Gesù & Gelato: Roller Coaster

Roller Coaster of emotions.

That's an accurate description of this week in 4 words.

Not sure where to start but I guess I'll get the big stuff over with first!

So we met with Happy and Marvelous this week, finishing up the lessons with them! She even cooked us legit African fufu!!! I've only heard about the stuff and wow it was an experience! Basically it's this soupy mixture stuff with vegetables (in our case tons of spinach), meat that was supposedly beef and other random unidentifiable foods. And you eat it not with a fork....or a spoon.........but with this like raw dough? I don't even know. Luckily I took pictures so you can attempt to understand.

- We taught them about families and temples and how important they are! We got to talk about how families can be together for eternity when they are sealed within God's holy temples. And we made a goal to see each other again in 1 year in the temple! I know they will make it!!

- We reviewed with them the importance and the sanctity of baptism. We read 3 Nephi 11 together when Christ visits the Americas and teaches the people there about the importance of being baptized! Then watched the Bible video of Christ's baptism to show that even He who was sinless was baptized to fulfill the will of the Father and to set a perfect example for each of us to follow.

- Then Friday came, the day of their baptismal interview! We made them a cake for afterward when we celebrated together. We walked to their house feeling so on top of the world and when we got there, they weren't home. We called them and they told us they were out and couldn't do the interview, they wanted to reschedule it for Saturday. So we did just that! We rescheduled it for Saturday. It was slightly frustrating and we might have cried some but we called President Pickerd and he reassured us, they've been in church the last 5 weeks so it's nothing to worry about. Let's just say that Satan's attacks on people before baptism are so real!!

- Saturday came around, interview take 2. We got to their house a little before the interview started to do a practice interview with them but before we could even do that, Happy told us about a conversation she had with her mom. She called her mom because she was so excited to tell her about the baptism! Then her mom told her that in the bible it says you can't be baptized 3 times (Happy was baptized when she was an infant and then again when she was like 15). I have no idea where that is in the bible. Neither did President Pickerd, so that's saying something. Haha. So we talked about the importance of the priesthood authority! And how that authority was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith.

- The interview went great!! But they were somehow still really convinced they couldn't be baptized again, so we did what we always do: invited them to pray for themselves. To know God's will for them. Because, in all reality and no matter how frustrating all this may be for us, it's the Lord's timing!!

S. Hope, Happy, Marvelous, and me

- They came to church yesterday and the bishopric gave their family a shout out and told everyone to go introduce themselves after sacrament meeting so all the members were huddled around this cute family when church was over yesterday, it was a beautiful sight. Then Happy and Marvelous asked where they could get more tithing envelopes so they could pay their tithing!!!!!!!

- And now you're probably wondering if the baptism is still on for this Saturday. So am I. We will meet with them tonight to talk more about where they're at, but obviously we don't want to push them!! I know they will make it to the waters of baptism so soon, but if this weekend isn't their time then it's not the Lord's time. Sorella Hope is heartbroken she's going to miss it (transfers next week).

My big accomplishment of the week was making an Italian Mormon message. Not from scratch haha. So lots of the Mormon messages that exist in English don't exist in Italian. It's really a bummer when you find one that would be perfect for a person or lesson and then it doesn't exist in Italian. Well, this week I found the perfect Mormon message for Lucia and Riccardo, "Blessed and Happy are Those Who Keep the Commandments of God", it's a great talk and video. And I got real creative and with a super complicated process, I won't bore you with the details, mission accomplished. Probably the biggest happy dance of my mission hahahahah. So we had a lesson with Lucia, Riccardo, and Salvo and decided to just low-key break boxes this time. We talked about prophets and why its important to follow them (with a cool object lesson), showed the video, read some scriptures- I've never spent so much time planning a lesson. We were more than prepared and just ready to kill it. Then Lucia was on her phone the whole time not listening and it wasn't received how we were hoping. Salvo got it and tried to help us but it was a lost cause. Hopefully something got through to them!! Then yesterday we texted Lucia to tell her we missed her at church and asked when we could see her again! She responded that she'd love to meet up and maybe get something to eat but asked "maybe this time we don't have to talk about God". Nice try, Lucia. We gave her a straight up response: we're here as missionaries because we love God and we love talking about Him!

Advice on that situation anyone??????

Okay time for the good news!!!!!!!!

On Friday afternoon we left our house and ran into this lady with a super cute dog named Stellina. AHHH she was precious so we stopped to pet her for a second, talked to the owner, invited her to English course. Fast forward exactly 24 hours later we ran into the same lady with the same dog at the same spot!!! Her name is Alessandra and we talked to her for a little and she invited us over anytime we want to come! She gave us her address and everything ❤ dog finding works, people.

We did "heaps" (as my Aussie comp says) of casa in casa this week. We had one lady who told us we should come back! So, we did :) . We went back to her house and she opened the door and asked "ciao! Do you girls remember me?" Hahahah yes of course we do! She invited us in and we got to talk about the restoration and left her with the invite to read the Book of Mormon! So keep Ivanna in your prayers!!

And recently we have been doing some family history finding! We have a nice family history center in our church building and lots of members who love doing genealogy so we took our family history bigliettini and hit the streets! It led to lots of cool conversations and was fun to switch it up some! One of my favorites was with a lady named Daniela who said she's always been interested in learning about her Egyptian ancestors! We exchanged numbers and hopefully will be meeting up this week to do some family history together! Plus she said she'd like to learn more about our church and beliefs, win-win.

Okay one more thing and I'll stop boring you to death. Last night we were waiting for a bus to take us home and we were starting to get frustrated with the typical, unreliable, Sicilian public transport. Then guess who comes running up to us to give us the biggest hugs ever???? RITA!! ❤ Ah she is so cute and just loves us tons, the feeling is mutual. We got to meet her boyfriend too! She invited us to her house on Wednesday, she wants to say goodbye to Sorella Hope before she gets transferred. Goes to show that being in the right place at the right time, it pays off!

So yeah, lots of ups and downs this week. But hey, that's the mission! And you know what? I love every minute and wouldn't trade it for anything. I love my Savior and the chance I have right now to be a representative of Him in Italy! My sister sent me the new efy album and I've been listening to it some this week. One of the songs is sung by Patch Crowe and he says this: "Every life I touch, every heart I lift is a reflection of the light He shines to me. He is the One that helps me become all I'll ever be". I know that it is because of Jesus Christ we have the potential to become all we will ever be! Let's follow His example today and always!

Love yall!!!!

XOXO

PS happy Father's day to the best dad in the world!!! I love you dad!

PS shoutout to Austin Briles who's coming to Italy as a missionary the day I leave haha dang it.