Hello my beloved family and
friends! I love you! Also, this week was great! We had a youth activity after
P-day last Wednesday and it went really well! We had a scavenger hunt around
the center of the city and we had to take pictures of different statues and
other whatnots around the city. it was so fun! Afterward we had pizza and OREOS
and ROOT BEER!!!! It was soooooo yummy.The
next day was a little rough. Our investigator who is super interested that we
had met with the week before and had another appointment for that morning
called us and said she fell and was in the hospital (she's 7.5 months
pregnant). So we're very worried about her. We've trying calling and texting to
see if she's okay, but she hasn't been answering. Please keep her and her baby
boy in your prayers. That night we had another lesson with an investigator we
taught a month before. She's the one who we had that amazing lesson with and
the Spirit was so strong and we broke down a few of the walls that were holding
her back. We were really excited to teach her the Plan of Salvation and it was
going really well until we got to the end. She said she believes in
reincarnation (although she's confusing it with the Resurrection...) and that
she's convinced. We asked if she's prayed about it to know if it's true and she
said "no. But I'm conviced this
is how it is" and we kept trying to tell her she needs to pray about it to
know if it's true but she just would not listen to us and kept interrupting us.
As soon as we were out of that lesson I just lost it. The Spirit is always
incredibly strong in our lessons with her and I feel God's love for her so
incredibly strongly every time. But she won't accept it. But I can see it in
her eyes that she knows it's true, deep down, that her Spirit is crying out,
but she won't let it. She won't listen for an answer from God, and she won't
let the Spirit touch her heart, or at least change it. At the end of our
lesson, she paused and asked " Are you always happy?" And we
testified about how yes, we are. That yes, we still have challenges and we do
get down, but we're still happy. We have this eternal, fullness of joy that
even when we're sad, we still know that we have eternal potential and that we
have a loving Heavenly Father who is always there for us. She said Happiness is
a strong word, but we told her that we can say that we are truly happy, always,
without a doubt. I've never felt so heartbroken in my life as I did after that
lesson. I've never really known the true meaning of devasted
until after that lesson. I can only pray that someday she will recognize the
truth and be open to it.
This past weekend we had a LOT of
conferences. We had Zone Conference on Friday and it was sooooo
good! We learned SO much and it was an answer to a lot of my prayers. It made
me want to go out and teach EVERYONE. Not just stop them, teach them!!! Plus,
we got to watch Meet the Mormons and eat popcorn :) We also found out that
Elder Bednar is coming in April!!!! Just for our mission!! GAH!!!! SO STOKED.
THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST YEAR EVERRRRR!!!! With the Rome temple coming and
everything! :D
Saturday and Sunday we had Stake
Conference and we had two members of the 70 there because they changed the
stake presidency. Elder Texiera and
Elder Defeo
(sorry, don't really know how to spell their names) came and spoke both nights
and it was sooo
great! And our girl Susanna from our ward bore her testimony because she
left Monday for St. George! Keep an eye out for Sister Mervar!!!
She'll be in St. George in 2 weeks!!
This week we met a woman who had
taken the lessons a long time ago but stopped because life got crazy. When we
found her, she said she would love to learn more and really enjoyed the lessons
she got before and that she will come to church next Sunday!!! Fingers
Crossed!!! She's soooo nice!
Yesterday we had a lunch
appointment with this sweet woman named Paola and man, she's so sweet, but she
just really likes oil. I had a pool of oil on my plate after that meal. First
Pesto pasta. Then veggies that she COVERED in oil. What's the point of veggetables
if you pour oil all over them? No point. Then we had these fried cheesey,
mushroomy,
prosciutto-y things that were delicious, but fried in oil. the only things we
ate that weren't oily were the dessert... Which doesn't really count. I still
feel a little sick thinking about that meal. It was delicious, don't get my
wrong, but i could feel my insides just covered in oil.
Today we saw Miramare!!
The big gorgeous beautiful wonderful castle on the OCEAN that Trieste is well
known for and it was BEAUTIFUL.
All in all it was a really great
week :) Also, Calcetto is
Foosball (don't know how to spell it.) aka, little soccer. Gotta
love Italy :)
I love you all soooo
much! I think and pray for each of you everyday! I love you so so
so
so
much! Vi voglio
un MONDO di bene!!!
Sorella
Hawks :)
PS
Also,
some funny #italy moments that I saw this week: One
man we said hello to had a cigarette in one hand and an inhaler in the other.A
woman was really struggling to light her cigaretter
(oh, the Bora is back. Not as bad, but still pretty close...) When we saw her
later, she was crouched behind who I assumed to be her husband or at least
friend, trying to light her cigarette, using him has a shield from the
wind.
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