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!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Letter #8 from Bari, Italy

Yes, family and friends, we have COCKROACHES, or in Italian BLATTE! Every morning I wake up and go in the kitchen and kill 10 who have been killed by our cockroach poison. This morning I killed another 30!

I am the one assigned to killing the bugs because Sorella Mikesell is terrified :) (Thank you Dad for taking me fishing and getting me comfortable handling crickets and such.) I will be getting dressed and then I will hear a scream from the kitchen and I run with a swatch of toilet paper and get the little bugger! (pun intended) 

Don't worry mom and Dad, we have reported it and there will be people coming to spray. We are pretty sure there is a nest judging by the numbers and that I also kill and find a lot of baby cockroaches. 

Besides our cockroach infestation things have been going quite well. Our bishops in both wards have been really accommodating with our new assignments and have been helping us a lot. We also have been trying to get to know the Poggiofranco members.

This Saturday we went with the ward to go clean the house of a sister in Poggiofranco ward, where we dealt with more bugs, and I am sporting a few spider bites :) (Again, don't worry the spiders were not poisonous). It was quite dirty but all the members were so kind to her. She let us throw away a lot of stuff. I am very proud of that sister being open to our help.

Some of the members are upset about not having sisters anymore and we are getting the brunt of their disappointment. I was a little frustrated yesterday while sitting in church. The human side of me was thinking; "You know what! If they don't want us, we don't need to be here! WE volunteered to come help them, but if they don't appreciate it, just leave them be!" Right when these thoughts came the next speaker got up. Her topic was becoming more Christlike. She talked about how we only need to think and say kind words about each other and we need to turn the other cheek.

I realized that this was a message for me! It does not matter if some do not appreciate the work we are doing. Because there are many who do appreciate that we are there. And even if no one wanted me there I still had to do what I was called to do! I have to work my hardest and love them and invite them to come unto Christ. I have to move on apart from their indifference and maybe they will someday appreciate it. It was a great reminder to me that the journey to be like Christ is A LIFE-LONG PURSUIT!(PMG p. 123) And I am not there yet, but God loves me with all of my imperfections! 

I love you all and I am so grateful for your love and support. You all inspire me!

Love.

Sorella Preston
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