May and June 2012 Letters

Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 20126:01 AM

Subject: buongiorno

HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a BEAUTIFUL SUMMER DAY. This city has turned into a humid OVEN!Not hot like what Tyrell is going through, but still super hot, we are sweatymonsters. It is my companions birthday today YAY! This week has been SO GOOD Iam in love with these people, the gospel is changing lives, I am learning SOMUCH from my scripture reading/pondering it is changing me everyday, I go tobed at night just FULL OF PEACE and gratitude, we are teaching the most amazingpeople, our days are PACKED TO THE RIM. I come home EXHAUSTED every singlenight. We ride our bikes around this town like CRAZY PEOPLE. Ok let me give youthe update starting last week. Fast version.

Man I don't even know what to say! SO MUCH is happening!!! Tons ofmiracles, but mostly all just little miracles that are happening to everylittle individual in their progression! They are all doing so well! TheBolivian family is amazing and yesterday we got there and the mom wasn't therebut we saw the daughters friend just outside sitting there so we were like, doyou want to come in with us and listen to our message? And she goes sure! Soshe came with us and we taught the plan of salvation and she said the prayerand it was beautiful. We said how do you feel? She goes...Free. With a bigsmile on her face. Then we asked if anyone had any questions. And shegoes...how come not everyone knows that this is the true church? Ha she justasked it so innocently like..duh...how is it that not everyone knows this yet?And we explained missionary work and the miraculous growth of the church andstuff and she loved it.

In the park the other day we walked by some ladies and smiled at themand said hi, and they smiled and said hi, so we stopped and starting talking.And Carolina,this young beautiful bolivian mom was like oh I thought you were JWs, I amstudying with them! We introduced ourselved and explained who we are. She saidohh I know some people in your church! And we started talking a little bit. andshe is SOO CONFUSED with the doctrine that the jws are teaching her and what webelieve and we asked if we could meet with her to answer her questions and sheagreed so we went over there last night, WITh her member friend, and had themost beautiful spiritual lesson EVER. it was AMAZING. The member at the veryend was just completely bearing her testimony on the power of PRAY to ourHEAVENLY FATHER and going off and Carolinawas almost in tears. We said that it isnt a good idea to study with both of usat the same time (as in us and the jws) but to prayfully ask the Lord what todo and at the end of the lesson she is like WELL we will hear from you nextweek to set up another appointment! Bless her heart she is so great just soconfused and feels so spiritually lost. Lots of love and spirit were felt, Ihave hope for her and her beautiful family! Sunday the ward got divided intotwo wards and a branch. We will be covering the branch, it is just bergamo city center, andI am SUPER happy. We have church at 4 haha that will be crazy, but we are goingto bring the whole city to church and fill up the branch as soon as we can! Oneof our beautiful less actives family just came here from Bolivia! Wehave taught them two lessons in spanish, my spanish is pretty bad but we makeit work! The little one Ana is ten and will be preparing for baptism hopefullynext month! Yay! They are BEAUTIFUL! Man these little foreign children justSTEAL MY HEART! Oh yeah..so remember a few weeks ago we met this lady nameddaisy on the street and she was just so happy and told us to come back whenver?we finally got time to go monday night and they are ELECT AS CAN BE! Her andher sister. We had a restoration lesson and they understood it ALL and were sosurprised they had never heard this story or about Jospeh of about the Book ofMormon and are excited to keep learning! They are from El Salvador.Yay!! yesterday was OUT OF CONTROL we had a million lessons. We taught this guyCarlos who owns a pizzashop and it was BURNING HOT but we taught him while hewas preparing the dough. Ha it was fun, he is a nice guy, a little skepticalbut it went well. Then we taught Justin a new convert and he brought his friendKasum, they are from burkina  faso and are GREAT! Justin has always beenawesome, but now we are teaching his friend. What a little missionary. Our goldenukranian Ivan got a 2 week job out of town :( sad, but we are hoping all willgo well and he will come back ready to learn more. Juliet is almost to baptism,but goes to Nigeriafor a month...hopefully august. ummmmmmmmm lots of good things are happening,that is all I can say. We do bike stops all the time it is hilarious, we havebeen wanting to work on just randomly stopping people on our bikes on the wayto lessons. We are huge dorks but we have had AMAZING experience, stoppingREALLY incredible elect people, like this woman and her daughter the other dayand the woman just a few month ago was able to fly her daughter overfrom...bolvia..and the daughter had been staying with her sisters family,whoare all member and the dad is a stake president, and the daughter is 7 and shetells us I WANT TO BE MORMON!!!! and the mom like laughed and said she has beentelling me this every since she got here! So we have an appointment with them.And this other random lady we stopped started talkin up a storm with us andshowing us all these pictures on her phone of her cousin who was a missionaryin ecuador.she isn't a member but we are seeing her again so we will see! It is miraculousthe things we are experiencing! I mean..how cool is it that almost everyone westop has relations to members!!! the church is growing for sure!!!!!!!!!!! wow.

