This last week has been rainy and cool. I loved it!
Comunque, this last week was fun. After I wrote home we went home and cleaned our apartment and then had an appointment with our investigator named Nicola Bellino. It went really well and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. Never anything wrong with that topic. But he still is not sure that God really exists so he won't pray until he feels like he should. But we think he will soon. Afterward we went to get pizza with him for his birthday at a real restaurant! Two other copie di missionari came with us and I got a gorgonzola, onion pizza. I know, my breath was stellar after that, but he bought it for us so I did not mind. And who am I here to impress!? Scherzo, I am a representative of Jesus Christ! I gotta make the Gospel appealing!
Giovedì we had another lesson with Antonio Viscanti and a member, Fratello Puglisi. Antonio has been acting really strange lately, especially at this lesson. We had not been able to find out why because all of a sudden he stopped reading, was not praying and closed himself off to us. For the lesson we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ with this cool little demonstration with three cups and three knives that Sorella Pickett taught me. Everything made sense and Antonio liked the whole thing, but he would not really talk with us. We had a brain storm after and realized why. He has been separated from his wife for years and has not spoken with her since but the normal rule is that you have to ask the permission of the spouse to be baptized. We were pretty positive that this has been plaguing him for two weeks now which is why he stopped keeping commitments. Either way we are pretty sure we will have to push back the baptismal date. Dopo questo we went and did Casa 'n Casa until lunch and then went out to Japigia. We were going to go visit Francesca Leo who is always at home because she has not left her home in 20 years. And guess what? She was not there. Trust me, I was shocked as well. So we then waited an hour for the bus to come back to take us back to the main part of Bari so we could do more finding work. As we walked down a street we stopped at a fruit vendor and asked for directions. He then gave us oranges and when we were fishing through our purses for change he refused to take it. We ran into him 20 minutes later and he gave us five euro! We tried to refuse it but then he ran away . . . an odd encounter, but what could we do? We decided to track down some referrals and came to a palazzo where a referral was supposed to live but their name was not on the citofono. Darn it! But I pushed up against the door and it opened so we went inside and started knocking doors. We found no success AT ALL until we were done with the first 4 floors. And then me met Lucia! She is great and talked to us for about an hour. She even told us that she agrees more with baptism at 8 years old, would like to be married to her husband forever . . . etc. But the catholic church teaches otherwise and so she has to stay with that. What? Okay, no sense to me either. But she grew up with two really good friends who are members and she gave us their last names. It was not until after we left that we realized that their cognome does us no good because now they are married and have completely different names. Managia. We will just have to go back and get them from her. We then had corso d'inglese and talked about being high maintenance. This is because I showed them my driver's license and one student, Frank, told me I look like a different person. I then showed them another picture from before the mission and they were shocked. But Frank said I look better now because I am not as high maintenance. Quindi, we then talked about the different roles of women and men and how much time we take to get ready in the morning and our lifestyles. it was fun and I told Frank thank you for the complement . . .
Friday morning we went to a contacts house to give her a Book of Mormon before planning. Her name is Gabriella and she is a student studying to be a veterinarian. She was really great but was leaving the very next day to go home to Taranto until September. Grrr . . . the summer here is rough because everyone LEAVES for vacation or everyone we meet is only here FOR vacation. Oh well. We wrote a killer dedica inside and we hope she reads it. Then we did planning, and afterward we did street for a while. We had an appointment late that afternoon with a contact named Benventuo (means welcome :)) but he did not show up. Carmen Servidio, un membro, had come for the lesson so when he did not show up we just taught her a lesson instead. It ended up being the best thing we could have done. Her and her mom are the only members of the church in her family but her mom is not even active and she does not come all of the time. Which is hard because she also really wants to serve a mission but does not have enough money and you have to be active to go. After the lesson she left with us, with a Book of Mormon and everything, and did street with us! She is the SWEETEST person ever and will make a wonderful missionary :)
