"As the days go byyyyyyyy"

Can you believe how fast May went by? Holy cow...

My highlights for this week were:

1. We did a scambio with Sorella McHardy and Roseno. I love them! They are so funny! I went with Sorella McHardy and I love her. We had an appointment with Blessing. It went so well and she prayed with us for the first time. She is opening up to us!
2. We went to the Genova zone conference to do a training on how to end an English class. It went well. It was also nice to get a preview to our own zone conference that will be tomorrow. It was a really good and spiritual conference.
3. There was a party for a departing missionary. We went with Gaia and Gaia loved it. There was a time open where people could express their feelings towards Susuanna and Gaia thought that it was so amazing that people could express their feelings in front of everyone just like that.
4. Speaking of Gaia... She bore her testimony to us for the first time. She didn't even realize it until we pointed it out. It was so strong and I know that she is ready to take this step of baptism. She has been seeing such amazing blessings from the gospel in her life and she recognizes that they only come when you live the gospel and accept it into your life.
5. We were able to teach Elena again with a member in our ward that speaks Chinese. He is the only one that speaks Chinese. Elena brought a friend so it was more of teaching her friend what Elena already knows but it was a good review for Elena. She has started reading the Book of Mormon. She is the cutest girl. I love her so much! I've never wished I could speak Chinese so bad.
6. You know Heavenly Father cares about you when you finally find a new pair of light, cool, missionary shoes that are so cheap after you have given up after searching all morning outside a random subway stop. Thank goodness for markets and old Italian ladies that keep sister missionary shoes in production!
7. Probably one of the biggest miracles of my week may not seem very big at all. I was on scambio and we were waiting for a bus. There was a young couple, obviously having a very serious conversation as they were both crying, the guy finally got mad and threw a phone straight on the ground and completely shattered the screen. (I think it was his own phone so oh well.) Then he stormed away and left the girl there. Then a middle aged man started talking to the girl to make sure she was alright and then joked with her for a little in an effort to make her feel better. Well, he was also on our same metro that we needed to take. A completely drunk guy who couldn't even walk straight with more alcohol in his hand got onto the metro and sat down. Usually you try to avoid drunk men like this, rightfully so because sometimes you never know how they are going to react. But this man from the bus stop walked up to him and took the extra alcohol away and threw it away. Then, gave him something to clean up his hand because it was cut and bleeding. After, he continued to try to help the guy until he was eventually yelled at by the drunk guy. It was so amazing to see the multiple acts of kindness that this man did for these strangers. It made me so grateful for people like this in the world who search to help in the small ways they can instead of keeping their head down and "minding their own". We can get so scared of intruding on someone that we forget to help.

Well, I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful week! Enjoy the last week of May!!

Also, if you guys have 2 minutes you should read 2 Nephi 32:8 and 9 in the Book of Mormon. It talks about prayer. Prayer is too important to forget because every single one us has problems and weaknesses that we cannot overcome without divine help. That divine help comes through prayer when we pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

  

Aren't we cute? 

(I'd say they left their mark - W + A)

To the right we found a tavern with boisterous singing. We were so confused because we were in the middle of nowhere and here there were a bunch of men singing and eating haha. It reminded me of Tangled when they randomly run into the tavern. They were all shouting for us to come eat haha.

Better Late than Never

I feel like it's been forever since I've actually written a weekly email but better late than never! Here are the 7 highlights of the week:

1. On Friday we made brownies and decided to take them by the Verduga family, papa Verduga to be exact. There are two Verduga families in the ward and one is the dad and the other is the son. We have been trying to see them for awhile but plans kept falling through and we finally had some time. We were worried because it was already a little late but it was lucky because if it had been any earlier we would have missed them. It was great visiting them and we had a good lesson about how the small things like praying, reading scriptures, and going to church invite peace into your life. They also have a cat. Everyone knows I am not a fan but this cat melted my heart! It was 12 years old and a little chubby but still played and cuddled like a kitten! I wanted to take it home with us! 
2.  We saw Marilena... or Marilin again and we were able to talk to her. She stopped talking to us for awhile because there were some things that were holding her back from baptism. She still needs to find her testimony and start reading the Book of Mormon. It was such a relief to see her again though. It had been way too long! We missed her!  
3. Fernando has not moved to Paris yet so we are still waiting for that change. We went over there and taught them but surprise stayed for lunch. They are so funny and I just really love them. I just hope that they will be able to go Paris because that's what they think will be best for their family.  
4. We saw Rita and Danielo on Monday night. It was kind of funny because before the appointment we had established that if they invite us to stay for dinner we say no because we don't have time. LOL. They had done hamburgers especially for us, bought gelato from the gelateria, and had their favorite things from the south for us. How could we say no? So we ended up staying and stuffing our faces. They are such a good family and have so much patience in their hearts. They will be super busy over the next few weeks and over the summer so I don't know how much more we will see of them.  
5. Gaia is so amazing! She saved our butts completely. We had named a karaoke night and the Anziani said they could take care of the equipment. Well, Saturday night arrives and nothing is figured out. Luckily Gaia let us use her phone and we were able to hook that up to a TV and we had a microphone. It was such a hit! I have never been so stressed. At the beginning I really wanted to go hide in a room because I had no idea how it was going to work out. But a lot of Youth came and after we were able to pump them up at the expense of our own dignity, they absolutely loved it!  
6. People can be so random. We were on our way home after being at the church and the Anziani were with us. People just walked up to them and took a picture (the people were drunk of course). They were talking about walking over and getting a picture with the "chicas". They didn't but it was so ridiculous. Then a completely different guy kicked an empty water bottle at Sorella Williams foot while he slowly but surely got on the metro, laughing, and never breaking eye contact. It was so funny we all just busted up laughing.  
7. Mother's Day!! It was so awesome to talk to family! I probably could have taken 3x the time that I did and I swear I remembered everything that I wanted to say after I hung up. 

This past few weeks I've been trying to strengthen myself spiritually. Sometimes it's hard for me because I have an idea of where I want to be but not any idea where to start. There are so many little things that need tweaking or maybe I need to make big changes in other aspects. Sometimes it can be hard to keep trying and trying and trying over and over when it is so easy to just fall back to where you were. I found this quote from a talk called "Foundations of Faith."

"Personal foundations, like many worthwhile pursuits, are usually built slowly--one layer, one experience, one challenge, one setback, and one success at a time." 

It's hard because usually I want to sprint to the finish line but it's time that turns the little things into habits. You have to take it one step at a time and you can't skip steps. I just love this because it applies to so many aspects of life whether it be growing your faith, repentance aka trying to change, and then you finally succeed. It's a never ending process because there will always be a next step just like in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Well I don't know if that all made sense but it made sense in my head. 

I love you all and I hope you all have an amazing week! 

Gaia and Gabriele.

Sorella Williams in front of the biggest puzzle I've ever seen.

Just an awkward photo in front of flowers that take me back to Pisa.

Karaoke night

District picture

P day last week with Sorella Tullio and Lo Russo

Return missionaries came back to church.....and Tatiana..