Recognizing Miracles & Less Stress!

I absolutely loved this email!!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts about miracles! I have met some missionaries who have absolutely incredible stories where they changed their life after a near death experience or felt they were called, literally God talked to them, to come on a mission. For me, I just felt I had to come because I love God so much. When I focus on the little things I am lacking, I miss all the things I have been given as well. Like Jerusalem or EFY. Mama mia... I am SOOOOOOO blessed to have experienced both, especially EFY. I definitely would not be able to do this without that experience. Verimente. :)

This week has felt a little longer than other weeks but it was so beautiful. I have felt that we have been working hard but have not seen very much from our efforts but I learned that work doesn't always produce fruits. We need to do EARNEST work with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength. We had the training sisters, Sorella Forbes and Sorella Padula, come and blitz us last week. It was exactly what both Sorella Lemos and I needed. Sorella Padula is from Argentina as well so she and Sorella Lemos went a little crazy together. :) We all loved it so much (by we, I mean the rest of the Sorelle who all come from the United States). Really, the people from Argentina are so special - they have immense love for others and just work with force. This is something I really need because I tend to sit back and observe a little bit before I act. (I can imagine what you are thinking mama... it is something I have realized I need to work on to be a better missionary.) bahahaha comunque, we saw soooo many miracles that day because we went out and worked with earnestness. Because of that, we have two new simpatizanti from the family we found the first day I did casa casa. For me, I learned how to work with less stress. I never realized how uptight I can be when things do not go perfectly as planned. It bothers me when it doesn't go well for the people around me, especially the Lord and my companion. Sorella Forbes taught me that as we give all to the Lord, through prayer, we can just go to work. (Alma 31). Amen. :)

Sunday we had a beautiful miracle that I will always remember. We have a simpatizanti that has so much faith and a love for the Savior Jesus Christ but she has a huge confusion about baptism. I believe I told you about her in one of my miracle stories - M. Sunday we had a lesson with our Ward Mission Leader and extended a baptismal date for the 15th of June. She told us she was not sure and felt very confused. We told her to pray, then and there, to know if this church was true, that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and that she should get baptized. So she did and started to cry. The spirit flooded into the room with a warm and loving feeling of confirmation. She finished and said "I felt the spirit! He told me that this church is true. I will be baptized on the 15th of June." Sorella Lemos and I began crying with JOY for her. :) It was an incredible experience!! 

Little Miracle: Soooooo... we had Zone Conference on Lunedi with Presidente. We received a lecture about taking care of our cell phones. Guess what? I lost the phone yesterday. Bahahahahahah it was actually a funny experience because I just thought "yep... of course I would. Especially the day after a lecture" Well, we had about 3 lessons that we needed to go to before the end of the night to try to find our phone. By the time we arrived to our last lesson, we were a little worried about finding it. A member came to the last lesson with Mariana and told us she was trying to call us (this was probably the 3rd person to tell us that) and ended up talking to a man who found it!! YAY!! So she arranged to meet him and pick it up. Luckily we had a picture of Sorella Lemos and me as the wallpaper so he could easily recognize us. It was such a tender mercy. :) Also, the Anziani were freaking out a little bit - they thought we were kidnapped and called everyone to try to find us. 

I love you soooooo much!!!! Thank you for your love and your support. :) Please remember I pray for you every day. :)

Vi voglio bene!!!

Sorella Jameson

The Genova Sorelle in matching dresses.

Blitz and Miracles!

Sorelle in my apartment:

I am with Sorella Heupel and Sorella Pace who are opening the Genova 2 area for Sorelle right now so they are doing a lot of hard work. Everyday they are doing finding work and very few lessons. That is hard on missionaries. Sorella Heupel is my age, from LA, and studies at BYU-I. Mama mia... I love her sooooooo much!!! She is beautiful and just has a very fun and laid back personality so we laugh a lot together as we try to train our sweet little babies. Sorella Pace is from Idaho falls and is 19 - her father and brother served here in Italy also. She is always eating food which is absolutely hilarious because she is the skinniest and tallest one in our apartment. Of course she can.... :) The best part is that Sorella Pace and Sorella Lemos are total opposites in almost every way but we all get along so well because we have the united purpose as missionaries. :) 

