PANZEROTT!!!!!!

Alright well it's official folks. I had the best thing I have tasted in Italy this past week. A member taught us how to make panzerotti and I don't think I have ever tasted a more perfect dough. 

Also me and Sorella Baielli made this lasagna this week. It weighed 8.2 pounds!!!! (pan included) and was very good haha

Sorella Baielli and I had a great experience this week. I have such a strong testimony that 12 weeks is inspired, but while we were doing it this week we were reading about the importance of the Book of Mormon. Our investigator closest to baptism is Nunzia, who is the daughter of the recent convert in Bitonto, Dora. She is an incredible mother of four children and is progressing. We still have no yet been able to get her to come to church, but she does read the Book of Mormon. Anyway. As we were doing our 12 weeks study, I said to sorella baielli, "How do you think we can use the Book of Mormon better with Nunzia? We read scriptures from the Book of Mormon with her, but we have never been able to read a passage with her and have her attempt to relate it to her life." We started discussing if we should continue with our lesson plan of teaching her the plan of salvation, or if we should switch and talk about the importance and the role of the Book of Mormon. Sorella Baielli suggested we say a prayer about it, so we did. After the prayer she asked me what I was thinking and I told her I didn't want to say it first because I didn't want it to effect her answer. She said, "Ok on the count of three say either 'Book of Mormon' or 'plan of salvation'." 1........2.........3......... we both said "Book of Mormon" in unison. And what makes this story even better is the fact that Nunzia said she had another busy week so she was going to cancel the lesson for this week, but we asked if we could instead to a video chat on Facebook and she kindly agreed. And the lesson went great!!! There are ups and downs to doing a video call, but I thought it was really great because instead of having the awkward small talk at the beginning of the lesson for 10 or 15 minutes, we were able to start right into the lesson with a prayer. The lesson didn't go overtime, partly because Nunzia is respectful of time, and doesn't have much of it herself, and partly because I felt like we were able to be more direct and get to the point. She wasn't able to hear us very well, which I think could interfere with the spirit, but overall it was a great experience.

This week we get to go to Rome!!!! We have the mission tour and so I get to see all of my friends for one last time!!!! I also have the opportunity to give my departure testimony so I have been reflecting a lot upon the things I have learned on my mission. It is so fun for me to remember funny memories, spiritual experiences, life lessons learned and to just reflect on the person that I am now that I have been able to serve as a full time missionary. I feel the grief coming at times, for example when we finished our gesso on Sunday night I realized how much I am going to miss setting up a bed sheet and writing a question on it. The anxiety you feel when first approching someone, the rejections, being with other missionaries to support you and to learn from their example, smiling, and finding some of Heavenly Father's children who might be seriously interested in learning more about their Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. I love missionary work. I am soaking up every second that I get to wear Christ's name over my heart. 

Sincerely,

Sorella G 

Yagottawanna (I read this talk that is so true...we have to want to do something before we can do it)

Hello folks!!!!

So I am staying here in Bari finishing up my last transfer training with Sorella Baielli! I am super excited and happy that I get to stay here. I love these people a lot.

We're going to do bullet points this week because not much happened:

• drove to the airport to pick up a sister for transfer

• Had a lesson with some members and we talked about the talk Elder Holland gave in general conference of April 2017 "songs sung and unsung" I think is what it's called. My favorite part of the talk is how he says, "Heavenly Father accepts us as we are, but we can't expect to stay as we are." If we live the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be transformed in a better version of ourselves

• We went to a ward party for the Bitonto branch and it was the most fun I have had in awhile. I'm not a big fan of karaoke, but Italians and karaoke just end up with everybody blasting music, screaming at the top of their lungs, and dancing. Fun stuff

• I gave my last testimony in MLC.....the main thing I have learned from leadership is you have to be like Christ. He was the master teacher. Seek to be like Him.

• For my best thing I ate this week haha it's kind of funny. We had a meal appointment with Monica and Massimo (they are semi-recent coverts and are so awesome) and they were so excited for the dolce part of the meal because they had bought us these treats from a paesino vicino. They are called le tette di monaca (the boobs of monaca) and Monaca is like a lady monk because I guess the nuns used to make these things haha. They are like balls filled with cream. They were pretty good, just mainly funny all of the jokes he was making. And his wife's name is Monica so it just makes everything even funnier

• Last night we went to choir practice and it was the BEST THING EVER!!! Because I got to see all of my Taranto members!! It made me soooo happy. They are so awesome. They are in our stake and we have stake conference next week so we get to spend time with them next Sunday

The coolest thing this week was being able to listen to Elder Ballard come speak to our mission. The thing I like the most was what he said about prayer. He helped me have a completely different
perspective on it. He said we need to focus on asking Heavenly Father to accept our efforts. A lot of times we try our best and we still come up short, but we can pray to have Him accept and consecrate our efforts. He said, "Don't just try to sit there in your prayer and order the God of the Universe around." Prayer is such a sacred opportunity and if you think about it, Heavenly Father already knows what we are in need of before we ask Him, so it gives us the opportunity to really ponder out in our hearts what we want to say to Him, thank Him for, and ask Him for in our prayers.

