Week 1 of training. We have officially survived, and I'm not gonna lie and say it was easy but it was really good too. It was a really long week. But I love my new companion, Sorella Filipovska! She is TALL and SKINNY and super cute. She was actually born in Kazakhistan (sp?), lived in Ukraine growing up, and then moved to Italy with her mom when she was 13 after her parents got divorced. Her mother tongue is Russian, but she also knows Ukrainian and obviously Italian (THANK GOODNESS SHE'S FLUENT). She also understands a fair amount of English, but she doesn't really speak it. Therefore, we speak only Italian! Mamma mia it's been hard, but I have already learned a lot and know that this time with her will really help me to grow in the language. Meno male. She will be in Bari for 8 weeks (1 transfer and 2 weeks), then will go to the MTC in Madrid, and then to Ukraine for her mission she was called to. And she is actually not waiting for her visa, since she's already lived in Ukraine thats not a problem. She's waiting for a Russian-speaking group of missionaries in the Madrid MTC, and the way events turned out she couldn't go with the last one in February and the next isn't until May, so they let her come here to Bari for these 8 weeks and serve as a full-time missionary. So she has no missionary experience at all, so I'm teaching her the schedule and the life and all the things we have to do, all in Italian, and its been intense for me and also for her. She's just getting thrown right in without time for adjustment really. She's really a trooper though, and in spite of some medical problems on both our parts (me with a really nasty cold and her with some other stuff) we have been able to go out and do our work. Sorella Filipovska really is great and has already taught me a lot. I hope that I have been able to help her too, and that we can continue to help each other grow as missionaries! It's been an intense and really long week, but a good one.
We had Stake Conference for the Puglia stake on Sunday. On Sunday we got to be with everyone in the surrounding cities and also with all the missionaries (there were probably like 20 of us there), and there were probably more than 500 people together. I felt a really strong spirit looking around at all these people who are members of the true church of Jesus Christ. You can just tell that they are happy. There were also investigators with all the missionaries, and Daniele was able to come (for his 3rd Sunday in a row at church!!!). We're continuing to work with him and encouraging him to choose a baptismal date.
I have really felt the spirit a lot with Sorella Filipovska. I think its that we are both having to completely rely ourselves in the Holy Ghost and really trust in our feelings and not just our brains. I don't know how good at that I was that past 3 transfers. So there have been 2 really cool experiences that come to my mind right now.
1. On Monday we had a lesson with an investigator named Emanuele. We had confirmed it on Sunday, and all day Monday I had been thinking all day about how we probably needed to drop him, because he has not made almost any progress at all in the months we occassionaly see him (he makes it very difficult to meet together). So we went to the lesson at his parachuiere shop with Angelo (new convert) because they are friends and also Emanuele was a referrel from Angelo, and while they were talking I told these feelings to my companion and she said she felt the same way that we might have to drop him. So we felt good that we both felt the same way. Before we said the opening prayer, a client walked it. I thought to myself "Oh great, Emanuele is not going to pay any attention because he's going to do this lady's hair instead of listening to this lesson". Whenever someone walks in the shop while we're there he gets super distracted and all hope seems lost. But when this lady walked in, instead Emanuele invited her to sit down with us and say the prayer and listen!!! COOL!!! So we said the prayer, and then we read part of an article from last conference and talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon, why it is needed, and how there are so many churches today because everyone interpreted the Bible differently and formed their own churches, each with a part of the truth but not the WHOLE truth. Then we had this discussion and it went really well, and this lady Maddelena was participating. We gave her a Book of Mormon and our phone number. And I felt really strongly that we needed to get her number, so I asked for it and if we could teach her more another time and she said yes. It was a really cool experience, one where I felt a specific prompting and then saw the results of obedience. And all this happened at the store of an investigator who we were thinking of dropping. It really taught me that Heavenly Father puts people in our path when we make specific plans, even when the vision of what we think is going to happen in the lesson is not so great. Hopefully we can meet with Maddelena again, but if nothing ends up happening with it then at least I feel good that I listened to the Spirit.
2. We decided on Monday night that we should do casa in casa (house contacting), which would be our first time together. We spent quite a bit of time looking at the map and decided on an area of where we should go the next day. We weren't going to have a ton of time, but we wanted to try and go anyways. So we finished an appointment, then had to drop by this other shop to say hi to someone, and then we made our way to this area of Bari that I don't know really at all and its kind of far away. So I have the map out and we're trying to find our way there. And I really like maps and geography, but just because I like it doesn't mean I can always make sense out of it, so I was getting really confused about where we were and it was a funny situation haha. Comunque, so we got to the street we wanted to find finally, and were trying to find the other street but couldn't find it! But we talked and decided we needed to pick a palazzo on this street. We both felt really good about one, then we prayed about it, and decided that someone was waiting for us who lives in that palazzo. By that point we didn't have time to actually DO house becuase we had to go back to the church for English course, but it was really cool that we felt the spirit like that. So we are going to go back and do house at this palazzo sometime in the near future. We told this person or people that they just have to wait a couple more days hahaha.
Yep. Good things are going to happen this transfer together with my greenie!!! Apparently greenies are good luck, so I'm excited to see what happens with hard work and the help of Heavenly Father the the Spirit. Please pray for us, pray for me to have the gift of tongues (please! :)) and for us to be able to do this work. I know Heavenly Father's got something big in store!!!!
Have a great week! Love you all.
Love, Sorella Sobeck
Eccoci!!
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