Called to Serve Together

I know Sarah would want me to share this great news with you all:

Elder Richard Braden Jacobson has been called to serve in the Baltimore, Maryland Mission.  He will preach the gospel in the English Language and depart for the MTC on Wednesday, August 31st. 

I know - from personal experience - that there is nothing quite as remarkable as serving with a sibling.  Sarah and Richard will be greatly blessed as they spread the gospel together on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean.  It's a bond that you can't ever quite break. 

And now, Sarah's good news report from the week:

I met Simonetta, an new investigator this week.  She sings in the choir for the opera house in Firenze, and her husband used to be one of the top pianists in all of Italy.  Two years ago he started tripping a lot, and then his leg became paralysed.  Now he is confined to a chair due to some disease similar to muscular dystrophy, and they cannot do anything to treat it.  Can you imagine?  It's like Beethoven when he lost his hearing!  After talking with Simonetta, she invited me to play their grand piano - a Steinway.  After a few simple arrangements theh husband let me borrow Moonlight Sonata to play, and then invited me back to play for him again.  Here I was, not having really practiced in years, performing for one of the most famous pianists in Italy, who asked me to come back.  Sorella Modugno almost cried when we left because he is usually OPPOSED to the missionaries and dislikes it when they come.  I am glad I had the chance to bear my testimony through music, no matter how amateur it may have been to him.  All those years and all that money wasn't wasted, mom!

In other news Erica continues to progress and came to church again.  She has already changed so much - there is a new light in her eyes that didn't used to be there before.  Also, yesterday she told me that the 'perchè' or 'why' isn't important to her anymore - why God would take away her children or husband - but she knows that she had this trial to strengthen her so she could help others.  I wanted to cry!  We have been working so hard to get her to this point and she did so in her own time.  Also, she always refuses to pray in front of us but told me that eventually she wants to do so - something she had said she would never do. 

 

So, things are going well in Firenze, minus the mosquitoes.  Seriously, they are the bane of my existence.  My legs look like they've been through a lawnmower.  Also, we are finally getting an exterminator to come and take care of the cockroaches in our apartment.  (After 9 weeks of calling) so that is happy news as well.  I feel certain that this transfer we will find new investigators to teach, and we're starting an English class with or without the Anziani (because we're sick of waiting for them.)

 

I love you all!  Thank you for your prayers!!