WHAT A WEEK. It was basically a week of MIRACLES and also a week of a few disasters/disappointments. But there were by far more miracles than bad stuff. So lets start the recap...
Thursday was awesome because we taughts 4 lessons that day, saw like 3 other contacts, and taught English course. It was crazy busy!!! It was a great day - because the days when you see lots of people are the days when I feel like I'm helping to make a bigger difference. That's not always true, because one day might have nothing but you talk to someone on the street who you helped have a better day and that's just as good. I like to be productive and do a lot though, so Thursday was a good day where nothing fell through. Love those days!! Also, Thursday at English course we taught our students how to play Hand and Foot, the card game. Well, Sorella Ashman taught it to us because I had never played it before. But it was fun and we've played it several times since. We got a bunch of cards at a Chinese store on pday and they are getting used!
Oh my goodness, have I not talked about CHINESE STORES????? They are basically my new favorite thing, though not as good as thrift stores still. If you see any Asians in Italy, you know they must work at a Chinese store, and there are tons of them! They are just these stores where they sell clothes and the other most random things you'll ever find for much cheaper than going to centro and the brand stores. I looooooove chinese stores. Every pday we go in at lleast one to just look around. We don't buy stuff much because we're poor hahaha. We found a santa claus lighter than sings to you when you light it the other day...yeah!!! I didn't buy it though...don't worry :)
Friday...OH MY GOSH. It very well could've been a day from hell...ahhhh. So Friday morning is weekly planning, which isn't too bad but its long. We had personal study and we were just looking outside and it was SOOO WINDY and cold. It's usually not windy, but there were high speed winds and we were soooo grateful we didn't have to go outside that morning because of planning. So we start companion study at 9 and read 1 sentence from the white handbook when we get a phone call from Giovanna, the girl we saw in the hospital before who is 22. She called us crying, said she needed help, and asked if we could come to her. So we weren't dressed yet, but we scrambled to get ready to go help her with whatever happened, because we didn't know. So we go outside, both PRAYING with all our mights that the 11 bus would come because it NEVER comes and it was also a holiday so buses are much less frequent. We started walking and MIRACLE OF MIRACLES IT CAME!!! I know Heavenly Father probably created that bus out of thin air for us to get to the hostpital. So we get there, try calling her but she had turned her phone off...what the heck. We tried calling her like6 times and looked for her for over half hour but we never found her. We were soooooooooo confused!!! (Today we still don't know what happened to her...) So we ended up going to a mass instead hahaha becuase we had been wanting to go but never had been able to, and it was my first mass! Cool stuff happened there...becuase the priest started talking about the Magi (the wise men...this holiday was Befana, which is celebration of when the Magi brought presents to baby Jesus), and about how other people in the world must have known about Jesus Christ because the Magi came from the east...we were all thinking WE HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR!!! IT'S CALLED THE BOOK OF MORMON!!! Hahahahaha! Man oh man, how cool is that. Anyways, so we go home and do weekly planning, then we go outside into the freakish windstorm again to go to the hospital again to see teh bishop's dad who was not doing well. They were going to release him on Monday, basically giving him a death sentence. So that was really sad. Then we were going to go to Japigia to see a contact, but again the bus schedules were weird and when we finally got on the bus we needed (after waiting outside for almosot an hour in the cold!) we missed our stop because we didn't really know where we were, and we had to go on this giant loop to get back, and we basically wasted another hour on the bus. We were pretty upset about the day by this point, and we didn't even know if this lady we wanted to see was going to be home. Also, the bus we were on we found out was the last bus of the night. So we had make the decision if we wanted to go to the lady's house and walk the 50 minute walk home in the cold windstorm, or stay on the bus and waste more time and feel miserable. So we got off, because how are you going to find people if you don't try? And she wasn't home...boo. But her brother was and we got her phone number so that was good. Onthe walk home we had a better attitude and ran some and sang more and we had a miracle because we didn't feel cold the entire 50 minute walk home. I know that Heavenly Father blessed us for trying, even if we made some mistakes and wasted a lot of time (not of purpose). I know he blesses His missionaries and watches out for them! That was a cool experience for me. Man oh man, Friday...
Saturday - we had to make the programs for the baptisms which took forever, but that night we had a FHE with some people from the ward at Maria Pia's house, and Daniele came too! That was great and he was really participating in the lesson and promised he'd come to church the next day for his first time. We were SO EXCITED because we have been asking him to come forever and he finally said that he could. And Maria Pia was nervous for her baptism but excited too. And we read the talk by Elder Wirthlin "Come What May anòd Love it" and it went super well.
