Gesù & Gelato: 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