Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Tanti auguri!!!

Well, I'm hitting the 9 month mark tomorrow and it feels so strange! Actually, I don't really feel anything about it, but it sounds strange to think I've been on my mission almost half the time. Weird.

And I'm so excited that this year for my 22nd birthday it fell on Pday! Pretty exciting stuff! This morning we went for a little run, then Sorella Comollo made me crepes with nutella and eggs for breakfast, and then an old Sicilian guy gave us some fave!! So I have birthday fave to eat!!! (Hence the picture :) ) Fave are sooooo good. After internet we're going to a little place called Tusa to explore a little bit, so I don 't know what we're going to end up doing. And of course, I have to get some birthday pizza today too :) Sorella Kelly (mission president's wife) called me this morning to sing me happy birthday, and it's fun. It'll be a good day.

Transfer news is that Sorella Comollo and I are staying together here in Mistretta, so it wasn't too crazy of news. I was surpised that my comp is staying just because she's been her awhile and its a small place, but we're both happy and excited for the next transfer! Can't believe its already going to be my 6th!

This week...these couple weeks have been kinda tough for us, but we're pushing through and things seem to be getting better!! I love when the hard part of trials comes to an end, because then you come out on top feeling like you learned something really good and can continue on. That's how its been lately for us, but we're feeling good and excited to see lots and lots of miracles these next 6 weeks together. We've been trying to get in contact with some inactives lately, without any success. In fact, we had one pretty lame experience where we dropped off a note at one lady's house becuase she wasn't home, then went again a couple days later. We met her this time. I was talking to her and she told me to lower my voice because she didn't want other people to hear me. And then she told us basically to never come back again and she doesn't want anything to do with the church. That pretty much just hurt my heart, because it's hard when people know the truth and completely turn away from it. She was completely embarassed that we were there. Isn't that sad? I felt bad for her. Unfortunately that happens.

Saturday was a pretty good day. In the afternoon we finally saw a family in Reitano who we've been wanting to see for almost a month now. But they've had a ton of problems lately. Salvatore's brother and sister died 2 days apart a few weeks ago, and Regina has a lot of health problems. We went and talked about the Plan of Salvation a little bit. It's so weird, because often people say "yes we believe that in our church too", when in reality no they don't..., and then they say that they have faith, but then they don't...They are very confused and don't really know what they believe. I hope we were able to provide some hope for them though during these hard times. I'm so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that I KNOW that this life is not the end. We also stopped by another family, Pina and Salvatore, and when we walked into their house the Book of Mormon was on the table like she had been reading it :) :) :) She said she had read just a little, and we were sooooooo excited! The last time we met with her we talked about baptism and she said she would never get baptized. But now she's reading the Book of Mormon a little bit on her own. That is such a big deal, because it doesn't seem to happen very often. I love that whole family and hope good things will happen in the future.

On Sunday we have TWENTY people in church!!!!!!!!! It seems pretty ridiculous that I should be that excited about 20 people, but it was huge! The past 2 weeks in church there have maybe been 10 people tops. And we had 3 inactive members come. Hallelujiah! And then that night we went to a Jehovah's Witness church! We have met sooo many Testimone di Geova in Sant'Agata and they usually all invite us to church. So we decided we should go and see how it was. And usually they are not very nice to us on the streets...because we pretty much do the same thing they do with proselyting and they feel threatened but also superior it seems. But they were soooo nice to us at the church! It was WEIRD! We made friends :) And I hope it lays some groundwork for the future for some contacts.

I have a testimony of doing passbacks. So when we do house contacting lots of people tell us we can come back another time. And then we go back and they tell us to go away haha. But we did a passback and this lady was super nice to us and we taught her and her husband a lesson and even though they didn't seem super interested in changing (like almost everyone haha), they were LISTENING. And that doesn't happen almost ever...they just try to talk over us usually. But it was great :)

There's a baptism in Palermo tomorrow and we're hoping to be able to go with Giuseppe. He wants to go, we're just trying to coordinate how its going to work. I love baptisms!!! Also for all of you information, something really cool happened. So the construction on the temple in Rome is slowly progressing, but its moving onward. And there is a young worker named Pietro who was working on the foundation and had questions about why is had to be done so specifically and so carefully and such for this building. And he ended up meeting with the missionaries and he got baptized maybe a couple months ago. Isn't that SO COOL?!?!?! And that his name is Pietro (Peter) and he worked on the foundation of the temple. Sound symbolic at all? So cool. The first worker on the temple who got baptized :) I love the church soooo much.

