So we left the country today...

I learned that the Vatican is its own country. I thought it was its own city, but apparently its even bigger than that! This morning we went to the Vatican Museum and I got to see some cool history book stuff - the Sistine Chapel with all of Michaelangelo's paintings that he didn't want to do, the Pietà statue in the Basicila, statues by Bernini, lots of tapestries and art from many time periods, etc. It was a pretty cool Pday in Roma experience! We're doing internet in centro today instead of right by our house...and everything costs more in centro haha.

I can't believe its almost CHRISTMAS again!!! My 2nd Christmas as a missionary, and I can almost say that I spent all of 2012 in Italy on my mission. We already have transfer calls again on Saturday, Christmas (and SKYPING FAMILY!!!) on Tuesday...New Years coming up after that and the bazillion Italian feste that happen. We are very busy lately though which makes me soooo happy!!! Being busy is the best present I could have right now :)

This past week has had lots going on. We have had some bad luck with doors on the trains...we went to Anagni (FAR AWAY) to see one of our investigators, and the train stop is pretty small, and as we were trying to get off the train the door we were at wouldn't open! And then we realized there was a sign that said the door was broken (yeah, didn't see that in time), and by the time we tried getting to a different door the train started moving again and we missed our stop. So we got off on the next one, which thankfully was not far away. Sgrugola. What an awful name...but very appropriate for the literal HOLE IN THE WALL this place was...there were no train times posted, no waiting room, a big chunk of plaster fell off the wall before our eyes. And these days the transportation people like to go on strike randomly, so there are lots of cancelled trains...so we were waiting outside in the really cold for 45 minutes before the next train going back towards Termini came, and we had NO IDEA if it was going to stop at Anagni hahaha...we hoped. And we were saved!!!! We got to our appointment in one piece, very late, but it ended up being a great lesson with Diana with the spirit really strong. Satan has not wanted at many appointments this past week, becuase lots of things like this ended up happening haha. But anyways, that was a fun little adventure/detour in Sgurgola.

We had a great lesson with Dario this week! We've been teaching him together with his dad, Michele, who is the other sorelle's investigator but who all the missionaries love to pieces because he's an English course student and comes to church every single week and activities. But we know that they need to be taught separately because they're at very different levels so we finally got a lesson alone with Dario and it went really well! We talked to him about his belief in God, who he isn't really sure if he believe in Him or not. He does believe in God, he is also a little confused though. But we challenged him to come to church becuase he never comes becuase he always goes out dancing until like 5am Saturday night, so we're like "Dude, come to church with your dad! Make him wake you up!" And on Sunday he came with Michele!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was at Sunday school AND sacrament meeting, and we were talking to him afterwards and he said on Saturday night instead of going out dancing with Giovanni (another english course student and almost'investigator!), he stayed home. He was feeling sad about not being out, so he read the BOOK OF MORMON to feel better, and it gave him comfort. We were like "YOU'RE THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!" It was so great :) :) :)

We have a new investigator named Daniel from Sierra Leone in Africa, which I don't ever remember hearing about haha but thats where he's from. He's the one who approached us on the bus last week and wants to quit smoking. We had our first lesson with him and it was legit. We taught him the Restoration and asked him to be baptized at the end of January and he said he'd pray about it! We had another really short lesson with him last night (because he was an hour late...ahhhhh) and he's reading in the Book of Mormon and he said he thinks he wants to be baptized!! LEGIT. We'll see how it keeps going with him, to see if he ends up coming to church and such, but he came to the church for our lesson last night and we're really excited to see what happens. Africans are the best. Couple more stories with them...

Blessing is doing well and seems to want to be baptized. She's still very quiet, but she asks great questions. We taught her the Word of Wisdom yesterday and she asked "How do I resist temptation when I want to do those things?" She's so great! And we teach her with a recent convert, Doris, who I love to pieces her and her family (her husband's name is Monday...Nigerians have the best names!)

