Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Everyday I'm Shufflin...‏

We were at Daniele's house the other day and his tv was on and the music video for the Shufflin' song came on. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it reminded me of this summer (yeah...you friends know who you are!!! =) )
Ciao ciao tutti!! I'm doing great over here and am grateful to be a missionary!!! I can't believe I've been on my mission for 6 months officially. To sum it up, I feel like I've been here for a long time...yet not long at all. I hope I have grown up a lot through my experiences for these 6 months. I have met a lot of people and I know we have helped people. I look forward to what the next year will bring here.
On Wednesday night we did Scambi with the sorelle from Taranto becuase they came up early for Zone Conference the next day. I was with Sorella Fidler who was in my MTC group, so it was us two 3rd transfer missionaries going out in Bari and talking to people and I learned a lot from the experience. Scambi is interesting because you get to be with another companion and see what you do and don't like. The Anziani do scambi all the time, but the sorelle never really do it. So it was cool for us.
Thursday was Zone Conference and it was a lot different this time because Anziano Teixeira of the 70 came. Usually ZC goes until like 4, but this time it was only until 1 and it was 4 hours packed with intense stuff. Often when a general authority comes they tell the missionaries "we love you, but you're not doing enough." Haha. Yeah, I kinda felt like a terrible missionary, but it was motivation to do better to say the least. One thing that Sorella Ashman and I were lacking on lately is that we weren't talking to very many people throughout the day, using the excuse that we have a lot of work already. Well, that certainly changed this week! YEAH!! We are talking to TONS of people now and it is helping me be less afraid. Amazing how that works. And we have found some really cool people! We talked to a lady at the bus stop named Mariana and she is now a new investigator. She is AWESOME and was born in Macedonia, lived in Albania for a long while, knows like 6 languages, is living the ultimate bachelorette life and within the first 15 minutes of being in her house she was asking us all about the law of chastity. Hahaha we really like her. Anyways, between doing mostra a couple times and talking to lots of people on the street I feel like I'm becoming more confident in sharing my testimony of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon quickly, which is necessary. I've been happy with the way things have been going, and am grateful for Zone Conference that gave us a needed shove in the right direction. It's been cool as we've talking to the other missionaries and they are also making changes and everyone is getting more phone numbers which ultimately leads to more investigators and more people knowing about our message. It goes to show that there is ALWAYS room for improvement, and you just have to act. It's soooo easy to get comfortable and into a routine, but honestly that is not why we are here. A mission is not about being comfortable haha. It's a hard lesson to learn. I'm grateful for motivation from general authorities that makes us work harder!
We've been working with one lady named Anna ever since I've been in Bari, and we ALWAYS teach her in her shoe store. Which has been really cool becuase we've met all her family this way and lots of her friends. But it's difficult to teach in a store so we haven't ever really been able to teach anything super concrete besides prayer and a little bit about the Restoration, and also about temples. Over 4 months. BUt she just moved and is all settled and WE GOT INTO HER HOUSE FINALLY THIS WEEK!!! Halleluiah. Patience patience patience. She is planning on coming to church this Sunday for her first time. WE really really really hope she comes, because its the first time she's ever actually said she'd come. And she seems to really be a woman of her word. I love when people progress!!
Daniele's doing better. :) I just can't say enough how much I love this guy. He's not getting baptized on Saturday sadly, but he did come to Sacrament meeting on Sunday and yesterday he told us that his heart started pounding really fast during the sacrament prayers. We keep trying to help him understand that these experiences he's having are the spirit working in him and that he's receiving "una testimonianza personale" but he isn't wanting to admit that. Bah. He knows its true. :)
We went to the Latin mass again to celebrate the start of Lent. . There were Gregorian chants and LOTS of incense. Yep. I love Italy. And on the way there it started raining and we got soaked. It's fun to run through the rain!
Cool miracle story -- summarized. So there is a street called Via Dei Mille and its not in our zone, yet there have been strong feelings like the missionaries need to find someone there. Sorella Ashman got to Bari in June, and she wanted to go there but found out it wasn't in our zone, but they went anyways and didn't really find anything solid but hpefully planted some seeds. Months later, when I first got here in November, she dreamed about it saying we needed to go on a Saturday morning. So we went, but we weren't able to go Saturday morning. Again we didn't really find anyone. Last week on Friday night she was reading her book of mormon and saw the word "mille" and took it as a sign we needed to go again. So we went on Saturday morning like we were supposed in the first place. And we took Angelo (new convert) with us and he knows like everyone on the street becuase he used to have his shop there, and the first person we talked to on the street we got his number. His name is Simone, he KNOWS Angelo, he said he's atheist, yet he listened to us and agreed to meet with us. We were all kind of it awe. Especially becuause apparently the response of being athiest was exactly what Angelo said when the missionaries first contacted him. Then he got baptized 6 weeks later. Cooooool. Yeah, so we haven't met with Simone yet but we have an appointment later in the week. We hope something great happens as a result, but even if not it was a really cool miracle story.
Transfer calls are on Saturday already. I'm very very confident that I will be staying in Bari for my 4th transfer and that Sorella Ashman will be leaving. But you never know, I did dream last night that I got transfered to Rome and was in a trio companionship. Weird. Vediamo. So next week I'll have news about that.
Alright thats all for this week. Happy Leap Day!!! Have a great week!
Foto::
 At the party for Carnevale, Valentina made us little paper masks! She's so awesome!!
Something wrong with our cupboards? Don't worry, they're full of sauce hahaha. From Daniele...hahahah.


