Give to the thieves, What did I say?, Somebody's gettin wet!!‏

Buongiorno dear ones! What a crazy week it has been! So much to tell! I've been meaning to tell you guys something. So my companion and I had felt that we needed to do some work in a certain area. What happened was we'd received a referral and had gone to that area a couple of times and the lady was never there, but we felt like we should do some work there. Later...we found out that it has a reputation for being the "scary part of town". None-the-less, we felt like we should go. So in the morning during our studies we were reading the White Handbook (which is the missionary rulebook) and the morning that we were going to this area to do some work we read in the handbook (we just happened to be at this part of the book) what it says about if you get robbed. It actually says to bring money with you to give to thieves. Not joking. We read that, looked at each other and just started laughing like, "No way. We're going to the part of town with a bad reputation and the only words of wisdom that we're getting from the white handbook is to pack light, and bring a wad of cash!" ha ha Oh dear. We found an investigator there and so whenever we go to her house we always check to make sure we have a little cash. ha ha Oh mamma.So we watched a session of general conference on Saturday with investigators, members and some new converts. It was really cool. It was the first time that I listened to it in Italian because when I was in Rome I went into the room where they played it in English. It was a humbling slap to the face. ha ha I can understand what they're saying...like what they're talking about but...I would be lying myself to sleep if I told you that I understood every word. Should I take this as a sign that I need to step up my language study? I respond with a resounding yup. Well, I sat by Walter and his cousin Paolo (who's an investigator of the elders) and Paolo actually kills me--so funny. He always tries to say the right thing and have the perfect answers. So, after we listened to the talk by the prophet, the elders had to change the DVD so one of the elders stood up and asked what we liked about the talk. Paolo leaned over to me and told me that he was very wise and humble, and had lived really amazing experiences and had much to teach. I nodded enthusiastically and told him that I agreed. ha ha Well, then when the elder asked the question about what everyone thought of the prophet, Paolo--remembering that I thought his answer was great--leaned over to me and said, "What did I say?" He wanted to repeat his answer to everyone because he knew it was a good answer but he couldn't remember what he said. ha ha Classic Paolo.We taught a lesson on Sunday with Walter, Paolo, the elders, and a new member. We taught repentance, baptism, and confirmation. It went really well. The new member-Giovanni-was such a help to the lesson in sharing his experience about deciding to get baptised and the changes that he had to make. The lesson went really well and the spirit was there helping us so much which is hardly something to complain about. On the contrary, it was wonderful, and I know that Walter felt it too. Well..........Walter and Paolo are going to get baptised on September 12th!!!! I'm so excited. Walter has progressed and changed so much since I first met him. It's crazy! But it's also so amazing to look back at the lessons that we've had and know that he's felt the spirit and I know that he has a testimony of the church. Remember back when we had our first lesson with him and he told us that he felt like he was standing on the edge of the cliff and we were flying? The other night he sent us a text that said that he's flying now and it feels wonderful. How wonderful is this guy?!? On Monday we went to the park and read the scriptures together and taught tithing. The lesson went really well, the only problem is his family is really really not happy with him. I feel really guilty that I have all of my family members of the church and then see all of the problems that are going to happen when he becomes a member. It was cool because after he told us that he had a bad conversation with his family he said, "But I'm still here. I'm still doing this. I'm not going anywhere." The other thing that made me feel sick is that we set this baptismal date on Sunday and...transfers were in 3 days.We heard about transfers last night after English class. I was really nervous because I want to be here for Walters baptism so bad. I've seen him do all of this from day 1 and I just really wanna see him be baptized and as a member. I was talking to Anziano Smith (our district leader) on Monday, and he was saying how worried he was that I was getting transferred because he said that's always how it happens. Everything's been too perfect and I have to get transferred before his baptism. Welp....I'm staying here in Cagliari for another transfer! Woot woot!! I am so so glad! Walter was at English class when we heard the news and said good-bye to Sorella Bjarnason. She's going to Rome 1 (my first city) and she's going to be companions with Sorella Swenson (from my MTC district, and I met her in the temple before the MTC) She's going to be just fine next transfer. She scored big time with the city and companion. I am getting Sorella Nelson as a companion. She's in Rome right now. I have to leave on a boat tonight (Wednesday) to go get her. We'll arrive on the mainland Thursday morning, we have to take a train to Rome, pick up my companion, take a train back to the boat, and Thursday night we take a boat back to the island and arrive Friday morning. Then we have to take another train down to Cagliari. It will be a lot of traveling but it's okay. I haven't done much traveling for 4 1/2 months so...I can talk with some fellow travellers! I met Sorella Nelson briefly when I served in Rome but I don't know her very well. She's younger then me in the mission but only by a couple of months I think. She seems super nice and I'm excited for her to meet all of the wonderful members and investigators that we have here.Well, another fantabulous week on the beautiful island. By-the-way...I don't know if I told you but uh...Walter is getting baptized!! Anyway...no big deal or anything...I just thought you should know. BAH!I hope everything's going well for you guys. I keep you guys in my prayers and hope you know how much I love you and hope you're loving every moment of your beautiful lives. Sending lots of love from Cagliari!! Sorella Hansen

Cleaning, Walter update, You are my sunshine...

