Sei mesi per andare fino a quando io vado a casa!

Hello, Everyone! So, this week was pretty good. At the beginning of the week, we were Both sick, so we had to stay inside for a couple days. But we are doing fine now, Especially Because We got blessings from the Elders (the guy missionaries). We had a really great week though Because we were Able to stay positive through it all and we even got to listen to the  Sons of Provo soundtrack! Haha, it was the best. And, I had a bunch of other good music from Elder Padilla, like songs from  Phinneas and Ferb , and a bunch of other Things That  kept  us upbeat while we were inside.  

And, this week, basically all the rest of our promising supporters moved away ... At least for a while. Cornelia went to Romania for the next two months, and Ofori moved to Germany. We are not sure if he will ever move back, but we Gave him the info for His church city and we Told him to text us with His new number as soon as he gets it. Then, we can refer Jim to other missionaries in Germany. It is sad though wayyyy Because we will not be Able to see him for a long time, if we ever see him again. I Hope that we were at least Able to make a small difference for him.  

Our last couple visits with him were sort of all over the place though Because this preacher guy comes and tries to speak very loudly over us, and he thinks That He Has to contradict every doctrine That We talk about ... But it all went well Because in the end one of us would distract this man for a while and the other would talk with Ofori. In the end though, we were Able to ask this man to take photos for us and I thought of Sister Bradford with Ofori. :) In short, our last visit with Ofori Necessarily was not what we expected, but it went well all the same. Especially Because He Told us what His Favorite chapter in the bible was (a chapter in Psalms, I think I wrote it down, but I forgot the chapter number).

Hmmm ... Oh! And the ward is really starting to love us! In church, the Bishop thanked Sister Bradford and I for our work and for our Testimonies, and he Said That we are really "good sisters." After That, there were some other people in the ward who came and shook our hands and Told us That we are some of the most "good" sister That they have had. It felt really nice to be appreciated and to know That our love for the people and the church members here is returned to us. I love Taranto. This week we really not have been involved-in the ward Because We as well not have been visiting members and Bringing them spiritual thoughts for the month of invites. It Has Been a really great experience Because there is such a great spirit in the members' homes, and you can really feel That they have a Testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

In addition, Sister Bradford and I have so much fun together. We love talking to people on the streets, on buses, everywhere. And we love Taranto. It was really fun, being Able to laugh this week, even in times When Work felt slow. Man, I am so thankful That Sister Bradford and I can do at least one more transfer together.

Welp, that is all I have for now! Love you, Guys! I hope That You all have a great weekend.

Love, 

Sister Corey Cherrington

PS-Our stamp (stamp) ran out of ink this week and, in the search for a new ink pad, this random guy in a shop toner tried to "help" us by injecting a truck load of ink INTO the stamp! I tried to stop him, saying "Ummm ... do you like that?" And he responded by continuing to take action, saying, "I do not know (I do not know), I never did! (I do not know!'ve Never done this!" Lol, our poor little stamp is now broken, and now we have to get a new one ... At least we got a good laugh out of this though! The ink was everywhere, and it even got on Sister Bradford's neck! It was a pretty funny day.

Another quick note: This week, we went to the hospital again to visit some of our friends from church and friends of people in church. It was really great! I love Bringing people joy When they need it most, and I hope to be Able to continue to do this in the future. Love you, guys.

Il mio amato Taranto. Aiutami a fornire un servizio dove c'è bisogno di me, Signore ti prego

So, this week, all the forces of mission difficulty were against us, but it is okay!  Because we still succeeded in doing some really good work and in trying our best in everything that we did.  

This week, we started a really great program with our members here to prepare them for the month of invite (June).  I encourage all of you guys to prepare for this month as well!  It is the month when all the people in the church come together to show people who are not members that they are welcome.  Because everybody is welcome! (lol, I know what you are thinking, Ma.  It is nothing like the creepy "all are welcome" sign in that one movie... Poltergeist?  ;)  Sooo, we have already done this with 2 families, the Bonvissuto's and the Pastano's!  :D  It worked great both times because there was a grande missionary spirit!  :D  These two families are so strong, and we are so excited to help them feel comfortable inviting their friends to church.  

