Gesù & Gelato: I lied last week. Mainly because I didn't know how good this week was going to be.

The real best week of my life:

weekly gelato pic

It all started when we were planning for the week. Trying to figure out what goals to set. Frustrated with the amount of finding we were doing with little results, Sorella Liddiard turned to me and asked, "How have you normally found people to teach throughout your mission?" After taking a minute to reflect I responded, "They were miracles. All miracles." And that, cari amici, is where the idea was born. We made a goal to be miracle worthy and to actively recognize miracles during the day, and pray our hearts out. After establishing a few other plans to go along with that goal, we prayed and got to work. Here are the results.

Tuesday morning we decided to go finding in the direction of a less active member. We put in her address and started walking, planning to talk to people on the way. After walking a pretty long distance and not seeing anyone, we debated turning back. But we stuck to our plan and went to her house anyways. She wasn't home. We left a note in her mailbox and decided to do some casa in casa.

The first building we went to, very first door in the building, a girl named Giulia opened the door. We got to show her the Grazie a Lui video, explain why we are here as missionaries, and how we want to help her! We left her with a copy of The Book of Mormon! She goes to university in Tuscany and comes back in December for Christmas break and wants to have us over!!

The second building we went to, the gate was wide open so we walked in without ringing any citofoni. Got rejected hardcore at the first door. (hey that rhymed). There was one other door and we kind of just passed by it because the entrace was a little scary looking but then second-guessed ourselves and went back to ring it anyways, perche no. The door opened up to a husband and wife and a few of their kids that were about our age, maybe older. Turns out this family isn't your typical Italian (or american) family, they have 11 kids. They invited us in without hesitation, had us sit down, got us juice and dolci. (is that what it's like in south america? i'm imagining it is...). I started pinching myself at that point... and that was before they asked to see the video we said we were showing. We had completely forgotten about the video in our state of utter shock. "Oh yeah, the video!" They loved it, the mom had tears by the end and the spirit was tangible. Even the 23 year old atheist daughter was borderline crying. We explained our purpose and they told us we are welcome to come back, keeping in mind that they're catholic and don't intend to change (says every practicing catholic ever).

That same night we were supposed to meet up with a potential, Silvia. We did. And she brought a friend. (they're both cute 21 year olds that do university in Pescara) We discussed the restoration and left them with copies of The Book of Mormon and they left us with their word they'd read it.

The next day we had an appointment with a less active family that came to church last week, famiglia Scelzo. For some reason (probably our lack of faith) we kept expecting Sorella Scelzo to call and cancel but she never did. So we went over and got to teach her and her 12 year old daughter (and her 12 year old daughter's friend) about the importance of actually reading The Book of Mormon, we did the letter to your descendants activity. They loved it plus we just really bonded well with them, it was an amazing visit! And we helped the daughter with some of her english homework, she promised me in return that she'd help me with my italian homework in a few months.

Thursday we had a scambio (easy to plan when you live in the same house as the other sorelle!), I was with Sorella Stutz, her first scambio! And, if you're an active reader of my emails, you know that scambios always bring miracles. Although I got hit with some major stomach sickness, this one was no exception. We spent the morning, again, walking to another less active, since that originally yielded so much success. On the way, we met a girl named Marina who has done the 21 day Book of Mormon challenge! She was like "yeah, I did that and now what do I do?" Perrrrrrfect. We exchanged numbers and have been texting a lot, she has a lot of concerns about life after this, her dad died. And we are so excited to meet up with her this week!

Plus Sorella Stutz and I had 2 lessons with potentials!

First: Sara. We met her on the street in centro and got to meet up with her at the church on Thursday! We gave her a tour of the church and you could just tell she really felt a difference from the catholic church she has frequented most of her life. We taught her about the restoration of Christ's church and she just took it all so well and it just made perfect sense! She had some good questions at the end like what kind of things our church does for the comunity, what does confession look like within our church, etc and we were so happy to answer all of them and invite her to read The Book of Mormon to find more answers! She's been reading it since and really likes it! Only bummer is that she lives kind of far away and comes to Pescara for university.

Second: Gaia. A potential from before I got her that randomly, out of the blue, texted us during the week asking when we could meet up! MIRACLE. She came to the church, we talked a little bit about the restoration, she knew a little bit of it from previous sorelle, so we watched the restoration film together, I love watching that little video, it is so powerful and definitely helped her better understand Joseph Smith's role in restoring God's authority to the earth! And she accepted and has been keeping the commitment to do the 21 day Book of Mormon challenge!!

