February 23, 2015

Carissimi miei,

Buongiorno a tutti! Gosh I can't believe I'm already back here on p-day again. This week just flew by. Thanks so much for all of the pictures and emails this week. Sounds like you're all doing great, which I am happy to hear! Okay everyone we have lot's to talk about this week, so ready or not, here we go!

First things first...Leo's baptism!! Leonardo is officially a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, and I honestly couldn't be happier! It has been such an incredible process to see how much he has grown, even in this last week. So we met with him one last time before the baptism to plan it all out and get everything ready, then to do one last lesson with him before his baptism. For his lesson we felt like we just needed to talk to him about what a testimony is and how it grows. The lesson went really well. We just really wanted him to understand that a testimony starts out small, and that it takes a lot of work to strengthen and nourish it. We talked about the parable of the seed and I think it was really helpful for him. He recognized that he had started to see changes in his life since he started meeting with us, and said that he was willing to continue living the gospel until his testimony was strong. 

The baptism was on saturday and it was absolutely beautiful! The stake patriarch spoke, sorella jones sang "I know that my redeemer lives," and I shared my testimony. The actual baptism was perfect. Ala's son Dima performed the ordinance and everything went perfectly. I'll never forget how much joy I felt for him in that moment. The next day in church he recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost and was confirmed a member :) the spirit was so strong. But this is my favorite part - yesterday in church leonardo told us a story. He said that he had gotten to church late that day, so walked into priesthood and just sat in the back. They were about to say the prayer when they decided that they would have the most newly baptized member say the prayer, which would be Leonardo. Praying in front of people is something that is really hard for Leonardo, he is just painfully shy. But he decided to do it. He told us that while he was up there praying he felt like there was someone helping him. Then he looks at sorella jones and says "that's a testimony, right?" Just so incredible to see how he is already becoming more sensitive to the spirit in his life. I love the man!

So it was a pretty incredible day for us. Not to mention that after Leo's baptism there was a ward party - so it was a pretty hectic day. The ward party was a hit though. It was a party for carnevale, which is basically like a mix of a masquerede and an italian version of halloween. all the kids dress up and its tons of fun. The party was a huge success though. The members here are seriously incredible. We basically spent the whole night just meeting their friends and talking to them about the gospel. So that was definitely a highlight for the week!

Our other investigators are doing great as well! This week we met again with Anna, and we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. Her progress is small and slow, but it is pretty incredible. At the end of our lesson she accepted the invite to pray this week. Pretty amazing when you think that three weeks ago she told us she was convinced that there wasn't a God. She is the sweetest lady. In our last lesson she told us before we left that she always feels serenity when we are at her home with her. Honestly that's the best part of it all for me - knowing through that what we say to her she can feel more peace and happiness. 

Also this week we got to meet with Mauro and Rosa! Oh my gosh you guys my obbsession for this little family is real. In our lesson this week we decided to go through and explain the Book of Mormon a little more. We felt like it got rushed over a bit in our first lesson and we wanted them to understand how important it is. Mauro listened so intently to everything that we said, and before we could even get the invite out he says "great I will read it!" So we'll see how that went this week! Rosa is heading back to Equador this week to work on some things for her visa, so we are hoping that we will still be able to work with Mauro while she is gone. Please keep them in your prayers this week. Their family has so much potential. 

This week we also met with our investigator Sixio! I dont know if you remember me telling you about him, but he is from Peru and has a daughter who is 11 years old. They are so dang cute! We brought our ward mission leader Fratello Aranda to our lesson with us this week which was a huge help. Firstly because we found out that Sixio's name is actually Sixto. Haha that awkward moment when you dont even know your own investigators name. Also I'm not sure exactly why, but for some reason Sixto is under the impression that we speak spanish. Haha he will look me straight in the face and speak to me in full blown spanish just assuming i know what he says. I mean I can understand the general idea, but italian is definitely preferred. So fratello aranda was a huge help with that. The lesson went well though! Sixto is super super catholic, but he is opening to listening to what we have to say. And he said he would read in the book of mormon so what more can you ask for!

