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????????