Italy Adventures: 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