Christmas, Eating with Members, 2 Phone Numbers

Buongiorno Principessa!
So I hope every body's Christmas was fabulous. It was weird having my first Christmas away from home. ha ha I learned early into the day that I shouldn't compare the two. I only have two Christmas' here in Italy so they're just going to be different--but obviously rad. So we got to sleep in on Christmas day! Yup...all the way until 7:00a.m. Then my companion and I opened presents. I got this one present from a member of the ward here. She doesn't even know me but I thought it was so sweet. Then later we went to the Church and made a "Mexican lunch". ha ha The other missionaries here said it'd been too long since they'd had Mexican food so we made tacos. Ah, who knew something like tacos would be something happy on Christmas day? Then we just wrote letters and we got to watch a couple of movies---goods like Hercules and Finding Nemo. Well today is P-day and I'm crazy excited because we're going to go to some touristy stuff. Last P-day was Christmas Eve or something so we couldn't go see anything. But on the agenda for today is: The Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. I'm so excited! We've had some cool lessons so far. We have about three progressing investigators--Erica, Diana, and Susi. They're all way sweet. We just have to work on getting them to church. It's crazy to me that that's such a consistently hard thing with people that I've met here. We're working on it though and trying to help them see that it's important. I can't always understand all of the lessons but I at least know what's going on and what we're talking about. It's different, too, depending on their accents. Susi is a little harder for me to understand because her native language is Portuguese. Nothing against Portuguese but it's just harder with the different accent to understand her Italian. We've gone over like 3 times though and it's getting a little better. Other then that, the language is okay. ha ha I have a lot to learn but it's cool. I'm already understanding basic conversation goods better, but it's hard because we get to a point in the conversation where I just don't understand anymore. Good thing I get a hour a day to study eh? It's fun though. I can already tell I've made some progress which is nice. Oh man, can we just talk about the woes of eating with members. ha ha Oh my goodness I don't know how these other missionaries do it! It's good stuff but just let me explain. For instance, we were at this families house--the Aquilinos--and they were feeding us lunch. So she brought us each out this massive plate of ...crepes with spinach inside. It was a lot--just trust me. When Sorella Aquilino walked out of the room I looked at my companion and was like, "Wow, that's a lot of food. But I'll try to finish." Then she started laughing at me and reminded me that that was only the first course!! Oh my stars it was a doozy. After that she brought out a massive plate of mashed potatoes and meat. I seriously tried so hard to finish but I felt sick so I put my fork down and Sorella Aquilino (she was just sitting in the room watching us eat because she'd already eaten) kept saying, "Sorella, mangi! mangi!" (aka eat! eat!) Then it was followed by salad and a desert. Don't get me wrong, the food is hard to hate, but they feed their guests a lot of it! haha It's pretty ridiculous. I'm working on a game plan so I don't feel sick for the rest of the day. ha ha Gotta love those Italians! Well we had a few hours at the end of one of our days left so I asked my companion if we could go ride the metro to a certain stop and then come back---doing it repeatedly--and just see if we could get some numbers. We set a goal of getting 2 numbers. So we'd split up on the metro and just talk to whoever we sat by and then we'd get off on the same stop and talk about it and regroup. ha ha I realize that this might sound silly but it was cool. So we talked to some really awesome people and we didn't get any numbers. It was time for us to go home and I felt a little discouraged because our goal was 2 numbers. Well then we were walking home and I told a guy walking by "Buona Serra" (just like good evening) and he stopped and talked to us for a bit. Well...we got a number!! Unfortunately he wasn't interested in the gospel. He just wanted to go out or something. But still the same, is it bad that I considered that number a slight victory? Lemme know because I did. We asked him if he'd come to church (this was on Saturday night) and he didn't show the next day so...we'll think of something. ha ha Anywho, all is well in Rome! It's crazy cold--seriously I think my fingers, toes, and nose are constantly frozen and yet---good times! I'm still trying to figure this whole missionary thing out. It's fun though when we're working hard. Well I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a happy new year.
Lots of love, Sorella Hansen

