Gesù & Gelato: Last Transfer

Well, I got my last transfer call this morning... I cried afterwards haha. Not ready for all of this to come to an end! Luckily I still have 7 more weeks!! But that being said, I'll just go ahead and apologize for the slight decrease in the length and quality of my emails hahaha whoops.

I will be staying in Pescara and my new comp will be Sorella Liddiard! She was in my zone in Rome and is really sweet so I'm excited to get to know her better. And Sorella Guymon is going to Foggia.. mamma mia I will miss her so much and just wish I could spend another 7 weeks with her.

We had an amazing week!!!!! Lots of rain but Sorella Guymon loves the rain so that kinda rubbed off on me!

Last Monday night we had a district gesso here in Pescara which was a blast! Although it was kind of rainy and there weren't too many people out, 4 missionaries sang hymns while the other 4 of us stopped people! Sorella Neff and I paired up to stop people and it was such a great time plus we met some really amazing people and gave away 2 copies of The Book of Mormon. One of which was to Jessica! She was coming out of a store and I just yelled 'ciao' then we ended up getting to share a scripture with her + gift her a copy of The Book of Mormon!! And the best part is that we have an appointment set up with her tonight! I am soooo excited to meet up with her, she is like our age and so cute and wooo! It's going to be great!

district gesso in Pescara

We had an extra special district meeting on Tuesday, our district leader asked us each to come with a 5 minute something prepared on an attribute we love about our companion and want to develop within ourselves. Then we all went around and shared. It was really uplifting and great to hear so much positivity and the great attributes of each member of our district! Plus getting to brag about Sorella Guymon was a nice cherry on top. She's just the best.

I got to do a scambio with Sorella Baielli this week and she is just such a good friend, oh I'm so lucky to be in her district again!! She is so much fun to serve around! We met up with Sofia and the stake family history leader and talked about the importance of doing family history to help our ancestors receive saving ordinances! It was super interesting and then we went to the family history center together and helped her get started on filling out her family tree and searching for her ancestors! The ward members here love family history and were super excited to help her out with that!!

Another cute thing that happened this week, we got to help Sorella Conforte translate a letter she wrote to the first presidency of the church! She wanted it to be in english and mamma mia it was so adorable! She and her husband are ex mission presidents and just such a great family. Plus their kids and grandkids live in the ward!

Thursday was kind of a harder day because we thought we had the whole day planned out with lessons and then 10 minutes before we left the house, they all got cancelled!! So we hit the streets hard looking for the people we were meant to find. We had some amazing, spiritual conversations, gave away 2 copies of The Book of Mormon, plus a lady named Maria Pia bought us dolce from the pasticceria! (she probably thought we were catholic missionaries...ahahah). So it turned out to be a beautiful day and we are hoping to meet again with the contacts we met that day!

with Guymon and Daniela

Daniela is doing so well!!!!! She is still working on the Book of Mormon challenge and loving it. Plus she is going to start meeting with the missionaries in Ancona while she is there during the week for school and we will keep teaching her on Saturdays! Our lessons with her just keep getting better and better. She asks amazing questions, like how we knew the gospel was the right thing. And we get to bear testimony of the happiness it brings into our lives! She is having a hard time getting an answer and is a little bit confused because she has been catholic her whole life and after reading the Bible got a confirmation that it was right to be confirmed into the catholic church....any advice??

On Saturday we had just finished a member lesson and were headed to centro for some english course finding (we made a big poster.. I'm a pro at this by now.. and handed out like 400 cards and met some really awesome people who want to come!!) but while we were walking were on this street we never walk down and there was literally only 1 person on that street, a 17 year old girl named Giada. We had this mutual smiling at each other thing going on and then complimented her moto. We started talking, explained why we're here as missionaries, then exchanged numbers!! AH! I know this probably doesn't seem like a big deal to yall but it was a huge miracle!!!!

with Laura

Laura is doing really well! She seriously feels like my mom, just really homie and it's comfortable around her. We watched the talk together "To the Friends and Investigators of the Church" and kind of broke her boxes (nicely) while pushing her to make goals. We explained how we as missionaries make goals regularly and also we want to make goals to help her but in order to do so we need to know her personal goals! So we made her a cute little goal sheet and helped her write some down. She wants to pray and read the scriptures daily so we are more than willing to help her get started on that!!!! She has such an amazing testimony of just everything and loves The Book of Mormon and, as always, came to church yesterday :)

Speaking of church yesterday.....

we decided last minute to throw together a musical number as missionaries! I played the piano and the perfectly talented Sorella Guymon and Anziano Stucki sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer". It was absolutely beautiful and the spirit was very felt!! The Saturday before, we decided to call/send messages to people inviting them to come hear it! One lady, Rossana, said she would talk to her husband. We walked into the chapel on Sunday and there was Rossana and her husband! They stayed for all of sacrament meeting and I think they liked it! So we are going to do our best to meet up with them during the week and answer some of their questions.

So all in all, it was an absolutely amazing week. Even last night after walking around in the pouring rain for 3 hours, we just sang hymns. Finally we ran out of hymns to sing and one popped into my head "fear not, I am with thee, oh be not dismayed. For I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand". This may sound cheeseball, but although it was cold, I could feel the warmth of the Spirit pushing us along while singing those words. I know that there is God and that He loves us and wants nothing more than for us to be happy. He will be with us every step of the way if we just ask for His help! Fear not. I'll strengthen and help. How powerful is that? The gospel is so good guys. Can't even begin to express to you how much it means to me and how much I love sharing it with the people I meet everyday. The blessings of being a missionary are real! I love you all and hope you have a great week. Many prayers.

XOXO