What a strange week this has been.Oh,
first of all, I realized after email that I didn't tell y'all that Sorella
Burt and I went to one of the biggest caves in the world last P-day. Oops,
sorry.... But yeah! IT WAS HUGE! It's called Grota Gigante
and the name fits it well. In 1995 it won the Guinness World Record for the
largest cave (I think in the world...) Either way, We walked down about 500
steps, walked across about maybe 100 meters or something I can't remember, and
then walked up 500 steps. Yes, up 500 steps. And we didn't stop, we just went
until we got to the top. Trieste stairs are legend. Anywho,
so that was cool, just wanted to let you guys know about that fun little
adventure :)
So on Thursday we had an
FHE at the church to show the new Easter video the Church made and it went
really well! I mean, other than the video not working and everything not
working for about 20-ish minutes, it went well! Only one person invited a
friend, but it was a cool little miracle! This member had been out of
contact with this friend for some time, but she ran into her on the street and
was like "hey! Do you want to come to my church and watch this awesome
Easter video?!" (not necessarily in those exact words. This member is like
75 years old.) And she came! So we got to talk to her and while I was talking
to her, it led perfectly and beautifully into the message of the Restoration,
but right when I was getting to the First Vision, she inturrupts
me. And everytime I
try to bring it back she's just like "yeah yeah yeah,
I know, that's so great you believe that. Everyone has their own religion, we
all have the same God." Blah blah blah
all that stuff and the wonderful moment was lost. And it was really sad. But
it's okay :) We saw her on the street last night and we asked when we could
come over to talk more about the Gospel and she was like "Whaaaat??
I just want to give you all my old clothes. I don't want to hear about your
Church. I studied to be a nun for years. I'm done studying." And whatnot.
So that was a super bummer. BUT she's super indecisive, so I'm hoping one day
she's suddenly like "Tell me everything!" And we can finally teach
her about the First Vision :D
Oh, plus this one girl that we had
met on the street a few weeks ago randomly showed up at the church. I think she
thinks we live there because she's done it before... Anyway, she came after we
showed the video, so we invited her to stay and listen to the testimonies of
the members and then eat and play games with us and she did! It was cool! She's
got a few problems and we're not sure how to handle the situation quite yet
(she's kind of turning to us as therapists so it's a little tough to explain
that that's not what we do...) But we told her that the message of the Gospel
can help a little. Anyway, so there's that...
Friday we had interviews in Mestre!
President Dibb
basically told me that he wants me to the be the kind of missionary that
baptizes in each of my cities. No pressure. But he told that to Sorella
Burt too, so I think he's telling everyone that... But hey, it's still
important! Then we got KEBAB. It's kind of like a greek
gyro + taco bell combination with strange mystery meat inside. It was super
good! Look it up, they just have this GIANT thing of meat just turning by a
flame and they just shave off pieces, stick it in a tortilla with other yummy-ness
and ya
eat it! I'm a keabap
fan :)
Saturday we got to watch the
women's session and the Saturday AM session! We watched the women's
session in Italian so I didn't catch all of it... But what I caught was super
good! Also, FUN FACT: The woman that they talked about that served a mission in
Italy years ago or something like that is the ancestor of one of our Anziani
here in Trieste!
Luckily we got to watch the rest of
the sessions in English :)
Sunday we hid little chocolate
eggs around the house for each other to find which was super fun and adorable.
Plus we bought these giant chocolate eggs. So in Italy, they have a thing
called Kinder egg Surprises and it's a hollow chocolate egg with a little toy
inside. For Easter, they have GIANT versions of these. Like, giant. So we
bought one and one was given to us, so we hid those for each other :)
Then while we were at the church
watching Conference, our Ward Mission Leader walks into our little room for us
English people with two people who have giant Backpacks and are clearly living
out of them. It turns out that they're both from California and they're
backpacking around Europe and Thailand and whatnot. THEY WERE SO COOL. Anywho,
so the girl is a member, but clearly less active. But they got to Trieste at
like 2 in the morning the night before and were super lost trying to find a bus
to take them to Slovania. They were luckily lost by the church and what they thought
was a road turned out to lead them right to the church and she recognized the
writing and was like "Hey! This is my church!" 1. it was a MIRACLE
they found the church. It's up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere. 2. It
was during CONFERENCE!!! SO COOL! So the members invited them to stay and join
us for a BBQ that we had the next day and then they would drive them to the
border. So we got to chill with Americans for about a day. So strange but so
great! Anywho,
she recognized it as a miracle and we invited them to go to a service next
Sunday wherever they were so her boyfriend could see what they were like.
She said she thinks she wants to bring him to her home ward since it's where
she grew up and everything. Um, yeah, that's a great idea! Our fingers are
crossed! We feel like this was kind of like a call for her to come back and she
recognized it :)
Monday we had a great BBQ with
the most amazing meat that I have come across. They had burgers that were sooo
tender and seasoned soooo amazingly and they had this Triestino
meat that had a super fun name that I can't remember that was INCREDIBLE. and
the Chicken was soooo tender. Gosh dangit I
ate way too much but it was so dang good.
Tuesday morning we had a
lesson with an investigator that was passed to the Anziani
because her mom wanted them to teach her, but we all agreed it would be better
for us to teach her (she's 14...) so we had a little joint lesson to explain
that we (the Sorelle)
were going to teach her outside the house and help her specifically and the Anziani
would teach her and her family (mainly to help reactivate the father). It went
so well! It was so strange teaching a lesson with Anziani
though... But she's so ready. She has a baptismal date and she said herself
that she feels a lot more ready than a year ago when she had a bap date
then. She knows all the answers and is super awesome. I'm so excited for her!!!
And yeah, that was my week :) OH MY
GOSH! And then that girl that showed up randomly Thursday night for
the activity randomly came on Sunday and was able to watch
the Sunday AM session with us. She just randomly shows up at the
church and she's been having really good
timing lately. We just hope she understands that we're here to help her
by teaching the Gospel. She seemed like she understood, so we have hope!
Anywho
:) I love you alll soooooo
much. This weekend was such a beautiful weekend, thanks to the wonderful
opportunity that we had to hear from the Lord through His servants. Every talk
was so beautiful and so inspired. I know that the Lord truly does speak to us
through His prophets here on the Earth today. And I am so grateful for the
modern-day counsel that we receive.
I love you all with all my heart! I
hope you have a wonderful week and know that I pray for you every day :) Vi voglio
un sacco di bene!!
Loveeeee,
Sorella
Hawks :)
