SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2011

Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 9:06 AM
Subject: FAMILIA y AMIGOS

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII couldn't even SLEEP last night because I was so excited to tell you all about the incredible things going on here in GENOVA. But then for Pday we went to this huge outdoor market at spent almost all day there and we have an appointment in like a half hour so...I don't have time! boo. I will do my best. Which is hard because really most these things I just feel like I can't even explain them with words. They are just feelings. How do you describe pure joy? This is how I describe pure joy.So yesterday we had interviews. Its kinda an all afternoon event, we learn lots of lessons while on by one the missionaries are interviewed. Well we were watching this little missionary clip and I just lost it. I was just BOMBED with the spirit. Brothers and Sisters. This work is REAL. In my first few transfers I caught myself thinking once in a whie..."is this just big game? I feel like I am just in a big game." Ha I knew it wasn't but sometims it all just felt pretend. OOOoh man though. Yesterday it hit me like a train the reality of this work, the great and marvelous work of the Lord. It is HUGE. The Lord has been preparing these people their WHOLE LIVES to accept His Son Jesus and His gospel. Preparing them to receive BLESSINGs upon blessings upon blessings- temporal, spiritual, and eternal. It was a beautiful sacred experience that I will never forget. I am humbled and so grateful. It is meraviglioso. Let me tell you a little (more) about Maribel because I am pretty sure I talked about her last time. Her daughter is Nicole who was baptized a few weeks ago. The faith of this mother is just mind blowing. Monday we had a family home evening with them, and the wwwwwwhhhooollllleeeeeee family was tHere. We ate delicious food made by the oldest daughter who is in chef school right now she is sooo sweet. Then we taught them about fhe and how you do fhe. we taught them the hymn families can be together forever one of my favoritest hymns and we all sang it together. Then we taught the restoration and it was soo spiritual and so good. We were super late so we grabbed the oldest daughters number and the brothers number and were out. So then yesterday we called her oldest daughter who wanted NOTHING to do with us just weeks ago but now is our best friend. We will be teaching her and her boyfriend and her son Thursday, they were so excited. Right after we hung up and called maribel's brother who was also at the fhe. We will be teaching him Satuday, he was stoked!. After we hung up we called Giuseppe, Maribel's husband to ask if he's be interested in having the lessons with us. He said VA BENE Sorelle, of COURSE! We will be teaching him tomorow. I jsut can't even believe this! This beautiful woman maribel, completely inactive fore YEARS, comes back to church, starts reading the book of mormon, receives a rock solid testimony of the truth, and with her FAITH her UNWAVERING FAITh she is bringing her whole family to God. Husband, two daughters, daughters family, brother, even her ex husband was at the dinner heis a member inactive as well coming back. Soo amazing and I am just blessed otu of my mind to be able to know these people. AHHHH!Whelp times up. Lesson time.Love you all!!!! Happy Halloween! LoveSorella Simkins



Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 3:44 AM
Subject: hiiiiiiii

Mamma mia too much has happened last week my brain hurts just trying to think about it. So many great THINGS! Gotta flip open my agenda real fast. Ahheem.It is so beautiful living in a country where most the members are 1 generation converts. It is such a blessing. I get to hear the most amazing miraculous conversion stories from each of these members each day! This lady in our ward is my hero. She was baptized in her late teens and went on a mission in Peru, absolutely no support from anyone. She loves to talk and I wanted to hear her whole life story so she told me. Fast version: She was dating a returned missionary, had a dream that he was not the one for her, he convinced her anyways that she was the right one for him, they got married, hard hard life he cheated on her then promised he'd change and wanted to start over a new life that they'd come here to Italy and work and be happy and righteous but that didn't happen, they came her, and yeah lots of stuff happened. So this beautiful strong young mom with three kids never shook in her faith. She had a strong relationship with the Lord and was determined to heal her kids and raise them right. She taught them to build close intimate relationships with the Lord, to ask and seek and receive his guidance. She the two older children are both serving missions right now, and the youngest one comes to teach with us often and is as solid as a rock, she is incredible. I just love this woman, she is incredible! I am so humbled by these people who have been through SO MUCH but never let their faith waver. Never! This woman is happy, strong, steady, and wise. She has been richly blessed spiritually and temporally. Why? Because she is living the Gospel. She is obeying the commandments. She is F A I T H F U L. Ahh when I was in Milan I was sure I never wanted to leave that city, I would be happy there my whole mission! Now I can't even imagine who I would be if I hadn't had the chance to meet the incredible people I have met here!! I love them, they are my family. They have changed my life. This weekend NICOLE got BAPTIZED! It was beautiful, she is such a stunning young woman. OH man I forgot my camera cord I was going to send pictures. Next week!! Anyways she is 13 and the baptism was just beautiful. Her real dad came who was baptized yeaaarrrsss ago. It was his first time in a church for a real long time. Her sister who had quite the hard heart came as well and was touched. It was so beautiful. Nicole’s friends came. And after we were kinda talking to them, all these bitty 13 year olds, a few were kinda interested about learning more but for the most part they were just naa. In my head I am like oh man I hope they won't make Nicole feel bad or make her feel unsure. HA silly me for doubting. Nicole is solid. She just told them straight up this is the true church, I know it. One of our other investigators came, we had a lesson earlier that day, the baptism Sat night, then Sunday she came to all three hours of church. SHE IS AWESOME. We have a baptism date set for the 30th, pray for her! She has been through a lot, but she is one of these beautiful people that I feel like I was sent here to find and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love her deeply and we have a really strong connection. It just brings me joy, pure joy. This work is so real, the plan of God is so real and so big. Ahh it is so great. Then I went on scambio in.....TORINO!!! Ahh joy! I felt like I was in Salt Lake, it was cold and wintery, no snow yet, but the mountains are pretty and it just had that ski town feel to it. I was in heaven. OOH MAN I LOVE SKIING SO MUCH ha sorry I can't wait to do that again one day. Anyways Tornio was beautiful. AND I was on BIKE! Ahha I loveee being on bike. I really hope to serve in a biking city before my mission is up. It was exhilarating. SO peaceful, beautiful, blood flowing, fresh air..ahh definitely a big fan of the bike. We saw MIRACLES! I was with sorella alexander for 2 days, I learned soo much. She goes home in three weeks so it was weird talking about worldish things with her, ahh scary, but I learned a lot of great things from her and about her mission and just picked up on some things I like that she does when she teaches. Scambios are the best, I am all for exchanges. We learn so much from each other and for the work and for ourselves. We taught amazing people, found some amazing people doing street contacting and park, and really saw miracles. YAY!Now I am back here in lovely GENOVA! We might go to the aquarium today....it is the biggest one in Europe I hear.. Cool! Genova is so pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And WAY warmer than Torino.One more little learning experience. So sunday, before our exchange we were rushing around teaching doing last minute stuff before we had to go to the station and switch companions. On our way there the thought came to my mind, give sorella silva the cellphone, don't forget to give her the phone. And I thought back to that thought, I will when we get there, no worries. Just give it to her now was the response. She was standing a few yards away on the bus..Na I thought I will give it to her right when we get there. And went on thinking other things. We get there, the sisters are waiting for us, hugs, and HURRY we gotta catch our train back to Torino, says sorella alexander to me. So we say goodbye and rush off, get on our train, and are off. 2 minutes in...ahhh shoot. I have the phone in my pocket. Lesson: the Holy Ghost really does guide us. Warn us. The Holy Ghost TALKS TO US. The Holy Ghost told me clearly and simply, give the phone to your companion, not a drastic life threatening warning, just a sweet little prompting. So often we get those little suggestions and our OWN reasoning and logic just fires something back, ignores, justifies, or makes some excuse. One of my GREATEST desires for a long time now has been to be able to truly recognize and follow the guidance of the Spirit. And I learned this week that even those tiny little thoughts that pop into our head are from the Spirit and that I need to act upon them! What a huge HUGE blessing Heavenly Father has given us, the gift of the Holy Ghost. Our personal, all knowing GUIDE. WOW it is incredible!!!! SOO COOL! And so important that we live worthy of it in all times and in all places. And learn to follow. Not something I can master right way, but piano piano, I am working at it! I love you all! THANK you so much for all your prayers, I FEEL THEM. You are amazing. LoveSorella Simkins



Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 3:54 AM
Subject: un'altra settimana. so much to do so little time.

