The Pantheon, The Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona

That was my day! 

I guess you could say we live a blessed life here in the Italy Rome Mission ;) On days when it's hard and hot, I just remind myself to look up and woah I remind myself how beautiful this country is!! We saw some amazing sights today for pday so I will try and attach some pictures! 

 

The Spanish Steps

The Pantheon

Piazza Navona

This week was full of searching for the elect here in Rome, here are the highlights:

- Valeria. A really awesome lady we met on the street! We started talking with her, introduced ourselves, then she told us she's not Christian. I asked why and she said "because I don't follow the Catholic church" hahaha peoples' perspective of christianity is really skewed here but then we explained to her that we aren't catholic and we are here to help people grow their realationship with Jesus Christ! She was really excited about that and then started asking questions about the temple because she works near it! We got to exchange phone numbers but when we called her the next day she said she's busy with work until September hahaha bummer. So I guess if the italians aren't on vacation until September they are working until September? I'm confused!! Comunque, Valeria was really a great miracle for us this week!

- We met a really cute girl from Peru, Yanet (not sure if she speaks Italian or english.....) we met up with her on Saturday for Peruvian independance day or something along those lines! They were having a big family party so we ate, talked, basically met her whole family and I literally felt like a greenie teleported straight to Peru....... luckily Italian and Spanish are kind of similar so I could understand some, but just couldn't respond. So I sat there smiling, soaking it all in, South Americans are so friendly and open and warm it was great!!!!! I think Sorella Yanacallo was in heaven. We are going to hopefully meet up with Yanet to have a lesson with her this weekend, we were supposed to last night but she got called into work (she works out of town and comes here on the weekends). 

- We met a really cool shop owner the other day, this story basically includes the fact that I'm on a constant hunt for dr. pepper (almost impossible to find in this country). Usually we just look in the windows of the little side stores that sell stuff like that. Well, we were walking past one of these stores the other day and Sorella Yanacallo says "want to go in?" we went in and looked for dr. pepper and while doing so, the man working there said, who are you? What does your nametag mean? Then he pulled up some chairs for us and we got to talk with him about our basic beliefs! It was really incredible! He is muslim and so he really believes in prophets and can't understand why catholics think prophets ended with Christ haha. We wanted to leave him a Book of Mormon, he has read the Bible and would be open to reading it but since he's from Bangledesh it'd be super hard to understand so we left a restoration pamphlet and are hoping to find a copy of The Book of Mormon in his language! really cool miracle. 

- Not sure if I've ever mentioned Flavia, she's one of our investigators that's 17 and is waiting until she is 18 to get baptized because her parents are sort of against the church. Anyways, she went to FSY last week (european EFY) and loved it! She has such a great testimony and comes to church every week!

- We did a gesso on Saturday night with 2 of the anziani in our district, it was a blast!!! We asked the question "What makes you happy?" Sometimes when all you get is straight rejection you just make the best of it! It gets to the slap happy point and then people stop to talk because they want to know why you're so happy! We met some cool people, had some cool conversations! The big miracle of the gesso was Sorella Lopez (an ultra in gamba member) who saw us and came in clutch by bringing us pizza........... #mvp. 

- I'd say the biggest miracle of our week was Peru fam. (noticing the pattern? hahaha so many peruvians.....or south americans in general..........). One of the mornings this week, we did straight casa in casa for a while and it was a test of faith, I'll leave it at that! Even had one lady yelling down the stairs "I'm calling the police!!! I'm calling the police right now!" I thought it was a good laugh, Sorella Yancallo not so much hahah. The people in Rome are very different that the people I've met in all my past cities. So after a morning full of that and hunger coming on strong, we hopped on the bus home. Well, there was an open seat next to me and an open seat next to Sorella Yanacallo when this really cute family gets on the bus. One of the daughters sat next to me, the other daughter sat next to Sorella Yanacallo while their dad stood in the aisle. We made friends with the girls, I tried talking to the dad but then just asked where they were from. When he said "Peru" I pointed to Sorella Yanacallo and said "my friend over there is from Ecuador!" They started conversing and next thing I know, I'm watching Sorella Yanacallo put her spanish copy of The Book of Mormon in this guys hands!!!! Luckily we got off at the same stop as they did. I asked Sorella Yanacallo if she wanted to get their phone number, she was kind of doubtful so I physically pushed her over there and yep we exchanged numbers hahahah!!!! What a miracle!!!!! The Lord is seriously so looking out for us.

