Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 20124:29 AM
Subject: la fine
Ciao miei cari
This week has been amazing.Mauricio, Cedella, and Ana were baptized. Each of their families came. Tons ofmembers came. It was super spiritual to have three baptisms in a row. They allbore beautiful heart filled testimonies at the end. And then at the very end ofthe ceremony we had about 10 minutes before the hour so we had a testimonymeeting. All of these youth who had met Mauricio at EFY came to his baptism,and each of them bore their testimonies, and it brought me to tears! To see theseSTRONG YOUTH! Taking on the world! Battling sin, doing all they can to resisttemptations, to live their standards. These kids who know the truth, and relizethe things that really matter in life. Oh wow it was a beautiful experience, Iwas so proud of each and every one of them, they really are God's army. OnSunday Mauricio,Cedella and Ana received the gift of the Holy Ghost from each member of thebranch pres. Each were blessed that they would be missionaries and would marryin the temple. They were BEAUTIFUL blessings, I felt the spirit so strong andwas just amazed at the beautiful of this gospel. Almilcar is a 16 year old fromspainwe have been teaching and yesterday after we talked about Joseph Smith and therestoration again, he prayed and said Heavenly Father I feel deep down in myheart that this is true. I promise I will keep searching this religion when Igo back to
Really great things have happened all week. I have felt
pretty good the wholetime. Except these last few days especially last night was
super weird. I justcan't quite wrap my head around what is going on..I am
leaving..what? Home?..The real world...? My heart starts racing and my stomach
starts feelingreally sick. Then I pray for peace, read the Book of Mormon, then
feel goodagain. Tonight we will teach our last lessons together. Tomorrow stuff
in Milan
Love you all so very much. Thank you for your love, support,
prayers. I am sothankful for you. I know that this church is true and that the
gospel brings usreal happiness and joy. My time in Italy
TANTE BELLE COSE!!! :)Mucho Amor,
hermana simkins
From: "Laurel Simkins"
emo
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 9:33:12 AMSubject: BUON FERRAGOSTO!!
Guess what today is? Festa! Ferragosto. That means
everything is closed. Ha so I guess I won't be buying any of you any presents,
sorry!
Walter is amazing. HA he cracks me up because he is just so
golden I do not get where he came from!!!!! He came to chuch and LOVED IT. He
made such great inspired comments and was just smiling the whole time. He
smokes, and ever since we have been teaching him we have been praying for the
Lord to prepare him for the word of wisdom. When we taught the word of wisdom
yesterday he said so many amazing things, like "ever since I have been
meeting with you, I have drastically reduced the amount of cigarettes I smoke."
and "a few months ago out of no where I decided to stop drinking
caffinated coffee." and "The word of wisdom is correct, I am going to
stop smoking and live this commandment." and on and on. My love for him
just GREW, my gratitude to the Lord swelled in my heart, He really has been
preparing Walter! What a miracle story he is!!! I am so thankful to teach him.
He is just so humble, so sincere, so COMPLETELY DETERMINED to follow the Lord.
Mauricio. Another wonder. 17 year old boy that is just
AMAZING. Yesterday we asked him, so Mauricio you ready for your BAPTISM!!!??
and He goes seriously, I CAN'T WAIT! He reads the book of mormon for around an
hour everyday. He has invited every single person he knows to his baptism. He
is best friends with the young men. Man it is just so great to see his progress
and his testimony growing!! sooo neat.
Ana. Beautiful little GIRL! She is now obsessed with the
Liahona. She reads it everyday, her mom has been receiving the Liahona for a
while so ana just reads and reads. She is learning so fast and so much I am so
so proud of her. She is so precious. Every prayer she prays that I will be safe
and that I won't forget her and her sister says she cries sometimes because I
will be leaving :( aww I want to bring her with me. She is so beautiful. When
we got her her dress sunday she hugged it and took it home with her haha she is
so excited. Her big sister angi is amazing as well, she is what keeps the
family together. She takes care of her mom, her sister, her father, she is an
amazing young woman.
Cedella. Soo smart. She is only 8 but we have been helping her get ready because her family has been a bit less active but now they are coming regularly. It is amazing how fast kids learn. She tried on her dress and goes, where did this COME FROM, it's ancient! hahahahahaha. I love her!