What another splendid week in the mish. We had President's interviews which were so pleasant. ALSO Saturday was a holiday here in Italy--surprise! ha ha I love Italians. I wish I could tell you exactly what the point was but alas, I find myself very uninformed but essentially everything was closed. So all of the missionaries stay inside and clean the whole apartment. It gave me flashbacks of doing "white glove" checks in college. Since I couldn't listen to sweet tunes while I was cleaning (like I did in college) what's a sister missionary to do? Welp, you bet your bottom dollar she put on some talks! ha ha Oh my life. It was actually so great. I have never learned so much and cleaned the kitchen at the same time. Win win!On Friday we had an activity where we watch "The Testaments" in church. We had a couple of people from English class come and Walter and his cousin Paolo came. It was great. We are having another activity this Saturday. We're going to watch the Sunday morning session of conference together in church and we invited all of English class last night and of course....Walter is going to be there. Yup yup. I'm so excited that we're watching that session. There are some ridiculously wonderful talks and I'm so excited for Walter to hear the prophet speak. We were reading the scriptures with him and he asked us about modern prophets and....that was a bit much for him. He just couldn't wrap his head around the fact that there could be someone even remotely comparable to Moses on the earth day. I was kind of worried that he reacted that way but at the same time...not so much. It's great that he understands what a big deal it is that there's a living prophet on the earth today. Now he just needs to pray about it and we need to be careful to be doing everything we can to help him.Walter came to English class last night and he seemed a little...not like himself. It was sad. I asked him what was going on and he said that he talked to his family about coming to the church and to put it simply, mama and daddy aren't too pleased. I remember just looking in his face and feeling so sad for him that they reacted this way, but feeling like this was going to be a good thing for him--an extra push for him to really pray about this and find out if it's real. Well, after my shower this morning I heard our little ring tone for when we receive a message and my companion was confused and asked me what it meant. Well essentially here's what the text said, "Good morning Sisters. I know." I waited a second and thought, "Wait a sec...WHAT!?" I called him and he said that he couldn't sleep last night and he grabbed the Book of Mormon and started reading in Moroni. He said he feels like he needs to increase his faith and repent. Let me tell you why this was crazy: So remember how I was cleaning on Saturday listening to talks. Well, I was listening to an AMAZIN' talk by Elder Holland and he was talking about the importance of investigators having faith in Jesus Christ and repenting before baptism. I remember listening to that talk and my heart kind of sunk and I felt grateful that we didn't set a date with Walter because I didn't feel like he was at that point yet--it was still something he was learning but not quite internalizing yet...if that makes sense. Well what in the world! A couple of days later, he figured it out! He knows that he needs to prepare to be ready for baptism. I'm just so excited for him. There have been many moments when he'll say things that just make me so happy because I know that he feels something. In fact, this morning when we were talking about what he read last night I asked him if he felt something and he said, "Yes, and it was strong." And I was like, "That was the spirit. It's amazing huh?" He said that he hasn't felt this way in a really, really, really long time.ALSO, his cousin, Paolo, is an investigator and makes me laugh so much. He is ...quirky--just a complete character. Anziano Smith was talking to him Sunday night and Paolo said that he'll get baptized when Walter does. I was like, "That's great Paolo, you're going to be baptized?!" And he had a completely straight face and said matter-of-factly, "Yes, when I am ready." Oh man. I wish you could meet this guy. Too funny.In other news, I'm trying to think of other fun things that we can do for English class and uh....we taught "You are my Sunshine" last night. ha ha It was actually super fun and they loved it. Don't worry, I did not continue on past the first verse because then it just gets depressing and in my opinion, no song with "Sunshine" in the title should be depressing. But...what do I know...Well, there are so many great moments that come up thanks to awkward ones. For example, we set a goal to kneel for all of our prayers so as soon as we enter the house we kneel and say a prayer. By the time we get up we usually slip on our tile floors because our knees are sweaty. Who knew how many good times are to be had thanks to sweaty days? I certainly had no idea, but they make themselves known more and more often. Love it.Well, transfers are this week. HOPEFULLY we'll hear on Tuesday night where we'll go and with who but...who knows, it could be on Wednesday morning like last time. And then Wednesday night we've gotta go. I honestly have no clue what's going to happen. Just hope whatever's best for our investigators and the branch. I love you all and hope you're loving every day of your beautiful lives. Read your scriptures and do your home/visiting teaching! :) Sweaty, lovable Italian love, Sorella Hansen

