First of all, I spent at least a twenty minutes looking over the 100+ photos I received from my amazing family. Thank you again! It was so fun to see all that you have been up to, especially those of the family I haven't met yet.
After the day of the Virgin on the 8th of december, we can officially start celebrating Christmas, complete with lights hanging across the streets and on random apartment balconies and nativities everywhere, including the grocery store. With the change of weather, there has been a lot of heavy rain, which causes the whole world to shut down. People call and ask to make sure we can make it to our appointment, which is a kind thought, yet we are enjoying the respite of the heat. It may be to the opposite extreme, as this is my first experience with humid cold. Slla. Clark and I have almost finished composing a new text to the song "Funiculli, Funiculla," the one that if you think of an Italian with pasta or pizza, he is singing that, though the text changes as we walk each day ie. "fa freddo qui, fra freddo là, fa freddo qui, fa freddo laaaaaaaaaaaà". I finally sowed up my rice baby my family sent back in July, and successfully lit the rice on fire in our microwave. No, I didn't not leave it in for longer than seven minutes. Yes, our apartment is still standing. I just learned not to put it so that it touches that random piece of cardboard-like material on the inside of the microwave (which I still don't understand why is there).
In spite of the cold, we participated in an amazing service project for all of the Rome Stake. They wanted to help serve the area around the Rome temple sight, so we spent the most part of Saturday cleaning up a park, as part of Helping Hands. There were a lot of non-members who just came to help us or stopped to ask who we were, one woman with tears in here eyes thanking for what we were doing. I loved it and had a great time simpy doing some hard work and have the blisters to prove it.
We are very excited for Samy's progress and as he passed his interview last week, his baptism will be held this Sunday at 17:00. He is doing great and is loves sharing all that he learns. He is very humble and earnest in his desire to continue on the path that he has found. He only wishes he could have found it ten years ago. He can become pretty stressed sometimes if he doesn't feel that that all is in order, but we have everything set for his baptism, so as much a possible we with set everything to go as planned. (Oh and the word for nun, suora, is very close to sister, sorella. I never expected to be called a nun, but it happens and works out fine.)
Our other two investigators with baptism dates are: Janus, who continues to progress. He is reading more consistently and we can see his dedication and he is still looking forward to being baptized. (His brother Dominique isn't quite as steady about working towards what he has set as a goal for being baptized.) Sabina, piano piano continues to go forward.
I spoke with President Kelly last night about perhaps adding two new sisters to Roma 1 another point is that we have a lot of new converts that are working with, which takes a fair amount of our time, yet we are excited about so much growth, as we will soon have two to three more. Our large area does have a lot of work to be done. He said they are hoping to have three stakes in Rome and are looking to split our ward. Rome sta fiorendo!
I've had prayer in my mind for the past few weeks and put together some thoughts. I know that Heavenly Father knows that which we need before we ask, yet gives us the opportunity to ask. As we pray, we take the chance to open the windows of heaven and obtain the blessings that he would give us. I find in insightful that the word for calling on the name of God is invocare, that we invoke His power when we pray with faith. We are commanded to pray for ourselves and others. We pray not to change the will of the Lord, but to discover what it is. He knows what is the best for us will help us to know that is. At the end of the day, I am grateful for what I am learning and realizing how I can improve my prayers to have a closer relationship with my Father in Heaven. Some scriptures I have found in my studies that walk through this are: Matthew 7:7-11, Alma 34:18-27, 3 Nefi 13: 3-15. One I like as a model for how to use prayer in trying times is Alma 58: 10-13. Prayers are powerful. Please keep Samy and our other investigators in your prayers this week. You are in mine.
Vi voglio bene,
Slla. Erica Lovell
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