Subject: Rockin' RAGUSA calves..

Buon Giorno Tutti, Ciao Famiglia,

I write you and send good tidings of peace and joy from the hills of Ragusa. All I know is when we walk in the door at 9 pm, I go straight to my chair and collapse. Between the heat and the hills, I am so exhausted by the end of the day. This is a gorgeous city that is smaller than Siracusa, and much much richer. No, no fridges are dropped off balconies, you dont see blown up cars by the mafia, its a lot richer. Its a lot different from Siracusa, mainly because it is built on a giant hill, of which we live at the top of ("Upper Ragusa" The church is in a little garage, no big chapel. There are about 40 members in church, so still a pretty good size branch. There are no homeless people here, THAT is different. There are still a lot of foreigners, which actually has been a little bit difficult in coming to know the work here. So far this week we have worked with a lot of Albanians, Romanians, Africans, and even some people from China. We have some good work here, but its hard with some of the current investigators, because we have a language barrier, and not with Italian and English, but with some of these people we are teaching who really don't understand Italian. We have a place called Ibla which is like the most gorgeous place I've ever seen, Ragusa is built in a little valley, with mountains all around, so its actually a little but cooler. The nights are gorgeous because they cool off. The other night we went to Ibla to do the Mostra with the Anziani, little did we know after descending down to Ibla (its at the very bottom of Ragusa) on an ancient staircase that takes 20 minutes to get down to the bottom of, we realized we chose the very night in which was a Catholic Procession of San Giovani (the Saint of Ibla--each city has a saint it is dedicated to) I have been wanting to see one of these since I got to Sicily. They are crazy. So we are waiting here among thousands of Catholics, and then finally this giant statue starts to descend from this huge cathedral, being carried by about 15 Sicilian men, they come down with several statues of this Saint, and then do a trip around the city. Long story short, among all of these thousands of Catholics, I found this 21 yr old girl named Martina. She passed by our mostra sign and I could tell she was thinking about it...one of the signs proposes a question "Why would God permit suffering to Good people?" I approached her and started talking to her. We had an amazing conversation, and she told me "I dont even know why, but something I feel as were talking tells me that I should learn more about this" Those are cool moments right there, that don't happen all the time, but they happen. We got her number and hope to see her this week. We also this week were down in Ibla again (its a good place to do finding, because there is a Univ. there with lots of young people..) so we were amidst a crowd of people there for another procession on Sunday night, and we were next to this girl. Sorella Smith turned to me and was , we need to talk to this girl before we go home. I looked at her, and the longer I looked at her the more familar she became...I soon realized that I DID know this girl. I met her and attempted to teach her, my first transfer in the mission, on a bus ride from Messina, to Catania, with Sorella Morgan. We gave her a pamphlet. Then, 5 months later, in Ragusa, "some how" in a crowd of thousands of Catholics gathered to pay tribute to a statue. THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES!!!!!!!!!! Wow. WE were able to teach her there in front of the cathedral, and get her infornmation.

This has been a difficult experience, leaving Siracusa. I cried on the ride from Siracusa to Ragusa. I have had dreams almost every night about Rosa, or other amazing people froim Siracusa. I miss it a lot, but Im starting to get my grips about this city. My companion won't speak English, which is good. Trials are opportunities in disguise. Its just a good reminder, that when life is "easy" we can never take that for granted. I had been praying for an Italian companion for my birthday, so I guess this is actually an early present/answer to prayer that I didnt realize I wanted! haha

Oh, I realised another blessing that the Lord has blessed me with. So far, in every district on the mission, I have had an Elder who speaks Spanish. Here in Ragusa Anziano Fernande-Ruiz, is Dominican . He is so rad, so he printed me some spanish letters from his family to read. We exchange a "palabra" or 2 and its good ha.

Something funny the other day, we were doing house on this tiny little street in Old ragusa, like old streets, gorgeous little apartments all just bursting with delicous Italian food scents coming from them,(there is a reason we do house around 8 pm!!!! hah just playing) and we go to repass a family they had met a few weeks ago. We ring the bell, and a guy comes out on his balcony, with just his curtain around him, you can clearly see that he has nothing on underneath, but this drape wraped around him, hes all "CHI é!???" (they all yell that from their balcony, or from behind the door before they open the door, or unlock it for us to come up, its basically "WHo is it?") Anyways, we were like woooowwwww there, dont even worry about it we will come back another day! haha

Anyways, I love Ragusa. I miss seeing the Sea, but its really a gorgeous city--that is famous for its Foccacia and Riccota. BAD NEWS right there!!!!!! Haha. My head hurts every day when I come home from speaking so much Italian. Literaly this whole week I have probably said 2 sentences in English. I love you all, and thank you for your prayers. I'll try to print pics this week. Im getting super dark. My feet are destroyed, they are straight calluses. I used to have cute feet kinda...despite the snaggle toe. Now they are just rock hard haha. WEll, I dont really know what else to write, and I still have to write my presidents letter, so UN ABBRACCIO, vi voglio tanto tanto bene

-MONICA

...Sorella Miller

ps. So really, in just a week, I feel like my calves have never looked better! The stairmasters got nothinn on thse Ragusa hills!!!! ha