We also met Mercy this week, who's son is in the hospital and that's why they're here from Nigeria. Her son (his name is SUCCESS! Seriously, best names ever) had a sickle cell transplant and is not doing that well...we went to see him in the hospital and it made me really sad...he turns 12 two days after Christmas. But Mercy is great and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she wants to learn more. Pray for them because they need them.

We saw 2 baptisms on Sunday and we went to the Roma 1 church and Giovanni (our almost-investigator) and Michele (other sorelle's investigator) both came and it was great! One of the baptisms was the husband of a member. Sorella Ivory was who he needed, and it was really amazing to see him give her a huuuuuge hug after he was confirmed - Slla Ivory was with me in the MTC and it's incredible to think about how long ago that was and all these people that we've been able to help and serve. That family is going to the temple to get sealed together in a year. Incredible. :) The other baptism was a man from Egypt. The gospel is for EVERYONE!!!

No more time. HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! BUON NATALE!!! We're going to an American family's house for Christmas which will be so much fun!!! Vi voglio bene!!! :)

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Sorry the picture thing isn't working either - I want to send pics but the computer doesn't want me to...

Thanks for the Christmas wishes!!! And congrats to Sean and Sarah for their new little baby!!!!

SGURGOLA...stupid train

Hole in the wall

...but it paints music!!

My glasses hahaha

Basilica

Vatican museum

DaVinci code?

Love my sorells :)

Crazy bus people!!!

Ok...so being in the ghetto of Roma...there are some really sketch buses. We had a cool experience yesterday on the 105 (there are always more foreigners than Italians on this bus...ALWAYS) where an African approached us becuase he saw Jesus Christ on our nametags...started talking about how Jesus is his personal savior, and he apologized that he smelled like smoke becuase he wanted to quite smoking, how he met missionaries in Sweden a year before...yep. That was really cool. We told him "Yeah...we can help you." But then later on that same bus there were a bunch of high people who were shouting at each other from across the bus...one in particular was really funny...he kept touching the bus - the ceiling, the sides, the windows. Oh my. Don't do drugs.

We gave a Book of Mormon to the husband of one of our investigators. He is now an investigator too. We taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ, and at the end Diana left the room and we were talking to Adalberto, the husband. We tried to give him the book, and he said no thanks and started talking for 20 minutes about why he believed what he did, that he didn't read books often like his wife, etc., etc. But then at the end of his monologue (that is usually how Italians speak - very one-sided haha), he looks at us and says "Give me that book. I'll read it." Sweeeet. Later he showed us how he wrote his name in it, and he promised to read some. Hahaha I love the mission so much and all these cool and funny expereinces where people really start to develop trust in you when you just listen to them and what they have to say, and then respond with positive feedback adn solutions.

We got a new invesitgator named Blessing! People from Nigeria have the best names. She is the wife of a member, and their neighbors are also members who we see regularly becuase Doris is a new convert as of the summer. So we are now teaching Blessing and she's been to church 4 weeks in a row and she loves it. She's really quiet but is starting to open up more and ask good questions. We invited her to baptism and tried to set a date, but it was her husband, Ike, who said he wanted her to wait longer. But we are pumped to have a solid progressing invesigator in the works.

I had to go to the Questura again last week and I hope it was the last time I ever have to go back there! To be legal missionaries have to get a permesso di soggiorno, and usually they're only good for 1 year. So this is my second time around doing this process - it takes a lot of time. You have to go the post office one time to turn in a bunch of papers and then get an appointment for fingerprinting. They you go for your appt at the Questura, often a couple months later, and then a couple months later you have to go AGAIN to pick it up when its ready. It's a long process. I don't think mine will even be ready to pick up by the time I leave Italy haha, which is why I'm hoping that was my last time there. Vediamo. It was freeeeezing cold when we had to go really early to get my fingerprinting done. At least it was really well organized at the Questura...its just always waiting for the bus that takes forever here in Rome. Man. But...it all worked out. And we came home and drank some good hot chocolate..

