Happt Pioneer Day:) Yesterday

Ciao Tutti!

I hope you all had a great week! I am so grateful for the example of the pioneers and the faith they had in the gospel and the sacrifices they made for it. I hope we are doing just as much as they did to continue the legacy in our time.

 Who would have thought that they do not celebrate Pioneer day her in Italy, I guess it is a Utah thing;) jk

Sorella Sobeck and I have been thinking a lot lately about how we can help the area here grow. After much brainstorming and consideration we thought of an idea. It is big and a little out of the ordinary, but I think that it is great! We want to help start a new branch here! The church is going to be moving from Santo Stefano to Mistretta in a month or two so that means that the members that live in the Sant'Agata area have to drive for like an hour to get there, plus they do not even come now to Santo Stefano, which is half an hour closer because of family problems. There are a bunch of other reasons that we thought of this, like all the contacts we have there and how they do not come to church because of the distance (just because they do not realize the importance of church attendence, yet!) Any way, we brought our ideas up to President Portera and he loved it! So we talked to President Kelly, he said it is going to be harder than we thought and we have to talk to President Nudo, the Stake president of Sicily. We heard from President Portera last night that he emailed President Nudo. We shall see! I think that this idea came by the Spirit. We felt so strongly to talk to President Portera about doing something different in this area to help the growth and also the members who are less active due to familial offense and decreased incomes (for me both inadequet reasons for not attending church and keeping covenants).I hope and pray that something can be done to help the members already present in Sant'Agata and the future people found through the efforts and faith of those that will be there. 

This week has been great. We had the opportunity to meet with two Catholics that take part in something called the Holy Spirit renovation, or something like that. We watched them as they prayed in tongues, which for them is just humming and saying things in one's own made up language. Needless to say it was an interesting experience. We also discussed what it says in the Bible about the Spirit and Christ. I am realizing everyday just how wonderful it is having a knowledge of the restored gospel and that there are interpretations of the Bible that I know are divenly inspired and not just from man's philosophies. I say this because just from one verse in the Bible this group of people do not believe that we are spirit children of God.

We found a man who cannot read, not even his name, but plays the according like Jimi Hendrix plays the guitar. I was taught a lesson in gifts while listening to him play. We are all individuals with our own special gifts. Even if one has yet to develope the gift of literacy it does not diminish him or the other gifts he has to offer.:) We are going to try to teach him how to read using the Book of Mormon. We for sure need the guidance of the spirit on this one. 

We have a new investigator named Dora. Dora smokes like there is no tomorrow and is missing all of her teeth. We were eating plums on her porch and she just pops then in her mouth whole and sucks on them.:) She is the cutest, nicest lady in Mistretta! We talked about the scripture in Mosiah 24 about how the Lord gives us strength in carrying our burdens. It is not that the burden weighs less, but our ability to support it increases.

On Monday we were having a lesson with a guy named Johnathan on a park bench. We got caught in a tempest so for the closing prayer we ran under an ancient arch and said the pray there, with a river of water forming at our feet. I said the prayer and when I asked if God could help Johnathan know the truth of the Book of Mormon a huge clap of thunder sounded, it was very climatic (is that a word?:)).! 

I love you so much! Have a good week!

Sorella Comollo

CIAO!

Ciao Famiglia Mia!

We had our first English Course in Capo d'Orlando and 11 people came!!! We were so excited. It was a little stressful starting, because everyone is at different levels, but we can do it. One man just wanted to come to learn more about our church, which is so great! He told us that he already looked at the website and would like to learn more. We told him a little about the apostasy and authority and he told us that it is interesting we are talking about that since he just barely finished reading a book about the 2000 years of christianity after Christ and how he was thinking how the authority the Catholic Church claims from Peter seems to be missing in some years in the history.

I learned a wonderful lesson about enduring through trials this week! I do not know what it is with me and ripping my clothes, but my skirt ripped right up the seam (up to my bum) while we were doing house... We ended up changing our house approach to asking for safety pins to fix my skirt and this sweet woman let us in and we got to do the first lesson with her and then she gave us gelato! She loved how we prayed and asked if we could pray for her family, she then listed off their names. (I think she liked how specific we are in our prayers. I said and I was over joyed thanking heavenly father for the miracle of this women helping to fix my skirt:)) Before this miracle, I wanted to go home, because I was so embarrassed, but we jerry riged some bobby pins and temporarly fixed my skirt until we met this nice lady. I am sure had we not been looking for a pin she would not have let us in. This experience also gave me new ideas on how allowing other people to have an opportunity to serve is a great way to do missionary work. It is just like in the Church we give callings to new converts, giving them an opportunity to serve which helps to further establish and grow their testimony.

I love you all so much!

Have a great week!

Love,

Sorella Comollo