December 24, 2008

Buone Feste, tutti!

Tomorrow's Christmas!!! I'm so excited! We'll be spending all day at the Gianelli's house in the country, playing games, playing soccer, eating lots of delicious food. We also get to sleep in tomorrow, which will be wonderful!Tonight we're going over to the Manucci family's house for a big American Christmas Eve dinner. We're making a big turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, an American style salad (complete with ranch dressing, which they have never tried before!), pumpkin pie, apple crisp, and brownies. Italians LOVE brownies! I think Oscar is coming with us. He's an 18 year old recent convert, originally from Brazil. He's an awesome kid! He loves spending time with the missionaries, and usually goes with us wherever we go on PDay. He's also the reason we started playing basketball or soccer on Saturdays. He wants so much to do the right thing, but sometimes he falls back into old addictions. And his parents are very against the church, and they are horrible to him about it. They tell him that he must be gay since he's not out breaking the law of chastity. And they wanted him to stop going to church, so they bought him $1000 worth of cocaine. There have been a lot of ups and downs with him lately, but the last week he's been great! Oscar's amazing, and I hope he can come with us tonight.Last week for PDay, we went to 2 of the Cinque Terre- Riomaggiore and Manarola. They are beautiful! We're getting pictures printed today to send you.Last night was our branch Christmas party, and it turned out great! Not a ton of people showed up, but it was good. We were supposed to have zone conference Monday, so we planned the party for Tuesday night. Sunday night we got a call saying they had to change zone conference to Tuesday, so it was a little crazy! Last zone conference we didn't even get home from Florence until 7:30 or 8, and the party was supposed to start at 7, so we had to hurry and figure something out. And everyone that was supposed to bring food ended up calling us saying that they couldn't come anymore. It ended up going really well, though! The elders even had a couple investigators there.Zone conference yesterday was so good! The Acerson's are amazing! They gave us great lessons, and we had a catered lunch to celebrate Christmas. We also had a talent show, which was hilarious! One district did a skit where the sisters acted like elders, and the elders acted like sisters, and they acted out Christmas Eve, phone calls home, and Christmas morning. It was hilarious! The Acerson's gave us fun little gifts, too.This last week has been a little slow. Everyone seems to be really busy around the holidays, so we only had a couple of appointments, but our investigators are doing well. We still can't get ahold of Jennifer, but we know she's busy, so hopefully we can get ahold of her soon.These past couple weeks I've been thinking a lot about our Savior. I'm so grateful for the Christmas season, and the opportunity it provides for us to remember Him and the sacrifice He made for us. It definitely is different celebrating Christmas as a missionary. The APs included a couple quotes in our mission newsletter about the Atonement, which I love and wanted to share with you all.Andrew Skinner said, "Our finite mortal minds cannot grasp the tremendous load borne by the Savior in Gethsemane. But we begin to comprehend what this means in practical terms by remembering that this earth along has had some 60 to 70 billion people live upon it during its temporal history (not counting those spirits yet to come). Multiply the sins, sorrows, heartaches, and injustices of these 60 to 70 billion souls by the millions of earths that the Savior has created and redeemed, and we may begin to view the term infinite atonement in a different light."The Atonement truly is incomprehensible to us, but we need to always remember how truly personal our relationship is with our Savior. He suffered for each one of us personally. He has felt your pain, your sorrow, your heartaches. He knows exactly how you feel, because He has experienced it.CS Lewis said, "God has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as if you had been the only man or woman in the world."Christ suffered and died for all of us, but He would have done it if it was just for you. The Atonement is so real and so powerful. It is so personal. He truly knows you and loves you.I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and remember the true reason that we celebrate.

Vi voglio bene!Sorella Hawkey