On Saturday we had a Mormon Helping Hands service project! It was legit to be able to participate with the Rome stake and help clean up a park and a trail - it reminded me so much of stake service projects at home cleaning up by the Clovis trail. We had to leave super early, and it was a bit chilly, and then we were outside all day raking leaves and sanding/painting park benches, finding beer bottles, etc. It was a really fun day and there were people who weren't members who saw us all working and decided to come help us and wear the Helping Hands vests too! Cool experience!! I LOVE service projects. Always have, always will - I think they're so much fun and a great way to get involved.

On Sunday we got to watch the Christmas devotional from the First Presidency which was really good. I love the church :)

It's been a good week. It's geting so close to Christmas time already and things are going to be busy with activities and at the same time probably slower with the work, but we'll see what happens. I heard that an investigator that I worked with the whole time I was in Mistretta, Giuseppe, has a baptismal date for December 22nd, so I'm praying really hard for him and that he'll do it!!! I'm so grateful for the gospel and for seeing people change for the better when they realize how much God really loves them and wants to answer their prayers.

Have a great week!!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Andrea - Ciao! I'd love to hear from you! My address is::

Sorella Sobeck

Piazza Carnaro 20

00141 Roma (RM)

Italia

Oh dear...SNOW

Helping Hands

:)

It's getting cold.

So I know I'm not in Siberia, but man its been a bit chilly this week.
I bought these thick tights from a Chinese store and I wear them all
the time...December has arrived and with it winter and lots of rain.

I've enjoyed this week. I feel like we've been running around like
crazy people (but what else is new, especially in Rome when we have to
take the buses and such everywhere from one side to the other). I did
scambi (I think its called exchanges in English) with Sorella Smedley
on Thursday adn it was fun to work with her for the day. We even got a
bidone and then bought some coke and soccer stickers to make us feel
better haha. We had a party with English course on Thursday evening
also to celebrate Thanksgiving with them (a week late) and we all
wrote things that we were grateful for :) I love that holiday.

Our ward is soooooo diverse. WE have members from so many different
countries, and there are many people from South America. On Friday
night we went to see a less active member who is from Brazil and
married to an Italian who isn't a member. We ate dinner with them and
it was a good experience. She's legit. We weren't planning on eating
with them, so we ended up getting home really late, but the COOLEST
thing happened on the way home. We left her house at 9.00 and headed
to the metro. We got on and it was really crowded and we were
standing. I saw a guy reading a book and it looked a lot like the one
I was holding in my hand. I motioned to Slla Openshaw, who was on the
other side of our compartment and told her to look at him...she got
the funniest look on her face. I started talking to the guy to see his
book, the BOOK OF MORMON, and asked if he was member. He's not. He was
given the book 1 year ago, has read it twice, and said he reads it to
feel calmer...he's going through a pharmacy program now and went on th
emetro to read it to feel better because he doesn't read at home.
Coincidence?? HECK NO. I will never believe in those again after my
mission. He wouldn't give us his phone number, but I know we were
supposed to come home late that night so we could get on the metro and
remind him that there are missionaries who want to help him understand
that book a whole lot better, along with a bunch of other things.
Really cool experience.

And it was followed by another one the next day when we were waiting
for the ghetto yellow train to go near the church. There weren't many
people around, but there was a creepy older guy and a younger girl.
The young girl was looking at us, and I wanted to invite her to
English course, but then SHE approached US, started talking to us in
English to see if she could stand by us and not by the creepy old guy
(umm, yes please), then asked if we were Mormon. Apparently she lived
in Las Vegas with a host family who is Mormon for a year, went to
church with them, has been to a temple open house, and has a BoM in
English. Now she has one in Italian :) SO COOL. She also wouldn't give
us her number. But from these 2 experiences I really know that
Heavenly Father puts people in your path that he wants to have contact
again with the church...we were the first missionaries she had ever
seen in Rome, and she lives super close to the church. Again, no such
thing as coincidences.

We had Zone Conference yesterday. I love being in Roma. All the
anziani from the Napoli zone come up, and we got to have zone
conference at the church and then all go (in 2 groups since there were
so many of us) to the Villa to eat lunch. Legit. The best thing was
that while walking there we all got caught in a rain storm. I'm sure
we were quite the site...a big group of missionaries running the
streets of Rome to get cover becuase none of us had umbrellas haha.
Hilarious.

