ite zese fatende

Some of the english course students taught me that phrase this week, it's Sardo! Aka Sardinian dialect for "cosa stai facendo". 

Ciao a tutti! Hope yall had a great week, I'll start with a miracle:  The anziani were walking through the park the other day on their way home when a guy stops them and says "What church are you guys from? Because I had a dream last night that I needed to come to this park to meet 2 men in white shirts and ties" WHAT?! Meet Romeo, the newest investigator in Sassari who came to church yesterday-- and brought his brother. (baptismal date TBD hahah).

Chase in Korea!!!

Another cool miracle this week... since we are a facebook mission I got a random facebook message one day from a completely random name, definitely Asian. My initial reaction was "I don't know you" and I opened the message to see a picture of Chase and his companion sitting on the floor with a family (see picture attached). Definitely brought tears to my eyes, it is so awesome how the Lord brings us happiness when we need it most.

Miracle number 3... Gift came to church yesterday and our Sunday school lesson was on tithing. After the class we were standing in the hall talking when she comes up to us and says, "come here! I have to show you something!!" And takes us to where the tithing slips and envelopes are. She then asked us how to fill one out. So we showed her. And then she proceeded to put a lot of money into that envelope. Wow we were shocked but it was so awesome!! She is such an example to us of living every principle of the gospel! And she isn't even baptized (YET.. baptismal date TBD!!) We are meeting with her tonight and praying she will accept the invite to follow Christ's example and be baptized :) It has been a slow process because she can't read and has never been to school, so learning is definitely a struggle! But we are making slow progress and yesterday was a good indication of that progress.

We spent a lot of this week prepping for the big Halloween party. Sorella Demann and I put a ton of work into this thing and it definitely paid off. With the help of Kiri, an awesome, American member. One day we were at her house cutting out decorations and apparently it's her tradition every time a new missionary comes to their ward to facetime the parents. That being said, I gave her my dad's phone number and we got to talk for a little!!! It was so cool and kinda weird. There's a reason we don't do that every day. But it was awesome. Thank you dad, for answering a facetime call from a random Italian number :)

Twinners

So yes. Halloween. It's not very celebrated here but we made flyers and did a lot of finding handing them out to random people on the street trying to get more than the members to come to this party!! It was a huge success. For those of you that don't know, European missionaries rarely get to see success...so when a party goes really well.. SUCCESS! We got to actually see the fruits of our labors it was amazing. We completely transformed the chapel/cultural hall. We strung decorations across the ceiling, all over the walls, and had a bunch of fun games set up all around the room it was beautiful. I won't tell you how much time we spent on this (so worth it). 

About 30 minutes before the party started, in walks.....SABRINA AND HER NIECE!! We had called her (no answer) and texted her (no response) to invite her to the party. She came by to salute us and bring a plate of treats even though she couldn't stay. Woah. :)))))))

About 30 minutes after the party started, in walks.....STEFANIA! She is the less active that we have been working with, she hasn't come to church since I've been here but this party was a good baby step. The members were so excited to see her and so sweet to her :)

Pietro came to the party too! Kiri's husband, Johnathan, spent the night playing chess with him and telling his conversion story. Johnathan pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon and promised Pietro if he would read from the Italian copy and the english copy every day, he would learn english. And that he will find a job. It was amazing to see Pietro listen and take to heart the things he was saying. I love seeing him open up slowly and he is definitely starting to feel and have a desire to learn more!! Plus he came to church yesterday :) stay tuned.

We had so many members come to the festa and so many random people that saw our sign or got a flyer on the street! It was awesome getting to meet new people and talk in a normal atmostphere. Everything about Saturday night was perfect and just felt very normal. I was just soaking up every minute of it because the mission is a roller coaster of emotions that is most of the time out of your control..........

Friends from English course that came to the party.

