Sorella Mallory Hansen

Well...I'm home and blogging again.

2010-11-02T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well I've been home for about 6 months already. Crazy. I cannot even believe I've been home that long already. I think about the mission everyday and can't stop talking about it. Hopefully the general publics love of Italy makes it slightly bearable listening to me. haha I just thought I'd let you know that I'm gonna be bloggin'. If you want in on it, here's where you can find my thoughts. Like old times, reading them once a week! :) malloheartseurope.blogspot.com The blog is hardly adorable but it's a start for now. Lots of ...Logan love, (wow that sounds not as beautiful as when I said 'Italian')
Mallory

Mallory's Homecoming

2010-05-12T08:56:00.000-07:00

Mallory will be speaking in sacrament meeting

Sunday, May 16th

2:00 p.m.

The church is located at 300 north and 900 east in America Fork

Welcome Home!!

2010-05-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

After a full day's delay, and endless hours in multiple airports, Sorella Mallory Hansen arrived home! The family had the house ready for her arrival.

The Hansen Clan... Waiting a little longer

Finally she descended the escalator amid tears and shouts for joy.

Mama Hansen and Mal

Mallory, Kim and Debi

Big brother Cody and his fam.

Meeting Tate, her nephew for the first time.

Getting reacquainted with her niece Mya.

Sorella Swenson, Hughes, Hansen and Millis

These four were originally in the MTC together, Sorella Millis was Mallory's MTC companion, but sadly Mal never got to serve with any of them in the field.

Overnight in Paris ~ What a punishment

2010-05-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

We just received a call from Mallory informing us that after about a 5 hour delay in Paris they were notified that their direct flight to Salt Lake City had been canceled due to a defective right engine. We're sure that Mallory is devastated by the news that they will be staying in Paris for the rest of the day and tonight. The airline has provided them with hotel and food vouchers, and we are waiting to hear when she will arrive home. We are expecting sometime tomorrow night.

Back in the U.S.A., whether she likes it or not!

2010-05-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

Sorella Hansen arrives home today at 2pm!

Wahoo!!

We love you Mal!

The daughters Josef never had, apparently I'm supposed to leave Italy one day....‏

2010-05-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

Buon Giorno once again!! I hope er'body had a marvelous week! I had a grand one indeed. Have I mentioned how much I love and adore the fact that Josef exists in my life?!? Oh my stars he just might be one of my favorite human beings. We've seen him several times this week and er...last week my companion mentioned that I'm going home. (Yeah, I hadn't told anybody) He was really upset. It was really sad. I was sitting by him in sacrament meeting and was asking him how the other meetings had gone and he said, "I can't even look at you." It was the saddest thing. He's not mad at me or anything but he's just sad. On Monday when we were at his house he was like, "I've never told you guys this but I always wanted a daughter and you guys are like daughters to me." He is wonderful. We have an appointment with him in like an hour. He's been doing well but for some reason he's still having trouble praying and asking God if this is the true church. We've been trying to work with him and figure out what his concerns are but it's been difficult for him. Tonight we're going to talk about the Atonement and repentance. Sunday was my birthday and had several surprises in store. One was the fact that I had to give a "farewell" testimony in church. It was completely bizarre. I feel very blessed to have been able to learn and love these people with the only 6 weeks that I've been with them. It has been a huge blessing to feel such a love for them and love from them in return. Isn't it marvelous that you can know someone for only 6 weeks and already love them? My companion was really sweet for my birthday. She made me crepes for breakfast. :) And she made a birthday cake for a member appointment that we had after church. (Somehow she did all of this when I was in the shower. Magician that one.) It was a fun birthday indeed...besides the fact that I'm a year closer to being elderly! But until then, I'll continue to enjoy all of the Italians telling me how young I am. It's rather nice. :) Tomorrow morning really early I have to go to the Mission Home and have a testimony meeting with everybody, I'll sleep there that night and then the next morning I get on a plane. I think I almost just threw up a little bit. I have been doing very good to shove it out of my mind. The fact that it's practically here makes me ...not really sure what to do with myself. ha ha I think everything will be fine. I am happy to come home. I know that the Lord called me to serve for a year and a half. That's what He wanted. I'm happy that I was blessed with the opportunity to do it. I will miss Italy terribly--obviously. I have a family of Italians here that I love so much. i have learned so much from them and the Lord has taught me a great deal since I've been here. But I also have developed a greater love for my family and I am excited to be able to see them and you all again. I really do know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I have been blessed out of my mind to have been able to teach the message of the gospel for a year and a half. Jeffrey R. Holland was right. I am my best convert. I had my own plans instead of a mission but in the end I'm glad I didn't do them. I know that God wanted me here to help His children here in Italy. He wanted me here to convert ME to the gospel. I love the gospel. I have seen time and time again how obedience to the commandments brings immense joy and convert. Why would you not be all over that?!? I love you all and can't wait to see you and give you a big hug.
A wallop of Italian love, Sorella Mallory Hansen

Book of Mormon Give-Away Comp, A Conversation about Jesus, Three Musketeers‏

2010-04-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

Hello guys!
Well, another marvelous week. Is the weather as fickle in America as it is here? Oh my stars, one day it rains and is completely gloomykins and then the next...it's blazing hot! It's been completely nuts. I don't really know how to dress for the weather. Whatevs I guess. We finished our Book of Mormon competition as a district. After we won 4 days in a row they just called it off and told us they'd buy us the good fruit from their fruit stand as a prize. :) We've started over though and are having another go at it. It's been really fun to have a little competition that pushes us and has scored us some pretty bizzangin' contacts. No complaints!
We had an appointment with someone who stopped us on the street the other day and asked us if he could hear our message. He's Muslim and it was quite an interesting lesson. There are really strict rules about teaching Muslims so I had to talk to our mission president about it to make sure everything was cool. It was really interesting. It greatly increased my testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. He pretty much tried to use the bible to prove that Jesus was just a prophet and not the Son of God or...our redeemer. Yeah. We'll see if he calls us to see us again but...we won't be making the call. ha ha He was a nice guy but...I know that Jesus atoned for our sins. I know that. I know that He is an essential part of the Plan of Salvation. I know that. I find it kind of laughable that you're trying to use the Bible AGAINST Jesus. Really? It made me want to do some more studying from the Bible this morning about Jesus and yeah, lets just say my testimony remains unshaken on his stand point.
Let's talk about Josef!!! Have I mentioned that I kind of adore the fact that this man exists in my life?! We finally got him to come to church and he came for all three hours. He LOVED it! ha ha Oh it made me so happy. We've also tried really hard to bring a bunch of members to his appointments so when he came to church, he had a LOT of friends. It was rad. So I don't know what was taught in your priesthood sessions at home (I'm assuming it was the same lesson but I don't know if they did something a little different here...anyway) but apparently in priesthood they talked about how we all need to work together and have unity. Josef came up to me after the meeting and said, "It was beautiful! Practically what they said was, "All for one, and one for all"". ha ha He continued to ponder it and reflect throughout church and then in the end he came up to me again and he said, "It's beautiful. All for one and one for all. Like the Three Musketeers. Do you know who wrote that book? I'm absolutely sure that he must have known Joseph Smith." ha ha I have had a good laugh over that for the last couple of days. I have always enjoyed the three musketeers and now I know why. Apparently the author knew Joseph Smith. ha ha I love Josef. We have an appointment with him tonight. We're going to teach him the law of chastity. Should be splendid.
I hope everything's going beyond grand for you guys. Take care of yourselves. Be happy. And remember what the musketeers say, "all for one, and one for all!" ha ha aka...take care of each other. :) Roman love,
Sorella Hansen

Beautiful Baptism, Friendly District Competition, Taking care of your Cadillacs‏

2010-04-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hey friends and family!
So we had a baptism on Saturday which was crazy cool. Her name's Fernanda and she's wonderful. It was much more eventful then we had been planning because, making a long story short, she didn't show up at 6...when her baptism was supposed to happen. Yeah. There was some last minute Satan being a jerk-face drama, but in the end some members went to her house, gave her a blessing, and got her to the church! By 7:20 she got all dressed up in her baptismal dress and she just looked so happy. I'm glad she was able to get over the problems that were going on because you could see that once she overcame them, that she was just filled with joy. It was beautiful. She gave her testimony afterwards and...ah...it was great. She really knows that the church is true. She bore testimony about how she doesn't feel alone anymore now that she's found the church. It was a stressful but absolutely beautiful day all at the same time.
A couple of the elders in our district have challenged us to an ol' fashioned "who can give out more Book of Mormons". (How many of you judged me about whether or not I correctly pluralized Book of Mormon?" Because...I just did) BUT we decided that there's no point in giving out Books of Mormon (changed it up, just to make sure that I'm right at least once) :) unless something comes out of it. So we are keeping track of how many we give away a day BUT it only counts if you get their phone number. So we've been working on our finding and so far we've gotten one everyday....and we're winning. shhh..
Yesterday one of our few appointments cancelled on us last minute and so...that left us with a whole afternoon of finding work on our hands. We did just about everything. Street, bus, metro, house, trenino....yup, we did an hour of one thing and then changed it up. It was about 8:00, we'd been working for hours and still no bites. Wouldn't ya know, on the way home a guy on the trenino looks at my Book of Mormon and decides to ask me about what it is and what we believe. Cha-ching! So we spent the whole train ride telling him about the restoration of the church and bearing testimony and we gave him a Book of Mormon (part 1) and were getting a lot of good feedback on his part. He was really into it. I had already asked for his phone number 2 different times when it came up during our ride and then when we were at the end of the line (his stop) I asked him one last time. And...he gave it to us! (part 2). His name's Marco and he's genuinely great! He happens to have a wife and two children. Italian family? Don't mind if I do!! Hopefully we'll be able to meet with him on Saturday. He said he was going to have to talk it over with his wife. So...we've been praying for her a lot lately. :)
And in closing, we taught my dear friend Josef about the word of wisdom this last week. This little guy is my favorite. Oh my stars I just want to introduce him to all of you. He's marvelous. He loves analogies and so it's good times preparing things for his lessons that will catch his attention and get him to apply the lessons that we're teaching. So my favorite word of wisdom analogy is starting by talking about a beautiful, expensive car and how the mechanic that made that car knows it in and out. He knows exactly how to take care of it so that it'll run well, last, and so you can enjoy it! We asked him what would happen if I just up and decided since I didn't have gas that I could just put some peanut butter in the gas tank instead. He gave quite the reaction and was like, "Oh no, you don't do that." ha ha And we talked about how God created our bodies and knows the ins and outs of how they work. The word of wisdom is an instruction manual for how to take care of them, make them last, and enjoy them! He loved it. However we got to a point when he said, "Well, I don't understand why I can't have a little bit of wine every now and then. If I'm not an alcoholic, why does it matter?" and I was like, "Would you put even a teaspoon of peanut butter in your Cadillac's gas tank?" He sat there quiet for a second and then said, "You're right. Are you sure this Smith wasn't a genius?" "No, Josef, he was a prophet." ha ha I love that man.
Well, I've got to scadaddle. Apparently we can get into the Colosseum for free today! Why would we not be all over an offer like that?! So we're gonna go check that out and then we have an appointment with a contact that we met on the train. He's a really cool guy from Congo named Victor. He's seen the missionaries around in Congo and wanted to talk to us about the church. So we'll be seeing him tonight. I hope that you guys are having a marvelous month of April. I think about ya (just the right amount) and pray that you're all doing well and are happy. Take care of yourselves. Roman kisses,
Sorella Hansen

Two Birds with One Stone, Meetin' our boy Gaetano, Last Zone Conference!?

2010-04-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well Buon to the Giorno guys!
What a busy and crazy week. Last week for p-day we went to this never disappointing museum called Villa Borghese. (If I spelled that wrong, try not to judge me for being illiterate). It was gorgeous. There were so many breath-taking sculptures that I'd heard about and just seeing them in person was okay by me. I'm hardly an art guru but I can enjoy myself staring at a beautiful statue for a bit. Mmm Mmm...
Well there is just tons to tell. We did a little bit of my favorite finding. The ol' "Best Referral Ever" finding. Ah, it just makes me so happy doing it. So we said our prayer over the map and got 2 streets in common. We were headed to our first street and on the way there, there were 2 women and a little girl waiting at the bus stop who stopped us and asked what time it was. As we told them, one of the women was eyeing the Book of Mormon that my companion had in her hands. We found out that these women are from California and have been here for 2 months. Anywho, the rad part is that one of the women had lived in Utah for a bit and was starting to take the missionary discussions when they ended up moving to Rome--it happened really quick. She told us that she has been looking for the church here and wants to finish taking the discussions. We just bore our testimonies to her about how we know that she is so important and that God loves her. We told her that we'd prayed to know where to go and that God had led us to her. She knew that it was true and started crying. Oh my stars it was just beautiful. We gave all of them big hugs. BAH! I loved that moment because we were an answer to each others prayers. We were looking for people who want the gospel and will accept it. She was looking for our church. God just up and answered two prayers in one! I sometimes wonder if He smiles and feels proud of Himself when He does stuff like that.
Then on our second street we decided to mix things up a little bit doing house (because it can be a doozy if you don't think of a way to make it different) So...we decided at the doors, since we already knew that we were supposed to be there, that we'd just say, "Are you looking for the truth?" And if they said 'no', then it wasn't them that God sent us to. Nice right? So we did a couple of floors and we got to this 30 something year old guy and he told us 'yes'. Honestly, we had almost gone home for lunch and language study (because it was time) but both of us felt that we needed to finish the street and do the very last palazzo. Welp, his name is Gaetano. We set a return appointment with him and brought a member. We just taught him the first lesson but he loved it and will be coming to church and the baptism on Saturday.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we have a baptism on Saturday. It's a woman that they were working with before I got here but I've been able to help with her for a couple of weeks now and it's been really sweet. She has had some rough, "Satan is a jerk-face and is trying to rock my boat" moments in the past weeks so we've been working on keeping her strong. She's wonderful. I love her more and more every time we see her. Her name's Fernanda and she'll get baptized Saturday. Good times!!!
Also our awkward training at Zone Conference went a-okay. It was funny because when they announced that sister missionaries would be giving a training, everyone was kind of surprised. Sisters haven't ever given trainings at zone conference. It was a pretty cool experience I suppose. We just talked about working better with the members. I think that it went pretty well and that they got some new ideas. The worst part of the whole Zone Conference ordeal was the fact that I had to give my "dying testimony". Yuck. The cool part was that Sorella Swenson and Sorella Crandall are both in my zone so I got to hear theirs too. I love them. Anyway it was completely surreal and 100 percent awkward. I'd been so preoccupied with other things that I hadn't even thought about it. Pretty much it consisted of me shakin, kinda crying, and then sitting down afterwards. ha ha Nah, it went fine but I just felt that it was all too surreal. ANWAY, I gots to go because this e-mail is lengthy to say the least. I hope that everybody is of jolly good health and having a marvelous April. P.S. Why is it already April?! Welp, read your scriptures everyday because it turns out their completely wonderful and will change you life. Seriously, try it. And in closing, if you haven't read "pray always" by Anziano Bednar recently...you should give it a glance. He gave that talk in October 2008. I read it this morning and it completely rocked my socks. I love prayer. Anywho, be good examples and be happy because l love you.
Sorella Hansen

General Conference back at Rome 1, Josef loving Pres. Monson, Bonding with the Danish‏

2010-04-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

Sorella Hansen and Diana - A convert from when Mallory was first serving in Roma 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well we really had quite the week! There's so much to say and I don't know what is of more value for you to hear so...I'll just blurt some stuff out that comes to my head and err...just skip over it if it's boring you out of your minds k? So General Conference this weekend official rocked my socks! How rad is modern day revelation? Really now, how can you NOT love all of their amazing counsel. They're just marvelous. It was actually really cool because we got to go to the Rome 1 building (where I started the mission) to watch all of the sessions. So I got to see all of the members and our new convert Diana. It was a really really rewarding experience and it was such a blessing for me to be able to see that I was remembered and that I did make a difference at the beginning of the mission even if I didn't speak the language like a champ. So many people came and said hi and we took pictures together. Ah, it's an amazing ward. I had forgotten how much I love and miss them.Our investigator Josef came to conference. He's our investigator that comes from Ethiopia and he is seriously, ridiculously wonderful. He was actually invited by the Vatican to go Saturday night at 6 p.m. until Sunday at 6 a.m. for a special...I dunno..meeting for Ethiopians. Anyway, he said that they've been inviting him for years so he decided that this year he'd go. Welp, he came to the session that was broadcast at 6:00 p.m. Sunday night here and he LOVED it. He adored President Monson. He said that he had spend over an hour listening to, supposedly, the best speaker/priest at his meeting at the Vatican. But he said that President Monson said what that man had said, but with more simplicity, clarity and heart...and he did it in 20 minutes. He kept saying, "That man has a gift." We were like, "Yeah Joseph. He's the prophet." ha ha It was really cool that he made the effort to come and that he really enjoyed the talks. They made him think and he felt something special. Bam!! We got to the area for General Conference a little bit early so we decided to rock a little metro. We got on at the end of the line were going to ride it half-way and then come back. Anyway I started talking to this killer cool guy named Giovanni. He commented on my last name and I told him it was Danish. He was like, "Really? My mom's Danish." And somehow we started a grand ol' conversion all because I have a Danish last name. Anyway he was crazy cool. He is married and has 3 children and he was genuinely interested when I talked to him about the restoration. So he didn't give me his number (I asked) but he took a pamphlet with my number and...whammy! 1 hour after we talked on the metro he called me!! He just wanted to thank me for the conversation that we had on the metro because he said that it's rare to have genuine conversations these days. So the downside is that he's probably not in my area but the point is that he and his beautiful Italian family needs the gospel. I talked to him for a little bit this morning on the phone but the phone cut out and I wasn't able to get a hold of him again yet. So hopefully something slamming happens! I got a question about what this area of Rome is like. Honestly, it's not postcard Rome--though that is only 45 minutes away. Honestly I kind of forget that I'm in Rome sometimes because it just feels like a big city. But then I bump into someone and they say "scusa" or I hear Italians yelling at each other across the street and I just smile and know exactly where I am. We're going to do some good ol' sightseeing today and it should be a solid good time. There's a woman named Fernanda that we're preparing for baptism and she's been having some rough times lately so we're going to bring her some joy and spirit...which never did anything less then please so...should be grand. Welp, I think I have rambled for long enough! I love you guys oodles I hope that you know. Be happy and love your lives because they're beautiful. Lots of love,
Sorella Hansen

Preaching the word of God, Josef, General Conf‏

2010-03-31T10:31:00.001-07:00

Buon Giorno from Roma!
It has been a crazy week. It is always an interesting process readjusting to a new city, new companion, new members, new investigators, etc....but it's good times as well. I'm excited to get to know this place and these members. There are about 3 times as many members here in Rome 3 then there were in La Spezia. There were like a good 10 women in Relief society. Big deal!! It was a good week in La Spezia when we had 4.
One day this week when we were out doing some finding work a man from Nigeria stopped us and said, "Hey, are you preaching the word of God?" I just looked at him and smiled. "Yeah actually." ha ha He went on to talk about how he's looking for a church and so we got his number and set up an appointment when we can see him. His name is Kevin. ha ha It was kind of crazy. I've never had anyone use that approach before but...it was okay with me!
We have a cool investigator here named Josef. He's rad. He's from Ethiopia but he's been here forevs. He's like 70 or something. He's really intelligent and it was really fun teaching him. He has a lot of questions and you can tell that he really thinks about this stuff and has sincere questions. We had a member there that was a huge help and just bore his testimony any time that he saw the opportunity. It was crazy cool. We're hoping that he'll come to General Conference. He sounded like he was interested.
I'm still trying to adjust to being here. It's been weird. I know that it's normal but...it's just awkward. Sorella Dalia wrote me from La Spezia and updated me on everyone there. She said that the Acevedo family is really progressing and that the members were sad that I left. It was really sad because the week that I left, that just happened to be the week that all of the members went to the temple in Switzerland. So I didn't get to see or talk to any of them. That was kind of hard. Anyway, I'm really learning a lot and am so excited for general conference. I hope you're all planning on going into General Conference with a question. I know I have like 80 questions but I truly know that the prophet and twelve apostles are inspired and as we take our concerns and questions to the Lord that He will use them to communicate to us the things that we need to know. I am ever so grateful for the gospel and my Savior that have helped me everyday throughout the mission. I hope you guys are all healthy and happy. I love you tons and tons. Italian kisses,
Sorella Hansen

Child birth, out with the coffee, Good-bye La Spezia‏

2010-03-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!
What a week...as always. We had probably half of our lessons cancel on us--welcome to life as a missionary but the ones that we did have went really well. We went back to the members that we'd knocked into last week doing house. We had our first lesson with them where we taught the first lesson and her 11 year-old son Paolo was so excited and said, "Grazie mille" like 5 times when we gave him his own book of mormon. Yeah baby, that's how excited you're supposed to be when you learn this stuff! haha He's a great kid and it was really cool to see his reactions throughout the lesson. Afterward on the other hand...was the opposite of ideal. His mother, Sharon, who is 7 months pregnant with her second son randomly decided after the lesson to tell us all of the gorey details of our new investigator Paolo's birth. Not joking. She graphically took us through the two day journey of her labor and I don't think I have ever NOT wanted the gift of tongues more in my life. She talked to us for like 15 minutes and I felt like I was there. ha ha My companion and I looked at eachother after we left the appointment and I just apologized. "sorry, all I wanted to know is what she was going to name the baby." ha ha Miracles never cease, nor do the awkward moments of my mission.
We taught the Acevedo family last night and we were going to teach them the Word of Wisdom--straight forward, clear as can be. I was really surprised with the reaction quite honestly. There are some serious problems with the word of wisdom in that family and we invited them to set a date of when they would be completely done. Leo said from that moment, he would obey the word of wisdom 100 percent. We then said, "and we don't want any distractions from this goal so if you have anything against the word of wisdom in your house, let's throw it out now." ha ha I love moments like this is the mission because it can be thoroughly enjoyable being bold. So Judy goes, "Well I don't drink coffee but I have it here in the house for my friends that come over and like it." Well Leo says, "Nope Judy, we'd better throw it out." They DUMPED the coffee out into the garbage and then Leo goes, "And throw away the kettle that we make it in". ha ha So...they did. It felt so good to see them desiring to make changes because that is something that has not always been there.
Well we got transfer calls yesterday. President up and transfered me to Rome 3. I'm kind of relieved in the sense that I really feel that I have done everything that I could here in La Spezia. I've helped the people that need my help. So I'm glad that I have that closure. As far as going back to Rome...eh...I didn't see that coming. It should be great. I only have 6 weeks left in the mission and why not finish them in the City that my mission is named after right? It'll be interesting to have been born there and die there. My companion's name is Sorella Miles. She is from Washington I believe. I've only seen here at Transfer circle a couple of times but she seems nice. We'll do a great work. Anyway I love you guys tons. Enjoy your beautiful lives. Go to church. Read your scriptures. Love your lives and know that you are very berry loved. Italian Kisses,
Sorella Hansen

Getting Robbed, Investigators Earning us Over, Found an Inactive!‏

2010-03-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well the funny story of the week is only funny because ...I got robbed blind! ha ha Yes...THAT actually happened. I was just minding my own business returning from our slamming P-day in Pisa and WHAMY in the La Spezia train station some goon apparently thought it'd be a chipper to unzip my backpack and nab my wallet. It wasn't until we got to the bus stop that we noticed my backpack was unzipped. I panicked and felt completely violated but after filling out some papers with the police (all in Italian, which was fun) we just went to branch FHE and pretended it was all a bad dream. End of the day my companion and I are learning a lot about budgeting! We've been using her credit card and we make awkward comments to each other like we're a poor newly-wed couple when we buy things. "Babe I don't think we can afford the expensive tuna this week." Ah man. Despite the fact that it had my credit cards, bus pass, permesso, I was more upset about the fact that they stole my cute H&M wallet that I bought in Rome. Come on buddy. At least leave the wallet! ha ha I don't know if I told you last week but we received some sweet revelation for the Acevedo family that has been working like a charm! We have struggled with them to make progress and act. Also it doesn't always seem like they appreciate our time when we're there for appointments SO we came up with this brilliant plan! We made them a poster for their fridge that has three columns: Come to church at 9 as a family, read a chapter of the BOM as a family, and pray together as a family. They get a sticker on their poster every time they do one of these things. They get 3 stickers if they all come to church! (we really wanted to emphasize that one.) So basically we won't go to their house for appointments until they earn 5 stickers. Isn't this a fun game?! So this way THEY decide how often we see them. We could come twice a week or once every two weeks--just all depending on them and their commitment keeping. And...it must have done something because they were ALL in church on Sunday--the first time this whole transfer. So we're loving that. We just call them every night to see how they're doing and ask if they got any stickers.Our transfer of non-stop finding continues! This week the fun adventure is we were doing house and discovered an inactive member from Ecuador! She joined the church there, came here 13 years ago and only came once. She now has a son that's 11. She said, "Maybe God's telling me I should come back to church." We just smiled at her and nodded and said, "We agree." So we'll probably start teaching her son and we're hoping for good things there.Well I hope you all had a beautiful week. The sun has started to come out a little bit this week which I have hardly been complaining about. maybe I can get rid of this milky skin of mine. (Thanks Judy!!) Make good decisions, know that I love you like crazy, and...hold on to your wallets! Italian Kisses, Sorella Hansen

Fakin' it, answering the peoples prayers, Celebrating the existence of women‏

2010-03-10T12:34:00.000-08:00

Oh my stars can we just talk about the awkwardness that made up my Sunday?! So our dear Acevedo family decided to invite the branch president and his wife over for lunch. Sparing you some of the painfully awkward details (because you're not missionaries so you shouldn't have to deal with it. ha ha) they put on QUITE a show. Oh mylanta it was brutality. I love this family. I've been working with them for 5 months but they are a quirky bunch and I am well aware. But they pulled out some stops for this meal with the branch president and his wife. First off, Judy (the mom/wife) told us that she couldn't come to church on Sunday because she would be preparing lunch for them. She was like, "Oh sisters, I think that Jesus will understand." I was like, "Err...Judy, I daresay that Jesus wants you in church." But alas, she didn't come and just Leo came to church. So we went with to their house after church and please picture this in your minds: where there used to be a pull-out bed, there are now two fancy sitting chairs. They have a fancy table cloth, AND on a shelf they have the Bible opened...like as a decoration or something. I was just dying inside about this big fancy show that they were putting on. In the end it was fine. They really like Presidente Margheriti and his wife. Obviously because they're marvelous. I was so glad for that meal to be over though. It was such an event and it was just SO not them. ha ha Oh dear. One for the books!We went and saw Giuseppina Maiello yesterday. We haven't seen her since week 2 of the transfer. We tried so hard to prepare ourselves for that first appointment. She told us that she was going to have her son do the communion in the catholic church even though she knows that it's wrong and I think we were depressed for like 2 days. It was all that we could think about. Well we've been praying about her and we called her last week to see her. When we first sat down she told us that she had read the book of Mormon last week. ---which is MASSIVE because she told us at our last appointment that she wouldn't read it because she didn't want to confuse her son. Then she said that after she was done reading the book of Mormon one night she said a prayer and asked God to have us come back and see her again. Well we called her that night! So when we were sitting at the table she was like, "How did you do it?" We were just like, "You came into our minds." And she was like, "At what time?" ha ha and we said, "in the evening". And she goes, "That's when I was reading the book of Mormon." It was really crazy. We answered her prayers!It was really cool. We're going to go back next week and listen to a talk with her and her kids called "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence". It's an amazing talk by Elder Holland (who rocks my socks every time I listen to him). It should be good. In the meantime we bore our testimonies to her about the importance of being an example for her family. Praying, reading the scriptures...we told her that when her family--and especially her husband--see her doing these things, it will leave a very strong impression on them. She really liked that. So...from the last appointment it was definitely a step up! :)So...you know how Italians are always celebrating right? Well little did I know (Or...I forgot since last year) that March 8th is a holiday here!! It's called La Festa della donna. Or...Women's day. Yup, it's a day celebrating women...just the fact that we exist pretty much. Obviously we partook in the festivities. Why would we NOT?! ha ha They have these beautiful little yellow, puffy flowers that you give to women on that day. Some old lady gave some to my companion on the bus. It was a delightful little holiday. I just might try to make it big in the states. Good times...I should probably scadaddle. We're spending p-day at a little city that you might have heard of...Pisa!! There's really nothing in this city but the leaning tower but somehow I still find myself 124% amused and entertained every time I come. No complaints!! Well it's been another week of hard work but there's more that we want to do. Hope you're all having the time of your lives! Loving ya lots from all the way over here in La Spezia, Sorella Hansen

Run-in with pin lady, France in Florence, New investigator!!‏

2010-03-03T07:48:00.000-08:00

BUON to the GIORNO guys! I hope you all had a marvelous week in the homeland. I'll just take a couple of minutes to tell you about this last week here in the mish.So...as I mentioned my companion and I have been doing oodles of finding. It's pretty crazy, we see a lot of crazy stuff, but we always come home nice and tired and have the marvelous good feeling of knowing that you worked really hard that day to share the gospel. Also, I don't complain about the fact that all of this hard works makes me sleep like an infant. Oh man missionary work is the best sleeping pill in the world. Love it! ha ha So with all of this finding that we're doing we get all kinds of funny situations. One day this last week we were doing some house and ringing some citof's. A woman left the building as we were ringing the citofs. My companion started talking to her and the woman waiting until I finished talking on a citof so that she could talk to both of us. She was an older woman with a bright pink hat that had like 7 different pins in it. We told her who we were and what we were doing there. Half-way through she gave a grin like, "that's cute and all, but I've got news for you"...you know what one I'm talking about or have I just seen it a time or two? She then proceeds to give us this big marvelous speech that went a little something like this, "There's really nothing for you to do here. No one wants to hear what you have to say. We're ALL catholic. Or...there are some people who are Buddhist. OR....there are also some who are Jehovah's witness. And then there are some who are atheist. Therefore, you should just stop what you're doing because nobody cares." ha ha Good thing we know what we're doing here and we don't rely on the people on the streets to tell us if we're doing something worthwhile. Excuse me ma'am, we work for God. We're just trying to give you the opportunity to be happy out of your mind. If you don't want to take it, well I can't stop you, but nor will you stop us from giving the same opportunity to your friends. Ah, yes...gotta love house. :)We had Zone Conference in Florence yesterday and it was marvelous! Elder Paya came and spoke to us. He's a member of the seventy and...I didn't hate the fact that he's French. :) He was delightful and I learned so much. I love zone conferences because they're always such an amazing opportunity to see ways that I can improve and be more effective. I enjoyed this one especially because I didn't feel like I got bashed in the face with all of the things that I need to change, but Elder Paya taught and told missionary stories, and the spirit was able to tell us what we needed to change and apply. It was nice.We got a new investigator this week! His name's Daniele. He's so cool. I've seen him on the bus a couple of times since I've been in La Spezia and I got his number a couple of weeks ago and we finally were able to set an appointment and we taught him about the restoration. It was so rad. He has so many questions! I love questions! It means that he's thinking and pondering and searching. Those people are nothing but a joy to teach because they'll do the work to find their answers. Yeah, It was such a blessing to meet and teach him after all of the hard work that we've been doing. God is really blessing us. it is ever so clear and we are just so thankful for His help.Welp, that's all for this week. I hope you're all doing well. Go do some fun things with your beautiful families. Love your lives k? Everything is more beautiful and happy that way. You are very loved and blessed and don't ever forget it. All my love, Sorella Hansen

Awkward rejections, Looking for happy families, Do what you know is right already!!

