Ciao!
Another week of adventures! Last week during PDay we were walking around centro. I was looking at a little shop and Sister Nelson was waiting for me. She stood over by a lady and started talking to her. Eventually Sister Nelson asked this lady if she had ever met missionaries before. This lady, Susan, said no. Then I came up, and we started talking to her about the purpose of life and why we’re here. We asked her if we could meet sometime to explain the answers to the questions she has. She said yes, and then asked if we could meet at our church and then gave us the address to the church. We were wondering how she knew the address, when 5 minutes ago she said she had never met missionaries, so we asked her. She said that she is actually a member and was baptized 3 years ago! We had an appointment with her yesterday. She wants to come back to church and start living the Gospel again! She’s such a sweet lady. I seriously am always so amazed at how the Lord puts His children where they need him. What are the odds of us running into this lady in a huge city? The Lord’s hand is always in our lives. He can works miracles when we’re willing to be the instrument.
Susan is doing so much better! We finally were able to have a lesson with her. She readily accepts all commandments and knows that they’re for our good. I love the faith Nigerians have! They love God so much and will do anything to obey Him! Since we talked about her needing to be married, she set an appointment to get the proper documents, since she’s not an Italian citizen, and is planning on getting married in the next few weeks. She’s great! I’m excited to see her baptism soon.
Agnese is doing well. She was super busy last week, so we didn’t get to see her. But we talk to her every day and she is doing ok. She’s still praying to know about November 15th as her baptismal date!
Friday we had an amazing zone conference, where I finally got to see Elder Holland’s conference talk. (Here in Italy we don’t get to watch the Sunday evening session of conference) I also got to see Sister Millis, who’s also here on the island! We talked a lot about the condition of our hearts and how it affects everything else. We also talked about the condition of our minds and how much what we think about affects everything. Elder Reschke an example of his dad, who recently ran a marathon. After awhile, his dad started getting really tired and had a cramp in his leg. He was starting to get discouraged and wonder if he could even make it. After awhile of this, he realized that that mentality was getting him nowhere. So then he started thinking about his family and the people on the sidelines cheering him on. He went through what each member of his family might say to him if they were beside him. His conditions didn’t change at all, but the condition of his mind did, and that made all the difference.
Hope you all have a great week! Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hawkey
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
October 21, 2009
Hello!
Winter has suddenly fallen upon the island. When I got here it was summer, and one morning we woke up, and it's suddenly winter! We had a great week, though, full of amazing appointments! And some crazy adventurous appointments.
We went to Susan's on Thursday to talk about how she needs to be married. About 5 minutes after we got there, her "husband" got home for lunch, and they got into a HUGE fight right in front of us!It was so akward. We just sat there pretending like we couldn't hear and played with the baby. Unfortunately, we couldn't even leave because Susan has to unlock the door with the keys that were in her pocket. It was really akward. Needless to say, we didn't get to actually teach a lesson. We tried again yesterday, but another fight errupted, so we left right as they were starting to avoid another situation.
Sunday we had an amazing lesson with a new investigator Ilaria. She's 31 and super cute! We taught the Restoration, and she cried during the whole thing because she loved it so much. Right after the lesson, there was a baptism. She came to it and loved it! We have another lesson with her tonight and can't wait to talk to her more about baptism!
Walter is doing well. He comes to district finding activities, english class, and just about everything else we do. He loves participating in missionary work. He has a strong testimony and loves coming to appointments with us. We love Walter. He's hilarious, and between him and my companion, I spend most of my day laughing.
We have another new investigator, Agnese. She took the lessons a few years back. We called up some people in our phone, not knowing who they were, to invite them to the baptism on Sunday, and she came! She had an amazing spiritual experience and asked us if she could start meeting with us again. Yesterday we had a great lesson with her. She has been thinking a lot in the past few months about life and what she wants, and she realized she wanted to meet with us again. We invited her to be baptized last night and she is ready! She's praying about November 15th!
Anyways, I'm running about of time....it's been a great week! Monday at our district meeting, Elder Polelli (who I served with in Prato) told a story about a time in Prato when he was on the bus. He had a strong feeling that he should go talk to a certain man. He went to go talk to him, but was quickly rejected. Elder Polelli gave this man a pass-along card and they parted ways. He wondered why he had that prompting when nothing came of it. About a month later, the elders were on splits with the other companionship of elders, and Elder Noda took Elder Polelli to go see a new investigator that he had. Elder Polelli walked in, and the new investigator was this man he had talked to! This man, Giuseppe, told Elder Polelli that ever since they met, he couldn't stop thinking about the missionaries and what message they had. He kept looking at the picture of Christ on the pass-along card. He felt strongly that he needed to find the missionaries and talk to them. The next week, the other set of elders ran into Giuseppe, and he gladly accepted them. Giuseppe and his wife Lili are now baptized and strong members of the branch in Prato! I've learned a lot about the promptings of the Holy Ghost .A lot of times we don't understand them. Some things just don't make sense to us. At times, we have the opportunity to understand why we had certain promptings, like Elder Polelli did. But a lot of times, we might never understand the reasons behind things. But as we follow those promptings, we are always, always blessed.
