Christ walked my path before, he's walked yours too

Happy almost April, and happy bday shoutout to my dad! For those of you who see him this week, give him an extra big hug for me!!! I love you dad
Well friends and fam...even with an awesome comp who literally is me, i am her... being in beautiful italy among some of the most amazing people sharing the happiest message to the world, Satan is real, and he is powerful, but it's up to us whether or not we let him take over our lives and our happiness.
Let's start with last Wednesday...
Me and Sorella Meager every night before bed watch a mormon message, and that night in particular, we were both just feeling extremely sad and overwhelmed...which turned into a a nice cry and talking session and then crying ourselves to sleep....sometimes that just happens, but you remember tomorrow is a new day, and a fresh start at things again.
Well next morning, we wake up and nothing changed...we were both still feeling down, so we just tried to go about our day and be happy. Scripture study Thursday morning was one I'll never forget. lots of prayers, lots of tears....but I always feel so much peace through the scriptures, especially times like these. Like the quote, "we talk to god through prayer, and god talks to us through the scriptures." It's so true, almost an instant it was as if God was talking to me when I came across D&C 68:6- "wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for i the lord am with you, and will stand by you, and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the son of the living god, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come." So we went about our day and it went a little something like this:

One appointment canceled on us, but we still had one planned with Silvana, so we went and talked about eternal families and the blessings of the temple. Sorella Meager invited her to be baptized, the spirit in the room was strong, everyone could feel it, but she got shut down. As a missionary the rejection never gets easier, you think we'd be use to it by now as we get rejected everyday, but it doesn't...you just have to pick yourself up and keep going. I mean it would only make sense that we have to face some rejection since we are representatives of Christ Who was rejected till his very life was taken from him. Even Christ though, the most perfect human who walked the earth still got laughed at, mocked, and rejected, but that didn't stop him from doing the work he was sent here to do. He's the perfect example I invited her to read again and pray that night about the Book of Mormon if it was true....(follow up in next weeks email.) 

After the appointment, salt lake called us to give me instructions how to fix my iPad, so we had to go get wifi which we happened to be next to la romana (a gelateria.) while I was on the phone with them, Sorella Meager was syncing her area Book with mine, and boom...2 weeks of lessons, other data deletes itself....all that info gone and there's no way we can get it back. Crap...thats always stressful We run after to catch our bus, which happened to be out of service, and had to wait another 20 minutes for the next one...we sat there at the stop talking about the day, about how even though we get along so well, we get to be here as missionaries in beautiful  Italy, it's not easy...you struggle, you cry, you doubt, you worry....but it reminded me of a talk Elder Holland gave: "I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience.Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” 16 then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life." 

Guys it's so true! Not even just as a missionary but life in general...Elder Holland said it perfectly. How could it be easy for us when it was never ever easy for him?? when times get rocky, the path seems foggy....life isn't just a breeze, because salvation isn't easy. We have trials, we have weaknesses, we have all these things to help refine us, to make us strong, and to take these opportunities not to turn away from Christ, but to turn towards him for help. 

I want to end this weeks email with a poem I wrote before my mission...it's called the missionary

Soon I'll be a missionary,

Even at times it feels a bit scary.

Going out to a foreign land,

Teaching of Christ and his eternal plan.

You leave your family, home, and friends behind,

To teach and testify to those you find.

At times you'll feel lost, discouraged with despair,

Those are the times you'll pour your heart out in prayer.

Because Christ has been there, he's walked in your shoes,

He knows what it's like to repetitively loose.

To be blown off, laughed at and mocked,

Even after all of that this was still his same thought. 

These are all of god's children, I love them all the same, 

I'm not here seeking for glory riches or fame.

I'm here to spread the gospel to all mankind,

To teach and testify to those I find.

As missionaries we do the same, 

everyday we represent Christ's name.

Through it all we will learn our weaknesses and find our strengths, 

But we never forget god's arms are reached out full length. 

Always waiting for bus 44

 

Falling asleep on the escalators...

Green green green....where is the red???

