Hello family,
So my pday is on Wednesday, so I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to write sooner! But La Spezia is amazing!!!! It's a gorgeous little city! President Acerson said it's his favorite in the mission. We live about a block away from the pier, where we go running every morning. It's a beautiful view of the ocean, and the mountains are only a couple blocks away in the other direction. There are tons of little fishing boats, where little old men go fishing every morning and then sell their fish at the market, which is also by our house. There's also an older man who sits a couple blocks away and plays the accordian throughout the day. It's amazing here!So here's what I've done so far. We had 26 hours of travel from Provo to Rome, which was pretty uneventful. But as soon as we got to Roma, it got exciting! The Acersons and the APs picked us up and we went straight to get pizza! Yummy! Then we went to St. Pauls, which was gorgeous! We stopped really quick at the Colosseum on the way to the mission home, then we had interviews and dinner and finally got to sleep. The next morning we had some training meetings, then got to see the Temple sight. It's gorgeous! It's 15 acres, and will have a stake center, the Temple, and a hotel type building for people to stay at. It can be seen from the main highways, too. It's so amazing because in Italy you're not allowed to build anything if there are artifacts or ruins under the ground. In the whole 15 acres, there's not a single artifact, but only 100 feet away there are tons of ruins. Amazing!After that, we had lunch at the mission home with all of our trainers, but no one except the President knew who was training who. After lunch the trainers had a meeting, and us greenies had a meeting, then we had golden transfers. We took turns going up front, and opening our envelope that would tell us who was our trainer and where we were going, then our trainer came up and we took pictures pointing on the map to our city. It was so fun! We then took a 5 hour train ride up here, and I taught my first real lesson! We talked to a guy about the Book of Mormon, and gave him one. It was a great experience to actually understand most of the conversation and to be actually talking to real people instead of the pretend situations at the MTC.We got blown into La Spezia, which means that neither of us had ever served here before, so Sorella Jones and I have gotten lost numerous times, but we're getting to know the city pretty well and have met most of our investigators already.My first encounter with anyone from La Spezia was with our neighbor, who very clearly hates the missionaries! We were walking out of our apartment the first morning, and she stopped us and started yelling at us. That was one time when I was grateful that I didn't understand the conversation. Needless to say, between that and a few other experiences, I've already learned all the bad words in Italian by having them yelled at me. The joys of being a missionary! Also, on Monday all the busses were on strike, and we had appointments all over the city, so we walked, and walked, and walked....And it was raining!This past weekend, we actually had district conference instead of regular church. We are in the Florence district, so we had the opportunity to go to Florence this weekend! It is gorgeous!!! That's where our zone conferences are, too, so we get to go back next week. Today we're going to try to go to Cinque Terre if it's not raining. I don't think we'll ever get bored on Pdays here! Cinque Terre is one of the places I ALWAYS have wanted to go to, and I was so excited when I found out it is in the Roma mission! And even more excited when I found out it is 15 minutes away from where I live!So, onto the best part, the people we're working with. Our first appointment was in Spanish, which I understand even less than I do Italian. It's been an eventful first week needless to say! But she's the sister of one of the elder's investigators, so the elders came with us. (There are 4 elders here, and us 2 sisters) Her name is Mary, and her brother is Gustavo. They are a hilarious family! Theres about 8 of them I think. They kept walking in and out, so I don't actually know exactly how many people there are. But it was a hilarious lesson. We taught an entire lesson, but no one actually stayed for more than about 2 minutes at a time, and there was usually only 1 or 2 people there listening at a time. They just kind of come in and out as they feel like it. We're trying to think of ways to keep their attention, but haven't yet thought of anything. The elders said that's how it always is. Mary is awesome, though, and taught me a few new Italian phrases!Another amazing experience! We were doing casa (tracting) the other night, which is an interesting experience. There aren't really any houses, just apartment complexes here. So you have to try to get in by using the citofono (intercom thing). Then on the off chance that someone actually lets us in, we then have to go knock on their door. So anyways, we're doing casa, and a lady, Antonina, let us in the main palazzo entrance because she thought it was her son that rang that citofono. So we get at her door, and she's surprised to see that we're missionaries and not her son. But she said "Oh! You're the Mormon missionaries! Come in! I knew a missionary about 20 years ago, and he impressed me, so you two have to be great!" She let us in and let us teach her a lesson just because of the impression that one elder made 20 years ago. As we were talking, she remembered that she had a Book of Mormon, and she found it and brought it out. There was also a card from that missionary in it. She told us that recently she's been thinking about life and she really wants to find answers. She was really excited about the Book of Mormon and promised to read parts from it and pray about it. It was such an incredible experience!Which reminds me. We want to find that missionary. Kyle, is there any way you can try to find him? His last name