Email from Sara 5/20/09

Buongiorno!!

Ciao caro famiglia mia!

Alrighty, this might be short-ish today because we are going on a field trip to Lucca. We're going with the other sisters and it's going to be a blast. We don't actually know what there is to see in Lucca but we've been told by many many sources that it's beautiful, so we'll see.

This week has been great. We had some great appointments and hopefully will be able to see some people who are willing to take some bigger steps of faith.
I had a wonderful birthday. My companion and the other sisters made me crepes for breakfast and they were YUMMY!

Then, that morning we went and met with a less active sister (of over 20 years inactive) and it's a beautiful walk out to her house. It seriously reminds me of home... like walking down in the woods. I love it!! There were azalias around her house and it's just beautiful. It's like a little piece of the upstate right here in Pistoia. It's great. In the past she hasn't been entirely receptive to having missionaries at her house, but she was very welcoming and wants us to come back. I'll keep ya posted.

After that we went to the park to have a picnic with some of the young people from the branch. We had three new members, three non members (one who is a new investigator and another who is going to be a new invesitgator, and another who comes to english class). Then there were 2 young men from the branch, the branch president's daughter, who is amazing, one of the youth from the Pisa branch, and then four missionaires. It was really really fun and a great opportunity for the non members to mingle and interact with the members. BEAUTIFUL!

Then we had an appointment with the Itala family. They are the ones who have to wait to get baptized, but are practically members already. We went not knowing exactly who of their family was going to be there, but we ended up having a really fun girls night with Francescia (the mom) Piera (the daughter) Consuella (Francescia's sister) and Graziella (Consuella's daughter). We had a great lesson on faith. And Consuella and Graziella (who are not investigators) want to have dinner sometime with all of us again. Yay!! Hopefully we can share some more with them. And the Itala family is a great example. When they found out it was my birthday they all hugged and kissed me, and their 9 year old son, Michael gave me his Tazmanian devil stuffed animal, it was so cute. They are such a great family!

When I got home, sorella Hawkey and Millis surprised me with a banner, balloons, and a cake-ish dessert (it was DELICIOUS). A really really fun and great day!
There have been other great things too, and life is great!

Gotta go so I can catch my train, but I hope everyone has a wonderful week and that you can do lots of good things!
Love you all!
Sorella leckie

Oh yeah... I found honeysuckles the other day and I was so so so excited!!! It was just like home!

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(Later)

So we had a little bit of time left over after we got back today from Lucca so we came to the library to send some pictures.

This one is me and Sorella Stephenson in Lucca. The main part of the city is within some really high walls. This is taken from on top of one of the walls. Pretty, huh?


This is a ridiculously cute piazza. I can't remember the name of it right now, but it was really really cute.



This is typical of the trains that we take to and from Pistoia every morning and every evening. Sometimes they are a little newer, but this is pretty typical.



Me on my birthday. I look really really really rough. It had been a hot day with lots of walking and I'd had issues with my contacts and had had to take them out during the day and go half blind after much rubbing of the eyes. It was pretty windy and theres lots of stuff in the wind. A strange kind of cottony weed blows around a lot and I suspect that didn't help.



This is me with all the sisters in my apartment on my birthday. Apparently I missed the memo to wear a white button down shirt. They surprised me good.


This was just a really really cute ally in Lucca. I liked it.