Go big AND go home

Hi!

I think I think too much about the titles of my emails, especially this last one.
"Do I stay or do I go now?"
"This is the 78th weekly P-Day email..."
"What a happy ending!" ... "No... what a wonderful beginning!" (Anastasia)

But rest assured, it hasn't passed my notice that a year and a half HAS gone by! And here I am! Going home on Thursday. Like, whoa.

This week was spent here and there. I fulfilled my mission-long dream of serving as a missionary in Messina (even if it was only for an exchange for a day). We had a pretty exciting English course (see attached photo), where a student dressed up as Santa Claus and taught everyone the words to Feliz Navidad and Silent Night using a speaker system that looks like a beer can (?).

I was down in Siracusa for a day (I'm basically making "Spirit runs" up and down the eastern Sicilian coast). Opportunity to meet more less active church members and set the record for "most companion exchanges in a three week period." I'm up to 5 now. I'm sure that's easily topped, but it's a personal best.

I have no feelings, because I really don't feel like I'm leaving anything. Maybe it's the feeling that I'll be back in Italy someday. Maybe it's because personal growth will continue after the mission. I usually keep thinking in my head that I'm still going to be here forever. It's only when I try to go to sleep that I tend to have dreams of Mexican food and home.

To be honest, I feel somewhat drained of "inspirational thoughts." Every missionary in Sicily has asked me what I'm going to do when I get home, what advice I can give them for the rest of their mission, what would I change if I could go back, how can they learn the language better, what I'm going to miss the most, and what my favorite arancino flavor is. By the way, it's Christmas season and my brain hasn't even registered that yet.

So, we're going to piggy back some spirituality and I'm going to share a quote that I read in the Lorenzo Snow manual this week while I was kind of zoning out thinking during church. "One of the best things a young man or a young woman can have in view of trying to be great is to have others great also, and not spending a little time to improve others." Very appropriate to finish my mission with, dontcha think?

I guess I can say this.

If you've served a mission: live up to all the trust those people you served put in you!
If you're serving a mission: keep going! You can do it!
If you haven't served a mission and you can: do it.
If you've never read the Book of Mormon: read it.
If you've never heard of the Book of Mormon: wanna talk about it? Come on over to my place. I'll make some Italian dish and we can have a good chat.

The Book of Mormon is an extraordinary book. I don't think I've ever had a book that can motivate, inspire, respond and change my life on so many levels. So. I highly recommend it. Five stars and a trumpet on top.

You're all the best. Everyone is invited to my homecoming: 

Sunday, December 29 at 11am

Washington Fields 8th Ward

628 South 3000 E

Saint George, UT 84790

All are welcome.

I'll be home on Friday. Call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me.

Love you!

Until next time,
Sister Fuller

All my life is changing every day in every possible way!

December 9, 2013

What can I even say about this week? Time in Catania flies by RIDICULOUSLY FAST. I've never been in a city where I've literally had to book it from one appointment to another. Sure, there have been periods where I've had a lot of appointments, but never with such consistency. It's very refreshing.

This week: we had a ward street board, a funeral, lots of rain, bus rides, walking past giant gorgeous piazzas and duomos, a wonderful mother and daughter investigator group, a hospital trip (to visit an investigator), a husband and wife that needed encouragement, lunch with a former cook and her grown down-syndrome son and my first eggplant arancino.

I've had the distinct feeling that Catania was my "ideal" city. It fit my traits really well (fast paced, lots of work, lots of organization, tends to be the leadership hub of Sicily). And yet, I can see the infinite wisdom in me not serving in this city up until now. I see how the other cities helped me develop traits that I needed -- patience, humility, LEARNING TO COPE WITH STRESS and even some downright "experiencing the bad to appreciate the good." Me spending my last three weeks here is just a bonus gift from the Lord. But I'm glad that every city I served in was specifically designed for me.

In some ways, my head is kind of spinning, and yet I feel that I have my feet on the ground. This is my second to last email and I feel it's time to be spouting out all of this great wisdom about everything that I've learned. But the only real feeling that I get is that I am continuing to live every day here. And as soon as I finish my mission, I will continue to live every day. Yes, my daily activities will change substantially. But I guess that before my mission I was continually striving to be a better person and to generally improve myself, help others, throw parties and do what God wanted me to do. I feel that I did the exact same thing on the mission, minus the parties. Also, I was placed with lots of people and in lots of situations that I might have never been in otherwise. So, after the mission, in that sense, seems very much the same thing. It doesn't seem routine and boring. It seems exciting that I get to do the same, uplifting things, but I get to change scenery.

