Book of Mormon Give-Away Comp, A Conversation about Jesus, Three Musketeers‏

Hello guys!
Well, another marvelous week. Is the weather as fickle in America as it is here? Oh my stars, one day it rains and is completely gloomykins and then the next...it's blazing hot! It's been completely nuts. I don't really know how to dress for the weather. Whatevs I guess. We finished our Book of Mormon competition as a district. After we won 4 days in a row they just called it off and told us they'd buy us the good fruit from their fruit stand as a prize. :) We've started over though and are having another go at it. It's been really fun to have a little competition that pushes us and has scored us some pretty bizzangin' contacts. No complaints!
We had an appointment with someone who stopped us on the street the other day and asked us if he could hear our message. He's Muslim and it was quite an interesting lesson. There are really strict rules about teaching Muslims so I had to talk to our mission president about it to make sure everything was cool. It was really interesting. It greatly increased my testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. He pretty much tried to use the bible to prove that Jesus was just a prophet and not the Son of God or...our redeemer. Yeah. We'll see if he calls us to see us again but...we won't be making the call. ha ha He was a nice guy but...I know that Jesus atoned for our sins. I know that. I know that He is an essential part of the Plan of Salvation. I know that. I find it kind of laughable that you're trying to use the Bible AGAINST Jesus. Really? It made me want to do some more studying from the Bible this morning about Jesus and yeah, lets just say my testimony remains unshaken on his stand point.
Let's talk about Josef!!! Have I mentioned that I kind of adore the fact that this man exists in my life?! We finally got him to come to church and he came for all three hours. He LOVED it! ha ha Oh it made me so happy. We've also tried really hard to bring a bunch of members to his appointments so when he came to church, he had a LOT of friends. It was rad. So I don't know what was taught in your priesthood sessions at home (I'm assuming it was the same lesson but I don't know if they did something a little different here...anyway) but apparently in priesthood they talked about how we all need to work together and have unity. Josef came up to me after the meeting and said, "It was beautiful! Practically what they said was, "All for one, and one for all"". ha ha He continued to ponder it and reflect throughout church and then in the end he came up to me again and he said, "It's beautiful. All for one and one for all. Like the Three Musketeers. Do you know who wrote that book? I'm absolutely sure that he must have known Joseph Smith." ha ha I have had a good laugh over that for the last couple of days. I have always enjoyed the three musketeers and now I know why. Apparently the author knew Joseph Smith. ha ha I love Josef. We have an appointment with him tonight. We're going to teach him the law of chastity. Should be splendid.
I hope everything's going beyond grand for you guys. Take care of yourselves. Be happy. And remember what the musketeers say, "all for one, and one for all!" ha ha aka...take care of each other. :) Roman love,
Sorella Hansen

