Gesù & Gelato: The ball is rolling in Siracusa

very very slowly, but it's rolling. Finalmente!

(and yeah sorry this email is excessively long... feel free to skip to the pictures. This is what happens when it's a national holiday on pday so the whole city is completely shut down.)

We had our restoration lesson with Lucia and Riccardo last Monday night... it went exactly like you'd expect a lesson with two 18 year-olds to go. No matter how hard we were trying to invite the spirit and bear testimony, they just weren't having it. Lucia was on her phone most of the time. And when Sorella Conforto asked her what she remembered from the lesson she couldn't remember a single thing. So we left that one feeling kind of frustrated but also determined to find some way to teach Lucia so she can understand!

with Sorella Hope and Lucia

So we made another appointment with her. Saturday night. And this time we decided it would be best to just watch the restoration DVD since ragazzi love watching screens and plus it's just a really good visual that helps with understanding Joseph Smith, his experience, and brings the spirit very strongly. So we did just that! We watched the video on their TV and the spirit in that room was tangible. We asked her what she understood about the video and she recounted it all back perfectly telling us "Sorelle, I know these thing are true. I know this really did happen to Joseph Smith." Then she made Riccardo leave the room and just completely opened up to us. I was picking my jaw up off the floor and wondering who are you and what did you do with the Lucia we met with Monday night??? She told us about how her dad passed away when she was 10 but that she feels his presence around her constantly. She told us about how she's been believing her whole life but that she has never found such amazing people, a real family, and such happiness as she feels in our church. She told us about how she used to be happier and how she wants to and knows she can become that girl again with the help of the gospel and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. She told us that she needed Sorella Hope and I so badly and we were just all crying. We explained the importance of prayer and how we can each have a personal relationship with Heavenly Father and then invited her to say a prayer. She said she'd never really prayed before but said the most beautiful prayer. It was such a special night that I know will bond us for eternity! To top it all off, she came to church on Sunday and apparently told Sorella Hope through google translate that she wants to be baptized? I wasn't around when that happened.. so update on that next week after we talk with her some more this week :)

Food adventures of the week: Horse meat sandwiches with the Conforto family. Yum!! Sorella Hope made me a spider drink-- vanilla ice cream and sprite mixed into like a slushie type thing. So good.

At english course this week we made our students learn the numbers like "third", "fourth", "fifth", "sixth", etc. etc. Which was hysterical because italians can't make the "th" sound per niente. Sorella Hope and I did our spiritual thought on the Restoration, we showed the short video and bore our testimonies. The spirit must have been present because one of our students, Maria, showed up in the middle of sacrament meeting on Sunday! Che miracolo! (Side note: church is backwards here, meaning that sacrament meeting is last).

at ward activity with Sara

Last Tuesday was like Italian liberation day or some big holiday so our ward had a huge activity at the church and they invited friends, it was so much fun! We showed up and Fratello Caraffa (literally our dad in the ward) says "Sorelle, go home and put on pants right now, what are you guys wearing?!" I was kind of suprised.. I've never had members tell us to change hahaha. He was like "Either I'll drive you home to change, or you can take my car" and since neither of those are 'legal' we walked home and changed and came back to play some volleyball with all the youth, eat lunch, get to know all the ward members and continue trying to learn names, we even did some karaoke (Fratello Caraffa is a DJ and so he had pretty legit setup). Ah it was just a blast. And we got to meet tons of really cool people.

I might've mentioned Martina Zombra in an email before, she and her family are just the cutest members. She got back from her mission in Milan in October and we meet with her like once a week to help her learn english! She works at this fancy purse shop in Ortigia called Lumière. Wow. hahah. And since she is going to go to Rome this week for her trainer's wedding (also Amanda's trainer) and Amanda will be there too, I gave her a little note to pass on! Still salty you're not coming to Sicily, Amanda. #coughcough

But you guys have to know that this week was another hard one for us. I was honestly feeling kind of down because we just do hours and hours of street contacting and house to house every day without tons of success. It got to the point where I got an email from my mom on Thursday that said, "I had some one at the DMV bless me today and pray for me!! so I asked God to pass it on to you! So hopefully you had a miracle this evening or today sometime!" I read that and just kind of laughed like are you kidding me? In my dreams. But I really believed it and we just prayed that that miracle would come our way sooner rather than later. 24 hours passed. Nothing.

