Food Poisoning ... and a Birthday

Ciao tutti! 

Well I can hardly believe it, I have been here for 4 weeks! That is just crazy to me. I am just so happy here in Italy. We have had a pretty adventurous couple of days though. (In fact right now we are on our way to Switzerland! I am so excited)  We started off by ( and by starting off I mean Wednesday / Thursday) having our P-day where we went to a used market place and did some shoe shopping. It was a good day. Thursday we went to my favorite town in our area - Gallarate - where we had some lessons lined up. That night we had an English tutoring and mini lessons with Ci, who is 13. She is super funny we always enjoy helping her out. 

Italian English books are seriously so funny. First of all the English isn't always correct and they have these really funny highlight and spotlight sections in the text books. The two that I thought were the funniest: one was literally a whole article with quizzes all about James Bond, the other was regarding the dangerous youth of the U.K., it was seriously so funny. 

Friday was a good day as well. We made homemade lasagna and it was so amazing. Then on Saturday, (Oh Saturday!) Sorella Roper and I had the lovely pleasure of being fed a meal and then enjoyed a whole 24 hours of food poisoning. What joys...... There is nothing like making it through church with your stomach turning and rumbling. It was seriously awful. It definitely threw us off our norm. Monday we were starting to feel much better. We had a district meeting in Varese. Because it is our last District meeting before we find out about transfers we did the "Kinder Egg Predictions". This is where everyone gets  a Kinder Egg and you open the toy inside. Then the rest of the district uses the toy and a random scripture you find to determine your fate in the transfer. It's pretty funny.

Our Monday lessons canceled, and they have for like the whole time I have been here, and then it started to pour down rain. It was quite the day.Tuesday was Sorella Roper's Birthday! She is now 21! It was so much fun to be with her. And celebrate. The day started with us being ding dong ditched and opening the door and finding 21 balloons with a fruit basket. With a giant sign reading "Happe Birthday Sister Forever!" And then a picture of Sorella Roper printed off. It was very sweet. We knew who it was from but we literally couldn't see them anywhere on the street; we had no idea where they were. But don't worry the mystery was solved later when we went to F's (a member) house for lunch. While we were there we were shown a video they had taken of use bringing the fruit basket inside. Turns out they were hiding behind the cars parked on the street. After we ate lunch, my personal favorite part of the day came. It was her birthday cake time. Her birthday cake was this beautiful homemade cake with a giant close up picture of her face on it. It was amazing. (photos to follow) They really do love Sorella Roper here.. I think my favorite part was when she lit the 21 candles, Sorella Roper's face started to get a little saggy. It was literally so amazing. I love the members her in Busto, they are the sweetest. They really do care about the missionaries here, it is great. 

Well yep that pretty much sums up my week. Sorella Roper and I made the mistake of looking at a calendar and we realized we literally only have 6 weeks left together (and yes she only has 6 weeks left in Italy). But we will just cross that scary bridge when we get there. People here in Italy have no idea how to pronounce Teague, it's so funny, I love it. Every day I have a new new name. I love it here in Italy I love being a missionary. Here is to next week! 

Sorella Teague 

Wow, this week went by crazy fast! I seriously don't believe it, it felt as though it was just P-day. This week was a great one. On Thursday we had a new missionary training so I got to see all of the missionaries who went to the MTC with me. I loved getting to see them and to see how everyone is doing. Our next day we had a scambio in Milano. We worked with the Sister Training Leaders there. It was a really good and really rough at the same time. From my time here in Busto, I haven't really seen or had to deal with hard situations. But on the scambio we visited a man who about 4 weeks ago was riding his bike when he was hit by a car/ and a bus. This accident has left him paralyzed from the waist down. I was with the sister that was going to see him that day, and needless to say I was not prepared. First off Italian hospitals are the weirdest most unorganized thing I have ever seen. Like seriously..... They are odd. There was no sign in or check in you kind of just go there, it doesn't seem like a happy place to be. His wife was with him at the hospital. This is when it hit me, people who go through terrible things have faith like I could never imagine. These two people who's lives and physical ability have taken a horrible turn took the time when we were there to bear their testimony and love for the atonement and God's plan for us. It was absolutely incredible. I was so moved by this. In his room he had a picture of Christ right in the middle of the shelf from across the bed so he could always see it. I know that this man must be in unimaginable pain and sorrow, but he did not show it. He showed his love for Christ because he knew that in the end all would be made right. Needless to say going into scambio I was not expecting that to happen. (As the mom - I was crying here reading this part .... you want to shield your kids from this kind of sadness but the lessons to learn are so great.  I know that this sweet couple was gladdened a little by these 2 sisters visiting them.)