Our work: Walter, "My friend, the Atheist"

Well hi-dee-ho Welp, I can talk about the work here in one word: Walter. ha ha We've been working a lot with him. He doesn't work for the month of August so we've been meeting with him or at least talking to him every day. It's nuts. It's hard to meet with our other investigators even just once a week! But it's been really cool. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. I'd drawn it out all pretty on the white board in church. And at the end of the lesson I had the thought "did he understand this? Was it super clear?" We'd asked questions along the way and everything but...it's a lot to take in! Well, right after that thought passed through my mind, he stood up and said, "let's see..." so he grabbed the whiteboard marker and stood by the whiteboard and re-capped the whole second lesson for us! I'm not even joking, he pretty much just re-taught everything! It was nuts! I was less worried about his comprehension at that point. We read the scriptures with him in the park another day which was really cool. And then we've also taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ. We asked him to pray about being baptised on August 22nd. He acted like it was really fast but he said he'd pray about it. Well, in the end it seems like we'll have to push it back, but he really is doing great. We gave him a copy of the Restoration film and he says that he's watched it like 5 or 6 times. He said that he really relates to Joseph Smith. And he believes that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ.Last night before English class we started teaching him some commandments. We taught him Pray Often, Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity. Yup, we thought we'd hit up a couple of doozies and get to some of the rules that might be harder. Anyway, it went surprisingly well. OH rad news! (I'll get back to this lesson with him later) We had a branch party on Saturday and Walter came with his cousin. Saturday was also Walters birthday. I mentioned the Word of Wisdom to him one of the times that we've talked at Mostra, but I hadn't committed him to it or anything. Well he talked to me at the branch party and said, "I have to tell you something. Today for my birthday I went out to lunch with a bunch of my friends. There was every kind of alcohol imaginable. ....and I didn't drink any of it." I was so happy! Can you believe that?!? So we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he said it's gonna be hard for him to give up his cappuccino but I said, "Well, we just taught you about prayer! Whenever you feel tempted, you can pray for strength and help. And if you ever want a cappuccino, then just call us and we'll talk you out of it!" ha ha Pretty much it's all a go. Even our "doozy" commandments weren't worth a sweat for Walter. How great is he? I'll tell ya, Pretty fabulous! Also we did Mostra on Sunday. I like to call this night: "My friend,the Atheist." I talked to Walter for a little bit and then he went to talk to someone in French about the gospel (yeah, did I mention that he's wonderful...he's not even a member but he helped the other missionaries talk to someone in French about the gospel because they couldn't speak French) and so I looked for someone to talk to and I started talking to this man that was kind of close to me. I glanced over at my companion and she gave me kind of a nauseated look. All from that glance I realized something. The last time that we did Mostra there, she left not quite herself. Apparently she had a really bad conversation with someone. I realized from the look on her face, that she had talked to the man that I was currently talking with. I think it gave me a little more determination because he made my companion feel bad. I got a little taste of his personality when one of the first things he said to me was (and he was speaking English) "I've got news for you. One, God doesn't exist. And two, we don't need God." After he said that I just sat there for a second with a look on my face like, You JUST said that. Really? Okay buddy. He asked me if my parents raised me to believe that there's a God. He said that that's brainwashing and that we shouldn't tell children things like that because they don't know any better. I lovingly shut him down and said that yes my parents raised me to be a member, but the reason that I'm still a member is because I decided. He continued to talk about how it's brainwashing to teach children about God. I said, "Well my parents also told me that there was a Santa Clause and I figured that one out all by myself. Our parents can teach us what they want and then when we grow up, we decide." He quit. So, then he decided to tell me what I was doing here. He said that I'm here in Italy to tell everyone that they're wrong and that I'm right. I said, "I would be more then happy to tell you why I'm ACTUALLY here. I don't look at everyone as being wrong. On the contrary, I look at everyone as being important enough, to deserve to know the truth. I'm here to share what I have." He said, "So why are you talking to me?" and I said, "Because you're important and you deserve the opportunity to accept the truth." and he laughed and said, "You'll never convert me." and I said, "You have made that very clear. But I wanted to at least give you the chance. I hope you have a great night." We shook hands and he smiled before he walked away. It was interesting the feeling that I had after talking to him. I tried to handle the situation with love...but at the same time...not taking his crap or letting him say things that aren't true. Instead of weakening my faith, I just walked away feeling so grateful for the gospel and for my testimony. Well; I have president Interviews today and then in about 2 weeks is transfers! Crazy. I really hope that I stay here. I love it here and I have learned so much in this city. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve. It's all worth it. Keep reading your scriptures, praying, and remember to love you lives and all the people in it! La Vita e bella! Love from Cagliari,
Sorella Mal

House with the Mission Presidents wife, Teaching flying lessons...