is Bernardi and his first name starts with a J. He served here about 23 years ago. We really want to find him if at all possible. I know there are some mission websites, I think mission.net that have names and contact info for people who have served missions.We also met our branch president this week, who is incredible! He owns a little book and office supply shop, and is wonderful! He is so loving and kind, and so involved in missionary work! I'm excited to be able to work with him and get to know him more. The elders told us an awesome story about him. They said that he doesn't have a car, because he and his family decided to save their money instead so that they can go to the Temple every year. What an amazing sacrifice that is! And what a blessing it will be to have a Temple in Roma soon.Another investigator is Sandra, who is amazing! She owns a little market in downtown La Spezia. She is from Nigeria, and is so incredibly passionate about life and so loving! We went to visit her at her shop last night, and she sang about 10 gospel songs from Nigeria. She's awesome! I'm excited to work with her more.Another investigator is Geni. She has had a very hard life. She's in her early 60s and is so blunt. Yesterday we taught her a lesson, and she was amazed with everything we taught her. She kept saying that the things we taught answered so many questions she's had, and she was so excited to pray to know the truth. She's very opinionated and not afraid to share her opinion! As most Italians are, I'm finding. In the middle of our lesson, she just got up and said that it was time for us to go and asked me to say the prayer. It was hilarious. I love how the Italians are not afraid to say what's on their mind.That leads me to my favorite investigator, Rita. She's 18 and amazing! She's the daughter of one of the elder's investigators. The elders have been working with the dad for awhile, andl ately she's shown interest, so the elders took us over last night to meet her. Her and her dad have also had an incredibly difficult life. They opened up to us so much last night, and had so many questions that they want us to come back to answer for them. They are amazing! I think Rita and I are going to become great friends. She's so wonderful. She wants to help me with my Italian, and she is so encouraging when I try to speak.I love you all so much! Thanks for your prayers and your emails. I'm loving it here. It's very difficult, especially not understanding alot of the language, and the rain, but I know that the Lord is with me always. He has already helped me so much! I'm so grateful to be here!!!!!
Love you all!Sorella Hawkey
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
October 28, 2008
Ciao, tutti!
Only 1 week til Italia!!!!!!! To answer your questions, the skirt is a size 6. My flight leaves SLC at 7:20 am next Tuesday, and I'll be in Chicago from 11:40 am to 5:05 pm Chicago time. So if you could all decide which time you want me to call and what number you want me to call, just message me on dearelder.com and let me know. The address I gave you is to the mission home, so you can send all my mail/packages there.Anyways, it's been another fantastic week at the MTC! Funny story (you don't have to put this on the blog- only my family will really truly understand this)- all of the anziani in my district pretty much think I'm their big sister, so they harass me like crazy. They tease me all the time about my supposed evil-eye and say that it "pierces their soul with intensity." So they dubbed me Angela from The Office. Any time I give them what they call "the look," they call me Angela. It's kinda funny.Another funny story- my district went to a workshop the other day. It was only my district there with a teacher. My companion and I were taking notes and participating, and we looked around at our anziani. 3 of them were sleeping, 2 were sitting on the opposite side of the room as each other and throwing a pen back and forth any time the teacher turned his back, another 2 were playing tic-tac-toe, one was drawing pictures, and 2 were doing "sign language" across the room at each other. The things we sisters put up with all day!Anyways, I'm just about ready to go! I've had my departure interview, I have my official flight plans, and we've had all our departure meetings. I can't believe it's so soon! Sunday at our fireside, the director of the missionary department spoke. He is a ward mission leader in his ward, and he brought a man who got baptized about 10 months ago, Edward. Edward got up and bore his testimony to us all, and thanked us for serving missions. Watching him speak, missionary work became all that more real to me. The MTC is great and I love it here, but I can't wait to go to Italy and talk to real people, with real problems. I can't wait to be able to teach them that we have a prophet on earth today, that Christ's gospel has been restored. I can't wait to help people come unto Christ, the master healer. I'm so excited!Our speaker also spoke about the process of getting mission calls, as did our devotional speaker last Tuesday. Both of them told a couple stories of observing the call process with one of the Twelve. They said a picture would come up, and the Apostle would read a couple lines in the application, then he would say something like "I see who his companion needs to be, now where is he?" and then quickly narrow it down to continent, then country, then mission. Another time the Apostle said something like "That missionary needs to be with this mission president," or "That missionary has a family to teach in this mission." It was really neat to hear those stories, and to be reminded that my call comes from a Prophet of God, who represents the Lord Himself. I know I'm going to Italy for a reason. I know that there are specific people and families that I need to find. I can't wait to go and find them!I love you all! Thanks for your prayers. Mom, I hope you're feeling better. Know that I love you and you're in my prayers. You all are in my prayers always.
