Coraggio! Mama Mia!

Dear Famiglia!

Oh boy! This was an exciting week! Wow! I don't even know where to begin! This will probably be all over the place! I will start with my new companion because she is probably the best part. Sister Caramia is the nicest human being I have ever met. She is a missionary from temple square and is just here on her outbound mission. She is from Italy! It is crazy! We have language study everyday and I am helping her learn English! She is really good at English but has a heavy accent that everyone loves, I think it helps us because more people want to talk to her. It is a great conversation starter. She is so wonderful! She loves EVERYBODY! I think her most common phrase is, "So, so, so happy!" She loves chocolate, as do I, we work well together. She absolutely loves you already mom! I tell her what you made, or sent, or did for me and she always says, "I want to know your mama! She sounds so wonderful!" I have been thinking in an Italian accent though! Every time I introduce myself to people I start talking funny and then they think I am foreign too! She is 23 years old and she is a nurse! And just the best! But she has only been here for 3 weeks so we are kind of starting over in this area.

West Allis. Wow. It is quite different. Technically it is the size of Janesville but it is like Janesville on steroids. We cover Milwaukee too. We actually live in Milwaukee. We cover up to the sketchy part of the city. That is city branch, we don't go there. But our ward is wonderful! Most of the people are converts and are just so friendly. We have a TON of less actives but they are great less actives if that makes sense. We have like 7 coming back to church which is incredible! They are amazing. The traffic here is crazy! Not always the traffic actually just the drivers. I think after this I will be able to drive almost anywhere. Usually this is a busing area. The sister before me hurt her ankle so they got a temporary car, we won't have it for long. I think they will let us keep it until it gets warmer because the mission office LOVES Sister Caramia! Everyone does, you can't help it. Then we will ride the buses. The mission office is in our area and we live really close to President Cutler. They go to the same building as us so I have already seen him 3 times since being here. It is crazy to be in the center of things. I haven't been here since my first day! Lots of memories! 

So back to my week. Tuesday I got my cavity filled! That was fun, my face was numb most of the day. It was ok though because the first appointment we had was with Kevin, so I don't have to talk. He promised to keep coming and I promised to keep learning sign language. Which is really perfect because now we have language study time. Most of it for Sister Caramia is filling out a booklet and I just correct it. So I have about 5 hours a week I can study sign language! We found a deaf church too so we know there are deaf people in the area! Also I finished packing. That was crazy. I really have NO idea how it worked, but somehow it did. This is probably the last time I have to worry about fitting everything because in the transfers, May 6th I can send all my winter stuff home and I will be in the safe zone. I don't think I will have to worry about it because Sister Caramia leaves in 1.5 transfers. So we will be together hopefully until she leaves and then I will introduce someone else to the area. So I don't think I have to worry. 

We left Tuesday night for Milwaukee because Sister Plante is training. We stayed at Sister Packer's apartment! It was crazy to see her again! It was like a dream! We got to stay at transfer point and eat with the new missionaries and the leaving ones. 25 left! Our mission is shrinking. It was great though! I finally get to see the couple missionaries, they seem so fun.

I love our new apartment. It used to be the Elders apartment so it has a pull-up bar and weights. It is a good size too! I will send pictures next week. It is just a fun apartment.

We have been just trying to get to know the people we are working with. Meeting investigators, less actives, potentials, members. The nice thing about both of us being new is we can use it as an excuse to meet people. It is even better with Sister Caramia because as soon as we introduce ourselves they like her accent and let us stay. 

We had a semi-less active member bring someone to church yesterday. The Elders informed us that he used to play for the Packers, oh boy were they excited and oh boy are they trying to let us teach him! That was pretty cool, he made good comments in Sunday School. We had a lot of people show up to church. This ward just rocks! They actually do their home and visiting teaching! It is the best thing ever! I think that makes the difference. We can actually get less actives to come because of that. 

The Elders gave us a referral for someone in our apartment building, we knocked and it wasn't who were looking for. It was a very nice African family that of course bonded with Sister Caramia and invited us over this week for African food. We are going to eat dinner with our neighbors! That is a dream! I have always wanted to know our neighbors better! We have a ton! There are 68 apartments in our building. It is crazy. A maze, you could get lost. We did! 

For Valentines a member had us over so Sister Caramia could make an Italian dinner for her son who was going to propose to his girlfriend that night. We ate SO much food that day! It was great! Mostly :) It was with the Capps actually! They are from Idaho Falls too! They were pretty excited to see me. There home had a big picture of the IF temple which made me feel at home.

We had so much happen this week I can't write about it all! I gotta save some stories for home! Sunday school we had a really good lesson about the creation. At the end we all said things we were grateful for that God created and I had an epiphany. Everything everyone said they were thankful for made them feel good, it made them feel happy! That is just a testament to me that Heavenly Fathers purpose really is to make us happy! He created all these wonderful things for our happiness! It is just all a testament and witness of his perfect love for us!

I love being a missionary! I love this gospel! I love my area! I love my apartment! I love my companion! She is the most wonderful Christ like person! And I love YOU! I love my family and friends! You guys rock!

I love you more than I wish we had your weather!

Anne