On Friday we decided to venture out to another less active, Luisa. We called her a couple weeks ago while calling through the ward list and she said she really wants to come back to church and wants her kids to be raised in the church! They live in Lanciano, so it's a small viaggio for them to get to church but totally doable. Anyways, we met she and her husband and their cute kids: 11 and 9 years old. We did the letter activity with them too and left each of them with their very own copy of The Book of Mormon. This family is SO amazing. They are originally from the Domincan Republic, so it kind of reminded me of being back with Maryori and Cindy. Plus they fed us a huge fish and potatoes pranzo! We invited them to do the 21 day Book of Mormon challenge and have been following up with them. Last night Louisa sent us a text saying, "Hey sorelle, I wanted to tell you we started the challenge as a family. We are on the second day and the kids love it, they're really interested and I just wanted to thank you. I am thankful God sent you to my house and I hope you can help me in this challenge to bring my family to the Lord." Wow. If that's not a miracle then I don't know what is.

There's more.

Friday night it was our turn to teach the english group out in Chieti. We got there about 10 minutes early and as we walked in, I looked down at the phone to see the time and then said "hey we've got 10 minutes, let's go knock some doors." The area we were in was more house style than normal so we were able to go up to the doors without ringing the citofono. The first door that we went to opened. We met Alessandra and her 2 daughters, Giorgia and Giulia. And it was like a repeat of Tuesday! They invited us in, sat us down, and we were left trying to hold ourselves together and not cry tears of happiness. We showed the Grazie A Lui video which brought the spirit super strongly, then we taught a brief restoration, they loved it, they accepted The Book of Mormon and the invitation to read it, and we can't wait to go back. (to see them and to casa the rest of the zone).

And more.

Daniela is doing well, we had a great lesson with her on tithing and fasting but she didn't come to church again this Sunday. (she stayed in Ancona and told the anziani she was going to come and didn't). So with Daniela in Ancona, and Dejanira in Germany on a school trip, Nancy was left at home by herself for the week. We called her a couple times to see how she was doing and told her we were going to bring her brownies. Then on Saturday evening while we were doing studies Sorella Liddiard said, "I just wish we could go visit Nancy tonight and keep her company while teaching her the restoration." And I'm not kidding when I say that less than 5 minutes later the phone rang. It was Nancy. She said "I'll be at your house in 10 minutes to pick you up and then we'll go pick up the pizza, and then we will go to my house." After 'checking our schedule', we obliged. It was a blast. We got to know her better and then watched The Restoration film on their TV, it was incredible. Then after we basically taught the Restoration to her again. She is so so awesome and I know she feels it and knows it's right but we think maybe there is something she is afraid of ? boh. we will keep working on her and have faith in the Lord's will and timing!

Okay now food miracle, to switch it up before the grand finale.

Nutellandia.

While finding last Monday night, Sorella Liddiard and I stumbled across this place. I would say it was less coincidence and more miracle/God leading us there. Cornetti + nutella + chocolate bar + etc, etc etc. wow. And it's owned by this really cute young couple.........they're going to get baptized.

As for yesterday, it was probably the best sunday of my mission (other than getting up really early because we had to be at the church at 6:15am...). We had stake conference in Rome! Rome 2 is in the stake so it was great getting to see all of the members and catch up with them :))))))) But the real miracle happened Sunday evening. Rewind to Friday night. I called President Pickerd to get permission to stay after stake conference for Gioia's baptism on Sunday (if you remember Gioia from Rome 2!) he gave me the okay, so I called Sorella Decker to let her know and to tell Gioia. She gave me some devastating news saying they had just met with Gioia and, although probably unaware, she was going through the pre-baptism roller coaster of "should I do this or not?". She told Sorella Decker she wanted to wait a little longer. So Sorella Decker told me to have a shot and sent her phone number. It was amazing getting to talk with her and just talk it all out. We had a real heart to heart and although by the end of the phone call, she still wasn't 100% sure, I felt I had given it my all. Fast forward to Saturday night. Sorella Decker calls-- "Did you talk to Gioia? and what did you say because she's going ahead with the baptism!"

Gioia's baptism was the most special thing I have ever witnessed and I was so fortunate to be able to be there for it. Sorella Yanacallo got to come too! Gioia's mom and dad were both there and you could just tell by the end of the ceremony that they were changed and that they'll likely be the next ones in that font. I'd love to go into details about the whole thing but basically I'll just tell you that when Gioia got up to share her testimony afterwards, I couldn't hold the tears back. The change that has occured within her is miraculous and is only possible when we are truly converted to Christ and His gospel. And no matter what doubts she had beforehand, she got up there and said "I know I made the right decision today, I know it."

Ah. My heart has never been so full. I know this gospel is true and I love it so much. I am so blessed to be able to witness it changing lives, including my own, during this time. Something said during one of the talks at the baptism yesterday was: "Baptism isn't the destination, it's a point of departure." Baptism isn't the end! What's next is striving for exaltation and eternal life with our Heavenly Father. I know that is possible through our Savior, Jesus Christ, I am so thankful for Him!

I love being a missionary more than anything.

Love yall too!

XOXO