CICILIA!

So this week was pretty great. Not last week . . . okay, Monday was pretty terrific and a few other days :) ma, come sempre, dovete aspetare!

So last Wednesday after I wrote we had to basically run/walk home instead of the bus to get home in time for an appointment. The bad thing is she ended up having to stay at work so that appointment did not end up happening. So we then went to track down some house contacts we had met. When we met them doing house (singing) we had gotten their numbers but later when we tried calling them they were not real numbers. We were really bummed out and decided to go back to these people to see if it was our mistake or theirs, or if they just did not want to meet with us. Thank goodness it was our's, mistake and they both gladly gave us their real numbers and set up appointments. So we were going to go and see Dora and Melina Monday! After that we went to go try and visit Sorella Maiori but she had to cook dinner. So we then did a combination of house and street and we met this man outside an old palazzo and started talking to him. Right away he knew that we were Mormon Missionaries. His name is Rosario and he is a very spiritual evangelist. He listened to everything we said and promised us he would read the Book of Mormon that he already had and pray about it. We then left him with a prayer there and he said we could come back to visit him any day. We were down with that!

The next day was zone conference. It was a hectic morning trying to get everyone there to the church but we survived. The first problem was Sorella Laws forgot her clothes in the Anziani's car and they had to go back and forth from the station and the airport to pick up President Kelly so she just had to wear my clothes. She is a LOT smaller than me so she was basically drowning in them. But all turned out well because she was able to change once we got to the church. I also got to see all my old missionary friends from the MTC and from other districts. Also Anziano Scotchi! I have heard so much about him from Sorella Ashman who served with him for 4 transfers so it was nice to finally meet her idol haha. After the first training we sang happy birthday to me and Anziano Hill (who is also here in Catania) and we got a card and M&M's from Sorella Kelly. She is just great :) we then had lunch and I had my interview with President Kelly. He says I will be staying in Catania next transfer unless he has some really shocking surprise revelation from Heavenly Father directing him otherwise. So now I just have to wait to find out who my new companion is. He also gave me a really nice compliment :) he told me that I have a gift of being able to get along with everyone and that it alleviates a lot of his stress when he can trust there won't be problems. He really is so wonderful! After that I started talking to Sorella Giordano and I truly love her too. She stayed her first night in the mission with me and Sorella Pickett at the end of my 2nd transfer and I have loved her ever since. After my first transfer in Bari I asked President if I could serve with her. It did not happen. Before this transfer I again asked if I could serve with her and it did not happen. But what is even cooler, when I was talking to her at lunch that day she told ME that she had asked president to serve with me! I was so excited and told her the only things I have ever asked president is to serve with her and I asked twice. That is also the only thing she has ever asked him as well! I better serve with her! I LOVE HER! This next part is not very exciting but I ordered new name tags and received them. And they spelled it like this LeCATES! Cool huh? They added it because the C is capitalized! I was stoked and wore it right then. So conference was great. We then had a lesson with Giuseppe. He is a new convert who is now inactive. It was the first time I had met him and he told us all about how he does not believe the church is true anymore and he has returned back to his old church :( it is so sad! He is really confused. So Sorella Buma had him promise to read the Book of Mormon every night until she leaves. He said he would and I really hope he does because that really is the key to having a testimony to the truth. I am crossing my fingers and praying!

