July 30-- Yet another week in the life of Sorella DeVocht, making a difference in Italy

(Oops, I got this one out of order.)

Dear Family,
Wow it is hot here! We are sitting here doing email and my face and neck are wet and sticky. Thank goodness we don't have to wear nylons in the summer!

Well, it is Italy, and it's summer, so practically no one is here, we don't have very many investigators, we have 2, and the work is slow but we are determined to find more investigators.

Tomorrow we have Zone Conference; I am so excited! And we get to ride a train! This will be my 9th Zone Conference!!! It's crazy how fast the time goes.

We made brownies for this family that we don't really know with a little note that we left for them at their door. Sorella Huber was really freaking out, wondering if we had done the right thing or not. THen a hour passes by and this number calls us and it's them! This family! Then he told us to ring them next time so that we can eat together. Then like 15 minutes later, he sent us a text telling us that the brownies are good. That is so crazy and definitely the Lord is helping us so much!

We have an appointment tonight with this african woman called, Lovett. She wants a Book of Mormon and she wants to learn more. I'll let you know how it goes.

Well, that's all for this week, sorry this email is so short and kind of lame.

I love you so much everyone and thanks for everything!

untill next week,
Love, Megan

THE BEST COMPANION EXCHANGE...EVER!!!!

Hey Family! How's it going?
So for the past two days we did a companion exchange. It was great fun! I was with Sorella Casalino, this is her first transfer in the mission, we were in Bergamo. She is Italian but her family moved when she was 7 years old to the United States. So she speaks both Italian and English. She is really great. She is an amazing missionary! This was the best companion exchange I've ever had. She was just fantastic! I'm not sure why, but she kind of reminds me of Nancy. She gave me a lot of ideas for how to be a better missionary. I love new missionaries, they can really teach us, the old ones, a lot. I'm really grateful for her and all that she taught me.

Ok, here is a summary of how are companion exchange went:

Monday night we went and saw a member, then we did some finding work, door to door. No one wanted to listen to us, but someone did want to call the police on us and someone else did get afraid of us. We walked home and we just have to ring our district leader when we get home. We got home, I tried to ring, but nothing happened. We planned and the district leader tried calling us and we tried answering but we couldn't. This went on from about 9:30 - 10:30, with the district leader, the elders in the other ward, the zone leaders in Como, and our ward mission leader callin us like every minute. We could see who was trying to call us but we couldn't answer. We even tried going to our neighbors to use their phone, but no one answered. Finally, our ward mission leader came to our house because the elders were worried. They said that they and our ward mission leader, Brother Carlo, called us and a man answered. So crazy! So Brother Carlo came over and saw that we were alright. And he called the elders and let them know we were alright. In the morning our alram didn't even go off on the phone, but I had waken up 10 minutes early and then my Sorella Casalino woke up when I went into the other room. After studies, we went on our quest to find the Tim store, our phone company. It only took us and hour and a half to find it, which, if we knew where it was, it would have only taken us 20 minutes to find it, where we received help from everyone, including a local police man who wants to come to church! We walked backwards and forwards and into the wrong store, finally to the right store, where Sorella Casalino saw that the phone was charged (we had charged it all night long, but it didn't charge, or it didn't show that it had charged). The lady at the store said that our phone was online and that it was ok. We tried calling and....it worked!! We walked home, walking all over Bergamo to find Esselunga to buy some food for lunch. We had lunch - wow! real food for the first time in days! Language study and then a nap - I know, I shoudn't have done it, but I had to. Sorella Casalino kept falling asleep during language study so I told her to sleep while I get ready. Then I moved the chair and she thought someone was screaming, she comes into the study room and says, "Sorella! Did you hear someone screaming?!?" It was kind of funny. More casa, this man told us that he doesn't need to know the purpose of this life. Missionary meeting was great. Lesson with Ruben and Agustina and their awesome kids: Ruben, Clarissa, and Jonathan. It felt so great for the whole family to be there. Everytime they see this kinder treat, they will think of the church. We used this type of kinder treat to help us with the Restoration. They really enjoyed it. We invited them to read and think about Moroni 10 and to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. We had them write it down and we said that we would do it too. I must do it tonight. It really does help my personal faith to grow when I do the same things or something similar to what we are committing the investigators/members/less actives to do. I have seen my faith change for the better thanks to this simple practice. I like thinking it of an attitude of, "Let's do this together." It really does work. I love it so much. This was my FAVORITE companion exchange; it really was so amazing.