Hello everyone 

First let me explain the subject line literally crosswalk lights are green...the car lights are green...so who goes??? I don't know it's kinda a little game...you go and pray no one hits you...so when lights go green, it gets a little crazy so my point being, there's a story behind this....the other day walking home, me and Sorella Meager are crossing the street (lights are green everywhere) and this car comes flying over the hill so what is our automatic reflex, we turn and hug each other..ya dumb I know...most of us would run, but we just stood there in the middle of the street, he slams on his breaks right in front of us, and I couldn't tell if I was laughing..crying..probably both....I'm surprised we aren't dead, so hey the lord really does protect his missionaries! so this story has a good ending....we walk away just laughing in shock, and this guy stops us and says wow we need more people laughing in the world like you girls, and then it turned into a good gospel conversation and super awesome! We invited him to church, and ya...you just meet people at the randomest times...God really puts you in the right place at the right time. 

Second.. transfer news and IM STAYING!! One more transfer with Sorella Meager in Collegno, and I'm so happy these people have my heart, and I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye! 

So for the week: 

-In English class we were talking about food, and hamburgers got brought up (plus hearing them say hamburgers is always a killer)  sounds like Clouseau on pink panther so...next English class we had a little party with everyone and Anziano Harris made hamburgers! It was fun, except the whole church smelt like smoke...so opened up some windows and aired it out. 

-spring is definitely here and this week we've had hot days, and then today just loads of rain and thunder! Kinda like Utah minus the snow in mid march...Luckily there is none of that here.

-between me and Sorella Meager this week, I lit our oven mit on fire, and she set the fire alarm off in our house....comp unity, I think we've got that one down🏼 we also had a mission wide cleaning last Thursday for general conference coming up soon, and we had most of the day to deep clean our apartments.....so our cute home never looked better:) all the hair out of the drains, and vents dust free....it's pretty shiny inside:) 

-sorella Miele took us to a relief society activity, and oh I was dying she backed into a car, then tries to repark, runs into the car in front of her...ha I mean I guess i would fit right in here! Backing into things...no one really cares, everyone does it, so no stress.

-we did some passbys this week, and no one was home....so being out in the streets we passed out cards, talked to people passing by, and while out and about found a cute market which sells fresh strawberries for so cheap!!!! We loaded up on them...so happy they are now in season so this week instead of cookies, we made our neighbors chocolate covered strawberries:) 

-we also met some awesome guys on the bus coming home from district meeting. They are from Nigeria and spoke English:) always nice to speak to people in English.  we invited them to institute and English class! 

-and lastly....last night We found out we can't run the microwave and oven at the same time...power goes out and we had to go get our neighbor to help us cause we couldn't find the power box..which ends up being right next to our door....ha we felt so dumb! 

Anyways guys we are excited for the new transfer, and new people we will be teaching!  I hope you all had a great week, and found someone to serve this beautiful spring time before me and Sorella Meager go to bed every night, we answer these 3 questions to each other...

1. Did I love enough today?
2. Did I make a difference in someones life today? 
3. Did I laugh enough today?
4. One thing I'm grateful for is...

So my challenge to you all this week is every night before bed, go through these questions:) even on days that seem awful, there is something good in everyday, and so many things we have to be grateful for

I love you all and thank you for the prayers and emails

Love Sorella rindlisbacher

Quote of the week "Life is like a coin, you can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once."

 and one other one cause i couldnt decide between the 2;)

"Everyone wants happiness, noone wants pain, but you cant have a rainbow without a little rain."

-How Italians park their cars is about equally bad when it comes to their driving.....D:

-Sorella Meager getting those clogged drains hair free! NASTYY!

-English class after our hamburger party;)

-Anziano Green is "Dying" this transfer, so we gave him a funeral!

Headed to church:) haven't been sleeping much, and it's catching up to me again. Sore throat and runny nose. Its just a cycle haha

I caught fire making popcorn.... 

Cute Sepideh on my left wants to take lessons so we will start teaching her! She calls me beautiful eyes haha I love her!

My leg from falling on rocks the other day hah! 