Amilcar. 16 year old from
Antonio. We found him while doing finding work at the park.
He was sitting on the bench talking on the phone..and usually we don't
interrupt..but we felt like it this time so we stood infront of him and started
talking to him. He immediately hung up and gave us 100% of his attention and
said he talked to missionaries years ago and they left a huge impression on
him. We had a lesson with him and sunday he came to church! He REALLY liked it.
He smelled heavily of alcohol, so there I was in sacrament, with him on my
left, walter on my right who smelled smokey, and I just SMILED I couldn't have
been happier to have them. I was thinking the whole time THERE IS NO BETTER PLACE
So last week I had a HUGE TENDER MERCY for the Lord. We went
to MILANO 2 for our exchange this transfer!!! I got to work in my first city
for the day!!!! OHHH it was MARVELOUS ohh man I am SO BLESSED it was such a
good experience. We found one of my old investigators!! We taught her and it
went really well, she was so happy to see me! Then for lunch...suprise!! We
went to Patrizia! Mamma patrizia! SHE LOOKED AMAZING it blew my mind. She was
my first baptism in Italy
Today was fun. We had a grigliata by the river. I played in
the river with the kids and we played lots of soccer and ate good food. No
swimming, but I got soaked because there were water fights. Good times. Ana and
I made lots of towers with river rocks. Balance.
Well..I don't know what else to tell you. Things are going great. We are getting ready for the baptisms this weekend, teaching great people, finding great people. My companion is awesome, all these missionaries are awesome. I feel like I still have all the time left in the world so I just keep going. I love the GOSPEL. I love the scriptures. I know this church is true!
LOVE YOU ALL!
loveSorella Simkins
From: Laurel Simkins[mailto:laurel.simkins@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 20129:24 AMSubject: special little email later on because we got interupted with our email time because a miracle happened!
another miracle happened while doing email today! so. wewent
to the YSA center to do email and the elders were already here on thecomputers.
And we had an appointment for lunch so we decided to go find thenearest
internet cafe. We go in, get seated, and the internet was down at thisinternet
spot! So we left and rode down the street a little ways and entered inthe next
internet cafe we saw. Sit down, get writing our emails, and I was halfway done
wrighting my email to the president when I realized we were out oftime and had
to get to our appointment. So I saved this email and we shut downthe computers
and go to pay and they lady says OOOHh are you mormons? I wasbaptized years
ago!! And she comes out from behind her desk, pulls up twochairs, and sits down
and just tells us all her story of how much she loved thechurch then was kind
of dissappointed with some members and slowly becameinactive. It was so
interesting talking to her, in the 15 minutes we talked itwas like I was
witnessing her spirit and the evil
spirits battle insideof her. One minute she would be saying I don't want to
know anything anymore Ijust want to stay out of the church like this, the next
minute ohh I reallyshould come to church and be with you guys, come visit me,
yes I will startpraying, then the next minute no I can't pray I don't need
God..back and forthlike this, it was really something to behold. Poor lady. But
I could just feelher spirit trying to hard to fight off these evil spirits that
have entered herheart and mind. WOW! Anyways we had a beautiful lesson in the
end, she iscoming to church Sunday, and she agreed to meet with us. Isn't it
cool how Godled us to her? He even made the internet go down in the first
internet point toget us to the second one. WOW the Lord really does work
miracles to call Hischildren. Wow wow wow.
From: Laurel Simkins[mailto:laurel.simkins@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 20125:00 AMSubject: EEEEK
HERMANA RACHEL KIME!!! Welcome HOME!! I love you, you are
amazing, andI am expecting a big fatty email or letter from you next week.
EEEEEEK!
Family and FRIENDS! I love you all. It is so good to hear
the amazing thingshappening in your lives.
We are SOO BUSY I really don't have time to even think about
home during thedays, only in the few minutes before I knock out asleep does my
mind wander a bit to home but itdoesn't get too far because A) it is too
stressful. I mean..I start school 2days after I get home, have no money, don't
know where I live, where my classesare, what books I will need, etc so my mind
flees from those thoughtsimmediately. B) I am too tired to think much anyways,
and C) my thinkingusually comes back around to some investigator or miracle or
thing learned thatday. But then I get here to email and see all these emails
from you and mystomach starts twisting and turning and ufff scary.
