It is almost Christmas time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Fun with pancakes. Dedicated to THE hermana Alley"

Well, let's just change that with a little realization from personal study. Trasport your selves into my brain for a few moments, walk past the jumbled boxes of italian and straight to the study desk. 

Every day is Christ's day when you are His disciple. 

Everyday from now on everyday shall be Christmas! Epic realization.

So miracle time! Monday, consisted of 9 straight hours of tracting. Yes, 9. We did our studies and lunch straight through so we wouldnt have to interrupt our mindset of finding. Side note to senior companion Alley *that was a terrible idea. Anyways, after being denied, for 8  and half hours straight, I was pretty frustrated and a little discouraged. We crossed a bridge and I contemplated jumping....okay its not that bad but all you RM's understand this feeeling. Well, I spy a woman and we purposefly put ourselves in her way. New method i am trying. It's called You Talk To Me Because You Ran Into Me First. Anyway, after we said we werent Jdubbs, she listened and actually asked all the plan of salvation questions. Oh baby, it was exhilirating. Well it turns out this woman lost her son 11 years ago when he was 23. She just starts sobbing! Well my good old contagious eyes, just jump right on in...so we are both tear streaked at this point. We did the entire plan of salvation leesson on the street, prayed for her son to make his presence felt in her life and made a return appointment! Lesson learned. Sorella Alley, sometimes it takes 8 plus hours proving to God that you are serious about His work BEFORE He gives you His referall. Flip, it was incredible. 

Auguri di Buon Natale un po di presto ma va beh!

I am wiggling in my chair and just counting down the days till I will hear the sweeeet squaking of Andrew and the first words from Graham, "Ciao, Sorella Alley come stai?!" Yes, first words will be in italian. 

Okay, lets just jump right into the goods of the week. Shout out to Stephen's glory days once again. We had dinner with Maria and Richerd last week and she made an authentic Republica Domenicana meal for us. She pulled out these MASSIVE GREEN BANANAs. I am not kidding, like close to a foot long. Apparently they are called Plantina or something like that.....but she deep fried them into these crunchy little morsels of island blast in the mouth. Hope that is somewhat accurate to what Stephen ate or I just got tricked by a foreigner. 

Alright, weather update for all your cold salt lakers-.you havent been cold until you have been in the humidity. Yes, today is -10 degress with so much humidity it's like you are sweating but you are not being really you are shivering and the tears freeze in your eyeballs. Also, it gets SOOOOOO foggy here. You cannot see more than 5 feet in front of your face and the land is blanketed in it. So crazy, and the natives say its the worst this year. Makes tracting fun, anyone we find we talk to because we usually literallty walk right into them. However, when someone is one a bike - it's scary because it looks like a black monster is coming straight for you. Satan. 

Tanti Auguri di Buon NATALE!

Well not, quite but almost. Non posso credere è natale già! Wow, It is decembre! To celebrate, i prayed for snow and we got snow for the first time! But not enough to cover anything.... ;( and now it is just freezing. If it is going to be freezer there should atleast be snow...

But miracle time. We were tracting last Friday night in a paezzinni (little town) close to the church. No one was out (naturally, it was frigid) so we had to resort to knocking doors.....by that I mean ringing bells on the gates. No one was having it. So the last one we rang before heading back was a success!!! An older man, once we stated we are not the local Jdubbs, invited us in for "one minute" to get warm. The first time I have ever been welcomed into a house! Well we talked to the older man and his wife, shared Ether 12:27 with them and then bore testimony. They invited us back and we taught them yesterday the Restoration. My very first successful casa story! Took 8 1/2 months but I was thrilled! Well, Mimo and Angela are being prepared to accept the gospel, and I am going to help them along. Wooooo

Well, my new companion is Sorella Madison Smart from Draper. She is 19 but has a rock solid testimony. She was fortunate enough to be trained by a native italian (I must apologize to Sorella Burkman for handicapping her lingquisticaly) so she speaks very well. Very humbling for you know who. She is not confident in her teaching skills so we balance each other's weaknesses well, funny how the Lord knows us. We are planning on working hard this transfer because she has never had a baptism. It is about time she had one! Funny story: I here a crazy popping and sizzzling noise in the kitchen and i meander my way in to see what is happening. Well there is Sorella Smart barely holdng on to a pan of smoking oil and egg plant. The oil got a little to hot, and she tried to "cool it off" with water.......now chemistry wasn't my best subject but........I do know flaming oil and water dont mix. hahahaha thankfully I had baking soda that took care of the problem right away, then we put the emergency numbers on the fridge. hahahaha

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Richerd, 11 and Maria, 50. Thank you Dominican Republic."

