Week 26

This week was amazing! 

On Wednesday we had a lesson with the three ragazzi we are teaching and it went really well! Before the lesson however, we went to meet this one contact in his store and he had been asking that we pray all together because his girlfriend had left him.  He is a doctor and an amazing guy and extremely intelligent!  He has studied the scriptures a lot, even the Pearl of Great Price! So anyway, we were praying together and Anz Bee and I felt we needed to give him a blessing right in the middle of the prayer.  So he finished the prayer and we asked if he would like a blessing, he was very humble and asked for a blessing. We explained to him how it would work and he was very interested and respectful. He sat down in the chair in the middle of the room and I, having never given a blessing was chosen to give it!  I was very nervous at first, having never given a blessing before, but I was comforted greatly by the spirit.  I gave the blessing and felt the spirit so very strongly, like never before running through me. At the end of the blessing he sat speechless knowing he too had felt the Spirit.  We asked him how he was feeling and he took another minute to respond, he said quietly that during the blessing he had felt a shiver running from the top of his head into the very core of his body. He said he felt that during the blessing it was as if Christ himself was talking to him. I felt incredibly humbled at that moment and didn't know how to respond other than to tell him that he had felt the power of the Spirit and it had touched him and told him what he needed to do in this time of his life.  It was incredible!  I don't have any other words to describe it.

On Thursday, we had Zone Conference, which was great!  We talked about faith and courage like David and Goliath had.  I got the package you sent and we loved the peanut butter! Haha, it's the best! No transfer calls yet, not until the 28th, I think. 

I am so happy to hear that Dane wants to be baptized! That will be incredible!  That should be the same day as the baptism of the two kids we have been teaching!  Gabriella's baptism was soo awesome, I am so bummed I forgot my camera and didn't take any pictures of the baptism!!!  Wow, I can't believe you guys are going to London so soon! Just think that I was just there in that huge airport just a couple months ago!  And, I just hit my 6 month mark on Friday, which was amazing to think about! I pray for the family, I hope everything is going amazing.  I have been so blessed to see the work move on here and at home!  I love you guys! I cant believe how the time has flown by! On Sunday we had church as normal and it got freezing cold again! This morning we had a little bit of snow that came and went but it is still freezing cold and super windy! Other than that, we went to see a castle in Bari and saw the ocean and the cold waves reminded me of home a bit ahahah! Well this time has been incredible it is hard to believe that I am a quarter of the way done. I hope everyone has a Happy Valentines Day!!!! 

Week 25

      This week was good and yes, I am super excited for zone conference! We taught the kids again but this time it was just with the grandparents, so we couldn't set a date because the parents weren't there. We will definitely get a date set this week though and I would love to baptize them! The grandparents are hopeful that the father will want to perform the baptism, and that they will all be reactivated. Also, do you remember that girl I talked about, Gabriella, from Bari that I have taught 3 out of the last 5 lessons to? Well she is getting baptized this Saturday!!!!! That is going to be awesome!!  No new apartment yet, probably in February because there is a lot of paperwork needing to be done still by the church in Rome. 
     We teach principi evangelici (gospel principles) class every once in a while, in fact we had this guy show up to church that has been searching for the truths about this life and about God and he is friends with the grandparents of the kids we are teaching, so we went over to lunch with them and him after church yesterday!  I'm hoping the work will keep progressing! It has been awesome! The power of fasting is a true thing too! We have seen so many blessings from fasting and prayer! Well have a good week!!

Love Anziano Goode

Anz Bee

Making Foccacia

Focaccia recipe for mom!

This city is called Albero Bello and it is made of all of these little hut like houses called trulli's.  It's definitely on the list of honeymoon approved placed to go!

This Trulli was built in the year 800!

Week 24

Hey! 

This week was great! We have zone conference on the 5th this month and I guess we are supposed to move hopefully sometime soon!  The lesson went good this week with the kids, they know everything practically alreday, they just haven't been baptized! So we want to have the Dad baptize them but he hasn't been keeping up with the church standards, so maybe we will baptize them!! They haven't set a date yet, but we will find out this week for sure!  We met some man who runs a service club and we told him we want to come and do some service sometime this week! I can really feel your prayers strengthen me everyday! The sorrelle from the picture last week are serving in Bari. One of them just returned home this week. It seems weird to me too, because my first companion, Anziano Seiko, went home this week too! He has already finished his two years in the mission! So my first companion is home and my current companion, Anziano Bee, is going home after 2 more transfers! Well, this gospel has blessed my life and those around me tremendously and I am so grateful for that!  I love you and have a great week!

Anziano Goode

An honest look at Missionary Work!