Survivor: Mission Style

I have survived my first week as a teen mom. It goes as follows.

 

I traveled to Milan on thursday to pick up my companion. She walked in and I knew immadietly she would be my companion. why? because she looks italian and I was convinced (as was every other person in the world) that I would be assigned a native. Nope, Heavenly Father has a sense of humor and she is from Spanish Fork and is 20 years old. Her name is Eileen Burkman! We got back to Rimini that night around 830 and I treated her to some gelato because it seemed....motherly..... Friday we jumped right into the work and have been going hard ever since. My favorite moments this week include

Hans-Albert (a nice german fellow for you Rachel) who we found looking at the Duomo at the piazza in Rimini. We approached him and he spoke wonderful english so we talked all about religion and his life. HE said that he isnt looking for anything additional in faith but we asked if we could at least leave him with a prayer. Sorella Burkman asked what we could pray for in specific and I offered the prayer, which included a blessing for his knee, his 3 daughters and his wife. After, he had tears streaming down his face and asked if he could read our Book!!!!!!!! booo ya! Unforutunately he is a referel for another area but the spirit was so strong and i felt perfectly normal to be praying in the middle of the touristy piazza. weird...

second story, Paulo is a referrel (how the fetch do you spell that!!!!!) from the anziani that met him on the train. They told us that we needed to have a male member present when we taught him or we couldnt teach him....strange. We met with him on monday with two members and turns out, he was released from prison just a week ago after serving 26 years in prison for involvment with the mafia. He now lives on the train in Rimini because he cant go home and he only wants to find peace. We taught him the first lesson and it was wonderful. Our two italian members translated our italian into italian :) hhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha but it was a wonderful experience. The spirit was so strong and I immediately felt so much love for this man. After he left, Sorella Burkman and I discussed how infinite and total the Atonement is and how grateful we are to share the goodnews of Christ's selfless sacrifice. Christ died for me but He also died for this man who's life has been so much darker and lonelier than mine. My favorite part about being a missionary is telling people that they can be forgiven and find eternal peace. Makes me want to weep like a wee infant. 

We are getting along fine here in Rimini although everytime the cell phone rings sheer panic runs through me bones....literally I have swallowed my tongue soooo many times. 

I spend a lot of time on my knees but I know that Heavenly Father has called me in weaknesses to grow strengths. I am a cripple without Him and as Sorella Wolfgramm said to me, "of course it is tough, you are learning how to be dependent (on the Lord)in an independent world". I love her.

Well that is about it for my week. Dear Becca Boo, you are officially Hermana Alley and report to the MTC in just a few hours. Go get em tiger. Make me proud and family, sit back and each some popcorn as you watch your two Sister Alleys invite others to come to Christ. 

 

Dio benederà la nostra famiglia,

   Sorella Alley

 

ps, it is 98% humidity here in Rimini....you know what that means......