Sorella and Anziano Gardanier

Steve's grandma Simonson often taught that any skill or talent we have can be used to help build the Kingdom of God. We didn't expect that our 'everyday life' skills could be so useful on a mission. 

A few people have asked us if we are really having as much fun as it seems in our letters. We want to be careful not to over sell it, so we will just say... YES!!!  Oh my goodness, it is sooooo much fun! Seriously, even better than we imagined. We can't believe we are allowed to do this. The missionaries are so kind and constantly spoil us. This past week we both had the blessing to 'ride along' with the younger missionaries. Laura had the unique opportunity to spend her birthday doing splits with the sister missionaries in Monza. They started the day by studying together and then taught a lesson about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost being three separate beings. They continued the day by going out in the sweltering heat to search out those who might be interested in listening to a message about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they found 8 people. Finally, they ended the day by attending two baptisms. Laura came home exhausted but inspired by the enthusiasm and hard wor...

It was a full circle, " waters of Mormon " moment this week when we celebrated our 31st anniversary in Italy.  This country has meant so much to us.  It is where we first met when serving our first missions, returned for our honeymoon, and now get to serve together once again as missionaries. How beautiful is this country to our eyes...where we have been so blessed...and we will surely sing its praises forever.   

We literally and spiritually had the opportunity, along with 200 missionaries in the Italy Milan Mission, to sit at the feet of an apostle of Jesus Christ and listen to his message.

  In order to make the most of the upcoming visit of an apostle of the lord to our mission (Elder Andersen), President Wood challenged everyone to find ways to consecrate ourselves more fully. As a couple, we decided to start each day off at 6:30 by studying some of Elder Andersen’s past general conference talks. We found that as we spiritually binged on many talks by a single apostle we began to feel a personal connection to him and gain a greater testimony of his call. While we studied Elder Andersen’s talks over the years, we also noticed common themes and patterns. For example, we love how much he talks about, and testifies of, our savior Jesus Christ. We also noticed that he fills his talks with promises. In his talk “ It’s a miracle ” a couple of phrases really resonated with us: