Ciao!
How are you all doing? It sounds like you're all good. Keep the letters coming. They mean a lot! Happy Thanksgiving! I've changed my mind and decided that you all can in fact have fun without me, as long as you all realize the hole left by my absence. We are having a Thanksgiving lunch as a district. The elders are cooking, so it could be interesting. But I hope you all have a great time!!!First of all, I've received lots of questions from people, so I'll try to answer them all. For Pday, we can travel in our zone, which is pretty big, so there's tons of cool things to see. Pisa is too far, but we drive through there to get to Florence, so I've seen the tower very briefly. We didn't go to Cinque Terre last week. We were waiting for the elders, who took forever, and missed the train. So this week we're going with or without them. Last week we went to the naval museum, though, which was cool. Dad would love it!The train ride from Rome to La Spezia was just a normal train ride. A family in the branch picked us up and took us to our apartment. There were several missionaries coming up north from Rome, but Sister Jones and I went the farthest. We buy groceries weekly. Things are about the same price as in America. You can get really good pizza for 2 euro. We go every Monday after our district devotional. I love the pizza margherita, and nutella pizza for dessert!Other answers to questions: it's kinda cold here. It's about 9 or 10 degrees every day, celsius, and I have no idea what that is in farenheit. The markets are really cute and have fresh fish that they catch every morning and lots of fresh fruits and veggies. The bread and pasta is amazing! Liguria, the region La Spezia is in, is known for focaccia, which is incredible! The city is overall very clean and nice. I had a little trouble with jet lag, but not too bad. The people are so friendly! And everyone says this is one of the least friendly regions in Italy, so I can only imagine what people other places are like. Most of them have little desire to hear our message, but right after rejecting us, they invite us in and ask if we want food or anything. We go to the park a lot to talk to people, and everyone loves to talk to us! By the end of the conversation, we know their whole life story. The people are wonderful!The portion sizes for food are huge!!! We've eaten at a members homes, and before you even finish 3 bites, they've loaded your plate with more. They also have usually at least 2 courses, each of which is a huge meal in and of itself. We definitely do not go hungry here. Most people get around on busses or walking. Everyone greets each other by kissing each other's cheeks. Everyone has cell phones. We use euro here, but I don't know what the exchange rate is. I think that's all the questions I've receive. Sorry if I missed any!This week has been great! I don't remember if I told you this already, but we go to Tai Chi every week. A nonmember uses the church building to teach a class, so the branch president asked if a set of missionaries would come every time. So we go every Tuesday night, and sometimes have investigators there. It's really fun! I'm pretty sure the instructor thinks I'm retarded, though. He speaks really fast and uses a bunch of words I don't know. He comes around and gives everyone individual feedback, and I just give him a blank stare, because I have no idea what he's telling me. Poor guy!I absolutely love La Spezia! The more I get to know the city, the more I love it! You would all love it too! I can't wait to bring you back someday. Dad, you would love the naval base and the cargo ships. I can also picture you liking the bus system here, and within 30 minutes figuring out where every bus goes and where all the stops are. You would also love the pizza margherita! We get some every Monday, and I want to take you to the little pizza shop we go to someday. They love missionaries! Mom, you would love how quaint the city is. You would also love the focaccia, which is amazing, and the little pastry shop by our house, which is also amazing! Kyle, you would love how the old people dress. All the old men wear nice slacks, a button up shirt, and a little hat and a trench coat. All the little old ladies always wear skirts and a nice blouse and pumps. They're really fashionable old people here! I love it! Most of the ladies dress cuter than me! (which I guess isn't too hard in sister missionary clothes) You would also love that I've only seen 2 obese people here. And you can talk about people right in front of them and they have no idea, cuz they don't speak english. It's kinda fun! Bryce, you would love the elevators here. And by that, I mean you would hate them, but I always think of you when I use them! They're kinda scary, so you would probably have a heart attack in them. The elevator shaft is a little cage, and you have to manually open the doors. They're really ghetto. You would also love this one corner in town. It's right in downtown, and there's an outhouse just chillin on the corner. It's a nicer one that has a flushing toilet, but still...It's a toilet on the corner like it's no big deal. It's kinda funny. Gizmo and Bella, you would love that everyone has dogs here. Everyone takes their dogs with them everywhere. You would make lots of friends here. Most of them have little doggy rain coats, too, for when it rains.The work is going well. Geni decided that she prayed and got an answer to stay Catholic. But she said she would still let us visit sometimes. We've had tons of appointments cancel on us, so we've been doing lots of finding work. Last night doing house, someone yelled at us, and said "I'm communist! I don't want to hear about religion!" It was funny! We've met some awesome people, though. We met a guy named Clement at Sandra's store. He came in and immediately asked us who we were. We ended up giving him a first lesson, and he kept saying that he really really wants a Book of Mormon. He's from Nigeria, and speaks english, and unfortunately we only had an Italian one with us, but the elders are meeting with him tonight. He's so cool!Joanna is doing great! She wasn't able to come to church last week, but she loves meeting with us and does all her reading. She loved the Plan of Salvation so much! She was so excited about it! She said she hasn't gotten an answer to her prayers yet, though, but she's still praying. We would love extra prayers for her to get an answer, if you want to!Last week we went to visit an older lady in the branch named Sister Nardi. She's pretty much the cutest lady ever! She lives in San Terenzo, which is gorgeous! Look up pictures online. Her mom was there, who is 99 years old. I don't think she's completely there. During our lesson, she kept yelling out things like "I'm 99 years old!" "Did you know I'm 99 years old?" "I'm 99 years old, and I've never been sick in my life." It was really funny.I love you all so much and hope you know you're in my prayers.
Love,Sorella Hawkey
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
November 20, 2008
Hi,
So I just wrote a really long email, and it got lost, so I'll try again, but this will probably be shorter because I'm almost out of time. Sorry! This week we have pday on Thursday because we had zone conference yesterday, with Elders Robert C. Oaks and Gerald Causse. They are in the area presidency and are touring our mission right now. It was really good!Mom, how was your birthday? How was yours, Gizmo? How's Rosie handling Obama being president?We had our first Sunday in the branch last week. Everyone is wonderful! We have about 50 active members who are great! Last week was the primary program. There are 5 kids in the primary, and all of them speak better than me! Oh well!We teach english class on Thursday nights. Sister Jones and I teach the beginners class and have about 15 students who are awesome! We also go to tai chi every week, and play basketball every week. A bunch of nonmembers do both of those activities at the church building, and the branch president asked the missionaries to go to talk to them. It's pretty fun!I only have a few minutes left, so I'll just share one quick experience. Friday night we had tons of appointments scheduled, and every single one of them fell through. It was super frustrating, because we had so many people we wanted to teach. All of our back up plans didn't go through either. So we were standing there trying to figure out what to do, and all of the sudden my companion said that we needed to go to this certain part of town and do house. So we get up there, and no one wants to talk to us! It was kinda frustrating, because it was cold, and we were going on 6 hours of working hard with absolutely no success. We had one house left on the street before it was time to go home. We knocked on the door, and a wonderful woman named Joanna answered. She had a little boy with her, and we shared a message about the family and gave her the Proclamation. Before we had the chance to ask if we could come back, she asked us! We came back the next day and taught her a lesson, and she again asked us if we could come back, before we had the chance. It was awesome!I'm out of time, but I love you all. I'll write more next week that hopefully doesn't get lost.
Sorella Hawkey
So I just wrote a really long email, and it got lost, so I'll try again, but this will probably be shorter because I'm almost out of time. Sorry! This week we have pday on Thursday because we had zone conference yesterday, with Elders Robert C. Oaks and Gerald Causse. They are in the area presidency and are touring our mission right now. It was really good!Mom, how was your birthday? How was yours, Gizmo? How's Rosie handling Obama being president?We had our first Sunday in the branch last week. Everyone is wonderful! We have about 50 active members who are great! Last week was the primary program. There are 5 kids in the primary, and all of them speak better than me! Oh well!We teach english class on Thursday nights. Sister Jones and I teach the beginners class and have about 15 students who are awesome! We also go to tai chi every week, and play basketball every week. A bunch of nonmembers do both of those activities at the church building, and the branch president asked the missionaries to go to talk to them. It's pretty fun!I only have a few minutes left, so I'll just share one quick experience. Friday night we had tons of appointments scheduled, and every single one of them fell through. It was super frustrating, because we had so many people we wanted to teach. All of our back up plans didn't go through either. So we were standing there trying to figure out what to do, and all of the sudden my companion said that we needed to go to this certain part of town and do house. So we get up there, and no one wants to talk to us! It was kinda frustrating, because it was cold, and we were going on 6 hours of working hard with absolutely no success. We had one house left on the street before it was time to go home. We knocked on the door, and a wonderful woman named Joanna answered. She had a little boy with her, and we shared a message about the family and gave her the Proclamation. Before we had the chance to ask if we could come back, she asked us! We came back the next day and taught her a lesson, and she again asked us if we could come back, before we had the chance. It was awesome!I'm out of time, but I love you all. I'll write more next week that hopefully doesn't get lost.