First spill, Member meal, Christmas call‏

Well well well...So...I'm in this little place called Italy these days. What in the world is that about?!? Unfortunately/Fortunately it's going to be mighty different then last year when I was here. ha ha jokes jokes!! Well I don't really know where to start. This last week has just been one crazy blur. So I set a goal to try to contact some people in the airport on the way over and it was a bust. Not joking, it is not one of my current skills. ha ha I went with Sorella Millis at the airport in England and we were trying to find people to talk to and she was doing awesome. She gave so many things away. I don't know why I was so nervous. I think it was a combination of culture shock (aka real people, in normal clothes, ...just not the MTC) and still trying to adjust to the fact that I'm a missionary. But I totally got myself all prepped to go talk to this lady in the airport in england and I just walked up and sat by her and asked her a few questions...ha ha oh awkward. She was giving me this blank stare and I had a strange feeling that she didn't speak english. But I tried to tell her I liked her scarf and made a few more pathetic attempts of small talk....ah...come to find out she speaks german and I just looked like a git. Oh well! It was worth an effort. I just muttered Merry Christmas and got on the plane to Italy. Ah...my life.So I was hoping that I could sit by an italian on my way to Italy but ...negative. I was sitting by Anziano Herrick and Sorella Crandall. Love 'em and all but ...come on, I wanna whip out my italian! But in the row in front of us the nicest italian guy was sitting with Sorella Millis and Sorella Hughes. He was seriously the nicest person I've ever seen. The best author in the world couldn't create someone nicer! Everytime they'd start to speak Italian he'd just kinda smile and nod encouragingly...ah I just pulled out my vocab book/eavesdropped from behind.Well when we got on the ground our assistants picked us up and we went and got our first pizza and saw St. Pauls outside the walls. It was pretty rad. There were also two new italian missionaries that we finally got to meet. They seemed shy at first but they're way cool. So after that we went to oh..you know...the Colosseum!! We seriously came off of the metro and Whamy! There it was! It was fantastic! There was some drunk guy dressed up like a gladiator that asked if we wanted a picture with him. Ah..best of times. So we had dinner at the Villa with our mission President and oh mylanta that woman fed us a grundle! We had a tiny interview with the mission president. It was like 3 minutes and then we went to bed.Next day we went to the 'church property'. Technically we can't call it the temple site but it's like 15 acres so uh...yeah. It's way pretty! President Acerson said that it's bigger then temple square. Crazy sauce. Then we went back to the villa and opened a golden envelop that said where our first area was and who are trainer would be. (Well first we had lunch with all the future trainers, but we didn't know who would be training who). Well I opened mine and guess where I am at this very moment?! (Maybe the mission president already e-mailed you...but anywho) Roma 1! There are four areas in Rome and I got numero uno! My companion's name is Sorella Chevalier. She's from Toole and she's been out a year --and six months in Roma 1!So the first night we went to go help with english class and I was wearing my new (and unsurprisingly awkward & bulky) missionary shoes. Well we were almost to the church and I turfed it...bad! ha ha Oh man I just wish I could have seen it. Seriously I don't even remember it happening. All I know is I was face down on the italian sidewalk and was trying to play it cool. ha ha But yeah I totally shredded my nylons on one of my leggs. I felt so silly at english class because my nylons on my right leg were pretty slashed and my knee was all bloody. Ah good times in Rome.Well what else? We did Zone singing yesterday and so all of the missionaries from the zone get together and sing Christmas songs in this adorable italian street and when people stop to listen...we just sneak out of the group and go talk to them. It was cool. I got to see a couple of the older missionaries from the MTC. It was so good to see them again and get some advice.Last night we had dinner with some members called the Gaumba's. I had my worries that I'd be all kinds of awkward with my lack of italian but they were great. I pulled out my pictures and told them about everybody and when I told them that Cody served in Africa...basta! I was in! (They're from Africa) But it was cool. I played some games with their two kids and Stefano (he's like 14) walked us to the gate afterwards. Adorable. But yeah, I think my companion and I are both feeling a little off today--They fed us tons! I just asked my companion if we could walk everywhere today and not take the bus. Oh dear. But it was really cool. I could understand mostly everything that they were talking about after a little while. I think I just had to get used to their accent and stuff. But then again they're not really italian. The italians are a completely different story.Today, I had to go to this building to get my "Permesso"--just permission to live here. And we were sitting in the waiting room and I was trying to talk with a guy in the waiting room. His name was Fabbio and he was way nice but yeah...I can only get so far with conversations right now. It's cool though. I really like talking to people.Well I think I'm outtie for now. Sorry I think this e-mail is ridiculously long. Um...a couple of things 1. with packages (marmsy) make sure you don't declare the contents as being very much. Like put 8 or 10 bucks...don't do a lot! And I guess there are certain things that they charge you more for if you declare--like cosmetics and stuff. So if you send that stuff, just don't declare it. Just but like "missionary things" or something. and 2. I get to call home on Christmas! It's only 45 minutes and I think it'll be like 11...12...1? your time? ha ha Sorry! I think I'll call at like 8 or 9 here. Well sorry this was long. Peace out! Merry Christmas! Buon Natale! Ci Vediamo!
Sorella Hansen

Mallory Moment..

