This Saturday we receive our transfer call and I will know if I am staying here in Catania with Sorella Smedley or if I am taking off for a death bed transfer. Hope it's the first! I am SO not ready to go and I really think I still need to help my peeps here in Catania still :)
So last Tuesday . . . what happened . . . ?! Oh I remember! So last week when I said we almost rained, it was true. It poured all Tuesday morning and we had planned to go do house all morning, so we did. I had made the mistake of wearing my one pair of boots which are cloth (basically the generic version of Uggs) and you can imagine what they looked like after five minutes. We went to a street called Via Cagliari which is up the street from the station and we started ringing citofonos. You can imagine how many people let us in . . .yep, none. Oh well, we had a blast :) We just sang to ourselves the whole time because no one wanted to hear us. A couple of random guys were standing outside their mechanic garage staring at us the whole time, hope they felt the spirit haha. And I have pretty much decided that all of my favorite memories from my mission have been in the rain. Yep, that is definitely true. As we turned back to go home we stopped at a Chinese store to see if they had any rain boots. They did but the biggest size was kind of small. But I took them anyways. Better than to walk in my soaked through shoes all the way home. We were supposed to have correlation at the church at 3.00, but Emanuele Mirabella was over an hour late. So with the rain and the fact that we didn't know exactly when he was coming, Sorella Smedley played the piano for a while. Eventually I convinced her to sing for us. She has taken voice lessons for years and I had heard she sang really well. But it's not the same when we sing together. So when she was playing her favorite hymn, "Abide with Me" I got her to sing it for me :) She does sing very pretty-like :) After that we played volleyball with the Anziani and helped Sorella Sgroi set up for the Carnivale ward party. When Emanuele came we had a meeting with him and our new counselor in the bishopric, Fratello Bruno. We talked about our work and then Fratello Bruno asked us how many ward missionaries we need and that if any members tell us 3 times that they cannot come and help us and they seem to be wish-washy, they will personally interview them. Our new bishopric is really big on missionary work, thank goodness, and they said that our ward needs to wake up and help us. I am totally daccordo! After correlation, Emanuele asked us to help him blow up balloons for the party so we did until English course. The Anziani bounced for the class and instead kept helping Emanule while Sorella Smedley and I taught a combined class. We talked about different holidays and the ones that we celebrate in the states. Then we talked about verbs we use, for example, to celebrate. No one, not even the advanced students, knew that verb. So we talked about it and the difference between holidays and parties because they have one word for both. At the end we sang "Abide with Me" for the class and they all followed along. At the end Sorella Smedley told them how much she love singing and that that is how she shares her testimony with others. They were all very quiet while we sang and after while she was talking. It's perfect because two of the students, Raffaele and Michelangelo are singers. They are touched the same way by music and I think that just may be the key to bringing them unto the gospel :) After English course we joined the ward party because our bishop, Bishop Sanfilippo, called our mission president to get us permission to stay until 10.00. It was a lot of fun and several investigators came. I just adore all of our members! One of my favorite costumes (because Carnivale is Marti Gras, so they were all dressed up) was Fratello Andrea Canfarelli. Some how he got a hold of priest robes and put a lot of blush on his cheeks so that he seemed drunk and he brought an empty box of wine. How great is that? He was a drunken priest for Carnivale?! I about died laughing, especially since he stumbled around and danced like a drunk the whole time. He is the best :) Sorella Mazzarella also sings and does party dances for weddings and her husband is a DJ, so they got everyone up and they were all dancing. I love my Sicilians SO much!