WELL let me tell you an amazing story. Yesterday we went to
teach Walter, forthe 3rd time. The guy that came to US last week during email.
HE IS SOOAMAZING. Holy smokes you have no idea. HAHA THIS GUY!! he just cracks
me upbecause I have no idea where a guy like him came from. He is just this
normaldude, 40 years old, pizzaiolo, with the purest heart. When we were
teaching therestoration the first lesson before we got to Joseph Smith he was justsaying all the golden things like
"I don't see why God would call prophetsin the past and not in these
days.." or while we were teaching him thegospel I was like how do you
think the Holy Ghost could be help to you in yourlife and he is like "well
it is already working in my life, it lead mehere to you, it gives me desire to
search the truth and to learn, and it makesme feel good when I do things that
are right." hhahahahahahahaahha ohh my.So yesterday I just looked him in
the eyes at the end of the lesson, invitedhim to be baptized the 8th of
September, and he said "OK!"hahahahahahaha. Just a bold straightup no
hesitation OKAY. Then we got on ourknees and he prayed for the 8th of September
to be ready for his baptism. Whata miracle!!!!! I really can't explain with
words these miraculous lessons wehave with these people, especially him. I wish
it could be on FILM! It would bethe most exciting film ever. (For missionaries
at least maybe not many otherpeople). HE IS AWESOME!! WALTER!! ha what an awesome
guy. Mauricio is SOO greattoo, progressing like a champion, totally ready for
next week. Ana and Cedellaare doing great as well. Silvia I don't know if I
told you last p day or whenbut it was weird we had a lesson and just like a
switch turned off in her headshe started saying things (again) like..I have
already been baptized I don'tneed to again. I was just there with my mouth
hanging open like..really?? Idon't think we could explain the restoration any better than we have
amillion times and the priesthood and the book of mormon and everything.
Somaybe her time is just not here. The thing is she will talk to her sister
ormom and then be full of confusion so we are still seeing her she's just got
abit more journey ahead of her before her baptism. Ahh Silvs. We found a new
family from Tanzania
Lots of other great things happening but I am outta time.
LOVE YOU
lovesorella simkins
From: Laurel Simkins[mailto:laurel.simkins@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 20123:47 AMSubject: Any last requests?
If would like anything from Italy
Something amazing and way funny just happened. I had just
finishedwriting an email to President about amazing miracles that happened this
weekwhen the buzzer rang. We are here in the church, on the second floor. I
stickmy head out the window and there is a man at the game. I say buongiorno!
And hesays Ciao volevo fissare un appuntamento. (Hi, I just wanted to make
anappointment) I say ARRIVO! (coming!) So my comp and I walk on out and he
islike hi I am walter, missionaries came to my house years ago and gave me
theBook of Mormon and I read it then a thousand problems happened in my life
and Ilost the missionaries and the book of mormon. So I was just wondering if
wecould make an appointment and maybe you could share some more things with
meabout the Book of Mormon? Or I could just come to church on sunday?? HAHAHA
ohh MAN. So we got his name number address and will be seeing himtomorrow!!!!!!!!
COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love when the electfind us. I have heard
stories like that from other missionaries and have hadkinda similar
experiences, but not like this before! Ha oh man I am so happy.So there is
miracle number one.
Last week we drew the plan of salvation with sidewalk chalk
big andbeautifully on the pavement at the park. We taught a TON of people about
theplan of salvation and had a wonderful time, a big success. Then we went
toanother appointment, and later came back to the park to meet our
investigatorSam to teach him. There were still people checking out the plan of
salvation,yay! Anyways we see Sam in the distance on a bench next to his
girlfriend sonot to intrude right away we just slowly kinda were making our way
towardsthem, talking to people here and there, and I look up and see sam is
coveringhis face with a magazine... and then as we got closer HAHA it was
ridiculous,he got up and "snuck" around the bench behind the bushes
to"hide" from us. HAHAHA we started laughing because it was
kindahilarious and at the sime time kinda hurt inside. So whatever we just
turned toour left, spot a woman on the bench, and go to talk to her. Turns out
she isAMAZING and TOTALLY elect. We taught her and her daughter the plan ofsalvation,
had a prayer with them, and made an appointment. We have alreadytaught her
again this week, she has accepted baptism, her daughter is in LOVEwith us, they
were SOO HAPPY to have to book of mormon and to start reading ittogether, and
we are seeing her again tonight! HOW COOL!!! So we lost oneinvestigator, and
Heavenly Father is so generous and gave us another!