*cue the time change* Yes, our clocks already fell back an hour and wow we are straight up struggling. So Sunday night we found ourselves outside at 5:30 pm in the dark, wind, cold, rain, ringing citofonos. We got let into a building and when we went inside Sorella DeMann said "this looks like tower of terror!" because the elevator was slightly ghetto.... We should've taken a hint. But no. We got on the elevator and (you have to push and hold the button to go up) well the button stopped working halfway between the ground and 1st floor. NONE of the buttons worked. Stuck on an elevator, in the dark. The lights flickered for a minute then when out. By some miracle we got service in the elevator and were able to call the anziani to help free us. We called the number inside the elevator and whew. From Saturday night to Sunday night we went from one end of the spectrum to another. That's the mission for ya! 

If anyone has an ideas of what we are supposed to do when it's dark outside and no one is out, let me know. When we were doing casa in casa everyone was in their pajamas telling us "it's too late!!!" at 7pm before they've eaten dinner. OK. hahaha gotta love Italians. 

Scripture of the week: Alma 26:3 "this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work." It truly is a blessing that I get to be an instrument in God's hands to further His work in Sassari. I know that each of us has a part to play to bring about this great work! It really is a blessing bestowed upon us. Thank you for all of your emails and prayers! I love yall! Buona settimana! Ci sentiamo!!

XOXO

Sorella Carley Neuberger

Stuck on elevator.

     

Elder Ballard

Happy pday!  Transfer calls came and went, Sorella DeMann and I will be together for another 6 weeks! I'm pumped, I'm really learning a lot from her and she's a great missionary. Plus we have too much fun :)

I'll start with some exciting mission news.... the island of Malta opened up a Sorelle area!!!!!! So now there are 2 sisters on Malta which is just the coolest ever. And one of them is......Sorella Oehler!!!!!!! Yes, my MTC companion is opening Malta for sorelle. So so so so so cool. The work is growing! Slowly but surely. On the other hand, 2 cagliari sorelle got sent to different parts of the mission so now there are only 2 sorelle in cagliari. Which means..... I am 1 of 6 sisters on the island of Sardinia! Pretty cool :) Other than that and 1 zone leader, no one got transferred off the island. Our zone is the exact same which is awesome, we will all get to know each other and help each other with the work! Sardegna sta fiorendo.

A ward member gave us a referral at the beginning of last transfer. An older lady named Francesca who had been taught before and had come to church in the past but hasn't come or been taught in a while because of different medical problems. Well we have been trying her citofono for 6 weeks and FINALMENTE she answered! No questions asked just told us what floor :) (that never happens) and we got to visit with her for a little! She is a talker mama mia but she does just need someone to talk to. We are hoping to help get her back to church because she loved it and loved the people there!!

Speaking of Francesca....we got a new contact this week named Francesca. She was sitting on a bench in centro and we showed her "Grazie a Lui" she said she wants to learn more when she gets back from Venice at the end of November! You better believe we put it on our calendar. 

We had pranzo with Pietro again this week, gnocchi and pesto-- yum! 

Lunch with Pietro.

I got my Permesso renewal documents sent off......my fingerprinting appointment isn't until March 20th so I am going to get to come back to Sardinia in March! Gotta love the speedy Italian gov.

We had a lesson with Donatella this week! We may have set up that appointment on accident..... I was calling everyone in the phone and she wanted to meet so we set it up! Then Sorella DeMann said, "Donatella? She's our Jehovah's Witness friend" oh mama mia. She is so sweet and she most definitely has the light of Christ, so we were very hopeful going into that lesson. But she brought a companion and it all went downhill. Luckily we were able to share the message of the Restoration and bear testimony of that and they accepted our pamphlet! They were super nice and respectful so I thought it went pretty well considering.

English course.....we are getting new people! Slowly but we are! And our phone rings a lot with people wanting to know more details! It's awesome!! This week we decided to do Mormon Do's and Don'ts for the spiritual thought. We made 2 lists to clear up the stereotypes and to bear testimony of the knowledge we have of eternal families!! I know everyone learned something new that night and people were asking question wanting to know more, it was perfect.

