Pescara on fiya!

The Guisti family

Hey ya'll!

First of all, I hope you're all doing well! It's been such a weird week here. EVERYONE is on vacation, so all the stores are closed and no one wants to meet with us because they're all at the beach! We've been doing a lot a lot of finding though. Every Monday they have a huge market across the street from our palazzo, in front of the stadium (yeah, the stadium where they have the mediteranean games is literally across the street from our house! We get the enjoyment of hearing the soccer crowds and fireworks all night! =)) So last monday we took my awesome english class poster over there and I walked around holding it while my companion passed out flyers. I was laughing so hard the entire time, because Italians always read stuff out loud, so I had this echo of "corse d'inglese gratuito" following me everywhere! It was so funny.

Last week we had an incredible p-day with this new member family in our ward called the Guisti's. They are pretty much the legend of the Italy, Rome mission. Fratello Guisti is a music professor, and his side job is he travels around europe and conducts for Opera's (his dream is to go to the United States and conduct there, so he's teaching himself english). His wife is an ex-opera singer who in her free time teaches yoga and makeup classes, and she has a doctorate in art, so their entire house is full of her incredible paintings. Their son is the next italian missionary, and he has all the girls swooning after him, because he can play practically any instrument, and he mixes music for fun. Their daughter is so cute and incredibly beautiful! I love them all to death. So we just went over for pday and ate lunch with them and played all day and sang and stuff. Anyways, they're really cool. I think you get the picture? =) They're really my family away from home...I love them with all my heart!

We've been working with the family of this new convert named Iolanda, and this last week we have been having some INCREDIBLE lessons with her husband Nino. He used to say that he didn't care at all to even listen to us, but now every time we go over he has a million questions, and the spirit is INCREDIBLE. It's weird, because he refuses to let us teach him, but every time we go over with a planned lesson, we always have really long discussions (that he starts) based on what we've planned. Definitely directed by the spirit!

Not much else super exciting has happened. We've had some old investigators come out of the wood work who've started making some amazing progress. My favorite things to hear are when people say to us that they want to know if something is true, without us even having to commit them to try! It's such a wonderful experience.

We had the most random experience the other day. It was kind of turning out to be a really lame day because all of our appointments had cancelled on us, and we were both reaaaally tired, so we decided to go and get some dinner. The pizza restaurant was completely empty that we went to, so we were able to talk a little bit with the owners of the restaurant about the church. Then as we were sitting waiting at the bus stop to go home (both of us completely exhausted) I was just smiling at the world (FAITH FACE!) when this man on his bike rode by and smiled back at me. I said to my companion, "that was really weird..." and I felt like he was going to come back and talk to us, and the next thing I knew he had turned around and he came up to us and started talking. He told us that he had been baptized three years ago in my old ward in Rome, and he wanted to start coming back to church. Our bus passed and we didn't get on because we felt like we needed to talk to him. Then the next bus that passed we hopped on, and the first thing we hear is "hello, are you from the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints?" We both turn around and there's an african man sitting with his family. We say yes, and he tells us he's a member of our church, and that he served a mission in Ghana, but he hasn't been to church in Italy and he wants to find it so he can go back. MIRACLES! We had been praying for something really good to happen to give us a little boost of faith that day and God threw two inactives right into our hands. How great is that?

The church is true! I love you all. I love the scriptures, they are full of incredible truths, but most important of all is they testify of our savior Jesus Christ, and all he has done for us. The way back is through him. Never give up, never forget that YOU are a child of God, and that's what really matters in this life!

Congratulations to Jonathan and Janalee! I'm so happy for both of you! And thanks for photoshopping me into the wedding picture Mom. =) Happy Birthday Krissa! Keep up the work of the Lord, I'm praying for you.

Baci e Ambracci!

Jenessa