Everyone Needs to Know They're Loved...!

Cari Tutti!

I hope everyone has had a great week! I heard it has been pretty hot

in Utah... It"s about the same here in Italy! At least in Milano! For

awhile it was pretty cool with a little rain every once in a while,

but summer has started to decide it wants to be hot again, so here we

go! This weekend there are transfer calls!! Crazy! I can't believe

this transfer is almost over!! It went WAY too fast! We're thinking

that I'll be leaving and Sorella Griffin will stay here. I think she's

going to train!  Lampugnano is a training place for sure.

This week was great! Thursday was a pretty intense day. We went to 

see Elda and when we got to her apartment building she was actually

coming out the door and Sorella Griffin said Buongiorno! Then Elda

said "Buongiorno?! Its not good!...." and then told us how bad her day has been.

 How bad her life is and how bad the

people in her apartment are. It was actually really scary. She was

really angry. Sorella Griffin took control of the situation and we

ended up having a really good conversation with her once we got the

spirit there. Pretty much we're not seeing her for awhile. There are a

lot of things in this situation. It wasn't just because she was

yelling. At least we helped her that day, and hopefully someday we'll be

able to come back and actually teach her... And we also left her with

the numbers of members who live by who can give her a ride to church

if she wants.

Later that day we had a really good lesson with a girl named Karen.

She is from El Salvador and is about 21. We found her in the area

book! We were making calls of people who met with missionaries years

ago and she was one of them. She remembers the missionaries and she

even said there's a difference in her life without reading and praying.

She wants to meet with us about 2-3 times a week and said her Mom 

wants to start meeting with the missionaries again! She has work

everyday except Sat and Sun, so we're going to try to teach her then!

We had another lesson with her Monday and this time her 2 younger

sisters, 6 and 9, were there! It was sooo different teaching kids. But

I liked it because it forced us to be simple. And everyone needs it to

be simple, especially at the beginning! It's pretty cool. Their

lessons are pretty much exactly how we had them in the MTC. Usually

with Italians they talk and talk, and its hard to get a word in. The kids

just let us teach and we can ask questions without being afraid of

them talking and talking. Also, she asked really good

questions! They are a miracle family!

Thursday night we had a really good lesson with Nancy. She told us

more of her situation and things she's had to go through in her life.

Her life has not been easy. So we figured out that for them to get

married its a lot harder than we thought.... they'll probably have to

get married in Peru. Now we just have to help her understand living

separately. That will be hard for her. Especially since they have a

daughter and not a ton of money to just buy another apartment. This is

going to take a lot of faith and prayer.

Friday we had a little miracle! We were out in the park and Ermes came

by! He's the guy from my VERY first day in Italy who spoke English to

us! We have seen him around every once in awhile but I hadn't seen him

this whole transfer. Well on Friday we did! And we were able to talk

to him about the plan of salvation a little more. He just wants to

know so badly how everything started.  When we were

talking to him about it he said that our faces just have a light, and

we are confident in what we say, that we know for sure. That

was pretty neat. I love how people can see that light! We told him he

can know, too!

Saturday we had a really good lesson with Nancy. We felt like we should

really focus on the love of God and how He's there to help her with

anything. It was probably our best lesson we've had with her. Everyone

needs to know they're loved! And when they feel that love they come to

love God more which helps them do what is right.

Then later that day we were just doing some passbys. Part of the time, we

were kind of wandering around as I was trying to figure our where the

street was... but we eventually found it! Later we decided to go visit

Lydia and there are several ways to get to her. At this one stop we

could take a little tram and walk down a street, or take a bigger tram

and it would take us all the way there just in a more roundabout way.

I was thinking of taking the bigger tram, but at the last second as

the little tram was coming up I decided to take that and walk down the

street, so we did that and I remembered as we were walking there was a

street with really cool paintings that Sorella Griffin would probably

like, so we went down it. As we were walking down the street and

looking at the paintings a man on a bike stopped and said, "do you

speak English?" We said yes! And then he couldn't really say anything

else haha... so we talked to him in Italian! We ended up talking to

him for awhile and didn't even end up going to see Lydia! It turns out

that he had talked to missionaries 20 years ago and he still remembers

one of their names and what state they are from! And he has a Book of

Mormon! We set up an appointment with him and his wife and also told

him about church. He said he probably couldn't come to church because

he doesn't have a car and it would be too much of a hassle, but then

at the end he said, "Well maybe, it wouldn't be too hard". We prayed with

him and Sorella Griffin prayed for his son who was in the hospital. He

really liked that prayer. He told us when he called us later that

night. He called us 2 times after we left him.  Once to invite us

to get a pizza (which was only like 10 minutes after we saw him) and a

little bit later to pretty much say he'd see us Wednesday, and that he

liked the prayer. His name is Vincent (in English). Well Sunday

morning came and he surprised us by coming to sacrament meeting! :D We

introduced him to lots of people and got him another Book of Mormon

because he lost his other one. We have an appointment with him and his

wife tonight! So hopefully it goes well!

Sunday was Sorella Griffin's birthday!!! :D Woohoo! We celebrated by

having lunch with the Lauriola's. They were super nice and even got

her a gelato cake! Then later that night we had dinner with Nancy,

Nelson, Mckenzie, Gladys, and Giulia!! Sorella Griffin thought we were

just going there for a lesson, but then Nancy came out all dressed up

and had dinner prepared for her birthday!! yay! It was so cute!

Monday and Tuesday we had lessons with Karen, Nancy, and Anita. We

also had FHE with the Ramos family and they had a friend over who

wasn't a member but who pretty much only spoke Spanish, so we watched

the Restoration in Spanish. It was great! The work is going well and we

are seeing miracles everyday!

Next week my p-day will be Tuesday because transfers will be Wednesday

this time. So we'll see if I'll be leaving! 

Well, have a great week! :D

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Dixon :)

With McKenzie

Sorella Dixon, McKenzie, Nancy

Working in Como

P-day in Como

"We made it to the lighthouse"

Sorella Griffin's birthday!

"Just for You"