i accidentally ended up in Transfer 12

well, tomorrow i will see my dad for the first time in 18 months and then in about a week, we’ll be flying home together to the great state of texas. to say that i’m freaking out would be a major understatement . i’m not sure what all is awaiting in my life, but i do know one thing: God has a plan. 

i’ve learned a lot on my mission and i’m so grateful for all the experiences that i’ve had here and for the person i’ve become. for this last email, i want to kind of steal what huntzinger did in hers, so here are 18 things i’ve learned in the past 18 months:

1. God is very real and loves us very much

2. His timing is perfect, even when we don’t think it is

3. the mission is the best and the hardest thing ever and no one really knows how to explain it

4. there’s always room for another bite of food

5. never take the same path going home every single night at the same time, otherwise a creepy dude might follow you

6. eating gelato everyday is awesome :)

7. you never know what anyone else has gone through or is going through, so just love everyone no matter what

8. saying goodbye never gets easier

9. the gospel of jesus christ is real and it works

10. it’s never as scary as it seems

11. drinking water is important

12. jesus christ is the bread of life a.k.a. bread is life

13. hard work and a lotta prayer results in a lotta miracles

14. work hard play hard is my favorite motto

15. hedgehogs purr

16. food is the way to people’s hearts. that and american cookies (is that the same thing?)

17. being grateful makes you a happier person

18. the stars at night are big and bright... deep in the heart of texas

see y’all soon,

sorella meager (ancora)

p.s. i will be landing in the dfw airport friday december 8th. if you want the deets, ask my mom 

p.p.s. my homecoming is december 10th at 10701 east lake highlands drive dallas, texas 75041 at 9:00 and then there will be an open house at my house at 18:00. email me or message me if you have any questions :)

i'm still alive but barely breathin

explanation of the title: i was cleaning the kitchen at 7:30am and then the gas alarm started going off and we couldn’t figure out how to stop it because we didn’t want to wake our neighbors up... so we called the office and they told us to shut the gas off and evacuate, so we shut the gas off and unplugged the alarm.... and then we plugged it back in and it didn’t beep again so i think we’re good  

we were both sick as dogs on one of the days in this past week. idk which one, but we slept in and a member gave us some tea and we felt literally so much better. other than that, it has been another fan-freaking-tastic week here in italia. and i don’t want to leave. like seriously. 

anywayyyyyyys, this week was way awesome and so i’ll skip right to the good stuff:

⁃ we had a christmas celebration on saturday in mestre. why were we celebrating christmas in november, you ask? i have no idea. nonetheless, it was awesome and i loved singing and listening to others sing because i freaking love christmas so much and i’m s excited for christmas.

⁃ sunday was literally amazing. words cannot describe the spirit that was in the chapel that day. okay, so rewind to 3 minutes before sacrament starts, when president bison comes up to me and asks if i can give a talk because a member fell through... i freaked out. mineer and i had prepared (actually she prepared and i was kind of winging it) to share our testimonies in sacrament so i was freaking out a little. but i just prayed and i felt a confirmation of the spirit that it would be okay. that morning, i had been listening to church hymns while i was getting ready and the words of the hymn “be still, my soul” were repeating over and over in my head. honestly, when i got up to do my talk, i don’t really remember anything that happened except that i shared the words of the hymn and then i told them about my best friend, zoe, and i started crying my eyes out. then i shared my testimony of the special plan of happiness that god has for us. and idk but the spirit was really strong and i could see tears in the members eyes. then mineer gave her testimony and she cried, too and brought the spirit in so strong and we ended by having aurora, our 12yr old investigator share a scripture from the bom and her testimony. THEN long story short: we talked to aurora about baptism picked her own baptismal date of december 23!!! and said she was gonna talk to her mom about it.

⁃ monday and tuesday morning we had scambio in verona and that was one of the funnest scambi of my whole mission. i was with the beloved sorella roloff and  we saw juliet’s balcony, her wall full of love letters (and gum), the markets, and we got la romana gelato. also, we fed the homeless tuesday morning. it was a really good start to the week. :)

⁃ 2 times in the past 2 days, i’ve started talking with a girl that’s in her young 20s and i tell her about being a missionary and then she asks about our church. and you know what that leads to? the restoration. so i share a 5 min resto and at the end of the first one (francesca), she wanted a book of mormon and my facebook. at the end of the second one (vera), i taught her about the pos too and we showed her the website mormon.org and she wanted all of our facebooks. it was really such an incredible opportunity and i feel so blessed to be a missionary here on earth at this time. 