Saturday was a wonderful day! Saturday was the day of C's baptism!! It was amazing! The first part of our day was kind of crazy, as in our line to the metro stopped working, we couldn't find anywhere for lunch, we were literally in the chapel forever filling up the fount, we kept on getting calls about the baptism arrangements, and so forth. Then we get to the actual baptism and it was great and a little hilarious. First off we had spent hours and hours putting together and calling people regarding the program. We were asked to find specific people and a lot of other things. Then when it comes time for the actual thing no one who was supposed to do their assignment was the same. Somehow the whole program was switched, I still don't understand it. But that's okay, it was still wonderful. And at the end of the day C was "oh! so happy" and that's all that really matters. (I love how Hallie's humor serves her well)

I still have a hard time understanding Italian, but it just takes time. Sundays are always a little hard because I a literally sitting there for over 3 hours trying to understand things without a break. Plus Italians love to talk, no one really waits for their turn to talk, they just all talk over each other. Monday we had quite the adventure. We had no appointments, we pretty much called everyone that we could try, but no one was available. So we decided to do some finding. A family had referred us to go to was is called "Parco Milanese", we thought wow a park that's always good. So we walk about 40 minutes to get there. There is this giant dirt road, but we just figured it led to a nice park. What a joke... Parco Milanese is literally a hiking trail. Which don't get me wrong I love pretty hiking trails but by the end of it we were in a completely  different city. It was so awkward. There were people running, riding bikes, working out, and then there was us. We were in our dresses with our purses and our Il Libro di Mormons. Oh my goodness it was an adventure. But the thing about is that we couldn't really just turn around so we kept on going. We were literally in the middle of nowhere. I kept on joking that I had walked to Argentina (for those of you who don't know one of my best friends is a missionary there right now). So if anything we got a good work out out of it. When we finally returned to civilization we had just enough time to catch a train and head home.  

Tuesday we also had no appointments and after our experience yesterday just stayed clear away from any parks. Which was actually great because we were able to meet and stop by some people's houses. What a week it was! Also I hit my 70th day of being a missionary! How cool is that? I love it here and I can't wait for next week! 

Ciao for now! 

Sorella Teague

About the Parco Milanese:

Alto Milanese Park

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Coordinates : 45.594101 ° N 8.872232 ° E

Alto Milanese Park

Agricultural field near the "Brothers Of God" entrance to High Park Milanese, Legnano, May 2nd, 

Type of area Local supra Park

States Italy Italy

regions Lombardy Lombardy

provinces Milan Milan 

Busto Arsizio-Stemma.png Busto Arsizio 

The Alto Milanese Park is a protected natural area of Lombardy as a local park supra and affects the city of Milan subway in the town of Legnano and the province of Varese in the towns of Busto Arsizio and Castellanza . 

It is recognized by the Lombardy Regional Council by resolution of 27 October 1987 on a proposal of the three municipalities concerned. The area covers about 360 hectares, of which around 178 of the City of Legnano, 126 of the Municipality of Busto Arsizio and 53 hectares in the municipality of Castellanza. 

The boundaries are marked by the peripheries of the three municipalities and include a large area primarily agricultural.

Paperwork, a visit to Como and Conference

Well it's my second week here in Busto Arsizio. Things have been quite busy. Last P-day was kind of a bust, (P Day is a missionary's day off)  We had to spend our whole day fixing my iPad and such, lots of just silly work, but that's okay because today, we are going to Como! (I'm so excited. Look at that smile!)

Now to get to my week, on Friday it was April Fool's day! I kept on hinting to Sorella Roper that she should be expecting a prank, haha. Don't worry I have left my pranking and trickster days behind as a missionary. We had a lunch appointment on Friday, and it was super interesting. We had chicken and rice. We then used our day to try to find people to teach because our other appointments fell through. Saturday was one of those days that was super annoying but super necessary. Because our investigator C. Is getting baptized, she needed an interview this Saturday. Well apparently  all of Busto and all of Varese have no baptismal certificates. So Saturday morning we had to go the Milan area to get one. Then we met the District leader and  at the church and surprise! the gate was locked! The gate is never ever locked. Unsure of what to do, and we were running out of time - they just decided to hop the fence. It was quite the adventure. Then it was back to the same Milan area to watch general conference (this is church meetings over the television). So we felt like a majority of our day was spent going back and forth. Sunday we had an appointment with C. It is so much fun talking to her about her upcoming baptism. General conference was also wonderful to watch. We watched it in live time so we watched the morning sessions at 6 pm. We haven't had a chance to watch all of the afternoon sessions yet, but we did enjoy the morning ones a lot. 

Unfortunately on Monday we had no appointments, and the sky was a horrible grey with rain. While we were walking and trying to find people to teach - no one was friendly. It was definitely a long day.(As a mom - this made me sad but learning perseverance is a good thing, right?) Tuesday was a new adventure. We had a meeting, then a lesson, and then at what was quite a surprise to me a prep for English class. We teach English class here, it sounds like it will be quite a learning experience. Well now I am here sitting in Como, it is so beautiful. Italy is beautiful, the people are wonderful, and I am so happy to be a missionary. Until next week! 

(sounds like someone needed a day off!)

I made it ....Working the Duomo on my first day! PS It is also so crazy how much I love Italy!

