This email's gonna be super short but as sweet as ever because I had to write my college essays today.
This week was full of BAPTISMS!
On Tuesday a nine year old boy that the elders have been working with got baptized. Both of his parents are members but they just never got around to baptizing him, then he turned 9 so the missionaries had to work with him. But now he's a member! woo!! His family put on this huge party after with a clown and catering and everything...it was kinda crazy but like, that's just Italy I guess. One second you're sitting in the chapel feeling the spirit, and the next they open up the overflow and you've got tons of kids running around screaming. He even played his violin for us.
Also on Tuesday the Garrett's invited all of the missionaries in the 2 Palermo districts to come over for a thanksgiving lunch. Mmmm it was just like home. We love our senior couples! Seriously, they're the best. All of you should try to be senior missionaries some day.
Wednesday all of our appointments were cancelled so we did finding all day which was really exhausting. The harder part was that we didn't see any success that day. The next day we were so tired but found ourselves out on the streets one again trying to find those elect people. I was less than excited to be finding almost the whole day again, but we had made a goal to be diligent in our finding so despite all of the rejection we always face, we tried to stop every person. We saw so many miracles that day!! It strengthened my testimony of perseverance and how we are always blessed when we endure diligently through the harder times.
The biggest blessing we saw was that night at English course. A new woman came to our advanced class. She told us that her friend came to our course 5 years ago and that's how she found out about it. At the beginning I decided to ask them if they had any questions (referring to English) and she said, "yes I have one, who is Mormon?" Pointing to the Book of Mormon that we sitting on the table. I told her that if she wanted we could talk afterwards and explain some more but our class told us that they were fine if we explained right now. So for the whole hour we taught our English class about the Book of Mormon. Many of them were interested, especially this woman, Valentina. She told us she asked because she was going through a really hard time in her life a little while ago and she was staying in a hotel in catania. She opened up the dresser and found a Book of Mormon. She had a question, opened the book and read, and she said that she received her answer. After that though she hadn't seen it until it was sitting in front of her on a table at a free English course. HOW COOL IS THAT?!? All of that stuff was no coincidence.
On Friday Maria (the excommunicated member that I've been working with for a while) got baptized and was also confirmed!!! Her confermation was the most spiritual moment. She has missed having the gift of the Holy Ghost in her life so much so it was such a wonderful thing to be there when she recieved it again. She also got to take the sacrament for the first time yesterday in like 10 years. She was bawling and hugged me so tight after church. Such a cool experience to help someone come back.
The other set of elders also had a baptism later friday night. Her name's Carolina and She's super cute. they're going to pass her to us to teach the new convert lessons so im excited to work with her. we also met tons of her friends and family who were at the baptism and we're hoping to work with a lot of them too!!
Saturday our ward had another Karaoke party. One of our members brought her mom and she ended up being the life of the party! She was pretty against the church when her daughter was baptized 3 years ago but we're hoping that after that activity we can start working with her. Another member spent all day making this siciliano specialty cake called cassata. It's filled with ricotta and has pistachio cream on the outside. So yummy! We made brownies of course with Nutella on top and everyone loved them once again! Woo! Go sisters!
Yesterday at our chalk demonstration thing --I don't even know how to say it in English-- the devil literally ran down the street chanting "io dico no" with all of his followers. Haha it was some weird protest but it basically took the spirit away and make it really hard for us to do the work of salvation. But regardless I still asked everyone if they wanted to see my video of Christ. Most people said no except one cute girl. we got talking and she was very interested. When I gave her a Book of Mormon she didn't want to accept it without paying. She said she could read it then come back in two weeks and give it back. I told her that it's hers if she promises me she'll read it. So fingers crossed for Giusy!
All in all, 10/10 week. Love you guys!
sorella bonzo
Theater from last week
Maria's baptism