Wednesday was truly the day we almost drowned though. I didn't sleep well the whole night because I sleep next to the window and the wind was blowing so hard. But the windows here in Italy usually have this blind/gate that they put over the window outside that is basically the same thing as a garage door but of plastic. When I woke up I pulled it up so we could see outside and it was a freakin' hurricane outside! The street was a river and all the palm trees were blowing over. We couldn't even see the ocean and everything was grey. We had an appointment with Ike and Prudence that morning with the Anziani but we were worried it would be dangerous to drive (because it really was that bad) so we called them to see if they were willing to drive. Instead of being worried, Anziano Andersen was excited . . . of course he was haha. But I guess they prayed that the rain would stop long enough for them to come and get us and for us to get to Ike and Prudence's house and it did. But we did witness the destruction from the night before. The billboard right outside our front window had completely blown over and signs that were cemented into the side walk had been broken and blown over. Wow. We got pictures :) But because the storm had ceased, we got there safely. But as soon as we got inside it started again! Thanks Heavenly Father! The lesson started out a little rough. The time before we had left a baptismal calendar to help them study the scriptures and prepare for baptism. But as we talked with Ike at the beginning of the lesson he was pretty closed off to us and sad he didn't think they would be able to finish the "assignment" to be baptized that day. We were concerned and we didn't know what was going through his head so we tried talking to him a little bit. He kept saying he didn't feel like it was right that we controlled when and what he had to do to be baptized and as we continued to talk we eventually understood what he meant. He was still reading almost everyday, but he hadn't liked that fact that we had picked the day of their baptism and had written out this whole long list of all the things they had to do when it is his and his wife's choice, not ours. He was right and it was another testament to me that every single person we teach is completely different and we truly do have to change the way we teach and how we share the gospel according to every single person. What works for one does not work at all for another. We took the calendar at that point and tossed it across the room just as Prudence walked in. She was super confused and as we explained the conversation we had just had with her husband she smiled and said she was glad too that we had thrown it across the room. Everything else went much more smooth after that. We read a chapter in the Book of Mormon with them and then Anziano Andersen pushed the Chastity pamphlet towards me and mouthed "This one is all yours." Alright, thankfully I actually like teaching the Law of Chastity. If you do it the right way it isn't awkward at all. So I explained about how God's purpose and power is to create. He has created the earth, universe, us, and everything we see. And out of his grace, mercy, and love, He has given us each the power to create the most incredible thing ever, another human being, a body for one of his beloved children. So He is more than justified in providing us regulations for how He wants us to use His power to provide bodies for His children. They understood that pretty well and then we read the pamphlet together so that they could understand exactly what those laws are. Overall it was a really good lesson and we were very grateful that they both opened up to us so that we could better understand their needs. After the lesson we went to IperCoop with the Anziani to do our grocery shopping. It is the Italian version of Walmart which is in a Mall close to our house. They then took us home and we ate lunch before meeting back up with them at the church to do internet. We waited for them to finish and then we wrote and organized all of our pictures after swapping all the pictures that everyone else did. At that point it was more or less time for us to head home. So it was a chill day.
Thursday we had a lunch appointment with Sorella Seminara so we re-organized our time so that we could get all of our studies, language and everything done, before we left at 12.00. But while we were studying we got a really interesting phone call from a man named Giuseppe. He said he had talked to Sorelle in the past and he seemed kind of sketch because he didn't really tell us why he wanted to see us, just that he had a concern and needed our help for 5 minutes. We told him we would be at the Villa Bellini at 4.00 and that we could meet him there. But just as an extra precaution, we called the Anziani and asked them to come with us because we were worried it was this same Giuseppe that had come and bothered us during a lesson with Massimo a few days before. But, any who, at 12.00 we left and were walking to Sorella Seminara and we had some nice little experiences with old women. We talked to a few people, but were mainly just saying hello to them as we passed. This one woman was waiting at a bus stop and we said hello. She stopped and called back to us "Do I know you?" I turned around, smiled and said "No, we just wanted to say hello." She was really confused and said "Just to be nice?!" When we both nodded and said yes she smiled really big and said "Thank you so much!" We both walked away smiling from that one just to meet another little lady a few minutes later. We passed this older woman that was carrying a bag and supporting herself on the building wall next to her. We turned around and offered her help. She first said no, but when we asked if she was sure she smiled and said yes. We took her