This week was hard . . . :(‏

But I will explain later . . . unless you want to read ahead, it was on Saturday.

Tuesday morning we went to go do house on a street where we had worked before but it was an interesting morning. One woman answered her speaker and couldn't understand us and hung up. We assumed she had just lost patience, but then she came all the way down 5 flights of stairs to ask who we were and then told us to go away because no one in that WHOLE building was interested. Yeah, okay. 10 minutes later when we were almost done she came down again and said "I thought I told you to go away!" And all I said was "Yeah, well you can just keep telling us that and see where it gets you." She wasn't happy as she heard me ring the next apartment. It just got better as we went along. We rang the first citofono a few apartment buildings down and a woman answered and asked who we were. After we told her we were sister missionaries she hung up and opened the door. We then went all the way up to the top floor where we found her with her apartment door open, a sour expression on her face, and hands on her hips. She nastily asked us what we wanted. When we told her we wanted to share a message about Christ she said "I don't want ANYTHING you have to offer. Leave right now." We nicely said "Have a good day" and left. Yikes. It was just one of those days. After that we went to the church to meet Franchy for lunch and after we ate she fell asleep. We then went in and watched the Joseph Smith Movie on the church website for 20 minutes before she came to join us. At 3.30 we were supposed to leave though to go see Kristiana and Franchy had said she wanted to come with us and teach. But as we were getting ready to go she changed her mind and said she was too tired. Alright. But it ended up being okay though because Kristiana wasn't even there so we then headed back up to the church for an appointment with Simone Finnochiaro, but because it was just one of those days, he didn't show up either. At this point we only had a half hour before English course and we have done house all around the church more than once, so we talked with the Anziani who were stood up by Angelo (yeah, remember him?!) And then English course started and due to the events of the day I was really tired and my patience had waned rather thin. Usually I love the kids that come to the basic class, I usually have the never ending supply of "sitdowns" and "be quiet" and "no, you can't go to the bathroom . . . " But that day. Nope. And Giovanni was there and Alfredo and they had sincere questions, even some about the gospel, but the three kids on the front row just wouldn't be quiet long enough for me to ever respond. I tried everything and Giovanni and Alfredo could tell that I was about to rip my hair out and tried to help, but there wasn't much to do. As soon as the class ended the kids knew it was not the moment to bother me so they ran off and left me to talk to the other two. Giovanni had some really deep questions about gospel related subjects. He asked if demons really exist and if merely the name of Christ sends them away. When I asked why he wanted to know he says he has had the reoccurring dream of being attacked and tormented by devils that do not leave him until he commands them to do so in the name of the Savior. I was rather intrigued by that since he has never read the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price and wanted to talk more about it with him but he had to go. Oh well, better luck next time. I then snuck in at the end of the Advanced lesson and once the class was over I asked Michelangelo if he had brought me his CD and he had! Wahoo! Finally! I was really excited and it looks like it has a lot of good stuff on it, I will just have to wait until I get home to listen to most of it. After English course we had our little extra half hour with Stefania which turned into a group with the Anziani. But we split up our conversations and ended up talking to her by myself. She is nervous for her interview and doesn't think she speaks English well enough and no amount of reassurance from me would help her feel better. So in the end I just asked her to pray for help. She didn't tell me no, but she seemed a little doubtful that it would help. But I assured her it would. We shall see.

Wednesday we went to the Catania market to pick up last minute things that I will want to bring home. It was great though because all of the scarfs were 2 or 3 euro because summer is coming. We then went to write home and then went to have a lesson with Massimo. Turns out he hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon. Lame. Lame. Lame. He said he just doesn't feel the hunger he used to feel. He's lost that fire. So we read Alma 60 and the letter Moroni wrote to Pahoran. Pretty sure there's nothing like a good verbal slap to the face from Captain Moroni that will wake up up spiritually. And because he was so interested in the response that Pahoran wrote back, we read 61 together too. Moroni is both mine and Sorella Smedley's favorite so we just ranted about him and then read verses 11-13 and 17 of Alma 48 with him and we said "how would you like to shake hell with your righteousness?" I think he liked the idea of that and promised us that he would start reading the whole story of Moroni, starting in chapter 42. Yep! That's right! After Massimo we had to head back to the church for an appointment with Simone but like Tuesday, he didn't come. But this time he had let us know during lunch. So we went back hoping to finish the letters we didn't finish at the internet point that morning. But with our luck, the Anziani were there writing their letters home. So they finished quickly and then we did too. But by this point it was 7.30 so we went home to catch up some more on area book. Fun fun!