Sabato we went to go visit Sorella Avantario. Her husband died in February, she fell and broke her femur a couple of months ago, and her daughter just got married so we went to go spend an hour with her to see if there was something we could help her with. She refused our help but we had a good talk with her and watched a film. She is a sweet little lady :) Dopo we went to the church to try and have another lesson with Benvenuto. We got there and when he did not show up after 10 minutes we called him and he tried to wheedle his way out and then hung up on us. Sorella Ashman, being the forte missionary she is, called him back and said he needed to come. So he did haha. He is an interesting fellow because he only asks questions (short brief, deep questions), listens to the answers, and then asks another. But it is a good thing because it means he is actually listening. But it is strange. I guess I have been in Italy for too long and a quiet Italian is a foreign to me . . . either way it went well. For exampe he asked how on earth Mary could still be a virgin after conceiving a child. Good question haha. We confessed we could not completely answer but that we would study the subject and tell him what we found. Other questions were similar so you get the idea haha. In the afternoon after pranzo we went out to a random zone we had never been before and tried to do house but were not really very successful so we went back for a lesson with Antonio before the Fireside that night. Unfortunately he did not come and did not tell us he was not coming until after WE had called him. Oh well, he did end up coming to the fireside that night, though he was late, and a member named Fratello Carlucci invited him for dinner that night. We hoped it would go well and maybe he could clear up some of Antonio's fears about talking to his wife. But we had to leave before the end of the fireside affinché we could go have a lesson with an ex-investigator we found in the area book. Her name is Angela Strignano and she lives on the same street as the church. She is super nice but does not remember anything from when the other Sorelle taught her. We gave her another Book of Mormon and she invited us to stay and eat with her. She was TOO nice and we even met her mother with is 89 years old! She too had fallen recently and broke her femur. But we all got a kick out of her at dinner because she kept saying "Angela! Angela! Non mi piace!" (I don't like this) or "Vieni qua!" (Come here!) when Angela was six inches away from her. She also has a love for Cocacola and she asked us what type of wine it was. We laughed and said it was Americano and we had brought it all the way from the United States for her. She mumbled under breath that it was "optimo!" She was great :)
Domenica we had a great day in church as always. Antonio came for the last two hours and was MUCH brighter. There was a definite difference and he participated in Gospel Principles as we talked about the Word of Wisdom. Sacrament meeting did not go quite as smooth because for some strange reason all of the kids sat on the front two rows together . . . you got me . . . but Sorella Ashman sat with them because she was playing the piano for sacrament meeting and tried to keep them in line haha. Also, Fratello Carlucci filled me in on the situation with Antonio. He talked to Vescovo about receiving permission from his wife to be baptized. I guess because it is so difficult to be divorced here in Italy that most people just become legally separated. And do to this situation Antonio does not need to get permission from his wife. The dinner the night before also went really well and things are looking up! Meno male! That afternoon we had lunch at the Famiglia Valentini and they also gave us a great boost with their fountain of knowledge! They know everything and everyone so we were able to ask them questions about he members, less actives, and contacts which helps a lot. Especially con la famiglia Perini. They are a beautiful family that Sorella Ashman and I found in the member book at our apartment. When I arrived in Bari I felt like we should go visit them but Sorella Laws said she thought they had moved. Sorella Ashman also asked me who they were and I said I did not know but we went to go find them anyways. I told the story before, but turns out they still live in Bari and we miraculously ran into the entire family one day when we stopped by. We got their number but it is quasi impossible to see them. The Valentini's are related to them so we discussed what we could possibly do to help them. That night we felt like we should go and stop by. When we got there the gate was shut and we did not want to ring the citofono because if the wife answered she probably would not let us in. So we went around to the next street where Sorella Magno lives. Her palazzo backs up to the giardino of the palazzo of the Perini's. So we buzzed her and asked her to let us in so we could go through the back door into the yard of perini's apartment building. She was as obliging as ever and as soon as we entered the giardino guess who we saw?! Fratello Perini sitting on a bench and his daughter, Rebecca, was playing with some friends. Right as we got there he stood up and began walking towards the door to their palazzo to go inside. We walk up and act completely "surprised" to see him. Rebecca then asks us if we can have a family night right then. We smile, of course, and tell her she has to ask her mom and dad. He told us he did not mind at all but Rebecca has to ask her mom. But just so you know, Rebecca is the most beautiful child I have probably ever seen and NO one can say no to her . . . quindi, we got in :) it was a little awkward. We were not sure quite what to say but it was probably disjointed because we said what they needed to hear. At the end we asked if there was anything we could do for them and he only said "You already have, thank you for coming." He is stellar and has a really strong testimony but his wife's choices are really wearing at him. It is written across his face and it breaks our hearts. We know we are here to do many things in Bari, but one of them is to help this family. We have no clue how, but we know we can.
