November 18, 2009

Ciao!

Transfer calls came last night, and I'm staying with Sister Nelson in Cagliari! Yay! We're excited. So last week we had a Mexican lunch with the Vincedomini family. They are so much fun! They have 3 boys, ages 10, 9 and 4, who are SO cute! I hung out a lot with the youngest one, Gabrielle. We read lots of books together and drew pictures.
Thursday we taught Odian, one of the elder's investigators. They had to go out of town, so we taught her. She's so great! She's getting baptized next week and is so ready. She's from Nigeria. She asked us tons of questions about the mission and said that she wants to go someday. She's only 24, and would be a GREAT missionary!
Thursday we also met with a new investigator, Catherina, for the first time. She's an older lady who has lost almost all of her hope and faith in this life. She has had a lot of trying times and wonders if God really exists. Despite all of her doubts, she listened intently and really wants to believe. We're excited to continue working with her.
Friday was the sad day that we passed Pierpaolo off to the elders. We really do think he'll work better with the elders, but it was still sad that we won't be teaching him any longer. We taught about the Restoration along with the elders. It was a great lesson! He is so in tune with the Spirit. He craves to have the Spirit in his life and learn more about his Savior. Whenever we read any verse of scripture with him, he analyzes it and gives great insights. He came to Church on Sunday and loved it! Pierpaolo is amazing and so ready for the Gospel!
Ilaria came to Church on Sunday, and brought her boyfriend! It was the first time we met him, and before they came, Ilaria had explained to him the Restoration and the baptism that she came to. They both asked great questions during Gospel Principles and loved Church! They can't wait to come back next week. We have a lesson with them tonight. They are so cute!
Monday mornings we have a district meeting and talk about our work. The elders told us about their investigator who they haven't been able to find for a few weeks now. He's a 14 year old boy from Romania who doesn't have a phone, so they had no way of getting ahold of him. They described what he looks like, and told us that if we see him to talk to him and get his dad's phone number. So Monday afternoon we were at a store buying something for an investigator, and we decided to take a random street that we had never been on before to get to where we needed to go. We were just walking along our way, and saw a young boy who looked Romanian on the other side of the street. We looked at each other and said, "I bet that's Saimir!" He saw us right after that and came running over to us and said, pointing to our nametags, "I know your friends!" We talked to him for awhile, along with his cousin. We called the elders so that they could talk and set up an appointment, and we got the dad's phone number. The Lord truly always looks out for each one of us.
This Gospel is amazing! A few days ago I read Joseph Smith history, and one part really stuck out to me. Joseph Smith said, referring to all of the opposition he faced, "It seems as though the adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness combine against me?"
I love that he was determined to be "a disturber and an annoyer" of Satan's kingdom. He didn't just passively sit by and let things happen. He took an active stance to fight the bad and help the cause of God. It's not enough for us to just believe in the Gospel but then do nothing about it. There are far too many bad things in the world, and we need to take a stand to be a disturber and an annoyer of all of those things. It is only then that righteousness will prevail.

I hope you all have a great week! Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hawkey