Transfer calls are this Saturday . . . boh! I have no clue what will happen this time. I am almost 100% sure that my time in Bari is just about up so I will probably be transferred. My options are
Cagliari (Sardegnia): That is not too likely because the Sorelle there have not been there for long and one was my companion in the MTC
Roma 2: The chances are basically zero because I already served there
Roma 3: Boh. Maybe . . .
Ostia (or Roma 4): Probably not because there is a greeny there with her trainer who only has one transfer left.
Ladispoli (just outside of Rome): Again, probably not, because it is the same story as above.
Taranto (an hour from Bari): If I am not going to be staying in Bari I would like to leave la Puglia (this province of Italy) because I want to see something else . . . but watch, that is exactly where I go haha
Catania (Sicilia): good possibility. It has two wards, one is American because of the military base. That would be cool :)
Siracusa (Sicilia): Huh . . . maybe. It's Siracuse, so that's cool! It's in the Bible!
Ragusa (Sicilia): Probably not because the Sorella that is newest in that city, Sorella Laws, has already been my companion
Mistretta (Sicilia) I wanna go here :) One because it is like Beauty and the Beast, two because Sorella Pickett ADORES that place because it was her first city and I heard everything about it and just wanna see it. And three because Sorella Giordano is serving there now and I want to be her companion at some point in the mission so why not now?
And the last option is a new city because the mission might have an extra companionship of sisters so president has been thinking of which city to open
So make your guesses and you will all be informed next week!
But anyways . . . Last Wednesday was Sorella Ashman's birthday and we had a lot of fun. Basically she lived it up and invited everyone to go out for Chinese food. It was SO good! Her and I ordered different types of Tofu and it was delicious, despite the Anziani's disdain. They thought it was gross and never fail to make fun of us for being vegetarian. But what can you do? I enjoyed it! Then we had cake! Sorella Ashman had made this yogurt cake that every Italian woman makes. It was chocolate and really dense. She made two layers and the first she filled with a cassata (a dessert filling made with ricotta cheese) and a brown sugar/chocolate glaze over the top. It was divine. Enough said. We then went and made phone calls and talked to Angela Cafagno at the church until the activity for the GANS started at the home of the Valentinis. But this was the coolest part of the day. The night before when I said the prayer before we started nightly planning I asked that we might see a miracle for Sorella Ashman's birthday. She was really excited and we wanted to see what the day would bring. The second thing you need to know is that we have talked a lot lately about the thing we want to witness at least one time in our missions. To have a contact call US instead of the other way around. When we give people our number they never call us. Neither I nor Sorella Ashman have ever had this happen but we both would really like it to occur. So while we were at the activity that night, Fratello Valentini was giving a little devotional lesson on the Atonement and our phone rang once. This is another thing about the Italian culture you might find interesting. People here "squeal". Now before you laugh I will explain the meaning of this word. In the United States our cell phone plans are based upon minutes, but here people have to add "credit" to their phone. If they have no credit they have no minutes so they CANNOT make phone calls. To solve this problem people "squeal" which is when they call a number, let it ring once, and then hang up so that the other person knows that they want to talk to them but THEY have to call them. So now that that has been explained you understand that this number who had called us during the devotional had sent us a squeal. It was just a number that was not saved in our phone so Sorella Ashman pulled out her planner to look at the numbers of contacts we had met that week and she got up and left the room. Being her companion I got up too. Once we were out of ear shot and no longer a disturbance she grinned and said that it was Annalisa, one of the girls we had met in the park the sunday before. Her and Stefania had stopped US in the park and asked if we were Mormon and then told us they were writing a "paper" for school on religions and had some questions for us. Right . . . school. But the point is they called us! We had yet to call them but they took it upon themselves to call us. So we called them back and set up an appointment for the next day. We were pretty excited :) and after we had bruschetta and focaccia so the day was just perfect :) Miracles, oil filled bread? Italy? Life is just great haha.