Okay one quick miracle story and then I promise I'll wrap things up. So last week on p-day sorella jones and i were about to get on the metro when a man stopped us on the street and said that he had met with missionaries like us in sweeden, but when he moved to italy he lost contact with the church. So we got his number and set up a time to meet with him. During our lesson we were asking him questions when we found out that he was actually baptized in sweeden, and didn't know where to find the church in Italy. He said he recognized our nametags and knew he could ask us for help. So that is the story of how we met Moses! So now we have another new convert to be working with here in Rome 1! Isn't that so great? Such a great testimony builder that God really does look out for us and doesn't forget any of his children. 

Well needless to say it was a pretty incredible week for us over here! We've got a lot of exciting things coming up this week as well. Tomorrow we have zone conference, then saturday we will recieve our transfer calls to find out if we are staying or going. Always a pretty nerve-wrecking time, but whatever happens will be what the Lord wants to happen. I'm so grateful to be serving here, and I'm so grateful for all of your love, support, and prayers back home. Have a great week! 

Love you!

sorella marsh

rosa e mauro!

 some of the masks we made for the festa!

 il battesimo di leonardo :)

February 16, 2015

Carissimi miei,

Yay its so great to hear from you all! Talking to you guys is always the highlight of p-day :) Thanks so much for all of the emails and pictures this week. Everyone looks great!

Okay I have lots to tell you about so get ready for it. We had another incredible week over here in Rome :) Sorella Clyde and I headed out to Pescara to do another one of our scambio's and it went really well! Okay time out - before going to pescara we stopped at the office to get mail for the sorelle, and i got my valentines day package from mom! so what do you know it all worked out in the end :) thanks mom! Time in -  I spent the day with sorella Davison, a new missionary from Australia who has been here about 3 weeks. It was such a great day, she is an incredible missionary. I feel like all these sisters just get the short end of the stick - i learn so much more from them than they could ever learn from me. Plus I am just so impressed with these new missionaries coming in. They are so prepared and just so ready to work. What are the teaching at the MTC these days?? Anyway, for our scambio sorella davison and i taught one of their investigators. However this investigator lives in a place where sister missionaries aren't serving, so the pescara sorelle travel there to teach her the lessons. So I was lucky enough to spend the day in Ascoli! Oh my gosh it was absolutely beautiful! I seriously feel so blessed to have the opportunity to work with all of these sisters. We've got some pretty great ones over here :)

But as always it was also really great to get back to Rome and get back to work in our area. I'll start with our investigators :) this week we were able to meet with Anna again, and the lesson went really well. We went into the lesson prepared to talk about faith, but as we were going through it just didnt feel right. She kept bringing up concerns and asking questions about the next life, and when she told us she lost her sister a few years ago we knew we needed to switch gears and teach the plan of salvation. It was such a neat experience. She still has a hard time believing in God, but she said that what we were teaching just made more sense than what she was taught growing up. Once we had finished the lesson she just sat back for a second and said "it's strange...but I feel close to these things. They don't feel unfamiliar to me." Such a powerful moment to bear testimony of the preexistence, and that these things don't seem new because they arent. We have all heard them before. She agreed to start trying to adress God in prayer, which is a miracle in and of itself. Oh i just love her. She is the kindest human being. She would not let us leave the appartment before she had given sorella jones a scarf, a jacket, and a pair of tights to wear because it was FREEZING outside and sorella jones was not well prepared. Haha she's the greatest. 

Another great miracle of the week - we were finally able to meet with Rosa and Mauro!! Oh my gosh they are the CUTEST family and I dont think that I could be more obbsessed with them. Haha so mauro is an ex-investigator, but it has been about 2 years since he had the lessons so we just started from the beginning and taught the restoration. The lesson went really well. We had some member there with us, and theywere able to bear such powerful testimony of how the gospel has strengthened their family and helped them to raise their childen. Which is exactly what Mauro and Rosa want in their family. They agreed to start reading and praying together everyday :) but the greatest part was just the end of the lesson when mauro said the closing prayer. I honestly don't know what it was about it, but he was just so sincere in everything he said that it actually made me cry. He started praying for his wife and his children and I was just so overwhelmed by the spirit and the love that there was in the room. Needless to say we are really excited to be working with them :)

Our other investigators are doing well! Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with ray this week because his wife wasn't home when we set up our appointment so we weren't able to stay. Heartbreaker. We also had some miscommunication with Sixio this week, but we will see both of them soon!

