Sorella Sobeck in Rome: It's Tuesday!

So I forgot to mention last week that Pday would be today instead of tomorrow, cioè Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Tomorrow is Ferragosto, which is a big holiday in Italy in which no one works and no one wants to talk to you! So tomorrow we get to clean our apartment!!! The joy is unbearable haha. Actually, our apartment is really small so we're lucky...we can just clean really really deeply :) And hopefully have some BBQ with some members...but we'll see on that one.

Sad to say that the work is kind of slow at the moment. I feel like our days our full but then I think and sometimes I wonder what did we really accomplish? I think Heavenly Father is helping the days in August to go by so it will just end haha. (But sometimes I feel like time is moving forward about as fast as a snail...of course Zone Conference last week went really fast, but before and after not so much haha) If I haven't already mentioned, August in Italy for missionary work is fun times...because everyone goes on vacation and they tell you to not come back until September pretty much. It's kind of a weird experience. In Mistretta and the other little cities around, its more likely that someone you talk to will not be from the area, or even from Sicily. I've met lots of people from the north lately, near Milano and Torino and Genova, etc. . Awhile ago I was even meeting a few families from AUSTRALIA: That pretty much made my day :)

But anyways, despite the slowness of August, we still are working to ask everyone to be baptized. You get some interesting answers, but its pretty cool when someone says that when they receive a testimony they will baptize themselves (as you say in Italian. I love reflexive verbs! :) ) We are still moving forward with our 2 baptismal dates in September, but its hard when people go on vacation. We're working hard though, and I really am seeing the blessings and miracles when we let people know our purpose right from the very beginning.

We have our newer Giuseppe who is doing well. OUr last lesson with him was about finding answers to our questions by reading in teh Book of Mormon and asking the questions to Heavenly Father, and especially about applying what we learn. It was really cool. We've had a couple lessons with a Jehovah's Witness couple this past week, and I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation. We talked a long time yesterday about Adam and Eve, and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon are true, and that we NEED modern day revelation and more than the Bible to piece together everything. We NEED the Spirit to guide us and to help us understand our answers and our testimonies. I'm learning so much from these lessons with them, and its building my testimony instead of the opposite, which I believe is their goal for us. Oh well...I can't lie and say its not our goal for them too, since we are here to help people learn about all the truth. :)

I love food in Italy. Period. But we have also had some fun experiments in the kitchen lately when we found some McCormick seasoning in the cupboard and we have made some tacos and fajitas lately. Yummmm. Something different and delicious.

Last Pday in Catania we did a giro of the city and it was so fun to be around other missionaries. We feel so isolated with just us 2 in Mistretta, and as always I wish I appreciated more what I had in Bari when there were 8 of us in the city and I lived with 4 sorelle. it's great to get to know other missionaries and know they are working just as hard as you. We hung out with the Catania sorelle (reunited again with Sorella Teichert from my MTC group who is so wonderful, and Sorella Rosato who is from Como and so funny) and the Messina anziani (Anziano Giovita who is also Italian and also very funny and TALL and Anziano Prieto, from Brazil! who is so fun). It was weird that Sorella Teichert and I were the oldest missionaries in that group...man. I also have to say that McDonald's in italy is the cool place to hang out for young kids...its very much opposite of that in America haha. We saw lots of churches, walked a lot, and took lots of weird pictures (which sadly I cannot upload any becuase we never remember to bring the camera cord...sorry).

Next week I will have transfer results (again) and I'm very much looking forward to the calls on Saturday. I will at least be getting a new companion, and after 3 together with Sorella Comollo I know we are both very ready for a change of companion and a change of outlook in the work. I'll probably be staying in Mistretta for a 4th, but we'll see what happens. Transfer calls will be very exciting, because it also happens to be when there is a HUGE procession in Mistretta for San Sebastiano (the patron saint of the city), and its famous in Italy. People come from all over to see it, and this week (and already this month), Mistretta will grow from population 5.000 to 20.000 approximately...so we hear. It's huge. And crazy. There's no parking...thats lame. We aren't allowed to leave the city with the car because it will be blocked off. I hope we don't get the calls during the procession when the people are screaming and running the streets with this giant saint statue on their shoulders....gotta love Italy. We're pretty lucky to be here to see it, and I'm super excited! I'll take some video.

Ok, gotta run. Love you all. Happy week. Hope all is well. The Book of Mormon is true! Prayer works!!! The true restored gospel is on the earth!!!