We met with Gift this week but it was really short so we only had time to review the Plan of Salvation, purtroppo :/ But she is remembering a lot! We tried to meet with her on Friday too but we got the bidone (ditch).

We did some casa in casa finding this week. We got let into an apartment building and the door or doorbell of each apartment usually has the last name on it. Well we got to one and the last name was Migliore meaning "best" so we were feeling super good, hoping for the "best". AND got to share the "Grazie a Lui" video with a guy that lived there, probably in his 20s. He invited us in but...rules haha. So we are hoping to go back by and see if he is interested! Maybe with our ward missionary. (before passsing him to the anziani). Speriamo per il migliore. We hope for the best ;)

And we spent some time wandering around the city this week putting up english course POSTERS! They are premade by the mission, definitely not the cutest or best marketing but I guess they get the job done. We put them up in almost every bar and cafe around town! Speriamo for more people in our church for english group this week.

We had the awesome opportunity to meet with Rosalba this week, a less active member who lives out in campagna. We aren't exactly sure why she agreed to meet with us but we were able to share some of our favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon and talk about its importance. It's really difficult because her testimony is struggling. She told us, "if you went to the catholic church, you would know it's true". Huh. That's definitely a new one!! But we really clicked with her and just kind of got to know her and be her friend :) She was super hesitant about reading the Book of Mormon, but by the time she left, she said I promise I'll read not 5 but 10 minutes every day! Success :) We can't wait to go back and see her. 

Another visit we had this week was with Theresa. She's and older lady from Ireland, speaks perfect english, but has lived here long enough that she thinks in italian now. So the lesson was in Italian. We found her number in our phone and she was down to meet up! We went to her house and got to know her......she has known the missionaries since 1973, is friends with the members, has been to church, and has a 1973 edition of the Book of Mormon in english, well worn and read. Along with several other copies of it! So so cool. We proceeded to teach her the restoration, but she probably knows it better than we do to be honest.... she definitely knows it's a god-given book. She knows. But the only doubt she has is about Joseph Smith. As soon as she overcomes that, this woman is GOLDEN! So hit me up with suggestions/solutions per favore :) We are praying to know exactly how to help her. 

We got to meet with Joy this week too! (She and Gift both came to church yesterday). She showed us how she had downloaded the gospel library app on her TV and was telling us how they watch general conference every night before they go to bed and first thing when they wake up, so sweet :) We decided to ditch our original lesson plans and watch a talk with her, since that was obviously what she wanted to do :)))) We watched President Nelson's "The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like Without It" very suiting since he talks about his visit to africa. Joy is so cute and it is awesome to watch her testimony slowly grow as she consistently listens to general conference and the Book of Mormon.

Saturday night, the ward relief society had an awesome activity planned, everyone bring a dish using zucca (pumpkin)! And as a relief society talk about the recipe and then have a ward social type thing after, eat and mingle. So naturally, Sorella DeMann and I remembered to invite some less-active members and potentials, english course, friends from the Caritas, etc. We made pumpkin chocolate cookies and got to the church right on time! No one there except the Eldersquorum president. Who tells us the activity got cancelled last night. Mama miaaaaaaa. So we go to call the people we had invited to tell them not to come (awkward) but our phone is dead. So we walk home to get the charger, walk back to the church to see if anyone had shown up while we charge our phone. Whew it was quite disatrous but good thing we are having a Halloween party this Saturday! We are working to get everything together for that. And this one won't be cancelled the day before menomale. Italians are starting to celebrate Halloween more and more I think, mainly because Americans do it and they want to be like America, ma va be! We are so excited for that!! We made fliers and a sign on our board to go out in giro with, hopefully we will get a decent turnout.