Ok I don't think I have much other news. Life is moving onward. I feel like so much is changing from the news I hear from home, but I feel like I'm changing a lot too. That's how it should be. We are meant to change and get better and have experiences in life. And have FAITH. I've been learning a lot about faith lately and I'm trying to increase my faith. I love you all. I KNOW this church is true! I wouldn't be here if it weren't. And often times the Lord asks us to do things that we're uncomfortable with doing so we can grow. That's what a mission is in a lot of ways. But also in life. He never said it would be easy, He only said it would be worth it.

Have a great week!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Here's a couple pictures finally:
BIRTHDAY FAVE!!! And the lovely card my companion made for me!

Touring Tusa

Getting a tour of the church by a drunk guy...HAHA

Bathtub

Birthday gelato!


Last pday we went to Cefalù again, this time with Alessandra (grew up here in Mistretta) and her Canadian husband Scott who they are here visiting for a month but leave today, their friend from Canada, and Isabella, sister of Alessandra and inactive member in our branch. This is me and my collega, as close as we can really get to the mare. It was raining allllll day. Like my red pants? I got them from a Chinese store :)

Pday group, with Isabella, Alessandra, and Scott


Friend from Canada...she wants to go on a mission!

MISTRETTA



Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Lots of Driving

Well I don't know if people ended up getting last week's email or not, but Zone Conference in Catania was awesome!!! I'm so grateful for the Spirit and that all of my leaders receive inspiration on what to talk to the missionaries about. I heard some much needed things, always serving to lift us up but also to help us get better. Now we are already drawing near to the end of the transfer again and we have transfer calls on Saturday. We're thinking that Sorella Comollo is probably leaving Mistretta, so I might be getting another new companion next week. Vediamo. It's always exciting getting the call and then something completely different than what you expected happens. :)

This week has been a tougher one. It's really interesting to see the differences in the work from what I saw in Bari, a big city, to Mistretta and the surrounding cities that are much much much smaller. The mentality of the people is very different. They are wonderful people, but they are much more to resist against changing. So I guess that is the difficult part, is that when people DO let you into their houses to talk to them, then you teach them a couple times in the future, we tell them our purpose for being here as missionaries, and then they straight up tell you "I know my church is wrong, but I'm never going to change." I really don't understand that way of thinking, but I know that tradition is sooooooooooooo big here and its even bigger in the smaller paesini. I love these people so much that I wish they would decide to look for something different, and when it comes to them (in the form of missionaries!) that they would accept it. It does happen sometimes. I have so much admiration for people who get baptized and change their lives in Italy because it is not easy at all. However, despite the stereotype that Italian Catholics don't change, we're still chugging along looking for the people who will prove it wrong :)

We've been driving lots this week, and I've been the one driving! It's fun to drive in Italy, not gonna lie. A very different experience than in America, where for the most part people actually follow the law haha. We have gone to Palermo twice this week. We went Sunday evening to do mostra with the 4 anziani serving there and also a senior couple. Mostra is where the missionaries bring signs and lots of materials to hand out to people, and then we divide and conquer!!! We set up in a piazza with all our stuff, and then we all split off and start talking to lots of people. It's pretty intense the first time but then it gets kind of fun. You meet some really cool people. In fact, we met a family from Phoenix, Arizona who live in Milan now for the mom's work...and they're members of the church. Yep...cool things happen at mostra haha. And honestly, if it were 5 years ago and I saw myself in a piazza in Sicily talking to lots of strangers about the gospel in Italian, I probably would not have believed it of myself. Miracles happen on the mission :) Anyways, I really like Palermo. Sisters don't serve there, but I wish we did because I want to haha. It made be miss Bari with its bigness and with craziness and LOTS of people. And then we went to Palermo again the next day for our district meeting. I love our little district with just us 4. I did the training this week and I think it went pretty well. Then we went and got a briosce (don't know how to spell it), which is the original ice cream sandwich. All it is it a roll stuffed with a ton of gelato and it is sooooooooooooooo goooooooooooood. There are probably about 70 flavors of gelato to choose from in this little store too. It's overwhelming! Love it. So yeah, Palermo is awesome. And so is driving in Palermo. :)

Yesterday we went to Sant'Agata and Capo D'orlando to see some investigators. We only ended up having 2 lessons all day, but we saw lots of people and did finding and we felt it was a pretty productive day. We saw Giuseppe, and we found out really why he hasn't committed to a baptismal date even though he is basically ready to be baptized and he wants to. His family and friends are all different religions (I think I already mentioned how persecuted he has been for meeting with the missionaries and being interested in the church), and he told us that if he joins the church (or any other church I think...that is not theirs), that they will disassociated with him. I really really really don't like that. It shed a new light why he has been saying he needs to take it slow, becuase he has a lot of things to figure out and get settled. He will probably be moving up to Milan in the future though. I really feel like he will get it figured out though. Please pray for Giuseppe!

