June 3, 2009

Ciao!
First of all...my companion is leaving me! She's only going to Florence, though, so she'll get to come back for Neytil's baptism. And I'll be training this next transfer. Yikes! I'm excited, though. Unfortunately, all the incoming missionaries got delayed 2 weeks (anyone noticing a trend here with me?) so I'll be in a trio for 2 weeks until I go to Rome to pick up my greenie!
Neytil is doing amazing! He had his baptismal interview last night and is all ready to go for his baptism! We moved it to the 13th, because he's in Albania for a week to do some visa stuff. We had a couple amazing lessons with his this week! Saturday we taught the law of chastity. Or rather, he taught us, as he usually does. We read the section of chastity in True to the Faith, and then he proceeded to tell us why chastity is important. He told us that families are central to God's plan, and keeping the law of chastity safe guards the family. And virtue is important because we are sent to earth to overcome our carnal desires and become more Christlike amidst temptation. He's seriously incredible! Monday we met with him briefly to give him a Bible and a hymn book, and he was so excited. He told us that he's been wanting to learn all the hymns so he can sing better in church, and he didn't have a Bible in Italian, so he's also excited for that.
This weekend Neytil went to Modena to visit his family, and one of the first things he told us when he saw us was, "I'm trying to do missionary work! I gave my mom a copy of the Book of Mormon and taught her all about the Plan of Salvation and how we can be together forever as a family through the Gospel!" Then later he said, "I haven't finished reading the Book of Mormon yet. How does it end? I really want to know what happens!" So we told him what happens at the end, and how the Lamanites are the ancestors of the American Indians, so he decided he wants to research the Indians so he can learn more. Then he told us about how he loves lds.org, because you can listen to talks that the prophet and apostles have given lately. He says every day he goes on and finds a talk that relates to a problem he's been having to see what the Prophet has to say. Then he bore an amazing testimony about the importance of living prophets. Yesterday we taught tithing, and he's really excited! He talked about how it's only thanks to Heavenly Father that we have all our blessings anyway, so it only makes sense that we give some back to help build the kingdom of God. He told us that he always tries to give part of his income to charity, and now he has a specific cause to give his money to, so he's really excited to pay tithing! He seriously is one of the most amazing people I've ever met in my life!
Everyone else is doing well. Dielle is great and is slowly understanding the things the we teach. She said that she's starting to feel like this is the right path for her. She's great! We had a great dinner appointment with Mary last night. She loves coming to church and the branch parties every 2 weeks and has made tons of friends in the branch! Opeka read part of the Book of Mormon this week and felt the Spirit when she prayed! She wants to come to church this next week. She's so great and has a lot of faith!
Everyone else is doing well. I love my mission so much! I'm so excited for Neytil's baptism next week. He's really excited, too! I love you all and hope everyone's doing well!
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hawkey