Week 33

(Week 3 Bari)

Basically life is just great. We wake up, eat a nice bowl of cereal,
study, comp study, leave and teach, come home and eat, study Italian,
leave and teach, come home, plan, write in journal and bed. REPEAT! I
honestly don't know what's better than this! 

Sorella Taylor and I had
an AWESOME week! Fun fact about our companionship: we are the youngest
companionship in the entire mission, but we aren't letting this stop
us from seeing miracles! 

Investigator Gabriella: she literally kills me. Haha she loves loves
loves reading the Book of Mormon and every night when we call her to
give her a new chapter to read she is super pumped, but... She is
super sensitive when we talk about baptism. Patience... Patience...
Patience... 

Favorite Gabriella highlight was when we taught her the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we explained at the beginning that there
are five steps we need to do in our life and we continue repeating
these steps she asked if it was okay if she took notes. Haha ADORABLE! 

While we taught the whole lesson she took notes on each step and
sometimes asked us to repeat what we had said. She is awesome and
loves learning. 

This week we found a beautiful African family. They only speak African
language and Italian so I felt super bad when I first was speaking in
English because most people from Africa speak English... Anywho, they
have a daughter who is probably 13 and two beautiful twins who are
2ish. 

We found them when we were stood up by another potential so we
decided to knock the doors in the apartment building. Hopefully we
have found an eternal family!!! 

We had a KILLER scambio (exchange) this week with the Sorelle from
Foggia. We got sooo many lessons taught! I have the biggest testimony
of miracles happening during scambi! Crazy moment when the greenie in
Foggia is someone who you went to high school win! Sorella Karlee
Peterson! So crazy! 

Hilarious moments with men this week!!!
After English course we were giving out family proclamations to go
along with our spiritual thought and one man comes up and gets one
from me, he grabs my hand and in a second flat kisses my hand. I about
died of laughter! 

On the bus one day Sorella Taylor and I were checked by the security
men for tickets. After getting checked and cleared we started a conversation
with them. Eventually they started being creepy and wierd and then a
little 15 year old boy with a mustache we invited to English course
just keeps making awkward eye contact with us and we are both trying
to not die of laughter it is so awkward! 

The bus men get off and
another man comes over to us on the bus and asks how old we think he
is... Random but okay... I say 38 and he just dies of laughter!!! He
starts talking to us and I am biting my tongue to keep from laughing
because he is speaking in dialect and we don't understand and the
mustache boy is still being creepy. Another old man gets on the bus
and I say "come va" and he just gives me the strangest look in the
world. I explain that no, we don't know each other I just wanted to
greet you and see how your day is... Haha he is so confused as to why
I would just talk to a stranger so then sweet Sorella Taylor changes
the subject and tells him she likes his scarf. He then lights up and
is so happy and in perfect English says that his sister made it. I was
so surprised by his English and just still dying of laughter from our
awkwardness that I'm just lost for words and Sorella Taylor is tucked
in the corner just dying of laughter. Haha we love our Italian men... 

We have been cleaning out our phone contacts and area book. One day we
called someone named Fextos and he declared that "I have a love for
you" to me. Haha I don't remember ever meeting...

Presidente e Sorella Waddoups came to our Poggio Franco ward this
Sunday! Hashtag stressful Saturday night making sure people would be
in church! 

During the meeting I was asked to share my testimony with
the ward since I am new. It was awesome because I talked a lot about
how much I love missionary work, but I also shared an experience that
I will talk about later in this email. 

I shared with the ward that we
are here in Italy to help the members with their missionary work.
President was also asked to speak and he talked about the exact same
thing. We are here to help the members. 78% of baptisms come from
member referrals. 

This is the experience I shared which was also the highlight of the entire week...
Angelo is a less active man who was baptized 5 years ago. We have been
working with Angelo and his wife to get back to church so they can
eventually go to the temple. One night during our scambio we met with
Angelo. We were planning on boosting his testimony, but when we sat
down on a bench in the park he explains that he is ready to change and
wants to help us with our missionary work. I'm just like..,
what!?!?... 

He continues telling us that when we called him he
realized how much of the Lord's time he has wasted and how he
literally has friends all over Bari he has not shared the gospel with.
We asked him if he would like to have us help him teach his friends
and he hops of the bench and says "andiamo" let's go! Hahaha! 

We
walked up and down streets with Angelo and every person he knew we
would talk with. Angelo knows a lot of people... He was so bold and
basically told all his friends that we are missionaries who will
change their lives. He made that night one of the best finding
experiences of my mission. 

I seriously love missionary work so so so much!!! I also love Italy
and Italians just as much! Every day we have strange and sometimes sad
experiences, but everyday Heavenly Father makes us laugh and blesses
us with little miracles. 

This week a marketplace man invited us over
to share our message with his family, we also found a woman who is a
member but not on the records so we can get her back to church. Best
moments ever!!!

Have a killer week everyone! Make a new friend. You never know who is
looking for a little light in their life  

Ponderize scripture: 2 Nephi 32:4 

Sorella Carrie Nelson 

P.S. Sometimes Italians put scarfs on their dogs when it is windy
outside... Hahaha

Made all of these things for lunch one day....Always a surprise what we come up with. :)

Fresh Mozzarella with tomatoes and vinegar.

No bake cookies

Zucchini soup type thing.

Found some homemade pasta out drying.

Below are pictures of beautiful Bari Vecchia (Old Bari.)

Outside one of the many churches.

Below are pictures of inside of Saint Nicholas church.

The confessional (above picture).

Where is Santa Claus?  (Saint Nicholas)  He's supposed to be buried somewhere here....

Some kind of thing that people put money inside.  There are hundreds and hundreds of bills inside and spilling out.

Angelo and me.