Week 45 in Italy

Dude we have seen so many miracles in the last week! We've also had tons and tons of cancelations. But we really have seen tons of miracles. Everyone always says that greenies bring greenie magic. It's a real thing. I know it. 

Seeing the family was amazing and so happy! Loved it and hated it at the same time. I'm still the worst at goodbyes. 

Cool miracle of the week. So we have been having SOOO many cancellations and we're really lacking in investigators right now. So we did a special fast to have less cancellations and to find more investigators. That day we prayed about a number of different ex investigators that we could go and visit. We felt like we needed to go to a few in particular. So we headed out to go and find these people. We went to the first person and totally got lost. We walked for like an hour in the freezing cold of Cologno Nord trying to find her palazo. Miraculously, we eventually did. We rang her cittofono and she answered. She said that she was about to leave, like everyone always says. And I insisted that we just wanted 30 seconds to come and give her our phone number and introduce ourselves. She eventually said yes and proceeded to let her into her home. She is now a new investigator and we will continue to work with her!!

Mercedes is still on track for her baptism the 10th of january and we are soooo excited for her!! I can't wait. 

Lots of good things are happening. We have to go inside at 5 today to make sure that we're safe. Happy New Year everyone!!!!! 

Love you all so much, 

Sorella Tokarski 

Week 44 in Italy

We received the best Christmas gift of the season being able to Skype with Sonja. After more than seven months of not seeing her or hearing her voice (yes, we know that’s what we all signed up for) we had 40 wonderful minutes with her. It was probably the fastest 40 minutes of our lives but an absolutely blessed occasion. She looks and sounds amazing! She speaks beautiful Italian, as far as we could all tell, and shared a recent experience where someone made the assumption she is Italian; a true compliment for a missionary from Oregon. She loves her companion and loves her current area of Milan. Getting laughed at or snubbed is a daily experience but not the least bit of a deterrent as she boldly continues to share what she knows is true.

Her reactions were priceless to seeing how much Nicholas had grown and to see his pearly whites now that the braces are off. Or when Dana and Grammie stood with Kelly between them so she could see how tall Kelly has become. Or when Poppy stood up to show her that he’s lost so much weight she now only has “half a Poppy”. I could tell it was particularly special for her to see Quinten who was not on the Skype during Mother’s Day. There was even a call from Grandpa Larry who got to exchange a quick hello and Merry Christmas through the phone.

There are not really words to express the feelings we all felt during our time with her. There’s the natural emotion and excitement of getting to see her and talk to her after so many months, but it’s much more than that. I think of two passages of scripture that give the best descriptions of what we felt. The first is in the Third Epistle of John in the New Testament.

3 John 1:2-4 reads “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”

The second is from the Book of Mormon. In Alma chapter 29 the prophet Alma describes his feelings after hearing of the missionary success of his brethren. Verses 14-16 read:

“But I do not joy in my own success alone, but my joy is more full because of the success of my brethren, who have been up to the land of Nephi. Behold, they have labored exceedingly, and have brought forth much fruit; and how great shall be their reward! Now, when I think of the success of these my brethren my soul is carried away, even to the separation of it from the body, as it were, so great is my joy.”

Combining the meaning of these two passages; to see our daughter walk in truth and share that truth with zeal is quite literally an experience which brings a joy to carry away ones soul. As the call concluded we let her know of our love and gratitude for her and the blessing she is to us. Crying tears of joy we sang “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, blew her kisses and signed off until May.

Thank you all for your love and support of Sonja as she faithfully and diligently serves Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. Please keep up the prayers, letters and emails. They mean so much to her.

Here's a link to a portion of the call if you'd like to watch. She speaks Italian a couple minutes in. YouTube Video

Week 43 in Italy

I can't believe how fast this year has flown by.. It's incredible. The fact that it's almost Christmas just baffles me.