Sunday - the day that was AWESOME but also SUCKED. Hahaha. Church was interesting...when you have baptisms EVERYONE has to ask you a bazillion questions about everything. And we had 2 crazy people who are basically ex/eternal investigators who both came to church on the same day. Plus 2 ladies who we had never seen before. What in the random of the universe??? And we had planned an awesome lesson for sunday school about the plan of salvation, but that was definitely not right for this crowd. So we had to completely improvise a lesson. And Daniele never came to church either. This was one of the biggest letdowns I've experienced on my mission so far honestly. It was a pretty tough blow. Oh...and we had left our cell phone at Maria Pia's the night before so we had no way to communicate with anyone, and we had 2 baptisms that night. AHHHHHH. So we went to Danieles after church (we were supposed to eat lunch at his house), only to tell him that we couldn't go in becuase we didn't have another girl with us (the girl who promised to come with us also didn't show up to church because she was sick), and also to ask why he didn't come to church to which he gave the lamest excuses ever - that he was sleeping. So it was a pretty bad situation becuase we were very disappointed in his choice to not come and he was disappointed we didn't eat lunch with him. This was a huge step back in Daniele's progress. Let's just say there were some pretty not so happy emotions going on that morning. Then we went with another family to lunch (the Juan's who I love, with her parents who are interesting...her dad is SO NEGATIVE), but we had to be back at church at 4:30 to help Maria Pia get ready for her baptism at 5, but we drove back with the parents and they didn't get us back until about 4:50 and we were freaking out about everything and the stress was bad - because they acted like it wasn't even important. Plus he drove like 2mph the whole way back...we were sooooo frustrated! Bahhh.
BUT................then Maria Pia Montrone and Valentina Verdillo got baptized as members of the church. And my life was very very very very happy again. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) I was soooo happy for both of them. I've never seen Maria Pia look happier (remember, she's 74, has has a very hard life and is very negative about a lot of things also). And Valentina is just the best!!! I love both of them soooo much and am so excited for them!!!
Monday...another miracle when we got in contact through Angelo with one of our ex'investigators! We had 1 lesson with him my 2nd week in Bari, we all really felt the spirit when we read the BoM with him, but then he wasn't interested. Sad. But he came to US this time and he wants to change and come to church and be taught the lessons! He has seen the incredible changes in Angelo and wants that to happen to him. Last night (Tuesday) we gave him a bapstimal invite and he said yes!!! WHOO HOO!!!!!! MIRACLES ALL AROUND!! We also had a lesson with Daniele about the Plan of Salvation, and we're realizing how much progress he needs to make and also faith. He still has not prayed with us in a lesson, and we contacted him 2 months ago. And the feeling in the meeting was different than the past, I think because of the stuff that had happened the day before and we were still just all a little raw inside. I'm interested to see what happens.
Monday I also had my interview with President Kelly, who I just love and appreciate so much! He's so wonderful and I am so grateful to have him as my mission president! While we were all waiting for interviews they let us watch this new movie called "17 Miracles" about the Willie/Martin handcart companies. I highly recommend it to all becuase it was incredible and of course makes you appreciate SO MUCh the sacrifice of our pioneer ancestors who went to Salt Lake to obey the prophet. And these handcart companies were converts from England...converts are so strong. What an example.
yesterday was Zone Conference and it was awesome and incredible and I'm grateful for all the missionaries in these zones and for their testimonies and hard work. We talked a lot about obedience, and I have made some goals to improve myself as a missionary. We also talked about how nobody is perfect. And when we begin realizing more and more of our weaknesses even as we become better missionaries, it means that we are coming closer to Christ and that He is helping us and blessing us to become stronger. (Ether 12:27) There were a lot of cool things said about this scripture and I was grateful for the teachings. After ZC we saw a couple people, taught English course, then got Pday eve PIZZA!!! We were starving! I used to think eating a whole pizza was a lot, but it's not even a big deal anymore, and last night I thought it was too small HAHAHA. Mamma mia...food.
Ok, well I always write too much probably but there were some really cool things that happened this week and I had to tell about them and teh bad stuff too! There are really highs and lows of missionary work, but it's all worth it when you help people come closer unto Christ. And seeing 2 baptisms this week really helped set the pace for the year I think. We're excited to see about transfers soon (transfer calls are next Saturday) and are already trying to predict what will happen. I know that the Lord takes care of His missionaries!!! He loves us so much and I'm so grateful to be doing this work and to have the bad experiences as well as the good ones. It makes you appreciate everything.
Pictures, then sign-off:
Us with Maria Pia and Angelo!!! Angelo has been a member for 2 months and he baptized her!!! I love Maria Pia!!! She finally got baptized after 2 years in contact with missionaries and the church.
Us with Valentina, our little 11 year old miracle. I know her haircut makes her look like a boy haha, but I think she's so cute. And just so fun to be around. She's obsessed with Justin Bieber.
This pizza box explains truth!! Pizza is always a party!!!! :) :) I looooooooooove pizza!!
Meggggggggggga citof.
Ok, love you all, have a great week!!!!!!! I'm so glad the Italian holidays are finally over. BUt now its the SALDI, which is 2 months of sales!!!!!!!!! We're gonna have to practice some self control over here hahahaha.
Love, Sorella Sobeck
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