brown sugar + chocolate chips = an inactive and investigator in church!!‏

14 lengthy years ago, two sister missionaries made some scrum-diddly-umcious chocolate chip cookies for Sonia. (Sonia has been a member for a long time...but has also been inactive for a large part of that time...like right now) Sonia's eyes got huge! It was clearly one of the best things that she'd ever experienced, and a moment that she would never ever forget. EVERY time missionaries would come over in the passing years, she would recall with PASSION this experience of tasting her first chocolate chip cookie in hopes that the current missionaries could make this moment, once again a reality. By inspiration of transfers (because obviously transfers are expired...wow..haha I meant INspired to the max!) my companion and I have had the privilege to be let into Sonia and Alessandros home--after them not accepting missionaries for a long while. But perhaps even more inspired then THAT is the fact that our district leader has a father in the military. What does this MEAN you might ask? Ha. Why it means that he, until the ripe ol' age of 21, has access to the military base near Pisa, which contains our two missing ingredients for chocolate chip cookies: Brown sugar and the ol' chocolate chips themselves. They went to the base while we were in Pisa and we sent them with money for these two items.
January 25, 2010. My companion and I (after having had this appointment cancelled on us 4 times...) finally got ourselves into an appointment with these guys and right after the closing prayer we pulled out ONE beautiful, golden brown cookie. Sonia said with semi-faked excitement, "A cookie." I realized what the problem was. She didn't understand what kind of cookie this was. I told my companion to adjust the saran wrap so that Sonia could see the little drops of chocolately goodness known to us as chocolate chips. My companion adjusted the saran wrap just so, so that as I have said, Sonia could recognize what we had brought into her home. Her expression changed drastically. She gasped! "Is that HIM?" (the word for cookie in Italian in masculine, hence the 'him') She said again with more anxiety, "Sisters, is that HIM!?!" We smiled and nodded, and I kid you not, Sonia starts crying! Tears falling down her face, dare I say a good three. She is SO excited about this moment. But alas, we are sister missionaries and have a point. We give her the cookie and she splits it between her and her boyfriend Alessandro. They eat the cookie with exaggerated slowness, eyes closed, and a dopey grin on their faces. Alessandro told us that he felt the spirit when he ate the cookie. My companion and I were busting up the whole time. She told us that it was JUST how she remembered. We explained that there was a reason that we only brought one cookie and not a whole plate. Up until this point, they've let us have appointments (though not as often as we'd like), they feel the spirit, and they recognize the need to change certain things in their lives. However, they have not set foot in church since we've been here, nor a long time before we've been here. We explained the importance of hungering spiritually. We read a couple verses from that marvelous book of scriptures called the book of Mormon. (Enos 1:4, 3 Nefi 12:16, and 3 Nefi 12:8) We talked to them about a couple of things.1. They've got hungry souls. How do we feed a hungry soul? Welp, read your scriptures every day (WHICH we found out they've been doing AS A FAMILY since our last appointment. woot!!), pray everyday, get your body to church on Sunday because you've got to feed your soul.2. When we go to their house. They love it. They feel the spirit. But they're only eating like...A chocolate chip out of a chocolate chip cookie (spiritually speaking) ;) Pick up the spiritual cookie and just eat the crap out of it! Why are you nibbling on something that makes your soul feel good? Your hunger for that cookie is never going to be filled until you eat it. Likewise, your hunger for righteousness and spiritual things will never be filled until you're righteous and you do spiritual things. We know that the spiritual cookie is good. It's hard to watch them just nibble at it and not enjoy it like it should be enjoyed.The lesson went well. In fact, Sonia understood what we were trying to teach before we even taught it. After she finished her half of the cookie she said, "wow that was good. Imagine. If a cookie can bring me this much joy, how much joy would it bring me to keep the commandments." BAM! Alessandro, who is not YET a member of the church, said that he's been reading the scriptures lately and that he knows that it's true. He said that many missionaries in the past have given him a book of Mormon and he's never read it. But he's reading it now. He loves it and he just keeps wanting to read it. Yeah baby! That's because you're soul is gettin all drooley over somethin that is bringing delight!THEN came the invite: "WILL you take a bite of your spiritual cookie and come to church on Sunday?" Are you guys ready for this? Here's their answer. Without hesitating, and with decision, they say, "Si". What?! No excuses? No hesitations or "We'll see"?!? Oh how my heart just wanted to explode with joy. I love when people are more then willing to do what is necessary to continue having the feelings that they feel when we teach them. I love when they do their part. When they take the steps. I LOVE that. I went home that night, wrote in my journal and just thought, "Man, these are the days that I LOVE being a missionary." Sorella Hansen

P.S. Eat your spiritual cookies k?