ALO!OHhh man I am super out of time I don't know where this hour went. Looks like it will be another quick update. GENOVA IS GREAT. Such beautiful fall weather. Kinda chilly!! I'm gonna need to buy some warmer clothes. Or just gain more weight, that'll keep me warm. Everyone loves a chubby sister missionary, right?? :) HOW IS EVERYONE? What is everyone up to in the states? Send me some updates yeah!! YAY HERMANA MARSHALL going to SPAIN and my cousin Elder FIFE in Colombia is amazing!! Any other missionary news out there? OH BY THE WAY I don't think Talia Cont..(whats her last name, cant remember) or Lori Truman get these emails but Brooke will you let them know that some Elders when to Cinque Terre for Pday and took a picture of their message they wrote on the wall there! They wrote UTAH STATE and their names and a heart and stuff so the Elder took a picture, and he knew I went to Utah State so he showed me the picture and was like do you know these names!? I was just like HEEEY cool! I do know them!! So did they all travel to Italy this last summer? For what, just for fun? That is sweet!! Hope they had fun!! Tell them to write me an email! Thanks. ha anywhoo. My spanish is coming along horribly. I really want to learn. And with a peruvian comp I really should. I just can't seem to force her into listening to my 10-word-vocabulary spanish. Mannnnnagia. Nicole is getting baptized SATURDAY! She is sooo great. Teaching youth is the best EVERY they are so smart they just understand everything. We taught her the word of wisdom and law of chastity yesterday. Two of my favorite lessons, seriously. Those laws are so beautiful. So sacred. So divine. Ahh I love them so much and am so thankful we have them. We are blessed! We are teaching this sweeeeet girl from Capo Verde (eeeerr I don't remember what that is in english? Is it the same? It is in Africa..) Anyways she is SWEET! 22. Soo awesome I love her so much. We just taught her for the first time yesterday and it went so well. We are teaching another miracle named Agata who is incredible. I just love these people so much. It is such a blessing to see them progress in the GOSPEL and see their lives changggeeee mamma mia. The gospel is so TRUE! The best thing about Agata is that she has the DESIRE. Just this burning massive desire to feel the spirit to feel God's love and to be liberated from some ugly feelings she's had mixin around inside for years. And this just makes me so happy because I know without a doubt that this sincere desire she has will lead to some huge miracles right before her eyes, and some big changes in her life, because I know God loves her and is listening to her prayers and will respond. I knooww it. Ahh I can't wait. Whelp, really. Everything is going great here in Ecuador. I can't believe how fast the time is flying, it is terrifying. Weeks pass in blinks. Seriously, I look back and what happened this last week, all that I went through, all the experiences, all the highs, all the lows, all the everythings and I am just shocked. How is this possible? What time zone am I LIVING IN? AHHH! YIKES! LOVE YOU ALL!SOOoo MUCH!read your scriptures! love,sorella simkins

Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 3:28 AM
Subject: Ohhhh MY! BUONGIORNO!!

