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