bag and then gave us an arm for support. She talked to us as we walked with her until the end of the street and she was too funny. She asked us what zodiac sign we were (Italians are obsessed with the zodiac . . . ) and then we helped her cross the street. She gave us each a kiss before we left her and said we were very nice. I liked her a lot, her name was Graziella. Nothing too exciting happened from then until we got to Sorella Seminara's and into the elevator. We got in and the elevator went down to the basement where people park their cars because someone had called it down there. An elderly woman had a bunch of groceries and apologized to us that we had to wait for her. But she was left surprised when we helped her bring them in the elevator. We rode the elevator with her a couple floors and then helped her take the groceries off. When I asked her name she said her last name and pointed at her door and said she lived there. We left her our pass-along card and we will just have to go visit her then :) Sorella Seminara was really excited to see us too. She asked us also if we wanted to take some artichokes home with us. But I told her that I didn't know how to cook them. She was shocked and then spent the next 45-60 minutes showing me three different recipes of how to cook them. Sweet :) I was down with that :) We ate really well and she even offered to have us over later to go through the ward list and she would call some of her friends that were in-active and set up appointments with them so that we could visit them. I also learned some not so happy news from her :( Do you remember Fratello Curci from Bari? Our ward mission leader? I found out that his wife had died this last weekend! I was so sad . . . I really loved her a lot . . . but it was her time and she did have quite a few problems so it is probably better this way. But still! I will miss her :( But after lunch we left to meet the Anziani at the park to meet this Giuseppe person. I was kind of worried too because the creepy Giuseppe that we had met with Massimo had called us 6 times during lunch and I thought maybe he had just used a different number that morning to contact us. Luckily for us though, this Giuseppe we met at 4.00 with the Anziani was not weird at all. In fact, he was really cool. He had met the Sorelle 2 years before and knew that we offered an English course. His son has been given an opportunity to interview for a position where he will have to speak English and the interview is in 3 weeks. He wanted to know if we could take a little extra time before and after English course to help him. We said yes, of course. Then Giuseppe started asking us questions about our church and what makes us different. As we were explaining it to us a girl came up and asked to talk to me. She said she knew we offered an English course and said she would like to come. I gave her the information and she said she would come. Wow. And it got even better as we went back to the conversation with Giuseppe because he said "I would really like to meet with you another time where we could talk more deeply about these things. Heavenly Father is pretty much awesome in the way He just hands you people some times. Love Him. Even though I am not the most avid finding missionary in the world and I could most definitely be much more diligent in street and house contacting, He just loves us missionaries so much that He helps us out! It's great! After that whole thing Massimo came for our lesson with him. We talked with him again about the Word of Wisdom and he still kept saying that maybe he just isn't the right person, which I didn't like at all. We asked him what he had done to help him live the word of wisdom and pretty much he has still not done much. I usually would have been frustrated but he has such a big heart and desire to do good that I could never be mad at him. We told him that prayer would be the key in his ability to quit and that he had to include Heavenly Father in it. After we talked a little about that I had said the opening prayer and he looked at me kind of funny. I kind of smiled and said "I like to pray." and he responded with "I can tell. You are really talking to someone when you pray." We talked more about how that's the way it should be and when we converse with our Father in Heaven we have a relationship with him. Sorella Smedley also shared Mosiah 4:27 with him and how there is order in all things so we challenged him to kneel down and ask Heavenly Father what he has to do to quit smoking and drinking coffee and alcohol and that he has to write down all he thought of and then pray again to see if there is anything else. He says he would do it so here we're hoping that he does. We then walked to go see Dritan and Kristiana and Dritan was kind of being a brat . . . I tried talking to him and he just kept giving me huge long answers that weren't even answers to my questions at all and it was rather being annoying. For example we were following up on the Word of Wisdom and I asked him if he had stopped drinking coffee and he kept saying things like "well, after smoking it will be easy." or "I don't know why you keep asking me this . . . " it was annoying. Then when I asked him why it is important to live the word of wisdom he kept saying "for our body" even though I told him I wanted to know why it was important for our spirit. Finally Klisman said "because it takes us away God." I thought "Hallelujah!" and then I said "Wow, Klisman! You pretend like you don't listen but you really do! You're sly, and you're the most intelligent person in this room!" So I turned around and we read a chapter with Kristiana from the Book of Mormon and then said a prayer and left. I guess everyone is entitled to being a brat every once and a while, but I still wanted to hit Dritan up side the head.