The next day started out awesome too. We had an appointment with Orazio Galletta at his house. This was new because we had only met with him at his music studio, but this time he said we could come to his house and his wife would be there. Orazio is the man that told us in the first lesson that he did not have any interest in the gospel WHILE he was flipping through and reading the Book of Mormon. He also told us that he had no clue why he was still listening to our message again WHILE he was intently starting first Nephi. He was also the one that called US a week later to say that he was reading the Book of Mormon and enjoying himself. The next lesson we learned that he had already read 300 pages of the Book of Mormon in 2 weeks. So he is great and we finally got to meet his wife. And I have one word for her. Okay, 3. I LOVE HER! While we were waiting at a table in their little court yard he told us she was the most wonderful woman in the world but when we met her we believed him. She was rather shocked at how young we were, but what can we do? She listened to everything we said as we explained the Plan of Salvation and a little bit about the Book of Mormon. She smiled the whole time and finished with "I have never heard about ANY OF THIS before." She was rather amazed as she left the table to get us some cake and juice. Orazio also has a karaoke machine and a stage . . . etc in this court yard of his so we then sang some old 80's songs and then left for our other appointment. That appointment did not show up but the next one did, the two girls, Annalisa and Stefania. As we sat down they pulled out this two page list of questions for us. And they were doozies. But my very favorite was the last one "Why do you feel that everyone should be Mormon?" Sorella Ashman bore testimony of the Restoration and that it is the EXACT same church that Christ established on the earth. That thanks to the fullness of the truth we have today we know how to be sealed to our families forever and these things are only possible through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I then explained that God did not send us to earth without direction or an explanation of how to return to him. No loving father would do that. This map, this plan, is the whole entire purpose of the church, of religion. The church tells us HOW to return. And thanks to the restoration we have a prophet who is the mouth piece of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and through his leadership we can retain this truth and continue on the path towards Eternal Life. The room was silent and Sorella Ashman said she saw a few tears in the eyes of Annalisa. We know that the Spirit bore testimony to these girls that the things we had said were true and they want to meet with us again :) That afternoon we had to do a ton of things for the talent show we had organized for the next night. We had to go get the sound equipment, Ruben Mongelli (the bishop's son) was so nice and set it all up for us while we went through the whole church and grabbed the little tables that are in all of the rooms to set up a more relaxed atmosphere than just rows of chairs. Then finally a few people showed up to do their trial run for the talent show. We had to leave though for English course, but because Sorella Ashman had to talk to Fratello Giuseppe Signorile about the program for the talent show I taught the course. There were only two people there for most of the class so it wasn't too bad. The last class Sorella Ashman had given them all Books of Mormon and asked them to read the introduction for her birthday. Angela, one of the students had read it but the other, Giuseppe, had not. So for class we read the introduction in Italian sentence by sentence as the two students translated it into English. I had to explain a lot of things, like where the Jaredites came from and the coming of Christ to the America's but they had no disputations as to it's truthfulness. So who knows? After English course Sorella Ashman had her practice for the talent show with Fratello Franco Scarola. He is a professional pianist and is accompanying her as she sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" because Italians love that song. It was a long day haha.
Friday was weekly planning but because I do not have a "visual" talent, Sorella Ashman said I should make cookies for everyone and then have copies of the recipe that they can take home for my talent. So all during weekly planning I made chocolate chip cookies. Our kitchen was hot . . . but the cookies turned out great because we FINALLY found brown sugar! Hallelujah! Early that afternoon we met the Anziani at the church because they needed help with the program for the baptism of Jimmy Bendallino. He is philippino and is returning back to the Philippines this week so they received special permission to baptize him even though he has only come to church twice. He is SUPER elect and one of the strongest new converts ever. But that I will explain later. After that we organized for the talent show and it went great! Not because the actual program was terrific, but because we had a bazillion investigators there! Orazio and his wife Maria came and they sat with Anna Valentini who is officially my new favorite member. She invited them over to her house and to come to church, everything. The girls, Annalisa and Stefania came. Nicola Bellino, our investigator, who unfortunately is not making progress, came and enjoyed himself. And about half of English course came as well as investigators of the Anziani. The whole purpose of the Talent show was to have non members there and we more than succeeded :)
Saturday morning we went to Carbonara to visit Beatrice and goodness gracious, at the point I realized just how much I am going to miss Bari! Literally it will rip my heart out to leave, but eventually I am going to have to . . . drats. This time we saw the down stairs of her house and again, it was beautiful. I do not know what she is talking about when she says her house is destroyed. It is probably my favorite house I have ever seen in Italy because it is super old, but well preserved and I just love it. But we love Beatrice so we over look the fact that she is a tad bit over dramatic. We then met up with the Anziani at the church for lunch because they were there preparing for the baptism of Jimmy and doing weekly planning. That afternoon we made a bunch of phone calls and I called Marco. We met him in July and he is the boy from Montenegro who talked to us for an hour on the street, bus, and the street again. He was super nice but he would only be in Bari for a couple of days and then go back to Montenegro until October . . . But he asked if that was our phone number and when I said yes he said he would save it to his phone and call us when he gets back. We're crossing our fingers! We then had a visit with Sorella Curci and then went to the church to practice for our musical number for the baptism. And the Baptism . . . wow. Anziano Cuellar gave the talk on baptism and I witnessed the gift of tongues with that one. He grew up in Mexico but he then moved to Texas so he speaks both perfectly. And because he is a native Spanish speaker he picked up on Italian like no bodies business. His trainer is also Italian so after less than two transfers he speaks really well. But his talk during the baptism was . . . wow. Jimmy does not speak Italian but everyone else at the baptism did so he had to speak both during his talk. His Italian was literally perfect and the flow between that and English was flawless. Wow I am still amazed and the Spirit knocked us all off our feet! The baptism itself was flawless also. Anziano Kafel, who does not speak English, performed the baptism in English without a hitch. And then after I got so excited during Jimmy's testimony at the end that I grabbed Sorella Ashman's hand and almost cut off all the blood flow. It's a really strange sensation to have a smile from ear to ear while you are crying at the same time, but I liked it. Jimmy is TERRIFIC. He bore the most powerful, sweetest, surest testimony I have ever heard from a convert of 1 or 2 years, and he had only been a member for 10 minutes and had only met the anziani 3 weeks earlier. Wow. And his wife was there and she for sure will be baptized here soon.