Transfer week, live births, and m&ms=miracles

Hello one and all:) 

ive been having problems with my ipad email app, so sending my group email off today...but

to start things on a crazy note, yes we saw three goats give birth at the farm with barbara and her kids this week....it was out of control!! Haha literally one after another...must be that time of year I guess...so welcoming in spring and warm sunshine:)

Wow transfers already...we find out Saturday, but kinda guessing I will stay here In collegno for one more with Sorella Meager, so You'll all know by next week what the news is:) 

Highlights of the week:

-Well I lost my wallet, and let me tell y'all....god answers prayers!!! I FOUND IT IN THE CHURCH and never even remember taking it out of my backpack there...so miracles, i think yes!

-I got my Permesso, so finally have permission to live here in Italy...Yay:)

-here's where Miracles and M&M's come into play....well monday night we had family night at the Lusso's house which was so fun<3 I love love them, and the sassi's were there too, so always fun teaching the sweet members! After we caught a train to come home, and our bus was late, so Sorella Meager goes over to the venting machine to get Peanut M&M's....her credit card won't work, and then this little lady cleaning the things runs over to help, and turns out, Sorella Meager didn't get her M&M's, but instead we exchanged numbers with this cute lady, and talk about being in the right place at the right time!!!.....she was hugging us, and giving us bacci's like we had always been friends! Haha what a cutie<3 We will set up an appointment soon with her to teach her! So excited:)

-Well after watching craziness go on at the farm with everyone giving birth, we went to the park after with Barbara and her little kids. It resulted in me pancaking it on the rocks and cutting up my knees, and Sorella Meager kicking the soccer ball and almost took a grams head out, but she dodged it, so meno male....everyone is alive and okay! Barbara is my favorite, and such an amazing example to me of strength and faith! Although her life and challenges have not been easy, and really no one should EVER have to go through what she is experiencing, she continues to smile, and look for the good in life, never forgetting that our savior walked her footsteps first and paid the price so all of us could overcome the hardships of life, and help us find and feel joy through the power of the atonement. if anyone knows what enduring to the end means, it's sweet Barbara<3 

-Sunday we went to Marina's Aunt and uncles house for lunch who are not members. Marina is from Utah, and here to study Italian. Well....These people were AWESOME! Mario (the uncle) tries to give sorella Meager knuckles and punches her so hard!!! Haha SO FUNNY! He kept apologizing for the hard hit, but anyways after eating some yummy food and lots of laughs, we shared a spiritual thought with them and BAM...talk about rejection.....it's hard, especially when people tell you what you believe isn't real, but nevertheless the lord's work still moves forward:) after we went to a less active's home (Grazia) and talked about the importance of the Book Of Mormon! Since being a missionary, I've really come to see that most people who are inactive are also not reading their scriptures, which I will say....until my mission, I've never really appreciated the scriptures like I do now because Being out here, I now have truly come to know for myself that The Book of Mormon is what makes this church true after studying and praying for myself to know...So even if you've read it once, or never started...Like we invited Grazia to reread it and pray again to know if it's true, I invite all of you to do the same. :) It will change your lives I promise as it has changed mine<3 

-We started a sports night which is happening every Saturday, and have invited so many people! This way the youth can invite friends and we can make it a fun thing for the community and introduce lots of people to the church all the while playing games together and making new friends! It'll be awesome...especially with this warm weather...loving spring time:)

-And lastly, english class.....ohhhh boyyy we had so many people show up wednesday night, and to say the least...I don't even know how this language works! Haha we practiced vowel pronunciation, and then getting asked questions like how come enough isn't spelled with an f at the end because of the way it's said....ya NO COMMENT THERE....Haha I don't even know how my own language works...I guess it's true, english is confusing, Italian is hard, but really...when it comes down to It, Italian makes WAY MORE SENSE THAN ENGLISH EVER WILL!!

Anyway I love you all and hope you have another great week<3

Quote of the week: "Faith in god includes Faith in his timing...those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything." 

Love Sorella Rindlisbacher

Visiting the farm with cute Barbara! 

everyone was giving birth today... except this one had a problem and couldnt get the egg out. But we watched 3 goats births!

we went to beatiful superga that had the most amazing overview!!! The church was awesome, and on the back, they had a memorial for the Torino soccer team who passed away many years ago on a plane crash on the way home from a soccer match. They were the best of the best back then, so very tragic, but really cool memorial!