It's a beautiful day!

Ciao!!!
      è una bellissima giornata qui a Ladispoli oggi!!  I feel so grateful to be here.  This has been a great week, birthday and everything.  I have so many reasons to say that today is a beautiful day.  Man, i love ladispoli and the good news is that I get to stay for at least another transfer!!!  Me and sorella miles are staying and we are really happy.  We work really well together and i know this transfer is going to be great!  I thought for sure one of us was gone but nope, my prayers were answered.  I'm sure she will be the only companion that i spend 3 transfers with because after this ill only have 3 more transfers and i cant imagine it will all be with the same person.  So the good news is, all the packages that are coming to the office will still be easy for me to get:)  Its just taking FOREVER!!!  Sorella Miles still doesnt have the package her sister sent for Christmas.  Which was sent well over a month ago.  Italians just take their time:)  But im sure eventually they will make it.  HOpefully in the next 6 weeks would be nice.
     Next, we met our goal of having 21 lessons last week!!!  Such a great birthday present.  Miracles happen and it was an awesome week.  WE were just running around from appointment to appointment and it was great.  Lots of them were in the presence of members and that is always WAY better.  I have a huge desire to do member missionary work for the rest of my life.  It is so helpful for missionaries but even more so for the investigators.  Especially here because they see our church as just a church for Americans.  Its great when they can see that we are the only Americans here in this ward and that there are lots of Italians just like them that have found the truth and changed accordingly.  SO great.  I just didnt even know before serving a mission how vital it is.  We hear our leaders say, "Every member a missionary" and it took me going on a mission to really understand the importance of that little phrase.  Anyway, now we just have to keep that up.  It was hard but i know that we can do it!
     My birthday was a great day!  Thanks for all the emails you sent.  I have the best family and friends in the world.  So, in the morning we got up and got ready and went to Civitavecchia to get sorella miles permesso.  Well, they had changed their hours and told us we had to come back the next day because they no longer give people their permesso except on thursday and saturday.  Of course... haha.  So we turned back around and went home.  We had to do a couple things for a member and then it was lunch time.  We made MAC AND CHEESE (thanks mom) and ate some chocolate cake.  We laughed and talked about how Italians would be so discusted to know what kind of pasta we were eating... haha.  I love that fake cheese.  Anyway, then we went and had a little appointment with the girl we met a couple weeks ago.  it was great but I think she is mostly interested in the fact that we speak english and she wants to learn.  Then came the best part.  Rosaria, Antonella and Maria had requested that we come stop by their house for my birthday.  We talked and read from the book of mormon and it was great!  I seriously just feel so much joy when im with all these people.  The love that we get to feel as we share the gospel is incredible!  Then we went to see Anna and her 3 kids.  I dont know how much i have said about them but they are great. they had a little croissant cake thing there for us and it was perfect.
     Finally Bruna, the lady that had us over with her family for Christmas Eve, came to corso d'inglese yesterday.  We had called her and she was just too busy to come for a little while i guess.  Anyway, she is really interested in the church and told us that we can start coming to her house to teach her about the gospel.  Her husband isnt too into it but she is awesome.  She was looking at a picture in the church of the first vision and we were explaining a little bit and she had goosebumps all over her body.  So sweet!  And she already wants to come to church so that makes it a lot easier!  Then we met another lady the other day at a less-actives house and she knows lots about the church because of her 2 sister-in-laws (she is divorced from her husband but still has contact with them.  One is this less-active and the other is a very active lady in our ward, Sorella Silva).  Anyway, she knows so much and i asked if she had a copy of the book of mormon and was shocked when she said no.  So i gave her one and she said she would start reading it.  Plus Enriquetta, the less-active, wants to be ready to go to the temple when its built here.  I REALLY hope we can see her come back to church.  She has been a member her whole life but married a non-member and after years she just kind of lost the habit.  But she will come back.  I know it!
     I think thats it for us.  Oh ya, one more thing.  So on Friday we get a text message from the assistants and they told us that we needed to go to the store the next day and buy at least a 10-days supply of food because of a big strike they are doing in Italy.  Well, it started already in Sicily and NOTHING is opened.  You cant get food or gas and the sisters in catania told me they are just in a crisis.  That was a couple days ago so maybe its better now.  Not sure but i just know it was pretty bad.  Nothing has happened here for far and we are praying it stays this week.  Rumor has it that Rome will start in February.  Who knows??  I dont know they details but apparently they arent happy with their government here.
     Anyway, we are off to Rome to go ride the 4 person bike around again:)  Its a beautiful day!  I love Rome, I love being a missionary, I love the people i get to talk with every day, I love my companion and most importantly i love this gospel.  How blessed we are to have this knowledge in our lives.  I know what we have is true.  It makes perfect sense and brings me joy!  Thanks for all your support.  I will write you all next week!  Until then, I love you all and miss you!!!
Love,
Sorella Chelsea

Trevi Fountains

birthday mac and cheese:)

This is a gift from America To civitavecchia. It is here for a couple months and then off to somewhere else.

