Wise Men still seek Him

Ciao tutti! This week was great and while we didn't get to do a lot of missionary work I really enjoyed myself nonetheless!

It was a week of service projects. On Thursday...in the afternoon we went with the other sorelle to the house of a lady in their ward. The cat lady. She is famous among missionaries past and present becuase she lives by herself with 4 cats. There is cat hair EVERYWHERE - the cats hang out with the dishes and everything. We only went to eat some pandoro with her and we brought it ourselves because of past experience with other missionaries eating more cat hair than food...it is extremely unsanitary. When we went my seat basically on top of the litter box...it was between my feet and a cat decided to use the bathroom while we were there...so very pleasant. Anyways, that was a super fun experience. Ok...after the cat lady we went to the hosptial with all 8 missionaries in Bari along with some GANS (basically the YSA) and sang Christmas songs to the patients and also a lot of the hosptial staff. I really enjoyed that. Right after Sor. Ashman and I had to book it becuase we were going to Bitonto for another service project. I think I mentioned it, but Bitonto is a little bit outside of Bari and there are 2 more Anzioni there who are in my district. So we went with them to a special needs center and I LOVED IT! There was singing and dancing and much laughing, especially at this one boy with Downs Syndrome who especially loved to dance hahaahah. I took some good video of him! I had a really good time.

Christmas Eve aka VIGILIA! We went to a shoe shop where we have a ex-investigator named Anna. She loves us coming by and LOVES when we pray with her, but she wasn't really interested in hearing anything else and she wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon. So we went by just to say Merry Christmas, adn we ended up talking to her daughter for a really long time. We had a really great lesson, and her husband and 2 of her 4 kids ended up being there too!  Its really cool how things like that work. We then gave them a Book of Mormon and they accepted it and seemed very interested, so we'll start going there more again. We went back yesterday and just saw Anna and we committed her to pray for herself. It's been really cool and I hope we see some changes in her. She definitely opened up more when we were there yesterday.

Ok...Christmas Eve dinner. This is good stuff coming up. We went to Cellemare to the Famiglia Juan, the same family we went to my 1st Sunday in Bari for lunch. Sorella Juan is AWESOME. Her and her husband are sadly getting a divorce and are currently separated. He is Mexican, and so their kids are sooo cute and they are quite chunky as well hahah and I love them. Leo and Andres. The night involved them playing video games/watching cartoons, Leo eating lemons like candy  (he was just sitting there eating a lemon hahahah), the boys pantsing each other (HAHAHAHA), and fish. Yep, fish fish fish. The tradition in Bari is to eat lots of fish for Christmas eve dinner, and that iincludes mostly RAW fish. Which I ate for the fish time in my life. And this is not like sushi (which I have also never eaten in my life...), but it is literally raw fish taken from the sea and put on the table. I ate raw scallops, mussells, SQUID, salmon, and this other tube-like creature that was by far teh coolest yet most disgusting. (Picture attatched.) I discovered that my gag reflex works REALLY well, and while I didn't throw up on the table I felt like I could have about 5 times, literally. I drank a LOT of water and didn't do much chewing hahaha. It was definitely an experience. And I can't forget that after all this raw fish as the APPETIZER, we had tuna spaghetti (not my favorite but much more manageable), more salmon but cooked this time, fruit, then homemade chocolate chip cookies. That made the world a better place. Sorella Juan lived in America for 7 years so she knows how to make them good. After dinner I felt soooo sick hahaha. And we didn't go to sleep until late because there were a bunch of fireworks at midnight and I felt sick from fish hahaa. Good times in Bari!

NATALE!!!! Super chill morning where we made crepes and then we had only an hour of church. It was a GREAT meeting with a strong spirit. Afterwards we ate dinner with the Bari missionaries and just hung out in the church together. We played cards from Napoli and it was good to get to know each other better. We ate some AMERICAN style food!!! So yeah, Christmas really wasn't a big deal, it really didn't feel like Christmas that much to me but it was a good day anyways.

The Day after Christmas was our scheduled "day off". Usually its on Christmas but since it was Sunday they gave us the next day, especially since the 26th here is yet another holiday...San Stefano! So Monday we hung out in church again with the missionaries and this time Bitonto joined us and we all hung out in our pajamas/sweats and we watched Tangled and Tarzan and ate lots of leftovers!!! It was soooo fun!!!! We brought a bunch of blankets and were all bundled up in sweatshirts because the church is freezing cold hahaha. It was fun to watch a couple disney movies and just hang out. Then I got to talk to my wonderful family via skype!!! There were some technical difficulties to overcome, but all was well in the end and I really enjoyed talking to all of them. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :)

Tuesday we actually got to do some missionary work again!!!!!!!!!! We went to the hospital yesterday to see a couple people. We had gotten this phone call from a member who is not in our ward and we have no idea who the heck he is, but he gave a referral to see a 22 year old girl in the hospital in the cardiology department. We knew nothing about her. But we were going to see someone else anyways, so we went yesterday and we met Giovanna who wants to be a nun but we gave her a Book of Mormon and she seems really special. She is a very spiritual person and she LOVED us. It was so wonderful to meet her.

After the hospital we had English Course, which is so much fun. There are these 3 men who come who I just love: Tommy (Tomasso)Frank (Francesco), and Amedio. All 3 of them have pretty darn good English, especially Tommy, and can say anything they want really. They say the funniest things all the time!!! Frank especially hahaha...yesterday he said "I am a beast" and it was soooo funny, especially in his Italian accent! LOVE IT!!!

This morning for Pday we went to Ikea with Daniele!!! We just walked around and we went mostly to get sparkling cider for New Years and because I've never been to Ikea! I want to go in America now and just buy a bunch of stuff! I can see why everyone loves it.

Ok well thats mostly the big stuff of what happened this week. Christmas was fun! We have more holidays coming up which is making missionary work difficult, but we'll get past it. I hope everyone had a great and happy Christmas and will have a great New Year! I can't believe its almost 2012! The world is ending soon...hahaha we get that question a lot. Hope you all ate lots of food! We are pretty fat and happy over here hahaha. Love you all!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

LOTS OF PICTURES THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we went to Bitonto for a service project for people with special needs and it was soooooooooooooooo much fun!!!

