Week 52: One year older and wiser too.....I hope :)

Well, I turn one year old this week, and I can't believe it has been this long since I have been home! Time really does fly. It's weird. Boh. Also, a happy 11 months to the world's cutest nephew!!!! :D

Today is Tuesday, we have zone conference tomorrow in Bari so we got our pday moved to today so that we could spend the pday in Bari! It is beautiful here. But no pictures because the Internet point puts viruses on the sd cards and stuff. I will send them next week.

This week in a nutshell:

• Padre Pio for pday. CRAZY. We saw his real hands. Google him...it's an interesting story.
• Midweek scambio in Bari! I got to meet Sorella Vickers' relatives that she has tracked down through family history out here. They live in the boundaries of the ward she is serving in. Super exciting!
• Ward BBQ on Friday was a HUGE success. There were members, English course students, and random people from off the street. It was really cool. 
• INCREDIBLE ward council meeting. We talked about how the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 have received the revelation that as a church we need to improve our sabbath day worship and put an emphasis on the sacrament. So that's what we talked about, and it was really cool. I am really excited to help the ward grow in faith.
• Santina came to church with one of her kids!!!!
• F R A N C E S C O. He is the MOST incredible investigator I have ever had. We met him through his mom, whom we met at a supermarket and she wanted help with English, so we went over and Francesco was there. He is 23. We invited him to come to English course and he did, and then there was a baptism of one of the anziani's investigators right after. He was really struck, and he made good friends with some of the members. One, Pina, invited him to church the Sunday following, and he came. So we taught him the Restoration after pday on Monday, and he was super open and said that when he receives his answer about the book of Mormon, he will be baptized. So then he came to the BBQ and hit it off with all the members. And he brought an INCREDIBLE cheesecake, so that was cool :) And then he came to church and the gospel principles teacher gave an awesome lesson about the nature of God. She gave a really direct invite at the end to go home, kneel down, and pray to know the truthfulness of the message she shared. So after church, he went home, knelt down, and prayed about the book of Mormon after reading for an HOUR and feeling a really strong Spirit. And he received an answer right away that the Book of Mormon is TRUE!!!!!! SO he said that he wants to read more, but he is getting baptized!!!!!!! Literally textbook perfect. I feel like I could go home now knowing that I have done what I was here to do. We are so over the moon happy.

That is honestly it for this week.....we get our iPads tomorrow!!!!! So bizzare. super stoked. and we can check emails during the week, we can't respond until Monday though. So hopefully I will be better at giving thorough responses when people write to me (*coughcoughwirtetomepleasecough :)

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sorella Decker