⁃ we went to venice again today and man, i never get tired of that place. we bought a magnum bar that’s like dipped in chocolate and loaded with stuff and we shared it with 8 anziani. it was way yummy. #sharingiscaring

okay, since tomorrow is thanksgiving, i just wanna make a short list of some of the things i’m grateful for:

⁃ my companion

⁃ jesus christ

⁃ my family

⁃ dogs

⁃ italy 🇮🇹 

⁃ christmas

⁃ football americano

⁃ food, mostly gelato

⁃ the book of mormon

⁃ a current prophet

⁃ my friends

⁃ snow

⁃ heater

⁃ sweaters

⁃ y’all

⁃ and so much more

“Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love.” -thomas s. monson

be grateful y’all and play some football for me

sorella meager

I promise Sara loves me; Italian Dad; she did our hairs; 1st cannolo; fav district foto; I love neve

I Am A Child of God

also, so i didn’t send an email last week, because i resent the one from the week before, so i’ll explain in this email what happened last week. sorry if that’s a little confusing.... okay annnnnnnd here we go:

-i had my last fast sunday as a normal missionary and my comp and i and our member sara, and her best friend aurora we all bore our testimonies and it was so sweet. (aurora is not a member, yet)

-we visited gerini (hinckley’s italian twin) because he broke his ankle and he is so sweet. we’re gonna make him lunch friday 

-we taught the cecchin twins and they are AMAZING and the mom is not super happy that we’re teaching the, but we’re doing our best

-there was a party for a member, angelica, who turned 9 and we met lots of cool people there that kept asking us who we were and what we did as missionaries

-we ding dong ditched the bison family and they thought we were thieves hahaha but then they saw the lemon poppyseed bread and the card that we left by their gate

-we had fhe with our favorite people: fabio, deborah, and valentina and i will talk about it below...

-we had pizza at agostino’s and it was literally so much goodness

-the anziani came with us to give a blessing to a member woman that is sick and she said she is coming to dallas to see me in december!!

-we had la romana with valentina and then met her grandparents and they’re awesome and he speaks olandese so i pulled out the only phrase i know which is “hoe gaat het meneer” (i don’t actually know how to spell it, only say it thanks to The Best Two Years) so i said it and pointed to my companions name tag and everyone laughed.

-taught zoe (daughter of a member mom and non member dad) who we found out is only 7yrs old, but vabbè. she was such a sass and she spoke half in italian and half in portuguese 

-went to our service place wednesday night for a party and everyone was very curious and excited to meet the girl missionaries.

-for pday we played sports in pordenone and had a bbq and mamma mia i’m so excited for texas bbq. good stuff

-afterwards, we went to hang out with aurora and get to know her outside of church and my comp showed her some dance moves because she’s a ballerina and it was way cute and then she begged us to stay for pizza so we got to meet with her dad and they’re are so so awesome. she’s need for the waters.

fhe with fabio and our fav girls: i’m actually just going to copy paste what my comp said because i feel she explained it perfectly. 

“I'll try to type this as best as I can, and you try not to laugh. We had Family Home Evening with Fabio and Deborah and Valentina on Monday. (Fabio, member and returned missionary, Deborah and Valentina, fiancée and daughter, non-members.) They are like family, I compare going over to their house making me as happy as going to Disneyland! Okay well it is good when missionaries are happy, am I right? Well this night my comp and I were both super happy! Everyone was laughing the whole entire dinner, and we just had an awesome time! Well it comes time for the spiritual thought. Sadly, uncontrollable laughter and the spirit don't really work hand in hand. We had asked Fabio to give a spiritual thought, but he forgot and said missionaries are ALWAYS prepared with a spiritual thought! Well of course! He told us maybe we could sing I Am a Child of God, because the words would be a great message for Deborah and Valentina. First miracle comes right then when we agree to sing a song. We ran to a closet nearby and as Sorella Meager and I practiced in our tone deaf man voices and we couldn't control our laughter. We finally went out in front of them and Fabio agreed to sing with us. Well after his voice cracking like a 15 year old girl and starting over 4 times all of us were in tears of laughter. Fabio left it to us to sing. Well the laughter couldn't seem to contain itself. We decided to say a prayer. We prayed for the spirit and to help us not laugh. y’all. you can pray for literally anything. We started the song again and sang all three verses. We made it through without laughing once. I honestly do not know how. We ended with every person telling us what the lyrics meant to them, and I have never felt the spirit so strongly before. In that moment I truly felt God's love and so lucky to be his child. Deborah and Valentina both prayed that night and Fabio was grinning ear to ear. I love seeing how much happiness this Gospel brings into people's lives.”

also, i balled my eyes out because of the spirit and also because i love these people so much, it hurts.

i just want to end with my testimony of the truthfulness of the lyrics of that song. 

