ONE YEAR

Whoo hoo I made it!!!! I feel like their are certain landmarks in the mission...in the MTC - making it to the first Sunday, becuase the first 4 days are the longest days ever. The first week in the mission field, when you feel like your head is going to explode with everyone and everything so new and not understanding anything at all besides Ciao. Training the first time. Hitting the YEAR MARK (day after tomorrow...we're so eating a pizza to celebrate). Training the second time and making it through the first week of that. There's been some big stuff happening lately in the mission life of Sorella Sobeck.

Things are good. For the second time, my training experience is not completely normal, but that's all part of the mission experience becuase everything is just all over the place and you never know what you're gonna get or whats gonna happen. My new companion is Sorella Fuller, from Utah. She studied Italian for 3 years before at BYU, has been to Sienna for 3 months a few years ago, and because she knew the language better than MTC language training, they sent her state'side for a bit to wait for her visa there. She she did 3 weeks of MTC, then had a transfer in Arizona before she got sent to Italy and down to me in Mistretta. It's been a really interesting experience this past week, as we've gotten adjusted toe ach other and the fact that our mission experiences are very very different....yep, the mission is a bit different in Italy than it is in Arizona. There's been some give and take going on this week and a LOT of conversation (I don't feel like I've ever talked so much in my life as this week haha), but its been great! Sorella Fuller has GREAT ideas and I know she was sent here to Mistretta to be my companion for lots of reasons. I am already learning so much how to be a better and more consecrated missionary which is really helping my attitude and ability to lose myself in the work. I feel like since transfer calls a week and a half ago I haven't stopped a minute to just take a breath and think, so as a result I've been very tired this week, but we are talking to EVERYONE on the streets, having some great lessons, and really seeing cool miracles and I'm reallly grateful to have my new companion. We're going to see some great things happen in our time together.

We're still hoping for this baptismal date for Giuseppe in a few weeks, but with August being ferrie and everything (where everyone goes on vacation...something I'm VERY excited to have done with in a couple days), he hasn't really been thinking about it and we hadn't seen him for a lesson in a few weeks. But we've had a couple good lessons lately where I've felt the spirit, and its great to see how his understanding of the things he reads in teh Book of Mormon increases. He really is great and chosen to be a member of this church.

We have a really cute girl from Romania who is a new investigator, as well with a couple of her friends, and they seem really interested and we're pumped. They all want to actually come to church on Sunday, which is a huge miracle becuase whenever we invite someone to church in this area they mostly just deny the option completely. But this girl, Angela, seems really special and really wants to come. We have another lesson with her and all these people later tonight and I'm super pumped for that!

I really don't have much more to say, and I'm also out of time. So I'll wrap up saying I'm grateful to have the chance to train again and be learning a TON by someone who is so much younger in the mission. They really have a ton of energy and that greenie power brings miracles. It's pretty awesome. I'm grateful for the church and the gospel, and for the agency that we all have even though it is really hard to accept the choices of others sometimes. I'm grateful for God's love for every single one of us. When you start realizing that every single person you talk to is a child of God, it makes you love them a lot more and a lot quicker. It makes me happier as well. I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I've never learned so much in my life. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thanks for all of your examples. If you feel the need, you can send some thoughts my way and it would sure be appreciated. Hope everyone has a great week. Thanks for all the prayers.

Love,

Sorella Sobeck

Leaving Mistretta with Slla Comollo and meeting Salvatore in Reitano...meno male!

My favorite picture EVER of Slla Comollo...flying squirrel

Taking a detour to Enna on our way to Catania for transfers. Highest city in Sicilia

Splits while waiting for the new collega

Slla Fuller made it!!

I'm wearing the same shirt in all of these pictures...HAPPY ONE YEAR TO ME!!!

