(no subject).

i am just remembering now that i never constructed a nice opening to my email last week. we just dove right in with the weekly bullet point updates. ha! guys, i am losing it a bit. a lot bit. ha! but it is just because my mind is focused on things outside of a good opening hook. i love you all the same though. sooooo this week...was hard. like it always is for someone trying to overcome the natural man but italy is a lovely salve to ease the pain of the stretching.

wednesday
-after all the pday fun, the heavens got angry and a CUHrazy storm hit ragusa. let me just tell you, clouds (even the nice fluffy white ones) scare italians. imagine what they are like when garbage cans are blown all over and trees break down and the rain seems like it is coming from all directions. yeah. madness in all meanings of the word. but haynz and i were loving life anyway! we love us a good storm. family (and lynsey), remember when i was so afraid of watching twister? and i thought courtney and lynsey were crazy for wanting to be tornado chasers? well i have finally grown out of that stage and have some weird enthusiasm for storms nowadays.

us after the crazy storm.

thursday
-so a few weeks ago we got a call from thins guy asking about english course. he said that he met a member and he told him that we do private classes (false) and was wanting to set up a time. i explained that though we are happy to teach english, our purpose in italy is to preach the gospel and invite others to come unto christ. but as i was talking i felt all weird. i just felt like we needed to meet him. so after i told him no i said "well why don't we meet in the church sometime and we can show you around, explain who we are, and do a quick english lesson" since he couldn't come to our normal english course. we met thursday morning. we taught him how to say numbers and normal phrases and what not, then got to the good part. we were just about to begin the spiritual thought when he said "when are you going to tell me about who you are?" YES! and so we did. he is catholic but has been looking around at other churches because he feels like there is something more. he has studied with the jehovah's witnesses and is dating an evangelist. we said he is happy with the evangelist church but is curious about why we are so happy and content. the spirit baby! it was so there. his name is davide and he is golden. yay davide!

friday
-the previous sunday we had called a less active family in the ward to see if we could come over. i had called them a few times with the same question with sorella mistura and the husband was ... well, lets just say he wasn't excited to hear from us. so i was a little hesitant to call again but i did anyway, praying that the wife (who is active and a saint!) would answer, but no. i talked to the husband a bit and he wasn't happy but then in the middle of our conversation he stopped um ... yelling ... and said "did you go to stake conference?" "yeah..." "will you come over and share your thoughts with us about the conference?" "uh ... yeah!" so we went over this night. not going to lie i was a little anxious. who just changes their mind in the middle of yelling at someone? apparently this guy. because when we came, he was a JOY. and not just because he was totally convinced that i was joking about being american. he said "no you are not only italian but sicilian!" anyway we still have some work to do with him but ooooooooooh how sweet it is that we can all CHANGE! all we have to do is decide and act and include the savior and BAM we are brand new!

saturday

-was mini italian jgl's baptism. man do i love a baptism! the family had all of his siblings and his parents bare their testimonies. the primary president, a young girl that was baptized a few months before salvatore (jgl) was born, so she spoke about how they have grown in the gospel together. so cute! and his grandpa spoke about the holy ghost. the family called us the night before and asked if we would prepare a little thought about the savior. then when we saw the program it said "presentation by the sister missionaries" right in the middle in big bold blue letters. uh ... haha! it was silly. sorella haynie blew everyone out of the water by giving a great talk about following the example of chirst by being baptized. she was disappointed after because she thought she ruined the spirit by not being able to speak. all i could do was be really surprised because all i felt was the spirit. new missionaries are POWER! they command the spirit because they can do almost nothing without it as they learn the language. then after they speak, it is amazing because, even if they don't say everything perfectly perfect in every way, there is power. because the spirit is so there, speaking to everyone according to their own needs. THAT is a miracle. THAT is missionary work! man i love it.

us and the baptism boy.

sunday
-always a treat. a tiring treat. but sweet nonetheless. alls i can say is that first sunday when i can take a nap will be ssssssssssooooooooooooooooooo great. so great. 

monday
-also great. mainly because we watched the restoration movie with davide and he said afterwards ... "people can really change like that?" referring to the parents of joseph smith. he was really touched by the whole thing and so were we. gold, i say!
-we also had a family home evening with the same less active family in the ward. we discussed the talk from elder uchtdorf, the hope of god's light. you should all re-read it. because it is goooooood stuff. and haynz had her first experience with the crazy pizza toppings of sicily. like hard boiled eggs and hot dogs ...

tuesday
-a few weeks ago we went around looking for some inactive families in the ward and stumbled upon this address. i had never even heard of the man but we decided to stop by and invite him to an activity or something. he wasn't home but his sister was and she invited us to come back and teach her. so we went yesterday and brought a new convert with us. i was terrified at first since the member spent the first few whiles diagnosing this lady with depression. but we turned it right into a discussion about the enabling, sanctifying, and healing power of the atonement. and this sweet lady, who is definitely facing her fair share of struggles right now, is hungry for some relief. i just love being able to testify, knowing for myself, that all things that are unfair about life can be made right through the atonement (i am a living breathing preach my gospel right now ... haha! still true, even if i didn't think of it myself). i love being able to invite the spirit and offer a refuge from the sadness and confusion of the world, even for 30 minutes. i love watching someone listen to my companion testify and almost witnessing them remember it all! i love when i can see people get goosebumps when we say "you are a loved and important child of god" because they are remembering who they are and, with the help of the savior, who they can become. i just love this life of missionary work. even though it is by far the hardest thing i have ever done, the blessing outweigh the struggles every time.
-we also hosted our first fhe with the ward. the purpose is to have them invite friends but nobody really got the memo this week. so instead we has a discussion about the 10 virgins and then played this crazy language game that haynz and i would have conquered in english but alas, it was in italian. silly silly!

all i have left to say i vi voglio un mondo di bene! i thank you for your prayers and thoughts and letters and everything. they don't go unnoticed by me and they don't go unnoticed by heavenly father.

xoxo
sorella vostra