I am a child of God,

And he has sent me here,

Has given me an earthly home

With parents kind and dear.

2. I am a child of God,

And so my needs are great;

Help me to understand his words

Before it grows too late.

3. I am a child of God.

Rich blessings are in store;

If I but learn to do his will

I’ll live with him once more.

[Chorus]

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

To live with him someday.

i know that we are all children of our heavenly father, who loves us and has a very special plan for each one of us. i know that he understands us perfectly and knows our needs before we even know them ourselves. he is always watching over us and guiding us, if we allow him to. my invite for y’all is to pray to him and find out what his plan is for you. i promise he will answer. you are never too far away for him to hear your prayers. he’s always listening. in the name of jesus christ. amen.

love y’all

sorella meager 

Ask & Ye Shall Receive

hey sorry y’all. i sent this last week but it didn’t send. SO HERE YA GO

today marks 17 months with the name tag and i could not be happier. i loooove being a missionary and teaching people and learning about the italian culture and giving everything to Him. it has truly been one of the most special experiences in my whole life and i am so grateful to be serving. one of the most significant lessons that i feel i have learned in my mission is “ask and he shall receive”. there are several scriptures that emphasize this phrase but i want to share my favorite:

“Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?--If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.” (1 nephi 15:11) 

the key things that i learn from this are:

1. be humble

2. if you ask in faith THEN you will receive

3. you have to keep the commandments a.k.a. do your part

but if you do these 3 “simple” things, you can receive anything, if it be in God’s will. which hey, He wants complete happiness and joy for you soooo He will do anything for you to be happy. and He knows exactly what we need in our lives to have that joy. here are a few things that happened to me this week that proved this scripture true:

• we asked for our heater to be fixed because we kept trying over and over and calling people and asking advice. finally, the dude came and fixed it and now we have heating in the apt and hot water #hallelujah

• we asked for a car because we live out in the boonies and we missed our last bus (20:43) out to our apartment twice and had to take a taxi. and they gave us one!! our circumstances were in dire need of a vehicle

• i had been searching for my drivers license since i left my first city and thought it was gone for sure. then friday afternoon, i was looking for it in my bags and after a few minutes of ravaging through my stuff, i stopped and prayed to please help me find my dl and literally 2.4 seconds later, i find it.

• the senior couple from the military base was coming to visit and they asked if we wanted any american items so now we have peanut butter, maple syrup, and lucky charms :):):) 🏼

• we asked aurora (a 12 year old cute dancer best friend of our girl, sara) on sunday if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes. okay hold on, back up: so sara is a member and she is 13 yrs. aurora’s dad is a member, but her mom is not. however, she comes to church sometimes with her dad. so on sunday, like 2 minutes before class starts, pres pulls us aside and asks if we’ll teach young women’s. we’re like SURE we know young women, we can do this. it’s only sara and aurora and they both seem cool (at this point, we’d never met aurora and we’d met sara twice) SO we teach us and then afterwards, we’re just talking and eating chips and that’s when we drop the question. so, we still have to get her moms approval and teach her the lessons and everything, but we have a pretty good start!

now for some random updates about this week:

• we had lunch with gerini and he seriously is like the italian version of gordon b. hinckley. in fact, we told him that and he just laughed.... which means they’re probably long lost cousins. (pis coming soon)

• we carved pumpkins with our cute valentina and then made pancakes to surprise her mom and fabio with a gourmet pancake dinner . we made sweet (maple syrup and nutella) and savory (prosciutto, olive, and parmigiano) pancakes and HOLY MOTHER. they were some of the best pancakes i’ve ever had in my life. i’m gonna miss italy. and that family. p.s. they’re getting married december 1st. :):):) auguurrriiii 

• we had a hopping halloween party in mestre and man, italians know how to party! tons of food, dancing, games, and they even made an escape room downstairs! we left with tons of numbers from people that want to learn about our church!

• we went to venice again today and then also to murano (which is an island that specialize in blown glass) and we watched the, make a vase and y’all, watch a video of how they make blown glass cause it is so cool)

• we got a secret tour from a venezian of this tiny shop full of crazy blown glass. the total of all the art in the room costs more than my house! for example: one glass bird costs €55,000.

