Happy Turkey Day!!!

This week I was able to see many times that when we do something for
the Lord, He does something for us :) Me and my comp have been trying
to be more obedient with the little things, and also with some bigger
things that we're dealing with, and Heavenly Father really has blessed
our work. For us, that meant that we found a new family to teach :)
Sorella Winward and I talked to a guy on the metro last transfer -
Ronaldo from Peru - and finally we had a lesson with him at the church
last Friday. He was so nice, we gave him a BoM in Spanish. In Peru he
lived across the street from a Mormon church and had Mormon friends
who invited him to activities. He wanted us to come to his house to
meet his family, so we set an appointment for Monday. We went, and
Ronaldo wasn't there, but we taught the first lesson to his wife and 2
daughters. There is something special about them and I hope they are
prepared to accept the gospel now. I've never had 3 sets of dark brown
eyes so intently looking at me when I said the First Vision to them.
The oldest daughter, Fiorella who is 15, was my favorite. We read the
last 2 paragraphs of the Intro of the BoM together and we asked them
what they thought. Fiorella looked at me and said "That Joseph Smith
is a prophet." YES! It's TRUE!!! Man, if nothing else, that was a
beautiful lesson for us to teach...they want us to come back, to come
to church, etc. Legit. I'm so excited about this family!!!!!

We had another investigator come to a ward activity and bring her
whole family too! There are major problems in that family, and the
only one who participates in the lessons is Carmela. The husband,
Luciano, has had something against the church for years but I don't
know what. He'll always talk to us at their house, but leaves when we
teach. So when he came to the activity and looked happy to be there,
talking to people, it was so wonderful. We're doing a family home
evening with them all tonight...we specificlaly asked for the whole
fam to be there, so hopefully they'll comply.

We tried to get a couple baptismal dates this week, but sadly no one
agreed. But thats ok, with that we understand better about where our
investigators are. It's sad when you see people have a desire to know
if something is true, but they won't make the steps and efforts to
find those answers. The key is asking questions. Without specific
questions to God we cannot easily receive specific answers from God.

For Thanksgiving we went to Andrea's house and ate a good American
shepherd's pie :) :) :) Man it was so American and good haha. No
turkey, but thats ok. And on Sunday we ate lunch after church with an
American/Italian family. He is Italian but served a mission in
California and they have lived in Utah for 10 years, and just moved
back for his job. They are AWESOME, and they get American food from
the Napoli military base and share with us haha, so we ate Mexican
food with sour cream...yep, haven't eaten that in over a year. So
good.

The ward activity was really good with a GREAT turnout - lots of
members, non members, investigators, etc. And it was a rock concert
haha. The 2nd counselor in our bishopric is in a rock band and they
played for us all. Loved it.

It's been a good week. Today for Pday we're going to the Villa with
Sorella Kelly and all the sorelle in Roma to hang out for a few hours,
and its a very rainy and windy day here in Rome. Good day to not do
tourism.

Love you! Can't believe its already December in a couple days, and
just a few weeks til Christmas!!! Tis the season, the lights are
coming out. We're going to buy a tree from a Chinese store today, and
I'm pretty sure its going to be purple hahaha.

Love, Sorella Sobeck


Aunt Kathy - Thanksgiving was good, but I look forward to next year
with the fam :) Love you guys!
Aunt Donna - from what I've heard so far the temple should be done in
2014, but I don't know when. And I finish my mission in March...ahhh.
Mark - I support her and the slaps! Thats pretty cool you are trying
to get into BYU, its pretty much the best :) I don't know, just tell
me about what you're doing with yourself, it doesn't have to be big.

Thanksgiving dinner at Andrea's

Monday, Doris, Milicent, Divine :)

Hot spot on the floor at home haha

Ward activity concert

Massive worm

I don't remember my way around Roma!

Oh my goodness! I have gotten us lost really bad TWICE this past week...Monday instead of taking the train to go back to Termini from a city outside of Rome, we took one going the opposite direction and it took forever to get back haha. That was frustrating. And then the very next day we get on a wrong bus and then don't have enough time to go to our appointment that we had scheduled as a result...the weird thing is that I have been to that house and on that bus lots of times, and I was so confident that the bus we were taking was the right one...without question...and then it wasn't. That's embarassing hahaa. ANd there's my lack of direction for you...it all worked out ok, and I know everything happens for a reason. WE did some other stuff instead that I thought was pretty worthwhile in the end. My poor companion who I keep getting lost haha. I've always had 3 transfers to learn the city before I had to train it...and I got 1 transfer to learn the biggest city ever! It's been really fun :)

This week has been good - we've been working hard together and we've already seen some really great miracles!!