TJ stickers

Just like the game almost! But not. A member from America lives here.

I won't EVER give up!!

My desk...

Her desk...

Best store ever we fouund.

On Sunday we had pranzo with Maria Pia, Angelo, and Marinella, 3 of our new converts. It was so fun!
Ok, ciao ciao!
Love, Sorella Sobeck :)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

I'm grateful for the Plan of Salvation.‏

Ciao ciao! This has been a difficult week honestly. I think a lot of things happened to really test our faith. We are still strong and happy, but we've had some interesting experiences.
First, last week I said that Sorella Curci (our ward mission leaders wife) was in a coma. She had a stroke and thats what caused it. She passed away on Saturday morning and the funeral was on Monday. Sorella Curci was so adorable and was like a little child because of her Alzheimers, and I really loved her. I'm really sad that she died but at the same time I'm so grateful that she doesn't have to suffer in her body here anymore. We were able to go to the morgue on Sunday night to see her (they don't have open casket funerals ehre so if you want to see the body you have to go to the hospital), and there were a lot of people from the church there to support Fratello Curci and their son Gionathon. When I saw her there I felt so much peace because I knew her Spirit was in the Spirit World and she was being a missionary and that she was free of disease! What a blessing to her! And Sorella Ashman and I have talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation and how after we die we don't take anything with us. We don't even take our BODY with us. So it got me really thinking about how grateful I am for the gospel and the Plan of Salvation and that I know that death is not the end at all for us. And now I'm not so sad anymore. Fratello Curci is so strong and is a great example for us as missionaries. His testimony is FORTE. He told one of the other sorelle when she asked if she could do anything for him to continue finding people to teach, because the missionaries who found and baptized him 40 years ago prepared him for this experience by giving him the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. How inspiring is that???
It has also been a difficult week as the progress of Daniele has been hindered a little bit. His baptismal date was for March 3rd but its almost positive that its not happening on that day. Which is sad because now Sorella Ashman will not be here to see him get baptized because transfers are already in a couple weeks. We had a lesson with Daniele on Friday night and he got really offended by a member we brought. It was a very unfortunate situation...we realized that they weren't getting along very well, but we didn't realize how much it affected Daniele until we saw him again on Saturday and he was really upset. And he still hasn't decided to keep the Word of Wisdom and he still doesn't understand that he is feeling the spirit and he is still fighting a lot of things. And he didn't come to church again for the 3rd week in a row. It's been really frustrating for us to watch, and we keep thinking "What can we do more?" but we really don't know. We've invested SO MUCH energy and time and thought and prayer for this man, and he's not making the choices that we would if we could choose for him. I'm really grateful that we have agency, but it of course is difficult to watch someone choose to not recognize the spirit working. I still believe he'll get baptized, but it will take more time. Which is fine. It's just been a disappointing week in that regard. I still love him though.
