Serving An 18 Month LDS Mission

In the LDS church, when a girl turns 21 she has the opportunity to choose to serve an 18 month, self-funded mission. I have wanted to go on a mission since I was a little girl. My parents both served a mission in Rome in the 1970's. In 2001-2002, my sister Letty served as a missionary in Hong Kong and my brother Algot in the Philippines. As soon as I turned 21 I submitted my papers. The Prophet and 12 Apostles determine through inspiration which of the more than 300 missions worldwide each missionary will be assigned. I was overjoyed when I opened my mission call and discovered that I was called to Rome, Italy! I feel immensely blessed and I feel that God has been preparing me to serve the Italian people. Each week, while I am on my mission, I will send my sister Letty an email and pictures to post on the blog. I won't see this blog till I come home, so I will be unable to directly respond to your comments until then. However, the sidebar will always have a current street address for me, and I promise I will respond to your letters! If you would rather write via email, just email your letter to my sister and she will print it out and send it me with her weekly snail mail!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Letter #2 from Bari, Italy

Dear Family and Friends!!!

I hope you guys are all doing well. I am loving Bari. Sunday was the best. I got to see all the members and friends I left here. It felt like a family reunion. Everyone was so confused. They thought I had finished my mission (and was visiting) not that I had been transferred to the ward again. 

I am back in the same ward again. So Mom, I am (still) not in Francesco Bellomo or Sorella Magno's ward. But I did see Sorella Magno this Sunday at a baptism in the Poggiofranco ward (the other ward). 
Carmen's baptism in the Poggiofranco ward

One of the inactives that we had worked with a lot has started coming back to church and in August she went to the temple to be sealed to her husband. She is the sweetest woman ever. And now she is on fire!! We have started teaching a lot of her family. She has a different spirit. She just glows - I love it!! 

My new companion is wonderful, Sorella Mikelle Mikesell. She is 25 and so funny. I feel like I just get to hang out with Letty and Ann all the time. I am used to having a big sister!! But she is not commanding or supervising!!  She is one of the funniest people I have ever met. She helps me laugh at myself. And we have a lot of things in common. And she wants to go to medical school and become an OB\GYN.

We were talking one day and I think I know what I want to study and do with my life when I get home. I just feel this huge confirmation that this is what my gift is. But it does not matter and I will tell you when I get back :) 

This week we have seen so many miracles. Monday we went to go visit the above mentioned member's family. She has a sister who has a lot of health problems and we go teach her sister. Usually some of her sister's kids are there helping and they stay for the lessons. On Monday, Michele was there. He is very intellectual. But there was a great spirit and I know he felt it. We taught the plan of salvation because that is what we planned to do. But he had a lot of questions about the restoration. So we are going tonight to teach the restoration.  I am very excited :) We also hope that Michele's sister comes again. She has come to discussions a lot in the past. She acts distant and disinterested, but she waits in the other room and listens and is there at the house for every lesson. We are very excited because we can see how God is working with this family!

I love you all so much. And I wish I could write more!

Love, Sorella Preston

P.S. Mom, did you wear name tags during your mission? Were they required? What did they look like? Because in some of your mission fotos it looks like you don't have one.

Sorella Mikesell (my new companion) and I
Sorella Mikesell and Preston in Bari, Italy

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