There were TWO baptisms that we got to see on Saturday night. Not people I worked with, but it doesn't even matter I was so excited to finally see some baptisms! One was from the ROma 5 anziani - a woman who's husband is a member, they are from Congo, and the only reason he wasn't coming to church was becuase he didn't know where it was in Roma...so then the missionaries made contact with him as an inactive, his wife took the lessons, and she was baptized. They are such a cute little family! THe other baptism was for the other sorelle in Roma 3, and it was for a man who is working on the Rome temple!! HOW LEGIT IS THAT!!! This is the 2nd person who has been baptized who is working on the temple so far. There were about 100 people at that baptism and the spirit was so strong - it was incredible. I love baptisms :)

My new companion is Sorella Openshaw and she's from Orem. She's been in the field about 6 months now, she works really hard, we get along very well already, and the work is already picking up more! We had an investigator come to church on Sunday!!! Carmela has been an investigator on and off for 6 years, we found her in the area book, and she came! She's kind of at rock bottom right now with lots of family and personal problems, but she's making some really good progress right now becuase she came to church, she's starting to pray again, and she's reading a little bit in the Book of Mormon. We have a couple other investigators who are making me super happy to see them start progressing as well...love it so much!!! ANd we're going to try and set a baptismal date with someone tonight...we'll see what she says :)

The work is growing. THis transfer is turning out to be a very different one from the last one, in some hard ways but some very good ones that are pushing us to be more obedient and as a result see many more blessings with the work and also personally I believe. Satan works so hard on missionaries and the people they are working with because he knows if he can distract them, a lot is at stake. Satan only attacks good things...he's not going to waste his time. There is opposition in all things, and yes it really sucks but its so great on the other side when we come out on top. I'm really grateful to be here in Rome, despite the obstacles and the hard things that happen, because there is so much joy on top of it!! Missionary work really is the best!

FOr Thanksgiving tomorrow, we are going to eat dinner with an AMERICAN! There is a girl in our ward from Utah, and she invited us over to eat dinner at her house tomorrow for some legit Thanksgiving food - at least as legit as you can get in Italy :) And then...it's almost CHRISTMAS!!! The decorations are coming out and its so weird!!! But I love it so much, and I'm excited for the CHristmas music and spirit.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and have a great week! Vi voglio bene!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Jasmine from Congo baptism

 Salvatore the temple worker's baptism!

Trevi fountain again today for pday!

First day together...9am McDonalds on train for breakfast

First visit to Anagni to see Diana

Getting us lost and being on empty trains in the wrong direction...

Piazza Venezia

New collega Slla Openshaw! Finally made it to the Colosseum :)

Miriam Shumway - so, I FINALLY responded to your letter last week that I got awhile ago, but I put in in the envelope, and sealed it, then realized that there was no return address on your letter! WHat's your address so I can send it??

Changes‏

I'm soooo sad! My collega Sorella Winward is leaving me to go to Cagliari tonight. Just having one transfer together was not enough, as we really became to be great friends in a short amount of time. Transfers can be difficult...but I know they are inspired. So I'm trying to be excited about the new stuff coming up, and I know it'll be great! My new comp will be Sorella Openshaw, who has been in Cagliari for 4 transfers and thats it. So she's a young one too. It's gonna be a party!

We had a couple baptismal invites that we did this week, and I am really excited about one of them. Her name is Maria and she is legit. She really wants to know if this is the true church, and if it is she wants to be baptized :) Now that is what makes a missionary feel good! Pray for Maria to find her answers!

I taught English Course how to say "cool beans". It was awesome. And we had THREE students who came to church on Sunday! It was so exciting to have them come.

Ok for some reason I really don't know what to write about this week. We're building better relationships with our investigators that we have, trying to find new ones, visiting with members to be friends with them (that is super important), we've been getting ready for transfers, our Senegal family loves us and we have become adopted aunts to their baby which is super fun haha, and time is continuing to pass. Tomorrow I begin my 10th transfer on my mission...holy cow.

Have a great week! Sorry this is a lame-o email this week, but I'm sure I'll have more to write about next week with lots of changes.

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Alina's house with Valentina

English Course

Pinata Slla Winward made for Halloween party

Funniest picture ever...

Last district pranzo on pday

Hahahaha Anz. Embree kissing the coke girl!