Beautiful Baptism, Friendly District Competition, Taking care of your Cadillacs‏

Hey friends and family!
So we had a baptism on Saturday which was crazy cool. Her name's Fernanda and she's wonderful. It was much more eventful then we had been planning because, making a long story short, she didn't show up at 6...when her baptism was supposed to happen. Yeah. There was some last minute Satan being a jerk-face drama, but in the end some members went to her house, gave her a blessing, and got her to the church! By 7:20 she got all dressed up in her baptismal dress and she just looked so happy. I'm glad she was able to get over the problems that were going on because you could see that once she overcame them, that she was just filled with joy. It was beautiful. She gave her testimony afterwards and...ah...it was great. She really knows that the church is true. She bore testimony about how she doesn't feel alone anymore now that she's found the church. It was a stressful but absolutely beautiful day all at the same time.
A couple of the elders in our district have challenged us to an ol' fashioned "who can give out more Book of Mormons". (How many of you judged me about whether or not I correctly pluralized Book of Mormon?" Because...I just did) BUT we decided that there's no point in giving out Books of Mormon (changed it up, just to make sure that I'm right at least once) :) unless something comes out of it. So we are keeping track of how many we give away a day BUT it only counts if you get their phone number. So we've been working on our finding and so far we've gotten one everyday....and we're winning. shhh..
Yesterday one of our few appointments cancelled on us last minute and so...that left us with a whole afternoon of finding work on our hands. We did just about everything. Street, bus, metro, house, trenino....yup, we did an hour of one thing and then changed it up. It was about 8:00, we'd been working for hours and still no bites. Wouldn't ya know, on the way home a guy on the trenino looks at my Book of Mormon and decides to ask me about what it is and what we believe. Cha-ching! So we spent the whole train ride telling him about the restoration of the church and bearing testimony and we gave him a Book of Mormon (part 1) and were getting a lot of good feedback on his part. He was really into it. I had already asked for his phone number 2 different times when it came up during our ride and then when we were at the end of the line (his stop) I asked him one last time. And...he gave it to us! (part 2). His name's Marco and he's genuinely great! He happens to have a wife and two children. Italian family? Don't mind if I do!! Hopefully we'll be able to meet with him on Saturday. He said he was going to have to talk it over with his wife. So...we've been praying for her a lot lately. :)
And in closing, we taught my dear friend Josef about the word of wisdom this last week. This little guy is my favorite. Oh my stars I just want to introduce him to all of you. He's marvelous. He loves analogies and so it's good times preparing things for his lessons that will catch his attention and get him to apply the lessons that we're teaching. So my favorite word of wisdom analogy is starting by talking about a beautiful, expensive car and how the mechanic that made that car knows it in and out. He knows exactly how to take care of it so that it'll run well, last, and so you can enjoy it! We asked him what would happen if I just up and decided since I didn't have gas that I could just put some peanut butter in the gas tank instead. He gave quite the reaction and was like, "Oh no, you don't do that." ha ha And we talked about how God created our bodies and knows the ins and outs of how they work. The word of wisdom is an instruction manual for how to take care of them, make them last, and enjoy them! He loved it. However we got to a point when he said, "Well, I don't understand why I can't have a little bit of wine every now and then. If I'm not an alcoholic, why does it matter?" and I was like, "Would you put even a teaspoon of peanut butter in your Cadillac's gas tank?" He sat there quiet for a second and then said, "You're right. Are you sure this Smith wasn't a genius?" "No, Josef, he was a prophet." ha ha I love that man.
Well, I've got to scadaddle. Apparently we can get into the Colosseum for free today! Why would we not be all over an offer like that?! So we're gonna go check that out and then we have an appointment with a contact that we met on the train. He's a really cool guy from Congo named Victor. He's seen the missionaries around in Congo and wanted to talk to us about the church. So we'll be seeing him tonight. I hope that you guys are having a marvelous month of April. I think about ya (just the right amount) and pray that you're all doing well and are happy. Take care of yourselves. Roman kisses,
Sorella Hansen

Two Birds with One Stone, Meetin' our boy Gaetano, Last Zone Conference!?

Well Buon to the Giorno guys!
What a busy and crazy week. Last week for p-day we went to this never disappointing museum called Villa Borghese. (If I spelled that wrong, try not to judge me for being illiterate). It was gorgeous. There were so many breath-taking sculptures that I'd heard about and just seeing them in person was okay by me. I'm hardly an art guru but I can enjoy myself staring at a beautiful statue for a bit. Mmm Mmm...
Well there is just tons to tell. We did a little bit of my favorite finding. The ol' "Best Referral Ever" finding. Ah, it just makes me so happy doing it. So we said our prayer over the map and got 2 streets in common. We were headed to our first street and on the way there, there were 2 women and a little girl waiting at the bus stop who stopped us and asked what time it was. As we told them, one of the women was eyeing the Book of Mormon that my companion had in her hands. We found out that these women are from California and have been here for 2 months. Anywho, the rad part is that one of the women had lived in Utah for a bit and was starting to take the missionary discussions when they ended up moving to Rome--it happened really quick. She told us that she has been looking for the church here and wants to finish taking the discussions. We just bore our testimonies to her about how we know that she is so important and that God loves her. We told her that we'd prayed to know where to go and that God had led us to her. She knew that it was true and started crying. Oh my stars it was just beautiful. We gave all of them big hugs. BAH! I loved that moment because we were an answer to each others prayers. We were looking for people who want the gospel and will accept it. She was looking for our church. God just up and answered two prayers in one! I sometimes wonder if He smiles and feels proud of Himself when He does stuff like that.
Then on our second street we decided to mix things up a little bit doing house (because it can be a doozy if you don't think of a way to make it different) So...we decided at the doors, since we already knew that we were supposed to be there, that we'd just say, "Are you looking for the truth?" And if they said 'no', then it wasn't them that God sent us to. Nice right? So we did a couple of floors and we got to this 30 something year old guy and he told us 'yes'. Honestly, we had almost gone home for lunch and language study (because it was time) but both of us felt that we needed to finish the street and do the very last palazzo. Welp, his name is Gaetano. We set a return appointment with him and brought a member. We just taught him the first lesson but he loved it and will be coming to church and the baptism on Saturday.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we have a baptism on Saturday. It's a woman that they were working with before I got here but I've been able to help with her for a couple of weeks now and it's been really sweet. She has had some rough, "Satan is a jerk-face and is trying to rock my boat" moments in the past weeks so we've been working on keeping her strong. She's wonderful. I love her more and more every time we see her. Her name's Fernanda and she'll get baptized Saturday. Good times!!!
Also our awkward training at Zone Conference went a-okay. It was funny because when they announced that sister missionaries would be giving a training, everyone was kind of surprised. Sisters haven't ever given trainings at zone conference. It was a pretty cool experience I suppose. We just talked about working better with the members. I think that it went pretty well and that they got some new ideas. The worst part of the whole Zone Conference ordeal was the fact that I had to give my "dying testimony". Yuck. The cool part was that Sorella Swenson and Sorella Crandall are both in my zone so I got to hear theirs too. I love them. Anyway it was completely surreal and 100 percent awkward. I'd been so preoccupied with other things that I hadn't even thought about it. Pretty much it consisted of me shakin, kinda crying, and then sitting down afterwards. ha ha Nah, it went fine but I just felt that it was all too surreal. ANWAY, I gots to go because this e-mail is lengthy to say the least. I hope that everybody is of jolly good health and having a marvelous April. P.S. Why is it already April?! Welp, read your scriptures everyday because it turns out their completely wonderful and will change you life. Seriously, try it. And in closing, if you haven't read "pray always" by Anziano Bednar recently...you should give it a glance. He gave that talk in October 2008. I read it this morning and it completely rocked my socks. I love prayer. Anywho, be good examples and be happy because l love you.
Sorella Hansen

