Has it been a week already?!??! time is flying.....
Not sure what exactly to update yall on, our week was filled
with tons of finding. But hey! It's September!!!! Which theoretically means
everyone is back in town and stays in town! We're excited to start calling
through of our list of people that told us they'd be back in September.
The highlight of my week was a scambio I got to do with
Sorella Silva! Oh wow she is the most amazing missionary I have ever
seen.....she's incredible. She's just so naturally good with people, I was
blown away! I learned a ton from her! And, as it goes with every scambio, we
saw some really cool miracles!
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| gelato with equador family |
For starters, at english group on Thursday night, we taught
the advanced group. For advanced group you pretty much talk for an hour and
correct their english when needed. So we were talking about fears and then out
of the blue one of the students asks "So what is the difference between
you mormons and us catholics anyways?" We bounced back from the initial
shock of that question pretty quickly and jumped right into teaching about the
restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ! It was really incredible and we
spent the whole class explaining to them in english while they asked questions.
We even concluded by giving each of them a copy of The Book of Mormon and
inviting them to read it!!
In other english course news, the Equador family is back
from their vacation!!!!! Ah I love them so much. They took us to gelato on
Thursday after class for my birthday!
AND another student made a cake for everyone on Thursday for
my birthday! How fun!!
As far as my actual birthday on Wednesday, it was good! We
had district meeting then we all went to lunch and I invited Gioia to come with
us, it was a blast. We have really become like sisters! And then the rest of
the day we had correlation and zone conference planning so nothing too
exciting.
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| fried chicken for my birthday dinner |
BUT the Knies couple (one of the couples that works in the
mission office) had us over for dinner and that was really a miracle for me!
When they initally invited us over I don't think they realized it was my
birthday but it was something I really needed that night. I'm super grateful
for them and that we got to spend that night with not just americans but
southerners who made us fried chicken and american brownies!!!!!! Blessed.
Back to the rest of our scambio miracles! Sorry, got
sidetracked there for a sec.
Friday morning we decided to go to a park we'd never been to
before but we just felt really good about it. Parco Talenti. On the bus ride
there we met an awesome girl named Rama, we probably only talked to her for a
few seconds but long enough to exchange numbers and she messaged us right after
saying, "I'm so glad we met and are going to be friends!"
Then we got to the park and there were some really awesome
people there. Right when we walked in we noticed a lady sitting in a big patch
of grass with her dog. We walked up started playing with her dog and sat down
with them and just talked! We got to tell her (Antonella) about The Book of
Mormon and left her with a copy! She was really incredible. We were supposed to
meet up yesterday but she got called into work so hopefully next week we will
be able to meet up again!
We talked to several other cute moms and I won't bore you
with the details but it was a miracle park!
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| Gioia came to lunch with us and the district |
Gioia is still doing great! We taught her about the Word of
Wisdom this week and it was a really special lesson! She went to see her
grandpa again this weekend and couldn't come to church. Please keep him in your
prayers because he is in very critical condition in the hospital!
Another huge miracle of the week was Stella. We met her on
the street, tried stopping her to do our survey and she responded by saying
"I don't speak italian" in perfect english! So we talked to her for a
little, she's 21, from Greece, and SO cute!!!!!!!!!!! THEN! We met up with her
on Saturday night, she came to the church for a lesson, we watched the
restoration video together (dad please insert link here to the 20 minute
restoration video). After it was over we asked her what she thought. She responded
by putting her hand to her heart and saying "Give me a minute,
please". It was amazing to see the spirit touch her! The only bummer of
the lesson was that we forgot to bring her a copy of The Book of Mormon in
english!! We searched the whole church before the lesson and couldn't find any!
We wondered why it worked out that way and then on our way home we saw the
Balzotti couple (an office couple) and told them about Stella, our Greek
miracle! And they told us they had a copy of The Book of Mormon in Greek if we
wanted it! Funny how it all worked out so perfectly, because we didn't even
think about getting her a copy in Greek!!!!!! We are excited to give it to her
this week!
Stella is really excited to come to church, she hasn't found
a church here that she likes and is really interested to see how ours
works!
And our week ended on a beautiful note, we spent last night
working the information center at the Italy Rome Temple. Wow God is so good and
He loves us so much.
In preparation for the training we are giving at zone
conference this week, I reread one of my all-time favorite general conference
talks "Songs Sung and Unsung" by Elder Holland. I want to share with
yall my favorite quote from it:
"Heavenly Father delights to have us sing in our own
voice, not someone else’s. Believe in yourself, and believe in Him. Don’t
demean your worth or denigrate your contribution. Above all, don’t abandon your
role in the chorus. Why? Because you are unique; you are irreplaceable. The
loss of even one voice diminishes every other singer in this great mortal choir
of ours."
Can I just take a minute to tell you I have such a strong
testimony of this!!!! We so frequently find ourselves looking around and
comparing ourselves with those in front of us but it is so reassuring to know
that we don't have to be them! Nor do we need to even try to be anything but
our best selves. YOU have such an important role in His choir. This is
something I've been reminding myself recently that each of us is equally
valuable to our Heavenly Father and that He designed a perfect plan in which
each of us are unique. I know that He loves me and I know that He loves you
too! And I know that He loves the people of Rome, Italy as I have been able to
feel that so strongly this week. I'm so lucky to be here serving them and
helping them come closer to Him!
Con amore,
Sorella Neuberger
XOXO
Sorella Carley Neuberger
Le Sorelle Missionarie
Piazza Bortolo Belotti, 55/21
Roma, RM 00139
Italia
Le Sorelle Missionarie
Piazza Bortolo Belotti, 55/21
Roma, RM 00139
Italia
