Predicare il mio Vangelo: Sorella Hamblin's Journey in Italy: Praying with cats....and dogs!

This week has been absolutely crazy and incredible!

Last Thursday I went to Pisa for a scambio. It was so great. I met some incredible people. One of them was Isabel, who is a woman from Nigeria. I have never met any one with greater faith in my life. I wanted to record our whole lesson with her because she was just inspiring. I also got my first experiences with bikes on my mission. Umm... I think I only stopped traffic once, maybe twice. To be fair the bike was way to tall for me and there were a billion tourists! Haha but I kept telling myself if all these Italians in their 70's could do it I could do it!

On Saturday our branch had an activity in Valombrosa (it literally means valley of shade) We were able to go to the Tuscan mountains, and the drive up was gorgeous! At the activity we played calcio (soccer)!!! My branch president kept telling me that I should keep playing after the mission. He wants our branch to form a team with me and the Anziani and then we could play Firenze. Haha I'll let you know if that ever happens! We also played frisbee, jumprope, and tug-of-war.. it was so fun to relax and have fun with the branch. Even though i still have a hard time speaking to them we were able to get closer through the games. At the end Sorella Jarvis and I had the branch do a Plan of Salvation activity. I just love our little branch family. Each and every one of them is incredible.

On Sunday we went to visit one of our sweet members and she made us bread! While I was praying her cat jumped on my head!!! Like literally jumped on top of my head and held on for dear life. i tried to keep praying while I tried to shake the cat of my head. I bet the people in heaven had a good show! Haha after the prayer the member asked what happened to me during the prayer, but I had no clue how to say " Your cat jumped on my head" in Italian! Apparently the cat just likes to do that though because he did it to my companion later. This member's dog was more reverent though and would bow his head during the prayers.

We are so blessed as missionaries. The members are absolutely wonderful. We have been given so much food this week which has been such a blessing.

This past week I have been working on not trying to be so perfect all the time. It is okay for the investigators to see that you have weaknesses. In fact your weaknesses are sometimes exactly what the people need to see. They need to know other people struggle and have trials too. I think I'm finally starting to apply this, especially with the language. We were talking about spiritual gifts in one of our member visits. We got to the gifts of tongues and I was able to share my personal struggle over trying to get this language. The woman said that she could really tell that I wanted to learn this language and that meant a lot to me. She said in 30 years she hasn't seen someone try so hard. Wow, I just gave her a little honesty and she gave me a huge confident boost. This has been such a humbling week and I am so thankful for it. I know God knows what we need.

Love you and thanks for your support and love!

Sorella Dani Hamblin