December 31, 2008

Hey there,

Happy New Year! This evening we're all going out to the crazy sister's family's house for a big new year's dinner. They're going to set the clocks back so we can have a "midnight" celebration. I'm excited! Oscar's coming with us, too.
As for Christmas, I wrote you a letter last week, so hopefully you get that soon. It was so much fun! The Christmas Eve dinner turned out great. Everyone loved it! And Christmas in the country was a lot of fun. The family we went with has a sister who's not a member, and has never allowed the missionaries to come to her home. The sister's family was all out there on Christmas day, too, and she loved us sisters! She invited us over last night.
Mom, a couple things for you. I want to get Sister Jones a little present, since she's going home in 4 weeks. Any ideas? Also, we can only chew gum in the apartments, so I have plenty of gum right now. But if you want to send something, mints would be much appreciated. Also, happy 3 years of being cancer free!!!!! I'm so proud of you for everything you do!
Joanna is doing well. She continues to progress, slowly but surely. She's super busy with her 2 year old little boy, who's full of energy. Plus she's pregnant, so she's really tired. But she makes all her committments, and during last week's lesson, she pretty much taught herself! It was really cool. She's amazing!
We visit Sandra a couple times a week. She's the Nigerian lady who owns a market. She's incredibly passionate and loud, and I love her! She sings tons of gospel songs at the top of her lungs and doesn't care who sees her. Saturday night we went to visit her, and we saw from the window that she was moving around. We assumed she was dancing and singing, but we walked in and she was in this huge argument with one of her friends about religion. And when she gets mad, she really gets mad. Just picture a little black woman, with tons of energy and passion, who is not afraid to punch people in the face if you mess with her. She was yelling about how much she hates people who tell her there's only one true church, and that she thinks organized religion is ridiculous, and all this stuff. My companion and I walked in right in the middle of this, and we whispered to each other Do you think she saw us? Maybe we should leave and come back when she is not in the middle of a speech about hating missionaries! But then she saw us, ran over to us, and gave us a huge hug and said "Hello my beautiful sisters! How are you?" and then went right back into her speech. It was kind of scary, but really funny.
Sunday I gave my first talk in Church in Italy! All the other missionaries here couldn't believe I agreed to speak. They all said that if they had been asked to speak during their second transfer, they would have freaked out! But it went well, and everyone in the branch said that they were very impressed with it, and that they understood every word. And trust me, if they wouldn't have understood, they would have no problem telling me! One lady told my companion the other day that she looks like she's getting fatter. Italians are very blunt!
I also accidentally flirted with Oscar. But this time it wasn't even my fault! As you all know, sometimes things come out wrong, and it sounds like I'm flirting, when really I'm not. But this time I was just asking him what his plans were that night, and apparently in Italy, that's very flirtatious. So I will no longer be asking any men what their plans are!
So no one here can say my name! It's really funny to watch them try to read my nametag. H's at the beginning of a word are silent, there's no such thing as W, K or Y in Italian, and E's are pronounced like ay, as in may. So they really hate my name!
This week was pretty slow with the holidays. No one really wanted to set up appointments this week, which is understandable, but it made for a slow week. But the work is going well here and I'm loving it!
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you're all doing great and know that you're in my thoughts and prayers.

Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hawkey