Lezioni, Baci, e Il piano di Dio

Cara la mia famiglia,

Hello again! The weeks seem to go by so much faster here. I feel like I was here just yesterday, and yet so much has happened. Story time!

The anziani taught and baptized a man from Romania a couple months ago.  Since then, both of his children have been baptized.  For all of the baptisms here in Verona, I get to do the musical number… Last minute every time, and I always make Sorella Gross sing with me while I play 🙂  The little girl, who is barely 8, was baptized.  She is very intelligent, and has really made the commitment to follow Christ at this age.  After the baptism, she came up to us and gave us the sweetest kisses on our cheeks.  It was such a sweet moment and it made me happy 🙂 Also, can I just tell you, when I get home, DON’T FREAK OUT IF I KISS YOUR CHEEKS. It’s completely habitual now, and yeah… I love it! (Who am I? Turning more and more into an Italian I hope… Except the height and the blonde hair gives me away every time 😉 And, funny thing, since I’m so much taller than all of them I have to pretty much completely bend over to kiss their cheeks.  And to hear them.  No joke. I’m bending my knees to hear because I’m so much taller!

The other part of my week that I want to tell you about are our American investigators. PURE MIRACLE. We are teaching the mother and the 17 year old daughter. They speak English and Italian fluently. They are beautiful.  They have real concerns, real questions, and a true desire to learn.The mother was raised Catholic and her daughter is searching for something, but still questions God’s presence in her life. I know that in that lesson we taught, there have been experiences in my life that prepared me for that moment.  I don’t really know how to explain it.  I felt like my background in different subjects helped me be able to relate to them.  I know that I had conversations before my mission with people that prepared me to share experiences with these investigators and open their hearts. I am so grateful for those experiences, and I never realized how much I would think about them here on the mission. Mamma mia, it was bellissimo.

We taught them the Plan of Salvation.  We began the lesson with a scripture found in Romans 8 – the one about being joint heirs with Christ. It’s such a beautiful scripture, because it begins by explaining who we are – we are children of God.  He loves us.  And because we are His children, we have such great divine potential.  I love the Plan of Salvation and the beauty of this gospel of progression. It was such a deep discussion, and they both agreed to be baptized once they receive an answer that the Book of Mormon is true.  We have another lesson with them tonight, and I am SO EXCITED.  Seriously, it’s moments like that where I just love being a missionary more than anything in the world. God can work through us to help others feel peace.

As people come back from vacation, we are seeing more miracles, finding more people, and finding new investigators.  Yesterday we found a beautiful 17 year old girl form the Phillippines who accepted our message and wants us to share it with her family. And they are next door neighbors of some neighbors! We also met a sweet 90 year old man named Mario.  He made me laugh, he said – “Why are you here in Italy preaching when you could be in America and get married?”  Buona domanda Mario, buona domanda (good question) 😉  I told him I was only 20 years old.  “You’re getting old Sorella!” Haha, it made me laugh.

Next week is transfers.  I’ll be finished being trained. I’m not gonna lie, I’m FREAKING OUT.  Who knows what could happen? I could stay, I could go.  We just opened this coppia but rumor has it that anziani will take it over since 25 new elders are coming in and only 2 are leaving. Anyways, the rumors and theories of transfers that come around every 6 weeks. Fun fun. This is pretty much my first transfer call that I’m actually nervous about, and the zone leaders were laughing at how worried I am. Next week I’ll let you know whether I’m leaving Verona or staying. I’ll go wherever the Lord wants me to go, but I feel like there’s more here in Verona… I don’t know! Obviously I need to calm down because the Lord is in charge 🙂

Anways, I love you all, the gospel is true, Italy is as beautiful as always, and the Lord knows us each individually and is preparing us for things every day.  Sometimes we don’t realize why we have trials until after they’re finished for years, but there is a reason for everything, and the Lord knows.  He’s got your back.  Every day.  I know He does, because we could never do anything without Him. Veramente.

Vi voglio bene,

Sorella Strong