Transfer calls!, Sergio, 16 turtles‏

Well happy...Nine months in the mission to me! It's so crazy that I've been out nine months. I still feel like a little kid in the mission in some senses. But in reference to where I started I can see that I've grown and gotten better. But perhaps I just started at such an awkward level to begin with. ha ha I can't decide if the mission's going fast or slow. Time is just a different thing here. Days don't really mean anything. Every day is just a day where the forecast is work! Sometimes I laugh about it being Friday or something because to everyone around me, that means something...but in these days, it's just another day to go out and get some work done. I've really learned so much from my first nine months and have oodles left to learn. I'm happy to be here. It's where I'm supposed to be and I'm very grateful for the opportunity.SO...transfers. Oh dear I'm kind of stressed out to the max but I'm trying to be cool. So usually we find out what will happen for transfers on Monday and then on Thursday is when you go to Rome and make the change from your old companion to your new companion. Sardegna has always been a little different because everyone who gets transfered on the island has to leave Wednesday night in order to get to Rome on time Thursday. So we get one less day with the news--to say goodbye to people, take pics, exchange addresses, and have our last appointments with our investigators. This transfer President Acerson decided to change things. He decided to tell the whole mission on WEDNESDAY what's going to happen for transfers. So...it's 11:00 a.m. here and we still haven't heard anything about transfers but, for instance, if my companion or I have to leave, we have to get all of our stuff packed by like 5:00 TONIGHT and get on a train. AH! So...I would love to tell you if I'm still going to be here next transfer or if I'm getting a new companion...but I have no clue. I don't know if I'll be sleeping in Cagliari tonight...niente. SO...Next week? ha haOn to something of greater importance: Our appointment with Sergio last Wednesday went great! I asked him why he let us in to his house the first time and he said that he'd heard only good things about our religion and wanted to know more. But the thing that killed me was he said that he's looking for the truth! I feel like he's going to write his own article in the Ensign some day. He has so many questions but they're all really interesting and show that he really thinks about these kinds of things.ALSO we had an appointment with Roberta. We asked her if she'd prayed about a baptismal date and she gave us a not direct answer. She said that sometimes she wants to be baptized. One thing that was pretty huge is she said that she went to some event or something in the catholic church and she said that she missed our church. We talked to her about the law of chastity. I was slightly nervous about it because she's a young girl and it just had potential to be slightly awkward with the language barrier and other factors. But it actually went really well and she even asked us some questions!--which was grand because I seriously worried she'd be uncomfortable and quiet the whole time so...success!! We talked to her about how she's feeling about being baptized and she said that she just needs to be sure. We bore our testimonies about how important the little things are in a testimony. That she really needs to be reading her scriptures and praying and it will help her receive her answer.On Sunday we went to track down a woman in our area book who is a former investigator but also an English class student. So...we just showed up to her house! ha ha She let us right in and we read some scriptures with her and as we were about to leave she said, "Do you want to see my garden?" I know it's weird but I just couldn't resist! I just find all of these cute little Italian gardens adorable! So...we went out and it was huge! She was walking around in an interesting way, pushing away leaves as if she was looking for something on the ground. She started pointing to something and it was a turtle! They were everywhere! She has 3 big ones that aren't penned off, and they're the ones that lay the eggs and stuff and then she has 13--I kid you not---that are penned off! I just died laughing. I mean really, I had no idea when I woke up that morning that I would run across 16 turtles just kicking it in our former investigators backyard. So she let us take a couple of pictures with them because...how often to you get to mix and mingle a woman who has her own land of turtles in her backyard. Good thing she's adorable.Well, I'll wrap it up there for this week. In case you were wondering....still no transfer calls...not even since I've been writing this e'mail. ha ha Oh my life. Well I love you all. The Italian people are just the ticket. (What I mean by that is...I love them.) I hope you're all healthy, happy, and saying your prayers. Love from Cagliari! Sorella Hansen

~~ Alright avid readers, it's that time again... Time to leave some 'Happy 1/2 way' comments for our favorite sorella! She loves to hear from you, let's make her day!~~