the end of october?

Its the end of October. Lenoras leggings have become a part of my body. This keyboard is super weird, and there is Turkish music thats making my brain go all fuzzy. Turks may have good doner (kebab) but they definitely could use some help in the music department. The mosquitoes have become daddy-long legs. Sorella Askews reaction with a mosquito; If we are on a train or a bus, she will start blowing at it, squealing, and moving around. OR she will point to it and say "do you see it? DO YOU SEE IT?!" and..... all I can say is that its a really effective way in catching peoples attention. She cant kill them, so I sometimes drag myself off the chair and try to kill it- the sooner its gone the better for my sake, although I think everyone else gets pretty amused at watching S Askew dance around.
If we are at home, and Sorella Askew sees a window slightly open, shell wail and quickly bang it shut. THEN, when she sees anything in motion, shell call my attention to it and follow it with her beady eye until either I kill it, or till it disappears since I didnt get up to kill it.
Yesterdays theme was taking spiders out- Sorella Askew spots them as she lays in bed and then announces that theres a spider, which really translates to "Sorella Urban, youre needed in here to take this out!" so Ill go in with the mop and brush it off the ceiling and take it outside while she squeals and hops around, "I cant watch, I cant watch! SORELLA,...youre over my bed! Dont drop it!"
:)
Dad- the tshirts you sent....are awesome. One question- is there a message youre sending me in giving me gigantic sizes? You always have, but seeing that its a touchy subject now, I was just wondering ;) Ah. The advantages are having extra blubber for the cold winter, and 2) not having to eat breakfast. Take last night for example. We went to a member family (the mother is inactive because she works) and we ate a Bolivian dish- beef, hot dog, tomatoes, and french fries all mixed together in a bowl with drippings. Add mayo and ketchup on top and - dinner! The amounts is what gets us. Plus, who eats such a heavy dinner that late right before going to bed?! EVERYONE DOES! Its crazy. Sorella Askew and I moaned and groaned up till when we got into bed. It was Maites birthday so we had birthday cake ontop of that. I wish it were just a matter of telling people "No thanks, Im full" but its just not that simple. I hear stories and people tell us of missionaries theyre upset with because they "didnt like what I fed them because they wouldnt eat a second helping". ah?

Va be. As long as I still fit into my two skirts, I really cant complain. Oh, thats other news I wanted to share- Sorella Askew hadnt noticed until I pointed out to her that I just wear two different skirts. She had noticed that I wear alot of gray, but she didnt realize that the gray is the same skirt. ha ;) So that made me happy. If my companion doesnt notice that I only have 2 skirts, then others wont notice, right?

On a train to Prima Porta, Sorella Askew started talking to a young woman from Seychelles (an Island off of India) and Jane said that she moved to Italy to.....drumroll please.... go to church.
What?
Who moves to a country to go to church?
Apparently, Jane does.
SO. We are meeting with her at the church after doing email this morning.

(Theres an Indian man behind me in a telephone booth and ....its making me think of Tommy imitating our dentist in Kazakhstan. ah!)

The Turkish music got killed thanks to another Italian man who couldnt take it either.

The worm cheese has taken care of itself. It is still outside, and one morning while I was getting ready I thought, "how is it there are so many birds in our yard?" I peeked out and the worm cheese had made a giant bird feeder. Sorella Askew saw something scamper away so its not just feeding the birds. Im glad we can help feed the environment ;)

How is it that my emails are mostly about everything except the work?! I dont want you thinking that its because its lacking. No no. Yolanda is as wonderful as she ever has been- we meet with her on Saturdays and she agreed to meet with us yesterday for "just a little bit" and we made it in and out in 20 minutes. WOO HOO! We really want believe to see that having us over doesnt mean losing the entire day. We can do short lessons, as they should be, so that they dont feel exhausted and annoyed by the time we walk out. We invited her to be baptized and she choose the 23rd of Nov to pray about, and yesterday she told us that shed prayed and feels good about it but doesnt want a date because she wants to be sure of this step. We are so happy that she recognizes the importance and significance of baptism. Im so excited to continue working with her and watching her take the steps of faith and recieving personal revelation.

On Sunday night, we were able to watch the ground breaking video. It was so neat to sit among all the members and sit in awe as we looked at images of the Temple and listend to the Prophet. Pres Monson delayed his Sunday flight because he wanted to come to church, (he would have come to Roma 2!!!) but his doctor advised him not to so he stayed at the hotel and rested and then took off. I have to say, it was really tempting to peek at the ceremony. We were doing house in the Fidene area (where our apartment is) and if wed walked up to the top floor and looked out, Im pretty sure wed have been able to see the group gathered on the grounds. How wonderful it is to be in this area, within walking distance of the temple! Sorella Askew and I feel really strongly that there are people, an Italian family, waiting for the gospel in Fidene. We have been doing alot of house, and we have been invited in just once so far. They were an old couple who had us sit in their kitchen as they argued about the Catholic religion, while we taught about the Restoration in between their comments............Im not sure if we are going back.

We are working more and more with the members and its great to see that many of them are excited and willing to help us in teaching our investigators and them giving us referrals. YAY! I wish Id been better at helping the missionaries in Kaz and Armenia. Members really make the difference in missionary work.

Va bene. I think we.... are headed home because the plumber man is coming at some point to replace the tank AND hopefully he will look at our light fixture, which we cant figure out how it unscrews to replace the light bulb. We have an ancient ladder, but neither of us has the guts to go up to the top step :) Our house may be falling apart, but its still lovely and wonderful to have. Oh! Yesterday, as we were walking home, it started to rain again and so I whipped out our rainbow umbrella and for a stretch we started running to catch a bus, and suddenly it became alot harder to run, and I looked up and the umbrella had broken and was working more as a parachute. It was hilarious. I can only imagine what we must look like to others.

oK...off to go get Jane to come to the one and only church!

Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Urban