September 23, 2009

Hi, everyone!
Everyone in Prato is doing well. Kelly is all ready for baptism! He accepts all the commandments with no problem and has so much faith! He's so excited to get baptized. He talks all the time about how much he loves the Church and all the members here. I'm so excited for him!
We have another new investigator, named Aseneth. She's from Ecuador. She is an ex-investigator from awhile back. She's so cute. She loves our church and reads the Book of Mormon almost every day! We're working on helping her see the difference between our church and her church (she's Evangelist). She thinks they're pretty much one and the same, so it's a little bit tricky. She's so cute, though and I love her! She's making us lasagna tomorrow night for dinner!
We also started working with a girl named Xiomara, from Peru. Her grandma is a member who just moved to Prato a couple weeks ago. The elders went over to teach the grandpa and met Xiomara and so we started working with her. She's 14 and super cute. She's really bubbly and energetic. We teach her english and also about the Gospel. We were a little worried that she only agreed to hear the Gospel in order to get english lessons, but we had a great lesson with her. She's very sincere and has read quite a bit from the Book of Mormon.
Mary has finally returned from being away all summer! We had a great lesson with her last night. She is excited to start coming to church again and see everyone. We're hoping to get a baptism date for her soon.
Nertil continues to amaze us. He's such a great missionary and talks about the Church wherever he goes. He got called this past Sunday as the first counselor in the Young Men's presidency. He's really excited for that. He's going to do such a fantastic job, and he'll work well with the youth and be a great example for them.
Those are the main highlights from the week. Everyone is great. I love Prato so much! Transfers are coming up soon, and I'm nervous that I might have to leave. I know eventually they'll make me leave, but I would be just fine finishing my mission here.
I've been reading in the New Testament lately, and I am always so amazing by Paul's story. From a missionary's standpoint, if I met a man like Paul, he is probably the last one I would have thought would accept the Gospel. I would probably think he would never be interested, and probably avoid him. But Heavenly Father doesn't see us the way we are. He sees the potential we have within us. He knew that Paul had the potential to change and to become a powerful missionary. He knew that Paul's heart would change. Each of us has so much potential to do good. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father sees that within each of us and gives us the opportunities to rise to what we can become with His help. I am grateful that He sees what we don't always see. He sees the big picture, while we only see right here and right now.
Hope you all have a great week! Vi voglio tanto bene!
Sorella Hawkey