The Sassari branch Relief Society

And now, the reason the activity was cancelled. Apparently because ward conference was the next day and major bishopric changes! We got a new branch president, counselors, new relief society president, new eldersquorum president, new young mens president. So pretty much everything! It's pretty crazy the stake presidency comes over from Rome for it. And Sorella Renga (Velardi) was there, she's the stake relief society president but was in my ward in Caserta and is the absolute cutest/classiest lady ever. (Anziano Velardi's aunt). It was so fun getting to see her! 

with Sorella Renga (Stake Relief Society President)

When we sat down in church yesterday, Fratello Mastino came up to us frantic and says in perfect english: "sisters which one of you is it that plays the organ I can't play today we need someone to play prelude and can you play those hymns....." hahahah we didn't know how to react mainly because we were in shock of his perfect english! But I was so happy to play the "organ" aka a keyboard with an organ setting. It was fun getting to accompany, and I'm hoping I'll be able to do it every week now since Fratello Mastino is now the branch president! Vediamo.

Elder Ballard came to our mission this week! Well, he came to Rome... so all the Rome zones and Napoli zone got to see him, shake hands, all that jazz. The rest of us got the broadcast version lolololol. But it was great to hear from him along with Elder Clayton and Elder DeFeo (Elder DeFeo is an italian member of the 70!). They mainly talked about finding more people and talking to more people. Which we are trying so hard to do! At the end of the conference, President Pickerd referenced a talk by Elder Ballard (october 2002 priesthood session) called "The Greatest Generation of Missionaries". I decided to study it this week and it has to be my new favorite. Elder Ballard is very blunt and straight up but he says this: "Listen to those words: valiant, courage, strength, active, true. We don’t need spiritually weak and semicommitted *missionaries. We don’t need you to just fill a position; we need your whole heart and soul. We need vibrant, thinking, passionate missionaries who know how to listen to and respond to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t a time for spiritual weaklings. We cannot send you on a mission to be reactivated, reformed, or to receive a testimony. We just don’t have time for that. We need you to be filled with “faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God” (D&C 4:5)." There is so much power in those words, and something I've been trying to work on this week. Working to have those Christ-like attributes. Being all-in. Not lukewarm or semi-committed. Elder Ballard says to "Rise up and measure up". So that's my challenge to each of you this week! Even though you may not be a full-time missionary, God has high expectations for all of us. We all have unimaginable potential. Are we rising up? Are we measuring up? 

I love you all! Buona settimana!!!! XOXOXOXO

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

Dalla spiaggia

"From the beach"

Because this email is coming @ ya live from the beach in Sardinia, Italy! Yes, it's excatly what you are picturing in your head right now: crystal clear water, no one in sight. Me and Sorella DeMann laying in the sand typing up emails :) Wow- can't complain at all. It was like a 20 minute bus ride, and when we got off, the silence was literally deafening. I could feel my ears ringing because it is so quiet out here! Just the sound of crashing waves....... Because even in our apartment, the sounds of the city are unavoidably loud. So today is a beautiful day of R&R :) Sun, sand, Sardinia. 

But really, we've been blessed by mother nature because the temperature has been in the 70s the whole time I've been here. I hope winter never comes because I could get used to pdays like this!

OH and Chase made it to Korea!! Whoop whoop! I loved getting his email and seeing pictures of him so happy :) Not many people can say they served at the same time as their brother!!!!!!!! My heart is so full, this work is good.

This week we faced tons of rejection: Sabrina never called us back or responded to our texts, we got more than 1 bidone (appointment cancel) from less actives, members, everyone, and our english course did not increase in size (yet?). 

All of that aside, we did see miracles and had a great week I'm excited to share everything with y'all.  

We did a little bit of casa in casa and knocked into a man that comes to the Caritas (the place where we do service on Saturdays). His name is Toni and he was so sweet to us. We couldn't go in but we shared a video with him and he loved it. It was super humbling to see his apartment. You could see everything from the front door but he kept it so clean and neat. When he came into the cafeteria on Saturday I couldn't help but smile :) 

We also knocked into an 18 year old boy who stepped out of his house to watch "Grazie a Lui". He told us he was atheist but we talked for a while and definitely saw the wheels start turning. It was a beautiful thing to see and to leave him pondering!

