Running through the rain barefoot‏

So we have a member who has become reactived in the past 2 months...miracles happen when you go to church. Angela got baptized a year and a half ago now and has never been active since, only coming sporadically. So we had been working with her and after she came to church 4 weeks in a row, she got a job. Coincidence? Heck no. I love miracles. She's so happy since she's been coming everyweek (now its been 6 in a row), she has work for a few months (any kind of work is a huge deal in Mistretta right now), and her testimony is so strong. On her way to work this morning she rang our bell at 7am to tell us hello. She was so happy :) These days she's starting to work on her geneology. I will never be able to say enough how much I love the church.

Cool quote I found this week: "What you are is God's gift to youò what you do with yourself is your gift to God." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

We got some new investigators in Mistretta this past week. One is a woman who has no teeth and smokes like theres no tomorrow. But she took the Book of Mormon. The other is a man who can't read, but we want to try and help him learn how if he'll let us. And he serenades us with the accordian...if only I could send home videos. You'll all just have to wait for those for when I get home :)

I love my Branch President and his family. We had correlazione on Saturday and it was the best one of my mission. This is a meeting where we talk about the work and what we need help with. President is just so funny and makes us laugh always. But we had a really interesting conversation about an idea of trying to open a new area to missionary work. To be honest, the area of Mistretta has not really grown in 30 years...due to distance, branch drama with members, etc...hence the reputation of it being a difficult area to serve in. We really feel if we could get missionaries in a different area the work could explode! So we're talking it over with leaders to see if something could eventually happen with that. It was something exciting in our week though.

Monday was one of the most awesome days of my mission. We went to Palermo for district meeting and met a rather shady character who is a contact of the Anziani (Palermo is super cool!) We ate McDonalds at a train station. We almost ran out of gas. We got a new investigator...we were outside and then it started raining, so we went to a bar to finish (bar's here are different than in America haha), then to say the closing prayer we wanted to go outside but it was POURING, so we found an arc and prayed under that and during the prayer there was a HUGE THUNDER boom, and then we ran back to the car and I had to take off my shoes because they kept slipping off so I was running barefoot through the pouring rain. We were soaked. It was awesome. Then we get back to Mistretta, had a Family Home Evening with a family and while we were eating afterwards the power in the whole city went out. No power, no water, niente. We ate with candles as our light. Blackout. In the rainstorm. It was a day very out of the ordinary, which you need every once in awhile. It was so much fun :)

Sadly I heard about what happened in Colorado at the movie theatre. Everyone has been telling us about it. It was kind of a jolt to reality, because on the mission we don't watch the news or really know anything that is happening. It was sad to realize that things like that happen...

Ok well I'm out of time. Thanks for the emails this week...feel free to send some mail in this very dry spell that has been happening lately...yep.

Rich - Thanks for hitting reply! It works! Sounds like the summer has been fun...can't believe its almost August. Love you guys!

Mark - You're crazy! That picture...mamma mia. Go have some fun in Fresno.

Aunt Debi - that video is intense. I liked the music. I have no idea anything happening with elections...

Ana - I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!! You rode Goliath...so jealous hahaha ride it lots more for me please! Tell Kevin and Erin congrats for me :) :) :)

Aunt Donna - Happy birthday next week! Tanti auguri a te!!

Love, love, love,

Sorella Sobeck

Accordian-playing investigator!

IL LIBRO DI MORMON

Summer rain storm - we were literally soaked and running through the streets barefoot

Dinner by candlelight

And Liria gave me her shirt to wear haha\

So this old guy kept slapping me...

It's true! What a funny experience...we went to go see Angela (our now ACTIVATED member :) :) :)), and her old man neighbor was there. Like everyone else, his name is Giuseppe, and like most old people, he speaks mostly only Siciliano...which I don't understand very much...so we were talking about temples. We said the opening prayer and asked Giuseppe if he could close his eyes, and all of a sudden he just starts laughing and then he full on slaps my shoulder!!! What the random?? He contradicted himself by saying he believed in God but he didn't. So we gave him a Restoration pamphlet which he completely denied when we first tried giving it to him, but then when he left he told us twice that he'd read it. Oh man...vecchietti.

