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.
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
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
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