CIAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We went to le grotte di Castelana, the caves of Castelana, today and a drop of stalagtite or mite, I always forget, water dropped on my curls. So I got cave kissed, hurray! Even better than that, we got to talk to the tour guide about the Book of Mormon while winding our way around carrot shapped and colored rock formations. He was so interested!!! That just daint happen very often! He gave us his address so that or we can send him a book or bring him one, as soon as possible! COOL! I love being a missionary! I love caves! I think it is so awe inspiring that just to form an inch, or less of a stalagmite it takes like 400 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and from those formations we can tell the sysmic and chemical activity in the area, plus we can use our imaginations to make up shapes and stories from them. :) Being alive and human is so fun, there are always things to learn and discover. We then walked like five miles to a small city to catch the train, since the train by the caves wasn't coming for hours... My poor companion is not used to walking so much, poverina. So to make up for it we had a really yummy lunch of pasta al forno, fave, cicoria, melenzana, patate al forno, pollo arrostito....BUONO!!!

Great week! So we are back on top of reaching our goals! And oh man have we seen the blessings. It is so incredible how the Lord follows through on his promises. We did everything this week to plan to reach our goals, we discussed what we needed to do every night in order to have lessons with members and get new investigators, etc and by Saturday night things were not looking so great. So we set mega goals for Sunday, like getting two referrals and seven others and one less active and two with members. Well, we did it! We had two contacts bring a friend, we talked to as many people as possible and out of it was able to talk about the restoration, the Book of Mormon and then we were able to pray with them, then there was a less active just sitting on a bench with her dog. Everything was put into place for us to reach our goals it seemed. Sometimes we do everything to reach our goals and the results are not this great, I think though that it teaches us first consistency, to keep working, even when things do not work out and second it just makes reaching the goals that much sweeter!

Alright, my diatribe on goals has finished. We are working with our bishop's dad, who is still super catholic. Usually, during the lessons he just talks and doesn't really listen, but the other night he listened and I know he felt the spirit. He said the most beautiful prayer at the end, asking for help with his wife. It was a very specific prayer, not a general, written one. Then before we left he asked if we could go see his sister this week. His sister just lost her husband and he expressed that he wants her to become a part of our church. Steps forward!

I received a blessing from Anziano Larsen this week. I am so grateful for the priesthood and just in awe of how well God knows me. It was one of the most incredible experience I have had with a blessing. A precursor, like a week ago I was feeling like I needed to start reading the Doctrine and Covenants. I have no idea why, I have never had a huge desire to read it. I even told my companion how I feel like I should start studying it, but really did not think anything of it.

 At the end of this blessing Anziano Larsen paused, as if to add something, but instead just finished. Then in the car on the way home Anziano Larsen asked if it was allowed to add something to a blessing after the fact. I wanted to know what he meant so I said sure. He said, I felt like I shuold say something, but I thought it was kind of strange so I didn't. Then Anziano Hurlburt said it probably means you should say it. So he said that he felt like he should tell me, "the answers you are looking for are in the Doctrine and Covenants". My mouth dropped open and so did that of my companion. I had never mentioned that to the anziani, that is, my prompting to read the D and C and now it was supposed to be part of my blessing, the council from God! GOD KNOWS US INDIVIDUALLY!!! I learned that for sure from this experience. I hope Anziano Larsen learned to always follow those promptings of the spirit, even if they seem strange to say or do.

 I love you all too much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a good week!

Love,

Sorella Comollo

PS Oh yeah we got transfer calls, I am staying in Bari with my greenie for christmas!!!! YAY!

PSS I think it is a great idea that you come to pick me up!!! I will talk to President Kelly and then give you more details when we talk to each other on Christmas!!!