Round 2

All right everyone, so as not to postpone the suspense of transfer news (because I'm sure everyone is very anxiously waiting!), I'll just tell you right now what happened. I'm staying in Mistretta for a 4th. Sorella Comollo is leaving and going to Bari (in the other ward that I was in, but I'm so excited for her to go there!!!!!!! Now she'll see what I came from haha). My new companion is...I don't know yet. I will find out tomorrow when I pick up my greenie from the station in Catania. Yep, for some crazy reason Heavenly Father wants me to train for the second time, I only hope and pray that this time will be a little smoother. Should be, becuase the last time was half my mission ago haha. I have this pattern going on: Bari - same companion for 3 transfers, then train for 1, transferred. Mistretta - same companion for 3, then train for possibly 1. Vediamo. I'm anxious about what's going to happen, but also excited to be so lucky. Training really is a cool experience, and it really affects the missionary for the rest of their mission...so its an honor. Who would've thought I'd have 2 daughters on my mission??? (Haha and for those who might not understand the mission lingo - when you train, the new missionary is called your child.) Greenies bring good luck, so I'm hoping with her we'll be able to see a couple baptisms this transfer that we have planned. That would be simply incredible!!!

Other news of the week: I HAVE to write about the San Sebastiano processione where 20.000 people came to the tiny town of Mistretta. IT WAS CRAZY. The streets were seriously FILLED and I really could not have imagine it before, because its just not like that normally! The processione itself was very interesting...a very good cultural experience. It is sad for me that these guys carrying around this huge saint statue all over the city is the concept of faith for so many of these people, but we can only do our best to help people realize that there is a lot more to it than that, and a lot more joy. I got some GREAT video and pictures that I can't wait to show all when I return home in March.

This past week has been a little crazy. On Saturday was the procession so we were under Mistretta arrest (because we couldn't leave with the car) and got to see the procession.

Sunday I gave a talk in church about different ways that Satan tries to bring us down, using Alma 46-47 (about Amalichia and how he betrayed the Nephites and then became king of the Lamanites, all in 2 chapters!!!) as an example. It was very interesting for me. I used 3 examples: 1) we are on top of the mountain (like Lehonti and his armies), and Satan tries and tempts us to come down. He asks us many times, and he changes tactics, and if we're not careful we won't realize when we start descending from the top of the mountain. 2) Satan gets us "by degrees", like Amalichia poisened Lehonti by degrees. Most people aren't just going to commit a huge sin the first time they're tempted. But piano piano, he weasles his way in. (Man I really don't remember how to spell in English). 3) Satan is a LIAR. Amalichia tricked the queen on the Lamanites, then married her and became king himself. Satan is sooooooooo sneaky. We all need to do our best to stay on top of the mountain, where we can be with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if and WHEN we make mistakes, find our way back by using the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It seems so simple, yet in real life we make it so complicated. I know I need to be better at this. At Zone Conference President Kelly told us there are 2 principal ways in which Satan destroys missionaries, and the same applies in real life forever: 1) disobedience 2) discouragement. I really learned a lot giving this talk and applying this story to how Satan tries to work with us to bring us down. He is only as strong as we let him. And we have God on our side. This gives me so much comfort during my mission.

Monday I gave the training at DDM when we went to Palermo and we had all the Palermo anziani there (6 of us total), and it was fun to have DDM in Italian again, like old times in Bari. Both of my anziani have been transferred as well, so my district will be all new except for me. That's going to be really weird.

The week has been spent getting Sorella Comollo all ready to go, getting ready for the new sorella, and telling a million people goodbye. The joys of transfers. I've been so tired this week as its go go go haha. But its been good to see people. When you tell someone you're leaving, they really try harder to make time to see you haha, so its been a great trick of bribery to meet with some people!!! Today we are going to Catania, my comp leaves for Bari tomorrow morning, and I believe I will be picking up my new comp tomorrow evening. While its been a great 3 transfers together with Sorella Comollo and we've really worked hard to pick up the work in Mistretta, we are both excited for the change and feel like awesome miracles are going to happen in both ends. I hope its true :) I'm sure next weeks email will be full of interesting things that have happened.

Please pray for me this week, to have lots of energy and patience, and especially for the new sorella because she has to be companions with me!!! :) It's going to be fun for both of us, but always an adjustment. I hope everyone is well, sounds like school is starting again so good luck to everyone going to school! That's so weird to think about, I feel like I've been away for so long. I celebrate one year in the mission next week...isn't that crazy? Il tempo passa.

Love you all!

Sorella Sobeck

Parade

Searching for inactives who don't want to see us

Antonio and Santa

Nino "male male male"

At the procession!!