I love the mission. It's full of wonderful experiences and memories.
During Christmas time its so great to be able to concentrate fully on
Jesus Christ and what He did for us...and to bring that message to
others. It's hard to be away from home, but wonderful to help other
families feel that joy. I love my Savior!!!

Have a happy week everyone!!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Late night chip run??

Zone Conference at the Villa

Sorelle in Roma 

A bunch of us who would be finishing the mission in March

TEMPIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahahaha Smed

Hot spots on the kitchen floor...falling asleep during exercise...whoops

Crowded trenino and creepy blue-hood guy haha

MY FAVORITE

Love Valentina!

Happy Turkey Day!!!

This week I was able to see many times that when we do something for
the Lord, He does something for us :) Me and my comp have been trying
to be more obedient with the little things, and also with some bigger
things that we're dealing with, and Heavenly Father really has blessed
our work. For us, that meant that we found a new family to teach :)
Sorella Winward and I talked to a guy on the metro last transfer -
Ronaldo from Peru - and finally we had a lesson with him at the church
last Friday. He was so nice, we gave him a BoM in Spanish. In Peru he
lived across the street from a Mormon church and had Mormon friends
who invited him to activities. He wanted us to come to his house to
meet his family, so we set an appointment for Monday. We went, and
Ronaldo wasn't there, but we taught the first lesson to his wife and 2
daughters. There is something special about them and I hope they are
prepared to accept the gospel now. I've never had 3 sets of dark brown
eyes so intently looking at me when I said the First Vision to them.
The oldest daughter, Fiorella who is 15, was my favorite. We read the
last 2 paragraphs of the Intro of the BoM together and we asked them
what they thought. Fiorella looked at me and said "That Joseph Smith
is a prophet." YES! It's TRUE!!! Man, if nothing else, that was a
beautiful lesson for us to teach...they want us to come back, to come
to church, etc. Legit. I'm so excited about this family!!!!!

We had another investigator come to a ward activity and bring her
whole family too! There are major problems in that family, and the
only one who participates in the lessons is Carmela. The husband,
Luciano, has had something against the church for years but I don't
know what. He'll always talk to us at their house, but leaves when we
teach. So when he came to the activity and looked happy to be there,
talking to people, it was so wonderful. We're doing a family home
evening with them all tonight...we specificlaly asked for the whole
fam to be there, so hopefully they'll comply.

We tried to get a couple baptismal dates this week, but sadly no one
agreed. But thats ok, with that we understand better about where our
investigators are. It's sad when you see people have a desire to know
if something is true, but they won't make the steps and efforts to
find those answers. The key is asking questions. Without specific
questions to God we cannot easily receive specific answers from God.

For Thanksgiving we went to Andrea's house and ate a good American
shepherd's pie :) :) :) Man it was so American and good haha. No
turkey, but thats ok. And on Sunday we ate lunch after church with an
American/Italian family. He is Italian but served a mission in
California and they have lived in Utah for 10 years, and just moved
back for his job. They are AWESOME, and they get American food from
the Napoli military base and share with us haha, so we ate Mexican
food with sour cream...yep, haven't eaten that in over a year. So
good.

The ward activity was really good with a GREAT turnout - lots of
members, non members, investigators, etc. And it was a rock concert
haha. The 2nd counselor in our bishopric is in a rock band and they
played for us all. Loved it.

It's been a good week. Today for Pday we're going to the Villa with
Sorella Kelly and all the sorelle in Roma to hang out for a few hours,
and its a very rainy and windy day here in Rome. Good day to not do
tourism.

Love you! Can't believe its already December in a couple days, and
just a few weeks til Christmas!!! Tis the season, the lights are
coming out. We're going to buy a tree from a Chinese store today, and
I'm pretty sure its going to be purple hahaha.

