"The Lord is Hastening His Work! Are We Keeping Pace?"

Buongiorno!

I hope everyone had a great week! This week was an interesting week full of ups and downs. Like every week I guess. Everyday is so different and it's an adventure to see what you'll be doing that day because nothing ever goes as planned. One day ALL of our appointments fell through. Kind of tough.
 But luckily we had back up plans! ;)

Last Wednesday night I had my first meal with Italians! It included 4 courses: pasta and bread, some sort of meat, a vegetable casserole thing that was delicious, and muffins for dessert. It was so good!

Thursday we had a lesson with Gift. She's a lady from Africa who met with the missionaries once or twice before. She speaks English so we taught in English. Teaching in English is so easy! I think that's why I needed to learn a language... It has definitely been a trial and has helped me to really rely on the Lord. We invited her to be baptized the first lesson, and it actually went super well! We were going to meet with her last Sunday but she changed it to Friday. So tomorrow we'll see how that goes! 

I also had a special experience on the Metro. I started talking to a lady about Christ and she said she wasn't really sure if she believed in Him, and I think she told me how life is hard and confusing to know and stuff. I just bore my testimony about Him and how much He and Heavenly Father love us and how they want us to be happy. And she started crying! Wow the spirit was strong. And I definitely know the spirit was guiding the conversation because I would wonder why I was saying some things. I don't remember most of the stuff I said. I didn't know what she needed, but Heavenly Father did. She was going to Torino, and I told her there are missionaries there so hopefully she finds them there! I wasn't able to get her number as a referral. But it was amazing to help bless someone's life in the smallest way.

Fun fact about Italians: they love brownies! So they always ask missionaries to make them! We made 5 pans of brownies this week! Crazy! We'll definitely be pro brownie makers in no time! ;) We also made chocolate salami this week, french toast with panatoni bread (these cake/bread things that they have everywhere for Christmas. The missionaries got a ton so there are still leftovers... they have still lasted til now amazingly, and the french toast was so good because it's already a sweet bread with fruit and stuff in it.)  Sorella Nedelkov made pasta sfolia. That was so good! I will make it for you all the time when I come home :)

Remember Romolo, our miracle guy on the bus? Well, we had our first lesson with him on Saturday and it was so good! He is an amazing guy. He actually came to English class on Thursday, but we weren't able to have a lesson with him til Saturday. But when we did he was just eating up everything we taught him. And we invited him to baptism. I love inviting people to baptism the first lesson! He said he would if he knew for sure this was true! The only hard thing I can see with him is he really wants to learn English so he wants us to do lessons in English... But we really need to teach him in Italian so he'll understand everything. It will work though. We'll figure out how we can help him with English and also teach the gospel in Italian.

Sunday we had lunch with Giovanna and celebrated her 70th birthday with her! She's such a funny lady. She loves missionaries and it was fun to celebrate her birthday with her! She was one who asked us to make brownies. We also had gnocchi and Terimasu! (i don't know if that's how you spell it...). Good stuff :)

Last week we tried to find the Aria family. We went to their building, but couldn't find the right button. So we tried calling them and set up an appointment with them for Monday. Then after the call, Sorella Nedelkov realized that it was actually a different Arias family we called! We had to look up the address and make sure it was the right person she thought it was. Well, when we went Monday to the Aria family we set up the appointment with, it was amazing! It's a great member family but the oldest son is inactive. He was telling us that this week he felt like he was lacking in faith, so we talked about faith and he was participating and asking great questions. It was exactly what he needed. We were led right to them, even if we had no idea we were! We weren't planning on visiting them this week, but Heavenly Father had a different plan for us!

So Tuesday we had a lesson with Marlene. The lady who we set up the baptism date with. Well... near the end she told us she would be leaving to Venezuela the 4th of April!! (I think I told you she was from Peru last time... She's actually Ecuadorian but lived in Caracas, Venezuela.) Anyway, we were trying to figure out what to do. Because she said she wants to get baptized in Italy. At first she said she would this Saturday, but then she said she wanted to wait until she got back. which wouldn't be until next Feb! We knew we couldn't wait a YEAR! Then after talking to her more, she decided she felt like she wasn't ready, and was sure she wanted to wait until next Feb. We were so heart-broken.

We decided to fast and pray.Then the middle of yesterday she just called us randomly and said to set up an appointment with Anziano Kessler (our DL) because she wanted to get baptized this Saturday!! YAY!! Miracle!!! So we're working on that! and hopefully everything will work out so she can get baptized before she leaves!

Yesterday we had a new missionary training and it was AMAZING!! I love President and Sister Dibb! We learned so much! One thought from the training was "The Lord is hastening his work. Are we keeping pace?" That goes for missionaries and others! We can definitely see how his work is moving along. I'm so glad I can be a part of this work! It truly is amazing! 

Guess what?!?! (I completely forgot to tell you this the last 2 weeks...) Anziano (Elder) Bednar is coming to OUR MISSION April 27th!!!! We'll get to learn from him for 6 hours!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we'll be getting iPad minis! Woot! We don't know if it will be when he comes or a few months after. But apparently part of his training will be about iPads!

Well, I got to go! Have a great week! I don't know if this is in English too, but this Saturday there's a video coming out for Easter, Perche Egli Vive (or "Because he lives" in English). Hopefully you'll be able to watch it! It sounds amazing! We've been telling everyone about it!
Vi Voglio bene!!!

Sorella Dixon

Italian Salami

The recipe! (Thanks, Sorella Dixon)

She also said to refrigerate for 1 hour after shaping and putting in foil.

 I think we will use Oreos for our crushed cookies!!

And I will need to convert the measurements!

"PIZZA! :) My first actual pizza in Italy! Delicious :)"

"This is at the top of Marlene's apartment in the back.

                                          I thought it looked so Italian so I had to take pictures! :)"

"The Lord will reward and richly bless you as you humbly and prayerfully serve Him.  More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you labor among His children".