It's been a great week!! I picked up my new companion on Thursday, Sorella Burgess. She is awesome! We had another new sister with us, Sorella Snow, until monday. We had a great time in three for the weekend and now things are starting to get back to the normal routine. Sorella Burgess is the best! I just love her to death. She has such a strong desire to learn and to grow and to work! She talks to tons of people and has no fear. I am so lucky!

We have had a number of great things happen this week!

We had an entire family in church on sunday that hasn't been in a very long time. We are planning to set baptismal dates with them this week!

I met this great man on the metro a few weeks ago and he called us saturday night to confirm the hours of Church. He was like, Hey so we still have church tomorrow at 9 right? And we were like YES WE DO!! COME! So he did! We passed him off to the elders to start teaching him and he will continue to progress in the gospel. He calls me his flame. Hahaha. He says, You are the flame that lit something inside of me! And now I'm on this great journey to understanding and learning! He is great.

We all have the opportunity to spark a flame in someone else. In fact, it's our job to share the fire of our testimonies with those around us. As we do that, they will be left with sparks that can start a new testimony burning in them! Share the gospel! Don't be afraid. It's a lot scarier to think about getting the other side and having everyone we know ask us why we didn't tell them what we knew while we were here on earth! Just do it. Please.

We also got to participate in a great stake youth activity. All of the youth wrote their testimonies in Books of Mormon. Then we gave them a short training on how to talk to people on the street, and we all jumped on the metro together to head to the Duomo. We went around in groups trying to give out books of mormon all wrapped up like christmas presents. The youth were to do it by themselves with out help and guide. I went individually with a couple of different girls at different times. I always started the conversation because they were too nervous to. Hahah. But then they had to share their testimony and try to give the book away. I watched each of them get denied over and over again. It was hard to watch, but at the same time, it was great! It was such a wonderful opportunity for them to realize what the Book of Mormon really means to them! They also got a little taste of missionary work. At one point, I saw a young woman by herself struggling to find the words to say. I rushed over and started to help her. She ended up giving the book away and we even took the woman's phone number! Afterwards, the young woman started to cry and said, "I was starting to panic! I didn't know what to say or do!" I just hugged her and told her that she had done her best and that was all that mattered! That's exactly how it is for me every single day. I do my best, and some nights I get on my knees and cry and just tell Heavenly Father what's in my heart. But every time, I feel His love and the love of my Savior comforting me and letting me know that as long as I've done my best, that's all that matters.

We have just had some really great experiences this week and we have some great things planned for this next week.

Milano is gorgeous at this time of year! We will be going caroling tonight at the duomo. It will be great! I am so excited. Some of us sing, and then at least two of us missionaries go out and contact people. We've gone a couple of times before and it's fun! Usually people just laugh at us or ignore us. But, the members love it! 

Have a great week. 

Love, 

Sorella Tokarski

Week 42 in Italy

Well, we got our transfer calls this week and I've been asked to train a new missionary! I am SO excited!!!! I will be meeting her tomorrow. It's going to be great. 

We had the sisters that flew in from the Spain MTC stay with us last night, and they were so cute! We were on splits with them all day. I took Sorella Bowman with me and my companion took Sorella D'Aleo with her. While I was with Sorella Bowman, we went to do an ex-investigator pass-by. We got in and she was totally ready to hear the gospel! She became a new investigator. We had some great miracles together. They met up with the rest of the missionaries from the Provo MTC today and we will all be together tomorrow to get matched up. 

We also found out that we will be having another half trained sister stay with us because her current trainer is going home and her next companion can't match up with her until monday for some reason... So me, and my greenie, and another new sister will be in a Tri-panionship until monday! It will be a crazy weekend. 

This week has just been a week of fire and craziness. It's been wonderful though. I am so excited to meet my new companion and just work hard! I am grateful for the opportunity to train and I am prayerful that I will be able to help her learn and grow in these first couple of transfers. 