I think that's probably the biggest lesson I've learned this week, "ye recieve no witness until after the trial of your faith" (Ether 12:6). Sometimes the Lord wants to see how faithful we are, He tests our faith. And after that, we will recieve a witness! I know that is true! Some weeks as a missionary are a real trial of faith but I know that the Lord has good things in store for us in the near future!! When I expressed this concern to my dad he responded, "I know it is hard in Rome. I can only imagine a Catholic missionary knocking on doors in Salt Lake." So that puts things into perspective a little bit! But this is the best work and I am so lucky and thankful and humbled to be a part of it. I love my Savior and I know that it is through him that I can conquoer! 

Quote of the week: Neal A. Maxwell "Moments are the molecules that make up eternity." (thanks mom). Let's make every moment count this week! Love yall!!

A dopo!!

XOXO

Working on the Gesso

Pinocchio

inside the Pantheon

Rome West Zone

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore

Sorella Carley Neuberger
Le Sorelle Missionarie
Piazza Bortolo Belotti, 55/21
Roma, RM 00139
Italia

24/7

Ciao a tutti!!!! 

You'll have to excuse my lack of emailing this transfer but living in Rome has been 24/7 chaos as you can probably imagine! Rome is kicking my butt and I'm trying to keep up. Plus with our curfew being extended to 10pm we are trying to make the most of that but still waking up at 6 am and wow I guess you could say the exhaustion is real, but there is nothing like the mission. Life is good. 

We have been keeping really busy with our special temple assignment! If you're still curious as to what it is, it's not too late to email me ;)  We worked there 2 full days this week and it just has to be one of the most beautiful experiences of my mission. What was even more beautiful was going with a senior couple, Simoncini. (Their daughter is Sorella Ciccio in Siracusa). They were some of the first members in Italy, true pioneers, and so being behind them as they walked through was incredible and there were definitely some tears, at least on my end. Just made me realize how sometimes we may take for granted the fact that we have a temple close by, these people have been members their whole lives and travel to a different country to go to the temple maybe once a year. My heart is just filled with so much joy for the Italian members, they are so excited for the temple. Me too. 

with Fratello D'apuzzo

And now time for a big miracle that I just connected the dots on! While we were at the temple information center this week, guess who walked in?? None other than Fratello D'apuzzo from Taranto!! I couldn't believe it! We immediately started talking about Giuseppe and then I found out that Fratello D'apuzzo isn't from Taranto at all.....he's from Castellamare. He was living in Taranto temporarily. Temporarily as in he was just living there for a couple of months. And he just happened to be there at the time when we were working with Giuseppe helping him quit smoking. Fratello D'apuzzo probably had no idea why he relocated temporarily to Taranto. or maybe thought he did, but God had a bigger plan, named Giuseppe. So looking back I couldn't think of a bigger miracle than this. The Lord's timing is really something incredibly special and perfect! 

Other exciting news, our church time got moved to 3:30 pm........ Yes, you read that right, we now have church from 3:30 - 6:30 pm. We switched with the other ward that meets in our building. And then once the church building on the temple square opens up, our ward will be meeting there, much needed because this ward is hugeeee. The miracle of church yesterday was that one of our less active members came!! We made so many phone calls on Saturday night talking to members, investigators, inviting everyone to church on Sunday and it really paid off. She was so excited to see us Sunday and we walked in together and the ward members were really excited to see her too!! Plus one of our investigators, Letizia, came to sacrament meeting and brought her boyfriend along! They really enjoyed it and are friends with several members. When one member asked if they'd be coming again they said "for sure!" 

Another huge miracle of the week was at english course on Thursday! Our english course has been getting smaller because Italians go on vacation the whole summer. But on Thursday these 2 really cute Ukranian girls came, they spoke english really well so I ended up just talking to the whole time and it was such a huge miracle for me that night. They're just so normal and we just had a lot of random things in common oh I'm praying so hard they come back tomorrow. Plus we also had a few of the temple construction workers come to english course!! On Saturday Sorella Yanacallo and I made a big english poster (like the one Sorella DeMann and I did in Sassari!) and went out in giro it was a blast. We handed out so many english course cards and had some great conversations so we are hoping to see some miracles from that as well! 

We had a lesson with an investigator named Giusi this week.......it was actually pretty awkward because she clearly does not want to be an investigator! haha!! It was my first time meeting her but she made it very clear that she has found her faith and isn't changing! I guess the sorelle were visiting her because she's super nice plus has a perfect view of the temple right out their back porch! She told us she's going on vacation and not coming back until September.

We've noticed that pattern with pretty much everyone we are trying to get in contact with these days, so that's frustrating! Including members! 

So we will be spending tons of time doing finding for the people that will be staying in Rome for the summer! We did some casa in casa this week and actually met Elder DeFeo's (of the Seventy) cousin so that was really cool! He opened the door, told us he wasn't interested, then said "wait a sec......my cousin is a mormon, do you know a DeFeo?" We about died! So we'll be trying to go back and see him this week for sure, along with a few others that told us we could come back! And we have met a good number of people on the street and transportation that we are hoping to get in touch with and meet up! The missionary struggle haha.

We met up with Faith this week, she seems to be doing really well! We had a really spiritual lesson on the Restoration, the only hard part about her coming to church is that it's really far away from where she lives. So we are going to try to work out a ride or something.....hoping it'll be easier now that church starts at 3:30! 

we tried cremolato...it changes lives.
I would be lying if I said we didn't get
seconds right after eating this one....

Oh one last thing! Anna. One of our investigators that is so in gamba.....we met with her this week and she said "I've read the whole Book of Mormon, do you have a copy of Doctrine and Covenants or Pearl of Great Price that I can read next? Also I want to read the pamphlets for the next couple of lessons so I can be prepared for when we meet" WHAT??!?! She is so cool. And when we asked her what she thought about The Book of Mormon and the Restoration she said "I know it's true!" She asked tons of questions which we tried out best to respond to but most of them started with "when I'm mormon...." Amazing. Only bad part is that she too is going on vacation until September. Haha dang it! Guess we will just have to use technology as best we can.

And quote of the week is from President Russell M. Nelson "The choice to come unto Christ is not a matter of physical location; it is a matter of individual commitment." How committed are YOU to coming unto Christ and strengthening your relationship with Him? No matter our circumstances, it's possible. I am so thankful for my Savior and for the opportunity to be a missionary, grow closer to Him in all that I do, and share His love with the people of Rome!! Loving life and love all y'all!!

A dopo!

XOXO

Sorella Carley Neuberger
Le Sorelle Missionarie
Piazza Bortolo Belotti, 55/21
Roma, RM 00139
Italia

Trevi Fountain & other photos

Trevi Fountain

I got to skype Happy and Marvelous who
were both baptized this past Saturday.

One more pic with their cute little girl Purity

I love Gelato

more Trevi Fountain pictures

random photos (temple in the background)

with my comp Sorella Yanacallo

more Gelato

The Zapatas (one of my previous comps parents)

Did I mention I love gelato?

Happy and Marvelous 2.0

I'm pleased to introduce to my loyal readers....

Happy and Marvelous 2.0!!! 

Their names are Faith and Daniel, and their 8 month old baby boy is named Destiny. Here's the story.

My first day in Rome with Sorella Yanacallo we were on the bus going to visit a member! On the bus was this really cute girl with a really cute baby. Still heartbroken over leaving Siracusa, Happy, and Marvelous I started talking to the baby. Then the girl. I found out her name is Faith and she's from....Nigeria!!!! So I told her about my friends from Nigeria, showed her picture evidence that I had eaten fufu among other African foods, and bam we became instant friends. 

