Can we talk about miracles for a sec.... I have been trying to count all the miracles that happened this past week, but I just can't count that high (at least not in Italian)!
I don't even know where to start. First off, Saturday Giovanni (one of the Anziani's investigators) got baptized!!!! All the excitement happened before the baptism though. The Anziani had to stay the night Friday night in Firenze so they could not travel up to baptism with Giovanni (p.s. we do all our baptism in Firenze). They called in the morning to check on him and he said he was having some doubts. They hung up prayed then called him back but he wouldn't answer. Uh oh. That's when we got a call from the anziani seeing if we could go over and talk to Giovanni. We read Joseph Smith History with him and his mom -- the part when Satan overcame Joseph right before the first vision. Right before we are about to make good choices Satan will try to stop us. Other investigators have been talking about temptations they have now that they didn't have before. Satan is real and is powerful, but God is always more powerful. The Spirit was so strong in that house as we read together. Before we left to go to the baptism we said a kneeling prayer together and Giovanni pulled out his knee pads (he never stops joking :P)! His baptism was absolutely beautiful. Just simple and perfect. President got to come to it too because our Stake had Stake Conference this weekend. Gabriella (Giovanni's mom) is telling everyone her baptismal date now. She is so excited. She asked me to baptize her.... so we had a lesson about the priesthood this week. I hope Giovanni baptizes her :)
Monday, in district meeting, the anziani challenged us to challenge Sara to baptism that day. Well Sorella Hastings and I were super pumped. We planned it all out and we were going to challenge her in the first 5 minutes. When we got there, however, before we even started, she hit us with some bad news. Well the lesson didn't go at all how like we planned and we were a little down. It was 5 minutes to 9:00 and I didn't know how to challenge her before we left. But I had to. So I just did it. We weren't talking about it at all but I just told her we wanted to set a baptismal date with her and she said "absolutely"! She said she already told her mom that she wanted to be baptized! I wish you all could have seen the smile on her face, it changed her whole attitude. She was so happy. I am never going to forget that smile. Her life is really hard but I see hope in her eyes now. THIS GOSPEL CHANGES LIVES. We also saw her yesterday and she asked us if she could serve a mission. Haha! We didn't see that one coming at all. She always knows how to surprise us.
To add to the story, Sorella Hoffman called that night and we told her that we set a baptism date. She said she wanted to set a baptism date the next day. We told her to call us when they did. Sure enough the next day we got a call from the Pisa Sorelle. This is so great that we get to help challenge each other.
Another small miracle: one of my name tags got ran over by a car (don't ask me how). The pin broke but the name tag is perfectly perfect and I can just order a new pin. On Sunday we found it waiting outside our door. One of our neighbors must have found it outside and put it there.
We also had Stake Conference and that was amazing but I am running out of time :)
Last thing: Sorella Hastings and I are starting this thing in December called 25 days of Christ. We are going to send a scripture about Christ to our investigators every day in December. My invitation this week to y'all is to send me your favorite scripture about Christ and tell me why you like it!
Remember Grazie a Lui we have this beautiful Gospel and we know we can return to live with Him again. We don't ever have to be alone because He knows how we feel. He knows our pains and only through Him can we be completely healed. I am honored to wear His name every day. I know He lives. Don't ever forget that He loves you.
I love you too!
Sorella Dani Hamblin
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