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