Sorella Dixon: So Many Great Things Happened and my Heart is so Happy!

Cari Tutti!

I hope everyone had a great week! This week was so great here in

Bologna. So many great things happened and my heart is so happy :)

I want to tell you about a woman we met named Helena. Last Thursday we

were on the bus going to an appointment and a lady gets on the bus in a

wheelchair. She has a man with her who is helping her. I was not

really close to her, but I wanted to talk to her. But she beat me to

it! After a little bit she asked if I was Mormon and then said she had

seen the Mormon book and read something about a tree of life and

really wanted to know more. She asked for our number and asked when we

could come over-- and wanted it to be as soon as possible! So we got

all the information and planned to see her Friday. Although we weren't

able to see her until Sunday. Oh, I was also able to learn, before we saw her at her home,

that she's from Mozambique and she speaks Portuguese. So we see

her on Sunday and it was amazing!!!

This is her story--

She came to Italy about 3 years ago. She was married but is now single and lives

alone. She LOVES religion and has read about every religious book

there is! She found God and Christ here in Italy. She studied with

Jehovah witnesses and the Evangelist church. But she didn't really

feel anything when she went there, so she stopped. She believes one

should FEEL something to continue in something. About 8 months ago she

was online just researching stuff and came across the Book of Mormon.

She downloaded it and read a little bit from each book. The thing that

really caught her attention was the tree of life. She LOVED it! Well,

one day her computer crashed and she wasn't able to read it anymore.

And then she just had this desire to find the book! The thing is, she

has kind of been stuck in her house for a long time because she has

broken feet/ legs... i'm not sure which one. But she can't get around

on her own that easily. She did go to an internet point and was only

able to find the chapter in the Sunday School manual about the tree of

life. She just WANTED this book. so. bad. So one day her friend from

Nigeria was helping her out and took her out. She had told him how she

really wanted to find these Mormons and two days later we were on the

same bus. He actually pointed me out to her because he came to the

church in Bologna about a year ago. And then she asked us to come

over. So we taught her the Restoration on Sunday and she believed

everything we told her and then gave her a Book of Mormon. In

Portuguese. And you would've thought she just won the lottery the way

she reacted when she saw the book, and then saw it was in Portuguese!

Her native language :) It was so great!

It really made me think about the Book of Mormon and if I really

appreciate it and really WANT to read it that bad all the time. She

just LOVES it and just HAD to have it. We are so blessed to have such

an amazing book in our life that I think sometimes we can take it for

granted.

Helena wants to come to church and do everything. It was funny because

she was asking US when we could return, what we wanted her to do for

the next time, what the requirements are for baptism and everything.

And she gave the most beautiful prayer. If you ever get to hear an

African pray, it's such a neat experience. I love love love it.

Then we were able to see her yesterday. We talked a lot about the Book

of Mormon and really helped her recognize the spirit. She told us as

she was reading it between Sunday and yesterday she liked it, but

didn't have that strong feeling like she did the first time. It

was just like a storybook this time. So we talked about the spirit

and how it works. And how it isn't always a really strong feeling. In

fact it's usually really small, and just peaceful. We helped her apply

the scriptures to HER and just 1 Nephi 1:1 about recognizing the

blessings from God even though we have afflictions in our life. She

actually talked about how it's weird because she has so many hard

things going on in her life right now, but she just feels at peace.

She's not worried about things like other people would be. It's so

weird and different for her. It was after we talked about the

scripture and applied it to her that she said she felt something. And

got something out of it. Oh, I just love her. She is truly elect. I'm

so blessed to have this opportunity to teach her.

Other news-- I got to hear about Genova yesterday!!! And boy was that

sooo good to hear about!! Elizabeth and Chiara are doing sooo well!
Sorella Pulli and Sorella Jones are taking good care of them! And
Edith! It made me so happy. :D I'm pretty sure we'll be hearing about
all of their baptisms pretty soon!
Well I actually have to go, sorry I can't tell you about all the other
wonderful things that happened this week! But Bologna is a place of
MIRACLES!!! :D
I have you all have a great week! Tonight we have the opportunity to
hear from the first presidency for a worldwide mission broadcast! So
we are so excited for that! I know it will be amazing! I'll tell you
about it next week!

Vi voglio bene!!
Sorella Dixon