December 5, 2012 - HO BALLATO! I DANCED!

Yes. I danced. Want proof? Here's a picture: 

We had a ward talent show. Martin and some members knew that I danced and had actually found me on YouTube, so they said I had to dance. I called President last Wednesday. I told him the situation and asked him if I could. He said, "well, OF COURSE!!! Sorella Wolfgramm and I are coming!" Haha. I asked him if I could listen to music to practice and he said "well, I would expect you to!" Haha so Martin found me the song "Somebody to Love" By Usher and Friday morning for exercise I choreographed a bit to add to what I could remember. It felt so good to dance again! Ah! I loved it. The ward loved it too. We announced after we'd be doing an activity where I would teach the youth to dance modestly this Friday and all the adults were saying "Anche vecchietti?!" (also for the old people?) It was fun. So maybe we'll be doing this dance activity a few times? I have permission. They've done two in Firenze with and Anziano that break dances and it's been a big hit. They are finding alot of people to teach through it. I'm excited. The Wolfgramm's are the greatest. THey came and after Sorella Wolfgramm gave me the biggest hug and said "I hope I get to see you dance again!!" And Presidente shook my hand and said "è fantastica!" I just laughed. It was so much fun. I call them my parents away from my parents. :)

Yesterday we got invited to attend Consiglio with all the zone leaders, the assistants, and President in the Mission Home. That was fun! First of all because Sorella Wolfgramm made breakfast AND lunch for us (Those zone leaders are so spoiled. Nobody cooks like Sorella Wolfgramm cooks), and second of all because it was really neat to get to see the overall scope of what's happening in the mission. I have a better appreciation for numbers! ha. We also set the Standards of Excellence for next year and we got to give some input. It was a great fun experience.

So the last two weeks were SO ROUGH, work wise. We're keeping our spirits up and trying to keep working in faith. Literally ALL of our appointments we set up with potentials fell through and we haven't had a whole lot of success in finding. We only taught 7 lessons last week. And that was with 1 progressor, our new converts, and some random things here and there. It was hard! Sorella Lyman hadn't even been able to give her first real baptismal invite! Which is strange. We invite to baptism every day, most of the time. But our faith and hard work is paying off. Yesterday we got 3 new investigators. 1 is a woman we found doing casa last week. She seemed really open and was understanding and accepting, but then to baptism she said absolutely not... vediamo. We have another appointment with her next week. Sandra is the cutest golden girl! A member brought her to the talent show on Friday and she was curious to know more so we set up with her and Monday we had the greatest lesson! The spirit was so strong! I recited the first vision and after the spirit hit us all in the face SO STRONG! It was one of the strongest times i can rembmer feeling it after the First Vision. We sat in silence for a second and I just asked her "How do you feel right now?" And she said "Meravigliosa!!!" She accepted everything. Including baptism. She said she already believes everything. She's the cutest. I just love her! And then we had an FHE with Martin's family and our member family, the Ramos fam. It was so great! We shared a story from the Book of Mormon and Karin at the end said she never really got what the Book of Mormon was and thought it was just the Bible but now she sees that it's different and is interested! We have an apointment on Saturday with her. Not to mention Martin's daughter of 15 years that we are seeing tonight! I'm so happy! That was a miracle.

Last Thursday Martin brought his daughter to the church so we could help her study for her english test she had next day. So we studied a bit with her hoping that there would be an opportunity to ask if she wanted to learn more about the church (Ammon approach!). There was never a moment and she kept running in and out of the room (there were a lot of members there practicing for he talent show and she has made friends with a lot of the youth) and I was getting frustrated because we were wasting time. But something kept telling me to just wait and be patient. So I did. Then I was making calls and she came back in the room and was sitting down, asked me who I was calling and I just told her all the people who might want to learn more about what we teach and she said "can we talk for a second?" So I said YES!!! And we went in another room away from her dad and all the noise and she poured her heart out to me. I was able to bear testimony of some basic principles and express a want and the ability to help her. Needless to say, she is being prepared to accept the gospel. She will really be able to see the blessings. I'm so excited to teach her!

So this week things are picking up. We're feeling really good about it and still think we can have at least one baptism this month (Abby!). We just need to get people in Church!!! We're working hard and being blessed.

Love you family! Hope you all had a good week! Happy Christmas time! There are lights all over Milano and it's beautiful! But with that has come the COLD! It's cold. I'm layering up. And I bought some really warm boots. 

Vi voglio un sacco di bene!!!

Sorella Forbes