October 21, 2008

Ciao, Tutti!

Come va? Life here is still great! I'm getting super excited to get to Italy! And a little nervous. But mostly excited. To answer your question about Pday, we do laundry in the morning, which is when we have time to write letters and email. Then we have personal study, then lunch, then the Temple, then companionship study, then we have about half an hour left of pday to get whatever done that we need to, then dinner, then our General Authority devotional. So we don't have a lot of time to get things done.Speaking of General Authority devotionals, last week was amazing! Elder Richard G. Scott came. He taught us things that he had learned from the Spirit. It was incredible! To listen to an Apostle of our Savior Jesus Christ teach us what he's learned from the Holy Ghost. Wow! He was really funny and personable, too. One of my favorite things he taught us was when he said, "Faith, prayer, love and humility hold no great significance and produce no miracles until they become a living part of the individual." Those are all abstract terms and can be hard to define, but we need to make them real in our lives. They need to become a very real part of us, and I know that as that happens, miracles will occur. It's amazing the miracles I've witnessed as a missionary, and I'm not even in Italy yet! At the end of his talk, he bore a very powerful testimony. He then said that he would like to give everyone the opportunity to shake his hand. So after the devotional, he stood there for hours shaking every single missionary's hand. It was so powerful! I couldn't help but think of Jesus Christ, who let all of the Nephites touch his hands and his sides. When he shook my hand, he looked me in the eyes and said, "What a sweet, lovely sister." It was an amazing experience that I'll forever treasure.Yesterday in the TRC (the place where we practice teach) I had a great experience. We completely didn't teach anything we had prepared, but let ourselves be led by the Spirit, and I felt like we really met the needs of our investigator. It was a great feeling! During the lesson, when my companion was talking, I pictured myself teaching a real family in Italy, and I got so excited! I can't believe in only 2 weeks I'll be teaching real people with real problems. Elder Scott also told us about missionary work, and what a privilege it is to help people. He said that we will meet people who need the healing power of the Atonement, and I'll be able to bring them the Master Physician. What a sacred opportunity this is.During one of our meetings last week, the speaker talked about making the most of every single moment of our missions. He told us the story of an elder who was waiting for his departure interview at the mission home his last day of his mission, and decided to go out tracting instead of just sitting around. He and one of the assistants to the president went out, and he later found out that one person they met ended up getting baptized. So Sorella Leckie and I made a committment to each other that on our last day while we're waiting to meet with the mission president, instead of sitting around the mission home visiting with others, we will go out tracting. I don't know if we'll end up meeting someone who will get baptized, but I want to honestly be able to say that I worked every minute of my mission and never missed an opportunity to share this message with someone who might need it.We got a new Italian district last week! We got 6 new sisters who are all coming to Rome, and 8 elders, all going to Milan except one. They're awesome! I got to give the sisters their orientation. Our Italian zone now has 41 missionaries in it! It's great! They all decided that I'm the zone mom. Apparently I'm bossy. Who knew? They also said that they can tell I was a teacher. But they also said that I take care of everyone, so that's good. It's really funny- any time the elders get a letter from someone, or have a story to tell, they always come find me to tell me. They say that it makes it easier to be away from their moms with me around.Thanks for all your love and prayers! I love you all so much. I know this Church is true with all of my heart, and I'm so grateful to have the fulness of the restored gospel. I'm so blessed to know our Heavenly Father's plan for us, and I can't wait to help others find the same joy.

Vi voglio bene, tutti!
Sorella Hawkey