Sono felice!
Well hello everyone! It's been a good week. We're working hard and tryin' to find the elect! We're super excited for Piera's Baptism this sunday (the 28th) and I'll be sure to send some pictures. Tonight we're sorting through hymns and baptisimal clothes, so we're getting close. Sorella Stephenson and I sang at another baptism (for two men) last sunday and it was a beautiful service. It was quite interesting actually because one of the men was from Albania and one from Nigeria. The personalities of the two are so compeletely different, when they bore their testimonies at the baptism it was almost humerous to see the difference. It's amazing how the gospel can touch so many different lives.
We also had some pretty good storms here... not quite like what you've had going on, but there was a LOT of wind. I saw on a newspaper that four people had died in the storms that had happened. There was a really cold spell the other day so I suspect it was just some clashing of fronts from Russia and Africa... weird. We had both left home without jackets and umbrellas and were freezing by the time we got home, and thankfully really not wet at all.
We had an.... um... interesting evening at the trainstation last night. Remind me to tell you about it after the mission... I'm sure I'll remember. I'm reminded more and more often how thankful I am to have the gospel and the accompanying principles, especially the Word of Wisdom. THere are so many people here who throw their life away in alcohol. It's really sad how addictive it is.
On a lighter note and just a random insight into one of our missionary activities... sometimes when we do "house" or tracting we are only at the citofonos (I dont' know how to spell that) and we just press a button and wait for a response over a speaker, but sometimes we are in the building and we acually ring the doorbell. Well sometimes the doorbells make a nice "ding-dong" sound and other times its a ugly "buzz". So, in an effort to make the finding time a bit more entertaining sometimes we play the "eight ball" game where you ask yes or no questions and depending on what kind of ring you get it's a yes or no. It's silly, I know. Poor Sorella Stephenson has to put up with me all day long. Sometimes I'm sure she feels like she has a 10 year old for a companion. Oh well... I still won't grow up if I can help it.
I made a "peach cobbler" today. I've been into experimenting more lately with cooking (Sorella Bennion, you'd be so proud :) And a lot of things have come out pretty good. Unfortunately, there really isn't much time to cook, but it's a necessity sometimes.
Alrighty, well I really haven't taken any pictures this week. I'll check and see if Sorella Stephenson has any, but otherwise you might just have to wait.
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Can you believe it's almost July?!?! I can't. I refuse to believe it.
Alrighty, well travel safely... be good... share the gospel... and be happy!
Love you all!!
Sorella Leckie
So we had an activity up in the mountains with the branch. This is at one of the members homes. It was absolutely beautiful. They have a few beehives and had fresh honey that was so delicious. It was a very enjoyable evening.
Buon Mercoledì!!
Ciao Tutti!
It’s been another crazy week. We've been working in both Prato and Pistoia again and it's good but I feel a little bit like we're neglecting a few things in Pistoia so it will be good to get back to JUST working there.
President has been cracking down on a few things around here. It's good, but it makes things a little bit more difficult. We have recently been invited to not have another dinner appointment with a member without an investigator or less active member there, which complicates planning, but it's possible. It was nice before to go to members house because it's a little bit of a break, but it will be good to use that time more effectively. That's one of the problems here in Italy is that dinner appointments are usually a several hour affair, so it really does make a lot of sense to make sure you can use that time to teach and work with the members. I'm sure it will help.
We also have a goal as a district to find and baptize a family. We are working with the branch for all of them to be praying for and bringing a family to an activity that we will have in July. It's great to see the members getting excited about doing missionary work.
It's been fun to get to serve with Sorella Hawkey again. Sorella Stephenson actually had her conference for 3months and so it was jut me and Sorella hawkey. It was just like old times, but not in the MTC :). She is an amazing missionary.
We are working with some great people now. Sylvester, who is from Nigeria, is amazing. He asks questions and then listens to the answers. It's wonderful. His family is in Nigeria and his entire family is very catholic, but he loves hearing the word of God. He is so honest and I have a lot of respect for him. I hope we, with the help of the holy ghost, can help him understand the truth of the restoration. I just have to be patient and let him learn.
We are also working with Piera who has a baptismal date for the 28th. She's technically one of the elders investigators, but she's a 14 year old girl so we have lessons with her also. Her whole family will be baptized at some point, but they are the ones who are waiting for divorce papers to be processed so they can get married. She wants to learn so much, and was asking us the other day how she can serve a mission. Ironically, yesterday at our appointment with Sylvester he asked how he could be a missionary, too. I love that people want to learn and share what they know!
There are others too that we are able to work with. THey're not quite as close to baptism, but we're working on it. Our most recent counsel was to not spend too much time with those who aren't willing to keep commitments. I just have to make sure I help them understand why these commitments are so important before I can just let them go because thy're not doing what we ask. I'm not sure if that made sense, but oh well. :)
I finally got my birthday package! It was a very happy day... my one month birthday.. I opened them on June 16.
Okey dokey, well I gots to take off. We're heading to Firenze today to run a few errands and see some sights. It's been a great week and I'm looking forward to another one!
Love you all! The church is true!
Sorella Leckie
This is from when we went to Lucca. Le sorelle in front of the store Le Sorelle. Cute, huh?
Me and sorella hawkey. She informed me that our half way mark was on the 14th. Since that was a sunday, we had to go get gelato the saturday before. Of course we get gelato other days too, but it was a good excuse.
Buongiorno!!
Wowsers, it's been a crazy week, and it will be another crazy one. It's been great to get to meet a few of the people from Prato and see more than the walk from the station to our house.
