buonasera, Buonasera, BUONASERA!
Giovedì was productive. We went out to Loseto in the morning and visited Sorella Puglisi. She is so awesome! She is less active, but she is actually straight with us and does not beat around the bush. We asked if she had prayed and she said no. So we both bore testimony of prayer and she told us she has kind of prayed but has not gotten down on her knees to talk to God. She keeps shirking around it because she says she has lost her faith. She told us it is hard for her, harder than for those who are finding their testimony for the first time. And without her testimony none of the sacrifices we make as church members are worth it to her. But she seemed hopeful this time. In the past Sorella Laws said she would only give them 5-10 minutes when they would stop by. This last time she was really happy to see us and asked us to call in advance next time so she can make sure she has time for us. She has such a brava famiglia and we need to get her kids baptized. She has a 16 year old son, named Paolo, and an 8 year old daughter, named Francesca. But she did not allow either to be baptized. Hopefully before we are done they will all be on their way to the temple :) After that we ran over to a contacts home. Her name is Rosa and she is this little funny Italian woman who is really hard to understand. We talked to her about the 10 commandments, which she could name all by memory, and then asked her about keeping the Sabbath day. Of course she does not do that but we are trying to get her to come to church. At the end of the lesson though, Sorella Laws laughed and said "Don't worry about it if you could not understand her, I can't either." Menomale haha, because I only understood about half the things that came out of her mouth. After that we headed over to the Cassanos for lunch. They have been members for ages and Sorella Cassano has been dying to have us over. She made homemade pesto for the first course, then salad, sausage, bread, fruit, and dessert . . . like every other Italian meal. Seriously. They feed you so much. I have to wonder if they eat like this normally or just when we come . . . oh well. It is how they show their love, so I guess they love us! Before English course we had a really great lesson with Massamiliano Italiano and Raffaele. Randomly throughout the lesson Sorella Laws would just turn and nod to me to start talking which usually works, but I did not really know where she was going with a lot of the points she left off on. But let's just say that missions are humbling and I did not care that I slaughtered just about everything I tried to say, I lost all of my acquired teaching skills, and I was not even embarrassed! That was neat. Usually I would have died but missions are one awkward moment after another so you just get used to it. Despite my awkwardness though, Massimo said he had prayed to know and had found a "small answer". He did not elaborate but he said he knows that our church has more truth than the others. So we will see where that goes. English course was great too. The topic for the night was forgiveness. That opened everyone up really well and got them all thinking. But I was surprised by some of the students. They blatently said that they do not forgive, or they do not forgive everyone. I don't understand that. One student told me after that if you forgive someone than they think it is okay so they will continue to do things over and over again. But that is the thing about forgiveness, it is for you, not necessarily for them. It removes the burden off your shoulders while leaving their free agency. But unfortunately someone asked me a question before I could tell him that so he ran off. Darn it. I will get him though before too long! After we also watched "The Restoration" with Massimo, Raffaele, and another English course student that usually hangs around afterward. After the movie finished the two who are not members were really quiet. You could tell they were really thinking about what they had just seen. I've just gotta say, I love that movie. Every time I watch it I cry. I am blasted with the spirit and I cannot deny the truthfulness of what Joseph Smith saw. I cannot imagine what it feels like for someone when they are watching it for the first time. These are times when I just think to myself, "Wow, this church is true. Missionary work would not work if it weren't. We would not feel the way we do if it was not true. I would not be here if it were not true." It is crazy to think how much our Heavenly Father loves us. He gives us all the tools we need to return to Him again and as missionaries we are introducing and inviting others to use them. It is great :) and the coolest part of my week! So we saw a missed call from Roma 2 so Sorella Laws handed me the phone assuming it was for me from Sorella Pickett. Sure enough! And guess what!? Like 3 of our investigators from when I was there are getting baptized! Wahoo! Talk about awesome! Veronica and her family, friends of the bishop there, all have baptismal dates. Irene, this sweet woman from Africa who is friends with Ramaskey and Susan is getting baptized. Sorella Pickett finally tracked down Perry and taught him and his friend the Plan of Salvation and his friend now is getting baptized. And Ben's wife, our sweet little Philippino friend who feeds us too much, is finally doing the quite smoking plan and wants to be baptized! I was SOOOOO happy! And Sorella Pickett told me "See, you do have fruits for you labors figlia mia!" Sure it all happened RIGHT after I left, but it does not matter when, just as long as the people you love make the covenants necessary to return to our Heavenly Father.
