"So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true...For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation." Joseph Smith

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Life in Milan

Well, mom was right.  I already love Milano, almost against my will!  :-)  The Milanese are surprisingly open and it's relatively easy to start up a conversation in the bus, tram, metro, or trolley.  The city is just so huge, though.  It's faster to go to Bergamo than travel from one end of our zone to the other!  Plus, instead of a grid-like system, all of the streets are circular, which makes for a big headache transferring different modes of transportation all the time.  My companion comes from a very small city in Argentina, so I've kind of had to take over the directions, having more experience in Firenze, etc.  To our credit, we've only managed to get lost once!
 
My companion, Sorella Padula, is AWESOME!  She is funny but works so hard, constantly talking to people with such an energy and enthusiasm.  This area is ready for many miracles, and we know we just have to put in the effort in order to receive them.  She's had a pretty rough childhood, from the bits and pieces I've heard.  Coming from such a small town, she was called to be YW president at 18, and served in the RS presidency at 20.  However, she has such a rock solid testimony of the gospel.  Her Italian is excellent, and during language study she practices her English (which is already coming along really well) and teaches me some spanish.  I can understand a lot of Spanish, I just can't speak it yet.  And Milano is so metropolitan that we end up speaking Spanish quite a bit.  I've gotten as far as ''Yo soy Hermana Jacobson de la inglesia di JesùCristo de los santos de los ultimos dias.''  As you can see, I've still got a long ways to go!
 
We have a super sweet progressing investigator named Ruth who came to church for the first time on sunday.  I went with her while she changed her baby, and when I asked how she was doing she said, ''Great!  I read about 5 pages of the book you gave me, and I really like it.''  She then asked if the young men with the name tags could give her baby a blessing, because he's been sick.  One of the councilors in the bishopbric was able to do it.  We plan on inviting her with a date this week, so pray for her!
 
The ward is wonderful.  They were so open and inviting, that I already felt almost at home.  They had me play the piano and bear my testimony, and Sorella Modugno is currently here staying with a family due to health issues.  Thus, tons of people came up to me afterwards and said, ''So we hear you're the daughter of Slla Modugno.''  So she's already covered half the work for me.  :-)  One of our members picked up Ruth, and we've been setting up some FHEs with others so they can invite their friends over.  There's so much work to do!
 
~Sorella Jacobson

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