tante notizie!

As Liz Lemon would say, Things are happening!!

Seriously, I don't even know where to begin!  Our work has literally exploded and we are being blessed out of our minds. Transfer 4 in Bergamo has offically started and beautiful things are going on.

First off we're getting ready for a ward split on the 17th. They're making a third branch here in Bergamo. The other two wards basically stay the same, one north and one south, but they're taking our Bergamo proper and making it a branch. Bergamo is made up of dozens of little paese that make up the whole area. Ana our new convert lives in Stezzano, but it's still technically Bergamo, if that makes sense. Anyway one of the Anziani called the Prez on Monday and we, the sorelle, are taking the new branch and the elders are staying with the normal wards. Luckily pretty much all our peeps are in Bergamo, and most of our new converts and less active members we work with are in Bergamo. It feels right and we're pumped to explode the branch with peeps.

One little bonus is we get to start teaching Carlos and Mari again. Did I tell you about them? This beautiful Peruvian family that we found doing Parco (just talking to people in the park) and handed over to the Anziani after 2 or 3 lessons because they were technically in the other ward (because Bergamo Centrale used to be split between the wards). They actually lived right across the hall from the Anziani. Well the Anziani haven't even taught them in the last three weeks since we handed them over.  Last Tuesday we were walking down the street and I heard someone yell Sorella BUSH! and I look over in time to see Carlos driving by and waving at us. We called him as soon as we heard we knew we were in the Bergamo branch, and he told us to come Thursday at 2:30.

Plus we've started seeing Marisol again, and she loved meeting us with. Silvia is pregnant and her mom is trying to convince her to abort and take no responsibility for her actions as a 28 year-old. So we're trying to help her take control of her life and stop listening to her crazy mom when we know so many wonderful Italian families that are trying to adopt. Juliet loves coming to church. Those were pretty much our only solid peeps until Sunday night, and now things are taking off.

First we met Matthew. The story is kind of crazy. We had a worthless morning of trying to find new people to teach about 6 weeks ago in the rain. We talked to basically two people, one of them was Gladys.  We can never get a hold of her and we kind of wrote her off. Then one evening last week we're waiting for Silvia to come meet us at the park and we go through all the old potential peeps we had saved in our phone. So we call Gladys and she tells us call the next day at noon after she's talked to her husband. Then we forget, for two days in a row. Noon is just not a convenient time, I am sorry.

So finally we call her Friday because I write a huge 12:00 on the inside of my arm. She tells us to come at 2:30 Saturday even though her husband said he had zero interest in listening to us. We get there and she's been called into work. We decided to do casa (knock on doors to talk to people) at their building and go inside and just talk to these crazy angry Italians that tell us to leave. We really felt like we were supposed to knock some doors but then we get inside and just nothing is happening, we waste like 8 minutes and head outside. I try and talk to this little Bolivian woman who was in fretta and hand her an opuscolo about the restoration as she walks away.

Then comes Matthew just two seconds later, he approaches us, speaking in English and asks if he can have a book too.  He is incredible. He gave him some info, got his digits and went on our merry way. We go to teach him Sunday night. He's from South Africa and his English is so clear compared to some of our Nigerians we've taught, and he's been in the Ivory Coast for the past six years, in Italy for only three weeks. He has a faith that I can't even describe. He wants to follow Christ and put God first. He understood perfectly the restoration and the plan of salvation and excepted a baptismal date for the 29th of June.

Then we have Rosemary and her family. Remember the beautiful Bolivian family we found eating gelato at the bus stop a few weeks ago? I'm sort of obsessed with them. We finally taught them this past Saturday and again yesterday. They are the most beautiful family. We saw the oldest daughter and the mom on Saturday and yesterday the other two daughters were there with the mom. My favorite is Marisella. She just turned 24 and has never been very religiosa because she could never understand the Bible and never felt anything going to mass. When we first met so loved the fact the we were the same age as her and had a personal connection with religion and God. She's pumped to read the Book of Mormon and I'm so excited for all of them. They're friends with a member in the 2nd ward who came and bore some sweet testimony at the end of our lesson.

Our last training with Prez talked a lot about baptismal invites, having the faith to do a soft invite (when you know these things are true, will you follow the example of Christ and be baptized in His church with someone with the authority to do so? or something like that) at the first lesson, like the apostles have told us to do. I used to be super-scared of being to that direct or something in the first lesson, but it helps people know we're here not just to have a nice chat but to help them increase they're faith and it gets them thinking about baptism.

Two more quick miracles.  First, Ivan.  We taught a lesson to them right after finding them, extended a baptism invite, and they accepted. Miracles happen when I get over what I think makes more sense and do like the apostles have tried to teach us.

Anyway. We found Ivan doing casa on Rosemary's street (which I'm pretty sure is a magic little street). I was going through all the buttons on the citofono and Ivan answered. I told him Siamo missionarie della chiesa di Gesu Cristo dei santi degli ultimi giorni, possiamo presentarci? and after half a dozen old Italians telling me that our message non mi serve per niente, I was so suprised when subito we was like si. There wasn't a woman home so he came down and talked to us outside. He's 24, Ukranian, and so elect. We had a beautiful restoration lesson, made plans to come back on Thursday. He hasn't been able to find work these months so he's at home taking care of the house part of everyday so we stopped by to give him a Book of Mormon in Ukrainian so he doesn't have to read in Italian. As soon as he knew it was us he ran down the stairs and was so excited to read in his own language. He can't wait for us to come back on Thursday.

Then his dad popped his head out the window to see who we were and waved and us. They're the happiest Ukrainian fam I've found yet it Italy. I'm full of hope for all of them. He has a cutie little bro who's maybe six. He came home with his mom when we were fnishing up the first lesson and Ivan tried to grab him as he walked by and he said Non toccarmi brutto! and it was hilarious.

Second miracle: Marta we found in the park yesterday.  Technically Bergamo 2 but I felt like since it's our area as of now we should get the lay of the land better. And there we found Marta. Bolivian, here for 12 years, currently out of work because the old dudes she worked for died and she's out in giro looking again. She said she'd seen our church here and in Bolivia but never been talked to the missionaries, instead the JWs always find her and talk to her, but she's never really had any interest in them. We taught her the restoration and she understood in perfectly, blew my mind. She's so prepared to learn about the gospel and was excited to get the Book of Mormon. Seeing her on Friday and she told us she'd think about being baptized at the end of the month. Wowa.

So these are the highlights of the past 3 days. Ha. Not to mention Daniela, a new convert is finally excited to go to the temple, after a year in the church she tried to tell us she's not ready, then we had a beautiful lesson. Ana knows her family can be eternal. Inactive members are calling us to see when we can come see them. Things are happening.

And I'm almost 24!  Gah. Time is flying!  Remember Hawaii... Ok, sorry this was a little crazy long, love you all SO BAD!

School's almost over!

xoxo

sorella bush