Sorella Sobeck in Rome: 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