Rachel is now safely home! This is her update from October 24. We picked her up on October 25 and traveled around Italy until arriving in SLC on November 3, then we drove 4 hours that night to her new home (and town) that she had never seen before! She left for her mission from Florida and returned home to Colorado.
Sono finita
Aaaahhhhhh this is my last weekly email as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!
This week was full of good-byes, dating advice, and dying testimonies in various settings.
Saikouba is a guy we found like 5 months ago. We've been teaching him ever since, he's a great guy but progress was slow and I went into my last lesson with the goal to decide if we should give him a break and stop teaching him for now. But then he surprised us both. He said that he received an answer that Christ truly is the Son of God and asked us about the next step to becoming a Christian: baptism. I am so happy for him and it feels good to leave the area with this solid guy to work with!
Israel told us a story: he was in Germany, had an OK job, and wanted to stay there, he prayed and prayed that he could stay bc his life was good there. But that didn't happen. He got sent to Italy. He was so sad to come here and leave Germany. Then he said, "here I have a great job and I found the truth! Now I just pray 'Thy will be done' because I can trust Him. He led be here to you guys!" That made me happy and its a good reminder to pray, "thy will be done".
Our 3 recent converts drove with some members to Bergamo for their patriarchal blessings. They've come so far these past 6 months. How has it already been 6 months?!?! We brought a member and had dinner with Kingsley. He has his own apartment now and is doing great! He made us spicy rice, meat, and fried plantains with African reggae in the background. I wanted to serve in Africa and I got that wish granted in ways I never could have imagined.
I gave some old mission clothes to a 10-yr-old and it made her so happy. She's so excited to serve a mission some day.
These people and this weird Italy-Austria mutant region have my heart. It's been a great 18 months, and as everyone is telling me, the next stage of life is also great, just in a different way.
There's a military child way of coping with change: burning bridges and making people ready to see you go so that it won't hurt as much. That's how I'll be leaving my comp bc she's not thrilled about me having us go out finding on P-day. But there are worse things I could do to go out with a bang ;)
As for my replacement in Bresssanone...Sorella Roderer, my greenie! She's already passed her 9 month mark. Now this district will have 3 of my mission children. Long live my posterity!
Thanks for sticking with me through all these adventures. Heavenly Father writes the best stories! Can't wait to see y'all!
Speaking of seeing y'all... after a trip around Italy with my parents I'll land in SLC on Nov. 3 and my homecoming talk will be in Grand Junction, Colorado on Nov. 25th!
Ok I love y'all soooo much! I hope to see y'all soon!
Sorella Riley
-good food
-great people
The last 2 pics are from her dinner at the mission home on Oct. 25, before her parents picked her up at 9 p.m.
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