Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Benvenuti a Mistretta!

Hello from Sicily!!! I'm actually not writing from Mistretta, because its so small that it doesn't have an internet point...hahaha. I love this little city already!!! It is seriously so small, and seriously on a mountain. When I first got here I was freezing, but I've gotten used to it better. I have to say that I feel like I'm CAMPING all the time, because we're on a mountain, it smells like campfire everytime I go outside (one of the best smells ever), theres lots of bugs, and its cold. It's AWESOME. I love camping, so Heavenly Father gave me a big present when he sent me here for the time-being. :) A lot of people speak Sicilian, the dialect here, so sometimes I feel like I just got to Italy again and that I don't know any of the language, but thank goodness pretty much everyone speaks Italian, so I understand them. Whew. The people to me seem much nicer here than in the big cities. Of course, its a small town and everyone knows everyone, but people are generally very nice to us which I'm grateful for.

We do a TON of finding here. It's SOOO DIFFERENT than Bari, seirously I feel like I'm in a completely different mission and world most of the time, because so many things are so different than in my first big city. We actually only do work in Mistretta a couple times a week, and then other days we use the car and go to the other little cities around. We drove an hour away to work the other day. And we do lots of finding in these little cities because there's lots of finding to be done!! It's been fun...we're in the car a lot. Another thing...I love road trips. And teh scenery is BEAUTIFUL...so this is another awesome present for me. Since we lose time travelling though, we work really hard when we're in the cities and talk to lots of people. We've done lots of house contacting. The most amazing things happen...people actually let us IN!!! Doing house in Bari was not super effective usually because no one would let us in, but we've gotten into houses and have taught lessons to people as a result here in this area and its sooooo cool. The first time we got let in was Saturday I think, and at the door we asked this lady if we could ask her a couple questions about religion, and she said "Sure, come in." I was soo shocked, that I didn't move for a second. I just wasn't expecting that response. It was and IS a miracle for me to see this, and to learn to work and teach in a different way. I'm liking it! We even got a new investigator the other day doing house, teaching a lesson, and then making a follow-up appointment for later this week. Yeah, thats never happened to me before.

The branch here is really small. At church on Sunday there were about 10 people I think, and 5 of them are members of the branch president's family. They are all really nice though. When we first got to mistretta Thursday night we got a phone call from Antonio who is a member here, and he came over to say hi to me as the new sorella and bring us a treat! And then the next morning when we were weekly planning he came over again and gave us a postcard of Mistretta with a little note saying Welcome. HOW CUTE!!! The members are like this here. They love the sorelle and are grateful to have them. Not gonna lie, there is quite a bit of drama in the branch at this period of time, but there are some strong potential baptisms in the near future with some investigators. I'm really excited to work with the people here and help them come unto Christ more fully by making covenants with Him. It's been intense meeting all these people lately and learning names and cities and circumstances, and I still haven't met TONS of them. But it's incredible to see the people the Lord is preparing for His gosepl.

I really like my companion, Sorella Comollo. Her dad is Italian (from Torino in the north), mom is American (and served a mission in the Milan mission), and she's lived in Salt Lake her whole life. Goes to University of Utah (OH NO!!!!!). This is my first companion who I'm older than and taller than!!! Sweet! She didn't know Italian before she came, but becuase she grew up hearing her parents speak Italian to each other sometimes she understands Italian pretty well for only her 3rd transfer. Way more than I understood. Thank goodness. Since we're both young in the mission (her in her 3rd transfer and me in my 5th) we are really going to be able to study hard and work hard with learning the language together. I've been really lucky with my companions in the past all having studied Italian before or living in Italy and knowing the language, that this is different for me but really really good. I'm doing better with my attention span in the lessons and I find that my understanding is getting better. I'm so grateful!!!!! Heavenly Father really does bless His missionaries with the gift of tongues if they work hard to earn it and are humble and have faith. So yes, Sorella Comollo and I are ready to work hard together and see MIRACLES HAPPEN!!!

