Awkward rejections, Looking for happy families, Do what you know is right already!!

Well, doing a lot of finding like we've been doing lately gives us many opportunities to laugh at all of the excuses, mean things people say, and unavoidable awkward moments. Ah yes, welcome to missionary life. We ring citofonos and people will poke their head out of their shutters 4 floors up and say, "Who is it?". Really? Are we actually HAVING a conversation from this ridiculous vertical distance? All right!! We've received an awful lot of "No's" but Heavenly Father has been giving us plenty of opportunities to laugh and remain upbeat despite the rejections. Finding work has just been getting more and more fun. But we have done an awful lot of it. My stars! This last week we've had like one appointment a day and the rest of the day...we just find people! We've been working really hard and we both feel very strongly that the Lord will bless us for our efforts and we know that He's helping us out big time.We were able to set a return appointment with an ITALIAN FAMILY. woot woot!! Can one even complain about that?! I think not! They were a beautiful family and were great, happy people. I almost have forgotten what it's like to be in a home where the family is happy. I have seen so many jacked up families in my mission all I have to say was a happy, loving family was entirely refreshing. We taught them the first lesson and they asked lots of questions. However in the end they just ended up telling us that they were Catholic and were going to stay that way. We gave them a Book of Mormon and we've been praying in every single prayer that they'll call us. I know for sure they felt the spirit when we were talking about the restoration. And...if they don't call us back, the great thing about doing house is...we know where they live! They were seriously such a beautiful family. I think I fell in love with them. I feel like Lucy from While you were Sleeping. I know what you're thinking, "How many times in a 1 year and a half can she reference that movie?!" Great question. Don't put it past me. Bah, if nothing else, I know we were a first step for that family. That man is gonna be a bishop or something I just know it.We taught the Maiello family this week. We have prayed for that family in every single prayer just wanting so badly for them to recognize the spirit and the need for them to change their lives and remember the testimonies that they have. We went to the appointment. Only the wife--Giuseppina--was there. We prepared a whole lesson using Helman 5. We talked about the spirit and light---how she had it. She had it in her home. She knew what to do to keep it there. She saw the differences in her family, her relationship with her husband when the spirit was in their home. We read a bunch of verses with her from Helaman 5 and then we had prepared three questions for her. 1. Do you recognize differences in your home since the missionaries haven't been here/since you all called off your baptismal date? She said yes. She then answered question 2 before we even asked her. It was 2. Have you felt the spirit since we've been with you today? She said that she has. She recognized it when we came in and she felt it during the lesson. Question 3. Do you want it back? Oh man I wish I could accurately describe the look on her face. Her eyes looked so tired and so much differently then they have in past lessons. She looked like she was going through such a hard time. But she responded to our last question: Yes. Bam. That was it. This is just what we wanted. This was the purpose of the lesson! To get her to recognize the spirit and the need to have it back again. Well, that's when little dinkus Satan thought he was completely hilarious and it was so clear that he has been messing with this family. We were talking with Giuseppina about the things that she could do to bring the spirit back into her life and back into her home. We asked her to start by reading the Book of Mormon everyday. She said no. What?!? You just said that you want the spirit back. Why would you NOT be all over this?! Welp she continued to tell us that her son was about to do Communion in the Catholic church and she can't let him see her reading the Book of Mormon because it will confuse him. THEN she continues by telling us that she knows that this is the true church and she'll never deny that. She know that the Catholic church isn't true and that the communion doesn't really mean anything....but she's still doing it. It makes zero sense, she knows that it doesn't make sense and she wanted so badly for us to rationalize with her that it was okay, that her situation was different. Well, we work for God. We can't do that. It was so not how we saw the lesson going but we've been prayin a lot about it and we really feel like we need to stick with this family. But it also gives us a lot of inspiration to do finding work and find people who are searching and are prepared.WELL there's my week. It's been completely nuts but as always it has strengthened my testimony and made me more grateful for the gospel in my life. And in closing: How is Italy doing in the Olympics? :) Lemme know! Italian love, Sorella Hansen