While I was praying one night this week before I went to bed, I was asking Heavenly Father what I could do more to help these people. We have had between 4-6 progressing investigators lately which has made us sooooooooo happy! And we're working with lots of other people too. However, we are only having like 2 people come to church every week, maybe 3. And its never consistently the same ones. Not gonna lie...SO DISAPPOINTING!!!! Church attendance is SO IMPORTANT!!! And no matter how many times we explain it, a lot of people do not understand this. When the light bulb comes on, people really get it and then they never miss a Sunday. It's happened with so many people. But we haven't reached that point right now with like any of our investigators. Anyways, while I was praying to my Heavenly Father and asking him this question, I got this undeniable feeling that no matter what the choices these people are making, I need to never stop loving them. Yes, I already knew that and I already love them so much, but I read a quote awhile ago that said "charity is loving someone even when they disappoint you". And I was grateful for the reminder to never give up on people just because they might be slow in progressing. And I was grateful for the experience of knowing that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and gives us comfort when we need it and ask for it. :) It was a good learning experience for me. And now I'm trying to have more patience and really have faith that as long as we do our part as missionaries and do everything we can do it our power, IT WILL ALL WORK OUT ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF HEAVENLY FATHER! Because His plan is perfect. And He knows us better than we know ourselves! :)
I love the talk "Come What May and Love It" by Elder Wirthlin. We went to a GANS activity (thats the YSA group) on Sunday night and could only stay for the lesson, and the girl who gave the lesson read that talk. It's great, because we read that talk in a couple lessons about a month ago, but both Sorella Ashman and I needed the reminder of those words. It's so cool how the same words we hear and read affect us differently at different times in our lives. It's like the BOOK OF MORMON!!! The same words have different meanings at different times. MAGICAL! :) :) :) IT was a cool experience at this GANS activity though, becuase after she read the talk a discussion took place where the young people and also the leaders were sharing some experiences, and it was really good to see that everyone in the world has the same kinds of problems: spiritual, physical, romance, money, school, work, etc...and we all have to learn the same lesson and that is to trust Heavenly Father. Love it.
I had a cool experience where I did Mostra for my first time this week! Mostra is where the missionaries have these big banner signs that they put up in the street in very public areas, and then you divide and conquer. We went to centro  by a bunch of shops and you just take pamphlets and passalong cards and talk to people. It was a cool experience. Honestly, I was really scared hahaha but it was cool to talk to people by myself and really see that I can understand enough Italian to get the idea. And of couse, the most important thing that I ever share is my testimony about why I'm here in Italy and what our message can do for them.
Well, through the experiences I had this week both good and bad I really have learned a lot about patience and accepting people's agency and following Heavenly Father's plan for us. For us as missionaries so we learn the things we need to learn, and also the plan for our investigators and the people we meet. Our entire purpose during this time is to help people accept the truth. And if we have the faith and work hard we will find the people!!! Tomorrow we have Zone Conference and we have Elder Teixeira from the 70 coming to speak to us. I'm really looking forward to being uplifted by his message and also that of my Mission President!
Thanks for everyones support, I love being a missionary! I'm learning SO MUCH. Jeez. It's kind of crazy haha. We always have things to learn in this life. I love that. We are never finished progressing and we must always strive to improve ourselves. What kind of existance would we have if all we did was remain the same person forever? Thats lame. :) Hope everyone has a good week! Sorry I forgot my camera today so no pictures. Love you all!
Love, Sorella Sobeck

Funeral poster...they post these all over the neighborhoods and city

My new glasses!!