So, pranzo at the Pastano's house yesterday was soooo fun by the way!  :D  So, Emiliano Pastano is so fun!  On Easter, he told us "Buon Natale,"  merry Christmas, so since then, I have called him "Babbo Natale," Santa Claus!  And Emiliano had a guitar at his house that he let me pick up and play for a bit, and he told me, "If you can play good enough, I will let you have the guitar!"  I played for a while (Mamma Mia, did I miss playing...) and he ended up letting me have it!  XD  It was one of the most graaaaaande personal benedizioni I have yet recieved on my mission!  I missed the guitar sooooo much!  And now, I can start learning to play the hymns from Antonio Chitano's simplified hymn book that has the chords written in it!  I am soooo excited.  :D  I will be like Elder Karchner in Clearlake who could play "Nearer my God to thee" for all of us at the ward activity!  I will never forget that song they did for us.  :)  

Comunque!  We also did a scambio with the Sorelle di Cosenza!  :D (Sorelle Hibbert and Perkins).  It went sooo great!  :)  And, because I got to be with Sorella Hibbert (another of my past companions), we got to see how much each of us has grown.  WOW!  It was soooo great!  We were no longer totally scared to talk to people, we both speak Italian by now, and it was really great to be with Sister Hibbert again.  I consider her a good friend of mine.  She is also a really spiritual, awesome person. I was so thankful to be blessed with the opportunity to do a scambio with her.  Also, I really liked being able to finally see Cosenza (Sorella Worsham used to tell me all about it and about how much she loved it, and it has been the same with Soella Bradford!  :D  So I finally got to see and do work in the magnificent Cosenza that everybody was telling me about for so long.  

We saw many miracles there as well!  We were able to teach a lesson to one man on the street, and he agreed to pray with us!  He was so great!  :D  Also, we ended the day with 9 phone numbers!  Everybody there just seemed to be interested in hearing our message!  It was meraviglioso!  

Hmmmm.... And OH!  XD  I forgot to tell you all about Cornelia and crew!  So, Cornelia is one of our Simp's, is from Romania, takes care of a nice older lady named "Regina," and she is just the coolest!  Haha, but whenever we go to see her, like I said in an e-mail a few times back, we are swarmed by every older woman in the city of Taranto.  I actually really love it.  I enjoy talking to older people and letting them know that they are loved :)  Lol, and one of our friends that we met through Cornelia, S-------, is a bit off her rocker...  During lessons, or just conversations with Cornelia, S------ tells Cornelia, "Non parlare!  Parli troppo!"  In her loud, passionate, raspy voice because usually she wants to interrupt to tell us something else that she is thinking of.  It is a bit frustrating at times, but sort of humorous.  Suzie also loooooves me and she gives me an extra big kiss on my cheek every time I see her.  One day, I sat between her and Cornelia, and each of them had one of my arms in theirs.  I love them soooo much!  :D

Well, that is all I have time for this week!  I love you guys! 

-Sorella Corey Cherrington

ALL PICTURES ARE TAKEN IN TARANTO

Scambio meraviglioso con le sorelle a Crotone

Ciao, Tutti!  I just love you guys.  :D

Allora, this week?  So, we did a scambio this week with Crotone (aka- Sorella Kimball and Taylor!  :D)  It was sooo cool because me and sorella Kimball got to be together for the scambio!  It was really cool to be with her again, to see how much each of us has grown in these past 6 months, and to talk all about Ostia.  :)  I love Ostia with all my heart, and I miss it sooo much!  :D  She told me all about how the members are doing, and that Sorella Alicino and Teresa miss me.  :)  It was really nice to hear about Ostia.

