Sorella Sobeck in Rome: 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!