We spent a day inside our house this week, waiting for my permesso renewal packet to be delivered. We made a ton of phone calls and even stood on the street outside out apartment building holding our english course sign! People would roll down their windows and stop just long enough for us to give them a card. There was one lady who pulled over, parked her car, and came running down the street towards us! I love it.

Fish egg pasta

At english course we always do a warm-up question, just to get people talking. Tuesday we decided to ask "What is your favorite thing to cook?" Giorgio, without hesitation: "My dog." Hahahah oh wow I about lost it on that one! Too funny. He was kidding of course... There was a theme in the responses: fish. Almost everyone said some kind of pasta with fish, or octopus or squid. Pietro told us his was pasta with fish eggs and then he proceeded to invite us over for lunch the next day to try it! It was surpisingly good and the fish eggs turned out to be really small, it was almost like a seasoning! I still like tomato sauce better hehe. Pietro has been coming to english course for about a year now, we had a good lesson with him and the Anziani during that pranzo appointment. We are working so hard to lead him to the water and praying he will have the desire to drink it! He's making slow progress :) 

2 of the Sorelle from Cagliari came up this week for a scambio! I was with Sorella Groll, the STL. She is so awesome and we had a great lesson with Gift! She remembered everything we taught her about the Restoration so we talked about the Plan of Salvation! I think she understood most of it but the Resurrection was quite a struggle. We will be reviewing for sure. Haha but she is so cute and definitely has the light of Christ! She came to church yesterday and we are so looking forward to meeting again this week!

Another really cool thing happened during the scambio. Sorella DeMann was with Sorella Greer. Well Sorella Greer's dad served in Sassari and had someone he wanted her to track down (not a member)! So they did just that but she wasn't home, so they left a card with our phone number. The lady called us! She wants to meet Sorella Greer because she loved her dad so much. We already have plans for next scambio!!!!!!! Assuming Sorella Greer doesn't get transferred..... but still. It was way cool. 

We decided to take our gesso to the next level this week and do it on an actual chalkboard instead of a sheet! Sorella DeMann is very artistic and she killed it. We asked the question "What is the restoration?" And stopped people asking if they've heard of it! Not going to lie, I was struggling a little that night, it's hard to stop people by yourself (Slla DeMann draws) especially because I don't feel comfortable enough in the language to do so. But the mission pushes you out of your comfort zones! After like the eighth rejection of the night, a lady stopped me (plot twist!!!!) asking what was the restoration! She and her husband talked to me for about 15 minutes just about the restoration, why we are here as missionaries, english course, everything. It was definitely a tender mercy for me, those 2 people. When I told them this message brought me so much happiness, she said, "We know, we can see it!". 

We also met a man who is a professor here in Sassari, speaks english flawlessly. With a british accent. He could've told us he was from England and I don't think a single one of us would have doubted him for a second. Anyway, we exchanged phone numbers with him, he does private english lessons and wants his students to talk with people who are native english speakers! More to come on that hopefully!!

On Saturday night there was a "manifestation" in centro. I'm still not 100% sure what exactly that means but I know that it entails lots of people dressed colonially beating on drums and waving/throwing around huge flags. it was an awesome cultural experience and we bumped into Stefania while we were there!

