What a week! I know I say that every week, but it seems they're just
getting better and better. Miracles are happening here in Cuneo! Every
day!
A few random things first: yes. It's winter again in Cuneo. It's like
Utah! We have a few weeks of really nice warm weather, and then this
morning we wake up to SNOW! Yes. It is snowing. And it's cold. I had
to pull out my wool coat and thermal leggings again. Boo. We had a day
last week where it was beautiful and we were out doing casa, and then
BOOM! Lightening. Then rain. The BUCKETS of rain. Luckily we had taken
the bus and we were close to our next appointment, so we just ran
super fast and got there a little early. Ha!
We were able to see our little Giulia last week! It was the first time
in about a month. She is so adorable. She wrote me a poem about spring
in my planner. But we found out yesterday her mom is sending her to
Romania to her dad. Super sad. We're not really sure what's going to
happen to her. We'll just pray pray pray.
Weird experience we had last Wednesday: we were out doing casa in
Cuneo Vecchio. It was about 8:10 and just starting to get dark. We
were walking down Via Fossano when I started getting a weird feeling.
Suddenly it got so bad I just stopped in my tracks. I said to Sorella
Willey, "I have a really weird feeling." She turned around and said,
"Why do you have a weird feeling?.... wait, I feel it too." We just
kind of stood there not knowing what to do, but this feeling kept
getting stronger and stronger. Sorella Willey suggested we prayed, and
we were both crying by the end of it. As soon as we said amen I heard
myself saying "We need to get to Via Roma." which is a bigger street.
So we headed off in that direction. We still felt this super weird
sinking feeling but it was diminishing a little bit. But we both were
crying and we didn't know why! For a second I thought something
happened to my family, but I prayed and received a confirmation that
you were all fine. So we just kept walking home. We thought we saw
someone following us, but we may have just been paranoid. Anyway, we
went straight home and called Sorella Wolfgramm. We told her what
happened and she said to pray and then call her back. So we both said
a prayer and felt a peace come over us. We were okay. We called her
back and talked to both her and Presidente. They both just told us it
was the protecting hand of the Lord, and as missionaries we are
entitled to His protection. It was the spirit telling us to get out of
where we were, and luckily we didn't have to find out what would have
happened if we hadn't. But I had never felt like that in my life. It
was so crazy! That night seems like a dream now looking back. I'm so
grateful for the protection of the Lord.
Easter was so great! Yes Easter is a bit more of a big deal here in
Italy than in the US. There is Vigilio, Pasqua, and then Pasquetta.
Finding work was hard because everyone was out of town or with family
or having parties or at church or something! haha. But we had Easter
lunch with Rosy and David. And of course it was delicious. She fed us
crepes with mozzarella inside with ragu sauce. And then some yummy
peppers and of course cheese and bread. She stuffs us every time we go
over there. I love her.
Speaking of Rosy, she's gone from 20 cigarettes a day to 4 in the last
4 days! We did a stop smoking program lesson with her on Friday, and
it's 100 percent effective for those who follow through and do all 15
steps every day. She hasn't been doing all of them, otherwise she'd be
to 0 a day, but she's really proud of her progress and we're trying to
help her out. She won't be baptized this Saturday, but we're hoping
maybe next week sometime.
Miracle highlights of the week: (hold on to your hats...)
Sunday night we had been doing casa for about 3 hours with absolutely
no results. No return appointments, no phone numbers, niente! It was
8:35 and we decided to hop on the bikes and just talk to every one we
saw on the way home, because we were at 19 lessons and we needed 20!
We were about halfway home and we didn't know where to go to find this
person that needed our 20th lesson. So we pulled over to the side of
the road and prayed. Immediately Piazza Europa came to my mind. But
then area that's behind the church came to mind. So we rode there
first but there was no one there! Disappointment. So we started
heading to P. Europa. There we were led to Desmond. He's from Nigeria.
We started talking to him and he told us how he's searching for
something. We were able to tell him about Joseph Smith and a bit about
the Restoration. In our lesson with him on Monday morning, he accepted
a baptismal invite. He's so prepared! (Something to add about the Desmond story that's important: we found him on the way to P. Europa. We were on a street we wouldn't have been had we not gone to the area by the church first. Miracle!)
Monday night we received a bidone (cancellation. they weren't home).Which we hate. But once again we decided to take the "heavenly airstrike" approach to a bidone, and we went out and did casa. We rang the doorbell of Alex and Vicky. The two most elect people I have yet met on my mission. Alex answered the door and was super confused when we started throwing our testimonies at him. Then he told us he doesn't speak italian. ha! We found out he's from the Phillipines and just arrived around the same time as me. He invited us in. We taught the Restoration to him and his wife, Vicky. THey were so happy and excited. He told us he had been reading the Bible when we rang the doorbell and was thinking of how he wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ and his Gospel. He offered the closing prayer, which was so sweet. He thanked our Father in Heaven for sending us to them, asked if the things we taught were true, and closed in the name of Jesus Christ (which is actually a really difficult thing for people to do. Especially at first.). Vicky had tears in her eyes and said that was the first time she had ever heard her husband pray and she was very very happy. They both expressed the feelings that come from the spirit. We felt prompted to give them a baptismal invite then and there, and they accepted! IT was so cute. Alex said Yes of course! right off, but then Vicky paused for a second, and then said Yes okay me too! We're taking them Book of Mormons in tagalog tonight and giving them a date. They are so golden elect chosen people! IT was a miracle we found them!
Sorry if my emails are too long. I just have so much greatness to
share with you! I hope you all had a fantastic Easter. Mine was
marvelous. I love this work and I know that it is the work of the
Lord. I am so grateful to be a part of it. I love you all!
Buona settimana!
Sorella Forbes
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