I Love Gelato!!!

Last week when we did shopping, the gelato was on sale. That was bad, because then we bought a lot of gelato. 2.5 kg of gelato to be exact. It's just been chillin in the freezer as we've been eating it lately. I love gelato. :)

Pday last week hiking to the castle was fun, but it was really hot. We had fun with the Anziani since we sometimes feel a bit isolated in our area of Mistretta haha. It's great to really realize sometimes that missionaries are just young normal people, but doing the best they can to serve the Lord. People change so much on missions, if they let themselves. I've also really come to realize that there can be and there ARE different kinds of missionaries. I've been lucky to have been surrounded by great examples of missionaries who work hard and with the spirit, which helps me want to do better!

Well, I had another seafood lunch the other day. We have another old man investigator named Salvatore who is so sweet and loves us so much. He told us yesterday that since he's met us he feels so much more hope in his life. Talk about feeling good about the work you're doing...if you can help someone have more hope. I love being a missionary. Anyways, last week after several times of his asking us to take us to eat something, we finally relented and we ate at this restaurant by the sea. It was actually pretty good...spaghetti with a zillion clams in it, swordfish (not too bad with lots of lemon juice), and mega jumbo shrimp. This experience was tons better than my Christmas Eve dinner with 5 kinds of raw fish that I ate...hahaha...thank goodness this time all this stuff was cooked. Cooked is best! And of course you top it off with some fruit and gelato, since meals here are at least 4 courses...soooooooooo fulllllllllllll.

We've been trying to pick up the work in Capo D'orlando lately, because thats where Giuseppe lives. Unfortunately, it is far away. Far from the church and there aren't any members there (although we DID find an inactive member who lives really close just last week! and we want to get him coming to church). So we're starting ENGLISH COURSE in Capo D'orlando next week, and the past transfer we've been going to do finding there before our lessons with Giuseppe. But it was only once a week. But lately we've been going twice a week and we've been seeing some fruits and have gotten a couple new investigators, and yesterday we passed out some flyers to publicize English Course. It's so much fun! It's a new area to missionaries, and while everyone seems to always thing we are Testimoni di Geova, we've had some cool things happen. Last week we were going to pass by a house one last time to try and find a guy who we had a lesson with over a month ago...but everytime we tried going since then he wasn't home. So this was going to be the last time. So we went, he was there this time, we had another lesson, and he and his wife said we could come back anytime we want. Sweeeeet miracle. It was funny though, becuase we asked the wife to say the prayer before we left, and she went off on us saying that she was never going to change her religion and all that stuff...and then the husband was all like "Dude! They just want you to say a prayer!" Hahaha it was so funny. So we are really excited for the potential of this new city, especially when we start English course and continue going more. It really does take consistency to get the work moving.

We've had a hard time with Bea and Pasquale lately, unfortunately finding out even more problems and that they really don't have any desire to really stop smoking. That was a tough blow, because there has been a lot of investment in them, not only with us and the branch president but also our anziani have come to do 2 lessons with them which is a big deal. We haven't dropped them per se, but we don't really know whats going to happen. It's sad when people don't have desire. You have to have desire to change. The eternal principle that there are 2 kinds of people...those who act and those who are acted upon. We talked about this in companionship study this morning, and I want to always be a person who wants to DO SOMETHING. If we do something and always try to do better, instead of being a person who just lets whatever happen happen, life will be better. It takes initiative though, and effort, which is not always natural or easy. But CE LA FACCIAMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (WE CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I gave my FIRST TALK in Italy in church on Sunday! I talked about missionary work, and it went well. It was cool to be able to give a 20 minute talk in Italian and not really be that nervous for it. Maybe it was becuase it was only in front of like 12 people, or maybe because I read lots of stuff too (hahaha), but it happened! So Sorella Comollo and I made a list of all of our callings that was did on Sunday in church: MIssionaries, choirister/hymn choosers, talk givers, Sunday school teacher (gospel principles with Giuseppe), Young Womans teacher, Primary teacher, fasters (because we were fasting for someone), English course preparers (we had to do some pubblicity on the computer). It was an intense Sunday haha! On Sunday night too we went to Santo Stefano with a member and did a bunch of street contacting. It was so fun because she had no fear and we talked to some cool people and invited lots of people to church.

