Transfer Call!

Caro Tutti!

Well this week was a great week! Saturday we got TRANSFER CALLS! I'm

staying in Lampugnano and Sorella Nedelkov is going to Torino! My new

companion's name is Sorella Griffin. That's all we know. I'll be

picking her up tomorrow! And Sorella Nedelkov will be leaving! Crazy,

but I guess that's how missions go :)

So this last week we've been seeing a lot of members so she could see

them for one last time and get pictures. And since we were there

taking pictures I got some, too! So hopefully you'll get to see so many

of the people I love! :D

Friday we had a great lesson with Elda! We talked a little about the

plan of salvation and the purpose of life. She is always bringing up

how so many people make bad choices and how it's hard for her to be

happy. It was a great lesson as we testified about Christ and how we

can use the Atonement. Then she gave the closing prayer and it was so

beautiful! She really speaks from her heart when she prays. The next

day she called us and talked to Sorella Nedelkov on the phone for

awhile saying she didn't feel so great. Not sick-wise, just sad and

lonely. The last time we were there we gave her some chapters in the

Book of Mormon to read and said whenever she feels sad or bad inside

to read it, and she'd feel better. She said she was reading and she really

liked what it said. Sunday morning she didn't come to church. Bummer.

But she called us and she was talking to us about repentance. We

haven't even talked about repentance with her yet, but she was already

realizing that she needs to repent! Faith in Christ truly brings about

a desire to follow Christ and repent. She is progressing really well.

We just need to help her realize that church is important and she

needs to come every Sunday.

Friday we also saw Nancy! We visited her in the hospital and also got

to meet some of her relatives that we've never met before. She was so

happy that day and super happy to see us. As she as lying there in her

hospital bed she promised us (with the cross over her heart and all)

that she would come to our church after she got out of the hospital,

and she told us she wants us to come and talk to her about the gospel.

So amazing. She truly is a miracle. Who would've thought getting hit

by a car would be a miracle! Because I don't know how else we would've

seen her! Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. We sang a hymn for

her and she loved it. She started crying and said that there was an

empty space in her heart that needs to be healed.

On Tuesday we went again and brought a Book of Mormon. She wasn't doing

that well Tuesday. She was in a lot of pain and really tired. But she

is so strong! She is so positive and puts on a smiling face anyway. :)

We gave her the Book of Mormon and explained it. We also sang her a

hymn and prayed with her.

 We left as she had the Book of Mormon in her arms.

Sunday we were visiting a less active member. Her name is Hilaria.

She's an awesome member who only doesn't come to church because she has

school on the weekends. Her son is 11 and comes to church every

Sunday, well if someone can give him a ride. So, we were at her house

and she said that she is looking for a house because they need to

move. Luckily she has til December. So the owners of the house were

going to come in about 20 minutes and she needed to sign some papers.

It was going to be fast and then we would just continue after they

left. They eventually came, and we thought we were just going to

sit on the couch and wait, but then she told us to come with her and

she took us to her room and just said we could sit in there and then

she shut the door! Haha! it was the funnest situation! We had no idea

why she stuck us in her room to wait! Pretty random. It was only about

20 minutes, then they left and we continued with the lesson.

This week we had quite a few "greenie spoofs"... where you pretty much

mess up with the language. I was talking with a lady and asked where

she was from. She said Pero (a little place close by) but I thought

she said Peru! She didn't look Peruvian, but who knew! So I was like Oh

how long have you been here? and she was like here? about 5 minutes!

We were at a bus stop... and when I looked confused she said I'm

Italian! ...whoops!

Another one: So there are two words- Carita (which means charity) and

Castita (which means chastity) the way you pronounce them is the same,

so they rhyme. So during a prayer that Sorella Nedlkov said she meant to

pray for carita, but instead accidentally said castita! haha! That was

so unexpected that we both couldn't help but giggle! It's a good thing

it was just a prayer between the two of us :)

Monday we visited Patrizia and Washington (the members from Ecuador).

They insisted on feeding us. Then we had an FHE with the Ramos family.

They are from El Salvador and are such great members! The oldest 2 are

less active, but slowly they are coming back! I just love them! We did

a lesson where we placed markers in different shapes and asked them

what number it was between 1 and 5. Then we did a different shape and

asked for the number. They would look at the numbers to find the

number, when in reality the number was on our fingers. We would just

put our hand on the ground with the number but they wouldn't even see

it. We applied that to distractions and how sometimes we focus too

much on distractions and things of the world instead of focusing on

the important things. The oldest son mentioned how on Sunday he woke

up at the time to go to church but was tired and decided just to sleep

in. Later when he was talking to to his brother who just got home from

church he said he didn't come because he was tired. But then his

younger brother said, I was tired too, but I still decided to go. He

realized that sleep was the distraction and that he still could've

gone to church. He is so bravo. He always gives great insights when we

have FHE with them! Then after FHE they insisted on feeding us food

from El Salvador! Goodness so much food that night! I thought I was

going to explode! But it was good :)

There are so many other people we visited but not enough time to tell

you about them, so I'll just send the pictures! I'm happy that I'm

staying another transfer because I love the members here!!! It will be

so fun to show Sorella Griffin around

 and introduce her to these great people!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Vi Voglio bene!

Sorella Dixon

The Church where the painting of The Last Supper is housed.

"This is the last supper. It's not the original, you can't take pictures of that one.... and we actually weren't able to see it because you need to reserve tickets months in advance I guess... so I just took a picture of this one :)"

"This is Elda"

"This is Gladys and Giulia (pronounced Julia). They are so cute! I just love them!

 Giulia remind me of Rissy. Her favorite game is Uno :)"

"This is also Maria Rosa Vacca and her Mom. They are so adorable! Maria Rosa just makes me laugh! She is the only member in her family. Her Mom just comes to FHE and other activities because she lives with Maria Rosa and she won't let her stay home alone."

"This is Hilaria and Demitri. She's the one who put us in her room haha :) 

They are awesome!!"

"This is the Romas family! She's cooking some sort of El Salvadorian food... delish!"

"This is Maria Rosa Vacca, Patrizia, Gladys, and Rita Dal Zotto, some of my favorite women in the ward!!! We were lucky to get a picture with them because they were all at FHE yesterday! :D I just love them!"

"And this is Kebab... we don't know what it is... its just Kebab.. kind of weird..."

Google says:

Kebab, (also kebap, kabob, or kabab) is a Middle Eastern, Eastern Mediterranean, and South Asian dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted or grilled on a skewer or spit.

Pretty Italian flower that looks very island-like to me!