Gesù & Gelato: Happy Thanksgiving

Buon giorno di ringraziamento! Happy thanksgiving!!

Thankgiving in Italy with our english class

My 2nd Thanksgiving in Italy was one for the books. We did a lot of cooking: potatoes, rolls, pumpkin pie, etc..!!!!! And we set up some long tables for english course and had a feast! We invited all the ward members too and had a great turnout!! I think everyone had a great time, we did for sure. It was such a great chance to make close friends with our english course students and help connect them to the ward members a little bit. I have to mention that we had one girl in complete shock when she realized no pasta was included in the thanksgiving meal hahahaha. Yes, believe it or not, some people have meals without pasta! Too funny.

Another funny food moment of the week: Well, we broke the news to Anziano Castro (the Italian missionary in our district) that the grapes in America don't have seeds. His jaw dropped through the floor, he could not believe it. Yeah, grapes with seeds is the worst ever, so I'm just holding off on the grapes until I return!

For those of you that have been asking if our heat got turned on: yes, yes it did. We still have 0 control over it. It turns on every day at like 5 pm and stays on for a few hours. In the morning, all the heat is gone and we are wrapped in blankets for studies. Moral of the story: don't take your thermostat for granted!

Tavernari family (ward mission leader)

We had our first correlation with Jonathan this week, he is awesome and we are definitely going to get the ball rolling on lots of great things with him as our ward mission leader. We started to plan things out for the ward Christmas party and then we tried explaining to him that there's a chance some of us won't be here for Christmas because of transfers. So Jonathan picks up his phone and dials and the next thing we know, President Pickerd is on the other end of the line...WHAT?!?!

Church was a real party yesterday...Romeo, the Anziani investigator, brought a friend to church! And then when Gift walked into church, guess who was with her? Blessing! So I guess you could say our investigators really understood the "missionary work" lesson and are already being so awesome, inviting their friends to church. Gift and Romeo are going to be baptized on December 16th and then after the baptism we'll have the ward Christmas party!) We got to give a copy of the Book of Mormon to Blessing, maybe Gift will bring her to another lesson this week and the 3 of us will teach her the Restoration :) Oh and we had a big ward lunch after, Italian style.

Stefania came to church again! And she got called to be the secretary in relief society so we are hoping that will be something the helps her come every week. In our visit with her this week, Sorella DeMann was explaining a scripture we read and Stefania busts up laughing and we are like "uhhhhh". she says "excuse me sorelle, I just can't stop laughing because Sorella Neuberger (no she didn't say my name, no one in this country can remember my name) made a funny face". Huh. I have no idea what face I was making but apparently it was hilarious and hey, I'm here to entertain.

While finding one day this week, we talked to a Catholic monk. That was cool. But also sad. "Do you believe God speaks to us today?" Monk: "HA, no way!" He couldn't even wrap his mind around it. But we got to testify to Him that God loves us the same today as He did in biblical times so of course He will continue to speak to us.

On Wednesday, the youth of the branch (all 4 of them) had an activity and we were invited! It was on missionary work and helping them prepare to serve missions. It was so much fun being with them and making friends with them and explaining what we do every day and why we love it :) We gave each youth a copy of the Book of Mormon to give to a friend!

We met with Theresa this week, she's a tough cookie. Did I say that last time? Nothing's changed. We asked her if she prayed to know the church/Book of Mormon is true. She said "yes, but I didn't get an answer". Then we asked if she had prayed to know the catholic church is true (she's a devout catholic). She said "no, but I already know it's true, even though it's slightly corrupt and has lots of issues, I know they'll be fixed one day". If anyone wants to help us make sense of this situation, it would be greatly appreciated :)

We also met with Irene this week!!!!! Oh wow she is just the happiest, smiliest person ever. Even talking to her on the phone you can tell she has the biggest smile on her face, it's the best. But, she's kind of in the same situation as Theresa. Meaning she is waiting on an answer. We explained that the answer will be a feeling that comes through the Holy Ghost and that if she prays, reads, and comes to church, she will receive that answer.

So in our lesson with Stefania, I just couldn't resist asking how she got her answer (even though it had nothing to do with what we were talking about). And let me tell you! It was GREAT hearing someone tell us they got an answer and "felt a good feeling when they met with the sorelle and went to church"!!! Hey Stefania, can you please come with us and tell that to Theresa and Irene? Great, thanks. :)

We walked 10 miles on Saturday, not to a destination, but just with all the finding we were doing! There was one point when we heard a group of people speaking english so we turned around and asked where they were from: Greece and the Czeck Republic! They are exchange students here in Italy and really bummed that no one here speaks english so they have to learn Italian. After talking about what they were doing here, we got to tell them why we are here! And invited them to church :)

Transfer calls are tonight! It's kind of a bummer the way they do it in this mission because Sorella DeMann doesn't know if she's leaving so she says goodbye to people and hey maybe she'll stay hahaha. And also we find out tonight and none of you will know until next week. Guess I'm just adding a wonderful element of suspense to your life ;) Anyways, Sorella DeMann and I are hoping to do a 3rd transfer together but that's rare. So it's in the Lord's hands. Vediamo!!

Pday was great today, we had gorgeous weather and Paola took us on a beautiful giro! We saw some ancient ruins, drove along the coast, this island is absolutely beautiful.

These past 2 transfers, I have been focusing on studying the Book of Mormon cover to cover and I finished this morning with these beautiful verses in the last chapter of Moroni: "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

This is such a beautiful promise to all of us. Sorella DeMann and I have been memorizing these verses in Italian this transfer and I am so blessed to be able to extend this promise every day. I know that if we pray with a sincere heart and real intent, God will manifest the truth unto us. He loves us and wants us to know for ourselves!!

Oh and! There's a new mormon message out, it's a modern day version of the Good Samaritan and it is really amazing so I invite you to go watch it! It's really short! https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages

Love yall, have a great week!

XOXO