Gesù & Gelato: welcome to Siracusa

Mamma mia it's been the craziest week of my mission, hands down.

Sorella Hope and Carley in front of
the church building in Siracusa.

Let's start with the fact that transfer calls last week brought a huge plot twist: instead of staying with Sorella Geertsen, she got a brand new missionary and I got sent to Siracusa (in Sicily) with a brand new missionary, her name is Sorella Hope and she is from Melbourne, Australia she is just the cutest ever and such a good missionary. It's been quite the adventure because neither of us had ever been to the city before so we are trying to learn our way around the best we can!

So we got transfer calls Monday night, I left Statte Wednesday afternoon, took a train from Taranto to Bari and spent the night in Bari! The zone leaders picked me up at the Bari train station and we went straight to the church for a baptism they were having! That was really cool to witness and see the convert bear testimony after his baptism, it was really special. Then Thursday morning we left at 5:40 am for the airport, I flew down to Catania and we cleaned their house a little waiting for our companions to get in on their train from Rome! That's the fun thing about receiving a new missionary is that you have no idea who they are until they step off the train, but they know who you are because they get a piece of paper with your name and picture on it. Sorella Hope came running off the train and we had the biggest hug ever, I felt like crying because it was like a spiritual confirmation after all of the craziness during the past coupe days, that she is the companion I need to learn from right now and we are ready to light it up here in Siracusa! (not to mention that this is my 3rd of 4 cities to start with the letter "S"...?). Then that night we went to the Catania english course and got bombe, these amazing dolce in Sicily! I'll have to take a picture next time I eat one....basically these sugar donut things exploding with Nutella. Best thing I've eaten? Probably.

AND THEN.... the next morning, Sorella Batres, the zone leaders, and I flew up to Rome for MLC! We all stayed in the villa (mission home) and had a conference for 2 days. It was a blast getting to see everyone (everyone as in Sorella Johnson, the 1 & the only.) and be very spiritually uplifted.

Rome Temple

Another big part of MLC was getting smartphones! So now I have a smartphone, the rest of our zone will be getting smartphones at zone conference! I'll keep my tablet but my new companion doesn't even have a tablet, just a smartphone! It'll be an adjustment for sure. Makes me feel like a normal person but it'll be nice when asking for people's phone numbers, they'll take us more seriously when we whip out a phone from this century haha.

While in Rome we also got to stop by the temple site to see the progression! AH it is the most beautiful temple I have ever seen. We also got to go into the temporary visitor's center trailer and hear about the progress and the super interesting constructional information about the temple. For example, since it's got a round, oval shape, they've had to individually carve/cut each piece of stone and piece them all together. So each piece of stone on the temple had a number and that's the only place it could go. Crazy!!

Forgot to mention that I said the hardest goodbye of my mission this week: Giuseppe and Elvira. But, on the bright side of things, Sorella Geertsen emailed today and said this about Giuseppe:

(This is an excerpt from Sorella Geersten's email) "Update on Giuseppe!!! Oh how I love that Sicilian man! We went over Friday night and saw him in his bakery as always. And we read with him a chapter from the Book of Mormon. He is so cute! We also went and saw Giuseppe yesterday (Sunday) like we do every week! We have taught him all of the first basic lessons and now are working our way through the commandments. So last night we taught Giuseppe about following the prophet and who the prophet is and why we have a prophet! It went so good! Giuseppe was so excited to learn more, and it was so cool as always to watch him just understand everything that we were explaining to him. At the end of the lesson I had the strongest feeling to talk to Giuseppe about baptism again... I wasn't planning on talking with him about it, but just had the strongest feeling that I needed to again. We have talked with him about it many times and have invited him to be baptized and pick a day, but he would always respond with... Oh I need to feel more ready and I have a few more things that I need to ask God for forgiveness for. We have been very patient with him, and always just keep asking him to keep praying to Heavenly Father for revelation and guidance! Well this time I asked him if he has been praying to Heavenly Father about baptism. He looked at me square in the face and said... ''Si! SONO PRONTO!'' (''YES! I AM READY!'') Immediatly I had a rush of goosebumps, and I had this warm feeling in my heart! I asked him if we could pick a day to do his baptism so that we can work to get him ready. He said that he wanted to choose the 13th of May in honor of Sorella Neuberger because that was the day that she had asked him before to do. SO I am pumped!!! His only request was that Sorella Neuberger and Sorella Johnson(The sister that was here before I came) get to skype into his baptism to watch him be baptized. DONE!!! :) Also... ANOTHER MIRACLE!!! When Giuseppe came to church yesterday he walked in and told me that he had started another fast. He said that he was fasting in honor of Sorella Neuberger and to thank Heavenly Father for all that Sorella Neuberger did for him to help him grow his testimony and find this pathway in his life. He also said that he was fasting to ask for strength to quit smoking from his cigars. We got him to completely quit smoking his ciggarettes, but he has still been smoking some cigars. It was hard in the beginning because everytime that we would ask him to quit smoking cigars he would justify himself as to why he was smoking them. And we have been praying for him to have a change of heart and a desire to also quit smoking Cigars. He said that he started his fast, and that once he started his fast he will not be buying anymore cigars! He told me yesterday in church that he has seen that the cigars are now starting to become an addiction and dependency and he doesn't want to have that in his life again! MIRACLES MIRACLES!!!! GOD IS IN EVERYTHING!!!"

So yeah, I'd be lying if I said I'm not missing Statte. I miss it!

Lunch with the Corso family

Anyways, not tons to report this week, I don't have a lot of time, but also because we got to Siracusa for the first time late Saturday night so yesterday was our first full day in our city hahaah wow it's been a whirlwind. The ward seems great and it is HUGE! I haven't been in a ward like this ever. I'm excited to get to know all of the members! We had pranzo with the Corso family yesterday, it was a miracle because we got left with ZERO food in our whole house and couldn't go to the store because it was Sunday. Yep, this morning I did the biggest grocery shopping of my mission.......still hurts to talk about haha.

Siracusa is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It is incredible and so historical, over 2700 years old! Last night wandering around the streets Sorella Hope and I were oohing and ahhing at everything because it's so classic Italian. Just how you would picture Italian streets to be, I'll be sure to take some pictures this week. We did a gesso last night and Sorella Hope was unbelievable, talking to everyone by herself and getting everyone to speak to her in english and even having some conversations in Italian, I was so impressed!!! She's troppo brava, no ci credo. We got to gift 3 copies of The Book of Mormon last night!

We spent pday today just wandering around Ortigia, a short walk down from the church, a cute city in our area. I am going to be living in a cute Italian beach town for the next 12 weeks as a missionary?!??! I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not on vacation because it feels like that! Missionary life truly is the best life. I am loving every single minute, y'all.

Some p-day sight seeing and shopping

Oh and just a quick follow-up, since I'm a missionary and that's what we do... I asked a couple weeks ago for y'all to send me a Book of Mormon verse that's changed your life! Mom you were the only one that responded hahah. I'd love to hear them if you get a chance.

I LOVE YOU ALL un mondo di bene :) new address below for letters and more pictures below.

XOXO

Sorella Carley Neuberger
Le Sorelle Missionarie
Via Polibio, 17
Siracusa, SR 96100
Italia