Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Funerals & Bikes

CIAO FAM.

This was a slightly strange and not extremely eventful week. The summer time in Italy takes a large toll on the success of the missionary work. It is still possible, just a little bit more challenging. our week consisted of countless cancelled appointments and no answer phone calls..tinsy bit of frustration here and there but as always the small, happy moments that make it all worth it.
An interesting experience that happened this week came in the form of a Catholic Funeral. yup, that's right. we got a phone call one morning during our studies from a girl in our ward inviting us to her grandfather's funeral later that day. we didn't have anything going on so we decided to go to support the family...and let's just say that it was an interesting experience. It was one of those experiences where you just are kind of like..uh i am in Italy and this is kind of crazy but i like loved it anyways. it was really cool though to see the change in spirit in feeling from when the Priest was speaking and from when the family had a chance to speak. they were talking about the plan of salvation and quoting the Book of Mormon in a large catholic church and the spirit really did change...it was really neat. It was another testament to me of the truthfulness of our church...that and many other things that i witnessed during the ceremony. The church is true and the plan of salvation is real. We will see our loved ones again some day.

We have really been trying to focus these last few weeks on finding more less active people we can work with. there are TONS in the ward but we have just had a hard time finding them! But this week we were able to teach two more then normal and that was a huge deal for us because we have really been trying and praying to be able to find more less actives to work with and this week we did! We made an appointment with one of our members to teach the restoration and make a mission plan with her and when we got there we found out that her daughter who is like 26 is inactive. We were able to teach them about the Restoration which was a good review for all of them. The coolest miracle for me was when the inactive daughter said to me, "Sorella, tell me about tithing. I am ready to pay it, I am just not sure why we do it." I was blown away because President Dibb had just barely told me that we needed to teach our less actives about tithing and then she asked ME about it! It was so neat. Another miracle that came from it is that she has an 11 year old daughter that is not baptized that we had no clue about and we were able to start teaching her. So she is our new investigator and we saw them again yesterday! It was just such a beautiful miracle and i am grateful that we were able to follow the spirit and find someone that really has a desire to return back to the church. we are really striving to seek after the one, and we found one this week. amazing.

Probably the other large highlight for my week was the beautiful Scambio we went on yesterday (okay scambio=exchange...i just cannot say exchange so just remember that..ha) but yeah we had a scambio with the sorelle in a little town called Modena and i was able to go there with a wonderful sister and see how their work is going there. and guess what....THEY RIDE BIKES THERE. literally it has been my dream my entire mission to serve in a biking city but i have not and i have not even ridden on a single time! BUT i got to ride one for an entire day and let me tell you...it did sooooo many beauitful things for my heart and soul. The scambio yesterday was literally sent from heaven. i cannot explain it, but it was one of those times where i just KNOW i was supposed to be there for that sorella that was struggling and that i needed that little breath of fresh air and just to cruise around little cute streets in Italy. Heavenly Father knows our very need and holy cow, i saw that first hand. we had an amazing scambio and we just saw miracles left and right. i am grateful for that incredible gift from my Father in Heaven and i know that HE knows me and is watching over me.
That is about all i have for this week! but i am happy and things are going well. i just feel at that really good part in my mission. i am content with how things are going and i am grateful and just so full of energy for the work!
i love you ALL.
Sorella Burt
Best day of my mission - riding a BIKE in Italy!!


On a scambio

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