December 9, 2009

Ciao!

First of all, I’m running out of things to say in my letters. I feel like every week is the same. Sorry! Seriously, though, send me questions to answer, everybody!
Saturday night we had an appointment at a little tiny town about 45 minutes away. We got there, and the lady wasn’t even home. We were a little bit frustrated, especially because the bus only comes every 40 minutes or so. So we waited at the bus stop the 40 minutes, and as soon as we were getting on the bus, I realized that my companion’s name tag wasn’t on her jacket. We missed the bus looking for it. We retraced our steps and looked everywhere we could possibly think to look with no luck. We went back to the bus stop to wait again, and a man was there. He saw us and asked if we were the Mormons. We ended up having an amazing talk with him. He has amazing faith and wants to learn more about the Gospel! We exchanged phone numbers, and are meeting with him and the elders this week. Then we got on the bus, still tag-less, but we realized that meeting him was completely worth losing a nametag. Then my companion looked in her bag, and her nametag has somehow gotten into her pencil pouch in her bag! The Lord works so many little miracles every day.
We have a few new investigators this week. First we have Sara, a friend of another investigator, Marisa. We met with them on Saturday and had lunch together. They are so crazy and so fun! Marisa is in her 70s and is so funny. She loves to sing and dance and is absolutely hilarious! She loves to tell stories. Then Sara is 50 and a lot more reserved but still a lot of fun. They are quite the pair. We had a delicious lunch (of course- I’m in Italy!) and then we gathered basil leaves from her herb garden and made fresh pesto. It was so fun. They are so cute. Marisa is pretty Catholic, but Sara has a lot of interest.
Sunday the Susans both came to church and made up from their little cat fight they had a couple weeks ago. I’m glad the Susans are now friends. Investigator Susan has two little kids who are adorable. Rachel is 8 months and is one of the best babies ever, and then there’s Alessio. He brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "terrible two’s." I spent most of sacrament meeting chasing him around so that Susan could pay attention to the talks. The branch mission leader and I took turns guarding the doors of the chapel so he couldn’t escape. At one point he somehow escaped, though, and bolted out of the chapel. I went running after him, but then he ran into the men’s bathroom! He’s a smart little stinker. He finally came back to the chapel and found some toys to play with. Susan loved sacrament meeting, though, so it was all worth it.
Our other new investigator for the week is Luisa. She’s amazing! She is an ex-investigator from awhile back. She is a lawyer, and is incredibly intelligent. I’m completely intimidated by her, but love her all the same. She took notes on what we taught her, and then summed everything up that we taught. She has a lot of faith and can’t wait to meet with us again. We’re also very excited for her!
Yesterday we had lunch and a lesson with Carla. She was grumpy because she wanted to eat lunch first, but her mom said that we had to have the lesson first, so she hated our lesson. She kept giving us her cute little glares. She has a pretty good stink eye. We made an advent calendar with her to countdown to Christmas, and every day there’s something that they can do to do service or to think about Jesus. She didn’t like it at first, but once we ate lunch she loved it.
Everything is going well here. I can’t believe another Christmas is almost here! I’m so grateful to be serving the Lord full-time again this Christmas season.
I’ve been reading the conference talks from this past conference. I love them all! But one especially stuck out to me the other day as I read it. It is "Preserving the Heart’s Might Change," by Elder Renlund. He talked about a mighty change of heart and the conversion that we all experience. But it’s not enough to just have that change of heart once. We need to do things every day to keep up the state of our hearts. He talked about the people in the Book of Mormon taught by Ammon and how they were converted and then never turned away. Elder Renlund, talking about them, said, "They must have frequently assessed the condition of their spiritually changed hearts. They did not simply assume that all was well. By figuratively examining their changed hearts, they could identify any early hardening or rejection and treat it. Alma the Younger poses a series of questions to contemporaries of the people of Ammon that figuratively biopsy spiritually changed hearts. Alma asks, ‘If ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?’ He further asks if they have been sufficiently humble, free of pride and envy, and kind toward their fellowman. By honestly answering questions like these, we can correct early deviations from the strait and narrow path and keep our covenants with exactness."

Vi voglio tanto bene!
Sorella Hawkey