Ward Christmas party - us with Valentina

Raw seafood. It's not even worth it for me to remember what kind it is...

My life save...CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

smoked salmon

yeah...I don't know what that is except that it's alive until you cut it open with a knife and then eat it...

there it is!

SQUID

MORE RAW STUFF

Leo and his legos

more salmon...cooked this time (meno male)

the family!

Slla Juan cooking up a storm!

The Juan family we ate Christmas Eve raw fish dinner with. I LOVE Sorella Juan! And Leo and Andres!

Our mostly American Christmas dinner! SOO GOOD!

Christmas eve fireworks

Christmas morning with crepes...I felt soo sick from the seafood the night before though haha

Slla Hicks' presents to us :)

Playing Napolitano cards

We went to Ikea this morning!!

This is us with our Italian grandpa, Daniele!!!

All 8 missionaries serving in Bari, in both of the wards. They are all pretty awesome.

BUON NATALE!!!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!‏

I wish everyone the best Buon Natale ever, and Buone Feste because theres a million holidays in Italy and I have no idea what they are so I can't tell you exactly haha except they make up holidays so they don't have to go to work...its super special and a very funny think about Italian culture to me. They love to celebrate everything and everyone!

I honestly can't believe it's almost Christmas because it doesn't feel like it AT ALL to me right now. Seriously, Christmas is Sunday. What? Besides teh fact that it turned freezing cold the past 2 days! Today I'm wearing tights, socks, boots, spandex, shorts, skirt. Then my big coat and warm scarf and its still cold outside. Baahhhhh I don't like teh cold. I've been sooooooooooo spoiled in Bari because the weather here is so tame. It was windy yesterday...thats what makes it bad to me! Anyways, I'm not complaining, just telling you all how the weather has changed! I love Bari sooooooooooo much though! It's the greatest!

So I am going my second transfer in Bari and I'm so grateful to be staying here with my trainer. I have lots of goals to meet by the end of the transfer, including knowing everyone in the ward (the ward is big...so this is an undertaking) and knowing the city better. I have often been just walking where I'm told to go, and I am super directionally challenged, but now I really  need to learn the city because most likely Sorella Ashman will be leaving Bari after this transfer. This is her 5th transfer here, so its been a long time. Who knows though? Maybe we'll both stay, maybe we'll both leave, maybe i'll leave and she'll stay....chi sa? But while we're not worrying about that now, I need to prepare myself mentally and learn learn learn!!! I also have the goal to finish the Book of Mormon this transfer. I'm in Alma 20 right now, so it really won't be that big of a deal. Theres just so many things I want to study and learn right now though! The Book of Mormon is always the most important thing to study :)

So stuff that happened since last Wednesday. Honestly I don't remember much of the past week hahaha. At least the first half. There has been some great stuff but also some very disappointing things that happened.

First, I told you last week that we were getting Anziano Lopez in our district, a new greenie who is Italian so he was in the Madrid MTC for just 3 weeks before he came here. We met him on Thursday night and he didn't say really anything at all and didn't seem happy. We thought he was just a little shell-shocked. Friday we were talking to Anz. Pedreira (from Uraguay, and his trainer) on the phone about something and he sounded super depressed and he was expecting a phone call from President Kelly. We feared the worst...anyways. Long story short, Anziano Lopez went home on Saturday. We have no idea why. So now we have another Anziano for a couple weeks to be companions with Anz. Pedreira, and then he will be training a different greenie in a few weeks from the MTC. Don't know how that is going to work logistically, but thats how its going down. It was a hectic weekend getting that all figured out...especially since Anziano Kafel (the one who just left here) took the cell phone with him and left Anz. Pedreira with no way to communicate with anyone...AHHHH. What did we do before cell phones? We are so lucky to have them because if makes missionary work a lot easier haha.

Daniele is still my favorite. On Saturday we had a ward activity where we went to an old folks home and sang for them and such. We invited Daniele kind of last minute because we thought he'd say no (he hasn't been to church yet still...we're hoping for Christmas), but he said YES and offered his car so he drove us around with 2 other old ladies HAHAHA. Maria Pia, the one getting baptized but she has a super negative outlook on life most of the time...its interesting, and Sorella Curci who has Alzheimers and is like a young child. Oh my gosh it was sooooooo funny! Poor Daniele, driving us 4 women around town all night long and going to an old folks home. I thought it was great and Sor. Ashman was all worried he would hate us. At one point during the experience he told us that he was going to kill us both hahahaha. He's sooo funny. He gave us each a scarf for Christmas...HOW NICE!! ANyways, that was the funny story of Saturday night going to the old folks home.

Well, I don't have a ton to write this week so I'm going to keep it shorter today. I'm excited to talk to my family on the 26th and to enjoy Christmas! We're going to a members house for Christmas Eve dinner and then we're hanging out with the missionaries and eating with them on Christmas day. We're going to try to eat some American food, but they are all going to make and bring us food too. So we'll just have a ton of food. Not complaining there!! Hahaha so this morning I had pasta for breakfast. yesterday I had cookies and milk. I love Italy.

I seriously hope everyone's Christmas is wonderful!!! Eat some delicious American traditional food for me and sing some carols and have fun! Thanks for everyones support and love! :)

Vi voglio un SACCO di bene!!!

Sorella Sobeck

Our collega Christmas picture. BUON NATALE!

After DDM

Singing to the old folks at the ward activity (where Daniele came too!)

The RS president in action

Angelo's shop

Missionaries and some GANS singing at the hospital

Bitonto service...soooo much fun!

Tu sei brutto!!‏

Ciao tutti!

I've gotten several questions about my address. Here it is again:

Sorella Kristi Sobeck

Via Giulio Petroni, 99B

70124 Bari, Italy

I would absolutely love mail of any sort!!!!! :) Of course, especially now at Christmas time!