HAHAHA. Good thing we're not them, so we can knock all we want :)

Daniele's grandkids :)

LE DIZIONARIE

E' VERO!!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Buon giorno di San Valentino!‏

Buon giorno di san Valentino a tutti! Hope everyones Vday was happy. My Valentine's Day present was setting a baptismal date with Luigi, our golden investigator...for April 7th! It was interesting because we felt like he needed to pick his date (usually missionaries propose a date for investigators) and he thought and prayed about it and on Tuesday in our lesson with him he asked us "How do you guys celebrate Easter?" It was super cool, so he picked the day before Easter and we feel really good about that date for him. It was really cool. He has come to a couple activities with us lately and is just progressing right along so well!! I'm grateful for investigators who really want to learn and change and become members of this church...it makes the work so much nicer haha.
We've had some good times with Daniele this past week. He is usually very closed up and distracted at the beginning of our lessons, but when we get more into the lesson and he just talks and talks then we have been finding out his concerns and his feeings better. He is still praying about March 3rd for his baptismal date but he hasn't come to church the past 2 weeks (something that we have not been happy about and have brought it up enough times now that I think he gets it...) and he is not obeying the Word of Wisdom still. WE feel that if he lives the WoW and comes to church that he will get his answer. It seems so obvious to us but he is struggling with these things. Daniele is so great, he is just like a dad to us and always "gets mad" at us when he finds out we are walking outside in the cold (umm...everyday) and is so happy when we come over to his house. The
reason that I didn't do email yesterday was because we were with Daniele in Lecce. Hahaha we have been planning for amost 3 months to go to Lecce with him (that's where he's from) and we hadn't planned it for yesterday. But the weather was good (FINALLY...and just for yesterday because it's rained everyday this week except yesterday). So it's like 8:15am and I had just gotten in the shower (literally) when Slla Ashman knocks on the door and tells me Daniele called and wants to go to Lecce. "When?""Ummm, in half hour."WHAT??""Yeah, but he said he'll come at 9." OH MY GOSH hahaha I wanted to kill him but we went with him and Carmen (literally our 3rd companion...Carmen is 22 and is submitting her mission papers soon and aways comes to appointments with us and we love her so much). We drove down to Lecce and we went to a bunch of little towns and its all right by the sea and its GORGEOUS and we had soooooo much fun!!!! It was a great day together. WE didn't get to do internet though, so we're doing it during lunch today. So yes, Daniele is still making progress and when he finally decideds to live the Word of Wisdom it will be even better. :) He will though.
On Sunday we went to Bitonto, where there is a small branch. It's pretty close to Bari, only about 15-20 minutes away, and there are 2 missionaries there too who are in our district. The mission president likes us to go like once a month or transfer to support the branch and to get contacts, but we don't have any contacts there because we never go because we have so much work in Bari right now. SO I don't think we'll go for a long time. But it was good to go on Sunday. I had the biggest meal i've ever eaten so far like 6 courses and we caused a lot of confusion when we had to go to Terlizzi (another small city outside Bitonto) but we missed the bus and it was raining/snowing ...it was an interesting day to say the least. But always makes for good memories!
Lots of funny things have happened this week and also lots of sad things. TOday has been interesting and full of tough breaks to say the least. We just found out our ward mission leaders wife is in a coma. She has Alzheimers and is not in great health but this is really hard. And everybody needs money I feel like because its really hard tofind work in Italy right now and we have zillion people we need to see in the next few days and it's a little stressful right now! Ahhhhhh. But its good because it means we have lots of work. We're grateful to be in good health so we can do it all.
I really love Bari. We went to a Valentines day party on Tuesday night with both wards in Bari combined and it was so much fun to see all these people who I've really grown to love the past 3 1/2 months. It's crazy that the transfer is already half over. Time is starting to go a bit faster. Every night when I go to bed I think "Wow, another day is over." ANd now before I know if I've been on my mission almost 6 months. AHHHH. I appreciate all the prayers and notes/emails/thoughts that people are sending my way. Things are good here and I'm so grateful for all my blessings!!! Rightnow I'm really grateful for my umbrella and boots because its been raining a lot lately.
I hope everyone is doing well and happy. I've heard that Mitt Romney is doing well for the elections...the peope we're teaching think its really cool that a Mormon is running for president of the USA and so they show us the newspaper when theres news about it!! Super cool. Love you all, read the Book of Mormon because its true and it is full of promises and strength and guidance. And most importantly all the truths we need to be happy in this life. Heavenly Father answers our prayers because he loves us.
Love, Sorella Sobeck