Monday we went to Palermo for district meeting and it was an awesome day. Awesome training, and we all bought sunglasses together from the foreign street vendors, then Sorella Comollo and I ate McDonalds on the way out :) What a great morning :) :) I really love my district, and we feel like family. They always tell us now "You guys are like my real sisters!" and I consider them my brothers now! Yeah!

I gotta publicize this awesome video that we are in the process of watching very slowly with the Portera's (the branch president, who are also our neighbors), that an ex'missionary who served in Palermo made about the Plan of Salvation. We've only watched a little part together so far, but its so stinkin cute! And its available in English online (though I think you have to pay a couple bucks). It's called "The Book of Life" and its made by Marco Lui. I will be buying it when I get home!!!

Ok, enough for this week. It's hot. I'm so luck to live in Mistretta haha. When we drive down the mountain we get the humidity and thats the fun stuff. I can't believe its already almost July and that the year is half over. Crazy. Have a happy week!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Foto -

 When the anziani came to Mistretta to have a lesson with Bea and Pasquale...before we all had lunch with the Portera family!!! I LOVE THE PORTERA'S!!!! He's been branch president for like 12 years or more.

Like my new dress??? Haha, its all the craze with these Italians...ok, its just a house dress, but I love it. I don't wear it outside sadly.

 Our sunglasses!!! Anz. McMullen, Sor. Comollo, Sor. Sobeck, Anz. Larsen. Awesome district.

GAMBERI! Our seafood lunch with Salvatore...

...complete with gelato.

Ciao ciao!

Promise them blessings!!!

Something that we are trying to do better as a companionship is to do better at promising people blessings. As missionaries, we ask people to do stuff and make commitments ALL THE TIME, and frequently here they don't do the things we ask, but I know that promising blessings is important and is an incentive. Who doesn't want blessings??????

Well, I have very little time today because we're going to Cefalù for Pday again today and we're meeting the Anziani from Palermo and Trapani there. Yeah pday hiking to castelli!!! So I'll just write some quick highlights of what happened this week.

Thursday was an AWESOME day. We finally contacted a referal we've had for awhile from a member, because we've been trying to go with her and unfortunately scheduling wasn't working out well. So we went and had a good lesson with that (I love lessons in teh presence of a member...I didn't appreciate them as much in Bari because it wasn't as hard, but here in Mistretta its really hard to get them...so we had Sorella Battista with us this time and she's so great). And then she fed us lunch. Doesn't get much better than that. Later that night we were doing finding knocking on doors and ringing citofs, and we got a lesson and a new investigator!!! Her name is Cristina, we talked to her and her sister, and at the end we said the prayer together and her 2 daughters who are 10 and 5 came and joined us too. I love families. We had made an appointment to see her again yesterday evening, and sadly she wasn't there (yeah that happens a lot), but we'll return. And then after Cristina, we had a lesson with Giuseppe and found our 100% for sure that he is Jehovah's Witness! He was baptized was he was like 14 or something, because his parents are in this religion. Anyways, it just made me super happy because he is SO INTENTLY studying with us now and he loves our church. It makes my testimony grow that people really are being prepared, no matter what religion they are.

So in Mistretta we have talked to different people who are not from Italy, and we've told them we had a book in their native language that we could give to them. One in Romanian and one in Hungarian. So on Friday we decided to carry these 2 books around with us in MIstretta, hoping we'd see them by some miracle. There are actually several people from Romania here in Mistretta, so we tried contacting a couple of them and none of them could meet us. So we were doing passbacks and we meet this lady who is from Romania and we give her the Book of Mormon. We told her we had no idea why we had that book with us, but we knew she was supposed to have it. It was a super cool experience. And then walking on the main street on our way to another appointment we said the lady from Hungary and gave her the Book of Mormon in Hungarese and got her phone number to meet another day to talk about it. How cool???? We haven't seen these people in weeks, and then the day we carry them around we see them and give both of them away. HEAVENLY FATHER IS SOOO COOL!!!!

