Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Mother Nature, Diana, and the Moon...



Well, hello hello. Greetings from Roma! Here's the weather report: This morning while we were studying as a companionship (my chair faces the window and balcony) I was SO blissfully excited because the sun was coming out and the tiles on the balcony were drying from last nights douse of rain. Needless to say, I had high hopes for today's weather. Well, ten minutes later...HAIL. Not even joking! White pebbles piling up on our freshly dried balcony! Then...maybe 30 seconds later this time...rain...lots of rain. It was the weirdest thing. I was completely fascinated with mother natures mood swings. It was bizarre. But...welcome to Italy I guess. Its always unpredictable like that. Perhaps that's why I like it here.Well, I officially have acquired a new skill. ha ha One of our members came up to us missionaries after Church and told us she wanted to teach us how to make scarves. If you know me very well, I'm all over anything scarfy. So on Saturday we shared a spiritual thought with her, had lunch, and she taught us how to knit! It was hilarious. It was just me, my companion, and then 4 elders. It was kinda fun I guess. I just got frustrated because after our appointment was finished all that I had was like...a half inch of scarf. We all just laughed about it because it's not like we have time to just sit down and knit. Apparently the elders knit at night when they could write in their journal or something. Good times.We had a really great appointment with our investigator named Diana last Wednesday in the church. We had a lesson all planned for her and felt really excited about it, but like many of the lessons we plan for on the mish...we were just supposed to do something else. She has been worried about her health (no need for details really) and the elders were in the church, early for Family Home Evening. So we asked her if she would like a blessing. She said that she did, so we went and got one of the elders, and one of the members gave her a blessing. After the blessing, they left the room, and she started crying and said that the pain was completely gone! She said it just happened gradually throughout the blessing. She and Sorella Chevalier were crying and I wouldn't be surprised if I was just awkwardly sitting there with my mouth open. It was so amazing. She asked us how she could thank Heavenly Father for what He did and Sorella Chevalier asked her to be baptized. Well, she didn't quite accept....she doesn't feel like she's received an answer to prayer about if this church is true. She came to church on Sunday (her second Sunday in a row mind you.) :) I get the feeling that she is expecting a voice or something to literally tell her that the church is true. We've prepared a great lesson for tonight with her about faith and the Holy Ghost. I'm really excited and really feel like she's making progress. She's fantastic and I'm so excited to keep working with her.We also got to go do some service for a great lady in our ward who's been having some back problems. Can I just say, there have been so many times (and no doubt, there will be many more) when I have just felt so blessed and grateful for everything that we have. This member, is from Egypt and was originally Muslim. She was telling us about how she found the church and stuff and I just felt so amazed at the things that this woman had to do to become a member of the church. We've made friends with the people that work at our fruit and vegetable shop and they, too are Muslim. They're fantastic. But apparently it's like the ultimate betrayal to leave that faith. There's really strict rules for us about teaching people who are Muslim because they can get killed for changing faiths. Things like that just hit me sometimes and I just feel really grateful and I don't have to worry about things like that. I hope this didn't sound like a slam against the Muslim faith. I've actually read a little bit about they're faith and it helped me understand them better. I still think our friends at the fruit stand are great. I just talked to them like 20 minutes go. But yeah...just be thankful k? :)As a last thought (and it just might be a stupid one) we were leaving a member appointment the other night and we were walking to the bus stop...I was walking down the dark little Italian street...and then WHAMY the most beautiful, full moon. It was ideal! I think I might have made an audible sound when I saw it. (Yup, I am that ridiculous.) It was beautiful and I just thought, "I wish everyone could see what I'm seeing right now. I wish they could stop what they're doing and see this beautiful full moon." So I had a thought, when there's a full moon here...is there a full moon there? I only ask this because, if so, then maybe some of you guys saw it! We maybe shared a little moment and you had no idea. Okay, so sometimes I'm awkward and think the moon's a good time. Also, I realize that I should have paid more attention in Astronomy class. Well signing off for now. Love you all lots and lots! Take care, be happy, love your life, and as always, there's LOTS of Italian love comin' your way, Sorella Hansen

#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#
Note from Aubry: I was intrigued my Mal's question, "Do we see the same moon?". I thought I knew the answer but I'll admit I wasn't sure. So I turned to my ultimate resource...GOOGLE. And yes, we do see the same moon. It's slightly different due to rotation and orbit and lots of other things I don't totally understand, but for the most part we see the same moon. So there you go. :)

No comments: