Dear Family,
Can I just say that our members are amazing!!! Our 40 day fast is filling up! AND all our youth want to do it. We just had Stake conference - it was amazing. Saturday night they have a broadcast to all of the chapels in Puglia so that people would not need to come up!! They had recorded it before, and they had a telemonitor so the speakers could read their talks, and all the hymns were displayed on the screen. It felt like general conference!! I could not help thinking HOW COOL our members are!
Then Sunday was INSANE. We had Stake conference at the Hotel Sheraton, because our meetinghouses are not big enough to hold all the members. We arrived right when the buses were arriving from Foggia. The Stake had Charter buses bring Members in from Foggia, Taranto, and I think Lecce. We had brindisi there as well :) There were so many members! I loved it :) I talked with some members from Lecce and they were asking, "When is the Mission President going to send us sisters!!" We are in High Demand :) The Mission President came and spoke at the Sunday session of Stake Conference. He thanked all the members for all they do for us missionaries. He said that he feels like our father. And like a parent who worries about their children, he is glad to know when we are cared for.
Back when there were more missions in Italy there were sisters in many more places. Many wards are used to having sisters or 12 missionaries just in their city. Now that there are just 2 missions in Italy, there are not enough missionaries to go around. Our areas are very large. Many missionaries travel 2 days to come to zone conference. Our mission is Huge and there are only 120 missionaries. But by summer we will be 170 or more !!! I am very excited.
This week we saw amazing miracles. On Saturday we had an appointment to go visit a member, I looked in the area and all we had was 1 potential on the same street as the member. The member cancelled, so we went to visit this Potential, Angela. We stopped by and I was unsure what to expect. A man answered the door and we asked for Angela. He called for her and she came to the door. She was older (maybe 50) We asked her if she remembered talking to 2 male missionaries about a year ago. She said she did. We talked a little bit, just the niceties and asked if we could come back another time. She stood and listened, I could tell she was interested. We wanted to give her a DVD about happiness but we did not have any. So I said, we have something better! And I gave her a Book of Mormon and said we would explain it when we came back and she could read the introduction. Her sister, ROSA :) , was also there. They said we could come back Monday afternoon.
We went Monday unsure what to expect or if they would remember because we did not have a number to call. We arrived and, Angela and Rosa were there and excited to see us. So were 2 of Angela's children, Mimmo and Adriani. Adriana lives with Angela and has 2 daughters, Jarda is 6 and Angela is 1 1|2. We watched the Finding Happiness DVD which kind of explains our purpose as missionaries. We talked with them and got to know their family! They are all amazing. Adriana is very out of sorts with the Catholic church. She said that the priests should represent Christ and act like He did but they charge you 50€ to baptize your baby. She said, " Christ would not do that". Mimmo also had really good comments. They are the sweetest family. They said they would read the introduction of the BOM and we will see them again next Monday afternoon. Angela wanted us to come back again also when her husband, Nicola, is there so he can listen. It was a really good lesson, although it was rocky at parts. Jarda was watching her cartoon, and I did not want to ask the 6 year old to turn of her cartoon. It was loud and Mimmo and Adriana were having a "discusion" about the Catholic church. I was sitting there and I had no idea what to say or do. Then Sorella Fuller raised her voice a little and bore her testimony and then I bore mine and the spirit pored in. I am so grateful that God uses us and that the Holy Ghost can come and witness even when the conditions are not ideal.
Sunday we saw many more miracles. We had some time after our luncheon with the members and we wanted to do Casa in Casa in this one area. It is close to our church. But we have no names of old investigators or potentials in that area. It is untouched. It was kind of in the middle of no where and only residential. We decided to go there. Our goal was in 3 hours to have 2 lessons. We prayed and started. On the 4th door we knocked on, a 24 year old boy answered. He did not seem interested but as we kept talking he stayed at the door. Then he asked us if we would like to come in and talk. We asked him if there was a woman at home, he said yes. He lives with his parents!! ( I love it when they live with their parents): We sat talking. He and his family are Albanian. He was Buddhist for a while but he decided to stop and now he is atheist. But he said, "I want to learn about this Mormon. I watched some things about him, but who is he?"
We explained the BOM and he had some questions about how our messsage works with evolution and the great Iceland bridge! We met his parents and they were super nice. But his mom started to make dinner and he asked us to leave. We asked if we could come back and he said yes, next sunday at the same time. He would not let us pray with him though. We left unsure if he would be willing to see us again. Since then he has called us and wanted to know more information about English course and double checked that we were coming on Sunday!!!
Then we met another family in the palazzo over who stayed and talked at the door. They were also super interested in English course. Yesterday the kids came to English course!! AND Teresa, the 18 year old Fidanzata of the son took a BOM. She said, "I am just curious. I want to read it"!!!!!
We went down one floor after this family and said another prayer for God's help. As we went along we knocked another door. A man opened it and he was so excited. When he learned we were American he said,"Come in, We LOVE AMERICANS!! COME MEET MY family. Come talk with my wife, she loves English!!". They are also Albanian. They have 2 sons and have lived in Italy for 18 years. Parem (the father) said 'come in, but dont talk about religion.' We talked with the wife in English - her name is Elvira. They love Americans. They kept saying, "AMERICA she is like our mother. She saved our country." On the TV they had a recording of one of Parem's nephew's wedding. It was a recording and they were are all dancing traditional albanian dances. (It was very "My Big Fat Greek Wedding") But then we started talking about our families and about how we know that families can be together forever. We showed them a picture of the Rome temple and explained that when you are married in this building you are married for eternity. Elvira grabbed the picture - she was entranced! She turned to Parem and said, "PAREM - let us go and be remarried in this building!" We then explained that it is not finished yet and you have to do some things first. Parem let us have a kneeling prayer and said we could come back to speak with Elivira, but he is not interested. YET! It was the coolest experience. I felt blessed that God allowed me to see His hand move in miraculous ways.
Domani is the mission tour! I am excited to go and listen to Elder Kent Richards. I love you all!!
Sorella Preston
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