Sorella Sobeck in Rome: 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!!