We have been fighting a little bit with our health this week, but as a result from that we got a really awesome appointment from doing Area Book finding. Basically, every missionary couple has a book with lots of phone numbers of investigators (current, ex, and basically everything so we can keep track of the work in the area), and we called one and got an appointment with this younger guy named Pietro who orignially met the anziani here in Mistretta like 8 years ago, but then met the sisters again like a year ago. He is GREAT and has lots of questions and wants to find answers. We told him he needs to read the Book of Mormon and he really wants to. I love when people have desire.

Another funny thing that happened, on Sunday we had church, then we stayed in teh church to study and eat and everything before we went to Palermo to do mostra. And when we tried to leave to go to Palermo, we were literally locked inside the palazzo. Yep, that was fun. We couldn't get outside for like 10 minutes. It was a little freaky. Hahahaha.

Ok, out of time. Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon because it's TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this gospel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know that this is the only church on the earth with the FULLNESS, with ALL the truth, and that we can have peace because of that. We don't have to search anymore.

Love, Sorella Sobeck

All the FOOD people give us in Mistretta! It's MERAVIGLIOSA!!

Food...

...more food

Can never get enough gelato

Mariano :) Vecchio Siciliano

Baby primaria


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Ciao from Catania!

So my email is going to be short because I don't have much time, and I
just talked to you guys. :) I had a great time talking to everyone and
thanks for all you do for me! I appreciate the support and I love you
all. Its weird that I hit my 9 months in a couple weeks. Still a long
ways to go but it really is starting to get faster with time. I'm
grateful for the things I'm learning.

Catania is so cool. I loved Zone Conference yesterday, and it was
weird having to travel for it because in Bari we just walked 40
minutes to the church and that was it. Yesterday morning we drove 2
1/2 hours to get to Catania. After conference we chatted for a bit
with the other missionaries, gave some people rides to the station
with our car, and then we did some contacting int he streets of
Catania! Not gonna lie, it kind of made me miss Bari and the big city.
Finding is a lot different in Mistretta and the small cities. But it
was fun to go back for a couple hours and give a couple referrals to
the missionaries in Catania :)

In Zone Conference probably my favorite thing I heard was from
President Kelly about setting goals and doing all we can to reach
them. However, we have to take into account 3 things: Our work we do
to reach them, the will of the Lord, and the agency of others. I
really liked that, becuase its something I struggle with sometimes
that seemingly no one wants to listen to us speak here. I have to
remember that people have their agency sometimes...and be ok with it.
Easier said than done.



Today we went around the city a little bit. There's a piazza by the
Duomo where of course everything is just really old and looks really
cool. I love cool old stuff. :) Gotta love Italy for that reason,
because its everywhere. Especially in Sicily I feel. We're all super
dehydrated...haha it's going to be weird getting used to the
heat...haven't had to worry about that on my mission yet. I'm lucky
because Mistretta is a little cooler than everywhere else becuase its
on a mountain.

The work is moving along. We had some really cool experiences in
Reitano the past week. Reitano is really small (about 500 people!) and
right next to Mistretta. On Friday we went and had these plans to
teach all these awesome lessons to all our investigators there. And
then no one was home or no one had time or no one answered the phone.
DUMB. So we had LOTS of time. We ended up talking to this group of
people for awhile. There was one lady who we had already triedtalking
to earlier in the evening but was busy, and while we were talking with
this group she said she had time now. Once everyone left she said we
could talk to her more. So we talked to her (Maria) for awhile, about
the Atonement and how the gospel can help us in our lives because she
has depression, wants to stop smoking, has other health problems with
her eyes, and her andher husband are having problems. She's got a lot
of problems (like all people), and she seemed interested in what we
were saying. Needless to say, it was a really cool experience to
listen to her and bear my testimony that this gospel is TRUE and it
helps everyone despite where they are in life. They just have to let
it help them. We haven't seen this woman again (we're hoping she's not
trying to avoid us...that happens sometimes), but we're hoping we
helped her and can continue to help her.