Mauricio, Silvia(FINALLY!), Ana, and Cedella are all getting
baptizedthe 11th and the 18th of August, my last Saturday in the mission. I could
justcry I am sooo happy. So happy. I can't believe the miracles happening.
MauricioLOVED efy he told everyone about his baptism and now wants to go on a
mission(he is 17). Silvia was really touched by Lulu's baptism and choose her
owndate, which is the 11th, but maybe will be moved to the 18th. Ana's family
ispulling themselves together really trying to change their lives. They are in
away sticky ugly situation, but this beautiful sweet 10 year old girl is
amazingand wants to be baptized so badly. Cedella is the daughter of a
reactivatedfamily we teach from Ghanathey are the most beautiful people ever
and we have been preparing cedella forbaptism. She is 8 but is so smart and
super excited.
GOOD things are happening in Bergamo.I am so happy. My
companion is awesome. Last saturday we did a musical firesideconcert thing in
Milano and HOLY COW my companion is an INCREDIBLE operasinger. I was completely
blown away. We will be having our musical concertthing here in Bergamothis
Saturday, you are all invited. I will be singing a few classic rock songsas our
branch president plays the guitar and my comp will blow everyone out thewater
with her opera voice and several others will be performing as well. Ourbranch
president is awesome. He ordered me to pick up a music instrument when Iget
home and to sing. I guess I should follow my leaders counsel. Eeeek scary.
Well I LOVE YOU GUYS! Love my family so much. Thanks Fife'sfor the updates on Evan, he is a miracle baby!!!
BE GOOD!
loveSorella Simkins
From: Laurel Simkins[mailto:laurel.simkins@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 20124:30 AMSubject: hello
Buongiorno my beautiful family and friends
I feel sooo good right now! Happy, relaxed, peaceful.
Beautiful thingsare happening in Bergamoand I am just in the greatest state of
being. Mmmmm happy:) Update:
Last thursday we had a zone conference and President pulled
aquick one on me and at the end of his presentation had me share my
goodbyetestimony. HUH!? I was like President I have 5 more weeks left! But, it
beingour only conference of the transfer, tocava me! There were no other
dyingmissionaries in the group so it was just me. But it was such a
strangeexperience. When he invited me up and he sat down, I couldn't move. I
was frozenin my seat and overcome with the spirit and tears just started
pooring down mycheeks. After that I don't really remember what happened, at one
point I got upin front of everyone, and through tears bore testimony straight
from my heart,and after a while was back in my seat. All I remember was the
dense spirit inthe room and the complete silence. I still can't really believe
I am cominghome so soon, because there is still SO MUCH going on and so much to
do.
Friday LuLu was baptized. It was so beautiful, such a
sacredexperience. She cried when she saw herself in the mirror in her white
dress.Before getting in the font we just hugged and held each other as she
cried andcried saying this was the best day of her life. She was so ready. When
she cameout of the water the spirit just flooded the room, and when I was
helping herin the bathroom she said "I feel NO PAIN! No pain at
all!!" (in herback that is messed up) She goes "My sins are all
washed away right? I amCLEAN right?? I feel it!" Ahaha. She is soo cute.
She gave her testimonyat the end of the ceremonyfor like 10 minutes and it was
amazing. Something really cool. After her fatherdied she had a dream of him and
he told her that a stone would be lifted andshe would find a treasure. In the
little welcome talk from the bishopric, hesaid something like, "Lulu, you
have come to Italy
Leonardo is an amazing young adult, 21, law student, who we
taught a few weeksago then he had exams and we started to teach again this
week. He is out ofcontrol, soooo prepared. He came to all three hours of church
and loved it, and"NON VEDO L'ORA di leggere tutto il libro di
mormon!" He texted us- Ican't wait to read all of the book of mormon!!!
hahah he is awesome, at the seathis week, but when he comes back he will be
getting ready for baptism. AHH he issooo amazing the things he says blow my
mind! A quick example HA in gospelprinciples, I had the lesson, and I decided
to ask him a question. So you needto know, Sorella Bush and I taught him the
plan of salvation over a month ago,and he only had 10 minutes and wanted to
hear it all. So it was the quickestlesson in the world and we didn't go into
depth. Anyways I ask Leonardo why doyou think Heavenly Father wants to give us
this gift of the Holy Ghost. And hegoes well since we forgot everything from
the pre-earth life, I guess HeavenlyFathers gives us this gift to be a guide,
to chose the right in this life, andkeep us on the path that leads us back to
Him. HAHAH I was just like YES!!!!Haha he is so cool. Might not sound to cool
to you, but to a missionary, thoseare golden words we like to hear.