Last Friday, we had Zone Conference in good ol' Milano, my home, and I was able to realize and understand, thanks to Presidente Dunaway, that it is super hard to be a member here in Italy. It's really hard. There are so many things I want to do to help these members stay active and to help those lost sheep come back. I love the talk by Elder Perry from last conference about the lost shepherd. When I come home, I don't want to be missing in action, I want to help those be rescued.

Well, in Interviews, President is going to interview me for school! Last week I emailed him the endorsement papers. I have one more essay and hope to send at least a draft to Becky today.

I must write Presidente now, but I just had so much to tell all of you and I just can't type as fast as I would like to : )

I love you all! Keep the faith!!!

Vi voglio bene!!!

Con amore,

Sorella DeVocht

Love Potion number 9,er, Transfer number 9!

Hey Family,

Well now I am in Bergamo! Which is great! It's a lot calmer here than in Milano and I like it. We cover 2 wards, just like in Genova! But luckily, the 2 wards meet in the same building but just at differnt times. My new companion is Sorella Huber. She is great. She reminds me a lot of my old companion, Sorella Glass and also of my little sister Jenny : ) She is really crazy. BUt so am I, so we make a great companionship!

Well now that it is summer, everyone is gone and no one is interested to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had our correltation meeting last night in Bergamo 1 and our ward mission leader told us to go to the members. I'm pretty excited about that.

Last night, one of our members called us and asked if we could come over tomorrow (today) and get gelato because she wants to meet me. It defintely was an answer to our prayers, to have more lessons. God really does hear and answers our prayers. I'm a witness to that.

Sorella Booth went to Baltimore Maryland last Wednesday to finish her mission. I have to write her today to see how she is doing.

Funny story: Yesterday I laid down for a bit because I was really tired. I slept through all of lunch and half of lanugage study. When I woke up, I was SO confused. I thought that is was the next day, in the morning. I was wondering why I was wearing my missionary clothes, why I wasn't in my pj's, where my companion was. Then I saw that it was "almost 7am" when really it was almost 2pm. I walked out into the study room and I asked Sorella Huber, "What day is it?" She was like, what are you talking about? And I was still confused and slightly sleeping for about an hour after that. Note to self: do NOT take naps during the day or I look and sound like a crazy.

Life is pretty good. Thanks for the emails and love.

well, until next week, this has been

Sorella DeVocht, reporting live from Bergamo

Love, Sorella DeVocht

Saying good-bye to Milano

Dear Family,
Life is good, it is great. I love the mission so much. Anyways, so yesterday we guessed who would go where and what not else for transfers. I thought, if I'm being transferred I will go to Bergamo. When our Zone leaders called us last night, they asked us if we wanted to guess where we were going; in my head I thought, I'm going to Bergamo, but I didn't say it out loud. They told us, Sorella DeVocht, the Lord has called you to Bergamo to be senior companion to Sorella Huber. I knew I was going there. And I pretty much knew it all day, but I just kept going. My companions keep telling me that I am super calm. I am. I feel really calm about packing which is crazy because I'm always crazy when I am packing. So folks, I'm going to Bergamo! I'm super excited.

We went to the opera last week, we went and saw Aida. It was great. The scala is so beautiful. I have pictures, but not today. We weren't able to see the end, the best part, because we had to be home by 11pm, sort of like Cinderella. Missionarella - it kind of works. Who knows, it could be a hit. A missionary musical, that would be funny. : )

I was thinking about it this morning, and it really was a privlege for me to serve here in Milano 3 because if Sorella Booth hadn't gone home, who knows what would have happened. But I feel so blessed to have been able to serve in Milan, exactly where I wanted to serve when I first received my call; and for so long, 9 months, and in every ward. I am so happy. Plus, in Bergamo, we, the sisters, manage 2 wards, just like in Genova. I am really excited to go. I will miss Milan, but I know this is where the Lord wants me to serve. I feel the same as I did when I left Genova for Milano, like it was right. Because it is right.


