Six Months!

Famiglia Mia!

Maybe it's just because I am really tired today, but man I miss you guys so much! I have officially been gone for 6 months. I can barely believe it!
I am glad Colten got his birthday letter! I was going to ask about that today. And I hope he starts feeling better. Poor kid! He's getting braces! Congratulations!
Trayser Trayser! I've been missing that kid a lot this week! Tell him I love him and to be good! Finish your Eagle Scout! And memorize scriptures!
Dad I don't know why you get so nervous! Don't stress about it! Okay?! I love you!! And I miss you so much! So SO much!
Mom! I just love you. More than you know! And I will make sure to use that face scrub if I get some acne!

So this week!
Monday was a great P-day with our English course students. They love us so much and we love them so much! The Catacombs were amazing! We couldn't take pictures :( But we will definitely have to see them when we come back!

Tuesday evening, we as a district all received blessings. This district is amazing. We have grown so close!  And we are so grateful that we all stayed exactly the same this transfer! We have been together to celebrate the success and been there together to get through the tough times. Anyway! My blessing said...  I need Palermo and Palermo needs me. I will learn a lot of things from this city and I will be stretched. But God is only a prayer away to help. It talked about my amazing family and how you guys support me and that I am helping families here in Italy that have the same amazing family atmosphere that I have at home.

Palermo, Italy

For some reason I came away from that blessing really stressed out. I feel like last transfer was hard for me and I was really hoping that this transfer would be easier. And it made me stressed that I have been doing something wrong.  But I came to the conclusion that Heavenly Father will stretch me because he wants me to grow and because I am ready to grow, not necessarily because I need to feel the consequences of a mistake.

Thursday was Halloween! Because Italians love anything American we planned a Halloween party for our ward and for our English Course. We were hoping that it would give our students and members a good chance to mingle and do some missionary work! There were over a hundred people that turned up and it was a lot of fun! We also had an amazing experience with Alessio.

Little side note....For some reason God is working through dreams to convert the Italians. It may seem fake, but there are so many that have crazy spiritual dreams! More than I have ever heard in my life! Anyway...  Alessio had a really amazing experience and him and Silvia are just doing amazing! In fact after last weeks P-day they wanted to do another one with us. So today we went out again and they showed us more of the city! I am so sad that they are leaving in a few weeks!

Friday was an interesting day. All morning we were doing our weekly planning, but after lunch when we were getting ready to leave the house we got a call from Anziano Duffin (this kid is Trayser. Everything about him is just Trayser!) and he told us that his trainer, Anziano Nickle, had been burping/hiccuping for an hour straight, every ten seconds. They didn't know what to do and after another hour they still hadn't stopped. He was having a hard time breathing and so we thought that maybe if he drank some sprite that it would get better. But they couldn't leave their house, so we took it over to them. And it just wasn't stopping, so we called Sorella Waddoups and she called the mission doctor in Germany who told us to go to the emergency room. So we went to the hospital (which was one of the most horrifying things! Oh Italian hospitals are terrible! I would rather stay sick than go to one!). So we were there until 10:00 and we finally had to leave, but the Anziani were there until 4:00 am. Poor Anziano Nickle. Was burping for almost 14 hours straight!

Saturday afternoon when we were out doing finding we decided to stop and get some gelato on our way home. We ended up meeting an amazing man named Giuseppe who works in the Gelatteria! We have an appointment with him, his girlfriend, his boss and his boss's wife tonight at six! Oh ya!

Yesterday the ward finally watched part of the missionary broadcast! After lots of drama and a call from the stake president....I won't get started on that subject....But it was good! As always!

This week...has been emotional! haha to say the least. Palermo is a tough city. It needs a lot of help. The ward needs a lot of help. And this week was just full of ward drama! It amazes me the stuff that goes on. The church here in Italy isn't as established as it is in the United States. Especially Sicily, it has only been open since the 70's. Our ward is made up of mostly converts and very few return missionaries. So there aren't many people that know how missionary work is supposed to go. Anyway! We are working hard and I hope that in the future we can see the fruits of our labors!

Just like last week I have been thinking about all the things I need to work on! Oh there are so many! And I have felt a little discouraged at my list. But after a lot of contemplating and after my blessing, I have decided to evaluate the situation that I am in. The city that I am assigned to serve in. And I have been thinking about what I need to learn from Palermo. And I have come to the conclusion of meekness. I need to learn how to be less concerned about the things that don't matter. I need to learn how to take a step back and evaluate what I want to defend and what isn't worth getting defensive about. In short I need to be more concerned about God's opinion, God's praise, and God's plan, rather than the opinions and praise of others and the plan that I have.

I have also been studying about repentance this week. A lot of the times, most of the time, we look at repentance as being a painful process that you need to go through if you do something really bad. But it's quite the opposite. The Bible Dictionary says repentance is "a change of mind. A fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world....a turning of the heart...without this there can be no progression in the things of the soul's salvation..."

So this week I want a fresh view! I want to open my mind and my heart to God and let His plan take the place of my plan. And in so doing it requires taking up your cross daily! Evaluating what you can improve on and repenting everyday.

I love love love you guys!! Have a good week!

Vi Voglio bene!!!
Sorella Wiltbank!