Week 72 Time is Flying!

 Wednesday February 17, 2021

Another week has passed! I can't believe the weeks are going by so quickly! I feel like I just sent out my last weekly, yesterday! This was another wonderful week! We are continuing to see blessings and miracles every single day. 

This week the tours picked up again at the Visitor Center and we remained pretty busy doing those. We have also been able to do a couple in person tours!! Little by little things are getting better over here! Hopefully they continue to improve for the people and the Mission here in Italy! 

I found out this week that I will be able to go through the temple, Friday the 26th!! I am so excited to be able to go through the temple one time before I go home! 

As far as lessons went this week we were able to have a couple with our investigators and a couple with the members as well. We went to lunch with Miky, our investigator, and it went really, really well. It was so fun to get to know her better and we hope to have another lesson with her soon involving some of the members as well. We also found a new person to teach this week and she came to church on Sunday! She is so kind and very interested in learning more about the Gospel. We were so excited to see her in church and she is planning on coming to church again this Sunday!! 

We had some wonderful tours this week, one including a virtual tour with my Stake at home! It was so fun for me to see so many familiar faces and share all that I've learned here at the Visitor Center. I felt the spirit so strongly and really, really enjoyed doing that. We were also able to have our first in person tour again since October! It was so wonderful to have people in the Visitor Center again! The spirit that is felt here is indescribable and truly every person who enters can feel it!! I love the Mission and I am making sure to I make every day worth while!

See you all in 2 weeks!!

Ciao, Ciao

Sorella Acton

Week 71 Another Week of Miracles

 Wednesday February 10, 2021

Wow! This week was full of miracles!! I can't even describe how grateful I am for my Heavenly Father and for everything that he blesses me with! 

This week we didn't have quite as many tours as usual so we worked really hard on contacting and trying to meet with the people we have been teaching. We had a video call with a man from our English course that we've done a couple tours with, and he introduced us to his daughter. She was so awesome and said that she was interested in meeting with us after she has her big test this weekend. She was very impressed that girls her same age were so courageous to leave their homes and share what they believed in and she wants to know more about why we are so willing to do that; what makes our church different. We are really excited to begin meeting with her! We also were able to visit a girl named Miky that we found through Facebook around Christmas time. We met up with her at a cafe and just talked for an hour or so. It was so much fun and I just love realizing that my Italian is good enough now to carry a conversation with someone for an hour without difficulty. She also thanked me for being a wholesome, kind person but also for being genuine. I have such a testimony of the importance of being real and using our personality in the work; that's how you will truly connect with people. As we were leaving she asked when we did church, and so we invited her to come to church with us the following day. Sunday morning she showed up to church with her husband! It was so wonderful! After church we showed them the temple grounds and then she invited us to go get pranzo with her and her husband the following Saturday! We are so excited and see a lot of potential in them!

On Tuesday, we had Zone Conference and it was my last Zone Conference! It was soo amazing and so sad at the same time. We were able to have an in-person Zone Conference for the first time since August; it was wonderful to see everyone together. I did a musical number in the Christus room of the Visitor Center singing "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" with another Sorella while my companion played the violin and an Elder played the piano, and it was so beautiful. The spirit was so strong. The presentations that were given were so good, especially President and Sorella Smith's. They talked a lot about the importance to still do the things we learned as missionaries when we go home and how we need to be the member missionaries we wish we had on the mission. It was really, really good for me to hear, especially because I'll be going home soon.

The best news of the week though was when I found out that I will be able to go through the Rome Temple one time before I leave!! It has been closed and I didn't think that I would have the opportunity to go through before I left. However, the temple went into phase two on Monday and President is making arrangements for us to be able to go through before we go home if we have not been yet. I have been praying so hard for this and am so beyond excited that I will have the opportunity to go through before I go home. I know the Lord hears and answers our prayers. He truly has answered so many of mine this last transfer.

Love you all so much!!

Ciao!

Sorella Acton

My companion and I with Miky

Driving with my Comp

Zone Conference Lunch

P-day Fun

Week 70 All Day Every Day

 Wednesday February 3, 2021

Wow, I can't believe another week has gone by! We are now in February and I only have 30 days left of my mission! I am trying to soak in every single day because I know I am going to miss it so much when I am home. 

This week was a really good week! We stayed really, really busy at the Visitor Center doing tours all day every day! We had 5 tours in a row almost everyday with only a 10 or 15 minute break between to get water or sit down for a second. It is pretty exhausting physically, also on the brain as we are switching from English to Italian. However, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love being busy and I love giving tours so I have been more than content. The diversity of people that we get to meet doing these tours is so interesting and fun.  And I feel so grateful during every single tour to be here at this time. 

We got really good news this week that the Visitor Center will be opening back up to the public by appointment in the next week or two! Little by little things are getting better over here! We also heard Sunday that the Rome Zone would be changing from orange to yellow. This means that we will be able to travel outside our commune, which is a huge blessing because all our friends and members live outside the commune that we live in. Now we are free to go and visit members and our friends. Also, many more shops, stores, and restaurants are open again! We had a pretty big celebration when we received this news. My "daughter" (the new missionary I'm training) and I are doing great together. Every week we come up with new ideas and goals and are constantly laughing. 

We have been seeing so many miracles this transfer. One of our potential investigators, Miky, is now willing to meet with us and learn more since we are now in the yellow and are more free to move around. We will be seeing her on Saturday. Another one of our investigators, Roberto, wants to meet with us and introduce us to his daughter as we teach them about Family History. And we will be meeting with him again soon, as well.

I am grateful for the Lord and His hand in our lives every single day! 

For p-day this week, Sorella Lavanda and I wanted to take our "babies" (new missionaries that we are training) to see all the beautiful sites of Rome. It was so much fun! However, every p-day starting today until the end I'm going to have "sad girl" moments because I realize I only have a handful of days left to enjoy my beloved Italy and the friends that I have made here. I love Italy with my whole heart and I am going to make sure that I make every single day worth while for the next 30 days! 

Remember to find joy in the little things every day and realize that the Lord is always with you!!

Ciao ciao!

Sorella Acton

At the Rome Temple

Taking in the "sights" on P-day

My Comp

Italian Food!!