I have much to be thankful for, especially the four baptisms on last Saturday! Maria, Richerd, Dino (taught by the elders) and Edem. President surprised us by coming as did Elder Oscarthorpe and Ridd. Yes, the general authorities of Sunday school and ym. But the baptisms went off without a flaw and 4 more souls have been added to the kingdom of God. I  couldn't help but think of Hermana Alley, sweating and having her own baptism the same day. We are so far apart from each and the family but this is our purpose - to invite others to come unto Christ. We are getting work down! Good job boo! Well, the next day they were confirmed members in sacrament with again the general authorities in presence. My favorite line i have ever heard, "Receive the Holy Ghost." Major chills after hearing it four times. Funny story, because I conduct the hymns (hahahahaha) in sacrament, i get up after the confirmations to lead the sacrament hymn. Halfway through, I totally get lost in my thoughts about the epic magnitude of the spirit and naturally, got lost leading. So I apparently thought it was a good idea just to close my book and begin to sit down. When I realize Sorella Killpack is still playing the piano, I let out a huge "ahhhhhhh no!!!" jump up and try to pretend like nothing happened. Clue every red blood cell in my body to swim toward my face. I couldn't stop giggling and blushing. I am sure the general authorities appreciated it.....

Oh by golly, it is Wednesday again...

... How strange, I am pretty sure Wednesday was yesterday.

So Saturday night we had an appointment with the Ruiz Diaz family. They are from Argentina and they have a son who served in Hermana Alley's exact area! I almost hugged him just to get a little Argentina on me but Sorella Killpack has fast reflexes and held the tiger back. Anyway, we were teaching Simone and Diego at their house and we've been working with these two investigators from my first week in Lodi. We knew they needed to progress towards their Baptism Date but it wasn't going to happen if we didn't bring a strong lesson about prayer. We read Matthew 7:7-11 with them and asked Simone, the son, what it meant to him. We sat in silence for about 2 minutes and the Spirit was working with him, you could see it visibly. Then his dad, Diego came to the rescue and told us as a father, himself, he would do anything for Simone. BOOM!!!!! That is how it is with our heavenly Father! To further demonstrate our point, we held a blanket up in a door frame with Diego and Simone kneeling in the separate rooms with the blanket in between them. We asked Simone to tell his dad about his day. It took him a while to warm up but once he got talking it was easier. Then we asked Diego to respond with the what he thought was most important for Simone to know. Then I heard the most powerful three words ever. "Ti volgio bene." I love you. Oh what is that glistening in my eyes, you ask? Tears. It was beyond touching and again, I was not the missionary, I was simply the mouthpiece. Then to end our lesson, we asked Diego to pray. Very reluctantly we taught him how to pray, and he started one of the most humble and beautiful prayers i have ever heard. He thanked his Father in Heaven for his two angel missionaries (commence the tears again), and he asked for guidance to raise Simone to be a future missionary. He shared that it was the first time he had prayed since he was 17. That was 23 years ago. This is the beauty of being a missionary. Someone like Diego, a declared atheist, now KNOWS that there is a God and God does love him. One of the most powerful lessons of my mission. I LOVE MY JOB!!!!

Mercoledi (We think that means Wednesday)

""Posso usare il suo bagno?"- Sorella Alley
"Certo!" -cafe owner
"This is your bathroom....I'll hold it." -Sorella Alley "

It's mercoledi, mercoledi, gonna send emails on mercoledi. Wensdays are the bombdiggity but mercoledi sounds so much more exotic than Wednesdays. Look at that, I can't even spell it anymore.

 

Ciaooooooo, let's begin with a message to Pierre. Dad, there is an area in the mission that is actually in Switzerland. So, only those with an European citizenship can serve there. So basically like 0 sorella. however, we learned this week that if a parent was born in Europe then the child just has to apply for citizenship! Hello, my name is Christine Marie Alley - that is like 66.6 % (crud, i hope that is right....you know me and fractions) so can you look into that for me Pierre Andrè. I am pretty sure I hear Switzerland calling my name! Thanks pops.

Halloween in Italy

Another giorno di preparazione has come and I am freezing in a little internet cafe. Oh how the times change, and Italy is strikingly similar. Yesterday - freezing cold. This afternoon - beautifully warm. Now. Freezing again. Home sweet home.

Well let us start of with Halloween. The day was very uneventful until the evening. We had planned a party for the ward members that night so we were excited. The Clock struck the appointed hour of seven thirty and not a soul to be seen. Now, I cant say that I blame them, I definitely wouldn't ever go to the sister missionaries Halloween party either pre mission but after....I will be throwing it down with them. Anyways, we are packing up to leave and 3 members from our weekly English class show up! We gave them a quick tour of the building and then we had a beautiful lesson with them. Manuele and Nelli and their family are so ready for the restored gospel- They accepted baptismal dates and now we work our behinds off to grow them!