Sincerely,

Sorella G ♥️🇮🇹

MARIA

This week I learned a very important lesson front he mother of Jesus, but before I tell you about what I learned, I will tell, you about my week.

This week I had a scambio with Sorella Shelton who serves in Foggia. She is a great missionary and I learn a lot from her every time I serve with her. We did a lot of really great finding. She helped me to really realize the purpose behind why we do finding. That it's not just because we want to reach our goal of getting ten gospel conversations, that it's not just because we want new investigators, and that it's not just about numbers. Jesus Christ was never worried about numbers but about truly changing people's lives. She made this lady smile who was not interested in our message at all, but because this lady smile we were able to hopefully help her feel a little bit of the love that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father have for her.

We also visited an ex-contact of hers here in Bari. She said to me, "there's this guy I met at a gesso and I invited him to read 2 Nephi 2 and I believe he's reading the Book of Mormon, but I don't know if any other missionaries know about him" so we stopped by his shop. HE'S IN ALMA 60!!! He has underlined things he wants to ask her and he knew what page he was on. It was the coolest story ever. He's in the other area so hopefully, the Anziani can go visit him and figure some things out!

I also had a scambio with Sorella Erickson and she is in the same group as me. She's really great and we had a lot of fun. We go home together so it was fun to kind of talk about the MTC and to reminisce about the "good old days" haha. On the scambio we were able to see Nunzia (our investigator) from train. She is so cute and nice and really
awesome. She knows she wants to get baptized and we tried to set a date but she said she prefers to wait.

She had a really cool testimony builder this week where she needed to make an important decision to know which teacher she should pick for her son who has ADHD to be taught by. She said a prayer before the meeting asking for help and everything went smoothly. She said she felt really good about the decision and so far it is going great. We were able to promise her that GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS and that she can have the Holy Ghost with her ALWAYS to guide her in making her decisions after baptism. She's going to be baptized!!! I just don't know when.

Ok now to Mary so this comes from a talk given by Elder L. Whitney Clayton. This comes from the talk:

Mary had been a young woman when the angel Gabriel appeared unto her. At first, she had been “troubled” by being called “highly favored” and “blessed … among women … and cast in her mind what manner of
salutation this should be.” Gabriel reassured her that she had nothing to fear--the news he brought was good. She would “conceive in [her] womb … the Son of the Highest” and “bring forth a son … [who] shall
reign over the house of Jacob forever.” Mary wondered aloud, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”
The angel explained but only briefly, affirming to her that “with God nothing [is] impossible.” Mary humbly responded that she would do what God asked, without demanding to know specifics and undoubtedly in spite of having countless questions about the implications for her life. She committed herself without exactly understanding why He was asking that of her or how things would work out. She accepted God’s word unconditionally and
in advance, with little knowledge of what lay ahead. With simple trust in God, Mary said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”

I know I am not like Mary, but I tried putting myself in her shoes. What would I do if that happened to me? I think I would have thousands of questions and doubts and fears and worries about how that was going to change MY plans. Mary asks one simple question and the angel responds with a very generalized answer that doesn't answer her question at all. So instead of firing hundreds of follow up questions she basically says "Let it be done according to the will of God." WHAT GREAT FAITH? She had NO IDEA what was going to happen to her. I hope I can have that amount of faith in God.

I love you all.

Best thing I ate this week: I have kind of been slacking this week and last week and haven't eaten anything out of the ordinary...I'll do my best to eat something really good this week!

Con tanto amore

Sorella G ♥️🇮🇹

Le vedove di BARI

I have no idea how to start these things anymore so I'll just follow the example of my cute friend Amelia and talk about the weather..... it is definitely fall and is getting much colder. The days are hot the mornings and nights are cold, but I love it. It is for sure my favorite time of the year, I probably said that in the springtime too. 

Ok, I have to tell you some things about my hilarious companion....