She said she's Christian and goes to an African church here in Rome (not for long hehehe) so we exchanged numbers and then this week we met up with her! To make things even better, she brought her husband, Daniel!!!!! We had planned on talking with them about the Restoration but a few minutes into it Daniel blurts out "Wait I have a question I need to ask you people. Where do the spirits of dead people go while they wait for the judgement day?" Wow. I was floored by that, we quickly changed plans and taught them about the Plan of Salvation! It was really great, they were understanding, asking questions, amazing. Then at the end I asked what other questions they had. Daniel responded "When are we meeting again?" Well, isn't that the question every missionary prays to hear!!!! THEN Faith came to church yesterday!!!! It took several buses and metros but she made it with Destiny! Daniel couldn't come because he works in Napoli or something along those lines. AND the church has set up this organization in Rome, The Friendship Center, it's a big center where refugees can go and make friends, they have lots of activities, teach English and Italian, etc. So we will be taking Faith there this afternoon for women's day to eat lunch, paint nails, ahhh missionary work is the best. 

Okay and while we are on the subject of Happy and Marvelous......Sorella Hope called me this week with some really exciting news!!!!!!!!!!! Happy will be getting baptized on Saturday, the 14th!! She finally got her answer and knows this is the right thing and wow I couldn't be happier. And Marvelous is still praying for his answer! I am so so happy for them and their cute family, ahhh missionary work is the best.

The temple!  View from the info center.
Picture taken with my phone. (It doesn't look real)

 We got to work at the temple 3 times this week!!!!! It is coming right along and they've almost got all of the grass done it looks incredible. How it works is we go for 1 shift at a time, we worked Tuesday from 1-4:30 and again yesterday from 5-8! We stay in the little visitors center trailer and when people come we give them a little rundown, info, and take their picture! The trailer has huge windows and the best view of the temple (see my picture) plus it also has a miniature diagram thingy (what are those called?) of the whole square (stake center, visitors center, lodging, temple) it's really cool and it's cool to see the site becoming more like that diagram every day! Most of the people that come to the information center are American tourists that are members so it's fun getting to talk with members in English for a little and meet people from all over the U.S.! Sometimes we have Italians come in that are just curious about this huge church being built by their house! And Wednesday we had a really special temple experience that I can't wait to tell you about (if you email me personally), but let's just say it's an experience I never thought I'd have as a missionary in the Italy Rome Mission❤. A 4th of July I will never forget, that's for sure. And we get to do it again this Wednesday!!

I completely forgot it was 4th of July so last Monday night when I did remember we started making phone calls like crazy trying to organize some kind of something! (The ward in Siracusa was having a big ward party.... that's right, Italians celebrate American independence day😎). We managed to get some English students who were down, a couple members too, so with a small trip to LIDL for food, the Chinese store for balloons and other red/white/blue randomness, we had a fun little festa at the church and played games... we had a great turnout considering the late notice and everyone had a great time!! 

I have to add that although our English course is starting to die out (everyone goes on vacation for the whole summer) the people that come are AMAZING. There's this really cute family from....Ecuador!!! (How perfect because that's where Sorella Yanacallo is from) and they all come! Apparently the sisters gave them a copy of The Book of Mormon last transfer and then on Saturday we will be going to their house so more to come!!  Plus we have this cute older couple, Enzo and Bianca, that just support everything! The ward had a little activity on Saturday morning and we called last minute to invite them and they came! We gave them a copy of The Book of Mormon this week!!!! Forza corso d'inglese

My cute comp ❤

I should probably mention that being comps with Sorella Yanacallo is the best. Although it's hard sometimes because we communicate with each other in a language that isn't either of our first language, we manage to do just fine!! But now I know why she's here in Rome, there are TONS of people that live here that are from South America. Just to give you a small example: we had gospel principles class in Italian yesterday but it should've been done in Spanish because there were like 3 of us in the class that didn't speak spanish...everyone else did hahaha. And it's cool because we meet so many people on the streets, on the metro, etc. that say "sorry, I only speak spanish" and then Sorella Yanacallo just goes for it, so awesome. She is so sweet and a really good missionary! I think her last comps have been sheltering her hahah because this week after exchanging phone numbers with someone she said "the first time I've done that myself!" She is so awesome and really helping me. So yeah, we've met some really cool potentials from Peru, Ecuador, all over.... the ones from Peru it's cool because I just whip out my pictures from HEFY. It's also cool how similar Spanish is to Italian..... surprisingly understandable!! 