Friday morning we had zone conference. We were supposed to have Anziano Teixera from the Area Presidency but there is a strike with the flights in Rome so they cancelled 3 flights and had to put everyone on one flight so you can just imagine how many people's tickets got cancelled. So yeah, Anziano and Sorella Teixera got their tickets cancelled so instead of them coming, it was just President and Sorella Kelly. To be completely honest though I was relieved. He kind of stresses me out a bit. And President Kelly even commented on the obvious change in our behavior when we learned he wasn't coming. It would have been awesome, don't get me wrong, but he is intense haha. But we learned lots of great stuff and we caught up with our friends. Oh, and Sorella Smedley bore an awesome "birth" testimony because it was her first testimony meeting in the mission and I was so proud of her :) she has brought a really strong spirit into the room and I think several people cried. I couldn't help thinking, "Yep, that's my greenie!" I also convinced Anziano Marengo to do the saltine challenge during lunch. No one else would try it, but I knew his ego would serve me perfectly. So he tried to eat a whole pack of saltine crackers in 60 seconds and yep, he failed. he still had over 3 crackers left and a mouth full of crumbs when the time was up. But it was still a good laugh. After wards we went home to do language study and then we did a really good session of weekly planning. Our numbers weren't so hot that last week . . . not sure why, so we made sure to hit every single point in Preach My Gospel for weekly planning and we were set for this next week!
Saturday we switched around our hours again and wanted to stay and get all of our studies done and we also supposedly had a cleaning inspection (or so the Anziani told us,but in reality it was a joke) so we cleaned the apartment too. Sorella Smedley also called Massimo all by herself to set up an appointment. I was so proud :) He said he would have to call us back later to see if he was done with a conference in time to see us. So at 1.00 we left to go stop by Piera and Giosuè Palermo to give them one more chance to stand us up or learn about the gospel. I think for right now we will just leave it there. Lame, but what can you do? We then road the bus back to Sanzio, the bus station, just as Massimo called us back saying he had finished with his conference and could see us in a half hour. So we just stayed on the bus because it would take us exactly where we needed to go. We ended up meeting him at another Piazza because he didn't like the park where we have been meeting him because people are disrespectful and he is really protective of us. He had even said "This other piazza is close to government buildings so there are police officers. It will be better." He's pretty much great haha. We ended up arriving at exactly the same time so we had a good little chat with him again about the Word of Wisdom. He is still reading a ton of the Book of Mormon and is already on 1 Nephi 20 in just 3 weeks since he got it. That's pretty good. But he is still having a hard time with the Word of Wisdom and he didn't do the little chart we had asked him to do. He again said he wasn't the right person and that he lacks enough motivation. He asked what my motivation was and I told him it was my love of my Heavenly Father. I refrain from sinning because I love him so much. He really thought about that one and said "So the way we show our love for Him is to be obedient . . . " So right then and there we did it with him. We talked again about prayer and how it would be one of the deciding factors as well as the Book of Mormon. He laughed and didn't seem to believe it. But just the day before President Kelly had told us a story from his sons mission in Pennsylvania. He had taught a man who had used every mode of quitting, the patch, gum, hypnosis . . . but nothing got him to quit smoking. But after he started reading the Book of Mormon he stopped and he never touched another cigarette. We shared that story with him and he was a little dumb founded. I then shared a story that Sorella Marcucci (one of the office couples at the beginning of my mission) had told us of how she used to always keep her Book of Mormon in her drawer with her cigarettes and that she would always pull them both out at the same time when she was an investigator. But one day she just had a feeling that she needed to stop, that it was a contradiction. So she put the cigarettes back and she never touched them again. He was really thoughtful about these stories and Sorella Smedley promised him that he could stop smoking if he prayed and read the Book of Mormon. We encouraged him to call us when he felt the desire