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!
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
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