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?