Buongiorno a tutti :) come state? I can't believe another week has already come and gone! It is great to hear from you all, I am glad that all is well back home.
Things are going well for us here in Crotone! This week was a bit of a strange one, though. On Tuesday there was capi conference held in Rome but we participated through skype from Cosenza, another city in my area. So on Monday night we headed over and stayed the night before the conference. Unfortunately that Tuesday was also a holiday, which meant there was no public transportation running and no way for us to get home. So we just ended up spending a little bit more time in Cosenza with Sorella Hamilton and Sorella Jones! It was a bummer that we got back to our work later than expected, but it was so great to spend the day with those two. The conference was really great as well. Lots of much needed guidance and counsel for how we can help the work move forward here in Italy.
But as always, it was great to get back home and get back to work. I love the people here and I am so excited and feel so blessed to be working with them. Slesia is progressing really well. Our main focus with her right now is still trying to help her understand the role of the Savior. This week we watched the movie Finding Faith in Christ together and just had a discussion afterwards. We asked her what she liked about it and she said she loved how Christ served and forgave others. We then talked about the Atonement and Christ's love for each of us, and it was a truly incredible moment. One of the most rewarding as a missionary. We were able to simply bear testimony of the reality of the Atonement and how we have felt it in our lives. The spirit was so strong, she is beginning to feel it. Please keep her in your prayers this week!
After that lesson with Slesia I have been thinking a lot about charity and Christ's love for us. As I was thinking about it I realized that so many of the miracles that I have seen on my mission have been a result of us reaching out to make someone feel loved. For example, this week we wanted to go pass by a less active. We have been trying for about a transfer now to contact this less active but we have never had success. While we were walking over there Sorella Puzey had the idea to walk into a flower shop on the side of the road, just to be friendly and try to talk to some people about the gospel. The worker wasn't interested, but she was so kind and gave both Sorella Puzey and I a rose. We had no idea what to do with them, then we got the idea to take them to the less active member we wanted to stop by. We went to her home and she wasn't there, but the front door was open that let us into her apartment complex (divine intervention on that one). So we went up to her door and left the rose with a note saying that she could call us if she needed anything. Incredibly enough later that night we received a text from her telling us thank you for the note and the rose. Who knows what will happen in the future, but we were glad that we were able to reach out and contact this woman in some way and help her feel loved and cared about. That's what missionary work is all about anyway :)
Anyway, that is a tidbit of my thoughts these days. Our other investigators are doing great as well! Unfortunately we didn't get to see Juliette very much this week. There was a miscommunication and we thought she was out of town when really she leaves today to go to Milan. So we might have to postpone her baptism a bit just so that we have enough time to finish the lessons. She is doing really well though. Her testimony is growing each day and she is so excited to be baptized. This week we also started teaching her friend Glory. She is so cute! She is 18 years old and also from Nigeria. She has been to church 3 times with us and at the end of sacrament meeting yesterday Sorella Puzey said she overheard Glory praying for both of us by name. How could you not love her?!
We are also continuing to work with Roberta, and things are going well. This week we taught the Restoration and invited her to start reading in the Book of Mormon. She has an old copy from her husband, that was really neat to see. Things are also going well with Salvo! He left on vacation last week and won't be back until next week, so unfortunately we weren't able to meet with him at all but we have heard from him a few times and he said that he took his Book of Mormon with him! He has been reading it and says he finds it very interesting. So hopefully we'll be able to start up the lessons again in a few weeks.
Needless to say we are very blessed missionaries over here! As this precious time that I have to serve the Lord is starting to come to an end I have just constantly been overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity I have to serve as a missionary. I love this work and I love the people that we are doing it with. Thank you all so much for your love, support, and prayers. Talk to you next week!
Sorella Marsh
The Roses
Steph was forwarded this picture: of the entire mission from the Elder Bednar Conference.
She titled it "Where's Waldo?" She's funny!
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