Our less actives are also doing well! This week we were able to meet with La Coppia Navarro, who have also just stolen my heart. They are so eager and excited to be doing the right things, it is the greatest thing to see. This week when we went to their house they said they were said they missed the lesson in sunday school last week, so they decided to study it on their own but didnt understand and wanted us to study it with them. So we took some time and went through the gospel principles manual together, and they were just so stoked to be learning more about the church. Little by little they are making those steps to get ready for the temple. 

And last but most certainly not least, we have Leonardo :) this week we finished off teaching the lessons! He is ready for his baptism! He had the interview yesterday and it is all set! He is a little bit nervous about being infront of all the people, but he says he feels good about his baptism and he is ready to make this next step. So we couldn't be more thrilled! The baptism will be on Saturday, so we've got a lot to do to prepare!

So we've got a pretty full-filled week ahead of us with lots to do, but we wouldnt have it any other way! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this work. Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers. I am one incredibly blessed missionary :) i love you all and i hope you have a great week!

sorella marsh

Roman forum - shout out to dougie!

 P-day adventures!

 Anna :)

Ascoli with sorella davison :)

 Happy valentines!

February 9, 2015

Carissimi miei,

Buongiorno a tutti! Thanks so much for all the pictures and e-mails this week, the trip to disneyland looked so fun! I was just dying at how cute everyone looked all dressed up in their disney gear. Thanks for sharing! I'm glad you had a good time :)

Alright so its story time. So this one time last p-day we decided we wanted to go climb the stairs to the top of st peters, so after finishing up our internet time we headed out. Once we got over there we walked into the square and it was just absolutely FILLED with nuns. Haha literally the whole square. We started asking around to see what was going on, when we saw some of the anziani. Turns out they had been talking with some of the nuns and apparently it was some catholic holiday (still not quite sure what it was called) and the pope was going to be there to lead the mass. So we hopped in line real quick (actually with some members from Ogden, that was fun) and waited to get in to see! We got into the basilica and all of the sudden they started handing us candles and prayer books, the whole works. We listened to them say some of their prayers and then sure enough, the pope came in! So now we can officially say that we have been to mass lead by the pope. Bucket list: check! 

But of course the real highlights of the week come from our work :) this week we got out to do one of our scambio's. Because the sorelle came into our area last transfer this time we decided to go out to theirs. This week we got to head out to rome 5 to scambio with sorella battezzato and sorella margheriti! They are both such great missionaries, honestly I feel like I learned more than I could have ever taught them. The scambio was a really great experience though! I spent the day with sorella margheriti. She is from a town in northern Italy, close to cinque terre. She is an incredible missionary who works so hard, I am grateful I had the chance to work with her. All in all it was a great experience!

One great thing about scambio's though is that it always makes you feel grateful to be back in your assigned area doing your work. And this week was a great one for us in Rome 1! This week we were able to meet with Ray and his family, and they are doing so great! We are not entirely sure how, but apparently between our lessons Ray got in contact with some other missionaries and watched the restoration and he absolutely LOVED it. He said he loved the story of Joseph Smith, and how each of us can find the truth in these days. So we are still not quite sure how that happened, but we are grateful it did! This week we taught them the plan of salvation, and it was such a great lesson. It was one of the first times I have actually taught the plan of salvation to a family, and it just made it so much more special. Ray and Jasmine were so touched by the idea of having an eternal family, and Christian loved all the pictures that we brought. So they are progressing and doing well!