Mac and Cheese Deluxe‏

You don't realize how much you miss things like Kraft Mac and Cheese until you eat it for the first time after over a year and it makes you think of college! We had a package of this stuff from the military base and we got all nostalgic haha. It was good...oh the schifezze of American foods :)

We found a new investigator doing area book finding last week. She was found like 6 years ago, many missionaries have gone since then, but her and her family have just never really progressed. We're getting on their good side...the mom, Carmela, has had a difficult time in her life and we're trying to boost her self'esteem and also help her out around her house, becuase she broke her tailbone this summer and has really struggled physically. We're going to do some service for her on Friday to clean her house a bit. We did a quick spiritual thought with her and her 2 kids the other night about service, and we challenged the kids (12 and 9 years old) to do 5 things each of service at home this week...Carmela loved it and she seemed so much more peaceful when we left. So we're hoping good things will come out of this family.

We've been trying to get some appointments with members lately, and we got to see a young wife who is originally from Argentina, has been here 5 years, her husband is not a member. She is so cute! It's great to build relationships with members becuase then church is so much more fun :) We also have a lunch appointment on Saturday with another couple, who are older but have only been married for like 6 months and they met at the Single Adults activities :) So cute.

We've had successful inactive member finding! Often when we go looking for them they aren't home, or they won't let us in, but we've gotten in to 3 houses this past week and we're so excited! One was an old lady who was suuuuuuper crabby when we went haha, but she was so much calmer when we left. Props to a spriritual thought and a prayer and asking her some questions about herself. The spirit is magic :) The other 2 live in the ghetto...we went this time during the day (the last time was unsuccessful and it was also when it was dark - and super creepy haha). I love seeing inactives - they all have such crazy stories, and I like bringing a little bit of the spirit back into their lives and their homes.

We finally had a lesson with Giuseppe, who we've been trying to get together with for a lesson since I got here over a month ago. He is pretty strange...but we asked him to be baptized and he seems like he has some good potential. And by our Muslim family from Senegal - they fed us legit African food with this spicy rice and fish and it was gooooood. Man. We finally taught them the Restoration and it actually went really well. I'm interested to see how it will progress with them in the future.

Last week for our Halloween party we pretty much had the ultimate party...we made lasagna, watched the Joseph Smith movie, made and destroyed a pinata (but not before destroying the broom stick we used to beat it with...it was that hard!), played ping pong/fooseball, pin the tie on the missionary, Massacre of War 3 (a card game the anziani in Palermo literally invented...they're so weird haha) and WHEELCHAIR WARRIORS. Yep, you learn to invent crazy games on the mission...our church has 3 wheelchairs...you can only imagine this game that was legit. It was seriously soooo much fun and a great day with our district.

This transfer has flown by and we already have transfer calls on Saturday. I love Sorella Winward and I really hope we stay together for another one!

That's about it for this week, love you all! We heard that Obama won the elections, so we'll see what happens with that. Have an awesome week!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

My one-year-in-Italy pizza!

Dinner with the Senegalese 

TRASHY HAT CLUB

Yeah...

DOLCETTO O SCHERZETTO!!!

Happy Halloween! It's really really weird that its already Halloween...I will have been in Italy for ONE YEAR on Saturday, so last Halloween I was getting ready to leave the MTC! It suddenly got really cold here like 3 days ago...it was fine and nice outside and then it wasn't haha. So we're getting used to that. Today we're having a Halloween party with our district in the church...complete with a homemade pinata, a delicious LASAGNA, games, watching the Joseph Smith movie (!!!), etc. We're pretty excited :)

I've had some pretty cool experiences this week. There is a new convert named Doris who is from Nigeria and is awesome, but very shy so she never really talks much when we go. But she has teh cutest little daughters, and I love going to her house. We went on Saturday and talked about having patience in the midst of afflictions and read a story from the Book of Mormon with her. We asked her a simple question about how prayer has helped her in her life, and it was an inspired question becuase then she just opened up and talked for 20 minutes straight telling us all these crazy experiences in her life but how she has so much faith anythings. I was just in awe...she is AWESOME!!! And then she was just so much more open with us ever since! I LOVE those experiences that just build relationships with people. She invited us to her daughters birthday party for yesterday...Divine turned 1. I will just say this: AFRICANS KNOW HOW TO PARTY!!!!!!!!!! Holy cow...best thing I've even gone to hahaha it was so much fun and we met a TON of cool peeps and we had a little spiritual meeting where we sang "How Great Thou Art" African style...it was incredible. And then I ate some legit AFrican food...oh man. It was interesting haha...fufu anyone?? Look up what that is haha. So I love Africans pretty much with all my heart :)

We had a ward activity this week, but our ward boundaries are super spread out so its difficult for people to come to church during the week. But with the support we did have it was lots of fun.

