The Miracle of Mirella

Mirella, remember her from last week? 

We met her on the street and she wanted us to teach her English even though she doesn't live in Siracusa and is only here Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. She is looking to move here though! Well, Saturday morning we met up with her at the church, and immediately upon entrance she wanted a tour of the building which was awesome! Turns out we didn't do much English teaching at all... in fact we let her talk and just listened. She needed someone to just listen. Funny because the people who seem so perfectly put together sometimes aren't! She's had a really hard life and just opened up to us about it all. She said to us,"you know, although I just met you on the street by chance, now I know that it was a sign". We ended our visit showing her the Because of Him video. Her response didn't consist of words, but tears. I was crying too, just trying to get my testimony out. It was a really special moment and I'm positive she felt the spirit! She brought us one of her Italian grammar books to take home, when she handed it to me I said "facciamo uno scambio" (let's exchange) and put The Book of Mormon in her hands. She couldn't believe it, she was so touched by that and asked us to write her a dedica inside. Then she said, holding the book, "THIS is a sign". WOW!!!!!! She then asked about what time our mass is, we gave her the rundown, and she told us she'd be there! Unfortunately she had something come up and couldn't make it but that she's excited to see us again next weekend ❤.

We had zone conference this week which was good! We had to do an hour of zone training so I'm happy to be done stressing about that. Haha.

We also had quite the adventure getting xrays done for Sorella Hope's back. Mammmmmmma mia!

Street contacting miracle of the week was Lucia, we got talking with her and she said she had met with missionaries in the past and still has "the sacred book"! Haha and when we asked if we could meet again she said "of course! It'd be a pleasure!"

We also met a cute mom named Chiara, we stopped and asked what makes her happy and she said her daughter! Then she asked us more about what we believe and we got to exchange numbers!!

At lunch with Happy

Happy called us one morning this week telling us she missed us!❤❤❤❤ Don't think I've ever had an investigator call and say that.....basically she's our BFF. And she asked when we could come over again so she could fix us lunch! Sorella Hope and I, not really wanting to eat another mountain of rice, offered to make lunch this time! We made some brownies and gathered up all the stuff to make some teriyaki chicken stir fry! We got to Happy's house and.....she's already cooking some other type of African rice hahahaha. And since we still had to make our plate, she said "we can eat this rice first and then your food!" HA. She got us. I'm not exaggerating one bit when I say there was a literal mountain of rice on each plate- I have photo evidence! It was too much and so spicy we were sweating and she left to go to the bathroom I may or may not have scooped half my rice into a plastic bag.....the world will never know..... Also she hated the teriyaki chicken hahahaha but tried to pretend like she liked it. Sorella Hope and I didn't have space in our stomachs to even try it.

She's doing great though and progressing tons! The whole family came to church again yesterday! We are hoping to get Marvelous in on the lessons more, it's just difficult because he works a lot. But we planned this week to have a lesson with them and the bishop! The ward just loves this family and it's been great to see the fellowshipping going on! We are so beyond blessed. Seeing the conversion process of others is a real testimony builder!

Okay I'll wrap up this novel with a cool insight from zone conference.
Doctrine & Covenants 88:81 "Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor."
The word "warn" is emphasized because we can replace this word with anything! Find, feed, love.
Just food for thought :)
Love you all!!!!!! Have the best week!
XOXO

Cantania Zone Conference pictures

Nothing says comp unity like twinning at zone conference

with Stephenson, Batres, and Hope

Siracusa

with Sorella Greer

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

The HAPPY-est week yet❤

Wow it's time for another life update from your favorite sorella missionaria.
I'll try to keep this short because we're short on time and I'm sure you are too.. (lots of pics at the end)

Skype was great!! So good to see the fam and also weird that it was my last Skype call.

If your happy and you know it, Jump real high!!

First I just have to say that wow island life is the best life. Living on the coast and the weather is so perfect in these days. I don't think I've ever worn sweaters in May....! Not complaining. Especially after seeing that it's in the 90's back home. I'll stick with sunny and 75 in Sicily!