too and that he should set a date to quit smoking. We chose four days before his baptismal date, so that he would have to quit smoking on March 13th. He said he would try. We then explained to him a bit about the priesthood and how we can all receive priesthood blessings to help us. He said he would like to have one and he would like to one day give them. So we said he definitely could the next day after church. He seemed excited :) He then walked us to the bus stop because it was dark (he's to funny about our safety) and then he told us to run because the bus had gotten there. Then as the bus drove passed, he had waited on the curb to wave to us before going home. He really is the greatest! For reals! After that lesson we went to go see Kristiana. She was the only one home, but honestly, it was probably better that way. She told us she is reading everyday again from the Book of Mormon. Thank goodness! I really think she just needed a break for a couple of weeks and now she is doing awesome. She even said the day before her and Dritan had read a story together. She couldn't really remember where it was at or the names (because they had read it in Albanian) but she explained the story a bit and that she really liked it. We then talked to her a little bit about keeping the Sabbath day holy before we went home. She also told us to come pick her up for church the next morning because she really wanted to come :) Yay! After that we went to go see Sorella Maiori and I just love her. We sang a couple of hymns with her before reading John 15:13, the one that says that "No greater love hath any man than this, that he would lay down his life for a friend." We talked with her about the fact that Christ laid down his life for us, but it is our choice to be one of three things, his enemies, friends, or brothers and sisters. He died for us because he loves us but we have everyday to choose what that would mean for us. Do we want to say our enemy, friend, or brother died for us? We said we need to serve others and that she is our example of that. She then started telling us that she looks to us for examples. We then had a little argument about who was more sincere and in the end she said "If I truly am sincere like you say I am, it means my compliment to you two is true. You are my examples and I love you both very much." :) I truly love her so much! So so so so so so so much! We told it right back to her though and said "Well, if we are so sincere, it means we feel the exact same about you." It was a very nice lesson and the spirit was so sweet. And her husband even came out to see us. He is a member but inactive because his whole right side is paralyzed which is why neither one come to church. But in the five months I have been in Catania I had never even once seen him and we go and see her every week. I really feel we are making progress with her because he came out and she has been growing spiritually. She even said that as soon as her Mother-in-law gets better from the flu she will be in church again! Oh, I just love seeing people coming to church and seeing the progress they make! It was probably one of my top 5 favorite lessons of my whole mission and it was so simple, but so powerful and I will always remember it :)
Sunday morning we went to go get Kristiana but there wasn't a response when we rang the door bell or when we called her. We're pretty sure she is an incredibly heavy sleeper. She isn't the type to just ignore us, so she genuinely was sleeping. So we headed back in time to get picked up by the Anziani who were driving by. And you know who was already in the chapel sitting down when we got to church? Dritan! How sweet is that! He had been in church since 9.00. He's awesome, even though he can be a brat. We did get a call though before the meeting from Massimo. Turns out he got the flu and couldn't come :( But on the upside, he said smoking makes him want to throw up :) We gotta see the positive side of all things right? Nothing else too exciting happened in church, but I was in a really good mood and danced through the hallways to the laughter of Sorella Cojan and a few members. What can I say? I just love life and the mission :) After church we had to go to lunch with Andrea Riolo and his family who had never met another member before. We ate SO MUCH FOOD. We started out with pasta carbonara, then mashed potatoes, two types of meat, mushrooms, melanzana parmigiana, soup, salad . . . and fruit. Oh and then I made brownies and we ate them with brownies. Sorella Smedley almost died though. And there was a nice little show from Andrea's dad and Anziano Marengo as they argued about alcohol and then when Andrea yelled at them both to stop. But the best part of the whole afternoon was