The other cool experience was Sunday night right after I talked to the
fam. Honestly, talking to home is kind of distracting, so it was weird
to have to get back in the mentality to work again. So we went back to
Reitano and tried to see this lady who told us Thursday to come back
Sunday. So we did. She wasn't there. We were pretty bummed. So we
walked around some more trying to figure out what to do and everything
else wasn't working. So we decided to go check if this lady was home
again and then go do finding if she wasn't. So when we walked back to
her house, we ran into her in the street with her husband and 2 sons!
The husband never stays  to listen. We've had one lesson with one son,
and the other I had never met before. But we asked them all to stay
and they did, so we had a great lesson about the gospel of Jesus
Christ with this family of 4! I love bearing my testimony of the
truthfulness of this gospel!!!!! I loved explaining to them that
baptism is a choice, adn shouldn't be something that happens when
we're a baby as a choice of our parents, especially when the only
reason is tradition and not becuase of belief. They liked that too.
Anyways, so it got me pumped to be a missionary becuase people NEED
this message!!!

Ok, so that wasn't really that short I guess, but I gotta go now. Hope
all is well.

For some reason its not letting me attatch the email group, so I don't
know if you want to do that Mom, or if not thats fine. You 4 got it at
least. Have a great week!

I love Italy! I love being a missionary right now! I love my family,
and am grateful for you all. Have an AWESOME WEEK!!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck



Lots of finding in Mistretta...with cool doorknockers

Sorelle at Catania Zone Conference

District

Joseph Smith statue in Catania!! Ok, not really, but it looks like him




Sick...

We made an analogy for this car :)

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Time Warp‏

Seriously...its already the 3rd week of the transfer, but I feel like I've been here in Mistretta FOREVER. Not gonna lie, the time warp in the mission is seriously so weird. In a few weeks I will hit my 9 month mark in the mission...MAMMA MIA!!! Talk about weird.

I have also forgotten to include my new mailing address in Mistretta:

Sorella Kristi Sobeck
Strada Concordia 2
98063 Mistretta (MI)
Sicilia, Italia

Write some letters! :) Mail is pretty reliable to get down here I hear. Mail is always the best treat for a missionary.

So I am currently writing from Palermo! We decided to do our Pday here today, explore a little bit and then go to Monreale which is super close. Palermo is CRAZY. It's huge, theres a zillion people, the driving is RIDICULOUS (to answer some people's questions - I have still not driven the car yet becuase you have to become a designated driver first...which will happen at Zone Conference next week I believe), but it's so fun! Reminds me of being back in Bari a little, yet Palermo is crazier haha. It's really nice having a car sometimes becuase we can go where we want when we want, but its also a big hassle (I won't tell you how long we looked for a parking spot haha). And last Pday we went to Cefalù for a few hours and hiked up to this super old castello and saw the most beautiful view. Everyone look these places up on Wikipedia or something!!! The work is hard in the mission (and in EVERY mission...I know that), but we are so lucky to be in Italy with all it's beautifulness.

This week has been very very full. We've gotten some awesome new investigators and sometimes I'm so amazed by people's willingness to listen to us! I know they SHOULD, but its just that so many people DON'T that sometimes it takes you off gurad when people DO. And when they do listen to you, it's hard when you extend committments that people don't keep, or they just don't see the point. A mentality here of lots of people is that there are so many falsehoods in the Catholic church that they know aren't true but they don't agree with, but then we invite them to learn more and they say something like "Oh, but I'm happy in my church and I will never change my religion." But, if you don't believe in it, why would you stay? Or at least, why would you not explore other options to see if there's something better? It happens ALL THE TIME. And the answer is that people are so into tradition in Italy and they are afraid to change. It's especially hard in the little cities becuase everyone knows everything about everyone and people get judged majorly for even talking to us.

