March 25, 2009

Hi everyone!
Another fantastic week in Italy! Last week for PDay we went to see the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Piazza Navona. Rome is so gorgeous! Today we're going to San Giovanni, a church, and Le Sacre Scale (meaning the sacred steps), which are supposedly steps that Christ walked on on His way to meet with Pontius Pilate and have since been moved to Rome.
I still don't know when I'll be leaving Rome. We asked President yesterday during zone conference, and he said he doesn't even know anything. But he did say that my assignment has been changed from Prato to Pistoia. They're right next to each other, and both sets of sisters live together in Prato. But I'll be serving in Pistoia. This transfer is so weird! Not only will I be going senior companion, but we will also be blown in, which means neither of us have served in Pistoia before, and opening a city, which means that sisters haven't served in Pistoia for awhile. So it should be a very interesting adventure once I finally make it up to Pistoia.
The work here in Rome is great! Tanya is excited for her baptism on Saturday! The elders have a bunch of baptisms coming up, too. Thursday we saw so many miracles! We had about 12 backup plans, and every single one of them fell through. We really felt like we should go to the park. On our way, we crossed through a little tiny patch of grass, and there was only one lady there. We really wanted to talk to her, and were trying to figure out how to go up to her, when her dog came running up to us. Dogs are my favorite ways to start conversations! Everyone here has a dog, and it's a very non-threatening conversation starter that always leads to people asking us who we are. So he came up to us and wanted to play, and we started talking to a wonderful woman about the Gospel. After that we didn't feel that we needed to go to the park anymore. Sister Johnson felt like we should go visit a contact at the gelateria that she owns. So we were walking there, and we passed a bus stop. A man stopped us and asked if we speak english. We said yes, and then he asked us if we're ministers for Christ. He asked us tons of great questions and wants to learn more. Then Saturday we got lost going somewhere Sister Johnson goes all the time. It was really strange that we were lost, but we ended up on a tram, and a guy started asking us questions about who we were. He was really curious about our message. I'm continually amazed at how the Lord puts people in our paths always. When we're willing to be an instrument in His hands, He can use us to produce miracles. We now have 3 great contacts who want to learn more about the restored Gospel! This work is so amazing!
Yesterday we had zone conference with some amazing trainings! Almost every single one talked about humility and reliance on our Heavenly Father. The zone leaders gave a great training on how Heavenly Father could easily do this work by Himself. He doesn't need us to do it for Him, but instead allows us the opportunity to serve Him and learn and grow. As we rely on Him, we learn to trust Him. I have seen so readily how He makes way more of me than I could even make on my own. The assistants also talked about relying on the Lord in our lives. They said that when times are tough, our loving Heavenly Father is trying to tell us that it's time to talk to Him. He wants us to become closer to Him. He loves us so much and wants to help us. It's up to us to draw closer to Him.
I love my mission so much! It's changed my life forever. I've learned so much about the Atonement, the importance of following the Spirit, and relying on my Heavenly Father. I know that I am nothing on my own, but through the grace of God, He can work miracles through me.
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hawkey