We went to Palermo yesterday (which is actually about 1 hour and 15 minutes away) for district meeting. There's only us and 1 set of Anziani, but I really like them as well. I think we'll have a really good district. We have Anziano Larsen (district leader) who is from Draper, Utah and has been out a little more than a year, and this is his second time in Palermo. He served in Palermo, Rome, then Palermo again. We also have Anziano McMullin who is from LONDON!!! His accent is sweeeet and he's been out a year and a half. He served in the Napoli zone and then in Malta. He's one of our zone leaders. I already learned a lot from our anziani yesterday and I look forward to the rest of the transfer when we can become friends and work hard in this work together, and LEARN LOTS!! PS - Palermo is insane....the driving is ridiculous, not gonna lie.

Oh yeah, I haven't driven yet, but i will. The car is actually not a real stick shift. It's a partial-automatic, which means it has gears to change but theres no clutch. It's really strange actually...I've never seen anything like it. But I'll be learning to drive it in the next few weeks! Yay weird cars.

Well, I've already seen some cool miracles happen since being here and I can't wait to know the work and the area and the people better. But even when you don't know it yet, you can still help them. That's what the spirit is for, and if we listen to our promptings we can have the spirit of discernment. I know this work is inspired! But we as missionaries have to be worthy of that spirit and be obedient. That is always something we're working on more...being more completely obedient. Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles. I'm so grateful to be a missionary and now to be learning a new style of the work. It's really helping my testimony to grow more, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens during my time in Mistretta. :)

Hope everyone has a great week! HAPPY WEDDING to my cousin TJ and his soon-to-be-wife Elisabeth!!! Wish I could be there in San Diego with you guys and all the family, but instead I'm on a mountain in Sicily. :) :) Love you all.

Love, Sorella Sobeck


Some fotos -

Thats Sicily!!! View from when we crossed from Reggio Calabria on the mainland to Messina on Sicily. BELLISSIMA!!
 MISTRETTA!!! Holy cow its old and small and soooo cute!!!


So pictures are taking forever to upload, so thats all I got this week sadly.

Drive to Mistretta

MADONNA MIA


First collega picture = terrible haha

Oh Padre Pio...how you corrupt people


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A New Adventure Awaits!

Well, after almost 6 months in the wonderful city of Bari I'm being transferred to a completely different world. After waiting ALL DAY for transfer calls on Saturday, President called us at 9:15pm to tell me this: "Sorella Sobeck, you've done great work in Bari. But now its time for a new adventure. You're going to Sicily, to the city of Mistretta." I'M GOING TO SICILIA!!!! Mamma mia!!! Tomorrow morning I take the bus with 4 other missionaries from Bari to Catania. The bus goes on a ferry to get from the point of the boot to Sicily. We leave at 8am, arrive in Catania at 5:30pm. And then I meet my new companion, and we take our car (we have a CAR in Mistretta!!! I get to finally learn how to drive a stick!) and drive to Mistretta. Whooo hoo!!!! My new companion will be Sorella Comollo, and she was "born in" and has done 2 transfers in Mistretta. I will be follow-up training her. Mamma mia. It's going to be INTENSE!!!!

I must confess, it's been harder this week than I thought it would be to say goodbye to people. Today I feel sad that it is my last week in Bari, but it's hard to feel too much because theres SO MUCH TO DO when you get transferred. I have way too much stuff...bah. Bari is sad that we're all leaving too, because its been raining alllllll week long. So while I'm really excited for the completely NEW adventure that awaits me in Sicily, I am sad to be leaving my birth city and all the people here who I've come to love...investigators, members, missionaries, all of them.

Quindi, I will write more information about Mistretta when I know it, but right now I know this much. Its reaaaaally small. 5,000 people...a bit different than Bari. There is just a really small branch. It is in the mountains, so it gets really cold in the winter, but it is also really close to the ocean. Its about 45 minutes drive from Palermo, where there are 4 Anziani. Its going to be strange to be the only 2 missionaries in my little area. ALso, everyone who I talk to about Mistretta (or Palermo, or Sicily in general) automatically says MAFIA!!! Yep...Italy is soooo cool! Seriously though, its going to be a completely different world. I'm excited, nervous, happy, sad, and a bunch of other emotions!!! More to come about my new home next week!