That's why I'm so amazed and excited about our investigator Giuseppe. We have been trying to set a baptismal date with him for this month. He's been meeting with us, his wife, sister-in-law, and parents are Jehovah's Witnesses, he has other relatives who ar Evangelist (its really hard to talk to people of this religion becuase all they want to do is Bible bash honestly), and he has been getting persecuated basically for meeting with us Mormons. People call him to ask him if he's meeting with a Satanic cult and that he needs to be careful. But these people don't even know!!! It's soooo frustrating to be judged like that, becuase almost al the time it scares our investigators away. So Giuseppe has been receiving these calls and judgements, and last night he told us that he needs to be on the defense right now, becuase he now has MORE desire to meet with us and learn more...SOOOO COOL!!!!!!! He's explored lots of different churches (including the ones of all his relatives), and we asked him if he felt a difference since he's met with the missionaries and come to our church. He said "Before I was just going through the motions of life. I wasn't happy. But now I feel better about where I'm going. And I'm happier despite the fights people are putting up against me." mamma mia, I wish all Italians could be as strong as he is being...have this courage. I really believe that Giuseppe will get baptized. Not this month, but we are praying really hard for him to keep going in this direction. He still needs a testimony of a lot of things, but he is growing!! He is going to LOVE the gift of the Holy Ghost. I KNOW that having the Holy Ghost helps us with our problems. There are ALWAYS problems in this life...they never go away. that's why I love in the scriptures that it says to not procrastinate (something I've always struggled with) because we never know what tomorrow will bring...if it will be better or worse. But our lives never get less busy. It's better to do the important things now so we won't regret not having done them tomorrow. Something I've been thinking about and learning on the mission, and that I hope I can be better about in my life.

We've been doing lots of finding. On Monday we usually have our district meeting, but our anziani had a funeral on Monday so we changed it to Tuesday (so we were actually in Palermo too). So Monday we stayed in Mistretta and did finding almost all day long...that was my first day on my mission to do that much finding. And we didn't get a single lesson....it was weird, because we seem to always get in to someone's house to teach a lesson, but it was a new experience. We had fun doing finding though hahaha...Sorella Comollo is great and funny and we get along well together. So that makes finding more pleasant, especially when you get rejected all day long! Good thing we know our message is true, otherwise this work would be a looooot harder to keep doing!

We're also trying to help a inactive member who is living with our investigator who have 3 kids together to stop smoking and drinking. It's really hard, and we're trying to figure out how best to help them. Any advice on how to lovingly yet firmly help someone to stop smoking? Jeez.

The cool thing is that the sister of this inactive member (and about 5 or 6 other inactive/less active members in our branch...there is a family with 8 kids who are all grown up...5 of them live in our area and all but 1 are inactive) who lives in Canada and IS active is here visiting this month with her Canadian husband. They are AWESOME and its so fun to have support from them right now. It's a pretty heavy situation with this family, especially for teh branch, but you just keep chugging along. They are all awesome though, I wish they'd all just go to church and be happier. The answer to life's problems = the gospel of Jesus Christ. :) :)

Ok, thats about it from this week. I'm really excited about Zone Conference in Catania this coming Tuesday. But I'm MOST excited about skyping with my family for Mother's Day!!!!!!!!!!! Seems like it was just Christmas sometimes (yep...time warp), but I'm super excited to "see" my family and talk to them for a little bit. I love my family!!! I'm so grateful to be on a mission...I think it makes you appreciate your family more and all the little things they do for you.

Hope everyone has a great week! Happy Mother's Day to my mommy and all my "other" mom's who've always supported me. You're all the best!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Salvatore with giant lemon

CEFALU'

BELLISSIMA

Hike to castello

Typical Italia...old man

There he is :)

Baby Naomi

Aurora

Andrea

Epic fail of chocolate chip cookie making

P-TOWN



Palermo is...grande

Monreale

Pantacrator 


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The Book of Mormon is TRUE.

Buon maggio!!! Can't believe it's already MAY!!!! It's starting to get hot...its nicenot to wear tights anymore and pretty soon I will put the cardigans away too...awesome. The goosebumps and coldness have been replaced by sweat stains and sunburns...yep, I got a nice arm sunburn yesterday. That was fun.