This week we were also able to see Anna and the lesson with her went really well! This week we taught her the Restoration, and it was such a great lesson. We decided that we wanted to focus on the story of joseph smith and the difficulites he had finding god in each of the churches. But that through scripture study and prayer he was able to recieve an answer to his questions develop a personal relationship with God. She was really touched by the story of Joseph Smith, and said that she felt more open to the idea of prayer. She wasn't willing to say one with us then, but she said she felt more open to the idea. Little by little. it's progress :) But something just needs to be said - i have gained a testimony of a lot of things here in Italy, and one of them is that i will never have a pet. Haha during our lesson with anna her cats were crawling all over us. There was literally a point in the lesson i had to hold back laughter because one of the cats was swishing its tail in sorella jones's face. Gosh i was dying. Then later during the lesson another one came and started chewing on my hair. Haha they're the worst! So turns out I truly am my mothers daughter. 

Anyway, on to more important things. Haha Leonardo is still doing great! This week we finished up teaching him all of the commandments, and he accepted all of them! This week we will finish up the last few lessons with him then he will have his baptismal interview! The baptism got announced in church yesterday and everything :) I had the chance to talk to him about it after sacrament meeting and he is doing well. He feels good and excited about his baptism and we are excited for him as well. He still doesn't feel like he has recieved that confirmation that everything is true, but that he believes it 99%. It was a good opportunity to just talk to him about what a testimony is, and how answers come from the Spirit. We talked about the progress that he has already made, and how if he continues to read, pray, and come to church then his testimony will continue to grow until he does get to the point where he feels 100% sure. He's such a wonderful man. But bless his soul he is just SO shy. The thought of getting baptized in front of everyone just scares him to death. We talked about that for a while as well, and it was really great to be able to relate to him about those things. Heavens knows the social scene hasn't always been one of my strengths, so it was great to be able to talk to him about how when we turn to the Lord he can help us overcome our weaknesses. Love that man :)

I really do feel so blessed to be serving here in this area at this time. Our members here are fantastic. This week a bunch of the peruvian members threw together a family night that we could bring our investigators to and they could bring their friends too. That way we could meet their friends, and they could meet our investigators! It was a hit. All in all I think we had over 30 people there. I just feel so blessed to be working with these people. I learn so much from their example everyday. I love doing this work and I love being a missionary :)

Thanks for all of your love, support, and prayers. I love you each so much and I'll talk to you soon!

sorella marsh

so here is a fun little fact about our area. There are 2 grocery stores we can go to for our shopping. One is little far away and at the top of a hill, but super cheap. The other one is super close, but a bit more expensive. Last week we were going to the cheap one but we didnt want to have to go again this week. So naturally we just bought half of the store. 

 THE ROOTBEER.

 mass at st peters!

 rome 5 sorelle :)

February 2, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

Hello everyone! Buon Febbraio :) what in the world where did January go?! Seriously can't even believe it. Thanks everyone for all of the emails and pictures this week! So great to hear from all of you. I don't think I can ever say it enough, but I am one blessed Sorella. Thank you Thank you.

Okay first things first...I have wonderful news for you all. Last week on P-day we found a blessed little filipino shop that sells ROOTBEER. There is Mug Rootbeer in rome!!! That's when you know that God looks out for his missionaries. Haha it was a great start to a great week! One of the highlights of this week was definitely Capi conference. I always learn so much and it's just so great to get guidance on areas where we can improve. Also President Waddoups spoiled us and let us watch a tid-bit of meet the mormons! So so great. I absolutely loved it. So that was a rare treat for us :)

