February 25, 2009

Ciao!
Another great week in Italy! Yesterday we had a mission-wide conference in Rome with Elder Dallin H. Oaks, his wife, and Elder Robert C. Oaks, the president of the Europe West Area. It was amazing! Elder Oaks is such a powerful speaker, and I learned so much! It was a great opportunity to learn from him, and we each got to talk to him for a few minutes, too.
Monday we had an appointment with the elders. They are teaching a Philipino (I have no idea how to spell that in english!) family, who are all incredible! They have 2 friends who want to start taking the lessons, too, who are single women, so they brought us along to meet them. One of them is Carmella. She's been here in Italy for a couple months. Her husband has leukemia and is in the hospital in Pisa, so she's living in a hotel in La Spezia until he's better. I had a great talk with her the other night about the power of the Atonement, and how it's not only for our sins, but for every pain we feel. She's so amazing! We're meeting with her again tomorrow, and hope to make her an official investigator.
My birthday has been continuing on all week! Wednesday night, Sorella Margheriti made me a cake for branch family home evening night. Everyone surprised me and started singing to me right after the lesson! It was great! And Sister Acerson called me Thursday, feeling really bad that she called me 2 days late (like she doesn't have a lot to do raising a family and being the mission president's wife!), to wish me happy birthday. We chatted for a few minutes. It wasn't as good as talking to my actual mom, but it was a good substitute. And on Sunday, the Gianelli family brought me a present to church! I love the branch here so much!
Saturday we had an appointment with Rita. She's progressing, and even reading the Book of Mormon on her own, which is huge for her! She still suffers a lot with depression. But she agreed to let us come over and teach her how to cook, help her paint the walls of her house, which are depressingly white, and take her on walks. She has a desire to be happy, she just has a hard time making herself do things. But she's making a lot of progress!
The other day we went to visit Sandra. We want to start teaching her actual lessons instead of just visiting. We were trying to talk to her about the importance of authority, because she believes that all churches are true, and you just have to find one that you like best. She's very passionate about her beliefs, and she got so mad at us for telling her there's only one true church! She starts yelling about how she loves the Book of Mormon, but that doesn't mean that Joseph Smith was a prophet or our church is the only true one. We told her that she can pray about it to get an answer for herself, which made her more mad. Then she picked up the Book of Mormon, and said, "I've read lots of parts of this book, and nowhere in here does it tell me that I have to pray to know whether it's true! Look!" She then opened the book to a random spot and read the first thing that she turned to, which just so happened to be Mormon 10:4-5. It was amazing! She quieted down and listened to us after that.
Jennifer is doing amazing!!!! She's talking about baptism!!! She reads the Book of Mormon every night, asks us if there's more she can be doing, and comes to Church, english class, and branch family home evening. She's so great! She keeps asking us about missions, and says that she would love to be a missionary someday!
Anyways, that's a brief summary of my amazing week. Our investigators are doing great! They are for the most part progressing! Keep them in your prayers. I love my mission so much! Elder Oaks told a story yesterday about a missionary who met a shepherd with his companion one day. As he watched the shepherd with his sheep, he noticed that the shepherd gave his dogs the task of gathering them. Elder Oaks talked about how as missionaries, we're called to gather Christ's sheep to bring them back to Him. This isn't MY mission. It's His. I'm here as His servant to serve Him and His children. And I love every minute of it!
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hawkey