Well here I am in Italy! What a crazy couple of weeks this has been. Our last few days was crazy sauce. We had our last classes, packed up our bags, oh and we got to watch the Provo City Center temple dedication, it was amazing. On Monday morning we got up literally before dawn (our alarm went off at 2:30 in the morning). We dragged our suitcases across the MTC campus to the travel office. There we received our visas and passports and off we were. The airport was a little chaotic. For an early Monday morning it was pretty packed. Plus we were all so "delusionally" tired trying to figure out the technology machine to print our tickets was a nightmare. There were so any buttons and gadgets, after being pretty much technology free for 7 weeks it was a little too much for us to figure out. We had three stops on the way to get here in Milan, we went to Atlanta to Paris and then to Milan. The flights weren't awful, but we all had a hard time sleeping. There was some turbulence and stuff like that. When we arrived in Paris we had to rush to get to customs so we could make our next flight. This flight was only like 30 minutes long, but because of the clouds and fog it took us longer to land. But we made it! As we were landing our group from the MTC looked around and we realized, "This was it!" This is the start to our next grand adventure; we are now in the land of our mission! It was a weird thought. We got our bags and met our new President. President and Sister Dibb plus the assistants  were all there waiting for us outside of the arrival door. It was so overstimulating. ( Mom here - I love that Hallie wrote this!) There were so many people and things going on, not to mention I was finally in Italy! Our first day was a whirlwind. We got to the mission office and started our work right away by going to the Duomo in Milan. There we did pass along cards and handed out a few copies of the Book of Mormon. It was really good for the most part! Plus it was super beautiful outside. I love the sun, especially the sun in Italy. That night we went to the Mission home, and ate a yummy dinner. That night we had a small testimony meeting and then we went off to the hotel to go to bed. It was much needed rest. 

The next morning we got up, finished up some training and then we found out who are trainers were and where we were going! And surprise..... I am in Busto Arsizio. My trainer's name is Sorella Roper and she is just the best! We are the same height and it is great because I feel like I am not the only one who towers over the Italians. So on Wednesday morning we were off to Busto. It's definitely not what I imagined my first area to be like, and mainly this is because I have never even heard of it before, haha. But it is really quite wonderful. It is just perfect. Not to mention our apartment is definitely not an apartment, it is way more of a town home, it's crazy. I was preparing my self for a smaller studio type apartment, but I got the complete opposite. We have a two story town home, and separate bathrooms it's quite wonderful. Busto has a cool city center area, it's nice when we hand out our little cards and to find people to talk to. The members here are absolutely amazing. They are some of the most kind-hearted people I have ever met, with amazing life stories. 

My first few days here were jammed pack, minus my first night when literally everyone cancelled on us, haha. But both Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were filled with appointments. It was fun getting to meet people even though I literally had no idea what was being said, or quite frankly what I was saying. Some of the best news of this week is our investigator C. Is getting baptized! She is 15 and has been investigating the church for about two years, and last Friday we asked her again about being baptized and she told us absolutely yes! It was amazing, I was definitely not expecting to witness that in my first week. She is just an amazing person. She is so sweet to everyone, and is a good friend to those around her. So we are preparing her and her program for her baptism which should be on the 9th. I will never forget the big smile she gave when she told us she wanted to be baptized. It was absolutely miraculous.

Sunday was quite the day. As all of you know it was La Pasqua, or Easter. It definitely was not the same as it is at home. Our ride to church was a little late, so we didn't make to to church on time. And sacrament meeting was definitely not the same. Plus it didn't help that I literally understood nothing, maybe every 100th word. It was crazy. For lunch that day we went to C's house. Her mom made a fish dinner thing. It was super sweet of the to feed us, but oh my word it was full off salt. My companion and I kept on drinking water because we literally felt dehydrated after the lunch. But this family is amazing so it didn't really matter. We then taught C how to make brownies. People here are obsessed with brownies. It is a completely foreign concept to them but they love the. The members here in Busto call them "BRAWNEESS", haha. Monday and Tuesday were nice days too. Monday was a little rainy, but Tuesday was amazingly warm and sunny. We taught some great lessons and are trying to find some new people to teach as well. 

Overall my first week here in Italy has been amazing, I can't wait for the next one. 

Love 

Sorella Teague 

Funny things about Italy: 

1) No one turns on their lights, like no one, the sun will be going down and the room will just get dark

2) Everyone seems to have this burning desire to know my genealogy. They want to know where my ancestors are from 

3) People who have dogs talk to their dogs like people. For example if a dog is barking they won't just say "no" they will say "no, stop that we have people over" it's super weird. 

4) In one of our visits a lady literally gave me a full plate of strawberries. Just for me, no one else. I'mm still not sure how I ate that many. My companion thought it was super funny. 

5) People will give you food and say "You need to fatten up" 

6) Even if it is beautiful and sunny outside everyone will wear their coat, and not just their coat but like many any layers as well. 

7) People are crazy drivers, it's ridiculous 

Week 7

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Week 5

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Week 1

Week 1