This story was related to me by Kris Pence, a friend and Mallory's boss when she worked at Smith Rexall Drug a couple of summer's ago.

The Washing Machine Story

Mallory and her companion got up early on their P-day to be the first one's to do their laundry. So they ran down there and put in their laundry. Later, Mal took a break from letter writing and went to the laundry room to make the clothing switch. She quickly switched machines and went back to her room. Later still, she goes back to get her clean clothes...they are still wet. What?!? You can all imagine Mallory's puzzled look, so she pops in a few more quarters and as soon as the machine starts going, she realizes that when she switched machines she put her clothes into another WASHING MACHINE. So now her clothes are going through their third wash. To Quote Mallory..."They are triple clean".

Flight Plans, Christmas Devotional

These pictures are compliments of Sister Swenson's blog...Thank You very much for sharing!

-Aubry the blogkeeper

Hey everyone! There is so much to write about this week so I hope that I can fit it all in in time. First of all.....we got our flight plans of Friday!!! Holy smokes it was one of the happiest moments to date! We weren't for sure if they would come on Friday, but they sure did!! I was with my companion and Sorella Crandall and Hughes and we rounded the corner (coming back from lunch) to get to our hallway where our class room is and the anziani yelled at us from down the hall waving these white papers at us and we all just started jumping and hugging. ha ha I realize now how completely ridiculous that must sound but just trust me...it was a very happy moment indeed! So in a week from this very moment I'll be on my way to the wonderful land of Italia! Holy smokes I can't believe this is happening. Sometimes it's still hard for me to grasp that I'm a missionary! Seriously I just never in my life planned on being here and doing this and now it's happening and I dunno...it's just crazy! Here's my schedule just so you know when to be home if you want a call. ha ha I leave Salt Lake at 8:20 a.m and get to Dallas/Ft. Worth at 12:05 and I'll be there until about 5. So I'll have five hours to call home. I don't know if there's time changes or anything but I'll be calling sometimes during that block. Maybe I'll plan on like 2 or 2:30 just in case we get delayed from Salt Lake. Any who, from there we fly to London and will be there for about 3 hours until we catch our flight to Rome, Italy baby!! Woo!So as you probably know, this last Sunday was fast Sunday. And it was our last fast Sunday here in the MTC. I remember one of the first Sundays here was a fast Sunday and also the last Sunday before the older district left. I can't believe that it's our turn now. So our whole district went up and bore our testimonies in Italian. It was really cool. Also earlier that day, I got to see one of my good friends from high school. Her dad has a calling here (now I feel bad that I don't know what it is) but she was here visiting on Sunday and I got to talk to her for a bit. It was really cool. And I got to see another friend the week before...her dad is a branch president here I think. So I got to see her and meet her fiance. It was way cool to see them one last time.Yesterday was our last TRC experience. Sorella Millis and I really planned for it and really wanted it to go well. We had to teach the second lesson in Italian and talk about tithing. It was really cool because we got to talk with our favorite person. We taught him when we were here for about a month and he was just so nice and wonderful to us so it was so relieving to be able to teach him again. In the middle of the lesson he gave us a really sweet compliment about our Italian and I dunno...we were just so excited that we got to teach him our last time and that it went well.We got to watch the Christmas Devotional on Sunday with the first presidency. It was so good! Seriously it was just what we needed and it was amazing. I hope that some of you got to go or watch it because it was soo cool. I loved seeing the conference center all done up and hearing from the First Presidency of the church. It was so cool. And was just a great ending to a great Sunday.So I wanted to talk about something else real quick. This last week was one that was bound to come for a while now. It was really hard. I gained a new understanding of how Satan feels about me being here. It was the craziest thing. I don't really know how else to describe it. I just learned that Satan really really doesn't want us here, and he really doesn't want us on that plane to Italy. But then in class, our teacher, Sorella Birdsall, was talking to us about Charity. We were breaking down the scripture Moroni 7:45. And we each had to take a phrase in that scripture and study it and break it down. Well I was assigned the phrase "rejoiceth in truth" and I found the gold mine of a scripture in 2 Nephi 9:40. It was really cool. I wish I had my scriptures with me to quote it but you'll have to look it up. Anyway the part that I thought was most incredible was when it was talking about how the words of truth come from our Maker. (I hope this explanation doesn't sound has awkward as it's sounding to me ...explaining it) But I thought it was cool that if we can recognize the source of where every thing's coming from, we'll rejoice in truth, we'll love it, and we won't be shaken. SO the moral of the story is...in everything that we're feeling and thinking, we've got to recognize the source. If we're charitable and we recognize a truth, that God is obviously the source of, it will be our pleasure (and we'll rejoice) to be a part of it. So don't read into any of this. I know for sure that I'm supposed to be a missionary and that I'm supposed to go to Italy. But it was just perfect that I got to learn more about charity and recognize that I'm not doing any of this alone.Well holy smokes this work is amazing. Sorella Swenson and I were talking about being missionaries and she was like, "You know what? Being a sister missionary must be the best kept secret in the church. Because there's no way to even describe how amazing it is to be here and be learning all of this." I completely agree. I love being a missionary. I love being Sorella Hansen. I know that Satan doesn't want any of the missionaries here going to their missions because he knows - 1. what this gospel will do for other people throughout the world and 2. what this experience is going to do for us as people. He knows we'll never be the same afterwards and he wants to deprive us of this experience. But to me, that's just a version of testimony. He's really just bearing his own testimony that this church is true. I'm not going anywhere though!...except Italy. I love being a missionary. I love reading the scriptures and studying with my companion. I think the scriptures get cooler and more amazing everyday. I love you guys. Be safe. And I'll see ya latas!

