Christmas, Eating with Members, 2 Phone Numbers

Buongiorno Principessa!
So I hope every body's Christmas was fabulous. It was weird having my first Christmas away from home. ha ha I learned early into the day that I shouldn't compare the two. I only have two Christmas' here in Italy so they're just going to be different--but obviously rad. So we got to sleep in on Christmas day! Yup...all the way until 7:00a.m. Then my companion and I opened presents. I got this one present from a member of the ward here. She doesn't even know me but I thought it was so sweet. Then later we went to the Church and made a "Mexican lunch". ha ha The other missionaries here said it'd been too long since they'd had Mexican food so we made tacos. Ah, who knew something like tacos would be something happy on Christmas day? Then we just wrote letters and we got to watch a couple of movies---goods like Hercules and Finding Nemo. Well today is P-day and I'm crazy excited because we're going to go to some touristy stuff. Last P-day was Christmas Eve or something so we couldn't go see anything. But on the agenda for today is: The Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. I'm so excited! We've had some cool lessons so far. We have about three progressing investigators--Erica, Diana, and Susi. They're all way sweet. We just have to work on getting them to church. It's crazy to me that that's such a consistently hard thing with people that I've met here. We're working on it though and trying to help them see that it's important. I can't always understand all of the lessons but I at least know what's going on and what we're talking about. It's different, too, depending on their accents. Susi is a little harder for me to understand because her native language is Portuguese. Nothing against Portuguese but it's just harder with the different accent to understand her Italian. We've gone over like 3 times though and it's getting a little better. Other then that, the language is okay. ha ha I have a lot to learn but it's cool. I'm already understanding basic conversation goods better, but it's hard because we get to a point in the conversation where I just don't understand anymore. Good thing I get a hour a day to study eh? It's fun though. I can already tell I've made some progress which is nice. Oh man, can we just talk about the woes of eating with members. ha ha Oh my goodness I don't know how these other missionaries do it! It's good stuff but just let me explain. For instance, we were at this families house--the Aquilinos--and they were feeding us lunch. So she brought us each out this massive plate of ...crepes with spinach inside. It was a lot--just trust me. When Sorella Aquilino walked out of the room I looked at my companion and was like, "Wow, that's a lot of food. But I'll try to finish." Then she started laughing at me and reminded me that that was only the first course!! Oh my stars it was a doozy. After that she brought out a massive plate of mashed potatoes and meat. I seriously tried so hard to finish but I felt sick so I put my fork down and Sorella Aquilino (she was just sitting in the room watching us eat because she'd already eaten) kept saying, "Sorella, mangi! mangi!" (aka eat! eat!) Then it was followed by salad and a desert. Don't get me wrong, the food is hard to hate, but they feed their guests a lot of it! haha It's pretty ridiculous. I'm working on a game plan so I don't feel sick for the rest of the day. ha ha Gotta love those Italians! Well we had a few hours at the end of one of our days left so I asked my companion if we could go ride the metro to a certain stop and then come back---doing it repeatedly--and just see if we could get some numbers. We set a goal of getting 2 numbers. So we'd split up on the metro and just talk to whoever we sat by and then we'd get off on the same stop and talk about it and regroup. ha ha I realize that this might sound silly but it was cool. So we talked to some really awesome people and we didn't get any numbers. It was time for us to go home and I felt a little discouraged because our goal was 2 numbers. Well then we were walking home and I told a guy walking by "Buona Serra" (just like good evening) and he stopped and talked to us for a bit. Well...we got a number!! Unfortunately he wasn't interested in the gospel. He just wanted to go out or something. But still the same, is it bad that I considered that number a slight victory? Lemme know because I did. We asked him if he'd come to church (this was on Saturday night) and he didn't show the next day so...we'll think of something. ha ha Anywho, all is well in Rome! It's crazy cold--seriously I think my fingers, toes, and nose are constantly frozen and yet---good times! I'm still trying to figure this whole missionary thing out. It's fun though when we're working hard. Well I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a happy new year.
Lots of love, Sorella Hansen