Passando a Taranto! Signore, ti prego mi portano a tuoi anime che hanno bisogno del tuo Vangelo!

THIS WEEK WAS SOOOO GREAT!  :D

Where do I start?  Allora, Tuesday, we met the nicest lady ever, who is from South Africa.  Her name is Dumi and she is great!  She just faced a lot of hardship the past 4 months in South Africa with her husband's family who was not nice to her.  She shared her entire story with us and she was so thankful that someone was there to listen to her because she had not yet told her story to anyone, and she wanted to leave her stress at the train station.  We ended up hugging her and we exchanged numbers so we can talk again in the future.  We loved that sooo much.  It was a miracle to help out a friend like that.  

And all of my friends here from Africa keep telling me that I have to go there and see it! They keep telling me, "You will love it!  Just go to any country in Africa (especially theirs ;) and you will see how awesome the culture and everything is!"  I really do hope to go there someday.  Especially because some of the nicest people I know here are African.  I cannot wait!  :D

OH!  And Lucia has made sooooo much progress this week!  :D  She started reading the Book of Mormon lettura calendario that we left with her and SHE asked US to come over this time so that we could read together.  We went over to her place and ended up reading Ether 3, and she began to cry, saying, "You two have to read now, I can't right now."  So we read the rest of the chapter and explained faith to her because she thought that faith either results in or must be generated by seeing God.  So we explained that faith is truly our desire to believe in God or to know more about His nature, and that we will see miracles only when there has been a trial of her faith.  She really is growing in her understanding and acceptance of gospel principles and I will get to see her one last time before I leave.  Her son, Antonio is really grateful for the work we have done with his mom, and he said that I am one of the most "Brava" missionaries he has ever met.  :)  It was really nice to hear that on my last Sunday here in Pescara. 

Speaking of my last Sunday here...  I am being transferred!   To... Taranto!  XD  I cannot tell you guys how happy I am!  :D  I mean, I love Pescara and Chieti with all my heart, but I am soooooo excited and happy to go to Taranto.  I really feel like that is where I need to be.  Anche perché I was really feeling last week like I am not supposed to be here anymore, and that my purpose was fulfilled here.  I am really happy about that, and the members here are looking for an English course post, and the Area books are all in tip-top shape, and I feel really content about the work that I have done here.  I pray for Sorella Kippen, that she will be able to continue the work that we have begun here, and that all will go well for her and her new companion (Sorella Omer, who I LOVE!  XD).  They will be so good together.  

And, this week we did our first "Gesso" in Centro con gli altri missionari.  It went really well!  :D  (Gesso is when you put down a sheet on the ground an you draw something about the church on it with chalk.  And this time, I got to draw it!  :D  This we did on Valentines day (which was soooo fun, and possibly my favorite valentines day ever!), so I drew a giant heart in the middle and I wrote, "Se credi nell'amore, disegna un cuore!"  Everyone really liked it, and people crowded us for a while, and they said how much they loved the heart that I drew and that it was perfect. (I love and miss being able to draw...)  It was really cool though because, in the meanwhile,  the other missionaries were able to strike up conversations about the church and English course as people came up to see what we were doing.  Soooo cool!  :D

Annnd, here is a funny story about how crazy our Anziani here are...  Lol.  So, after DDM, anziano Lewis tells me, "We're gonna need 25 Euro from the Sorelle collectively for the 220 arrosticini that we bought for us all."  HOLY COW!  That is a lot!  Lol, so we pay them and about 3 days later, the Anziani had borrowed an Arrosticini bbq (really small and unique-looking) and we all cooked half of the 220 Arrosticini that they had ordered for pranzo one day.  It was probably one of the most funny yet cool experienced I have yet had on my mission.  I will have to send you pictures of it all.  :D

Poiiiii, we got to see Luisa Abreu and her family again!  :D  FINALLY!  :D  I love them sooo much!  And Luisa made Dominican food for us for lunch and I put Alfredo's hot oil on it (wayyyy too much)  And I thought I was per morire for a while!  Lol, it was really good, but sooo spicy!  Then, Alfredo had to go out, so we weren't able to do a lesson with him, but we got to read the Book of Mormon in the Sun outside, overlooking the beautiful hills and vinyards in Lanciano.  It was pretty amazing.  And she was really happy to have us there, and she still really wants to come to church!  They are such a great family.  :) I will miss them so much!

And my last Sunday in church was the best!  Everyone was really sad that I am leaving, and they all expect to see me after my mission!  :D  I love this ward sooooo much and I am sad to leave it.  The people here are so great...  I cannot wait to come back and see them again someday.  

Well, that is all I've got for this week.  I love you guys, and I miss you all so much.  Mom and Dad, and Andrew, you guys are awesome.  You guys are the best.  I love you so much and I cannot wait to see you again soon.

Love,

Corey

I forgot this story:  :)
This past week when the slightly crazy communist man with the one crooked eye was talking to his puppet on the bus (yes, he was talking to his hand puppet...)  I was laughing hysterically with all the others on the bus, trying not to make eye-contact because he knows me....  Then, as I was leaving and the guy said, "Wait!  you were here the whole time!"  I had left my Italian Book of Mormon on the Bus.  :O  I thought I had lost it forever, but Sorella Kippen and I prayed for the past few days that I could find it.  So, we found out where to go for the lost and found, took a special bus there this morning, and we found it!  :D  I said to the man who had found it in the office for me, "Thank you sooo much!  :D  I want to hug you, but I can't!"  I gave him a handshake, he smiled at me and was on his way.  It was such a miracle!  Especially because they were about to throw it away and had already thrown away some of the stuff inside of it and had taken off the cool leather cover.  HOLY COW!  What a miracle.  :)