Week 53: Upgrades

Well, I am writing this to you all from my bed because we now have iPads which is strange but already proving to be useful. You already know that we did pday on Tuesday last week because of the zone conference.  We just hung out around Bari with the other sisters and did some shopping and sightseeing. It's a really beautiful place :) After pday was over we went to the church and met up with the half of the zone that was already there to go through the iPad setup procedures with the assistants. Then we went home and made Mexican food, which made me want to cry. I was so happy!

Wednesday was zone conference, it went really well :) my favorite was the training from the STL, she talked about humility and giving God the glory for His work. It was really beautiful; Sorella Vickers is totally going to be a general auxiliary president for the young women or relief society or something. After the conference we came back with the Bari sisters to do another scambio.

Thursday morning I was on splits with Sorella Tapia, she is so cute. We went and visited a member, Sorella Maggiolino. She has the three cutest little kids, and she served a mission. She loves to talk about her mission service; I hope that my kids know how much I love my mission. Then we went and caught the train to Cerignola, where the other sisters were. We switched back and then we got to teach Joel more about the priesthood. We are really excited for him to receive that, he said that when he gets it he will be "the happiest man!" Then we had English course and after we got pizza with Anziano Flynn and Anziano Jacob, because it was mine and Flynn's ONE YEAR MARK!!! So crazy that I only have six months left in this beautiful place; it's good motivation to keep working hard.

Friday was the usual weekly planning, volunteering at the Caritas, and then correlation at bishop's house. Sorella Gates and I are super excited about this coming week, last transfer President set new standards of excellence for the mission. The goal is 21 lessons a week, which I haven't reached since the new standards were set. But during planning we decided to do everything possible to reach the standards. We are super pumped about it! :) (If you want to start praying that I will be physically able to make it through the next week that would be awesome. My body feels 100 years old.)

Saturday morning we went and showed Because He Lives to Matteo, then we went to see Santina to show it to her too. She is so wonderful, I just love her. We did some finding after lunch and then we went and taught the plan of salvation to Francesco. He had a lot of questions, but I think we answered all of them in a way that satisfied his curiosity and also gave him the desire to keep learning more. He came to church again today, it's like he is already a member :)

Church was solid; starting next week we will be having sacrament meeting first and I am really happy about it. The Dicarlo family invited us over for pranzo, and we talked to Fratello Dicarlo in English for a lot of the time because his English is realllly good. They are a really good family. His daughter married an American and they are going to BYU right now, which is super sick. After that we went and did more funding with the Grazie a Lui video, and it went really well.

The vibe of the week has been tired, but excited and motivated to keep doing my best. I know that there are still a lot of things that the Lord needs me to do and to learn in the next six months, so I am hoping to be a good student and keep doing g what I know I need to in order to receive His blessings. Thank you all so much for your love and prayers. It means a lot to know I have a team rooting for me. And I know that I have a lot of help from above, because this mission isn't mine. It is for, because of, and thanks to my Savior, that I am even here right now. I am so blessed to have this gospel in my life, I am so grateful for the power of the atonement, and the ability that it has to change our hearts if we let it. I love you all so much!!!

Have a great week!

Sorella Decker