Annnd, uau!  We just had a great week!  We have been having some of the best lessons that I have done my whole mission because we have come up with a new technique where we do quicker pass-offs between the both of us during lessons, and it is really cool to see how the Spirit works through us when we complete the things that the other person says by testifying and continuing a gospel principle.  I really enjoy teaching nowadays, and it used to be one of me weak points (I got way more nervous at the beginning of my mission).  I feel like the mission habits have set in, and a lot of things I could not do before are now 2nd nature.  I love my mission, you guys.  I have learned and grown so much.

Also, we taught _____ a couple times this week, and he really seems to be making progress.  His desire to quit smoking grows every time we see him, and he has a totally different view of baptism than he had when we first started teaching him.  We tried to set a date with him last night for him to be baptized and to work towards a goal for his baptism, but he said that he would think about the date and choose one himself because he does not want to make promises with God that he feels he cannot keep.  That is totally understandable, and he decided last night that the next step for him to progress is to come to church!  His progress is a bit more gradual, "Small, small," as he says :), but he is making progress nonetheless towards changing his life for the better.  Oh!  And the suggestion we got from President Waddoups worked!  We talked about the difference between Temples and churches, and that made _____ understand that the church is for imperfect people.  He now wants to come to church of his own merit.  

And, famiglia, if you have any advice for our friend, _____ it would be much appreciated because we want to help him quit smoking and to have faith in himself, that he can quit, but we don't know how to help him take the first steps to quit smoking for good.  And, Dad, I shared with him the story about how you stopped smoking because, when I was a kid, I picked up the stick off the ground and began imitating your smoking gestures.  I was not sure that _____ had remembered the story, but about a week or so later, he mentioned that story, saying, "Your Dad, you see, he stopped smoking because he saw that he was a bad example for you."  That started a conversation then about choosing your number 1 reason to quit (Dad's reason was to be a better example) and keeping that reason in mind, to help strengthen you in times of weakness.  In the next lesson, we talked about the temple and said that his journey to Baptism, and eventually to the temple could be his "one thing."  He changes more and more every time we see him.  I hope we can help him to feel the Spirit and to progress more this week.  

Hmmmm.... What else?  Oh!  _____ is absolutely amaz-a-zing!  He is one of our most loyal English course students- recently turned Simpatizzante, and he invited us over to his house for pranzo yesterday.  His entire family was there and they were really great!  They are all really intelligent and, apparently, _____ brother went to "The MIT of Italy" to study to be an Egineer.  They are so kind!  We also got to teach a bit of the first lesson to his sister, L..... and her husband, _____.  They are genuinely interested, and we got their phone number to be able to pass by them again soon.  It was such a great day.  Also, the view from their apartment was beautiful.  You could see all of the naval ships on the sea and the clouds were beautiful and there was sun on the water.  Guys, I love Taranto.  

Welp, I am really happy for Andrew and Emma.  :)  I wouldn't doubt Avri's statement that they were "one of the cutest couples at the prom."  Andrew looked really sharp in his suit and him and Emma looked so cool in the pic by his nice car :).  I am happy that they are having so much fun together.  And I can't wait to talk to Andrew this Saturday on Skype!  XD

Oh!  I almost forgot!  So, there was a baptism the other day in our church building, and the man being baptized was afraid of water.  Uh-oh!  So, they ended up closing the baptismal font and trying for the next few hours to help the man to go under the water.  It was so crazy because they told the man that he did not have to be baptized that day, but he said, "No, I have to do it. I still want to be baptized."  It was a sure test of his faith, but the Elders were ultimately able to help this man go under the water to be baptized.  I have never seen a baptism like that!  Lol, molto particolare, ma è stato un successo!  Che grande.  :) Well, I think that is all for now.  I love you guys, and I will write you all again next week!  :)

Love, 

Corey (Sorella Cherrington)

Sorella Bradford

Sorella Kimall and Bradford with the very large tub o chips!

Sorella Cherrington and Taylor with PIZZA!!!

Sorella Kimball 

Anziano _____ needs his beauty rest!!

Sorella Kimball and Cherrington

Sorella Bradford, Taylor and Kimball