Love, Sorella Sobeck


Aunt Kathy - Thanksgiving was good, but I look forward to next year
with the fam :) Love you guys!
Aunt Donna - from what I've heard so far the temple should be done in
2014, but I don't know when. And I finish my mission in March...ahhh.
Mark - I support her and the slaps! Thats pretty cool you are trying
to get into BYU, its pretty much the best :) I don't know, just tell
me about what you're doing with yourself, it doesn't have to be big.

Thanksgiving dinner at Andrea's

Monday, Doris, Milicent, Divine :)

Hot spot on the floor at home haha

Ward activity concert

Massive worm

I don't remember my way around Roma!

Oh my goodness! I have gotten us lost really bad TWICE this past week...Monday instead of taking the train to go back to Termini from a city outside of Rome, we took one going the opposite direction and it took forever to get back haha. That was frustrating. And then the very next day we get on a wrong bus and then don't have enough time to go to our appointment that we had scheduled as a result...the weird thing is that I have been to that house and on that bus lots of times, and I was so confident that the bus we were taking was the right one...without question...and then it wasn't. That's embarassing hahaa. ANd there's my lack of direction for you...it all worked out ok, and I know everything happens for a reason. WE did some other stuff instead that I thought was pretty worthwhile in the end. My poor companion who I keep getting lost haha. I've always had 3 transfers to learn the city before I had to train it...and I got 1 transfer to learn the biggest city ever! It's been really fun :)

This week has been good - we've been working hard together and we've already seen some really great miracles!!

There were TWO baptisms that we got to see on Saturday night. Not people I worked with, but it doesn't even matter I was so excited to finally see some baptisms! One was from the ROma 5 anziani - a woman who's husband is a member, they are from Congo, and the only reason he wasn't coming to church was becuase he didn't know where it was in Roma...so then the missionaries made contact with him as an inactive, his wife took the lessons, and she was baptized. They are such a cute little family! THe other baptism was for the other sorelle in Roma 3, and it was for a man who is working on the Rome temple!! HOW LEGIT IS THAT!!! This is the 2nd person who has been baptized who is working on the temple so far. There were about 100 people at that baptism and the spirit was so strong - it was incredible. I love baptisms :)

My new companion is Sorella Openshaw and she's from Orem. She's been in the field about 6 months now, she works really hard, we get along very well already, and the work is already picking up more! We had an investigator come to church on Sunday!!! Carmela has been an investigator on and off for 6 years, we found her in the area book, and she came! She's kind of at rock bottom right now with lots of family and personal problems, but she's making some really good progress right now becuase she came to church, she's starting to pray again, and she's reading a little bit in the Book of Mormon. We have a couple other investigators who are making me super happy to see them start progressing as well...love it so much!!! ANd we're going to try and set a baptismal date with someone tonight...we'll see what she says :)

The work is growing. THis transfer is turning out to be a very different one from the last one, in some hard ways but some very good ones that are pushing us to be more obedient and as a result see many more blessings with the work and also personally I believe. Satan works so hard on missionaries and the people they are working with because he knows if he can distract them, a lot is at stake. Satan only attacks good things...he's not going to waste his time. There is opposition in all things, and yes it really sucks but its so great on the other side when we come out on top. I'm really grateful to be here in Rome, despite the obstacles and the hard things that happen, because there is so much joy on top of it!! Missionary work really is the best!

FOr Thanksgiving tomorrow, we are going to eat dinner with an AMERICAN! There is a girl in our ward from Utah, and she invited us over to eat dinner at her house tomorrow for some legit Thanksgiving food - at least as legit as you can get in Italy :) And then...it's almost CHRISTMAS!!! The decorations are coming out and its so weird!!! But I love it so much, and I'm excited for the CHristmas music and spirit.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and have a great week! Vi voglio bene!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Jasmine from Congo baptism

 Salvatore the temple worker's baptism!

Trevi fountain again today for pday!

First day together...9am McDonalds on train for breakfast

First visit to Anagni to see Diana

Getting us lost and being on empty trains in the wrong direction...

