sacrament attendance...by force, Something that people don't tell you about missionary work, Our friend the Holy Ghost‏

Oh mamma! We have had a pretty good week this week. Things are going better. Judy and her daughter Arianna were in church on Sunday!! It was so exciting because it was their first time. She has told us many times that she wanted to come but then Sunday arrived and I was sitting there in church, continuously glancing at the door like an anxious school girl waiting for Santa Clause to arrive with a bowl full of jelly...whoa, I mean...a red bag full of toys!. Well, after several weeks of let downs...that was enough. So...er....we just showed up at their doorstep at 8:30 in the morning. ha ha It was funny because they were just going to show up for Sacrament meeting but we got them there in time for Sunday School too. It was pretty spiffy. This branch is pretty fantastic. The branch presidents wife sat by Judy during Sacrament meeting and Arianna ADORED Primary. (Which was a relief, because hopefully she won't be a holdup to come to church because she usually goes to some sort of Catholic school on Sunday mornings.) It was a success. Unfortuantely Leo wasn't there because he had to work. This next Sunday he should be there.We had a great appointment with a little family that has a daughter that needs to get baptized. I don't remember if I mentioned them last week but her mom thinks that she doesn't want to get baptized because she's scared of water. So we did a spiritual thought on the Savior and how he set a perfect example for us. And then we showed a picture of when he was baptized, asked the mom about how she felt when she was baptized, yeah you get the idea. I think it went really well. We watched a short film on the life of Christ and it showed His baptism and little Momy (that's the girl that should be getting baptized) held my hand. She is so adorable. They've had a fair amount of challenges and it was just so cool so see this sweet little girl come out. They're a great little family and I'm excited to keep working with them and helping them.Okay, let me just say something that nobody tells you about being a missionary. (I should start a list of these things, but here's just one little silly one.) So as missionaries, we're kind of supposed to be enjoyable to be around, spiritual, pleasing, happy, fill-in-the-blank with whatever peppy word you'd like. Well let me just tell you that you cannot be a picky eater and be a missionary...especially in Italy. We get fed some crazy awkward stuff but we finish it, and it's the best thing in all the land. ;) One meal that I was fed recently consisted of rice--plain rice--and what was put on top? On don't even worry about it, it was a handful of dried out little flowers! I'm telling you in was crazy sauce! Another appointment we went to they had a stack of pancakes on a plate and she made a face and said, "you haven't seen what's inside yet." A couple moments later my face discovers the wonder that is Pineapple chunks in pancakes! What?! It's usually all good and well except for when they start dealing with quantity. You see, here in Italy...you don't really get to serve yourself how much food you want. It's not the traditional American, pass the different bowls around and put what you want on your plate. Negative. You get served how much you are expected to eat and it's rarely a sparse amount. Our investigator Judy always puts gigantic portions on our plates and we're always like, "Wow, Judy that is definitely plenty. Grazie" Yeah, my companion and I have decided to hit up that family for morning appointments from now on. ha ha Don't get me wrong, we feel overwhelmingly grateful for the thought--truly. But I wish they understood that a more effective way to show the missionaries that they love them would be to read their scriptures every night, say their prayers, come to church, tell their friends about the joy that the gospel has brought them. Things like this would be splendid because I don't have to work off THOSE things with my half hour of exercise time in the morning. :) By-the-by, the food here in Italy is normally abnormally delicious. I have just shared some special, rare occasions.ANYWAY, back to things that actually matter. We had another appointment with this AMAZING family that almost got baptized a couple of months ago and then backed off after tithing. The mother and daughter in this family are crazy cool. I love them so much and I've probably spent a grand total of 2 hours with them in my life. We taught a lesson on the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. It went really well. By-the-way, have you guys stopped to realize how incredible the Holy Ghost is recently? Oh mylanta, every time I study it my mind is blown! So rad that we get to have protection, guidance, comfort, confirmation of the truth all thanks to this amazing gift. I mean, come on! What is that about? TELL me that Heavenly Father doesn't love us when we have been given this amazing gift to guide us and help us through our decisions and difficulties of life. We shared experiences that we've had with the Holy Ghost. When we've listened to the spirit and when we haven't--unfortunately. It just reminded me of how necessary the guidance of the Holy Ghost is in our lives. I cannot wait for the conference Ensign to get over here so that I can read all of the talks that were about the Holy Ghost. Amazin'. There's still a lot of work to do with that family but I know that they know that it's true. I know that if they feel of our love for them that they'll make changes and they'll feel that we're sincere and want what's truly best for them.Finding work has been going better. Still lots to improve but...improvement IS being made. We've done some bus, house, and surveying. Had some splendid conversations and met some great contacts. I know as we increase our faith and the dedication that we put into the work, that we'll see miracles. End of story. Thanks for all of your love and support. I might, maybe, may appreciate it with all of my heart strings. Read that Book of Mormon, say your prayers, get yo'self to church, and you'll feel great! Living the gospel makes you feel good! If you don't feel good, maybe take a gander at how you can be more obedient to the principles of the gospel, and then...look for the happy things in your life. Works every time! Italian kisses! Sorella Hansen

