Week 23 in Italy

Well, it's been a wild week here in Sanremo. We started out with a scambio with our sister training leaders. I stayed here in Sanremo with Sorella Astel again, and Sorella Bucco went to Genova with Sorella Ball. I have gotten very used to taking trains and public transportation.

On saturday night, we had a mini golf activity. We had a few of the men in the branch show up. It was really fun! Went to bed that night and woke up sunday morning with 64 mosqito bites. That was interesting. Literally eaten alive.

My birthday was great! I woke up to a fresh pan of brownies and signs all over our office room for my birthday! My companion is awesome. We had a great district meeting with shakes and fry bread, we worked, we ate, and we had a great little festa at our branch presidents house. It was super fun!

Tuesday, we had a lunch appointment with Mirium and Maurizio. Usually we are home for lunch though. So anyway. We left our house at 1 and we were home by 2:30. We got out of the elevator and walked to our front door to find that it was slightly open, our door mat that is normally outside had been moved inside, and sorella Bucco's jewelry bag was dropped right by the door and it was a huge mess. I looked in a little further and saw that our bedroom was a mess and the new pair of pants i had bought was thrown out of the bag. I obviously knew that someone had broken into

our home. I just didn't know if they were still there or not. Sorella Bucco had been on the phone so she wasn't really aware of what was happening. I looked at her and said " someone was in our house, we need to go!!!!!!" so we jump back in the elevator, got out of the building, and called mirium and maurizio to see if they could come and walk through our house with us. We didn't want to go alone just in case. So they came back. We went back up and got a closer look at everything. They had broken through our normal door lock because we hadn't locked the 4 dead bolt lock. (our fault. we know.) They pulled out pictures and went through everything. But they took nothing. The only thing we lost was my necklace that I got from Elva and Grandpa larry for my 16th birthday. I'm super sad about that.. But I know it could have been so much worse.

We called the police man from our branch and he helped us file a report. Then we cleaned our house up, locked our house down, and just tried to not cry. It was a really rough night. But we received priesthood blessings this morning and we will be having our house blessed later today. I know that God is watching out for us and is protecting us. Prayers would be appreciated. Mainly we just feel violated and still a little bit scared. But it will be okay.

I am grateful for the power of the priesthood and I am grateful for the protection and safety that God gives to His servants. I am just grateful for the power of prayer and for the little miracles that happened yesterday. We weren't at home when they came, they didn't take really anything, and someone is coming to fix our door at some point in time today. (It won't shut all the way.)

I love all of you. I know that we each have trials and challenges that we will have to face. We might ask why it's happening, we might lie awake at night unable to sleep, we might cry, and feel incapable of doing anything. But we can ALWAYS take strength from the power of the Atonement of Christ. When there is no one and nothing else to rely on, He is always there.

On a lighter note, our little Roberto will be baptized on friday! yay! We are so happy and excited for him. He passed his interview and he is so excited! We will send pictures next week. 

love, handshakes, and highfives, 

Sorella Tokarski