Foto:
 we went to a little panaficio and bought a bunch of bread and this guy helped us out and was so nice!
me and Carmen, our 3rd companion!
 just a shepherd and his goats we saw along the way.
 on the roof of Daniele's house, in a little city outside of Lecce.
us by the sea...it was SO BEAUTIFUL.

Slla Ashman and Daniele

Album coverr

Lunch with Babbo Daniele!

Gorgeous day

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

It sure is lovely weather we've been having!‏

Ciao tutti! Well, as many have heard, there has been some beautiful weather in Italy this past week...SNOW. OH MY GOSH. The entire south of Italy it seems has been bombarded with crazy weather the past week, which means thats all anyone ever talks about and everyone freaks out. Seriously, the schools are closed right now! Hardly anyone goes outside. Man oh man, these people need to go to UTAH and see what real snow/cold can be like :) !! It has snowed a bit in Bari, but not really sticking at all. However, everywhere outside of Bari there is snow on the ground.
Monday we went to Acquaviva, which is normally about a 50 minute bus ride away from Bari, to see a family. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get there on the bus because it was snowing and the bus was moving mega slow. Then when we got to Acquaviva I almost fell on my butt because it was so slippery...it was funny. We wanted to get back to Bari to have another appointment that night afterwards, with Daniele, but the Costanzo's made us stay at their house longer because we were late getting there, so we had to take the later bus and only have the 1 appointment all day. Mamma mia this weather. Then Tuesday morning we wanted to go to Daniele's again, but it was snowing pretty good in Bari and no one wanted to leave their house to come to the appointment with us, so we had to cancel again and find other stuff to do! AHHH! So we went to Valentina's (one of our new converts as of a month ago today!) because she didn't have school and did a post-baptism lesson with her and then she played a Justin Bieber song for us and we all danced :) Good times with our little 12 year old princess! Then we went to Losetto, which is about a 20 minute bus ride away, and there was lots of snow on the ground there too. The bishop lives there so we ate lunch with his family (just Sorella Mongelli and their son Reuben were there), and Sor. Mongelli gave us a bunch of mission advice because she served a mission in Milan. She's AWESOME. But seriously, this snow has made missionary work a bit difficult...and yesterday I wore 2 pairs of socks, 2 tights, spandex, shorts, 2 skirts, 3 shirts, 2 cardigans, jacket, 2 scarves, hat, gloves...HAHA! All day I was thinking about my friends serving in Russia and other freezing cold places, and the pioneers walking across America in blizzards with no shoes. I am grateful for what I have.
Other news from this week. We have a golden investigator right now! IT's not golden in South American terms I guess (because I just got an email from a friend in Brazil who found, taught, and baptized a man in 2 WEEKS), but we had our 1st lesson with this guy, Luigi, last Tuesday, met with him again Saturday, he came to church Sunday, and we taught him yesterday. WOW!!! He's PERFECT!! He has great questions, a great desire to learn, feels the spirit, prays perfectly already, is reading the Book of Mormon, and is enthusiastic!! He sets his own appointments!!! We had asked him to read 2 Nephi 2 for yesterday when we talked about the Plan of Salvation...he came and said he read all of 1st Nephi up until 2 Nephi 2...WOW! We're meeting with him again tomorrow and we want to set a baptismal date with him. We love Luigi!!!
Daniele has been fighting a really bad cough for a few weeks now, and he wasn't able to come to church on Sunday sadly. And we haven't been able to have appointments with him yet this week. However, he did help all 4 sorelle this morning with our grocery shopping, so we stocked up on water since it went in the car back to our apartment rather than carrying it haha. Daniele is the coolest. We had a couple men in the ward give him a priesthood blessing for his health on Saturday, and he's doing much better already :) The priesthood is incredible. WE are trying to work with him on the Word of Wisdom right now, because he LOVES his coffee...bo.
I love to see the difference in people after they're baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Maria Pia is a miracle! SHe's been baptized for 1 month now, and her understanding of everything has just gone through the roof. When we go to her house to do post-baptism lessons she just understands everything faster and more fully. She's so cute! In her prayers she always asks Jesus to hug everyone in the world and help everyone. She's had some some financial difficulties lately, yet she's determined to pay her tithing still. She has such faith!!!!! I love new converts!
Those are the highlights. It's been an interesting week with all the weather challenges, but last week was our best week number-wise on the mission when we taught 18 lessons and had 4 new investigators! WOW! We had gotten several bidoni (we got stood up), and as a result we did more finding work and we have found some people and its been awesome to see the blessings of the Lord. You do all you can do to use your time effectively, and when things change if you keep a positive attitude and go to work, He will bless you by putting people in your pathway. I love being a missionary even when its cold and no one really wants to talk to us outside! I have so many things to be grateful for. I really do love these people so much and I'm grateful for the great faith of the members and also the increasing faith of our investigators. They are WONDERFUL examples.
Heres some lovely pictures, and then I'm signing off. Love you all! Send some letters if you feel like it, Happy Valentines Day to all, and STAY WARM PLEASE!!!!!!!

