transformed

Hey all! I can't believe I'm already at one transfer! The time goes by so fast. Tonight we will get calls from the mission to see if we are transferred. I love this place so much! The members are so awesome and solid. In a lesson this past week, we were teaching about the Great Apostasy. I explained the Great Apostasy in my best Italian. Afterward, the investigator just sat there and kind of nodded their head slowly like they didn't quite understand. The member quickly jumped in with lightning fast Italian and explained it better so the investigator understand then stopped and turned back to me. I was like, "Alright, sweet!" Haha and then went on teaching. I wish you could meet them all. It's so wierd to think that if somehow they came to America with me I wouldn't be able to introduce them to anyone! Haha I love all the non-member friends we've made just walking down the street too. I'm so grateful to be a missionary! 

On Tuesday we went to Palermo for DDM as always then rode a bus back to Trapani for a lesson and English course and then got on the bus again and went back to Palermo because Wednesday morning Anziano Melling had an appointment to pick up his permesso. In the rush to get back to Palermo though, Anziano Melling forgot his passport. When we got inside the Questura the guy casually told us that he couldn't give us Anziano Melling's permesso without the passport and that we could just come back any other day to pick it up. We were dying! uugh... luckily, there was a Brioschià place across the street to go cool off in before we got back on the bus for Trapani. Haha

If you remember, in my very first lesson in the field 5 weeks ago we went to teach a less-active lady, and her daughter yelled at us and criticized us, and then we just started with a prayer and taught the first vision and it ended up being so good. Well, we have been visiting the less-active mother every week since then. For the first several lessons, this mother did not except the Book of Mormon. Now, as we go back to her, it is so cool to see a light in her eyes that wasn't there before. When we go, she tells us all about the things she's reading. She loves the Book of Mormon now! She tells us about Nephi and Laban and getting the plates. It is so crazy to think that this is the same lady who several weeks ago adamantly rejected the Book of Mormon. It is also so cool to hear these Book of Mormon stories that I learned in America since Primary, being talked about and recounted in Italian. I may be in a different country surrounded by people who speak a completely different language, but the gospel is still the same and the power of the scriptures is still there. It is so cool when you can very clearly see the change the gospel has had on someone. 

We are having our first class to help people stop smoking this Saturday! We have been hanging up signs in all the panificio's and handing out invites to people. Please prayer for us and the people who will be coming to the workshop. As we have handed out cards to people (many of them as they are smoking) they have expressed how much they want to stop and how much they hate smoking. It is so sad to me, but brings me so much hope. I know the Atonement of Jesus Christ is sufficient for all of us no matter what our burdens are, if we just come to Him. 

Anziano Stucki.