Vi voglio bene!Sorella Hawkey
Only 1 week til Italia!!!!!!! To answer your questions, the skirt is a size 6. My flight leaves SLC at 7:20 am next Tuesday, and I'll be in Chicago from 11:40 am to 5:05 pm Chicago time. So if you could all decide which time you want me to call and what number you want me to call, just message me on dearelder.com and let me know. The address I gave you is to the mission home, so you can send all my mail/packages there.Anyways, it's been another fantastic week at the MTC! Funny story (you don't have to put this on the blog- only my family will really truly understand this)- all of the anziani in my district pretty much think I'm their big sister, so they harass me like crazy. They tease me all the time about my supposed evil-eye and say that it "pierces their soul with intensity." So they dubbed me Angela from The Office. Any time I give them what they call "the look," they call me Angela. It's kinda funny.Another funny story- my district went to a workshop the other day. It was only my district there with a teacher. My companion and I were taking notes and participating, and we looked around at our anziani. 3 of them were sleeping, 2 were sitting on the opposite side of the room as each other and throwing a pen back and forth any time the teacher turned his back, another 2 were playing tic-tac-toe, one was drawing pictures, and 2 were doing "sign language" across the room at each other. The things we sisters put up with all day!Anyways, I'm just about ready to go! I've had my departure interview, I have my official flight plans, and we've had all our departure meetings. I can't believe it's so soon! Sunday at our fireside, the director of the missionary department spoke. He is a ward mission leader in his ward, and he brought a man who got baptized about 10 months ago, Edward. Edward got up and bore his testimony to us all, and thanked us for serving missions. Watching him speak, missionary work became all that more real to me. The MTC is great and I love it here, but I can't wait to go to Italy and talk to real people, with real problems. I can't wait to be able to teach them that we have a prophet on earth today, that Christ's gospel has been restored. I can't wait to help people come unto Christ, the master healer. I'm so excited!Our speaker also spoke about the process of getting mission calls, as did our devotional speaker last Tuesday. Both of them told a couple stories of observing the call process with one of the Twelve. They said a picture would come up, and the Apostle would read a couple lines in the application, then he would say something like "I see who his companion needs to be, now where is he?" and then quickly narrow it down to continent, then country, then mission. Another time the Apostle said something like "That missionary needs to be with this mission president," or "That missionary has a family to teach in this mission." It was really neat to hear those stories, and to be reminded that my call comes from a Prophet of God, who represents the Lord Himself. I know I'm going to Italy for a reason. I know that there are specific people and families that I need to find. I can't wait to go and find them!I love you all! Thanks for your prayers. Mom, I hope you're feeling better. Know that I love you and you're in my prayers. You all are in my prayers always.
Vi voglio bene!Sorella Hawkey
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
October 21, 2008
Ciao, Tutti!
Come va? Life here is still great! I'm getting super excited to get to Italy! And a little nervous. But mostly excited. To answer your question about Pday, we do laundry in the morning, which is when we have time to write letters and email. Then we have personal study, then lunch, then the Temple, then companionship study, then we have about half an hour left of pday to get whatever done that we need to, then dinner, then our General Authority devotional. So we don't have a lot of time to get things done.Speaking of General Authority devotionals, last week was amazing! Elder Richard G. Scott came. He taught us things that he had learned from the Spirit. It was incredible! To listen to an Apostle of our Savior Jesus Christ teach us what he's learned from the Holy Ghost. Wow! He was really funny and personable, too. One of my favorite things he taught us was when he said, "Faith, prayer, love and humility hold no great significance and produce no miracles until they become a living part of the individual." Those are all abstract terms and can be hard to define, but we need to make them real in our lives. They need to become a very real part of us, and I know that as that happens, miracles will occur. It's amazing the miracles I've witnessed as a missionary, and I'm not even in Italy yet! At the end of his talk, he bore a very powerful testimony. He then said that he would like to give everyone the opportunity to shake his hand. So after the devotional, he stood there for hours shaking every single missionary's hand. It was so powerful! I couldn't help but think of Jesus Christ, who let all of the Nephites touch his hands and his sides. When he shook my hand, he looked me in the eyes and said, "What a sweet, lovely sister." It was an amazing experience that I'll forever treasure.Yesterday in the TRC (the place where we practice teach) I had a great experience. We completely didn't teach anything we had prepared, but let ourselves be led by the Spirit, and I felt like we really met the needs of our investigator. It was a great feeling! During the lesson, when my companion was talking, I pictured myself teaching a real family in Italy, and I got so excited! I can't believe in only 2 weeks I'll be teaching real people with real problems. Elder Scott also told us about missionary work, and what a privilege it is to help people. He said that we will meet people who need the healing power of the Atonement, and I'll be able to bring them the Master Physician. What a sacred opportunity this is.During one of our meetings last week, the speaker talked about making the most of every single moment of our missions. He told us the story of an elder who was waiting for his departure interview at the mission home his last day of his mission, and decided to go out tracting instead of just sitting around. He and one of the assistants to the president went out, and he later found out that one person they met ended up getting baptized. So Sorella Leckie and I made a committment to each other that on our last day while we're waiting to meet with the mission president, instead of sitting around the mission home visiting with others, we will go out tracting. I don't know if we'll end up meeting someone who will get baptized, but I want to honestly be able to say that I worked every minute of my mission and never missed an opportunity to share this message with someone who might need it.We got a new Italian district last week! We got 6 new sisters who are all coming to Rome, and 8 elders, all going to Milan except one. They're awesome! I got to give the sisters their orientation. Our Italian zone now has 41 missionaries in it! It's great! They all decided that I'm the zone mom. Apparently I'm bossy. Who knew? They also said that they can tell I was a teacher. But they also said that I take care of everyone, so that's good. It's really funny- any time the elders get a letter from someone, or have a story to tell, they always come find me to tell me. They say that it makes it easier to be away from their moms with me around.Thanks for all your love and prayers! I love you all so much. I know this Church is true with all of my heart, and I'm so grateful to have the fulness of the restored gospel. I'm so blessed to know our Heavenly Father's plan for us, and I can't wait to help others find the same joy.