• lo and behold in venice, we ran into a couple from DALLAS. it was beautiful. and they had just gotten engaged the day before. AUGURI  

okay that’s it for this week! happy belated halloween  

love y’all,

sorella meager

Mineer & Meags M&M

Treviso

pics - Treviso

this is the start of something new - HS Musical

quote of the week: “our hitchhiking attempts have been 100% unsuccessful, which is probably a blessing.” -sorella mineer while hitchhiking, because we missed bus #81983930 of the week

this is what our “opening a city” has consisted of so far...

⁃ not having a phone and not being able to contact anyone and not knowing the area

⁃ missing a bus and walking half way of the 57 min walk to the station 

⁃ not having heat or hot water in our apartment

⁃ eating homemade pizzette and lots and lots of pasta

⁃ leaving our apartment keys and having to run around like a crazy person getting them from the special needs place where we were doing service

⁃ missing 97/98 buses we had this week and having to walk and “l’auto stop” a.k.a. hitchhike (btw it doesn’t work in italy)

⁃ getting scared by our german shepard neighbor every. day.

⁃ meeting and becoming friends with lots of people at the bus stop and on the bus because we’re asking for directions 

so, as was mentioned last week, i am opening up treviso sorelle with sorella mineer (who was trained by sorella spader, another girl in my group. love you, spades.) and she is freaking awesome. i love her so much and we’ve had such a blast up here in treviso.

⁃ the dialect here is like the italian version of what puerto rican’s do to spanish i.e. they cut off the ends of all the words 

⁃ and their accent sounds like a scottish person speaking italian . it’s actually very entertaining and so easy to tell if someone is a native

⁃ the initials for treviso are TV

⁃ the branch here is super tiny and super awesome and we’ve met almost all of them in our first week 

⁃ we are giving talks this sunday and singing in the choir and we’re in charge of bringing dolci to a ward activity this saturday woo woo 

friday, we went to gerini’s house and oh my gosh. i love him so much. he’s 93 and mostly deaf and has been making the same meal for the missionaries for over 30 years because his wife always did it. and he’s just carrying on the tradition. he’s so cute.

on saturday, the relief society had an activity at the branch president’s house and she planned a surprise for everyone. so we hid in the garage for 20 minutes waiting for everyone to show up. finally when everyone was in the living room, she called us out of the garage and everyone was so shocked and excited that they had their “own sister missionaries”. it was way cute.

then sunday, we sister missionary’d and we threw a mini party for anziani simkim’s because it was his birthday. we made a cake and had candles and put up a banner and everyone came in and we sang to him. then that night, we all went to fabio’s house and his fiancé had made pancake stacks with nutella for anziano simkins, so we lit a candle and sang again. we made homemade pizzette and it felt like home. i love that family so much already. 

monday morning, we went and did service at a special needs place and that was way awesome and hilarious and i look forward to going there every week.

we also went to a couple other members houses and saw some rivers and some walls and bought some foods and enjoyed life and the mission. also, i gave my dying testimony in district meeting and that was weird. i’m not even dying. i don’t know what anyone is talking about.

the end.

much love,

m&m

a.k.a.

meager and mineer

i am sending a million pics cause i haven’t sent any for awhile

this is written by Sorella Montgomery

This week y’all are getting a new perspective on the life of Sorella Rachel Meager because she is somewhat biased and probably doesn’t explain how awesome she is in her weekly emails. Anyways this week was packed with goodbyes and sadness because she is going to TREVISO to open up a companionship of sorelle for her LAST TRANSFER! Of course her roommates and companion were devastated to find that she would not remain in Bologna, but they are finally beginning to cope with the news. They also realize that if anyone could open up a city successfully, it’s Meags. 

She went on scambio with the Reggio sorelle Friday and Saturday, and arrived at Corticella (a small city outside of Bologna) for a sports night with Friday, his family, Magdalene, Samuel, and Grace (the African crew). Also the other Bologna sorelle and the anziani. That night was great and she might have kicked a soccer ball into a child’s face but it was all in good fun, and he forgave her:) we played every sport imaginable, and were even joined by some Russians wearing very short shorts who wanted to learn about American football. 

Sunday was fantastic, church was solid. Meags gave a heartfelt testimony which reminded everyone of her strong love for this gospel and her desire to serve. We were also fortunate to attend a broadcast with Gary Sabin and Elder Ballard, which took place in Germany. They spoke about stuff which I wrote down but don’t recall off the top of my head.