Man isn't it soo cool that I am on the coast of Italy, teaching people the restored gospel, serving the Lord in His marvelous work? SO blessed.Genova is beautiful. It is still sunny warm here. We had a lesson like 30 minutes away yesterday and we just cruised up the coast on a bus. I was just in awe the whole time. Beautiful beautiful beautiful. People are still swimming in the sea, laying out on the beach. But surprisingly I didn't even have an ounce of jealousy or yearning. I am the luckiest person in the world to be doing what I am doing.
CONFERENZA GENERALE! Fantasticà! But...seriously...you just can't translate President Uchtdorf into Italian. It just doesn't work. I can't wait to get my hands on the conf ensign next month in english. We didn't get to see the last session sunday because it was 10 to midnight or something. Can't wait to read it. We had 4 investigators come! It was sweet! This week has just been completely out of control with miracles. We have been LEAD by the spirit. One evening we had 2 hours until we had to be in and no lessons planned. We started out, planning on going to pass by Edith, a contact we met early. It was a good plan, we knew she would be home, we even had an english book of Mormon with us because she is from Nigeria and Nigerians speak english. We get going..and I just get this sick feeling in my stomach. I think "ok..this is either hunger. Or anxiety because there are billions of people on this street and I am going to start talking to as many as I can. Or it is a sign that this isn't what we should be doing." We kept walking, I kept debating, then just turned to my comp and said this doesn't feel right, lets go this way. So we head up this alley, say a prayer, head back in the opposite direction. We immediately run into two people we taught in the park earlier that week, talked to them, it was great, reminded them about conference, they came the next day. Miracle two, we kept walking, and we were like..lets go to Maria's palazzo and do casa there. We are walking there walking past several palazzi and a thought comes into my head, walk into the next palazzo with it's door open. We walk past the next apartment, and a lady is just leaving. We turn and head right in. Go to the top floor, start doing casa, buzzing doors. First 5 doors we teach lessons, 3 or which with follow up appointments. Whaaaaaaaaaaatt???????????? HUGE miracles. HUGE! We would have never founds those people! MIRACLES! Ahh I only have 5 more minutes then my session is up. One more miracle, yesterday we taught this 13 year old and her family her mom is a less active who just came back to church so we are teaching here, and after invite her to baptism, she says yes because she really wants to follow Christ. She says the closing prayer and just starts bawling because the spirit hits her so hard. it was such a spiritual experience that I was able to witness, I am so thankful! Pray for Nicol, she is getting baptized in a few weeks!!! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!lovesorella simkins HOLA HERMANA KIME! you are so cool. did you know that my peruvian companion is AWESOME? I love her and I love peru. Papa alla huancaina ( I don't know how to spell that, but have you eatten it? it is delicious)love you!



Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2011 4:20 AM
Subject: YAY!

HI! Well, I thought I was getting transfered to Genova, but instead I got transfered to Ecuador. Seriously it is nuts! I don't feel like I am in Italy, besides the tastey Faccacia and Pesto. Genova is absolutly gorgeous. It is a serious of little towns along the coast line, with TALL colorful, rustic, old palazzi (apartmets) all bunched together, windy, hilly, uneven streets, markets everywhere, landry hanging out of every window, and people walking everywhere! Open, friendly, ready for the gospel, Ecuadorian people! YAY! AND OH MY....the SUNSETS...I about throw up every evening looking at the sunset it is so beautiful. There are few things in life that give me that 'its so beautiful I almost feel sick feeling in this world', and sunsets are one of them. Gorgeous skys. Ahhh gorgeous. My companion is Sorella Silva! She is from PERU! She is 33 years old and a champion. SWEET! We speak noo english. My goal for this transfer is to LEARN SPANISH but everytime I ask my comp a spanish question its like I am asking her to wash my feet or something, I don't know why but I get the feeling she does not want to teach me spanish. Pazienza, I still study spanish during my language study, I need to get a good verb book or somfin. She is a great missionary though. Super bold, a great teacher, I really do love her. I have a lot to learn from her. So we got to Genova. Both have never been here before. We have a new apartment with like nothing inside, so it has been kinda crazy trying to collect our needs. The