Moving!

I have moved! 

If you care to read anything else I write, please go to emmayee.blogspot.com 

See you there! (Or not, haters.)

Good morning, my beautiful friends, or whoever reads this blog, if anyone reads this blog....

Awk.

So I am finally here! IN ITALY! It is a beautiful sight, this lovely country. When we flew in, there was an absolutely picture perfect sunset over the whole northern part of the country that really actually took my breath away. This is a lovely place to be, it really is. 

I am serving in the area of Muggio, which is just north of Milano. Me and my companion, Sorella Harward, live in Monza, the piazzino (small city) just east of Muggio. The Muggio area consists of 20 or so piazzini (small cities...), including Muggio, Monza, and many others. We are opening Monza as part of the area, and we are the FIRST sister missionaries in the Muggio area in 20 YEARS! I know, right? It's really hard, opening and all, but we have so many great blessings being here in Muggio. We have a huge ward, 150 active members, which makes it the second largest ward in ITALY. And they are VERY excited to have sister missionaries. The sisters here hug us and kiss our cheeks non-stop, we feel very loved of this ward.

Sunday was our first sacrament meeting with the ward, and Sorella Harward and I were asked to bear our testimonies. To 150 Italian Mormons.

Yikes.

It went pretty well. I used the words I knew, and bearing my testimony is pretty much all I know how to do, and I wept in front of that whole Italian congregation, so it's whatever. And then I was shaking from anxiety so much, that when I was stepping off the stand, I totally tripped. And everyone in the congregation gasped, fearing that their pitiful little greenie missionary might fall on her face.

I can't make this stuff up, folks. This is real life we're talking about.

But it's okay because right after sacrament meeting, a whole circle of Relief Society sisters crowded me with hugs and kisses and Italian words of kindness and love and happiness. So it was good.

We are teaching a lady named Elena in Nova Milanese who is about 85 years old, but doesn't look it in the slightest! We actually kind of thought our elders were lying to us when they told us she was that old. She is very active, and I love her and her family to BITS. Her daughter and her daughter's husband are very active members of our ward, and their daughter just got back from a Temple Square mission, and their son just left for the MTC! They are GOLD, and I'm SO glad that they are able to be with us when we teach Elena. She has been taking lessons for almost a year now, and we think that she is so ready for baptism. So we're inviting her. TONIGHT! It'll be great. She is amazing, and makes homemade pasta that is BUONISSIMO. I want her to be MY grandma. :)

We are doing really well here. The work is slow (because we are opening), and we've had a lot of strange and exciting adventures, but the work is moving forward here, and fast!

I hope all is well back home! I've gotten a couple of emails from a few people, but I want to hear how you all are! Speak to me, friends! :)

I love you all, the church is so true. It's RIDICULOUS.

Love,

Sorella McPeek

{2 Nephi 31-- the whole thing. It's GOLD!}

P.S. Sorry, no pictures! I forgot my camera at the apartment when we left for email time. Sorryyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!

MTC Part 2!

Ciao, mi amici!  La MTC e MOLTO BELLO!

I have had so many awesome experiences here, I can't even name them all!  I have LEARNED so much, it is ridiculous.  I now know what it feels like when "my cup runneth over."

Things I'm grateful for here at the MTC:

• The priesthood.  I have come to know here that it is GOD'S POWER ON EARTH.  I am so glad to have such access to it when I need it.  
• Salad.  MTC food is KIIIINDA weired, and sketch.  You can always count on some prepackaged lettuce and individually packaged portions of dressing.  Huzzah.
• Also cereal.  We eat massive amounts of cereal.
• Teachers who are okay with me weeping in front of them.  Seriously.  MTC teachers are angels.  
• DearElder.com.  I would do a commercial for them if they wanted me to.  D-E-A-R-E-L-D-E-R.com.
• The temple.  I only get to go ONE MORE TIME. I shall miss it. 
• My zone.  They are so nice to me, and when we play Bump Lightning Knockout Elimination, which is our basketball-inspired (?) game we sometimes play together at nighttime, the anziani sometimes pretend to not be able to shoot the ball in the hoop while they wait for me to chase my ball across the pavement so that I don't seem so pathetically awful at bumplightningknockoutelimination/basketball.  Bless their hearts. 
• My teachers.  Did I already say that?  Well, every single one of them rock.  For real.  I want to be all of their friend post-mish.
• Los Spirito Santo (the Holy Ghost!) Missionary work and mission preparation just DOESN'T happen without it.  Because HE is the one who is teaching! Its incredible to see!  I LOVE THIS WORK! (*climbs on rooftop and spreads arms*)
• The A-MAZING opportunity I had to sing in the Relief Society Broadcast on Saturday.  SERIOUS once-in-a-lifetime experience.  I stood 20 ft away from the PROPHET OF GOD.  My heart skipped a beat when he walked in the door and my eyes were immediately filled with tears.  Most amazing experience ever.  