I am just going to answer everyone's question in this one big email so if it's kind of random, just bear with me. So, here we go:

The opera was great! Yes, I enjoyed it very much so. I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did.

Oh Jenny, do we have interesting neighbors! One old lady, who is probably in ther 90's and wears the same outfit everyday and can hardly hear us, laughs this crazy laugh, and always yells at the pigeons to leave her balcony: "VADA VIA!!!!!"


Yes Emily, we can go sight seeing on P-days.

Oh Spencer, yes I get to play with cute little kids like you but not as much as I would like to because I'm a missionary. It's because I'm Norwegian, isn't it? : )

Thanks for the pictures Amy! And Ben, I quote you a lot here on the mission and when I said something in companion study today, something that you had said, Sorella Stevens said , your brother-in-law sounds like an all-star. So thanks again Ben for all your great emails! I can't believe how big/tall Katie is getting! She's going to be taller than me by the time I come home!


Well I think that's all folks. Reporting live for the last time in Milano 3

This has been Sorella DeVocht

July 8--just a quick note

Dear Family,
Hey how are you doing family? the 4th of july was hot and we didn't do anything. we just worked. really hard and it was great. i love being a missionary so much. we are getting to know the members a lot better. Brother Ciorli is a great help to us. he is in the bishopric and comes with us to lessons. he is a really great example for me.

mabel's baptism was great!

sorry i can't write much today, we are short on time because we are going to go to the SCALA tonight and see Aida!!! my first opera ever, in Italy!!! I love you all, thanks so much.

Love,
Sorella DeVocht

July 1--Sticky weather

Hey Family,

Sorry if I've been kind of rocky these past few weeks with writing home. I've been having some challenging times but I am working on enjoying the moment and learning and growing from these experiences.

Ok, the work in Milano 3 is doing great. We have found some really great people who want to progress and who want to get baptized; like Sandra. We found her doing casa in casa last Thursday; she let us in, we taught her a lesson, we kneeled together in prayer, we left her a Book of Mormon and committed her to read, she came to church on Sunday, she brought her Book of Mormon with her, we had a lesson with her after church with a member, she went to that member's house for lunch and was there for like 5 hours, and then we had an appointment with her yesterday and she is doing great. She lives with other people and they think she is strange for doing this, but she says, I don't care, I feel something in my heart and I'm going to follow it. She is so great!!! Plus on Sunday, we met her at the bus stop to walk to church together and she said she was sorry that she was in pants but that the next week she would wear a skirt. Oh family!!!! she is just SO GREAT!!!!!!! And the reason why we did casa in casa in that area was because we had an appointment with someone else in that pilazzo but we didn't know her citofono or where she lived, so we decided to do casa in casa. It's so true that the Lord really does work in mysterious ways.

Do you all remember Mabel? She was my investigator in Milano 1 and this Saturday, she is getting BAPTIZED!!! We're going to go! I am so excited. Oh, Mabel is so great. She is totally amazing.

Well FAMILY I love you so much and I am so grateful for you all!

Love, Sorella DeVocht

June17--Oh happy day!

Dear Family,
Sorry for not writing last week but like Sorella Festin told you, I was having internet problems.

Guess what? Two of my old investigators in Milano 1 are ... getting BAPTIZED!!! Mabel, who is 17 and Ester who has cancer and whom I love so much. Their baptismal date is for the day, July 4, Neil's birthday. The Zone Leaders, who are in Milano 1 and are now teaching my old investigators called and told me about that. I think that is just so exciting! And it's for this transfer, so I will be here, and I will be able to go!

Last Thursday was June 11. One year ago I entered the MTC to start the mission. And now I am here in Italy, serving the Lord and inviting others to come unto Christ. It's pretty interesting: last night I had a dream that I was home. That my time on the mission was done. No one really seemed to notice that I was home. But I felt like I really was at home, really truly. But I felt good because I knew I had done the work and the will of the Lord. Then when I woke up, it took me a minute to realize that yes, I am still on the mission, and that there is still time to be a full-time missionary, to be a representative of Jesus Christ. This dream actually gave me hope, there is still work for me that the Lord needs me to do here in Italy, that my time is not yet to go home.

