Sorella Sobeck in Rome: 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!!!!!!!