Italy, Week 2

I MADE IT THROUGH THE FULL FIRST WEEK! Oh my goodness that week was ca-razy! But I learned so much. It was definitely a humbling experience. So, happy day, I have rain boots! ALL IS WELL! No more wet feet! I cannot express my joy. Plus we got them for a great deal and the woman gave us a discount on the sock inserts, 19 instead of 30! Blessed day.

Honestly all I can think to write about right now is that I survived last week and I didn't go home. Haha it was so hard, but it was so great for me, I'm grateful for it now that the week is over and I have my rain boots.

It rains a lot here. Like, a lot.

Okay, let's see, what happened. WE MET (Danielle's Dad will insert an alias name - "to protect privacy" - Let's go with Michelle) MICHELLE! Okay, so since we're white-washing, we just had to look through the binder of all the simps and less actives that the sisters before us were teaching and try to get a hold of all of them, but none of them were responding. But they finally started to! And we met Janet! So, Janet is an American woman married to an Italian man with three little kids living in Busto. It was so nice to hear English in an American accent. Anywho, so we tried SO hard to get a hold of her. The sisters before us told us to make her family a priority, but it was really hard to do that when she wasn't answering our calls. But, PERSISTANCE WORKS. S.lla Yost felt prompted to just stop by Michelle's place after a lesson with a meno attivo, so we went over there and rang and no answer. As usual. But for some reason we didn't leave right away. We hung around for a bit, kind of whining (I'll admit) when all of a sudden there's this woman walking down the stars hurrying towards us. And it was Michelle! Oh my gosh, it was a miracle. We're hopefully meeting with her tomorrow night. It was a miracle. 

We met (Dad - I'll use aliases again) Julie and Rene this week at different times. We met Rene on the way to visit a meno attivo and she's from Ukraine and she was soooo sweet. She called us her daughters and said she was leaving for a bit, but she would call us when she gets back. Fingers crossed! We met Julie yesterday and she's also a sweet older lady, but she's from Italy. She's also leaving for a spell, but we got her number and she told us when she would get back. Yay! Fingers crossed! They were both really sweet and I just wanted to give them both hugs. I really hope we see them again.

This is 21 lessons week, so we're cranking out the lessons. It's going to be miracle week, oh yeah. 

Oh my gosh, so yesterday, after teaching a lesson with Julie at the train station, Sorella Yost and I were trying to get on the train. The doors started to close, so I ran and jumped on, but they closed behind me and Sorella Yost was stuck outside. For the next what felt like 5 minutes we stood there, separated by the horrible train door, pushing the button over and over trying to get the doors to open again. We just stared at each other through the glass in horror, but luckily the conductor was at the front and she was able to get on. It was so scary. But we laugh about it so hard now. So all is well.

Anyway, I can't really think of much else to talk about... This week has gone much better. We were able to get a hold of most of our simps and meno attivi and we taught most of them this past week, which was so nice. We're still working on trying to meet with others, but it's going really well! We went to this adorable town call Ferno to visit someone and it was totally what I pictured Italy being. I will take pictures next time and send them out. Speaking of pictures, I have them this week! I don't know what else to talk about. I bought Nutella. It's so good. Oh my gosh, I ate two meals with members this week. SO GOOD. The second meal we had a BIG bowl of pasta as a FIRST COURSE. Italy is my kind of place. I'm getting chubby. But hashtag worth. If I'm going to get chubby on anything, it's going to be on Italian food. Nuff said.

Also, I cut my comp's hair. I mentioned that I cut the back of Mom's hair sometimes and she made me cut her hair. I cut 5-6 inches off. It was a little crooked... But it's okay, she wore a stripey shirt the second time so I could straighten it out :) It was scary... But good practice, right?

So yeah, sorry, I can't really think of much else... We're going to Milano today and we're going to see a castle :D Lots of pictures :) I'll send more pictures to Dad since they won't all fit on this email and he'll post them on the blog (sorellahawks.blogspot.com).

We've been reading the Book of Matthew this week and it's been such a great experience. I love reading it because I get to know Christ a little bit better each time. Every time I read it it's a new experience because it's at different times in my life. Matthew 10 is probably the best chapter for someone getting ready to leave for a mission. It was for me at least. It's Christ talking to his disciples before He sends them out to do the work and it is so powerful. It's like He is talking directly to missionaries.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your love and support and prayers! You're the best! Vi voglio un mondo di bene! 

Love, Sorella Hawks :)

(JK about the more pictures, we running out of time. poop.) More to come later! They're kicking us out...

Pic 1 my district

Pic 2 my zone

Pic 3 my district with our teacher Fratello Knuston