2010-02-25T08:52:00.000-08:00

Well, doing a lot of finding like we've been doing lately gives us many opportunities to laugh at all of the excuses, mean things people say, and unavoidable awkward moments. Ah yes, welcome to missionary life. We ring citofonos and people will poke their head out of their shutters 4 floors up and say, "Who is it?". Really? Are we actually HAVING a conversation from this ridiculous vertical distance? All right!! We've received an awful lot of "No's" but Heavenly Father has been giving us plenty of opportunities to laugh and remain upbeat despite the rejections. Finding work has just been getting more and more fun. But we have done an awful lot of it. My stars! This last week we've had like one appointment a day and the rest of the day...we just find people! We've been working really hard and we both feel very strongly that the Lord will bless us for our efforts and we know that He's helping us out big time.We were able to set a return appointment with an ITALIAN FAMILY. woot woot!! Can one even complain about that?! I think not! They were a beautiful family and were great, happy people. I almost have forgotten what it's like to be in a home where the family is happy. I have seen so many jacked up families in my mission all I have to say was a happy, loving family was entirely refreshing. We taught them the first lesson and they asked lots of questions. However in the end they just ended up telling us that they were Catholic and were going to stay that way. We gave them a Book of Mormon and we've been praying in every single prayer that they'll call us. I know for sure they felt the spirit when we were talking about the restoration. And...if they don't call us back, the great thing about doing house is...we know where they live! They were seriously such a beautiful family. I think I fell in love with them. I feel like Lucy from While you were Sleeping. I know what you're thinking, "How many times in a 1 year and a half can she reference that movie?!" Great question. Don't put it past me. Bah, if nothing else, I know we were a first step for that family. That man is gonna be a bishop or something I just know it.We taught the Maiello family this week. We have prayed for that family in every single prayer just wanting so badly for them to recognize the spirit and the need for them to change their lives and remember the testimonies that they have. We went to the appointment. Only the wife--Giuseppina--was there. We prepared a whole lesson using Helman 5. We talked about the spirit and light---how she had it. She had it in her home. She knew what to do to keep it there. She saw the differences in her family, her relationship with her husband when the spirit was in their home. We read a bunch of verses with her from Helaman 5 and then we had prepared three questions for her. 1. Do you recognize differences in your home since the missionaries haven't been here/since you all called off your baptismal date? She said yes. She then answered question 2 before we even asked her. It was 2. Have you felt the spirit since we've been with you today? She said that she has. She recognized it when we came in and she felt it during the lesson. Question 3. Do you want it back? Oh man I wish I could accurately describe the look on her face. Her eyes looked so tired and so much differently then they have in past lessons. She looked like she was going through such a hard time. But she responded to our last question: Yes. Bam. That was it. This is just what we wanted. This was the purpose of the lesson! To get her to recognize the spirit and the need to have it back again. Well, that's when little dinkus Satan thought he was completely hilarious and it was so clear that he has been messing with this family. We were talking with Giuseppina about the things that she could do to bring the spirit back into her life and back into her home. We asked her to start by reading the Book of Mormon everyday. She said no. What?!? You just said that you want the spirit back. Why would you NOT be all over this?! Welp she continued to tell us that her son was about to do Communion in the Catholic church and she can't let him see her reading the Book of Mormon because it will confuse him. THEN she continues by telling us that she knows that this is the true church and she'll never deny that. She know that the Catholic church isn't true and that the communion doesn't really mean anything....but she's still doing it. It makes zero sense, she knows that it doesn't make sense and she wanted so badly for us to rationalize with her that it was okay, that her situation was different. Well, we work for God. We can't do that. It was so not how we saw the lesson going but we've been prayin a lot about it and we really feel like we need to stick with this family. But it also gives us a lot of inspiration to do finding work and find people who are searching and are prepared.WELL there's my week. It's been completely nuts but as always it has strengthened my testimony and made me more grateful for the gospel in my life. And in closing: How is Italy doing in the Olympics? :) Lemme know! Italian love, Sorella Hansen

Milky white, Last minute talk, Praying about going under the water!!‏

2010-02-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

Oh my stars. Let me just welcome you into a moment of my life that happened in our appointment with the Acevedo family. Out of nowhere Judy (the mom) looks at me and says, "Wow Sorella, sei troppo bianca. Sei come il latte!" Yup, she said, "Wow sister, you are too white. You're the color of milk!" haha Oh my dear it was just a moment that I thought, "WHEN do I get to go back to the island? At least I looked NOT like a dairy product when I lived there." Ah yes, good times...So this week has been nothing short of bizzanging. I love my new companion. We have only been together a week but it has been one of my favorites in the mission and I couldn't be more stoked about the time we'll have together. We get along really well and have so much in common it's frightening...and yet entirely enjoyable. We have set some really great goals and I'm so stoked about working hard and accomplishing them. We have been doing a lot of finding. We do a lot of bus, a lot of house, we've even stopped people on the street and it has just been so wonderful as far as that's concerned. I'm just so grateful that I get to be companions with her. We work really hard together but we have so much fun too. Many times we'll be laughing about something during lunch and just say, "What was president thinking?!" I hope I get to be with her for the rest of my mission because things are just going so good.On Saturday the branch president called me and asked me to give a talk the next day. That's the joy of serving in a small branch is they can (and do) just call ya last minute and ask you to give a inspiring jolly ol' talk. I think it went well. I totally conjugated something wrong in my talk and I knew it and I made a face...and the girls in the front row corrected me. It had potential to be embarrassing but...I just like to think of it as "Well, it shows that everybody was listening!" ha ha We had a great appointment last night with our girl Miriam. She's an amazing, strong woman who loves Jesus. We taught the plan of salvation with a couple from the branch. I think we emphasized the importance of being baptized in this life like 5 times. And in the end when we invited her to pray about being baptized on March 20th she understood and said that she'd pray. Not complaining!! It was a really cool lesson. The spirit was there. My companion did fabulous and the members were a great help. I love those appointments!Well I hope you all had a fabulous Valentines day. I think it goes without saying that my Valentines day was filled with...love of all mankind. Welp, have a splendid week and ...make good decisions. ha ha My advice is hardly inspired....but it comes from a good place. Love you tons. La Spezian love, Sorella Hansen

Transfers, the priesthood rocks my socks, A place called Liberty‏

2010-02-11T11:19:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well...how's everything going? It's been quite a crazy week. It was my companions last week as a missionary so there were lots of saying goodbye, pictures, and that kind of stuff. On Tuesday morning we had to take a train at like 5:15 a.m. to come to Florence where my companion dropped me off so that I can do an exchange with the sisters until I get my new companion. Sorella Skabelund went to Rome and is flying out...today actually. I've been doing an exchange with Sorella Dalia and Sorella Hughes. It's been fun actually. I'm kind of in love with Florence, really, like it might not be healthy or normal. But whatever. I'm embracing it because that is my life. So it's been cool to go to a couple of appointments with them and talk to some of the people on the buses here. It's been a fun change. We got transfer calls yesterday and President said that I'm staying in La Spezia and I'll have Sorella Dalia as my companion. It was funny that we had spent the whole day together and talked about how we wanted to live at BYU-Idaho together...and then President called us and told us that we were going to be companions. It was funny. I'm really excited. She's really fun and we are a lot alike--for better or for worse! ha ha Nah, I'm excited for this transfer. It should be slammin.So...as far as the work goes, do you remember the cookie lesson from a couple of weeks ago? Yeah well....there was kind of an explosion this week with that family. It was really hard. They are kind of known for calling us the day of our appointments, like a couple of hours beforehand, and cancelling. So long story short, something happened that made them get really mad at us and they called and told us that they didn't want to see us anymore and didn't want to have anything to do with us. Yeah, it was killer. I've never had anyone do anything like that to me. It made me think of those stories that I heard before the mission about how missionaries would go to an investigators house and there would be a book of Mormon in a bag hanging on the door with a note saying that they didn't want to see the missionaries anymore. Yeah, I remember hearing those stories and thinking, "Well crikey that's the worst." Well this week I got the opportunity to understand first hand how much it is a complete bust! It was brutality BUT with lots and lots of prayer and gaining a greater testimony and appreciation for the priesthood, we were somehow able to go talk to them and they're still going to let us go over and teach. I have spared you the fun details but just trust me, MIRACLE!!!Also guess how delightful this little moment of my life was. So I went to English class and this man Antonio told me that he brought me something. He's just this sweet Italian man. He's married and has a daughter my age. But last week was his first week at English class and we were talking about books and I hadn't ever read his favorite book. He BROUGHT me his favorite book, all wrapped up in this cute and awkward lawn gnome wrapping paper. It was the sweetest thing. The book is called "Un luogo chiamato LIberta" or in English "A place called Liberty". Have you guys ever read it? It's a big book and it's in Italian! I'm stoked to read Italian books when I get home. How cool is that?! AND to make things cooler, he plays the mandolin! He has like 5. Scratch that, he does have 5. I told him who my favorite mandolinist was and he's gonna check him out this week. What a fun little moment right? Who would have known 2 years ago that I'd be here, in La Spezia, Italy, just talking mandolin music with some guy named Antonio. Sometimes I have moments that I just back up and look at my life and just think, "Man, didn't see that happening 2 years ago...or even a week ago." hahaWell, I don't really have anything crazy rad to tell you about this week. I'm still in Florence for today and we'll probably go back to La Spezia tomorrow morning. Forecast for the next six weeks of my life: La Spezia! Then after this transfer...I'll just have one measly transfer left. Yuck. Too fast. I've been talking a lot with Sorella Hughes yesterday and today about how she's feeling and how her mission's going and stuff. It's been so nice to talk to someone from my group and see what's up. I feel less crazy at the fact that we're feeling a lot of the same things and it's been nice. Anyway, I hope you all have a marvelous week. I'll let you know how everything going week 1 of transfer 11 next week. Take care. Lots of Italian love, Sorella Hansen

Homemade Pasta, a CHASE, Fasting for Referrals‏

2010-02-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

Hey fellas! Sorry I really don't have a lot of time to write this week so it will be brief. This week has been good. A member taught us how to make homemade pasta which was a delight!! I was hardly complaining. On the contrary! It was a solid good time. and it wasn't even that difficult to make is the kicker. Why don't we all just make homemade pasta like the Italians? It was pretty good. I took plenty of notes so hopefully I'll be able to conjure up something that resembles pasta when I get home. I make no promises though. :)Well I got to go pick up my Permesso di Soggiorno this week. I have tried to explain this several times but the name of whatever it is in English has vanished from my mind. Oops? It's the document that makes it legal for me to live here. So we went on Thursday and waited in this lengthy line and my companion and I noticed someone in the line. Well...if I have to be honest we were playing a game that we were trying to guess where everyone in the line was from. ha ha racist? Hope not! Anyway we noticed someone who totally looked Italian. He was like 7 people behind us in line. He stumped us. So...me being the random person that I am, I suggested that we should guess what his name is, what he's doing here, etc. What is this guys story? (If you think this is 300% creepy, it really wasn't, but permission granted.) I just find myself fascinated with people sometimes. I just want to get the whole scuttle on who they are. I dunno. I can't explain it. Anyway, so we played this little game, I got my permesso, and then we left to take the bus. As we were waiting for the bus I was like, "Sorella, we need to talk to him about the church." She kind of laughed because I don't think she thought I was serious. She was like, "Well, if he gets out in time and takes the same bus, then we'll talk to him." So we got on the bus and he still hadn't come out of the building where we just were. I was panicking and was like, "Seriously Sorella we need to get off this bus." The bus pulled away!! I rang the bell to get off at the next stop and we were both kind of nervous because we didn't know what to say or do really. We got off at the next stop and ran back. ha ha I'm sure we were quite the sight. We got back to the building and he was still in line. My companion was like, "This is creepy." She wasn't really stoked about what we were doing. I really couldn't even explain it but the more I looked at that guy in line the more I felt the desire to talk to him about the gospel. So there we were standing there trying to think about what to say and then ...he came out! He walked on a different staircase and was going in the opposite direction. Nice. I just looked up at the sky and smiled and thought, "So this isn't going to be easy for us huh?" ha ha So we started walking after the guy. My companion was still saying things like, "this is creepy." And I was just like, "Dude, you go home in 2 weeks. You will never see this guy again. We're here to share the gospel. We are confident, happy people with something to say. What is creepy about that?!" So....we may or may not have run after this man and stopped him at his car to talk to him about the gospel. ha ha It was an adrenaline rush because I've never done anything to that extent. I remember thinking in my mind, "You know all of those "open your mouth" scriptures...well I'm gonna do just that but oh buddy somebody had better put some words in there because I've got nothing." And I dunno. It was really cool. He was totally nice and wasn't weirded out at all about the fact that we kind of chased him down to talk about the church. He originally told us that he isn't super religious but we were able to bear our testimonies to him and give him a pamphlet with our number on it. He was really great. I'm really glad that we took that leap. I'm so thankful for the faith that we were given to do that because I was a bit nervous but ...it was crazy cool. By-the-way, his name's Pablo. He's from Argentina and he's here to play rugby. I was way off. :)Last week my companion and I fasted and prayed over our ward list and decided on a family that we wanted to ask for a referral from. We went over to the family's house that we felt strongly to ask and presented the message. It went really well. They were really excited that they were an answer the missionaries prayers. And they're really excited to fast and pray for a referral. We're going back this week to see what they've come up with.Anyway, sorry this is a random, awkward letter but...why then is it different from anything else that I send home? Hummm....WELP! I really gots to skedaddle!! Thanks for your letters and love. You're in my prayers...even if they're in Italian...they still totally count! Read your scriptures. They'll kind of rock your socks...daily. Italian love from my heart to yours! Sorella Hansen

brown sugar + chocolate chips = an inactive and investigator in church!!‏

2010-01-27T10:44:00.000-08:00

14 lengthy years ago, two sister missionaries made some scrum-diddly-umcious chocolate chip cookies for Sonia. (Sonia has been a member for a long time...but has also been inactive for a large part of that time...like right now) Sonia's eyes got huge! It was clearly one of the best things that she'd ever experienced, and a moment that she would never ever forget. EVERY time missionaries would come over in the passing years, she would recall with PASSION this experience of tasting her first chocolate chip cookie in hopes that the current missionaries could make this moment, once again a reality. By inspiration of transfers (because obviously transfers are expired...wow..haha I meant INspired to the max!) my companion and I have had the privilege to be let into Sonia and Alessandros home--after them not accepting missionaries for a long while. But perhaps even more inspired then THAT is the fact that our district leader has a father in the military. What does this MEAN you might ask? Ha. Why it means that he, until the ripe ol' age of 21, has access to the military base near Pisa, which contains our two missing ingredients for chocolate chip cookies: Brown sugar and the ol' chocolate chips themselves. They went to the base while we were in Pisa and we sent them with money for these two items.
January 25, 2010. My companion and I (after having had this appointment cancelled on us 4 times...) finally got ourselves into an appointment with these guys and right after the closing prayer we pulled out ONE beautiful, golden brown cookie. Sonia said with semi-faked excitement, "A cookie." I realized what the problem was. She didn't understand what kind of cookie this was. I told my companion to adjust the saran wrap so that Sonia could see the little drops of chocolately goodness known to us as chocolate chips. My companion adjusted the saran wrap just so, so that as I have said, Sonia could recognize what we had brought into her home. Her expression changed drastically. She gasped! "Is that HIM?" (the word for cookie in Italian in masculine, hence the 'him') She said again with more anxiety, "Sisters, is that HIM!?!" We smiled and nodded, and I kid you not, Sonia starts crying! Tears falling down her face, dare I say a good three. She is SO excited about this moment. But alas, we are sister missionaries and have a point. We give her the cookie and she splits it between her and her boyfriend Alessandro. They eat the cookie with exaggerated slowness, eyes closed, and a dopey grin on their faces. Alessandro told us that he felt the spirit when he ate the cookie. My companion and I were busting up the whole time. She told us that it was JUST how she remembered. We explained that there was a reason that we only brought one cookie and not a whole plate. Up until this point, they've let us have appointments (though not as often as we'd like), they feel the spirit, and they recognize the need to change certain things in their lives. However, they have not set foot in church since we've been here, nor a long time before we've been here. We explained the importance of hungering spiritually. We read a couple verses from that marvelous book of scriptures called the book of Mormon. (Enos 1:4, 3 Nefi 12:16, and 3 Nefi 12:8) We talked to them about a couple of things.1. They've got hungry souls. How do we feed a hungry soul? Welp, read your scriptures every day (WHICH we found out they've been doing AS A FAMILY since our last appointment. woot!!), pray everyday, get your body to church on Sunday because you've got to feed your soul.2. When we go to their house. They love it. They feel the spirit. But they're only eating like...A chocolate chip out of a chocolate chip cookie (spiritually speaking) ;) Pick up the spiritual cookie and just eat the crap out of it! Why are you nibbling on something that makes your soul feel good? Your hunger for that cookie is never going to be filled until you eat it. Likewise, your hunger for righteousness and spiritual things will never be filled until you're righteous and you do spiritual things. We know that the spiritual cookie is good. It's hard to watch them just nibble at it and not enjoy it like it should be enjoyed.The lesson went well. In fact, Sonia understood what we were trying to teach before we even taught it. After she finished her half of the cookie she said, "wow that was good. Imagine. If a cookie can bring me this much joy, how much joy would it bring me to keep the commandments." BAM! Alessandro, who is not YET a member of the church, said that he's been reading the scriptures lately and that he knows that it's true. He said that many missionaries in the past have given him a book of Mormon and he's never read it. But he's reading it now. He loves it and he just keeps wanting to read it. Yeah baby! That's because you're soul is gettin all drooley over somethin that is bringing delight!THEN came the invite: "WILL you take a bite of your spiritual cookie and come to church on Sunday?" Are you guys ready for this? Here's their answer. Without hesitating, and with decision, they say, "Si". What?! No excuses? No hesitations or "We'll see"?!? Oh how my heart just wanted to explode with joy. I love when people are more then willing to do what is necessary to continue having the feelings that they feel when we teach them. I love when they do their part. When they take the steps. I LOVE that. I went home that night, wrote in my journal and just thought, "Man, these are the days that I LOVE being a missionary." Sorella Hansen

P.S. Eat your spiritual cookies k?

Pisa, Special Fasts, Finding work!‏

2010-01-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

This is Ariel, He's the elder's investigator. He came with our district to a Naval museum. The museum was kind of a bust but the company was a solid good time!

Sorella Skabelund, Sorella Hansen

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Well BUON to the GIORNO!!Pisa proved to be a romping success. We had a splendid time admiring the leaning tower and taking the classic embarrassing pictures of how we're leaning on it and holding it up. Ah the stupid things that we do for an entirely unoriginal picture. ha ha Whatever. I still walk away lovin my life so...no complaints. In other news the scarf scene was a complete letdown. I was so excited to drop like 50 yen on scarves but the lady wouldn't even bargain with me. What is that?! So, I kept my dignity and walked away with a little drawing of Pinocchio. Please judge me. ha ha Well this week did not fail to bring the crazy unpredictability's as every week. We purposely didn't set very many appointments so that we could find more people. We even did a special fast so that we can find more people to teach who will keep their commitments and progress. Testimony of fasting? Check! We found an investigator that day named Davide doing some survey! He's pretty rad. We left him a pamphlet the first time, set up a return appointment and met with him the very next day and taught him about the restoration. It was cool. Apparently many years ago the missionaries used to go to his family's house and teach his mom. We're all over that!Then on Monday Sorella Skabelund and I had about a half an hour before our appointment with the Acevedo clan. I was like, "Hey we haven't done house yet today. We gots a goal to do house everyday." So we decided to knock the palazzo right across the street from the Acevedo family. The very FIRST citofono (Err...don't know how to say that in English. It's like...let's just call it the 'doorbell', to make things simple) a man answered and buzzed us into the building! We talked to him at his door for like 10 minutes and got his phone number and taught him a bit about the church. Bizangin'? Yeah, you could say so!We got another last minute phone call this week asking for a musical number in church. So...we threw together an ol' piano duet. I'd played it before the mission with my sister so I already knew it. It wasn't perfect but I think it was still pretty and was fun I suppose.Well things are going forward. There is still lots to do but I have found that as I set honest goals that I have been able to make improvements and seen huge blessings. Heavenly Father is helping me with the language and to become a better missionary. Of course...He's also showing me plenty of things that I need to improve. Thankfully it's a nice balance. :)President stopped by ol' La Spezia yesterday to interview us. It was a good interview. And I didn't not put up a fight about the fact that he brought love in physical form! Yup, Mail! It was so great to hear from you guys. I'll be writing you back on the double. Keep reading your scriptorials. I find out every morning that they're STILL true. Crazy right? Keep saying those prayers because Heavenly Father listens to ya and loves hearing from you more than I do...and that's a lot!! Go to church. Yup, all three hours. There's nothing better you could do with your time AND you get a nice dose of blessings for your attendance so...yeah. I'm grateful to the max for the things that I'm learning out here. I know it's where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing. I love you guys a lot and hope that you're loving your lives. Love you more then Peppermint hot chocolate on a startlingly chilly day! Sorella Hansen

The tower that leans, Building on ROCKS, Zone Conference‏

2010-01-13T11:31:00.000-08:00

With my dear Sorella Chessman. This girl is nothing but a delight. Unfortunately, she got herself transfered off the island so... I see much less of her. :(

Beautiful Cagliari

P-Day: Walter took us to go see a casle and a beautiful view of Cagliari.

This is where I live / Preach the gospel!

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Hey fellas!! I'm writing you this week from a jolly ol' town called Pisa. We decided to actually do something killer for P-day so we thought we'd give the ol' Leaning Tower a shot. I'm actually super stoked about it. I saw it about two years ago with a dear friend but...can't hurt to see it a second time right? Aaaand the fact that they sell pretty scarves and heartbreaking ties right in front of the tower is hardly a disappointment. I've started a nice collection. :) We had a really cool lesson with an inactive family this week. It's a single mother of two and they haven't been to church in like a month! And...we really want to help her daughter get baptized. :) So we went and saw them and we taught them that "Wise man built his house upon a rock" little diddy. We got the kids all in on the actions which kind of worked. Then they were kind of too A.D.D. for the whole song with actions. My heart went out to people with callings in the primary. I eventually resorted to desperate measures to get their attention and started awarding them imaginary points for good behavior. Ex. "Ten points for whoever does the actions the best!" "18 points if you can tell me what the wise man build his house on." Actually it got them to participate and I have not the slightest clue of why the imaginary point system was appealing though I did not find myself complaining! So we taught a lesson on how WE can build our house upon a rock. We talked about how even though one built his house on a rock, and the other on the sand...it still rained for both of them. I think sometimes we think that as long as we have our lives built on concrete things---on the teachings of the church, following the Savior---we think that we're good. But the rain still comes. We still have our trials and difficulties and hard things to deal with. BUT when we build our lives on things that are concrete, then we will be secure when the trials come and we won't worry about it. Anyway, I can't believe I just spent like 15 minutes of my internet time talking to you about that primary song. Take it for what it's worth! Even if it's not much. We had Zone Conference in Florence! Two beautiful things that I love about every transfer. Zone Conference where we get to learn crazy cool ways to improve our work and be better missionaries AND we get to see other missionaries that we know and see how much they've grown and changed. Sorella Hughes and Sorella Watson are in my zone. (They were both in my MTC district ) It was a pleasant moment indeed to see them and see what amazin' missionaries they've become. I can't believe it. In a lot of ways I still feel like a kid in the mission. It's cool to see the people that they've become. The mission changes people. It's pretty legit. Aka...amazing.Well I gots to be a-jetting. On the trainride home I tried to talk to an African man in french and...it was kind of an explosion in my face. ha ha It's like I hadn't ACTUALLY studied french for 6 years. What the?? So...I was surprised that I was able to make awkward small talk...though the little accent that I once had in french has now gone to the wolves! Whatever! At least I can get my point across in Italian. THAT is something that I will count my blessings for daily! ANYWHOODLE, I hope that everything is going fantabulous for you guys. Behave yourselves, get to church every Sunday, read those delightful scriptures that are--by-the-way---still true, and just enjoy your lives k?? Talk to ya more next week. Til then, Sorella Hansen

New year explosions, Mute, Writing down my life‏

2010-01-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

On the boad BACK to Cagliari with my new companion Sorella Nelson. It's like 11:30 p.m. because we had to wait for quite a while to get on. So, if I look sleepy-kins...that's because I am.

Family Home Evening at the park.
Me, Sorella Nelson, Sabbrina, Sorella Saffina, Carla Saffina

Paolo & Walter their first Sunday with ties!

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BUONGIORNO!!! Well how was er'bodys New Year?!? Hopefully pleasant and full of off the chain good times. What do the missionaries in the Italy Rome mission do for New Years you might ask? Well, let me tell ya. We spend the entirety (you know me...spellin'?!) of the first day of the year cleaning our apartment from top to bottom. The night before we were instructed to go home a little early because these Spezians get a little crazy at the end of the year. Understandably so though, who doesn't? So we went to bed at 10:30 and then set our alarm clock for 11:45 ha ha yeah yeah I know that you all actually stayed awake for the big moment but...we're sister missionaries and have the sleeping schedule of a new born child. Try not to judge k? Anywho, so we woke up to all kinds of bombs going off! I guess here, instead of pretty fireworks being the bees knees it's more of a mentality like, "As long as it makes a big BOOM, I find myself satisfied." Well big booms were heard indeed. Then...we went back to bed and woke up to cleaning our house. Best of times. My second of two new years in Italy. CRAZY SAUCE.Funny moment of the day. I've been reading Jesus the Christ lately and I've been learning lots of crazy cool things that I didn't know before...yeah...like it's almost embarrassing. Well yesterday I had read the chapter about how the angel Gabriel announced the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ like 3 months apart and stuff. Anyway so I read about the situation when he announced John the Baptists birth. (I was completely uneducated on this matter.) So when we were leaving the apartment we got in the elevator and my companion was being awkwardly quiet and ...mimey. (I spell like 3 year-old! Judge me not.) So being completely confused by this behavior I just said, "Oh I get it! You're being Zacharias after he heard that his wife was gonna have a baby!" She laughed and then our day was filled with words again. Tell me honestly: Scale of 1 to 12.45, how sublimely awkward is it that I make scriptural references to my daily life? Lemme know!!We had a pretty big step back with our family that has baptismal dates. Pretty much the wife called us and told us that the husband is still drinkin' really heavily and treats his wife very very poorly when he drinks. Ah, I just felt sick. We've been working so so hard with this family to get them to progress, to help them strengthen their testimonies, to help them have a happier family. It was just something really hard to accept. But after a bit I tried to see what we could do with this situation, what we could learn. Both my companion and I felt strongly that we need to step up our finding work and find new people to teach--because the people that we're teaching now aren't making the progress that they should be making. We're going to step back a little bit and see if they miss the message, the spirit. In the meantime, my companion and I feel we've got to find those people who WOULD progress if they knew about the gospel. We're still working with our old investigators, but they need to make some progress.So...we've been setting aside time everyday JUST for doing some killer finding. I actually really enjoy doing finding work. I'm totally awkward at it but it really makes me feel like a missionary. I love bearing my testimony to people. I love at least giving the opportunity to accept the restored gospel. And it's really cool to look back afterward and see all of the ways that God blessed us and directed us. Ah, it just feels good.Yesterday we had a crazy cool experience with a family that we're working with. The wife is an in-active member and the husband is not a member. When we first got here to La Spezia we decided to just drop by their house and meet them and they let us in! They let us help clean their house a couple of hours a week and through that, they are now letting us work with them and teach them. We taught them last night and it went oh-so-well. Alessandro, the husband, was really touched last night and did some really great reflection. He let us give him a Book of Mormon (he's a hard-core catholic...well, welcome to Italy) and he is committed to reading it. They've born their testimonies to us several times that they know that we're here to help them and they're just really humble amazing people. I am so excited to keep workin' with them and seeing the changes that the gospel brings people to make.Well the work is going well. I notice new parts of the city all the time and just look at groups of palazzos like, "Oh dangit, there are a LOT of people there that don't know about the gospel yet." I try to fight the urge to hyperventilate and we start one house at a time. :)ALSO...I got a new journal!! I know that you all care. I'm going on my third! How awkward is that?! My life before the mission is probably contained in a half of a journal and it's almost painful to look back at some of the awkward moments of my life that I felt to record on paper. But alas, I actually love looking back at my journal in the mission. I haven't written everyday like I initially wanted, but I have written every transfer! ha ha It's been amazing to look back on experiences that I've had earlier on and remember those moments so vividly. It's also been really eye opening to look back at me and the person that I was and sometimes laugh at some of the things that I did and think about how I would do things differently now. It's been cool to watch the process that God has not only been doing with our investigators, but with His missionaries. Surely I will look back on this time of my mission in a couple of months from now and laugh but that's okay. I am hardly perfect...as if that isn't wildly apparent. But I learn little things here and there everyday. It is a blessing indeed to serve a mission. It's like as cool as...Peter Pan learning to crow. Or...Jack Sparrow becoming captain of the Black Pearl BUT obviously oodles cooler. ANYWHO, officially signing off because I have gone far too far. Ciao for now! La Spezian love, Sorella Mally Hansen

Happy New Year!!! Pictures!!

2010-01-02T11:01:00.000-08:00

These pictures are from when Mallory was serving on the island. Just a few transfers and companions ago. But, still our Mallory none the less.

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Doing house. If you notice, the doorbell has a bit of an electrical problem. But alas, we tried it anyway and also knocked. :)

My dear friends as ANFAS! I loved volunteering with them. This particular day we were watering the garden.
Gian Franco, Simone, Luca

Yup, this is actually happening. I don't remember the last time I flashed the ol' thumbs up for a picture but... we're making it work!

Me, Pier Andrea, Christina, Gian Franco, Simone

Marco, Luca, Francesco

Here's us with Sorella Acerson for our sister's conference. I adore Sorella Acerson. She does so much and still looks dazzling. I, on the other hand, look like Webster's definition of wind blown. Whatevs!

Me, Sorella Acerson, Sorella Bjarnason

Sorry that I don't spare you the awkward, non-glamourous moments of sister missionary life. Here we have sister missionary tan lines.

Clockwise: Sorella Watson, Me, Sorella Millis, Sorella Bjarnason

Yeah, Italian children are actually this ridiculously adorable.

Lorenzo, Gabriele, Enrico

My LOVE! This is Sorella Marangoni. I miss her so much! We served in the same district for 3 transfers. Neither of us would complain if we had to be companions.

This is in the Rome train stations when I dropped off Sorella Bjarnason and picked up my New Companion.

Positivity, Desert Island, and filling church seats!

