Happy 4th of July... ish...‏

Famiglia!! 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!! 

Wow... Alpine is burning down! What the goodness?! That is crazy! It sounds like your 4th of july will be a little like mine here in italy... fireworkless... alas! Me and my comp are planning on doing something crazy... maybe drinking some fanta and eating brownies or top ramen... very american! (Yes, Heather gave us tons of top ramen... and yes I know that I am serving in Italy, land of pasta... but ramen never tasted so good ;)) 

Anyway I hope you have fun regardless! You still having the carnival and BBQ??! I hope so!!! Can you stick my name in the drawing even if I'm not there?? I could really use a 6 pack of Gatorade or a giant sticky hand! Oh man am I gonna miss the carmel apples and crackerjacks! Tell grandma I will sing a very beautiful rendition of God bless America! 

Well this week has been... HOT! I don't think it would be possible to start a fire here because it is tooooo wet.... and humid! We look like we stepped out of the shower the minute we walk outside ;)! But things are going good here in Verona! We had a really neat miracle the other day... It went like this:  We planned to casa (track) a specific street looking for a young girl. We went to the street in the morning, but didn't finish, so that night went back. We got into a palazzo (building) and after several floors of nothing, finally a door opened. It was a Beautiful, Young Italian girl! I immediately started teaching and told her God had a plan for us and asked her what she thought it was... She replied "You know... I really don't know..." She was sooo sincere!! Anyway she invited us in after a few minutes and asked us where we were from. We said america (blast our accents ;) and she started laughing and said, in english, "I did forgeign exchange in California! You guys can speak english if you want!" WHAT?! Anyway she had heard about the church in california. We taught the entire Restoration and she said the prayer at the end! It was amazing! She talked sooo sincerely to Heavenly Father saying that she was looking for him and wanted to find the right path. It was beautiful! I love her already!!! The plan is to go back tomorrow!! 

In other news we are still doing lots of finding work. We are hoping to keep help Gica move a long and so she and Davide could get baptized. I think that the hardest thing is just knowing how many blessings she could have and how much peace she could find if she were just baptized, but we will keep helping her realize that she needs to just do it! 

Speaking of Just do it... Our Zone Leaders made that the theme of our Transfer: we are TEAM H.O.P.E. (Heavens Operating Power on Earth) and we JUST DO IT. I think is is really such a perfect theme for living the Gospel, Keeping the Commandments, Obeying the Prophet and Parents, and Serving... you JUST DO IT. If Heavenly Father asked you to, you do it. If he asked you to, that means there is a reason. It is usually to keep you safe and he ALWAYS has blessings for you if you JUST DO IT! I think it is easy to think commandments, or callings, or even scripture reading and prayers are hard... but if you JUST DO IT... it is soooo worth it! A while back Lindsey Rhodes wrote me about this italian phrase... Ne vale la pena = It's worth it! And it is sooo true! Anything Heavenly Father asks us to do is worth it! He has soooo many blessings in store, so JUST DO IT!! 
This is really helping me right now because no matter what happens with our work and such, we Just do it. And keep doing it, because it is the work of the Lord and we are the HOPE of the people here! 

I thought this was especially prudent for our family considering Nike has a very near and dear place to our hearts ;) So fam... Just do it! Don't ever give up on anything because it is WORTH IT! 

I love you soooo much! I hope you have the best holiday EVER! Maybe you could watch fireworks on TV or something... ;) HE HE!!! 

Miss you like crazy! 
Slla Kate