lecca lecca

Terms of endearment:

Cara=dear
gioia=joy

I just had a life changing week. So many miracles! Wow!

Last week was zone conference so that meant all the cities needed to come into town (Catania) for interviews the day before. TEN SORELLE in the Catania household! Crazy. Enna is a small, beautiful city in our zone with NO WORK. It is not even a branch yet, so the elders there organized a Zone Blitz where the whole zone drove out there the day before interviews to basically swarm the city with the gospel! It was so cool! We did a couple exchanges and everyone just did finding all day long. It was the cutest, most typical little italian city I have seen. Oh man I loved it. In the afternoon I got paired with Sorella Price hahaha how cool! We finally were able to do real missionary work together...none of this fake mtc stuff. Haha we had a really sweet, miraculous experience. We were doing Casa (knocking doors/ringing citofonos) and not expecting much success (because I have NEVER had success when knocking doors). We only had 45 minutes or so til we needed to be back. We took turns ringing doorbells. AFter a little hilwe, I randomly decided to hit one in particular. This one did not have a citofono. It was just a doorbell, so the person would have direct eye contact with us (rather than just a voice box). Then it happened, we heard someone coming. BUTTERFLIES. "Someones coming!" I franticly whispered! Both of us, really nervous definitely not used to this. The door swung open.... "Buona sera. Siamo missionaire per la chiesa di Gesu Cristo. Abbiamo un messagio sulla fede per voi. Avete 5 minuti??" (the most basic door approach). Then it happened. Totally expecting rejection...the sweet middle aged woman responded, "Si." and the door opened for us to enter. WHHHHAAAT? Ok. WE GOT THIS.

We then delivered a short message of the Restoration and Joseph Smith. She and her daughter just listened. They were so kind and sweet. Having never heard of the mormon church before, she was excited to learn more. It almost feels like a dream haha. It was jus this little Hansel and Gretel cottage styled apartment of the most typical ijtalian neighborhood you could ever imagine- that was tucked away in this little maze of apartment homes. As we were ringing bells, it seriouslyfelt like we were going deeper and deeper into the maze.

This woman and her daughter listened to the message of the restored gospel of Christ for the first time. There was definitely a special Spirit in the room that I will never forget. Wow. It was definitely a life changing experience to understand that God is preparing His children! They ARE out there, we just need to be prayerful and be looking. We gave her a book of mormon and she agreed to read. Sorella Price nd I left feeling like we were on cloud 9! This is real wonderful joyous missionary work!

I had an interview with President Waddoups last week and he challenged specifically me to teach the Joseph Smith story 10 more times before the end of the transfer (about 10 days). Ive got 7 more to go. One of the experiences was really special. As we were riding the buses to the center of the city, we exchanged buses at Piazza Sanzio and a woman I made eye contact. She asked how I was doing and where I was going. She then hopped on the same bus as me and asked me to sit near her. I definitely jumped at that opportunity! We started a conversation and then I asked her about her religious beliefs and was able to go into the Restoration. It was really cool. Her name is Lily and she is SO golden and interested. It was just a funny life experience. Sorella Bair sat in the back of the bus and noticed that there were two or three other women sitting nearby listening to me teach this woman. She said it was definitely a picture moment. Anyway, we are teaching her later this evening. The work is good and it is everywhere! We just need to pray for opportunities to come!

Sorella BAir and I went to the American base commisary grocery store this week. It was like heaven. Peanut Butter capn crunch and garden salsa sun chips, dont mind if I do:)


Love you all! Keep sharing the word and recognizing miracles!!

Sister Clyde