One of the runners, they were exhausted

Disgusting...money that people donate to the saint

Giuseppe

Famiglia Portera!

Pizza napolitana...la cosa piu' buona nel mondo!

Last district meal before they all left me

Famiglia Pupari

Angela and Giuseppe

Castello hike in the early am

Giuseppe and mamma

San Sebastiano statue

Fireworks after the procession

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!!!

There are Chinese people EVERYWHERE

Padre Pio is also EVERYWHERE

Blessed coke on a hot and humid summer evening

Giant man puppet 

Getting pumped for the procession, where San Sebastiano is basically God to these people...

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Our purpose‏

Ciao a tutti. Last week was from Palermo, this week I'm writing from Catania. It's so hot here. I've been so lucky to be in Mistretta for the summer where it is milder. Anyways, This week has been a pretty good one.

My favorite thing about this week is that we now have 2 baptismal dates :) :) You always pray super hard that they will actually go through, but I'm so excited about making our purpose as missionaries more known to everyone. President always tells us that with every baptismal date comes someones agency if they will actually be baptized or not. Yep, people's personal agency is one of the hardest things I've had to learn on my mission I think...something that I've always realized was a great gift from God but didn't realize how much one person's agency can make a difference - for the good or the bad. But baptism is a bit step...and its not super common in Italy. So please pray for Giuseppe and Jonatan to receive the testimony through the Spirit that they need to make this choice. Both are scheduled for September, adn I can't wait!!!

We had Zone Conference, and so much training focus has been on telling people EXACTLY why we're here as missionaries and asking people to be baptized right at the very beginning. It seems difficult because we sometimes get scared that after we do tons of finding, we finally get new investigators, and then we ask them to baptized we'll scare them away, or they won't want to see us anymore...but its a part of the process. I'm grateful to be doing this and ask people to join the Church of Jesus Christ and be baptized the way Jesus was baptized!!! I LOVE ZONE CONFERENCE!!!

The coolest thing every...Elder Holland came to Italy (on his way back from Jerusalem...my 2 favorite places in the world besides home!!) with his family for a personal vacation, and they ended up staying at the mission home in Rome. No one knew they were coming hahah. Surprise! Anziano Holland is coming! But he left an apostolic blessing/prayer for our mission. How stinkin cool is that???? And he gave some advice to President to tell the missionaries. Learn to love being rejected :) Something we all need to work on...becuase we get rejected more than anything else haha. But the cool thing is, that when you get rejected it means you are working and doing something and letting people exercise their agency. People can't choose something if you don't give them the choice. Like getting baptized...people can't decide to you get baptized if you don't invite them in the first place. I'm so pumped about all these things I've been hearing lately, becuase I really feel pumped and more of a desire to invite everyone to do anything even if they say no!!!

We had a sad moment when a member got SUPER offended in our branch. She made a big scene when she left church during the 2nd hour on Sunday and took 3 other people with her (because everyone carpools) - I was not happy. And then she asked us to come over later to her house to talk so she could tell us that she's never coming back to church. It drives me nuts. We do not go to church for other people, we go for ourselves and becuase we know its right and becuase the church is TRUE. Nothing else should matter. Unfortunately because we are human we get offended. And frequently it will be by members of the church. But being on my mission I have realized that there really shouldn't be any reason/excuse to not go to church. And no one is perfect. Especially members of the Church of Jesus Christ. It really made me sad and frustrated to have her tell us, as MISSIONARIES, that she plans to not come back. And then not listen to anything we said. Mamma mia. Anyways, I pray that our testimonies can be stronger than that, to withstand when we get offended so we can continue on the straight and narrow path that Jesus Christ showed us the way.

I realized that car problems are everywhere in the world! And getting ripped off really stinks...jeez. Having a car in the mission is a great blessing but also a stress. Hahaha ah man.

Ok I have no time to write more. I want everyone to know how much of a TESTIMONY I have of this church. I would by no means be here (getting rejected) a million times over if I didn't know it with all my heart. Conversion takes time, and everyone is different, but I know we all need to personally work on being converted and do the things to grow our faith. I'm so grateful for the things I'm learning and the experiences I'm having. My mission is going to be a HUGE prep for the rest of my life. I KNOW IT'S TRUE!!! I love you all. I hope everyone is reading the Book of Mormon. It really is magic. I love it so much. And the Bible too...I learn so much from the Bible and am currently reading in Luke and I love Jesus Christ so much.

