Don't tell people it's ok to break the law of chastity in the first conversation!!

Weekly email
Ciao Cari!
This week in Sassari, has been amazing. I know that every week I just tell you over and over again how wonderful Simona and Alessandro are, but they truly are just tender mercies of the Lord. We invited Simona to baptized on November 15th the second time that we met with her, and she accepted sort of. She told us that she was willing to work towards it as a goal, but that she wanted her husband to be present when she was baptized. Unfortunately her husband is in Longansport Indiana, which makes that kind of difficult. So we set the date knowing that it was kind of shaky, but we took every oppertunity possible to bear testimony to her about the importance of baptism and the Holy Ghost. We hadn't exactly confronted the issue, but were praying desperately that everything would go through.

On Saturday one of the elder's investigators Daniela was baptized and Simona was able to attend. She had to leave early so I didn't get the chance to talk to her about it. Then the next day in church I was pulled away by about five different people (I literally was in relief society for 15 minutes and I saw one talk in sacrament) so I barely had the chance to talk to her. Finally after church I sat down and had my first face to face conversation with Simona in five days, and I asked her what she thought about the baptism. Then she said one of the most beautiful things I have heard in my entire life. She said I want my husband to be at my baptism, but I saw, and I felt how important baptism is last night, and I want to be baptized here with the missionaries and the members that I love, so I don't think that I can wait to be baptized. So I asked her, Simona do you think that you still want to be baptized on the 15th, and she said yes. Then I hugged her. So she is going to go through with baptism, and I'm so happy. She is truly being converted. She prays so beautifully, and studies the scriptures so intently, and I can see how much the gospel is truly changing her. I feel so blessed to have met her.

Alessandro also had a beautiful experience at the baptism. We still haven't passed him to the elders. They were super busy with Daniela this week, and we could never make it work. After the baptism he told me that he felt a beautiful feeling that he couldn't understand, and I literally almost screamed that is the Holy Ghost!!!! Instead I calmy and simply explained the role of the Holy Ghost. Also he broke my heart. While Daniela was getting dressed we were all sitting quietly listening to Sorella Winegar playing the piano and he turns to me and says "Sara (He thinks my name is Sara, I have no idea why I think it might have something to do with my accent over the phone when I say Sorella, that or it's a Sardegnian pet name, but he always calls me that) are you going to stay here after January, and I told him no, I have to go back to America, and his face got really serious and he said Oh I thought that you would like it here so much that you would change your mind, which literally almost made me cry. So I told that story to the other missionaries, and now we aren't 100% sure that Sorella Winegar and I should pass him, I will keep you updated.

Also quick funny story. We had a first lesson with an English course student this week, and we were trying to explain prayer. He felt like God already knew what he needed and felt so there wasn't any point, and so I told him that I am very very close with my mother, and when I went to BYU for the first year she wanted me to call her a lot. She knew what I was going to say, she knew that I felt like classes were hard, and work was hard, and that maybe I didn't get along with my roommate but she wanted to hear from me anyway. Not for the information, but because she loved me, and wanted to hear from me while I was far away. Really beautiful analogy right? Yeah except that I am American and I messed up my Italian a little bit during my beautiful heart melting analogy. So as a I was saying Roommate which translates to la mia compagnia di stanza I paused because I couldn't remember if it was compagnia di stanza or compagnia di casa or collega di stanza because how often does the word roommate come up in conversation anyway?!?! So I said la mia Compagnia and paused, so helpful little Fabio helped me out with my Italian by saying il mio compagnio, so of course like and Idiot I said oh grazie il mio campagnio, and moved on with my analogy, but a little voice in my head was going something in that phrase was wrong, and then I realized that il mio compagnio means more or less live in boyfriend. So I told him that I was living with a man without being married, so I had to retract and repair that very very quickly. It was pretty embarrassing. So basic tip of sharing the gospel, when explaining the gospel don't tell people it's ok to break the law of chastity in the first conversation. That's all for me this week.

Love you all a lot

Sorella Spencer