Thursday was just another truly awesome day. So we swapped a few of our hours during the day to stay until until 12.00 to finished our regular studies and our extra hour of study by 11.00 and then to do our language study (which does not get done nearly as often as it should) before we left at 12.00 to go to a lunch appointment with Sorella Barresi, that tiny little Sicilian woman that always randomly calls us at 1.00 to see if we can come to lunch right then and there because she has already made enough food for all three of us. Poor thing, but seriously, she needs to give us more notice than that. So last time she had given us these last minute phone calls we had set up this lunch appointment which thankfully didn't go to long, even though I was forced to eat 250 grams of pasta plus all the other courses as well. Gross. But we were out of there by quarter to 3 and headed over to see Kristiana but that lesson didn't go very well. At all. Sigh. Again, refer to Saturday if you haven't already after this story. We had wanted to make her a familysearch.org account for a while and so had she. So we went and started to make it but she just kept complaining the whole time that she was bored and didn't like it and thought that it was stupid. She then said a silent prayer to herself for a second and then crossed herself as the Catholics do (which she has never done before, especially not in front of us) just because she knew it would bother us, and kept complaining. So I closed the window and asked if we could listen to a song. So we went to the youth page of the LDS.org website and opened up one of the hymns, but as soon as it came on she started complaining again saying she hated the song and wanted it to stop. She then started singing a song by Black-eyed peas and bobbing her head to the music until I turned of the hymn. She sighed and said "Oh, thank G**. Oh thank g**." Again, something she had never done in the past. She also kept saying the F word when we have asked her a bazillion times not to in front of us. So at this time I told her to stop being disrespectful and making fun of us, but all she did was laugh and turn around and wink at Sorella Smedley who folded her arms and didn't say anything because she was not going to take her attitude either. So she started acting up more until I told her to stop being a brat and to say the prayer so that we could leave. After the prayer I gave her a small side-ways hug and left without turning back and waving like I always do. I was really frustrated and she knew it. We then went to the church to meet Simone who did come this time. Monday I had written a letter in the front of a Book of Mormon and a scripture chain with explanations of the scriptures:
Alma 28:12 -Was the scripture I read when Bethany died and that I know that families are forever because of the . . .

2 Nephi 2:8 - Resurrection through Jesus Christ, who also . . .

Alma 34:8-17 -purifies us through the Atonement. It wasn't free for him and it is not free for us, but we don't do it alone because . . .

Mosiah 3:7-13 -He knows us and has suffered every trial we will ever face making Him the only one who can help us.

2 Nephi 33:10-15 -So if we believe in Christ we need to believe this Book through asking our Father in Heaven . . .

Moroni 10:3-5 -through sincere prayer, asking if it be true, knowing he will answer because when we know it is true . . .

