Italy, Week 64 (1/27/16) - Pepper, Tomato, Honey, Pizza, Chocolate, Gelato

So that was basically my week. Food. And the rest of the week is continuing as such. So. Much. Food. Forget losing weight before I get home, that idea is thrown out the window and shot in midair. :)

Well, this week was wonderful :)

  
On Wednesday we watched the worldwide mission broadcast and it was so good! I loved how they talked about the Spirit's role in conversion.  We as missionaries and members in general have no power to convert others. We are instruments in the Lord's hands, without the Spirit sent from God, we make no sound. We can speak, but the message of truth will not be carried to their hearts if it is not down so by the Spirit. It was so cool to hear from some of the apostles and other leaders over the missionary department of the Church. They're so inspired!
On Thursday we had lunch with a young family in our ward as part way through our message to them, their neighbor knocked on the door. So we went from talking about missionary work and tactfully moved it to prophets (we were talking about Noah) and then onto the Restoration.  Woot woot yeah. Haha it was really cool though! He was very open and willingly accepted to receive a copy of the Book of Mormon!

Friday and Saturday we had a Scambio with the Sorelle da Vicenza – they’re so fun! I went with Sorella Stephens who just so happens to be my mission niece and we both served with her "mom", so needless to say it was a fun scambio :) that night the other sisters had received a phone call from a less active family saying that they have two kids about to turn 8 and they asked us to come teach them so they can be baptized. It's cool because we had never met this family before, but for Bernice's baptism we literally sent an invitation to every number in our phone.  They texted back and said they couldn't come but invited us over for lunch. We didn't have time to go that day but we said we'd schedule for another. And then they called us! They live waaaaaayyyy out there though, up in the mountains. It. Is. GORGEOUS. So we ate lunch with them, and then taught their kids. My gosh, I love teaching little kids! Why haven't I done this more?!?! They're so cute and know way more than we think.

Sunday Bernice was Confirmed!!!!!! Yay! After we asked how she felt and she all she said was "good" because that's all you gotta say, you know? Bernice, she's so wonderful :) after church we went to a member's house for lunch and she had her friend over. We had taught him the Resto. Before and this time we talked about the Book of Mormon. This guy is a boss. He had called this member a few weeks before and told her he was coming to church. She didn't have to invite
him! And he has been working the night shift, so from 12am to 6am. And he still came to church and 9:30am. Ummm what. There are MEMBERS who don't even do that. I want to be that committed when I grow up, and now. I'm not waiting.

Poor guy was pretty exhausted, but he said he's going to read the Book of Mormon and keep praying! It was a very spiritual lesson.  As we were walking out, Sorella Griffin and I were talking about how blessed we were and how many miracles we keep seeing in this city, when all of a sudden a car drives by and the people inside are waving to us. They halt to a stop and this girl jumps out (in the middle of the road, mind you) and runs toward us yelling that they're Mormons too. She's like come over! Teach us! Let's make pancakes! Haha so we jump in the car and head over. We didn't have much time so we just talked about Christ as our Savior, took pictures and headed out. We went to visit a referral the Anziani had sent us a while ago that we kept trying to see, but things kept getting in the way. But we finally got to see her and words cannot describe this woman. She's from Morocco and lost her dad when she was a baby, lost her mom when she
was eight, went to France to study, and five months ago just lost her only brother. And around the time of her brothers death, her boyfriend who she was in love with broke up with her. And now she lives by herself in a TINY one room apartment that fits a bed, a tiny table, and a tiny night stand. Like picture small and its smaller than that.  Everything's bigger in America. Umm yeah. And yet she was smiling and so positive. She kept asking us how to find comfort and how to overcome this. She said as of right now she's just doing all she can to stay busy. She has two jobs and she says its to keep herself from thinking because she knew that if she wasn't always busy, she would turn to other things like drugs and alcohol to try to forget it. But she kept asking us "how do I overcome this?" She's Muslim, so we showed her the Christmas video "why we need a Savior." She only believes in Jesus as a prophet, but we know that it is only through Christ that we can overcome things. So that's going to be the main focus of our lessons :) she's a BOSS.

On the way home these two guys from maybe Ukraine or something sat next to us on the bus. Now, I normally don't talk about when people catcall at us or try to hit on us, but this was too funny,p. We're sitting there and talking in English and Italian. These guys are obviously talking about us in their language and I hear something that sounds like "Jehovah" so they obviously think we're JW's. After a while one says to us "do you guys want to get breakfast with us tomorrow morning?" Luckily I was looking something up and showing my comp so we just acted like we didn't hear hoping they would leave us alone. After a while, I just said, "meh, è la vita.....delle suore.“  Which means "meh, that's life.....for nuns." And they went SILENT.  Bahahahahaha! They didn't try to hit on us anymore after that :)  Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.  Monday we visited a woman we haven't seen in a while and her grandson was there, sitting at he table reading the Book of Mormon. Yeah. It was a good lesson :) although they kept arguing during it haha.  Italians.

