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, April 24, 2013

Letter #5 from Catania, Italy

I hope everyone is doing well, I love you all so much!
Mom and Dad, I am glad that your house is everything you ever dreamed of and more! I will pray Mom that you get that job working with the special needs boy. The thought never occurred to me that you could overqualify for a job! You are going to have to explain this concept to me when I get home. I will ask the Oziers if I can send it (the contacts) to them. But they do not live on base. Maybe they will know a member who would let you mail them a package for me. I would prefer to ask in person so I will tell you relatively soon.
 
Also recently, I have been wearing my glasses a whole lot more, so I may not need both boxes. My left eye sometimes creates tons of eye boogers when I wear my contacts. I think it is the contact solution, but I will give you an update. Thank you so much for ordering them. And if nothing else it will be great to have contacts waiting for me when I return home :)
 
 
Sister Kelly is right, I can by contact solution here, it is just not as good quality. But if you can't send liquids and it will cause tons of fines, do not stress! Next Wednesday I will give you updates and I will know about transfers :) If you do send a package and you put in candy, I would love gummy candy. Good sour gummy worms, swedish fish, mike and ikes, hot tamales, gummy bears, etc. Italy wins on chocolate but they do not understand Gummy candy :)
 
 
I loved telling everyone that we now live on a farm. I am excited to see it when I get home in a year.
 
 
I cant believe that Lee Raleigh is going to come home in just 3 weeks! It (seems like) it has not been 2 years! That blows my mind! I had a little freak-out when President kelly asked me when I want to go home during interviews. He said it would be easier for the new mission president if it is already in the computer. Since we were in the MTC for 9 weeks it threw off the transfers. So you could leave 3 weeks earlier or stay 3 more weeks. I freaked out and said, "NO President! Keep me here as long as you CAN!" So I don't want to know my actual day I am going home yet. I think I am ignoring it in my mind :)
 
 
This week has brought so many miracles. And many happened this Sunday and Saturday. Sunday, a member brought her friend to church with her. She is sooo nice. We exchanged numbers and we are going to see her Friday at a ward activity. Then Monday, another member called us and said her close friends asked her if they could start meeting with the missionaries!! They are studying with Jehovah's Witness and they want to make a comparison. She said that she has tried many times to invite them to church but they never had lasting interest and now they do. SO We will see what happens :)
 
 
Then while we were taxi-ing missionaries to the church for interviews, 2 ragazzi just walked up to the church. They said they had met the elders before and they wanted to know a little bit more about our beliefs and also they heard we offered a free English Course. Sorella Ansted and I were caught way off guard. We gave them information. And then Sorella Ansted offered to show them around the church building. They then met about 15 missionaries (plus) as we showed them around. They seemed very interested in everything and said they would come to English course. They did not come yesterday but WE WILL SEE. I am so excited. They did not seem too intimidated by ALL the missionaries. And we made sure to point out that normally there are NOT this many and the members of the church are Italian citizens :)
 
 
Lastly, a member family in our ward were evicted just a few weeks ago. The Elder's Quorum has been house hunting like crazy and Monday they found a house!!! :)

SO many HUGE MIRACLES. Every day we see miracles - but these were especially pronounced :)
 
 
I just wanted to share this link with you. NOT to seem like a chain email or like I am spamming you BUT these are two mormon messages that we just saw and they are beautiful!! The first one "Mountains to Climb" is taken from Elder Henry B. Eyring's talk in April 2012 General Conference




The 2nd one is just beautiful about fatherhood. The church often speaks about the beauty of motherhood but not about how hard and wonderful it is to be a father. It is just beautiful. In honor for Father's day in a month or so :)
 

I love you all so much! I hope life is treating you well. I feel your prayers and I know that God has called me to witness of Him and share His message with the Sicilian people. I love you,
Love, Sorella Preston
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