October 15, 2014
Last week was a rough week! I am pretty sure everyone we know canceled on us, people we didn't know canceled on us (appointment's set up by the anziani), and we even had two investigators cancel appointments that we didn't set. Let's just say our week was filled with a lot more finding activities than expected. But we had a HUGE miracle yesterday when we were making calls to set up appointments for this week. Everyone answered the phone! It was amazing. We were able to set up appointments with people we hadn't seen in weeks -- one lady I hadn't even met yet and we have been trying for 15 weeks to contact her again. We had scheduled 5 appointments for the afternoon, and even though 2 of them fell through, Sorella Russell and I felt a renewed sense of hope.
With all the finding opportunities we have had lately Sorella Russell and I may or may not have gotten lost a couple times this past week. The amazing thing is every time we get lost we ended talking to someone who is actually interested, or we run into an investigator. Even this morning on the way here we had a little miracle. There is a women that I have seen around our little town a few times that always says "hi" to us before we say hi to her. That's HUGE. Italians don't do that. Last time we saw her I really felt like we needed to talk to her but she disappeared before we could. I told Sorella Russell the next we saw her I would talk to her. Well this morning we took a different way than usual and we saw her! I was walking up to talk to her but before I could even get out my "Buongiourno!" She comes up to us and says "Hi I would like to talk about your church. I'm Catholic but I am interested in learning about your church." What?!! My comp. and I were a little stunned I think. We somehow found the words to set up an appointment for tonight. Miracles :)
Also our church is moving to a different hotel in a different city. It's is a huge miracle for us missionaries because it will be so much easier to get our investigators there! A few of the members have to travel a lot further though and they may decide to go to the Firenze ward instead. If all of them decide to do that we would lose our Young Womens Leader and our Primary President and our Sunday School teacher (yes we only have one of each). I'm not sure if we would have enough people to cover all the callings but I trust this will work out. It just means we need more baptisms!
Our sweet investigator who is getting baptized in two weeks thinks my name is Kimball. She has called me Kimball for two months now and I have no idea why. She keeps a notebook with the missionaries names in it. There is Sorella Lopez with Sorella Yost and Sorella Jarvis with Sorella Condie then there is Kimball (me) with Russell (who she added yesterday). She will look at my tag and will still say Kimball. It is pretty hilarious. We are so excited she is finally to be baptized! We have had our ups and downs with her and her family giving her permission but finally everything has worked out. Looking back we can really see how these struggles have strengthened her and helped her grow.
The Anziani also have an investigator with a baptism date and he's amazing! He came to church for the first time and he already just fits right into the branch! We taught Gospel Principles and he knew all the answers. He is definitely ready. We were riding on the train home from church and all together and he wanted to have all four missionaries over for dinner. Its against mission rules but he was very persistent so we said maybe we could get permission for Christmas. Haha so we already have Christmas plans (even though none of us may be here for Christmas, don't worry we told him!). In fact Sorella Russell and I have appointment with him and his mom (who also has a baptismal date!) tonight. But I haven't even told you the best part... His name is Giovanni, He lives on via Giovanni del San Giovanni in our little city named San Giovanni. Yeah.
Well I think that covers this week :) Tutto Posto in my little corner of Toscana.
VVB,
Sorella Dani Hamblin
Joust in Arezzo
An older picture of Sorella Jarvis and Dani in Venezia (Venice)
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