2009-12-30T10:47:00.000-08:00

Well can I just start off with this quote from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland that completely rocked my world this week. Here goes, "God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face the future (that sounds pretty grim and stoic); He expects you to embrace and shape the future--to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities. God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can't if you don't pray, and He can't if you don't dream. In short, He can't if you don't believe." I truly loved that quote when I heard it. Isn't life always better when we look at it with an attitude of positivity? It's something that I have really been working on in the mission. I have really been trying to see my life, the mission, myself, my companion, the work, everything in a happy, positive light. Everything goes better when we can see potential and when we can enjoy even the moments that don't work out for us--at least not in the way that we think they're working out. It has been interesting but I have seen many blessings and have enjoyed many moments in the mission when I'm sure I could have otherwise complained or gotten frustrated or sad. I still have a lot of work to do in continually being positive, but I have a testimony of how beautiful life can be when we chose to look at it that way.So...Merry Christmas!! I hope everyone's Christmas was beautiful and happy and full of love! There's a family here (The Mannucci family) that always invites the missionaries over every Christmas Eve and they buy whatever food we want and WE make THEM Christmas Eve dinner--the way it's done in America. I was completely mentally prepared to laugh my face off about it because the Christmas Eve dinner that we do with my family isn't really...one that I would mass produce for people and stamp it as a classic American Christmas Eve meal. Because we just do it very simple--I adore it--but I would hardly claim Cheese enchiladas and oranges as an all-american Christmas eve meal. So we decided as a district to make what Sorella Skabelunds family eats for Christmas Eve. It was practically Thanksgiving. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravey, carrotts, salad, rolls, the works. It was quite exciting actually. They put us in charge of the kitchen and it came at me like a dragonfly into a windshield how much of the kitchen vocab I do NOT know in the italian language. It's all good though. Language study. :) The branch here is great and I was amazed at how much love they showed us missionaries during the Christmas season. It was really touching that they got us presents and invited us into their homes at this time of year.What did the La Spezia missionaries do for the big day of Christmas? What a fantabulous question! We went to the church by 10 (yes, the elders had us all on a schedule) and we pretty much watched movies in the church---all day! Oh my stars! I kind of felt like I was living one of those desert island questions. You know, "if you could only bring 2 books on a desert island, which would they be?" Except our question was, "If you could only watch movies one day a year, what would you watch?" Granted we have some fairly strict rules on what we can watch so that kind of took a toll on our Desert island fun but alas, we ended up with goods like: Ratatouille, Life is Beautiful, The Polar Express, stuff like that. I decided by the end of the day two things: 1. It was kind of nice chillin' and watchin' some flicks. 2. There is not much that's fulfilling about watching films in large quantity. ha ha Seriously it was fun, but I also just wanted to run 5 miles after a day of Christmas laziness....and that feeling actually worked out in my favor because the buses weren't running so we got the priveledge of walking home! :) Merry Christmas to all eh!?I got a phonecall on Saturday night from Fratello Ricciardi letting me know that I would be giving a talk the following day in sacrament meeting...because they forgot to assign speakers. ha ha So I got to throw a talk together and it was actually kind of fun. At the beginning I kind of wanted to judo chop a cork board to let out my stupified..ness of not knowin what to talk about but I ended up talking about the importance of the commandments and that when we obey we're blessed. I got a little crazy with analogies to soccer and castles but I think it went pretty a-okay.BIG NEWS!! Sunday was the first time that the Acevedo family has ALL come to church! Oh Mamma Pajama was it a delight! We had a nice talk with Judy last week about how it she needed to get to church and apparently something worked because she was there with Arianna and Leo. Ah, it was a good feeling. ALSO the inactive member that I talked about last week...you know...she came to church this week!! WITH her 9 year-old-son. I love seeing the chairs of the church filled. It just makes me feel all chipper inside.Well we had a crazy cool day yesterday full of MIRACLES but I'm afraid I don't really have time to write about it. Maybe next week? Some kookster from the bus followed us into the internetpoint and was bugging me so I used up a bit too much of my time. Oh well! Pazienza! P.S. If you have not watched Life is Beautiful recently, put that on your lists because it was a winner! I laughed my face off and nearly cried my eyes out...okay that last part was thankfully false. It was really cool because I watched that movie before my mission but I obviously had to read the subtitles. This time I watched it without english or italian subtitles and it was a Christmas miracle noticing that I actually understood these wonderful italian people. And when I laughed, it was because I understood what they said and not what I read in english. AH, love it! Hope you had a holly jolly Christmas. Lots of La Spezian love, Sorella Hansen

Misunderstanding with Roberto, Applying gospel principles to our lives, SNOW‏

2009-12-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

"There are more runs in my nylons then days until Christmas" That was the quote of the day on Saturday when my last pair of nylons went to the wolves! BUT fear not. Thanks to my adorable italian boots and mid-calf skirt, mums the word about my secret count down til Christmas. Ah yes, truly the best of times.What a week! We had many experiences that I would love to tell you but I'll see how many I can do without boring your faces off. So lets start with the slight let down so we can end on a happy note. We have this friend at a Cartoleria (a paper shop) that we've stopped by a few times since we've been here and he's been warming up to us. We try to talk to him about the gosple but we always get to a certain point where he shuts us down. Well he's got an attitude. He's got a little bite to him but sometimes it's funny. So this last week we went to the Cartoleria and he had a friend there and Roberto (that's the mans name who works in the Cartoleria) started asking us lots of questions about us being missionaries. He asked us how much we get paid (yeah, we don't. Actually we pay.) While we're used to people admiring what we do after they learn this, Roberto instead said, "You are stupid. Why would you spend money or have your family spend money on sending you here where no one wants to listen to you." I couldn't believe it. It kind of hurt my feelings and amongst all of the words that I thought of to shoot his way what I decided on was, "Well Roberto, you obviously don't understand what we do or what this message is that we have." He went off again saying some other things that weren't complimentary, let's say and it was a bit of a doozey. I somehow managed to not cry like an infant (which is a big step for me. For some reason this whole mission thing has made me a little cry face, more often then my pride appreciates.) But somehow I walked away from the experience not thinking that he was right. I have no doubt that what I'm doing isn't stupid. It's not a waste of time. And there ARE people who want to listen. It's kind of like a spiritual treasure hunt. We've just got to do the finding. As much as it hurt to have someone that I thought was a friend say those things, it really just reinforced my feelings for the gospel. I have no doubt in my mind that this message changes lives. I have seen it first hand many times in the last year. No one can tell me that it doesn't. I have learned and seen and felt too much to allow anyone to tell me that this gospel is stupid. As hard as it is for me to have these things challenged sometimes I walk away at least feeling grateful for the opportunity to stand with Christ. To learn even the slightest bit of what it's like to stand up for what's right, like He did, even when it's hard. It strengthens my testimony and love for the Savior.So hows about a story of someone who's been receptive eh? I will not be complaining about having those people in my life! Nope nope. So we went over to this less-active members house. She's an amazing person. She's married in the temple, has a beautiful 9 year old son, but...none of them come to church. There were times in the lesson when it seemed that she didn't think that she needed to come to church every Sunday. I got a glimpse, however, of her acknowledgement that she needs to return to church weekly. So I listened to her as she told us of how many times she has made plans to come to church and then the next day: WHAMY something comes up! Like, what the heck is that about right? Like her sister will call and ask her if she can watch the kids, or her son will have a fever, etc. She said that it's not that she doesn't want to come to church, because she makes plans to do it, but then something just comes up.Well as she was saying all of this something came into my mind that I've been thinking a lot about and I felt like I could relate to her completely! I started talking to her about my companion and I. We have a companionship goal that we'll wake up at 5:55 a.m. We have our workout plan all set out and we've got it planned to the T! Whenever something doesn't work out, we readjust or find a way to avoid whatever it is that didn't work out. HOWEVER my companion and I have this little problem: there are always things that "come up" that make it difficult for us to accomplish our goals. Examples: We wake up and it's startlingly cold out of our beds. Why wouldn't we just want to stay all snuggled and warm? Or Dangit! my companion doesn't really feel like working out this morning. Am I going to step up and do it by myself or not? Or Drat! I am just so much more exhausted than I thought. It couldn't hurt to sleep until 6:30.Us not working out doesn't reflect our feelings toward exercising. It really IS something that we want to do. We really DO want to work out. But there's something human about hitting the wall between the things that we WANT to do and DESIRE to do, and then actually getting ourselves to overcome the obstacles to do them. Get over the excuses. Decide in your mind that it's what you really want and don't let anything stand in your way. YOU are the one that decides whether or not you accomplish the things that you want. But you'll never accomplish what you want if you don't get over that hump of complete decision and commitment. I told her that just as my companion and I will never changed if we don't start now, she will never be active in church unless she gets over the hump and starts now. Do it now. Why wait? If it's something that you want, then commit yourself. Do it! She was nodding while I was tellin her this and she understood and agreed. It was a really cool lesson. I think it's cool how much we can relate with the people that we're working with. Sometimes it could be easy to have the mindset of, "Man, what's the deal? Why don't they come to church?" Or "Come on, what's going on, why don't they read their scriptures?" It's been a loving wake up call for me that I have to apply the principles that I'm teaching in many aspects of my life. We all have our own challenges and difficulties but the principles are the same. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father helps me see how to relate to these people, and at the same time helping me see how to improve.Well my time has come to an end. I hope that you have a marvelous Christmas! Isn't Christmas the most beautiful time of year? I really just love it. I love looking at all of the decorations and the SNOW (P.S. it totally snowed this week! LIke a couple of inches. Apparently it hasn't snowed this much in La Spezia for like 17 years. Crazy sauce!)We had a member in the branch call us on Friday night and ask if my companion and I could do a musical number for the Christmas program. I had to whip out my dusty piano skills and play O Holy Night for my companion. It was kind of a crazy arrangement and it was kind of a bust on my part but ALAS, Christmas will still arrive and it is all good in the hood. I mean...La Spezia. Because of all of the snow, not many members showed up to church on Sunday. We had like 4 families. It was definitely the smallest little Christmas program I have ever seen but it meant the most to me than any of them in the past. So many hearts were touched and it was all so sincere. I just felt blessed to be a small part of it.Thanks for all of your love and support. I had presidents interviews yesterday and he came bearing gifts! Aka...mailtime. Thank you so much for your love. I feel very grateful and it really helps an awful lot. I can't even explain it to you. Merry Christmas guys! I hope the holiday is beautiful and happy! I love you as much as I love mistletoes....which I will not be partaking of this Christmas season. However, in e'mail form: Italian kisses! Sorella Hansen

Er...cheese enchilads, Keeping attention, authority‏

2009-12-24T07:21:00.000-08:00

Oh how I love my life.We had a slammin week this week. The elders weren't able to help us out with english class last minute so I had to teach advanced. Last time I "sub'd" advanced we played a riveting round of Jeopardy which kind of rocked those little Italians world. Apparently Italians are Jeopardy deprived. They didn't know what it was. So ANYWAY this week I hurried and threw together a lesson but they mostly wanted to talk. So one of the guys in the back of the class raised his hand and said, "What do you guys eat for Christmas?" I kind of stood there for a second because...we don't really have a second Thanksgiving and pull out a turkey or chicken or something. So, therefore, my response of, "Er...we actually have our meal on Christmas eve and in my family we sit on the floor, light candles, and have oranges and cheese enchiladas." After them expecting some fancy feast (coincidental reference to cat food) it was clear that my answer had kind of let them down. BUT whatever. I always went to sleep on the 24th completely pleased.So we went back to the ol' Acevedo home. Our last lesson with them was kind of a mild explosion...meaning...it was bust. We taught the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy and they were all so out of it and not paying attention and...I kind of wanted to teach the principles of the gospel while doing a mildy embarassing tap dance just to get them to focus. Though I somehow refrained. We even asked the elders (who had joined us for this appointment) a couple of questions and had them explain a couple of things and...nada. The family was zoned out. It was bizzare as could be. I selfishly felt a little better that they wouldn't listen to the elders either--that it wasn't just us. Terrible of me? Perhaps. SO Sorella Skabelund and I really prayed about what we needed to teach and somehow during companion study the lesson practically put itself together. We ended up teaching repentance. We used a nice visual which involved the father of the house holding a cup full of water to the ceiling using a broom handle. We had successfully obtained their attention. :) I tried doing some different things during the lesson that we hadn't planned just to see if I could really get their attention and if the message was really sinking in. It was cool. Lots of questions were asked, we said their names a lot, and we tried to help them see how obeying the rules of the gospel makes them feel good. In the end, instead of repentance seeming like a completely painful and rebuking experience, it's more of a way for us to use the atonement, replace our bad habits with ones that bring us joy and peace. Ah, sigh of relief. Also, we reset our baptismal dates with them. We have a good share of work to do with them but it thank goodness we don't do it all on our lonesome. My stars, what would we do without prayer, the scriptures, leaders, and personal revelation? Sad day indeed!We had an investigator show up at the end of church today and wanted to see us. Her name is Sameh. She's from Tunisia. And we haven't seen her in like a month! We really didn't have anything prepared for her in that moment (because we weren't expecting her) but we went into one of the rooms in the church and uh...were really praying in our hearts. First off, this girl is kind of incredible! She's very sensitive to spiritual things. In fact, before I got here, SHE had a really strong feeling inside that she needed to approach the elders and talk with them. Er...seriously? Come on! So I kind of feel a good amount of pressure to not mess this up. (Well, I feel that with everyone, but I recognize that there is something really special about her.) Somehow I just blurted out, "Let's read 3 Nephi 11". So...we started. We got to the part where Jesus gives his authority to the peeps in America. And I stopped and told her that we know that we have this authority. Then, (brace yourselves) she says, "So why is authority important anyway?" I think I almost choked and glanced around the room for hidden cameras! "Well, Sameh, that is a great question!" ha ha It was too perfect. Then my companion gave a really great comparison story that helps explain the importance of authority. It was crazy cool. We invited her to finish the chapter and pray to know if this church really does have the authority from God. My companion and I finished that lesson and looked at eachother and just thouht, "Well holy smokes! We totally got help with that lesson and P.S. she's fabulous!!" So we're more then just slightly excited for our next appointment on Sunday.Did you guys watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional? We went to the church to watch it and we had three of our members there: Fratello Carli, Tina, and Fratello Signorini. Oh man, they're all old and hilarious. I sat by Fratello Carli and one time after the MoTab choir sang he said, "I didn't understand a word, but that was beautiful." ha ha Oh man. Best of times.Have a marvelous week! I hope you're all happy and loving this time of year to be with fam and friends, and reflect on the significance of Christ's birth. Til next week! Behave yourselves!....Sorella Hansen

My apologies

2009-12-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

I just want to apologize to you and to Mallory for the lack of pictures. She has sent them dilligently and I have slacked off due to my lack of a scanner and the technical difficulties of the one I ususally use. Forgive me, I am working on getting them up, so you can all share in the fabulousness that is our Sorella Mallory!
~Aubry

Zone Conference, Ramblings of Staying Strong, Christmas Tree Joke‏

2009-12-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

BUONGIORNO!! How have y'all been doing this delightful week in December?! P.S. How completely bizarre is it that it's already December?! I am officially weirded out by the idea personally.We had Zone Conference in Florence this week and it went really well. We received some really amazing training and it was fabulous. It's so crazy to me that I was here in Italy for the last Christmas Zone Conference. Yup, coming up on the year mark of me being in Italy. Permission to be nauseous? Yipes! It really makes me think a lot about where I was last year, the kinds of things that I was experiencing, my attitude, and the missionary that I want to be now and in the future. Lots of reflection I suppose. What's that about, right? We have been doing a grundle of inactive work. It is amazing how much I have been learning as we work with these amazing people who for one reason or another are keeping themselves from enjoying the full blessings of the gospel. In so many ways it has reconfirmed my testimony and reminded me of how important it is to be always strengthening my testimony of the gospel. I've seen the choices that some of these people have made and there have been several times that I've thougth to myself, "I could see myself making that decision...like 2 years ago." I don't really know how to express this and I hope it comes out appropriately but I just feel very grateful for this time as a missionary. I'm not the most amazing missionary...negative. But I have seen things, met people, and watched things happen that have forever changed the way that I see the role that the gospel should have in our lives. Did you guys know that this is THE restored gospel of Jesus Christ? Have I told you that lately? It is THE only church that has the fullness of the gospel. It is THE only church that makes it possible for us to live with our families forever. It is THE only church that has the correct ordinances and covenants required to make progress and live again with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We can have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost---here, In this church. Through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we can be made clean every Sunday when worthily partaking of the sacrament. We know how to communicate with God. We have scriptures that teach us Oodles! Man I love reading the scriptures and having that wonderful reassuring feeling that it's all true. THIS church has the authority from God. Living the principles of the gospel in THIS church make us truly happy. THIS is the church of our Savior Jesus Christ. No trial, person, or argument will ever change that. It is the hardest thing to go to peoples homes, amazing people who have for one reason or another decided to do without the gospel, and you can see in their eyes that they miss it. That they long for it. Please always go to church no matter what trial that jerkface satan puts in your path. Please always say your prayers even if satan tries to make you think that you're not worthy to or that God doesn't care. Please live the gospel. You cannot replace the joy that comes from truly living and being obedient to the gospel. Well the guy at the internet point said that I only have a couple of minutes so I gots to go. I'll write more next week. I hope that you're all doing so great. I hope that you're loving the Christmas season. This city is really beautiful at Christmas time. There are christmas light hanging between the cute little Italian streets and they put up a massive christmas tree in front of this big catholic church that kind of looks like a UFO. I'll send pictures. It's a doozey. By-the-by HOW is it possible that Italy, that is known for some killer art, is kind of...creatively challenged? I'll tell you what they have this amazing beautiful tree and the lights look hilariously lame. I kind of want to offer to help but...we kind of have other things to do ya know? I'll try to send pictures some time when it's lit up. It kind of makes me laugh inside everytime. Thank goodness for little moments like that eh? I appreciate them existing in my life. That's for darn skippy! Any whoodle, gots to scadaddle! Happy December 9th.,..slash...the days that follow! So...awkward...ha ha LOVES YA, Sorella Hansen

Primary program drama, Ariel, Best Referral Ever‏

2009-12-09T11:58:00.000-08:00

Well what a slammin' week! We had the Primary program on Sunday and we showed up to church with a bit of a surprise...no electricity in the church. And...all of the pianos in the church are plug-in so naturally the Primary presidency was in disarray (spelling? whatevs!). BUT, get ready for our rad member who will not cease to rock your socks. Fratello Mandile, our blind member who plays the piano, oh don't even worry about it. He just went home during Sunday school and came back with some sort of hand-held keyboard that you blow into and play at the same time (some sort of flutey..keyboard) and WHAMY..music! He kind of saved the primary program. I'm telling you, he's a champ. The primary program was much different from the ones I remember at home. There were 5 children. But alas, it was still a romping success.So we had several pleasant surprises with the Acevedo family this week. For one, we were there for an appointment and a guy that sells them food showed up to their house. He came in and kind of made himself comfortable. He was hilarious and me and my missionary mind went crazy with how fabulous of a contribution he'd be to the ward. Young men's counselor? ha ha Is it sublimely awkward that I think this way? Unknown. ANYWHO, we started talking with him about the church and we were able to talk to him about the restoration. It was pretty sweet. He had some very interesting questions and beliefs. He invited us to go out to his house and talk with him. What's possibly more fabulous then that is when Judy woops out her ol' testimony on him. It was crazy! She was telling him that she feels like this is the most sincere church and that he should listen to us. That a girl eh!? So we're planning on just "casually" being there when he goes back to deliver food.Other news on the Acevedo front: We're getting in with their son Ariel. He's 17. Up until this point he's ALWAYS been working and...it didn't help that he didn't live at home. But he was there for our lesson about the restoration and we did all visual so it would keep their attention. And he was totally digging that there's a living prophet. The way that our little presentation went was super effective because he made a priceless reaction when we talked about the restoration and the fact that there's a living prophet today. (All thanks so S.lla Skabelund and teaching the restoration with cups.) :) Then we invited Ariel to come to the YM/YW activity that was last night and he CAME! It was really cool. So I'm excited to keep working with him and hopefully he can be a good example and help his family progress.We tried a little something on Sunday that was cool! I read something about "The Best Referral Ever". It's this idea that if you're gonna get a member referral, get it from the best member--you know, God. So Sunday night my companion and I said a prayer. We were going to do some finding. We wanted to do some house so we prayed to know where to go--where people wouldn't be busy, or where they'd be in a state of mind to listen to us. So we said a prayer and said, "we're going to do house at 7:30" and asked who would be ready at that time, and where. We then got the ol' map of the city out and my companion made a list of ten streets, and then we each made our list of 4 that hit us. So...to be honest we didn't get any in common the first time. My companion said, "Well, maybe I didn't get the right street when I wrote the list of ten. You do it." So I wrote a list of 10 and then we each wrote a list of 4 that hit us. We had two in common. We went out with a new confidence because we knew that there was someone on those streets that was prepared and ready. After all, it was a referral form, I'd say, a pretty reliable source! Well we got 2 pass backs on the first street and we were running out of time but the first building on the second street we met a guy in the stairwell. He talked to us and wanted to hear about the church. We couldn't enter without a woman, so he opened the door to his apartment, and we stood in the entryway and talked for like 15 minutes. It was really cool. His name's Antonio and we'll be going back to see him again later this week.It was a really good experience to remind me that doing the work without the Lords help or without the spirit is like tying your shoe laces with your elbows. We could go out and do house all day every day, but if we didn't ask God where to go or when...then to some extent it's silly. He knows which of His children are looking for the gospel. We just need to ask for the referral. Well...and then go get it, which is the part that makes you test your faith. It was a really cool experience.I got my hair cut last week. How's that for the excitement in my life? It's the first time I've cut it since I've been in Italy. I've been scared!! But we went to one of the elders contacts and he was super cool. My hair looks less dreadlocky, which is pleasing.Well, I will officially wrap up this letter since I have reached an all-time low of telling you about my haircut. I hope you're having a splendid start of DECEMBER! My stars, I can't even believe it's already December. I hope you have a grand week and I'll talk to you shortly. Lots of La Spezian love, Sorella Hansen

sacrament attendance...by force, Something that people don't tell you about missionary work, Our friend the Holy Ghost‏

2009-11-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

Oh mamma! We have had a pretty good week this week. Things are going better. Judy and her daughter Arianna were in church on Sunday!! It was so exciting because it was their first time. She has told us many times that she wanted to come but then Sunday arrived and I was sitting there in church, continuously glancing at the door like an anxious school girl waiting for Santa Clause to arrive with a bowl full of jelly...whoa, I mean...a red bag full of toys!. Well, after several weeks of let downs...that was enough. So...er....we just showed up at their doorstep at 8:30 in the morning. ha ha It was funny because they were just going to show up for Sacrament meeting but we got them there in time for Sunday School too. It was pretty spiffy. This branch is pretty fantastic. The branch presidents wife sat by Judy during Sacrament meeting and Arianna ADORED Primary. (Which was a relief, because hopefully she won't be a holdup to come to church because she usually goes to some sort of Catholic school on Sunday mornings.) It was a success. Unfortuantely Leo wasn't there because he had to work. This next Sunday he should be there.We had a great appointment with a little family that has a daughter that needs to get baptized. I don't remember if I mentioned them last week but her mom thinks that she doesn't want to get baptized because she's scared of water. So we did a spiritual thought on the Savior and how he set a perfect example for us. And then we showed a picture of when he was baptized, asked the mom about how she felt when she was baptized, yeah you get the idea. I think it went really well. We watched a short film on the life of Christ and it showed His baptism and little Momy (that's the girl that should be getting baptized) held my hand. She is so adorable. They've had a fair amount of challenges and it was just so cool so see this sweet little girl come out. They're a great little family and I'm excited to keep working with them and helping them.Okay, let me just say something that nobody tells you about being a missionary. (I should start a list of these things, but here's just one little silly one.) So as missionaries, we're kind of supposed to be enjoyable to be around, spiritual, pleasing, happy, fill-in-the-blank with whatever peppy word you'd like. Well let me just tell you that you cannot be a picky eater and be a missionary...especially in Italy. We get fed some crazy awkward stuff but we finish it, and it's the best thing in all the land. ;) One meal that I was fed recently consisted of rice--plain rice--and what was put on top? On don't even worry about it, it was a handful of dried out little flowers! I'm telling you in was crazy sauce! Another appointment we went to they had a stack of pancakes on a plate and she made a face and said, "you haven't seen what's inside yet." A couple moments later my face discovers the wonder that is Pineapple chunks in pancakes! What?! It's usually all good and well except for when they start dealing with quantity. You see, here in Italy...you don't really get to serve yourself how much food you want. It's not the traditional American, pass the different bowls around and put what you want on your plate. Negative. You get served how much you are expected to eat and it's rarely a sparse amount. Our investigator Judy always puts gigantic portions on our plates and we're always like, "Wow, Judy that is definitely plenty. Grazie" Yeah, my companion and I have decided to hit up that family for morning appointments from now on. ha ha Don't get me wrong, we feel overwhelmingly grateful for the thought--truly. But I wish they understood that a more effective way to show the missionaries that they love them would be to read their scriptures every night, say their prayers, come to church, tell their friends about the joy that the gospel has brought them. Things like this would be splendid because I don't have to work off THOSE things with my half hour of exercise time in the morning. :) By-the-by, the food here in Italy is normally abnormally delicious. I have just shared some special, rare occasions.ANYWAY, back to things that actually matter. We had another appointment with this AMAZING family that almost got baptized a couple of months ago and then backed off after tithing. The mother and daughter in this family are crazy cool. I love them so much and I've probably spent a grand total of 2 hours with them in my life. We taught a lesson on the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. It went really well. By-the-way, have you guys stopped to realize how incredible the Holy Ghost is recently? Oh mylanta, every time I study it my mind is blown! So rad that we get to have protection, guidance, comfort, confirmation of the truth all thanks to this amazing gift. I mean, come on! What is that about? TELL me that Heavenly Father doesn't love us when we have been given this amazing gift to guide us and help us through our decisions and difficulties of life. We shared experiences that we've had with the Holy Ghost. When we've listened to the spirit and when we haven't--unfortunately. It just reminded me of how necessary the guidance of the Holy Ghost is in our lives. I cannot wait for the conference Ensign to get over here so that I can read all of the talks that were about the Holy Ghost. Amazin'. There's still a lot of work to do with that family but I know that they know that it's true. I know that if they feel of our love for them that they'll make changes and they'll feel that we're sincere and want what's truly best for them.Finding work has been going better. Still lots to improve but...improvement IS being made. We've done some bus, house, and surveying. Had some splendid conversations and met some great contacts. I know as we increase our faith and the dedication that we put into the work, that we'll see miracles. End of story. Thanks for all of your love and support. I might, maybe, may appreciate it with all of my heart strings. Read that Book of Mormon, say your prayers, get yo'self to church, and you'll feel great! Living the gospel makes you feel good! If you don't feel good, maybe take a gander at how you can be more obedient to the principles of the gospel, and then...look for the happy things in your life. Works every time! Italian kisses! Sorella Hansen

5 christmas apts, costly Christmas spirit?!, Pumping up the finding‏

2009-11-18T11:13:00.000-08:00

Oh mamma there's so much to tell this week!First off, let me tell you about my Sunday. We were crazy stoked because we thought FOR SURE we were going to have 4 investigators in church---the Acevedo family (3), and Mirium. We called them all the night before to remind them and everything was a go. Saturday night we were planning what time we needed to leave to go pick Mirium up. We were going to have to get a bus at 7:30 a.m. to get to her house, and then take a bus together to be on time for church at 9.Never mind the exciting morning where I falsely calculated how early I needed to wake up to get ready. I woke up and showered at 5 and then went and sat on my bed and thought, "Wait, WHY am I up so early?" And then I went back to bed until 6:30. Brilliant!The doozey to this story is that we had one investigator in church. We left our apartment, got a bus to Miriums house, knocked on her door and...niente. We called her cell and her husband came to the door and said that she got called into work at midnight last night. Then Judy and Arianna Acevedo didn't end up showing to church either. It was pretty sad. BUT we have gone back to both of their homes, taught lessons, and they're coming to church this week! After that morning I just thought, "Man, we made so many plans and we really tried to prepare." But alas, there is always more that we can do. When they see how important it is to us that they get to church--when they really see that, they'll come. They'll feel it. They'll feel that we really want them there and that they really need to be there.Oh, we had transfer calls last night. My companion and I will be staying for another transfer together. I feels like the right thing. There's still more for us to do here. AND we'll be here for Christmas! I couldn't be more excited even if Saint Nick took me for a sleigh-ride himself! We've really been working to strengthen the branch here. We have 5 appointments with members from December 24-26. It's really a huge blessing and it has really made us feel loved. Last year, I had just arrived here before Christmas and we had zero appointments. Nowhere to go. It was kinda sad because I LOVE Christmas and it just felt weird spending it alone with a girl that I had only been with for like 10 days. (P.S. I love that companion with all of my heart strings) So contrasting from last year and seeing the love of this tiny little branch, it really makes us excited.We saw the Maiello family again last night. (They're an amazing Italian family that all (okay, except for the sons) had baptismal dates like 4 months ago...and after tithing...they called it off) Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend too much time with them because the mom had to take her daughter somewhere like a half hour after we arrived. BUT she gave us a ride to the station and we were able to talk to her about the situation. We were able to figure out more of what their problem ACTUALLY was. It just never made sense to me reading in the area book that anyone who really knows that the church is true would deny everything over a commandment that they've never tried. If you receive an answer that the church is true, then it is! It doesn't all of a sudden become untrue because we don't drink coffee or because we pay tithing. It's not like answers to prayer expire, or have a short shelf life. Negative. You can be pretty durn sure that if He tells you something's right...He's not playin! Anywhoodle, it was a really good conversation. And she told us that she recognizes that things are different since they decided not to get baptized. She said that things were better with her husband and they were all so much happier when it was something that they were doing as a family. Isn't that so true? I'm just really excited to keep working with them. We kind of know what angle we need to go at and feel like we can help them.ALSO we've really wanted to step up our finding! So we decided to do this survey that we have in Italian. It just asks religious questions and every now that then there's a conveniently worded question like, "If you knew that there was a way that families could be together forever would that interest you?" Eh? Eh?? ;) So yesterday we took a gander through a park and a piazza and talked to some people and had some slammin' conversations! It just helps me remember that there really are people that naturally wonder and have questions about spiritual things. It's so cool that we have the answers to help them out. It was a way cool experience and I'm stoked to keep working on our finding work...as well as other things of course. :)Well, fun fact: A measely ol' strand of christmas lights over here run about €19. Yup, that's like 25 bucks. I love christmas and all but I would rather get white washed then drop that kind of money on Christmas lights that would cost like 2 bucks in the states. (If christmas lights cost more then that...then jokes on me!) ALSO, the lightswitches in our apartment are all on the outside of the room. It throws me off every time. I walk in the room to turn on the light and...I have to walk back out in the hall to do it. Good times Italy!Welp, I gots to be jetting. Have a holly jolly....week. I hope you are all healthy and happy as can be. Say your little english prayers and just know that this missionary loves ya...kind of a lot. Italian Christmasy Love (yup, no Thanksgiving to wait for over here..) Sorella Mallory Hansen

Mirium, Acevedo Fam, Florence‏

2009-11-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

On Thursday I got to go back to Roma! I needed to pick up my permesso di soggiorno. Er...don't know what you call it in English. It's just the cool little legit card that makes it legal for me to live here. So...that. It was really cool to be able to go back to Rome and specifically the area where I started the mission. On the way home we were sitting across from a woman on the train that we started talking to and she was a delight. She speaks Italian, English, and French....so...I think we're going to be the best of friends. ha ha She wanted to practice speaking French with me but I assured her Italian is better at this point and I'll fix my French when I get home. haha Anyway I got her number and hopefully when she comes into town this weekend we'll get to meet with her. She's adorable. So hopefully next week I'll have a fantabulous update on Daniella. :)We had another appointment with Mirium. So far she hasn't been able to come to church because she works. But she has this Sunday off so she should be coming. I'm so excited! I love when investigators can make it to church because it's an amazing spirit and it really helps them to start making progress when they come to church and start keeping commitments. ALSO, she showed us how to make filled cabbage. Is that what you call it in english? It was kind of ...not disgusting. I sat there with my paper and quill writing everything because it was a delight.We had a lesson with the Acevedo family last night. We planned this lesson that is...quite different. The last lesson that we were there ended in a bit of contention and the couple kind of started fighting and pointing out each others faults to us. Yeah, it was awkward and sad. So for our lesson we brought a CD player and music and had it playing in the background and we had printed in a huge font the things that we wanted to teach. It was really cool. We had some quotes from prophets on contention and took some quotes from "Beware of Pride" from Ezra Taft Benson. Then after the 15 or so papers that we were flipping for them to read, we gave them their own paper that had more quotes from "Beware of Pride" and also they had their own quote from Elder Holland that talked about being nice to your spouses...but in Elder Hollands way of expressing it. :) The last paper had questions like, "What are some things I could do to help bring more happiness into the home?" and "What are some things that I love about Leo?"--that was on her paper. Anyway at the end we talked for a couple of minutes and bore testimony on the importance of seeing the good in other people and looking inside ourselves to improve. It was cool.Well we're going to Florence today for P-day and then there's a conference for the women. Sister Cook and Sister Thompson from the General Relief Society Presidency are here to talk to the sisters. It should be pretty bizzangin. Welp, have a dandy day and a wonderful week. Lots of Italian love, Sorella Hansen

2009-11-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

Me and our investigator Clara. She's a doll!! She asked me if I'd marry her son... er ... "I would love to have you as a mother-in-law!" ha ha

I love her!