Just in case you have missed my scary eyes:)

Thanks!

Ciao Famiglia e Amici!
     Grazie mille for the birthday wishes.  It was so great to get on the internet this morning and have all the birthday wishes.  I cant believe that it could even be time for my birthday.  It feels like just yesterday i turned 22 and was waiting to enter the MTC. Lots has happened in this year... haha.  I feel so blessed that i can celebrate my 23rd birthday here in Italy.  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.  I will forever be grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving me this experience.  I have great family and friends and i feel your love and support. So, Thank you.  It means a lot to a missionary in Italy.
     Well, i want to say that this week is going to be great.  Its going to be a miracle birthday week.  I can just feel it.  Our mission goal for everyone is to teach 21 lessons (not including less-actives or new converts) every week.  I have been close to that several weeks but never made it.  This is the week.  We really feel it!  We are praying a lot for this and really doing everything in our power to reach this goal this week.  That is the birthday wish i want from Heavenly Father.  That and a baptismal date:)
   OK, remember that lady that we went and sang for and she let us in and told us about her son in the hospital and i asked if she would like her son to receive a blessing?  Well the blessing never worked out because her husband really wasnt helpful.  Not that he was totally against it, but just didnt allow us really to set anything up (and he is the only one with a phone so it was a little difficult).  Anyway, we have been teaching this lady though.  Her name is Mimoza and she is from albania.  She is muslim but not practicing and believes in Christ as our Savior.  Until 15 years ago she really didnt know who God was or Christ. She had heard of God but because of communism was never able to know who he is.  15 years ago she saw a movie about Christ and cried the whole time.  Anyway, we had asked her to read the introduction to the book of mormon and she not only read it but read it like 5 times to really understand it.  She was like, "can we talk more about this book?"  So i start telling her the story of the BOM and she knew the whole thing!  It was incredible.  Her prayers at the end of the lesson are amazing.  So simple but from her heart.  Our obstacle with her is going to be her husband but I feel like she really is going to be baptized.  SHe just has just a desire to know the truth.
    Anna (romanian lady) and her kids...  well yesterday we tried to set a baptismal date with them... The kids were all for it.  We explained that they still have a lot to learn but that with our help and them doing their part, they can really have a testimony of what we have been teaching them; That the church of jesus christ has been restored.  The mom wasnt so happy and excited about it.  She is evangelist and doesnt see any need to be baptized again.  The hardest and most important thing that people understand is the importance of authority and how our church is the only church on the earth with the right authority.  We are hoping that as her kids continue to grow and desire this her heart will be softened.  And it was so cute because they told us that we have to come on my birthday because they will be waiting with a surprise for me.  haha.  I love them.  Its going to be a good birthday!


     Next thing.  Well in church on sunday i had to do my first translating!  It was just insane.  First of all, there is a guy in our ward that for his job he translates for the church so i was just confused why they would ask me.  (Even though i understand as a missionary it just kind of comes with the territory)  Anyway, is was for these 2 american members that are here in europe to make a video for EFY in europe and they came to our ward to film our primary singing.  He was SO nice and told me how well i did even though it was SO hard.  I could understand everything the speakers said but when i was speaking, i couldn't really hear what the speaker was saying and i got a little lost.  I guess thats a hurdle i would have had to cross at some point in my mission.  Definitely an experience.  That translating isnt easy!
     Last thing, we had zone conference this week.  That is the most inspired thing.  I think all of us as missionaries need that every transfer.  Its one of my very favorite things.  Anyway, president kelly gave us all an assignment to study about Charity for 12 weeks and then to write a little paper on the things we learned.  Im really excited.  He told us that he wants us all to become experts on charity.  Its already been great studying and learning.  Its always been a quality really special to me and something i really want to work on.  We'll see how it goes!  If any of you have learned some great things about charity i would love to hear it!
     For now i have to be done.  I hope you have a great week.  We get transfer calls on saturday.  Im really nervous.  The work is going great here and i love my companion!  I dont want to leave Ladispoli...  we'll see what happens!  Talk to you all next week!  Thanks again for the birthday wishes!  I thank my heavenly father for you all every day!  Vi voglio tanto bene!
Love,
Sorella Buma

Sunset literally 2 min from our house.  So beautiful!!!!
last district pic before transfers... President said its going to be a big one!  IM SCARED!!!  I just want to stay here!
Me and Lidia (youngest of the Romanian family) for her birthday yesterday.