I don't know what is happening..but I have just been in constant peacefor weeks now. I have always felt peace but not this much..it is amazing. Mystudies have never been better. When they tell us to ponder the scriptures, itis because the BEST revelations come while pondering. Treasure up the words oflife. Treasure...what a good objective.While studying  humility the other day I read a scripture in DandC....12:8I believe..and it is a simple to do this work you need faith, hope, charily,etc....and to be temperate in all things, everything entrusted unto orsomething like that. Anyways my eyes just  stopped on the wordtemperate..and my curiousity sparked and I pondered temperance, and startedreading all I could find in the scriptures of temperance.. anyways it wasBEAUTIFUL! I never really knew what temperance meant! Ha I have read it amillion times but have never searched of pondered it. Anyways while ponderingit thoughout the day and looking for  different ways I could put it intopractice I felt so peaceful. I love 1 corinthians 9:25. Perfect. mmmmm selfmastery. Anyways those are my scattered thoughts for now, I just realized I amway out of time.

 I LOVE YOU ALL!

and I love the scriptures. and missionary work. and the gospel. and theplan of salvation. and Joseph smith and the restoration. and most of all JesusChrist and Heavenly Father. They all go together.

Don't forget to LOVE and be better people and serve God's children!

LOVE

sorella simkins

Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 201212:03 AM
Subject: CIAO

HI TUTTI

I have about three minutes to tell you....that everything is goinggreat! We have had CRAZY storms this last week, I have never seen so muchlightening in my LIFE! And it is funny because then we go do finding and talkto people and so many are like...ahh all these natural disasters and storms aresigns of the end coming! yes! So then we keep talking and try to get anappointment and they are like OOOH NO no no no no, way too busy, no no no notinterested. Silly people. It is crazy though, one second we are soaking wet,next second we are dying of heat. Today is soo sunny beautiful, perfect for ahike in the mountains and learning to make delicious pizza with sorella Botta,bishops wife. YAY. As far as the work goes..miracles are continuing! Almost allthe people I wrote about last week are still progressing! Matthew is amazing,he is coming to institute and fhe now, Ivan found work after more than 6 monthswithout, we will now be seeing him saturdays and sundays which is alright, thebolivian family is sooo sweet and progressing, they didn't come to church buthopefully this sunday will be there, then we found another El Salvadorianfamily! yayyy! they are beautiful and we will be teaching them tomorrow night.SO! Things are good. Gotta keep working HARD HARD HARD and make every minutecount. I love you all and am so happy and thankful for all your support andprayers. Be good and have a fun summer!

love

sorella simkins

Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 201212:06 AM
Subject: CRAZY THINGS AREHAPPENING IN BERGAMO

(Longest email EVER)

Oooh my GASH I couldn't even sleep last night because I was sooverwhelmed/excited/in shock for all the INCREDIBLE things happening here. Plusso many people yesterday fed us sugar loaded treats and soda EEEK I just tossedand turned all night but I am SO HAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPYYYYY. UUUUooo deep breath,this might just be one run on sentence but I gotta get everything in in littletime so here I go!