Well folks, that's all I have time for tonight.  One more P-Day in AMERICA!  Isn't that weird?  

Buona notte!

Me and my companion, Sorella Yost, in front of the Provo Temple

Me, Sorella Woods, and Sorella Yost

Sorella Yost, Samuel Smith, and Me

Greetings from the MTC

Emily's first letter from the MTC!
September 5, 2013

I love it here at the MTC!  My companion's name is Sorella Yost, and she is from Washington.  She is the SWEETEST girl, and I am glad she's not a nutcase (that's always good).  We are not actually at the Main MTC campus, we are at the West campus.  In fact, we are the first Italian missionaries at the West campus, so they don't even have district or zone leaders for us!  I like west campus, though, more than I thought I would.  There are pros and cons.  Pros are that we are in apartments instead of dorms, and me, Sorella Yost, and two other Sorellas, Sorella Woods and Sorella Carter all share.  We get our own bathroom and KITCHEN!  (Ha ha, the only thing in the refrigerator at the moment is my M&Ms).  The cons are that they don't have a GYM for us yet, and since we share a bathroom we have to really schedule out everyone's showers.  We'll figure it out though.

The MTC is a SMALL WORLD.  Yesterday we took a shuttle to our residence hall (that's another thing, we have to take a shuttle to EVERYTHING), and one of the girls helping get us settled in came to help me roll my bags over to my apartment.  After looking at her name tag and asking a couple of questions I realized that it was EMILY KERBY!  I told her who I was and we had a little fangirl moment...It was great.  Then, later in the day, when we were waiting for the shuttle to pick us up for a class, I turned around and guess who was walking by?  JODIE LEVIE!  It took everything in me to not SCREAM, but I called for her and we hugged and cried, and she went back to BYU and I hopped on the shuttle.  It was AMAZING.

Language study is great, they are really just DIVING into it.  I don't think my teachers have spoken more than a sentence or two of  English to me.  It's crazy!  Well, now e have to go to breakfast, and I should probably blow-dry my hair. Write back soon!  My P-Day is Wednesday, and that's the only day I can check email, so write or email, whichever is faster.  I LOVE YOU ALL and miss you terribly!

Love,
Sorella McPeek
{Proverbs 3:5-6}

On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons is kind of my life's theme song right now. Like practically word for word.

Well friends, this is my last post until I hit the MTC! I hope I will be able to post often (and by post, I mean email my mom a post for her to upload), but I can't make any promises, because I will be for sure very busy, and I can't say how busy I will be. I would really like to post often though. I really enjoy blogging. But in just an hour I am going to be set apart as a missionary, which means I am going to put all worldly things aside, so that means the Internet! Arrivederci, Internet! I'll try not to miss the cat videos too much.

So at 8am today I am getting set apart, then tomorrow morning at like 6am I am saying goodbye for good to my house (my mom is planning on moving while I'm gone, darn it.), and my family and I are driving up north for a family reunion! We will stay in a nearby hotel tomorrow night, then on Monday, we are driving (and driving, and driving) to Salt Lake City! I hate to be a typical Molly Mormon over here, but Salt Lake City is my favorite place to visit, ever! We are going to trot around Temple Square, and my mom and I are going to do a session in the Salt Lake temple, and the next day, we are driving to Provo for me to report to the MTC at 1:15pm! My next post will probably not be for a week at least, because I hear that you don't get much of a P-day (prep day, for those of you who don't know is the one day a week that missionaries have to get to do laundry, clean up, write letters/emails, and prepare for the coming week. If they have time, they can also do a little bit of tourism too) your first week at the MTC. So it may be a while! But I will try to pack it with pictures! Because pictures are the best, right?

Well, I don't know what else to say but, see you in 18!