After a bit of house, we were walking out and a metal door got my foot. We stopped to snap a quick pic of the glamorous life of a sister missionary.

PS - No, I did not just run through the sprinklers. It's just hot and I sweat, K!? :)

With my loveable Adele. She's so wonderful I can't even handle it.

Patrizia, Me, Adele

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My how things have changed. I've been reflecting a bit on how things are different from last winter time in Italy. In this apartment here in La Spezia there were some umbrellas left over from the previous sisters. One is brown with pink polka dots and the other is pink with brown polka dots. Both have lots of frills and ruffles. I feel pretty silly holding those umbrellas when last year my umbrella (that I dropped a whopping 2 euro on) was spray painted silver and had spray painted silver stars on the inside. It's a bit of a change for me. I'm adjusting. ha ha The other day it was raining and storming like mad! My companion and I were at the bus stop in the middle of this full-on downpour and we were getting drenched, mangled by the wind, and we could NOT stop laughing. There were people stuffed under this area where you can wait for the bus. But there was no room, so we took quite a hit, but they were laughing just like we were. Good times. Even "bad" weather tends to be a solid good time. THEN later that day we were running for another bus and...my shoe broke. I just busted up and apologized to my companion. ha ha Luckily the bus that we missed was right in front of our apartment so we ran in and I changed shoes. ha ha Ah my life.We finally had our Halloween party. We have a member here that helped us oodles to make it successful and he put a lot of work into it. He made a Labyrinth (you know quite well that my spelling is lax.) and word had it that it was the bees knees! I didn't go through it because I was helping in the other room. We made a sweet Twister game. But instead of colors we had ghosts, tombstones, pumpkins, you get the idea. I stole it from when I had to help with the Relief Society Birthday Party back in Rexburg. I made a Twister board with relief society stuff. "Right hand, Emma Smith. Left foot, quilt". Same idea but with Halloween goods. It was a hit! Fratello Ricciardi (the member that made the labyrinth) downloaded a bunch of short film clips to keep the people entertained between games. He brought "Thriller". I uh...did not hate it.There is an investigator family here in La Spezia (They're 100% Italian) that have been investigators for...like 3 years. They're record in the area book is like 8 pages long. They had a baptismal date a couple of transfers ago but then they misunderstood the tithing lesson and the father, especially, has backed off. The mother and daughter know that it's true but the dad and sons aren't really interested anymore. I've been nervous and excited to meet this family. From what I had read in the area book, the sons had been pretty rude to the sisters recently, and the dad won't even stay in the same room when the sisters go over. Well, we decided to just drop by last week and invite them to the Halloween party. Originally just the daughter was home (her name's Teresa). She was really excited to see us and welcomed us in no problem. Little by little the family started arriving. The mother was very nice but whispered really quick "if my husband makes a face when he sees you guys, just don't worry about it okay?". One of the sons came in, shook our hands, and chatted for a second before going to his room with his friend. (success!) The dad came in. He shook our hands and started making dinner but he came over every now and then to talk to us. (Much better then we were expecting). Then, the one that I was most worried about was the oldest son. He was (from what I had read) the most disrespectful and...not in favor of the church. Well, he came in and we got a handshake (score!), thanks to an enthusiastic greeting on our part we got a smile (love it!), and then somehow he ended up sitting at the table with us (this is huge!) and I got him to talk to me for about 20 minutes while my companion talked to the mom. (And...I think my mind just exploded.) It was a miracle! They invited us to stay for dinner but we had to go to a couple other houses. When they said good-bye the mother thanked us for bringing joy into their home. I left that night just feeling so great. It was completely different then we were expecting and it was just really encouraging.Well, I'll end here I suppose. I could tell you a story about last night when I learned for realsies that the gift of tongues is legit. (lets just say we spent about 40 minutes with an old woman who's Brazilian, trying to speak Italian and....trust me, we got lots of help to understand her!) But I will end with a success story from the branch! On Sunday I uh...somehow got an appointment for the day after Christmas! ha ha It's this member who...the first day seemed like she wanted to run away from us. I wonder if she had bad experiences with missionaries in the past. This kind of behavior is just kind of a challenge for me. (I saw the same thing in Cagliari and that member ended up becoming one of my best friends) So I kind of...make her talk to me and eh...try to get her to not hate it, maybe even enjoy it a titch. ha ha We spoke for a little bit after church and then she left to go get in the car with her husband. I was talking to Fratello Carli and our branch pianist who, come to find out it is pretty good for a laugh. In the middle of our conversation this sister ran back up the stairs and asked me to step out into the hall with her. She said, "What are you doing December 26th?" ha ha Come on, that's two months away! Nothing in particular. She said, "Because we wanted to have you over. We can't have you over for Christmas but the 26th, we can." ha ha Isn't that crazy and yet wonderful?! It's not like I even spoke to her about Christmas after church or anything. It just came out of nowhere. So...we have a Christmas appointment. Can't complain about that! Welp, I really gots to be a-jettin' but hope your Halloween was fantabulous and...what are you doing December 26, 2010? If nothing, I'd like to have you over. RSVP

Italian love, Sorella Hansen

Some Pictures from back on the Island

2009-10-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

With Little Roberta

Fratello Virdis , Roberta, Me

Check it out - our English class student has like 16 turtles chilling in her back yard!

This is the Espis Family. He is Branch President and AMAZIN!! And I'm with Sorella Bjarnson

Doing some house in Dolianova. It has random parts of town that are hilariously medieval.

Burr burr, Explosion in the bathroom (it's not what it seems), Progress with the Acevedos!‏

2009-10-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

BUONGIORNO!! Hello my dears! I hope that you have all had a marvelous and enjoyable week. One of the main changes that I've noticed since being here in La Spezia would be...the weather. In Cagliari I was in short sleeved shirts and it was still pretty warm. Well, ever since I've arrived in La Spezia...are you ready for this?...WINTER COAT! ha ha So there's no snow or anything, but there mornings when it is burrilicious! But, it's okay. Lots of layers never hurt anyone.Another fun fact about life in La Spezia (and especially since my companion and I are new in the city together) is we're not only discovering the city, bus system, members, investigators, etc. but we're also trying to figure out our apartment. Now I know what you're thinking, "what is there to know about an apartment?" And before coming here I would have agreed with you ...but alas, I learned when we did our first load of wash that we might have needed an instruction manual for this glorious little place that I now call home. So to spare you details that don't matter, I was washing my feet in the bidet at night time and there was some hose stuck down the drain. I obviously pulled it out and forgot to put it back because I thought it was random. Well the next morning we went to do a load of wash and at a certain point during our weekly planning...we hear an explosion of spraying water in the bathroom! We ran into the bathroom and the hose where the water drains out of the washer....was the one that I had removed from the bidet. So we got the hose and put it in the bidet. After about 10 minutes it SHOT out again and was spraying all over the bathroom. Once again, though nearly doing the splits while sliding in there from the excitement and slippery floor, we got the hose back into the bidet. Is the story finished? Course not. When the washer finished, we could NOT open the door. There's no handle! It must have been riped off by a dear sister missionary that was a little upset about the hose in the bidet. So we saw a pile of wrenches on top of the washer. Can't be true right? After about 10 minutes we managed to get the wrench situated just right to open the washer. Ah. Just one of the many adventures that we have been enjoying here in our new little home. Good times indeed I say!So on to the important stuff: the work! Our dear Acevedo family are doing really well. We've started teaching them the commandments and so far they have accepted everything without problems. Love it when that happens! Leo, the father, is a rock. He knows that this is the true church and is the strong one about making sure that the family prays and reads the scriptures. We are also wanting to work with their son, Ariel. He hasn't really stayed with us for a lesson because he's either at work or he gets there as we're leaving. We managed to get him to come to the table for the lesson about commandments and it went really well. It's going to take some work but I can already see that we're cracking him and he's opening up. It's kind of sad because he doesn't really feel at home there so you can tell that he's awkward about joining us for lessons. But really all that he needed was an invitation...a loving, enthusiastic invitation, but that's all. His parents weren't going to ask him to come to the table. It's so important for everyone to feel included, invited, and welcome. Just like this young boy needs to feel at home and welcome with his family, I've seen the same principle in our branch here. There are a good amount of in-actives. How great it would be if everyone could look around for someone who's "not at the table" and give them a loving invitation. Everyone should feel welcome, comfortable, and loved. We've met with several inactive members this week and though their struggles are different, it would do nothing but help if we could all (not just the missionaries) do a little bit more to serve someone else and help someone else feel appreciated.We had Zone Conference in Florence yesterday and it was amazing. I'm so grateful for inspired leaders who help us learn how to improve as missionaries and be more effective. It was really cool to be back in Florence. I went about 2 years ago (I can't believe it's been so long!) back when I lived in Paris. We walked through the street market on the way to the train station and it was so fun to see that gorgeous city again. There was something so magical about it. I felt like I was in a movie. (Except instead of being with some dreamy chap, I was with my fellow 22 year-old, female, mid-calf skirted companion. ha ha) It's all good! I still manage to be woo'ed by the city, talk to some sweet street vendors, and enjoy my time gazing at all the marvelous things to be that...I don't need but...come on. I was in Florence. :)I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve. I have so many things that I need to continue learning and improving, but I know that with the lords help that we can do it. We can do what He asks us to do. Satan is a complete idiot. (sorry for my juvenile name calling) but it really got to me this week the idea that Satan doesn't want us to believe in ourselves, in God, or in the fact that we CAN do ANYTHING that God asks us to do. period. Satan wants us to feel inadequate, scared, fill-in-the-blank with whichever miserable descriptive word that you want. I'm so grateful that I know that Heavenly Father wants me here. I know that He didn't tell me to come on a mission but...think that I wasn't ACTUALLY capable of accomplishing anything or doing any good. That's completely bogus and one hundred percent from the one man who has no bright future, hope, or anything worthwhile to offer anybody. Well I do. Not because I'm anything fabulous or remarkable, but because I'm a missionary for Jesus Christ. I have a message that changes lives and makes people feel happy, peace, love, and come to know the Savior. I have been called to this work from Heavenly Father himself. He wanted me here. He knows His children. He loves them so much. And He will help us do what He has asked us to be done. I'm so over any feelings or thoughts that take away from that fact. Heavenly Father will be there for us EVERY time. How wonderful and reliable is our ol' pal Satan? Er...yeah, check the facts. He has never been there for anyone. He's not reliable, he doesn't care about anybody, and doesn't deserve a second of our time. I am grateful for the opportunity to understand this. It's been a week that has really made me learn that I need to choose who to listen to. I'm grateful for the hard times in the mission. Yup, they happen. I'm grateful to know that I have a loving Heavenly Father who will always be there, will always love us, and wants so badly for us to see of our divine potential and worth. I love you guys. I pray that you're all doing well and are happy and enjoying each day, each member of the family, and even the little things in life that don't always go our way. See the good. Find joy, be happy. Have a good laugh. The church is true. You have a beautiful life. And you are all very important. Know that I love you and miss you. Sending lots and lots of lovable sista missionary love. Kisses! Sorella Hansen

La Spezia, Cinque Terre, Teachin' a family!‏

2009-10-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

(This is the Cinque Terre)

Hey guys~What a crazy week! (I know, I say that every e-mail right?) There was a grundle of traveling to get to this beautiful city of La Spezia. 4 hour train ride to get to the boat, overnight boat ride, one hour train to Rome...wait for my companion to arrive in Rome, and then a four hour train ride to La Spezia. And my word how have I acquired so much stuff?! I had to go to a little Chinese store to buy a little suitcase because there was just magically not the room that I was hoping for. ha ha I don't know if I mentioned last e-mail but I got "Blown In" to this city. That just means that both of the sisters that were here before me...left. So my companion and I are brand new here. We don't know the city, the investigators, the members...you name it. Thank goodness we speak the right language eh? There's only one elder in our district that has been here in the past so we ask him all kinds of questions like, "Hey, how do we get to our apartment?" ha ha When we got off the train, they had to bring us to our apartment because...well...we'd never been there before. It's been kind of stressful, but mostly I think it's a pretty sweet adventure. I like it. It puts more pressure on us to quickly gain good relationships with our investigators and members...everything. I'm really enjoying it so far.We've had two lessons with investigators. One was with a woman named Miriam. She's great. We taught her about baptism and she's a rock. She has a pretty rough family situation but she's keeping everything together and ...yeah...she's a tough woman. I like her a lot.Our other lesson that we had was with a FAMILY...yup!...family. I was so excited that we were teaching a whole fam. They're adorable. They're from the Dominican Republic and yeah...they're great. We also taught them about baptism and...asked them to be baptized. I know, right? Our first time meeting these people and we asked them to be baptized. Welp, the lesson mustn't have gone too bad because they said yes! Seriously, how much do I love blessings? Oh yeah, kind of like a lot! AND...my companion and I forgot to fast on Sunday, so we fasted on Monday instead and had just broken our fast before that appointment with them. It was way cool.Church was a completely different experience then I'm used to. We went to Relief Society and there were 2 members there...besides us and the teacher. Crazy stuff right?! I've never been in a relief society that small. In Rome there were like 25 women in relief society...in Cagliari about 10-15. But what was cool was I met all of the members and could probably tell you all of their names. ha ha That's kind of nice! I think there were people that were missing though so I'll be meeting more of the branch this Sunday. The members here are amazing. They're so strong in the church and I just love them already. There's so much work to do here though. We're trying to keep finding new people to teach and there's plenty of inactive work to do.We went on the most AMAZING hike today. We went to the "Cinque Terre". Oh mylanta it was beautiful! It's like a 5 hour hike that you walk along a mountain...along the coast, and there are five different cities that are just built into the mountain. It was breathtaking. These cute little towns were exactly how I'd always pictured Italy in my head. It was like a movie. Ah. I'll send pictures. :)We have a new contact. My companion and I were on the bus going home and (Well, I try to be really nice and smile and be friendly...because...it's not like we blend in with our attire that we're rockin'.) I smiled at the people on the bus and this one guy made eye contact with me and he got off at the same stop as us. I was kind of worried because I didn't know if I should be worrying about his intentions. I was kind of getting creeper vibes. BUT, he stopped us to talk to us about the gospel. he's talked to an elder in the past and he wants to know what the true church is. His father is Muslim and his mother is Christian. Anyway, he has a lot of questions. We gave his number to the elders and helped them with the first lesson and it was pretty cool. I've never taught someone whose not very familiar with God and has a different religious base. It was a cool experience though.Well I have written too much as usual. I'll tell you a bit about my companion next week. She's great. Sorella Skabelund from Mesa, Arizona. She finishes the mission in February. Love her. She's fabulous. Well I love you guys so much. Please be safe, say your prayers, smile a lot, be happy, and have some ice cream...even though it's not as good as Italian gelato. ha ha Okay sorry, that was mean. Italian Kisses! Sorella Mallory Hansen

General Conference all in Italian, Leaving Cagliari....‏

2009-10-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! How's everything going back at home? Hopefully splendid beyond belief. Things are going swell here.This week we went to visit Pino and Clara. Clara texted us about a week ago and said that Pino has a prostate tumor. We've been praying for them and we went by this past week. They were so excited to see us. It amazes me how giving they are. We went, thinking that we were going to be doing a little service for them. Nothing massive, we'd made some cookies during our lunch hour and brought them a card and...yeah...nothing huge. But Clara thought that we were going to come that night--instead of in the morning--and she was making a cake for when we would come that night! Can you believe that? We were going to see them and see how Pino was doing but instead she was making a cake for when we came. Unbelievable. On top of that, she was so excited that we came in the morning that she insisted that we stay for lunch. We ended up having lunch with her, Pino, and their son Marco. I just felt so amazed by them. They're going through a trial right now and yet they are always thinking of others and serving other people. They are amazing people. I love them so very much. They will be amazing members some day. They're pretty much dry members anyway. They're amazing examples to me of people who serve and love--regardless of what they're going through.General Conference was this weekend! Did you all love it?! Oh my dear, I love General Conference. I tried to listen to all of it in Italian. I had two different thoughts come and go in my mind during conference (concerning the language) 1. "Holy smokes. I'm listening to general conference in Italian. I know what they're saying. So cool!!" But other times invisible option 2 came into my mind "What in the world? Are they still speaking Italian? Oh mamma, the translater is speaking fast. Yipes!" So...I think what I learned is that I need to be appreciative for how much I understand and how much I've been blessed to understand and speak the language. The other thing that I learned is that I really need to keep working and improving. There is so much more that I need to be able to understand and communicate. My language skills can still greatly improve. It was cool. By-the-way can we just take a second to talk about the wonder that is President Uchtdorf and his talk about love? I didn't understand every word of the sessions that I saw, but his talk was 230% Wonderful! Also, in the Sunday Afternoon Session I did NOT have sore feelings about listening to President Monsons talk. My word, what an amazing, loving, wonderful, inspired man! When his talk was over I looked over at Adele (Oh, by-the-way, Adele came to conference! Let's take a second to have a "woot" and then I'll get back to my letter....woot woot! Wow, I surprised myself with two...okay I'm stopping. I've been writing in parenthesis for too long) so I looked over at Adele after his talk and she pounded her chest with her fist a couple of times and said how much it touched her. Ah, let's just all love and be grateful for a living prophet and his apostles.We had another lesson with Susan this past week. She wasn't able to come to general conference because her son was sick. (But we did have 3 investigators who were able to make it!--Roberta, Marisa, and Adele. Keeping the parenthesis to a minimal...) But yesterday we were able to finish the second lesson and dare I say that it was a romping success? Allow me to explain. I love going to Susan's house but it also freaks me out a little bit because there are always elements of surprise. Kids running around crazy and throwing things, her husband is in and out of the lesson (yes, we invite him to stay, but he's not quite commited yet), she's trying to cook lunch at the same time (we've asked if we can come at another time but she said that's the best time for her), her baby is crying, etc. I say these things not to complain or make anybody look bad--they're an amazing family. I just frequently have thoughts run through my head like, "Wow, where does preach my gospel say how to handle ...fill in the blank" It's interesting to see how to keep the spirit but take control of situations and see how we can better help the investigator feel of the spirit and understand what we're teaching. Also...Susan is still on track for her baptism which will be this next transfer. I'm really excited for her!Welp, we heard about transfers last night after English class. All of our students stayed afterwards to hear who was staying and who was going. It turns out ...I have officially been voted off the island. I'm going to a city called La Spezia! I've heard so many amazing things about La Spezia! I've heard that it's incredibly beautiful and the ward there is amazing! So...how's a girl to complain? I can't and I won't! And my new companion will be Sorella Skabelund! I'm really excited to serve with her. We served in the same district my first two transfers in the mission. So she slept over once a week so that we could go to our district meeting every Monday morning. She's wonderful and I know it's going to be an amazing transfer. I'm sad to leave, but I really felt like it was time. I've learned so much here, and I will always be in love with this city because I have changed and grown and learned tons within the five months that I've been here. But there's more to learn--as always. I'm seriously so excited to get to La Spezia. BAH! I leave on the train in a couple of hours and then we take a boat all night and will arrive on the mainland Thursday morning. Then I'll go to Rome, get my new companion, and be off to my new city.Sorella Nelson and I have had a great transfer together. We laugh so hard together and have done some good work. She has a great companion that's coming to be with her and I know they'll be able to take over the work and everything will be okay.I love you all. Have a great week. Read your scriptures. Go to church. Love you very much. Italian love, Sorella hansen

Some Google Images results for La Spezia - Not too shabby!

A "Religious discussion", how do you say Napkin?, Miracle named Susan‏

2009-09-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

Hi-di-ho~
So, Sunday our wonderful Paolo and Walter received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was so cool. I had to play the piano in sacrament meeting that day and I just felt like it was the most surreal thing, sitting on the piano bench, watching my friends receive the Holy Ghost and continue on this amazing road in the gospel! It was completely surreal but so wonderful!So...a couple of weeks ago we did a morning of nothing but house and it was kinda discouraging...no bites. Well, we met a woman with a little girl in her stroller and talked to her a little about the gospel and exchanged numbers. Her name's Angela and she's a Jehovah's Witness and we decided that we'd talk again. So this last week we had set up a time to meet her in a park to talk more about the gospel. I was so excited to show up to the park and see Angela and her cute little girl in the stroller. Well, we entered the park and were looking for Angela and all of a sudden I hear my companion say, "No way. ...she brought a friend." What? It turns out Angela brought a little friend who is also Jehovah's Witness and I had a feeling that the lesson that we planned for Angela that morning was...going to have to be altered. To start with, they wouldn't let us start with a prayer...uh??? So they started by reading us some scripture and then coming to the conclusion that you can't go to war and be Christian. They wanted us to explain why Mormons go to war ...and how we can still claim to be Christian?! It was way left field and so random. The interesting thing is Angela was really quiet through the whole thing but her "well-versed" friend did most of the talking. Even though they didn't let us pray out loud, there was certainly a lengthy prayer going on in my heart. We taught about the restoration of the church. They would nod when they were in agreement and pull a random scripture out when they felt they hadn't spoken in a bit. When I got to the part about Joseph Smith, Angela's friend said, "We don't need to hear about him. I already know everything about him. He founded your church." I used all of my mental strength to be patient and have a sweet loving voice. I tried to lovingly inform them that he didn't found our church and...explained everything to them anyway. I said the first vision and bore my testimony about how I know that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and how I've prayed, asked, and I've felt for myself that it's true--he was called as a prophet to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then, coolest thing happened....silence. Ah....it was a good sound. They had no scriptures to pull out, no contrary opinions, just silence. It was beautiful. And I realized the most marvelous thing: You can't fight with a testimony. There's no scripture that says, "No you didn't feel that Joseph Smith was called of God." Nope, doesn't exist. Because I have felt it. End of story. Go right ahead and check your topical guide all you want, but you can't bash my testimony. We finished teaching the lesson. They wouldn't let us read out of the Book of Mormon so...we just bore testimony of it. :) It was a great learning experience for me. I heard stories before my mission of situations like this...who knew that I'd be running into one on a little ol' island off of Italy? Not I, my friend. It was an awkward start, but I walked away without any worries about my testimony.Awkward moment of my life. During our weekly meeting as a district. My companion was trying to talk to the Italy elder in our district and was trying to say the word 'napkin'. The word had slipped my mind. I remember we said the word a lot in the MTC because we all thought that it was a really funny word. I was trying to think so hard about how you say it. I could remember the letters, the sounds involved...but the actual word wasn't quite coming to me. I thought I'd give a stab at it. So I looked at Anziano Polelli and said, "Tivoglio?" He gave me a weird look and then I said it slower..."Ti voglio?" Then my mind registered what I'd just said. Oops!! That is exactly how you do NOT say napkin. What I had actually just said to Anziano Polelli is, "I want you." Er...permission to go all karate kid and try to break a board with my face?!? How embarrassing. ha ha So, in case you want to know--you know, for future info--in Italian the word napkin is "Tovagliolo". I was close.... ha ha We had a miracle happen on Sunday. Let me start this story by backing up to like 2 months ago. Sorella Bjarnason and I had looked through our area book of old investigators and grabbed a couple that we wanted to follow up on. Well, we dropped by a woman named Susan. She has a husband and two children and we went and saw her. She was super nice, but then...didn't answer our calls after that. So...we just kind of let that go. Well, on Sunday she showed up to church with her family! Yup, Husband and two children. She remembered me and said she wanted us to come teach her and that she wants to be baptized. Er...for reals?! So I made sure to talk to her husband on Sunday because according to the record, he wasn't interested before. The missionaries had just taught Susan. Well, I talked to him about how we wanted to come teach them the gospel and got his number and...so now we have a family to teach. Love it! Oh my, when I have weeks like this, it just makes me laugh wondering what might go down in the coming week. Ah yes, missionary life.We have Presidents interviews this week which are always a joy. And then there's like a week and a half left in the transfer. It's gone mighty fast! I hope you guys are getting my mail. I've written everyone back that has written to me. Sometimes I wonder about mail because I think I'm putting on less postage then I should...haha so...I hope you're getting my mail. I love you guys. Have a marvelous week. Read your scriptures, say your prayers, and...hope you know how much I love you guys! Sister missionary love from Sardegna! Sorella Hansen

A Meter?, Walter's BAPTISM, Enrica‏

2009-09-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

Well hey hey guys!We had a marvelous Zone Conference on Friday. It's always great to get more trainings and learn new ways to improve and be more effective. President Acerson always gives an amazing training. This time he was trying to demonstrate "vision" and this is how he started his training. He asks about our ability to run. He wanted to ask us different distances and then we had to raise our hand if we felt like we could run it. The point wasn't actually the running, because afterwards he asked us WHY we could run the different distances. The point was to see our vision of ourselves and help us to see that we can go great distances in the mission but it takes work. BUT the blip that I would like to share with you is a "Mallory moment". OH dear. So President started with "Let's start easy, how many of you could run a meter?" Now in my defense, we don't use this measuring system right?! So everyone raises their hands and obviously I know that I can run it but I just wanted to make sure that I knew how far it was. I leaned over to Sorella Millis and said, "That's like a mile right?" She laughed and didn't answer me. So I asked her again, "hey, that's just like a mile right?" ha ha So President looks at me and says, "Sorella Hansen..." (Me obviously being the only one in the room with their hand not raised---but I wanted to make sure I actually knew how far it was!) And then Sorella Acerson is in the row behind me and lovingly says, "That's like 3 feet sister Hansen." ha ha I started laughing. Then from then on whenever he said a distance, Sorella Acerson would say--from behind me-- the corresponding translation ex., "That's about 2/3 of a mile Sister Hansen." ha ha How awkward is my life? I seriously died laughing and the whole zone had a good laugh about it. Ah yes, put the metric system on my list of things to learn! Yipers!Walters baptism was on Sunday and it was such a great day! Walter and his cousin came to church (in ties! Which was marvelous!) and then we had a lunch together in church afterwards. I had to prepare a talk on Baptism and then Anziano Polelli was going to give the other talk on the Holy Ghost. We understood that they were supposed to be brief. So I had been fretting and worrying about what to say in the talk and I seriously finished throwing it all together like a half hour before the baptism and made my poor companion listen to it because I'm still in 5th grade like that. I was so nervous and THEN at 3:50 --yes, this would be 10 minutes before the program is to start-- our ward mission leader informs me and Anziano Polelli that he will not be speaking. So I was now the only speaker and had to somehow eloquently throw the Holy Ghost into my BRIEF talk. They're kind of big deal topics right? Baptism AND then add the holy ghost into a talk in a foreign tongue in 10 minutes---"Oh and also, would you mind playing prelude music, the hymns, and postlude music?" My thoughts were as follows, "excuse me sir, could you pass me a brown paper sack?" Don't worry, it's not like I made a scene or anything. In fact, I'm certain that nobody noticed a bit that I was a bit nervous but alas, I learned that I can work under pressure--but it IS something that I can work on. ha haSo I got to play the hymns, go give my talk, and then watch two bea-utiful baptisms! It was the greatest sight! Paolo hugged Fratello Floris when he came out of the water and I'm pretty sure I almost cried all over myself!...but I didn't. It was just so beautiful I can't even explain it. I just felt like, "yeah, that's why I'm here." It was so cool to see these two wonderful investigators--and friends--make the decision to be baptized. They are so amazing and I am so grateful that I got to be even small part of the experience. It was so cool.The weather has been all kinds of crazy. I love Sardegna with all of my heart. I have looked like a complete sweaty mess for months but I have loved every second because this place, the people, and the work are my favorite! BUT it has completely amazed me the weather has taken a change. Downpoor rain. It's nuts! On Monday we went to our meeting with our district. The weather seemed pleasant. Our meeting got over at 12:30 and we had a half an hour to get to our lunch appointment with the Sanna Family. We took off to the bus stop, the dark clouds rolled in and the trickling went to downpour very quickly. We being the unbelievably awkward sister missionaries that we are, know that we need to keep all of the things in our backpacks protected from the rain. (Preach my Gospel, scriptures, planners, etc) So...we put our backpacks on the ground... underneath our skirts (not joking) and kind of snuggled trying to stand under this sparse tree giving mediocre coverage, waiting for the bus to arrive. We probably waited for the bus for like 10 minutes and every now that then a car would wiz by and splash us. ha ha We were seriously DYING laughing the whole time. I mean, it was really the only solution! We tried to protect our backpacks, and then just laughed because there was really nothing else to do. We got on the bus and the bus driver (and all of the passengers) were laughing and teasing us but I think they like us more now. There's gotta be something endearing about a pathetic wet missionary right? Then we got off the bus and had to walk for about 10 minutes to the members house. We just continued to laugh and tried to make good time. I suggested that we should do some house because maybe people would feel bad for us and listen to our message. We arrived at the appointment, like 5 minutes late but they just laughed at us. Good times! It was really a moment that I'll never forget. Everything that got us more wet, was just more funny. I love moments like that. Sometimes inconveniences are just hilarious to me. I don't know why exactly but when I find myself in misfortune, it's somehow humorous. I can find things hilarious instead of whine about it--and it's SO much more fun that way too. So...win win! As enjoyable as that day was though, no worries, I bring an umbrella with me these days. :)Well remember Enrica? We're officially back together!! ha ha We had another appointment with her this week and it went really really well. We taughter her obedience, pray often, and study the scriptures. She hasn't wanted to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon because she's scared. I tried to lovingly call her on it this appointment and she just went off on how she knows that the Catholic church isn't true. I asked her again and she almost started crying. She knows exactly what we have. She knows exactly how huge it is. Ah, I can't even explain how I feel about it. She's pretty difficult to plan for because we pretty much have to do everything 110% by the spirit, and I'm still trying to figure that out. :) But everything's going well. She's making progress and keeping the commitments that we give her. It won't be easy, but I know that we can help her. She's amazing. Bah, I just love it here! There's so much to do and so many people who need the gospel!Well, I will end this eternal e'mail. I love you guys very much. Thanks for all of your love and support. Sending lots of Italian love your way, (how many meters it takes to get to you?...I'd be the wrong person to ask but...it's goin' in your direction.) Sorella Hansen