Well we are still teaching back to back lessons, seeing lots
ofmiracles, MANY people getting closer to baptism. For example, Silvia! She
istaking leaps and bounds it is amazing!!! Rosalia, ana, both have dates and
aregoing strong! Blanca and rosemary and their families are all on
teachingschedules and making progress. We have two new investigators this week
Cristianand Cristian haha..and wow...both amazing. Their story is kinda crazy
butreally awesome I will share more as we get to know them better. This
weekendand next weekend we are doing musical firesides in Milanthen here in
Bergamo.I might or might not sing but my comp is amazing so we can just listen
to herthe whole time!!!!
Well that is all I have. Bergamois beautiful, the sky is
beautiful and takes me breath away everyday. I amhappy, the mission has nevr
been so good. We had interviews Monday and I wasjust talking with President
about how wonderful it is to feel such trust in theLord. That I am JUST reaching
a point where I feel like I am completely givingHim everything and totally
accepting His will in every little thing. I am doingmy part, and whatever
happens happens and I am happy. It is something I can'treally explain...His
will be done! That is it! I'll keep running, and He willkeep working. I love
the gospel, I know it is true. We are Heavenly Father'schildren, we need to
trust Him.
I love you!
love
Sorella Simkins
From: Laurel Simkins[mailto:laurel.simkins@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 20124:00 AMSubject: hiiiii
BUONGIORNO!
Hello family and friends.SIGGHH. I can't even write this
email. My brain has jammed because it can nolonger comprehend the miracles that
are taking place and the work the Lord isdoing through us. Seriously though, I
don't even have words to describe what ishappening. Even thinking about all the
things that are happing makes my mindtired. When I said I am going to run my
fastest and work my hardest, God tookthat seriously, and whether I can do it or
not, He has PUT US TO WORK. HOOooolycow. It is pretty amazing though. I just
wake up everyday, ready to give it myall, and WOOSH am swept away by the hand
of the Lord going a steady 85 milesper hour all day long until I find myself
back in bed at 10:20ish, sprawled outon my bed, take a few deep breaths, read a
few verses from the BOM, then amout.
Sorella Padula isamazing. The biggest gift from God, the
perfect final companion. She is youngin the mission and full of fire, knows
what she is doing, has a STRONGtestimony, knows the gospel, all the doctrine of
the lessons is stored in herheart and when she opens her mouth it just poors
out gracefully. Wow she isamazing, I love her so much already. She is an opera
singer and her voice isbeautiful. We already have 2 musical firesides but more
like full on concertsplanned one in Milanand one here. She has already lost 4
kilos in the week she has been mycompanion because we don't stop moving all day
hahahahaha. I am the one that issupposed to diet, not her! No though, she is
incredible and is right there withme pushing me hard too. I can't believe how
much I have already learned fromher and how much my teaching has changed in
just a few days with her. You neverbecome the perfect teacher or the perfect
missionary. Just like everything else,improvment is eternal. Aaaaaiiiaaaa.
Our investigators are allprogressing. It is unbelievable. We
seriously have lessons back to back all daylong. Lulu is so special, I love her
so much. How God lead her from Mexico, to Canada,back to Mexico, then to Italy
on vacation, right to Bergamo to find me, I don't know...but I amthe luckiest
and am eternally thankful to have her in my life. She is so readyfor baptism
this Friday. Marilyn from the Philippenes is doing so well,Mauricio the 17 year
old is going to EFY this week he is awesome, rosemary AHHrosemary and her
family (the Bolivian beautiful family) we hadn't seen them fora few weeks and
finally got an appointment and saw them Monday and they areamazing and back in
the GAME doing awesome. Carlos!! ohh carlos I can't evenexplain he is so
awesome. Silvia is even making great progress! She is so closeto a date. We
have found some GREAT people doing finding, one guy named Samfrom India
THE GOSPEL IS TRUE. It issooo so so true.
