The Adventures of Sister Holiday: "their sorrows, and their afflictions, and their incomprehensible joy" !

So this week we did have a baptism scheduled for Saturday, it did not
happen. Thursday was a really rough day. Wednesday night our
investigator called, and was like, "I'm not really feeling it". Then
said she wanted to meet with us Thursday, and told us that she didn't
want to do this anymore. It was the weirdest thing, and whenever we
started talking she turned over to her friend for reassurance, and
wouldn't look at us. It was just so weird, every other time we had
seen her she had just been so bubbly and happy, like she's the one who
called and said she wanted to be baptized in the first place we were
really thrown off. Then talking to her she seemed like a completely
different person. After she left we both cried, well we both bawled
and those were honestly the most painful tears I've ever felt. It felt
like a parent or sibling had just died, and I thought that might have
been a dramatic way to word it but later on when my companion was
talking about it she described it the same way so yea that's what it
felt like.
She called us later that night and invited us to come over the next
day. So we went hoping we could talk about it, help her in some way,
but instead she just seized it as an opportunity to yell about us
about almost every complaint I've ever heard about the church. She was
missing a few, but she laid out a pretty nice list. But like c'mon
man, I've grown up in this church! There's no thought or question that
hasn't run through my own mind, but I've found my answers and I've
received my responses and there was such a big part of me that wanted
to just wanted to throw down a set of scriptures on the table and set
her straight on everything. But we're not here to contend with people,
and that wouldn't have been right. So we listened with love, shared a
short message with her, bore sincere testimony, hugged and left. It
made us really sad to see what a change had happened, and how her
heart got so hard, but in HAPPIER NEWS:

Our little Italian mama read the Book of Mormon and bible one night
for 4 straight hours and found that, hey! It's true! It's really
actually exactly what it says it is, and it is a gift from God for our
days. So she wants to be baptized and share the gospel with all of her
family so we are also teaching her niece and sister now! Valentina
received the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. We were searching for a
less active member one day, and hiked a big hill to find her, she
doesn't live there anymore, and then we missed the bus coming back so
ran to try to catch it, but couldn't because like flats and skirts and
bags. But someone saw two poor girls trying to catch a bus and so they
pulled over to offer us a ride, and it turns out it was exactly the
woman we were looking for! :) So that was great, and we know where she
lives now.
Heavenly Father has just been raining the blessings and miracles down
on Pescara, and it's an awesome time to be a missionary! :)
#laItaliaStaFiorendo

Today for pday we went to the house of a member from Napoli and she's
teaching us how to make Napolitano pizza! And an Abruzzese dolce

Sorella Holiday