Vi voglio tanto bene!
Sorella Hawkey
Winter has suddenly fallen upon the island. When I got here it was summer, and one morning we woke up, and it's suddenly winter! We had a great week, though, full of amazing appointments! And some crazy adventurous appointments.
We went to Susan's on Thursday to talk about how she needs to be married. About 5 minutes after we got there, her "husband" got home for lunch, and they got into a HUGE fight right in front of us!It was so akward. We just sat there pretending like we couldn't hear and played with the baby. Unfortunately, we couldn't even leave because Susan has to unlock the door with the keys that were in her pocket. It was really akward. Needless to say, we didn't get to actually teach a lesson. We tried again yesterday, but another fight errupted, so we left right as they were starting to avoid another situation.
Sunday we had an amazing lesson with a new investigator Ilaria. She's 31 and super cute! We taught the Restoration, and she cried during the whole thing because she loved it so much. Right after the lesson, there was a baptism. She came to it and loved it! We have another lesson with her tonight and can't wait to talk to her more about baptism!
Walter is doing well. He comes to district finding activities, english class, and just about everything else we do. He loves participating in missionary work. He has a strong testimony and loves coming to appointments with us. We love Walter. He's hilarious, and between him and my companion, I spend most of my day laughing.
We have another new investigator, Agnese. She took the lessons a few years back. We called up some people in our phone, not knowing who they were, to invite them to the baptism on Sunday, and she came! She had an amazing spiritual experience and asked us if she could start meeting with us again. Yesterday we had a great lesson with her. She has been thinking a lot in the past few months about life and what she wants, and she realized she wanted to meet with us again. We invited her to be baptized last night and she is ready! She's praying about November 15th!
Anyways, I'm running about of time....it's been a great week! Monday at our district meeting, Elder Polelli (who I served with in Prato) told a story about a time in Prato when he was on the bus. He had a strong feeling that he should go talk to a certain man. He went to go talk to him, but was quickly rejected. Elder Polelli gave this man a pass-along card and they parted ways. He wondered why he had that prompting when nothing came of it. About a month later, the elders were on splits with the other companionship of elders, and Elder Noda took Elder Polelli to go see a new investigator that he had. Elder Polelli walked in, and the new investigator was this man he had talked to! This man, Giuseppe, told Elder Polelli that ever since they met, he couldn't stop thinking about the missionaries and what message they had. He kept looking at the picture of Christ on the pass-along card. He felt strongly that he needed to find the missionaries and talk to them. The next week, the other set of elders ran into Giuseppe, and he gladly accepted them. Giuseppe and his wife Lili are now baptized and strong members of the branch in Prato! I've learned a lot about the promptings of the Holy Ghost .A lot of times we don't understand them. Some things just don't make sense to us. At times, we have the opportunity to understand why we had certain promptings, like Elder Polelli did. But a lot of times, we might never understand the reasons behind things. But as we follow those promptings, we are always, always blessed.
Vi voglio tanto bene!
Sorella Hawkey
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
New Mailing Address
Breanna Hawkey
Vico 3 Riva Villasanta 2
09100 Pirra (Cagliari)
Italia
(letters only)
Packages must be sent to the mission home.
Vico 3 Riva Villasanta 2
09100 Pirra (Cagliari)
Italia
(letters only)
Packages must be sent to the mission home.
October 14, 2009
Ciao!
After 29 hours of travel, including 5 trains and a huge ship, I finally made it to Cagliari! It's gorgeous. We live about 15 minutes from the ocean. It's a beautiful city. The branch is great. It's really big. We actually have a church building here. It's really nice. And the work is going well.
Last Wednesday, which seems like forever ago, I spent saying goodbye to all the people in Prato. It was so hard to leave everyone! Especially Nertil. I got a beautiful letter from him thanking me for everything. I also got a letter from his sister thanking me for teaching Nertil, who in turned taught her. I was just the instrument. It wasn't me at all, but I am forever grateful to have been the instrument to help Nertil and his sister find the restored Gospel.
Thursday and Friday I spent travelling, but it was actually really fun. At the station in Rome, I saw a bunch of missionaries that I haven't seen in a long time, so it was fun to catch up. My district here in Cagliari is great! I'm with Anziano Polelli again (we served together for 6 months in Prato) and Anziano Reschke (from my MTC district).
Sunday church was great! The branch here is great. I met my ex-companion's family (Sister Mura, my second companion, is from Cagliari). They are so sweet! Sunday afternoon we had an appointment with Walter. He is a recent convert that the sisters taught. He's awesome. He's hilarious! And yes, he is Italian, despite having an english name. We taught him about missionary work, and then afterwards he came with us to do finding with the elders in centro. He's great.
I've only met a couple of our investigators. Susan is from Nigeria and has a baptismal date. However, yesterday we discovered that her "husband" and her are not actually legally married, so we're going to have to address that issue next time. She's really cute, though and so excited to get baptized. She took the lessons about 3 years ago, and a few months ago called the sisters and said that she's been thinking about it and wants to get baptized into the true Church of Jesus Christ. She's so ready for baptism, as soon as we work out the whole not married to the father of her children issue.
