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