HELLO!!! I'm officially halfway done with my MTC
training!! HOW CRAZY IS THAT!!! MAMMA MIA!!! So I just want to start off saying
that I love my zone. It's like being home. We're all so loud and we always
greet each with with "CIAO!!!!!" Like we haven't seen each other for
years. It's so great. Anywho, Just wanted to say that. So let's see, what
happened this week?
Thursday we had TRC which is where we just teach a member
of the church a lesson once a week and it's not the same person. Sometimes
they're not members, but this time they were. My companion and I actually got
to teach two women from Italy! THEY TALK SO FAST. But I was able to understand
them pretty well! But I felt super stupid talking after them because I had to
talk so slow. Haha but it was super neat. They're so fun and warm.
Friday my companion and I taught our simpatizzante Antoine and it was the most spiritual lesson we had this entire time here. We had planned to teach him about the Restoration but that went out the window. We started talking about happiness and about how this gospel brings us happiness and he said he wanted that. He said that he likes drinking because it makes him forget all his problems. So we asked him to pray and he started to cry and he asked for happiness in his prayer. It was so touching and so spiritual. At the end we invited him, to be baptized and he asked if baptism would bring him happiness and we said yes! yes it does! So he has committed to be baptized on October 22nd! THAT WAS OUR SECOND LESSON WITH HIM!! It was so amazing and sooooo spiritual. Saturday and Sunday were obviously General Conference. General Conference as a missionary is such a different experience but it is so incredible. The talks were so great and I wish all of my investigators could watch a General Conference. Fun fact, Elder Godoy, the member of the Seventy that spoke in Portuguese at the Sunday afternoon session, his son is in our zone! So that was pretty neat having that kind of connection to one of the speakers at Conference.
Sunday night for Devotional, Vai Sikahima (I think that's his last name) spoke. Anyway, he used to play football for BYU and then he played for the Packers. Now he's a sports caster. He was super funny. He's from Pennsylvania. He gave a great talk about missionary work and it made me want to go out and talk to everyone. I'm sure you can look him up. He was the first Tongan to receive a full ride scholarship to BYU to play on the football team or something like that. He's kinda a big deal. Anywho, it was an awesome talk. I loved that he was able to be super funny and animated yet invited the spirit so strongly.
Friday my companion and I taught our simpatizzante Antoine and it was the most spiritual lesson we had this entire time here. We had planned to teach him about the Restoration but that went out the window. We started talking about happiness and about how this gospel brings us happiness and he said he wanted that. He said that he likes drinking because it makes him forget all his problems. So we asked him to pray and he started to cry and he asked for happiness in his prayer. It was so touching and so spiritual. At the end we invited him, to be baptized and he asked if baptism would bring him happiness and we said yes! yes it does! So he has committed to be baptized on October 22nd! THAT WAS OUR SECOND LESSON WITH HIM!! It was so amazing and sooooo spiritual. Saturday and Sunday were obviously General Conference. General Conference as a missionary is such a different experience but it is so incredible. The talks were so great and I wish all of my investigators could watch a General Conference. Fun fact, Elder Godoy, the member of the Seventy that spoke in Portuguese at the Sunday afternoon session, his son is in our zone! So that was pretty neat having that kind of connection to one of the speakers at Conference.
Sunday night for Devotional, Vai Sikahima (I think that's his last name) spoke. Anyway, he used to play football for BYU and then he played for the Packers. Now he's a sports caster. He was super funny. He's from Pennsylvania. He gave a great talk about missionary work and it made me want to go out and talk to everyone. I'm sure you can look him up. He was the first Tongan to receive a full ride scholarship to BYU to play on the football team or something like that. He's kinda a big deal. Anywho, it was an awesome talk. I loved that he was able to be super funny and animated yet invited the spirit so strongly.
I can't remember what happened on Monday, which
means it was nothing exciting... We cleaned our room. I guess that's pretty
exciting...
Tuesday we invited Antoine to stop drinking. AHH!!
That was pretty tough. He said he drinking makes him forget so we tried to
explain, in our very broken Italian, that God can help him forget forever, not
just for a moment. But he needs to stop drinking in order for that to happen.
So he said he would try. Fingers crossed!! Our other simpatizzante, Keyla, is
doing really well! We're just reading the Book of Mormon with her and trying to
help her understand the importance of the BoM and be able to apply it to
herself. At the end of the lesson she asked US if she could come to church on
Sunday! Whaaaat?! She's awesome. Did I say she's only 16? Well, she's only 16.
What a rock star.