Alright so here is an update on how things are going over here in my neck of the woodson my side of the pond! The work here is moving forward and we are so excited about it. Right now our main focus is getting Leonardo ready for his baptism! We saw such great progress with him this week. We were a bit concerned that the only reason he was wanting to get baptized was just to make Ala happy, so we decided to do a lesson just on baptism. We wanted to focus on the idea that at baptism we make a covenant with God, so it should be a decision we make between us and Him. The lesson went really well, and Leonardo understood the importance of what we were saying. He is concerned about knowing if he is doing the right thing by being baptized before he feels absolutely certain that what we have taught is true. So we went through and read the baptismal questions with him so he could know what is expected of him and all of that. He was able to respond to all of the questions saying that he believes that it is true, he still just doesn't feel like he has recieved that confirmation. So in our next lesson with him we focused on fasting and how that can be a way he can recieve that confirmation from the Spirit. He agreed to do the fast so we are excited to follow up with him on that. It has been a pretty incredible process to work with him. He still doesn't feel absolutely certain that what we've taught is true, he says that he would like to be able to say "io so" like the rest of us do. But he says that with or without that confirmation he wants to be baptized on the 21st. So we are going to move forward with faith and do all we can to help him recognize and strengthen his testimony. Keep him in your prayers!

Our other investigators are also doing well. We were finally able to see Luca this week, which was great. We taught him about the commandments to read, pray, and come to church. We really just wanted to emphasize that through doing these things he will be able to recieve an answer that what we are teaching him is true. The lesson went really well, and he recommited to reading the book of mormon from the beginning. If anything it was just a really good lesson because it gave us the opportunity to understand what is holding him back a bit more. He is having a hard time understanding why he has to make a choice between the catholic and the LDS church, especially when all of his family is catholic and it means he would have to completely change his lifestyle. In the end he did agree to be more dedicated in his reading and prayers so that he can recieve an answer from God about what he has to do. So we're back on track and moving forward!

We also saw an incredible miracle this week with our less active Rosa. As we were planning for her lesson we got the feeling that we just needed to share a message of encouragement with her. We decided that we wanted to just take a minute and point out all the blessings she has already recieved from her efforts to come back to church, and promise her more blessings if she continues to do so. Before we even start the lesson she says sorelle i have to tell you about all of these things that are happening! Then continues to tell us about all her prayers that God has answered, and how many blessing she has seen in her life lately. So we jumped right in and helped her to make the connection that those blessings are coming from her obedience. It was incredible. We then started talking about her husband, Mauro, who is not a member. We asked her if it would be alright if we started including him in our visits and started teaching him, and she quickly agreed! So this week we will start meeting with the whole family :) 

This we we also got a few new investigators! First I'll tell you about Antonello. One day he just showed up to the church after english course asking about family history. Turns out he has been doing his geneology work for years and absolutely loves it. So we quickly introduced him to the members working in the family history center and got everything set up. We asked him if it would be alright if we explained a little bit about why family history work was important to our church and he quickly agreed! So we taught him the plan of salvation, and he was really interested in it. He isn't an extremely religious person, his main belief is that God is too far away from man for us to be able to understand who He is. But he agreed to meet with us again so we could talk about it more! So we are excited to see what happens there. 

Our other new investigators are a father and daughter, their names are Sixio and Ilenia (no idea how to spell that one) and they are so dang cute! We actually met them on the bus about a month ago, but just between the holidays and conflicting schedules we were never able to meet with them. But just goes to show that persistence pays off as a missionary! Sixio is from Peru. He is Catholic, but very open to hearing about other religions. Ilenia is 11 years old, and she is the sweetest girl I have ever known. She is super shy, but just soaked up every word we were saying during our lesson. We decided to just go through an introduction to the book of mormon with them, and they loved it. They agreed to start reading and we are going to see them this week to see how it went!

I seriously feel so blessed to be serving these people here as a missionary. I feel like I learn more from them than I could ever teach. Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers. I couldn't be out here doing this work without your guys rooting me on back home. Love you all so much! Have a great week and talk to you soon :)

sorella marsh

 capi conference!

 sunday morning before church :) nothing beats the sabbath day.

 making some brownies with leonardo. but seriously, how can you not love the man?

Capi Conference - January 2015

I love it when I get on Steph's mission president's blog and their is my wonderful Stephanie!  Here are some pictures from her last Leader's Conference.  4 of the zones attended in person, the other 4 via computer.  What a day we live in!   Love our Sorella!