when Anziano Marengo was bragging about how much he can eat. He even loosened his belt for us all and was talking about his "fermacuore" (heart stopper) when BAM. His foldable wooden chair broke hahahahahahaha! Tooo funny. It was just perfect. The chair was totally busted and I just couldn't help but laugh at him. Hahahahahahahaha. Oh, too bad we didn't get a picture of that one. Darn it. I also had a nice little chat with Andrea's mom in the kitchen when I was making brownies. She's really nice and really open to the gospel. We talked all about missionary work and how we are away from our families but that it is a sacrifice we make because we love the Lord and others. She understood it immediately and I really see her progressing in the gospel. After lunch we went home to do a little bit of studying and then we went to go see Kristiana and Dritan, but unfortunately there was only Dritan and Klisman so we couldn't go in. We said we would be back in a half hour when Kristiana and her mom got back and we went to go visit the Bruno family because Sorella Bruno commented on the fact that we had not been to see them in weeks and they live five minutes from Kristiana. Well turns out Sorella Bruno was not there and Fratello Bruno asked us to wait there while he went to go get his wife. We waited and talked to Alessia (their daughter) until they got back. But they didn't get back until after 8.00 . . . But we had a nice visit with them and it's good to visit with members, especially since we haven't done it much the last couple of weeks.
Monday was a fun day . . . We decided to go pass by our old investigator Melina because we still don't know what happened to her. She just stopped being home and she won't answer her phone. She wasn't home and district meeting was supposed to start in 45 minutes, so we just walked to the church to wait outside the gate until the others showed up. We sat down on the side walk to do our extra hour of study we hadn't done yet, but then 5 minutes before 11.00, when they should have been there, Anziano Marengo called us to tell us that they wouldn't be there until 12.00 . . . we figured it was for a lesson or something, and we are pretty chill so we decided to do language study until they got there. It wasn't bad, sure we were sitting on the cement ground in skirts, but we enjoyed ourselves. But then the car pulled up and the Sorelle were in the car and Sorella Cojan got out with a bag of shoes in her hand. Now as a back story . . . Sorella Cojan has complained about her feet hurting since the day she entered the mission. They have probably wasted at least 5 hours of proselyting time trying to find her other shoes but she still hasn't bought a new pair. At zone conference she went up to Sorella Kelly and started to cry and so she got permission to go the next day to buy new shoes. When she still didn't find any, she called the Anziani to take her to the mall at the other side of the city to buy shoes on Monday. Which is all good and fine, but no one told us anything. We live in the same apartment as them and they didn't tell us or give us the keys to the church or anything. Sorella Smedley was also pretty livid too. Haha. So was I, so we just sat back in our chairs and stayed pretty quiet during the meeting. Sometimes it is best to just not say anything. Especially when you sat out on a curb for almost 2 hours because someone had to buy shoes and no one told you. So Anziano Andersen could see that we weren't very happy and tried to poke fun at us to get us to laugh. But he chose the wrong thing to poke fun at us for . . . he went over the numbers for the last week and said "We all did really well. We all found new investigators this week . . . well except for you two." Okay, that was low. Any one who has ever served a mission knows that you already feel crummy about your work because you often know you could do more. So that was a stab at my missionary heart. Sorella Giordano said "you should slap him for that." But still I didn't say anything. He saw his mistake and quickly recovered and said "but, these wonderful Sorelle are the only ones in our district that have baptismal dates." Better, but then he fell again when he commented on the fact that my time is almost up in the mission and I better do my best this next transfer. . . Sorella Giordano again told me I should slap him and I just turned to her and said "sometimes it's best to just say nothing at all." Haha, I really was mad. Okay, I can't say I was justified, but I kind of was. Needless to say, Sorella Smedley was showing her anger much more clearly than I was. During the rest of the meeting he kept trying to make amends, especially since it was becoming more apparent that I had gotten sunburned from