Ok starting last week..Thursday can't remember what happened, we justhappily worked while most all the other missionaries were in Milan changingcompanions or preparing to go home, Friday Guido the Anziani's investigator wasbaptized and this man is HILARIOUS just this older Italian dude, super funny,he is a little bit bigger and so is the brother that baptized him so when theycame out of the water they both slipped and it was kinda hilarious and Guidojust gets up and goes "ahh well what do you expect, we are some robustmen!" hahahahaha. Our investigator there watching with us was like uhh...haha but she liked it in the end, and the talks were really good, and Guidobore beautiful testimony. Baptizzms are the best. That evening I called thislady Gladys who we met AGES ago doing finding one rainy morning and that wholemorning I think we talked to a total of 3 people in random parts of the city itwas just blah but anyways we got this lady's number, and once in a while triedto call her but she never answered or said call back later but for some reasonwe held onto her number and Friday evening called her and she said look I amnot really interested, and my husband doesn't want you to come over. And I saidohh sad!! We have an amazing message about Jesus that will bless your lives!And she goes fine, come over tomorrow at 2:30 then hung up. HA what the? SoSaturday, we went out to her house rang the citof and she wasn't even home herdaughter is like naah she works all day! BOO. Oh well, so we go into herapartment building and wander around ringing doors for like 10 minutes thenwalk out because no one was having it. And right then, on this street that wenever find ourselves, a family walks by, and we try talking to them but theyare not interested but my companion pulls out a pamphlet anyways and theyaccept it and immediately after they passed this young black man comes up to usand says "are you handing out books, can I have one?" Of course! Wegive him a little shpill, his name is Matthew, he is from South Africa, speaksperfect english and french because he also lived in the Ivory Coast and he justbarley came to Italy 3 weeks ago. We get his number, and that was that. Therest of the day was fairly normal, we were fasting to find the elect and forthe elect to find us. Sunday was out of CONTROL. There were for SURE 38-45investigators in church between the two wards. One, because there was a babyblessing, but the church was packed. That afternoon we had some appointmentscanceled, prayed to know where to go find, and Matthews name came to mind so wecalled and set a place to meet him right away. HE IS SUPER ELECT. Like crazy.He is so smart and so faithful. He was telling us, "I know that when I putGod first in my life, he will provide for me He will show me the way He willtake care of me" he was just going off and we were eating it up smilingear to ear. We taught him the restoration and he was listening so carefully andknodding his head the whole time. Sometimes when they are so silent wewonder..are they really understanding this? We ask some questions he just goesyes yes continue continue. So we tell him about the Book of Mormon, to pray toknow etc, and he goes ok then says the prayer and just pleads asking God ifthis is His book and if Joseph Smith really was a prophet and repeats likeEVERYTHING we just taught him in his prayer asking if it is true. HAHA allright there on the steps in front of the library. We invited him to be baptizedthe 29th he said of course he will follow Christ and be baptized.WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Monday CRAZY taught Samuel(he is doing great) had findingtime and we both immediately felt we needed to go do casa at the end of thisone area full of beautiful bright old apartments so we head there on our bikes,and first apartment, nothing, then we took a look around and I said hmm thosegreen ones are callin me lets go so we go over there first 3 stairs nothing,4th my comp rings, she says hi we are missionaries can we introduce ourselvesand he goes si! door opens, we go up and this young guy opens the door, sometatooes, super smily, he says come in, we say sorry can't no women at home,want to come outside and talk to us? he laughs and says wow you make me leavemy house, ok! and comes down the stairs. His name is Ivan 24 from Ukraineand oh my WORD. HE LOVES the Lord. So full of faith. Has the BIGGEST HEART.Seriously, even though we only were there with him for like a half hour I justcouldn't believe how great this guy is. He LOVED the restoration, and said heis going to pray and read the book of mormon everyday and he said he will bebaptized. WHAT THE? Then walking away from his palazzo I notice this youngsouth american woman walking down the street and think hmm we have got to talkto her, my comp was thinkin the saaaammmee thing so we rush over there and shejust smiles so big and says I am so interesting in hearing what you have tosay! Come over anytime after 7 I live right here! What! oh MY then YESTERDAYHAPPENED and God just put things over the TOP we went and taught Matthew theplan of Salvation.....his parents died years ago...oh man the lesson wasincredible. He is so amazing. Then we had finding time and Sorella Bush saidlets go to this one park thatwe had been to maybe once or twice. So we bike on over there and I thought, I need to stop someonewhile in my bike today. And then I saw this lady walking, did the awkward pullup right beside her Imma missionary thing and she happily made an appointment!HA crazy. Went to the park, and right away spot this lady and just b line it toher. We start talking and before we know it we are sitting around her, have aprayer said, and are teaching her precious truths of the restored church of God. I have never seen someoneunderstand soooo quickly. She would like beat us to all the next steps like"The church was lost after Christ died? Oh so God's going to call a newprophet to bring it back!" then after the first vision "OOohh I seeso God called Joseph to be the prophet and guided him to restore His church. Iget it." haha she is AWESOME her name is Marta she said she will bebaptized and when we followed with a date she goes...alrighty if I am ready!Then that afternoon we went and taught..remember that beautiful family we foundweeks ago right before we had to go home we did one last spin around the blockand there was this family eating gelato? anyways we haven't been able to set upan appointment the times we called, but the other day when we called she goesOHHH I just found out that my sisters good friend Julia is a member of yourchurch!! Come over come over! (MEMBERS ARE KEY!) so yes that afternoon we wentto teach them! THIS BEAUTIFUL FAMILY Mom Dad 3 daughters one son one son in lawand one little grandchild. They are just beautiful, bolivian, and totallyhumble and listened so careful and the member came with us and bore suchbeautiful testimony about her baptism and we invited them all and they saidwhen they know it is true they will be baptized and they are coming to churchon sunday. They have been really disappointed in whats going on in the Catholicchurch and years earlier she(the mamma) had a really bad experience with a JWso she was just relieved to hear the restoration and the daughter can't wait toread the book of mormon and the 11 year old daughter told us she really likesJoseph Smith's story.  Ahh beautiful things were happening that wholelesson. Then we finished off the day teaching two of my favorite new converts,swung by Ivan to give him a book of mormon in Ukrainian, when we rang the bellhe goes who is it? the sisters! Slam, we hear stomping on the stairs, and thedoor swings open and he is just smiling SOOO BIG HAHAHAHAHAHAH oh man. we givehim the bom and he just beams and hugs it. We are like..any questions you have?and he goes I will let you know thursday at 10:30 (that is when we had made ourreturn appointment) haaha oh my so cool. Whelp. I am just in shock. Crazymiracles are happening. All this, plus the wards are splitting into two wardsand a branch next week, and we will be in the branch. Heavenly Father isTOTALLY helping us find the elect and having the elect find us. Couldn't be happier,couldn't be more blessed. I love the Gospel it literally brings me to tears andmakes my heart hurt it is so full. In our last lesson yesterday I about lostit. I was just listening to this beautiful new convert Ana and I just had thissurreal moment of..oh my gosh..I am so blessed..I am sitting here listening andlearning from this beautiful south american woman who was just barleyconverted... just right here in her home...being edified by hertestimony..hearing her life stories and challenges...and teaching her abouteternal familes. This life cannot get any better, missionary work is theGREATEST, I testify. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

