Monday, September 18, 2017

Miracoli ovunque❤

Buongiorno! (sorry this is a long one. feel free to just look at the pictures:) )

Wow this week has been crazy but awesome. I'll start by attempting to explain the biggest miracle of the week/my mission thus far. It's a little difficult to explain so bear with me. :)

OK. SO. 
On Tuesday the Anziani were at the church waiting for someone to show up to an appointment they had set up several days ago. At the same time, Sorella DeMann and I were at the Giardini, our favorite finding park, waiting on a contact that wanted to meet up, Cristina! As we were waiting, we noticed a mom and her 3 children playing on the playground. Sorella DeMann said, "Hey I think I've talked to that lady before maybe? If I'm thinking of the right person, she's from Brazil and doesn't speak Italian well. But she seemed really on top of things, and she seemed like a family oriented mom." 

So we looked in our phone under the name we thought.....there it was! Apparently they've tried to contact Diana before but she never answered. While we were waiting on Cristina to show up for the lesson, we call the Anziani, we didn't know what they would be doing but we thought it would be so cool to give Diana a portuguese Book of Mormon. Turns out they are at the church because the person they were trying to meet with didn't show up. They weren't doing anything at the time and they happened to find a portuguese Book of Mormon AT THE CHURCH?!?! What. They sprint to the bus stop and catch a bus all the way across town. 

Meanwhile...... Sorella DeMann and I are teaching Cristina about the restoration. She has been taught by missionaries before, so we just wanted to see how familiar she was with everything. It was a good lesson! She brought her cute baby boy, his name is Gesu (Jesus). Apparently it was his birthday and his cake was going to have Jesus, the Madona, and Padre Pio on it (if you know, you know). Right as the lesson was ending, the Anziani come sprinting into the park with a portuguese Book of Mormon!! 

Fortunately, Diana was still there so we walked up to talk to her, she said she remembered Sorella DeMann. And oh wow the look on her face when she opened the book and realized it was in portuguese. It was so powerful. She started reading it and as we were walking away, we kept turning around to see if she was still reading. She was! So many things came together so perfectly for us to be able to place the Book of Mormon with Diana that day. It is all the Lord and His timing, it truly is miraculous. 
Finding people to teach.

We have been doing lots of finding this week, trying to find new investigators. Just someone to share our message with. That being said, we did A LOT of "casa in casa" meaning door to door ringing citofono. You go down the list and if someone wants, they can buzz you in! Well, we got to one apartment complex and the door was unlocked so naturally we went in. Starting at the top floor working our way down knocking on everyone's doors. The funny thing about this is that some people have peepholes with covers. But if you're standing outside the door you can hear them uncover the peephole and look at you. So it's pretty hysterical when they do that and don't open the door hahahaha. Anyway. A family in the building let us into their apartment!! I think we were so in shock we didn't even know what to do when we were invited in hahaha. Sorella DeMann said that's only happened to her 1 other time since she's been here (almost 1 year). They were a cute family from Iran, we showed them the "Because of Him" video which always brings the spirit so strongly. It was cool to testify of Christ and see them feel something too. 

First day of school picture. Taken in front of the school. (It was the first day of school here.)
We did a gesso this week and it was kind of raining...not a lot just drizzling. It's funny how Italians love to point out weather things. So almost every person we were trying to stop didn't say anything but "it's raining" and kept walking hahahah. We found this hysterical for some reason. Once it stopped we had a little more success talking with people. There was a guy about our age who approached the anziani (<-- major plot twist..) and asked, "what do mormons believe" and they got to briefly explain to him! So cool.

There's an older lady in the branch, Sorella Fiori, it was her birthday on Saturday! So we decided to take her some flowers, she lives by herself. She lives out of the city and it was really an adventure getting there, including walking next to the guardrail, but we made it! She is the cutest, we got to wish her a happy birthday and share a little thought.

When we made it back to the city, we went to the Giardini (park) and saw a man sitting on a bench reading a book! Sorella DeMann and I talked over how to approach him....he likes to read so why not read the Book of Mormon, right?!? He told us that once he finished his book, he'll start the book of mormon :)

Dinner at the Bishop's home
Last night we went with the Anziani to dinner at the branch president's home, his family (5 kids) live in an actual house, very uncommon in Italy. Their kids are the cutest. Also I thought that Italian dinner was supposed to be small. Maybe it is. But what we had last night was nothing small. The first course was a heaping plate of pesto pasta (so yum) and a heaping plate of pasta carbonara (so yum). I would've been very full if the meal ended there. The meal did not end there. They brought out these huge meatballs. Oh wow they were delicious but no wayyyy could I eat all of that plus the potatoes and giant salad that were also on my plate. It was literally like a stereotypical missionary moment....I was sweating and trying to eat and swallow my food it was so much. Luckily I was sitting next to Anziano Dunn, if you saw him, you would know why this was lucky. He may or may not have helped out with my meatballs. No one will ever know for sure. Then we had a big piece of ice cream cake. Wow. We had to take the elevator up to our apartment when we got home and Sorella DeMann said, "that wasn't even bad...". Enough said.

On Friday we decided to venture to the other side of the city to Parco di Monserrato! Look it up, I'm sure there are pictures on google or something it is absolutely beautiful. It is undoubtedly a place where the spirit can be felt, just by entering. I can't fully explain. Unfortunately we timed it wrong and there wasn't anyone there except the gardener or worker man, Antonio. He told us when prime time was so we will definitely be going back there! We were debating whether we should talk to Antonio or not and we just figured why not. We told him we were showing a video, it's only 2 minutes, he said yes! So we showed him "Because of Him". It was amazing to see the changes that occured in his countenance in those 2 short minutes. When the video ended all he could say was "che bello", how beautiful. It was a moment that definitely brought tears to my eyes, standing in that beautiful, serene park so full of the spirit. How beautiful. How beautiful that Because of Him we can be happy, experience joy in this life and in the life to come. How beautiful that we can be forgiven of sin, have eternal families, and experience life in the fullest. How beautiful. I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and this opportunity I have to be a missionary and share this beautiful message with the people of Sardegna. It is all because of Him. 

I love you all and hope that you have a good week!! xoxoxox
English course friends

Pizza after English course

Someone got a hold of my camera during English course.


Sorella DeMann eating a kebab.  My first kebab.
(Apparently, I only take pictures when I eat.)




Sorella Carley Neuberger
Le Sorelle Missionarie
Corso Giovanni Pascoli 25
Sassari, SS 07100
Italia