A 7-Course Meal and Sacrifices for High Fashion

Ciao carissimi!!

Come state? As for me, I am feeling quite full as we have had two HUGE meals this past week which will basically last me until Saturday. Yep, everyone just loves us here. It's so great!

So speaking of huge meals on Monday we went over to our baptismal date's house first for lunch and then with her to one of our member's houses for them to give her a blessing before her baptism. First she served us salami and a tomato salad, then a whole plateful of ravioli with ragu sauce, some beef stew and bread, and then three whole servings of fruit- two bunches of grapes and a whole apple, and THEN a huge bowl of chocolate\cherry pudding! I was just willing my stomach to expand. Everything was BUONISSIMO, by the way. She just loves us so much and shows it by feeding us like her own daughters. :) I have so many moms here in Italy. She also told us about how she is so happy with the gospel now in her life. There are so many precious truths that we have that so many people haven't heard anything about before. It was a joy to teach her about things like the temple and geneology and tell her that she could do the work for her relatives and give them the opportunity to accept the gospel as well. She truly appreciates and understands everything. She told us that her whole life she had thrived on the word of God, but never did she feel like it was quite enough until she met us. Now all the puzzle pieces are connected and she has the power to cope with life's challenges. We notice it, she notices it, and her friends definitely notice it too. It is all the work and blessings of God! Che meraviglia, as she would say. We are expecting big turn out on Saturday for her baptism!

I would also like to talk about a funny little story that happened this Sunday. Our new convert who got baptized about two months ago now was finally scheduled to receive the Aaronic priesthood. So in honor of the event he went to a nice, Italian store, the rinascente, and got a beautiful tailored suit. After they had fit it to size he asked them how much it cost. "300 euro," they said. And he responded, "COME??!?!!" (Italian for "WHAT?!!) Knowing our dear new convert, he bit the bullet and payed the bill and needless to say he looked very snappy in his new suit on Sunday. The funniest part of the story is that he said the word "come" with almost a New York accent, and it makes me wonder where that accent actually comes from... I just love Italians.

Well those are just some highlights from this week. We are still working hard and trying to maintain the high number of lessons we've gotten for the past few weeks. This week has had a few more challenges that we couldn't really foresee- whereas the week when we got thirteen lessons with members everything just worked out perfectly with no kinks and miracles on the side. But we just keep plugging away and are just so excited for the baptism on Saturday. This is the work of the Lord and nothing can stop it from moving forward! I'm going to cry buckets when I have to leave Collegno. It is a city of miracles and a city of love.

Vi voglio TANTO bene e sono fiera di tutte le cose che fate. Siete bravissimi. Siate sempre allegri!

Love,

Sorella Lyman

P.S. Who's excited for CONFERENCE in just 10 days?!?!!!!