E-mail from May 29, 2013

Hello Family,

Her baptism went so well. She was so excited. It was just awesome. I forgot to bring the cord to plug into the computer. Sorry next time I will give you the photos. I know that I say that all the time, but I mean it :). The thing that was cool on Sunday when she received the Holy Ghost we had a good number of investigators in Church to watch it. Her mom and her sister came.

 I am glad that she found you. Yes I told her to find you. (Alison gave her new convert our Facebook name and she found us and now we are friends on Facebook)

These last few days have been kind of crazy. Oh I want to tell you about this funny story. Okay more of a scary dramatic story. Well the other day we were coming out of a lesson and I swatted away a bug. Oh a fly as I thought. Then a minuted later I fill something in my shirt. I look down and a bee had fallen down my shirt. I try as quickly as possible to get it out without being stung. But the bee stung me right in my chest(where my sternum is) and I turn to my companion and was like we need to get to the hospital now. The pain was excruciating and I believed that I got the stinger out. But we call someone to find out where the nearest hospital was and no one would answer!!! Finally someone answered and said where is was. But we would have to walk 30 minutes to get there. So yeah, but it turns out I think my allergy might have died away. Because I was okay. The next three days it was still hurting and I was completely confused why. Then on the third day we took a flashlight to it and found out the the stinger was still in my chest and that was what was causing all the pain. So eventually we got it, with a needle. It hurt. But that was my near death not really but scary moment. Now I am okay.

Love,

ali

Email from May 22, 2013

Hello Family, 

Yeah everything is going well. The sisters who live in my apartment are Sister Gjika, Sister Nelson and then my companion and me. It is different because at the end of the day we get excited about each others work. 

So Ylenia is getting baptized this Saturday!! And we talked about the temple the other day and she got excited to go to the temple one day. We have not been able to see Sara, but we will see her this Friday. I would like to tell you about this awesome experience that we had the other day. Sorella Gillette and I had to wait for one hour at a bus stop and this teenage couple came up. For me it has always been hard talking to the teenagers. No offense Parker,  it is hard when talking about the gospel with them. But we did and we just started talking and for half an hour taught the plan of salvation at this bus stop. And the bus was even late which gave us enough time to get their numbers. But when we talked about the plan of salvation that was what got them interested. And then 20 minutes after that there was another teenager Valeria who we talked to and she was interested. These days the work seems to be going up and we are finding people. 

  I am glad to hear that your recitals went well. Oh so I guess my piano skills are getting used in this ward. I play sometimes in Sacrament. Well this week has been really good and I love you all and I hope that you all are doing well. 

Love, 

Ali 

E-mail from May 15, 2013

Hey Family, 

Well I loved having the chance to speak with you on Sunday as well. And I had a wonderful birthday yesterday. Our week has started out good. I want to tell you of a wonderful miracle that happened the other and I know you will probably think that it is a strange on but I thought it was cool. So after we skyped we went and took the tram home and it turns out that we took the tram at the point when the last tram comes; which I had no idea when the tram would stop. The thing is that the tram only took us one stop and then we had to get off and walk home. We walked for 40 minutes home or so; which was not to bad, but the only way we knew how to get home was because one of the other sisters (oh I never said that I live in four, so we have the other sister missionaries with us; maybe I did say that oh well) knew the way. So Yesterday after our lesson we realized that we had missed the last tram and had to walk home because we had taken the route before we knew exactly how to get home and it was a blessing that we missed it the other day. 

  I want to tell you about other miracle. We have this wonderful lady that we are teaching and her name is Sara. Sister Gillette met her, her first week and had one appointment with her then she disappeared; stopped answering etc. We saw her in passing the other day because we took the wrong bus and a old man had to help us get back to the tram station. I said hi to the random lady which turned out not to be for Sorella Gillette  it was Sara, and we set up a time to met her and then she could not, but she was calling us and texting us telling us she still wanted to meet us. Then on Monday we were heading to another one of our appointments and she starts calling us from across the street. And we go over to her and she was so excited to see us and we had our appointment with her yesterday. She is so amazing. I have never heard someone pray like her. She said thank you in her pray for Joseph Smith. It was absolutely astounding. 

