November 26, 2008

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