Bikes, Baptisms, and Senior Companion for a day!

WE ARE HAVING A BAPTISM ON SABATO!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!! I am soooooo excited!!!! His name is O - the brother of F G in our Ward. He is so incredible and wonderful! On Lunedi after our lesson, he asked if we could talk about his date. He started to explain how he needed to change the date because of some conflicts in the schedule with his friends. My heart started to beat so fast and I could feel my spirits start to flicker - I thought he was going to push it back to Maggio or Junio. O continued to explain the problem and finished by asking if he could be baptized this Sabato instead. WHAT!? Sorella Gomez and I were speechless for almost a minute it seemed like. My heart was immediately (once I comprehended what he said of course) filled with happiness. I have never experienced so much joy and happiness for another person in my life. We are preparing him to be baptized this Sabato at 5. :)

Now to back track a little bit. I went on a scambio or exchange on Venerdi. Mama mia... I was so nervous! The night before we went to Savona to exchange companions - I thought I would die when Sorella Gomez left me! But I was with Sorella Forbes and she was incredible!! Savona is a tiny city so we got to ride bikes. Oh my goodness!! I LOVE riding bikes!!! It is a little tricky with skirts but it was so great! We taught an Israeli man that day - we became best friends obviously, and later taught an amazing older man who wanted to change his life. That is one thing I love about the gospel - we can change through the desire and repentance. The best part was on our train ride home. There are a lot of strikes in Italy, like a bus strike which affects the trains. You know how you bond with the people around you if your plane is delayed? That is what happened when we were tossed around at the train stations. So we just laughed and chatted with all of these wonderful people on the train. On woman just laughed at us - in a loving, motherly way. She asked if we had boyfriends etc. :) In the end, we got 2 phone numbers and another man asked if he could have a pass along card! It was great! 

Fast forward to Monday. Guess what? I was senior companion for a day!! Last Wednesday, we got a call asking if Sorella Gomez and Sorella Forbes could leave for a special training on Monday to Milano. This meant I would be paired with Sorella Lopez, another girl from my MTC group, in Genova for a day. I thought I was going to DIE when I first found out. Well... I thought I was going to die the whole day. :) It ended up being a HUGE blessing though. Sorella Gomez has taught me so well and made sure I would be fine. I also prayed with a lot of faith that I would be able to understand more that day and be a leader. Throughout our lessons, I felt I could understand a lot more than before. Heavenly Father really does answer prayers. I had a great time from Sorella Lopez and learned so much from her too. At one point on the bus, a woman was talking to us about how she had once read a little bit of the BOM. I couldn't really hear her or understand her too much but I just began to tell her about the purpose of life - to have joy. I felt like time froze as I testified to her of the Love of God and the restoration of the Church. Sorella Lopez shared her testimony after me. There was a girl sitting next to the woman who looked up at us when we talked. It was scary to do it without Sorella Gomez but we did it and it felt so right. Life is so GREAT!!

Anyway... life is wonderful!!! I love being a missionary. Sometimes, well often, it is hard. I wonder why I am doing it or think about how long this will be but then I realize that this is real life. We have a purpose in life - to learn and grow and one day return to God. That is what I am helping others see too. 

PS: The picture is of me and Sorella Lopez on our Scambio Monday