This week was filled with finding, finding, and- you guessed
it! More finding. We call it "ricerca". But we are still smiling!!
Gotta love being a missionary in Europe.
First miracle of the week happened on Tuesday! We were doing
our morning studies when our phone rang. I answered it and it was an
ex-investigator, Sabrina, saying that she wanted to meet that evening and bring
her niece to meet us too! Wait what?!?!? We were dancing around and celebrating
after that phone call. Sorella DeMann had told me all about Sabrina, she's
super on top of everything, willing to learn, read everything they asked her
to. But she was going through some hard times in her life and had to take care
of those and dropped the missionaries. But now she's back for more :) We shared
with her the mormon message "Mountains to Climb" and she and her
niece definitely had tears in their eyes by the end of it. The Spirit's
presence in that room in the church was tangible. When she left, Sabrina said
to her niece, "You always leave this place smiling." OH yessss. And
she even told us she wants to meet up this Tuesday! Speriamo bene.
On Wednesday the choir took a small "gita". Don't
think I should say much more about that! It was a lot of fun and we really got
a chance to appreciate the beautiful world we live in and the amazing creations
God has given us. Pictures attached.
One of the days this week Sorella DeMann and I decided to
put a filter on our finding! I've never done this before but it sounded fun. We
decided that we were going to talk to every pregnant lady we saw that day
(they're actually kind of rare here...). So we leave our house to hop on the
bus into centro. We sit down in the 2 empty seats on that bus. Sorella DeMann
tapped my arm, I looked up at the lady across from us. Pregnant. Hahahaha what
are the odds mama mia. So of course we are going to talk to this lady! She was
the cutest!! She lives near the anziani apartment I think and she said she
would love to cook "real Sardegnian food" for us sometime! We gave
her a card and she kissed it. We were sad when she got off the bus but it was
awesome being able to talk with her if only for a few minutes.
I ate my first cannolo this week. I was so excited that I
forgot to take a picture. It was heavenly. Sorella DeMann says the ones in
Sicily are better.
There are always different, random things going on in
centro, this week it was a HUGE event for parolympic (I know I spelled that
wrong) athletes! Like news stations here, the whole shebang. It was the coolest
thing ever and there were tons of people. They had all different kinds of
sports set up, tennis, ping-pong, fencing, the list goes on. We walked around
looking at everything and handing out a lot of english course cards! Pretty
successful!!
This week we saw a guy walking down the street with his cat
on a leash and riding on a granny cart. I just couldn't leave that out.
Thursdays are the days Sorella DeMann and I do spiritual
thought at english course. It's usually a short thing (if you have ideas, hit
me up per favore). But this week we decided to mention the articles of faith,
talk about the first one, and hand out these cute foldables that we had in our
apartment with all of the articles of faith inside! So everyone could take one
home to read. It is amazing how just the simple truths "We believe in God,
the eternal father, in His son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost" can
bring meaning to the lives of others. One girl asked us a little more about our
beliefs after corso and we gave her a copy of "The Family: A Proclamation
to the World" to read! We are really praying something will come out of
all the english course finding we do. The majority of baptisms here within the
last 3 years (I think?) have been results of english course! So cool.
On Friday night we tried to do a gesso and talk to people
but it was just not our night. I don't think anyone stopped or even took our
card. So we got pizza and fries from Pronto Pronto and went home feeling kinda
sad. The next day, we decided to up our game. We took the big whiteboard in our
apartment and covered it in paper and made a huge poster (see picture)
advertising for english course. It was perfect because there was a huge
festa/concert going on in the giardini (park where we do a lot of finding). We
somehow managed to score a bench in the center of the action and set up our
sign, stood next to it, and went to town. We should have brought more cards but
we didn't realize how successful it would be! We easily handed out several
hundred cards before running out. We didn't even have to say anything! People
saw the sign and CAME UP TO US ASKING FOR A CARD! PLOT TWIST! Oh we were on
cloud 9 just so happy and soaking up every minute of it. Even on our walk home
we held the sign and people were taking pictures of it like crazy. We had one
teenager stop us (HE STOPPED US) and took a picture to circulate on social
media!!!!!!! AH! And then another man told us to come in his restaurant and
hold the sign up for all the customers to take a picture of. Simply stated, I
think we will be getting good use out of this sign for the next several months
:) And our english course is (hopefully) going to be bumpin this week.
Something funny we have noticed recently is that Italians
assume we speak english and will attempt to talk to us. We walked by a man the
other day who said "buonasera, good morning" (good evening, good
morning) hahahahaha we laughed the whole way home. And another day a man who
said "good morning, miss!" It's hilarious. They keep us laughing for
sure.
In other news, Sorella DeMann and I have been friends for
over a year and it's the best. Not many people can say that about their
companions! But we are enjoying every minute together and are always having a
good time. She's great.
Living on an island is the best. We had a delicious mango
this week, I need to take a picture they are HUGE and so delicious. The fruit
here is unbelievable and they have a bunch of fruits that are unique to this
island. Maybe I'll mail some seeds home? ..... heheheh jk.
Yesterday after church we got to meet with a few members.
Paola, the sister who took us to Castelsardo and the chorister! She has a baby
grand piano, the first thing I said when I walked into her apartment was
"Che bello questo pianoforte!!!!!" We spent probably too much time
playing and singing. I enjoyed every minute of it :)
We also visited with Fulvia, she's an older member here that
lives by herself and is a convert! She has been a member for 20 years and is SO
en gamba. Her testimony is so strong and it was amazing hearing her conversion
story. She had been praying for years. For something but she didn't know what
until she met the missionaries. 7 months and she was baptized!
I'll wrap this email up with something awesome that was
mentioned in testimony meeting yesterday! I can understand pretty much
everything now, thank goodness the people speak clearly here. One sister said
that the voice of the Spirit isn't Italian. It isn't English. It isn't language
x, y or z. The voice of the Spirit is the voice of the Spirit. It's a beautiful
voice and and language that we can all understand. Each of us has the capacity
to feel its influence in our lives if we will so allow. I am thankful for the
role of the Spirit in my life and in this work. I love being a missionary and I
love each of you! Buona settimana!
XOXO
