Email from Sara 6/10/09

Buongiorno!!

Wowsers, it's been a crazy week, and it will be another crazy one. It's been great to get to meet a few of the people from Prato and see more than the walk from the station to our house.

We had a wonderful wonderful zone conference on monday. Elder Kopischke of the 70 came and his wife. They are German but both spoke English very very well. He will be the next area president here for the central euroupe area (I think that's which one it ìs, boh??) and he said that in this area that there are 24 primary languages and that the only way they can all communicate is in english. What a challenge! And it makes me so happy that I already know english! He encouraged the native italians to learn english and said that it was important to the future of the church fot he members and missionaries to speak more than one language. It was very interesting. It was an amazing conference. He had a few specific things that he wanted to share and then he just opened it up for questions and taught specifically for us. It was great. There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of things that we as missionaries can be doing better. We just have to improve one day at a time. As president Acerson always says, "sempre avanti, mai in dietro" or "always forward, never backwards." Words to live by.

We had a great morning already. There is a sister in the branch who is a teacher and they had a school play and she invited us to go. Since it was p-day and we wanted to be supportive we went. It was a bit hard to follow, but it was a take on Dante's, Divine Comedy. It started as some young kids who went back and saw Dante and they talked about the different weaknesses that people have, glutons, seeking wealth, etc. It turned into, however, a wonderful gospel lesson with direct quotes from the Book of Mormon, the sword of truth, shield of faith, the whole armor of God, two Hymns sung by all the kids (Where can I turn for Peace, and Home can be a heaven on Earth), lessons on how the family blesses lives, how Jesus Christ is our Savior. It was amazing. I was sad to think that someone could never do something like that in the US, but how thankful I am for her example to share these beliefs. I can't help but think how great it is for these young students to learn these basic truths.

I'm out of time for today, but thanks for the constant support and love! I love you all!
Love,
Sorella Leckie

p.s. No packages as of yet, but they didn't bring them to zone conference this last time because they didn't drive. Hopefully Sorella Stephenson can bring some back from Rome. Keep your fingers crossed! I'm super excited to get them!

These are from Serravalle Pistoiese. I realized that I hadn't put any pictures up. This was our adventure from last week. It was absolutely beautiful and far enough off the map that there aren't really any other tourists. When we got there we didn't really know where to go and some nice lady gave us a ride. Fun P-day.



Sorella Hawkey, Me, and Sorella Stephenson walking down the mountain.


One of the sheep that posed for a picture while we were coming down the mountain.


The cast from the performance this morning. Sorella Paglai is one of the ones in the front.


This is my district right now. Anziano Hoopes, me, Sorella Hawkey, Sorella Stephenson, and Anziano Aycock. It could be the only district with more sisters than elders :) Even if only for a few weeks.