Monday we had consiglio di distretto but on the way we ran into the Anziani. We did a little "fake" power approach and had a laugh as we parted ways so that we could buy something at the store really fast. But as they walked away we saw a man standing outside of a pizzeria so we stopped to talk to him. He of course had seen what we had just told the Anziani and we, of course, did the exact same approach we had done with them. We showed him the picture of the temple and asked if he had ever seen it. He told us yes, that he knows we are Mormons, he has a Book of Mormon, and that he has read the entire thing. We said that that was great! But then we asked if he had prayed to know if it was true. He stopped for a minute and then said no. We then talked for about 15 minutes about the original church that Christ established and he told us that yes, it was perfect, but after his death there was too much corruption to have the fullness today. Perfect :) We got his number and called him later to an appointment :) After pranzo we went to go find more referrals and stop by Lucia, the woman who grew up with friends who were members of the church. She did not have time to talk to us but we asked the names of her friends. One is Pina Cassano, the wife of the bishop of our ward! That is no accident! We know that for sure. After that we went to visit a member named Iolanda Papapicco. Neither of us had ever met her but she immediately let us in, made us fresh juice, and showed us all of the pictures of her kids. One of her sons, Roberto, has Down-syndrome and he was absolutely great :) In fact, he was the one that insisted she make us juice. Then he asked me if I was his, "Sei Mia?" And when I said no he asked if Jesus was my boyfriend hahaha. His mom laughed a lot at that one. I think she even had tears in her eyes she was laughing so hard haha. Dopo we went to go see the Valerios. We played the "Apostasy" game and talked about the Restoration. They are some of the most humble, kindest people I have ever met! And Sorella Ashman fell in love with them immediately. I love Bari :)
Martedì we had another lesson with Antonio and this one went way better. He even showed up before we did! That was a miracle! We talked about the 10 commandments and where they come from. We then watched a discourse from President Monson and he was so intrigued by the fact that the man on the screen was a living prophet of God. We were relieved he is progressing again and next time we hope to set another baptismal date. After the lesson we went to go see Sorella Magno. She did not know we were coming so when we got there we found her on the couch with all of her scriptures strewed around her with pens and markers because she had been studying! She is WONDERFUL! She also informed us that her latest tests came back and her cancer is gone! What a relief! She gave us home made orzo gelato and we walked away very content! After lunch we went to the church for an appointment and then to make phone calls but we received a bidone . . . But a man was there that we did not knows. He told us he was a member and that he was waiting for someone else to come. We invited him in to talk with us while he waited. He then went off about genealogy and how he had met a man who was a descendent of Joseph Smith. After a few minutes I told him that I was too, but through Hyrum. He then went into an hour long speal with scripture references, how Christ was married, had children, and that Joseph Smith is a descendent of Christ. He then told me that my cousins are descendents of Christ as well but not me. I tried to ask why I was not either, according to his logic, but nothing he said made any sense anyways . . . And I was on my own because Sorella Ashman had fallen asleep! Meno male the Anziani had come in and distracted him long enough that he realized he had to go as well. We then skedaddled to find Fratello Perini and sure enough he was at home watching their daughter while his wife was at work. Rebecca was down in the yard so we asked if we could come up for a couple of minutes to talk to him at the door. Of course he said yes and though again it was a little bit awkward to say the least, we tried to convey to him that we really want to help him and his family and that if they ever need anything we are here. He seemed to appreciate it, even though we hardly know each other. On the way back to the church for correlation we found a little stray kitten in the street. It was TINY! And so I picked it up and brought it with us. We named it Gaia, but of course we could not keep it so we had to put it back. Managia. But there are a TON of stray cats in Italia. I am sure it belonged to one of them. Corso d'inglese went well after correlation but only three students were there. We ended up talking about families towards the end and we have decided we have to add a disclaimer to the unsuspecting Italians. When members of the church talk about family we tend to get . . . passionate? We think one student, Frank, felt a little attacked. But not because we were upset, only because we LOVE our families so much! When I tried to talk about my family and how essential the knowledge of the gospel is I even started to cry! Poverino . . . he probably thinks we're crazy. Va be. He loves us :)
Oggi we got up early so that we could make the train to go to Trani, a town outside of Bari. We went with a bunch of youth and GANS from Bari. It was fun and BEAUTIFUL! Really. I have to send pictures to describe it. We even got to watch as the Anziani tried to get a Frisbee, soccer ball, and hacky sack out of a tree. Probably the highlight of my day!
Love you all oodles! Veramente! Muah!
VI VOGLIO UN SACCO DI BENE!
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!