SPEAKING OF SCENERY I will definitely miss Italy. This giant snowcapped volcano (Mt. Etna). The old slouched over ladies wearing giant floor-length down jackets and kilos and kilos of fresh fruit and vegetables. The members' enthusiasm. The fact that no one can stop talking (and neither can I). The hand gestures. The downright passion when it comes to the gospel and the commitment to follow Jesus Christ. GOOD JOB ITALY!!

Tomorrow I bear my last testimony. Then an exchange in Messina. This weekend will be another exchange in Siracusa and the American ward Christmas party. We had a baptism planned before I left, but both my companion and I have the distinct impression that this man needs more encouragement and commitment before getting baptized. Otherwise we'd be helping him make a commitment that he couldn't keep. But we both feel at peace with the decision. I would much rather be a stepping-stone in the eternal progression of this man and his family, than have another "picture in white" my last day on the mission.

Oh. We've been officially invited by the shortest and most devout members of the ward to eat ricotta on my last day. How did they know that was all I ever wanted?

I love you all! That's all the news.

Sister Annie

Island of Misfits

Hi!

We're back on the island, ladies and gentlemen! And I am BACK TO NORMAL!!

It's weird... I had some dark days in Bari (and some hard times in Ladispoli), and I would always tell myself, "I don't remember starting off this way. I felt like I was different before!" I really did feel that I'd taken a plunge in productivity and general happiness (and was continually praying to go back to Sicily). But I did feel that I was learning necessary lessons and becoming generally one of those "better" people. 

I come back to Sicily... and it's like I'm starting my mission all over again! I remember the spirit I felt here (not the Spirit, as in the Holy Ghost, but just... the SINGING SOUL/heartbeat/mother earth Avatar thing) and it's come back again!

When I was in Sicily a year ago, I lived in Mistretta (two and a half hours away from Catania by car), but we had a chance to do several exchanges in Catania (during transfers, zone conference, etc.).

It turns out everyone I met on those handful of transfers is still one of our big players! We have an investigator preparing for baptism that I taught a lesson to a YEAR ago! The one member family I met last time just became the new ward mission leader. And it turns out that I get to bear my final missionary testimony in the same chapel and at the same pulpit I bore my first missionary testimony over a year ago!

So it turns out that the Lord answers prayers (even if I stopped praying to go to Sicily months ago). And it turns out that there is something on the particular island that does me a world of good.

I have a great new companion from Washington . The first time I've had a companion with the same initial (which is why I generally go by "Eff"). We're in a house with two other sisters and then there's another house with four other elders. That's EIGHT MISSIONARIES for the same ward! Man oh man! I do not have a car, which means we are hoofing it and using the bus system (actually a lot better than expected). 

We've been trying to figure out "why" I've been called here. Some ideas:

1) Disaster manager. The day I arrived, Etna (the active volcano next to Catania) was doing some weird eruptions. The following day, the city was put on alert for serious storms and we were told to prepared emergency rations. Nothing happened, but MAN if that's the fastest I've ever shoved tuna and bread in a backpack.

2) Meet Sister A. Another sister was here for legal documents she had to renew and then she was trapped for several nights. It turns out she is the funniest human being in the universe... we spent most of the weekend imagining the new Star Wars movies. Or three films all about C3PO touring different planets and translating ("The Chancellor's Speech"?) Luckily, we'll never be companions, because I don't think we'd get any work done.

3) EAT ARANCINI. The Sicily classic. Balls of rice stuffed (usually) with meat sauce or melted cheese, breaded, and fried. Yum. I will make them for you when I get home. If I can ever learn to fry ANYTHING.

One last WEIRD MOMENT! We also serve the members on an American base here, meaning we join then from English sacrament meeting/Sunday school on base. I forgot how incredibly different America is! NO ONE KISSED MY FACE! We have an incredibly smart branch president and Sunday school consisted of a rather long, but incredibly interesting and entertaining discussion about doubt, rabbis, Jewish/Islamic law, studying the scriptures and the branch president's cat peeing all over his bed sheets. America is SO different. Anyway, it'll probably be a nice transition before I'm back in the states cold turkey.

Anyway. The work is going well. I love Sicily. I love Catania. I love life. I love God! And I love y'all.

That's all the news

love

Sister Annie