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).
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| 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 :)
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| 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..........
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| 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
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| Stuck on elevator. |