Pisa, Special Fasts, Finding work!‏

This is Ariel, He's the elder's investigator. He came with our district to a Naval museum. The museum was kind of a bust but the company was a solid good time!

Sorella Skabelund, Sorella Hansen

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Well BUON to the GIORNO!!Pisa proved to be a romping success. We had a splendid time admiring the leaning tower and taking the classic embarrassing pictures of how we're leaning on it and holding it up. Ah the stupid things that we do for an entirely unoriginal picture. ha ha Whatever. I still walk away lovin my life so...no complaints. In other news the scarf scene was a complete letdown. I was so excited to drop like 50 yen on scarves but the lady wouldn't even bargain with me. What is that?! So, I kept my dignity and walked away with a little drawing of Pinocchio. Please judge me. ha ha Well this week did not fail to bring the crazy unpredictability's as every week. We purposely didn't set very many appointments so that we could find more people. We even did a special fast so that we can find more people to teach who will keep their commitments and progress. Testimony of fasting? Check! We found an investigator that day named Davide doing some survey! He's pretty rad. We left him a pamphlet the first time, set up a return appointment and met with him the very next day and taught him about the restoration. It was cool. Apparently many years ago the missionaries used to go to his family's house and teach his mom. We're all over that!Then on Monday Sorella Skabelund and I had about a half an hour before our appointment with the Acevedo clan. I was like, "Hey we haven't done house yet today. We gots a goal to do house everyday." So we decided to knock the palazzo right across the street from the Acevedo family. The very FIRST citofono (Err...don't know how to say that in English. It's like...let's just call it the 'doorbell', to make things simple) a man answered and buzzed us into the building! We talked to him at his door for like 10 minutes and got his phone number and taught him a bit about the church. Bizangin'? Yeah, you could say so!We got another last minute phone call this week asking for a musical number in church. So...we threw together an ol' piano duet. I'd played it before the mission with my sister so I already knew it. It wasn't perfect but I think it was still pretty and was fun I suppose.Well things are going forward. There is still lots to do but I have found that as I set honest goals that I have been able to make improvements and seen huge blessings. Heavenly Father is helping me with the language and to become a better missionary. Of course...He's also showing me plenty of things that I need to improve. Thankfully it's a nice balance. :)President stopped by ol' La Spezia yesterday to interview us. It was a good interview. And I didn't not put up a fight about the fact that he brought love in physical form! Yup, Mail! It was so great to hear from you guys. I'll be writing you back on the double. Keep reading your scriptorials. I find out every morning that they're STILL true. Crazy right? Keep saying those prayers because Heavenly Father listens to ya and loves hearing from you more than I do...and that's a lot!! Go to church. Yup, all three hours. There's nothing better you could do with your time AND you get a nice dose of blessings for your attendance so...yeah. I'm grateful to the max for the things that I'm learning out here. I know it's where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing. I love you guys a lot and hope that you're loving your lives. Love you more then Peppermint hot chocolate on a startlingly chilly day! Sorella Hansen

The tower that leans, Building on ROCKS, Zone Conference‏

With my dear Sorella Chessman. This girl is nothing but a delight. Unfortunately, she got herself transfered off the island so... I see much less of her. :(

Beautiful Cagliari

P-Day: Walter took us to go see a casle and a beautiful view of Cagliari.

This is where I live / Preach the gospel!