Sorella Hawkey
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
November 12, 2008
Hello family,
So my pday is on Wednesday, so I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to write sooner! But La Spezia is amazing!!!! It's a gorgeous little city! President Acerson said it's his favorite in the mission. We live about a block away from the pier, where we go running every morning. It's a beautiful view of the ocean, and the mountains are only a couple blocks away in the other direction. There are tons of little fishing boats, where little old men go fishing every morning and then sell their fish at the market, which is also by our house. There's also an older man who sits a couple blocks away and plays the accordian throughout the day. It's amazing here!So here's what I've done so far. We had 26 hours of travel from Provo to Rome, which was pretty uneventful. But as soon as we got to Roma, it got exciting! The Acersons and the APs picked us up and we went straight to get pizza! Yummy! Then we went to St. Pauls, which was gorgeous! We stopped really quick at the Colosseum on the way to the mission home, then we had interviews and dinner and finally got to sleep. The next morning we had some training meetings, then got to see the Temple sight. It's gorgeous! It's 15 acres, and will have a stake center, the Temple, and a hotel type building for people to stay at. It can be seen from the main highways, too. It's so amazing because in Italy you're not allowed to build anything if there are artifacts or ruins under the ground. In the whole 15 acres, there's not a single artifact, but only 100 feet away there are tons of ruins. Amazing!After that, we had lunch at the mission home with all of our trainers, but no one except the President knew who was training who. After lunch the trainers had a meeting, and us greenies had a meeting, then we had golden transfers. We took turns going up front, and opening our envelope that would tell us who was our trainer and where we were going, then our trainer came up and we took pictures pointing on the map to our city. It was so fun! We then took a 5 hour train ride up here, and I taught my first real lesson! We talked to a guy about the Book of Mormon, and gave him one. It was a great experience to actually understand most of the conversation and to be actually talking to real people instead of the pretend situations at the MTC.We got blown into La Spezia, which means that neither of us had ever served here before, so Sorella Jones and I have gotten lost numerous times, but we're getting to know the city pretty well and have met most of our investigators already.My first encounter with anyone from La Spezia was with our neighbor, who very clearly hates the missionaries! We were walking out of our apartment the first morning, and she stopped us and started yelling at us. That was one time when I was grateful that I didn't understand the conversation. Needless to say, between that and a few other experiences, I've already learned all the bad words in Italian by having them yelled at me. The joys of being a missionary! Also, on Monday all the busses were on strike, and we had appointments all over the city, so we walked, and walked, and walked....And it was raining!This past weekend, we actually had district conference instead of regular church. We are in the Florence district, so we had the opportunity to go to Florence this weekend! It is gorgeous!!! That's where our zone conferences are, too, so we get to go back next week. Today we're going to try to go to Cinque Terre if it's not raining. I don't think we'll ever get bored on Pdays here! Cinque Terre is one of the places I ALWAYS have wanted to go to, and I was so excited when I found out it is in the Roma mission! And even more excited when I found out it is 15 minutes away from where I live!So, onto the best part, the people we're working with. Our first appointment was in Spanish, which I understand even less than I do Italian. It's been an eventful first week needless to say! But she's the sister of one of the elder's investigators, so the elders came with us. (There are 4 elders here, and us 2 sisters) Her name is Mary, and her brother is Gustavo. They are a hilarious family! Theres about 8 of them I think. They kept walking in and out, so I don't actually know exactly how many people there are. But it was a hilarious lesson. We taught an entire lesson, but no one actually stayed for more than about 2 minutes at a time, and there was usually only 1 or 2 people there listening at a time. They just kind of come in and out as they feel like it. We're trying to think of ways to keep their attention, but haven't yet thought of anything. The elders said that's how it always is. Mary is awesome, though, and taught me a few new Italian phrases!Another amazing experience! We were doing casa (tracting) the other night, which is an interesting experience. There aren't really any houses, just apartment complexes here. So you have to try to get in by using the citofono (intercom thing). Then on the off chance that someone actually lets us in, we then have to go knock on their door. So anyways, we're doing casa, and a lady, Antonina, let us in the main palazzo entrance because she thought it was her son that rang that citofono. So we get at her door, and she's surprised to see that we're missionaries and not her son. But she said "Oh! You're the Mormon missionaries! Come in! I knew a missionary about 20 years ago, and he impressed me, so you two have to be great!" She let us in and let us teach her a lesson just because of the impression that one elder made 20 years ago. As we were talking, she remembered that she had a Book of Mormon, and she found it and brought it out. There was also a card from that missionary in it. She told us that recently she's been thinking about