I love you! Glad to hearyou are enjoying your summer days! I
will pray for you Fifes, Steve and Emberand Evan, may the spirit be with you in
every moment to comfort and help youfeel peace and understanding.
BE GOOD! Do good.
LoveSorella simkins
From: Laurel Simkins[mailto:laurel.simkins@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 201212:04 PMSubject: CIAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
HEY GUYS
transfer calls last night! Sorella Bush is going to
Vareseand I am staying in
Great things are still happening in Bergamo Lake Garda . BEAUTIFUL.
Iattached some pictures. She is getting baptized next week. And then in a
fewweeks Rosalia and Ana, they are both doing so well. Sunday was
miraculous,there were at least 7 investigators in church, Bergamo
love sorella simkins.
From: Laurel Simkins[mailto:laurel.simkins@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 20124:19 AMSubject: Italian constructionworkers love wearing the mini-est shorts and their orange vests.
BUONGIORNO
o MAMMA I am so happy today.
Happy 4th of JULY! I love my country, we are blessed to be
free and to live onthe promised land. Today we will be celebrating by eating
hamburgers androotbeer floats with the missionaries and some investigators. Of
course thatseems normal to you, but I am STOKED because I have eaten maybe 1
hamburger mywhole mission and don't even remember the last time I had rootbeer
or arootbeer float. Che festa. Then we will be going to aqua splash, the city
waterpark. Mhaaa jk I wish.
I HAVE SUCH GOOD NEWS for you from the mission field. Magic
is HAPPENING! I amfilled with joy and LOVE. Love for the the Lord, for my
companion, and forthese PEOPLE that have become apart of my LIFE! EEEEEk.
Rosalia, a beautiful older Bolivian woman, was taught like
one or 2 lessons ayear ago, went back to Bolivia, came back, came to church
twice, we beganteaching her, she is sooo amazing has the best spirit and chose
to be baptizedthe 28th of July. Sheis the most smily calm person I know. I love
this woman. We did a blitz theother week and sorella forbes and I went and
taught some awesome people, wewent to visit this member and her inactive sister
came and by the end of thelesson we were all in tears. The gospel is so real!
We are working with a fewinactive people right now and their progression is
incredible, they areinactive for 7+ years but the spirit is working on their
hearts and they arehumble. I am so proud of all the little steps they are
taking to reactivation,they are such beautiful amazing peole. It is such a
satisfaction helping ourbrothers and sisters who have lost the way feel again
the love that HeavenlyFather has for them and feeling the power of the gospel
of Jesus Christ givethem courage and faith to change their ways and overcome
their weaknesses. OhhI am so proud of them. We had a beautiful lesson with our
other bolivianfamily, they are in the thick of trials,and again by the end of the
lesson we were ALL in tears. It has been a weekfull of tears!! We went to find
this other less active family this week, andthe non member son was there! He
was totally involved in the lesson, and whenwe invited him to prepare for
baptism he nodded his head and said it issomething he needs to do. It was
beautiful, the spirit was so strong. THENSUNDAY what in the world, longg
(AMAZING) story short, this member whileworking found this older woman at the
airport who had just arrived from Mexico and all her connections here in
Bergamo just totally fellthrough, so she was just alone praying in the airport
after her 14 hour flight.When the member found her, the first question this
lady asked is..do you knowof a Christian church in this city? So the member
brings her to church, wetaugh her yesterday, and this lady..I don't even have
words to describe her.SHE IS INCREDIBLE. ohh my I love her. She has the
strongest faith in the world.I just love this woman, and am so excited to see
her fall in love with the Bookof Mormon and receive her testimony. She has been
through lots, and finally shehas found the truth. We are also teaching this 21
year old boy studying to be alawyer who believes everything we have taught him
and has started reading thebook of mormon. He said if he gets his answer that
this is all true that maybehe would even be willing to sacrifice a few years of
his life and "do whatwe do." HA COOL.
whelp my comp’syelling at me to get off the computer. ha jk
but it is time. I LOVE MY MISSION bergamo
LOVE YOU!love
sorella simkins
From: Laurel Simkins[mailto:laurel.simkins@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 201212:36 AMSubject: buon dì
Ciao cari
Another week come and gone. Crazy, time is fffflllyyinnngg
by. Thisweek was pretty great!