And for some reason every single week I get a BUNCH of failure delivery notices when I send my email. I don't know why. I know a lot of people haven't been getting my emails, so I'm really sorry about that and theres not really anything I can do about it here...my resources are limited as a missionary and I don't have more time on the internet to play around with to figure it out. But my wonderful sister puts my emails on a blog for me if thats easier for people too.  http://italiansobeck.blogspot.com/ Thanks for everyone who reads me emails! It makes me happy to write them and that people enjoy reading them! I'm excited to read them all at the end of my mission!!! Thanks for everyones support for me, I really really appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers.

Ok I have to write something really funny thats happening right now...we are at the internet place and there is currently this African guy speaking English and declaring his love for his woman over the computer...I love Africans! OH!!! And remember Gerald the Nigerian?? He called us this week from Africa just to say hi!! He said "Have you forgotten about me?" Love him!

First news...TRANSFERS! Yes I have officially completed my FIRST TRANSFER ON MY MISSION!!!! Praise to the heavens that I survived hahaha and also my trainer. Transfer verdicts for us is that we are both staying in Bari Poggiofranco! I am so happy about this because I love Sorella Ashman. We get along really well and we both love Bari and the work is going so well. This is going to be Sorella Ashman's 5th transfer in Bari...most likely her last because that is a lot. She did 5 transfers in Ragusa (on Sicily) and now about to be 5 in Bari. She only has 4 total transfers left and she's kinda freaking out about it...haha sometimes its kinda funny. Anyways, I'm grateful! All 4 of the sorelle in my appartment are staying, so no major changes for us. My district is changing. Anziano Kafel is leaving us, and Anziano Pedreira is staying and his new companion is a greenie! We will get Anziano Lopez who is from Italy but originally from Argentina, so he probably doesn't speak English either haha. We are also getting 2 more Anziani in our district, the ones from Bitonto which is a small suburb of Bari. Bitonto is also getting a new Anziano...Anziano Stewert who was in teh group ahead of me at the MTC and has been in Napoli his first 2 transfers. I'm excited to have a friendly face and also to have 6 in my district now!!! Theres some other changes, but nothing is too major becuase President didn't want to change a ton 10 days before Christmas.

Ok, some other news from Bari. I LOVE BARI AT CHRISTMAS. I don't think I've explained why its so cool..so I will now. Every city in Italy has a main Saint. Bari's Saint is San Nicola, aka SANTA CLAUS! So Christmas is really big here. There are tons of decorations everywhere and in the stores especially the owners love to put decorations up. It makes me so happy! There are lots of lights and it gives me comfort that people have some of the same traditions here as at home. It will be interesting and hard to be away from home for my first Christmas ever, but I am grateful to be here in Bari and that I get to talk to my family soon!

Italians have a thing for glasses...particularly red glasses. Almost every Italian has a pair it seems. I think it is sooo funny for some reason.

There is the cutest book ever called Tu Sei Speciale (You Are Special). I know I've heard of it before but I didn't remember it. It's a children's book but the cutest parable for all people. It's about these people made of wood who get either gold stars or gray circles based on the things they do...either good or bad. They were all made by the same sculptor but they all look different. Pucinello is the main character, and he only has circles and he feels terrible because everyone is judging him. He meets a girl who doesn't have circles or stars, and he asks her how, and she tells him its because she goes to see the scultor, Eli, every day and that he should go see him too. Pucinello goes, the sculptor knows his name, and tells him to come see him everyday. Eli says that it doesn't matter what anyone else things except for him, and that he is wonderful. The best line "You are special becuase I made you, and I don't make mistakes." How CUTE. Its the perfect parable for us becuase Heavenly Father created each and everyone one of us and we are special to Him because He made us. We have been reading this story to everyone we teach lately and everyone loves it.

January 8th is going to be our Christmas because as of now we have 2 scheduled baptisms!!! They have both held all week and we feel pretty sure that both of them will happen! Maria Pia and Valentina. Please pray for both of them!! They are both wonderful and I am so much looking forward to their baptisms.

Awesome quote I read this week: "You have not failed until you quit trying." - Gordon B. Hinkley. What a profound yet simple statement by one of our latter-day prophets!! This quote helps me when we have things fall through (all the time) or when people are just not easy to work with. As long as we keep trying and move forward and do our best always, we have not failed. Even when there seems to be no success or goodness around you. Thats when we need to look for the little miracles that happen everyday. I love this quote. I never want to stop trying, even when it's hard and I want to give up. Missionaries who are diligent and do their best are blessed. So are people in general.

Another scripture that I love from the Bible. Hebrews 10:35-36. There is a fantastic talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland called "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence" based on this scripture and I LOVE IT. I encourage everyone to read it!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Ok, I'll tell you all about Saturday, because it was just a funny day, mostly because of how much food we ate....let me explain. We had a good lesson with Michele (ex-Mafia man) in the morning and watched "Find Faith in Christ" with him and talked about having faith in Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson and everyone felt the spirit. Then we had a little lesson with Carmen, who is in the process of filling out her mission papers! We are doing mini mission-prep lessons with her when we can. We went home and right after eating a bigger than normal weekday lunch (big plate of pasta, fruit, and then I ate a ton of chocolate...haha YUM) a sorella from the ward, Sorella Magno (shes so old and cute) called us to come over and do a favor for her. So we were only home for like an hour and we walked over there (on the way we got transfer calls where we found out from Sorella Kelly that we were both staying whoo hoo!) and she wanted us to teach her how to play the piano! HOW CUTE! She's so old! She fed us each this MOUNTAIN piece of tiramisu (Italian dessert...its made with coffee but Mormons make it with Orzo...the Italian subsitution for coffee), which I don't really like very much honestly. It's basically soggy cake that tastes like Orzo, which I do not like. Hmmm...not so appetizing to me but you eat it graciously anyways. I was sooo full at this time. Then we went to Aquaviva to see a family. Aquaviva is like 45 minutes away and we took the bus and when we got to their house we read Tu Sei Speciale with them. And then came the food. First they brought out a family size bag of POTATO CHIPS!! They tasted like Lays! I loved it...except the quantity. They kept putting more and more on the plate and telling me "Sorella, mangi!" Ahhhhhh. So the potato chips. And an entire 2 liter bottle of Coke between 5 people. And Taralli biscuit things. And Focaccia. And cookies. I wanted to throw up!!!!!! AHHHHHH. Then they drove us back to Bari where we had another appointment in Japigia with Valentina. They asked us if we wanted anything to eat and we groaned hahaha and told them everything we had eaten that day and they just laughed. Then we had to walk home from Japigia becuase we missed the bus, and its like an hour walk. Mamma mia. We just felt sooooo sick!!! Good times in Italy!!!! :)