Breaking up but still holding hand, 100 pages in the BOM‏

2009-09-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well, happy 9th of September!! Let me tell you about this week in the mission:On Saturday we did some service and cleaned the church. It looked pretty mangled. I spent several quality hours with the fig tree. Raking fallen leaves and matted smooshed figs, weeding...all good times! In the end, the church looked like paradise--soo beautiful. And the fig tree, thanks to Anziano Smiths pruning skills, actually looked like a tree instead of an overgrown ball of leaves. We left the church a little sunburnt, sweaty, and smelling like latex gloves and rotten figs but wouldn't you know it, it was a good time had by one and all. And hey, if you happen to run into some perfume called "latex gloves and rotten figs" I can advise you by first-hand experience to not invest! :)In other news we had another appointment with Enrica. Ah, I love this girl. We had planned to finish teaching the second lesson with her but right when she came into the church she seemed very agitated and ...not okay. She kind of gave us a "talk". She explained that this is a really hard time in her life right now and she's been trying to believe but she just can't do it at this point in her life. She talked to us about what the problems are and she has some legitimate problems that she's dealing with. I pulled out some scriptures that came into mind that I thought could help her and just bore testimony to her that the gospel could help her and...she didn't respond like it did anything for her. I was actually so sad. In the end, she still wants to see us, and I asked her if we can still read the scriptures with her and stuff and she agreed. So...it was weird. I like to use the comparison: She broke up with us....but we can still hold hands. ha ha I know that's awkward, but in the sense that it's still not over! I know that we have what she needs, and I know that as we carefully plan and follow the spirit, that she'll be able to see and feel of the truth and power of this message.We had Walters baptismal interview on Saturday--it's all a go! I'm glad that everything's official and that it's really happening. After his interview we had investigators, contacts, and new members watch "The Other Side of Heaven" in the church. It was weird how the movie is so different to me now. I watched it before my mission and I liked it alright. But watching it now, as a missionary, with investigators, it's a completely different experience. I dunno. It was weird.ALSO, yesterday we were out doing some finding work and we got a text from Walter. (Just as a little background information, the last thing that I'm aware of, is that he finished 1Nephi 12 like 5 days ago). So his text said that he just read all of 2Nephi and he listed his favorite chapters and verses. I was amazed and at the same time just started laughing. Come on! Who is this guy?! He ACTUALLY just sat down and read 2Nephi like no big deal. THEN, like 3 hours later when we were having lunch, we get another jolly text from Walter that says that he just finished reading Jacob. He again listed his favorite chapters and verses. I just started laughing again and looked up the parts that he liked so much. ha ha I'm so happy that he has a love for and testimony of the Book of Mormon. It's going to help him with his testimony so so much.By-the-way, how wonderful is the Book of Mormon? Throughout my mission I've been coming up with my own coloring coding system and it's quite possibly one of my favorite things. I love looking back through my scriptures and the colors and I know exactly what they mean. Also, if I'm looking for a certain type of scripture then I can just look for a specific color. I am telling you what, it has changed my personal study and I do not hate it. On the contrary, love it! I would seriously recommend it if you're looking for something to spice up your scripture study. It was the best thing that happened to my scripture study: Putting down the red pencil, and picking up a box of colored pencils. Yeah, give it a go. Your mind will expode with how much you'll love the scriptures. At least mine has......ANYWHOThanks for all of your love and support. I love you guys very much and keep you in my prayers. I know that I'm supposed to be here right now to serve God's children in Italy. He loves them so much, and I do too. It is such a blessing to be able to serve. I am learning so much. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father is so patient with me in my attempts to accomplished what He wants me to. I feel very blessed to have the perfect example to look up to--the more I learn about the Savior, the more my love grows for Him, the more I want to be more like Him, and the more that I want the people around me to know how important each one of them are. I love you guys. Be happy. Read your scriptures. Say your prayers. Laugh everyday. And know that Sorella Hansen is sending you Italian amore, Sorella Mally

Bye, bye to my other half, Rockin' tie, Drunkin' Sailor?‏

2009-09-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

Buongiorno!! Come state?!? What a crazy sauce week it has been. Going to bed at midnight, waking up at 4:30--let's just say that accompanying my companion to Rome kinda threw off my whole 10:30-6:30 sleeping schedule. ha ha But it was quite the experience and I enjoyed it nonetheless. I love talking with the boat workers. They're always very pleasant. I'm really sad to see my dear Sorella Bjarnason go. Can I just tell you how awkward it is to be separated from someone that you've spent 4 and a half months of your life with? I have spent half of my time in Italy with that girl. It's crazy how different things are with her gone. I feel like someone split me from my Siamese twin. (What's more awkward, the fact that I just made that analogy or the fact that I don't know how to spell Siamese? Lemme know.) It's cool to look back at our time together and remember all of the hard times, but also all of the times that we laughed, and how much we grew together. I think we're both completely different missionaries then we were before. I hope that happens with all of my companions. My new companion is Sorella Nelson. She's is starting her 5th transfer. (Just for reference, I'm in my 7th.) She is from Seattle, Washington and is so excited to be serving here in on the Island. She has like 3 foot long hair. It completely blows my mind. Mine is getting longer but...yeah, hers is forever long. I don't know how she does it. We've set some really good goals together and I'm excited to see all that we're going to learn together and all great moments that we're going to come across. Well as for a little Walter update. Sorella Bjarnason called him last Wednesday to give him a last reading assignment from the scriptures and he told her that he was on his way to his hometown. (It's a long slow train ride to the middle of the island.) It makes me laugh because he's so used to seeing us and so we think that because we left to Rome for like 3 days that he didn't know what to do so he went home. ha ha But the good news is I called him on my way back to see how his family was and everything and he said that everything's going to be okay! I was really worried that they're get really mad at him when he went home but he said that everything was fine and they're okay with him being a member! Woot woot! We had another appointment with Enrica on Saturday. Ah, I just adore that girl! We taught her the first half of the Plan of Salvation. She just completely intrigues me. I just love hearing her thoughts and opinions because she really thinks things out. I know that she'll become a member someday. I just think she's gonna take a little bit of work--which is okay. I adore her and don't mind doing the work that it takes to get her to the gospel where she'll be happy. So my companion and I have discovered a new fun game. She told me that she has a philosophy about people and how they have more than one age. They have the age that they actually are, and then the age that they act. One night after our appointment with Walter (where at the bus stop, he started dancing like Michael Jackson and singing Thriller) she said that she thinks Walter is "32 going on 23". He's actually 32 but acts like a 23 year-old. I can only agree. I've thought the same thing, just not necessarily phrased in that way. I asked my companion what she is. She said that she's "22 going on 60 ...going on 3." Obviously I don't know her very well but I will let you know if that holds true. So then I asked for her evaluation on me. She said that I'm very elegant, sweet, and loving. But she also said that my way of speaking and my dry humor is something else entirely. So her analysis of me is that I'm "22 going on Princess Diana, going on Drunken sailor." ha ha So...make of that what you will! Consider that our first companionship inventory. ha ha We have finished teaching Walter all of the lessons. And we also went through the baptismal questions with him again. He's ready. It's seriously the coolest thing. He really knows that it's true. He really understands the doctrine. It's the coolest thing in the world. ALSO, and sound the alarm because this news is dare I say, massive!....Okay so here it goes: Walter wore a shirt and tie on Sunday!!! I'm not even playing! He kind of whined about it the whole day and how it's uncomfortable but...I think deep down he loved it. :) We have his official baptismal interview this Saturday and then NEXT Saturday is the big day. I am so, so excited. Welp, everything's going well. There is really a lot of work to be done here in Cagliari but it can be done-obviously with the help of the lord. :) We were talking in our weekly meeting about how we've changed since we received our mission call, and since we left the MTC, and to where we are at this point. It's crazy all of the things that have happened since then. I feel like I've lived 5 years in 1. I can't imagine my life without this experience though--without these people. I really do need to be here. I love you guys! (Just in case you didn't know, it's factual!) There is a grundle of delicious, sweaty, lovable, Italian, sista missionary love, bubble wrapped and sealed with a kiss (the appropriate kind obviously....) headed your way. Aka Vi voglio bene! Say your prayers, read your scriptures, and ....I dunno, try to picture me more like Princess Diana then as a drunken sailor. That'd be great. Kisses! Sorella Hansen

Give to the thieves, What did I say?, Somebody's gettin wet!!‏

2009-08-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

Buongiorno dear ones! What a crazy week it has been! So much to tell! I've been meaning to tell you guys something. So my companion and I had felt that we needed to do some work in a certain area. What happened was we'd received a referral and had gone to that area a couple of times and the lady was never there, but we felt like we should do some work there. Later...we found out that it has a reputation for being the "scary part of town". None-the-less, we felt like we should go. So in the morning during our studies we were reading the White Handbook (which is the missionary rulebook) and the morning that we were going to this area to do some work we read in the handbook (we just happened to be at this part of the book) what it says about if you get robbed. It actually says to bring money with you to give to thieves. Not joking. We read that, looked at each other and just started laughing like, "No way. We're going to the part of town with a bad reputation and the only words of wisdom that we're getting from the white handbook is to pack light, and bring a wad of cash!" ha ha Oh dear. We found an investigator there and so whenever we go to her house we always check to make sure we have a little cash. ha ha Oh mamma.So we watched a session of general conference on Saturday with investigators, members and some new converts. It was really cool. It was the first time that I listened to it in Italian because when I was in Rome I went into the room where they played it in English. It was a humbling slap to the face. ha ha I can understand what they're saying...like what they're talking about but...I would be lying myself to sleep if I told you that I understood every word. Should I take this as a sign that I need to step up my language study? I respond with a resounding yup. Well, I sat by Walter and his cousin Paolo (who's an investigator of the elders) and Paolo actually kills me--so funny. He always tries to say the right thing and have the perfect answers. So, after we listened to the talk by the prophet, the elders had to change the DVD so one of the elders stood up and asked what we liked about the talk. Paolo leaned over to me and told me that he was very wise and humble, and had lived really amazing experiences and had much to teach. I nodded enthusiastically and told him that I agreed. ha ha Well, then when the elder asked the question about what everyone thought of the prophet, Paolo--remembering that I thought his answer was great--leaned over to me and said, "What did I say?" He wanted to repeat his answer to everyone because he knew it was a good answer but he couldn't remember what he said. ha ha Classic Paolo.We taught a lesson on Sunday with Walter, Paolo, the elders, and a new member. We taught repentance, baptism, and confirmation. It went really well. The new member-Giovanni-was such a help to the lesson in sharing his experience about deciding to get baptised and the changes that he had to make. The lesson went really well and the spirit was there helping us so much which is hardly something to complain about. On the contrary, it was wonderful, and I know that Walter felt it too. Well..........Walter and Paolo are going to get baptised on September 12th!!!! I'm so excited. Walter has progressed and changed so much since I first met him. It's crazy! But it's also so amazing to look back at the lessons that we've had and know that he's felt the spirit and I know that he has a testimony of the church. Remember back when we had our first lesson with him and he told us that he felt like he was standing on the edge of the cliff and we were flying? The other night he sent us a text that said that he's flying now and it feels wonderful. How wonderful is this guy?!? On Monday we went to the park and read the scriptures together and taught tithing. The lesson went really well, the only problem is his family is really really not happy with him. I feel really guilty that I have all of my family members of the church and then see all of the problems that are going to happen when he becomes a member. It was cool because after he told us that he had a bad conversation with his family he said, "But I'm still here. I'm still doing this. I'm not going anywhere." The other thing that made me feel sick is that we set this baptismal date on Sunday and...transfers were in 3 days.We heard about transfers last night after English class. I was really nervous because I want to be here for Walters baptism so bad. I've seen him do all of this from day 1 and I just really wanna see him be baptized and as a member. I was talking to Anziano Smith (our district leader) on Monday, and he was saying how worried he was that I was getting transferred because he said that's always how it happens. Everything's been too perfect and I have to get transferred before his baptism. Welp....I'm staying here in Cagliari for another transfer! Woot woot!! I am so so glad! Walter was at English class when we heard the news and said good-bye to Sorella Bjarnason. She's going to Rome 1 (my first city) and she's going to be companions with Sorella Swenson (from my MTC district, and I met her in the temple before the MTC) She's going to be just fine next transfer. She scored big time with the city and companion. I am getting Sorella Nelson as a companion. She's in Rome right now. I have to leave on a boat tonight (Wednesday) to go get her. We'll arrive on the mainland Thursday morning, we have to take a train to Rome, pick up my companion, take a train back to the boat, and Thursday night we take a boat back to the island and arrive Friday morning. Then we have to take another train down to Cagliari. It will be a lot of traveling but it's okay. I haven't done much traveling for 4 1/2 months so...I can talk with some fellow travellers! I met Sorella Nelson briefly when I served in Rome but I don't know her very well. She's younger then me in the mission but only by a couple of months I think. She seems super nice and I'm excited for her to meet all of the wonderful members and investigators that we have here.Well, another fantabulous week on the beautiful island. By-the-way...I don't know if I told you but uh...Walter is getting baptized!! Anyway...no big deal or anything...I just thought you should know. BAH!I hope everything's going well for you guys. I keep you guys in my prayers and hope you know how much I love you and hope you're loving every moment of your beautiful lives. Sending lots of love from Cagliari!! Sorella Hansen

Cleaning, Walter update, You are my sunshine...

2009-08-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

What another splendid week in the mish. We had President's interviews which were so pleasant. ALSO Saturday was a holiday here in Italy--surprise! ha ha I love Italians. I wish I could tell you exactly what the point was but alas, I find myself very uninformed but essentially everything was closed. So all of the missionaries stay inside and clean the whole apartment. It gave me flashbacks of doing "white glove" checks in college. Since I couldn't listen to sweet tunes while I was cleaning (like I did in college) what's a sister missionary to do? Welp, you bet your bottom dollar she put on some talks! ha ha Oh my life. It was actually so great. I have never learned so much and cleaned the kitchen at the same time. Win win!On Friday we had an activity where we watch "The Testaments" in church. We had a couple of people from English class come and Walter and his cousin Paolo came. It was great. We are having another activity this Saturday. We're going to watch the Sunday morning session of conference together in church and we invited all of English class last night and of course....Walter is going to be there. Yup yup. I'm so excited that we're watching that session. There are some ridiculously wonderful talks and I'm so excited for Walter to hear the prophet speak. We were reading the scriptures with him and he asked us about modern prophets and....that was a bit much for him. He just couldn't wrap his head around the fact that there could be someone even remotely comparable to Moses on the earth day. I was kind of worried that he reacted that way but at the same time...not so much. It's great that he understands what a big deal it is that there's a living prophet on the earth today. Now he just needs to pray about it and we need to be careful to be doing everything we can to help him.Walter came to English class last night and he seemed a little...not like himself. It was sad. I asked him what was going on and he said that he talked to his family about coming to the church and to put it simply, mama and daddy aren't too pleased. I remember just looking in his face and feeling so sad for him that they reacted this way, but feeling like this was going to be a good thing for him--an extra push for him to really pray about this and find out if it's real. Well, after my shower this morning I heard our little ring tone for when we receive a message and my companion was confused and asked me what it meant. Well essentially here's what the text said, "Good morning Sisters. I know." I waited a second and thought, "Wait a sec...WHAT!?" I called him and he said that he couldn't sleep last night and he grabbed the Book of Mormon and started reading in Moroni. He said he feels like he needs to increase his faith and repent. Let me tell you why this was crazy: So remember how I was cleaning on Saturday listening to talks. Well, I was listening to an AMAZIN' talk by Elder Holland and he was talking about the importance of investigators having faith in Jesus Christ and repenting before baptism. I remember listening to that talk and my heart kind of sunk and I felt grateful that we didn't set a date with Walter because I didn't feel like he was at that point yet--it was still something he was learning but not quite internalizing yet...if that makes sense. Well what in the world! A couple of days later, he figured it out! He knows that he needs to prepare to be ready for baptism. I'm just so excited for him. There have been many moments when he'll say things that just make me so happy because I know that he feels something. In fact, this morning when we were talking about what he read last night I asked him if he felt something and he said, "Yes, and it was strong." And I was like, "That was the spirit. It's amazing huh?" He said that he hasn't felt this way in a really, really, really long time.ALSO, his cousin, Paolo, is an investigator and makes me laugh so much. He is ...quirky--just a complete character. Anziano Smith was talking to him Sunday night and Paolo said that he'll get baptized when Walter does. I was like, "That's great Paolo, you're going to be baptized?!" And he had a completely straight face and said matter-of-factly, "Yes, when I am ready." Oh man. I wish you could meet this guy. Too funny.In other news, I'm trying to think of other fun things that we can do for English class and uh....we taught "You are my Sunshine" last night. ha ha It was actually super fun and they loved it. Don't worry, I did not continue on past the first verse because then it just gets depressing and in my opinion, no song with "Sunshine" in the title should be depressing. But...what do I know...Well, there are so many great moments that come up thanks to awkward ones. For example, we set a goal to kneel for all of our prayers so as soon as we enter the house we kneel and say a prayer. By the time we get up we usually slip on our tile floors because our knees are sweaty. Who knew how many good times are to be had thanks to sweaty days? I certainly had no idea, but they make themselves known more and more often. Love it.Well, transfers are this week. HOPEFULLY we'll hear on Tuesday night where we'll go and with who but...who knows, it could be on Wednesday morning like last time. And then Wednesday night we've gotta go. I honestly have no clue what's going to happen. Just hope whatever's best for our investigators and the branch. I love you all and hope you're loving every day of your beautiful lives. Read your scriptures and do your home/visiting teaching! :) Sweaty, lovable Italian love, Sorella Hansen

Our work: Walter, "My friend, the Atheist"

2009-08-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

Well hi-dee-ho Welp, I can talk about the work here in one word: Walter. ha ha We've been working a lot with him. He doesn't work for the month of August so we've been meeting with him or at least talking to him every day. It's nuts. It's hard to meet with our other investigators even just once a week! But it's been really cool. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. I'd drawn it out all pretty on the white board in church. And at the end of the lesson I had the thought "did he understand this? Was it super clear?" We'd asked questions along the way and everything but...it's a lot to take in! Well, right after that thought passed through my mind, he stood up and said, "let's see..." so he grabbed the whiteboard marker and stood by the whiteboard and re-capped the whole second lesson for us! I'm not even joking, he pretty much just re-taught everything! It was nuts! I was less worried about his comprehension at that point. We read the scriptures with him in the park another day which was really cool. And then we've also taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ. We asked him to pray about being baptised on August 22nd. He acted like it was really fast but he said he'd pray about it. Well, in the end it seems like we'll have to push it back, but he really is doing great. We gave him a copy of the Restoration film and he says that he's watched it like 5 or 6 times. He said that he really relates to Joseph Smith. And he believes that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ.Last night before English class we started teaching him some commandments. We taught him Pray Often, Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity. Yup, we thought we'd hit up a couple of doozies and get to some of the rules that might be harder. Anyway, it went surprisingly well. OH rad news! (I'll get back to this lesson with him later) We had a branch party on Saturday and Walter came with his cousin. Saturday was also Walters birthday. I mentioned the Word of Wisdom to him one of the times that we've talked at Mostra, but I hadn't committed him to it or anything. Well he talked to me at the branch party and said, "I have to tell you something. Today for my birthday I went out to lunch with a bunch of my friends. There was every kind of alcohol imaginable. ....and I didn't drink any of it." I was so happy! Can you believe that?!? So we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he said it's gonna be hard for him to give up his cappuccino but I said, "Well, we just taught you about prayer! Whenever you feel tempted, you can pray for strength and help. And if you ever want a cappuccino, then just call us and we'll talk you out of it!" ha ha Pretty much it's all a go. Even our "doozy" commandments weren't worth a sweat for Walter. How great is he? I'll tell ya, Pretty fabulous! Also we did Mostra on Sunday. I like to call this night: "My friend,the Atheist." I talked to Walter for a little bit and then he went to talk to someone in French about the gospel (yeah, did I mention that he's wonderful...he's not even a member but he helped the other missionaries talk to someone in French about the gospel because they couldn't speak French) and so I looked for someone to talk to and I started talking to this man that was kind of close to me. I glanced over at my companion and she gave me kind of a nauseated look. All from that glance I realized something. The last time that we did Mostra there, she left not quite herself. Apparently she had a really bad conversation with someone. I realized from the look on her face, that she had talked to the man that I was currently talking with. I think it gave me a little more determination because he made my companion feel bad. I got a little taste of his personality when one of the first things he said to me was (and he was speaking English) "I've got news for you. One, God doesn't exist. And two, we don't need God." After he said that I just sat there for a second with a look on my face like, You JUST said that. Really? Okay buddy. He asked me if my parents raised me to believe that there's a God. He said that that's brainwashing and that we shouldn't tell children things like that because they don't know any better. I lovingly shut him down and said that yes my parents raised me to be a member, but the reason that I'm still a member is because I decided. He continued to talk about how it's brainwashing to teach children about God. I said, "Well my parents also told me that there was a Santa Clause and I figured that one out all by myself. Our parents can teach us what they want and then when we grow up, we decide." He quit. So, then he decided to tell me what I was doing here. He said that I'm here in Italy to tell everyone that they're wrong and that I'm right. I said, "I would be more then happy to tell you why I'm ACTUALLY here. I don't look at everyone as being wrong. On the contrary, I look at everyone as being important enough, to deserve to know the truth. I'm here to share what I have." He said, "So why are you talking to me?" and I said, "Because you're important and you deserve the opportunity to accept the truth." and he laughed and said, "You'll never convert me." and I said, "You have made that very clear. But I wanted to at least give you the chance. I hope you have a great night." We shook hands and he smiled before he walked away. It was interesting the feeling that I had after talking to him. I tried to handle the situation with love...but at the same time...not taking his crap or letting him say things that aren't true. Instead of weakening my faith, I just walked away feeling so grateful for the gospel and for my testimony. Well; I have president Interviews today and then in about 2 weeks is transfers! Crazy. I really hope that I stay here. I love it here and I have learned so much in this city. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve. It's all worth it. Keep reading your scriptures, praying, and remember to love you lives and all the people in it! La Vita e bella! Love from Cagliari,
Sorella Mal

House with the Mission Presidents wife, Teaching flying lessons...

2009-08-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

There are advertisements for this everywhere!

Robin Hood: the Musical. Between the facts that 1, I adore Robin Hood and 2 THAT man is not hard to look at... I would see it!

The Sisters on the island!

Sorella Bjarnson (my comp), Sorella Hughes (in my MTC district), Sorella Chevalier (my trainer) and me.

So... there's like a whole genealogy thing to missions. Because Sorella Chevalier trained me, she's my mom, and the 'senior' sister in the district is the "mom" of any new missionaries in the district. So these are my 'posterity'.

Sorella Chavalier (my mom)

Anziano Pace (left) = my son!

Anziano Tonuitti = my 1/2 brother (he's a new Italian missionary in Sassar in Sorella Chevalier's district

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Well, this week was a whole lot of jumbled lovableness!Lets start off with the fact that we had Zone Conference that was wonderful! And wouldn't you know it, along with all the spiritual enlightening goods comes my favorite little side dish of tangible love! Yup, mail. :) Thanks you guys for writing. I love hearing how you're doing.We had something special right after Zone Conference. We had a "Sisters Conference" where the sisters from the zone stayed after and we had a meeting with Sorella Acerson (the mission presidents wife) and then we went out to gelato and went to a wharf and took some pictures and talked. It was so fun and so refreshing. I'm so used to being around Elders but it was nothing but good times with Sorella Acerson, Watson, and Millis (both from my MTC district) and my companion. Who knew that I missed girl time? not I! But alas...Then Sister Acerson was going to be on the island the next day and asked if we wanted her to come to any of our appointments with us. Er....lesson in the presence of a member...aka Mission Presidents wife. CHECK! The only stinky part is our investigator stood us up. I was a bit frazzled about it. I mean, I've been out for a while. It's not the first time that I've been stood up. But I just feel super bad when we take the effort to get a member there and THEN we get stood up. I just felt bad for her. Anyway, so what did we do? We had planned to go to a referral and do house in that zone and Sister Acerson wanted to come with us! ha ha So ....we did house with the mission Presidents wife. Can you even imagine? It makes me laugh because it's like she doesn't acknowledge or see how that would be intimidating for us. She just thinks she's a regular person--and she is but...come on! It was a lot of fun. She asked us questions after each door. We got in to one door and talked to a lady that was pretty closed. She'd spoken to missionaries in the past but doesn't believe in a life after this one. It was just so cool to be able to bear testimony to her. I feel like underneath her closed front that she puts up, that she really will reflect on our words and the feelings that she had. And Sorella Acerson is a champ. She's not fluent in the language but she still tries and it was really an example to me. Sometimes she would have us translate for her but other times she'd just do the best she could and the lady totally understood her. It was a really great experience. House with the mission President's wife? Check! Didn't think it would happen, yet, consider it done!Also, the guy that I talked about last week-Walter-is now our investigator! Woot woot! He's actually just so wonderful I can't even believe it. He didn't come to church on Sunday :( but I saw him that night at Mostra, and he came to English class last night. We saw that we'd missed a call this morning. It was Walter. My companion called him and he said that he just squilloed to tell us that he was reading the Book of Mormon. How wonderful is this guy? We taught him the restoration with two members and we watched the restoration and he loved it! He gave the most beautiful analogy that I just really wanted to share with you guys. I've spoken with him several times and I've noticed that he likes to use analogies too. I've learned to start talking to him with analogies of my own and it works great. Well, during the lesson he was expressing certain hesitancy's but he said something gorgeous. He said he feels like he's standing on the edge of a cliff and he sees us--and we're flying. He wants to jump and do it too, but he's just scared. It was seriously the most beautiful thing because the way that he says it shows that he sees that we're different-in a good way. I loved it. I'm excited for him to learn to fly. :)In other news....guess who showed up to sacrament on Sunday?! Don't even worry about it, right in the middle of Sunday school, 5 young french champs filed into a row of chairs. I kind of wanted to sign out and call it day! Come on! I went up to them to try to speak French but it turns out one of them just got back from a mission in Provo so...we just spoke English. Well I can say this much...I still don't hate French. What a bust.Anyway, in case you've forgotten in anyway...the church is still true! It's wonderful. I feel so blessed to know the gospel. It's really amazing the many blessings that come from knowing who I am, that I have a purpose, and that I'm not alone in anything that I do. What a rad opportunity to share this with my adorable Italian family here in Sardegna. There really is so much joy to be found in life. I love it. Obviously there are going to be disappointments but there is always something to make us smile, laugh, love, and those are the moments that we need to let influence our days and outlook. I love you guys and am hoping you're all healthy, happy, and that you know that this Sista Missionary loves you baby! Italian love, Sorella Hansen

Rocked socks! Rocked the boat!

2009-07-30T07:09:00.000-07:00

A shot from when we clmbed Devil's Saddle. Look at that water!! I just wanted to pitch myself overboard the whole hike! So pretty!
Another Pic from our hike.

This is a fairly good view of the city.

Anziano Pittson - my district leader

Anziano Pace - this is his first transfer

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I will entitle this week: Rocked socks or rocked boat? You'll understand as I continue...So we had an appointment with our DOLL of an investigator named Adele. She's quite possibly too adorable for her own good. I love her so much. She came to a baptism and to church over a month ago and hasn't come back since. When she saw the picture of the first vision she got goose bumps so we decided to teach her the Restoration and watch the film called, who'd a thunk, "The Restoration". It's such a wonderful film and helps bring to life the fact that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. Well, we were to the part where we were going to watch the movie and 4 minutes into the movie.....it's freezes! Not even joking. I took it out and cleaned it and we tried again. Four minutes into the film....freezes yet again! (It was kinda scratched.) I couldn't believe it and we probably sat there staring at the screen for like 45 seconds and I was just praying with all my heart that it would work because it hadn't even got to the first vision yet. Well, after a painfully long wait, it played and she loved it. We're trying to be more bold as missionaries so when she brought up the whole praying to the saints thing....we told her that that's not how it works (but with love!) and we bore our testimonies that she needs to come to church with a question in her heart and we promised her that she'd receive the answer. Well, she came to church on Sunday!! (Aka my socks were rocked!) On the flip side....she told us that she didn't want to come again. (Aka...the boat was rocked) She tells us that she gets a really hard time from her family about coming to our church and they tell her that she can't join the church. So she told us that she came to church because she promised us. ALSO she told us that when we get transferred from the island that she doesn't want to see the missionaries anymore because she loves us too much and it will be too hard for her to sat goodbye. As soon as she told me that I was like, "Oh no no no!" And I frantically started introducing her to members. ha ha Oh dear. All of the members that know her, love her. And that's saying something because she's only come to church twice and she's left that big of an impression on them. I love Adele. I want to help her receive the blessings of the gospel. She is certainly getting tried but I know that if we rely on the Lord and do everything that we can that she will feel of our sincerity and of the power of this gospel.Another story to go along with the theme of this week is Giuliano. I don't know if you'll remember this but I met Giuliano my first week here in Cagliari and he was our first new investigator here. Well, Socks rocked: we found him at the piazza!! Boat rocked: He got up and walked away! I'm actually not joking. I think I laughed just to keep from crying. Oh dear. I just goes to show that it's 534% normal for things to not work out perfect. The hard part is figuring out exactly what we're supposed to do about it.Well, to keep this e-mail from sounding like I have nothing positive to say (because on the contrary!) I will tell you about someone named Walter. I met Walter last transfer and Mostra. I was drawing the plan of salvation on a sheet, on the sidewalk and...I forgot how to spell the word "veil" in Italian. (It's not even hard to spell but that's beside the point!) So I looked around and motioned to this guy watching to come over and I asked him how to spell it, and then ended up giving the chalk to Anziano Pace and I talked to him for a while. Well, on Saturday we did Mostra again and Walter was there! We talked the whole time and he's great because I can be bold with him and he can take it. ha ha Well I asked him if he'd come to church on Sunday and he said maybe. We exchanged phone numbers and right before sacrament I called his phone because he still hadn't shown up---no answer. I was sad and just took my seat. Then right before we were about to start Walter walks in with his cousin! It was so cool! I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped...in fact, indeed it did! The problem is that he's very non-committal. We always part with him saying something like, "Se Dio vuole..." like "if God wants...then we'll talk again." The thing that doesn't work about that is that we have each others numbers! Come on! Well, I called him Tuesday morning and invited him to English class that night. He came! And he took a Book of Mormon and we talked a lot. But we parted with the same thing. "Se Dio vuole." WELL, I am unsatisfied with that kind of an attitude and I called him today (Thursday) to tell him that we'll be singing as a Zone in a park if he wants to come. He said yes. ha ha So hopefully we can make some progress and I can help him find the desire to come to church again. He really is so great. He's very studious and curious about everything. He's just a good person....just not very committal. ha ha I really hope that he comes tonight because he would be such an amazing member and he needs the gospel. Everyone does. But...you know.Anyway, I love you guys so very much and I'm trying to do my best to share the gospel with all of Heavenly Fathers children here in Italy. He really loves them you know? And I do too. Thanks for being your wonderful selves! I pray for you and your happiness. Take care and know that Sorella Hansen sends you tan-ish Sardegnian love! Sorella Hansen

Transfers results..., branch activity, tearful language study :)

2009-07-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

Sunrise in Cagliari. Hard to hate your life when there's beautiful moments like this.

We went with the Elders to study on a really high park so we could watch the sunrise. Do I look ravaged by wolves to anyone else??

My first view of Cagliari from when I stepped off the boat.