Venerdì we went out to Adelfia after weekly planning and started out at the Cassano's (a different family from Thursday). The thing about Italy, is depending on which city you are in, you come across the same names. In Bari everyone is named Cassano or Santoro. But anywho, we went to these Cassanos in the afternoon and Sorella was SO excited. She was basically hopping up and down and took us on a little tour of their apartment. She was so attentive the whole time. She even gave Sorella laws a backpack because she did not approve of her bag she was using. But Sorella Laws is often given free things, like a CD by Rocco on the street, a brand new cook book from a woman on the bus . . . Bari just loves her haha. After that we ran over to Sorella Iacovelli. We had planned to lessons with investigators with her but our first contact, Francesco "the coffee man" did not show up. I have never met him but he is in his early 20's and dropped out of school after his father died to support his family. He sells coffee machines to people, hence the name, and really loved the Plan of Salvation. We will just have to try and see him next time. So after that we went up stairs to Sorella Iacovelli's neighbors Ameli and Marco. They are a cute little family with a two year old daughter named Virginia. Ameli has an . . . addiction to the Madonna. She has told us that she would love it if her husband and daughter joined the church, but she can't because she would be cheating on the Madonna because we only pray to Heavenly Father. Yeah, I know, does not make sense. But she is really afraid of death and leaving her daughter so we watched "Together Forever" with them. Immediately Ameli asked if she could make a copy of it after we were done watching it. So we let them, not sure if it was allowed, but it is their exaltation. I am sure the church would not mind. And they loved it. For those of you who have not seen this movie, watch it. It is super corny, but I cry every time I watch it. Afterward the lesson started out well but then Ameli brought up a story that was on the news about a woman who's 3 year old son had 24 tumors and he was supposed to live for only 6 more days. She prayed to the Madonna for 3 days and when they began surgery on her son all of the tumors were gone. She asked us to explain that to her. Sorella Laws and Sorella Iacavelli were talking to her and she stopped them, turned to me and asked what I thought. Being the blunt little thing that I am, and lacking communication skills, all I told her was "She is the mother of Christ, she's beautiful and wonderful. But I only pray to Heaven Father. Basta." Haha, of course that was not enough for her, but what else can you really say? Unless she has a testimony of this gospel, we cannot really get her to understand . . . But they really are the greatest little family and I have high hopes for them.
Sabato we stayed in all morning and afternoon. Sorella Laws has had this growing condition that we do not understand. It happened before when she and Sorella Foote stayed with me and Sorella Pickett in Roma. She has a hard time breathing and is in a lot of pain. So we stayed home so she could rest. But we had a stake party that night and we had a lot of investigators and contacts coming, as well as a lesson with Massimo and Raffaele before. We could not miss it. So we took off to the other ward's building before the party. That lesson did not go quite as well as the one on Thursday. We decided to talk about the Savior, but Massimo was . . . I don't know. Let's just say that after Sorella Laws bore her testimony of Jesus Christ and said "I don't know what I would do without Him." he said "well no one has asked you to give him up". Then when we tried to bring up baptism he said that he would ask us when he wants to be baptised. We, and Raffaele, were frustrated after the lesson, but we had an unexpected extra in the lesson. Another Massamiliano from english course! He is pretty sweet! Infatti, he reminds me of uncle Jeff. He would fit right in on the beach in Hawaii and is so chill. But he has an apparent attraction and interest in the gospel. I was really tempted to turn to him and ask if HE wanted to be baptized but I didn't. Darn it. I should have since that was the spirit telling me to . . . but he comes to English course every week so it is not the end there. At the party afterward we had another English student show up, Francesco! He is great and is always planning preparation day activities to do with us and his friends. He even brought two friends to the party and they were asking us questions about our church so we took them on a tour of the building. The sweet thing about the Libertà ward is they actually have a building built by the church so it looks like a real church. We ended up teaching them two separate lessons in one of the class rooms. One, Silvio, is super catholic so I talked to him the whole time about our church organization and the Word of Wisdom, while Sorella Laws taught the other friend, who is atheist and as of right now unnamed, with Francesco. They all said they would come to English course Tuesday so we are excited about that.