Vi voglio bene, tutti!
Sorella Hawkey
Come va? Life here is still great! I'm getting super excited to get to Italy! And a little nervous. But mostly excited. To answer your question about Pday, we do laundry in the morning, which is when we have time to write letters and email. Then we have personal study, then lunch, then the Temple, then companionship study, then we have about half an hour left of pday to get whatever done that we need to, then dinner, then our General Authority devotional. So we don't have a lot of time to get things done.Speaking of General Authority devotionals, last week was amazing! Elder Richard G. Scott came. He taught us things that he had learned from the Spirit. It was incredible! To listen to an Apostle of our Savior Jesus Christ teach us what he's learned from the Holy Ghost. Wow! He was really funny and personable, too. One of my favorite things he taught us was when he said, "Faith, prayer, love and humility hold no great significance and produce no miracles until they become a living part of the individual." Those are all abstract terms and can be hard to define, but we need to make them real in our lives. They need to become a very real part of us, and I know that as that happens, miracles will occur. It's amazing the miracles I've witnessed as a missionary, and I'm not even in Italy yet! At the end of his talk, he bore a very powerful testimony. He then said that he would like to give everyone the opportunity to shake his hand. So after the devotional, he stood there for hours shaking every single missionary's hand. It was so powerful! I couldn't help but think of Jesus Christ, who let all of the Nephites touch his hands and his sides. When he shook my hand, he looked me in the eyes and said, "What a sweet, lovely sister." It was an amazing experience that I'll forever treasure.Yesterday in the TRC (the place where we practice teach) I had a great experience. We completely didn't teach anything we had prepared, but let ourselves be led by the Spirit, and I felt like we really met the needs of our investigator. It was a great feeling! During the lesson, when my companion was talking, I pictured myself teaching a real family in Italy, and I got so excited! I can't believe in only 2 weeks I'll be teaching real people with real problems. Elder Scott also told us about missionary work, and what a privilege it is to help people. He said that we will meet people who need the healing power of the Atonement, and I'll be able to bring them the Master Physician. What a sacred opportunity this is.During one of our meetings last week, the speaker talked about making the most of every single moment of our missions. He told us the story of an elder who was waiting for his departure interview at the mission home his last day of his mission, and decided to go out tracting instead of just sitting around. He and one of the assistants to the president went out, and he later found out that one person they met ended up getting baptized. So Sorella Leckie and I made a committment to each other that on our last day while we're waiting to meet with the mission president, instead of sitting around the mission home visiting with others, we will go out tracting. I don't know if we'll end up meeting someone who will get baptized, but I want to honestly be able to say that I worked every minute of my mission and never missed an opportunity to share this message with someone who might need it.We got a new Italian district last week! We got 6 new sisters who are all coming to Rome, and 8 elders, all going to Milan except one. They're awesome! I got to give the sisters their orientation. Our Italian zone now has 41 missionaries in it! It's great! They all decided that I'm the zone mom. Apparently I'm bossy. Who knew? They also said that they can tell I was a teacher. But they also said that I take care of everyone, so that's good. It's really funny- any time the elders get a letter from someone, or have a story to tell, they always come find me to tell me. They say that it makes it easier to be away from their moms with me around.Thanks for all your love and prayers! I love you all so much. I know this Church is true with all of my heart, and I'm so grateful to have the fulness of the restored gospel. I'm so blessed to know our Heavenly Father's plan for us, and I can't wait to help others find the same joy.
Vi voglio bene, tutti!
Sorella Hawkey
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
October 14, 2008
Ciao!
How are you all doing? First of all, you're still all slacking off in the letter department. Boys, you can use dearelder.com and write me every day! Just something to think about. Mom, could you do me a favor? Could you buy a copy of the DVD for the Priesthood session of conference when it comes out? All the elders in my district sang at it, and I got to hear one of the songs, but I want to hear the rest and see them sing!