I LOVE our Branch President and his family...la famiglia Portera. We had correlation with him on Saturday and he does so much for the branch. We also ate lunch with them on Monday when our Anziani from Palermo came up to Mistretta to have a lesson with Pasquale. They make good food, mamma mia. I love Sicilian cooking...actually Italian cooking in general. And I love that people just give us food. I've talked about how we've gotten fave and all sorts of vegetables and fruit from people (but of course only the fruits and vegetables that are IN SEASON...I love that they only eat the produce thats in season...so much better). Well, this old lady gave us some fresh homemade bread the other night. So cute.

We had church on Sunday and there were lots of people because there was a family from Ragusa visiting. Love full church. And we get to teach President Portera's youngest daughter, Lucrezia, who is 10, because she hasn't been baptized yet and needs teh lessons from missionaries now because she's over 8. She hasn't been baptized yet because of several deaths in their family of grandparents and such, so the opportunity hasn't presented itself. We already teach her in primary every week, so we'll do the lessons there. On Sunday Slla Comollo taught Young Women and I taught Primary, so I got to teach her the 1st lesson and it was so fun :)

We've been going through our ward list (which TOTAL is 1 page in length...active and inactive people...haha), and we've been trying to find the inactives. We found one yesterday who was baptized in Siracusa in 2000 but when he moved here he didn't come anymore because he says its far away. Boo. It was interesting to here his story, and how active in missionary work he was when he was a new member. Hopefully we'll get him to church...he can come with Giuseppe, because they live really close to each other. BLESSINGS!!!

Ok, thats about it for the week. So much happens every week that I have no time to write about, but just know that the work is going and we're trying hard to help bring souls to Christ. I think its so cool that we can be instruments in the hands of the Lord during this time to help people have testimonies. I'm so grateful!!!!

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Sobeck

YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH DP!!

Lo smalto da Isabella

Weekly planning...

Gecko chase in the apartment

Week of Conferences

Ciao tutti! I'm in Catania today! We had Zone Conference yesterday (it was super early this transfer) and we got permission to stay in Catania for Pday today. So today what did we do? We went to Mt. Etna...just an active volcano thats HUGE! We did some hiking, got some scrapes, had some fun, my companion ripped her pants (hahah poor thing), ate some McDonalds afterwards, and we're about to head back to Mistretta. As always, Zone Conference was super uplifting and I feel a million ways I need to improve on. But we also receive advice, and something that is sometimes really hard to remember in this mission (and I think especially in the smaller cities) where you don't always see lots of success, is that we plant lots of seeds that we don't even know about. And we probably won't ever know the full service we gave to these people until after this life. I hope that happens. I love all the stories about people who get a passalong card or a Book of Mormon and then 10 years later they see it and meet the missionaries and get baptized. That was a good reminder for me...we do lots of finding all the time and I hope we are planting lots and lots of seeds for these people :) But if not, I'm doing my best anyways and I know Heavenly Father is proud of me for serving my hardest.

We have this one investigator who is actually an ex'communicated member, Isabella, but she is so cute. We have been trying to work with her a little, and she is only 24 so close to our age and she loves to see us lately. She thinks we're so funny haha. We've been really happy to have some good lessons with her the past couple weeks and have some fun lessons with her.

On Saturday we were really happy to get a new investigator that night! We hadn't gotten any that week yet, OR the week before, and so we were really hoping for a miracle. It happened when we had an appointment with this old man we street contacted a few weeks before and finally called him up. We thought he was going to give us a bidone honestly (stand us up) when he didn't answer his phone and he was late, but he showed up and we had a great first lesson with him and he's so cute! He's ex-military and very kind. His wife died like 7 years ago and he's already reading some of the Book of Mormon. Miracle.