Sunday was Anziano Kafel's birthday so we made him a cake. Church was great. Titta was there as always. Sorella Ashman and I helped Sorella Raffaela Juan teach her primary class about missionaries and Titta came in to join us and started drawing pictures with the kids. Oh well. During Sacrament Meeting Carmen had saved me a seat and gave me a huge hug. Okay, again. I do not want to leave Bari :( the confirmation of Jimmy was . . . okay, no words again. But it was really sweet :) We had lunch afterwards with the famiglia De Santis who is the Relief Society president. She served her mission at Temple Square and is great. She has a great bonding moment with Sorella Ashman and in the end Sorella Ashman basically has a job in Bari after the mission if she wants. Her greatest dream is the marry and live in Italy forever. Pretty sure it will happen. And she LOVES Bari. She never wants to leave. We then had choir practice for stake conference and then we got stood up by a referral. But she had a good reason. She had to work. So we went home and did an hour long session of planning so that we can find the elect of God!
Monday morning we tried to do house before district meeting but we got shut down by this overly invasive woman at the gate of an apartment complex we had chosen to do the night before. At that point we did not have time so we went to the church. That afternoon we went to see Sorella Magno! She has been in vacation so we were dying to go see her! She gave us home made lemon ice cream too :) We then caught the bus to Japigia to do a less active hunt and got a little turned about. We stopped a woman on the street for directions and then she asked about 4 other people where it was. Finally she offered us a ride and stopped about 5 more people and did not let us out of the car until we were literally at the door of the apartment complex. She was SO nice so we shared her a short little message and left our pamphlet of the Restoration and took her number. Her name is Carla and she told us " I am Catholic." But that really has no meaning for me anymore. Everyone says that and it honestly has no effect on who joins the church or not. We then had a family night with the Valerio family. They joined the church years ago and all of their children. But because they went inactive all of their children married non members and are not active either. Sorella Valerio said that night "We made a huge mistake when we distanced ourselves from the church. Now our children are not enjoying the blessings of the gospel." It is a sad, but true fact. It made me sad to see her as she said it. She recognizes what they did and they wish now that they could fix it. But in small ways they are. They are starting to come back to church and we hope it will be an example to their kids.
Yesterday we were basically in giro all morning trying to find less actives, ex investigators, and doing street. We did not have much success. You could say it was just one of those mornings where everyone gives you the "hand" or simply ignores you. But that is alright. If it was not hard it wouldn't be worth it haha. That afternoon we had another appointment with Annalisa and Stefania with Silvia Santoro, a member of the ward. We found out that these two girls are only 17 years old! They seemed at least 19 . . . We also tried a different route with the lesson because we really wanted to understand them and their backgrounds. They were both open books, especially Annalisa. She told us everything about her family situation and how it has effected her decisions and now and in the future. They both said that they do not want to ever be married because they cannot see how a marriage can be worth it. I then told them about my parents and how much they love each other. But then Annalisa asked me how I knew that they really loved each other or if they just THOUGHT they did, that they were convinced. Silvia then explained the relationship of her parents and how her father could not fake the look in his eye when he looks at her mom. It was very sweet and both girls were touched by that. We talked about how our goal and focus changes everything. When we look to God and seek Eternal Life everything else becomes possible. We then left them with our own list of questions to answer and told them we would talk about it next time. Before we finished they told us something really interesting. Stefania had dreamed about the elders and Annalisa had seen missionaries everyday for about a year so when they saw us in the park that Sunday they took it as a sign and stopped us. Alright, we took it as a sign too and told them that. Annalisa then gave the prayer and wow. It was great. She started perfectly, addressing Heavenly Father, and then apologized to him because it had been much too long since the last time she had spoken with him. Besides the prayer by Andrea a couple of weeks ago, that was number one of all the investigators I have taught :) We then had correlation and then English course. We talked about the USA and the stereotypes of each region and the differences between American and British English. At the end we again talked about the Family. I guess it has been a theme this week. But we asked them what makes a successful family. They all gave correct answers and then we drew a triangle on the board with god at the top and the Father and Mother at the other two corners. We explained to them that we have to have the same goals, like Frank had already explained to us, and this goal should be Eternal life, to become perfect like our Heavenly Father. As we grow closer to Him we end up growing closer to one another. They all really seemed to like that :)
So the work is going well. Never perfect, but what is life without mistakes. I learned that from "The District 2". I have an obsession with that DVD ever since we all received our own personal DVD players. I am pretty sure I will bring it home with me at the end of the mission. Yes. Again. I am a nerd. But it's part of being a missionary. Whoot! I get to talk about God and Jesus all day with random people on the streets! Does not get better than that!
Really. It doesn't :D
Love you all oooooodles! Thank you for all you do!
Muah!
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!
