Buon giorno di
ringraziamento! Happy thanksgiving!!
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| Thankgiving in Italy with our english class |
My 2nd
Thanksgiving in Italy was one for the books. We did a lot of cooking: potatoes,
rolls, pumpkin pie, etc..!!!!! And we set up some long tables for english
course and had a feast! We invited all the ward members too and had a great
turnout!! I think everyone had a great time, we did for sure. It was such a
great chance to make close friends with our english course students and help
connect them to the ward members a little bit. I have to mention that we had
one girl in complete shock when she realized no pasta was included in the
thanksgiving meal hahahaha. Yes, believe it or not, some people have meals
without pasta! Too funny.
Another funny food moment of the week: Well, we broke the
news to Anziano Castro (the Italian missionary in our district) that the grapes
in America don't have seeds. His jaw dropped through the floor, he could not
believe it. Yeah, grapes with seeds is the worst ever, so I'm just holding off
on the grapes until I return!
For those of you that have been asking if our heat got
turned on: yes, yes it did. We still have 0 control over it. It turns on every
day at like 5 pm and stays on for a few hours. In the morning, all the heat is
gone and we are wrapped in blankets for studies. Moral of the story: don't take
your thermostat for granted!
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| Tavernari family (ward mission leader) |
We had our
first correlation with Jonathan this week, he is awesome and we are definitely
going to get the ball rolling on lots of great things with him as our ward
mission leader. We started to plan things out for the ward Christmas party and
then we tried explaining to him that there's a chance some of us won't be here
for Christmas because of transfers. So Jonathan picks up his phone and dials
and the next thing we know, President Pickerd is on the other end of the
line...WHAT?!?!
Church was a
real party yesterday...Romeo, the
Anziani investigator, brought a friend to church! And then when
Gift walked into church, guess who was with her? Blessing! So I guess you could
say our investigators really understood the "missionary work" lesson
and are already being so awesome, inviting their friends to church. Gift and
Romeo are going to be baptized on December 16th and then after the baptism
we'll have the ward Christmas party!) We got to give a copy of the Book of
Mormon to Blessing, maybe Gift will bring her to another lesson this week and
the 3 of us will teach her the Restoration :) Oh and we had a
big ward lunch after, Italian style.
Stefania came
to church again! And she got called to be the secretary in relief society so we
are hoping that will be something the helps her come every week. In our visit
with her this week, Sorella DeMann was explaining a scripture we read and
Stefania busts up laughing and we are like "uhhhhh". she says
"excuse me sorelle, I just can't stop laughing because Sorella Neuberger
(no she didn't say my name, no one in this country can remember my name) made a
funny face". Huh. I have no idea what face I was making but apparently it
was hilarious and hey, I'm here to entertain.
While finding
one day this week, we talked to a Catholic monk. That was cool. But also sad.
"Do you believe God speaks to us today?" Monk: "HA, no
way!" He couldn't even wrap his mind around it. But we got to testify to
Him that God loves us the same today as He did in biblical times so of course
He will continue to speak to us.
On Wednesday,
the youth of the branch (all 4 of them) had an activity and we were invited! It
was on missionary work and helping them prepare to serve missions. It was so
much fun being with them and making friends with them and explaining what we do
every day and why we love it :) We gave each youth a copy of the Book of Mormon
to give to a friend!
We met with
Theresa this week, she's a tough cookie. Did I say that last time? Nothing's
changed. We asked her if she prayed to know the church/Book of Mormon is true.
She said "yes, but I didn't get an answer". Then we asked if she had
prayed to know the catholic church is true (she's a devout catholic). She said
"no, but I already know it's true, even though it's slightly corrupt and
has lots of issues, I know they'll be fixed one day". If anyone wants to
help us make sense of this situation, it would be greatly appreciated :)
We also met
with Irene this week!!!!! Oh wow she is just the happiest, smiliest person
ever. Even talking to her on the phone you can tell she has the biggest smile
on her face, it's the best. But, she's kind of in the same situation as
Theresa. Meaning she is waiting on an answer. We explained that the answer will
be a feeling that comes through the Holy Ghost and that if she prays, reads,
and comes to church, she will receive that answer.
So in our
lesson with Stefania, I just couldn't resist asking how she got her answer
(even though it had nothing to do with what we were talking about). And let me
tell you! It was GREAT hearing someone tell us they got an answer and
"felt a good feeling when they met with the sorelle and went to
church"!!! Hey Stefania, can you please come with us and tell that to
Theresa and Irene? Great, thanks. :)
We walked 10
miles on Saturday, not to a destination, but just with all the finding we were
doing! There was one point when we heard a group of people speaking english so
we turned around and asked where they were from: Greece and the Czeck Republic!
They are exchange students here in Italy and really bummed that no one here
speaks english so they have to learn Italian. After talking about what they
were doing here, we got to tell them why we are here! And invited them to
church :)
Transfer calls
are tonight! It's kind of a bummer the way they do it in this mission because
Sorella DeMann doesn't know if she's leaving so she says goodbye to people and
hey maybe she'll stay hahaha. And also we find out tonight and none of you will
know until next week. Guess I'm just adding a wonderful element of suspense to
your life ;) Anyways, Sorella DeMann and I are hoping to do a 3rd transfer
together but that's rare. So it's in the Lord's hands. Vediamo!!
Pday was great
today, we had gorgeous weather and Paola took us on a beautiful giro! We saw
some ancient ruins, drove along the coast, this island is absolutely beautiful.
These past 2
transfers, I have been focusing on studying the Book of Mormon cover to cover
and I finished this morning with these beautiful verses in the last chapter of
Moroni: "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things,
if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how
merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam
even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in
your hearts. And when ye
shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the
Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye
shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he
will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the
power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."
This is such a
beautiful promise to all of us. Sorella DeMann and I have been memorizing these
verses in Italian this transfer and I am so blessed to be able to extend this
promise every day. I know that if we pray with a sincere heart and real intent,
God will manifest the truth unto us. He loves us and wants us to know for
ourselves!!
Oh and! There's
a new mormon message out, it's a modern day version of the Good Samaritan and
it is really amazing so I invite you to go watch it! It's really short! https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages
Love yall, have
a great week!
XOXO
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| more p-day pictures |
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| Roasting marshmallows by candlelight |
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| Alghero |
Sorella Carley Neuberger
Le Sorelle Missionarie
Corso Giovanni Pascoli 25
Sassari, SS 07100
Italia
"It’s not how much you have but how much you
love." -Elder Uchtdorf. I opened my scriptures to this chapter and came across this note (see picture) on a day I really needed it. It brought me to tears. Thank you Claire, I love you!