Wed..a fairly normal P day...
Thursday, zone conference in Verona, we got home at 9 but
our newinvestigators Deysi and Fatima wanted to have a lesson so we SPED on our
bikesover to their apartment and taught them more about the BOM, it was a
beautifullesson I LOVE these two!!!! They are both working all this week so we
haven'tseen them again :( Work schedules are out of control here. Plus when
theseforeigners work as nannys, all these rich Italian families go to the sea
forvacation and just take their nannies with them ha so everyone is at the
beachpretty much. Except us missionaries, we aren't at the beach thats for sure:)More
important things to do.
Friday a new convert made us hamburgers, the first hamburger
I haveeaten since the USI think?? But on the 4th of July we are going to have a
big bbq with the seniorcouple and all the elders. Hamburgers and rootbeer floats,
yayy. Let'ssee...we taught some other
lessons... then we went to teach Daniel, the son ofthe family who is inactive
for 10 years that we found last sunday. Anyways wehad a great restoration
lesson with him, and then after we stopped by hisparents house and the dad was
home and let us in. He is such a great guy,sounds like he was just offended or
something years ago. Anyways we had abeautiful lesson and after reading the
scriptures together his eyes just lit upand he was like OOH how beautiful these
words. It was really cool. God iscalling His children back. There is just so
much more waiting for this family,sooo many blessings. I am hopeful.
Saturday taught our beautiful Bolivian family, they are
making greatprogress I am sooo happy for them!!!!! AHh I love them. HAHA I just
rememberwhat we did Saturday night..so we had english class then family night
with theward and TONS OF PEOPLE CAME because some people in our ward are
involved withthis Folk Dancing comunity..anyways so this beautiful folk/celtic
music wasplaying and everyone was dancing it was beautiful and the bishop
INSISTED thatthe missionaries danced as well, literally he was like YOU MUST
DANCE they wereall group or line dances and just different steps with your
feet, so yeah, weall danced and had the times of our LIVES it was sooooooo fun
I love that musicand dancing, we had sooo much fun. Ohh man I am laughing
thinking about this oldguy that comes to english class and sometimes stays for
FHE and he was tryingto get me to dance with him it was hilarious. It was a fun
night that is forsure. Oh yeah we taught them cotton eyed joe hahaha and one of
the members tooka video on his phone. So if you see a bunch of missionaries on
facebook doingthe cotton eyed joe that might be us. They loved it hhahahah oh
man Italiansare so funny.
SundaYY! The branch has been born! Ohh it was so great,
there were onlylike 35ish people there counting us and the senior missionary
couple. It'sTINY! But great at the same time, some of south americans,
Italians,africans..it will be a great branch. The president is an awesome
member wholoves rock and guitar and is a spiritual giant. He has some great
things he isputting into action, this ward will be bursting in no time. Sunday
we had lunchwith another one of our Bolivian investigator families, they are
doing awesome,progressing way more than we ever expected. YAY!
This monday and tues were good..just working hard teaching
lots in thisbeauitful city with my great companion.
Yay for the mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
out oftime.
love sorella simkins
From: Laurel Simkins[mailto:laurel.simkins@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 20122:21 AMSubject: different city, samemiraculous work
HI FAMILY and FRIENDS!
ohh myyy GASH crazy THINGS!! 10 minutes to write. here I GO!
I am in BERGAMO.How is it possible that in my mission the
cities just keep getting morebeautiful? Seriously though. Milan
SORELLA WhitneyBUSH from Wisconsinis my companion..oh
my...it is dangerous, she is TOO great. She is reallySORELLA KIME because she
looks just like a Kime, she even has beautiful red hair, sweetstyle like rachel
kime, and her personality is a mix between Rachel kime andSunny my sister. I
have never laughed as hard in my whole mission as I havethis last week. I am so
happy my companion is Rachel Kime's 4th sister, I LOVEHER we are best friends
already. AND she is only 3 months in the mission, herItalian is amazing, and
she teaches sooo well she is just really natural andstrong. She runs, yay! Ahh
things are too good.
MIRACLES are out of CONTROL. I am in shock. So it was
reallyweird going from knowing everything and everyone in Rimini
LOVE YOU
lovesorella simkins
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