We had a wonderful wonderful zone conference on monday. Elder Kopischke of the 70 came and his wife. They are German but both spoke English very very well. He will be the next area president here for the central euroupe area (I think that's which one it ìs, boh??) and he said that in this area that there are 24 primary languages and that the only way they can all communicate is in english. What a challenge! And it makes me so happy that I already know english! He encouraged the native italians to learn english and said that it was important to the future of the church fot he members and missionaries to speak more than one language. It was very interesting. It was an amazing conference. He had a few specific things that he wanted to share and then he just opened it up for questions and taught specifically for us. It was great. There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of things that we as missionaries can be doing better. We just have to improve one day at a time. As president Acerson always says, "sempre avanti, mai in dietro" or "always forward, never backwards." Words to live by.
We had a great morning already. There is a sister in the branch who is a teacher and they had a school play and she invited us to go. Since it was p-day and we wanted to be supportive we went. It was a bit hard to follow, but it was a take on Dante's, Divine Comedy. It started as some young kids who went back and saw Dante and they talked about the different weaknesses that people have, glutons, seeking wealth, etc. It turned into, however, a wonderful gospel lesson with direct quotes from the Book of Mormon, the sword of truth, shield of faith, the whole armor of God, two Hymns sung by all the kids (Where can I turn for Peace, and Home can be a heaven on Earth), lessons on how the family blesses lives, how Jesus Christ is our Savior. It was amazing. I was sad to think that someone could never do something like that in the US, but how thankful I am for her example to share these beliefs. I can't help but think how great it is for these young students to learn these basic truths.
I'm out of time for today, but thanks for the constant support and love! I love you all!
Love,
Sorella Leckie
p.s. No packages as of yet, but they didn't bring them to zone conference this last time because they didn't drive. Hopefully Sorella Stephenson can bring some back from Rome. Keep your fingers crossed! I'm super excited to get them!
These are from Serravalle Pistoiese. I realized that I hadn't put any pictures up. This was our adventure from last week. It was absolutely beautiful and far enough off the map that there aren't really any other tourists. When we got there we didn't really know where to go and some nice lady gave us a ride. Fun P-day.
Sorella Hawkey, Me, and Sorella Stephenson walking down the mountain.
One of the sheep that posed for a picture while we were coming down the mountain.
The cast from the performance this morning. Sorella Paglai is one of the ones in the front. 
This is my district right now. Anziano Hoopes, me, Sorella Hawkey, Sorella Stephenson, and Anziano Aycock. It could be the only district with more sisters than elders :) Even if only for a few weeks. 
Transfers
Okay, so I completely forgot to mention last week that this week is transfers. I wasn't really expecting for me or my companion to be getting transfered, and I was right. We will both be staying in Pistoia for at least another 6 weeks. Things are a litle crazy right now, though, because Sorella Hawkey will be training this next transfer, so her companion is actually going to Firenze 2 (where I was before) so we're getting a brand new sister in the apartment. The problem at this point is that all of the new missionaries at the mtc have been delayed for two weeks. We don't know why, only that they are all delayed. So, this means that sorella hawkey and all of the other missionaries (there are four others) who are training this transfer are without companions for the next two weeks. For us it isn't too big of a deal, she'll just be with us and it means that for the next two weeks we will be working in both Pistoia and Prato and that Sorella Hawkey and I will get to be companions again! Yay! Its gonna be great! A little bit of a planning challenge, but great nonetheless. So that's whats going on there.
Some of our investigators here are progressing really well and others seem less willing to change and accept commitments. We'll keep working on it. Right now we are really looking forward to Piera's baptism on the 28th. It is actually her 15th birthday and she is excited to be baptized. Her family are the ones who are waiting for the old divorce to be processed, etc. (I can't remember what all I'm said about them,
but they are wonderful). Anyhow we made a baptisimal calendar with her to keep her on track and she's so excited and it makes me really happy.
We'll also get to go help with anther baptism that is happening in Prato. Sorella Hawkey and Sorella Millis (her old companion) have been teaching a truly golden investigator. They pretty much introduce the topic for the lessons and he teaches them. They're pretty sure he's going to be an apostle one day :). He's 21 and looking forward to serving a mission. It's pretty exciting. Lots of good things happening around here.
Other than that we are just working really really hard right now to find families to teach. There has been a really big emphasis on that right now and its true that the gospel truly can bless a family and when an entire family joins the church together they can support and sustain one another. We are praying hard and working on some new finding techniques.. I'll report back next week. :) Just a question for those in my family and not in my family who do enjoy the blessings of the gospel, I would love to hear the response to this question from anyone who is willing to take the time to answer: HOW, specfically, does knowing the truth of the restoration bless my daily life and my family? If we can help other people understand this then it will go miles and miles in helping them accept the gospel. Think about it and let me know. That would be a wonderful way for you to help me and also help you think about why it is so important that we share this wonderful gift we've been given with others- so that they and their families can receive these same blessings.
There are some days here when I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels and getting nowhere fast, but then I look back at the progress and little changes that are happening in peoples' lives and I have to appreciate the little miracles that I see everyday. It is truly amazing.
I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful and safe week!
Vi voglio piu bene!
Sorella Leckie
p.s. In response to mom's question about air conditioning: Some businesses have it and others don't. Surprisingly a lot of the buildings stay pretty cool... especially on the bottom floors. The walls are really thick. But it's always nice to walk past a store that has air conditioning :)
TUSCANY IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!