Yesterday we ate lunch with an old couple in the second ward and that was fun :) they kept arguing too and saying how sometimes it was hard to love each other, but when the sun is out life is great! Haha Whenever I see them it always makes me see and drills into my mind HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO MARRY THE RIGHT KIND OF PERSON. It scares me a little, but it's fine.

And yeah, that was my week in a nutshell! Teaching people and helping them come unto Christ.

This church is true. There is only one true church on the face of this earth, and it is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And it is only through covenants that we make with God through proper authority, which only this Church holds, that we can return to God. I know it, I've felt it, I've witnessed it.

I love you all and I wish you a wonderful week full of joy and sunshine! Vi voglio tantissimo bene :)

Sorella Hawks :)

Showing a video to the people at a French fry place. They loved it and we sent it to them in an email :)

Our friends from Sunday :) my favorite part is the kid digging for gold.

Love you guys!

Italy, Week 63 (1/20/16) - BERNICE IS BAPTIZED!!!!!

Bernice got baptized!!!! Yaaaaaayyyy! I'm so happy!!! And literally everything for her baptism went PERFECTLY. Like, so perfect it made me nervous because, um, that never happens. We had hot water that filled up just in time, we had speakers, people came, we had bap clothes that fit and weren't see-through when she got wet. It was all so perfect!!  And everyone was so good to her! Right after one of the women that spoke said that we need to get her good visiting teachers right away.  She's not even in the relief society presidency! This woman though, Sorella Trevisani, is amazing. She has such a good heart and loves everyone unconditionally. My gosh, just thinking about Sunday makes me so happy and get so geeky and fan-girly over Bernice. She's so solid and amazing!! Bah!

Anyway, I need to calm down now. She'll be receiving he Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting this upcoming Sunday :)

This week was great! Obviously. We had a scambio with the Sorelle from a close-ish city called Brescia. One is training, so it was fun to have a greenie over.  They're awesome and we ate the greenie's first whole pizza together! Then we just finished another scambio yesterday with the Sorelle from Bergamo. This time we went to different cities because President said its okay to do some scambi the way we used to as we get used to the new change of always having them in our city. So I stayed here with one sister and Sorella Griffin went to Bergamo with the other two. It was a good scambio! We were going to do a pass by, so we got on the bus, talked to a few people, then I checked the map on my iPad to see where we were and I realized that we had gotten on the buss going the wrong way... Oops! But it's okay because I met a super cool woman from Romania on that bus. God lets us make mistakes for a reason! Then we went to where we were supposed to go to do this pass by and after being confused for a little we realized that the apartment we were looking for was clear at the end of the street. Her house was 1 and we were standing by 117. So we turned around and decided we'll come back another day.

This week was a little crazy in preparing for the baptism, running here and there to make programs and get them printed, calling people to participate, inviting EVERYONE. speaking of which, right after the baptism and everyone had left, we just took a moment to bask in the joy of Bernice's accomplishment, when our phone rang. The person was marked as an investigator, but we had no idea who it was. When I answered it was a pretty angry-sounding lady asking why we invited her to a baptism and why we needed her to be there. She was a sassy little thing. I don't think she's very interested in the Church anymore. When I said who we were she said, "oh, you guys." Haha! She didn't sound very pleased. But it didn't hinder our joy :)

Guys, everything in life is a choice. If you think someone is weird, that is a choice. If there's someone that just somehow manages to always get on your nerves and everything they say rubs you the wrong way, that is a choice. We can choose to not like a person because they're weird or don't have the same sense of humor as us. OR we can choose to love them and laugh with them anyway. I had this moment last night when someone called. This person isn't like any person I've ever met, but they are a very good person. He decided to tell me a story and it was sooo weird but sooo hilarious. As I was listening I realized that there was a choice laying right there in front of me. It was so small, and really wouldn't change my life very much, but nonetheless a choice, that would ultimately affect my happiness at the moment in some way. The choice was that I could sit there and listen to this story he made with the attitude that this kid is weird, what is he doing?, when will he stop, etc. OR I could just enjoy it. I could find common ground and find the humor in it and enjoy the story.  In the end I chose to be happy. That's really what those two choices came down to. I could have a sour attitude and judge him, OR I could BE HAPPY and ENJOY THE MOMENT. Life isn't about other people or outside things entertaining you. It's not about constantly trying to please and entertain others either. It's about being entertained and enjoying life TOGETHER. sure, someone has a totally different sense of humor than you. They think totally different than you. Maybe they still have a little bit of growing up to do. But don't we all? Why let these little things affect our love for our brothers and sisters? Why allow walls to be built between us? Why judge people? Why not give them a chance to be your best friend? I invite you all, and myself as well, to break down those walls. Forget the past titles you've given to people in your mind. Get rid of the "needy" sticky note you mentally stuck on your friend's forehead, so that's all you see when
you look at her. See every person you meet and already know as God sees them. They are beautiful. They are funny. They are sweet. They are imperfect. They are loved, by God and by you. I promise all of you, MY dear brothers and sisters, that you will be SO much happier.  You will find joy being in the presence of ANY person. You will be edified by each person you come in contact with. And best of all, you will help them feel loved and wanted.