Ylenia, who is getting baptized next week on the 25th. We had the word of wisdom lesson with her and we knew that she had a problem with drinking tea, but she just said she would substitute orange juice instead, like it was not even a big deal. We were so excited!!!!! 

Tell Conner thank you for all the prayers. Tell him that I love him and he is just awesome. And Parker I love you too. 

Well I love you all and I hope that your week is going well. Oh you probably know this but my companion Gillette is a convert and her mom has a baptism date for the 15th of June so we are really excited for her mom. Well I thought that would be cool for you guys to know. 

Love 

Ali 

Mother's Day Skype

Today we Skyped with Alison!  We sang happy birthday to her since her birthday is this Tuesday, May 14th.  She looks great and is doing great.

Her Companion is Sorella Kassi Gillette and we got to talk to her for a minute.

E-mail from May 8, 2013

Alison's new companion is Sorella Kassandra Gillette, from Las Vegas, Nevada.  She also has a blog so it will be great to follow her blog. http://sorellagillette.blogspot.com.


Hello Family, 

Mom, why are you doing a commercial? You are going to be on T.V, haha that just sounds strange. I have not got the package yet, but I should get it next week at one of our meetings we are having for the Zone, so do not worry. Parker's going to be starting working on his papers, that is strange. I sent you the names of the people on how we are related, it is through her mom's side. 

  I am not sure when we are doing the Skype  It should be in the afternoon for me, which might be in the morning for you guys. I am sorry I do not know when you guys have church so I hope it is not during church. I think it is 4 or 5 my time. Which means it would be 10 or 11.  

  I am officially in Bergamo. I arrived here last Thursday  so I have been here for a little bit. We are teaching a Italian called Ylenia and she is so awesome. I like love her. Every time we go over there she just progresses so much. I found out that we can have bikes, but we do not. My companion is Sorella Gillette she is in her second transfer so I am finishing training her. She has just as much energy as me. Haha which is awesome. She is from Las Vegas and is a convert to the church of 7 years. We make a good team at least so I have seen so far. She knows this city. Guys I have almost been here a week and I really do not understand where that went. 

  Yesterday we got lost and it was pouring rain (we did not think it would rain because it was sunny and then it did) and when we got to the English class we were laughing and drenched. It was interested; obviously we forgot the umbrellas. But I am excited to be able to talk with you guys; I love and I can tell you more things on Sunday. 

Love, 

Ali 

Kevin's baptism

Kevin's baptism

Kevin's family

Alison at a river in Milan

An interesting work of art

E-mail from May 1, 2013

In our email to Alison we told her that we found out in our family history that some of my (her mom's) ancestors were from Trieste, Italy. Which is part of Alison's mission!

Hello Family,

So I have some news; I am getting transferred to Bergamo. So now we will see what adventures I have there. I heard that I am going to be on the bike again. Which I am afraid my muscles will just worn out the first day. 

I thought that we knew mom was related to that pirate. But I did not know the end part that he went to Italy. 

  The church is growing here. Which is absolutely amazing. There are so many miraculous things happening. I do not think I told you about this but the Sunday before last Silvia our baptism date, who is just awesome, brought her sister in-law to Church. Then she came again last Sunday. We had an appointment with her and apparently last Friday Giovanna went over to Silvia's house thinking that we would be there. Giovanna wanted to see us. But we fixed an appointment with her and Silvia. 

 We had a blitz with the Sisters in Regga Millia (not sure if spelled like that or not) and it was raining. These days seem to be weird you see it has been raining like everyday and it has been weird temperatures; either too cold or too hot. But today it seems to have become normal. Or at least seems to have become that way. These days we just seem to find more people. The other day we had a lesson with Clara (a different Clara than Vivian and Kevin's mom). And her daughter and her husband listened and were wanting to know more. Which the last time they were not there. It is just awesome to watch people become interested in this. 

  Well I am trying to think of what happened this week but I am not getting much. But I hope everything is well you guys. I love you a lot. 

Love, 

Ali

In Alison's last email she mentioned that while they were teaching a new convert about family history and looking at our family line her companion recognized someone's name and they figured that Alison and her were 4th cousins.  Alison said that her companion is related to her through Thomas Daniel Brown and Esther Wardle.  But her companion is writing her family to find out more.