New Year, Baptism, Magic Tricks

Buon Capo d'anno!! Well it is the first of a new year and lemme tell ya a little bit about how it goes down here in Roma! So we went to help with the ward new years party (just setting up and stuff) and we had to go home before pretty much anyone came. ha ha Ya know, we missionaries are back at the apt at 9:00. So we went to bed on time and set our alarm clock for 11:55 so that we could watch the fireworks and then go back to bed. Well....we wouldn't have needed an alarm clock. These Italians are NUTS about fireworks. They don't have the dinky, stay-on-the-ground, high pitched squealing Utah fireworks that we have. Nope, nope, nope, from every balcony there was like a mini Stadium of Fire!! (Minus an awkward musical guest) It was out of control. And big ol' blasting sounds coming every which way. ha ha Yeah I was just looking at the horizon watching all of them go off on from our balcony and it was so cool.Also, I don't know if I've ever told you this but our apartment is literally across the street from an army base. ...yeah. So we hear little explosions and gun shots quite frequently. It really freaked me out the first little bit here, but I'm getting used to it. Anywho...just a fun fact about where I live. Gotta love it.So New Years day our ward had a baptism!! It's the elders investigator named Yuma and he's great. It was seriously one of the coolest things. I'm so excited for him. Although kinda scary thing...so when he was going under the water...I think his feet slipped or something. Because...Anziano Lombardo had kind of a hard time getting him out of the water. So...it was almost awkward beyond belief but luckily he DID, in fact, come out of the water and seems to be fine! ha ha Yikes!We had an appointment with this awesome lady who's a member but isn't very active. She's really cool though. Her name's Carmen and she's Philippino (sp?) and she went ALL out on dinner! Mamma mia! But bless her heart she let us serve our own plates so everything was good--it's when THEY serve your plate FOR you, when you're in trouble. Her 20 year-old son came later in the dinner and Anziano Herrick was pulling out some of his magic tricks! ha ha OH man, it was so funny. He only taught me one, but they were dazzled. It was hilarious. And then one of the Philippino members that came with us brought out some magic tricks and he was hilarious because he's really shy but he was SO into his magic tricks. It was a good time.Well an update on our friend Toni: So he didn't come to church the day after we met him, and I asked Sorella Chevalier if we could call him Saturday (Jan 3) to invite him to church again. Well he didn't answer his phone and therefore didn't come to church on Sunday. HOWEVER he called us back Sunday night and was way excited to hear from us. We have Family Home Evening tonight in church and he said he was coming. I'm way excited. We have an awesome member named Dimma who's like 21 or something and is getting ready for a mission and we're hoping they'll be friends or something. ha ha Okay sorry if this sounds silly, but I don't know how it's going to work out but I'm excited.Well every thing's going swell here in Roma. I don't want to write too much because my last e-mail was ridiculously long I'm afraid. But every thing's good. We're working with some of our investigators and trying to help them progress. It's amazing how things come up and make it difficult for them to meet with us or to come to church, but we're working on it. They're awesome people and I'm excited to keep working with them. I hope you all had a safe and happy new year! Here I sit typing with purple fingers, and I read my family's e-mail where they're splashing around in 14 foot waves...ah...I'm just shaking my head...that's all. Christmas 2010 will be a warm one. ha ha
Lots of Italian love, Sorella Hansen