Gesù & Gelato: Conferenza come una missione

Ciao cari miei!

(short one this week because we were out of our city for 3.5 days...)

il grande annuncio per questa settimana: (Big announcement of the week)

Gift is getting baptized!! On December 16th. We met with her a couple times this week and when we asked her to follow Christ's example and be baptized she COULD NOT stop smiling. And neither could we :) She just continues to blow us away with how strong she is and her desire to learn and understand. We had TWO members of the bishopric yesterday tell us Gift paid her tithing. We said "and?" and the response was "When is this girl getting baptized?!" December 16th, we can't wait.

Something cool I learned this week:

One of the members of the Sassari branch loves the Book of Mormon so much that he took the time to record himself reading THE ENTIRE BOOK! Because the pre-recorded stuff on gospel library doesn't exist in Italian. That's dedication. Also, how can I get a copy?!

New food I tried this week:

Pesto fresco al noci! It's a different sauce to eat with pasta, besides tomato sauce. The best way I can explain it: it's like pesto but also kind of like peanut butter? hahahah. Guess you just have to try it to know! Probably my new favorite food.

Halloween in Italy:

Is actually really scary.....everyone dresses up as really scary things, no fun princess or superman costumes. Even adults dress up and go around trying to scare kids. It's something! The way they did trick-or-treating in Sassari (since no one has actual houses with doorbells), all of the stores in centro participated and decked out their store. Then the kids went store to store collecting candy! It was a lot of fun to just walk down the street and see!

Highlight of the week:

We spent all of Tuesday traveling to.....ROMA! We were in Rome for 24 hours for a mission conference with all of the missionaries that are on the mainland, Malta, and Sardinia (Sicily had their own conference). So everyone flew/trained in for that! It was amazing getting to see all of my friends from the MTC, every single one of us was at the conference (except 1 in Sicily)!! It was a blast and just felt amazing, I don't know how else to put it. The mission really does give you another family, away from your family. That's who these missionaries are to me! I feel like I am home, like I belong, like I am a part of something great. And I am! La Grande Missione Italiana di Roma :)

MTC district reunited

Caserta district reunited (minus a couple)

MTC group together again at the conference

The guest of our conference was Elder Torben Engbjerg! He's from Denmark, so it was a cool experience hearing him talk about the Copenhagen temple and other sites and having visited those sites myself!! He and his wife both addressed us, they are so awesome. He told us of a great accomplishment: he and his sons biked from New York to San Francisco in 28 days. Wow!! It was neat to hear stories like this one and his other life experiences. Something he challenged us to do as missionaries was to find "the ONE". To find someone you can touch every day. Well, Sorella DeMann and I have been working super hard on that right when we got back to our city Friday afternoon!! We did some video finding with "Grazie a Lui" and there was one girl that said after the video "I'm touched by that!" We were like YES! We didn't even have to assume that she was touched, she just came out and said it:) We had a lot of success that night and got some wonderful new contacts, so hopefully there are good things coming in Sassari. With the approach of winter comes a new slew of struggles but we are pushing through.

Our first night in Rome Sorella DeMann and I ventured out on our own and found "Alice" a pizzeria. Now the pizza in Rome is not good. But this pizzeria was completely different, we had a cheese and zucchini pizza, a pumpkin based pizza, and a tomato and fish pizza! It was so much fun trying new foods and they were delicious. But the main reason I'm including this on this email is so that I remember the name of this place. I'm going back.

Alice Pizzeria

A cool miracle that happened at the mission conference:

Anziano Fuller (the best friend of Chase's companion/trainer)

An elder came up to me (Anziano Fuller) and introduced himself and then asked if I had a cousin serving in Korea. I said, "yeah actually, it's my brother!" He responded by saying, "My best friend is training your brother" WHAT?!? The world just keeps getting smaller and smaller. It made my heart so happy to hear that! Of course, we took a picture together. :)

We have been working more this week with Stefania, a less-active member, we even made a plan to get her to church! We even saw her on Saturday and she was down! But then on Sunday morning we woke up to a text from her that said not to stop by :( Sooner or later, she's going to make it, I know it!

On Saturday night, Sorella DeMann and I decided to do a 2-man gesso with our board! "Trova la felicita". It's so much fun standing next to that sign and handing out Gesu cards. It's also funny to see a wide variety of reactions. We had one couple walk by and after offering the card the girl said "no, no grazie" and the guy said "io prendo Gesu!!!" Mama mia, it's moments like that that keep us going, honestly. We had another guy decline the card, then come back about 20 minutes later because he had changed his mind. He wanted the card so he had a picture to show when he went to get a Gesu tattoo. Hahahaha

Yesterday after church it was pretty rainy, luckily we got the invite to go to Paola's house! Her son and husband (the branch president) sleep the whole day so she needs someone to talk to. And we're the only other people in this city that don't sleep during pranzo :D! It was great visiting with her and an exchange student that's here from Utah. We learned how to make Italian sandwiches like professionals, and she said she'd have us over another time to learn her lasagna recipe! Whoop whoop!

The Market - Say cheese!

Shoutout to Chloe (Neuberger), the first cousin to email me! (besides Ali.....we're all in this together). But seriously Chloe, you made my day/week/month and you're so awesome. Keep it up. Love you girl.

This week I read a really good talk by Elder Hales in which he says, "Now is the time to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, which means accepting His invitation to 'come, follow me.' This is the decision we made in our premortal lives. Now we must make it again here in mortality, every day, in every situation by taking the Savior’s name upon us, remembering His atoning sacrifice, and keeping His commandments". I absolutely love this, it's a great reminder that each one of us decided before this life to follow Christ. And every day we have the opportunity to make that decision di nuovo!! What a blessing and a privilege. It's my hope and prayer that we will choose to follow Him every single day, no matter how hard it may be at times! I am so blessed to have the opportunity to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and a 24/7 representative of Him in Sassari, Sardinia. I love my Savior, I love this gospel and I love being a missionary.

XOXOXO