5 christmas apts, costly Christmas spirit?!, Pumping up the finding‏

Oh mamma there's so much to tell this week!First off, let me tell you about my Sunday. We were crazy stoked because we thought FOR SURE we were going to have 4 investigators in church---the Acevedo family (3), and Mirium. We called them all the night before to remind them and everything was a go. Saturday night we were planning what time we needed to leave to go pick Mirium up. We were going to have to get a bus at 7:30 a.m. to get to her house, and then take a bus together to be on time for church at 9.Never mind the exciting morning where I falsely calculated how early I needed to wake up to get ready. I woke up and showered at 5 and then went and sat on my bed and thought, "Wait, WHY am I up so early?" And then I went back to bed until 6:30. Brilliant!The doozey to this story is that we had one investigator in church. We left our apartment, got a bus to Miriums house, knocked on her door and...niente. We called her cell and her husband came to the door and said that she got called into work at midnight last night. Then Judy and Arianna Acevedo didn't end up showing to church either. It was pretty sad. BUT we have gone back to both of their homes, taught lessons, and they're coming to church this week! After that morning I just thought, "Man, we made so many plans and we really tried to prepare." But alas, there is always more that we can do. When they see how important it is to us that they get to church--when they really see that, they'll come. They'll feel it. They'll feel that we really want them there and that they really need to be there.Oh, we had transfer calls last night. My companion and I will be staying for another transfer together. I feels like the right thing. There's still more for us to do here. AND we'll be here for Christmas! I couldn't be more excited even if Saint Nick took me for a sleigh-ride himself! We've really been working to strengthen the branch here. We have 5 appointments with members from December 24-26. It's really a huge blessing and it has really made us feel loved. Last year, I had just arrived here before Christmas and we had zero appointments. Nowhere to go. It was kinda sad because I LOVE Christmas and it just felt weird spending it alone with a girl that I had only been with for like 10 days. (P.S. I love that companion with all of my heart strings) So contrasting from last year and seeing the love of this tiny little branch, it really makes us excited.We saw the Maiello family again last night. (They're an amazing Italian family that all (okay, except for the sons) had baptismal dates like 4 months ago...and after tithing...they called it off) Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend too much time with them because the mom had to take her daughter somewhere like a half hour after we arrived. BUT she gave us a ride to the station and we were able to talk to her about the situation. We were able to figure out more of what their problem ACTUALLY was. It just never made sense to me reading in the area book that anyone who really knows that the church is true would deny everything over a commandment that they've never tried. If you receive an answer that the church is true, then it is! It doesn't all of a sudden become untrue because we don't drink coffee or because we pay tithing. It's not like answers to prayer expire, or have a short shelf life. Negative. You can be pretty durn sure that if He tells you something's right...He's not playin! Anywhoodle, it was a really good conversation. And she told us that she recognizes that things are different since they decided not to get baptized. She said that things were better with her husband and they were all so much happier when it was something that they were doing as a family. Isn't that so true? I'm just really excited to keep working with them. We kind of know what angle we need to go at and feel like we can help them.ALSO we've really wanted to step up our finding! So we decided to do this survey that we have in Italian. It just asks religious questions and every now that then there's a conveniently worded question like, "If you knew that there was a way that families could be together forever would that interest you?" Eh? Eh?? ;) So yesterday we took a gander through a park and a piazza and talked to some people and had some slammin' conversations! It just helps me remember that there really are people that naturally wonder and have questions about spiritual things. It's so cool that we have the answers to help them out. It was a way cool experience and I'm stoked to keep working on our finding work...as well as other things of course. :)Well, fun fact: A measely ol' strand of christmas lights over here run about €19. Yup, that's like 25 bucks. I love christmas and all but I would rather get white washed then drop that kind of money on Christmas lights that would cost like 2 bucks in the states. (If christmas lights cost more then that...then jokes on me!) ALSO, the lightswitches in our apartment are all on the outside of the room. It throws me off every time. I walk in the room to turn on the light and...I have to walk back out in the hall to do it. Good times Italy!Welp, I gots to be jetting. Have a holly jolly....week. I hope you are all healthy and happy as can be. Say your little english prayers and just know that this missionary loves ya...kind of a lot. Italian Christmasy Love (yup, no Thanksgiving to wait for over here..) Sorella Mallory Hansen