Sorella Hansen

2 Nephi 9:40

O, my beloved brethren, give ear to my words. Remember the greatness of the Holy One of Israel. Do not say that I have spoken hard things against you; for if ye do, ye will revile against the truth; for I have spoken the words of your Maker. I know that the words of truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them not, for they love the truth and are not shaken.

PiCTuReS!!!

**So, I finally conquered the scanner! So here are all of the pictures that Mal has sent home. Each one comes with an explanation written in true Mallory style. Enjoy! - Aubry**

"Obviously this awkward photo-op had to go down sometime right?"

Me and my comp Sorella Millis

"Yeah, I don't think there's a cool story with this. It was just at the stoplight on the way to the temple."

Sorella Crandall, Sorella Hughes, Sorella Swenson, Sorella Watson, Sorella Millis, Sorella Hansen

"Sister Missionary footwear. We thought we were artsy this day or something."


"Once again we think we are artsy. Here is our fabulous variety of mid-calf kilt material"

"Anziano Baldwin wanted to throw leaves to have them be in our picture and then he was going to duck behind us. Thankfully, this blessed picture was taken before he ducked."

These are the Sorelle in my District/Bedroom

Sorella Crandall, Sorella Swenson, Sorella Millis

Sorella Watson, ME, Sorella Hughes

"Ha, Ha, This is Anziano Graham. He just left this morning for Roma, but as you can see, he's a good time."

"The October 15th Sorelle"

Sorella Hughes, Sorella Crandall, Sorella Watson, Sorella Swenson, Sorella Millis, Sorella Hansen

"The Sorelle in my district."

"ITALIAN STALLION!"

"Sorella Millis frequently loses that little black book of hers & we've had to go find it many times. So I came up with the phrase 'Italian Stallion'. (O.K., we all know I stole it from Rocky) But randomly myself or one of the other Sorelle will yell, 'Italian Stallion!' and me & S.M. have to put our books in the air like this. Alls I'm saying is...she hasn't lost it since...:) "

"These are the two district older than us that left a month ago. They are SO rad!"

"My tag's dirty. I wish I could find tag cleaner."

"Okay, I just re-read that comment & sorry I'm so lame! Tag Cleaner?!?"

"Cool pic though eh?"

Sorella Hughes, Sorella Crandall, Me, Sorella Millis

HALF-WAY PARTY!!!