BK a little bit ago.
Monday, when it wasn't snowing yet but it was a bit chilly!

We are so cool

In Acquaviva with the snow!

 Yesterday with Domenico and Valentina! Domenico is basically the cutest little man in Italy!
Love, Sorella Sobeck

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

La porta è rotta!!!!‏

Buon dì a tutti, spero che oggi sarà un buonissimo giorno. :)
Update on Anziano Pedreira. He got out of the hospital on Thursday, but they told him he needed to have eye surgery and that they couldn't do it there until SEPTEMBER (thanks to socialized medical care here in Italy). So the assistants came and got him and Anz. Curzola on Sunday to take them to Rome so he could have a second opinion, and I think he's having/had surgery. No one's told us anything though, so I don't know more than that. Keep praying for him though please, because we want our HEALTHY anziani back in Bari with us!!!
Transfers on Thursday went well and were pretty uneventful. We took Sorella Hicks to the station at 6am (that was quite early), and DANIELE took us in his car because he's AWESOOME haha, and we were in a trio with Sorella Heiner all day. It was fun and it was good to get to know her better, because we've been living in the same house for 3 months but didn't really know each other well. It was fun to be in a trio. Later that night we went to the station again and Daniele took us AGAIN (mamma mia!!!) to pick up Sorella Camp, who was in the group before me in the MTC and I'm so happy she's here!!! She's been having feet problems this week, and it sounds exactly like when I had my tendonitis a couple years ago, so please pray for her too so she'll be able to walk better. We want healthy missionaries!!! I'm really really grateful that I have not had any real problems and I hope that continues.
Friday I was basically in a food coma for some reason after lunch, and I really don't know why. And then the first appointment we went to they gave us focaccia and it was not even good hahaha!!! AHHHHH THE FOOD!!!
Story about the door. So we've had lots of problems with our door lock and our keys, and they just don't work well. So on Wednesday it all just wasn't working at all and the key literally got stuck in the door and so we couldn't leave. There is an awesome fratello in the Taranto ward who helps us with fixing our apartment, and he was able to come really quickly (Taranto is I think at least an hour away) and help us fix our door temporarily. But he had to come back on Saturday to REALLY fix it. So he came on Saturday and we had to stay in while he fixed it and the Libertà anziani came to help him. Our door was literally off the hinges and they were fixing it in our bedroom (EXTREMELY STRANGE to have the anziani and another fratello in your bedroom while on your mission...because they're normally not even allowed in our apartment let alone our room! Lets just say we cleaned our room really good) because thats the only place there was space. So we had to get a whole new lock and therefore new keys. But they only got 1 copy of the key. So then we got another copy made (because we have 2 sets of sorelle), and the new one didn't work, so then we had to figure out another time and it was just this long process of getting everything actually WORKING. Hahaha it was a very entertaining experience. since we had to stay in while the door was being fixed we made delicious soup and studied and got to know each other better. Good times!!!! La porta veramente era rotta, ma addesso va bene.