Thanks for the package! I love the blazer and the goodies. The elders especially love the goodies, though they were disappointed there wasn't a dog treat this time. This week we have a new district coming in! We get 6 new sisters, all going to Rome!!! We're super excited. I get to do the orientation for the sisters since I'm the Relief Society leader. We also have 2 birthdays in our zone this week. We had one yesterday, and one Saturday. My companion and I are having a lot of fun planning little surprises for them and making their birthdays special.
Every Friday night we have gym last thing, so we have an extra half hour to get ready for bed. So all of the sisters in my district have an ice cream party (with ice cream from the vending machines) and sing musicals in the showers at the top of our lungs. It's a pretty exciting Friday night!So embarassing story of the week....we got the elder who had a birthday yesterday a book that he wanted. We put it in the room across the hall from our classroom and had the elders go over there a few at a time to sign it. There was only one elder who hadn't signed it, and so I was trying to subtly tell him that he should go across the hall with 2 other elders who "needed his help." But it didn't quite come out that way! I accidentally said, "Elder, you wanna go in the other room?" and it totally sounded like I was inviting him to go with me! Everyone in my district got super quiet and just stared at me!!! So I had to hurry and clarify that I was not in fact flirting with the elders. To make matters worse, my branch presidency heard it all!Another funny story- my companion and I were saying prayer to start off our planning session, and during the prayer I accidentally said something totally wrong in Italian. So I kind of started giggling, which made my companion laugh, which made me laugh harder, and so on... Then all the elders were talking about us and wondering why we were laughing uncontrollably during prayer, which made us laugh harder. Then one of the elders said, "Maybe the Spirit told them a joke!" It was hilarious!
On Mondays we do our practice lessons in the "living room" settings. We're getting much better at teaching in Italian! We can actually get through a lesson without too many grammar mistakes, and for the most part I think our pretend investigators understand us.For Relief Society, we usually get members of the general Relief Society, Primary our Young Women's board to speak to us. Last week we got to hear Sister Johnson from the RS Board. She gave an amazing lesson on giving our all during our missions, and how we will be sustained by angels. I have a strong testimony of angels and I know they attend us far more than we will ever know. The Lord especially looks out for His missionaries, since none of the things we do are for ourselves. I love the story in 2 Kings 6, when Elisha and his servant see that their city is surrounded by their enemy. But Elisha tells his servant not to worry, because they have more on their side than they do against them. The servant was probably thinking something along the lines of, "It's me and you here against an entire army of our enemies!" But then Elisha prays that his servant's eyes will be opened, and he was able to see chariots of angels surrounding them. I know angels are always with us. I loved President Holland's talk about angels, both the heavenly and the earthly kind. I know that when I give my all and feel like I have no more energy to give, I am sustained and uplifted. I wish all of you could experience the miracles that come during a mission- words don't do it justice at all! I'm so grateful to be here and to serve my Savior.
I'm getting so excited to go to Italy, 3 weeks from today!!!!!!I love you all so much!
Sorella Hawkey
How are you all doing? First of all, you're still all slacking off in the letter department. Boys, you can use dearelder.com and write me every day! Just something to think about. Mom, could you do me a favor? Could you buy a copy of the DVD for the Priesthood session of conference when it comes out? All the elders in my district sang at it, and I got to hear one of the songs, but I want to hear the rest and see them sing!
Thanks for the package! I love the blazer and the goodies. The elders especially love the goodies, though they were disappointed there wasn't a dog treat this time. This week we have a new district coming in! We get 6 new sisters, all going to Rome!!! We're super excited. I get to do the orientation for the sisters since I'm the Relief Society leader. We also have 2 birthdays in our zone this week. We had one yesterday, and one Saturday. My companion and I are having a lot of fun planning little surprises for them and making their birthdays special.
Every Friday night we have gym last thing, so we have an extra half hour to get ready for bed. So all of the sisters in my district have an ice cream party (with ice cream from the vending machines) and sing musicals in the showers at the top of our lungs. It's a pretty exciting Friday night!So embarassing story of the week....we got the elder who had a birthday yesterday a book that he wanted. We put it in the room across the hall from our classroom and had the elders go over there a few at a time to sign it. There was only one elder who hadn't signed it, and so I was trying to subtly tell him that he should go across the hall with 2 other elders who "needed his help." But it didn't quite come out that way! I accidentally said, "Elder, you wanna go in the other room?" and it totally sounded like I was inviting him to go with me! Everyone in my district got super quiet and just stared at me!!! So I had to hurry and clarify that I was not in fact flirting with the elders. To make matters worse, my branch presidency heard it all!Another funny story- my companion and I were saying prayer to start off our planning session, and during the prayer I accidentally said something totally wrong in Italian. So I kind of started giggling, which made my companion laugh, which made me laugh harder, and so on... Then all the elders were talking about us and wondering why we were laughing uncontrollably during prayer, which made us laugh harder. Then one of the elders said, "Maybe the Spirit told them a joke!" It was hilarious!