And speaking of people from Ecuador..... on Saturday we had pranzo with the Zapata family! Remember Sorella Zapata, my Ecuadorian comp when I was in Sassari? Well, her parents are in the Rome 2 ward and we had pranzo with them! It was legit, we even had ceviche. So they were super cute and it was a blast meeting them but also weird meeting the parents of your comp while you're still out! And Sorella Zapata will come home while I'm in this ward which is even weirder but so fun!!

Okay I have to throw in this random thing that I can finally drink tap water.... hahaha I've spent so much money on water since being here because I drink a ton but now we can drink the tap because it's cleaner in Rome!! meno male! 

Gioia. She's a 16 year old investigator we have that is so cute, I met her for the first time this week! And she came to church yesterday and is making great friends with the few young women that the ward has. Yesterday afternoon, she called us kind of distraught and asked if we could come see her but we were at the temple! Sorella Yanacallo said, hey we are at a place that will bring you so much peace, you should come. She said "okay send me your location and I'll be there as fast as I can!" Her dad drove her to the temple and we just sat in the information center looking out those big windows just soaking it in for a good while, you could see the peace gradually entering her countenance. We got to talking about the temple, then her dad came inside and he had TONS of questions which we answered best we could, but mainly he just kept saying "Gioia and I are going to come back here in January to see the inside! We will be here the first day!!" Wow! We talked with them for a while and it turned out to be a really awesome experience so we are going to try to meet up with Gioia, her mom, and her dad this week! Just need to work around their work schedules🤞

As far as investigators and the work goes......well I guess we technically have lots of investigators but not many of them are really investigators. In the sense that they'd been taught a gospel principle, etc. but haven't been seen again. Awk. So I hate to come into a new area and rest everyone but we really need some new investigators!! Which leads us to lots of finding! Here in Rome the best finding method is public transport which I'd never done before so it's still pretty scary and intimidating. All my other cities have been smaller and we never used public transport but here you can't live without it. (still adjusting to all the chaos of Rome..... we go to bed just so exhausted and then it feels like our alarm goes off 10 minutes later to wake up) So if you have any public transport finding advice, hit me up. I've been asking all the missionaries and gotten some good help so I'm pumped to amp it up this week. Talking to random people as a missionary is something that's been really hard for me, I had gotten over that fear (a little) with street contacting and casa in casa, but now I feel like a greenie all over again! My comp knows the language perfectly, she knows the city and I follow her around, plus I am re-learning how to find hahaha. But hey, that's what the mission does to ya. Comfort zones just don't exist and we are always learning and growing in some way or another! 

That being said, I want to share with y'all a quote that really helped me out this week. Elder Uchtdorf says, "Our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward." So no matter how hard the days may be, and sometimes we might feel like we are failing, that doesn't define us. What matters is that we get up and try again! I know Heavenly Father loves me and you too and that He recognizes our efforts and loves us even when some days are hard! I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real, I've seen it help me every day of my mission. I am so thankful to be a representative of Him here in this beautiful country amongst the beautiful Italian people!

VI VOGLIO BENE!!

XOXO

Sorella Carley Neuberger
Le Sorelle Missionarie
Piazza Bortolo Belotti, 55/21
Roma, RM 00139
Italia

 

gelato + brioche = 😄

our city

The Sistine Chapel

Now that I've been transferred to Rome (!!!!!!!!!!!) I'm going to just start labeling my emails by what we do for pday! Today we took a district trip to Vatican City, waited in line for about 3 hours (maybe more), and then gave ourselves a very thorough tour of the Sistine Chapel! It was incredible. Rome is absolutely beautiful and I can't believe that I actually get to live here and love these amazing people for the next few months!! 