Piazza Venezia

New collega Slla Openshaw! Finally made it to the Colosseum :)

Miriam Shumway - so, I FINALLY responded to your letter last week that I got awhile ago, but I put in in the envelope, and sealed it, then realized that there was no return address on your letter! WHat's your address so I can send it??

Changes‏

I'm soooo sad! My collega Sorella Winward is leaving me to go to Cagliari tonight. Just having one transfer together was not enough, as we really became to be great friends in a short amount of time. Transfers can be difficult...but I know they are inspired. So I'm trying to be excited about the new stuff coming up, and I know it'll be great! My new comp will be Sorella Openshaw, who has been in Cagliari for 4 transfers and thats it. So she's a young one too. It's gonna be a party!

We had a couple baptismal invites that we did this week, and I am really excited about one of them. Her name is Maria and she is legit. She really wants to know if this is the true church, and if it is she wants to be baptized :) Now that is what makes a missionary feel good! Pray for Maria to find her answers!

I taught English Course how to say "cool beans". It was awesome. And we had THREE students who came to church on Sunday! It was so exciting to have them come.

Ok for some reason I really don't know what to write about this week. We're building better relationships with our investigators that we have, trying to find new ones, visiting with members to be friends with them (that is super important), we've been getting ready for transfers, our Senegal family loves us and we have become adopted aunts to their baby which is super fun haha, and time is continuing to pass. Tomorrow I begin my 10th transfer on my mission...holy cow.

Have a great week! Sorry this is a lame-o email this week, but I'm sure I'll have more to write about next week with lots of changes.

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Alina's house with Valentina

English Course

Pinata Slla Winward made for Halloween party

Funniest picture ever...

Last district pranzo on pday

Hahahaha Anz. Embree kissing the coke girl!

Mac and Cheese Deluxe‏

You don't realize how much you miss things like Kraft Mac and Cheese until you eat it for the first time after over a year and it makes you think of college! We had a package of this stuff from the military base and we got all nostalgic haha. It was good...oh the schifezze of American foods :)

We found a new investigator doing area book finding last week. She was found like 6 years ago, many missionaries have gone since then, but her and her family have just never really progressed. We're getting on their good side...the mom, Carmela, has had a difficult time in her life and we're trying to boost her self'esteem and also help her out around her house, becuase she broke her tailbone this summer and has really struggled physically. We're going to do some service for her on Friday to clean her house a bit. We did a quick spiritual thought with her and her 2 kids the other night about service, and we challenged the kids (12 and 9 years old) to do 5 things each of service at home this week...Carmela loved it and she seemed so much more peaceful when we left. So we're hoping good things will come out of this family.

We've been trying to get some appointments with members lately, and we got to see a young wife who is originally from Argentina, has been here 5 years, her husband is not a member. She is so cute! It's great to build relationships with members becuase then church is so much more fun :) We also have a lunch appointment on Saturday with another couple, who are older but have only been married for like 6 months and they met at the Single Adults activities :) So cute.

We've had successful inactive member finding! Often when we go looking for them they aren't home, or they won't let us in, but we've gotten in to 3 houses this past week and we're so excited! One was an old lady who was suuuuuuper crabby when we went haha, but she was so much calmer when we left. Props to a spriritual thought and a prayer and asking her some questions about herself. The spirit is magic :) The other 2 live in the ghetto...we went this time during the day (the last time was unsuccessful and it was also when it was dark - and super creepy haha). I love seeing inactives - they all have such crazy stories, and I like bringing a little bit of the spirit back into their lives and their homes.

We finally had a lesson with Giuseppe, who we've been trying to get together with for a lesson since I got here over a month ago. He is pretty strange...but we asked him to be baptized and he seems like he has some good potential. And by our Muslim family from Senegal - they fed us legit African food with this spicy rice and fish and it was gooooood. Man. We finally taught them the Restoration and it actually went really well. I'm interested to see how it will progress with them in the future.

