been sooo strong and the members love it.

-Found a new person! José. Missionaries have taught him before but they said he just likes to bash. We decided to give him a second chance and we've had 2 great lessons with him! No bashing at all...at least not yet;)

- Sister Spendlove tried to dye my hair blonde and it turned out orange😅

-Tried to find some people in Italy to teach but they all just ended up asking if I would marry them

- Sacrament meeting got cut down to 25 people so I had to lead the music and say the prayer

- Finally got in contact with this awesome part member family who has 2 unbaptized kids. We are hoping to build a relationship with them and help bring them back into the gospel. Part member familes are my fav!

- The greatest day of my mission so far and the best day of 2020 was last Tuesday, when I got to go through the temple to receive my endowment. And what was even sweeter was that my parents got to be there:) The entire day was filled with so much JOY! It was so great to step outside of the real world and feel the special peace that you can only feel inside the temple. My parents are angels and decided to buy us heaps of food and also brought presents to give to our convert familes. Happiest day ever. My mom & dad are the greatest people I know and it was so fun to be with them, show them the hills we used to bike up, introduce them to our favorite people and most of all, get to be in the temple with them. Man was it hard saying goodbye for a second time but I am so grateful for that day.

Shoutout to my bffs Sorella Searle and Sister Collins for starting the MTC! They are gonna be the greatest missionaries ever. Thanks to technology, I was able to listen to both of their farewells! They completely inspired me as I listened to how excited and ready they are to serve. Also--Sorella Searle's italiano é fantastico!

In the past 5 months a lot of people have told me things like: "This must be the worst time to be serving a mission" or "I'm so sorry you have to be a missionary during this time." WHAT? NO! This is the best time to be serving a mission. The world needs the gospel now more than ever before and the Lord is showing us so many new ways to share his word. Yes, being a missionary right now is hard, but like I have said before, there is nothing more important than this work. There is nothing I would rather be doing.

Romans 8:18

"If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Not even Covid can stop this wonderful work!