LOVE YOU!

Love
Sorella Simkins

Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 201212:19 AM

Subject: update

HELLOOOO EVERYONE!!!

Some great things to tell you about.
Number 1. I just want to tell you a little bit about my bed....It mightbe the very best thing about our apartment. I have never had better sleeps inmy LIFE on that bed. The second I lay down I am out COLD and when I wake up itfeels like I have been sleeping for years. There is something magical about it.And my back is getting better. Not that it was really bad, but all my missionpre-Bergamo life I would wake up in the morning twist and every single bone inmy back would pop and it sounded horrible but now my back barley pops anymore,so I am quite pleased. Beautiful Ikea matress..I wonder how I can take you homewith me.

Number 2: MY ADDRESS IS

VIA MAGLIO DEL RAME 13
24124 BERGAMO
ITALIA

You have three months to send me letters if you so desire.

Number 3: We got transfer calls last nightttt. I am staying in Bergamo with Sorella BushYAYYYYYY. We are happy and pumped to keep working together. This last week hasbeen pretty magical and our unity in teaching has really improved so I amthankful to continue on. Plus I love her to death and she cracks me up everysingle day and it is fun being companions with a best friend.

Our people: Our (serious) investigator pool seems to really have shrunkand our potential pool is enormous so we gots lots of work waiting for us.Silvia is doing really well she came to church on Sunday for the first time.Sunday was CRAZY, there were around 12 investigators total in church between usand the Anziani, it was fantastic. It is amaaazzinngg how God is guiding us itreally  seems unreal, like saturday I think we had like...2 actual lessonsplanned then the rest of the day made finding goals and we just walked out andwere divinely lead all day and put in the exact right spot at the exact righttime to teach tons of great people and run into many other people we knew andfor one reason or another really needed to see us that day. I love being amissionary. and I just know soo many miracles still await us. This work isliving and real and life changing. Oh yeah, our blitz in Verona was super great. Those sisters areamazing and Veronais beautiful!!!! The city center is really old and charming, little streets,lots of people, colorful palazzi, old churches and buildings. We saw Juliet's balcony thing. Hait was funny there was group of tourists being led by this tour guide and Iheard the tour guide say that this was the most romantic spot in all of Verona. There was nothingromantic about that spot, don't be deceived. But it was fun to see. One of theinvestigators of the sisters there gave my companion and I sweaters from theirpizza shop I was stoked they are beautiful.