2 Nephi 31:13 -we will then know what we need to do.

As soon as we gave it too him he was so grateful and started thumbing through it and even read the first scripture in Alma 28 and got a little emotional and promised he would read the whole thing and that it meant a lot to him that we had give him the book. I hope he really does keep his work and read it because that book will change his life. So that went well in comparison to the lesson before. And then the Anziani came to get us to go to the bishop's for dinner. They live a little ways out of Catania but we got there without any incidents and had a good ol' time. Sorella Sanfilippo (bishop's wife) loves South America and had made a whole table on dishes from that area which she wanted Anziano Marengo to try since he is from Peru. It was all pretty good but I put this sauce on my tortilla and I took a bite and it took me off guard how hot it was and my eyes started to water. Sorella Sanfilippo saw me and felt bad and grabbed me some milk to help. Anziano Marengo wanted to show of and took some and tasted it and said it wasn't that bad and made me look dumb. But I noticed he didn't eat anymore of it after he tried it the first time. He was just being punk. Oh well. And all my English course kids were there because one is the bishop's son, Vincenzo, and then his two cousins, Sebastiano and Sofiasole. I like them a lot and Sofiasole came and sat by me the whole meal. She is really sweet and I like her a lot. So we ate all this South American food, but they also had a couple Catanese dishes on the table but I hadn't tried any yet until Anziano Hansen asked me to try one. I looked at him skeptically and asked what it was. He grinned and said it was tripe. Oh no. I know exactly what that stuff is and I down right refused right then and there. He then tried to get Sorella Smedley to tried some who looked at me to know what it was. As soon as I told her it was cow stomach she wrinkled her nose and said no, but couldn't hold out because Anziano Hansen dared her to. I am not so week and felt no loss of pride in saying no. I would rather die. So Sorella Smedley spooned some out on her plate and NASTY. You could even see little hair like things on it and it looked super rubbery. Bleh. Nope, I was fine without it. And dude, her face was priceless. I thought she was going to die. But she at it all. Sebastiano likes it, weird little 11 year old . . . and took a ton and forked what looked like a piece of the asophogus and ate it whole. Ugh! Nasty! To make it better though, Sorella Sanfilippo had made a cheese cake. Yum. Granted I could still feel those 250 grams of pasta in my stomach still, but whatever. Overall it was a good night. And again, pretty much positive our bishop is in the Mafia. Just sayin'.

The next morning we decided to postpone our weekly planning until that night so that we could make the most of the daylight and do finding. So we left early and headed out to Aci Trezza to do finding. It is a little town north of Catania and we met a nice little man on the bus on the way out there and we invited him to English course. His name is Piero and said he would come and needed to practice his English because he has friends from the military base. Then we got there and man is that town pretty! I could live there and I am not just saying there. But as far as how nice the people are to missionaries . . . not the best in the world. We decided to focus more on doing English course advertisement than actually inviting people to hear the message of the gospel and we left quite a few cards with people so we will see how that works out. As we did this we slowly made our way to Aci Castello (that cool place we had gone for P-day two weeks earlier) and stopped there for lunch and who do you think we saw in the piazza right in front of the castle where we decided to eat? Our friend from the bus, Piero! He sat and talked to us for an hour and we even met his sister an talked to her too. We are pretty sure she thought we were catholic because she kept calling us the Jesuits . . . but that's okay. I had this feeling that even had we tried to set her straight she wouldn't have understood and would have continued telling us her philosophies of the world. But they were both really nice and I liked them. We stayed there for a little bit as we ate yogurt to recover from the day before and we did language study. We then headed back into Catania for our appointment with Massimo. Like he had promised, he had read Alma 42, but hadn't read since. So we talked a little bit about how important it is to read the Book of Mormon before we read 2 Nephi 2 with him and we talked all about the fall and how much Satan hates us and wants our destruction. We told him that every time he smokes a cigarette, Satan is saying "Yes! Sucker! I am sending you right to hell!" but every time he doesn't smoke a cigarette Satan says "Idiot! What are you doing?! Darn it!" I think Massimo liked that analogy and said he wants Satan to call him and idiot hahaha. He said he wants to be like Moroni, taking a sword, and plunging it right into Satan. I said "Good, then live the commandments and read the scriptures." Sorella Smedley then told him that his new challenge for the night was to read the next three chapters in Alma that night. He was a little surprised at the quantity but she assured him that he could do it. I then had a thought enter my heart and tested it out. I promised him that for every chapter he read in the Book of Mormon he would smoke one less cigarette, but that he had to start reading in the morning. He seemed hopeful at that and said "so if I read 20 chapters tomorrow I won't smoke at all?" And I told him without a doubt that if he read 20 chapters the next day he wouldn't smoke, drink coffee, or alcohol. He really let that one sink in and Sorella Smedley said she had no doubt either. So we ended that lesson telling him to go "PUM!" to Satan :D After the lesson we then went home to do planning but we were distracted the whole time. Okay, confession. So Sorella Perez has been a little hard to get along with. Just to be honest . . . I am a big fan of communication as I have greatly pronounced in my letters. So when people write little notes all over the house telling us to keep the house clean . . . or "This is a house of order" I get a little bugged. But that is great and all, but what set me over was a note that was on the inside of the toilet seat that said "Keep the toilet clean". I had no idea what that was supposed to mean until Sorella Perez came in and asked when I had gone "number 2" last. I was confused as to why she would ask me that so she asked more specifically "when was the last time you went poo?" How on earth do I know that? So when I told her I had no idea she then said "well, when you do, would you please clean it out right after? I don't like it when you leave a trail down the side of the bowl." Ummmm . . . okay? No worries, I was civil. Until later . . . But I don't really need to be that negative and nit pick all the details. Needless to say we both vented during our weekly planning which is not a good idea. And that effected the whole next day too . . .

