Buon Anno!!

Well, hi! :)

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY INDIA! On New Years Eve, right? How old is she gonna be 8? :)

Okay, next on the list... ha, so I really didn't write a big ol' email for everyone last week... whoops! I wanted to, but I just ran out of time! Christmas day is a crazy day, did you know that? Haha.

Well, lets see... I have a great "coming home" plan. Haha. It's slightly a joke, slightly real... I'm so excited for it :) So, I'm gonna come home and work for a few months, and save up money before I go out to school, right? Well, I am just going to go to the Temple everyone other weekend-ish... and, while I'm in Orlando, I might as well save time and just go to Disney World, and hit up Epcot-Italia (just to keep up my Italian, you know). I'll just buy a year-pass to Disney... greatest plan ever, huh? I hope it actually happens :) Hahaha.

Also, two of my fingers were hurting a lot last Sunday... it's like they were stiff, or jammed or something. I told one of the Senior couples about it, and she said maybe it was carpal tunnel... agh! I hope not! The stiffness eventually went away, so lets hope it was nothing! :)

Also, we had the best Christmas Sunday ever... basically, EVERYONE was asking us if we had a place for Christmas eve/Christmas day (because our ward mission leader announced it in Sacrament Meeting that we needed a place to go... hahaha), and it was the greatest! The Sacrament Christmas program was AWESOME! Everyone single person participated. Each leader of each auxiliary read a part of the Christmas story (Luke, and part of Matt. with the wise men), and after the auxilary leaders spoke, that auxiliary SANG. i.e. the Relief Society leader and counselors would go up, and read a part of Luke 2, then after they finished reading their piece, all of the Relief Society went up and sang a song (that we had prepared) of Christmas. Then after our song the Priesthood leaders went up and read a piece, and after they finished all of the priesthood went up and sang (this was actually the greatest part of the whole day... when I come home, remind me to tell you how they sang it... I cannot be written through email, I have to sing it to you.) Basically, I'm gonna make fun of the Anziani in our ward for the rest of their lives. Hahah. And, yeah, the Christmas program went like that, I loved it! :)

Then, Christmas eve was amazing! We went to our Ward mision leaders house, and honestly, he's just the funniest person in the world, I LOVE being in that house! So, it was just a super fun, laughy evening. We sang some Christmas songs, they gave us Nutella as a Christmas gift... it was super duper :) Oh, and before that we had a member who asked us if we could carol to some of her friends, so we did! We went around with them, (us and the anziani) and carroled to some families... it was super fun. Then afterwards they gave us hot chocolate, and pandoro :) Yum.

Then, Christmas day, did I already tell you what happened? I think so. We went to the Eusebio's house (they're from Brazil), and they invited another member family, the Tamin's (from the philipines), so we had brazilian and philipino food for Christmas! Super yum :) We played some games, re-encated the Christmas Story (so funny), then we were eventually on our way. And, oh my word. Look up the song, "è natale, e a natale si puo fare di piu."... basically, it's like an advertisment song, and one of our elders hears it ALL the time, and it gets stuck in his head, and he sings it ALL the time, which gets it stuck in my head... so, that song was stuck in my head ALL christmas day! Haha.

We also found a magical apartment where we did casa one day (not on Christmas) and it was the greatest thing in the world, cause everyone was like, "come in, lets not talk about this in the doorway...". the only problem was they were ALL men (except for one, the cutest Bulgarian woman who I love with my whole heart), so we couldn't go in... but, we gave some awesome referrals to our Anziani! Haha.

Yeah. And, I already told you about my "gift of tongues" experience, where someone spoke to us in Spanish, and she couldn't understand what we were saying (speaking italian) and after not trying to speak spanish for over 1 1/2, the words, I say, "nos somos las hermanas de la iglesia de jesucristo..." yeah, that was fun :) It just came out of no where! Sure, it's not perfect, but it's spanish! Haha.

Also, dear Chelsea Wiser and Sydney Sanders, do you know any Richardson's? An Elder here has family that's from Panama City Beach! Just wondering :)
Also, you want to hear a crazy awesome story/poem thing? Look up "The Room" by Joshua Harris... although, I don't think it's called The Room. But, who knows.

So, guess what else I'm gonna do today..? BYU application! Weird. I don't even know if that's for sure where I want to go, but if I don't apply then I'm FOR SURE not going... so I'm applying :) Haha.

Also, are my standards too high if I want to marry a man like Moroni? Hahahaha. I just read that part in Alma that other day where it was describing a little bit of Moroni, and I was just like, "Yeah. I'll totally marry a guy like that." Vediamo. Hahaha.

Also, my heart is dying/going crazy! Within a 2-day period I met THREE Italain-American families... where one spouse was Ital. and the other was Amer. And their children all speak perfect English and Italian! Did you know that my children are going to be like that (...me too. Haha)? Yeah, I dunno how, cause I'm not a native Italian, but whatever! Haha.

Also, this past Sunday was another one of the amazing-est Sundays ever... a referral from our Anziani came to church. Nicole. I LOVE HER. So much. We haven't even taught her yet, but we've already become best friends, our members fellowshiped her like whoa, and I'm just super super happy :)

OH YEAH! Also, Simone, from Siena, was here on Sunday! I almost died! He's here for a YSA activity... also, Chris Dean (remember that one guy who served in Italy, who has family in Florida/sometimes lives there, maybe... and he and his parents took Sorella Seare and I out one day on p-day?)... I dunno if you remember him, but he came too! So, it was just like Siena all coming back to me, it was stupendous :)

And, that's probably about all. Sorry I've written WAY too much, I'm just trying to compensate for last week.

And, we're doing p-day today, because our 1 gennaio is filled up with appointments, so we just switched p-day.

Well, I gotta run. Vi voglio tanto bene!

Sorella Sara Willis

PS: Happy New Year! It'll be 2014 for me before it will be for you! How crazy :) Haha