Monday was full of FHE and who knows what else because I’m not her companion. She shared a scripture from the scriptures and I don’t remember what it was, but it was good.

Tuesday we had district meeting and had an American lunch, consisting of fried chicken, gravy, biscuits, and mashed potatoes. It was SICK because food is life. We invited a member named Tanya, and an investigator that she’s passing to the anziani named Giuseppe. 

Basically nothing else from this week was noteworthy. SORELLA MEAGER IS THE BEST BYE

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Michael Buble'

I've been hyped for Christmas since August so I've been playing Christmas music for about 3 weeks straight now. So I'm getting in the Christmas mood and everything makes me excited for Christmas, apparently. Because I was reading the Book of Mormon in personal study the other morning and I was in Helaman 8 and in verse 22 it says,

"...also almost all of our fathers, even down to this time; yea, they have testified of the coming of Christ, and have looked forward, and have rejoiced in his day which is to come."

Yes, please!!! I'm finally not the only one that's super stoked for Christmas this year. The prophets and people in Jerusalem and Ancient America had been testifying of the birth of Christ for hundreds of years before it happened. They had been preparing for generations for the coming of Jesus Christ. Obviously, it was a little more real with them because Jesus Christ was actually been born and coming to the earth, but when we celebrate Christmas every year, we can re-celebrate His miraculous coming to the earth.

So yeah, I'm super stoked for Christmas.

Just when I thought life couldn't get any weirder... It does. Anziano Cuthbert has come to be zone leader in bologna. For those of y'all that remember my emails from transfer 3 in Rimini, he was born in my district and he is my "mission brother". He has followed me my whole mission and at the end of my mission, we'll have served 3 weeks shy of a YEAR together in the mission. I'd say that's a record for siblings to serve together. 

Bring it on.

Weekly miracle:

Blands purse got stolen and I got 5 hours of sleep and then at the questura, we met a girl Ilaria and gave her a bom and then GUESS WHAT? A woman called saying she found her purse in her bushes so she got her purse and everything back (except the iPad) # miracle

Now to end with some funnies:

1. I played live fruit ninja on the balcony with a kitchen knife and montgomery throwing fruit at me

2. Montgomery and I slapped each other with pancakes in the face

3. Also tortillas

4. We played sand volleyball last week and today in a park full of bunnies, roosters, and people smoking weed 🏼lol they were far away from us

5. I went slacklining for my first time and I didn't fall off 

Also, I'm sure y'all saw my video on Facebook about the Book of Mormon. I invite y'all to share with YOUR friends and family the joy and happiness that comes from reading the bom. The book is true, people. Read it. Pray about it. Try it out. God will answer your questions and prayers. That's my testimony.

I love y'all so much

Sorella Meager 

Cute comp in San Luca; Mustache women; Family Home Evening; Testimony on my back; Go ASU

John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16

That was the first thing that came to my mind when I was trying to
think of a title for this week, so we'll just go with it. Also, it's a
good song, so y'all can go listen to it.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.

I know I already shared this on Facebook (still sounds weird to say
that) but I love this scripture because GOD LITERALLY LOVES US SO
MUCH. Not even joking. How amazing is it that if we believe (and do
our very best) we will have eternal life. Flipping awesome. But wait,
there's more. The very next verse says:

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but
that the world through him might be saved.

Woah. Christ didn't come down to make us feel useless or unimportant
or discouraged about being completely imperfect. Cause we are
imperfect and we don't really deserve, or at least, we often don't
feel that we deserve God's love. But we receive it. And He does love
us. And He sent His son to die for us. And Jesus loves us. He doesn't
want to make us feel sad or like we can't do this. He wants us to have
hope and faith and to believe in Him AND in ourselves. It reminds me
of something that Dieter F. Uchtdorf said in a conference talk one
time:

"God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small planet who lives
for a brief season--He sees you as His child. He sees you as the being
you are capable and designed to become. He wants you to know that you
matter to Him."

Just think about that y'all. Sorry I'm getting really lovey and
feelingsy. My emotions are flying all over the place. I have 10 weeks
left and that's freaking me out. I'm not thinking about it a lot and
just focusing on the work and my roomies and scambi and it's awesome
but yeah. This was an unnecessary part of this email but there's my
feelings flying out.

Also, I got to go to Rimini (My first city where I spent 7.5 months)
and it was awesome and also a roller-coaster of emotions because I
love those people so much and haven't seen them in a long time. I love
Italy so much. I never want to leave place that has become home.

Also, I got peed on this week. :)

Love y'all,
Sorella Meager