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Robin Hood: the Musical. Between the facts that 1, I adore Robin Hood and 2 THAT man is not hard to look at... I would see it!

The Sisters on the island!

Sorella Bjarnson (my comp), Sorella Hughes (in my MTC district), Sorella Chevalier (my trainer) and me.

So... there's like a whole genealogy thing to missions. Because Sorella Chevalier trained me, she's my mom, and the 'senior' sister in the district is the "mom" of any new missionaries in the district. So these are my 'posterity'.

Sorella Chavalier (my mom)

Me

Anziano Pace (left) = my son!

Anziano Tonuitti = my 1/2 brother (he's a new Italian missionary in Sassar in Sorella Chevalier's district

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Well, this week was a whole lot of jumbled lovableness!Lets start off with the fact that we had Zone Conference that was wonderful! And wouldn't you know it, along with all the spiritual enlightening goods comes my favorite little side dish of tangible love! Yup, mail. :) Thanks you guys for writing. I love hearing how you're doing.We had something special right after Zone Conference. We had a "Sisters Conference" where the sisters from the zone stayed after and we had a meeting with Sorella Acerson (the mission presidents wife) and then we went out to gelato and went to a wharf and took some pictures and talked. It was so fun and so refreshing. I'm so used to being around Elders but it was nothing but good times with Sorella Acerson, Watson, and Millis (both from my MTC district) and my companion. Who knew that I missed girl time? not I! But alas...Then Sister Acerson was going to be on the island the next day and asked if we wanted her to come to any of our appointments with us. Er....lesson in the presence of a member...aka Mission Presidents wife. CHECK! The only stinky part is our investigator stood us up. I was a bit frazzled about it. I mean, I've been out for a while. It's not the first time that I've been stood up. But I just feel super bad when we take the effort to get a member there and THEN we get stood up. I just felt bad for her. Anyway, so what did we do? We had planned to go to a referral and do house in that zone and Sister Acerson wanted to come with us! ha ha So ....we did house with the mission Presidents wife. Can you even imagine? It makes me laugh because it's like she doesn't acknowledge or see how that would be intimidating for us. She just thinks she's a regular person--and she is but...come on! It was a lot of fun. She asked us questions after each door. We got in to one door and talked to a lady that was pretty closed. She'd spoken to missionaries in the past but doesn't believe in a life after this one. It was just so cool to be able to bear testimony to her. I feel like underneath her closed front that she puts up, that she really will reflect on our words and the feelings that she had. And Sorella Acerson is a champ. She's not fluent in the language but she still tries and it was really an example to me. Sometimes she would have us translate for her but other times she'd just do the best she could and the lady totally understood her. It was a really great experience. House with the mission President's wife? Check! Didn't think it would happen, yet, consider it done!Also, the guy that I talked about last week-Walter-is now our investigator! Woot woot! He's actually just so wonderful I can't even believe it. He didn't come to church on Sunday :( but I saw him that night at Mostra, and he came to English class last night. We saw that we'd missed a call this morning. It was Walter. My companion called him and he said that he just squilloed to tell us that he was reading the Book of Mormon. How wonderful is this guy? We taught him the restoration with two members and we watched the restoration and he loved it! He gave the most beautiful analogy that I just really wanted to share with you guys. I've spoken with him several times and I've noticed that he likes to use analogies too. I've learned to start talking to him with analogies of my own and it works great. Well, during the lesson he was expressing certain hesitancy's but he said something gorgeous. He said he feels like he's standing on the edge of a cliff and he sees us--and we're flying. He wants to jump and do it too, but he's just scared. It was seriously the most beautiful thing because the way that he says it shows that he sees that we're different-in a good way. I loved it. I'm excited for him to learn to fly. :)In other news....guess who showed up to sacrament on Sunday?! Don't even worry about it, right in the middle of Sunday school, 5 young french champs filed into a row of chairs. I kind of wanted to sign out and call it day! Come on! I went up to them to try to speak French but it turns out one of them just got back from a mission in Provo so...we just spoke English. Well I can say this much...I still don't hate French. What a bust.Anyway, in case you've forgotten in anyway...the church is still true! It's wonderful. I feel so blessed to know the gospel. It's really amazing the many blessings that come from knowing who I am, that I have a purpose, and that I'm not alone in anything that I do. What a rad opportunity to share this with my adorable Italian family here in Sardegna. There really is so much joy to be found in life. I love it. Obviously there are going to be disappointments but there is always something to make us smile, laugh, love, and those are the moments that we need to let influence our days and outlook. I love you guys and am hoping you're all healthy, happy, and that you know that this Sista Missionary loves you baby! Italian love, Sorella Hansen