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Hey fellas!! I'm writing you this week from a jolly ol' town called Pisa. We decided to actually do something killer for P-day so we thought we'd give the ol' Leaning Tower a shot. I'm actually super stoked about it. I saw it about two years ago with a dear friend but...can't hurt to see it a second time right? Aaaand the fact that they sell pretty scarves and heartbreaking ties right in front of the tower is hardly a disappointment. I've started a nice collection. :) We had a really cool lesson with an inactive family this week. It's a single mother of two and they haven't been to church in like a month! And...we really want to help her daughter get baptized. :) So we went and saw them and we taught them that "Wise man built his house upon a rock" little diddy. We got the kids all in on the actions which kind of worked. Then they were kind of too A.D.D. for the whole song with actions. My heart went out to people with callings in the primary. I eventually resorted to desperate measures to get their attention and started awarding them imaginary points for good behavior. Ex. "Ten points for whoever does the actions the best!" "18 points if you can tell me what the wise man build his house on." Actually it got them to participate and I have not the slightest clue of why the imaginary point system was appealing though I did not find myself complaining! So we taught a lesson on how WE can build our house upon a rock. We talked about how even though one built his house on a rock, and the other on the sand...it still rained for both of them. I think sometimes we think that as long as we have our lives built on concrete things---on the teachings of the church, following the Savior---we think that we're good. But the rain still comes. We still have our trials and difficulties and hard things to deal with. BUT when we build our lives on things that are concrete, then we will be secure when the trials come and we won't worry about it. Anyway, I can't believe I just spent like 15 minutes of my internet time talking to you about that primary song. Take it for what it's worth! Even if it's not much. We had Zone Conference in Florence! Two beautiful things that I love about every transfer. Zone Conference where we get to learn crazy cool ways to improve our work and be better missionaries AND we get to see other missionaries that we know and see how much they've grown and changed. Sorella Hughes and Sorella Watson are in my zone. (They were both in my MTC district ) It was a pleasant moment indeed to see them and see what amazin' missionaries they've become. I can't believe it. In a lot of ways I still feel like a kid in the mission. It's cool to see the people that they've become. The mission changes people. It's pretty legit. Aka...amazing.Well I gots to be a-jetting. On the trainride home I tried to talk to an African man in french and...it was kind of an explosion in my face. ha ha It's like I hadn't ACTUALLY studied french for 6 years. What the?? So...I was surprised that I was able to make awkward small talk...though the little accent that I once had in french has now gone to the wolves! Whatever! At least I can get my point across in Italian. THAT is something that I will count my blessings for daily! ANYWHOODLE, I hope that everything is going fantabulous for you guys. Behave yourselves, get to church every Sunday, read those delightful scriptures that are--by-the-way---still true, and just enjoy your lives k?? Talk to ya more next week. Til then, Sorella Hansen

New year explosions, Mute, Writing down my life‏

On the boad BACK to Cagliari with my new companion Sorella Nelson. It's like 11:30 p.m. because we had to wait for quite a while to get on. So, if I look sleepy-kins...that's because I am.

Family Home Evening at the park.
Me, Sorella Nelson, Sabbrina, Sorella Saffina, Carla Saffina

Paolo & Walter their first Sunday with ties!