January 26, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

 

So great to hear from you all this week! Thank you so much for taking the time to send all of the updates! Its so good to hear that everyone back home is doing well. This week was a great one for us, and I can't wait to tell you all about it :)

 

So just to give you a quick update, all went well with transfers. Part of being an STL means that we have to help out the sisters in our zone who were being moved, but we got everything all taken care of without any problems! Now we are ready to get started on a new transfer. We have capi conference coming up this week, but we wont have zone conference until the end of the transfer this time around. Which means we will have a bit more time to work on our training, so we will see how that goes! 

 

Things over here are going really well! I honestly feel so blessed to be a missionary here at this time. Our investigators are doing great. Let's start with Leo :) we got to spend a lot of time with that man this week. First we had the grand opportunity to teach him the law of chasity. He had a lot of questions, but the lesson went really well. In the end he understood why it is important and said that he would live it. Then later on in the week we went to clean the church with the Scotchi's and Leonardo came too. It was a great opportunity to just talk to him a little bit and see how things were going. and he told us that as he has been reading in the book of mormon he has felt more peace in his life! bahh! his little testimony is just growing and it is the most wonderful thing to see. Also this week there was a baptism that was held in our building for one of the other wards and Leonardo came to see it. It was an absolutely beautiful service, he loved it. And afterwards he was just making jokes about who would be singing at his baptism, who would be giving a talk, how he probably won't be able to fit through the tiny door that leads to the font. haha but really i dont know what we are going to do about that last one. BUT. little by little we are getting him ready for the 21st :)

 

We also had another investigator come to the baptismal service - alida! She is our investigator who has a niece who is a member of the church in dublin. she loves the church, but it is very hard for her to believe that there is a God. But she loved the baptismal service, and honestly was a bit overwhelmed by the spirit that she felt there. I think it was the first time in her life that she felt something like that, and so powerfully. She said that she needs a bit of time to study and try to understand on her own, but that we can call her and see when we can come visit with her. So we are excited to see the progress she makes this week.

 

Also we actually got a new investigator this week who is very similar to Alida. Her name is Anna and we found her on the train. She was raised in the catholic church, but say that she never really felt the presence of god in her life, and because of that now she doesn't think that there is a god. However, like alida, she would like to believe Him. So we met with her for the first time this week, and the lesson went really well. We just took some time to talk about who god is, how we can feel his presence in our life, and above all that we are his children and he loves us. It was just such an incredible opportunity to bear testimony, and honestly i felt like it was one of the most sincere that i have ever borne. Through trials that i have gone through this week I have become so much closer to my heavenly father and felt his love so strongly in my life, and it was just so incredible to see how through that i was able to become a more effective instrument in his hands to help one of his children. Her entire countenance just completely changed throughout the lesson, it was so beautiful. We are excited to see her again.

 

Our other investigators are doing well! Unfortunately Luca was out of town this week, but now he is back so hopefully we will see him soon. And we started teaching a cute little filipino family this week! Their names are ray, jasmine, and christian, and they are so dang cute. 

 

Our meno attivi are doing fantastic as well! This week we met with la coppia navarro, and we really just wanted to stress the importance of coming to all three hours of church. we have talked about it before, but we just wanted them to understand the importance of it. So we talked about the plan of salvation and how in order to have an eternal family they need to be ready to go to the temple, and to go to the temple they need to come to church. It was hard to be so direct, but we knew it was what they needed. And sure enough the next day they showed up at 9:30 for church :) it was so wonderful! and rosita came too! gosh she is just BEAMING with joy right now because she has been coming back to church. But seriously i dont know if i have ever seen someone so happy. It is incredible to be a part of :)

 

Sorry its a bit jumbled and all over the place but there are the updates for the week! There are so many incredible things going on over here, and I feel so humbled and so grateful to be a part of it. I love you so much and I am so grateful for each of you. Ci sentiamo presto :)

 

 

sorella marsh

January 19, 2015

Carissimi Miei,

 

ciao a tutti! So great to hear from you all this week :) im glad to hear that all went well with all the birthday celebrations! Don't worry, sorella jones and I ate some treats over here for you guys as well! Thanks for all the pictures and videos this week! So fun to see how everyone is growing up. I'm glad to hear that all is well back home!