I love each of you dearly. Thank you for the love you've shown me.  Have a wonderful day and give someone a hug :)
Vi voglio un mondo di bene
Sorella Hawks :)

Need to pray? Don't worry, you can have five people praying to the Madonna at once! #italy

View outside the church :)

I <3 Verona

BERNICE!!!!!!

Bap selfies :)

Italy, Week 62 (1/13/16) - A Week in Africa

Hello beautiful people! This week was the bomb digiddy! We got to go down to Africa! We stayed mostly in Nigeria. Okay, that wasn't true at all, but we may as well have been in Africa. We taught Africans almost EVERY day this week, it was awesome! I'm teaching in English more than in Italian these days. But it's very simple English, so I'm starting  to only be abLe to speak in very simple, slow English and imperfect  Italian. Yay!  Anywho, we had a fun zone training on Thursday, but honestly nothing exciting....
On Saturday we went from our investigator who is going to be baptized  this Sunday, Bernice (from Ghana) to a member who recently moved here who is from Nigeria.  When we walked in, there were two of her friends!  As we taught them the Restoration , the member was sewing hair onto her friend’s head. #weave. It was a very entertaining lesson. But!  It's cool telling people that just like in the Bible we have a prophet today and just like Christ established, we have 12 apostles. And they're like 😮 And we're like, "yeah, it's pretty neat." 😏

Then we went over and taught a woman from Cuba. We haven't taught an Italian in a while haha.  Sunday we had interviews with president! It was good! He always has good advice and it's always good to talk to him. It was funny though because Bernice had to get her bap interview from president, so I was talking to her before I went into my interview. at the start I was still talking in my funny English and he was looking at me so funny and I was so confused why he was looking at me like that. I finally realized that I was speaking to him like he didn't speak English fluently and so I slowly slipped back into normal English.  So that was fun. But! Bernice passed her interview!!!! SHE'S GETTING
BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!! I love that woman, she is so sincere. She doesn't speak English perfectly, so it's kind of like teaching a child. When we ask her questions, she gives us the most beautifully simple answers that pierce your heart. "What does it mean to endure to the end?" "I will follow Jesus forever!“  "What does repentance mean?" "Before, I was a bad girl. But NOW. I am changed! I am a good girl!“  And so on.   Teaching her has strengthened my testimony of the basics of the doctrine of Christ ten-fold. She has such a strong testimony but can't express it in a language we understand, so she has to simplify it, and it is the most beautiful thing. The Spirit testifies so strongly.  That afternoon we met with the sister of a member and also their brother, all from Nigeria. We taught the Resto and it was so cool!  Later that night we got cancelled on, so we went out to do finding and subito found this Nigerian man named Glory. It turns out he's an
evangelical pastor and we got to tell him that the ACTUAL true church is on the earth today and it was glorious. So many sparks we're going off in his head, but then we think he got scared of that fact and asked for our number and ran off suddenly. But it was a super cool experience. The cool thing is that we are TWENTY YEAR OLD GIRLS teaching a PASTOR of another church. And yet because we are set apart under the direct authority OF God given to man TODAY, we have the
POWER of the Holy Ghost that teaches others through what we say. There is such a blatant difference and people can see it and feel it. I LOVE it.
Monday I got to go back to MILANO to pick up my permesso and we waited outside for three hours, just to even get a number and get inside. At one point people were being dishonest and trying to claim they were pregnant or use their youngish children to get ahead and get inside faster, so there was a mini riot.  FINALLY  people came out and organized the people, but it took a while. An Arabic man and an African man almost got into a legitimate fight. It was really cold, but eventually you lose feeling in your feet so it's really not that bad. Finally we got in and waiting for my number to come up so I could pick up my little plastic card that states I'm legal in this country for the next two months didn't take as long and  we got to LEAVE.  On the way out one of the guards looked at me and said " ciao suora“ which means "bye nun." Hahahahaha!