Rita 

Rita: She's the only investigator we were really left with when we got blown in and we finally had our first lesson with her (in person, we've had Skype lessons)! She lives outside of Siracusa and can't come to church and rarely comes to Siracusa in general plus her parents don't want her to associate with the church even though she's like 24. But she is golden and I know her time will come!! She has been reading the Book of Mormon and is up to like Jacob 7 by herself so we are really blown away by that. One of her jobs is as a nail tech, so we met up with her at the church and she did our nails while we talked about the plan of salvation! It was so much fun getting to know her and talking to someone that just really gets it. Just sad because she doesn't have much of a say right now but I know one day it'll happen for her.

Carmen: She's our casa in casa miracle. We'd been calling her lots trying to set up a time to meet but it just kept falling through and she always says "I'll call you guys" (which is what everyone says.... only Italy missionaries get this) because she works several jobs especially now that it's summer and the tourist industry is picking up. BUT she called us Thursday afternoon and said "Hey I've got 1 hour if you come over right now" so you better believe we sprinted over to her house and caught our breaths just before ringing her doorbell. She has tons of questions and so we had fun answering them and trying to stay on topic and explain the plan of salvation!! We left her with a copy of the Restoration DVD because she is having a hard time understanding the importance of authority. We read some of the Book of Mormon with her too! She's just so curious and we are praying her work schedule clears up another afternoon this week🤞

Finding miracle of the week= Mirella. After a day full of finding, we were doing English course finding and we met Mirella. Mamma Mia it's like she's had this lifetime desire to learn English! But I have never had a better conversation with someone on the street. I was just giddy because she had so many questions for us and was SO NICE! Wow. Then she was like "so, tell me more about your religion!" Then she said, "well, we need to exchange numbers so we can meet up next Friday, Saturday, or Sunday....or if you want to meet all 3 days that works for me!...not next Friday, THIS friday!" We are so excited to see her again on Friday!!!!!!!! Still can't believe this one even happened. I probably didn't explain it well enough to do it justice but you'll have to take my word for it.

Fish therapy

Valentina. Last pday we went to fish therapy where you put your feet in a bath with these fish that eat your dead skin off and then you have really soft feet! Well we made really good friends with the 2 girls that work there (they are sisters). Last night we walked by and started talking to Valentina and she told us about her husband and her daughter and we just had a great conversation and listened to her. We got to exchange phone numbers and let's just say we'll probably be "casually" walking by there a couple times this week! Cool because it goes to show miracles happen when you open your mouth!!

As always, best for last: Happy❤ where to even begin....
Basically she is our new best friend and I think the feeling is pretty mutual.  We went over to her house on Thursday and she made us a big African pranzo, African fried rice and who even know what kind of meat we ate hahaha but it was so good and also I haven't had spicy food in forever! Then we presented the lesson we had prepared, the gospel of Jesus Christ. We were planning on inviting her to be baptized but were kind of scared going into it because she's so religious and we knew she'd probably already been baptized. But you know what? We asked anyways because we are missionaries and that's how our lives go. This time, however, we got a major plot twist. After inviting her to be baptized she said "YES!!!!!!!!!!" Oh my we were in shock but so happy. Tears just came right to my eyes to see how happy she was!!!!!!!! We asked, " how about June 23rd?" That was met with another extra-enthusiastic "YES!!!!!!!!!!", then, "write that down right here so I can tell my husband when he gets home from work". We are seeing miracles every day here in Siracusa.

We were also wondering how were going to break her boxes on prophets because every time we go over she is watching some random YouTube prophets and preachings. So that day when we left I took her phone and typed in "Russell M. Nelson" on YouTube and said "this is the prophet of our church for the whole world! You should watch some of his preachings because they're really good!"

First thing she said when we went back on Saturday: "I watched the teachings of your prophet and I really liked them, he is a very fine preacher". YES.
THEN. Happy, Marvelous, and Purity all came to stake conference yesterday! This might not seem like a big deal but considering stake conference didn't start until 11am and we met at the church at 8:15am to take a 1.5 hour bus ride to Catania...... We couldn't stop smiling. They are the best, most golden family ever. The ward just ate them up, especially their cute 4 month old baby :) yep, it's official, Happy is going to look so good in white ❤

