Sorella Sobeck in Rome: 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