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!
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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 :)
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Pday group, with Isabella, Alessandra, and Scott
Friend from Canada...she wants to go on a mission!
MISTRETTA
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