One year in Italy!

This past week was my year mark in Italy. Which is a funny story. I tried to remember what day I came to Italy and for some reason I thought that I came to Italy June 14th, 2013..Well I was a little bit off. Sorella Yost said to me on June 12th in the morning that it was someone elses year mark on the mision. I just looked at her and said it's my year mark in Italy today too..whoops! hah So I missed the mark on the one oh well!. So we celebrated my fake year mark on saturday anyways by getting gelato, which was the best! I got apricot and chocolate gelato with white chocolate in it... It was all brand new gelato when we went there.. I felt very special indeed. 

This past transfer I have realized that I am obsesed with apricots.. I love them. I am so sorry that I talk about food in every letter that I write home.. ha I was filling out my family booklet and I was writing about myself and I reread what I wrote and thought to myself," I talk a about cibo too much..."..haha Then Sorella Yost made a song up about cibo..which goes something like this,"I like cibo, I like cibo, I like cibo..hey hey hey hey!" hah Then we both just started to laugh.

Sorella Yost is great. We are always singing funny songs that we make up with eachother and we are always laughing at something. I am so grateful for her and I really hope that I can stay with her for another transfer because we have transfers next week again already. We sing primary songs together all of the time. Like ," The prophet said to plant a garden and so that's what we'll do!".. too much fun. We better stay together! 

Sometimes my brain doesn't work in english or Italian and I just end up combinig the two languages together or saying things I didn't mean to say. This past week I told someone, " Salute i suoi gatti.." Struggles..Luckily the person that I was talking to just laughed with me. 

Italians loves cats. 

Tomorrow we have zone conference in Firenze so Sorella Yost and I are excited because she served near Firenze. I will send you pics for that next week and tell you how it went. Next week we have transfers again and I am just hoping that I can stay another transfer here in Ravenna. I love this cute little city. I don't think I can have another companion for only one transfer.. But we will see what happens. 

I am sorry that my brain was so scattered this week. I am grateful to be here serving the Lord. I feel like I have changed a lot being here in Italy for a year. I love my life as a missionary and I grateful to preach the good news everyday. Although there are some days where people just tell us,"Non mi interessa." I have realized how important this message is for me. It has strengthened my testimony of the gospel and why it is important for me. I have realized that in the end they are not rejecting me as a person but they are rejecting the Savior who has set the example and given them the way. I know that this is the true church and that it can change people completely for the better. It has changed me. I know that it can change anyones heart if they are willing to change their heart. 

I love you all! 

con affetto, 

Sorella Rebecca Carter

my first day in italy

one year later

gelato

year mark and fake year mark..hah

you don't always look this good at your year mark..hah 

this is a rare case.. haha

just enjoying my life as a missionary in italia

gelato for fake year mark!

my family booklet. It is all in Italian!

my fan. sempre vicino a me... 

then there is my hand fan.. it is needed

apricots! my favorite!

Che caldo ragazzi, pday con i nostri nonnini, e italia in generale

Well it is officially summer here in Ravenna. I am a little bit nervous because it is only June, quindi...I am a little bit scared for what the weather will be like in July, August and September..

 Today for Pday we went with our branch mission leader and his wife to a place called Comacchio which is basically the mini version of venezia . It was this cute little city with little tiny canals. It was such a wonderful Pday with them. It is so much fun  because every city that you serve in as a misionary there is always someone that reminds you of your grandparents. They are officially our nonni di Ravenna. Our nonnini! When they took us back we saw in their car that it was 95 degrees outside!...mamma mia! che caldo ragazzi!! It is going to be an interesting summer. It feels like the Sahara desert with the constant feeling as if you have just taken a shower as soon as you step outside.. It is glorious. Nothing quite like it! haha Luckily we have fans so we will survive this summer! Yay technology!

Last weekend we had a booth for the church and we talked to a lot of people at this event. It was very successful and we found lots of potentials. We are hoping that one of these people will have interest to learn more about the church. It was a good mostra and it was a new way for us to find new people to teach. 

We got a new bike lock this past week! Woooo!! That was great news because our old one was very heavy and someone we were teaching this past week gave us a brand new bike lock because they felt bad for us. haha yay! new bike lock. 

gelato. Summer is the season of gelato. enough said about that. 

We were so happy because on sunday our meno attiva came to church again!! Two weeks in a row! We hope that she will keep coming each week. Since I arrived here in Ravenna she has changed a ton. It is remarkable to see the changes the gospel can make in people's lives. She has changed so much. It makes me yet again grateful for the gospel and that it helps us to become more like our savior Gesù Cristo. It seriously is amazing! 

Happy Father's Day to everyone! I love you all. I love my mission more and more each day that I am here. Sorella Yost and I are having a blast together and are working hard. We had a scambio with other sorelle and after we looked at eachother and just realized how much we missed eachother. ha I love Sorella Yost she is the best! 

Vi voglio bene,

Sorella Rebecca Carter

happy easter 2015! hah thank you kelly! we had a good time. we did this two weeks ago and I forgot to send the photos.

bug spray!!! I found it! ecco lo!

the booth

fish market

comacchio

our nonni! They are hilarious! I love them so much!

piccoli miracoli

Well I just want to start with a miracle that happened on sunday. We have been working a lot with the less actives here in Ravenna because a lot of them couldn't be visited because there have only been anziani here. Now we are here. So we do a lot of less active work, which I love doing. We have been working with this one woman in particular since I got here to Ravenna. She told us that she didn't want to come back to church unless she felt like she needed to go.. Guess what happened? She surprised us and came to church on Sunday!! We were so happy! She was so happy. It was such a wonderful surprise. It was perfect because it was fast and testimony meeting where anyone can share their testiomny of what they know to be true. She went up to the pulpit and bore her testimony. I felt like such a proud mom during church. She loved church and was so happy to see all of the new members in the branch. The members were all so warm and welcoming to her..Thank you members of Ravenna. They did such a good job. 

Last week we found our favorite gelateria in Ravenna.. Chocolate in the bottom of the cone. enough said. It is called Papilla.

We do a lot of finding here in Ravenna. I think we do about 5 or more hours of finding people each day. Which includes parco, strada, casa e ecc. It is hard but the Lord is there with us every step of the way. 

There are always the little tender mercies each day. Last week we were in our favorite park doing finding ther..(people know us now and we are starting to become friends with all of the elderly women there). We were teaching these two women from Nigeria in the park last week. And one of the women had a daughter that was two years old. We were asking what they believed and the women with the girl just kept repeating, "God's timing is best". Side note a missionary you learn how to connect what people talk about to the gospel or the lesson you are trying to teach them. So I was trying to segway  " God's timing is best" into the gospel. I began to look at the other women and said, " It's true God's timing is the best because he knows exactly what we need.." I keep going on and Sorella Yost looks at me and whispers,"No.. That is the little girls name.." 

haha It is true. The little two year olds names was, "God's timing is best". The women was pregnant as well and we were curious to see what her next baby's name would be. 

I am grateful for these moments that make me smile. 

Today we went to San Marino which is close to Rimini. It was beautiful. There are three towers that we saw and there was a great view. We saw an Italian man painting watercolors. It was a great day. 

The work here is hard everyday but we are doing it. We are going to find someone ready for the gospel. I know it. 

Vi voglio tanto bene,

Sorella Rebecca Carter

our tourist group we went with..hah

san marino

towers..

d'arte 

pday in san marino

last tower

italia!

gracie made the wall. hah 

papilla! happy 9 months Sorella Yost!!