Sorella Yanacallo with Sistine Chapel in the background

So backtrack. We got transfer calls last Monday night and I got transferred to Rome 2, which is like the center of Rome. So yeah we can proselyte next to the Roman Colosseum hehe. And we are in the temple district so my companion and I will get to go to the temporary temple visitors center and work there so I'm excited to see what that brings!! My new companion is Sorella Yanacallo, she is originally from Ecuador but has lived in Genova (Italy) for the past 8 years. So she speaks perfect Italian! And no English. These past couple of days have been a blast speaking only Italian so I'm looking forward to a whole transfer full of it. Funny, because if you would've asked me 2 weeks ago, I would've told you I wanted a companion that spoke Italian so I could speak only Italian for a transfer......that being said I couldn't be happier with the way things turned out!!!!! I've realized how much my Italian has improved the last several transfers and also how much more I have to learn! Sometimes I forget we are even speaking in Italian then I catch myself saying something in English and Sorella Yanacallo gives me a blank stare hahahahah. She is so cute and sweet we are going to be best friends. She's 23 years old and a convert of 6 years so she has a really cool story it's going to be awesome to see her share it with the people of Roma!!!!!! 

saying goodbye to Sorella Hope

Leaving Siracusa was really hard. Like really really hard. Because we got blown in (white washed) I felt like I was just getting to know the members and we were just starting to build a teaching pool so it was tough saying goodbye to everyone. I just tried to persuade them all to come visit me in Rome ;) . The worst part was that Happy and Marvelous were on vacation all week so I didn't even get to see them to say goodbye after we had gotten the transfer call 😭. But I will keep y'all update on what happens next with them so stay tuned 👌. 

We got transfer calls Monday night, Tuesday and Wednesday were full of cleaning our house, packing, and trying to see everyone we possibly could! Then Wednesday evening we left for Catania, spent the night there, and I hopped on a train the next morning from Catania to Rome, that's 10 hours (or more) by the way. Saying goodbye to Sorella Hope was heartbreaking to put it nicely. We are literally soul sisters and I know we will be best friends for the rest of forever so I'm thankful that Heavenly Father saved her for this point in my life that we could meet and be mission companions. I learned so much from her and I'm so thankful for all of the laughs, memories, and good times we had in the beautiful city of Siracusa. So the train ride was beautiful, I really can't complain. The way it works is the train goes on a boat for a little to get from Sicily to the mainland and it's incredible. Then we took the train all the way up the coast just staring and the beautiful blue sea the whole time. It was something else!! Plus when we stopped in Napoli, Sorella Zapata brought us some pizza from Pelone.

Friday and Saturday we had MLC in Rome! It was really special on Friday, they drove all of us to the temple and set up a bunch of chairs there for the trainings. It was incredible being there in that still peacefulness and calm amid the chaos of Rome! The temple is so close to being finished and I think they're even putting in the grass tomorrow! 

The ward here in Rome 2 is gigantic....wow. I haven't been in a ward this big like ever it's kind of overwhelming! There are a lot of Americans too... some here for the temple construction, etc. Some here for the embassy. And so on. So that was really weird yesterday trying to introduce myself to people and not knowing whether to do it in English or Italian. haha. I am so excited to get to know all of them though and just really make this place home.❤ 

Something from MLC that really resonated with me was when Sorella Pickerd said that "love is a choice". We choose to love our companion. We choose to love our family, friends, etc. We choose to love the Italians. But most importantly, we choose to love the Lord. I want you all to know that I love the Lord. I am so humbled to wear his name on my heart every day and share His love with the people that surround me! I know that He loves you too. 

Alla prossima! 

XOXO

My new address⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️  + lots of pictures below.

Sorella Carley Neuberger
Le Sorelle Missionarie
Piazza Bortolo Belotti, 55/21
Roma, RM 00139
Italia

Saying goodbye to my friends in Siracusa and some pictures from inside the Sistine Chapel.