Update for the craziness of my life: 

Alorra... this last has been sooooo crazy! We were in Genova for 2 days because the other days were out in other cities. As I told you, we went to Reggio Emilia Thursday night to Friday night for a Blitz with Sorella Stephens and her companion. Oh it was absolutely wonderful to see Sorella Stephens!!! I missed her so much! Reggio Emilia is a beautiful little city that is made up of a huge population from Africa. I taught my first full lesson in English to a recent convert called Kwaku. He has such a sweet spirit and an amazing testimony in the Book of Mormon. Even though it was great to teach in my own language, I missed teaching in Italian. Sorella Lemos taught in English too with Sorella Stephens!!! I am so proud of her - her ability to speak English improves everyday!! We had a beautiful lunch in a park in Parma on Friday - home of Parmesan cheese. My obsession for food is only magnified here in Italy. It is a problem. We took a 4 hour train ride back to Genova with a stop in Milano. I am not sure how but both Sorella Lemos and I fell asleep (okay I saw her fall asleep and thought "oh I will say a prayer and wake her up so we can plan") well one hour later I randomly woke up. I looked around and saw we were in Milano, the exact train station we needed to be in. Sorella Lemos and I ran out of the train half asleep to our next train. It was a little miracle that we woke up or else we would have gone who knows where. :) 

This miracle happened during our giant blitz to Savona on Saturday. I was working with Sorella Lopez with the assignment to visit a meno attivo. We walked in the rain (which was pouring) for about 45 minutes to an empty house. We decided to leave a note for them to invite them to church and to the stake conference in June. After another 45 minute walk back towards the church, we decided to stop by another meno attivo who ended up not being home. The report time to return to the church was 6:30 and we had about 15 minutes until then. At this point we were literally soakes - every part of us was covered with water. Instead of returning early, we decided to do one palaza for casa casa. 3 doors in, we met a Christian man from India who said he would come to church the next day. Sorella Lopez called me Sunday night to report that both the meno attivo couple and the Indian man came to church the next day!! We were wet and tired but saw beautiful miracles!!!

Also, remember my investigator J? The one we found my first full day here doing casa casa? She came to church on Sunday! It was beautiful! :) Right now, I am killing my poor, sweet companion. She has the flu and terrible head aches everyday.... but we are so happy together. We are having Sorella Forbes and another Sorella come and blitz us on Friday and we are so excited for that!

Oh!! I received a package from a bunch of the wonderful people from Jerusalem!!!!!! It absolutely made my entire week! I loved everyone's notes and the candy. Can you please send my appreciation on the Jeru fb page?

I love you so much!! Thank you so much for all of your support and love. Please remember that I pray for you every day. :)

VI VOGLIO BENE!!!!!

Sorella Jameson

Rely on the Lord!

BUONGIORNO!!!!!

It is so weird - I just talked to you on Sunday!!! That was a wonderful and yet strange experience for me. It made me realize how much my mission has become a part of my life! It is like I live, eat, and breathe the missionary life. But I absolutely LOVED seeing everyone! After I hung up I thought - DANGIT! I wanted to say so much more and particularly say goodbye to Jarom. It hit me that that was the last I would see him in 2 years.

1st: I love my mission so much!! I know I said it was hard but it is the BEST thing I have ever done and will ever do - save having a family. There is nothing in the WHOLE world that I would rather be doing. I am soooo happy doing it. 

2nd: I love you all SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!! Being away from you is probably one of the hardest things for me. My friends, freedom, and other silly things do not really matter to me. But I have learned to love and appreciate you even more. Thank you!!!