Subject line explanation...yesterday morning we had a meeting with Michele at the church. He was already there waiting when we got there and we said the typical Buon Giorno to him. But as we said it to him there was this old cute man walking past MIchele and he thought we were talking to him. As soon as he saw the 2 of us he got really wide eyed and said stuff like "Che belle raggazze! Siete alte!" Michele is just nodding and saying "Sì Sì siete belle. è io sono brutto." Old man "Sìììì tu sei brutto!" And then he hits him, laughs, and walks away. HAHAHAHA. Translation, this old guy was just drooling over us (as is typical with the men here over American women...its interesting) and telling us how beautiful we are and then he told Michele how ugly he was HAHAHAHA. We were busting up afterwards. Now Sor. Ashman and I always hit eat other (softly!) and say Tu sei brutta!! jokingly of course. Mamma mia. Good times.

Pictures!

my favorite kind of car in Italy! It's called an Ape (pernounced Ah-peh) and it is tiny and only has 3 wheels. This one had so much stuff on it!!! This is on Via Giulio Petroni, one of the main streets in the city and actually the street we live on. You can see some Christmas decorations!

 my district! Me, Sor. Ashman, Anz. Pedreira, and Anz. Kafel!

 in the nativities here, they don't put Jesus in the manger until Christmas eve midnight mass. It's weird to see all these nativities without Jesus!

 the main church in Bari - la Chiesa di San Nicola!

by the sea early one morning because we had to go somewhere for my permesso. We're never out that early, especially by the sea because it's pretty far away, and it was so beautiful!

Ok, thats all for this week. I'm getting excited for Christmas!! I was thinking that if I wasn't on my mission I would probably be taking finals this week (or next...I don't know). So sad...hahaha. I hope everyone is enjoying the season! Remember to make room for Jesus Christ in your life and to remember Him always. I love my Savior and for His perfect example. I'm grateful for Christmas and I hope everyone is happy!

Ana - yes I got your letter last week and theres one currently in the mail on its way to you!!! :) Can't wait for the recording!!!!!!!!! HAHAH!!

Miriam - got yours too and one is on its way to you too! Thanks!

Sis. Nef - I already got your letter too, thanks!!!

Thanks everyone for the love!! You're the best!! BUON NATALE!!!!!!!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck :)

"He eats chicken daily...and that too with alcohol." Hahaha week 5‏

Buon giorno! Yes it is Thursday, not my normal pday. But today is an Italian holiday and we decided to switch for that reason among others, so this is a day late. Don't worry Mom, nothing is wrong :)

I seriously cannot believe the amount of things we do it a week. Every time I write an email i feel like it's been an eternity since I've written, yet every pday comes so fast and before you know it you've been in Italy for 5 weeks and you're all "What the heck is going on???" My first transfer is almost over! I'm not gonna lie, that is a relief for me becuase while this transfer has been all sorts of wonderful I will be glad when it's over just so I can say i'll be in my 2nd!! And then before I know it I'll be like Sorella Ashman, who has been freaking out lately that she only has 4 transfers left. We're on such opposite ends of the mission time spectrum, it makes me laugh. I feel like my mission is stretching out for me for forever honestly, but I'm so excited for what the next 15 months will bring!!

Ok I think I'll just kinda go day by day this week (main stuff) just so I can recap what happened too.

Wednesday (pday) we went to Lecce and I loved it. It was so fun to just go on the train wearing pants (weird!!!) and hang out in the city for the day. It has so much charm. I would love to go back there. It's a MUCH smaller city than Bari and so we walked around the entire city like 3 times haha. When we got back from Lecce we had a meeting with Valentina, our 12 year old girl who's new baptismal date is January 8th!!! We are so excited for her! I just love this cute little girl, she is so sweet and loves us and we love her.

Thursday - we got dumped by out 2 investigators who we had JUST gotten. That was special. We had an awesome lesson 0 with Mario and Rosa on Monday morning and set up a follow up appt for Thursday morning and they became new investigators. Thursday we were waiting for them, they were late, and then only mario came and told us they weren't ready and didn't want to meet with us anymore. It was an extremely dissapointing beginning to the day, but it happens unfortunately. And while you want to continue to meet with them anyways, if they have made up their mind that they're not interested then meeting with them is just going to waste time because progress won't be made. They'll be ready someday, with another set of missionaries. Sorella Ashman shared an AWESOME quote with me that morning, because I was really sad after we got dumped. "Success is going from one failure to another with no lack of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchhill. I loved that...it's so true!!! Yay inspiring quotes, I love them. Also on Thursday, we made about 150 rolls for Zone Conference the next day...hahahahahaha. We were in the kitchen rolling these things (and eating delicious dough...my favorite) for our entire lunch time and it was fun! Sorella Ashman and I just tell each other stories and I love it. We then got a phone call from this family who are eternal investigators...they're been investigating for 2 years but they live like 45 minutes away so they never see the missionaries. They called us and told us they were going to be in bari and wanted to see us. So we saw them for awhile and they are really nice! We have been praying to see if we are supposed to meet with them more and get them moving again. I think we are going to go to their house (molto lontano!) on Saturday though, so pray for them! Famiglia Costanzo.