Mirium, Acevedo Fam, Florence‏

On Thursday I got to go back to Roma! I needed to pick up my permesso di soggiorno. Er...don't know what you call it in English. It's just the cool little legit card that makes it legal for me to live here. So...that. It was really cool to be able to go back to Rome and specifically the area where I started the mission. On the way home we were sitting across from a woman on the train that we started talking to and she was a delight. She speaks Italian, English, and French....so...I think we're going to be the best of friends. ha ha She wanted to practice speaking French with me but I assured her Italian is better at this point and I'll fix my French when I get home. haha Anyway I got her number and hopefully when she comes into town this weekend we'll get to meet with her. She's adorable. So hopefully next week I'll have a fantabulous update on Daniella. :)We had another appointment with Mirium. So far she hasn't been able to come to church because she works. But she has this Sunday off so she should be coming. I'm so excited! I love when investigators can make it to church because it's an amazing spirit and it really helps them to start making progress when they come to church and start keeping commitments. ALSO, she showed us how to make filled cabbage. Is that what you call it in english? It was kind of ...not disgusting. I sat there with my paper and quill writing everything because it was a delight.We had a lesson with the Acevedo family last night. We planned this lesson that is...quite different. The last lesson that we were there ended in a bit of contention and the couple kind of started fighting and pointing out each others faults to us. Yeah, it was awkward and sad. So for our lesson we brought a CD player and music and had it playing in the background and we had printed in a huge font the things that we wanted to teach. It was really cool. We had some quotes from prophets on contention and took some quotes from "Beware of Pride" from Ezra Taft Benson. Then after the 15 or so papers that we were flipping for them to read, we gave them their own paper that had more quotes from "Beware of Pride" and also they had their own quote from Elder Holland that talked about being nice to your spouses...but in Elder Hollands way of expressing it. :) The last paper had questions like, "What are some things I could do to help bring more happiness into the home?" and "What are some things that I love about Leo?"--that was on her paper. Anyway at the end we talked for a couple of minutes and bore testimony on the importance of seeing the good in other people and looking inside ourselves to improve. It was cool.Well we're going to Florence today for P-day and then there's a conference for the women. Sister Cook and Sister Thompson from the General Relief Society Presidency are here to talk to the sisters. It should be pretty bizzangin. Welp, have a dandy day and a wonderful week. Lots of Italian love, Sorella Hansen

Me and our investigator Clara. She's a doll!! She asked me if I'd marry her son... er ... "I would love to have you as a mother-in-law!" ha ha

I love her!

After a bit of house, we were walking out and a metal door got my foot. We stopped to snap a quick pic of the glamorous life of a sister missionary.

PS - No, I did not just run through the sprinklers. It's just hot and I sweat, K!? :)

With my loveable Adele. She's so wonderful I can't even handle it.

