September 2, 2009

Hey everyone,
Another beautiful week in Prato. The weather is starting to cool down, which is very exciting! And Kelly has a baptismal date! It's the 19th, which is coming up really soon. We had another couple amazing lessons with him. He has a strong desire to do what God wants him to do. He comes to every lesson with a list of questions from what he's read and studied, along with reference he found in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. He sets aside time every night to study. He's great! We're really excited for him.
All our friends at the rest home are doing well. They're still hangin in there. Silvana is still as spunky as ever. I want to be like her when I get old. I have a new friend, Dante. He's such a sweetheart. He is really quiet, and just likes to sit and observe. He kind of reminds me of Grandpa Earl. I was talking to him last week, and asking about his life. He told me that he's never been married, but he hasn't given up hope yet (he's 82 years old). Then he motioned toward the rest of the people in the room, all of which were women, and said, "I have a lot of options here. I still have time to get married." It was so cute!
Vera and her beautiful little family are doing well. We had a great Plan of Salvation lesson the other day with them and Nertil. Nertil is such a great teacher, and already a great missionary! They are sincerely praying to know if these things are true.
Our branch had another baptism Saturday, a man named Angelo. He's great. It's the 8th baptism our branch has had in 10 weeks! The work is going so well here. I think a huge part of it is the way the members help in the work here in Prato. They are such great member missionaries! The second an investigator walks in the door, everyone greets them and invites them to sit by them. They explain the meetings, the way the Church works, and by the end of church, it's almost guaranteed that at least one family in the branch has invited them over for a dinner and family home evening. The branch is amazing! It's so true that the work goes SO much better when the members get involved and help us missionaries.
We have 3 new investigators from last week. One is Pasquale. He's Italian and is in his mid 30s. The Pistoia sisters met him the other day on their way to the train station. We went over to visit him Sunday night and talked with him about the Restoration. He wants to come to church with us! We have another appointment next Sunday. We might have the elders start working with him, though, but he's great. Victor is another new investigator. He's from Nigeria and has been here 4 months. We met him on the bus last week. We had a great lesson with him yesterday. Our other new investigator is named Blessing (he's a man). Monday night when we had our lesson with Kelly, we asked a member named Danny to come with us. Danny brought Blessing, too, so out of one appointment we got a new investigator and a baptismal date! Blessing loved the lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and even turned to Kelly during the lesson and said, "I think this means we need to get baptized into this Church."
I love my mission so much! I feel like I say that every week. In fact, I'm pretty sure I do, but it's true. I celebrate my year mark tomorrow! This Gospel is so amazing. I love you all and hope you're all doing well.
Vi voglio tanto bene!
Sorella Hawkey