Friday - ZONE CONFERENCE!! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE my mission president and his wife! President and Sorella Kelly...they are just the cutest and so humble. They both said some great things to the missionaries and I really appreciated their words. President Kelly gave some mission statistics and said that in the past 6 months the mission has gotten a lot younger, meaning a lot of missionaries have finished and gone home and we have a lot who are in the younger transfers. So the missionaries  have less experience as a whole group. But the number of baptisms has gone up by 50% in the past 6 months. HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!! It gave me confidence that young missionaries are just as effective as the older ones, and that we are all here to do this work and help these people. The Italy Rome Mission is having a lot of success and the missionaries are working hard to receive blessings from the Lord. It's sooooo cool. The missionaries in my zone are really cool, there were about 35 missionaries maybe? (I might include a picture if I can). There was also a slide show that they had put together from the mission and it was so inspiring! ITALY IS SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL I can't even stand it!! I'm sooo lucky to be here! Part of me wants to only serve in a couple cities during my mission so I can just really learn the area and the people, but another part of me wants to go to lots of cities so I can see all these cool places! I know thats not what a mission is about hahaha. But it's a cool thought. i think most sisters serve in about 3 or 4 cities in their mission...i'll probably be the same. So anyways, Zone Conference was awesome and we ate delcious food and we sang Christmas songs together and I loved it. :) Can't wait for the next one.

After ZC we had a lesson with Maria Pia, who has been an investigator for a year and a half and we've been trying to set a baptismal date with her but she just isn't having it. It was a great lesson though. She KNOWS the church is true and has a wonderful testimony, but it's been difficult to find what's been holding her back. More on maria pia later...

Saturday - We had weekly planning (its normally on Friday but ZC was the day before) and that always takes all morning. Afternoon. Ok. I shouldn't have a favorite investigator, but at the moment I do. DANIELE!!!! He is like 65 and old and alone and he's so opinioned and intelligent and has a billion questions. And I never understand most of what he says but I just love him so much! We've had 3 lessons with him now and he absolutely ADORES us. It's sooo cute. He is the cutest grandpa with pictures of his kids and grandkids all over his house. His wife died 2 years ago and he's very lonely. Friday evening we had a great lesson with him about prayer and finding answers through reading teh Book of Mormon and studying. We told him to do an experiment. He loves when we give him compito (homework) and he always does it. We invited him to church and he would've come but he goes to Lecce on Sunday mormings because thats where his wife is buried. He invited us to go with him! We told him that we'd like to go with him someday, but he has to come to church first haha. We could completely go with him on a pday if we brought someone with us, and we both really want to. Daniele has such a big heart and he has been really listening to us lately. A lot of times Italians just ignore you when you try and say something, but if we start saying something he will stop and say "Dimi tutto". Tell me everything. He's so great!! He's going to be my italian grandpa, and I really feel like he's going to progress a lot in teh future. I really hope so, we're getting attatched to him! And we brought him a flower to say congrats for retiring and he loved it hahaha. Ok. After Daniele we had our first meeting with a guy, Giovanni, who we met on the street a few weeks ago. We are going to give him to the Anzioni to teach because he's a 37 year old guy who is honestly pretty attractive hahaha. It will be better for the Anzioni to teach him and relate to him better hahaha. It was a pretty good lesson though.

Sunday - church was good. In sacrament testimony meetings Fratello Valentini said something awesome: "Gesù Cristo non è molto lontano." Jesus Christ is not very far away. What an awesome concept. I've thought about that a lot this week, about our personal relationships with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and how they can be as close to us and we allow them too. When we pray and read the scriptures and are righteous we have a direct line to them. And they can be soooo close to us. I love that about this church.

Other stuff: We have a girl in the ward who got baptized 4 years ago, named Carmen, and she is 22 and really wants to serve a mission. She's talked to the bishop and he always was saying she wasn't ready. No one udnerstood why, including us. She finally talked to the stake president (who is our bishop's brother actually haha) and next thing we knew, on Sunday bishop gave Carmen her mission papers to start!!! WHOOOO HOOOOOO!!!! She's soo excited to serve a mission!! I remember how excited I was when I started my mission papers!!!! Then we had the shortest lunch appointment we've ever had! In the mission white handbook, it says lunch at members should be no longer than an hour. HAHAHAHA: It Italy, that doesn't happen. President Kelly tells us to not go longer than THREE HOURS. Oh my gosh its so different than the white handbook becuase the culture here is so different and lunch is a very big deal to Italians. Anyways, we had lunch and were only there for like 1 1/2 hours and it was awesome. For the rest of lunch we went home and chilled. SOO NICE. Then we went to choir! We're singing a really coool Christmas song and I love it! Yay choir. For those who don't know this about me, singing in choirs is NOT my favorite thing, but it's been fun and it really helps the members.

Monday - We had consilgio di distretto (district conference) which was fun, and we talked about being missionary VIP hahaha how cute. It's all in Italian for us...theres only 4 of us in my district and our elders don't speak english. Anz. Pedreira is from Uraguay and Anz. Kafel from Genova in northern Italy. I'm understanding more in these meetings which is nice haha. In the afternoon we got 2 bidoni (standups) in a row...mamma mia. That was fun. That hasn't happened a lot to me yet. So it was just one of those times when all your stuff gets cancelled and you know something better is in store for you and you have to go find it. So we had Angelo and Marinella with us (the 2 awesome people who got baptized a month ago on my first Sunday) and we decided to go see Maria Pia becuase nothing else was working out. We had had plans and several backup plans that evening and they ALL fell through. So we went to Maria Pia's. And we had a wonderful lesson where we all bore our testimonies. And we discovered that she had never prayed to feel that the Book of Mormon is true. It was like a lightbulb. We told her to pray and ask. She said she would the next morning. We told her she would receive an answer. It was powerful. Again...more on Maria Pia later.

Tuesday - good lesson with Michele (the ex-mob boss haha) about the power of the Atonement and baptism. We are trying to set his date for December 31st. It would be very symbolic for him considering his history, to just start over with a new year. He has repeatedly told us that he is getting baptized, but having a set date makes him very nervous and anxious (I said he has anxiety problems...) I keep thinking, well, you gotta have a date before you can get baptized dude. Anyways, we are praying for him that he will have courage and confidence!!! He's ready to be baptized, we really belive that. And he made a new best friend with Antonio, who got baptized in September. It was really weird becuase Antonio's car had been burned the week before (most likely by the Mafia...awesome) and Michele was asking him all about what happened and basically cursing the Mafia and it was so funny because I wonder how many cars Michele has burned himself!!!! We then contacted a referrel and gave them a Book of Mormon and teh husband had it open and was reading it even before we left his shop! COOL! They have a 5 year old daughter and she's probably the biggest brat I've ever met hahahaha. Good other stuff happened that day, but the best was after English course that night we called Maria Pia to see if she had prayed that morning and she said that she's thinking of getting baptized on January 8th. WHAAAAAAAT??? I will also mention that we were fasting for Maria Pia on this particular day also...fasting works!!!!!!!!!! Everyone pray for Maria Pia to get baptized and finally become a member because she basically already is one. Mamma mia! We were floored when she said that...talk about a miracle. And then we stopped by Daniele's really fast and he was so excited to see us and he said that he's been thinking about us and our messages a lot lately. He's going to Milan again this week so we can't have a lesson with him until next week, but he's just the greatest!! He showed us how he put the flower we gave him in the really nice vase and everything. AHHHH I can't even stand it!!! :) Daniele is going places in the church...I can feel it.