Last week for our Halloween party we pretty much had the ultimate party...we made lasagna, watched the Joseph Smith movie, made and destroyed a pinata (but not before destroying the broom stick we used to beat it with...it was that hard!), played ping pong/fooseball, pin the tie on the missionary, Massacre of War 3 (a card game the anziani in Palermo literally invented...they're so weird haha) and WHEELCHAIR WARRIORS. Yep, you learn to invent crazy games on the mission...our church has 3 wheelchairs...you can only imagine this game that was legit. It was seriously soooo much fun and a great day with our district.

This transfer has flown by and we already have transfer calls on Saturday. I love Sorella Winward and I really hope we stay together for another one!

That's about it for this week, love you all! We heard that Obama won the elections, so we'll see what happens with that. Have an awesome week!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

My one-year-in-Italy pizza!

Dinner with the Senegalese 

TRASHY HAT CLUB

Yeah...

DOLCETTO O SCHERZETTO!!!

Happy Halloween! It's really really weird that its already Halloween...I will have been in Italy for ONE YEAR on Saturday, so last Halloween I was getting ready to leave the MTC! It suddenly got really cold here like 3 days ago...it was fine and nice outside and then it wasn't haha. So we're getting used to that. Today we're having a Halloween party with our district in the church...complete with a homemade pinata, a delicious LASAGNA, games, watching the Joseph Smith movie (!!!), etc. We're pretty excited :)

I've had some pretty cool experiences this week. There is a new convert named Doris who is from Nigeria and is awesome, but very shy so she never really talks much when we go. But she has teh cutest little daughters, and I love going to her house. We went on Saturday and talked about having patience in the midst of afflictions and read a story from the Book of Mormon with her. We asked her a simple question about how prayer has helped her in her life, and it was an inspired question becuase then she just opened up and talked for 20 minutes straight telling us all these crazy experiences in her life but how she has so much faith anythings. I was just in awe...she is AWESOME!!! And then she was just so much more open with us ever since! I LOVE those experiences that just build relationships with people. She invited us to her daughters birthday party for yesterday...Divine turned 1. I will just say this: AFRICANS KNOW HOW TO PARTY!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow...best thing I've even gone to hahaha it was so much fun and we met a TON of cool peeps and we had a little spiritual meeting where we sang "How Great Thou Art" African style...it was incredible. And then I ate some legit AFrican food...oh man. It was interesting haha...fufu anyone?? Look up what that is haha. So I love Africans pretty much with all my heart :)

We had a ward activity this week, but our ward boundaries are super spread out so its difficult for people to come to church during the week. But with the support we did have it was lots of fun.

Me and Sorella Winward taught an institute class in English for people in our ward who don't speak Italian, and that went really well. We are doing the class on teh Book of Mormon, and all 3 sets of missionaries in our ward are rotating who teaches. The Book of Mormon is incredible and teaches us SO MANY THINGS even from the very beginning!

We have some Muslim investigators who are from Senegal in Africa and we're helping them learn Italian/English for service. They all have Books of Mormon now and on Sunday when we went it was awesome because they were writing their names in the books and marking the verses that we read with them! Usually Muslims won't even talk to us or accept anything we try to give them, so this is so cool for me to see.

All my stories are about black people this week haha. The other day we missed a bus and so while we were waiting for the next one we gave everyone English course flyers and I talked to a guy from Nigeria. So he already speaks English. But he asked what church I was from and I told him and he said "Hmm. That's a coincidence." Um, what is? I found out that he has attended our church in Greece before. Nope, not a coincidence. We're going to call him in a couple weeks when he gets back from a work trip :) That was a pretty cool miracle.

Things are still going slowly but surely. I know we just need to continue to work hard and work will come. Patience :) I love this work! I've challenged myself to write down a miracle that I see everyday this week so I can more readily see the blessings Heavenly Father is giving me. The blessings come when we DO something. When we ACT. This church is a church of action!

Vi voglio tanto bene!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

These beautiful sunsets helped me feel happier after hours of finding

Ladispoli

Sorelle!

District Halloween party

Service for Slla Galle'

Olive picking service!

Love my collega!!

Sam!

Divine's 1st birthday!