I have to write about a personal miracle. So, the entire time I've been here in Mistretta (3 months now!) I have not been able to find my camera memory card for the first 3/4 months of my mission and I was really depressed about it because I thought I lost it. So I was praying to find it for awhile. A few weeks ago I randomly thought of my geneology sheet that mom sent me a long time ago, which is folded in a ziplock bag in my suitcase, and that I should look at it. But I didn't because I was lazy and then I forgot. So then last Pday I was looking through some of my stuff and out came this ziplock bag and all the random random stuff I have in it, including this geneology sheet that I have. So I looked at it and unfolded it and out came my memory card. What do you know. Prayer works. And I need to pay more attention to those thoughts I get! I'm learning. And I'm SO GRATEFUL to have found it!

In weekly planning last week we made lots of new goals. Being with the same companion for 3 transfers, you gotta switch some stuff up and do new things, because its a long time to be with one person on the mission. We made a contacting goal that on Tuesday and Thursday we wanted to talk to 30 people on the street. Usually for finding we do house and some street, so this would be different. Its very different to talk to a person on a citofono instead of face to face. You still get lots of rejections, but I believe its more effective. So yesterday, we met our goal!! And nothing really exciting happened, but I felt so good about it that we pushed ourselves and it really helped us to have a "sense of urgency" in the work.

On Saturday we had an appointment scheduled in Sant'Agata in the morning, takes us an hour to drive there. We set the appt. with this lady the night before and told her we'd call her at 11 to meet her. So we get there, she doesn't answer, then she calls back and tells us she can't come becuase she's too busy. We were pretty ticked because we drove all the way to this city for this appointment and she completely flaked and we had to go back to Mistretta for the afternoon. So we went and did finding and really wanted to get in a lesson. We were doing house and we talked to some testimoni di geova who were not very nice to us and I personally felt like we weren't doing anything productive. Especially because doing house in the morning is difficult becuase everyone is cleaning or cooking and thats the most important thing...or the best excuse haha. But anyways, we kept doing house and we found an open palazzo and went all the way to the top and were completely out of breath (hot and humid!) and then rang the doorbell and a younger man let us in. And then before we knew it we were teaching a beautiful family of 4...an experience that I can say for me has never really happened on my mission. Families seem impossible sometimes...but we had a young couple with their 2 adorable young boys, and they were really interested in the things we were saying. We left them a Book of Mormon and got their number and I can't wait to go again. These miracles...they make my mission so worth it because I know Heavenly Father is watching over me as a missionary and is aware of the frequent difficult moments and He has a plan for each one of us...we got stood up so we could find this family instead. Something I think all missionaries in this mission (and its LOTS of missions in the world) struggle with is that we don't see very many baptisms, if any. But we see so many miracles. It's making me appreciate the big stuff when it happens a lot more.

Yesterday we had a weird yet cool experience. There is a branch off the Catholic church called the Rennewal of the Spirit (or something like that), and we met with some yesterday. Interesting how we found them last week...doing street and they walked past us coming to their car from the mare and we heard them say Mormoni. They are from the north and are here on vacation and have met with missionaries before and have a Book of Mormon. we also found out yesterday that their son did English Course with the church before. Coincidence? I think not. So during this lesson (which actually turned out to be more of a monologue on the part of this older man), involved a type of prayer circle. Mamma mia che strano. They pray in tongues, which for them is mumbling pretty much, and they sing! It was really interesting to experience this culture. We lent them a Book of Mormon while they are here on vacation and are going back next week.

K thats all I got time for. It was a pretty good week, looking forward to what happens this week!

Aunt Kathy - Thanks so much for the email last week! I'm so proud of you for using the computer!!! :)

Uncle Steve - Also thanks for the email and update. How exciting about Sean and Sarah!!!

