Email from Sara 4/29/09

Dear family!!

Wow... life is good and flying by. My companion and I are getting along great and she is helping me so much. She is very disciplined and wants to be obedient and it really helps me. There is a lot of work right now in Pistoia so we have our hands full. It’s great.

We live in Prato which is about a 20 minute train ride away, and we live about 20 minutes walking away from the train station. So we have to take our lunch with us to Pistoia every day to eat lunch at the church. It’s a bit of an adjustment, but good. I don’t really like being tied down to the train schedule quite so much- there’s not much flexibility, but ya do what ya gotta do. We live with two other sisters still and it’s pretty fun to all be in the same apartment. This is by far the smallest district possible and it’s just us two sisters and then two elders. They are awesome and are very enthusiastic about the work. It makes it easier to be diligent and want to work when everyone around you is doing the same.

Right now I’ve met a ton of people and I’m trying to keep them all straight in my head, and I’m learning my way around the city. SO much going on in my head makes it hard to think straight. Sorella Stephenson sings really well and did music and theatre before coming on a mission (at BYU, New York, and London) so we sing sometimes at our appointments and we were invited to sing with an investigators international choir. They have practice once a week at 9, but he’s going to have a special practice so we can join them. It’s pretty funny to me, but a good way to develop interest in the church.

We were also able to establish a service opportunity this week at a retirement center and the people there are really excited to have us come. I’m hoping some great missionary opportunities will come out of it…. Only time will tell.

I’m really short on time, but suffice it to say that I’m happy, healthy, and glad to be here. Love you all and hope all is well with you!!

Love, Sorella Leckie

P.S. I’ll let you know details about calling on mothers day next week. Is 9:00 in the morning good for you all. We have church from 9-12- so the latest I can call would be 11:00 here. Let me know specific times that will work the best. Love ya!!

Me in Pistoia.


My new district. Me, Sorella Stephenson, Anziano Rossi, and Anziano Hoops.

Email from Sara 4/22/09

There's a change in the winds

Alrighty, well my time in Firenze was short lived. I'll be heading to Pistoia (a 20 minute train ride away-so I can still come to Firenze for P-day) tomorrow and I'll be serving with Sorella Stephenson (or Stevenson-not sure) She's only been here one transfer and her trainer went home today because she finished her mission. Needless to say I'm a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of being the one who someone is looking to for help, but I hope the Lord knows what He's doing. The only things I know at this point about my new companion are that she only eats salads and will not speak in English unless she's speaking to an american who only knows english. I'm in for some dramatic changes. I honestly feel like for the past transfer I've been on vacation. There are so many tourists here and we found out that all the museums here were free for the past week and so we've gone with a few members and I've seen SO SO SO much art in the past few days. I've seen the David and a lot of Bottecelli's paintings, and a few by Raphael. Lots and lots of famous works. It's cool, but I can only take it in small doses.

As far as the work goes, we were able to watch "The Restoration" video with a really really nice lady from Camaroon. She has two kids and is super nice. She is a baptist and right now I think that she kind of sees us as traveling preachers who talk to people who maybe didn't make it to church that week. Better than nothing, but I doubt that any other preachers that come to her house will teach her about the the restoration and the book of mormon. She really seems to like what she hears and says she will come to church soon. I'm sad that I won't be able to be there when she comes.

Funny story. Okay, so there are some pigeons nesting on our balcony and joking around we dared one of the Elders to eat a pigeon egg if they laid one. He didn't think we would bring it so he said he would. Uh... the pigeons definately laid an egg and we hard-boiled it and he ate it. It was pretty funny.

I've taken a bazillion pictures lately so I'm going to go ahead and close this so I can put some of those on there. Keep the prayers coming. I'm pretty overwhelmed with my upcoming responsibilities and I think prayers are my only hope :)

I hope everyone has a great week! I love you all!

One of my districts favorite activities- eating Gelato.


Anziano Mondragon with his Pigeon egg.... yummy!


This is just a replica of the David that's in a Piazza. You can't take pictures of the real one.


Me at Ponte Vecchio. The stores are full of really nice jewelry. There would be a lot of really angry people if there were ever any structural problems. Its pretty cool though.

This is me at the Duomo in Firenze. It's the big famous Cathedral here. It really is amazing. There's always a line to go in so I've never seen the inside, but I heard that the outside is more amazing than the inside.

This is from a piazza where you can see the whole city.. it's beautiful!!! Sorella Favero and my last p.day together :(

Email from Sara 4/15/09

Short one, but more pictures.

So, I'm probably going to keep this a little short today, but I'm going to send a few more pictures to make up for it. It's been a good week. I can't believe that this transfer is almost over. It really seems like it has flown by. I had a great easter. We were able to go eat with all the other missionaries at a members house and we had a very big and delicious meal with roasted chicken and potatoes, roast beef, bread and cheese, salad, strawberries, and a colombo (a cake that is especially for easter). It was a lot of fun and they are a great family. From there my companion and I went to another dinner appointment. Yeah- It was rough becasue we were already really full. We really don't get that many dinner appointments and then we had two in the same day- we need to figure out how to spread them out a little. The second one, though, was with an eternal investigator, Holenka. She's kind of crazy and from Peru. She takes care of an old lady with Alzheimers and had lied to someone (the old lady's husband who lives far away) and told him that she wasn't home becasue it was supposed to be her day off, and then he tried to get in the house, but the locks had been changed (because apparently he's not the best of men) and she told us to be really quiet so he would think that no one was home... Anyhow, it was quite the adventure and we were pretty happy to get out of there. I don't know how much sense that story made, but suffice it to say that we weren't especially thrilled to be there and were happy to leave unscathed.

The soccer game was SO fun. It felt a lot like a college football game, but in Italian :). It was really fun and Florentina (the team for Florence) won! So everyone was really happy. The team they were playing was from the Island so there really weren't too many fans for them. Poor guys.

We also got to dye easter eggs at a members house. It's not somethign they do in Italy although I did get to paint a few eggs for servie at the Casa di Cura. It was fun. The members we dyed eggs with though, the wife is American and the husband is Italian so we did it because she wanted to. It was really fun and a good opportunity to get to know them better.

I felt like in Rome that I was finally starting to feel at home. Unfortunately I haven't gotten to that point here, but hopefully it will come with more time. The members here are great and I'm getting to know them and it's great. It's proving to be a bit challenging for me to live outside our proselyting area, but there must be a way.
I have to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting this sunday. Keep me in your prayers. It could be rough. ;)

Other than that, I'm hangin in there. Life is good. I have a great district and I'm thankful for them. I'm glad to be a missionary.
I love you all!
Love,
Sorella Leckie

Dying easter eggs. They looked pretty different because you can't find white eggs here, but it was a lot of fun. (Anziano Mack, Jill, Michele, Sorella Favero, and Anziano Helm)


The soccer stadium.

My district at the game + Cristian. Anz Kunzler & Helm, Sor. Favero, Me, Anz. Mondragon, & Mack and Cristian is the one in Black. It was SO much fun.

Here instead of easter baskets there are giant chocolate eggs with toys inside. It's pretty fun. We got one for the elders in our district and they got really cool toys. All we got was a tiny bag with fairys on it. Lame. Oh well. It was still fun and yummy chocolate.