Sorella Lemos and I had the most amazing experience teaching a lesson on Thursday. Comunque, it was amazing. We have been teaching this woman from Romania, si chiama M. She is about 39 years old with 7 children. Woah. But she is soooooo spunky! Sorella Gomez and I found her on the way home at a bus stop - Sorella Gomez felt drawn to talk to her so we did (this was definitely guidance from the Spirit). It was incredible. M has so much faith and she knows who she is - as a daughter of a Heavenly Father. She comes to church and all of our appointments faithfully and loves to talk and learn of Jesus. Oh and she LOVES the Book of Mormon! Perfect right? The hard part is trying to explain the importance of baptism to her because she has been baptized 2 times before. So this lesson we had on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While I was explaining baptism and the importance to be baptized by the authority of God, she expressed her fear of baptism another time. She totally opened up to us and expressed her deepest fears- she is so confused because she thought she had done the right thing being baptized but she didn't want to offend God with yet another baptism. My companion bore the most beautiful testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel. We invited M to pray, then and there on our knees, to feel comfort, direction, and peace. It was a powerful and beautiful prayer that left all of us in tears. She finished and cried saying "I felt the presence of God" - which we all did through the Holy Ghost. God loves all of us and hears each and every single one of our prayers.

After that experience, I thought to myself "I never want this to end! I want to serve the Lord for the rest of my life." To see the joy come into someone's life is the most wonderful sense of gratification ever. Also, being a trainer is the most incredible experience ever! I learn sooooo much from my companion and we just work together. At times it is hard and stressful, especially when I feel like everything that I am doing is WRONG (this happened the following days after my experience with M - life as a missionary = high highs followed closely with low lows) One thing that it has taught me is to rely on the Lord with EVRYTHING. I am not perfect and I know I will make mistakes (but you know me... I try my hardest to be perfect and get frustrated that I am only human) Sorella Lemos and I just LAUGH and have soooo much fun together though. She has been such a blessing, especially with the language.

Okay, I will stop rambling. :) Some exciting news - I get to see Sorella Stephens on FRIDAY!!!! AHHHHH I am sooooo excited!!!! And I got to see Sorella Gomez yesterday for a little bit of time. I love my companions. :)

I love you!!!

VI VOGLIO BENE!!!!

Sorella Jameson

Speaking Italian & Feeling Blessed!

I have a new, new, NEW companion. Si chiama Sorella Lemos. She comes from Argentina and speaks Italian, Spanish, French, and... some English. :) This means we speak about 90% of the time in Italian. Remember how scared I was to train because of how terrible I was at Italian? I prayed for the gift of tongues and well... I got it. :) She is AMAZING!! Full of energy and excitement and we have SOOOOO much fun together. She is only 19 and had only 1 week in the MTC before she came here so we have a lot to learn together. Right now, we are learning from each other a LOT. I am teaching her about missionary life and English, and she is teaching me Italian. It is a huge win win situation. Really, I feel sooooo blessed. Oh and I LOVE being a missionary and especially a trainer!!! Just as you said Mama, the Lord has really led me to be prepared for this right now. I know I could not have been more prepared without my EFY experience and without my study abroad to Jerusalem. Right now, I feel totally different. It is weird to think I was and still am a "new missionary". I feel totally confident to pick up the phone and call people, talk to people on the streets, organize our schedules, so on and so forth. It is all because of Heavenly Father. He has given me courage and strength but I needed the faith to receive these blesses. Sono benedetto!

This week we have seen soooo many blessings!! One of them occurred yesterday with one of our investigators and also with a member. I asked a member to come to a lesson with a woman we have been teaching off and on the past month. Her work schedule is a little crazy so we can only teach her when she has time. The member who came is the mother of a recently returned missionary - she bore a powerful testimony of how the gospel changed her life. It was exactly what our simpatizanti needed to hear. Dopo the lesson, the member thanked us for the opportunity to come. She felt loved feeling the spirit and see it change the lives of others. We have another appointment on Friday with both of them again!!! If you have a chance to go to lessons with the missionaries, DO IT!!! 

Right now we are working with the sisters of a recent convert and they are incredible! Yesterday we had a lesson with them in their house - we were the FIRST missionaries to go into their home. We do not have a baptismal date yet because their mother isn't ready for it but she let us come into their home!! We have faith for more miracles with these girls in the future!! 

I LOVE YOU!!! God is an awesome God. He is good... ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!

LOVE,

Sorella Jameson

My new companion, Sorella Lemos

What I bought with my birthday money!

A Wedding and a Trainer!