Happy, Marvelous, and baby Purity

And lastly, I read a great talk by Elder Uchtdorf this week called "Of Things that Matter Most" in which he says "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" and counsels us that "we would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most......Strength comes not from frantic activity but from being settled on a firm foundation of truth and light. It comes from placing our attention and efforts on the basics of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It comes from paying attention to the divine things that matter most. Let us simplify our lives a little. Let us make the changes necessary to refocus our lives on the sublime beauty of the simple, humble path of Christian discipleship—the path that leads always toward a life of meaning, gladness, and peace." Love these words! I know that he is called of God and I know that we have a prophet, President Nelson that leads and guides us, I'm so thankful for him, and for the gospel in my life. I love being a missionary. ❤


Pace fuori, vi voglio un sacco di bene!
XOXO

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

 

Train to Ragusa for exchanges

Ragusa, Italy

Random photos

Fresh cherries

more fish therapy pics

The elders needed some therapy also.

p-day at the castle in Siracusa

Pranzo with Happy

Went bowling with the YSA's

Relief Society activity

The week of forgetting my nametag...

A store called the First Vision.

Because I think I literally left the house without my nametag at least 3 times this week. At least. And if you know me, you know I'm not really a forgetful person.. so I have no idea what's going on! Saturday night I told myself I'd put an extra one in my bag for next time I forget. Well, I forgot to put an extra in my bag and then forgot my nametag and realized like halfway through church yesterday hahaha whoops....... this week will be better 🤞

Well it hasn't even been a week since my last email so there isn't too much to update y'all on...

We tried meeting with Lucia on Wednesday, she rescheduled for Saturday then cancelled on us and didn't come to church yesterday 😭

We tried meeting with Carmen on Tuesday, she rescheduled for Thursday then we showed up at her door, called her, she was at work. 

Oh and our Nigerian family, Marvelous and Happy? They cancelled on us last Tuesday evening, rescheduled for Saturday (this one actually happened!) Here in The Great Italy Rome mission, we have a name for these occurrences: "bidone". We got hit with the bidone multiple times this week (meaning the person we were supposed to meet with bailed last minute), ma sempre avanti! It led us to lots of great finding time and a less active visit.

It also led us to meet people we wouldn't have met otherwise, like Dina! We were doing English course finding and stopped a lady asking her if she spoke English. She responded "I'm from America" in perfect English! Wow we were shocked. She's from Oklahoma! And she's here teaching English hahaha but we had a really long conversation with her and exchanged phone numbers to meet up another time and show her the "Grazie A Lui" video ❤

In other news, I ate the best arancino of my life this week, from Marchese's. (Just including that so I'll remember that panificio for when I come back) forgot to take a picture of it, so I guess that means we'll have to go again. 

Cannoli with Rosie

One of the really fun things about this ward is all of the youth. We have been having a blast getting to know them and spend time with them and just be their friends. We even went to seminary on Saturday morning (They have school on Saturdays here) at 7am! One of the girls, Rosie, is 18 and preparing to go on a mission so she came out to work with us for a couple hours on Saturday! We went to Marvelous and Happy's house, Marvelous was eating dinner and didn't want to join in for the lesson but we taught the restoration to Happy and I think Sorella Hope loved getting to teach in English! I would like to say the same for myself but yikes I'm at the point where the restoration sounds weird in English! Hahaha. Anyways on the walk over there I quickly memorized the first vision in English....I did so by mentally translating it from Italian hahaha mamma Mia. The lesson went really really well and the spirit was so strong. Happy can read and so we read Moroni's promise together and her first question was "how much does this book cost?" We love answering that one❤ Having Rosie there was great too, she is originally from Africa but has lived in Italy most of her life and is trying to learn English! She bore a really powerful testimony too. We asked them if they'd be in church to which they responded "Yes, we will come". They came. This work is too good y'all.

Real quick I want to share something from a talk I read this week by President Monson: "Prayer is the passport to spiritual power". I know that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and cares about us because we are His children! I know that through prayer we can communicate with Him and I know that He listens. He hears our prayers and He answers them, maybe not always in the timing we want but in His perfect way❤ 

Love y'all! Buona settimana a tutti!

PS I hit my year mark last Saturday..

PS if you want to send me a package while I'm in Siracusa, here's the address to send it to! 

Sorella Carley Neuberger

GLS Shop di Siracusa

Viale Polibio, 13 

Siracusa, SR 96100

Italia 

Letters:

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

 

Pizza night with the Caggegi's

Sorella Hope surprised me for my 1 year