life and she really wants to find answers. She was really excited about the Book of Mormon and promised to read parts from it and pray about it. It was such an incredible experience!Which reminds me. We want to find that missionary. Kyle, is there any way you can try to find him? His last name is Bernardi and his first name starts with a J. He served here about 23 years ago. We really want to find him if at all possible. I know there are some mission websites, I think mission.net that have names and contact info for people who have served missions.We also met our branch president this week, who is incredible! He owns a little book and office supply shop, and is wonderful! He is so loving and kind, and so involved in missionary work! I'm excited to be able to work with him and get to know him more. The elders told us an awesome story about him. They said that he doesn't have a car, because he and his family decided to save their money instead so that they can go to the Temple every year. What an amazing sacrifice that is! And what a blessing it will be to have a Temple in Roma soon.Another investigator is Sandra, who is amazing! She owns a little market in downtown La Spezia. She is from Nigeria, and is so incredibly passionate about life and so loving! We went to visit her at her shop last night, and she sang about 10 gospel songs from Nigeria. She's awesome! I'm excited to work with her more.Another investigator is Geni. She has had a very hard life. She's in her early 60s and is so blunt. Yesterday we taught her a lesson, and she was amazed with everything we taught her. She kept saying that the things we taught answered so many questions she's had, and she was so excited to pray to know the truth. She's very opinionated and not afraid to share her opinion! As most Italians are, I'm finding. In the middle of our lesson, she just got up and said that it was time for us to go and asked me to say the prayer. It was hilarious. I love how the Italians are not afraid to say what's on their mind.That leads me to my favorite investigator, Rita. She's 18 and amazing! She's the daughter of one of the elder's investigators. The elders have been working with the dad for awhile, andl ately she's shown interest, so the elders took us over last night to meet her. Her and her dad have also had an incredibly difficult life. They opened up to us so much last night, and had so many questions that they want us to come back to answer for them. They are amazing! I think Rita and I are going to become great friends. She's so wonderful. She wants to help me with my Italian, and she is so encouraging when I try to speak.I love you all so much! Thanks for your prayers and your emails. I'm loving it here. It's very difficult, especially not understanding alot of the language, and the rain, but I know that the Lord is with me always. He has already helped me so much! I'm so grateful to be here!!!!!
Love you all!Sorella Hawkey
So my pday is on Wednesday, so I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to write sooner! But La Spezia is amazing!!!! It's a gorgeous little city! President Acerson said it's his favorite in the mission. We live about a block away from the pier, where we go running every morning. It's a beautiful view of the ocean, and the mountains are only a couple blocks away in the other direction. There are tons of little fishing boats, where little old men go fishing every morning and then sell their fish at the market, which is also by our house. There's also an older man who sits a couple blocks away and plays the accordian throughout the day. It's amazing here!So here's what I've done so far. We had 26 hours of travel from Provo to Rome, which was pretty uneventful. But as soon as we got to Roma, it got exciting! The Acersons and the APs picked us up and we went straight to get pizza! Yummy! Then we went to St. Pauls, which was gorgeous! We stopped really quick at the Colosseum on the way to the mission home, then we had interviews and dinner and finally got to sleep. The next morning we had some training meetings, then got to see the Temple sight. It's gorgeous! It's 15 acres, and will have a stake center, the Temple, and a hotel type building for people to stay at. It can be seen from the main highways, too. It's so amazing because in Italy you're not allowed to build anything if there are artifacts or ruins under the ground. In the whole 15 acres, there's not a single artifact, but only 100 feet away there are tons of ruins. Amazing!After that, we had lunch at the mission home with all of our trainers, but no one except the President knew who was training who. After lunch the trainers had a meeting, and us greenies had a meeting, then we had golden transfers. We took turns going up front, and opening our envelope that would tell us who was our trainer and where we were going, then our trainer came up and we took pictures pointing on the map to our city. It was so fun! We then took a 5 hour train ride up here, and I taught my first real lesson! We talked to a guy about the Book of Mormon, and gave him one. It was a great experience to actually understand most of the conversation and to be actually talking to real people instead of the pretend situations at the MTC.We got blown into La Spezia, which means that neither of us had ever served here before, so Sorella Jones and I have gotten lost numerous times, but we're getting to know the city pretty well and have met most of our investigators already.My first encounter with anyone from La Spezia was with our neighbor, who very clearly hates the missionaries! We were walking out of our apartment the first morning, and she stopped us and started yelling at us. That was one time when I was grateful that I didn't understand the conversation. Needless to say, between that and a few other experiences, I've