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Well first of all let me start off by apologizing for my previous letter. I haven't gone back to look at it but I can only imagine how spazzy and spacey it sounded. Especially since....transfers....nothing changed. ha ha Yup, I'm STILL here in Cagliari and Sorella Bjarnason and I are doing a third transfer together. ha ha I honestly didn't think that we'd do three transfers but alas, here we be. So when we finally found out on Wednesday, everything was fine...except for the fact that I think I almost gave myself an ulcer. ha ha Most anti-climactic transfers? Yup. ha ha It's good though. Sorella Bjarnason and I have set some really great goals and it's going to be a great, nay, slamming transfer. So to the goods: We had a branch activity on Saturday and it was so much fun! We went up into the mountains and gathered around a little spring and had a spiritual thought and then did like tug-of-war, jump rope, and Frisbee. It was a good time. We were a little misinformed as far as the whole "location" thing worked out and I officially looked like a git, clomping around in my awkward, frumpy, 3-inch Sister Missionary Mall shoes in the mountainous terrain. Best of times! I will be better prepared next time. But, until then, I probably won't cease to be amused by the little things that make my missionary life wonderful but oh-so awkward. Love it! It was a great activity. it was fun to get to know the members better and I think it really helped us to have a better relationship. I had one of those movie moments. Like, if you've seen While You Were Sleeping, then you'll follow me. You know the part when it's Christmas time and they gave Lucy a present and there's just music playing while it shows her watching the Callaghan family and you can just tell that she's just soaking everything in. Yeah, that's what happened at this activity. I just watched Fratello Ances playing Frisbee with my companion and Sabbrina; Pier Luigi and Fratello Floris doing the jump rope for the little kids; and the members calling Anziano Pace to get the ball out of the tree because he's so tall. It was just a moment that I just stepped back and thought, "Yup, it's official: I love my life and love all of you guys." I love moments like that.We did some more house yesterday and it was looking a bit discouraging. Either nobody was home, or they weren't super nice. In fact, there was one old lady that I was talking to and she was pretty harsh. She was just so impatient and short and I guess it just shocked me because she seemed like she'd be a sweet old lady. What's the deal? I remember after that door just thinking, "Alright, one of two things is going to happen: Either this day is going to wreak, or something great's going to happen." Well the thing that I love, is every time I have that thought, it's a couple of doors later that we find someone. That's pretty much happened before we found Sergio. So a couple of doors later we met a girl named Elica. She's young too. Probably like my age. But we're going back tomorrow to see her. I just love that when we really try and refuse to give up, that it's THEN that we see the fruits and the progress. It's so rad.English class was last night and so much fun. We just have so many characters that come to English class. It's one of the many moments in my life that I wish were on film. I really need to take some pictures at English class so that you can get a feel for what my Tuesday nights 7:15-8:15 consists of. It's a joy! I gave the spiritual thought and then end of the class and just read the last 2 or 3 paragraphs of one of President Monson's talks. BY-THE-WAY, for part of language study I read President Monson's talk and...okay, so whenever I read talks...I read out loud. It just helps me be able to hear how I'm talking and where I'm messing up...anyway, so I'm reading this talk and it's the story about the woman that has to bury like 4 of her children. So...I'm sitting in the living room, reading out loud and every time one of these kids die, my voice gets a little shaky and I'm like, "Well oh dear, what's this? I'm not going to cry right?" ha ha and by the fourth one...I was almost done for. My poor companion, when she came out of language study and I'm sitting on the couch, reading a talk in Italian out loud, and trying not to fall apart at the seams! ha ha I can only imagine how hilarious it looked. ha ha But, it is a good talk if you wanna give it a look.Things are going great here. I'm happy and excited to still be here for another 6 weeks (hopefully more!). I keep learning and find things everyday that make me laugh and learn and love. I hope you're all healthy and happy and loving everything about your beautiful lives. There's a missionary in Sardegna that's sending lots of love your way. Sorella Hansen

Italian Photos...

2009-07-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

This is the beautiful boat that was going to take me to my new city.

FACT: Boat bathroom is awkwardly small.
You could easily go to the bathroom, shave yourleg in the shower, and wash you hands in the sink at the same time.

Me and my girl Sorella Swenson.

This was at transfer circles, It's at a Rome train station before I headed to Cagliari.

Transfer calls!, Sergio, 16 turtles‏

2009-07-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well happy...Nine months in the mission to me! It's so crazy that I've been out nine months. I still feel like a little kid in the mission in some senses. But in reference to where I started I can see that I've grown and gotten better. But perhaps I just started at such an awkward level to begin with. ha ha I can't decide if the mission's going fast or slow. Time is just a different thing here. Days don't really mean anything. Every day is just a day where the forecast is work! Sometimes I laugh about it being Friday or something because to everyone around me, that means something...but in these days, it's just another day to go out and get some work done. I've really learned so much from my first nine months and have oodles left to learn. I'm happy to be here. It's where I'm supposed to be and I'm very grateful for the opportunity.SO...transfers. Oh dear I'm kind of stressed out to the max but I'm trying to be cool. So usually we find out what will happen for transfers on Monday and then on Thursday is when you go to Rome and make the change from your old companion to your new companion. Sardegna has always been a little different because everyone who gets transfered on the island has to leave Wednesday night in order to get to Rome on time Thursday. So we get one less day with the news--to say goodbye to people, take pics, exchange addresses, and have our last appointments with our investigators. This transfer President Acerson decided to change things. He decided to tell the whole mission on WEDNESDAY what's going to happen for transfers. So...it's 11:00 a.m. here and we still haven't heard anything about transfers but, for instance, if my companion or I have to leave, we have to get all of our stuff packed by like 5:00 TONIGHT and get on a train. AH! So...I would love to tell you if I'm still going to be here next transfer or if I'm getting a new companion...but I have no clue. I don't know if I'll be sleeping in Cagliari tonight...niente. SO...Next week? ha haOn to something of greater importance: Our appointment with Sergio last Wednesday went great! I asked him why he let us in to his house the first time and he said that he'd heard only good things about our religion and wanted to know more. But the thing that killed me was he said that he's looking for the truth! I feel like he's going to write his own article in the Ensign some day. He has so many questions but they're all really interesting and show that he really thinks about these kinds of things.ALSO we had an appointment with Roberta. We asked her if she'd prayed about a baptismal date and she gave us a not direct answer. She said that sometimes she wants to be baptized. One thing that was pretty huge is she said that she went to some event or something in the catholic church and she said that she missed our church. We talked to her about the law of chastity. I was slightly nervous about it because she's a young girl and it just had potential to be slightly awkward with the language barrier and other factors. But it actually went really well and she even asked us some questions!--which was grand because I seriously worried she'd be uncomfortable and quiet the whole time so...success!! We talked to her about how she's feeling about being baptized and she said that she just needs to be sure. We bore our testimonies about how important the little things are in a testimony. That she really needs to be reading her scriptures and praying and it will help her receive her answer.On Sunday we went to track down a woman in our area book who is a former investigator but also an English class student. So...we just showed up to her house! ha ha She let us right in and we read some scriptures with her and as we were about to leave she said, "Do you want to see my garden?" I know it's weird but I just couldn't resist! I just find all of these cute little Italian gardens adorable! So...we went out and it was huge! She was walking around in an interesting way, pushing away leaves as if she was looking for something on the ground. She started pointing to something and it was a turtle! They were everywhere! She has 3 big ones that aren't penned off, and they're the ones that lay the eggs and stuff and then she has 13--I kid you not---that are penned off! I just died laughing. I mean really, I had no idea when I woke up that morning that I would run across 16 turtles just kicking it in our former investigators backyard. So she let us take a couple of pictures with them because...how often to you get to mix and mingle a woman who has her own land of turtles in her backyard. Good thing she's adorable.Well, I'll wrap it up there for this week. In case you were wondering....still no transfer calls...not even since I've been writing this e'mail. ha ha Oh my life. Well I love you all. The Italian people are just the ticket. (What I mean by that is...I love them.) I hope you're all healthy, happy, and saying your prayers. Love from Cagliari! Sorella Hansen

~~ Alright avid readers, it's that time again... Time to leave some 'Happy 1/2 way' comments for our favorite sorella! She loves to hear from you, let's make her day!~~

Worm cheese, walking great lengths, Miracle named Sergio‏

2009-06-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

The Sanchez family. They're great members. We helped Adrian with English homework.

Sorella Barbiere, Adrian, Sorella Sanchez, Me

The sun was really bright... I know, it looks awkward.

The day of the little red bugs. We pulled our mattresses outside and wrote letters. (P-day, don't worry.) I'm 21 and still love juice boxes. This day I'm lovin' the apricot!

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BUONGIORNO....Principessa! (Sorry fellas) Well this week was such a surprise and I'm really excited to tell you about it. So...there's something here in Sardegnia called Worm Cheese. It's actually illegal to sell...but not illegal to buy. We missionaries have been wanting to get our hands on it just so we could try it and tell the story. Welp, don't even worry about it, the elders got some. We had our weekly meeting as missionaries and they had a wheel of cheese that as soon as you opened the paper that it was wrapped in, little white worms starts jumping everywhere! It was gross. So they brought crackers and we all ate some worm cheese! I ate it in a fret so I didn't really feel them jumping in my mouth. Some of the elders would just put a worm in their mouth and eat it...but I'm not that brave slash....you know. Anywhoodle, yeah for cultural experiences? ha ha I have always wanted to prove to myself that I could do something "Fear Factor"ish. ha ha There you have it. Worm cheese!On Monday we wanted to go find an in-active member who lives a couple of cities away. We took a bus to Frutti D'oro and we were SUPPOSED to take another bus to Poggio Dei Pini (Our destination) HOWEVER, it turns out that there's like a 5 hour break when the bus comes for that city. So we would have had to wait for like 4 hours for a bus and then who knows when there would be another one to take us home. So what did we do? We walked!! It took a bit and was toasty hot, but we were going to find this in-active! I just busted up laughing so many times along the way about how far we were walking and how sweaty we were. haha It was hilarious. I took a couple of pictures. we were romping around through mountainous terrain in search of a lost sheep! And after an hour and a half of walking, we got there. Unfortunately for us...she wasn't at home. We left her a note and told her that we walked to her house because we really wanna see her. haha Hopefully she feels the love behind it. No I constantly feel amused at how sweaty I get here. I'm not one to sweat profusely or anything but really...it's remarkable. Sometimes we'll get to a lesson and sit down and I'll have a thought in my head, "Wow, there is actually a driblet of sweat going down my calf." It's crazy stuff but...it doesn't stop me from loving Italy and all the amazing people here. Being sweaty is just part of the delightful experience. So I will be honest, last week was a bit of a doozy. It just felt like a lot of our appointments were falling through, our investigators wouldn't answer their phones and/or call us back, and it just felt like nothing was working out. We did a lot of house this week and one of the times that we did house I'm pretty sure I almost went all emotional-woman and burst into tears on the doorstep. It was a man who told us that he'd been to our church when he was younger. I just got so much hope and just tried to bear my testimony of our message and he shut me down. I tried one more time to bear testimony of why we were there on his doorstep and he kinda...was more blunt and less patient with me. It really shocked me how hard that moment was on me. If anything, it was really good though, because it helped me remember how important this church really is, and it really IS sad when people don't want to accept it. I think that night my prayer was a lot more sincere.There is always a light at the end of the tunnel and sun after a storm. The very next day was just that. We felt like we should go back to Dolianova. It's a city that we went to for the first time to see a refferal from salt lake. All of our appointments had ducked out on us, and we somehow decided to go back to Dolianova and do a day of house! So we did. We walked to a certain part of the city and prayed about which of the two streets to do. We both felt like we should do the same one. We started and finished the street with no one interested. At the end of the street and I said, "Well Sister Bjarnason why were we supposed to do this street?" One of the people who had shut us down was a pass-back from the last time we were there. We left a note in her mailbox because no one answered. On that street, she was at a friends house and shooed us away. So I said, "Maybe we needed to have closure on Angela." At the end of this street, we turned left onto another street and kept going. We got to one door and my companion told this man that we had a message of Jesus Christ. He said, "What?" She said it again and he said, "Okay, come in." We sat down and from the get-go he wanted to hear about our message. He had some amazing sincere questions about how to know if you're making the right decision. We talked to him about prayer and we taught him the restoration. He was listening so carefully to us and the spirit was so strong. It was so amazing. I know for sure that he felt it. We left, inviting him to church and we thanked him for letting us talk to him about the gospel. He thanked us for telling him about Joseph Smith. He said, "I never heard of him before. Thank you so much for telling me." And it was just so amazing. We have another appointment with him tonight which means that our P-day will be cut a little bit short but good riddance! I don't even care! He's just amazing and so sincere. I can't wait to teach him again tonight. One of the members of the branch presidency lives in that city too so we want to do a family home evening all together. AH! It was just such a wonderful experience after a rough time. I talked with my companion about it afterwards. When we prayed about the two streets that we wanted to do house on, the street that we both felt good about--nothing actually happened on that street. But we needed to take that street in order to turn and get to Sergio. The other street would have taken us somewhere else. It's just cool that Heavenly Father helps us out and helps us see a bigger picture. I'm grateful for the good experiences and the hard ones. I'm learning and growing and there's no other way that could happen if it was always easy. Thanks for being wonderful you guys. I love you all very much and keep you in my prayers. Transfers are on Monday. I don't think that I'm going anywhere--I sure hope not!--but perhaps my companion will leave. She's been here for 3 transfers so...who knows. I'll find out on Monday. Take care, love your lives, and know that I love ya. Sardegnian amore, Sorella Hansen

Referral from Salt Lake, Baptism disaster, Queen‏

2009-06-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

The Goumba family! They're members that had us over pretty frequently. They're amazin'. My last night with them they made fried bananas. I was nervous but uh... socks rocked? Check!

Sorella Goumba, Marilena, Me, Sorella Chevalier, Stefano

Carmela and Giada! Yeah for investigators!

Carmela, Sorella Chevalier, Giada, Me

My dear lil' Italian comp. Sorella Barbiere. This was our first P-day together at the Vatican.

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Buongiorno from roasty toasty BEA-utiful Sardegna! Everything is going splendid. Every week has new fun surprises. This week we bought a special bus ticket to go like an hour away for an appointment. It was a referral from Salt Lake. We didn't really know what to expect but it ended up being amazing. It's a couple and their 6 year old son and they went to America for vacation a couple of weeks ago. I was like, "Er...why did you go to Utah?" ha ha And they went to a bunch of our national parks and they went to the Salt Lake Temple. I couldn't believe that they would even know what it was. But we'll meet with them again this week. They're an amazing family and I'm excited to keep working with them.OH MAN! There was a baptism on Sunday. It's one of the Elders investigators named Marco. So I had to play the piano for the baptism and I thought that that would suffice as my contribution to the baptism. Welp, as a missionary...you just get volunteered a lot and you have to be happy to do it. ha ha So...they asked me and my companion if we would sing a song. So we picked Abide With Me...but obviously in Italian and I kid you not....it was more then just a little of a let down. My companion, bless her heart, doesn't really like to sing. She's really quiet and her eyes were glued to her hymn book the whole time--though maybe it was better that way because I looked up at the audience every now and then and I just wanted to run for the gates! ha ha The Branch President and his wife were mouthing the words for us and some people had confused looks on their faces. ha ha Oh dear. I told Anziano Brewster (our zone leader who does musical theater) that perhaps he should be the designated musical number. ha ha Oh buddy is was a disaster. I kind of wish that I had it on film or something but at the same time I don't think I could make it through. It was wretched, but....the most important part is that ol' Marco got baptized and will get the Holy Ghost on Sunday. Let's just focus on that!We haven't been able to talk to Queen for a while. We call her and she doesn't answer. Last time we saw her she was having problems with one of her feet and she was waiting to hear about whether or not her husband can come out of jail. We just dropped by her house yesterday to see how she's doing and she's great. I guess we have to wait until July 7th to see if her husband can come out. But we got to meet a couple of her relatives that are all from Nigeria. It's fun. We have a bunch of people that are potentials but the tricky part is turning them into investigators. We'll figure it out though!Well today we hiked Devil's Saddle ....again because the Assistants are here and we wanted to do something as a district. ha ha We've hiked Devil's Saddle three times now. ha ha I actually really enjoy it but I also come home looking like a sweaty little mongrel. It's hardly my best look, but I'm getting over it! It is getting hot and toasty here in Sardegna. The slightest breeze is paradise though! Good thing this church is true eh? I usually talk to people on the buses about how hot it is and they say something like, "Oh, just wait until July and August." That doesn't do anything to make me feel better--espcially when their solution to the heat is to go to the beach. "Hey guys, I'm a sista missionary. We can't just go kick it and the beach."Welp, that's it for this week. I love you guys very much and pray for ya and hope that you're happy and doing well. Thanks for everything. You're wonderful. Vi voglio un sacco di bene! Sorella Mallory Hansen

ANFFAS, new investigator, our pet chubbers‏

2009-06-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

This is Aldo. He's pretty much the highlight of English class in Rome. HILARIOUS!! He used to be a piano player for a living so after English class Anz. Herrick & I would throw out requests and off the top of his head he would play and sing. He even played at the Ritz! Anywho my favorite request was 'My Heart Will go On' that Titanic song by Celine Dion. No worries. GOT a video and you can see it 2010.

Ha, Ha... THE witch hunt baptism dress!
Me, Sorella Chevalier, Diana, Mani

The day of Diana's baptism!

Diana, Sorella Chevalier, Me

Lunch at Vince and Elenas. They're THE best BTW. We were joking about the juice that we brought (called 'Don Simon') life of the party. LOVE these guys.

Me, Anz. Brock, Anz. Herrick, Anz. Rogers, Elena, Anz. Bradford, Vince, Sorella Chevalier

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Happy Fathers day fellas! (Sorry it's a week late.) :)Welp another loveably unpredictable week here in Cagliari. One of my favorite things that we do here is our service. Oh man, we go and volunteer with this...agency?...it's called Anffas. It's so much fun. It's people who have mental disabilities and they go to this center everyday and make things like picture frames and decorate boxes and journals. It's really cool actually. So, we get to help them every Thursday for a couple of hours and talk with them. They just completely kill me, they're so funny. We ride the bus with them to the place and it's so much fun. The bus driver loves us and pretty much considers us family (Uh...yeah, he's so getting baptised if I have anything to say about it. He'd be great with the young men. Yeah, sometimes I let my mind jump ahead of reality. First thing's first!) He always asks us stuff about the church and it's fun to watch his interest and see how he thinks about these things that we tell him. So this bus driver always asks us funny questions about America and it gets everyone on the bus laughing. They've asked us about Halloween, how we celebrate Christmas, what fruits we have, musicians, etc. It's so funny. I wish my life could be filmed when I'm with them because they're just too funny.Well, we had a couple of appointments with potential investigators this week--which is a big deal for us. This last transfer I've tried to be better about getting peoples phone numbers. THIS transfer I've been trying to figure out how to turn those numbers into appointments, and therefore turn THEM into investigators. Well, our appointment on Sunday kinda...tanked. ha ha It was with a guy named (and I'm not even joking) Golam. I proved to be completely oblivious to the world and he ended up being Muslim and tried to tell us how there were no more prophets after Mohammad and that we were wrong. Well, the only thing I felt to do was to bear my testimony that I know that Joseph Smith was called of God. It seemed to me more of a learning experience for us as missionaries then a ground breaking lesson for him.On the other hand, we had 2 other appointments with potential investigators (just people that I'd met on the bus) and...2 new investigators this week! One of them is named Mattia. This is such a cool story. So I met him on the bus on Saturday. When I say I met him, I mean....I noticed him but wasn't able to talk to him before I had to get off of the bus. Thank goodness Heavenly Father gives second changes. Sunday--the very next day, mind you--I got on the bus and made eye contact with him. I realized this was the loving slap in the face that I needed and I just walked up to him and sat down and started talking. He immediately said that he had heard of our church before. By the end of the conversation--right when I was about to get his phone number---HE said to ME, "Hey, why don't I give you my phone number and you can send me a message when your English class is." Er....for reals? You're OFFERING to give me your phone number? That stuff doesn't just happen does it?! So, I called him on Monday to tell him that our English Class was on Tuesday night if he wanted to come. He said he had to work but asked if we could do it some other time. We told him we could teach him some English earlier in the day. (We've taught English to people before, but it's hard to slip the gospel in if you don't start with it from the get go) So I said, "And because we're missionaries, we love to talk about the church. So we'll do a spiritual thought beforehand is that okay?" And he was totally cool with it.SO at the appointment, we started with the "spiritual thought" where we taught him about the restoration of the church. At the beginning I was just praying that he'd pay attention and be interested. Welp, don't even worry about it, he was asking questions and it was such a great lesson. At the end of the lesson I asked him how he felt about the things that we'd taught him and he said that he believed it. We'll meet with him again sometime this week. And in the end, we said, "Well do you wanna do some English?" and he didn't really seem to want to. He really just wanted to hear about the gospel! It's great to see that there are people that just really truly want to hear our message, there are people that are ready. I'm ever so grateful that Heavenly Father is patient with me because sometimes I drop the ball out here. But He has given me second chances SEVERAL times and I'm just so grateful that He humors ol' Sorella Hansen because I'm learning a lot.In other news I am still as girly and ridiculous as ever. Our laundry machine is out on the porch and so for some reason whenever I go out to put some laundry in the machine...there is always at least one chubster lizard out there! I usually make some sort of unvoluntary reflex reaction/sound and scamper back inside to tell my companion. (Because she really wants a picture of them) I don't know why, but they're never out there when she puts her laundry in. Negative. It's just when I'm out there. So awkward. So I can just imagine our neighbors across the way watching me tip-toe onto the porch with an armful of laundry, trying to be sneaky and quiet in case I need to make a fast get-away from our unwanted lizard friends. Ah, my life. At least Sorella Bjarnason has captured a picture of one so she knows that I'm not completely nuts.Well, I hope that you're all doing great and are healthy, happy, and loving every moment of your beautiful lives. I'm trying to do the same over here. I want you to know that I do have a testimony of this church. I know that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet to restore the church. I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much and answers every sincere prayer. I adore reading the scriptures. It's debatably awkward, my love for the scriptures. I learn so much from them and love my hour a day that I get to learn from them. I love you guys very much. Drive safe. Put on Sun Block. And remember that there's a blond sister missionary in Sardegna that loves you very much! Sorella Hansen

Scambi, Rita, Interestin' food‏

2009-06-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well hello family and friendsiesIt has been yet another not disappointing week in Sardegna! First of all, at this moment I'm not e-mailing from Cagliari but from Sassari. It's like the northern most part of the island....ish. ha ha But we are doing a scambi. (A companion exchange) It's been a crazy week because right after our district meeting on Monday we had to take the train to Sassari (it takes like 4 hours but on top of that it was delayed). I was SUPPOSED to just drop sorella Bjarnason off and bring Sorella Hughes right back on the train BUT because our train took so long to get to sassari...we missed the train back. So I had to sleep here in Sassari without anything. No pajamas, to shower goods, no new clothes for the next day, toothpaste...nada. So it was interesting. It wouldn't be a very big deal, but I have to be a missionary, you know? Like I can't just look completely mangled and ravaged by wolves for no good reason. I'm pretty sure it's in the rule book! ha ha Anyway, so the Tuesday morning we woke up at like 5:30a.m. to take the train home to Cagliari, we had a full day and then this morning (wednesday) we woke up at 4:30a.m. to take the train back up here to drop off Sorella Hughes and pick up my companion. ha ha Man oh man it's been an adventure. Lots of train rides for Sorella Hansen! So I'll take yet another train ride home today at 2 and then no more train rides for a while. It's been an adventure to say the least!SO let me tell you about something completely wonderful that happened! So do you remember Giuliano? I met him my first week here in Cagliari and went to talk to him while we were doing Mostra. Anyway, we taught him two lessons and then he stopped answering my calls. I was actually SO sad about it because I really felt like I was supposed to talk to him and I ....I dunno, it was just sad that he just stopped answering. So we went a MONTH without hearing from him, and him not answering. Well a week ago we got stood up on an appointment and I just ended up walking to this piazza to make a phonecall. Well, guess who was just hanging out at the Piazza? Giuliano himself! Anyway after the conversation I still got the feeling that he was holding back. He told me that he was really busy with work and stuff and THAT's why he didn't answer. I tried to be nice but I didn't believe a word of it. You can tell. Anywhoodles, so then this sunday we went to this Piazza to do chalk. (pretty much we lay a sheet down on the ground and draw the plan of salvation or something). You'll never guess who we ran into...our ol' boy Giuliano! AH! I kind of felt frustrated and like I didn't really know what to do. So I did chalk for a second and then went over and sat by him and talked to him. IT WAS SPLENDID! Listen to this: So he told me that he had read 30 pages of the book of mormon. Er...I think my mouth dropped open as he continued by retelling the whole story of Nephi killing Laban!! Seriously, come on, does this really happen?! So I felt like I could do this so...I totally called him on not answering our calls. ha ha And it actually turned out being just the right thing to do. He knows my personality well enough that it worked and he understood and it was good. I guess he just felt like it was too much for a bit and wanted to wait for a little bit. I was just like "Giuliano, if we're not going to hear from you for a month will you just tell me first?!" ha ha He just laughed and...whaddaya know, we have an appointment for Saturday! It was such a rewarding experience to have an investigator that I found tell me a story from the book of mormon. It just helps remind me that I'm supposed to be here when something like this happens. It was the best feeling and I just felt so happy for him. I'm trying to work on being more bold and in this situation it worked out!On our scambi yesterday with Sorella Hughes, we had an appointment with our new investigator, Rita, that we found doing house like a week ago. Holy smokes that family is great! It's her and her husband Antonio, and their daughter Federica (who's 26) and HER son Alessandro (who's 19 months). It was really cool. Federica is practically my age and she is fantastic. If things go according to planned, then she'll be a new investigator next time. We were able to finish teach the first lesson-the restoration. It went well. There were some elements that were a bit out of our control but it went really great. Federica had some really amazing and sincere questions. She told us that she doesn't believe in the catholic church and she feels like the people in that church are just men. You know like...pretty much saying that she doesn't feel like they have authority. Which was cool. THEN, I'll have to explain something. In the catholic church, they don't pray directly to Heavenly Father. They pray to Mary--the mother of Jesus, and she I guess...delivers the message...or something. Also, they pray to saints. But Federica was telling us that she doesn't like praying to the Madonna (Mary), because she says that it doesn't feel natural and she just doesn't like it. It's just so cool to see people recognizing inside themselves a desire for the truth. They don't always recognize it, but it's so clear that there's something inside of her desiring to know. BAH! Love it!After the lesson we had lunch with them. We had some crazy stuff! I thought, when I got my mission call that I was pretty safe as far as weird food goes. It's italy! Come on! But I had my first Anchiovies! I don't know if I spelled that right. But they were...hardly ideal. I dunno, like I was able to swallow but I wouldn't force them upon anyone that I love! Also, after the meal we had a green fig. It was like the size of a baseball but shaped like a ...top. You know, like those toys that you spin. Then on the inside it looked like a sea anenomi (Wow, my spelling has gone rapidly down periscope! Sorry if you can't understand a lick of this e-mail) The texture of what was inside was completely bizarre. It looked like it should live and sway about in salty water, and should glow-in-the dark. ha ha It was the craziest thing but it was actually pretty A-okay. I think I'll try another one sometime!Well thanks for tuning in to this eternal e-mail. I hope that everything's going great for everyone. I learned so much from my scambi from Sorella Hughes. She's a really bold missionary. That's one thing that I really want to work on because it's so great. The church is true. Read your scriptures. Say your prayers. And love your beautiful lives everyday, all the time. Sardegnian love, Sorella Hansen

Zone Conference, Lost & Found, Answerin' prayers‏

2009-06-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

Family and friends ... This week has been a splendid one indeed! First of all, we had Zone Conference yesterday and it actually blew my mind! Elder Kopischke came (Probably butchered the spelling of his name...He's German. I speak Italian now...it's just not in the cards for me to know how to spell it!) Anywho, he's kind of an Elder Jeffrey R. Holland kind of a speaker. You certainly don't leave feeling prideful and like the best missionary in the world. That's for sure. I don't know how he does it but somehow he sweeps the pride ladder right out from under you and somehow you just get up feeling completely okay about it. Seriously I don't know how he gets the job done. I just wanted to be 500 percent better. He really talked about the importance of planning and finding. He said those are the things that we need to work on in this mission. He's right. I think I took like half a notebook worth of notes and just loved it. We were in church like all day. The Zone conference started at 10 and then ended at 5. It was a doozy. THEN we had English class afterwards which was a good time as usual.So here's a rad story that I really wanted to share. My first week here in Cagliari I talked to someone on the bus. I remember it was my birthday. I talked to this guy for like 15 minutes and I was really stoked about it and then when we got off I didn't get any of his information and this other guy at the bus stop started talking to us and...before I knew it the OTHER bus that we needed to take came and we needed to get on. I felt really bad that I didn't get Massimo's information or anything. We were doing service that morning at an inactive members house and I just remember being preoccupied the whole time because I felt bad. Well, every time we're at that bus stop I say a little prayer that by some chance he'll get off a bus or we'll already be at the stop. So. on Saturday we left an appointment with one of our investigators and were walking back to the bus stop. The street was unusually chaotic. There were lots of things that were distracting. Old men painting the walls of an apartment building, some young guys making a van driver mad because they were in the middle of the road, etc. Well, we continued on and I noticed there was someone in a doorway up ahead. I was just going to say "buona serra" and keep going but about when we got even with him I froze in my steps and just whispered "aspetta..." I turned around and the guy in the doorway smiled. I said, "Massimo?" and he nodded. It was crazy! I don't think I hid my excitement to finally see him again. ha ha We stopped and talked to him for a bit and got his info and...it was just a splendid answer to prayer. The thing is, I don't know for sure how interested he is or anything, but Heavenly Father helped me out. I jacked up my first try and He gave me an opportunity to have closure and try again. Ah. How cool is that?! After it happened, like every ten steps I would ask my companion "Can you even believe that that happened just now?!"Here is another Jewel that happened: We were early to an appointment with one of our investigators by like..45 minutes. My companion and I have a goal of doing house everyday. So...perfect opportunity. We got off the bus stop and were walking in the direction of the investigators house and were just glancing down the street trying to feel out which street we should do house on. I saw one and honestly I don't remember any overwhelmingly strong feeling or anything but I just felt like, "okay, that's it." We crossed the street and said a prayer outside of the first door and got started. The first door was actually pretty fun. The guy wasn't super interested but we had a good conversation and we left him with a pamphlet and a good impression of the missionaries. So we continued on down the street. We got to one door and this man in his 50's answered. I excitedly told him who we are and that we have a message about the Savior and he kind of smiled and said, "Let me get my wife." Well, the wife came around the corner and I introduced us again and she just smiled and said to come in and make ourselves comfortable. Uh....wait, what? We went in and asked them about the pictures on the wall of their family. They were SO nice to us. I just instantly fell in love with this cute couple. My companion looked at her watch pretty much right as we sat down on the couch and...we were almost late for our appointment with our investigator. I asked if we could just say a prayer with her and come back and teach them about the church another day. She said yes. She told us several times that she was so thankful that we came. That we brought her so much joy. She said she'd been having a really hard day, was feeling really down, and that we were an answer to her prayers. She started crying. We went and gave her a big hug. It was so amazing. We have an appointment with them tonight and if things go according to planned, we'll have two new investigators tonight! How cool is that that we answered someone's prayer? It just made us wanna knock on so many more houses and help more people. Who knew? House works!There's so much more that I could tell but this will suffice. What a great week as a missionary. I certainly have flaws up the wall (thanks Anziano Kopischke! ha ha) but we get so blessed and Heavenly Father is sure patient. It's been cool to watch us as a companionship. My companion has grown and gotten so much better. I'm not saying that she's bad, because she's wonderful. But it's cool to look back at when we started and say, "Well, look at you cute thing, you're talking to people on the buses more and more." or "I was so proud of you when you chased that old lady down at zone singing." We're learning and growing a lot together. No doubt there is a lengthy laundry list of things to change but little by little we're learning how to better do this work and trying to make it a fun and happy work too. Because...it should be. :) I love you guys so much. Be safe! Lots of Sardegnian love, Sorella Hansen

Transfers, Musical Number, Adelle‏

2009-06-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

(Photo courtesy of Google images ;)

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Well Hi-dee-ho~We had transfer calls on Monday and, you guessed it....uh...I'm not going anywhere. :) I'm actually so glad that I'm not going anywhere. I'm really happy to be here in Cagliari and my companion is staying with me too. I have learned so, so much this last transfer. I hope I can be here for a long time.So I noticed something this week that I thought I'd share. It's just a random moment of my life but I enjoy it so here it goes. There's this one bus stop that we go to kind of often because it takes us to church. Well, when we're at this stop we usually have to wait for a while for the bus. ALMOST every time at some point during our wait, a little old Italian man on a rickety old bicycle will ride by and we'll say hi to him. It's not even that it's the same guy--it's a different old man every time--but every time I just kind of smile because I love it. It just seems like such an Italian moment doesn't it? It just makes me laugh and I enjoy it. It made me think of that one part in the Truman Show when Jim Carrey notices that certain people pass his house every day. I felt like I was on the Truman Show. Somebody knows that I love these adorable little Italian men on their bicycles and they magically get cued to pass me when I'm waiting at the bus stop. ha ha I love it.So there was a baptism this weekend. It's one of the investigators of the elders. His name's Giovanni. The zone leader, Anziano Brewster, asked me if I would play the piano while he sang for a musical number. He ended up wanting me to make the last verse a third higher and make a pretty little transition between verses. ha ha I think he misunderstood my capabilities with the piano but, of course, I told him yes and did my best. It was simple, but really pretty. He sang "Come Thou Fount" in Italian (obviously) with Anziano Pace. It was way pretty.AND we had an investigator at the baptism, Adelle! Oh my word I wish every one of you could meet this woman. She's just completely unreal. I pretty much die laughing every time I'm with her. She has the best personality. She's SO happy, has this wide-eyed innocence about her, just every thing's exciting. It's my favorite. She loved the baptism too. I was standing behind her as she was watching Giovanni get baptised and I saw her move her arm and she told me, with her eyes all lit up and big, that she got goosebumps. Ah man, she's great. THEN she came to church the next day! So I mistook her age last time I wrote. I think she's like 70 but she dresses so cute and just has the most adorable personality she just seems so young. But anyway, since it was the fifth Sunday of the month we had a combined meeting and the District President just mentioned modesty a little in his lesson. Afterwards I talked with Adelle and she asked me if she needed to take her earrings out and her rings off. ha ha She's adorable. And she's already a hit with the branch. How can you not love her though?AND to make things greater. I hope I told you the story about the man who offered us water because it was so hot. Well, we went back to see them this week and we brought a bottle of water with us to give to them and we wrote a little card that was just like, "Thanks for the water. One day you guys will be two of the Seventy". (I hope I wrote this story last week otherwise this will make little sense.) Anyway, they loved it and we got to talk to them a little bit more. Well, one of these men came to sacrament! Granted, he was a little late but he still came and talked to us and said 'hi'. His brother-in-law is a member in Milan. It was a great day.Well, every thing's going chipper. I'm learning a lot. I have so many things to work on and improve it's kind of ridiculous but little by little I can see the changes that are happening and the help that I'm receiving. I really do feel so blessed to have the opportunity to serve as a missionary. There are still days that I scratch my head as to why Heavenly Father wanted me to be a missionary but it's awesome. Thanks for all of your support, prayers, letters, and love. I love you all so very much and pray for you all the time. Be happy and take care.