On Mondays we do our practice lessons in the "living room" settings. We're getting much better at teaching in Italian! We can actually get through a lesson without too many grammar mistakes, and for the most part I think our pretend investigators understand us.For Relief Society, we usually get members of the general Relief Society, Primary our Young Women's board to speak to us. Last week we got to hear Sister Johnson from the RS Board. She gave an amazing lesson on giving our all during our missions, and how we will be sustained by angels. I have a strong testimony of angels and I know they attend us far more than we will ever know. The Lord especially looks out for His missionaries, since none of the things we do are for ourselves. I love the story in 2 Kings 6, when Elisha and his servant see that their city is surrounded by their enemy. But Elisha tells his servant not to worry, because they have more on their side than they do against them. The servant was probably thinking something along the lines of, "It's me and you here against an entire army of our enemies!" But then Elisha prays that his servant's eyes will be opened, and he was able to see chariots of angels surrounding them. I know angels are always with us. I loved President Holland's talk about angels, both the heavenly and the earthly kind. I know that when I give my all and feel like I have no more energy to give, I am sustained and uplifted. I wish all of you could experience the miracles that come during a mission- words don't do it justice at all! I'm so grateful to be here and to serve my Savior.
I'm getting so excited to go to Italy, 3 weeks from today!!!!!!I love you all so much!
Sorella Hawkey
Saturday, October 11, 2008
October 7, 2008
October 7, 2008
Ciao, Tutti!First things first, We're getting a Temple!!!! I don't think I've ever been so excited in my life! When President Monson announced that, all the Italian missionaries were sitting together, and all the sisters squealed in excitement! Ever since then, people have commented on the excitement the Italian missionaries showed when the Temple was announced. I am SO excited! It will be such a blessing to the people of Italy to have a Temple in their own country. It will be a great opportunity for us as missionaries to teach about the new building being built. I'm sure there will be even more opposition in Rome, but that only means the blessings will be greater. I've been crying for 3 days straight now because I'm so happy for the people of Italy. All us sisters are planning on going back to work at the open house and be there for the dedication. And how amazing would it be to see people I taught be able to go through the Temple for themselves!!!In addition to the announcement of the Temple, the rest of Conference was incredible! It's so great to listen to it as a missionary- it seemed like every talk was applicable to missionary work. My favorite was Sister Allred's comment that you all should send your missionary more letters! :) We talked in our class Friday night about Conference, and our teacher gave us time to pray about 3 questions we have, and she promised us that during Conference, all of those questions would be answered. All of the questions I had were answered multiple times! It's so amazing to have a Prophet on the earth today to lead and guide us as a Church, and us as individuals.So I liked your idea about a recorder. I bought one at the bookstore and will send you a tape later this morning, so you can hear my voice. I was thinking it might be easier if we both have a tape recorder and just send the tapes back and forth. Pretty much the whole tape talks about how excited I am for a Temple in Roma, but it's all I can think about!(you don't have to post this story on my blog- I think you 4 will be the only ones who appreciate this story) So the anziani in my district seem to think that I'm their big sister, and they torture me like they would a big sister. They told me the other day that I have an evil eye. They said it in Italian, but I can't remember the word for it. They said that when they're doing something annoying, I look at them with my evil eye, and they're scared so they stop! I know this story is probably shocking to you, since you can't even imagine that I would have an evil eye, or what you might call a hairy eyeball. I thought it was pretty funny.Yesterday we taught our first lesson completely in Italiano! Mamma mia- e molto difficile! But it was a great experience. It's amazing how, even when we completely butcher the language and have horrible grammar, as long as we have the Spirit with us when we teach, the message gets across and touches the heart of our investigator. I love Ezekiel chapter 4 when Moses is saying that he doesn't feel like he's a good speaker, and he doesn't know how he can teach effectively. I know I'm not a good speaker of Italian yet! But the Lord says that He's the one who made Moses' mouth, and if he trusts in the Lord, he'll be able to speak just fine. I know that the more I trust in my Savior, the better I'm able to speak. It's when I think I can do it on my own that it's non bene.The other day one of our teachers gave a spiritual thought on Matthew chapter 14, when Peter walks on water. He talked about the storms in life that each of us face. Learning Italian and being a missionary, though an amazing blessing, is somewhat of a storm because of how difficult it is. But the Lord always, always comes to us in our trials. He invites us to come to Him amongst the storm. When Peter was focused on the Savior, and the miracle of walking on water, he was able to walk. But when he focused on the storm, or the realities of life, he sunk. When I focus on the miracle of the gift of tongues and the power of the Savior, I am able to speak the language. But when I focus on reality, or how difficult it is, and start doubting the power of the Lord, I sink. I know it's the same with any trial in life. Focus on the Savior and the miraculous power of the Atonement, and miracles will happen.Sunday we had a musical fireside, which was amazing! But my favorite part was the closing hymn- Hark All Ye Nations. For the first 2 verses, they had the elders who sung in the Priesthood session of conference stand and sing. As I looked around at all these elders, I could help but cry. All the missionaries are a bunch of young people who don't know a whole lot or have a lot of life's experiences. But each of us has given up a significant portion of our lives and dedicated ourselves fully to the preaching of the Lord's gospel to His children. As I listened to the elders sing, I thought of the dedication and enthusiasm they have for sharing the gospel. Then all the audience stood to sing the 3rd verse, but I couldn't sing a single word because I was bawling. But I love the words, and I love being a part of this great missionary work! The word are:Hark all ye nations! Hear heaven's voiceThrough every land, that all may rejoiceAngels of glory shout the refrain:Truth is restored againSearching in darkness, nations have weptWatching for dawn, their vigil they've keptAll now rejoice, the long is overTrust in on earth once moreChosen by God to serve Him below,To every land and people we'll goStanding for truth with fervent accordPreaching His holy wordOh how glorious from the throne aboveShines the gospel light of truth and loveBright as the sun this heavenly rayLights every land todayI'm so honored to be part of this work, to be chosen by God to serve His children and preach His gospel. I'm so excited to be among the ones representing our Savior Jesus Christ. I'm so excited that the Italians will be getting a Temple! It will be such a blessing for them to be sealed with their families for eternity.I love you all so much! Thanks for your prayers and your love.Vi voglio bene!Sorella HawkeyPS Send me more letters!
