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 4, 2013

Letter #1 from Bari, Italy

Dear Family,

I am so excited! You cannot believe it! I have been transferred to the last place I would have ever guessed. As transfers were approaching I thought of all the possibilities. I could stay in Cosenza with Sorella Worsham. I could train in Cosenza. I could receive another collega. I could be transferred to any number of cities. I could open a city. I could open and train again. And the list goes on.

Well, when I got the call it was none of my possibilities. I have been called to serve in BARI LIBERTà. I AM GOING BACK BABY!!! My new collega is Sorella Mikesell and this will be her 5th transfer!! 

I GET TO GO BACK to all those members, and investigators, and all of those streets! I AM SO EXCITED! Today I am writing you from Bari because I am here, in my old internet point :) YAY! 
Sorella Mikesell is the best! From the hour I have spent with her. SHe is very chill. ANd she has curly hair as expected since she is my collega. I hope when You read this email you freak out as much as I have. 

I love all the people at Cosenza so much. They are such open and warm people. I am going to miss them. We saw one of our investigators these week. She had just returned from vacation and she was so excited to see us. We talked to her about half of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we talked to her about baptism. We had talked a lot about it before she left. She wants to be baptized. She feels the need to be baptized, but she wants to be spontaneous. Also she suffers from anxiety. She does not like WATER. But we talked to her about fixing a date for 28 of September. She agreed to pray about it. SHe is the BEST. She has been so prepared by the Lord. 

We also received so many referrals from the members this week! I loved it. Cosenza is waiting to explode. Last night we had our first English Course with the new program. I do not know if I told you about it but it is great. It is organized, interactive, and only focuses on conversation and pronunciation. The actual class only lasts 20-30 minutes, and they cannot speak any Italian in the group. It is going to help our students so much. We had so many new students. And they are all going to come back. And we had about 8 members come as opposed to 0 before. I am so excited!!

Also Mom and Dad, I got all your packages 2 weeks ago when the mission counselor came down from Rome to visit our branch. I loved the Liahona's and all the artwork. I was not expecting it and it was perfect. I was able to give a lot of it to our investigators in Cosenza! Thank you Thank you Thank you!! 
Man! How we love those Liahonas!
I love you all and I am feel so blessed to have you as my family and friends. Love you lots! 

Sorella Rose Preston

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