okay first things first...THE HAPPY HUMP DAY PACKAGE. Thank you guys so much! Seriously words can't describe how happy I was when I opened it up. Thank you for all the kind notes and treats, you guys are the best ever. Although I do have to say that once I got past the excitement of all the american treats I did have a minor panic attack when I realized that a happy hump day package means that I am halfway through my mission. When on earth did that happen?! Thank you guys for your constant love and support these past nine months, can't wait for what the next nine have in store :)
second of all - wasnt conference the best ever?! Gosh I loved it. So far I have only watched the saturday and sunday morning sessions, we still have to watch the afternoon sessions. But what we have seen was fantastic :) we had the greatest weekend filled with conference miracles. Get ready for it.
But first some other awesome miracles from the week. We actually got a new investigator this week! Her name is Manuela and she is incredible. She is actually a referral from one of our members, Lucia. Lucia is the one who has cancer. We used to go visit her in the hospital to sing to her and giver her spiritual messages. Turns out while she was in the hospital she met manuela, who also is suffering from cancer. Manuela said that Lucia was a huge help to her while she was in the hospital and she wanted to learn more about her church. We went to go visit her in the hospital this week and she is absolutely amazing. She has some of the most incredible faith and such a positive attitude. This last week was supposed to be her last chemo treatment, if all went well. So hopefully this next week we will be meeting with her in her home!
Next miracle - his name is Vincenzo. So earlier this week we did a fast, and to break it we decided we wanted to go get pizza. We went to a little shop that is near our house, and when we left we decided to leave a pass along card and little thank you note. The next day we were hosting a baptism in pozzuoli. It was for the Casserta branch, but they dont have a baptismal font so we hosted the baptism. Before the baptism we decided to send a text to everyone in our phone inviting them to come see it. The baptism was about to start when all the sudden this guy walked in. It took me a few minutes to recognize him but turns out it was the guy from the pizzeria! Apparently his phone number was already in our phone and he had got the text inviting him to the baptism. He said that when he got the text he just really felt like he needed to go. But he got off work at 4:00 and the baptism started at 4:30. He was just going to go home but he said he had a feeling that he really needed to go to this baptism. So he asked his brother if he could take the car, and his brother said no. So he walked up the hill to come see the baptism. We talked to him after and he said that he could not deny that he had felt the spirit during the baptism and that he wanted to meet with the missionaries as soon as he could. Can you believe that?! Seriously I was just in awe....such an incredible man. Food finding, its a real thing.
Okay now on to conference! There were so many tender mercies throughout the whole conference but I want to tell you guys about Amalia. So as you know she has been struggling a little bit lately. She has just been having a hard time feeling like she is receiving and answer to her prayers. Earlier this week we had a lesson with her talking to her about personal revelation. We promised her that if she came to conference with a question that she had thought about and prayed about that she would recieve an answer. She told us that she would come on satruday night (which would be the saturday morning session for you guys.) saturday rolled around, conference started and she wasnt there. We gave her a call, with no answer. I'll be honest - my heart just about broke in that moment. But a few minutes later we got a call saying she was on her way! She was gonna be a little late, but she was coming! Once she got there we went down to go watch conference together (first time in Italian, that was crazy). She was loving all the talks, and at the end President Uchtdorfs remarks on personal revelation were a direct answer to her prayers. Seriously it couldnt have fit her needs any better! She absolutely loved it. I even saw her wipe away a few tears during the talk. We were able to talk to her about it a little bit after at dinner and she loved it. She was so touched by conference and she felt the spirit so strongly. It was the exact miracle we needed for her.
All our other people are doing great as well! Unfortunately none of our other investigators could make it to conference, but Antonio did make it to the baptism. He is doing really well. We weren't able to meet with massimo this week because he had to go in for some treatments for his cancer, but hopefully we will see him this week. We finally met with Antonella though! We had a great lesson about the plan of salvation and set a new baptismal date. Rina is doing great as well. She has officially started the no smoking program! So we are super excited about that.
Needless to say, it was a great week for us :) how could it not be on conference weekend?! I am so grateful that we have a living prophet who leads and guides this church. I know that if we follow the guidance of the prophet we will have happiness in this life and in the life to come. I know that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet to restore the gospel in these latter days so that we could all have that knowledge. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to share that truth with the people of Italy :)
love you all so much! I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you soon!
sorella marsh
heart shaped pizza that vincenzo made us...best ever!
happy hump day!
Battipaglia sorella and their investigator martina
post-conference dinner with amalia and sorella trimble!
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