 

As for me we had another great week over here in Rome! I had the greatest tender mercy this week -  i got to see some of my members from pozzuoli! they were here for a conference on teaching seminary and institute which was held in our church building, and one day we were walking up to the church and i saw them out side and was just like wait a second...those are my people!! I seriously was just on cloud 9 for the rest of the day :) We had some other great highlights including a trip to the questura to get sorella jones's fingerprints taken, so that was exciting. For some reason at the questura here in rome they only let you in the building if you have an appointment, which means sorella jones and i were separated for about 2 hours. I've never felt so out of place in my whole life. Haha so i just found a nice seat and read general conference talks on our phone. We also recieved our transfer calls this weekend and i could not be more thrilled to say that sorella jones and I will both be staying here in rome for another transfer!! We've got so many great things going on right now, and we are so excited to get to work.

 

 Unfortunately this week we didn't get to meet with all of our investigators and less actives, but the ones that we did meet with are making such great progress. First of all I want to tell you all about Leonardo. Gosh my love for the man just grows and grows each week. This week we moved on and started teaching him about the commandments. We decided to start out simple with just read and pray. The lesson went really well. We took some time and talked about why prayer is important. We really just wanted to emphasize the idea that the only way he is going to recieve the answer he is looking for is by asking through prayer. So we asked him if he could ask god one question, what would it be? he responded that he would want to know if there is a life after this one, and what it would be like. We then explained that a great way to recieve answers to our prayers is to read the scriptures. So we opened up to Alma 40 and all read together about the spirit world. It was such a great lesson. Little by little his faith is growing, and it is incredible to watch. At the end of the lesson he offered the prayer without even putting up a fuss, then at church on sunday he happily reported that he has read 15 chapters of 1 Nephi this week :) 

 

We also so some incredible progress with our less active Rosa this week. We went to go visit her this week and we decided that we really just wanted to focus our lesson on letting her know how much God loves her. Rosa is married and has 3 kids, but she is the only member of the church in her family. She wants so badly to teach her children and to help her husband accept the gospel, but a lot of time she just feels alone. She told us an incredible story this week about how God answered one of her prayers through all of these people who reached out to her. We promised her that God would continue to answer her prayers, and that he would help her to be an example to her family. We invited her to come to church and told her we would do anything we could to help. Sure enough sunday morning rolls around and rosa, her husband mauro, and all three kids are in church :) im not exaggerating when i say i literally screamed i was so excited. We still need to talk to Rosa about it a little bit more, but we are hoping to start working with Mauro as soon as possible.

 

Last, but certainly not least, we have la coppia navarro! Gosh they are just the most fantastic people. They have such a great desire to do what is right, and they are so influenced by the spirit. It is beautiful. For the second time now they have took our invite right away from us because they have already felt that it was something they needed to be doing. Vi spiego. This week in our coordination meeting we talked with our ward mission leader and he reported to us that the bishop said inorder for the navarros to recieve a temple recommend they need to be coming to all three hours of church. So we prepared a lesson about keeping the sabbath day holy, intending to invite them to come to all 3 hours of church at the end. We get there and start the lesson, when sorella navarro says that she felt that they need to start making changes in their lives so that they can come to all three hours of church. She said that little by little she wanted to start working their way up to coming to church earlier and earlier. So at that point all we could really do is just read in alma about how by small and simple things great things are brought to pass, and bear testimony that by these small steps they are making they will reach their goal of making it to the temple. So incredible!

 

As for our other investigators they are doing well. Alida was babysitting her grandchildren last week and wasnt able to meet with us, but we have an appointment with her this week. Luca was also out of town but we will be meeting with him again soon. Little by little the work is moving forward, and I am so grateful to be a part of it. I love you each so much and I am so grateful for your love, support, and prayers. Have a great week! Ci sentiamo presto :)

 

 

sorella marsh