October 14, 2008

Ciao!
How are you all doing? First of all, you're still all slacking off in the letter department. Boys, you can use dearelder.com and write me every day! Just something to think about. Mom, could you do me a favor? Could you buy a copy of the DVD for the Priesthood session of conference when it comes out? All the elders in my district sang at it, and I got to hear one of the songs, but I want to hear the rest and see them sing!

Thanks for the package! I love the blazer and the goodies. The elders especially love the goodies, though they were disappointed there wasn't a dog treat this time. This week we have a new district coming in! We get 6 new sisters, all going to Rome!!! We're super excited. I get to do the orientation for the sisters since I'm the Relief Society leader. We also have 2 birthdays in our zone this week. We had one yesterday, and one Saturday. My companion and I are having a lot of fun planning little surprises for them and making their birthdays special.

Every Friday night we have gym last thing, so we have an extra half hour to get ready for bed. So all of the sisters in my district have an ice cream party (with ice cream from the vending machines) and sing musicals in the showers at the top of our lungs. It's a pretty exciting Friday night!So embarassing story of the week....we got the elder who had a birthday yesterday a book that he wanted. We put it in the room across the hall from our classroom and had the elders go over there a few at a time to sign it. There was only one elder who hadn't signed it, and so I was trying to subtly tell him that he should go across the hall with 2 other elders who "needed his help." But it didn't quite come out that way! I accidentally said, "Elder, you wanna go in the other room?" and it totally sounded like I was inviting him to go with me! Everyone in my district got super quiet and just stared at me!!! So I had to hurry and clarify that I was not in fact flirting with the elders. To make matters worse, my branch presidency heard it all!Another funny story- my companion and I were saying prayer to start off our planning session, and during the prayer I accidentally said something totally wrong in Italian. So I kind of started giggling, which made my companion laugh, which made me laugh harder, and so on... Then all the elders were talking about us and wondering why we were laughing uncontrollably during prayer, which made us laugh harder. Then one of the elders said, "Maybe the Spirit told them a joke!" It was hilarious!

On Mondays we do our practice lessons in the "living room" settings. We're getting much better at teaching in Italian! We can actually get through a lesson without too many grammar mistakes, and for the most part I think our pretend investigators understand us.For Relief Society, we usually get members of the general Relief Society, Primary our Young Women's board to speak to us. Last week we got to hear Sister Johnson from the RS Board. She gave an amazing lesson on giving our all during our missions, and how we will be sustained by angels. I have a strong testimony of angels and I know they attend us far more than we will ever know. The Lord especially looks out for His missionaries, since none of the things we do are for ourselves. I love the story in 2 Kings 6, when Elisha and his servant see that their city is surrounded by their enemy. But Elisha tells his servant not to worry, because they have more on their side than they do against them. The servant was probably thinking something along the lines of, "It's me and you here against an entire army of our enemies!" But then Elisha prays that his servant's eyes will be opened, and he was able to see chariots of angels surrounding them. I know angels are always with us. I loved President Holland's talk about angels, both the heavenly and the earthly kind. I know that when I give my all and feel like I have no more energy to give, I am sustained and uplifted. I wish all of you could experience the miracles that come during a mission- words don't do it justice at all! I'm so grateful to be here and to serve my Savior.

I'm getting so excited to go to Italy, 3 weeks from today!!!!!!I love you all so much!
Sorella Hawkey