We also met with Rita, a lady in her late 50s or early 60s who is so sweet! She believes the Church is true but is scared to do anything about it. I can see that deep down she wants to, though.
Anyways, time is running out. I'm so grateful to be here on my mission! I'm so grateful that the Church has been restored and that we have the Priesthood authority on the earth again. What an amazing blessing!
Vi voglio tanto bene!
Sorella Hawkey
After 29 hours of travel, including 5 trains and a huge ship, I finally made it to Cagliari! It's gorgeous. We live about 15 minutes from the ocean. It's a beautiful city. The branch is great. It's really big. We actually have a church building here. It's really nice. And the work is going well.
Last Wednesday, which seems like forever ago, I spent saying goodbye to all the people in Prato. It was so hard to leave everyone! Especially Nertil. I got a beautiful letter from him thanking me for everything. I also got a letter from his sister thanking me for teaching Nertil, who in turned taught her. I was just the instrument. It wasn't me at all, but I am forever grateful to have been the instrument to help Nertil and his sister find the restored Gospel.
Thursday and Friday I spent travelling, but it was actually really fun. At the station in Rome, I saw a bunch of missionaries that I haven't seen in a long time, so it was fun to catch up. My district here in Cagliari is great! I'm with Anziano Polelli again (we served together for 6 months in Prato) and Anziano Reschke (from my MTC district).
Sunday church was great! The branch here is great. I met my ex-companion's family (Sister Mura, my second companion, is from Cagliari). They are so sweet! Sunday afternoon we had an appointment with Walter. He is a recent convert that the sisters taught. He's awesome. He's hilarious! And yes, he is Italian, despite having an english name. We taught him about missionary work, and then afterwards he came with us to do finding with the elders in centro. He's great.
I've only met a couple of our investigators. Susan is from Nigeria and has a baptismal date. However, yesterday we discovered that her "husband" and her are not actually legally married, so we're going to have to address that issue next time. She's really cute, though and so excited to get baptized. She took the lessons about 3 years ago, and a few months ago called the sisters and said that she's been thinking about it and wants to get baptized into the true Church of Jesus Christ. She's so ready for baptism, as soon as we work out the whole not married to the father of her children issue.
We also met with Rita, a lady in her late 50s or early 60s who is so sweet! She believes the Church is true but is scared to do anything about it. I can see that deep down she wants to, though.
Anyways, time is running out. I'm so grateful to be here on my mission! I'm so grateful that the Church has been restored and that we have the Priesthood authority on the earth again. What an amazing blessing!
Vi voglio tanto bene!
Sorella Hawkey
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
October 7, 2009
Ciao a tutti!
I'm getting transfered to Cagliari, on the island of Sardegna. I'm really excited. It will be great to be on the ocean again! I'll be with Sister Nelson who I met once for about 10 seconds. She seemed great, though and I've heard great things about her.
The work here is going well. I'll miss everyone here so much. I love these people more than I can even say. Kelly is getting baptized this next Sunday. I'm excited to see pictures of it. He's doing well and getting integrated in the branch. We went with him to dinner last week at a family's house. I love the branch here. Even though they don't speak english, and Kelly doesn't really speak Italian, they love him and accepted him into their home.
Aseneth came to conference and loved it. We're trying to help her see the role of a prophet and the importance of a modern prophet. Nataliya and her husband are finally back from Ukraine, and they also came and loved it! They are so cute!
Conference was amazing, as always. It is such a wonderful blessing to have a living Prophet on the earth today. I am so grateful that the Gospel has been restored and that the Priesthood authority is on the earth again. I love this Gospel so much and wish everyone would accept it. It truly is the only way to happiness.
Sorry this is so short, but things are a little crazy today trying to pack and get ready to leave. I love you all and you're in my prayers.
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hawkey
I'm getting transfered to Cagliari, on the island of Sardegna. I'm really excited. It will be great to be on the ocean again! I'll be with Sister Nelson who I met once for about 10 seconds. She seemed great, though and I've heard great things about her.
The work here is going well. I'll miss everyone here so much. I love these people more than I can even say. Kelly is getting baptized this next Sunday. I'm excited to see pictures of it. He's doing well and getting integrated in the branch. We went with him to dinner last week at a family's house. I love the branch here. Even though they don't speak english, and Kelly doesn't really speak Italian, they love him and accepted him into their home.
Aseneth came to conference and loved it. We're trying to help her see the role of a prophet and the importance of a modern prophet. Nataliya and her husband are finally back from Ukraine, and they also came and loved it! They are so cute!
Conference was amazing, as always. It is such a wonderful blessing to have a living Prophet on the earth today. I am so grateful that the Gospel has been restored and that the Priesthood authority is on the earth again. I love this Gospel so much and wish everyone would accept it. It truly is the only way to happiness.
Sorry this is so short, but things are a little crazy today trying to pack and get ready to leave. I love you all and you're in my prayers.
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hawkey
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