After, we had dinner with the Marras family. They are probably the most en gamba family in the ward! Joy, Jeffery, and Aniyu were there too. We had pasta carbonara (my favorite). And we talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. I got to bear testimony of its truthfulness! I know that as we choose to read from this book every day we will be able to make better decisions every day :) 

Sister Marras told us about a big event that was going on (no idea what the event was or where it was) but she told us we could catch the shuttle in centro and it would take us straight there! So, always down for the adventure, we went. Last night we found it. It turned out to be a HUGE expo type thing with lots of booths and a wedding dress fashion show and free gelato! SO. We positioned ourselves right at the entrance with our sign "Trova la felicita" and went at it. We probably handed out 400 Jesus cards to every person walking in! And then when we ran out of Gesù cards, we flipped our sign over and handed out 400 english course cards. We met a guy who I guess was someone of importance at the expo, he was really interested in english group because he spends over 750 euro a month for his daughter's english lessons (with a native english speaker) hahaha wow. I know what I want my job to be after the mission. I'm moving to Italy to teach english lessons! But seriously. And then he invited us to the after party! to "eat and drink" hahahah man we were so down but the bus would've gotten us back too late. So the only rejection of the night was us declining the afterparty invite. I'd call it a very successful sera. Thanks for the idea, Sister Marras!

Yesterday our relief society lesson was from the Gordon B. Hinckley book and we talked about chapter 20. I loved every part of that chapter but one part really stood out to me: "Let us be true disciples of the Christ, observing the Golden Rule, doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us strengthen our own faith and that of our children while being gracious to those who are not of our faith. Love and respect will overcome every element of animosity. Our kindness may be the most persuasive argument for that which we believe". I know that our actions and our kindness demonstrate our testimony, the things in which we believe. I am thankful to be here in Sassari, inviting other to come unto Christ. I challenge all of y'all this week to remember the golden rule. To share the gospel, not by saying anything, but through your actions. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve and be the Lord's hands for this short time. Life is good! Forza Italia! 

Transfer calls are tonight. I'm staying. (Probs)

Until next week!

Love you all! xoxoxoxo

Sorella Carley Neuberger

with Stefania at the manifestation

Rome temple is coming along

Playing piano at Marras family

Ricerchiamo di nuovo

This week was filled with finding, finding, and- you guessed it! More finding. We call it "ricerca". But we are still smiling!! Gotta love being a missionary in Europe. 

First miracle of the week happened on Tuesday! We were doing our morning studies when our phone rang. I answered it and it was an ex-investigator, Sabrina, saying that she wanted to meet that evening and bring her niece to meet us too! Wait what?!?!? We were dancing around and celebrating after that phone call. Sorella DeMann had told me all about Sabrina, she's super on top of everything, willing to learn, read everything they asked her to. But she was going through some hard times in her life and had to take care of those and dropped the missionaries. But now she's back for more :) We shared with her the mormon message "Mountains to Climb" and she and her niece definitely had tears in their eyes by the end of it. The Spirit's presence in that room in the church was tangible. When she left, Sabrina said to her niece, "You always leave this place smiling." OH yessss. And she even told us she wants to meet up this Tuesday! Speriamo bene. 

On Wednesday the choir took a small "gita". Don't think I should say much more about that! It was a lot of fun and we really got a chance to appreciate the beautiful world we live in and the amazing creations God has given us. Pictures attached.

One of the days this week Sorella DeMann and I decided to put a filter on our finding! I've never done this before but it sounded fun. We decided that we were going to talk to every pregnant lady we saw that day (they're actually kind of rare here...). So we leave our house to hop on the bus into centro. We sit down in the 2 empty seats on that bus. Sorella DeMann tapped my arm, I looked up at the lady across from us. Pregnant. Hahahaha what are the odds mama mia. So of course we are going to talk to this lady! She was the cutest!! She lives near the anziani apartment I think and she said she would love to cook "real Sardegnian food" for us sometime! We gave her a card and she kissed it. We were sad when she got off the bus but it was awesome being able to talk with her if only for a few minutes.

I ate my first cannolo this week. I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture. It was heavenly. Sorella DeMann says the ones in Sicily are better.

