July 1, 20009

Ciao!
Happy Canada Day, from my companion! There was a Canadian sister that served here a while back, and we found Canada balloons in the apartment, so Sorella Bucholtz is having fun celebrating. The adventures are continuing this week. Last week for P-Day we went to Florence and saw a man get arrested and saw a dead homeless man. Then, yesterday we were on the bus on the way to an appointment. I motioned to Sorella Bucholtz that we would be getting off at the next stop. She was right behind me when I got off, so I thought. It turned out there was a little kid there and she would have literally had to step on her to get off, so she didn't make it off. So I watched my greenie drive away on the bus! Luckily the next stop wasn't too far, so we weren't split up for too long. Nertil is doing great! He got confirmed on Sunday, and the branch president asked him to bear his testimony in sacrament meeting. It was so beautiful! He has an amazing testimony! It is one of the highlights of my life to hear him bear it. We had a great lesson with him a few days ago about the priesthood. He's super excited for that! The elders have been taking him to tons of appointments with their investigators, and they love him! He will be such an incredible missionary. Saturday night the Gill family invited us over for dinner. They're members from Pakistan. Fratello Gill was the first member in Pakistan and the first missionary to ever leave from Pakistan. He has the most amazing story! He speaks english, and his brother lives in America. His brother had a friend start writing to Fratello Gill as pen pals. This friend happened to be a member, and through letters started teaching him about the Church. Fratello Gill got a copy of the Book of Mormon, also through mail, and prayed about it and decided to be baptized. However, the Church wasn't there at all at the time. So they had to write to the First Presidency, meet with a bunch of different general authorities, and the nearest mission president, who was in Hong Kong. Fratello Gill did most of the work to get permission to have a Church building in Pakistan. There were no missionaries there, though, so he also did missionary work! He brought the gospel to and baptized over 150 people! Then he went on a mission to England, and in the meantime, the brother got baptized. Now he's here with his beautiful little family, and he is a great help in the branch. Monday we decided to go visit a member, Sorella Toccafondi. We had planned days ago to visit her Monday at a certain time. When we got there, she was having a really hard time, and she kept saying, “How did you know to come see me?” We didn't, but Heavenly Father did. It never ceases to amaze me how well He knows His children and looks out for each one of them. When we did our weekly planning on Friday, we had no idea that Sorella Toccafondi would need us right then. But Heavenly Father did, and He made sure that we were there for her. I am so grateful that He allows me to be an instrument to do His work. It's so humbling to think that He doesn't really need us to build His kingdom. He created the whole universe, and He could easily do it without us. But He allows us to do it because of what it does to us. He lets us take part in this work so that we can learn to trust Him, to rely on Him and to become more like Him. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be an instrument full time right now, and look forward to serving in whatever ways I can for the rest of my life.

Vi voglio tanto bene!
Buona settimana!
Sorella Hawkey