Sorella Sobeck in Rome: 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 :)