Love you all!!! Happy week!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Do not enter haha

Getting the tires changed before Zone Conference...STRESS

Sorella Kelly!!!

3 transfers with this district

I just love this picture hahaha

Pday in Catania with Messina anziani and Catania sorelle

Duomo

:)

????

AGOSTO!!

Mamma mia è gia agosto!! I am almost at my year mark on the mission...With the days so long it seems strange that 11 months have passed...I'm happy to have survived, and I hope I have grown from the many different types of experiences that I've had. Sometimes I feel like I probably haven't changed that much, but other times when I feel so different.

So what happened in the life of Sorella Sobeck in the last week of July 2012. Some cool stuff. Some lame stuff too haha. It happens.

We've had some cool member referrals lately...those are rare. So we were really excited to go out and do some missionary work with Fratello Nino. One of his referrals was an ex'member of the church. Can I just say that there is a huge difference between members of the Church of Jesus Christ and everyone else I meet on the street? Just with the way they talk about God and prayer, like its a thing so personal. Which it is. Even though this guy was excommunicated a long while ago, he still knows deep inside that these things are true. I hope we go to meet him again.

WE sneak attacked a less active family and it was awesome becuase they invited us to eat lunch with them and then spontaneously made us crepes afterwards too. It was nice to spend lunch inside with someone and to learn more about this family. I hope that missionaries can come live in this area and make the work explode here, because there could be so much strength.

Unfortunately we've been dropping lots of investigators lately who have not been doing anything to help themselves or let us help them. It's nice becuase we don't feel so spread thin these days, but sad becuase our investigator pool just got a lot smaller. But we have some great new investigators from the past couple weeks who we are excited about.

We went to the compagna (which is basically teh countryside) to do service for someone, but instead of letting us help him do work he pretty much just handed us a bunch of fruit and made us eat it. I've never eaten so many different kinds of plums that are so delicious.

I'm insanely jealous that the Olympics are on and I can't watch them. Except we were at the Portera's house the other day and they had them on, so I got to watch a couple minutes of synchronized diving and cycling while we waited to ahve correlation :) I also heard that the bow and arrow thing...whatever they call it, was between Italy and USA for gold and silver...adn Italy won by 1 point. Mamma mia...you should keep me update with what happens with swimming and water polo, because thats really all I care about haha. Michael Phelps in again this year?

We had an awesome district meeting on Monday where we talked about asking people for baptismal dates. I think here it can be a fear becuase often when you mention baptism to these people, they completely close up and afterwards won't see you anymore. We've had many experiences about that. But I've been praying lately to get a baptismal date in this area becuase we NEED IT! It's been so long since there has been one here, and so this training was an answer to my prayers. Since then, we have had 2 really good experiences with 2 newer investigators asking them to baptized, one with a date too. WE don't have the date confirmed, but we are so excited about doing it, and that these pepole know exactly why we're here. And they both want to continue seeing us :) :) I know Heavenly Father answers our prayers and is aware of every single one of us.

I'm in Palermo right now writing this email. WE came to spend Pday with the anziani with the plans of going to play lazer tag. But it was closed. Then we went to the bowling place, and it was closed. And then to a pizzeria. And it was closed. And we realized that today is August 1st, and the month of August is when EVERYONE goes on vacation in Italy and lots of things are closed. Joy. MIssionary work is going to be fun!!

I'm out of time. Thanks for emails, please keep writing them because 1) its a great service! :) and 2) they really help me. Hope everyone has a good week, Happy Olympics, Happy August, and stay cool! It's HOT in Palermo.

Aunt Kathy - I'm excited you guys got a new puppy! Cute name, good luck with the puppy/training phase :)

Spjute family - Thank you SO MUCH. I love your family and appreciate all of your support. I hope you are all doing well, especially during this week.

Love,

Sorella Sobeck

Isa is going to Canada!

Psycho little brother...

Everything closed in Palermo...

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