We have 2 new investigators, Maria, the mom, and Gaitano, the son. Gaitano is like in his 30's or 40's, I'm not sure. Maria is really quiet in the lessons and avoids our questions; but Gaitano is really curious. At our last lesson, this past Monday, he had read his reading, the introduction and the testimonies and then read on to 1 Nephi 13. He is really great. At our last visit, we invited him to pray to know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

We have also been on the way of dropping some of our investigators who are not progressing and who don't want to do anything. We love them so much, but now we are putting the matter in the Lord's hands.

We also have a new investigator, he's name is Mosè, Moses. We're trying to have a FHE with his family. If we can't teach his family, because he is a man, we will have to pass him to the Elders.

We are having a Ward Missionary activity this Friday. How the members can help the missionaries and how they can talk about the gospel with others. Sorella Stevens basically wrote the ward mission plan. I'm really excited for it. We are going to do a lot of stuff, but one of the best things is that we are going to watch 'Living Waters.' I am super excited about that. Last week we watched it with the Elders and our ward missionary leader at his house and I felt the Spirit SO strong. Oh! I love that movie clip so much!!! Speaking of Living Waters, may I make a request? I would like to have a CD with great songs on it. Living Waters be great on that CD, even a couple of times. If you, the family, could make me a special CD, I would be so grateful for that.

A few things that I have been thinking about lately and that I would like to ask you all. First off, all you missionaries - did you have anything for documenting casa in casa? Uh, casa in casa would be door to door, I guess. But did you have a way to document your work? For every house? Secondly, mom do you know of any healthy, kind of sweet and delicious snacks without refined sugars that I could eat. I really like the fruit leathers, I don't think they have them here in Italy, but if you could send me some, fantastic, if not, just some ideas of what I could eat instead. I still have a sweet tooth, but I do want to feel good. And thirdly is if any of you have any ideas or pointers, tips, advice, words of wisdom for how to teach some to read. A beginner reader. We have an investigator and she can not read, and so we want to teach here to read so that she can read the Book of Mormon.

This morning we went to the market to buy some fruit and it only cost us €7. Not to bad. I love the markets so much. I love Italy so much. I would really love to come back to Italy and live here a normal life and just see the difference and enjoy the little things that we don’t have time for on the mission.

One beautiful thing that has been happening is that so many less-actives are starting to activate themselves. Like Luis. He’s from Mexico. He actually came up to us in a park one day and asked where the church was. He told us that his whole family are members, but they haven’t been to church for awhile. He gave him the address and said see you later. For about 2 weeks we didn’t hear anything from him. Then 2 Sunday’s ago, he came to church! Wearing regular clothes but he was in church! The next Tuesday he came to FHE, then last Sunday he came to church, wearing jeans, a grey button-up shirt and a tie! I was so happy. And then he also came last night to FHE and he said that he will probably come to the activity this Friday. And Marcela, she is coming to church to help us with primary. She called and told us sorry that she wasn’t able to come to church. She is changing so much! Maybe our work with investigators is kind of shallow, we don’t have a lot of work, but we are working with less-actives and they are changing, repenting, growing, and being activated. This makes me so happy! I really want to reactive less-actives when I come home. Sometimes I get so excited to be a member missionary and it’s hard for me to contain myself. I want to be a member missionary so bad! I know that now is my time to be a full-time missionary, but as my companion, Sorella Acerson said, Heavenly Father is getting me pumped up. I can now see the importance of visiting teaching and reaching out to those who are not sure about their faith. I am so excited! Yeah!!!

Thanks for the letters Mom, I just got your green leaves one on Monday at District Meeting. We have Zone Conference next week and then Interviews the week after that. Wow time goes by so fast.

I love you all and thank you so much for all the prayers, love, help, and support that you freely give me. Well, I need to write to President, so I will sign out. This has been Sorella DeVocht, reporting live from Milano 1.

Love you!
Love, Sorella DeVocht


Ciao!