Too much Dreams, Saints and Men!

Okay so last week the Scherbels had their son, his wife and their two kids come over to visit and for P-day they invited us out to see Pompeii and Mount Vusivo! It was so much fun! Sorella Webster and I ran all around with these two little girls and made best friends with them. But they got really competitive about who would make it to the top of the mountain first so we had to run all the way up the mountain haha! The mountain had a beautiful view and the crater from the volcano was huge! Then we visited Pompeii and I had no idea that city was so huge! It went on for miles and so much of it was intact! It was cool to see this huge, ancient ruin!

Webster and I with the girls.

Pompei!

Pompei!

Pompei!

Pompei!

Pompei!

 So this week we got to do a scambio! ...exchange in English I believe. Sorella Baker and Clyde came down and we had a ton of lessons planned! So Sorella Baker and Webster went on taught Rosaria. Okay so Rosaria is great, reading the BOM, but she still has a strong belief in saints. Specifically Padre Pio. Okay let me explain who this man is. He was this Priest who died only 30 years ago. Supposedly he had great faith and he prayed so hard that Christ asked him to carry a third of his pain for 50 years. He has nail marks in his hands and feet that just appeared as a sign of this task. They made him a saint and they think of him like Christ. I'm not a fan of him. Christ did the whole atonement by himself, he couldn't have asked this man to carry a third of everyone's sins. Ah it just makes me sad every time I think about him and how many people believe and follow him here! Actually the Catholic church rejected him, but then he had so many followers that they accepted him as a Saint and now he's HUGE! Some churches have more pictures of him than anyone else. It just breaks my heart. Anyway Rosaria has had many dreams about Padre Pio and he has helped her out a lot in her life. During the scambio, Saints came up and I guess Sorella Baker and Webster taught her that we don't believe in them and I guess they had a bit of a discussion (I wasn't there). The next day when we went over Rosaria was still really upset and felt like Sorella Baker had really offended her (I'm sure Sorella Baker was just being blunt, not rude). We just bore testimony a lot about Christ and the church. Anyway a lot of think week has been dedicated to studying about Saints and trying to help her have more faith in Christ. 

Gerardo, Gina, and I !

We are also working with this older couple named Gina and Gerardo! Gerardo has actually lived in England for 20 years and speaks perfect English. They weren't really progressing so we haven't done a lot with them, then this week they called us and invited us to dinner. I found out he has a great desire to do family history! So we're going to set up a time and do that! He also asked us to come over one day to help him pick some cherries from a tree. We spent a few hours picking all these cherries and talking. I started thinking about Padre Pio and was just distressed about it so I started asking him some questions. He's catholic, but has a lot of doubts. He used to believe in Saints, but then stopped once he found out that it's man who creates saints, not God. I had one of the coolest conversations with this guy that I've had on my mission. We talked all about the apostasy and prophets. I got him when I asked him why there weren't any more prophets today and he stopped, thought for a long time, and said that's a very good question, then I got to tell him all about the Restoration. It was awesome!

Us and the handicap kids we help with.

Martina's first Peanut butter sandwich...she loved it!

 So I LOVE Italy! You guys all know I do! Love everything about it! But man...I've had so many talks about saints and crazy dreams this week. TOO MUCH CATHOLIC FOR ME. Also I'm sick of the men here. They are harmless, but they love saying gross things to us every time we pass them. Agh I am so sick of Italian men! 

Marianna and Martina!

We had a huge miracle in church this week! We have a great group of English course students who come every week and love the church...but they don't want to quite take the lessons. There's these two especially that I just feel like are ready, their names are Marianna and Martina! They completely surprised us this week and came to church!!! I know they loved it and my goal is to invite them to take the lessons with us! We also have a new investigator this week—Pina! We found her in the areabook, I called her one day, she let us come right over, and we had a great first lesson with her. She already loves the BOM and wants us to come back again. She also has a son who took the lessons in the past and a daughter who just found out she's pregnant and seemed interested! I love this family!  

Also....transfers came!!! Sorella Webster got transferred to Fioggia and I'm getting a sister named Sorella Williams, from Canada! Sorella Webster is my first companion that I've only been with one transfer so it's weird that she's leaving! I've had so much fun with Sorella Webster and we have really worked hard to improve this area. So now I get to have a few days of saying sad goodbyes. Anyway everything is great! I love you guys!