Italian sister missionary love, (which is the best kind you know) Sorella Hansen

New Investigator, Adelle, Water and Italian Hospitality‏

2009-05-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

I wanted you to see the saw-weet Italian street behind me but... you mostly get a close up of yours truly and a railing... sorry :)
Yeah RUINS!
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Well, what an adventurous week it has been! To start things off, it's been getting a bit hot in these parts. These days it's hardly out of the ordinary to feel like your whole body is just a little bit sweaty. Yup, it's yummy. ha ha Though I've heard that it gets much much worse. Apparently the temperature can get up to 40 degrees Celsius. I'll be 500 percent honest with you...I have no idea what that is in Fahrenheit...but I feel like it's not Cold weather! Oh well! I suppose I'll just have to make the sweaty, ravaged look work for me. ha ha Also, along with this fabulous weather I have been noticing a little something with my feet. The other day I took my shoes off and thought, "Oh mylanta, my feet look so dirty!" Well it turns out, I just have a tan line that makes me look like I have dirty hobbit feet. ha ha There are just so many funny situations that I'm running into as a missionary. You just have to laugh because there's nothing else to do. I'm gonna take a picture of my feet someday but I want to wait because I have a feeling this is just the beginning! My toes are glowy white and then there's a clear curve tan where the top of my feet are such a pretty brown! ha ha Best of both worlds?So this week has been fabulous. We have a new investigator! Woot Woot! We love new investigators! Her name is Bonaria. She is someone that Sorella Hughes and I met when we did house two Saturdays ago and I passed back with Sorella Bjarnason and ....she let us in! What?!? It was the first time that I've ever been let in doing house. I wished my life was on film and that I could just replay that monumental moment over and over. We went downstairs and met her son (He's probably like 30 or 40) and at first I thought he was kinda cold to us. He just shook our hands and then went back in his room. Then after a little bit of us talking to Bonaria she told us that her son is shy. AH! Lightbulb! I can see how he would be shy and not mad. That's okay! We can work with that! I asked her if he'd want to come hear the lesson too, but by that time he was in the shower so...yeah...no. We ended up teaching her the Plan of Salvation (because she's had a daughter that died in a car accident I believe) and it went really well. She understands the scriptures really well. It kind of freaked me out honestly because we were teaching about Adam and Eve and she seriously just understood it perfectly. So we'll be going back to see her again this week.I finally met an investigator that we have named Adelle. I met her for the first time this week and had our first appointment yesterday. (Other sisters taught her before me but she's been out of town a lot since I've been here) Oh my stars this woman is great. She's an older woman, probably like 60 but she's so cute I would think she was like 45 or something. She's so cute and wears cute little dresses, she's kind of a sass and therefore, I just already adore her! We talked about prophets and then shared President Thomas S. Monson's Conference talk with her "Finding Joy in the Journey". Oh man, she's the best. I'm so so excited to keep working with her. The elders might have a baptism on Saturday and if so, we're going to go out there and pick her up and bring her because she's just unreal! Man, I wish you guys could meet her, I just can't describe her properly. She's just marvelous. Oh, President's Interviews are tomorrow morning which I'm excited about. I love talking to President Acerson. He's the most amazing man. And along with the joy that comes from talking to the mission president...I will also get some mail--which we all know that I don't hate. :) And then transfer calls are on Monday! This transfer has gone so fast it's crazy. I'm pretty sure that nothing's going to happen to our companionship but you never know. I'll let you know next week.OH! Another little story before I say good-bye for the week. So while we were walking to Adelle's house after the bus stop, we ran into this man who was walking from one building where he was working, to another. Anyway he just looked at us and said, "It's hot today huh?" And we said yes. And he invited us to come into the garage where he was working to have a drink of water. It was this huge open garage and he offered us some water and we talked to him and his friend a bit before our appointment. He said that his brother is a member in Milano. He was trying to tell me that his brother joined the church in the 70's but I heard him wrong, and I said, "Your brother is one of the 70?!" And then he said, "What's the 70?" I ended up understanding what he ACTUALLY said and I happened to have the Ensign in my backpack that has the pictures of the prophet, twelve, and the seventy so I showed him the pictures and we had a good laugh about the whole misunderstanding. ha ha One day I will understand this language, but until then...plenty of good time misunderstandings. ha ha Ah..yes. How nice are Italian people by-the-way, that they just offered us water and they don't even know us? I thanked them, gave them a pamphlet (after our church chat) and we're gonna try to return and talk to them again.Welp, that's all for this week. I hope every body's doing so good and are having a fabulous summer so far. I love you and pray that you're happy and just having the best day, everyday. Italian love, Sorella Mal

Sister scambi, Finding Susan, 6 Numbers‏

2009-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

Scratch marks for how many days they had to stay there. Count of Monte Cristo anybody?

P.S. I don't remember where I was for this picture... just that I had to donate like 10 cents to go in. Wherever it was, somebody was in there for a while.

P.S.S. I'm the worst tourist ever.

.... and MORE ruins ... "Singing in the Rain" style.

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My marvelous fam and pals~ As always this week was full of fun surprises, learning experiences, and other joyous things! I got to go on my first scambi! I was actually so excited! (A scambi is just a companion exchange). So the two sisters that are serving in the north of the island came down for district conference and I got to be companions with Sorella Chevalier (my trainer) for like 12 hours and Sorella Hughes (from my MTC district) for another 12 hours. It was great actually! I've kind of felt jipped that the sisters don't really do scambi's because they're such a great opportunity to learn from other missionaries. So anywhoodle it was great. With Sorella Hughes we went to do house in this area that my companion and I feel like there's a future member--for certain! I'm glad that I was with Sorella Hughes because she killed it! Holy smokes, she's so great at doing house. I will be honest and tell you that house is not one of my strengths...at all. So Sorella Hughes was great to learn from. She told me that she tries to just start teaching from the moment that they open the door. She has this philosophy that if you ASK them if you can share a message, they say 'no'. So right when they open the door, she just starts teaching. She's so bold! Many times after a door would slam in our face or someone would say or do something ridiculous we just looked at each other and wished we had it on film to show our family and friends. ha ha It's unreal sometimes. We were talking about how much we've both changed since the MTC. We used to work out together and talk about how cool it was going to be to be REAL missionaries and not just pretending to be missionaries in the MTC. It's so cool so see the great missionary that she's turned into. Then we did a little Zone singing!! Woot Woot! I love zone singing actually! It was the first time that I've done zone singing here in Cagliari and it's WAY different then Rome. In Rome, there's people that will stop sporadically and listen, and then you go talk to them. Well this night, they weren't really stopping. One of our Zone Leaders, Anziano Brewster was just kind of following people and chasing people down to talk to them. I was trying not to die laughing because I was not prepared for such lengths! ha ha But Anziano Brewster talked to us before zone singing and told us to all make a goal of how many people we wanted to talk to and I was thinking, like 5 or 6, because we had the whole zone with us and somebody has to always be singing in the choir right? Well then Anziano Brewster said, "How about we all talk to 10 people." Whoa. I was startled but was game. So it went super well actually. I ended up getting 6 phone numbers! I was so excited! That's like more phone numbers then I've received since I've been in Cagliari and somehow they found their way into my planner and I just felt like I got slapped in the face with blessings and don't know how it happened! Yet, I will not complain. I've been flipping through our area book at lunch time and stuff and there are some investigators from a couple of years back that seem great but our record of them doesn't say why we stopped seeing them. One lady in particular was really bothering me that her record wasn't updated and I just really wanted to know what happened to her. It has been quite the search but we found her and actually met with her yesterday. It was so cool because after talking to her for like 10 minutes I just knew that she needs us. It's clear. So I'm really excited to work with her and help her because she's wonderful and because we have what she needs. Punto. In other news, I have officially decided that I have no future as a park ranger. I've never really considered it, but it's official, it's not happening. 1. bugs find me irresistibly delicious, and 2. it seems that any leafy plant with in a 15 foot radius of me just completely rubs me the wrong way! It's awkward. OH! For district conference this weekend President Acerson came because he had to speak and therefore he brought the love of my life: Mail!! I had a package and all of the elders just flocked around and offered the assistance of their pocket knives because they were THAT excited about seeing what was inside. Needless to say, the Peanut Butter M&M's were satisfying for them and we had the usual discussion about why there's no peanut butter in Europe . Ah yes, the excitement as a missionary on an island. ...peanut butter M&M's. ha ha I'm just saying, those of you who write me and tell me your lives are boring...not true. :) Well, I hope everything's going SO well for every one of you and hope you guys know that Sista Hansen loves you guys and hopes you're blissfully happy! As always, there's Italian love gettin' shipped in your direction, Sorella Mally

Mothers day, Getting stalked, Zone Conference‏

2009-05-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

Don't even know what this is exactly, but it reminded me of the Arc de Triumph in Paris so ... aka I love it!
Me and my 1st comp. Sorella Chevalier
If you look closely in the background you'll see something rare and hard to find..oh..yep... RUINS!

This is the golden plate that our English student Mohammad gave me... it's hanging in our bathroom.
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Happy mothers day to all of my family and friends who are, in fact, mamas!! Congrats on that! Mothers day is particularly enjoyable for us missionaries because we get to call home! It was a joyous day indeed! I was a happy lass! Although the time goes all too fast. It was so fun to hear their voices and talk for a bit. I only get to talk to them one more time and then I'm Homeward Bound. (Hey, isn't that also the name of that one animal movie where the dogs and cat get lost and fall down a waterfall or something. Wow, movies from my youth flashback. Yipers!) Anywho, I wrote a long beautiful e-mail and then it got deleted because my e-mail account has something vile against me. I'm trying to remain calm but just know that the e-mail that I previously wrote was brilliant!! So here is a story to get your hearts a-pumpin:Yesterday my companion and I were waiting at this bus stop by a grocery store because we were on our way to teach a girl English at her house. Well, while we were waiting I saw this car pulling in to the grocery store really slowly and the driver was looking in our direction so I tried to be a pleasant little missionary and smile and nodded. He continued to pull into the grocery store parking lot slowly---continuing to look at me (my companion had no idea any of this was happening) and I just tried to talk to her like no big deal and we were talking about our lesson for English class. Meanwhile this man pulls into a parking spot backwards and just keeps his car running. I was kinda freaked but just trying to play it cool and pretend like I didn't notice so that my companion wouldn't flip. So finally the bus came and I hurried and got on and thought the whole thing was over. I walked to the middle of the bus and looked back to see if the man had gotten out of his car to get groceries but ...negative, he actually pulled out of the parking spot, still watching us, and it appeared had every intention of following us! WHAT?! So I start going through my mind the different books I've read and movies that I've seen and am trying to come up with some clever escape. I informed my companion that we were being followed and since our bus stop was approaching I just decided to call our district leader and make him stay on the phone with me. So we got off the bus and I was talking to Anziano Pittson and I was right--this man had followed directly behind our bus the whole way and when we got off he drove slowly behind us. Uh....yeah, I was freaked. So since the street was a pretty fast moving street, I found some places that we could cross that would make it difficult for him to follow us (all the while talking to our District leader on the phone) and eventually we lost him. But my oh my it was quite the fright! End of the day it was a rare experience. I mean, how many people can say they've been followed by a 210% creeper on the Island of Sardegna? Perhaps not many.Also we had Zone Conference this last Thursday and it was great. President Acerson is the best! I just constantly write down everything that comes out of his mouth because he's amazin'. And another perk of zone conference is a little diddy that I like to call....POSTA! Yup, Mail! I love getting mail. Thanks for the letters guys. I'll be writing you back on the double! But until you receive them, just know that I wuv you very berry much and hope you're all healthy, happy, and not being followed by creepers. The church is true. Italian Kisses! Sorella Hansen

Birthday, Devil's Saddle, Mostra‏

2009-05-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

Buongiorno!!Hey guys! So this week was fantastic actually! I have met more investigators and members and I have been feeling a lot better about the whole city change thing. I am much more used to the city and love it more and more everyday.Last Wednesday we had an appointment with an investigator who is 14 and she is fantastic. It's just her and her dad at the house so we had to sit outside when we taught her but it went really well. We showed each other our pictures. Sorella Bjarnason and I showed our pictures of home and of our friends and stuff and then she went and got her pictures and showed us. It was fun and I think we've got a better relationship now.On Saturday we went to do some service in the morning at an inactive members house. We did a little weeding. It was actually pretty fun. It's nice to do some service like that from time to time. It's just tranquil and I love having time to just think. Also, it was my birthday! Woot woot! the big double 2! It's funny because holidays and birthdays just obviously aren't the same as they've been all growing up but they're fun in their own missionary way. :) After doing service we went and worked with another inactive member for a little bit. And my companion is actually so sweet and wrote little notes all over the apartment (while I was in the shower I guess) just saying happy birthday and stuff. It was really sweet of her. And then on Monday the Elders brought me a cake to our district meeting and sang. It was so thoughtful. It was my first birthday away from home but it was a good time. And actually while we were weeding in the morning, we got a text from our 14 year old investigator (that we had seen on Wednesday) and it just said happy birthday. I didn't even remember telling her that it was my birthday but it was actually so cute of her.This morning we woke up at the ripe ol' hour of 5:00 am so we could do some hikin'! We met up with the elders and hiked up to a park high up in the city and watched the sun rise while we did our morning studies. It was so beautiful! Then we met up with a couple of members and investigators to go on a hike! It's called "Devil's Saddle". It's supposedly where they say Satan fell from heaven or something. It was a way fun hike. I actually love hiking around. It just reminds me of family vaca memories. It was really fun. Oh mamma it's so hot though. I'm afraid that I'm going to be a pretty color of red tomorrow because I have yet to invest in sun screen. It's on my to-do list! AND...we kinda got lost on our way coming down the mountain...like we took a harder trail that took twice as long. But I really can't complain. In moments like that I just have to think "hey ya know what? Sure it's hot and we're lost but come on! I'm on an island off of Italy. It's beautiful and...I would be an idiot to complain". And by-the-way, the coast was BEAUTIFUL! I probably took like 200 pictures of the same coast and lighthouse but whatever! I will not apologize for it!I've just been thinking, it's been a year ago this week that I decided...slash...discovered, that I needed to go on a mission. It's just so crazy to think about how much my life has changed in a year. Just thinking that a year ago, I had NO CLUE that I'd be serving a mission, going to Italy or even that this Island of Sardegna existed. But now I'm here. I'm a missionary and this is my home. It doesn't cease to blow my mind. I'm sure everyone's lives change from year to year but this is one of the first that have been this drastic for me. Unplanned. But I really can't complain. I mean...I'm sure if I wanted to complain...I could come up with some things but in all honesty I just feel very blessed. Missions are hard. My friends and family weren't lying when they told me this. Yup, it's hard. That's no new news, but it's also just an incredible opportunity. I've met so many amazing people and have come to appreciate so many things that I certainly took for granted. I'm so blessed to be a member of the church. I'm very very blessed to have my family who are members of the church, who love me and support me. I'm very blessed to get to serve these amazing people. I truly love the Italian people. I love talking to them on the bus, I love trying to speak their gorgeous language that I botch to the max, and I love learning about their culture and trying to understand why they do things the way that they do. So...I dunno, I've just been thinking about certain situations that are hard or trying how to handle or adapt to things that are difficult and it just made me reflect on something that my mission president told me in our first interview. He just told me to be positive. (I know, it wasn't as profound as your were expecting. Nothing unheard of, that is) But it's true, when you want to see the good and beautiful things in your life--if you look for them, then you see them. It's the coolest thing. Sorry this is so random and scatter brained, but end of the day, it's something that I've been trying to work on ever since I went to France and has been something really fun for me. I just love taking crappy situations that come, and find something funny or something cool about the situation. It's my favorite actually because we can't decide what things happen to us, but we can decide how we feel about it and what we do about it. Anyway, this was random, I hope you all continue to love me after this little diddy. :)Ooo! One more thing! WE did my first mostra on Sunday! I'm sure I've talked about Zone Singing before, but mostra is different. Mostra is where we set up a "display" and then we go stop people on the street and try to get them to come look at the display and let us explain a little bit about the church. Well I noticed a man sitting a little ways off but from time to time he looked over at us and I just kept thinking "somebody's gotta go talk to that guy". There were a lot of people in this palazza. But I just kept looking at that guy and was driving myself crazy so I went and just sat by him and we talked for like 45 minutes. It was way cool actually. He used to take the lessons from us before I guess. His name's Giuliano and he was great. He's coming to church on Sunday and we exchanged phone numbers. I'm really excited to work with him. I know this goes against everything that we teach children these days but...I love talking to strangers! Don't tell the elementary school children, but I really do! I think it's so underrated. If you guys don't do it...you should give it a try. It's pretty fun and who knows, you might met a new friend or something.Anywho, I have written more then necessary this week. I hope you're all healthy and happy and know that Sorella Mally is thinking of you on this little Island and is sending TONS of Sardegnian love your way!! Sorella Hansen

Ooo! Fun Fact: I'm actually closer to Africa in this city then I am to the mainland of Italy. Who woulda thought eh?

Buon Compleanno!

2009-05-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Sorella Hansen!!!

Mallory, we love you and hope your day is full of Italian love and, knowing you, lots of new adventures! We are so excited and happy for you as you grow and become a stronger and more amazing woman each day of your mission. You are truly an example to each of us!

Lots and lots of Birthday love! ~ Your crazy Fam.

Birthday wishes or comments will be sent in this weeks e-mail so let's help her feel the BiRtHDaY LoVe!

Slappy, Ballerina, Cagliari‏

2009-04-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

Hey Fam and Friends~Well check it out...I'm off on an island attempting to converse in Italian. Who knew this would be my life?! Not I! Let me give you a little run down of the last week. Welp, on Thursday I went to the train station, met my companion, and we ALMOST missed our train to Civitavecchia. (Not even playin', like we were running with the elders taking my luggage and throwing it on the train). It was a "Home Alone" moment. Then we got off the train and found the big beautiful boat that was going to take me to my new city! It was so rad actually. We got to take some sweet escalators up a couple of floors to check-in (this detail is crucial for later) and after a comical, accidental tour of this massive boat (because we couldn't find our room) we settled into our little pocket-size room and got ready for our voyage! Well...the kicker was when we were getting off of the boat. So, I have two bags of luggage right? My companion had the littler one and I had the one that could fit Andre the Giant inside. Well, we were getting off of the boat and we had to take the escalators down....haha So, my companion went first pulling her luggage right behind her. And then....I stepped on and pulled the barge of luggage behind me. I don't know if I just didn't watch to make sure that it was properly fitting on one stair or what happened but....it fell on me...and then I kinda fell on my companion...and after some fast and incredibly awkward flailings I got back to the upright position and had my bag secured....but not before one of my flailings resulted in...the slapping of my companion. Uh...yeah. ha ha So, we hadn't even been companions for 24 hours and I already slapped my companion in the face. Luckily after I apologized many many times it was fine. And at least the boat staff got a kick out of the situation. Ah yes, Welcome to Cagliari indeed!Cagliari is beautiful! Holy Smokes! It's by the sea and it's adorable. I already don't want to leave. It's way different from Rome though, that's for sure. We went to church on Sunday and they had me play the piano for relief society (just like in the Rome ward.) It's just funny to me that nobody plays the piano here. It's just so, not original, in Utah. An awesome little confidence buster happened during the relief society lesson when the teacher asked the missionaries a question. I didn't understand what she asked me. I tried to clarify what I understood but she just shook her head. Meanwhile my companion was zoned out and I think I started sweating! ha ha I get really nervous when I don't understand. Apparently they wanted to hear a little story of when we've been rejected as missionaries or something. Inspiring!We had English class last night and it was really fun. The class had like 9 people show up which is a pretty big deal because we had about that many people in our intermediate class in ROME...and this is a smaller city. It was way cool though. The students were super nice to us and I had a lot of fun teaching them. We were teaching them about the English infinitive and I had written out a "sentence skeleton" (obviously that's not what it's really called, I just...don't know what it's called) and they had to write the sentence. Well, on one of them I had written "I/ to want / to be/ a ballerina" And then the person had to conjugate it in present, make it into a question, and negate it. Well, I had written many different sentences but the person who got this one was a skinny man who has a pony tail. He raised his hand to have me come correct the sentence that he wrote and I just busted up laughing. He went and wrote it on the board in front of the class and we all just died laughing. Poor guy. When he wrote it in the negative he wrote "I DO NOT want to be a ballerina". It was so funny.Every thing's going well. Cagliari is absolutely beautiful it's out of control. I wouldn't hate living here after my mission that's for sure. I'm still working on figuring a bunch of things out. It's so crazy that my companion and I are companions. We're both so young in the mission but it's cool. We're learning from each other and learning together. There's a lot of work to do and it's gonna be fun to figure it out and enjoy the work. Thanks for all of the prayers and all of your love and support. Love you guys millions and brazillians. Take care. Italian kisses!
Sorella Hansen

Letter and your Comments

2009-04-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

It's comment day!!!

I know you are all excited!

You can leave them after this post or after Mal's letter, whichever you prefer.

Thanks all, I know this makes her day.

Investigators at a baptism, Michela, and....transfers....

2009-04-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hey guys~
You guessed it, this week completely blew my mind with all of the surprises that we had. But before I have a panic attack and tell you about transfers....I'll tell you about earlier in the week first k? So on Friday we do our planning for the whole next week. I had been thinking about Michela. She's the woman that I met on the bus that came over to me because I smiled at her. Well, we taught her a first lesson that she seemed to really enjoy but then kind backed off and we haven't been able to see her since. I called her on Friday and invited her to the baptism (an investigator of the Ladispoli sisters) the next day. She didn't want to give me a yes or no answer.Saturday morning we went out a ways to pick up a boy named Davide. We've been teaching him English and his mom is interested in the church. She has to stay at home all day taking care of an elderly lady so when we went to the house we taught a little English and then the first lesson. They both really liked it and Davide was so excited to have his very own Book of Mormon. (He's like 13?) Anyway it was rad. Well, since Gloria can't leave the house, her sister AND friend wanted to come with us and Davide to watch this baptism. 3 investigators at a baptism? Uh...you'd be stupid to say no! So we were riding the bus to the baptism and the elders kept calling us to see where we were at. (we were a tad bit late) And we discovered that they were calling because Michela had showed up to the baptism and was asking for me!! She came!! So we had four little investigators at Francesca's baptism and it was way cool. I've never had investigators at a baptism before but I'm so glad that they could all come because there's an amazing spirit at baptisms. Davide, Morella (Gloria's sister), and Carolina (the friend) all really enjoyed the baptism. It was a really cool day.To make it even better, guess who showed up to sacrament meeting the next day? Michela herself!! I seriously think my mind almost exploded! I sat by her during the meeting and she kept telling me that she loved what she was hearing and felt really good there. I felt so relieved. It was a great Sunday.
SO......TRANSFERS! Sunday night I really wasn't too worried about transfers because I figured I'd have one more transfer with my Follow-up trainer Sorella Barbiere. (After-all this is only our first transfer together). I just wasn't that worried. BUT, at the same time, there's a part of me that's been feeling like I'm done here in Rome. That there's not more for me to do.Well, we had our normal weekly meeting as a district on Monday morning but we all knew that sometime during the meeting President was going to call. We put all of our phones on the table in the middle of the circle and all nervously glanced at them every now and then, just anticipating his call. Well...it rang. It's tradition that while you're talking to president on the phone that you don't say the name of the city or companion out loud because after every one's talked to president, THEN we tell each other where we're going. My companion got the phone before me. I figured that I could pay attention to the little things that she'd say and be able to judge if we're gonna be together for another one. She was kinda quiet on the phone and then she said, "Okay....perche?" And everyone in the circle made noises because we assumed that means that she's training. One of the elders looked at me and said, "Sorella Hansen, that means you're leaving." I just sat there for a second to let it sink in and just shared my only thoughts at the time, "holy crap...." Well, the phone was passed to me and here's the news: I'm going to the city called Cagliari. It's on the island of Sardegna!!! Can I just echo my words from Monday, "Holy crap!" And my companion's name is Sorella Bjarnson. She's from the district older then me in the MTC. And apparently I'm senior companion. Holy Crap! (P.S. Sorry if I have elderly relatives reading this who are appalled by my word usage.) Yeah, I don't really know how I feel. I'm SUPER excited to go to the island to serve. I've wanted to serve on the island ever since I opened my call and saw the island on the map! I'm really so excited. I can't wait for a new city and new work and just a new start. I really think that it's going to be great. But I'm also stressed because my companion and I are both really young in the mission. But it's okay. Hopefully that just means that we're really excited to work and aren't "too tired" or trunky. I leave tomorrow morning to go to the train station and I'll take an overnight boat to the island followed by another train or two. It's gonna be crazy but I'm excited.

The island of Sardegna
Here's where she's headed.

View of Cagliari City

A port near Cagliari

I love you guys very much. I hope you're all healthy and happy and loving your lives wherever you're at. Remember that the church is, in fact, the truest of the truth. It's amazing. And know that there's a blond missionary that will shortly be tromping around an island in Italia, preaching the word, who loves you all very very much. Italian Kisses! Sorella Hansen

Little Women?, Susi, Little red bugs‏

2009-04-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Me and my companion Sorella Chevalier at the Pantheon.
At the Pantheon. I was trying to get a cool pic of the whole in the top - here you go. :)
I guess I think I'm artsy or something. ha ha

So... this was back at the MTC.

This is a girl from Stake Mission prep - Amy Montano.

Nativity Scene in the Vatican City. It was WAY cool.

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My dear fam and friendlies~

What a week. I know I say that every week and...look forward to another good...I dunno... year of me saying that. ha ha I've felt a few more earthquakes this week but they haven't been too bad. One of the companionships from L'Aquila have come to our district and one of them is a little greenie-four weeks into the mission. Poor lil' guy. He's a rock though. Oh, random moment from this week: So we try to go like once a week to visit Rosita and Nadia. I've talked about them before I'm sure but just as a reminder. Rosita is a recent convert that we're teaching the follow-up lessons to and Nadia is 89, not a member, but Rosita lives with her around the clock and takes care of her. WELL, Nadia is hysterically funny and I actually bust up at random things she says because she so hilarious. When she was younger she toured like...the world singing. (wow that was profound Mal) She sang opera. Well apparently she hasn't sung in a really long time. Rosita asked me and my companion if we played the piano. She has this rickety, but beautiful old piano that they wanted us to play. I had my tiny pocket-sized hymn book but I went and played a little bit. Since Nadia isn't a member of the church she doesn't know our hymns so we had to find some common ground---Christmas Songs! So there we were, gathered around this old and terribly out of tune piano, singing Christmas songs all together. I truly felt like it was a moment out of "Little Women", though thankfully for my concentration Christian Bale wasn't there. ha ha It was good times. Oh! Also here's a little taste of our P-day last Wednesday. ha ha We were going to go see this famous bridge that is in an Italian chick-flick that my companion likes, but we both were kinda tired and wanted to write letters. So since it was such a beautiful day we thought, "you know what, we've got a pretty A-okay balcony, whaddaya say we pull our mattresses out there, get some sun, and just write letters?" Yup, we did indeed. However there are some teeny tiny little red bugs that were on the balcony. In my mind I didn't really care because they were so small so we just did it anyway. Well, my companion freaked out every now and then because these little bugs were getting on her mattress. I didn't really think it was a big deal because I was thinking, "Well come on, they're just gonna get right back off." Well....the next morning both of us woke up with tons of bites all over our legs. so we vacuumed our mattresses and all is well. Our investigator Susi that we haven't seen in FOREVER randomly came to English class with her sister and daughter Livia. I was completely amazed when I saw them. They're so great. Susi is so funny because she always asks me how the language is coming because I've been going to Susi's house from day 1. She's great. And it really is HUGE that we're able to go over to her house again. I don't know if I told you but the roommate that lives with her is Muslim and told Susi that she didn't want us going over there anymore. Well get this: Susi called us the day of General Conference for an appointment and actually CAME and then when we went over to Susi's house later for an appointment, I made a point of talking with the roommate a little bit to hopefully smooth things over and have a good relationship. Well, the roommate told me that she'd seen me around a couple of different places in Rome and one day went home to Susi and said, "Why don't you call those sisters to come over, I've been seeing them around." I was amazed. Coming from the lady who didn't want us there, she saw me around the city and SHE asked Susi when we were coming over again. All's I've got to say is....do miracles still happen? I'm gonna go with a yes! We have transfers on Monday and I'd like to say that I know what's going to happen but...negative. I have no clue what's gonna go down. Part of me sees me staying with my follow-up trainer for another transfer, but at the same time I wonder if I'm going to leave cities. I've never been one that handles surprises very well. Hey, this week I got a letter that had the comments of fam and friends from the blog and I just wanted to say..."GRAZIE MILLE". It was great to hear from you guys. It's ever so nice of you guys to follow these random letters of mine. Well, the church is as true as it gets. Being a missionary is great. I'm really learning so much and appreciating more and more what I have. We really are so lucky to have the church. I'm telling you, it's almost a visible thing-the difference that comes upon people when they're reading the scriptures and praying and coming to church--there's a visible happiness. It's awesome. Read your scriptures and know that there's a blond in Italy and loves you very berry much! Sorella Mallory Hansen

Comments

2009-04-08T07:22:00.000-07:00

You know what to do.