This week has been full of goodbyes and craziness. Thursday I finally got my permesso di sogiorno, which means that I'm officially LEGAL to be in Italy. Every missionary has to get this card. WE spent a lot of Thursday at the Questura to get it, and its a good thing becuase I'm leaving...Thursday night we had an activity with the GANS (aka, the YSA) that involved shaving cream and balloons and it was hilarious. The spiritual thought was really good though - that we need to stay on top of the mountain and not let Satan tempt us down by small and simple things (see Alma 47 for this analogy with Amalichia dnd Lahonti).

I have seen all 5 new converts this week, all of whom are still active, and I'm so grateful for them. They each have individual problems (like everyone else in the world) but they are staying strong for the most part and I'm grateful to them for their examples and faith.

Sunday for my last lunch appointment I was able to go to the Valentini family, who are rock solid here in Bari. Fratello Valentini is a man who when he heard the gospel he was sooo prepared and was baptized 2 weeks after he started meeting with the missionaries. Now, many years later, he and his wife are still strong. It was fun to eat lunch with them and laugh and have fun. They had several young grandkids there and they were hilarious. Especially when Marco, who is 8, starting doing the Polynesian Hakka dance from Forever Strong :) :) :)

Also, Sunday during church what happened? The most random small Mormon world moment. I was in sacrament meeting, looked behind me, and I saw this girl who looked really familiar, who was not Italian. I finally realized who it was. A girl who I went to Jerusalem with in 2010. Yep...she got married in August, and her husband served his mission here, also in the ward of Bari Poggiofranco. They were here visiting...my last Sunday in Bari. WHAT IN THE RANDOM WORLD???? Of allll the places to see someone from my Jerusalem group, in Bari Italy. How cool is that. Anyways, so we took a picture and now have that really cool story to share later in life. Huh.

I really don't have much else to say. It has been grand here in Bari, and Sicily here I come! I hope to return again someday here, because I really do love this city and the people here.

I love you all, hope everyone has a great week, and next time the email will be sent from Mistretta!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Castello in citta' vecchia

Finally legal right before leaving Bari

SHAVING CREAM ATTACK

GANS activity

Involving shaving balloons and a BoM application :)

Bella Bari



My cute little Justin Bieber-obsessed Valentina!!

Sorella Valenti, the cutest!

Famiglia Santoro

Sorella Iacovelli, Carmen, Anziano Pedreira


Famiglia Valentini

This girls going on a mission!

My wall...

Last district picture with Bari PF and Bitonto

Sorella Magno!

Dancing!

in the RAIN!

Famiglia di Ana :)

Antonio

M to the P

Corso d'Inglese

Sorella DeSantis and Sorella Mongelli

Angelo

Marinella

Babbo Daniele

Angela

Illaria Iacovelli

Vescovato!!

L'ultimo gelato a Bari!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Little Easter is bigger than Easter‏