Ciao, Tutti!First things first, We're getting a Temple!!!! I don't think I've ever been so excited in my life! When President Monson announced that, all the Italian missionaries were sitting together, and all the sisters squealed in excitement! Ever since then, people have commented on the excitement the Italian missionaries showed when the Temple was announced. I am SO excited! It will be such a blessing to the people of Italy to have a Temple in their own country. It will be a great opportunity for us as missionaries to teach about the new building being built. I'm sure there will be even more opposition in Rome, but that only means the blessings will be greater. I've been crying for 3 days straight now because I'm so happy for the people of Italy. All us sisters are planning on going back to work at the open house and be there for the dedication. And how amazing would it be to see people I taught be able to go through the Temple for themselves!!!In addition to the announcement of the Temple, the rest of Conference was incredible! It's so great to listen to it as a missionary- it seemed like every talk was applicable to missionary work. My favorite was Sister Allred's comment that you all should send your missionary more letters! :) We talked in our class Friday night about Conference, and our teacher gave us time to pray about 3 questions we have, and she promised us that during Conference, all of those questions would be answered. All of the questions I had were answered multiple times! It's so amazing to have a Prophet on the earth today to lead and guide us as a Church, and us as individuals.So I liked your idea about a recorder. I bought one at the bookstore and will send you a tape later this morning, so you can hear my voice. I was thinking it might be easier if we both have a tape recorder and just send the tapes back and forth. Pretty much the whole tape talks about how excited I am for a Temple in Roma, but it's all I can think about!(you don't have to post this story on my blog- I think you 4 will be the only ones who appreciate this story) So the anziani in my district seem to think that I'm their big sister, and they torture me like they would a big sister. They told me the other day that I have an evil eye. They said it in Italian, but I can't remember the word for it. They said that when they're doing something annoying, I look at them with my evil eye, and they're scared so they stop! I know this story is probably shocking to you, since you can't even imagine that I would have an evil eye, or what you might call a hairy eyeball. I thought it was pretty funny.Yesterday we taught our first lesson completely in Italiano! Mamma mia- e molto difficile! But it was a great experience. It's amazing how, even when we completely butcher the language and have horrible grammar, as long as we have the Spirit with us when we teach, the message gets across and touches the heart of our investigator. I love Ezekiel chapter 4 when Moses is saying that he doesn't feel like he's a good speaker, and he doesn't know how he can teach effectively. I know I'm not a good speaker of Italian yet! But the Lord says that He's the one who made Moses' mouth, and if he trusts in the Lord, he'll be able to speak just fine. I know that the more I trust in my Savior, the better I'm able to speak. It's when I think I can do it on my own that it's non bene.The other day one of our teachers gave a spiritual thought on Matthew chapter 14, when Peter walks on water. He talked about the storms in life that each of us face. Learning Italian and being a missionary, though an amazing blessing, is somewhat of a storm because of how difficult it is. But the Lord always, always comes to us in our trials. He invites us to come to Him amongst the storm. When Peter was focused on the Savior, and the miracle of walking on water, he was able to walk. But when he focused on the storm, or the realities of life, he sunk. When I focus on the miracle of the gift of tongues and the power of the Savior, I am able to speak the language. But when I focus on reality, or how difficult it is, and start doubting the power of the Lord, I sink. I know it's the same with any trial in life. Focus on the Savior and the miraculous power of the Atonement, and miracles will happen.Sunday we had a musical fireside, which was amazing! But my favorite part was the closing hymn- Hark All Ye Nations. For the first 2 verses, they had the elders who sung in the Priesthood session of conference stand and sing. As I looked around at all these elders, I could help but cry. All the missionaries are a bunch of young people who don't know a whole lot or have a lot of life's experiences. But each of us has given up a significant portion of our lives and dedicated ourselves fully to the preaching of the Lord's gospel to His children. As I listened to the elders sing, I thought of the dedication and enthusiasm they have for sharing the gospel. Then all the audience stood to sing the 3rd verse, but I couldn't sing a single word because I was bawling. But I love the words, and I love being a part of this great missionary work! The word are:Hark all ye nations! Hear heaven's voiceThrough every land, that all may rejoiceAngels of glory shout the refrain:Truth is restored againSearching in darkness, nations have weptWatching for dawn, their vigil they've keptAll now rejoice, the long is overTrust in on earth once moreChosen by God to serve Him below,To every land and people we'll goStanding for truth with fervent accordPreaching His holy wordOh how glorious from the throne aboveShines the gospel light of truth and loveBright as the sun this heavenly rayLights every land todayI'm so honored to be part of this work, to be chosen by God to serve His children and preach His gospel. I'm so excited to be among the ones representing our Savior Jesus Christ. I'm so excited that the Italians will be getting a Temple! It will be such a blessing for them to be sealed with their families for eternity.I love you all so much! Thanks for your prayers and your love.Vi voglio bene!Sorella HawkeyPS Send me more letters!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