The Atonement and Black Mold

Ciao!!!
     Holy Cow!  I seriously cannot believe that today is the 11th!  I keep looking at the date when we are planning at night and time just seems to slipping by.  Man...  We had a great week!  Definitely some ups and downs but a good week.  We will start off with the atonement and black mold.  THat has pretty much been our concentration this week.
     So on friday, a mission couple, the Kruegers, came to our apartment to check it out.  Well, we got an A which is great but we have some black mold on our ceiling and they told us that we need to try and get that off.  So they told us that its important that we try and do it ourselves so to do it in the next few days because if it doesnt come off, they need to hire someone to come and get it all off.  So that was our Monday morning.  Buckets of bleach water and just scrubbing our ceiling.  The good news it that it looks SOOOOO much better.  It took us awhile and some of it is stained but it really looks a lot better.  We should have taken before and after pictures.  The Kruegers also told us that we can use our heating all the time in our house!  (Lets just say the rules on using our heating have changed.  That would not have been ok when i first got here) I felt really bad turning the heating on because it costs so much money.  And we were pretty much living in an ice box...  Its just an air conditioning thing that we use so its still a little chilly but we are feeling a lot better!  Warmer apartment without mold!  Man, we are starting this year off good!
     The best part of the visit from the Kruegers was their lesson they taught us on the atonement of Christ.  It was SOOOOOO good and me and Sorella Miles just had so many lightbulb moments.   We asked a lot of questions so we didnt quite get to finish but they had everything typed up for us to study and so we have been doing that a lot.  Its been so great learning how better to apply the atonement in my life every day!  Thinking of it as something that is still happening now instead of just a moment in the Savior's life.  I wish i could tell you all that i have learned but I just dont have the time.  I love personal and companion study.  I dont know if i ever told you this but there is a new program now that trainers and the new missionaries do 2 hours of companion study instead of just one every day for 2 transfers.  It has been great.  We have lots more time to practice teaching and im definitely growing as much as Sorella Miles if not more.
     As for the not so happy moments this week.  Pino told us our last lesson with him was on monday because he cant find work here so he is going back to Calabria.  He is so great but just has so many problems because of choices that he has made earlier in his life.  Im sure there are missionaries at least sort of close to where he is going that can continue to go and see him.  We will for sure send the referral down to them.  He did call us yesterday though and said he hadnt left yet...  So maybe we have a little longer than he has said.  I guess we'll see.  I just hope in some way he can have a new start to his life.  He wants to change but even after we have repented and changed, there unfortunately consequences that follow.  He is definitely experiencing that.  We love him and want him to stay but i think it will be better for him where he is going, back to be with his mom and sister.
    Next sad appointment (which happened to be the same day) was our appointment with Cristian.  He told us that for now he has somethings in his life that he needs to sort out and doesnt want to see us for now.  I asked him if he would read the scriptures and pray at least in this week because i know it would help him and basically he said no...  He doesnt have a relationship with God he said and then he told us he doesnt even know if he wants to have one.   It was like going through a break up.  It was really sad!!!  There is a happy light to this one though.  Some Anziani in Rome called us yesterday and told us that they were in the train station and Cristian stopped them and wanted to talk with them.  He told them he has some problems that he feels uncomfortable talking with us about and would like to talk with the elders instead.  I cant believe that Cristian stopped them!  Such a sign that he really does have a desire to find this relationship with his heavenly father.  I really really hope meeting with Elders for a little while is just what he needs!  We also met with his sister last week and she is great!  Hopefully we can start seeing her too!
     As for every one else, not much new.  I still love Andreina with all my heart and hope we can help Raffaela find a way to be baptized!  Starting monday this week all the holidays ended and so we are happy to get back to our normal schedules.  More like that everyone else will be back to their normal schedules:)
     Well thats it for me this week I think.  Tomorrow is Zone Conference and im so excited!  I LOVE zone conference.  Its so fun being around so many other missionaries and really feeling the spirit together.  Hope you all have a great week!  Thanks for everything you do for me.  Especially for your emails and letters!  I LOVE getting mail from my family and friends!!!  Vi Voglio TANTISSIMO bene.  Mi mancate!  Ci sentiamo la prossima settimana!

