For With God Nothing Shall Be Impossible: Letter #14 A Conference in Rome

Dear family,

Thank you for all of your emails and prayers. I can really feel them helping me and uplifting me :) I have so much more strength to keep going than if I was doing this without God. I am happy that you get to go to a Family Reunion. I hope you travel well and that all goes well. Mom I am good with money right now. I do not need to travel a lot because there are only 6 sisters. During Zone Conference we did most of the exchanges we needed to.

Also there is a mission blog that you should look at. I am sure you all knew this, but Sorella Waddoups has been doing a blog. FYI

So NOW to the exciting part of my email!! Rome was amazing! It was a long bus ride but when we arrived I just went into shock. It has been so long since I have been in a big city like Chicago or St. Louis. I just had no idea what to do :) I felt like a small town hick coming from Cosenza. Anziano Esparza and Anziano Miller were pushing us along. And Sorella Buckley had served in Rome before, so at least there was one person who knew what they were doing. I was just scurrying behind and trying not to gape. :)

We were moving along and I heard them say, we must take the metro. I STOPPED in my tracks. I had never seen a metro in my life! Let alone been on one. I continued to do my little fast walk/jog to keep up with everyone, but my brain was elsewhere. "How do we get tickets -How do those little doors work-etc. etc. Then Anziano Esparza turns to me and says "hold onto your purse when you get on and keep an eye out. There have been a lot of problems with gypsies" (PROBLEMS WITH GYPSIES! WHERE AM I!) So then I am stressing out about being robbed. I later learned that a group of sisters had had stones chucked at their heads by gypsies as they were exiting a metro!! MY COOL was completely lost :)

In the end the metro was quite nice and no one robbed me :) But I could talk with no one. I was focused on holding on for dear life. We got off and ran through the train station then to meet the Assistants who would take our luggage and then we could go explore ROME !!! :)

We got there and I see this giant groups of missionaries walking toward me and all I hear is someone scream my name. IT WAS SORELLA BRADFORD - my MTC companion. I had not seen her since we had left the Villa to go to our first cities, 10 months earlier. She grabbed me into a huge hug right in the middle of the road. There were tears and so much joy! :) I had not thought I would see her because I thought she had been transferred. And she had not known I was coming because Sorella Pace had lied and said that I was not an STL. That only the Bari Zone STL's were coming and that Taranto Zone did not have them. She had been so distraught and then SURPRISE - I WAS THERE!

We then went off and she and Sorella Felice ("happy" in Italian) took us and the Zone Leaders and STL's from Sardegna to see Rome. We went to the Colosseum and we decided it would be better if we split up. So Slla Bradford, Slla Felice, Slla Buckley, and I just went to go discover Rome.

We saw the Colosseum, the prison where Peter and Paul had been held, and then Saint Peter's Square, and the basilica where Michelangelo's "Pietà" is kept. IT WAS AMAZING: BEST Preparation DAY EVER. In fact it was crazy because Sorella Buckley, Bradford and I had been the sisters that came in my group from the MTC, and it so happened that our year mark of entering the MTC fell on the day of Capi conference. We all got to be together :)!!

The conference was wonderful we got to learn about the new English course program they are starting and some of the rules that the new Mission President is focusing on. Then we came back to Taranto. And then, with a series of unfortunate events, Sorella Worsham and I arrived in Cosenza Saturday afternoon. Then we left Monday to come back to Taranto for Zone Conference. :)

Us on the train (back from Rome?) about 10:30 pm. At that point everything was entertaining us, even our reflections

Slla Preston, Worsham and Ansted at Zone Conference in Tarantino

Slla Worsham and Preston at Zone Conference (Anziano Miller ruining our picture by photo bombing :)

Even though we were traveling, we got to see tons of miracles. We were able to contact a lot of people on the buses and trains. It was great!

Also in Rome it was weird but you get "Hey Sisters!" all the time. I had no idea what this was. But apparently because Rome has so many tourists, tons of them know the sister missionaries. We get stopped all of the time by members of the church from all over the world (in fact right in front of the Pieta we met a British family there on vacation). Or even people from Utah who know who missionaries are, or people whose friends are members of the Church. It is weird but also wonderful. Especially when they are non-members because you can invite them to come to one of the wards in Rome that Sunday, etc. It was wonderful!!

Now I am just going to attach pictures but I love you all. I am so grateful for all of Heavenly Father's blessings and mercies toward me and all of you.

P.S. I went to a Catholic wedding a few weeks ago that was fun! An inactive member was getting married and his mother, who is also inactive, invited us :)

Love, Rose Preston