December 17, 2008

Hi everyone-

How are you all doing? Bryce, be careful around fire, please! Mom, did you ever have the chance to get a DVD of Priesthood session of this past conference? I want to see all the elders sing! Also, do you print my letters? There are some things I don't write in my journal, because I know I'll write to you guys, so I just want to make sure they're being kept somehow. Thanks! Also, no one has yet answered my question about giving away a Book of Mormon. Do you guys even read my letters???This week is transfer week, and our whole district is staying the same. Transfers are tomorrow. They're on Thursdays every six weeks. We get the call Monday morning during DDM, our district meetings. We're excited that everyone is staying here. All 6 of us got invited over for Christmas with the Gianelli family. I don't know exactly where their house in the country is, but I'll let you know when I find out. We're really excited!Christmas Eve we're all going over to the Manucci family's house. They're the ones who picked us up from the train station our first night here. They're a great family! Every year they have the missionaries over for Christmas Eve, and they have us make a list of what we want to eat (something American), and they go shopping and we all cook it together. It will be fun! I think the Margheritti's will be there, too.Last Sunday we had lunch at the Antognetti's. She's an awesome older sister in the ward, and the grandma of the crazy sisters. It was fun. All 6 of us missionaries were invited and a lot of family was there, too. The whole family lives in the same building, with different apartments for the different families. It's really cool. The crazy sisters have a huge music room. It's sound proof, and they have tons of instruments and recording equipment. They took us up there and played a couple songs for us, and they're really good! They play a lot around here. One of the crazy sisters also informed us that she prays to cats, because they're more approachable. She's hilarious. They're both very free spirited and fun!Also this Sunday, the whole sacrament meeting was done by the youth. There are only a few youth here, so instead of one speaking every week, they do a youth program once a year. The youth here are amazing! All of them are great speakers and are such great examples to their friends. The young women did a musical number and asked me and my companion to sing with them. They wanted one of the verses to be a duet with my companion and I, which was interesting. Neither of us are singers. But the branch loved it. At least that's what they said, so that's what we choose to believe. The elders made fun of us, though.So I don't know exactly what Italians think about American food, but all of the brands of frozen pizzas here have an "American style" pizza. It always includes every somewhat American food they can think of, all in one pizza. They usually have hot dogs, corn, chunks of meat (not even sausage or anything, just fat chunks of meat), and lots of other gross stuff. I don't think any of them have actually been to America.Have I mentioned how beautiful La Spezia is? I love it here! The Alps run just outside of the city, and are gorgeous! Also, part of the branch is in Tuscany. We visited some members on Friday, and got to go to Tuscany! Today we're going to Via dell'Amore. Last week was raining way too hard, and we didn't end up going. But today is actually a little bit sunny! We were talking to the elders about going to Cinque Terre, and I asked them if they wanted to go on the walk of love with us, and it totally ended up sounding like I was flirting with them! They all just stared at me for awhile, until I explained that I was inviting them with us for a missionary appropriate activity. Things always manage to come out wrong!There's an older man in the branch who is amazing! His name is Brother Carli. He was the branch president for years and years. His wife passed away a few years ago, but he comes to every single activity by himself. He's not very talkative, and seems a little rough around the edges, but he's so sweet! Anyways, they have candies here called Kisses, which are way better than American kisses, by the way! And everyone greets each other here by kissing each other's cheeks, but the men can't kiss the sister missionaries, so every week Fratello Carli brings us a candy kiss. It's really sweet!Last Saturday we met with Joanna again. She's wonderful! Her family is great, too. Carla, the step-daughter, met with us this time. She's 16 and so adorable! She read from the Book of Mormon last week and kept telling us we need to come back more often to talk to her. We talked about the Restoration, and she loved it! She kept saying things like "that's so cool!" She's really cute. Joanna still hasn't recognized an answer to her prayers about whether or not the Church is true, but she's still trying, which is good. She recognizes that it may take time.We haven't been able to get ahold of Jennifer since our first appointment last week. We're really worried about her. She seemed to be doing so great, but now she won't answer our calls. Some extra prayers for her would be wonderful!We have been meeting a lot with inactive members of the branch. They're great! Especially Judy. She loves us! She's having such a hard time right now, and I just wish she could see that living the Gospel will help her.The work is going great and I'm loving it! We have zone conference next week, so we get to go to Florence again, which I'm excited about.

Thanks for all your love and support.Vi voglio bene!Sorella Hawkey