Friday morning we went to go see Lidia and we taught her the Law of Chastity and it as really easy. She accepted everything without a hitch and then we gave her a mock interview and she passed with flying colors. And every time we see her she is more and more happy. Her life is the same but she cannot help but smile. We know it is the spirit and the effect give from the peace the gospel gives us in our lives. She is really progressing and we are so excited for her baptism on Saturday! After that lesson we decided to go visit Mary, the Nigerian woman we had met the week before. After many failed attempts and dead ends we found her store and she was there. She is so funny and full of life. Unfortunately we could not teach her anything because she is busy until Pranzo starts, but she said we could come back another day when she isn't. That afternoon after lunch we then had an appointment with Angelo, our new investigator. We taught him the Restoration, but he had a bazillion questions! With everything he just had to ask another. And almost all of his questions had to do with the Plan of Salvation or things more intense that you usually don't explain to a new investigator. For example he asked us "So if there is no beginning and if we can become like God and he has a resurrected body . . . was he on an earth like us?" Instead of plowing into all of those details without finishing the Joseph Smith story I just told him our church strongly encourages personal study of the scriptures and that we could talk about it another time. But the spirit was really strong during that lesson and we do not think it will be long before he chooses to be baptized. After that lesson, Bobby Scuturo, the primary president of the American branch, came to take us to the Navy Base (Sigonella). We had set up an appointment with Aubrey Leaver, a inactive member who's husband is stationed here. Bobby is a hoot. She has quite the personality! The visit with Aubrey also went really well. They just had their second little daughter and they are a cute little family. Her husband is not a member and Aubrey has expressed desire to come back to church. She keeps inviting us to dinner and at the end of that visit she told us to feel free to come and teach her and her husband! Ci sto! We then ate breakfast for dinner at Bobby's house with her family. She has two little kids, Jason (six) and Danny (2) and her husband, Josh. He is not a member either but he is really supportive of her and used to come to church every week. They also had a friend there who ate with us. His name is Josh Davis and he is stationed there as well. We shared a short message a the end about conference and after I explained that we have a living prophet and apostles and we showed their pictures and the picture of the inside of the conference center he was really impressed and said it was "amazing". We think he has quite a bit of potential as well. So we will just see what we and Heavenly Father can do about that :)

Saturday was a busy little day many failed attempts to set up appointments in the morning but we ended up just programming after everyone rejected us. But is was alright. I was able to make stirfry for lunch so that we could take it to the church and eat together for Anziano Hill's birthday. We wrapped up the food like a gift and even gave him a real gift. When we had gone to Etna they had a bunch of different things all made out of lava rock and we bought him a "Madonna" statue covered in glitter. He thought it was pretty great. We then lit candles on the cupcakes Bobby had given us the night before and sang him happy birthday. I just gotta say he was pretty content with his little grin on his face. Then we all waited for the people to arrive for Giorgia's baptism! We were all so stoked for that and even the Sorelle from Mistretta came because Sorella Tinoco helped teach Giorgia so she got permission from president to come. And Sorella Giordano is so cute. She told me "Hey future companion" and put her arm around my shoulders. I love her :) But the whole service went smoothly and the spirit was really strong, especially for all the non members that had come. It was especially good for Giorgia's dad who has been inactive for years. He was so happy and proud of his daughter and told us all that he would come to church the next day. Sorella Buma about fainted. She said it truly would me a miracle if he came. At the end we decided to celebrate with granite! I love that stuff. Especially almond (mandorla) flavored. SO good. Even if the men at the bar hit on us. What can you do?

We all got to church early the next day for Lidia's baptismal interview and she passed. It was fast and testimony meeting and she turned to us and asked if she could go up. She then shared the sweetest testimony that all of the members commented on for the rest of church. At the end of all the meetings the Relief Society sisters all grabbed Lidia to take her to try on her baptismal clothes. It makes our job so much easier when the members help fellowship. That is another thing I love about the Italians. When they do something, they do it right and WHOLE heartily :) Then we had church with the Sigonella branch. Sister Bay is great and brought me Hot Tamales from the base because I had mentioned I would not get my birthday package for a while. She then also invited us all over to her house Sunday night for my birthday, Anziano Hill's, and a farewell to Sorella Buma because she leaves the next day. She asked me what type of cake I wanted and promised me a cheesecake :) those do not exist here so I could not be happier! After church we had about a half hour to go do proselyting before Fratello Rocchira came to take us to dinner at his house. We went to the neighborhood across the street from the church and this little boy started following us around and then telling us which citofono's to ring saying "this is my aunt, ring her apartment." He probably lead us to about 6 different apartments. Finally we saw an open door and went in and he told us not to. We figured that he was only 10 and did not know what he was talking about and went in anyways. At the second door the woman told us to leave and followed us out and slammed the door. I guess the kid was right :) We then met back up with the Anziani at the church and got a ride to the Rocchira's for dinner. They are such a funny family and Fratello Rocchira told us all about how he decided to marry his wife. If I remember I will have to tell you all one day. It is pretty great but my internet time is running low. Sorry! But another thing I learned was from Stephanie, their niece. She is half American and so funny. She told me that if Zach and Cody from Disney Channel had a sister, it would be me. Not sure if that is a compliment or not, but that's alright.

