St. Patrick's Day + No Smoking

This emails starts right where the last one left off: last Monday night we had a huge success and miracle. The Taranto ward was invited to present The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a Catholic church in Taranto! So their bishop gave a few remarks, one member talked about the restoration, they answered questions that people had, and the Taranto sorelle invited us to join! We (the four of us) got to sing several different hymns for like 100+ people that were there at the church that night. It was so much fun and really cool to see the spirit touching these people! They clapped after each song we sang so that was also kind of funny hahaha. The best part was that at the end, after they had talked about the Book of Mormon, they said whoever wants a copy of this book can have one, for free. Right when it ended, everyone started mobbing us grabbing for a copy!! Oh my it was absolute insanity and SO beautiful!!!!! I don't think the Taranto sorelle realized that everyone would want a copy of the Book of Mormon, we gave away a whole box in a matter of minutes AH it was incredible. Then we were just trying to hand out everything else we had, pamphlets, pass along cards, it was a great night.

a real Sicilian cannola, thanks Giuseppe

And now for the real question, as I'm sure you're dying to know, has Giuseppe stopped smoking? Giuseppe has stopped smoking cigarettes! He's given them up completely. Unfortunately he is smoking cigars but not very frequently. Little by little he is getting it!! And just after 1 week he is seeing all sorts of miracles as a result. The main one being that he is sleeping better at night than he ever has in his life!! He said he sleeps the whole night through and can actually breath. And he doesn't cough any more either!! This is a man who lost his dad (66 years old) to cancer as a result of cigarettes. This is a man who has 0 teeth because of cigarettes. But this man, Giuseppe has such great faith and he knows that God is his strength through overcoming this! We know it too. As I say every week, watching his conversion just keeps getting better and better.

We had stake conference yesterday down in Taranto and some members picked up Giuseppe and brought him!! He really enjoyed it, especially the part when the 2nd speaker was a lady from Bari who was raised in Palermo (where he's from!!) So of course he made a beeline for her once the conference ended. It is so funny to see him walk into the church and tell every single person on his way in (whether he knows them or not....) "hey it's been 2 days without smoking because I'm quitting!" He's so proud and so are we. The best part was when we got to introduce Giuseppe to President Pickerd who was there for stake conference!!! It was so sweet to see. President is amazing. And he told him "okay Giuseppe, now it's time to bring your family. This is a church for families". Couldn't have said it better myself.

We went over to their house last night for a lesson and Giuseppe said those exact words to Elvira!! "It's time for you to come to church Elvira!" Oh my we are praying so hard. We had a great lesson, on The Gosepel of Jesus Christ, we drew out a ladder and explained the passes: faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, ... Then we asked what he thought the last step was "well, you need to keep having faith and repenting!" Exactly, Giuseppe. Endure to the end! He gets it. He just gets it. We concluded the lesson reading part of 3 Nephi 11 when Christ comes to the Americas and invites the people there to repent and be baptized. We asked him if he was there with Christ would he accept that invite? He said yes. Then we told him that as authorized representatives of Jesus Christ we are now inviting him to be baptized. He said he just needs a little bit of time. So right now we are all praying together for him to pick a Sunday in May for his baptism! Coming soon.

The Statte sorelle celebrated St. Patrick's Day by making tons of sugar cookies and green frosting and cutting out green clovers and "clover attacking" and delivering cookies! We took some to Rosa and also a less active in the ward, plus a few others. It was a blast. Plus we have expert chef/baker Sorella Geertsen who made some bomb cookies. She tripled the frosting recipe for me😊

We had a lesson with Antonella this week, she is just really going through a lot right now with her family and work so we're doing our best to be there for her and help her realize that the gospel eases our burdens and makes them lighter!

And we have been trying nonstop to get a hold of Anna this week, without success. :(

We had zone conference this week which was really awesome. President Pickerd had us come prepared to share a Book of Mormon scripture that's changed our life. I shared Helaman 5:12 "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." I know that as we center our lives on Christ we will not fall! He is our shelter during the storms and will be there for us always, no matter what. This week I invite you to think about a Book of Mormon scripture that changed your life! Let me know, I can't wait to hear.

I love you all and I love being a missionary here in Statte and getting to represent Jesus Christ every day❤

Alla prossima!
XOXO

Roll Tide

Love the food

Carley and Sorella Geertsen

Sorella Lee

Transfer photo from last transfer