So that was me using Barese! Pretty sweet huh? I am pretty much native! Okay, not really. But it is all about the attitude!
Allora . . . so after I wrote last week we got a call from a girl in our ward named Carmen. She is just great and one of our friends. She called and asked if she could have a lesson with us and we could not have been happier. So we went home and changed into our proselyting clothes (meno male . . . I couldn't wait to be in a skirt again. Weird huh?) and then took off to the church. She is too cute! She's 22 and has been a member for four years and really wants to serve a mission so we have decided to start studying Preach my Gospel with her. At the end we asked if there was anything we could do to help her and all she said was "No, you just have to be yourselves." I LOVE Carmen! She then went out and did street contacting with us. She will be a STELLAR missionary one day!
So Giovedì mattina we had a lesson with Antonio Viscanti. He is our investigator that had a baptismal date for August 6th. We started out by talking about the first 7 articles of faith and explaining them to him. He listened really well and continues to grow mentally but he still seems to be missing the conversion part. The whole change of heart. He asked us if the baptismal date was being pushed back and we told him yes. He then asked when he could be baptized and we said as soon as he was ready. He said "Sono pronto" or "I am ready." We would beg to differ, but at least he has the desire! After the lesson with him we went and did street until Pranzo. We found two really awesome men, one's name is Michele. When we mentioned we could be with our families forever he was shocked and asked how we knew that life continued after death. What a great question :) We set up an appointment for tomorrow! That afternoon we were in Centro to buy biglietti for the bus and we stopped a man and talked to him for about a half hour. Towards the end we learned that his name was Rocco and then we both realized the coolest thing ever! The day before when we had practiced teaching, I was a man named Rocco, mid thirties, and a lot like our friend Rocco. This man we had met was just as we had practiced but for the life of me I could not remember what we had said in the practice! Managia. And he did not give us his number. We tried and he seemed like he was fighting a battle in his head but in the end he said no. Managia. He will get another shot though. After that we went to go visit Titta Perilli our little friend that comes to church every week and isn't a member. We watched "Together Forever" with her and we think she liked it all right haha. And then on our way to English course we received a call from Orazio, a man we taught just once two weeks before, and the first thing he tells us is that he is reading the Book of Mormon and enjoying himself! This does not happen, at least not to me. We were pretty stoked with that too. Then we had English course and I told the class how I wanted to be a bio-medical engineer in high school and then become a cardiac surgeon. Frank, one of our favorite students, told me I should be a doctor instead of a lawyer and he told me that about ten times. I'd love to Frank, but it takes too much time and energy. And I told him I want to actually raise my own children. Not sure what he thought of that, but hey, it was the truth.
Friday afternoon we went to the church to help clean and then had a lesson with Nicola and a member from Messina (Sicilia) named Sorella Costa. It was . . . interesting to say the least haha. Nicola does not believe in Christ ancora and he does not believe in miracles ne anche. But he listened to the experiences the member shared. We then asked him how you perform a scientific experiment and he went through the whole process with the hypothesis and trials and tutto. And then we trapped him in his own logic. We read in Alma 32 with him and asked how he could apply the scientific process to faith and he looked really sheepish because he knew we had trapped him. He agreed to try it out with the discourse from Anziano Holland "None Were with Him" about the Atonement and then to pray to know. Vediam. After that we went to an Art show for a member named Giuseppe Signorile. He is this funny little old Italian man with a mustache and bow tie and when he saw us there he tried to kiss us. We both nearly jumped out of our socks as we pulled away and Fratello Curci told us to be "flexible" because he's like our grandpa . . . We forgive him. He was never a Sister missionary haha. But he is great because he then gave us passage to an ex-investigator named Anna Mola. She had investigated the church 20 years earlier and the only reason she stopped was because her friend, who had been a member, had moved away. She still prays like we do and still likes all the things we have to say and readily agreed to have us over again. She also has a 19 year old daughter who perked up as she heard clips of our message. She is an absolute doll and we know she wants to hear more as well.
