It has been raining the last couple of days! I may just survive the summer! But aside from that the work has been going avanti!
After I wrote last week we went home, I got a nice long nap :), then we did the shopping which has been rough because we blew through all of our money with the new transfer, biglietti for the bus and other things but Monday we get more money. After that we went out and did strada and met Rocco on the street and his friend Stefania. She is pretty sweet, more or less the person I wanna be haha and she also gave us her number so that we can call her and talk to her about the Plan of Salvation sometime in the near future. We were supposed to meet the Anziani at the church so that we could team teach one of their investigators, Ellianora. I love her too! She is a violinist and has a baptismal date for this next week. She has been trying to quit smoking which has been rough because she was up to over 60 cigarettes a day. When the Anziani first asked her to quit she did not see how she ever could possibly do it. Now she is down to only 3 or 4 and she said that she does not even feel the cravings when she is with us. She is very hopeful and the lesson went well. She has expected a huge revelation when she receives her answer as to whether the church is true or not so we talked about the different types of revelation. She told us that as of right now, if she had to give us an answer, she believes it is true. Her face gets brighter and brighter every time we see her :) I love the changes the gospel brings into the lives of others :)
Giovedì mattina we had a lesson with our investigator, Antonio Viscanti. He has felt really overwhelmed with everything we have taught the last week or two but after our lesson giovedì we think he is feeling better. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and the Law of castità. Yeah, heavy subject, but he said he understood the reason and that in reality it does make life easier. He is still excited for baptism, we just hope we can see him often enough to teach him everything in time. A week and a half! The rest of the day we received a bunch of bidones . . . but what else is new? Then we had Corso d'inglese! Always lifts my spirits :) I love our students! Except they told us how it is impossible to get married in Italy because no one can find jobs, therefore no one can afford to have a family. One student, Francesco, told us that Italy is a place where your dreams do not come true. Pretty sure Sorella Ashman was about to cry. Her dream in life is to live in Italy. I don't think she is down with that plan anymore . . . But after English course we ran into Rocco, found out he is not vegetarian. In fact, he had prosciutto crudo in his hand as he told us about seeing an owl flying across the sky. He said that he can't talk to other people about these things because they just don't understand. But we do :) And then Sorella Ashman felt even better after because we met a man on the street with two boston terrier. She LOVES dogs. That is an understatement. I do not even have words for it. But these dogs can do a trick . . . they will high five you! When you say "batti cinque" they give you a high five. She about died. Literally. She is still talking about it haha. And hysterical as we speak :D "BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!" - Sorella Ashman.
Friday after weekly planning we went on a referral hunt. And let me just say, we had a TON of referrals to track down and you know who we found? Nessuno! We then received a bidone from Beatrice, a 15 year old we met on the street the day before. We then received a bidone from Antonio (un altro uomo, not the one with the baptismal invite) so we were lucky enough to do house and street for the rest of the night. Yay!
Saturday morning we went to do house on a street called Via Angelini. I mean LITTLE ANGELS! There has to be some elect people there right?! But no, niente. Poi, bidone from Silvio so we spent the rest of the morning contacting referrals and again. None were found. That afternoon we went out to Adelfia for a lesson with Valerio. We were super stoked for lui because he had felt the spirit and we were hoping he was elect. We brought Sorella Iacovelli with us and because it was raining I shared an umbrella with her and Sorella Ashman shared with Valerio. While we were walking Sorella Iacovelli asked me how I felt about Valerio. And to be honest, I did not feel that great about it. Turns out we were both right. We talked to him about the gospel and the Book of Mormon but turns out he had more interest in . . . other things. We will leave it at that. Dissappointed? Sì. But eh, it's life. So we then did Casa di nuovo until our appointment with a contact we met on the street named Nicola Bellino. It went great! He had a ton of questions for us about the gospel and he really listened and seemed to accept everything. We taught with Fratello Curci and watched "Finding Happiness". First time I had seen it in Italian infatti. Spanish and English before but now Italian! Wahoo!
Questa Domenica we went to the Ramo in Bitonto for church invece della nostra rione in Bari. And I had to give a discourse :P I was freaking out. Haha, I am sure you can all guess that fact. I had initially written it all out word for word because I figured getting up and trying to speak in Italian would wipe my mind blank and I would jsut stand their silent. But I took a leap of faith and only wrote notes. And I did not even end up following those. Mama Mia, Heavenly Father loves me! My face was still red but I was able to talk the entire time and it was all in Italian. I even wished Daddy a happy birthday :) Talk about il dono delle lingue! It's real baby! Dopo we went to lunch alla famiglia Mesto. I felt bad because Sorella Ashman told her we were both vegetarians and she did not seem too happy about it but by the end she was alright. We ended up staying the whole day because she had lined up two lessons with potential investigators for us which was great! We had had only 2 lesssons in the presence of a member that week so it helped us out a ton!
Lunedì mattina we had Consiglio di Distretto about being consecrated disciples of Christ instead of just obbedient. Anziano Hughes taught the addestrimento and I kept on having to calm Sorella Ashman down throughout the entire meeting because Anziano Hughes is from England when he speaks she starts to laugh. That afternoon we did some more refferal hunting and ended up empty handed again. But afterward we had a sweet awesome lesson with Nicola Bellino and Vescovo Mongelli! It went terrific! He had had some questions about our belief in God so Sorella Ashman brought a discourse by Anziano Holland and read parts of it. He was silent throughout the whole thing which is a miracle. Because he has so many questions he does not stay silent for long. But he listened to every word. And then I taught the Restoration with plastic cups. It's actually a pretty sweet demonstration and he really understood it all. We still have really high hopes for him. Afterward we had a serata famigliare con la famiglia Papapicco. They have two little kids, Alessandra and Roberto and they are too cute. We acted out the story of Ammon and King Lamoni and then talked about how the Lord helps us in our difficulties as well.
Ieri we had an appointment with Antonio Viscanti and Sorella Magno but he did not show up. We called and he said that he had to take someone to the hospital. Darn it. We are running out of time to teach him everything, but we know God works miracles so vediam! We then spent the rest of the morning contacting referrals. Not much luck there again. That afternoon we went to Via dei Mille to do finding and again did not find anyone. We received a bidone from Fratello Curci for Correlation so we ended up playing the piano with the Anziani until English course. It went really well and we even had 3 new students. We talked about our favorite movies and movies and then why we have difficulties. They all gave really good answers and we had a great discussion. Afterward we went to Ward Council and Vescovo Mongelli said we are Benissime! Grazie Vescovo!
This morning we had a really interesting lesson with a man named Orazio. We met him at his music studio and talked about the Restoration and Book of Mormon. It was a very unusual lesson because usually people either reject you or accept you. But he was plainly fighting it every minute of the lesson. I told Sorella Ashman he reminded me of a 5 year old who knows they are wrong but won't admit it. He even told us "Non lo so perché sto ascoltando ancora . . ." or "I don't know why I am still listening." When we first gave him the Book of Mormon he said he wouldn't read it but by the end he was thumbing through it and said he wanted to read it. It is crazy how the spirit effects people differently, but all towards the same goal :)
Every week is totally completely different, but every time I sit down and write my letter I see the overview and how we see little miracles and mercies of the Lord each and everyday. His hand really is in this work!
Vi amoooooo un sacco per sempre!
Sorella LeCates
In July 2010 I was called to serve an 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Italy Rome mission. I've always wanted to see Italy and I can't believe I'm lucky enough to spread the gospel there!
