Gesù & Gelato: Giuseppe gets baptized

Hey do you remember Giuseppe, my best panificio friend from Statte???? Well he got baptized yesterday and I'm probably just going to be on a high this whole week from how happy I am. He made it!!! It's been a long time coming, but this man has completely turned his life around for the best and I couldn't be more proud of him. So I guess it depends on the mission, usually you get to go to the baptism (unrealistic in this mission) or Skype in for the baptism but we can't in our mission :( I did get like a 3 minute Skype call with him after to say congratulations!!! It was great to see the light in his face and also great to see Elvira even if it was only for a short time. I miss them like crazy, but they'll always be my Italian parents ❤ I told Giuseppe I hope to see him in the temple in a year and he said he hopes so too, and that he will always follow the laws of Heavenly Father. My heart is so full! Seeing the pictures of him in white......these are the moments you pray for as a missionary and when they happen it's like cloud 9 joy and nothing can bring you down. It's something I'll remember for the rest of my life, I'll leave it at that.

Giuseppe and Elvira

Well I wish I had some really cool miraculous moments from this week but hey the reality of a mission is that some weeks are better than others! We did lots of casa in casa and lots of contacting on the street. There was one building we were knocking and every door was just straight rejection hahahaha. One man opened the door, saw us, we made eye contact for a few seconds and before I could even open my mouth he slammed the door. Haha no words even exchanged.... but you just have to laugh in moments like that and it was pretty funny. And pretty much every door in the building was like that! Until we got to the last one..... I hate to be stereotypical but that's just the way it worked out. The last door we got to we were smiling so hard when the lady opened the door because we had been dying of laughter at all the rejection. But we still went for it! Asked if we could show her a video and she was like "yeah, sure! As long as it's not a video that's going to make my cry!" I had to clarify making sure I didn't just imagine her saying that. We showed her the CiSaráSempre video and no more than 5 seconds into it, she was in tears. There was such a special spirit there at her doorstep as we explained who we were and the importance of our message! We exchanged numbers and are hoping to see Stefania again this week ❤.

Mirella has been bailing on us so unfortunately we haven't gotten to see her.

We gave Carmen The Book of Mormon in Romanian! She was really excited to get it but we couldn't talk because she was really busy.

There was a huge concert at our church on Saturday night, the bishop printed off TONS of fliers and used them in our finding!!!! We had a great turnout at the concert, over 150 people and we set up a table that they couldn't avoid on their way out, we gave away so many cards and pamphlets!!!!

S. Hope, Lucia, Ricardo, Naomi, me, Salvo

We had a great lesson with Lucia this week, Riccardo (her less active boyfriend) was there along with Salvo (Fratello Caraffa). We taught her about the word of wisdom and why its important to protect our bodies, they are a great gift God has given us and he wants us to take care of them! She smokes and so does Riccardo. Salvo bore a really powerful testimony, he is a convert and was addicted to cigarettes before he was baptized but he talked about how when he learned about the word of wisdom he quit immediately and never smoked again. He offered to give her a priesthood blessing at the first sign of struggle. Lucia took it all really well and committed to living the word of wisdom!!!! We couldn't believe it! Then not too long after, Riccardo starts smoking and tempting the heck out of her AH it was incredibly frustrating but we told her she is strong and she can do this! She said yeah it should not be a problem because I'm not addicted it's just more of a social thing because Riccardo does it. So the next day we messaged her to see how it was going!! She responded "we like to smoke so for now, we don't want to quit"....huh. "WE". I'm guessing Riccardo typed that one. You can probably imagine where our frustration level is right now because if he wasn't in the picture we'd actually be getting somewhere. So this week I think we'll probably just call him out on holding her back from eternal salvation and then try to get him on board. Vediamo un po', dai.

We had the best scambio this week, with the Ragusa sorelle. They are so awesome! I was with Sorella Sullivan who is the cutest. We went and talked with Happy and Marvelous about the law of chastity! They ate it all up and then while we ate, Marvelous read the entire law of Chastity pamphlet to Happy, pausing and talking about it after each paragraph. Wow. We also met some great contacts doing casa in casa during our scambio so hopefully good fruits will come out of those seeds we planted!

on exchanges with the Ragusa sorrelle

We also taught Happy and Marvelous the 10 commandments this week, complete with hand signals to help them remember them! (Thanks Sorella DeMann!) So that was a blast. They came to church again yesterday, they are making great friendships with the bishop, the Cicciò family, and the other ward members who (attempt to) speak English! It's incredible! We showed them the baptismal font and the looks on their faces when they saw it. Mamma Mia. June 23rd can't come fast enough! This family is so ready and so are we ❤. My heart is so full!

This week we got to watch the devotional to youth from President and Sister Nelson "Hope of Israel". If you haven't seen it yet, would recommend. It is amazing. I especially loved how Sister Nelson says "it’s time to stop comparing ourselves with others. It’s time to put away those erroneous views of ourselves and others. The truth is that we are not as hopelessly flawed as we may think..... The only thing that really matters is that you and I are doing exactly what we committed—even covenanted—premortally with our Heavenly Father we would do while we are here on earth. So, let me ask you a question: What were you born to do?" I invite you to think about that during your week!! What were YOU born to do? I know that each of us has special, God-given gifts and talents we can use to bless the lives of those around us. I know that President Nelson is a prophet called of God to guide us! I am thankful for him and his counsel.

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!

XOXO