Sorella Hughes, Sorella Watson, Sorella Millis

"Half way in the MTC, we celebrated with Marinelli's"

Sorella Crandall, Sorella Swenson

Neunenschwander, Sickly, Leaving on a Jet Plane‏

Hey all~

Well things are going splendid here in the MTC. A fairly common American holiday went down this last week so I'll tell you a bit about that. So we didn't have classes on Thursday and so I thought we'd have tons of free time to study and write letters and stuff...silly me. Well so we did have like 2 hours to write letters but other then that they kept us busy with other tasks. Our day consisted of: 3 firesides, a humanitarian project, watching a choir film that was easily filmed in the 70's, had a thanksgiving dinner that just made me miss my mama's, and yup! That's pretty much it. Wow I hope that didn't sound negative because it really was a good time.We were all (and when I say 'we', I mean...the anziani in our district) thinking that for the devotional on Thanksgiving that they'd pull out the big guns and we were all prepped for the Prophet to come. Yup, you'd better believe we took our scriptures and letter writing goods to the building where the fireside would be a good two hours in advance. ha ha Ah we're so lame. Well come to find out when they told us that a general authority was coming to speak to us, in our minds we heard, "Oh, okay, the prophet it is!" but in reality it translated to the wonder that is Elder Neuenschwander. ha ha Okay I hope I don't sound ungrateful on this day of gratitude. Because he gave a great talk. But it was just funny that we were being so silly when obviously the prophet would want to be with his family on thanksgiving. ha ha Ah....my life these days....So for the Humanitarian project we did something crazy cool. So we had a fireside (yup, one of three!) about the humanitarian work that the church does and I think half of us were weeping like willows during that! So after watching that we got really excited to do this humanitarian project. The MTC made 10,000 first aid kits for Haiti and Cuba. It was so cool. Seriously service is a good time! It was way cool.In other news there's been some crazy strong germs flouncing about in here. Our zone has been getting it pretty bad. So my companion and I have been feeling yucky this past week but hopefully it's on the incline. But it's a doozy.OH! So ready to have your mind blown?! So...two weeks from today, nay, this morning at like 3 am.....I'll be on a flight to Italia! What in the world?! Seriously I can't believe it's come so fast. I think we get our flight plans this Friday of where are lay-overs are and stuff. Holy smokes! And I'm allowed to call from the airports so maybe I'll do that. I can't decide because I'll just talk to you like ten days later for Christmas so I dunno. You tell me. The last thing we want is some awkward, "How are the scriptures these days?" questions. ha ha Sorry Adam. :)Um...I'm trying to think of something awesome to tell you because my journal writing this week has been spars so I really have little recollection of what I actually did. I guess I'll tell you about the TRC yesterday. So we had to teach the second lesson in Italian. That one is brutality for me. Don't get me wrong, it's a great lesson and stuff but teaching about things like resurrection, explaining Adam and Eve, Spirit world, and kingdoms of glory---in Italian...is easier said then done! Especially since we're supposed to make sure they understand the concepts that we're teaching them. All things considered it went well. We didn't have time to teach the whole lesson but on the positive side, I know for sure that she understand what we taught her AND she stayed awake and acted like she gave a hoot about what we were saying. Can't complain about that! ha ha There are two anziani in our district who have, to date, had THREE people fall asleep on them in their lessons. ha ha Poor guys.Well there's not a whole lot else that I can think of to tell ya. Sorella Millis and I are stepping up our SYL (speak your language) goals. Because ...yeah, we'll be in another country soon. So we're speaking in Italian to each other a lot more. OH! Fun news! So honestly, I thought that being in the MTC around Christmas time would be a bust, but on the contrary! They decked out this one section of the MTC with so many Christmas lights and a nativity scene. It's a happy sight indeed! I love it! But...as much as I love it...I'm sure Italy in Christmas lights will be SO much better!Well that's all I've got for you for now. Every thing's going well. Sorella Millis and I have a great time and work really hard. I think we're both going to go through with drawls of each other when we get to Italy because we just enjoy being each others companions. How cheesy did that just sound? Seriously, what's happening to me? Anywho...Italian is the most beautiful language and that's just a fact! It's so much fun to speak and I love attempting it even if I'm just muttering poor grammar Italian. :) I love all of the study time that we get here. It's so nice to have so much personal and companion study. It's a lot of fun to talk about different scriptures with Sorella Millis because we both get different things out of them but the other persons perspective is so interesting and makes them better. I love it! Well that's all for now. I hope none of you are getting sick, because that is just hardly ideal. Lots and lots of Italian love,Sorella Hansen