already learned all the bad words in Italian by having them yelled at me. The joys of being a missionary! Also, on Monday all the busses were on strike, and we had appointments all over the city, so we walked, and walked, and walked....And it was raining!This past weekend, we actually had district conference instead of regular church. We are in the Florence district, so we had the opportunity to go to Florence this weekend! It is gorgeous!!! That's where our zone conferences are, too, so we get to go back next week. Today we're going to try to go to Cinque Terre if it's not raining. I don't think we'll ever get bored on Pdays here! Cinque Terre is one of the places I ALWAYS have wanted to go to, and I was so excited when I found out it is in the Roma mission! And even more excited when I found out it is 15 minutes away from where I live!So, onto the best part, the people we're working with. Our first appointment was in Spanish, which I understand even less than I do Italian. It's been an eventful first week needless to say! But she's the sister of one of the elder's investigators, so the elders came with us. (There are 4 elders here, and us 2 sisters) Her name is Mary, and her brother is Gustavo. They are a hilarious family! Theres about 8 of them I think. They kept walking in and out, so I don't actually know exactly how many people there are. But it was a hilarious lesson. We taught an entire lesson, but no one actually stayed for more than about 2 minutes at a time, and there was usually only 1 or 2 people there listening at a time. They just kind of come in and out as they feel like it. We're trying to think of ways to keep their attention, but haven't yet thought of anything. The elders said that's how it always is. Mary is awesome, though, and taught me a few new Italian phrases!Another amazing experience! We were doing casa (tracting) the other night, which is an interesting experience. There aren't really any houses, just apartment complexes here. So you have to try to get in by using the citofono (intercom thing). Then on the off chance that someone actually lets us in, we then have to go knock on their door. So anyways, we're doing casa, and a lady, Antonina, let us in the main palazzo entrance because she thought it was her son that rang that citofono. So we get at her door, and she's surprised to see that we're missionaries and not her son. But she said "Oh! You're the Mormon missionaries! Come in! I knew a missionary about 20 years ago, and he impressed me, so you two have to be great!" She let us in and let us teach her a lesson just because of the impression that one elder made 20 years ago. As we were talking, she remembered that she had a Book of Mormon, and she found it and brought it out. There was also a card from that missionary in it. She told us that recently she's been thinking about life and she really wants to find answers. She was really excited about the Book of Mormon and promised to read parts from it and pray about it. It was such an incredible experience!Which reminds me. We want to find that missionary. Kyle, is there any way you can try to find him? His last name is Bernardi and his first name starts with a J. He served here about 23 years ago. We really want to find him if at all possible. I know there are some mission websites, I think mission.net that have names and contact info for people who have served missions.We also met our branch president this week, who is incredible! He owns a little book and office supply shop, and is wonderful! He is so loving and kind, and so involved in missionary work! I'm excited to be able to work with him and get to know him more. The elders told us an awesome story about him. They said that he doesn't have a car, because he and his family decided to save their money instead so that they can go to the Temple every year. What an amazing sacrifice that is! And what a blessing it will be to have a Temple in Roma soon.Another investigator is Sandra, who is amazing! She owns a little market in downtown La Spezia. She is from Nigeria, and is so incredibly passionate about life and so loving! We went to visit her at her shop last night, and she sang about 10 gospel songs from Nigeria. She's awesome! I'm excited to work with her more.Another investigator is Geni. She has had a very hard life. She's in her early 60s and is so blunt. Yesterday we taught her a lesson, and she was amazed with everything we taught her. She kept saying that the things we taught answered so many questions she's had, and she was so excited to pray to know the truth. She's very opinionated and not afraid to share her opinion! As most Italians are, I'm finding. In the middle of our lesson, she just got up and said that it was time for us to go and asked me to say the prayer. It was hilarious. I love how the Italians are not afraid to say what's on their mind.That leads me to my favorite investigator, Rita. She's 18 and amazing! She's the daughter of one of the elder's investigators. The elders have been working with the dad for awhile, andl ately she's shown interest, so the elders took us over last night to meet her. Her and her dad have also had an incredibly difficult life. They opened up to us so much last night, and had so many questions that they want us to come back to answer for them. They are amazing! I think Rita and I are going to become great friends. She's so wonderful. She wants to help me with my Italian, and she is so encouraging when I try to speak.I love you all so much! Thanks for your prayers and your emails. I'm loving it here. It's very difficult, especially not understanding alot of the language, and the rain, but I know that the Lord is with me always. He has already helped me so much! I'm so grateful to be here!!!!!
Love you all!Sorella Hawkey
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