Me and Sorella Winward taught an institute class in English for people in our ward who don't speak Italian, and that went really well. We are doing the class on teh Book of Mormon, and all 3 sets of missionaries in our ward are rotating who teaches. The Book of Mormon is incredible and teaches us SO MANY THINGS even from the very beginning!

We have some Muslim investigators who are from Senegal in Africa and we're helping them learn Italian/English for service. They all have Books of Mormon now and on Sunday when we went it was awesome because they were writing their names in the books and marking the verses that we read with them! Usually Muslims won't even talk to us or accept anything we try to give them, so this is so cool for me to see.

All my stories are about black people this week haha. The other day we missed a bus and so while we were waiting for the next one we gave everyone English course flyers and I talked to a guy from Nigeria. So he already speaks English. But he asked what church I was from and I told him and he said "Hmm. That's a coincidence." Um, what is? I found out that he has attended our church in Greece before. Nope, not a coincidence. We're going to call him in a couple weeks when he gets back from a work trip :) That was a pretty cool miracle.

Things are still going slowly but surely. I know we just need to continue to work hard and work will come. Patience :) I love this work! I've challenged myself to write down a miracle that I see everyday this week so I can more readily see the blessings Heavenly Father is giving me. The blessings come when we DO something. When we ACT. This church is a church of action!

Vi voglio tanto bene!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

These beautiful sunsets helped me feel happier after hours of finding

Ladispoli

Sorelle!

District Halloween party

Service for Slla Galle'

Olive picking service!

Love my collega!!

Sam!

Divine's 1st birthday!

Some of those lessons of life‏

So, I don't think I'll ever get over with how big this city is! Yesterday we had Zone Conference (SUPER early in the transfer this time), and to get to the Roma 2 church where it was at took an hour and a half. Some of that time is waiting for the bus, or the metro, or the train (there are a million ways to get around), but I just think its so funny. Roma 3, my area, is the ghetto of Rome and I think its so appropriate that I'm here. The other day I talked to a guy from Cairo and I got to tell him that I've been there and he thought that was so cool! Cool connections where your previous life experiences help you bond with people. There's a lot of weird people here, but they're all children of God so we try to talk to them anyways :) I'm enjoying my experiences, even though the work is really slow and will take time to build up.

One of the biggest lessons I feel that I've had to learn on my mission is patience. With my companions, with my investigators, with Italy in general, with myself, etc. Every situation is different.Every transfer is different. Now I'm learning some more about it with the lack of work...and of course it sometimes just punches you in the face with how hard a situation is until you learn to just smile anyways when its not easy. Welcome to life. I love to smile :)

I've been learning a lot. It's so fun to talk to people on the street. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GONNA GET!!!!! There have been some sweeeet people though, and I really look forward to meeting with them if they allow us to. I love thats theres so many languages spoken because I know that the gospel is true in EVERY LANGUAGE and that it will help people from EVERY COUNTRY. Universal joy. What could be better?

Zone Conference was so great. Every time I learn so much and I feel like certain messages are directed specifically at me. It was weird because some of my good friends are finishing their missions this transfer, so they gave their dying testimonies. Everyone says how quickly the mission passes. At the beginning of my mission I thought that was the silliest thing to say, because I felt like it was going to last forever. Being in your first and second transfers and having the whole thing ahead of you kind of puts that perspective sometimes. Now that I'm in my 9th transfer and only have a few left, I'm realizing how real that statement is that time really does fly. The days are long but the weeks are short - the principle that never ends. Seeing this yesterday put some things into perspective. There was always a great training that the assistants gave about how we are ALL set apart with the same missionary authority. But how we act determites how much POWER we will have. This applies to every single calling. What we get out of an experience depends on what we make of it.

All these eternal principles. I don't even know what to do with myself sometimes. Somethings they much so much sense. Perfect. Other times it is so difficult to keep things in perspective. Despite the fact that I am majorly imperfect, I hope that I can remember.

The gospel is true.

I don't really have any cool teaching experiences this week. But I'll just let you know that my first new investigator in Roma, was such a funny experience. Yep, he's literally crazy. Hahaha. He is already an ex-investigator...oh man. The mission is the greatest adventure.

Vi voglio bene tutti!!!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

Aunt Donna - I'm in Roma 3! Its the ghetto of Rome and I love it haha :) :) But the temple is not in my zone, I have not seen it yet. I haven't really seen anything yet, the other day we saw the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon and a huge piazza, but I haven't seen much becuase we can only go on Pday and it takes awhile to get there anyways. So over time I'll get to see all the cool stuff, I'll keep a look out for the things you mentioned. Thanks for all your prayers!

