After pday I did an exchange with my STL Sorella Littlefield. We went
to the hospital to visit a man who has some kind of skin cancer that
is eating away his face so right now his entire cheek on the right
side of his face is gone. His wife is their investigator so they
usually go and see them together but she was running late so we went
inside and talked to him for a while...it was a little difficult
because he can't really talk so it as kind of difficult but he's sweet
and I could tell he appreciated the company. We'd brought their
Anziani with us to give him a blessing.
It was getting late and his wife still hadn't shown up so we finally
just had them do the blessing then we had to go.
We went to the bus stop and waited...and waited...and waited....
Palermo 2 doesn't have the safest areas..so the Anziani were going to
go with us back to the station where we'd meet palermo 1 Anziani who
we would us home....but the bus never showed up...finally it hit 10:00
and we decided we should probably do something about it haha. We
couldn't walk because none of us knew exactly where we were, we hair
knew that we were really far away. Then finally one of the Anziani had
the idea to call the senior couple! Haha so Anziani Garrett came to
the rescue in his car and took us all home. We didn't get home until
like 10:40. So that's my apostate story for this week haha. We felt
super bad for making everyone get home so late that later in the week
we made them all a cake.
We scheduled Anna's baptismal interview for Saturday last week so on
TUESDAY we played Jeopardy with her to review all the stuff we've
taught and prepare her for the interview. She knew all the answers and
even the game!! We've also been helping her memorize the articles of
faith. She's so good at them! She's doing awesome.
THURSDAY morning we got a call from Anna's mom saying that her friend
(a former investigator from like 6+ months ago) wanted to meet with us
that day. We moved some stuff around so we'd be available. I guess her
story is that she was all good and loved the church until she found
some anti-Mormon stuff then went wayy against it. But when we met with
her she said she wanted to start fresh like a first lesson. She said
she knew that God wanted us to meet that day and so she knew there's
something she needed to learn from us. We taught her the restoration
and it was the strangest, craziest lesson ever. She had tons of
questions and a lot to say.. She is very influenced by her Catholic
background and was upset for a while because we don't worship Mary.
But by the end she said, you're right, we do only have on savior,
Jesus Christ. When we got to talking about the Book of Mormon she
said, "I know that this book is true." So we flipped to the last
paragraph of the introduction that says that if this book is true then
Joseph smith was a prophet and that this church is God's kingdom on
the earth today. we pointed that out and she said that she knew they
both of those things were true..so the only thing left to do was
invite her to baptism which we did and now she has a date for October
8th!
We also met with the cutest less active lady ever this week who was
shocked when I started speaking Italian. She was like "how long have
you been out? You speak so well! Your ancestors must be Italian, it's
in your blood!" Haha she was the sweetest thing. She even promised to
teach us how to make Arancine if we teach her how to make American
cookies.
We are lunch with the relief society president and her fami,y this
week. She has 3 crazy but cute kids. After we ate she basically forced
us to watch an hour long video of her wedding...It was so long but
she's the kind of person who would've been very offended if we hadn't
watched the whole thing. Plus it was pouring rain that day so she was
going to drive us back to the bus stop so there wasn't really anything
we could've done about it. It was just really funny, she loved it. She
did feed us waffles with Nutella on top for dessert so that was a
plus!
SATURDAY was a little rough. We did service in the morning which was
fun but it was super hot. The same guy stopped and gave us food again
out of the trunk of his car! But as soon as we got home my companion
was not feeling good at all. She was dehydrated and those sandwiches
were kind of heavy so it made her feel sick. Plus we were both
exhausted from working in that heat for so long. Then she threw
up...she was so sick I felt so bad.
Then Alessia (our other investigator getting baptized) wasn't texting
us back. Then we were planning to meet Anna for her bap interview but
her mom called us like 2 hours before and said "Anna doesn't want to
get baptized anymore." I asked her why and she said that she's too
scared of the water. I asked if we could still meet that night and
Anna said that she didn't want to go to the church.. I told her mom
that they need to read the scriptures together, every night, pray
together every night, and come to all three hours of church the next
day.
About an hour later we texted the mom telling her that we had made
cookies for Anna and asking if we could stop by for a few minutes.
They agreed.
Then I burned the cookies!! Haha I was so preoccupied with what we'd
say to Anna that I forgot about it. but it's okay because we had just
enough time to throw another batch in before we had to go.
We went over and talked to her a lot. I shared this scripture with her:
10 ¶Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy
God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold
thee with the right hand of my righteousness. (Isaiah 41)
We were able to help her realize that God wants her to that so he will
be with her the whole time. She agreed to continue towards her
baptism.
She did her interview last night and we're having her try on the bap
clothes tonight!! She's excited once again to do it :)
Alessia wasn't able to come to church yesterday because she had to
work :( but she's doing well and is so ready, she just has to convince
herself that she's ready. We're meeting with her tonight and hope that
all goes well for her to get baptized on Saturday as well.
If so we will have a 4 baptism! Anna, Alessia, Alessia'a brother, and
another man! It's gonna be the best week ever!!
I love you guys! A special prayer for my investigators would be
appreciated this week!! Love you all so much!
Teaching Africans in English is fun
This is the cutest little kid
I tried to write in journal...I failed.
Shopping today!