We had Stake Conference on Sunday in Palermo, but it turned out to be a conference for all of ITALY that they broadcasted from Salt Lake! Anziano Nelson and Anziano Eyring and a member of the 70 all spoke, and it was soooo awesome!! And Giuseppe came too!!! ANOTHER MIRACLE!! Holy cow this guy is making sacrifices to come to stuff, and Palermo is far from his house in Capo D'orlando. He's so willing to come and it makes us so happy. When people make sacrifices and ACT that's how they get a testimony. And Giuseppe is doing that. Super excited for him. He made a great analogy about how investigating a church is like dating someone hahaha. And how you want to know everything about them before you get married/baptized. While that isn't possible (obviously), and we have forever to continue to learn about the church or that person, I thought it was a cool analogy. He also doesn't udnerstand how people who are members of the church stop going. yeah...I don't get it either. I love that he feels that way though. Giuseppe is our miracle every single week I feel.

I'm starting to get nice and tan. But not with swimsuit tan lines...with farmer tans haha. Even though its not as hot in Mistretta as it is everywhere else in Sicily...its still pretty hot. And nice and sunny. Good times.

Love you all!!! I'm always grateful to be a missionary because of the things I'm learning every single day and week. I'm grateful for the friendships I'm building too. Thanks for all the letters and emails, I've felt loved lately and I'm grateful for teh support and thoughts. :)

Buon giorno a tutti!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Sorry I can't figure out how to send photos. But when I figure it out I'll send some cool ones of Mt. Etna :) :) :) Ciao ciao!

Ana - NO LETTER????? That's so dumb!! I'm sorry :( Man, somebody just really wanted a letter from Sorella Sobeck or something haha...it was all in response to your last letter though I'm pretty sure, and thanking you lots and lots for the letters/pictures you sent. But yes, it seems there are some updates :) Look forward to hearing from you and love you!!!

Mark - sorry to hear about what happened, but you should completely move to utah. Just saying...its where its at!

Garrett - NO WAY!!!!!! COME MAI???? You gotta say more details than that pal, but tanti auguri a te!!! Seriously...and man. Talk about good workouts in the army haha. Good luck with all that.

Aunt Debi - wow things have been SUPER busy for you guys. I hope all went perfectly for the wedding...my mom sent a couple pictures and everyone looks great! Love you all!!!

Dad - its starting to get hot here too, though I'm lucky to be in Mistretta now. When I go to Palermo or Catania or other places not on my mountain its much hotter. Good luck with work changes.

Aunt Donna - thanks for emailing me every week! I love you lots!

Sheep near our house...we like to make videos about them

La mia citta'!

ETNA

Hiking 

Volcano

Sorelle (Mistretta/Catania)

Anziani

Scratched up shins

Peanut Butter M&M's‏

Can I just say I miss peanut butter????? One of the Anziani in my district (the one from England) got a "care package" from his dad that had a bunch of food in it to share with the other missionaries. All from America. And he gave us some peanut butter M&M's and I went to heaven. I love peanut butter. But...nutella is pretty good too :)

I have to write about some miracles :)

Giuseppe, pretty much our only progressing investigator, saw a baptism!!!!!!!!! But the miracle is how it all happened. We found out last Monday about this baptism in Palermo that would happen on Thursday. We called Giuseppe to tell him about it. The next day at our appointment with him he was looking up train times and everything for us to be able to go together. It was all MUCH more complicated than I make it seem now, but I'll save the drama except to say we had to make a lot of phone calls and some of them didn't seem so successful haha to figure out everything (we have lots of rules as missionaries!). So we ended up finding a train that would get us all to Palermo on time for the baptism, and another one that would get us missionaries back home in Mistretta by 9. So Giuseppe drives his car from Capo d'orlando to Sant'agata where he takes the train. We drive from Mistretta to Santo Stefano to catch the train and meet him on it. We get to Palermo, meet our anziani there, take a bus and then walk to the church where the baptism was. There weren't a lot of people because it was Thursday night, but the point was that the guy getting baptized was there...and Giuseppe too! He saw the baptism and also the confirmation (usually the confirmation is the Sunday after but this was a special circumstance and we were so excited he got to see both!). We left really fast after it was all over to catch the bus back to the train station. Giuseppe bought us gelato, then we go to the platform. Our train did not come at 7 like it was supposed to. yeah, it was cancelled, and so was the next one after that. When did we leave Palermo? 8;20. Oh my gosh. And what time did we get home to mistretta? 10:35. Hahaha mamma mia. (Missionary schedule you're home at 9 usually and in bed at 10:30...) So Giuseppe had taken the whole day off of work so he could come to the baptism with us, and then we were super late getting back. But, because he loves to talk to people (he's a businessman), he ended up getting a new client for his business while we were waiting for the train to come! HE was so cute when he said "Yeah, I really got blessed for coming to the baptism!" He's so great. We have stake conference this Sunday and we're really hoping he'll be able to come with us!