September 30, 2008
Ciao, tutti!Come va? Everything's still going well at the MTC. This week is incredibly difficult, though. We're not allowed to speak english anymore!! It's been a very difficult and humbling experience, to say the least.To answer everyone's questions, all my shots are done. I haven't seen Z.O., luckily. For Halloween my companion and I are switching name tags. The food here isn't bad. Not great, but not bad, either. My companion in wonderful! We're together the whole MTC. My official leave date is Nov 4 at 11:40 am. We fly to Chicago, then London, then Roma. We'll get to Rome November 5th at 1:55 pm. It's going to be a long day!Could you tell Allison thank you SO much for the package and letters!!!Did you get my debit card yet? I haven't receieved it.Also, I went 4 days without a letter from anyone. Granted, Sunday wasn't really your fault, since they don't deliver mail on Sundays, but still. With dearelder.com, I should be getting more letters! It gets very lonely when your only means of contact with the outside world is through letters, and then I don't even get any!Thanks for the package with all the candy and scriptures! Funny story- the elders usually help me eat the treats I get, but when I got that package, they were all intrigued with the dog bone. None of them wanted any candy, but they all passed around the dog bone and tasted it. They're so weird!Another funny/embarassing story for the week. We spend about 13 hours a day in the same classroom, so when we get to leave we're full of energy. So Saturday, my companion challenged me to a race down the stairs. We started running down the stairs, and I said "You're going down!" Just as I finished saying that, I went down- literally. I fell right on my backside and slid down a few stairs, and my shoes somehow fell off in the process and went flying down 2 flights of stairs. And to make matters worse, my entire district was right behind me and an entire Spanish district was in front of me, so about 25 elders saw this! I was laughing so hard, I couldn't get up, so they all thought I was hurt and rushed over to help me!This week I got called as our branch's relief society coordinator. All of the sisters in the MTC are in one relief society, so each branch has it's own sister who takes care of the relief society for their branch, and now it's me. I don't really have a whole lot to do for now, except branch council meetings. But in 2 weeks we get a new district, so I'll help give the sisters their orientation.I'm really excited for conference! The elders get to go sing at the priesthood session, which I'm jealous of. My companion and I went to choir practice because we heard the rumor that they were sending an MTC choir to a session of conference. But when we got there, they kindly invited the sisters to leave. Our whole district of elders is singing. We get to watch the relief society broadcast while the elders watch priesthood session.I have so many wonderful experiences to share with you all, but not enough time! When I get back, you won't be able to get me to shut up for months! That is, if I can remember how to speak english again. It gets worse by the day!This week has been very challenging, and I came across a quote by Elder Holland. Even though it's specifically talking about missionary work, I think it applies to anyone. He said,"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occassion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn't it go better? Why can't our success be more rapid? Why aren't there more people joining the Church? It's the truth that we believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don't people flock to the font? Why isn't' the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font? You will have occassion to ask these questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are the Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our great Eternal Head. How could we believe that it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. YOu have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the living Son of the living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions."Life is hard, but it's supposed to be hard, or it wouldn't be a test. Missions especially are hard. But the Lord promised His missionaries, in D&C 88:84 that He will be with us. He will go before us and beside us and His angels will be with us. I have felt those angels lift me up when I felt like I couldn't go any further. I have felt His strength when I have none left. And I know that He will be there for each one of you, regardless of your personal mission.I am so grateful for this wonderful privilege of being a representative of my Savior, Jesus Christ. It's such an honor to wear His name beside mine of my nametag each day. It's a privilege to prepare to stand in His stead to preach His gospel to His children.I love you all so much! My prayers are always with you.Vi voglio bene!Sorella Hawkey
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