Domenica it was time for us to go to Bitonto. We are the only Sorelle in our Zone so once a month we go to a little branch in a paese called Bitonto. They have Anziani there, but the Sorelle are pretty much celebrities. Church went well, but it was weird being in a branch of only 20 people. But I actually really liked it. Afterward we went to lunch at a members house, la famiglia Magro. As soon as we got to their home I was thinking, what does he do for a living? They have a nice home! And guess what? Fratello Magro is an air traffic controller. How sweet is that? I got excited and told him that my dad is too. He said that that was a first for him, to meet a missionary who's dad has the same job as him. But what was even funnier, is before we found our his employment I kept on thinking to myself that he reminded me of someone . . . but I just could not figure it out. Then it hit me. He has so many of the same mannerisms as Dad. Not that you are way alike, but just his posture and facial expressions. It is either the personality type it takes to do the work, or the effect of the work. Not sure which, but it made me smile :) For lunch his sister came to eat with us. She was really nice and at the end of the meal I grabbed the Book of Mormon and asked if she had ever heard of the book. I was just checking, assuming she had since her own brother is a member. But she said no, she had not heard of it before. So Sorella Laws briefly explained the background and then I asked if I could share a verse. I had Sorella Magro read 3 Nephi 9:15 and talked about being children of God and that through this knowledge we are more obedient because we do it out of love. That opened up a whole lot of doctrine and we ended sharing the promise from Moroni 10:3-5. She really liked it so I gave her the book and she started thumbing through the beginning. Sorella Magro and I explained the introduction, the testimonies of the 3 and 10 witnesses, and the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Then we re-explained the history in greater detail. She really seemed intrigued and asked when we would be coming again. The whole situation was a little strange. And we found out why later. We got a ride back to Bari from two single adults who were going to the stake center for seminary/institute graduation and ran into the Bitonto branch president there. He asked how the lunch appointment went and his jaw dropped. Supposedly Fratello Magro has been a member for 20 years and his sister has NEVER wanted to hear anything about the church at all. She is catholic, and that is all she needed to know. So I guess all it took was the Sorelle to come over. That night we also stopped by Antonia, the woman who used to have a baptismal date until her baptismal interview. While we were there her grandson came over. They were just yelling at each other in Barese the whole time. But that is Italy for you. Sure I could not understand anything, but it is still fun to watch! She is coming around. She came to church this week and the activity the day before. She also is friends with a lot of members. Speriamo!
Lunedì Sorella Laws felt even worse so we went to Consiglio di Distretto and then she was about to die so we went home and listened to conference and read the new conference edition of the Liahona we finally got. I love Elder Scott. That is all I have to say. His talk about his wife was WONDERFUL!
Tuesday was pretty much the same. We stayed in all morning and afternoon listening to conference while I cleaned up things. We did make it out for correlation and English course thank goodness. I like being a missionary. Sitting around makes me crazy. English course was good and afterward we talked to Francesco and his friend Silvio who had come to the ward activity Saturday. I showed them our white handbook so they could physically see all of the rules we have. Since I have it in Italian they were reading it and they were shocked at all the things we willingly do. Then I showed them the Strength of youth Pamphlet and said that these are more or less the laws the regular members live. They seemed alright with that. Silvio also found an older conference edition of the Liahona we had left the week before and he was reading it and wanted one for himself. He also took a pass along card and the web address for the church. Catholic? Not for long :)
This morning the Taranto Sorelle came to stay with us for "Specialized Training Meeting" tomorrow. We are having Elder Texeira come speak to us. I think he is in the Quorum of the Seventy or something like that so we will probably come out even more edified than usual.
Thanks for all your prayers for us missionaries! Love you all oooooodles and ooooodles!
Muah! Ciao!
Sorella LeCates