Whelp I am outta time sorry for the little update but things are goingreally well and there is soo much work to do. I am happy healthy and thankful.LOVE YOU ALL!

love

Sorella Simkins

Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 6:40AM

Subject: HOLA AMIGOS

Ciao frens and fam

HAPPY WEDNESDAY. It is BEAUTIFUL outside. What a beautiful spring. I amhappy. I am in a beautiful city in Italy, with an awesome companionthat makes me laugh every single day because she is hilarious and great, withfortissimi members, and TONS OF children of God ready for the blessing of thegospel. What could be better. After our long work day yesterday we stopped by alittle pizza place, and happily rode home on our ancient bikes, in our skirtsof course, helmets on our heads, and pizza boxes in hand. The sun was settingand we were just gleefully cruising along. I just was captured in one ofthose..I AM IN ITALYmoments and couldn't be happier. AHHHH io amo questa vita.

THIS WEEK! bellissima. Thursday  Samuel was baptized and it wasjust beautiful. I will never forget it the face of his mother as she walkedinto the church doors to see her son dressed in white. The tears that streameddown her face as she hugged him...tears of pure joy after years and years ofher suffering for the lifestyle he was living. How he bear hugged FratelloFicchiera after coming out of the water.The beautiful sincere testimony he borethat was carried by the Holy Ghost into everyones heart. HE GLOWS. He is a newperson. Yesterday we went to teach him and he rode up on his bike after a longshift at work and he just had a smile ear to ear. He has transformed, he looksSO GOOD, he really was glowing. He is incredible. The confirmation was just as spiritual, his mom boreher testimony in church, and everyone was so happy. BEAUTIFUL MIRACLES! Othermiracles have happened this week, we are working and are happy. Tomorrow we aregoing to Verona for a conference and then willbe doing a blitz with the sisters there yayyy I will be in verona for 2 days! But thats nothing likewhat Elder Fife is doing down south, Brazil AND Peru all in the same day? He iscrazy, that is sooo cool!!!!!!! Missionaries are too blessed. Well, I am pumpedto work soo hard these last few months. I want to make every. single. moment.COUNT. I have to double time my learning and changing and working. I am excitedto live the miracles that God has in store these last few transfers.

LOVE YOU ALL! BE GOOD! Please give me any advice for the final stretchof my race!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love

sorella simkins

Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 201212:15 AM
Subject: BUONGIORNO

Ciao yall

So many great things happened this week. I am feeling very content.

I will start from last Pday, which was nuts, but we got our bikes fixedthen we went to an all you can eat DELICIOUS pizza place with some youth fromthe church. I tried a pizza that tasted like christmas. Then we saw one ofthese youth open her mission call! She is going to Toronto, Canada!!Soo cool, she might be the first or one of the few Italian sister missionariesto serve in Canada!!!She is fantastic I am excited for her. Then she came and taught a few lessonswith us that went amazing! We are teaching this guy named Paolo from Brazil who themissionaries taught 2 years ago. He knows his bible and the words of Christ,you would think he is the most golden investigator ever but obviously there aresome things that we haven't figured out yet as to what is blocking him. Soonenough, for now we have taught a few lessons with him and he really is a greatguy. With a big ol brazilian family. Speriamo bene. Then we got home and it wasstill like 10 minutes until 9 so we took a spin around the block to use up allour working time .. and God ALWAYS BLESSES LAST MINUTE EFFORTS. ALWAYSalways always it is amazing. We found this beautiful family on the bench nearthe bus stop eating gelato and we approuched them and had the best lesson ever,the spirit was sooo strong and this mom and her 3 daughters were just brighteyed and happy and wanted to learn more. We will be teaching them again thisweek, I am super excited, they are an amazing family.