On Sunday we had church and Daniele came for his 2nd week in a row. :) :) :) He really is gaining a testimony of his own and really seeing how the gospel can bless our lives if we allow it to. I love that about the church and about Heavenly Father...you keep His commandments and you will be blessed. Just like when we make covanents with him...we promise Him something and He promises us something in return if we are faithful to those promises. it just makes so much sense. After church we had dinner at the stake presidents house. Their son is on a mission in Washington state, and they basically think that American's eat like barbarians hahahahaha. Whenever someone asks us what Americans eat, we don't really know how to respond. Becuase we eat everything! All different kinds of cultural food are avaible. What do Italians eat? Pasta. And bread. Hahaha they basically think their son is living in sofferenza. Poor kid...living in America. :) It was soo funny. And then Sunday night we went to a Catholic mass in LATIN!! We had a contact from this church and he invited us, so we gladly accepted. It was a very interesting experience. Catholocism is completely based on tradition. A couple days later we had another lesson with this contact, Gianni (pernounced like the American name Johnny) and basically got shoved in our faces all the reasons for the traditions and how we can't have prophets today and revelation doesn't exist and the Book of Mormon could never be true. It was quite the intense little experience hahaha, but very educational. Needless to say, Gianni is not interested in meeting with us! That's ok.
MOnday we had consiglio di distretto with just the anziano from Bitonto (because ours are in Roma addesso), and it was fun. One of the anziani from Lecce is now here, so its now Anziano Miller with Anziano Stewart. They are both great. I'm so grateful to have these awesome anziani around us! We had a great training about the grace. And then we went to BURGER KING. There is McDonalds and Burger King here in Bari, but we've never eaten there because its super expensive. And theres no such thing as the dollar menu here. However, at the end of the month we actually had a fair amount of money still, so we splurged and went to Burger King with the Bitonto anziani and also the Foggia anziani. It was fun. And man oh man did it smell like America in there. :) :) :)
Other than that, this week has been full of lessons, and we have gotten 2 new investigators so far this week! I'm continuing to learn more and more everyday, and my testimony of the way certain things in missionary work should be done is increasing. Italian is coming along, piano piano. I've had to learn a lot about patience, especially with myself, but also with my companion and the work in general, because nobody is perfect and we are all learning. I love being here though, and am especially grateful to still be here in Bari. Life is good! I'm so grateful to be a missionary!! Hope all are well and happy and have a great week!
Love, Sorella Sobeck

Where'd the door go?

Fratello working on our door...in our bedroom because that's the only place there was space haha...we didn't know they were going to go in there though and we had to do a scramble clean up haha

Anz. Larcher...in our apartment???

with Anz. Wright??? What's going on????????