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| with Maryori and Cindy |
So happy
to inform you that this week was equally amazing as last!! The weeks here in
Rome just keep getting better and better. Plot twist: I'll start with the good stuff.😎
Cindy and Maryori. I seriously think we would see them every single day if they didn't live so far away! It's like a 1.5 hour trip to get there but gives us a great chance to do finding on the metro, train, and bus. Comunque they are just so cute and loving and it just feels like family when we are with them. Makes it easy to teach because we are comfortable. We all laugh together, make jokes, share our testimonies and I just really look forward to our visits with them. On Tuesday, we taught Maryori about the Plan of Salvation and it was probably the most perfect/fluid plan of salvation lesson of my mission. Not because of anything we said or did, but because it was received so well by Maryori! She understood, everything just seemed to make sense to her, and then at the end she taught it back to us word for word. And when we went back last night, she had studied 2 Nephi 9, just as we had invited her to! Also featured at our visit last night: William, Cindy's Italian boyfriend who came to church with them last week and who also happens to be super interested in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! So to start, we had Maryori teach him about the Plan of salvation!! She did it beautifully and then we segued into our planned lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, endure to the end). We watched the Baptism of Jesus video and the spirit in the room after was absolutely tangible and incredible. I asked what they thought and William was pretty speechless and just got out a "wow". We concluded the lesson inviting Maryori to be baptized on October 20! She accepted!!!!! And Cindy was just squealing she was so happy and excited!! Then William asked us some questions about baptisms for the dead and so we read some of the 'families and temples' pamphlet and then he started talking about how beautiful it would be to have an eternal family and an eternal marriage and that's the most important thing to him!!!!!!!! Plus he said the closing prayer and was just really grateful that we've met and that he has this chance to turn his life around! So I'm sorry for that really long paragraph but I love these 3 so much and feel so much joy for them.❤
Other good news of the week: Gioia. Although
she is still out of town for like the third week in a row and we are going to
have to move her baptism back, we used technology to our advantage this week to
keep in touch with her!! Her grandpa passed away and she went to be with him
beforehand and is still with family in Salerno. We have been sending her the 21
day BOM challenge every night (along with several of our other friends!) and
she is loving it. We did a videochat lesson with her via Facebook and it was so
perfect!!!!! We caught up, read The Book of Mormon together, and read a few
quotes we had prepared on receiving peace and how we can only receive it if we
allow Christ to help us! Then she told us that her grandma would love those
quotes so she went to go get her grandma, came back, and we all read the quotes
again! Her grandma was really touched. Then Gioia suggested we say a prayer
altogether with her grandma! And when her grandma left, Gioia told us that
every night she shares the BOM challenge with her! She's such a good
missionary! So we are looking forward to her coming back to Rome, hopefully
this week!!
Stella is good but super busy with exams so we didn't get to see her this week! She is going to university and studying medicine to become a pediatrician!
And do you remember Faith from the beginning of last transfer? Well, she moved to a different part of Rome that happened to be conveniently near.....Ostia!! So we told the Ostia sorelle about her and now they are teaching her when she's not busy with her baby and trying to get her documents!!!!!!!! It's really a miracle because she lived way too far away for us to visit but now she lives close to the Ostia sorelle!
Lina, my grandma friend, just got back from her vacation to Sicily and we are going to be seeing her on Wednesday!!!!! I seriously can't wait to see her. I still call her almost every day to talk to her because she's seriously my nonna and I really love her.
Flavia is doing great, we went to institute with her on Friday it was a blast and she is done working so we are going to be resuming our weekly lessons with her before institute on Fridays!!!!!!
We saw tons of public transport miracles this week while traveling to our divers appointments and got to meet some really cool people. One in particular really stood out to me. We were sitting on the bus on the way to visit a member and there was a lady in the back part of the bus and I just felt a really distinct prompting to get up and go sit next to her. Normally I would never do that because how weird is that?! I'm already sitting down and then to get up and move seats while everyone watches hahaha but I'm a missionary which means I'm used to awkward. So I went and sat by her. Rosa. She was from Mexico and she was really open to just talking. Then we started talking about the Bible and she said that to her it seems like the Bible is missing some pieces and doesn't make complete sense! So of course I whipped out The Book of Mormon and didn't hesitate to explain it to her, gift it to her, and exchange numbers before getting off at our stop! miracoli.
