Gesù & Gelato: The week of gifting The Book of Mormon

Ciao cari miei!

Buona Befana! That's the Italian holiday on January 6th. The witch comes over night and leaves candy!

P-day in Alghero!

Biggest news of the week:

The Sassari Branch is now.......(drum roll) the Sassari WARD! Whaaaaat?! The stake presidency flew in from Rome to make the announcement, it was so exciting and all of the members are so happy :) Now we've got to keep growing this thing. I'm pumped to see the Lord's work continue to unfold in this beautiful little city.

Biggest success of the week:

Our gesso on Saturday night. It was the best gesso since I've been in Sassari (although we were fighting street musicians for space..). I should've taken a picture, but we're for sure going to do it again. We decided to make the subject The Book of Mormon. We laid out the sheet and brought every language of the Book of Mormon we had between our aparment and the Anziani apartment and put them all around the border. It ended up being more than 20 languages including Turkish and Navajo....! In the middle in big letters we wrote: "What is this book??" And, holding an Italian Book of Mormon, stopped everyone that walked down the street to ask them if they'd ever seen this book! It was so much fun and we had a lot of success. (funny moment was when the first person I stopped I said with 100% confidence, in english, "have you ever seen this book?" yup, the response was a weird look. hahahah the whole speaking Italian thing is a real struggle sometimes).

Between the 4 of us, we probably gifted more than 10 copies of The Book of Mormon!! I got to give away 3 copies: 1 in Italian, 1 in English, and 1 in Romanian. I gave the English one to a cute lady from Uganda! She walked by and I didn't even have to try to stop her, she just said "I'm really curious about the Mormons and this Book of Mormon, what is it?" (btw this never happens.) Once I recovered from momentary shock, I gave her the rundown explaining how in the Bible, Christ said he would visit his 'other sheep' and the Book of Mormon is the written record of the 'other sheep'! She said "I know the Bible really well and that makes perfect sense!" Another miracle from the gesso was when I was bombarded with hugs from Naomi, Rebecca, all our little Romanian friends from a couple months ago that we had been looking for and trying to contact! Well, their whole family was in giro and I gave the mom, Esther, a copy of the Book of Mormon in Romanian :)

Lunch with Sorella Palmer

Sorella Palmer came in this week from Rome, she served here before I got here and she had to do fingerprints for her permesso di soggiorno. So that was pretty much our day Tuesday, dealing with the Italian government and all that that entails and then Pietro's family had us over for a big pranzo mamma mia.. ravioli, baked chicken, cheese, bread, salad, potatoes, dessert. It was a miracle I could stand up and walk after eating all of that! When Sorella Palmer was here she wanted to stop in this little Sard Ring shop here in Sassari, Sardinia has these famous rings and they are something else. Well, I had gone in the shop several times with Sorella DeMann but they have so many it's impossible to choose! The shop owner knows us and must think we're crazy... "oh hey! The indecisive girls with nametags are back!" So this time, along with Sorella Palmer, I got a sard ring!!!! It's pretty dang cool.

We had the wonderful opportunity to go on a scambio this week, we went to Cagliari it was a blast. The sorelle there are amazing and just killing it in every way, it was great to work with them and learn from them!! One morning, Sorella Greer and I did casa in casa for a couple hours and we had so much success! One lady, Itria, when she opened the door and saw us she said "entrate" (enter) and so we did......then taught her the restoration, explained the Book of Mormon which she was so interested to read!! At another door, a girl about our age opened and she and her mom invited us in to show the Sii Una Luce video!! So we did, sitting around their kitchen table, and then we got to bear testimony. I looked at them and said "We left everything at home, put our lives on hold for 18 months because we know that Jesus Christ lives, that He is our Savior, and He loves us. And that's why we are here, to share this message with others" and I looked at the mom who was just in tears, which also brought me to tears. It was hands down one of the most testimony-strengthening experiences of my mission to know the things I testify of are true and to see the spirit confirming that to Alessandra and Ludavica. It was so so beautiful, I don't know how else to explain it. Also a very foreign concept to us being let into a house to teach gospel principles without knowing the people beforehand! So naturally, we have been trying to emphasize casa in casa here in Sassari, and the other things we learned on the scambio! We haven't had quite as much success....yet! But I know that with hard work and lots of prayer, the Lord will bless our efforts, and I find immense peace in that!

Volunteers at the Mensa Caritas

Big miracle at the Mensa Caritas this week! One of the directors, Miriam, asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon because she's curious and wants to read it!! We are praying for her to read it with a heart open to the spirit so she can know it's true :)

Transfer calls are tonight, I do not know what will happen bit I do know that I do not want to leave Sassari. I tried to take lots of pictures with the members yesterday just in case... the annoying part about getting the calls Monday night is not knowing if I'll see these beautiful people again!!

I was really sad to hear about President Monson, but the Lord has a plan! It really is a blessing to have modern day prophets and apostles. Except it'll make that part of missionary work a little awkward for the next couple months........ especially because that's one of the points I refer to a lot, having a living prophet on the earth today. Anyways, I am super grateful for the leaders of the church and for their guidance!

For those of you that haven't read it yet, the January 2018 Ensign is so good!! There was a quote I read that I really liked: "If you are too busy to serve the Lord, you are too busy." It's that simple. Sometimes we get so caught up in everyday life that we lose our sense of purpose or forget the direction we are supposed to be headed in. Service is so so important because when we serve others, we are serving the Lord. As Richard L. Evans said, “We can’t do everything for everyone everywhere, but we can do something for someone somewhere.” Doesn't have to be anything big or earth-shattering. I'm so thankful for my opportunity to serve! Full-time! I'm so blessed to be able to serve the amazing people here in Sassari and to serve Heavenly Father as a representative of His son, Jesus Christ. The gospel is true! I love getting to say that every single day through everything I do. I am so thankful for YOU! Thank you for all of your support, prayers, and love.

Spero che abbiate una bellissima settimana :)

Transfer calls are tonight (may the odds be ever in your favor),

XOXO Sorella N