The next morning we went to Cellemare to visit a member who then could not see us. Since it took us an hour to get there we made a little giro to see some less actives that lived in the area. We came up to the palazzo of a woman we had never met but was on the ward list and as we went up to the door we watched as a woman picked figs off of her neighbors tree. We both had a laugh and then went inside. She followed us and asked who we were looking for. Turns out she is the member that has not been to church in 20 years and she did not even recognize us as missionaries until we told her that that is exactly who we were. Must have been a LONG 20 years haha. She did not have time to see us then but gave us her number so we could call her for another day. Then we were happy that it only took 20 minutes to get back to Bari (yeah, I don't understand the logic of that either . . .) During lunch we received our transfer call! And we are stayin' in Bari! So are both copie degli anziani! Kind of boring in many ways, but it's nice to have a little stability for a couple of transfers. That afternooon we had a lesson with Antonio Viscanti and Fratello Carlucci and it was . . . helpful. Basically Fratello Carlucci just laid it all out and straight up asked "Why aren't you reading? Why aren't you praying?" And when Antonio tried to give excuses, Fratello Carlucci ran him RIGHT over! It was actually perfect and finally Antonio started to open up to us. We began talking about prayer again and asked if there was anyone he was close to that he confided in. He told us no. We asked how his relationship with his father is and he said it was bad. He even almost started to cry. That is the most emotion we have seen in him yet. Thank goodness! That is what is necessary! You have to open your heart to really experience a change and we hope finally we will start progressing to being prepared for the covenant of Baptism. After the lesson with Antonio we had a lesson with two new men and a member, Angela Cafagno, was there. It was pretty much the perfect lesson zero. Paolo we had met on the street and he already had a Book of Mormon and told us he had read it. But when we asked if he had prayed to know if it was true he said no. He also brought his friend Andrea who is GOLDEN. For real. He asked ALL of the right questions in perfect order. Where do we come from? Why are we here? Where do we go after this life? And he listens! It was so refreshing! And at the end he agreed to say the prayer and is was perfect. A member could have said it. He said "Caro Padre Celeste" at the beginning, he used the "tu" form, and he closed with "nel nome di tuo figliolo Gesù Cristo, Amen"! Our jaws dropped. Literally. Wow. I still have no words. We see them again today! After that lesson we went with both Carmen and Angela to another investigators home, Angela Strignano. We had gone the Saturday previous and had eaten dinner with her. This time we couldn't because we had already begun our fast and she had all the food ready! We felt super bad because we had to say no, but we promised her the next time. We taught her the Restoration and she seemed to understand it. We then asked if she felt it was true. She answered that she did feel it was true because after we had left the week before we had left the spirit in her home. Everything was softer. Her mother, who is 89 years old, slept the whole night. Her companion, who is crazy, was less crazy. She felt at peace and felt the love of her Heavenly Father and she knows it was because of us. Granted the lesson did not go perfect because her mother was yelling the whole time. But she is a sweet woman that DESPERATELY needs the gospel in her life and loves us. She wasn't ready to impegnarsi a year ago, but we think now may be the time :)
Church went well Sunday as always. And we had lunch con la famiglia Santoro. For the first time they did not stuff us! Well . . . except for watermelon. And poor Sorella Ashman HATES watermelon. But she ate it anyways. What a stud haha. We then went to the park to see the family Costanzo. They have been investigators for over a year now and have a ton of friends in the church and always come to activites. But they cannot come to church on Sunday because her parents have a caretaker everyday during the week except for Sunday morning so they have to watch them. We talked to them for a bit and Sorella Ashman got to know them better. Then Fratello Curci came and talked too. Then the anziani and their investigators, la famiglia Terlizzi from Venezuela. Fratello Curci then decided to have a Family Night all together in the park. Sorella Ashman and I were in charge and we played a game at the beginning and then taught the lesson from a discorse from a general conference. Not sure which one. I read them too often. But it went great and I even got compliments on my Italian. Sure they were probably just being nice, but it is nice to be able to communicate with people haha. We also decided that Sorella Ashman is racist. But not in a bad way. She just has a love for Albanians, Dalmations, and Dinosaurs. Nothing else is quite as important as these things. I say this because on our way home from the park she spotted a Dalmatian in front of us for the first time in Italy and she about died. We were waiting on one side of the street for the light to turn green and the owner was on the other. She begged me to stay there so that she could pet the dog when it reached our side. She's so silly :)
Lunedì mattina we had consiglio di distretto which was great, but afterward was even better! We had planned a potluck because the anziani always go to the apartment of the Bari anziani to have lunch and we can't go. So instead we made lasagna and assigned the anziani to bring other things. We ended up with 10 panzerotti, meat, un sacco di frutta, drinks, and a ton of brownies. I enjoyed myself :) The best part was the end though. We had started out with 10 of us but as all the other anziani left it was just Sorella Ashman and me and the anziani in our ward. We then spent the rest of our lunch break talking amongst ourselves for another hour. It was the first time we really had a chance to do this and both anziani are amazing! Anziano Kafel is from Genova. His dad is from Tunizia and his mom is Italian. Anziano Cuellar is from Mexico/Texas/Utah and is more or less gangsta, haha. After that we nearly ran to the bus station to take the bus to Triggiano so that we could have a family night with Antonio at Fratello Carlucci's. We BARELY made it on time and the lesson was good. It was completely based on "I am a child of God" and at the end we had Antonio write 20 things he is grateful for and then say the prayer and only say those things. He's too cute :) 55 years and is as humble as a child! It amazes me still! After the lesson ended Fratello Carlucci gave us a ride back into Bari with is daughter and grand daughter and did strada back to or apartment. Good day.
Ieri was quite the day. We walked the whole morning from less active to less active because not a soul was home and it was hot outside. I got sunburned again, managia. But that's alright because we walked 9 miles. The downer was for some reason I ran into a tree and fell into the bushes . . . not sure how that happened but all the cars at the stop light witnessed my grace and the blood running down my leg. Va be. What can you do? When we got home I passed out for an hour because I could not take another step. Thank goodness because we ended up walking a bit that afternoon. We had planned to go to a potential investigators with the Bishop's wife, Sorella Mongelli, but Lucia was not there. So we then went to try at 3 other less actives to do a visit with her but they were not home either. So in the end we went to the church and sat down with Sorella Mongelli and the ward list and she gave us a sack full of information about pretty much everyone. Then we had correlation and then English course! And we had a pancake party with our students. Frank brought about 9 different types of drinks and ice cream and Tomasso brought Focaccia. We then made them pancakes with oatmeal, raisins, banana, and cinnamon. We put ice cream on top and then brown sugar syrup. They liked it. A lot. So did all the boys in the ward. They had been out back playing soccer and bombarded us with "please sisters. I will be eternally grateful" in English. How could we say no? Gotta love Bari!
No really. I love Bari :) It is great. The people. The Ward. The other missionaries . . . Nothing to complain of! Literally! Because the Church is true and I am in Italy sharing it with random strangers on the street! Nothing better than sharing your testimony through the Holy Ghost and the power of a missionary call!
Love you all bunches!
Vi amo!
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!