But Monday was the best day EVER! So usually when we plan the day it does NOT go the way we planned. So when we had planned Monday we had planned for lessons with potenzial investigators and had planned that all 4 would become new investigators. And guess what? They did! I made a recording of the details so I won't write them all down (for your sake and mine haha) but one of them, Dora, is amazing! She really is spectacular and she told us that she has never felt content with any one religion and she hopes to find that joy in ours through the Book of Mormon. And she's not weird! It's a miracle. Infact, she's BEAUTIFUL! And so is her whole family. They are a beautiful normal family and they seem to truly be searching for the truth of the gospel. YAY! We are so excited to start teaching them :) After that spectacular lesson it did not bother us in the slightest that we found no success for the rest of the night. We felt it quite a pleasure to be persecuted in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ because our day had been so incredibly awesome!

Tuesday morning we went to go see Lidia like we always do and she was still just this bright ray of sunshine! We taught her about fasting and prayer and she is still just moving right along. After that Sorella Buma and Sorella Askew bought a roasted chicken for lunch and we went to a bench in a piazza so that they could eat it. It was about 2 minutes later that they noticed all of the bees buzzing around them. And one of the many things they have in common is their incredible fear of bugs. It is quite amazing actually. They could not handle it anymore and said we had to move. So I then took the bag of chicken with bees all around me and we walked to a bar to eat outside. We sat down and made small talk to a man and boy outside the door when they noticed that more bees had just found the chicken. They both jumped up again, to my own humor and the other two watching. They told my companions that bees do not do anything to you if you just ignore them, but that was not enough for them. We then walked for 20 minutes until we were about a 2 minute walk from Mary's nigerian store and ate outside another bar. Luckily this time we did not have to move again, even if we were eating right on Via Plebescito. Now this street is infamous. It was the first place Sorella Buma told us NOT to go when we got here. In fact, the whole ward has written it in their ward mission plan that we are not allowed to go there. Every time we are close people tell us to go away for our own safety. Yet there we were, 3 American's, eating our roasted chicken. According to me it seems perfectly safe, more safe than other zones in this city, but maybe that was only because we were their during the day. Oh well, Mary's store is right off that street so I am not too worried about it. The lesson with her after went all right. We taught the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon but then she ranted to us that she would not be baptized again. She has already been baptized twice and will not do it again. We bore testimony, especially Sorella Askew and Mary got pelted by the Spirit. By the end she was really wiped out and rather overwhelmed. But she was really looking through the Book of Mormon and I think she might read it. Another thing I learned is it is REALLY hard to teach in English. But I guess that is a good sign no? We then went to visit Lia who has the flu. She was all wrapped up in a robe and scarf. Poor thing, especially since it is still really warm here, especially yesterday and today. We shared conference talks with her and she felt better. But Sorella Askew was about ready to die because she hates germs and doesn't want to get sick. We then went home, made cookie dough, went to the church, and started making cookies for English course. Unfortunately not many people showed up, but we had fun. The Anziani were also really late so Anziano Anderson helped me with my class and the spiritual thought. We taught the restoration with the cups and they all really liked it. We then ate cookies, and then went to go get pizza with the Anziani and Rex Kelly, our American friend who has been in Catania for a month now for business. We ate the pizza in the stairwell of our apartment building to the humor of all our neighbors. But we all enjoyed ourselves.

This morning we swapped our p-day for the evening instead of the morning and we taught Lidia the 10 commandments, scripture study, the sabbath, and . . . something else. It went great as always. Then we went to Taormina, this cool little town between here and Messina. It is SO beautiful! I will send pictures. There are no words to describe it. Yep, that is about it. The day was great and now I am here writing to all of you. Don't worry, I will end this incredibly long letter now :) Grazie for all the birthday wishes!

Vi voglio bene!
Sorella LeCates