I Love You All

My baby, Sorella Jones

First things first: I just want to tell you all how much I love you. This week has been difficult, and I'm so grateful for those of you who are out there praying for missionaries. We need it. It's difficult to keep going, everyday, but your prayers help us to do it. Without you, I don't know if I could do this work. Your prayers and love mean more than you will ever know. Thank you.

Even though this week was tough, it was still extremely beautiful . . . also extremely embarrassing. I'm going to go ahead and tell you a story about it. So it's Sunday afternoon. We're down doing casa by Paolo and Marcella's house. We've rung about a thousand citofonos; no one's interested. Suddenly, I have the intense desire to throw up. We'd go home, but home's about a half-hour walk away. I decide to hang on a little while. We're outside a large apartment complex, and this man walks up to go in. I have Sorella Jones ringing the doorbells so I need to talk to him. My brain's not quite working and so instead of a nice smooth conversation starter, I just say. "Siamo missionarie, possiamo condividere un messagio?" [We are missionaries, can we share a message?] Yeah, he was obviously not going to be interested off of that. Good work, I know. He says he's busy, but then he turns around and says, "Siete Americane?" Yes! He's met missionaries before and wanted to know if we still taught English Class; he's coming this week. Miracle. But don't worry, my awkward moment hasn't happened yet.

I realized I was probably going to have to throw up very, very soon. So, I thought we could just do a pass-by with Paolo and Marcella and then I could use there bathroom. Sono furba, lo so. [I’m smart, I know.] I texted Paolo to tell him we're coming over. But his parents weren't home. Great . . . we can't enter the house if another woman isn't there. It was obvious to Sorella Jones that I wasn't going to make it home, so she grabs the phone out of my hand and called Paolo. (Remember Paolo speaks English, thank goodness.) "Hi this is Charlotte . . . I mean Sorella Jones. Here's the deal, Ervin is sick. So we're going to come over, you're going to wait outside, and she's going to use your bathroom." Paolo agrees immediately, GEM. 

We're almost at his house when we run into this man. I thought about walking on by for a split second, but I have this habit of imagining everyone I meet in white, so I knew I had to stop him. He's super nice, but didn't have a lot of time. I asked what he would think if I told him we have living prophets today, he kind of laughed, but then he invited us over to teach his family next Sunday. Miracle.

Okay, so we get to Paolo's; he's already waiting outside. I can't even say hello to him, I just walk straight in the house. I don't come back out for a while . . . feel kind of bad about it. But Paolo's the best; he just waited outside like a champ. I walk out and start gathering all of the things I threw in random places in my desperation to get to the bathroom: coat, scarf, bag, Book of Mormon, random pass-along cards. Then I look at Paolo's face. He asked if I was okay, but he was laughing. Sweet. Then he gave us a bag of food . . . because that's exactly what I needed. I felt super awkward, so I just gave him a quiet little "thanks, you're the best" and walked right on out of the house. Thank goodness Paolo's such a chill guy.

Anziano Colemere!

A lot of other really great things happened this week. For example we had the new missionary training meeting yesterday, so I got to see so many of my favorite missionaries. All of us trainers are exhausted, but we're having a blast, so that's great.

Like I said, I love you people. Thanks for everything.

Sorella Ervin

My sweet Sorella Strong!