Week 70 in Italy (2 weeks left)

Hello all. It was a long but successful week. We are teaching a lot. A lot. And we're really tired. REALLY tired. But that's how it should be right?

Chris is making great progress. We had a fun lesson this week about the law of chastity and the 10 commandments. We brought some other youth members and it was an awesome experience. We got gelato and just talked about the laws of God. So fun!!

As the end rushes closer and closer, I feel just about every emotion on the scale. But I am doing my best to keep my heart and might and mind and strength here in Milano. The fact that we are so busy really helps. When I think about going home, it's not the "oh yay so much fun stuff to do and catch up on" thoughts. It's more like, "oh my gosh what's about to happen to my life" and "what in the world do I need to do next?!?!". But I know that God will continue to reveal the oath.

He's made many things clear already about my immediate purpose when I return home. I'm grateful for personal revelation and for the guidance of family members and friends.

I wanted to just share my testimony about trials. No matter what point we are at in our lives, we will be tested and tried. That is why we're here. We need to have our faith pushed, our limits reached, our hearts broken. We need to experience sadness. We need to experience pain. We need to experience the lowest of lows. Without those experiences, we are not capable of growth or maturing or really understanding the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. One of ,y favorite questions is, "if God exists, why is there so much suffering in the world???????"

Because it's such a simple answer. We live on earth. This is a part of our earthly experience. We signed up for it before we came. Jesus Christ took a major one for the team (in the most non-sacrilegious way possible) and said, "send me". With this sacrifice, he became the means by which we can overcome this earthly experience. Christ suffered all. He felt all. He paid for all. Not a single one of us has the right to complain, if we really know what Christ did for us. Things may feel hard and unbearable. But you think for a moment about what Jesus Christ took on. We have to suffer 1 so that we can understand better what it is that Christ did for us and feel of his love and have a relationship with him. And 2 so that we can understand what it means to truly be happy. 2 nefi 2:11 "11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad.

Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility." It is necessary. But we aren't alone. I have felt the strength of Christ carrying me at times during the last 18ish months. I know He lives. I wear his name proudly. I have been wearing his name since I was 8. And his name will continue to be written on my heart. I invite each of you to discover and rediscover the healing, cleansing, strengthening, and saving power of Christ's atonement In your lives.

I love you all.

Love,

Sorella Tokarski

Week 69 in Italy (3 weeks left)

Shout out to my awesome and selfless dad. Finally hitting 30! Way to go.

It's been a good week. Really busy. We find ourselves sprinting home every night to be home before 10. There's just so many people to see!

It's wonderful. It's been raining the past week so we've gotten a nice cool down.

News of the week. Chris will be baptized on July 4th. He has some family events on the 28th. We are so excited. We found a new investigator named Sara. She is an awesome young lady. Very interested and has so many questions. She wants to be baptized in July as well.

She is preparing for the 5th.

All the new converts are doing well.

We are also working really closely with some less active families.

They are really starting to make progress. One of them came to church this last Sunday. The two daughters were so happy to be in church again. The mom said that she felt like a new person. They were so touched by the spirit that they agreed to come again next Sunday. I love going to church for that exact reason. If you never go to church, you'll never want to go to church. But the second you step foot into the church of Jesus Christ, you can't deny the spirit you feel. You CANT. It sparks something within and that desire grows more and more every time you come back. That kind of sounds like an addiction to something bad or negative. But it's totally not! It's one of the BEST things you can do for your soul.

So. GO TO CHURCH. And see the difference it makes. If you've been going to church every Sunday for the last 30 years, high five! But I invite those who are completely active to take note of what you feel when you walk into church this Sunday. Make note of it. Don't let it become routine. Make it special every single Sunday.

I love you all.

Have a great week!!

Sorella Tokarski

Week 68 in Italy

Oh my gosh. Coolest week ever. Found out I have Italian royalty in my blood. Best week ever. Genealogy is SO cool. If you aren't working on yours, what on earth are you doing with your time???????????

Anyway. MAJOR miracles this week. our investigator Chris has been praying and fasting that he would receive permission to be baptized. Through a series of miraculous events, he got that permission and both parents are totally supportive now. We are STOKED. He will be baptized on June 28th. I just love him so much! Sorella Nilsen and I both agree that he's basically our little brother and we are the three best friends ever.

We are working so hard. It's so hot. We sweat all day long. Summer is starting to kick in. It's beautifully disastrous and wonderfully awful.

We also have another investigator named Viola who really wants to be baptized. She is preparing for the 5th of July. So exciting!

Anyway. Running out of time. We went to the duomo today with Marcella and ran into an American member in our ward. Fun times. We also shopped... Spent lots of money... (Sorry dad)

Love you all!! Buone cose.

Un abbraccio forte forte

Sorella Tokarski

Week 67 in Italy

Well, it's been another wonderful week here in Italy. I am in love. We continue to see miracles and feel the presence of God each day in His work.

This past week we set two baptismal dates. One with a boy named Chris. I believe I shared that whole miracle story a while ago about finding his brother and then his mother and then finally getting to find him.... If not, it will be included next week. He LOVES church and really wants to be baptized. His father isn't quite on board... but we are fasting and praying that he will accept. We are moving forward with faith. Chris even did a full 24 hour fast. What 14 year old boy just stops eating and drinking for 24 hours???? He is AMAZING. We also set a baptismal date with an awesome lady named Viola. She is from Albania and speaks English. She is awesome as well.

We had a great ward barbeque and it was a real success. Super fun.

The iPads have really been a useful tool in enhancing our lessons. We have had several really meaningful and spiritually packed lessons this past week. I LOVE my new companion. Sorella Nilsen is awesome. And she served in Torino so we totally talk about everyone we knew. She is a hard worker and a great missionary.

My spiritual thought this week is about the importance of family. Elder Perry passed away this past week as everyone knows. He lived a life of joyful service and is a great example to me of wearing yourself out in the service of the Lord. I read his most recent conference address all about the importance of family and marriage. I want to add my testimony to his that the family is top priority after God. Those eternal relationships are of highest worth and value. Nothing should come before nourishing and strengthening those relationships and doing all that we can to live the gospel of Jesus Christ every day. I love my family. I am grateful for the knowledge that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ gives me about my family and the importance of it. I invite you all to read this talk and apply the teachings and principles from an apostle of God.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/why-marriage-and-family-matter-everywhere-in-the-world?lang=eng

Love you all!!!!

Have a great week.

Love,

Sorella Tokarski