Yep, Pasquetta is a bigger deal than Pasqua. Pasquetta is the day after Easter, when EVERYONE goes out to the beach or whatever. SO the missionaries get to clean their apartments!!! Hahaha Monday we had the lovely opportunity to deep clean our apartment and man oh man its amazing how dirty things get. And I saw some of the things we missed the LAST time I deep cleaned this apartment on New Years Day. Mamma mia. I feel much better about having a cleaner apartment.
So this week. Last Pday we had a little missionary party where we all went to teh church and just hung out and ate food. The weather was perfect, and it was great to just sit on the ground and relax and talk with the other missionaries, shoot some hoops. Yep. I felt very calm afterwards. You don't get that feeling almost EVERY during the mission...at least I haven't up to this point. I was very grateful!
There was a really awesome activity for the youth last Thursday and Friday. All the Young Men and Young Women in the Puglia came to Bari to have this 2-day missionary activity. They all had nametags, companions, and everything! On Friday we went and helped with that, we taught them the Rome Mission hymn (LOVE OUR HYMN!!), helped them have companion study, ate with them, adn then they street contacted us haha. It was so much fun.
Easter was really nice. Church was good, and we ended up having 1 investigator come. Not who we expected, but it was Emanuele, who has been an investigator about about 6 months now and never kept any commitments. He had promised to come to church at least 6 times in the past, and never showed up. So when he promised again I honestly didn't think much of it. But then he came for all 3 hours. During sacrament meeting (the last hour for us), he had to go outside to smoke, but I think he handled it all pretty well! Sweeeeet. After church we had lunch with the Santoro family. I really like this family. Their daughter, Maria Theresa, is leaving for her mission to Milan in just under a month now...which is kind of sad because she got her mission call when I first got to Bari over 5 months ago now...so she's had to wait a long time. But it was fun to eat lunch with them. And then afterwards we didn't have any plans and they told us in Italy we couldn't proselyte on Easter, so we just hung out with them for the evening, went to see some of their relatives, and all that fun jazz. I enjoyed the day and it was a nice change of pace and a way to get to know this family better.
We had set a baptismal date for Daniele for this Sunday, but he decided that he is not ready. It's true, he's not ready. I'm sad about it, but I feel peace becuase he needs to make some more changes and have a better relationship with Heavenly Father before he's ready to get baptized. And it might take a long time. i hope some day to hear the news that he finally made that step closer to God. But for now, we'll see what happens. Especially if I get transfered.
Yesterday we went to another funeral. This was my 3rd here in Bari sadly. And the saddest thing was that this was for a little baby who was only 6 months old. I personally don't know the family, but her parents and 3 siblings are in my ward in Poggiofranco. This little baby was born with a few holes in his heart and one of the veins didn't work. He had a 15 hour long surgery the other day, and he didn't make it. We were talking about it with one of our investigators last night, and we had taught him the Plan of Salvation last week. I felt so strongly talking about this little baby last night who is now in heaven that I know the Plan of Salvation is true. I'm so grateful for it, and that we have the incredible comfort that our loved ones are not lost and that we can see them again after this life.
Today for Pday, we're going BOWLING!!! I'm quite excited actually. Going bowling in Italy.
I don't really have much else to say. Transfer calls are Saturday and I'm really excited to find out whats going to happen. We all think A LOT of chagnes are going to happen. I feel like I will be transfered, but you never know. That will be the big news of the next weeks email. If Sorella Sobeck will stay for her 5th transfer in her birth city, or if a whole new scene will be opened up!!!! Let you all know later!!
Hope everyon ehas a great great great week. Love you all.
Love, Sorella Sobeck
Il cibo cinese

Too bad he can't give the sorelle shoulder rubs haha

Missionary stake youth activity

Twilight? Carciofi?

PASQUA

America neeeds to have these giant Easter eggs...

..with a SURPRISE inside!!

Pday bowling!!

sorelle

Bari PF district - transfer 4





Chill pday, playing at the church


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

BUONA PASQUA!!

