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 The goosebumps and coldness have been replaced by sweat stains and sunburns...yep, I got a nice arm sunburn yesterday.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!