apartment is beauiful, right off the main street. and holy cow the miracles we have already seen. Out of control! Our second day we had a whole day just OPEN not one appointment obviously because we know no one! We go out our apartment, turn the corner, start talking with every moving thing in site. We get contacts left and RIGHT I filled up like 2 pages with numbers and people intersted! Families, youth, elderly, I couldn't believe it! We taught several lessons to several people in several different settings. Just like missionaries in the bom, we teach them EVERYONE on buses, in the parks, on the streets, in the stores, in their houses, on the stairs..it doesn't matter. Teach teach teach. So the next day we decided to go find the church. Are a little lost, I just stoppd the first person walking by, an Italian lady, 45 or so. Hey can you point us to via confalonieri? She says I don't know where that is. Oh ok.. thanks anyways! We are missionaries new her, looking for our church! She goes oh I know where your church is! It is new, I saw them fixing it up a while back. So she takes us down the street to our church, we have a nice convo, I ask if she has ever been inside, she says no, so we give her a little tour, invite her to church the next day, she doesn't seem like super intersted but was nice, and she left. Anyways, the church is soo sweet, so beautiful, it is nothing you can imagine ahha I can't even explain it. Our churches here in Italy are sweet. Nothing like the big brick chapels covering utah. This church is yellow. Tall and skinny. 2 floors. Really skinny and goes back far. Ha it is so funny but so beautiful, and has the same spirit as any other church. The baptismal font is beautiful, can't wait to use it!!! So we head out and start finding again, find a billion people, it is Saturday night so we are just inviting people to church like crazies. Oh man really I haven't experienced anything quite like it, the finding work we do here. Just talk to everyone in sight, no fear. My comp just gets right to the point, just dives right in with these people its funny man I love my comp I wish you could meet her she is so funny. But I am just blown away how many people we have met and taught already. It was like a big WELCOME gift from Heavenly Father. Miracles everywhere. So amazing. Even doing casa we have gotten in like 5 times which really is a miracle. So church the next day. Amazing members. FAMILIES. I am in a family ward, complete families, moms, dads, KIDS, it is weird I was just so joyed (made up word?) to see these complete, eternal families. Ah beautiful. A beautiful ward. And guess who comes to Church? Italian lady that showed us the church! Guess who else? Maria from Columbia we met the night before. I forgot to tell you, on the train ride to Genova I was pondering how my comp and I could open up this city with a BOOM and my goal was to bring one person to church, I was determined, to show the ward that we mean business! Sat night no one gave a clear commitment they would come. So...I was like ok..we did our best! And God provided. 2 people came!! So sweet. We have taught maria this week. You know want to know my absolute FAVORITE thing about being a missionary? Seriously..I think it is my number one favorite thing. I might have already mentioned it. It is people's first prayers (first prayer doing the prayer they way we do it). oooohh my heart. The simplest, most sincere, little prayers. So beautiful. But such HUGE TESTIMONIES TO ME OF HOW MUCH HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES HIS CHILDREN! Ha cap lock went on and I just left it on for that sentence. Really though. I can't even count how many times i have seen these beautiful people in tears by the end of their first prayer. The Lord just DUMPS His loving spirit on them, and I am honored to hear, feel, and see it. I see the windows of Heaven open before my eyes. Maria's prayer was two sentences literally, but she cried. Heavely Father loves them so much and we see it. He is sooo happy when they talk to Him. Man, He loves them SO much, how does He do it. Incredible. I am happy to be her in Genova. I really gotta send you pictures, it is beautiful. Famous for Christopher Columbus's house, the aquarium, Focaccia, and Pesto. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm PESTO oh my mouth is watering. So tastey. Well gota go. LOVE YOU!! LoveSorella Simkins OH YES my address. Via Cantore 4116149 GenovaItalia WRITE ME! But...packages are risky FYI.. they get lost, stolen, never arrive. KENNY YAY I got your email. What is your address so I can write you backkk? You can email me I just am not supposed to email back. Keep sending me updates! You are SO COOL! Kenny can you forward this to Jen's missionary address, or send me her address or something so I can write her? Thanksss I love you so much!!

Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 3:35 AM
Subject: HOLA HI EVERYONE!

oh my gash this week has been CRAZY! The craziest ever. Biggest rollar coaster ride of my life, I have bad whiplash. I will just dive in.
a) dinner with Saba from Ethiopia. HAHAHA what the world, just thinking about it makes me cry laughing. I don't even know where this lady came from, we just met her at a bus stop one day in the middle of no where and she invited us over for dinner. (this keyboard is pretty nasty so my punctuation and capitolizing is going to be pretty bad sorry.) so, a week or so later, we went over to dinner. it took us forever to get there. we miraculously found a book of mormon in her language which was swweeeeet, our book of mormon library has tonsss of languages and she speaks, man I don't even remember what it is called... amaric or something boh I don't remember. anyways so we head out to the boonies. we get inside and sit down and she just sits down and stares at us...we try making some small talk but she speaks very little Italian and very little English. Haha oh man...if someone just filmed the daily life as a missionary they would laugh sooo hard at all the hilarious situations we find ourselves in. so sheis just staring at us..we are asking some pretty basic questions to get to know her and try to talk..she just says yeh to like every question.. ha ok... so then we sit at the table and she brings out the food she cooked, which wasn't bad actually, real good. she puts in this dvd from her african evangelistic church I am just praying oh no. Luckly, she couldn't find the play button on her remote, so it just stayed at the menu screen while we ate haha. when I offered the opening prayer after every sentence I said she shouted AMEN. AMEN. AMEN. AMEN. hahahahaa. after din we start into a lesson, teaching her about the book of mormon. hahahah oh man just thinking about it kills me. she was like GASPING when we started telling her about Lehi and his family and their story. I honestly don't know how much she was understanding, but she was gasping and saying YEH! lots so...hmm. So we are kind of just awkwardly going along..and then at the end it was so weird all a sudden it was just like her heart turned to stone! She looked at her bible and was like I NOOO CHANGE NEVER NO CHANGE EVER BIBLE STOP, BIBLE STOP, ONE GESU ONE GESU. we were just smiling...bearing testimony, and somehow wrapped up the lesson nicely. we invited her to say the closing prayer haha oops. My comp and I bow our heads. she stood up, held out her arms, and starts chanting and screaming halelujia then more chanting then a big HALELUJIA and more chanting and more halelujias. OH man I was using all my force not to burst. I was not expecting that it was hilarious. Then she walked us to the bus stop:) good ol' Saba.
b)next day, was NOT one of my most favorite days on the mission. Oh boy..our poor new converts and member are being BOMBED by the adversary. I don't know whatin the world happened but all a sudden they are all just facing huggee problems!!! We spent the whole day lesson to lesson hearing the heart renching problems they were giong through. I exaggerate not, we are on the fronts of the battle field. My heart just sunk to the bottom of the pits. By the end of the day I just slumped into my apartment dead and depressed. How do therapists DO IT? Holy smokes. The problems these people are facing are real, and they are painful. they are destructive. The ONLY LIFE LINE IS JESUS CHRIST. Ahh faith faith faith, where is your faith. Live the gospel. Keep the commandments. In this there is safety in this their is peace. It is as simple as that. There aren't any exceptions, there aren't. TRULY living the gospel is the only escape. For myself included! I was not. good. that night. but I testify that the atonement is real, and that it heals all the broken. So when Sunday rolled, during church and after, I was feelin really good. Then we went to visit some less actives. which reminds me, ANYONE who has served in the PHILIPPEANS please email me. I have a few questions about these amazing people and their culture, thanks:) Then monday came (day before transfer calls, tuesday night) We are in the middle of studies and the phone rings. It is president Wolfgramm. If you get a call from President the day before, it means somethin exciting is going on. And yes, I did receive some exciting news! I am going to....dm dum dum....GENOVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAhahahaha. I am super excited. I am opening up Genova to Sisters with Sorella Silva from Peru!!! SWEET!!! My transfer goal (among many) LEARN SPANISH. I will learn spanish. I am determined. Anyways, I am super excited.I love Milano with allllll of my heart, but their comes a time when you know a little too much about the people and a fresh pair of eyes and perspective is really needed. Sorella Sloan and Sorella Baker will work miracles, which are already in full swing. Which brings me to c.
c) We have INCREDIBLE investigators right now! What in the world, how do we find these people! Margoth, 29, we have seen only 3 times. OH MAN she is just out of this world. Our first lesson was jsut a pure lesson on hope and our Savior because she was really down in the dumps. Our next lesson shewas alreayd changed. She hasn't prayed in years and is praying. We left her the Moroni promise in Moroni 10:3-5 and the introduction to read after our last lesson, we got there yesterday, started following up on the reading...and she is like well I thought I would need to understand better this moroni so I read the whole book. I really like the part about babies not needing to be baptized. I also thought it was really interesting how Moroni appeared to Joseph several time preparing him to get the gold plates. I also really like Nephi, how he is so faithful in following the Lord and his father and is about to go back to Jerusalem to get those other plates. HAHA my companion and I's jaws were on the floor. SHE READ A TON. Ahhh you would be SUPRPISED at how much this shocks people, when people actually READ and UNDERSTAND. you would think that would be an obvious simple thing that everyone did but NO it is like pulling TEETH sometimes trying to get people to read the Book that changes LIVES. So we were just exstatic. Margoth is AWESOME. We had a really good lesson yesterday, and yesterday she called me and was like...where were we reading about the plan of salvation today, I want to read more! Ohh I love her. Giovanna, also from Peru. Just incredible. We had our second lesson with her, and she just wants to follow Christ. She set her baptism date for October 15th. Mariella, an Italian who studied with missionaries like 30 years ago, awesome. She is getting an opporation and will be home all day everyday for like a month, like..she cannot leave the house. mwaahahah. a missionaries most favorite news. She is awesome. William and Giulia, had our first lesson with them yesterday...oh my the mom Giulia..just blew my mind. She is SHARP! I was just laughing with amazement at how well the Lord has prepared her, it is unreal. Her and her son William will be baptized next transfer. I kid you not. The work here in Milano is just exploding. It is unreal, we are overjoyed. I can't wait to see these same miracles in Genova, I have no doubt that they await us. It is exciting, the thoughts of opening up a city..who knows what challenges await, but I'm pumped.