Russell B - So yeah, Italy made it to the finals and then I heard lost pretty miserably haha. Thanks for the emails, hope you and Janice are great.

Sister Horspool - I LOVE when I get your emails :) You are such a wonderful example to me.

Sister East - Happy birthday to you, and hope all is well in Brazil. We're sure having different experiences in different parts of the world!

I'm so sorry if I forgot anyone, but thanks so much to everyone who sends me emails. And letters. They are much appreciated and its great to get some love :) Grazie e vi voglio tanto bene! Hope everyone has a great week!

Con amore,

Sorella Sobeck

Transfers!!!

Well, Heavenly Father really likes to SURPRISE me with the unexpected...and keep me with my companions for a long time. Sorella Comollo and I will be staying together for a 3rd here in Mistretta together. Wasn't expecting it at all, but it shall be good. There is lots of good stuff happening here and it seems we both need to be here to see it all happen! I have now been here half of my time in the field which is weird...time just keeps on moving along, sometimes slowly and sometimes like lightning.

We got 3 new investigators last week! And 2 of them are Testimoni di Geova who we met at their church service when we went a couple months ago. It was interesting...I'm very interesting to kind of exchange ideas in our meetings with them and discover more of what they believe.

I met a Pagan kid this week on the street, and he was super nice. Just a little something completely out of the normal. He looked like an American kid almost...emo style. :)

Couple cool experiences.

1. Giuseppe. We taught him about following the prophet last week and we wanted to read a talk with him by President Monson. The morning of that meeting, I was saying my prayer (kind of half asleep still...bah) and all of a sudden the thought came into my head "Giuseppe...Dare to Stand Alone". It was pretty cool. We we decided to actually watch that talk online with him from the October 2011 General Conference by President Monson, which talks about sacrifices and really standing up and making it known what we believe. We get to our appointment with him that evening and he told us he had read about sacrifice in the Gospel Principles book and he felt like it really applied to him. The talk by Pres. Monson went along PERFECTLY and he loved it. That was a cool spiritual experience for me. Also, last night after English Course (which went well again and was fun) he wanted to talk to us for 5 minutes (which of course turned into 40). He likes to confide in us becuase he has LOTS of family problems right now. He is such an example to me of enduring when you know something is right no matter the persecutions. His wife and parents and pretty much waging war against him, and he is just happy in the church and still has the firm resolve to get baptized. We don't know when, but he knows this church is right and true and wants to go to the temple. He says he's never felt more peace than with this gospel. I've never met anyone like him in Italy (who is not a member of the church already at least), and its building my testimony.

2. Salvatore. He wanted to eat lunch with us on Sunday, so we told him we would if he came to church. So he did! For his first Sunday! And it turned out to be his birthday too, and he had a good experience and then we ate a good lunch together (because the church is in an apartment, so theres a kitchen) afterwards. I was so so so excited he came, and we had 3 investigators in church!!!

We got a big fat bidone yesterday, but then met some really cool people from Torino in the north when we did finding. It was awesome...they live in Torino, and Sorella Comollo's dad is from there. They are both from the Puglia, the region when Bari is, and I was there for 6 months. We talked to them on the street for like 30 minutes yesterday.

I don't have time to write anything else. Have a great week, and hope you're staying cool! Please go swimming for me :)

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Lunch after church with Salvatore!!

We were soooo happy he came :)

More Sunday afternoon finding in Mistretta

Everyone gives us food

INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!

So, I had to check how to spell "independence" just now...and sure enough, I did spell it wrong the first time. Dangit! My spelling is going down down down these days. Sorella Comollo just asked me how to spell obstacle, and she spelled it like this: oppsticle. :) Hahaha.

