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!~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
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
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
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