So Saturday was a great day. We were still really irritated about the whole problem in our apartment which just got worse as she kept doing other things that were rather ridiculous . . . like moving my stuff in the bathroom and putting her stuff in its place . . . So we had a hard time doing our studies in the morning because we couldn't feel the spirit and we ranted a little too much. Bad idea and doesn't work with missionary work. Heavenly Father doesn't want to help you when you are being an ungrateful brat. So that morning was rough because we had planned to do finding and NOTHING went how we wanted. We ended up getting on a bus that went OUTSIDE Catania on accident with only weird people on it and we just sat there and we each had a nice little chat with Heavenly Father about how sorry we were and that we really needed to be better and not cause problems with our roommate. So we got home tired, emotionally, but repentant. We had a good lunch, language study, and took a nap. We then left the house early to go to the church for an appointment with Simone, who didn't show up again. So we wasted an hour before leaving. I was kind of glad, because we would then have time to do some finding on the street as we walked to the other side of the city. But as we were walking towards the main road I asked Sorella Smedley to call Massimo to see if he would come to church the next day. She refused which kind of frustrated me. But she said she would not do it. I think we were both a little bugged still from how the morning had gone and the whole week had been rough. But I thought, alright, I will call up Kristiana since we hadn't seen her since Thursday. We needed to see if she wanted to come to church the next day and to see how she was going. She answered and I was happy and bubbly on the phone to her to let her know we weren't mad anymore. But she didn't hide her attitude for us at all. When I asked how she was she almost didn't respond, but said "fine." And when I asked if she would come to church the next day she said "Nope, I am never coming to church again." I asked her why and she responded with "I don't like it and it's my choice anyways isn't it?" I couldn't really believe my ears, especially since her tone wasn't very kind either. So then I asked "So does that mean you don't want to see us anymore?" and she said "nope, I don't." and I almost started to cry when I asked her "Not even me before I go home?" Her next response did break my heart . . . She said "Maybe, but probably not. If I feel like it I will give you a call." The phone call ended a couple seconds after that and I pretty much broke down. Sorella Smedley stopped me on the street and asked what had happened. She didn't believe me at first when I told her but then when she saw me crying she gave me a really big hug and I just bawled. But we couldn't go home, even though that was what I really did want to do. But we had to make it to Piazza Alcalà in less than an hour for an appointment with the Smedila family. So we had to just keep on walking as I just cried the whole time. I could barely even say hello to the people we passed because I couldn't stop crying. I know, I am dramatic and a baby. But it really did hurt. A lot. And I didn't feel like doing anything at all. Thankfully we were going to this appointment with the other Sorelle so we didn't have to say much. And I didn't. The Smedila family just had a baby and they were having a little bit of a family shower when we got there so we even had a good contact with a couple of them as we talked about our believes. Then the other Sorella taught the lesson. What made the whole night even worse was the timing of Fratello Smedila when he asked "So Sorella, what ever happened to that curly haired Albanian girl?" Oh goodness! Sorella Giordano and Sorella Perez still hadn't heard what had happened, but they did know something was wrong with us. So they all turned to me to explain how Kristiana was doing and as I barely explained the minimal details I started to bawl again. Both Sorella Giordano and Sorella Perez looked right at me and understanding dawned on both of their faces as they said "WHAT?!" They know how much I love her and they finally understood why we had been so tired and quiet the whole evening. I was in the middle of the backseat and Fratello Smedila saw me in the rear-view mirror and immediately changed the conversation. Thank-goodness. We then had to take a bus from Piazza Alcalà to another bus station, and then another bus home. I was SO tired in every way possible and couldn't wait to get home. As soon as we did we got ready quickly and we got in bed. Sorella Smedley had turned on some classical music that Sorella Perez tried to turn off. But Sorella Smedley said very sternly "Do NOT touch that music." She was irritated at the fact that the music remained on for another half hour, but we didn't care. It was a bad day.

