So many miracles!

I have been so excited to write this email for days now. We have seen so many miracles this week, and there are many more to come.


Miracle number one is named Martin Manole He is our 16 year old investigator from Hungary who wants desperately to be baptized, but his mother is very very opposed to the gospel. Because Sorella Bair and Anziano Kasper are leaving, she invited us to her home this Sunday for lunch. We were warned before hand not to pray or talk about the gospel by Martin,  but before lunch, she invited us to pray, and allowed us to do a brief spiritual thought on gratitude, and leave her home with a prayer. Before we left she told us that her home was open to the missionaries, and that we were free to meet with Martin, whenever we wanted. She still hasn't given him permission to be baptized, but we are heading in that direction. I think she is just afraid of losing her son, I think when she understands that she won't lose her son, but rather have a richer relationship with him after baptism, her attitude will change.


Miracle number two sarebbe la famiglia Ernest. They are our beautiful sri lankan family. The oldest daughter Tanya came to church on Sunday, and she blended seamlessly with the girls. We went with her to young women's to help her feel more comfortable, but she ditched us during the second hour. We have been spending a lot of time with teenagers recently, and I have started to realize that I am a lot older and less cool than I had thought. This is a direct quote of a conversation Tanya had with the other young women.

young woman 1: Imagine a lama, with a horn like a unicorn that shoots unicorn horns out of it's mouth.

everyone but me laughs

Me to Tanya: What are they talking about, is this a new thing on youtube?

Tanya: No it's just a mix of animals.

Young woman number 2: A panda t-rex mix with a unicorn horn.

Young woman number 1 pretends to be said panda t-rex unicorn mix.

Everyone but me laughs really hard:

Me:I'm really confused how do you all know about this, is it on the internet? Is this the new thing,like gangam style.

Tanya: to me: No it's just funny.

At this point I stopped talking because I wouldn't embarrass Tanya


We went to the Ernest home for dinner on Sunday night, and they all agreed to be baptized! We will work on setting a date with them and make sure that they are fully prepared this transfer.


Miracle number three is named Nicky Spagna He is an english course student, who has been reading the Book of Mormon, and he came to church on Sunday. Sorella Bair and I discussed it, and we decided that if there isn't a significant reason to hold onto a male investigator (like in Martin's case where he does not connect very well with men) we will pass them to the elders, so the elders will be teaching him, but we have formed a great friendship with him, and I hope that the sister's can continue to be a support to him, as he progresses towards baptism.


Miracle number four, we went to Stigliano yesterday! Nicky Spagna, and another english course student went with us to do genealogy and finding yesterday. It was a huge day for missionary work in two folds.

A) we were able to find living members of Sorella Bair's family, who are planning on helping her continue her family history work in December and

B) we also passed through and stopped in Nicky's home town, which is connected to Stigliano. The city is beautiful, and Nicki comes from an old influential family in that area (that continues to be influential, they asked him to be mayor) , so we were able to meet a handful of people in both cities, because he introduced them to us. It was a really wonderful experience, and it gave the church a very nice image. I'm sure that for the next few weeks Stigliano, and Acetura will be talking about the American Mormons who are parenti of the di bello family, and friends with the Spagna family. I could see missionary work being very successful in both cities (they overlap completely) especially with the help of Nicky and Sorella Bair coming back in December to do genealogy. I wanted to see if Nicky would be cooperative, so I mentioned to him that I was going to tell president about Acetura and Stigliano, and suggest that he put missionaries there. I told him, that it might not happen, and even if it did happen it may not happen for years, but he was very excited, which is amazing for two reasons.

1) Nicky is excited about doing missionary work, and every person I have seen get baptized on my mission has shared a desire to serve a mission, or share the gospel with their friends right as they start to make the most progress. so it demonstrated that Nicky really is starting his conversion process. 2) If Acetura\ Stigliano area were opened, I think that Nicky would be a huge help with referrals, and getting things started.

Also Sorella Knight will be coming to Taranto from Friday to Tuesday so that Taranto has sister missionaries, and our investigators don't get neglected. I'm really excited because Sorella Knight is very musically talented and Martin's mother is very passionate about music, and I'm hoping that we can go visit her at least once while Sorella Knight is here. Let Sorella Knight play the piano, invite the spirit into her home, and hopefully hopefully leave her with a prayer and a spiritual thought. Also Sorella Knight is one of my best friends in the whole mission, and I have missed her so much, so it will be really great to have a week with her as my companion. I love what I am doing so much. I can't imagine a life where missionary work isn't the heart of everything I do. I love you all but I may never come back. Just kidding. I miss my dog too much.