It's almost Easter!!!!! I read a super good talk this morning, but I don't know what its called (we call it the God-Science talk) and its by Cleon Skouson. It's about the Atonement, and talks about intelligences and matter and how it's possible for us to return to live with God. Because of MERCY. I completely recommend to everyone to read it before Easter...its a little long but completely worth the time and it really makes you think and be grateful for the Atonement on a different level. I'm so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ for each one of us, and that we can think about Him and His sacrifice for us a little more this week.
This week was better. I've been letting things affect my attitude more than I should in the past couple weeks, and as a result I was having some struggles. But I feel so much better lately and happy!! I'm grateful to be a missionary! It's intense sometimes and often you have no idea what you're doing, but I know when we keep trying the Lord blesses us.
We did some less active work this past week. We received a list from our bishop of maybe 8 names to try and visit. So on Thursday we armed ourselves with lots of little flyers about General Conference, tried to find these people on the list, and talked to everyone in our path to invite them to Conference! It was actually really fun, and definitely a change of pace from the norm which I was grateful for. We found a couple people that had moved from the list, and then we went to another and she told us to go back later than evening! We were so excited haha.
We had a really cool miracle last week that is continuing. So a couple weeks ago we were at our Albanian investigators house and her uncle was there and we read a chapter out of the Book of Mormon with them and talked about it together. We got his phone number, but we didn't call him to try and meet with him until Thursday. He answered, we set an appointment from Friday and we were excited because it meant a new investigator!!! And we hadn't gotten anyone new in awhile unfortunately. So we were at English course Thrusday night and this guy, Giuseppe, ended up coming during English course and we taught him afterwards! It was so cool that he came to us!! Good thing we were at the church though haha. Then Friday we taught him the Restoration. He came to a session on General Conference on Saturday. We met with him Monday and taught him the Plan of Salvation (for an hour and a half...it was a deep lesson haha but so good!!!). Tuesday we were at English course and he came again (without us asking!!) and we had another lesson with him! HOLY COW!!! Talk about desire! Giuseppe has lots of questions and he listens very intently. He says what he thinks about something, then we teach him the doctrine, then he repeats it back how we said it and agrees with it. He always says that it makes sense. Mamma mia. It's been a great experience for us to be able to see someone again who has so much desire to learn the lessons. I've been really really grateful for Giuseppe. We already asked him to be baptized, and while he didn't say yes he didn't say no either. He needs to pray if its true. But he's definitely feeling the spirit and he says all the time that if he didn't feel something inside of him compelling him to come to these lessons and study with us then he wouldn't be coming. FORTE!!! He is 63, believes in God a lot but is not practicing Catholic (like most people). I'm so impressed with his desire...seriously!!! People surprise you all the time.
Another cool experience. One of our new converts, Maria Pia who got baptized in January, is often depressed becuase she lives alone, is old, and her life is pretty lame. And she ALWAYS tells us about how sad and lonely she is, which is really really sad. So we go to see her at least one time aweek, lately 2, and yesterday morning I called her to confirm that we could come that afternoon. And she was crying, and I didn't really understand her, but she needed a ride somewhere. We ended up finding her a ride from someone in the ward, adn when we went to see her later than afternoon she was so happy and was calling us her angels and all this nice stuff. Because apparently that morning she knew she had to go to this appointment (it was important, for a legal thing, and she can't walk well becuase she has a foot problem so it was essential she got a ride, and her brother usually takes her but he was sick or somethign). So she was reading in the Book of Mormon, then she prayed and was crying to Hevenly Father to help her figure something out. And DURING her prayer we called her. It was so cool because she said over and over "This is such a testimony to me that God knows us and answers our prayers." How cool!!! It felt really cool to be used as an instrument in this way by Heavenly Father.
General Conference was awesome. I was grateful to be able to watch 3 sessions in English, and then I watched the last session in Italian. It was hard to pay attention the whole time honestly when I watched it in Italian, and I didn't understand enough obviously, but it was cool to experience that. I'm excited to read all the talks in the Liahona next month. They were soooooo good. I love General Conference!!!
Also, on Sunday morning us 4 sorelle went to a Catholic mass for Palm Sunday. It is one of the few Sundays where everyone goes to mass during the year, even the non'practicing Catholics. Everyone was carrying around these olive tree branches in representation of the palm branches. I thought a lot about Jerusalem and how it would be really cool to be there during Easter. I know that they do a big celebration for Palm Sunday, but I was not there during that time of year. The mass was very interesting. The Madonna (Mary - the mother of Jesus) is dressed in all black in the churches becuase she is sad and is looking for her son during the last week...or something to that effect. I actually don't understand the full significance of it, but she is dressed all in black and its interesting...
Ok thats it.

 I also got to see Sorella Teichert!! We were in the same MTC group...roommates, same district, and same class with just us 4 sorelle. She got transfered to Taranto this past transfer and it's soooo fun to see her!!!

 My water bottle collection :) About a week after new years I decided to start saving my water bottles. I finally threw them away a couple days ago, but here's my collection of bottles from the past 3 months haha. Remember, that is only from when we are inside our house!!
And you all wonder why missionaries get FAT????? Becuase people decided to give us a ton of junk food for Easter. This is allllll from 1 English course student. Mamma mia. We've been going running sometimes int he morning these days. Meno male.
Happy Easter everyone!!! Hope everyone enjoyed General Conference. Love you all, have a great week, and remember that the Lord loves us and answers our prayers!!!!
Love, Sorella Sobeck