Sunday was daylight savings. Fun. Perfect timing too! So we woke up exhausted, but not as bad as the night before. We got a ride to the Anziani from church but I was just not in my chipper bubbly mood so I said hi to the members but was not the happy exciting missionary they expect us all to be. Oh well. So I don't have much to say about that. It at went well and all but I had a head-ache by the end. The Sigonella branch was better, and just mainly because Americans are quieter. I absolutely love Italians with my whole heart, but that specific day I really needed tranquility, but noise. So it was great. And at the end was the linger longer which was perfect because it had been fast Sunday. Oh yeah, another reason I was probably tired and irritable haha. But really, by the end of the second church I was feeling much better and even happy and we got a ride home from Tami. Love her too :) We then went home and took a short nap before going to go see Sorella Catania who was not there. At this point it was getting late and we didn't have time to go do anything else so we headed home to do our language study that we never get to do. Again we went to bed early. Perfect. Oh, and Dritan called and he's coming back to Catania. I dunno, don't ask.

Monday was better too. We had district meeting in the morning and Sorella Smedley and I had the lesson. It was on personal revelation and we all shared experiences we had had before and during the mission. Then everyone wrote down a question that they really wanted answered right now from Heavenly Father and we invited them to all be extra obedient this week and to be extra prayerful and we promised they would receive their answers at General Conference this weekend. It was a good spiritual lesson. After we all ate lunch together and then we went to Giarre to go see Simona and her family. I now know the names of everyone else too! Her brother's name is Patrizio, her sister's is Serena, and her mom is Giuseppa. We talked about the Restoration and the mom really understands it and says she received an answer and it has provided the peace in her life she has never experienced before. Patrizio has a lot of questions about many different things and he needs to study the prayer a little more but he's really spiritual. Serena was so afraid to say the prayer at the end that she ran out of the room and Simona is just super sweet and I like her a lot. After that they took us back to Catania where we met up with Massimo for another lesson. It went really well. We had a nice chat with him. He read the three chapters we had asked him to read but not more than that. And he is in the habit of reading at night. We challenged him to read in the morning to see the effects on his smoking. We then invited him to come to conference with a question and we promised him that he would receive an answer. He also told us he believes that Thomas S Monson is a prophet now and so we told him that is just that much more of a reason to come to conference. We then read 2 Nephi 3 with him that tells of the prophecy of Joseph Smith. He thought that was pretty cool and he feels pretty lucky to have the Book of Mormon. He's pretty great. Then Sorella Smedley invited him to be baptized on the 14th of April. He said he didn't believe it would happen because he didn't think he could quit smoking. But then we reminded him that he cut his quantity of cigarettes in half in just a weeks time. So in 2 weeks he can SURELY quit completely if he will keep all the commitments we ask him to do and communicate with Heavenly Father. I think he will do it :) How legit would that be?! If he gets baptized my last Saturday in the mission?! Heck yes! After that it was after 8 and we got a call from Dritan to tell us he is back in Catania and wants to see us the next day. He then asked if we had seen Kristiana lately. All I said was "She's having some problems with us . . . " To which he responded "yeah, she mentioned something about that. But we will talk about it tomorrow." So we will see what happens there. We decided to then start our way home and did a bit of street. And then randomly I stopped us to wait at the bus stop even though I didn't really want to take the bus home. There was a girl there and I had the thought that we had stopped to talk to her. I started to talk to her but then another lady came up to me to ask me about English course. The girl was watching us so Sorella Smedley asked her if she had interest in English course too. She said she was too busy because she works but she asked who we were and what we did. So my awesome companion explains a little bit and leaves her a pass-along card just as her bus got there and she left! Nice Sorella Smedley! We then waited another 5 minutes before walking home. We got home a half hour early and did a half hour of language study that we again didn't get the chance to do before we planned and got in bed before 10.00. I just have really bee SO freakin' tired lately!

So yeah . . . That has been this week. It's been great and we have learned a lot, especially about ourselves. Without trials we never can learn so I am grateful for all the things I have experienced because without them I would never be able to progress and become more like our Savior. It is this change, this repentance that brings us closer to Him and our Heavenly Father.

Love you all so much!
Muah!
Sorella LeCates