Then Friday night rolled around and we were supposed to have a "spiritual reflections night" at the church with some of the members. It got cancelled last minute. So......we had no other plans and decided to go street contacting in a little area near our house (we always turn right when we leave our house, but we decided to turn left and just street contact in that area). Well, best decision of our lives because for some reason the people over there are insanely open and just totally willing to talk to us! We had conversation after conversation I couldn't believe it!!!!!!! We also saw this super cute little Nigerian baby (Purity) and were just awing over her and then started talking to the parents, Marvelous and Happy. They've been in Italy for 3 years now and were so sweet. Not going to lie, it's a ton easier talking to Africans about the gospel because they are just so much more open! And so of course we invited them to church. And they said "We will come" (only italy missionaries understand that this means you'll never see them again). Sorella Hope was pumped after that conversation and I didn't burst her bubble, just told her how it usually ends up with africans when they say that. But something did feel different with them.....so we prayed our little hearts out. As the night went on we made several other amazing contacts I can't even remember all the names!!!!!!!! I was like how far are we going to push our luck tonight? We kept stopping people waiting for someone to reject us and it never happened... I was kind of wondering if I'd been transferred to South America for a second or something. It got to the point where after each amazing conversation, we would just hug and cry hahah that makes us sound like insane people but that's exactly what happened. Sorella Hope even said "wow I've never seen you so happy!" Miracles are real yall. The Lord is looking out for His missionaries! I know that all of our hard, seemingly fruitless efforts from the past 3 weeks are starting to pay off and that yes, the ball is beginning to roll. We've been using all our faith to push it and it's definitely starting to move here in Siracusa! Meno male!!

Okay, now it gets better. Yep, that wasn't even the best part. We spent the entire morning Saturday doing casa in casa. There's this HUGE palazzo kind of close to where we live and we are trying to knock the whole thing. So we made a pretty big dent in it when we spent 3 hours straight knocking. Niente. Came home for lunch and studies. No afternoon plans so we went back to that same palazzo. More knocking. It was almost time for our lesson with Lucia so we decided to do one more building. We came to one door where the lady opened and, same as usual, told us she wasn't interested but I just felt like I should keep talking. So I gave her a card and pointed to the information on the back saying "this is our phone number and the address of our church, we have church tomorrow at 9:30, blah blah blah" I don't really remember what else I said but Sorella Hope said I started bearing my testimony hahaha wow. And she said "hey do you want to just come in for a minute?" We tried to keep our cool and casually say "si" but I'm not sure that's how it actually turned out hahaha. Carmen. She's a cute lady from Romania, she's lived in Italy the last 10 years. I thought she was super young but apparently she has 2 older daughters. Her husband died 5 years ago. And we talked for an hour about everything under the sun from the restoration, to the word of wisdom, to the plan of salvation, the sacrament, we read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and Moroni's promise together, everything. She was so curious and had so many questions!! We also showed her the #CiSaraSempre video and her response was just tears. All 3 of us were in tears. It was an amazing spiritual moment and we are beyond excited to meet up with Carmen again this week!! Miracoli ovunque.

Now I know you're probably tired of reading but it's not over. That's not the end, not even the best part. Because you know what? We were sitting in sacrament meeting on Sunday and I was just looking around thinking about how much I truly love Siracusa and these amazingly strong ward members. It's been a hard adjustment but it is really starting to feel like home. My heart is here, without a doubt. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an African walk into the chapel. It was Marvelous. Followed by Happy, pushing Purity in a stroller. I kind of did a double take and looked at Sorella Hope to make sure it was real and I wasn't dreaming. I wasn't. We jumped out of our seats, ran over to them and greeted them with the biggest smiles in the world. They came and sat by us, and let me just tell you my heart has never felt so full. The day of miracles has NOT ceased, I can promise you that. We are going to their house tonight to talk more and I CAN'T WAIT! I love Nigerians, I love Italians, I love Siracusa, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! It's all true guys, it's all true. I love this gospel and my Savior with my whole heart.

Love yall too!

Have the best week!

XOXO

your favorite sorella missionaria.