Patrizia, Me, Adele

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My how things have changed. I've been reflecting a bit on how things are different from last winter time in Italy. In this apartment here in La Spezia there were some umbrellas left over from the previous sisters. One is brown with pink polka dots and the other is pink with brown polka dots. Both have lots of frills and ruffles. I feel pretty silly holding those umbrellas when last year my umbrella (that I dropped a whopping 2 euro on) was spray painted silver and had spray painted silver stars on the inside. It's a bit of a change for me. I'm adjusting. ha ha The other day it was raining and storming like mad! My companion and I were at the bus stop in the middle of this full-on downpour and we were getting drenched, mangled by the wind, and we could NOT stop laughing. There were people stuffed under this area where you can wait for the bus. But there was no room, so we took quite a hit, but they were laughing just like we were. Good times. Even "bad" weather tends to be a solid good time. THEN later that day we were running for another bus and...my shoe broke. I just busted up and apologized to my companion. ha ha Luckily the bus that we missed was right in front of our apartment so we ran in and I changed shoes. ha ha Ah my life.We finally had our Halloween party. We have a member here that helped us oodles to make it successful and he put a lot of work into it. He made a Labyrinth (you know quite well that my spelling is lax.) and word had it that it was the bees knees! I didn't go through it because I was helping in the other room. We made a sweet Twister game. But instead of colors we had ghosts, tombstones, pumpkins, you get the idea. I stole it from when I had to help with the Relief Society Birthday Party back in Rexburg. I made a Twister board with relief society stuff. "Right hand, Emma Smith. Left foot, quilt". Same idea but with Halloween goods. It was a hit! Fratello Ricciardi (the member that made the labyrinth) downloaded a bunch of short film clips to keep the people entertained between games. He brought "Thriller". I uh...did not hate it.There is an investigator family here in La Spezia (They're 100% Italian) that have been investigators for...like 3 years. They're record in the area book is like 8 pages long. They had a baptismal date a couple of transfers ago but then they misunderstood the tithing lesson and the father, especially, has backed off. The mother and daughter know that it's true but the dad and sons aren't really interested anymore. I've been nervous and excited to meet this family. From what I had read in the area book, the sons had been pretty rude to the sisters recently, and the dad won't even stay in the same room when the sisters go over. Well, we decided to just drop by last week and invite them to the Halloween party. Originally just the daughter was home (her name's Teresa). She was really excited to see us and welcomed us in no problem. Little by little the family started arriving. The mother was very nice but whispered really quick "if my husband makes a face when he sees you guys, just don't worry about it okay?". One of the sons came in, shook our hands, and chatted for a second before going to his room with his friend. (success!) The dad came in. He shook our hands and started making dinner but he came over every now and then to talk to us. (Much better then we were expecting). Then, the one that I was most worried about was the oldest son. He was (from what I had read) the most disrespectful and...not in favor of the church. Well, he came in and we got a handshake (score!), thanks to an enthusiastic greeting on our part we got a smile (love it!), and then somehow he ended up sitting at the table with us (this is huge!) and I got him to talk to me for about 20 minutes while my companion talked to the mom. (And...I think my mind just exploded.) It was a miracle! They invited us to stay for dinner but we had to go to a couple other houses. When they said good-bye the mother thanked us for bringing joy into their home. I left that night just feeling so great. It was completely different then we were expecting and it was just really encouraging.Well, I'll end here I suppose. I could tell you a story about last night when I learned for realsies that the gift of tongues is legit. (lets just say we spent about 40 minutes with an old woman who's Brazilian, trying to speak Italian and....trust me, we got lots of help to understand her!) But I will end with a success story from the branch! On Sunday I uh...somehow got an appointment for the day after Christmas! ha ha It's this member who...the first day seemed like she wanted to run away from us. I wonder if she had bad experiences with missionaries in the past. This kind of behavior is just kind of a challenge for me. (I saw the same thing in Cagliari and that member ended up becoming one of my best friends) So I kind of...make her talk to me and eh...try to get her to not hate it, maybe even enjoy it a titch. ha ha We spoke for a little bit after church and then she left to go get in the car with her husband. I was talking to Fratello Carli and our branch pianist who, come to find out it is pretty good for a laugh. In the middle of our conversation this sister ran back up the stairs and asked me to step out into the hall with her. She said, "What are you doing December 26th?" ha ha Come on, that's two months away! Nothing in particular. She said, "Because we wanted to have you over. We can't have you over for Christmas but the 26th, we can." ha ha Isn't that crazy and yet wonderful?! It's not like I even spoke to her about Christmas after church or anything. It just came out of nowhere. So...we have a Christmas appointment. Can't complain about that! Welp, I really gots to be a-jettin' but hope your Halloween was fantabulous and...what are you doing December 26, 2010? If nothing, I'd like to have you over. RSVP

Italian love, Sorella Hansen