{"id":478,"date":"2014-01-08T04:29:24","date_gmt":"2014-01-08T04:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/?p=478"},"modified":"2014-01-08T04:29:24","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T04:29:24","slug":"buon-anno-letter-dated-january-1-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/buon-anno-letter-dated-january-1-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Buon Anno! (letter dated January 1, 2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ciao cara famiglia,<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Sorry I haven’t emailed for a couple of weeks. \u00a0Christmas fell on P-day so I didn’t really have time to email. \u00a0But it has been a great couple of weeks, filled with sweet missionary work experiences.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Last night for New Years Eve we had to be inside all night, which I can see why! New Years Eve \u00a0(Capodianno) is a HUGE deal here, especially in Florence. \u00a0Centro was booming with tourists and crazy people and concerts and fireworks went off literally all night long. \u00a0We have had some great and beautiful miracles though, so let me tell you about them.<\/div>\n
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For Christmas, I ate pranzo in the Tuscany countryside. Literally. \u00a0It was abosolutely breathtakingly magical. \u00a0It was a delicious lunch and I have never eaten so much in my entire life. And I just loved skyping. I wish we could have had more time, but it seriously was just what I needed to push me forward.<\/div>\n
Monday night – Peruvian food -SPICY potatoes, yum, yum, yum.<\/div>\n
Tuesday night – more Peruvian food<\/div>\n
Wednesday – HUGE Italian Christmas lunch that lasted for hours. This meal \u00a0consisted of raw salmon with lemon, lots and lots of pasta, lots of meat, lots of pandoro and panetonne, and tisana, yum. so. much. food.<\/div>\n
Thursday (a day for San Stefano, or what they call Natolino) – 2 big Italian meals. One of which, I ate rabbit. \u00a0It was really saltly, and surprisingly good. \u00a0But I don’t really like eating rabbit, it used to be a cute little bunny, and I just can’t do that \ud83d\ude42<\/div>\n
Let’s just say we ate so so much, my stomach stretched in ways I didn’t know it could.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Last week, the week of Christmas, was beautiful. We found five new investigators, with the help of our members, our own finding efforts to talk with as many people as possible, and the help of missionaries that came before us. We found a family! \u00a0A beautiful family from Peru that the sisters taught before but that lost interest because they were super busy. \u00a0We know that this is their time, because Firenze just saw some beautiful baptisms a month ago of a Peruvian family, and these members can help one another.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Sunday, we were trying to pass by as many members as possible and do finding along the way. \u00a0And, miracle… we got into someone’s house!! I have never been let in from knocking doors before, but when we offered to sing with them that softened their hearts a little \ud83d\ude42 We were able to sing for them and pray with them, and talk about Christ. \u00a0As soon as they heard about Joseph Smith they got a little weary, but they realized that we are Christian too and it opened up their hearts a lot. \u00a0We were just giddy with excitement, and it gave us the energy to endure to the end.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We also were able to set a baptismal date with one of our investigators! YAY! We are trying to rely on the Spirit and on Heavenly Father to know how to help her get there and endure to the end.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The work is going well in Firenze! I am losing trust in mankind slowly though, since our zone leader’s car got broken into last night, tons of packages and mail and important things were stolen. I hate going on buses because some of these men are just… ugh… not the nicest to the blonde american girls.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I love this work, and I truly do love being a missionary every day. I can honestly say I forget what it’s like to be a normal person… yeah \ud83d\ude42<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0I love my companion, she is wonderful and we work really well together. \u00a0I like living in 2 as well, it’s really nice \ud83d\ude42 The Savior loves us so much, and he is just waiting to bless us as we live our covenants and turn to Him every day.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I love you all, and what will you give to Christ for this new year? It’s a great time to start over, but not make too many goals, because then you’ll just feel bad about yourself \ud83d\ude42<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I know, know, know this gospel is true with all of my whole heart. Con tutto del mio cuore. The Savior truly is there. \u00a0Joseph Smith is a prophet. \u00a0The Book of Mormon is the word of God.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Vi voglio bene e buon anno,<\/div>\n
Sorella Strong<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ciao cara famiglia, Sorry I haven’t emailed for a couple of weeks. \u00a0Christmas fell on P-day so I didn’t really have time to email. \u00a0But it has been a great couple of weeks, filled with sweet missionary work experiences. Last night for New Years Eve we had to be inside all night, which I can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}