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BUONGIORNO!!! Well how was er'bodys New Year?!? Hopefully pleasant and full of off the chain good times. What do the missionaries in the Italy Rome mission do for New Years you might ask? Well, let me tell ya. We spend the entirety (you know me...spellin'?!) of the first day of the year cleaning our apartment from top to bottom. The night before we were instructed to go home a little early because these Spezians get a little crazy at the end of the year. Understandably so though, who doesn't? So we went to bed at 10:30 and then set our alarm clock for 11:45 ha ha yeah yeah I know that you all actually stayed awake for the big moment but...we're sister missionaries and have the sleeping schedule of a new born child. Try not to judge k? Anywho, so we woke up to all kinds of bombs going off! I guess here, instead of pretty fireworks being the bees knees it's more of a mentality like, "As long as it makes a big BOOM, I find myself satisfied." Well big booms were heard indeed. Then...we went back to bed and woke up to cleaning our house. Best of times. My second of two new years in Italy. CRAZY SAUCE.Funny moment of the day. I've been reading Jesus the Christ lately and I've been learning lots of crazy cool things that I didn't know before...yeah...like it's almost embarrassing. Well yesterday I had read the chapter about how the angel Gabriel announced the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ like 3 months apart and stuff. Anyway so I read about the situation when he announced John the Baptists birth. (I was completely uneducated on this matter.) So when we were leaving the apartment we got in the elevator and my companion was being awkwardly quiet and ...mimey. (I spell like 3 year-old! Judge me not.) So being completely confused by this behavior I just said, "Oh I get it! You're being Zacharias after he heard that his wife was gonna have a baby!" She laughed and then our day was filled with words again. Tell me honestly: Scale of 1 to 12.45, how sublimely awkward is it that I make scriptural references to my daily life? Lemme know!!We had a pretty big step back with our family that has baptismal dates. Pretty much the wife called us and told us that the husband is still drinkin' really heavily and treats his wife very very poorly when he drinks. Ah, I just felt sick. We've been working so so hard with this family to get them to progress, to help them strengthen their testimonies, to help them have a happier family. It was just something really hard to accept. But after a bit I tried to see what we could do with this situation, what we could learn. Both my companion and I felt strongly that we need to step up our finding work and find new people to teach--because the people that we're teaching now aren't making the progress that they should be making. We're going to step back a little bit and see if they miss the message, the spirit. In the meantime, my companion and I feel we've got to find those people who WOULD progress if they knew about the gospel. We're still working with our old investigators, but they need to make some progress.So...we've been setting aside time everyday JUST for doing some killer finding. I actually really enjoy doing finding work. I'm totally awkward at it but it really makes me feel like a missionary. I love bearing my testimony to people. I love at least giving the opportunity to accept the restored gospel. And it's really cool to look back afterward and see all of the ways that God blessed us and directed us. Ah, it just feels good.Yesterday we had a crazy cool experience with a family that we're working with. The wife is an in-active member and the husband is not a member. When we first got here to La Spezia we decided to just drop by their house and meet them and they let us in! They let us help clean their house a couple of hours a week and through that, they are now letting us work with them and teach them. We taught them last night and it went oh-so-well. Alessandro, the husband, was really touched last night and did some really great reflection. He let us give him a Book of Mormon (he's a hard-core catholic...well, welcome to Italy) and he is committed to reading it. They've born their testimonies to us several times that they know that we're here to help them and they're just really humble amazing people. I am so excited to keep workin' with them and seeing the changes that the gospel brings people to make.Well the work is going well. I notice new parts of the city all the time and just look at groups of palazzos like, "Oh dangit, there are a LOT of people there that don't know about the gospel yet." I try to fight the urge to hyperventilate and we start one house at a time. :)ALSO...I got a new journal!! I know that you all care. I'm going on my third! How awkward is that?! My life before the mission is probably contained in a half of a journal and it's almost painful to look back at some of the awkward moments of my life that I felt to record on paper. But alas, I actually love looking back at my journal in the mission. I haven't written everyday like I initially wanted, but I have written every transfer! ha ha It's been amazing to look back on experiences that I've had earlier on and remember those moments so vividly. It's also been really eye opening to look back at me and the person that I was and sometimes laugh at some of the things that I did and think about how I would do things differently now. It's been cool to watch the process that God has not only been doing with our investigators, but with His missionaries. Surely I will look back on this time of my mission in a couple of months from now and laugh but that's okay. I am hardly perfect...as if that isn't wildly apparent. But I learn little things here and there everyday. It is a blessing indeed to serve a mission. It's like as cool as...Peter Pan learning to crow. Or...Jack Sparrow becoming captain of the Black Pearl BUT obviously oodles cooler. ANYWHO, officially signing off because I have gone far too far. Ciao for now! La Spezian love, Sorella Mally Hansen

Happy New Year!!! Pictures!!

These pictures are from when Mallory was serving on the island. Just a few transfers and companions ago. But, still our Mallory none the less.

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Doing house. If you notice, the doorbell has a bit of an electrical problem. But alas, we tried it anyway and also knocked. :)

My dear friends as ANFAS! I loved volunteering with them. This particular day we were watering the garden.
Gian Franco, Simone, Luca

Yup, this is actually happening. I don't remember the last time I flashed the ol' thumbs up for a picture but... we're making it work!

Me, Pier Andrea, Christina, Gian Franco, Simone

Marco, Luca, Francesco

Here's us with Sorella Acerson for our sister's conference. I adore Sorella Acerson. She does so much and still looks dazzling. I, on the other hand, look like Webster's definition of wind blown. Whatevs!

Me, Sorella Acerson, Sorella Bjarnason

Sorry that I don't spare you the awkward, non-glamourous moments of sister missionary life. Here we have sister missionary tan lines.

Clockwise: Sorella Watson, Me, Sorella Millis, Sorella Bjarnason

Yeah, Italian children are actually this ridiculously adorable.

Lorenzo, Gabriele, Enrico

My LOVE! This is Sorella Marangoni. I miss her so much! We served in the same district for 3 transfers. Neither of us would complain if we had to be companions.

This is in the Rome train stations when I dropped off Sorella Bjarnason and picked up my New Companion.