There are always different, random things going on in centro, this week it was a HUGE event for parolympic (I know I spelled that wrong) athletes! Like news stations here, the whole shebang. It was the coolest thing ever and there were tons of people. They had all different kinds of sports set up, tennis, ping-pong, fencing, the list goes on. We walked around looking at everything and handing out a lot of english course cards! Pretty successful!!  

This week we saw a guy walking down the street with his cat on a leash and riding on a granny cart. I just couldn't leave that out.

Thursdays are the days Sorella DeMann and I do spiritual thought at english course. It's usually a short thing (if you have ideas, hit me up per favore). But this week we decided to mention the articles of faith, talk about the first one, and hand out these cute foldables that we had in our apartment with all of the articles of faith inside! So everyone could take one home to read. It is amazing how just the simple truths "We believe in God, the eternal father, in His son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost" can bring meaning to the lives of others. One girl asked us a little more about our beliefs after corso and we gave her a copy of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" to read! We are really praying something will come out of all the english course finding we do. The majority of baptisms here within the last 3 years (I think?) have been results of english course! So cool.

On Friday night we tried to do a gesso and talk to people but it was just not our night. I don't think anyone stopped or even took our card. So we got pizza and fries from Pronto Pronto and went home feeling kinda sad. The next day, we decided to up our game. We took the big whiteboard in our apartment and covered it in paper and made a huge poster (see picture) advertising for english course. It was perfect because there was a huge festa/concert going on in the giardini (park where we do a lot of finding). We somehow managed to score a bench in the center of the action and set up our sign, stood next to it, and went to town. We should have brought more cards but we didn't realize how successful it would be! We easily handed out several hundred cards before running out. We didn't even have to say anything! People saw the sign and CAME UP TO US ASKING FOR A CARD! PLOT TWIST! Oh we were on cloud 9 just so happy and soaking up every minute of it. Even on our walk home we held the sign and people were taking pictures of it like crazy. We had one teenager stop us (HE STOPPED US) and took a picture to circulate on social media!!!!!!! AH! And then another man told us to come in his restaurant and hold the sign up for all the customers to take a picture of. Simply stated, I think we will be getting good use out of this sign for the next several months :) And our english course is (hopefully) going to be bumpin this week.

Something funny we have noticed recently is that Italians assume we speak english and will attempt to talk to us. We walked by a man the other day who said "buonasera, good morning" (good evening, good morning) hahahahaha we laughed the whole way home. And another day a man who said "good morning, miss!" It's hilarious. They keep us laughing for sure.

In other news, Sorella DeMann and I have been friends for over a year and it's the best. Not many people can say that about their companions! But we are enjoying every minute together and are always having a good time. She's great.

Living on an island is the best. We had a delicious mango this week, I need to take a picture they are HUGE and so delicious. The fruit here is unbelievable and they have a bunch of fruits that are unique to this island. Maybe I'll mail some seeds home? ..... heheheh jk.

Yesterday after church we got to meet with a few members. Paola, the sister who took us to Castelsardo and the chorister! She has a baby grand piano, the first thing I said when I walked into her apartment was "Che bello questo pianoforte!!!!!" We spent probably too much time playing and singing. I enjoyed every minute of it :)

We also visited with Fulvia, she's an older member here that lives by herself and is a convert! She has been a member for 20 years and is SO en gamba. Her testimony is so strong and it was amazing hearing her conversion story. She had been praying for years. For something but she didn't know what until she met the missionaries. 7 months and she was baptized! 

I'll wrap this email up with something awesome that was mentioned in testimony meeting yesterday! I can understand pretty much everything now, thank goodness the people speak clearly here. One sister said that the voice of the Spirit isn't Italian. It isn't English. It isn't language x, y or z. The voice of the Spirit is the voice of the Spirit. It's a beautiful voice and and language that we can all understand. Each of us has the capacity to feel its influence in our lives if we will so allow. I am thankful for the role of the Spirit in my life and in this work. I love being a missionary and I love each of you! Buona settimana!

XOXO

 Sorella Carley Neuberger