General Conference back at Rome 1, Josef loving Pres. Monson, Bonding with the Danish‏

Sorella Hansen and Diana - A convert from when Mallory was first serving in Roma 1

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Well we really had quite the week! There's so much to say and I don't know what is of more value for you to hear so...I'll just blurt some stuff out that comes to my head and err...just skip over it if it's boring you out of your minds k? So General Conference this weekend official rocked my socks! How rad is modern day revelation? Really now, how can you NOT love all of their amazing counsel. They're just marvelous. It was actually really cool because we got to go to the Rome 1 building (where I started the mission) to watch all of the sessions. So I got to see all of the members and our new convert Diana. It was a really really rewarding experience and it was such a blessing for me to be able to see that I was remembered and that I did make a difference at the beginning of the mission even if I didn't speak the language like a champ. So many people came and said hi and we took pictures together. Ah, it's an amazing ward. I had forgotten how much I love and miss them.Our investigator Josef came to conference. He's our investigator that comes from Ethiopia and he is seriously, ridiculously wonderful. He was actually invited by the Vatican to go Saturday night at 6 p.m. until Sunday at 6 a.m. for a special...I dunno..meeting for Ethiopians. Anyway, he said that they've been inviting him for years so he decided that this year he'd go. Welp, he came to the session that was broadcast at 6:00 p.m. Sunday night here and he LOVED it. He adored President Monson. He said that he had spend over an hour listening to, supposedly, the best speaker/priest at his meeting at the Vatican. But he said that President Monson said what that man had said, but with more simplicity, clarity and heart...and he did it in 20 minutes. He kept saying, "That man has a gift." We were like, "Yeah Joseph. He's the prophet." ha ha It was really cool that he made the effort to come and that he really enjoyed the talks. They made him think and he felt something special. Bam!! We got to the area for General Conference a little bit early so we decided to rock a little metro. We got on at the end of the line were going to ride it half-way and then come back. Anyway I started talking to this killer cool guy named Giovanni. He commented on my last name and I told him it was Danish. He was like, "Really? My mom's Danish." And somehow we started a grand ol' conversion all because I have a Danish last name. Anyway he was crazy cool. He is married and has 3 children and he was genuinely interested when I talked to him about the restoration. So he didn't give me his number (I asked) but he took a pamphlet with my number and...whammy! 1 hour after we talked on the metro he called me!! He just wanted to thank me for the conversation that we had on the metro because he said that it's rare to have genuine conversations these days. So the downside is that he's probably not in my area but the point is that he and his beautiful Italian family needs the gospel. I talked to him for a little bit this morning on the phone but the phone cut out and I wasn't able to get a hold of him again yet. So hopefully something slamming happens! I got a question about what this area of Rome is like. Honestly, it's not postcard Rome--though that is only 45 minutes away. Honestly I kind of forget that I'm in Rome sometimes because it just feels like a big city. But then I bump into someone and they say "scusa" or I hear Italians yelling at each other across the street and I just smile and know exactly where I am. We're going to do some good ol' sightseeing today and it should be a solid good time. There's a woman named Fernanda that we're preparing for baptism and she's been having some rough times lately so we're going to bring her some joy and spirit...which never did anything less then please so...should be grand. Welp, I think I have rambled for long enough! I love you guys oodles I hope that you know. Be happy and love your lives because they're beautiful. Lots of love,
Sorella Hansen