We had a great Christmas combined zone training slash conference... It was awesome! We talked a lot about the "He is the Gift" video and how we can use it as a very simple but powerful way to share the gospel and the message of Jesus Christ with everyone we meet! We also talked about how to properly make a bed... It was wonderful. President and Sorella Dibb showed us how to do everything from putting on the duvet covers, to how the sheets need to go. It was great! They are the best. We also sung tons of Christmas carols at the end. I just love this time of year! 

Tis the season!!! 

Love you all. 

Love, 

Sorella Tokarski 

Week 41 in Italy

Well, it's been a long week. Full of all sorts of experiences and ups and downs. I feel like I've grown more in this week than I have the last couple of months of my mission combined. So that's great. I feel overwhelmed with gratitude and love for my family and for the gospel. I feel like this past week I learned so much about the Plan of Salvation and how important every single human soul is to God, and how important every single person is to at least one other person. 

I don't have a whole lot to say this week. We had a great lesson with a new investigator that promised to read the entire book of mormon before we had even invited her to do so, and told us she would call us when she had finished. We giggled a bit and then told her that we could continue to come and see her even before she finishes the book. She was really happy about that. She was great! 

Anyway. We ate some delicious food this week. Had a fun activity with the young women. our district leader bought us all chocolate Christmas countdowns! And we almost taught some Gnomes the gospel. It was really exciting. 

I know that families are eternal and that God's plan for His children is truly a plan of happiness. I know that the gospel brings peace even in times of trial and moments of despair. I am eterally and deeply grateful for the knowledge that I have of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and of His plan for each of us.

Have a great week! 

love, 

Sorella Tokarski

Week 40 in Italy

So it's been a good week. This week is consecration week. So we are putting forth even more effort and trying even harder to be better missionaries. Consecration weeks are basically just a way to see how much better of a missionary you can be and it's funny because usually they end up being the weeks where everyone and their grandma cancels on you and people reject you even harder than normal. We've already had some really weird experiences this week and it's proving to be a trial of our faith. But faith can't grow without it being tested!

We had an AWESOME conference this past week with Elder Fingerle of the seventy and his wife Sister Fingerle. They were so cute! They were young, vibrant, and very excited about missionary work. They gave us some incredible training on how we can improve significantly as missionaries by making small 1% marginal changes in our missionary work and personal lives. We also talked about how we can use social media to share the gospel without being facebook/ipad missionaries (we can invite members to use the mormon messages, we can ask them to send messages to their friends through their social media sites, and we can encourage them to use the family search site correctly).We also talked a LOT about the importance of doing family history work and using the family search site. It's such a cool site! I am so excited to just spend a good amount of time on it when I get home. (Which will be in a very very very very very very very long time. Hopefully.) Overall, the conference was just great and so uplifting and inspiring. My companion and I have set some good goals from what we learned.

I have had a goal to start 15 conversations every day between appointments on the metro, and I have been able to do it and surpass that number so far. They haven't all turned into meaningful conversations, but that's the curse of metro finding work. People eventually get off! Anyway. I plan to keep doing it!

We are trying so hard to be consecrated. We got invited to eat Thanksgiving with an American family in our ward this thursday. Without thinking, we accepted gladly. Then yesterday we were reminded of how important it is to be obedient and consecrated. We talked about it for a few minutes and decided that it would be best to not go. We felt really bad about canceling, but we knew it was the right thing to do. So we did it. I continue to learn lessons about the importance of exact obedience and just forgetting myself and being 100% involved in the work that I chose to come here to do.

The church made a great video about what really matters this time of year, and every time of year. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. He is the gift. He is the reason why I am here. He is the reason why I do anything. I am grateful for His sacrifice and I am grateful for the sacrifice that Heavenly Father made in sending Christ here. The link to watch the video is below. 

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving! Don't forget to share your grattitude in every moment. 

I am grateful that I got to go and see one of the most famous works of art of all time! The Ultimate Supper! Yes I am fully aware that it is called The Last Supper. But in Italian it is called L'ultima Cena. So. Ultimate is just much easier to say.

I love you all. 

Love,

Sorella Tokarski