CIAO LA MIA FAMIGLIA E CARI AMICI!!!
 
So according to the guesses of my teachers in the MTC...one of them was right!! Fratello Tate is the winner and I am currently in the BEAUTIFUL city of Modena! It is as hot as an oven here, and I do NOT go a day without sweating my brains out! I am currently sweating like a pig sitting here in the email room, but it is all apart of the mission experience right? I wake up feeling like I have been hit by a bus, which is not uncommon here...people do NOT stop for you worth beans...if you are in the way, you WILL get hit, and it WILL be your fault. I am never clean...My hands always look like mechanic's hands due to my bici...Yes, I am in a biking district and yes, everyone gets a good laugh when we pass by. I didn't have to buy a bike this transfer, but I do have to buy a new camera. It has been very frustrating to break down and do it, but it broke the first day here :( Who knows, maybe I'll run into someone to teach. But anyway, you just know you've had a good day when you go to clean your hands and especially legs, and you can't tell the difference between dirt and bruises...I have permanent bruises below my left knee from my pedals resting on my leg. It is a little embarassing sometimes because I can't get started on the bike right away...riding in a skirt is DIFFICULT!! But I am SO GLAD i know how to laugh at myself...I don't go a day without doing it.
 
I am starting to get used to the city and really loving the people there. Miracles happen every day and we really feel the city is going to be set a FLAME!! At first, I asked the question I really thought I never would...and that's "What in the WORLD am I doing here!?" And that was only because of all the anxiety and cancelled appointments. BUT I have learned that when you put faith in the Lord He DOES bless you!! For every appointment we have had cancel on us, we've had opportunities to teach...about 3 lessons during the time that we could MAYBE share one! It has been amazing. My companion is Sorella Snograss and she is a veteran. This is her second to last transfer and she wasn't really thrilled at first...But now she has more excitement than ever and is excited to get going!!
 
I just cannot testify of the beauty of this work, and the power of opening your mouth. Everywhere we go I always make an effort to say hello to people or have a smile on my face...and it's working. I KNOW that the Lord is blessing us with people. We have so many appointments everyday just from strada e casa in casa (tracting). As an appointment was cancelled on us the other day, we started walking on the street and met an Arabian man from Morrocco who took us to a park to meet his family. They weren't interested at all, but they fed us and listened to us just the same. Even though HIS family didn't accept the message, the park we were introduced to is an absolute GOLDMINE!! We have given out at LEAST 1-2 copies of the Book of Mormon everyday and in whatever language there is! You think of a language, and I am pretty sure we have run into at least one person who speaks it. I have yet to contact someone who's true language is Italian...at least on the street. It's just amazing and I glory in it!
 
Another miracle I HAVE to tell...baptisms are coming!! After we had an appointment on Friday with a beatiful inactive woman, and we asked her to pray that we could find a family to teach. She said she would and we left...only to enter this really creepy piazza...with bullet holes in doors and just...urgh...it gave me the creeps. So we started at the 7th floor and worked our way down. A few days go by and we knock on the last door of the last floor and a woman opens it....She peeks out and all of a sudden the door swings open and after a bit, she decides to let us in. During our lesson, she told us that she felt something different with us, and she wanted us to come back and teach her daughter. During the lesson, one by one the family trickled in. the husband is Muslim, she is Catholic, and the daughter is just beautiful with not really anything to grab on to. So as the lesson progressed, they invited us back to dinner yesterday. And of course, I forgot that Italians eat...A LOT...We had a pizza to ourselves...which I can eat...yeah...crazy! BUT you don't feel guilty because it is made so differently here and it is delicious!! So, we had pizza and I thought that was it...the family offered pieces of theirs...a mushroom piece and then a napoletano piece...which is a cheese pizza with anchovies...Ugh...I had no IDEA anchovies were hairy!! It was truly salty, but the family was offering us ALL they had and so I ate it...quickly and without thinking about it. On top of that I ate most of my pizza and got approval from the father because only a 1/4 was left of mine and Sorella Snodgrass still had 3/4 of hers...But there was more to come...The mother, Rosanna, is from Southern Italy and so she was so proud to give us Southern style clams and muscles...WHICH were delicious...on top of that was canteloupe and on top of that was icecream and we brought brownies as a gift....And to be honest, that was the first time I have been full in a week. We've been living off of bread and tuna and cereal for quite a while...luckily we can shop today!! I'm not complaining...I wouldn't trade things for anything!! It's just VERY expensive to live here...my granola bars have been literally saving me. I am NEVER full...always hungry...but the Lord qualifies me everyday :) But going back to this family, the father left for a smoke...we were explaining the plan of salvation and he left...and Rosanna just started telling us EVERYTHING...She cried talking about her struggles and that she let us in because she KNEW that we were angels sent to her by God. The daughter, Sarah, loves us and she just keeps telling her mom how much she enjoys our company whenever she can. It is TRULY a blessing to know them!! We have an appointment on Thursday for another lesson, and then on Sunday Rosanna and Sarah decided to come to church with us and the father, Ricardo, who is DEFNITELY more resistant, insisted that we come back for dinner...cous-cous...on Sunday. Absolutely insisted. We know that he knows what we say is true, but he is SO insistant on his muslim beliefs that it is a little difficult. But I know rosanna and sarah will get baptized soon...i know it!! They just feel the truth and HUNGER for more each time...Rosanna and Sarah pray often and DEVOUR the scriptures when we read to them...it is BEAUTIFUL. On Saturday we are teaching quite a few people in the park and there is just SO MUCH TO BE DONE!!! I wouldn't trade it for the world!!ù
 