Thursday, normal day, Friday......BROOKE FOSTER CAME TO BERGAMO! ahhhhahaha itwas amazing to see her. We met her at the station, talked for like minutes thenwe had to run off to appointments so we left her to wander around thisbeautiful city for herself, then met up later and she taught a lesson with uswith beautiful Silvia who is doing amazing and making great progress. Brooke'slittle english testimony really stuck with Silvia though, it was perfect, andit was such a cool experience to teach with one of my best friends!! Sooo cool.We then had a lovely fast dinner, and all too soon she was off. But it wasperfect, a great little visit, and a good experience for all of us. She alsotold me some great updates, I can't believe how many of you are now MARRIED butI am happy that is how it should be. Saturday we found Pablo, the cutest littleBolivian guy ever. Haaa he is soooo funny he looks like just pedro fromNapolean Dynamite and acts just like him too he is so funny. But he is greatand open so we will see where this goes, it was our first lesson and he didn'tsay much but was listening carefully. Then later that day I saw MILCA my bestfriend from Milano it was beautiful. And we taught some sweet people in thepark, one of  which is a Muslem but she is starting to believe in Christand wants to learn more and Him and was overjoyed when we gave her a book ofmormon.

Sunday HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all you lovely amazing mothers. Talking tomy BEAUTIFUL beautiful Mother was a delight, I love her so much she is anamazing woman and a huge example to me!!! I also got to see my wittle brotherand father and new puppy and after talking to our families we found some coolpeople doing street contacting and Samuel who is being baptized passed by onhis bike and stopped and told us this amazing experience he had the nightbefore that he had a vision and saw himself being baptized it was crazy butawesome, he is an incredible guy, I can't wait for his baptism tomorrow!! He ismaybe the most ready person I have ever taught on my mission.

Monday and Tuesday were PACKED with lessons, all very good, we are sohappy and soo blessed, the miracles are out of control. To end, since thisemail is a million words long, I will tell you some great lessons I learnedyesterday. We took Sorella Botta with us to see another member, and SorellaBotta is the bishops wife and she is just one of those super woman amazingpeople that I feel extremely blessed to have been able to know. She is areturned missionary, mother to 7 boys, 2 of which are on missions, one alreadyback and married, and this family is justttt incredible. Humble. Awesome.Strong. etc. And I was just,Sorella, tell me allyour secrets, how do you raise 7 all star boys? And she just said, "All ittakes is a great husband that loves his wife." I loved that response. So we went and taughtthis family and it was a disaster, all they did was complain for 2 hoursstraight about how the church is different here in Italy than it is in SouthAmerica and it just broke my heart, not because the church is different here,but because we saw right before our eyes the dangers of being judgmental andhow hard these members hearts were getting, it was such a bad spirit. But ittaught me a huge lesson. Just like sooo many talks from the last generalconference said, STOP JUDGING, and be converted to the GOSPEL not just tochurch activity or its members. The BEAUTY of the church is the fact that allit's members are IMPERFECT, that is how it works, that is what it is MADE FOR,so get over it. The teachings of Christ are BEAUTIFUL. He truly is the MasterTeacher, His words are ETERNAL and they bring us PURE JOY. We are Hisdisciples, and by living His words, are striving to become more like Him. Weare all different and at ALL different levels, but that is exacly how it shouldbe so we can all help each other and LEARN from each other- learn from eachothers strengths AND each others weaknesses. It is the perfect plan of theFather. OHHHH my brothas and sisters, I LOVE Christ and His gospel, and Ireally doo love theChurch. It is perfect in it's imperfections.

LOVE YOU ALL! Hope you are all doing great and are excited for summertime. Thanks for the love prayers and support.

Love

Sorella Simkins

Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 201212:13 AM
Subject: hiiiii

BUONGIORNO tutti

Guess what! We decided we should have bikes instead ofgetting a bus pass, and some members gave us these SWEET old old little Italiangirl cruiser bikes and they are soo sweet. I am excited to be on a bike again!!Especially for the summa time. Right now it has been off and on rain, sun,rain, sun, but when it is sunny it is warm. Nothing like what Elder Fife isgoing through, HOLY COW 100 to 105 I can't even imagine, poverino! But we arehaving a blast and things are soo good.

I will go backwards through my week.  Yesterday we had7 lessons planned and 5 of them fell through it was crazy so we had lots offinding time and we found some amazing people. one of these people isJosè. We went to the park and up ahead we spot this younger man reading onthe bench. As we are approaching him I am thinking in my head..."God hasprepared this guy. We have no idea what kind of past he has had, I am sure hehas had some important experiences that have prepared him for this moment of usmeeting him and teaching him the gospel. He is going to find a testimony and bebaptized." I was just envisioning all this, because we never have any ideahow God has already prepared these people, but we can trust that He has! So wegot to him, opened our mouths, and the spirit carried on the conversation. Itflowed beautifully, testimony was born, questions asked, inspired responses given. He told us a storyabout his faithful father that always finds comfort from the bible. We readfrom the book of mormon, he said he felt the peace and tranquilita. At the endmy companion said the prayer and when we looked up he was smiling ear to ear,the happiest smile ever. I asked how he felt and he just says GOOD, I LIKED ITSO MUCH! We have a return appointment, where we will give him his own copy ofthe book of mormon and keep teaching him. COOL HUH!!! He is going to be a greatpriesthood holder someday. We also found Francisca, a BEAUTIFUL young womanfrom Ghana,oh my she is soo great and so humble and just gorgeous. She was just waiting atthe bus stop and we started talking to her and she is golden. I can't wait tosee her again TONIGHT!! EEEEK!  We also had a lesson with Samuel yesterdayand he is soooooooo amazing, so ready for his baptism NEXT WEEK! We taughttithing, and he bore testimony to us why he knows this law is true. hahaha!!!Man after 4 years of the missionaries trying to teach him, all a sudden 3 weeksago he was ready. How does that happen? SO cool. Silvia our other investigatorpreparing for baptism is also amazing. Ohh I love her so much and she cracks meup hahahahahaha ohh man. But really, she is great, and has such a burningdesire to change and live a Christ-like life and be an example to all girlsjust like her. The world neeedddsss the gospel so bad!!!  Sunday was rough,not because we had no one to teach, but all the people we taught just unloadedall their horrible problems they are going through on us.  Bless theirHEARTS. I can't believe the evil in the world, I just feel so much for thesepeople, but in all those lessons I felt SO STRONGLY the personal love ofHeavenly Father for each of these people. Soo strongly. By the end of the nightmy comp and I were just walking home and feeling like sick because all thethings we had heard that day, I got home, prayed so hard to have peace in myheart and lots and lots of hope..and thanks to the atonement I was just overwhelmed withpeace and happiness. That is the joy of the gospel right there, the atonementworking instantly in my life, burdensinstantly being lightened. I know it will be the same for these people fightingthese battles as well. Ooohh man I am happy. Being a missionary is the best. Bergamo is beautiful. Mycompanion is awesome. I love these people. Hope you are all doing well andbeing good and living the gospel,becoming more like Christ every single day. Happy Mothers day Sunday to all youMothers!!! You are amazing!!!!

LOVE!

sorella simkins

Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 5:41AM
Subject: 15 months today

May 2nd...eeekkyikkeeessies....

HI! ahh I am happy! All is well in Italy land. My companion is my bestfriend, the city is beautiful and blooming, and the work is miraculous. whatcould be better. Quick update since I only have 6 more minutes:

Samuel is getting baptized May 17th! He is amazing he has had the mostincredible responses to his prayers it is out of control. It is because he hassuch strong real intent and his heart is just wide open receiving loads ofspirit. He is determined to change his life around. All on his own 3 months agohe made the decision he had to stop drinking alcohol and get a grip on hislife. Yesterday when we taught the word of wisdom he was pretty much teachingus. He asked what lesson are you going to teach next time? And we said law ofchastity. And he said great I will start studying up before next time. Ha he isawesome maybe a future missionary, vediamo!

We started teaching Evalyn from Peru! She is great and always soconcentrated. She lives in a way sketchy apartment though and the spirit thereis not a good one so we gotta start teaching her at the church or something.man my time is already up!! eek sorry.

all is well. beauty is slowly getting stronger and happier! our youngnew converts are amazing! we had a way sweet experience sunday where we prayedand were lead right to a new family in the park and the mom totally opened upto us and started bawling and telling us this is just what she needs.

love you love the mission love the gospel!

love

sorella simkins

ps I really like this phrase I found in pmg about virtue: I do what Isay I will do. That is my motto for the transfer.