Well, that is enough news for now! I can think of a million other funny, spiritual, awesome, sad things to tell, but this will have to do.
Missions are out of control.

I love you.
LOVE
SORELLA Simkins



Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 4:00 AM
Subject: Another beautiful week CIAOOOO TUTTI

Come vaaa? Hows the weather there in ol Utah? Here we are melting still. HOT. But beautiful. This morning my companion and I went on a culture run! We ran to the Duomo and back, it was beaauutttiiifffuuulll and so peaceful. I love running in the morning. I am scared for the day when I get a companion who won't run with me. eek.

Ahh what a beautiful week this was! We started it out with a GREAT scambio, where I was able to go to the beautiful city of Bergamo with Sorella Mcfadden for the day. Scambio's are so effective, and needed, and good for missionaries. It was good for me to get out of Milan for a sec and get some new perspective and a recharge of new faith and spirit for the work going on here. Getting to know and talk to Sorella Mcfadden was a really good experience too. Again, I just am so thankful and so amazing how the REAL the gospel has become to me. ALIVE. The gospel is life. I will put it as simple as I can.
We are here to BE HAPPY. (2N2:25)
For us to BE HAPPY, God gave us the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is His PLAN OF HAPPINESS for us, His children.
Satan wan't us to be UNHAPPY. He will do all he can to make us unhappy.
So I guess you just need to ask yourself..are you happy? Whose plan are you living?
So yeah, scambio went really well. Got back and just had a week full of miracles with Sorella Sloan. Next week is transfers scary. I might be leaving my home here in Milan. Ahh there are such great things happening here though so I don't know how I feel about that, but I know where ever I go God's work will be happening so I'll do what I gotta do! Our Ecuadorian family is great, slowly growing their faith and making their way to Salvation. Our beautiful friend Grace from Ghana disappeared, sad! It is CRAZY how that happens on the mission sometimes. You find the coolest person ever, just super prepared and ready to accept the fulness of the gospel, then poof they are gone. What! We have found SOLID incredible investigators this week though. HOLY COW I just can't believe it thinking about it. One lady we found on the Metro, made an appointment, and went to teach her a few days later. She is soo sincere, just such a sweet lady, so genuine. When we were teaching the restoration we got to the apostacy and she just looks up at us soooo worried, literal FEAR in her eyes and she says to us.."Where is God's authority now!?? Where did it GO!??" Haha my companion and I just about exploded as we told about Joseph Smith and the first vision and the restoration of God's authorit to the earth. HA it was soo awesome, she is so GREAT. She called the otherday and was like..the book of mormon is a little confusing but I am trying to read it as much as I can! I was like have you prayed about it? And she is like OH YEAH I am going to start praying before and I read it and right after I read, everytime! Last night we taught Lucy from Brazil/Spain who doesn't speak Italian, little spanish, and lots of portugese! It was beautiful. We literally taught the Gospel in sentences small enough for a 2 year old to understand. Simplicty really is power. She is so great. Ha I LOVE PEOPLE! I love being on a mission. I just can't get over how amazing this is. When again in my life will I ever have the chance to live like this. Teach the gospel ALL DAY, go to bed at 1030 up at 630 to exercise eat get ready and then STUDY the SCRIPTURES for hours. HAVE YOU GUYS READ THE BOOK OF MORMON LATELY? IT IS OUT OF CONTROL. I just started it again and read 1 Nephi 13 this morning and DIED. That was written 600 years before CHRIST are you KIDDING ME??? Man I was hyperventilating telling my companion about all the stuff I read. People. You have got to read the Book of MORMON. It is the best book I have ever read. There is no possible way that it isn't true. No way at all. READ IT! and pray about it. ahh it will change your LIFE everyday.

Well I am outta time.
I LOVE YOU
Love
Sorella Simskeekinis