• She eats milk and cookies for breakfast every day
• When she eats something she likes she always yells, "so good!!!" 
• She is scared of everything (cars hitting us, motorcycles running us over, spiders, the dark, creepy men) all of which are very rational fears, but at this point, I'm just kind of used to it, she will need some more time to adjust 
• She loves harmonizing and we have so much fun walking home on the side of the freeway from the church screaming hymns at the top of our lungs
• She knows lots of Italian tongue twisters (tre tigri contro tre tigri or trenta tre trentini entrarono a Trento, tutti trenta tre trotterellando or the soldiers shoulder surgery) 
• We were doing weekly planning this week and here were some quotes I thought were so funny. There was a person who was making our lives a little bit difficult during weekly planning and she goes, "I don't have patience for this kind of bull crap." Then right before we were ending weekly planning I asked her to make some goals. She said to me, "you know I never actually look at my goals, I just write them down because you make me." 
• She called the other missionaries this week to ask them if they have any referrals for us 

We saw lots of miracles this week and also had lots of hard days this week. It is fun being with a new missionary because everything is a new experience. One morning we were doing finding and it was like her first break down while doing finding, it has happened to the best of us. Luckily we said a prayer and after that, we went and talked to this guy who said he used to come to English course and used to have a Book of Mormon. He got kicked out of his house and now lives homeless in Bari so we just bore testimony to him of how God loves him and we asked him to come to English course and gave him a new Book of Mormon, but unfortunately, he didn't come. It was a really cool experience to be a part of though. 

We also had a lesson with Sophia and Nellie (two African potentials that are our two new investigators!) where we talked about the Book of Mormon and Nellie said the closing prayer and prayed to know if the things we taught were true. It was a really cool experience. They are from Nigeria and hopefully, we can meet with them this Saturday. 

The title of this weekly email is, the widows of Bari because this week none of our investigators were able to see us so we spent a lot of our time this week strengthening the widows of the ward. We have quite a few who can't come to church because of health problems and they are all sad and lonely. They live alone and just spend all day every day alone so leave it to the sister missionaries to help them out!!! One of those experiences was learning how to make orecchiette!! Sorella de Vanna was so happy to do it with us. Usually, when we go over she just talks about her problems and the doctors appointments and all of the surgeries she has to have, but it was like she was a changed person so patient and loving teach us how to make pasta. Win-win situation. 

In James 1:27 we read,

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

We had choir practice last night for stake conference and it was so much fun. Singing I know that my Redeemer lives in Italian is one of my favorite things ever. Especially when you have a crazy Italian choir director. 

Love

Sorella g 

LOOK BEYOND WHAT YOU SEE

Best thing I ate this week is going to be turned into weirdest thing I ate this week: an octopus sandwich

This week I don't have much to write. We went to zone conference in TARANTO!!!! I got to go back to my first city once again, which was so much fun. I had so many more memories flood to my mind this time which was kind of fun. We were mainly trained on how to use Facebook in our
proselyting. The zone leaders and I gave our presentation on how to be WISE missionaries because we got a new chapter of preach my gospel which will substitute for chapter 8 of preach my gospel. It is titled "how can I fulfill my missionary purpose?" It is really cool and helps us focus more on the people once again, rather than on going through a checklist during weekly planning. Right after that Anziano Campbell leaned over to me and said, "how do you feel about this being your very last zone conference?" I was shocked. WHAT? I still have one more!!! Well apparently because of the mission tour and the general authority coming to our mission in October, there will be no zone conference. So I had my first and last zone conference in Taranto. Pretty bittersweet.

The zone leaders had an investigator they were teaching that needed to be passed to us so we got to teach Nunzia!!! She is the daughter of Dora, the recently baptized convert. We had an incredibly powerful lesson and she accepted a soft baptismal invite (meaning she knows that the way to return back to Heavenly Father is to enter in through the gate of baptism and that is something she wants) and is looking for peace and comfort in her life. So we are so excited to be able to work with her.

News on Valentina, she said she has been very busy with school, so we are going to give her a break this week.

As for the best part of the week.....GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!

I wish I could write out all of the things that I loved in general conference. I hope you all know that I have a very strong testimony that those are men and women inspired by God. They know exactly the things we all need to hear INDIVIDUALLY. Isn't it cool that these people can give a message and every person that listens to it can get something completely different out of it? I guess for me this
conference, the main thing that stood out to me was the question, "where are you going?" There were so many messages of how we need to focus on the things that MATTER MOST in life. What matters to you? And if you are doing something that doesn't really matter to you, why are
you doing it? How precious is the Book of Mormon to you? We need to look beyond what we see and find the things that are most important in our lives. HAVE FAITH AND TRUST IN THE LORD. WE CANNOT FEAR AND WE CANNOT DOUBT.

I was especially struck by how many times they talked about how Heavenly Father wants us to come home. I think that's the same in any circumstance. Mom and Dad, I'm pretty sure you want me to come home and I know it's the exact same with our Heavenly Father. He loves us. He is merciful. And he just wants us to be happy.

SO LET'S CHOOSE TO SO SO

Sincerely,

Sorella G ♥️🇮🇹