Email from 9/21/11

Hello everyone,

So transfer calls came on Saturday....Slla. Foote and I are both
staying in Ladispoli. She's going home at the end of this
transfer...pretty crazy. Not going to lie, I'm somehwat jealous of
her. But she said she felt that way too at first and now she says she
is jealous of me that I get to stay out for so much more time.

Schieffer is home now AND Chris!!!! Oh my goodness!! I can't believe
everyone is coming home. If you see them again, give them huge hugs
again. I miss them a ton. And I know Braden is in his last transfer.
It's kind of freaking me out a little bit. If you would like to go to
the airport, that would be greatly appreciated. Give him a hug from me
and tell his family hi for me. Sure miss my friends. It's hard because
I miss the family of course, but I know you all will be around when I
get home. But my friends make it super tough to be out here because
their lives are continuing without me and who knows who will be around
or remember me when I get home. Oh well...I guess life goes on.

I also got the package with the mosquito stuff. I got it yesterday. We
were gone in Rome all day yesterday and came home late at night and
the package was at our door inside instead of outside the palazzo door
like usual. It was weird. And then this morning our neighbors all
asked if we got our package. It was cute. THey like all treat us like
their own kids, but they don't have any interest in our message. But
they sure love us and tell us how great we are all the time. Haha
people are funny here. But no, I haven't gotten the camera cord yet.
I'll look out for it though. THanks. I still haven't gotten any
brownies recipes or salsa resipe from you. Did you forget or are they
coming?

And I got Dad's letter. Thanks dad! It was really interesting and
great. I like the hear about everything going on. It gives me a piece
of home away from home.

Answers to your questions mom: Pranzo is like Spanish Siesta. They all
close everything down and Eat and nap and rest for however long they
want, but it's usually for a couple hours. We still haven't been able
to get ahold of Rita. It's super sad. I don't like how people just
disappear like that and we don't even run into them or anything. Pray
for her.

And Giusy said her husband is loosening up slowly. So we'll meet him
when she feels ready, but for now she is doing great and progressing.
She has read so much of the book of mormon already. It makes me super
excited. We were talking about the prophet and conference and Giusy
said she wants to come to America to see him speak in Utah. Ha we said
that is great and we can find a place for her to stay and she can come
to our houses. She wants to take her daughter to Disneyland too. It
was cool how she loves the idea of a prophet. Most people don't
realize how amazing of a thing that is.

Baptisms coming up...for us we have one date for October 8th with
Elisa. She's the one who had the dream about Brother Joseph and the
"book". That's still on. There was a baptism in our ward for a little
boy this last Saturday and that was cool. It was in the Ocean and we
had three investigators there. It was so cute because the dad really
dunked his son in the water and it was sunset so kind of cold and as
soon as he could breath again, he yelled "Che Freddo!!!" It was funny.
But our investigators really liked it.

No one has taught us how to make pasta yet. We've been getting fed by
members more often lately though, which has been fun. Except Monday
night we ate with a member and she made this yummy pasta dish and then
this eggplant thing with mozzarella and it was NASTY. And she gave us
like a huge blob of it. I was praying for strength to keep it down
with every bite. Haha. Luckily I finished it.

Two girls in our ward here received their mission calls this week! One
of them is from Uruguay and her family moved to Italy a couple years
ago. Her name is Marianna. And she is going back to Uruguay for her
mission. Super exciting! She leaves in January for the Brazil MTC. And
the other is Diana. She is Italian and got called to the Temple Square
mission and reports to the Provo MTC February 14th. We keep telling
her all about Salt Lake City and she's super pumped. We also told her
that we will come find her and visit her there because BYU is really
close. There is a third girl in our ward from Ukraine her name is
Natalia, and she just met with the stake president last night for her
papers. The ward gets so excited about their members going on
missions. It's a really cool thing to see them get so excited. More
than we do in America.

Rafaella is one of our investigators and she actually got freaked out
a while ago by some older missionaries and gave back the book of
mormon. So they waited awhile and regave her the book of mormon. She's
kept it since. We've been teaching her slowly, being careful and she
is growing a ton now. She keeps mentioning baptism in all our lessons
and she came to the little boy's baptism on saturday and loved it.
Then she came to church this sunday for her third time and she was
their even before us. She was so excited. We invited her to be
baptized 22nd of October and she isn't sure yet because of her family
and her boyfriend who she lives with. So she said she's pray about it,
but instead of getting scared, she seemed really happy. Hopefully
she'll accept it soon. But she is growing leaps and bounds and the
ward is really welcoming her.

Monday, Slla foote woke up with a dream of us going to district
meeting on the bus like always and we got in this really bad accident
and a line in her setting apart came to mind to about being safe if
she follows spiritual promptings. So we avoided the bus all day on
monday. We ended up getting so lost getting to district meeting and
being half hour late, but we are still safe and alive. She was
panicking about us being lost, and I was pretty chill about it. I
looked at it as a fun adventure. We also met this guy at the train
station who was really curious about our church. He saw the movie on
tv about Omish people which they called the Mormons. So we had to
explain to him that we are normal and not Omish. Then he was intrigued
about the Book of Mormon and how we read the whole bible. We offered
him the BOM but he said to bring it to him later when he's not
outside. We think he's embarrassed to carry it around. Ha but oh well.
We are meeting with him Friday and he called us to remind us to bring
"that one book" for him.

Tuesday we went to visit Francesca in the hispice and she is so weak
and forgetful now. It's sad. But she's getting alot kinder. She told
us to make sure to come back because she doesn't like ever being
alone. It's so sad. She literally just a skeleton and skin now.
Tuesday afternoon the Assistants picked us up from the strain station
in Rome to take us to a dr. appt for slla foote. She hurt her foot
when I first got here and it's been hurting worse so i convinced her
to call slla. kelly and she told her to go to the doctor. We went and
they x-rayed it and said it's just really swollen on the tendons or
something like that. Then we went home and started English Class
again. They were maybe like 13 there and 3 came for spanish class
which a member in the ward is teaching. I like teaching english
because it's something I actually know how to do. Saturday we are
dividing them into basic and advanced and I will teach advanced. So
basically it's an opportunity for them to just practice speaking. I'm
excited. I also learn more italian that way. We also have 3 new people
that said they might be interested in learning more about our
religion. Wahoo! Maybe 3 new investigators. We brought brownies for
them and they were devoured instantly! Always so popular here, it's
funny. We never get to eat any for ourselves because they get eaten so
fast.

Tonight we are teaching Rosaria and going to invite her to be baptized
for October 22nd. Let's pray she accepts! She's so great and the ward
already loves her. Besides, they need more girls for young womens and
she is 16. Maybe her 10 year old sister will want to be baptized also.
She's so cute.

Well gotta go because we are hungry and are going to take a nap today
for p-day! Yay!!!

Love always,
Sorella Heiner

P.S. Family, if you could send me some CDs, that would be great. I am
really missing the Reflections of Christ one, Vocal Point and
InsideOut stuff that is religious, and maybe some of the Prince of
Egypt stuff. The guideline here for music is it needs to bring the
spirit and be uplifting. So if there are others you know of that would
be great, then send them. Oh some EFY music is good to. K thanks for
everything. You all are amazing! And tell Amira she's a "sneaky
chapter" and give her a hug and kiss. And don't forget to write me!!