Lucia + carbonara

Famiglia mia!!

I will tell you about the best thing I ate this week first because it corresponds with my email title. On Friday we did weekly planning and after weekly planning, I made carbonara for lunch. It was the best pasta I think I have ever made haha. I hope I can recreate it.... later that day we went to a little city that just so happens to be called Carbonara and we met with this lady named Lucia who needed help with some presentation she has to give in English. After that, we went to go see a potential investigator who is the mother of one of Sorella Baielli's MTC companions and guess what her name is? Lucia. Haha. So Friday was a Lucia + carbonara day, even though carbonara originates from Rome I believe. If you don't know what carbonara is, look it up (bacon and eggs)

The more time Sorella Baielli spends in Italy, the more Italian she becomes. It is so much fun. We were doi some finding and she still is not used to the whole "ho fretta"  (I'm in a hurry) response that you get every single time you stop someone on the street and so twice this week she said, "I can't WAIT to get to the spirit world!" Me: why? Her: you know why. 

She wants to ask them, "ancora hai fretta amico mio??!!??!!?!" (why are you in such a rush my friend)

BUONANOTTE!  (GOOD NIGHT)

There was a lady this week that I stopped and she initially said, "no, no, no" until I started talking about eternal families and that caught her interest. I can't wait for the temple in Rome!!

We also got hugged by a random lady from the country of Georgia. That was hilarious. We were trying to help her understand who we were and eventually just gave up and hugged us and then left hahaha

Now for the meat of the email......

Tuesday was a day full of tears. I will explain why. 

We went to go look for this potential contact that is cousins of a former missionary and they also own a panificio (bakery). We went and it ended up being very awkward and just left because they weren't interested. Afterwards, we made an attempt to do finding, but it was raining (even the sky was crying), no one wanted to talk, and so I just decided that it was ineffective to do this type of finding and we went home a little bit earlier than planned to make some phone calls. I called this lady we have been trying to meet with for about two months and she said that "today was her only free day" but we already had another meeting and English course and all of our studies so we were going to have to do it another day. Then I realized how dumb that was and told her that we would meet with her. 

For lunch, I just practiced my violin because I was feeling discouraged and music always helps me feel better and afterward I knelt in prayer and poured out my thoughts, feelings, worries, desires, and the things I am grateful for to Heavenly Father. Tears were shed.

During language study, I read in Doctrine and Covenants 121 and 122 which always makes me feel better and then we set out for Grazia's house. She is a single mother of two ten and eleven-year-old daughters. I'm not exactly sure that I can include all of the details of her life story, but she has not lived an easy life. I was able to share with her those scriptures that I studied during language study and bear testimony that Jesus Christ is with us always. She was in tears, the spirit was very strong, and we were able to kneel in prayer at the end. 

After that appointment, we had a meeting with the branch president of the Bitonto branch. He and his wife are incredible people and they just had a daughter leave on her mission to the Milan mission. We did this object lesson with water, pepper, and dish soap and talked about the atonement. How it's not just for our sins, but also for when we have afflictions, pains, and temptations. And how without the atonement we would never be able to have the possibility of becoming perfect someday. Sorella Santoro started crying because she said she had had a really hard day and it was exactly what they had needed. They haven't had missionaries visit them in two years.

It was really cool because we were trying to decide what we should share with them (we were mainly going to try to figure out how we can help the Sorelle in Trani) and Sorella Baielli showed me this object lesson and I thought that would be perfect and it turned out to be exactly what they needed to hear!!! Sorella Santoro was in tears. Heavenly Father knows His children. He loves them and He wants them to feel that love.

I am grateful for all of your prayers and love. I hope you know that you are prayed for as well, and not just by me.

Spero che abbiate una buona settimana!!! (I hope you have a good week)

Sorella G ♥️🇮🇹