A busy week in Milan!

This week was so fast!!!

     Ok so we met of course with Fernanda and Eglayda! They fed us the best food....the best. Anyway we wanted to be really clear with them about the steps they need to take for them to be sealed in the temple which they have told us is their ultimate goal. We drew on a piece of paper a little stair case leading to the Rome temple and had them write on each stair the "step" required to get there. 1. faith 2. marriage 3. baptism 4. receive holy ghost 5. obey commandments/prepare 6. temple. It went really really well. We talked about marriage and told them that if they have the faith, which we know they do, marriage is the next step and it shouldn't be something delayed so that they can receive those eternal blessings in the temple. 

     We did a bunch of scambi and let me tell you it was just a week of crazy finding, the most random people, getting yelled at by atheists, yummy pizza, a bunch of JWs trying to confound us, running for EVERY train, freezing cold, a pigeon hit my face, finding the actual ghetto of Milan aka little Romania, teaching like crazy, helping people move, insane gypsy's, lots of meetings, the best hot chocolate, and meeting some cool new people. 

     We met a lady named Nancy and taught her and her daughter the restoration and it was amazing. The spirit was really strong and they want us to come back. they promised to read the book of Mormon. The Guastella family has my heart. They are the best people in the world and close to coming back to church. We taught the gospel and told each one of them (2 kids, the mom, and the less active boyfriend) that each of them are at different spots in the gospel as far as progress goes. Whether that's getting baptized, receiving the priesthood, or obeying the commandments and repenting. They really love us and trust us and that alone is a huge miracle given their relationship with missionaries in the past. We met and taught Mercedes, a less active, but a happy little surprise was that her daughter in law came and joined the lesson and now she wants a book of mormon to read. We are excited about meeting up with both of them again. Another big miracle was that we were let in to the house of a less active who hasn't let the missionaries in for YEARS. In fact just the other day the anziani (Elders) tried to pass by her house, when she answered the citofono and they announced they were the missionaries she quietly hung up the phone hahha. so they counted to five and called up to her again and the same thing happened again! Anyway, we went by and she LET US IN. Her care taker was not happy about us coming in, I think she thought we were JWs (unfortunately we all look identical) The less active is mad at God. She has had a very hard life and is practically handicap hence the care taker being there. Her husband died a few years ago and she really hasn't recovered since. We talked a lot about God and His existence to which she says she doesn't believe anymore. I know she felt the spirit and so did the care taker- it was undeniable. They invited us to come back and we are really excited about that. 

     Last of all I really want to talk about Cleyde. She was a referral from an Anziano way long ago because she works at steak and shake (yum) and they started talking about the church. the sorella (Sisters) here at the time tried calling her, but nothing ever happened. This anziano when he went home from his mission still felt really strongly that the sorelle needed to try again to reach out to her. SO they did......nothing. fast forward to now and our anziani went to steak and shake to eat and she was their waitress and they started talking and gave us her number as a referral to call. coincidence? I THINK NOT. Not only that, but one of them gave her a book of mormon and that night when she went home she had it on her bed and her mom came in the room and said "why did you take my book from my room?" she said "this is my book, the missionaries gave it to me" and the mom said "oh, the missionaries gave it to me too a while back, and your grandparents have it too." The Lord has been working on this family for a long time and we are not letting her go! Sorella Castro and the scambio sorella taught her and they said it went really well and I'm excited because we are teaching her at the church tonight in like 30 min. 

I love Italy. I love the church. I love the cimiano members. Have a great week!

vi voglio bene!

Sorella Williams 

Cimiano District!

Where's the castle?