You Never Know

I'm so glad Gentry got the letter I sent!  Hope it was a terrific birthday.  Cute picture, too, Mom.  Jed looks older already!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEENAGER BROTHER!

It's strange this time of year.  I want to be excited about Halloween and Thanksgiving, but... neither of those really exist in Italy.  So I'm left to be excited by myself.  You can imagine me drawing creepy pictures at my desk and pretending my outstretched fingers are a turkey.  Yay...

In the right way

Buongiorno, everyone! Sorry for the super-short blog last week. I can't promise this one'll be a mammoth, but at least it's of high-quality--as far as the contents go.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GENTRY!!! I lovelovelove you so much, and I hope it's the bestest birthday you've ever even had! I'm sending a letter to you today, too. Hope it reaches you by the 28th.

Church in Verona

We're having a baptism this week.  Nothing's changing in Transfers.  We need prayers for our investigators.  Also, I'm happy for G that her braces are coming off soon, I got a bunch of letters that I'll try to reply to this week, thank you for all the prayers and support and for being good missionaries where you stand!

Conference is one giant miracle

Let me first ask all the praying folk who read this blog to keep Anziano Petterborg's family in your prayers.  His greatgrandmother passed away this week.  She was physically weak, but mentally sharp, and her passing--as every passing--is hard on the family.  I can't imagine losing someone I love while on my mission.  God will comfort, and I ask you to pray with us for that comfort to be felt.

General Conference was amazing and inspiring.  In Italy we don't get to watch the final session, Sunday Afternoon, but the eight hours I was able to attend flew by and were full of answers to questions, uplifting messages, and catchy phrases to keep me going.  My favorite was President Uchtdorf's "You Can Do It Now".  I also gave rapt and smiling attention to Elder Gifford's "Exclamation Point" talk.  He was a living exclamation point, and reminded me of my mom in that respect.

The Center of Our Faith: Jesus Christ

I can't tell you how excited I am for conference.  I thought I was excited for The Dark Knight Rises or The Avengers back home, but that's nothing compared to how jazzed I am for General Conference this weekend.  Also, for our mission, October 5th is the Return to Normal Schedule (we've been waking up at 7 for a few months and everything was pushed forward half an hour), and we get to start wearing suit coats every day!  Haha!!  October is my favorite month for a reason.

So there's a lot to look forward to.  Unfortunately, we didn't teach 21 lessons last week.  We only taught 12, in fact.  That's mostly my fault.  We worked super hard the first three days and, in my opinion, kind of burned ourselves out.  After that I got sad and sadness turned to laziness and... well, I'm far from perfect.