Cindy and Maryori. I seriously think we would see them every single day if they didn't live so far away! It's like a 1.5 hour trip to get there but gives us a great chance to do finding on the metro, train, and bus. Comunque they are just so cute and loving and it just feels like family when we are with them. Makes it easy to teach because we are comfortable. We all laugh together, make jokes, share our testimonies and I just really look forward to our visits with them. On Tuesday, we taught Maryori about the Plan of Salvation and it was probably the most perfect/fluid plan of salvation lesson of my mission. Not because of anything we said or did, but because it was received so well by Maryori! She understood, everything just seemed to make sense to her, and then at the end she taught it back to us word for word. And when we went back last night, she had studied 2 Nephi 9, just as we had invited her to! Also featured at our visit last night: William, Cindy's Italian boyfriend who came to church with them last week and who also happens to be super interested in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! So to start, we had Maryori teach him about the Plan of salvation!! She did it beautifully and then we segued into our planned lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, endure to the end). We watched the Baptism of Jesus video and the spirit in the room after was absolutely tangible and incredible. I asked what they thought and William was pretty speechless and just got out a "wow". We concluded the lesson inviting Maryori to be baptized on October 20! She accepted!!!!! And Cindy was just squealing she was so happy and excited!! Then William asked us some questions about baptisms for the dead and so we read some of the 'families and temples' pamphlet and then he started talking about how beautiful it would be to have an eternal family and an eternal marriage and that's the most important thing to him!!!!!!!! Plus he said the closing prayer and was just really grateful that we've met and that he has this chance to turn his life around! So I'm sorry for that really long paragraph but I love these 3 so much and feel so much joy for them.❤
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| with William, Cindy, and Maryori |
Stella is good but super busy with exams so we didn't get to see her this week! She is going to university and studying medicine to become a pediatrician!
And do you remember Faith from the beginning of last transfer? Well, she moved to a different part of Rome that happened to be conveniently near.....Ostia!! So we told the Ostia sorelle about her and now they are teaching her when she's not busy with her baby and trying to get her documents!!!!!!!! It's really a miracle because she lived way too far away for us to visit but now she lives close to the Ostia sorelle!
Lina, my grandma friend, just got back from her vacation to Sicily and we are going to be seeing her on Wednesday!!!!! I seriously can't wait to see her. I still call her almost every day to talk to her because she's seriously my nonna and I really love her.
Flavia is doing great, we went to institute with her on Friday it was a blast and she is done working so we are going to be resuming our weekly lessons with her before institute on Fridays!!!!!!
We saw tons of public transport miracles this week while traveling to our divers appointments and got to meet some really cool people. One in particular really stood out to me. We were sitting on the bus on the way to visit a member and there was a lady in the back part of the bus and I just felt a really distinct prompting to get up and go sit next to her. Normally I would never do that because how weird is that?! I'm already sitting down and then to get up and move seats while everyone watches hahaha but I'm a missionary which means I'm used to awkward. So I went and sat by her. Rosa. She was from Mexico and she was really open to just talking. Then we started talking about the Bible and she said that to her it seems like the Bible is missing some pieces and doesn't make complete sense! So of course I whipped out The Book of Mormon and didn't hesitate to explain it to her, gift it to her, and exchange numbers before getting off at our stop! miracoli.
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| Temple in the distance. Sunrise in the morning |
One of the highlights of the week was getting up early Saturday morning and going for a temple run! Meno male Sorella Decker enjoys running as much as I do. And meno male we live so close to the temple to be able to do that! It was a beautiful run, being out earlier than the chaos and just enjoying the peace. And the sun was just about to come up on the temple!
Spiritual highlight of the week was having Bishop Waddell come yesterday. He was here for our stake conference but also he did a little fireside with the Rome missionaries and it was absolutely amazing. He is such a powerful and inspiring speaker! One of the things he said that has been on my mind is "convenient and covenant are never in the same sentence". So my invite for you this week is to actively strive to keep your covenants, whatever they may be! We promise at baptism to represent Christ in all times, all things, and all places. Sometimes it may not be convenient, but it will always be worth it.
I love you and I love serving here in Roma 2. Hopefully I will get to stay one more transfer (we get calls tonight)!
Buona settimana a tutti!
XOXO
--
Sorella Carley Neuberger
Italy Rome Mission
Lots of pictures of the vatican below:
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| view from the top of the Vatican |
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| The temple doesn't look real sometimes. |
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| Temple and a rainbow |
