May 6, 2009

Ciao tutti!
This week has been amazing!!! We have 2 new investigators, and our other ones are doing great! Wednesday we went with Neytil to Florence. We saw the Boboli Garden at Palazzo Pitti, and Piazza della Signoria. We walked by the Duomo in Florence, and Neytil talked about how even though the Catholic churches are beautiful, he doesn't like them because you can't feel the Spirit. He said that religion should be more personal and churches shouldn't be more worried about the art and the traditions than the gospel itself. He's amazing!
We finally were able to teach Dielle the first lesson. She loved it! She's so wonderful. All the sisters in the branch have been a huge help with her! They've all taken her in as their sister and have been wonderful. She had talked to the sisters and had a ride arranged for church before we even had the chance to invite her to come!
Our new investigators are Dickson and Ghita. Dickson is from Nigeria and is hilarious! He has so much faith. I love working with Nigerians. They never doubt God, even during the hard times. They always look for the best in every situation. He's great! Ghita is from Romania. She's recently divorced and has an adorable little boy who's almost 2 named Davide. She's really depressed right now, and we're trying to help her see how the Gospel will help her find hope. She studied with Jehovah's witnesses before, and is very confrontational about a lot of things that we teach. We're working on helping her feel the Spirit.
We had an amazing lesson with Neytil! He had researched baptism this past week! Once again he more or less taught himself the lesson. He asked some amazing questions. He never doubted anything we taught, but kept saying things like "wow! I never knew that!" and "This plan makes so much sense!" He's going to make an amazing missionary!
Sorella Lombardo, the less active woman we do service for, came to church this week! When we first started meeting with her, she said she wanted nothing to do with the church, so we asked if we could do service for her and help her clean her house. At first she was really grumpy to us and wouldn't even talk to us. Now she loves us! She came to church last week, and to the branch family home evening! It's amazing how service can soften hearts.
Everyone else is doing good! Monday we had a wonderful zone conference! We talked about how we can help build the temple here in Italy by finding, teaching and baptizing families. The assistants interviewed 3 different families who were recently baptized, and made it into a video. It was so beautiful! This Gospel truly blesses families. It's the only way we can be together with our families forever. I'm so grateful for my own family and that we are sealed together. I'm especially grateful this season for my mother, and all the mothers in my life who are amazing examples to me. Happy Mother's Day!
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hawkey