Finding Christine Marie: The Final Countdown...

Well folks, I did it. In less than 1 week I will be in the beautiful land of ancient history, delicious foods, mouth-watering gelato, and stubborn catholics. I. COULD. NOT. BE. MORE. EXCITED!!!!!

I barely speak a lick of Italian but I'm going to invite everyone to be baptized :) hehehehe no one can stop the crazy blonde, American sister with the horrendous accent :)

My travel plans include (I left them in my room so this is all from memory, exact times may differ a bit). We fly out of Salt Lake on the Morning of Tuesday, April 30th. We leave for the airport at 400am sharp for a 730 flight. We fly to Chicago (don't know what it will be in Richardo's time) and have a 3 hour lay over. From Chicago I'm off to Rachel's stamping grounds in Frankfurt (what the Germany....) with another 3 hour layover. Then down to Milan!!!!!! I arrive in Milan at 0930am May 1st to be welcomed by President Wolfgramm.

Any advice for a not-so-seasoned traveler?! Especially since it will be an all-day, overnight affair?! Once in Italy, my luggage will be taken to the mission home but not all of us can stay in the mission home so it's most likely that I'll be in a hotel that night. I'd love any advice on what to do, expect and how to make my travels more enjoyable and easy :) Give it to me delta veterans!

This weeeeeeeeek flewwww by. After I got clearance to go to Becca's endowment session I was stoked! Sorella Turley (my teacher that night and the one who gave me the idea to see if I could get cleared) was highly entertained by my excitement. I could not sit still and i was so excited to be a missionary to because that is what the gospel is all about!!!! FAMILIES!!!!!!! wooowooooo!!!!! For real, I was ALIVE with the fire inside and absolutely love being a missionary!

Nothing too eventful happened and then Tuesday devotional night happened. Elder Evans of the 70/head of the missionary department (totally Peter Evan's brother - they look identical) was the speaker. His topic was repentance and I was super excited. However, after throwing about 15 minutes of over-packed, over-informationed, and overly-dry slide show slides, I tuned out and instead thought of my experiences with repentance. It was nice hour and half of internal examination. However, turns out I had serious numb bum syndrome. I could not sit still. I have a hard time sitting all day everyday apparently. I've started doing bum squeezes to keep myself content and my bum perky. Best trick ever!

So I don't really think that much about the devotional but when I get back to the residency hall, a poor sister is absolutely sobbing and having a panic attack. Sorella Condie and I pull her aside and calm her down. Turns out the "Call to repentance" devotional hit her hard and she felt like she had not repented of some serious sins. The branch pres said she'd mostly likely be going home. So i do my best to calm her down, and let her know that everything will be okay whether she packs for Home or Rome, it will be what the Lord wants. She also feels completely alienated from her district and an outsider. My heart nearly broke for her and I just wanted to hug her and love her. It is amazing what can happen to a person when he/she doesn't feel loved or appreciated. I had little control of the situation but now she is going to be my best friend until we leave for our separate missions. If I can build her confidence even the slightest bit, make her feel just a little bit more loved and appreciated, and a little closer to her Savior than my goal will be accomplished. The next day she ran up to me with a huge smile on her face. She get's to stay!!!!!! All is well because Heavenly Father knows the intent of our hearts.

So this is my last pday and then I'm off to Italy. It includes packing, studying, cleaning, session with Becca, getting everything in order to travel and class. I love you all and am so grateful that I have the best family in the entire world. Legit, we really do. I feel bad for other people. Sorry your family isn't as cool as mine.

-Sorella Alley