Aunt Kathy - I know! It's so funny that it happened like that...I had a feeling I'd be transfered up to Rome, so I thought it was just an ironic situation. I'll be excited to hear about what he saw while he was here.

Garrett - November 3rd! Not too far away, good luck and I seriously can't wait to hear all about your experiences. With a BIG SLURPEE.

Ana - FRIEND! Where have you been??? :)

Bellissima!

Pday adventure: People-watching at the Vatican with McDonalds hahaha

All the santi

WHOOO!

Castello di Sant'Angelo

:)

Ciao da Roma!

Ok - I survived my first week (almost) in this HUGE CITY. It is completely different than Mistretta...theres tons of PEOPLE. There's public transportation. Theres a TON of stranieri (foreigners) so half the people you see aren't even Italian and you hear 30 different languages everyday. I live with 4 sorelle (like I did in Bari - its great). There are so many different comparisons, yet its the same mission and the same country. I felt like I went to a different mission when I went from Bari to Mistretta, and now from Mistretta to Roma I feel the same. My companion is great! Sorella Winward is half Italian (her mom comes from Sassari in Sardegna), but never learned to speak it before, she is in her 5th transfer, she is pretty shy but SO SWEET so it is a completely different type of companion than I've ever had. All of my comps in the past have been bolder than me, not afraid to speak at all. It's very refreshing to me to kind of break the pattern I've had. I love Sorella Winward already and we're going to have a great transfer together!

The work for us is not so hoppin at the moment unfortunately. There were some struggles with the last sorella who was here (who ended up going home early), and as a result there's not really much to work with. So I kind of feel like I'm opening a new city or something! We've been doing a lot of finding so far, I haven't taught a single lesson this whole week (not for lack of trying - just getting stood up, inactives not being home, people not being available until other days, etc.). It's been a pretty humbling experience for me to say the least. I haven't had a mission experience quite like this so far. We could really use some prayers to help us find new people to teach so the gospel can help them! In general people aren't quite as willing to stop and talk to us here I've noticed, becuase its a much busier lifestyle here. But the people are nice. We just have to get them interested.

CONFERENCE WAS BOSS!!!! The announcement about the age change for missionaries created quite an exciting stir, but I think its awesome and will really help missionary work. It's going to be a big change for BYU also haha. Some of my favorite talks were Elder Gay's, Elder Eyring's, and Elder Holland's (always) - I don't have my notes with me and I don't remember which other specifics but they were all great. The leaders of the church always know how to put things into perspective to really help us understand things. I personally learned a lot of lessons that are helping and will help me during the rest of my mission. I got to watch the Relief Society session and then the first 3 other sessions - haven't gotten to see the last one though and I probably won't get to. I look forward to the Liahona :)

It was SO FUN to be in Rome for Conference becuase we all went to the Rome 1 church and I got to see a bunch of missionaries and see old friends who I've served with in the past in the MTC and in Bari!!! It was so great to see familiar faces and to see whats been going on with them in their mission life. A mission builds lasting friendships :) Also, I love my district. My district leader is a missionary who came to Bari my 2nd transfer, but he left after a few days becuase he wanted to go home. Well, he didn't go home :) And now he's an awesome missionary and a good friend already! The other sorelle are fun and its fun to have lots of people to talk to and get to know. I haven't been able to meet lots of members yet though since we didn't have normal church. That's for this Sunday.

Today I will have my first Pday in Rome and we're going to centro to see some cool stuff. I don't know what yet, but I'm so excited!

They are repainting all our walls in our apartment, so this week has been PAZZA. The guys painting are members from Rome 2 and they are soooo funny. They made us lunch the other day too haha. So we've just been living in chaos the past week. They should finish today - I will miss them around, but I will enjoy being able to have a more organized house without paint stuff EVERYWHERE that they leave all the time haha.

I don't have much else to say. Again, prayers would be appreciated because we have lots of lots of finding and work to do! I'm excited to be here in Roma and I know that I'm going to learn a ton from this place and these people.

My new address is

Viale Alessandrino 250

00172 Roma (RM)

Italia

Happy week!

Love, Sorella Sobeck

PS - haven't heard from lots of people in lots of time!! You all alive out there?

Crossing the strait from Sicilia to the mainland - overnight bus=TERRIBLE experience and no sleep...

Slla Winward!!! Our success from finding that day! :)

Gabriele e Samuele! Roma 1 bishop and son

Anziani

First pday!! Trevi fountain

Tossing coins

Pantheon

Obelisk...Roma is cool