I had a good week. I'm still looking for the miracles every single day and I'm still seeing them every single day. I love missionary work - its the hardest thing I've ever done but never has anything been more rewarding then when you see someone feel the spirit and recognize it as something important. That is what we get to see all the time. A lot of people don't want to act on that spirit, but it is still incredible to see the light shining in their eyes in that moment when they feel that the things we're saying are true because the SPIRIT bears witness. I've realized a lot in the past couple weeks that it doesn't matter how GOOD or how BAD we say something in Italian as long as we say it with conviction and with the spirit. You can never go wrong with bearing your testimony. And even if we don't speak all that well I know that people will remember how they FEEL much more than they will remember what we SAY or how we say it. That is the gift from the Lord, and how Him sending the weak and simple things of the world as missionaries to confound the wise. So incredible.
We got 3 new investigators last week!! One of them is a 19 year old girl we found doing house, and it was a testimony to me that doing house works!!! We taught her a little about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We had left her the 1st lesson pamphlet (The Restoration), and then when we went back on Thursday again she had answered some of the questions at the end...no one ever does that!!! And we asked her to say the prayer at the end, and she did!!! We all felt the spirit and I LOVE hearing people pray for their first time out loud in their own words. They are always the most beautiful prayers. I hope this young girl will continue to progress. We have an appointment to go back again tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that.
We have a good investigator named Giuseppe and we have been trying to set a baptismal date with him. He lives over an hour away from Mistretta!! Its far away, but its so worth it because he wants to get baptized! There are a lot of problems in his family right how (like he and his wife are separated right now), but I have such a testimony that is people will get baptized and then receive the gift of the Holy Ghost they will receive help with their problems. So many people think...ok I'll do that when all my problems go away. Hmmmm...thats never gonna happen. That happened to me several times in Bari with investigators, so I'm really hoping and praying that Giuseppe will not be like that and will trust our promises to him. We are really trying to promise people blessings more when they do the will of the Lord. I KNOW we are blessed when we obey the commandments and do the things we are supposed to do, even if they aren't all that easy. Heavenly Father knows that. So He blesses us. It makes SO MUCH SENSE.
We went and saw a lady who is inactive but was just baptized about a year and a half ago. She doesn't go pretty much because she's lazy, but she does have a really firm testimony. We had a good visit with her on Friday, then we ended up passing by her on the street on Saturday. Both times we invited her to church and she said she'd come. We were hoping she would, and then Sunday morning she called us saying she wanted to come and if we could find her a ride! So we called a couple people, and then we saw her in church! I LOVE when inactives come to church!!! Such an awesome feeling. I'm so so so happy for them though, becuase I know they feel the spirit.
Monday was a fun day. We had DDM with our Anziani and this time they came to us (we switch every week). We picked them up at the station at Santo Stefano (where the church is) and we had our district meeting at the church and had a really good training about prayer. Our Anziani are awesome. After DDM we drove them up to Mistretta because we have an investigator we wanted them to work with a little bit with the Word of Wisdom. So they went with him and we stayed with his compagna and had a lesson with her. It was a good experience. We are in the process of trying to get both of them to stop smoking. IT'S HARD. I wish that all these things weren't even available, because all they do is destroy our bodies. EVERYONE in Italy smokes and its so disgusting. The dumb thing is that I'm starting to get used to getting smoke blown in my face as I walk down the streets. That is not a good sign...it makes me sad that people smoke. Anyways, I know that quitting would be hard, but I know they can do it!!!
yesterday we had a cool experience. We went to see Giuseppe (he lives in a place called Capo D'orlando, which is a city that is really spread out). We planned on driving near his house and then doing finding around there. But Sorella Comollo felt like she needed to turn at this place way before his house. So we did, started doing finding, talked to this really awesome guy near his house and ended up saying a prayer with him and he had tears in his eyes when we said Amen. SO COOL. Then we had to go back to the car for something and while we wer there we saw Giuseppe's wife (remember they are separated), who told us we should go see her sister and daughter who lived in the palazzo RIGHT by where we parked. Coincidence? Probably not. WE had no idea where they lived. Anyways, the wife and her sister are TESTIMONE DI GEOVA (let me just say...it is very difficult to talk to TJ'S...), and we had an interesting little encounter with her. But we also got to talk to Giuseppe's daughter (who is 12) and she is confused about which church is true because her mom and aunt are TJ and her dad is investigating the Mormon church but she grew up Catholic and all that fun stuff. So we got to tell her how she could receive an answer. It was sooooo cool. Love cool spiritual experiences like that. And then we went and told Giuseppe about the experience and he thought it was cool. "You guys were guided by the spirit!" Yep. :)
Anyways, I know the Book of Mormon is true because I prayed about it and received an answer. Talking to the Testimone di Geova yesterday and then the day before an Evangelist who basically was trying to Bible bash us kinda shook me up a little bit. It's really annoying when people tell you that you don't know anything and then pray for us that we will be enlightened from our dark paths...yeah. But I love the Book of Mormon so much and am so grateful we have this second testament of Jesus Christ that works together WITH the Bible and testifies that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I love this gospel!!
Ok gotta go. Lots of cool stuff from this week. Have a great week everyone, and I know this church is true!!!
Love, Sorella Sobeck
Ana-lucia - I got your package!!! Loved it :) The card very well might have been the best thing ever hahaha. I'll write you a real letter in the next few weeks in response. Thanks pal!!


Cool peeps

CIAO MARE!