Happy Independence Day in America!!! Everyone should go eat a big yummy American hamburger for me, since I can't eat one. Sad, but that will probably be the first thing I'll eat when I get home haha. Last night was our first English Course that we had in Capo d'Orlando, the city thats an hour away where Giuseppe lives. Can I just tell about the awesomeness of this experience...because we did publicity for a total of 3 times...yesterday all day leading up to it (our publicity involved handing out a million little handouts to people and going into stores and asking if we could hang up a flyer), and then 2 days last week just for a couple hours. And then yesterday I read in a book that "You should do publicity for at least 4 weeks before you start English Course"...whoops. Haha. So I was afraid that no one was going to come! So yesterday doing pubblicità...all day...it was really hot and humid. At like 5 someone called us about English Course and I got so excited because I felt like the work we were doing paid off (just by the ONE phone call because someone actually used the flyer haha). This guy ended up coming, and said he was interested in teh English Course but also the religion behind it too. MIRACLE!!! So in total we had 11 people come to English Course!!! MIRACLE!! I'm so serious...and several of these people said they might be interested in learning more about the church. The course was fun, we had made American cookies and flags before and had a cultural experience with them for the 4th of July and it was very fun :) :) :)

We went to a Catholic mass on Sunday night for a few minutes (just passing by the Chiesa Madre), and the priest needs to be Mormon. He talked for a couple minutes about faith and how it needs to be active and not dormant. A lesson all of us need to learn in life...faith requires action and not just belief. That is really hard for us to understand sometimes, but when we begin to really act and SHOW our faith to Heavenly Father, I know that's when we'll receive more blessings.

On Monday I gave the training in our district meeting. I used the talk "Rise to Your Call" by Henry B. Eyring, and it applies incredibly to missionary work. But for anyone who has a calling right now, you should read it!! Big or small calling, it applies to all and give some very good reminders. It helped me a lot to absorb it as I prepared this training for my district, and I hope it helped them too.

Monday night something really funny happened. So we were in Santo Stefano, we got stood up for an appointment, so then we went and did finding and it was hot and we were tired. At like 7ish, Sorella Comollo decides to rip her skirt, pretty darn bad. Hahaha. I tried to help it the best I could, but bobby pins for my hair don't work as well and a safety pin or something. So we decided to turn it into an adventure and a teaching experience, by going to people's houses and asking them if they had a safety pin because she ripped her skirt. We got some really strange looks, and I realized that in Italy this is not a common household item like it is in America. I LOVE safety pins and can find many ways to make them useful. FInally we found some people who let us in, and there were a bunch of women that all went trying to mend my companion's skirt with safety pins haha. And then the lady who lived there was SO SWEET and she gave us gelato (to random strange girls...I love Sicily...its hot), and then let us have a little lesson with her and leave her a pamphlet. What a cool experience! It was an example of turning a negative experience into a positive one and not giving up when its extremely tempting to do that and you might have a perfectly good excuse.

Well I don't think I have any other cool funny stories from the week. I'm super excited about the way things are going here in this area...I feel like even though its summer and everyone is going to the mare ALL THE TIME, we are getting some cool successes. There's so much potential! These people are all children of God!!! Sometimes its really easy to forget that when its hot and you're tired. But I'm so grateful to be in this area of Mistretta, even though its reputation is that it's a tough place (lots of sisters don't want to serve here...), but I'm learning so much and am really feeling more enthusiasm for the work here. We're trying to change things up, adn I know that putting more emphasis on Capo d'Orlando is helping us, as well as English Course. There's lots of ways to find people :) We have transfers next week, and find out Saturday who's going and coming (there will probably be changes here...but of course I can't say for sure), so we're a little anxious, but I just have to remind myself that Heavenly Father is in charge and knows exactly where He wants every one of His missionaries to be. We'll find out what happens.

I love you all, I thank you for your prayers and support because it means a lot to me, and please pray for these people to have their hearts softened so they can move closer towards baptism. The gospel is needed by everyone. I have never been so grateful to be a member of this church as now. I KNOW IT'S TRUE.

Buon giorno di indipendenza! (I spelled that one right the first time :) )

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Independence Day pizza!!! Half capricciosa/half hot dog and french fries :) 

Treated by Signore Simonetta