POPCORN

Buon giorno!!!

First, transfer news.................I am staying in Bari! And my companion is............Sorella Ashman! Hahaha we're staying together for a 3rd transfer and we're both really excited because the work is great and we have people we don't want to leave yet who are really progressing and we want to see them go further. It was a very big surprise, because I ended up really thinking Sor. Ashman was going to get transferred. So now she'll be on her 6th transfer in Bari. It's crazy to think I'm starting my 3rd...whoo hoo!!

Second, I forgot to say a couple things last week:

1. Relief Society sisters who have the book Daughters in My Kingdom need to go to page 52, look at the picture, and report back to me what you see. Specifically, look at the animal at the bottom of the picture. :) :) :) It's basically the best.

2. Anziano Curzola, the new greenie anziano in my ward from Bolzano, Italy, knows Tyler Stoker! Anziano Stoker served in Anziano Curzola's ward sometime during his mission...what a small small world. He said Anziano Stoker goes home the end of January, so this week....weird! I remember when he got his mission call to Milan and I was so jealous. And look where I am now! :)

Well this week has been interesting and awesome as always! It was kind of funny because last weekly planning session we made a bunch of awesome plans for the week and felt really good about it all and were super excited, but then almost immediately most of those plans fell to the floor...hmmm. We decided that Heavenly Father had other stuff he wanted us to do this week then...so we kept making plans and backup plans and more backup plans and nothing was working out it seemed, yet we still ended up having a pretty good week! It's so great how things work out for the best, even when you have no idea how it ever could.

Miracles/cool/fun stuff of the week:

----We had a lesson with Pasqua Mongelli, the mom of our bishop and stake president, and wife of the man we were seeing in the hospital, Michele Mongelli. I don't remember if I mentioned that Michele passed away, but we went to his funeral and there were TONS of people there and it was good albeit sad. So we had a really good lesson with Pasqua and asked if she would be interesting in meeting with us and coming to church and such, and she said yes. We hope to be able to work with her and be able to help her after the death of her husband. But she is interested in the church and has been for a long time, but she never had the permission or acceptance or her husband, or so I understand. Her name is Easter (Pasqua)!

----On Sunday, our lunch appointment was pretty short, which was AWESOME. Normally we are at members house for lunch for 2 1/2 to 3 hours...yes that seems extreme, but they have to prepare teh food and then it takes forever to eat it when there are lots of courses. So our mission rule is to not exceed 3 hours...I know in America dinner appointments are only 1 hour...SO DIFFERENT! So after lunch, you think we'd be super full like always, but for some reason we weren't, so we went home and made a HUGE bowl of popcorn and watched "The District" for our study. It was awesome. "The District" is basically training videos of missionaries teaching lessons in the San Diego mission. It's very helpful. Anyways, the popcorn was really good too.  :)

----DANIELE...so Saturday we finally made PANCAKES with him!!!! We went planning to set a baptismal date, but when he got there we found out his daughter and her family were coming...so no baptismal date. But we made pancakes for everyone, and we LOVE his daughter, her husband, and their 3 adorable kids!!!! And it helps that they loved us too...that was transfer call day and they were all soooo worried that one of us would get transfered! Well, we gave Rosella and Mimo (his daughter and her husband) a Book of Mormon and Mimo especially looked suuuuuuper interested in reading it. They are also both lawyers...super cool. It was a great experience to be with them all. I just love Daniele's whole family. And awesome news...on Sunday he finally CAME TO CHURCH and he came for the whole 3 hours!!!!!!!! MAMMA MIA! A lot of people have met him by now because he's come to an activity and a family home evening, and we always have to bring a woman with us to his house when we teach him. So everyone was super excited to have him there. On Monday we passed by his house (he lives like 3 blocks from us, and therefore 3 blocks from the church too) and asked him how he liked church. He said it was very different than Catholic mass but he liked it. YES. Then Tuesday came...and I had the best lesson of my mission so far. We were determined to set a baptismal date with him for march 3rd, and Sorella Ashman told me that I was going to do it. Ok...I was pretty scared haha. I was praying so hard to help me have the spirit to say the right thing and to be able to have him understand me clearly and all that. So we went to the lesson and brought Sorella Magno with us, a member in the ward who was baptized 40 years ago after being hardcore practicing Catholic. Her testimony is super strong. We decided to tell him the stories of how we both decided to come on a mission, talk a little about temples, and then ask him (again) to be baptized, but this time with a date. We told our stories, Sor. Magno bore her testimony, I felt the spirit so strongly during all of this, and then I asked him about march 3rd and to pray about being baptized on that date. And he said yes to praying about it!!! So I guess it's not a firm date yet, but I know he's going to receive an answer. Seriously, the spirit during that lesson was off the charts and it felt soooo good. I am sooo proud of Daniele and his progress. He really wants to be with his wife and daughters forever, and now he knows how it is possible. Pray for him to receive an answer please!!

Other stuff that's been going on. Our ex-Mafia investigator, Michele, hasn't really been progressing at all the past month, very sadly. He knows the church is true, but his priority right now is only his book. He's doing lots of presentations for it, and so we can never meet with him. It's really sad, because we went to one of his presentation's the other day and he looks completely different. he is all business now, and he doesn't look the same as when we were meeting with him. Yes, that may sound very clichè, but its true. All the missionaries have noticed. :(

I also have a request to make of everyone. Anziano Pedreira (he is in my ward and got to Bari the same transfer I did...he's AWESOME and from Uraguay) is in the hospital right now. He has been having bad headaches lately, but then a few days ago he started losing vision in his eyes. Yesterday they admitted him to the hospital to do some tests, and his left eye he has currently lost 90% of his vision, and his right eye is not well either. They haven't figured out whats wrong with him yet, they did a CAT scan and didn't find anything wrong, so there is lots of waiting. Please pray for Anziano Pedreira and the doctors. WE went and saw him today at the hospital and he's doing as ok as the circumstances can allow, but he needs some miracles right now.

Sorry to end on a bad note. Other than that things are going pretty well here. I'm excited to stay in Bari and continue working with these people with Sorella Ashman. We are expecting some baptisms and lots of miracles!!! :)

Thanks for all the emails this week. My mom's in Hawaii going whale watching...completely jealous because it's pretty cold here today. And I had some responses to the She's the Man quote from last week. Glad you got that one, it's one of the best movies ever! Love you all, hope all is going well, please pray for Anziano Pedreira, and for the missionaries to have the gift of tongues!!! I know pray works!!!!!!!!!! I also finished the Book of Mormon again this past week, and I know with all my heart that that book of true and powerful and will help anyone who reads it. Heavenly Father sure loves us to give us things like teh Book of Mormon, prophets, the church, and His Son Jesus Christ. I know this church is true.

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Making pancakes with Daniele watching

yummmmmm

for the kiddies!