our stay out in the sun. Oh well, I will survive. It was rather funny though when he suggested we go outside for district meeting to liven things up and then he saw my red face and said "Oh, I'm so sorry Sorella! We don't have to go outside!" but I was fine so we went out anyways. After district meeting though we left and I took a nap and Sorella Smedley listened to gospel music while she read her scriptures. An hour later we were totally fine haha. For that afternoon we had planned to go do house in AciTrezza but while we were on the bus I started to feel really sick and it was already 6.30 by that point and we would have to go back in a half hour anyways (yes, sometimes our timing is way off as missionaries and even when you have good intentions you just still happen to waste a ton of time . . . lame) so we stayed on the bus and went back. Luckily I didn't throw up. It is strange though. I have had a low grade crumminess/nausea for several days now and it comes and goes. I just want to stop feeling sick, but it's not enough to keep me home, but makes the work a little more difficult. But I am sure I will be just fine. So after we got off the bus we walked to go see Kristiana and Dritan and they were all there this time. We talked for a little bit at the beginning and then watched "The Lamb of God together" Klisman kept talking and Dritan finally "shhhhh" him real good. Dritan was super intense the whole time and at the end we talked for a little bit. It was mostly directed towards Dritan and he still gave his lame responses to my questions. But finally I got him to tell us how he felt during the movie. He said he wanted to cry, so I asked why. After he explained a little bit we talked about the atonement and that the way we can use the atonement in our lives is to be baptized. Sorella Smedley then talked a little bit more about baptism and invited them to be baptized. The other two both said they were already baptized, but that their uncle wanted to be baptized in our church. But Dritan didn't respond immediately. I asked him if he wanted to again and he started making excuses, that he wanted to wait. We eventually got it down to the fact that he is insecure about his ability to speak Italian and wants to learn Italian better before he's baptized. But we asked him if he believes in Christ, His church, the Book of Mormon, and that Joseph Smith. He cut me off and said "of course I do. Do you think I would sit here and listen to you if I didn't? Do you think I would come to church on Sunday?" So we asked him again, to set a goal for when he could be baptized. We asked how he felt about the 17th of March. If he doesn't feel ready, he doesn't have to do it, but if he does it would be perfect, also because Massimo is working towards that date too. He said he would and that he would see how he feels as it gets closer. But he seemed truly sincere and serious about it so I really think he will do it. Sweet. I really hope he does :) We called the Anziani after to tell them and we were almost deaf after due to all the "wahooing" and screaming in the back ground. They were both in Siracusa with the Anziani there so we had 4 20 year old boys yelling in our ears. But it was still nice to hear, especially after the frustration we had felt that morning.
Yes, I am imperfect, but that's what it is all about. I have had to face and realize the fact that I am not called to serve a mission to overcome all of my imperfections in these 18 months. I am not supposed to become a perfect member of the church when I come home. I still have my entire life ahead of me, full of plenty of trials and blessings so that I can continue to learn and grow. I guess I always thought I would come home this amazing wonderful person, completely changed from who I was before. But I have slowly realized it does not work that way. Yes I can see the changes in myself and I have grown leaps and bounds, but I also see clearly my weaknesses and the progress I must continue when I no longer am a full time missionary. This truly is a pattern for our life. It begins the process the will get us through our mortal existence to help us attain our potential through our Savior Jesus Christ. I love my mission so much. You have no idea. I wish I could stay here forever, but I am also excited for the path and life the Lord has in store for me when my time here in Italy comes to an end. But one thing I know for sure is that the wonderful people I have had the pleasure to meet and this beautiful land will be in my heart and a part of me forever.
I love you all so much and hope this next week is awesome for each one of you :)
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella LeCate
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!