Wednesday - Remo Lassandro. His wife is a member but he's not. We had a lesson with him and we are going to start working with him consistently and we're excited. He smokes soooooooooo much. Geez...Italians and their smoking. We're all going to have lunch cancer because of secondhand smoke. We got another bidone, but then we got another awesome referrel and we're excited to meet with this guy (Vito)! We gave him a Book of Mormon and because Italians LOVE gifts, he was so happy. He's great friends with Angelo and thats where we met him and got his phone number and gave him the book. I love Italians hahaha. Then we always get pizza on pday eve, so we got pizza last night. :) Italy is the best.

Ok. Wow, I just wrote a book and if you read that all, props to you. This is what Sorella Ashman does every week in her emails, writes everything we did. I did not write everything we did, just the big stuff. Life of a missionary...GO GO GO GO GO alllllllll day long!!! It's great and exhausting and fulfilling when you come home at the end of the day.

Pictures!!!

Fattest dog ever. His name is ROLLS. I named him.

making our bazillion rolls!!!

view from the house we went to for lunch of Sunday. Bari is right on the sea!!!

 Zone Conference!!!

Bari is so much fun at christmas because theres a gazillion Christmas decorations!! San Nicola is the big saint of Bari, who just happens to be Santa Claus :) Have a great week!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

PERMESSO‏

Ciao tutti!

Funny story. Old Italian men can either be really cute or extremely annoying. We were on the bus the other day and it was really crowded. We were standing near the back entrance, and this little old man comes on. He stands right behind me and starts staying "Permesso" (it means excuse me, or let me pass) and I try to move but I can't really. So he starts getting really ansy and says Permesso about 5 times, each time louder than before, until he's almost shouting it. Mamma mia...chill out dude. So now Sorella Ashman always say "Permesso" in an annoyed voice just because its funny.

Ok. Well, I'm in Lecce today!! For Pday Sorella Ashman and I decided awhile back that we wanted to go visit Lecce, which is south of Bari on the stiletto part of the boot. It took us about 1 1/2 hours by train this morning to get here. Lecce is apparently called the Florence of the south, and its such a cute city!! We just walked around and in a bunch of churches this morning, then we met the Anzioni here in Lecce and we are doing internet now, and we'll explore more later. It's so fun to be in another city and just hang out really. I really like Lecce, everybody here rides a bike and it makes me really miss my bike!!!  Allora. Good times. I love Italy. It's so beautiful here and the architecture is AWESOME. I just want to say that I'm wearing pants in public and it's extremely weird....

This past week was good. We've had some good things and some bad things happen. Some excitements and some disappointments. I struggle everyday in some way with the language because I still understand so little. I pray so hard everyday for help from Heavenly Father and I know that I receive it. Our baptism date for Michele, which was for December 10, is not happening anymore, he is not ready yet. It is sad, but we will continue to work with him and get him ready because he still wants to be baptized. PS - Michele is an ex-Mafia. No big deal. He was a big time drug dealer, a mob boss, was in prison for 7 years, he wrote a book about it all, and now he's gonna be a Mormon. HAHAHAHA. Everyone should just realize how awesome that is. Michele really is a nervous wreck though...he has panic attacks and I don't blame him after all his life experiences. He always freaking out that we won't go to our appointments with him, and if he's going to be 5 minutes late he calls us freaking out haha. Last week he called us and said he wasn't going to make it at 10. "Pero MASSIMO 10:10." Hahaha at MAX he would be 10 minutes late...soooo funny. ANother questions we had to ask him: "Michele, have you ever killed anyone?" Pause............................"No." Mamma mia...that freaked us out a little. He's so cool though. He's going to help the church so much though. Pray for him to become ready for his baptism on some future date, hopefully soon, and to have some peace because he needs it.

We had a miracle last week with Valentina, a 12 year old girl who's dad isn't a member, her mom is inactive, but she always goes to church with her aunt and uncle who are very active. Her aunt, Sorella Santoro, had asked us to work with this family, her brother, and especially with Valentina. So we've become friends with her at church but that's mostly been it so far. She's soooo cute and she just loves us. ANyways, Valentina asked her parents permission to be baptized and they said yes!!! So we set a date with her, which is going to need to be changed, so we have December 18th for her baptism!!! SO EXCITING! THis one seriously just fell into our laps...Bari is so blessed.

We have Zone Conference this Friday and I'm sooooo excited for it. It will be great to meet the other missionaries and get to know President and Sorella Kelly better!! As well as be personally uplifted! I seriously am so excited.

We asked a TJ for a flier yesterday...hahaha it was so funny. They were shocked when we asked. It's good research for us. It reminded me of a Jehovah's Witness who I used to see at BYU every Friday morning one semester when I went to my physics lab at 8am. So great.

We had some good street contacts this week. One lady was from Colombia. She didn't seem interested in our message really, but she was super nice and I really like talking to her. She had hot pink lipstick on and shatter nailpolish. Another lady stopped us on the street and asked if she could meet with us. SO COOL...that never happens. We're meeting with her Friday. We met a guy named Francesco, and were supposed to meet with him yesterday but he couldn't last second. He seemed super interested and said he's see us Sunday at church. We really hope he shows up. We also did casa on Sunday night and are going back to this guys house. We really really really are trying to find a family, because that is so incredibly difficult here in Italy. We have some high goals right now. Anyways, this guy was really cool and he invited us in but his wife wasn't there so we couldn't. But his adorable RED-HEADED grandson was there and I love this little boy already!!! Italian kids are the cutest, especially when they speak Italian hahaha.