Another miracle. Yesterday we did a bit of exploring when we went to a new little city where we had both never been before. We chose this place because we found some information about an ex-investigator and we had her address so we decided to try and find her. We got to Pettineo and learned that this address didn't even EXIST! And we didn't have a phone number. So...we went around asking a bunch of people if they knew Rita Bruno. And because its a small town, people led us a certain direction, we'd ask someone else, they'd lead us a different direction, until eventually we found someone who took us directly to her door! Was she there? Nope...haha. But we went back later and found her daughter, who when she saw us was SO HAPPY! And we got her phone number to come back another day. Small cities are so great! That never would've happened in a big city. We feel really good about this family and hope we have a lesson with them soon.

I have a testimony of passbacks. So we do finding all the time (tracting...street contacting and door knocking). A lot of people when you ring their citof tell you you can come back later. Most of them aren't serious, yet we do it anyways :) But once in awhile you find some people who really are willing to let you come back. That happened with a couple ladies a few weeks ago. We went and visited both of them this past week again as passbacks. One of them told us "Yeah, I never let any religious people in, but I'm just really curious about what you girls are doing here." Thats a perfect opportunity to teach someone about the Restoration of the church! So even if people don't necessarily seem interested, I know that we need to go back anyways, becuase YOU NEVER KNOW UNTIL YOU TRY!!! I've heard stories about the most unlikely people getting testimonies of the church and then baptized. You never know. I'm not saying this lady will probably get baptized a member of the church, but at least now she knows our story a little bit. And that we're really nice girls and not crazy. A lot of people thing the latter unfortunately because they don't even give us a chance...but thats universal :)

I'm so grateful for the Book of Mormon. We need it!!! (Read 2 Nephi 29). Sadly, the people here don't even read the Bible and so many refuse to even have the idea enter into their mind to read another book that comes from God. But I KNOW IT'S TRUE!!!!!!!! I'm grateful for the messages and the comfort I take when I read it. Everyone...READ IT PLEASE!!! Just a little bit everyday. And make it become a habit to make us better people.

Sadly this morning I went to my 5th funeral since I've been on my mission. There are so many old people in Italy...jeez. But this was for our branch president's mother. She's not a member, and President Portera is the only member in his whole family, so this was a Catholic funeral. It may have been my 5th funeral but it was my 1st Catholic funeral. It was an interesting experience...again, it makes me really grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that I know where we go after we die, and also for the Mormon culture because its just happier. All these experiences help me understand Catholics better though.

So I don't really have time to write more. But I appreciate all the birthday thoughts/notes from last week! I had a good birthday. We went to explore a little place called Tusa, and the highlight was when a drunk guy gave us a tour of the Chiesa Madre (the main church in every town), and then later thought we were lesbian and offered to buy us a drink at the bar. Might sound strange, and it was a bit, but oh so very funny!!! And then that night I celebrated with birthday pizza and gelato :) Gotta love Italy! I sure do.

Hope all's well with all. My mission is just about half over and it's really weirding me out. Please pray for us to find people who are ready for the gospel and willing to accept our message. These people are the sweetest but as always our hearts need to be softened.

Remember my address in Mistretta is

Strada Concordia 2

98063 Mistretta (ME)

Sicilia, Italia

or theres the mission home address

Piazza Carnaro 20

00141 Roma (RM)

Italia

Love you all!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Ana Lu - NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so not surprised. ;) Gotta give me details over here!!! Auguri!

Windmill

Benvenuti a M-TOWN

Non fumo...il fumo UCCIDE

The nail activity with Isa 

Finding in Capo D