Alright, so we heard of some classic foreign language
speaking missionary moments that I have to share. First off, the first week, an
Anziano in our district kept trying to say "we are children of God"
which is "Siamo i figli di Dio" But he kept saying "siamo i
figilio di Dio" (Something like that) and Figilio (not sure how to spell
it) means green beans in Italian. So our teacher was laughing pretty hard when
he said that we're the green beans of God.
Next, our roommates Sorella Hogan and Sorella Yonk taught a lesson to an investigator, or maybe they were role playing. I can't remember. Either way, Sorella Yonk was trying to say "Jesus suffered for our sins" Which would be "Gesu sofferto per i nostri pecati". Instead she said "Gesu sofrito per i nostri pecati" which means "Jesus deep fried for our sins". Classic missionary moment.
The last classic missionary moment happened to Sorella Bray and Sorella Fuller while they were teaching an investigator. Sorella Bray was trying to talk about forming a relationship with God and the word for relationship is Rapporto. But often times Italian words are very similar to English words, so you can kind of guess when trying to think of a word, so she used the word relazione for relationship, which literally translated mean a romantic or adulterous relationship. So their teacher had to explain to them to make sure they use the word rapporto.
Anywho, those were just some fun things that happened this week that are too classic not to share. Learning a new language and trying to teach in it certainly brings about some fun stories.
Next, our roommates Sorella Hogan and Sorella Yonk taught a lesson to an investigator, or maybe they were role playing. I can't remember. Either way, Sorella Yonk was trying to say "Jesus suffered for our sins" Which would be "Gesu sofferto per i nostri pecati". Instead she said "Gesu sofrito per i nostri pecati" which means "Jesus deep fried for our sins". Classic missionary moment.
The last classic missionary moment happened to Sorella Bray and Sorella Fuller while they were teaching an investigator. Sorella Bray was trying to talk about forming a relationship with God and the word for relationship is Rapporto. But often times Italian words are very similar to English words, so you can kind of guess when trying to think of a word, so she used the word relazione for relationship, which literally translated mean a romantic or adulterous relationship. So their teacher had to explain to them to make sure they use the word rapporto.
Anywho, those were just some fun things that happened this week that are too classic not to share. Learning a new language and trying to teach in it certainly brings about some fun stories.
So the language is coming along pretty well. It's
definitely getting easier to just form sentences instead of having to form a
sentence in English and translate it. I can just do it straight up in Italian!
And I've been thinking in Italian a lot more, which is fun. I love this
language. It's such a fun language.
The food isn't as bad. Either that or I'm just getting used to it. I can't wait to go to Italy and eat real food haha. THREE WEEKS! AHHH! Last night after devotional at our district meeting, our Branch President was answering questions about Italy for us and he was talking about the people there and how they're all so fun and warm. Oh man, it made me want to just go there right now. I want to meet these people. I want to put a name and face to these people who I already feel such a love for. I just want to meet them so bad! GAH! But I am super excited to go to Italy and create those relationships. I already feel like I'll never want to leave haha.
Anywho, life is great, the MTC is great, this church is great, serving a mission is the best decision I could have made in my entire life. I mean, other than getting married, but I was going to do that anyway... I know that serving a mission will bring blessings beyond measure. It already has!!
I love you all so much, I hope you're all doing well. I love receiving messages from you all to hear how everything is going. I am surrounded by the best people ever!! I love you all so much!!! Stay well, make good choices, know that I love you. Also pictures, I love pictures :)
Sorella Hawks
P.S. I'll send you some pictures too!!
1. Me and my collega Sorella Snow in front of the temple
2. Sorella Snow, Sorella Hoga, Sorella Yonk, Me!
The food isn't as bad. Either that or I'm just getting used to it. I can't wait to go to Italy and eat real food haha. THREE WEEKS! AHHH! Last night after devotional at our district meeting, our Branch President was answering questions about Italy for us and he was talking about the people there and how they're all so fun and warm. Oh man, it made me want to just go there right now. I want to meet these people. I want to put a name and face to these people who I already feel such a love for. I just want to meet them so bad! GAH! But I am super excited to go to Italy and create those relationships. I already feel like I'll never want to leave haha.
Anywho, life is great, the MTC is great, this church is great, serving a mission is the best decision I could have made in my entire life. I mean, other than getting married, but I was going to do that anyway... I know that serving a mission will bring blessings beyond measure. It already has!!
I love you all so much, I hope you're all doing well. I love receiving messages from you all to hear how everything is going. I am surrounded by the best people ever!! I love you all so much!!! Stay well, make good choices, know that I love you. Also pictures, I love pictures :)
Sorella Hawks
P.S. I'll send you some pictures too!!
1. Me and my collega Sorella Snow in front of the temple
2. Sorella Snow, Sorella Hoga, Sorella Yonk, Me!
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