Soooooo this past week has also been super crazy (as always - I swear there is never a normal mission day!) The biggest thing that has happened is that we went to a wedding and we got our transfer calls. The wedding was BEAUTIFUL!!! The couple getting married are a little older (like 52 and 48) and they wanted us to be at the wedding the ENTIRE time to represent the church. They also asked us to sing a song at the ceremony. In Italy, you have to be married first by law before you can go to the temple to be sealed, so we had the ceremony in the chapel at the church in Genova 2 (I am in Genova 1 with a church in an apartment building) We sang the children's song :Where Love Is: Mama mia... it was beautiful!! They were so grateful for us and for the spirit we brought to the wedding. We wanted to sing this song because it talks about the love of God. Where Love is, there God is also.

Lyrics

1. Where love is, there God is also.
   Where love is, we want to be.
   Guide us, his truths to follow
   Help us obey him faithfully
2. Where love is, there God is also.
   We think of him rev'rently.
   Teach us to pray, to talk with him above
   And know that he will guide us with his love.
3. The comfort of loving arms around us,
   A song that makes us want to sing,
   The happiness we feel when love has found us,
   'Tis love we get when love we bring.
4. Where love is, there God is also.
   And with him we want to be.
   Show us the way and guide us tenderly
   That we may dwell with him eternally.

After the ceremony we went to a luncheon where we talked to many people and ate a 5 course meal. Yep... 5 course. Don't worry, I took pictures. :) They are now married for eternity! Their temple sealing was in the temple yesterday in Switzerland.

The entire time we were all waiting for the transfer calls. If we get a call on Monday, this is normally a big transfer done by the presidente or the assistente. If we dont get a call Lunedi, we get a call Martedi by our Zone Leaders telling us we are staying the same. All the missionaries were together for the wedding so we were all on the alert. Right before the 4th course, our phone rang. Presidente was calling. We ran outside to answer the phone call. Sorella Gomez began by asking what she could do to help and just kept saying :Okay: Then I heard her say :Verona?! Okay: My heart was pounding this entire time, especially when I knew she was leaving me. She grabbed me and hugged me as I began to comprehend that she would leave and I would be getting a new companion. This was hard to imagine. I love her sooooo much and we had so many big plans for this next transfer.  Sorella Gomez has been transfered to Verona to be a traveling sister. She is going to be with Sorella Bush, her dream companion (I am sooooo excited and happy for her!) Then she handed the phone over to me. Here is the conversation...

Me:Ciao President!

Pres: Ciao Sorella Jameson! Come sta?

Me: I am doing just great! How are you?

Pres: I am doing great! Thank you! Sorella Jameson, as you heard, Sorella Gomez is going to be leaving to Verona. 

Me: Uh-huh... *gulp*

Pres: You began your 12 week training with Sorella Gomez but she will be leaving you next transfer. So I am going to ask you to begin the 12 week program again this next transfer okay?

Me: Okay (here I am thinking - sweet! I get to be trained again!)

Pres: I want you to train this transfer a new sister that will be arriving this week and begin the 12 week training program with her. 

Me: ........ oh uhhhhhh ummmm okay. *gulp* 

At this point Sorella Gomez came over to me and just held me while I tried to recover from the shock of the new assignment. I knew it was a possibility - I heard that we might have to train at 6 weeks, definitely at 12 but I didn't think it was going to happen to me. I can barely speak the language and get lost sooooo easily (you know what I am talking about!) Presidente explained that he knew I was ready for this and so did the Lord. By the time I said goodbye, I was crying. My body was experiencing sooooo many different emotions. Sorella Gomez was leaving, I was training, I was scared, sad, a little excited. Mostly, I was scared. My zone leaders came out and immediately began sharing their excitement for me and told me they would be here for me 100%. The funniest thing is that almost everyone saw what was happening at the wedding because there were big glass windows. The members understood, especially the RM's. 

Adesso, I feel peaceful and a little excited. It is going to hard but I know I can do it with the help of the Lord. Please pray for me. I will need it. Tomorrow I will be getting a new companion fresh from the USA and it will be an adventure. I just want to love her a lot and serve her. Recently, I have read a lot about believing in God and Jesus Christ (2 ne 25 and Mormon 9) We have a God of Miracle. This is exactly what I need. :)

I love you!!! Thank you for your support!!

Vi voglio bene!!!

Sorella Jameson