Letter # 3 and Pictures From Bari, Italy

Hello all. I cannot believe I have already been here a month. It goes so fast!!This week has been wonderful and our investigators are amazing! But information first

1) I went last Wednesday and got a mold for my retainers and I am picking them up this next Monday November 5th!!

2) Letty, Thank you doing such a good job on my blog. I have not seen it, but Sorella Wightman's Mom wrote her and told her it was beautiful ;) I knew it would be

Okay, now to the good stuff! This week we have been preparing everything for the Halloween Party. We kept trying to delegate to members but that would often fall through. So we have been decorating and shopping and planning. I hope members bring their friends tonight and that people come! :) This party has taken up so much time and I don't think we are going to do this again but you live and learn :) When we were not planning for the Halloween party we were meeting with our investigators!! Or visiting some of the older sisters in our ward :) One of the ladies in our ward just turned 98 on 27 Ottobre!!! Sorella Virgiglio is so cute. I am attaching a picture of her and me.

Sister Preston and Sister Virgiglio on her 98th Birthday

 She is super sweet. The Relief Society had a party for her and we went early so we could stop and say hi before too many people arrived and made it hard for us to leave ( I love Italians!!).

Sister Comollo, Sister Preston, and Sister Gallone (Ward Mission Leader's Wife)

Giovanni did not make his baptismal date but all of your prayers and mine were answered. I had been praying and praying that he would call us before his baptism. And last Wednesday he called us !!!! He still was not baptized but that was a miracle to me that God softened his heart to at least call us :) It was amazing. He then called us on Saturday and asked to see us, I told him he would see us if he came to church the next day. I was kind but would not set appointment with him. Sorella Comollo and I wanted to see if he would come to church or not and then we could talk with him and assess where he was at. A ton of our potential investigators wanted to come to church so we called all of them and arranged it so we would ride the bus with them on Sunday and they would know where to get off. That Sunday we left at 7:30 am, parked the car at church. and walked to the bus station to catch the 8:25 bus with our investigators. As we were walking we met a really nice man named Gabrielle, we gave him a pass-along card and invited him to church and then we continued on our way. when we arrived at the bus station none of our investigators were there but GABRIELLE WAS standing in the door of our bus!!!! We talked with him the whole bus ride. He gave us his number!! and told us about his family. He is single, about 40, and works as an administrator at a medical clinic. IT WAS AMAZING. We were supposed to take the bus that day. The whole week we had been praying to find the people God was preparing for us to find and then we met Gabrielle. None of our investigators showed up but we met HIM: We called him yesterday and we are meeting him tomorrow at church :=!!

When we arrived at church the day just got better. GIOVANNI came. HE was there. Mike our other investigator who was going to ride the bus with us just barely missed so he took the 9:25 and came late! WE HAD 2 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH! Also Sorella Comollo and I were teaching gospel principles and the lesson was baptism! And another of the Anziani's investigator came. We had a full gospel principle class with 3 new converts and 3 investigators. It was an amazing experience. We had each of the new converts bear their testimony about baptism and how it changed their lives, the spirit was so strong and I could tell it really helped Giovanni, Mike and ANGELA. Angela asked lots of good questions and it was a great class.

After Sacrament meeting, I had been seating with Giovanni and I talked with him about how we would love to keep meeting with him. But what he really needs to do is be baptized and that we couldn't make him do anything but he needed to act and decide. Then he left (and on his way out?) and Sorella comollo got him too. (we did not plan this out) She talked about how Satan would of course try to attack you when you are about to make a good choice. I think we scared him a bit because he said to Sorella Comollo, " I guess I will see you on Sunday since you don't want to meet me anymore". Slla Comollo quickly added that we would meet him if he wanted to. We have an appt tomorrow morning with him but as we have been praying, Sorella Comollo got the best idea ever. Tomorrow we are going to ask Giovannni if he will be baptized Friday the next day. Before he can worry about it, before Satan can bring conflict into his life. He is all ready and we have the okay from the bishop. So next week You might hear about the baptism!!:)

We also had a meeting with Mike on Friday before Sunday and he is amazing. He reminds me of King Lamoni. This last meeting was amazing. He called us and said he had a question in the BOM but we couldn't understand where. Slla comollo thought he said 2 Nephi 22:1. But that verse is really pretty straight forward. When we met Mike we asked where it was. He had said 3 NEPHI 22:1. He is already in 3 nephi with his BOM reading!! We were talking about his question and I pointed out that he can pray and ask God to help understand what that verse means because God knows. But then He was talking with us and he just asked "What is salvation" (King Lamoni Question) and Sorella Comollo gave a great answer. And we talked about the Gospel of Christ (which was our plan). Then he turned to us and asked, " How do I get?"(King Lamoni Question). It was soo cool. I could feel the spirit so strong. We met him on Monday and he picked December 31st for a baptismal date. It is far away but he feels comfortable and confident about it. We taught on Monday about repentance. He was confused because he thought that you repented once and then you were baptized. But he understood that if you sinned again that was bad. He believed that God would not forgive you. That was why he was worried about being baptized. We talked with him and tried to help him understand.

Well I have to go but I love you  a lot bye!

A crazy giant nativity we saw in the loft of a frutteria