We got 2 new investigators on Monday  morning!! Mario and Rosa. We met them at Michele's book release on Friday night. Mario is really selfish (hahaha) and Rosa seems ready to change her life. I can't wait to see what happens with them! We're meeting with them again tomorrow morning. We have also met only a couple times with this guy named Daniele...who is the coolest  old man ever. He has a bazillion questions and has a VERY strong personality, and he's stinkin funny. We're having a party with him tomorrow hahahaha. He officially goes into retirement tomorrow and it is also Sorella Ashman's 1 year in Italy mark. So we're having  a party with him :) He really likes us. WE hope he learns to like our message along with us too haha, since that is the point. But he needs friends because he is lonely. Ahhh Daniele, he's awesome.

I love all the compliments here. Everyone calls us belle and I love it. Whenever we're teaching, people call us angels (angeli) and beautiful girls (belle ragazze) and it's so funny. People have told me I have  a baby face and a sweet face...those can be weird. Hahaha good times. Italians are very blunt and say it how it is. I need to learn from them, but hopefully with a little more tact!

Yesterday I saw a real-life scene from a movie. We were walking on the street and Sorella Ashman  saw a woman who she had street contacted once before, awhile before I got to Bari, and then met again once on the street after that. I guess this lady has brought the sorelle to her work and everything, so they had been with her for a fair amount of time. Anyways, Sorella Ashman saw her yesterday so we were walking with her for a couple blocks, and she was going home. We parted at an intersection, and her way was green so she started walking in the street. About 2  seconds later, she got hit by a car....and I saw the whole thing. It was insane. THe car was making a left hand turn and seriously slammed into this woman, and she went flying over the hood of the car and her stuff went flying and then she fell to the ground in the middle of the intersection. Oh. My. Gosh. I couldn't believe my eyes. And then she moved and I was sooooo grateful that she did not just die before my eyes. That was seirously the thought in my head. It was terrible. She was taken to the hospital, and last I heard she has fractured her jaw probably. We want to go visit her. So she is alive but I don't know all the damage that she sustained, and we left the scene it a daze. Pray for Kety. Mamma mia.

Ok, well sorry to end on a tragic story note, but I have to go and internet is expensive at this internet joint  here in Lecce!! Haha we got up at 4:30 this morning to come, caught the bus to the station at 5:30, train at 6;15. It's been so fun so far, I like travelling in the mission. Oh yeah! We went to Foggia on Saturday for a baptism and that was fun too. We went with the other sorelle and their anzioni, so there were 6 of us travelling together and it was fun to get to know them better. Foggia is north of Bari, about 1 1/2 hours on train. SO the opposite direction of Lecce. I'm just travelling around the east coast! :) Zone Conference is in Bari though, so everyone's coming to us. Yay life.

Ok, signing off. Love you all, hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I did get to eat a little piece of turkey and some mashed potatoes that Sorella Hicks had made, and it was good. :) Other than that I enjoyed my pasta!!! I have a lot to be grateful for. I'm grateful I'm a missionary here in Italy and that I can learn a new language and culture and people, and that I can serve Heavenly Father for a year and a half. I'm already 3 months in and it doesn't seem real. SOmetimes the time goes by super slow and other times super fast. I've already been in Italy for a month. I'm grateful for my family and their support for me, and also the support of everyone who reads these emails. I'm grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, for the Atonement, and my relationship with Heavenly Father through prayer. We really are lucky to have this knowledge, because I'm beginning to understand how many people do not. Count your blessings! I'm excited it's almost Natale!!! Love you all!

Love, Sorella Sobeck :)

The church is Foggia - we went for a baptism.

My brother! Anziano Whitfield

Pday adventures

Pretty

Cool

Love locks

Welcome to Italia, land of popes and saints and everything Catholic

We tried to get to that duomo for FOREVER...and we never found it haha

Best dolce ever

My collega and I

Michele (ex-mafia) and his book signing...about the book he wrote about his experiences in prison for 7 years of his life

LONTANO :) aka: FAR AWAY :) - week 3 in Bari‏

SALVE!! CIAO!! BUON GIORNO!!

Whoo hoo I've been in Italy for 3 weeks already!! Miracles continue to happen all the time and I'm always amazing but then at the same time, we're supposed to expect miracles in this work. It's a mini-theme in our mission here: Aspettati un miracolo. So everyday we go out expecting miracles to happen and they do. It's soooooooooo cool.

Some miracles this week:

1. We got a new investigator!! His name is Daniele and he is old and alone and wasn't interested in our message until we talked about the Restoration and he felt the spirit. TROPO FORTE. He is in Milan this week so we haven't met with him since but we are going to see him Monday and please pray for him!

2. GERALD THE NIGERIAN! Ok...I have forgotten to tell the fingernail story. So  my first Monday in Bari we met with him, and it was his 3rd lesson with missionaries. This is all in English. He is very Catholic but just regurgitates (sp??) the information he's been taught all his life, but he's very invested in it sometimes. We were talking about baptism and he was so for infant baptism becuase of Adam's sin. He then starts talking about all this stuff about women shouldn't wear trousers (thats his word for pants!) and about how God is angry with me because I paint my nails. I wasn't sure if I should laugh of be offended haha but now I think it's hilarious. So he wanted nothing to do with Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon or anything, but he admires us so much for coming to Italy, a difficult place, to talk to people about Jesus Christ. Ok. So we met with him again last Thursday. He had told us that he is going to Nigeria for a few months to see his family. This guy is  a refugee and people want him dead in Nigeria and its a very big deal for him to go home right now. So this was our last meeting with him. This time he still asked a lot of questions but the spirit was there and he was actually hearing our answers and eventually he stopped asking and fighting. He says the COOLEST things. My favorite was this: "I would like to attend your church...I think I'm beginning to be interested in this church." NO WAY!!! SO COOOOOOOL! I love this guy!!! It is really sad that he will be gone for so long. But as a parting gift we gave him a wrapped Book of Mormon so he had no idea what is was and he was so grateful for the gift. Hahaha. We hope that while he is in hiding in Africa for 3 months that he will read it and when he gets back in march he will know its true and want to get baptized. We'll see what happens. I hope I'm here in bari so I can talk to him again. When we were about to leave him he said some really profound things, because again, he admires us for being missionaries and teaching people about Jesus Christ and our relationship with God. Some thigns he said : "Since you've come here to do this work, do it perfectly...Christ can do wonderful things for you. If you are working for God, He will always work for you too." Talk about profoundness. I hope he gets baptized when he comes back. :) I will miss Gerald the Nigerian!!!