Love,
Sorella Chelsea

Present from our best ward missionary, Fratello Papi!  He is awesome!

Cute stocking Teri sent me!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Not such a great pic of me but this is the famous Pino.

Off to a good start!

Buon Anno!
    I seriously cant believe that it is 2012.  Its just kind of seems like 2011 didnt exist for me.  Ill be talking about the summer before my mission and say "Last summer..." and my companion gets really confused because last summer i was in Catania.  Its just so crazy how fast time has gone.  This transfer has flown by (even though we are only 1/2 way through).  I hope that all of you had a great New Years!  2012 is going to be great!  We were in our apartment by 6 and SOOOO thankful for that.  While we were walking home there were people just throwing fireworks everywhere.  It was so scary.  One went off right in front of us and luckily the kid walking next to us stopped and so we stopped because we didnt see it.  Then we just planned some lessons at home and tried to go to sleep on time but everyone in all of Italy was lighting fireworks the whole night so it was a little hard.  We were SO lucky though because some of the other missionaries said that their neighbors were having parties so literally they couldnt sleep.  At least everyone in our Palazzo was really quiet.  We roasted some marshmallows and drank some hot chocolate.  It was a great new years and i loved having a great excuse to go to bed instead of staying up!
     Other news of the week.  We have been going to see lots of members recently.  We have eaten with members every day since friday... haha.  Its great because i love them but so many meals all in a row.  We have another one tomorrow and then another on sunday.  Im excited.  We want to really try and get the members to trust us because that is the best way that we can find families to teach.  I love our ward though.  They are such great members.  THis ward is famous in the Rome stakes.  Its a small ward but has really really strong members.
    Before i forget i better tell you about our little cleaning disaster.  Well, we were doing a great job and cleaning everything.  So we are cleaning the bathroom and unscrew the drain in the shower to clean it out.  We put it back together and went about our business.  At the end of the day, before going to a members for dinner, we took showers.  While we are at this members house, like 30 min away in a car, we get a call from our chef neighbor saying that water from our bathroom was leaking into his.  After about 2 hours the dripping stopped and so it was clear that something had gone wrong with our shower.  ANyway, long story short, our landlord was SO mad and just screaming at me on the phone because we touched the screw...  but that just seemed like a normal thing to do.  Thankfully the member that took us home (diana, my age and coming to Temple Square to serve a mission in feb so you all need to go visit her please) took the phone and explained everything for us.  She was SOOO sweet and it was just the biggest tender mercy that she was there with us that night.  ANyway, they came and just tightened the screw yesterday and all is well now.  WE know now that we cant clean our drain.  ANd we are going to make a sign for the next sisters that follow us:)  A little scare and i felt AWFUL but all is well now.
     Well, just one thing really quick before i go.  I love that the Gospel is so simple.  We were teaching Andreina and a couple other people this week and talking about how great it is that we just have to get one question answered to know if our church is really true.  We just need to know if the book of mormon really is a true book on the earth.  We dont have to know the doctrine perfectly and have all of our questions answers because everything falls into place if the book of mormon is true.  There is a great take that elder Calister (maybe i messed up on his name) gave in conference about the book of mormon.  Its been so great studying it because it really answers all the main questions we get from people every day.  Im so grateful for this book that we have!  So many times in my life i have taken it for granted.  But i love it and i know that it is a book written by prophets called of God for our day!
     I think thats pretty much it for us here in Ladispoli today.  Thanks for all your prayers and love and support.  We were talking last night about how blessed we are to have such great families and friends.  You really realize it when you are talking to people all day that dont have these things.  Hopefully next week ill have some great investigator updates.  yesterday Maria turned 11 and we took some brownies and lipgloss to her and she LOVED it.  It was so fun.  Pino is basically homeless and doesnt have a job still and just has so many problems.  I dont know how he still has so much faith.  He is so great!  Everyone else pretty much has been out of town.  They all come home this week!  Thank the heavens!!!  Love you all!  Hope you all have a great week!  Good luck getting back into the swing of work and school:)  Love you and miss you all!
Love,
Sorella Chelsea

 most of our district

 the sisters

 Us and the assistants moving SOOOOO much stuff from our house

New coats from a member