Thank you all for your emails and the support you give me. The gelato is delicious and my favorite thing to have!! The humid is a monster, but thank goodness for curly hair. The district I am in is AMAZING! Anziano Proctor is companions with the DL and the zone is great and I am IMPRESSED with our AP's...literally our mission is GREAT!! I only get mail like once every transfer, so if you write me, I WILL write back as SOON as I get the mail!! Paper and things are VERY expensive here, so when funds come in, I'll purchase some. You CAN email me, I just can't email back :) I DO have an hour for emails...so it's good! :)
 
The gospel is true and people really can change to know the truth. The ward here, from what I've heard, is...wonderful but difficult at the same time. A LOT of work needs to be done in getting the members to help us with appointments and things...but I feel a change coming and it is going to be FABULOUS!! Friends and family, this church is TRUE!! I know it and I know that the Savior is in the heart of my efforts and I feel His help EVERYDAY!! I love this mission and I am so grateful for the comfort the atonement brings. Embrace it and love it and come closer to your Savior everyday!!
 
Con amore sempre,
Sorella Camille Bowman
 
PENSO A VOI SEMPRE!!!

Hey Dad!
The work is absolutely MAGNIFICENT here!! I have been called to serve in Modena...other than Firenze, it is the hottest city in Italy. When I am teaching, I teach EVERY SINGLE LESSON. My companion is absolutely wonderful and I feel that we work really well together. And yes...I have felt to teach something different...There is a woman from Ghana and we planned to teach her about having a testimony...but it just did not feel right and so we just tried to emphasize the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon...she does not understand English very well...but we are trying. She HAS to gain a testimony before anything else can progress. From the whisperings of the Spirit...I KNOW not to EVER lose hope. The Lord has directed us in SO MANY WAYS to go to certain places. We have had many people cancel appointments with us, and as such I have found that when we put our efforts to the Lord, He blesses us with 3 new opportunities to teach for every one lost. It is truly going to be awesome this transfer. My companion has been here a while and she was a little drained when I showed up...but the work is BLOOMING here in Modena and she said yesterday that it is the first time she has actually been excited in a while :) it is so great! My faith is being exercised all the time...the fact of dropping investigators and knowing that the Lord will provide, or stopping people who do not speak english or italian and still trying the best you can to teach them. everyday it is exercised. I have been blessed to have my testimony grow in SO many ways. Dad, I cannot even explain it. There is so much to be done! But I really know that there is a power in saying hello to people...we ride around on our bikes and EVERYONE knows who we are...we are pretty much the ONLY people who were helmets...literally and ride in skirts...and I have just taken it to be an opportunity to say hello to practically everyone I see. I may not be able to stop and teach them all I want to...but I can make a difference by opening my mouth any way I can...and it has made all the difference! the Lord qualifies those He calls!!
 
Love you bunches and thank you for your testimony!!
love,
Sorella Camille Bowman