3. MICHELE SCIACOVELLI! We set a baptism date for him for December 10!!! Ok...this guy is another of the coolest. He is an ex-con. He was in prison for 7 YEARS, I don't know why yet. While in prison he did schooling and learned to read and write...amazing. He's been out for 5 years now and has completely changed his life around. He wrote a book, and it is being released on Friday and we are going to the premiere and Sorella Ashman is speaking at it!! IT's going to be a big deal, he wants her to talk about how they met and how he has changed and how the Atonement applies to everyone. His book is about his prison time, and his experiences and his conversion to the church are going to help SO MANY people, especially young men. Talk about a person who the church NEEDS. He is going to be a great example of how change is possible. He LOVES EVERYTHING we teach him, especially the Atonement, and he can't wait to be baptized in a couple weeks!! He is seriously a living Alma the Younger story...wowwwwww. I just love him!!!! Pray for him!!! December 10th!!!

4. The other sorelle we live with had a baptism on Saturday!! Her name is Stefania and she's 23 and wow...talk about people being prepared for the gospel in Bari! She is currently in Switzerland with a bunch of other members from the wards here at the temple. She has so much faith and just devoured everything. She's actually been dating a member for a couple years and has been going to church. But in just 2 1/2 weeks the sorelle taught her everything so she could be baptized and go to the temple to do baptisms. Miracle. It was so fast but she was incredibly prepared and basically knew everything. Sometimes finding people is that easy. I'm so grateful they had that success. There are baptisms everywhere! There is another one in Foggia on this Saturday that we are going to go to to support the anzioni there. Foggia is about 2 hours away I think and I'm excited to go. Us 4 sorelle are signing at the baptism. It's so exciting to see all these people accepting the gospel and seeing all the success the missionaries are having in Italy! MIRACLES!!!

5. We took a bus to a cute little town called Adelfia on Monday. We went to try and contact a family who are ex-investigators, but the bishop told us that he felt we needed to go see them. So we had faith that when we went to Adelifa that we would find them home and that we would talk to them, and invite them to church and it would be awesome and we'd have 5 new investigators....Adeflia is about 30 minutes from Bari, so its far away and hard for the members to come to church. This is where our Relief Society president lives, Sorella Iacovelli. We tried going to the families house (Famiglia Gravina) but no one was home, so we went to Sorella Iacovelli's house. On the way I had my first encounted with a TJ!!! (Testimone di Geova) And he was super nice...it was weird haha. He listened really intently. He's been TJ for 40 years though, so he's pretty stuck on his ways. It was just so weird. Then we went will Sorella Iacovelli to an ex'investigator family and they were sooooo cute. I think we went to Adelfia to meet them honestly. They stopped taking the lessons becuase they're so busy. Then we went to the Gravina's and it was not what we expected. They were home, and the mom comes out and tells us how she hates the bishop and all the stuff that happened that should not have happened with other members, and they have no interest in meeting with missionaries anymore. It was very sad. It's so amazing to see though, that when you plan for something and it doesn't go how you plan, other things happen that compensate.

Ok, those are my big stories of the week. Here's a quote I found in an old Ensign that I really liked: "Temporal obstacles make eternal development possible." - Robert D. Hales. It also said that temporal means temporary. What a cool quote. Puts things into perspective.

Funny thing that happened, that Fratello Curci said. Fratello Curci is our ward mission leader and he is a very interesting man who talks 52454481532143 words a minute and sometimes says exactly the right thing and other times says exactly the wrong thing. He treats me and apparently all new missionaries to Bari like we're stupid sometimes. It's fun. Other times he just loves us and is so impressed by us. You never know with him. Anyways, I do respect him and he has done so much good for missionary work in Bari. So he was giving us a ride home the other night and asked the funniest question: "Why do women like men?" Hahaha it was sooo funny and random. And then he was asking if I went to school in America and I told him I go to BYU and he said: "Ahhh....you go to BYU to find a marito? A hu-hu-hu-husband?" HAHAHAHA. That was all in English (he knows a little bit) and Sorella Ashman and I almost died. Hu-hu-husband? What the heck? Apparently I failed at that hahaha. But I am on a mission and that is so much cooler!

Another funny quote, said by Michele Sciacovelli yesterday: "Signore Curci, this is going to scandolize you." Curci : "Nothing can scandolize me anymore." Michele: "I never got baptized!! I have never done the Cresima or Confession." HAHAHAHA. Oh my goodness. Best thing ever. He was almost proud of this fact hahaha and it's not like being baptized Catholic or not means anything to Mormons. It was sooo funny. And of course, all this has to be translated to me by Sorella Ashman, becuase I didn't understand what he said. Hahahaha I just started laughing when she told me what he said. Oh Michele, he's so awesome. December 10th!!!!

Well, I shall end this novel now and say that I'm still grateful to be a missionary, despite the hard experiences. Because we have so many miracles all the time. I'm grateful. And I wish everyone a wonderfully Happy Thanksgiving!!! Eat some turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes for me! I will be eating...PASTA!!!!!! :) I love pasta.

Ok, love you all. Have a wonderful week!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Pictures!!!

289- This is Angelo, one of the baptisms my first Sunday! He's SO GREAT and a wonderful member missionary already!!!

The fish we ate at Sorella Spagnoletti's, mentioned last week...yum? It was actually not bad at all.

Bari sunset! BELLISSIMA!

GERALD THE NIGERIAN!!! Isn't he so cute??

The other sorelle baptism. Stefania and her boyfriend, Ettore. Aren't they gorgeous people?? Ahhh Italians