Buon Anno!
Happy New Year! It seems like 2016 started yesterday, but I am so excited to see what the new year holds! And I can't wait to dedicate my entire 2017 to the Lord and His work here in Italy!! I loved having the New Year start on a Sunday, the first thing we did in the new year was partake of the sacrament! What better way to start 2017 than by remembering our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This week's email is going to be an "explaining the pictures email" but first a few notes:
Update on Gianfranco- he is meeting with the Anziani and will hopefully be baptized this month! We are so excited for him.
We got to go to a baptism in Napoli this week! Cool story, one of the Anziani in our district baptized a man named Evans a few months ago and this past week, Evans baptized his son. It was such a sweet ceremony to be apart of!
We had another great lesson with Sofia this week, she is reading and loving the Book of Mormon. We are meeting with her again tonight so I'm really excited for that! Also it's nice to be able to actually communicate during her lessons because they're in english!! Italian is coming slowly.....I'll leave it at that!
Pictures
1-2: We spent last Monday at La Reggia, the castle here in Caserta!(google it, it is huge) A couple weeks ago our district was caroling out on the street and we were "recruited" to sing at the Reggia for a special Christmas thing they were doing! So when we got there, they put us in these cool outfits and did our hair and makeup- it was legit. Our district spent the entire afternoon singing Christmas carols in a room at the Reggia! It was an awesome experience and we got to meet so many new people. The girl next to me in the district picture is Francesca and she is now one of our investigators! She's 16 and super cute and curious about the gospel. We had our first lesson with her this week and she wants to be baptized so we're excited to keep teaching with her and getting to know her better.
1-2: We spent last Monday at La Reggia, the castle here in Caserta!(google it, it is huge) A couple weeks ago our district was caroling out on the street and we were "recruited" to sing at the Reggia for a special Christmas thing they were doing! So when we got there, they put us in these cool outfits and did our hair and makeup- it was legit. Our district spent the entire afternoon singing Christmas carols in a room at the Reggia! It was an awesome experience and we got to meet so many new people. The girl next to me in the district picture is Francesca and she is now one of our investigators! She's 16 and super cute and curious about the gospel. We had our first lesson with her this week and she wants to be baptized so we're excited to keep teaching with her and getting to know her better.
3-4: photoshoot at district meeting this week because it was my last day with my birth family! Sad. No tears were shed in the making of these photos. We're holding up what number transfer we're in and we're sitting on the number of chairs equivalent to our transfer bumber. I was so blessed to be born into such an awesome family, I have learned so much from each of them in the past 6 weeks. I have so many good examples to look up to. Not only has this group become some of my closest friends, but they've taught me how to be a missionary. :)
5-6: Sorella Hess and I decided to branch out this week and do some finding in Maddaloni! It's in our area and is about a 15 minute train ride from Caserta. We saw a beautiful church, some old castle ruins, and an interesting seafood market.... featuring this octopus. Sorella Hess and I were taking pictures of each other when this man comes over and scoops up the giant octopus with his. bare. hands. We just tried to hold back the screams and smile for the picture!
7: Saturday was our "deep clean the apartment" day because Italians go hard for New Year's and it's dangerous for us to be outside during that chaos. But we did get to see fireworks! I'm pretty sure they lasted all night, I could feel out apartment building literally shaking. From where we live, we could see more fireworks than all the fireworks I've seen in my entire life combined. It was insane and definitely one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed. Italians don't mess around on their holidays!! It was a New Year's Eve that I'll never forget, that's for sure.
8: We found Burger King in Caserta!!!!!! Notice our huge smiles :)
9: pday in Napoli today❤❤
10: We got to visit Mary Joy this week and took some pictures with her cute kids :) We shared with her one of my favorite conference talks, "Come What May and Love It". I know that no matter what we're going through, we can endure with the Lord's help! Thanks to Christ's atonement, we can be happy even in times of hardship.
My mom shared a quote with me this week that I really love, "Success is a journey, not a destination." As we all strive for success this new year, let's find joy in the journey!! Let's enjoy every minute of the journey: come what may and LOVE it. I'm so happy to be a missionary! Io so che Dio ci ama!
Love you all and hope you have an awesome week!!
XOXO,
Carley
Carley
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| Getting our hair done for the performance at the Palace |
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| Christmas day at a members home on the Naval Base. |
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| Cute dog |
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| Cute kids |
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| New district |
