Buongiorno a tutti! So great to hear from you all this week :) as always thank you for all of the pictures, videos, and emails! I'm so glad to hear that all is well back home.
As for me this week was a pretty crazy one. At the beginning of the week we headed off to Taranto for another scambio. Which went well! The city is absolutely beautiful there, and it is always a great experience to work with other missionaries and see their way of doing things. Also, I dont remember if I told you guys about this, but when Elder and Sister Teixiera came for the mission conference a few months ago sister Teixiera extended us an invite to read the Book of Mormon in 65 days. And while I was in Taranto I finished! But I need to explain. So while Elder and Sister Teixiera were here they did 3 mission conferences to cover all of the missionaries, if that makes sense. Basically they split all the missionaries up into 3 groups and did 3 conferences. However, not all 3 conferences were the same. Similar things were said, but also somethings that were different were said. Turns out the mission conference that I was at was the only one where Sister Teixiera extended that invite to the missionaries. As I finished the Book of Mormon I was thinking about why it was important for me to be at that conference and why I specifically needed to receive that invite. As I thought about what I had learned as I read the Book of Mormon I realized that this time through I felt like I had just gotten to know the Savior so much more. I came to a greater understanding of who He is and especially how much He loves us. I was pondering that and thinking about why it would be so important for me to know those things when I realized that this assignment was given to us during my last few weeks in rome and my first few weeks in crotone, where some of my main investigators have been Anna and Slesia - an atheist, and a buddhist. I think it was so important for me to read the book of mormon during this time to help me realize how powerfully it teaches of Christ to all people, despite their religious background. Anyway, I dont know if any of that made sense, but just thought that I would share :)
Then when we came back to crotone there was a HUGE catholic festival during the weekend and so the city was just packed with food booths, carnival games, and so many people. Which made missionary work a bit difficult, but we still made it work :) Since proselyting wouldn't be the most effective during the big hours of the festival we decided that we would make brownies for some of the people we have been trying to working with and write them little notes to tell them that we love and appreciate them. We dropped them all off and didnt think anything of it, until the next day when we had two people set up appointments for us to visit them this week. So there you have it - the converting power of American sweets!
We did manage to squeeze some lessons in though, and things here are going well! Slesia is making a lot of progress. She has started reading in the Book of Mormon and so far she says she likes it. What is the greatest though is listening to how her prayers are becoming more sincere and more hearfelt. It is really beautiful. This week we also met with Roberta and she is doing well! We continued to talk about the plan of salvation, but this time we focused on the Atonement and its enabling power. She is incredible woman. All of the trials that she has gone through haven't shaken her faith in the slightest. This week we also saw some great progress with Juliette. For the first time ever she came to Relief Society! We have been pushing for weeks to get her to come to more than just sacrament meeting, and she finally came. Later that night we went to have a lesson with her and we focused on the prophet Joseph Smith. When we asked her why Joseph Smith was important she just smiled and said "he is so important because he helped us have the real church. He asked God and believed he would have an answer. And now we have the real church of Christ." She is so great. We are really excited about the progress she is making.
So despite all the craziness it was a great week! Not to mention that Sorella McFarland and I earned another rite of passage as missionaries - this week we were popped on by a bird. The same bird, in fact. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. So now I can cross that one off the list. Haha but needless to say things are going well! Lots of exciting things going on over here, I am so grateful that I get to be a part of it. Love you all so much! Until next week :)
sorella marsh
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