Okay, this email is becoming eternally long, so I'm going to wrap this
little guy up.

I'm just excited because this week was very good. Getting to the end of your mission when you're with a companion who is finishing her mission can get very tough. You're both tired and your body is trying to tell you that it cannot go on anymore, but you keep trying to tell it that it has to for just a little longer. You're Spirit and Body are in a constant battle almost every moment of every day. And on top of it you're trying to get your companion to keep going as well. But we are doing it! We're going hard and making the best of this beautiful time that we have as servants of the Lord. I'm so grateful to all of you, for your love and support. Thank you for your unending hope in me and all your prayers. I can promise that they are helping so much.
I love you all so much! Vi voglio TANTO bene!
Sorella Hawks :)

 Christmas lives on!

They burned this to celebrate L'Epifania haha

We got pizza from this pizzeria where everyone knows us a little too well and they made our pizzas heart-shaped :)

Vi adoro!

Italy, Week 61 (1/6/16) - L'Epifania!

Happy Epifania! So today is yet another festa in Italy. It's the day where the Befana, which is a witch, comes and gives candy to all the good girls and boys. She came and filled our fridge with more chocolate than there is normal food. Yayyyy!

This week was good! For New Year's Eve we went to our senior couple's house to eat a good ol' American dinner with them and talk. It was wonderful! We were home by 9:30 and then we went to bed and set an alarm for midnight because we're lame tired missionaries. At midnight we opened the taparelli, but you still couldn't see anything because we're only on the second floor of our building... So we just laid in bed and listened. Some of the fireworks got super intense. Like it
sounded like bombs. But we survived so all is well :)

This week wasn't super eventful, very similar to our other weeks... We visited many wonderful people and had many wonderful conversations of many wonderful things :)

Last night we had English class and only one guy showed up. He was baptized in Romania about a year ago and man, does he talk. While he was talking it came out that he decided that he's not leaving his Orthodox Church totally behind and he's combining and becoming a mixed Mormodox. Ummmm yeah. So we had a nice long conversation about there only being one true church and authority, etc. in the end we talked about God's will. I remember when I was in high school, my mom taught me that the only thing that we have that is totally ours and God cannot take from us is our will. And that is the very thing that He asks us to give to him.

This morning my companion and I had a really good talk about this in comp study. It's interesting because we teach so many people and invite them to do what God wants them to do. But you have to look at yourself as well.  As missionaries, we hear a lot from people that they're fine where
they are, doing what they're doing, they don't want to change. That drives us nuts! That is the opposite of doing God's will. Doing God's will requires faith, hope, diligence, and humility. We need to have faith that God has a very specific plan for each of us,  with the end being Eternal Life by His side. But we don't know that plan. Yes, we have the Gospel that teaches us what to do to return to God. But there's another layer after that. There's a layer that guides us in the smaller things, such as work, studies, where you live, where you go, what you do. That under layer is often the harder one to uncover and follow that map that's on it. As humans we know what we like and what we want. And it does indeed make us very happy when we do what we want. We feel content with our lives because we accomplished what we want. And that's good! It's certainly better than doing nothing. But there is a best. And sometimes it's hard to know that it's the best.  It's hard giving up what we want not knowing 100% that the thing for which you are giving up what you want is so much better. And sure, sometimes that path isn't always the most fun, but in the end, it brings us a joy that we wouldn't have had, had we not followed God's will. God is happy when we are happy. He works so hard to help us to achieve greater happiness in this life! But if we don't seek it, and
act upon it, we miss out. And we may not feel that we're missing out.  But I promise we are. God doesn't want us to miss out. This life is a beautiful time to grow, to experience, to learn, and do all that we want to do. But we need to give our will to God and He will show us the way that will lead us to greater joy in this life, while being able to live life to the fullest,  in accordance with God's teachings of course.  This life is meant to be lived, enjoyed, filled. And the best way to live life and love it, is according to God's plan for you personally.

I love you all so much. Thank you for all your love and support. I couldn't ask for better friends :) (that includes you family because you are my friends)
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hawks :)

Consiglio! 

 Our daily bike ride. I promise I normally wear the helmet.

 This is the piazza right down the street from our house. CHRISTMAS Picture 1

Another piazza shot - Picture 2

Another piazza shot - Picture 3

 Another piazza shot - Picture 4

 Another piazza shot - Picture 5

 This is Sorella Tolosa! She's from Spain, we did a scambio last transfer but never got a picture. She's moving to America after the mission and we're going to hang out all the time :)

 Us being dorks 1

Us being dorks 2

Love you guys!