Earthquakes, French bust, new Investigator‏

2009-04-08T07:15:00.001-07:00

First Day in Italy. President got us all our first pizza.

First night in Italy at the Colosseum.
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Hey there you guys~I wasn't sure if you guys had heard but uh...I've learned a new word: Un terremoto--earthquake. The city of L'Aquila had a 6 Richter scale earthquake Monday morning. That city is like an hour away from me. Anywho, the Ladispoli sisters were sleeping at our apartment that night and about 3:40 a.m. we all got woken up to shaking. It was such a surreal experience. I think it was worse for us because we live on a high floor but it was so crazy. My companion describes it as being in a washing machine. It was so weird. I was too tired to be my regular panicky self. It shook for about a minute. When it woke me up, I was so out of it but asked Sorella Marangoni (who was in the bedroom with me) "Is this an earthquake?" and she was just like, "I dunno, it's probably the second coming." and then she just continued laying in bed. ha ha WHAT?!? I just sat in my bed not really knowing what in the world was going on. Anywho, don't worry. Every thing's fine. I'm so so glad that our missionaries in L'Aquila are safe. Anizano Brock was in L'Aquila (Anziano Herrick's trainer) and he's the best. We didn't know anything until the morning that it happened in L'Aquila. But we said a prayer and just feel like every thing's going to be okay. From what I've heard it did some serious damage to L'Aquila. All of our members are okay, but many have lost their homes. And last I heard over 150 people have died. The next morning as part of my studies I read a talk about the 10 virgins. ha ha So there's the update, any more then that and you guys probably know better then I do. I can't read the newspaper or anything as a missionary so...there's what happened.We found a new investigator this week. His name's Francesco. He's like...I dunno...60 or something. We were going around with our new convert Rosita helping her at the hospital and stuff and I made eye contact with this man and thought that I should talk to him. Well he ended up coming up to us and asked us who we were and stuff. We're teaching him English and the gospel. He's great. But we might have to give him to the elders. I think I must be a selfish person but I have a hard time giving our investigators to the elders. It's hard to "Pass them along" when you had a cool experience finding them. So we'll see what happens. If it's better for the investigator then that's what we'll do.In other news, I now know for sure that my French is a complete joke. The other day a guy started talking to me and he only spoke French. ha ha Oh my stars, I almost wish I could go back and see what I looked like trying to talk to him. It was brutality. BUT, I was able to talk to him a little bit and explain to him who we were and get his phone number....for the elders. :) Although I don't know what they're going to do with him because none of them speak french. We'll see. I bought a picture dictionary that has everything labeled with Italian AND french words. I don't run into French speakers all that often but when I do it's the most awkward slap to the face at how awesome I am NOT at that language. Anywhoodle, everything else is going good. Thankfully there's no down time to think about the whole earthquake thing. We're too busy and my imaginative mind is grateful that I don't have time to think about the earthquake jazz. We were in the metro yesterday night heading home and my companion said she overheard someone say there was another earthquake 5 minutes ago in L'Aquila and she was kinda freakin' out that we were going to feel it while we were in the metro so we just got out and walked home. It is an adventure to say the least!Thanks for your love and concern. I love you guys and pray that you're all happy and safe. Take care of yourselves. Kisses from shaky, quaky, Italy,

Sorella Hansen

Earthquake in L'Aquila

2009-04-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

Debi recieved a letter this morning from Mallory's mission president, concerning the Earthquake in Italy. We aren't sure whether Mallory felt the quake or not but I'm sure we will hear all about it on Wed.

Dear Parents,

I apologize. I hadn't thought of contacting each of you about the earthquake until this afternoon. We have talked to the affected missionaries' parents and are trying to keep them up to date with things that are going on, but I am now realizing that each one of you are worried and would like to know how things are.

First of all, you should know that all missionaries and members are safe. Two families from the L'Aquila (pronouned lock-wee-lah, with the emphassis on "lock") branch have lost their homes, but are otherwise unharmed.

We awoke this morning at about 3:30 a.m. and felt our bedroom gently shaking and swaying. One of our daughters later said that it seemed so gentle, she decided it wasn't worth getting out of bed because she was so tired and didn't think anything would fall on her. I mistakenly thought that it was just a mild tremor here in Rome, although it lasted for some time (perhaps up to a minute). Just a few minutes later, the phone rang and President answered saying, "Are you OK?" It was the elders in L'Aquila: Elder Brothers, Elder Brock, Elder Wheeler, and Elder Grigg. They said they had felt the building shaking and ran out in their pajamas. When the got outside, they gathered and said a prayer. They immediately felt calm and at peace and knew they would be all right. They realized later that they were the only ones who were calm and, thus, were able to better help those around them.

When things had calmed down somewhat, they ran back inside for warm clothes. The building did not look damaged at all and they said they did not feel like they were in danger. Later they would dash back for food, money, passports, and clothing. We asked that they try to get everything at once so they would not have to return to the building just in case there were aftershocks. They were also to wait for officials to come and inspect the building and let them know whether it would be safe for occupancy.

We did not know how bad the earthquake was and President Acerson got up and checked the internet. While he waited for the next half hour, nothing appeared, so he called the missionaries asking for updates every hour or so.

At 6:00 a.m., one of the missionaries' parents called and told us that it had been on the news in the U.S. We checked the internet and found quite a bit of information at that point and called all the parents of the missionaries who were affected. (It was a 6.3 earthquake with L'Aquila as its epicenter.)

The roads in the area have been closed so that engineers can inspect the many tunnels and bridges that surround L'Aquila. This has made it impossible for us to get in or the missionaries to get out. However, they have reassured us that they are safe and happy to be of service in so many ways. The members fed them a picnic lunch and they said they have plenty of things to keep warm -- it's an otherwise beautiful day as far as weather is concerned.

They have checked on the church which was in the center of the city and have reported that it is unstable with cracks in the ceiling and walls. They will not enter this building again. They are also being careful to not place themselves in harm's way as they help others.

I was not at home for the most of the day and was shocked when I returned this afternoon and saw the pictures on the internet which showed the devastation that had occurred there. I know you are seeing those pictures and are extremely worried. I asked the elders there to take a picture of their apartment building and send it to their parents so they could reassure them that this is not the case where they live. They have told us that their building is probably one of the safest in the area as it is not close to the city center and is modern and well built.

Some missionaries felt the tremor west of L'Aquila to Rome and east of L'Aquila to Pescara, but all are well.

I will try to keep things posted on our family blog. Go to www.acerson.com and click on Acerson Family Blog for more information and pictures as we receive them. Feel free to email us back and let us know if there are questions that we have left unanswered.

We ask you to pray for the residents of L'Aquila and continue your prayers on the behalf of our missionaries and all those others who faithfully serve around the world.

Con affetto,
(with affection),
Sorella Acerson

English Class, Rubix Cube, Aquilino fam

2009-04-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

Trevi Fountain! SO Beautiful!
Trevi again... what more can I say, it's B-E-A-utiful!

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Well hey hey hey kids~I hope that everybody is having a slammin' April-to-the-Fool's Day! I was gonna pull some prank about how President transferred me to a French speaking Island for a transfer because they needed me but...who am I kidding!?! ha ha Every zone conference we talk about new finding techniques and how we can start talking to people. Someone mentioned that they do rubix cubes and immediately everyone starts looking at them and they can ask people if they know how, etc, etc,. So, my companion and I went and dropped 50 cents on a rubix cube and learned from Anziani Herrick and Morris after English class. I'm catching on. I've almost got it but already it's been a success. In fact, an old guy from across the bus yelled (well...not yelled, but you know..) across the bus to talk to me about me doing the rubix cube and how I must be really smart because I can do it. ha ha (Little does he know...I cannot.) It's fun to think of new ways to talk to people and strike up conversation.We had Zone Singing on Sunday where our whole zone gets together and we sing hymns and when people stop to listen, we leave the line-up and go talk to them. It's fun. I really enjoy it actually. Sometimes it's funny when you start talking to people and out of nowhere in the conversation they say something like, "I'm really happy with my religion. You can't convert me." ha ha I just laugh and say 'okay.' and keep talking to them. Ah...I'm still working on the best response for statements like that. It's funny the things people say to us sometimes.We had another meal with the Aquilino family yesterday. ha ha Oh my stars you don't even know how much I wish we could get those meals filmed. They are so nuts and I enjoy every minute of it. Fratello Aquilino is 92 and is always singing the Italian anthem and other songs about Rome...that is...when he's not showing us his morning exercises and telling us what he eats (P.S. in case you wanted to know: squeeze a lemon in your water every morning and every other day eat 4 walnuts at lunch time.) This is the family that feeds us an usual amount of food---really, like no human being should EVER eat that much. My companion brought a sack in her back pack to put some of the food in when they left the room...but they didn't leave the room. ha ha Oh the Aquilino family. Truly the very best of times.English class was great last week! Our beginner class (which is usually like 2 people) had like 20 people in it! My companion and I are in the intermediate class. We have a member that teaches the intermediate class and we just 'help'. Right now he's teaching them "Your Song" by Elton John. He's not going to be here this week, so I'm going to have to come up with something for the class to do. My companion can communicate in English but...I don't know how well she'll be able to teach at this level. It'll be interesting. I'll say that much!We're kind of at a stand still with some of our investigators either because they're not keeping commitments or there are things holding them back. But it probably just means that we should work harder eh? Things are going great. The weather is brutality at it's best. haha Okay I exaggerate. It's just fickle. There we go. One day is cloudy and gloomy, then next moment it's SO hot and sweaty and ten minutes later it's pouring rain. Oh well. Just love it and keep going. I hope you're all doing crazy good! I wuv ya and am constantly shipping my Italian love in your direction. Church is still true...even on April Fool's day. Peace! Sorella Mallory Hansen

Unwanted visitor, 3 month conference, English Class

2009-03-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

At our first zone conference. This is Sorella Chevalier and I with Sister Acerson (Mission President's wife). My mission president is in the background. :)

This was at the New Years party. The lady is one of the elders investigators named Nellie.
L-R: Anziano Brock, Me, Sorella Chevalier, Nellie, Anz. Lombardo, Anz. Bradford, Anz. Herrick
And there's Manni in the background.

This is clear back from the MTC. This is my roommate from this summer in Provo.
Sister Katy Knight. She is in Chile... I think.

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Well, if I haven't mentioned it enough, just let it be known that so much about a mission is unpredictable. For example, I awoke this morning, did some exercises, studied the scriptures, then had companion study (this is all usual right?), then since it's P-day we decided to do some cleaning! Since my mind is a constant jukebox whenever I have any cleaning object in my hand I get "A woman's touch" from Calamity Jane in my head. I put on some "spiritual music" blah blah and started cleaning. Well I went out on our balcony to get our mop to mop the kitchen. Check. SO...I'm on my way to put the mop back out on the balcony and....HOLY SCHNIKEEZ!! There is something that does NOT belong in our house, IN OUR HOUSE! I started freakin' out (at moments like this I realize I'm hardly as tough or brave as I'm convinced I am) I had no idea WHAT language I was yelling but my companion was in the bathroom and could not help me. I sat there with the mop in my hand staring at it and every now and then shaking and trying to translate "Holy crap there's a lizard in our apartment" in Italian. Needless to say, I got sufficiently laughed at by my companion (though she was afraid too) and we called our dear Portiere Marco Antonio to help us. All I have to say is -WHAT?!? I thought I got called to the Italy Rome Mission. What's going on that there's a gecko..lizard...something chillin' in our apartment. Not cool. Anywho, in case you were wondering, those critters exist in Italy and I'll probably have a girlishly difficult time getting to sleep tonight in my bedspread that I'm convinced was put in a blender before I got here, all the while thinking about all the other animals that live in our apartment. Oh well. Tough it out. ha ha I'm such a girl.Our three month conference was AMAZING! It was just our district from the MTC. 6 sisters and Anziano Herrick....And two Italian elders who came in with us. It was so great. The assistants gave us some trainings, we got to watch the Joseph Smith movie. And let's be serious, I've seen that movie several times (before the mission, MTC, etc) but I adore it quite frankly. It's such a great movie. I'm just constantly amazed by Joseph Smith and his love and dedication for the gospel. He and his family went through so much and it just makes me want to work harder and do my part. Sorella Acerson always blows my mind with all that she does. She made us every meal and fed us the most unusually delicious pancakes I've had in my life, plus gave us training. Sorella Hughes and I were laughing about how delicious they were. It's probably because they don't have maple syrup here. And they don't really eat pancakes. Also, our mission president is great. He's actually pretty funny and is a gold mine for good advice. I learn so much from him every time he talks. He's great.SO I wasn't at English class after all of our publicity but I heard that we only had 5 new students. Crazy right? We've still been hitting it pretty hard core. The other night my companion and I made posters and we met up with Anziano Herrick and Morris and we walked up and down the metro (while it's driving...I actually felt drunk because of walking up and down, starting and stopping, turning, and told people about our English class fliers. After a while I would just sit down next to people and talk to them about it. I think the one-on-one thing works better for me. I love meeting new people. I hope the class is bigger this Thursday. I'm pretty excited about it personally.Things are going well. My companion and I had a sweet talk last night about our goals as a companionship and things that we want to change and improve. I don't really know if I'll be with her for another transfer. All of the old sister missionaries are going home. She still has 3 transfers left. My district that I came here with are going to be old in the mission pretty fast because all the older sisters are finishing. But however long I'm with this companion I'm excited about. I really think we can push each other and get some work done. The sister missionaries are gonna be working hard. End of story. I love you guys. The chruch is true...and apparently I can't spell church. And the scriptures rock my socks...every morning. I hope you're all healthy, happy, and lovin' life. Sending my love from Italia,

Sorella Mallory Hansen

My little italian companion, SMILING, advertising....

2009-03-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

I know I say this every week but what a week!! Holy smokes this week has been awesome. As you know, I got a new companion--Sorella Barbiere and she's fabulous! Oh man, we have so much fun together and we have a lot of the same goals as far as missionary work and our expectations of ourselves. I feel like this is going to be an amazing transfer. I can already tell that we're trying to push each other and be more effective and make missionary work fun.She's hilarious first-of-all. She kind of speaks a little bit of English (not really well) but still every now and then we have to get creative with actions and noises when we want to explain things to each other. I was just trying to talk to her about the vacuum this morning and that was exciting. ha ha She says some things in English that make me bust up every time. She loves the word "lame" and she tells me like 5 times a day "I love you with all of my heart". She's so fun.So from day one together we talked about how we want to step up the finding work and talk to more people. I think it was important that we talked about this from the beginning. On our way to appointments (like on the bus) we sit in different parts of the bus and just talk to whoever sits by us and it's been cool. I don't know. It's like Heavenly Father knew that we wanted to step things up and He's for reals been helping us do it. On Saturday, we had just finished an appointment across town (with some potential investigators) and we were riding the bus to church. Well, all I did was smile at a lady that made eye contact with me from across the bus. She came up to me and asked why I smiled and if we knew each other. I told her that I'm just a happy person and like to smile. Anyway, the conversation kind of ended and then I asked her if she wanted to sit down. We talked and I ended up giving her a pamphlet and got her number! I called her the next day and she'd read all of the pamphlet and wanted to know what the book of Mormon was. It was crazy! We had our first appointment yesterday. She met us in church and we taught about the restoration. She has some interesting ideas. :) But she likes what we're teaching and we have another appointment Saturday and she wants to come to church Sunday. It's so sweet.Also our district leader has been pushing us about publicizing English class. Up until now we've only been taping fliers to traffic poles (wow! WHAT do you call those in English? I honestly don't know...nor in Italian so...lose--lose) But Anziano Herrick and his new companion Anziano Morris printed off like 300 little papers to hand out that have the information for the class on it. They gave the stack to us kind of teasing if we could hand them all out. Well, we made a huge poster and went to the metro stop. One person held the poster and the other walked up to everyone leaving the metro and handed them fliers. We handed like 300 out in 1 1/2 hour. It was rad. So after an appointment we made more and we had Anziano Herrick and Morris join us at the metro and we did DAMAGE! I'm so sad that I can't be at English class tomorrow because it's gonna be PACKED! (Usually there's like 20 people....oh man it's gonna be crazy!)Oh, I won't be at English class tomorrow because I have 3 month conference! I'm actually so excited. My whole MTC district gets to go to the Villa and sleep over on Thursday night and have training and...I don't know what else. Nobody will tell me. I'm so excited to see all my girls again from the MTC. I'm stoked to see how awesome they are with the language and how much they've changed as missionaries. Missionary work has gotten more fun and I'm so grateful. Even Sorella Barbiere talks about how grateful she is that we're companions. I can't describe it but something happened since we've been together. We both feel like new missionaries. Like a fresh new start. I'm just soaking it all in because we both have so much fun together but we're working hard and making it enjoyable.I hope every thing's going great with everyone at home. Be safe and read your scriptures. ha ha I'm a nerd. I'm joking...but not. :) Have a splendid day. 5 scoops of gelato worth of Italian love....from my heart to yours....ha ha
Sorella Mallory Hansen

Comments...

2009-03-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of you who read Mallory's blog.

First off, Thank you!, for taking the time to read her letters. Mal asks me quite often how high her 'hit counter' is up to. I know she appreciates your support.

So, I am proposing an idea... once a month I am going to put a post entitled 'Comments' and when you see this post it is your job to go comment crazy and tell Mal how much you love her and any other thing you feel the need to tell her. Then after the post has been there for a week, I will print the comments and mail them to her. So, it saves you a stamp and she gets mail. It's a win/win here guys. So, we start today... GO!!!

Hiding out, Women's Day, TRANSFERS

2009-03-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

This week has been crazy sauce! SO much has happened I don't even know where to start! I'll start with a little story about our beloved Rosita.I don't know if I've talked about Rosita before but she is a new member. She was baptized about a 8 months ago or something and we're teaching her the follow up lessons. She is a bedante (which is an occupation where you're pretty much paid to live round the clock with an older woman and take care of them 24/7) Her signora is named Nadia and is hilarious. I actually adore her. ANYWHO the point of this story is that bedante's aren't supposed to have people over to the house. In this case, we're not supposed to be going over there because Nadia's son....is like "high up" in the catholic church. Anyway, I didn't understand it to be a big deal that we go over there because we go over every week and both of them are cool with it right? Well this week we just barely got inside and were setting our stuff down and Rosita was making hot chocolate for us, and the gate rang. So Rosita picked up the phone and the son was at the gate wanting to be buzzed in. Rosita ran into the room where I was talking with Nadia and grabbed all of our stuff and shoved us in her bedroom with the light off! I was freaked. I had no clue what was happening. So right when we got in the room I heard the son come to the door and I heard him and his wife talking with Rosita and Nadia in the other room. If you know me well, you know that I have an incredibly overactive imagination and had all kinds of thoughts going through my mind about how this situation could turn out. Sorella Chevalier said we should turn the light on in the room so if they caught us it wouldn't look as bad. I didn't think it was the best idea but I just sat there on the bed and said a little prayer. Anyway, while we're sitting on the bed, I hear the wife's voice coming closer (she was heading to the bathroom that's RIGHT by the room we were in---with the light on) I was just sitting there on the bed saying a prayer and I hear the door creak open behind me--it was the wife. But for some reason, she didn't see us and just went into the bathroom. A few seconds later Rosita came into the room, turned off the light, and left the door just a crack open. I sat there thinking about this as we were trapped in that room for like 30 minutes. My mind was going crazy conjuring up ways we could escape, but really, everything ended up being okay. It blows my mind that the wife didn't see us in there--with the light on, right next to the door. The only thing that makes sense is that we were both just praying everything would be okay. Rosita could lose her job and/or he could make it so that she can't come to church on Sundays. It would have been an amusing adventure, a little game of kick-the-can, had it not been that so much was in jeopardy. But we told Rosita that she had to talk to the son about how we're coming over because I DO NOT want to duck out in her room again AND, her job and future in the church is on the line. Anyway, prayer is actually fantastic and Heavenly Father listens and answers prayers. Punto.In other news, Diana got the holy ghost on Sunday! Although she was like ...a half an hour late to church. She said she waited for a bus for 20 minutes or something. Wanna know why the buses took so long? Because of a little holiday called "Women's Day". When I went into relief society a couple of women congratulated me that I am, in fact, a woman and we celebrated indeed. Actually, we just sang an opening hymn and said, "Happy Women's Day". But none of the women bus drivers had to work on this day so THAT'S why our dear Diana was late to sacrament meeting. But it was rad that she has the Holy Ghost now. She's so sweet and I'm excited to teach her the follow-up lessons and keep working with her because she's wonderful.And now what you've all been waiting for...TRANSFERS!! I was actually so nervous for Monday to hear from President about what would be happening with our district. Every companionship changed! My companion is going to the Island--Sardegna--to follow-up train Sorella Hughes who I was with in the MTC. And I am staying here in Roma 1 and my companion is named Sorella Barbiere! She's Italian! I'm so so excited. I drop off Sorella Chevalier and pick up Sorella Barbiere tomorrow at the train station. I'm so excited. I've never met her before but I just can't wait. I've learned an awful lot these last three months and still have oodles left to learn. I am thankful for my trainer and all the things that we've learned and accomplished together. This e-mail is forever long. If you've actually read it to the end then I will give you an Italian embrace when I return because if I was reading it I probably would have ducked out by now. :) Love you guys lots. Church is true. And Italian kisses! Sorella Hansen

Baptism!, Word of Wisdom, Transfers

2009-03-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

(Last week's zone confrence. Mal is in the lower left, 2nd row)

Well hi-dee-ho~
What a week! Last Preparation Day I had to go to the Questura and do my permesso. (It's just like the paperwork that makes it legal for me to live here.) Anywho, so I had to go in a back room and the guy like steam-rolled ink all over my fingers and palms. And I had to do fingerprints and all that jazz. I'm so lame because I actually had this thought go through my head, "Dangit! I'm on the grid!" ha ha So much for my dreams of being an undercover spy. ha ha Also, I had thoughts pass through my head about back in high school reading that book "Black Like Me". ha ha Oh man, sometimes there's nothing to do but laugh my life. ha ha Good times in Italy eh? So last Wednesday after I e-mailed you we had to finish teaching Diana the lessons. AKA...like all of the commandments. I was a little worried for some reason because we were teaching tithing but Diana went to the meeting with Elder Oaks last week and he talked about tithing so...yeah. Golden. He gave this little equation in his talk that I thought was interesting. He said 90% of earnings (money) + Blessings > 100% of earnings without blessings. True right?So we taught the rest of the commandments and everything was good. Seriously, she just accepted everything like no big thing...honestly it kinda freaked me out. Who's that awesome?!? So yeah, she went for a little swim on Sunday baby!! It was so rad. One of the members (who's only been a member for like 7 months but is ridiculously amazin') baptized her and it was so cool. No worries, I took pics, and will send them....eventually. Diana actually kills me because after we taught her lesson last Wednesday we went to the closet that has baptismal clothes and were getting different dresses out for her and stuff. ha ha Oh man...she couldn't just pick like the generic ones that everyone uses. SOMEHOW somebody snuck in this horrid dress that, in my opinion, looked like something from the witch trials and ...our little Diana thought it was just the ticket!! ha ha Oh dear. She actually asked if we had the pattern for it! But I the important part is that it was white...not the fact that in my mind anyone who goes under the water in that kind of dress...usually doesn't come up. Hope that doesn't make me a judgemental person.The ward was an awesome help too. Different sisters in the relief society brought food and some members stayed after church for the baptism to meet her and congratulate her. It was pretty cool so see them fellow shipping our cute new member of the church. :) Loved it. It was a really cool experience. I've seen like 3 or 4 baptisms since I've been here but it was so cool to see someone that I've taught make this decision and follow through with it. I'm just so excited for her. Another investigator that we've been working with is a lady named Erica. We don't get to see her very much but the last thing that we've been working on is the word of wisdom. The first time we taught it to her and then followed up, she wasn't obeying it. So Sorella Chevalier and I decided that we'd offer to "give up" something with her, for moral support. :) So we told her that if she would live the word of wisdom for a week, that we would go without all sweets. She kind of laughed at first because she didn't understand how often those kinds of things are offered to us by members. So anywho, we made this deal and Sorella Chevalier and I were doing good. Well, we have a meeting on Mondays and someone always has a treat assignment. Sorella Skabelund brought Carrot Cake---Sorella Chevalier's favorite. She tried to call Erica to make sure she was obeying the word of wisdom because if not, she wanted to eat the cake. ha ha Well, we decided not to have any. And later that day...we got a text from one such Erica that said, "Have you had sweets? I haven't had coffee. Have a good day. Erica" We were so excited!! I called and talked to her about it the other day and she was so happy. It was crazy cool.Well good times in Italy indeed. We find out about transfers on Monday and I think my companion's out. She's been here for over 8 months so I think she's over and out. But we'll see what happens. I probably won't go anywhere but who knows really. OH ALSO: I just wanted to say that I only get mail like every 3 weeks. So...if sorry that it takes me forevs to write back but I do and I love it. :) Anywho, as always, I'm shipping Italian love your way, everyday. :) Sorella Hansen

Oaks, Diana, TATEY

2009-02-26T21:25:00.000-08:00

(Reunion of the MTC girls: Sorella Crandall, Hughes, Watson, Millis, some elder, Mal and Sorella Swenson. Thanks to Sorella Swenson's blog for this pic)

Hello hello!!
So first off: We had another appointment with Diana last night and we taught her some hefty commandments--some doozies you might say--Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom. I, quite frankly, was nervous about these being problems and us having to move her baptismal date or something. Also, a little nervous because talking about the law of chastity in English has potential to be awkward but then...add Italian to the mix and ...no go. BUT it was actually so cool. We talked about the law of chastity and she just completely agreed with us and that it's the right thing to do and the right way to live. My mind was blown. Who does that?!?! THEN we got to the Word of Wisdom and I was more sure that this one would be more of a problem than the first one. But she agreed with this one too. She drinks coffee a little bit (and we assumed as much so we bought Orzo beforehand for her. It's like...hot chocolate but not. I dunno, it's a drink that she can drink the in morning INSTEAD of coffee) So it was cool and she totally accepted it and we gave her the Orzo and she was totally cool with it. It kinda weirded me out how cool she was with it. We have some more commandments to teach her tonight--one of particular note is Tithing. But hopefully we'll invite the bishop into our lesson and he'll help us out with it a bit. Her baptism is on Sunday!! I'm so excited. It's going to be a beautiful day indeed!!
Also another sock rocking thing that happened this week...in fact, yesterday: a little known guy by the name of Anziano Dallin H. Oaks came to visit!! WHAT?!? It was crazy! And what made it even cooler (if that's even possible) is that every single missionary from our whole mission came!! There's like 130 of us or something. But I got to see all the girls from my MTC district. Ah it was so so nice to see them. I think sorella Millis and I hugged each other for like 5 minutes. ha ha I love that girl so much. I think we're both praying to be companions in the future because we loved the MTC together. I loved seeing the other girls too Crandall, Hughes, Watson, and Swenson. It was like old times. Elder Oaks is amazing. We got to all go shake his hand and he asked us each a little question. He asked me where I was from and then said something about how he just went to a funeral there and the body was pulled by a horse-drawn carriage. ha ha I had no idea what to say to something like that. °That's neat.°..ha ha I didn't say that. There was just a pause and then he said °It was interesting°. ha ha I'm glad American Fork left such a good impression on him. ha ha He really was amazing though and his wife is adorable!! They have the cutest relationship and were teasing each other and laughing the whole time. He's just an amazing person. You just want to be better when you're in the same room with him. He gave us a couple analogies of how we need to be doing missionary work and how exactly we're used for these people and it really is overwhelming the magnitude of our calling. I felt overwhelmed and realized how much I need to improve and how much more I can be doing. It was an amazing meeting and I just felt so grateful to be able to receive training from him. I learned a lot and it was an amazing experience.
Thank you so much for sending pictures of my little nephew Tatey. Holy papa that boy's cute! My goodness, between his looks and his name, that boy's gonna be a charmer! How can you not love someone named Tate Willem?!? It's emotionally impossible I'm convinced!
As always, tons of Italian love getting sent your way, Sorella Hansen

Valentine's Day, Diana, Zone Conference‏

2009-02-18T07:13:00.000-08:00

Well Hi-dee-ho fam and friends!I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day! Some of us missionaries were cutting out some red and pink hearts so we could go visit our investigators and some members for the big day. I officially decided that I just wasn't made for love when all of my hearts turned out looking like Santa hats. What a joke eh? But the next day I got flowers...aaaand that's been taken care of. :)We have an appointment every Wednesday night with our investigator named Diana. Well we had our ward missionary leader there who was a HUGE help to the lesson and she set a baptismal date for March 1st! I'm so excited for her, but at the same time I'm kinda stressed out and worried because this is when challenges and problems come hard core for investigators. So we're calling her everyday and we have another appointment with her tonight. She's so sweet and I just love her. We taught the lesson about having faith and prayers. We were trying to help her understand what faith is and how it's a principle of action. My companion set me up to tell my shpeel on how I decided to come on a mission and I really think that it helped her. What probably didn't help her, however, is how I was weeping like an infant during the story. Okay...that was over exaggerated--one glistening tear! We originally set the date for Sunday February 29th...only to find out that there is no such day...so apparently it's gonna be March 1st. She really is an awesome woman. She has such good intentions to not make mistakes--it's amazing to me. She has investigated other churches and she told us that she really feels something different with our church; and when she's with us. I'm so excited to keep teaching her and watching her grow in the church. So rad!We had Zone conference this last week and it was mind blowingly wonderful! I wish we could have zone conference every week. Our assistants are so amazing. And I think every single talk/training (by the assistants, President, and Sister Acerson) were exactly what I needed to hear. Not joking, during the meeting I remember thinking, "Okay guys, why don't you just excuse everyone and let me have it because we all know that you're talking to me." ha ha Thankfully many other people felt like it was just what they needed to hear also. I just left wanting to be 203% better. It was amazing!Well ,I don't know what more to tell...OH hows about how stoked I am that I'm an auntie! I want to see pictures if you can send them of the little guy. Every now and then when I would be doing something I'd realize that maybe my sister was having a baby! Ah! I don't know if that makes me an unfocused missionary. ....eh...lemme know. ha ha But we were at a dinner on Monday night with a family in the ward and for some reason the conversation got to the mother of the house's birthday. I think I said something awkward like, "Hey, speaking of birthdays, I think my sister's having a baby sometime this week." ha ha It just makes me laugh now because that had potential to be an extremely random subject change, and yet...it went over just fine. ha ha Well every thing's going forward. Everyday has its challenges and funny moments. Thanks for all of your love and support. And as always, I'm shipping some special Valentine's day/Italian love your way. Missionary kisses! Sorella Mallory Hansen

Mother Nature, Diana, and the Moon...

2009-02-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

Well, hello hello. Greetings from Roma! Here's the weather report: This morning while we were studying as a companionship (my chair faces the window and balcony) I was SO blissfully excited because the sun was coming out and the tiles on the balcony were drying from last nights douse of rain. Needless to say, I had high hopes for today's weather. Well, ten minutes later...HAIL. Not even joking! White pebbles piling up on our freshly dried balcony! Then...maybe 30 seconds later this time...rain...lots of rain. It was the weirdest thing. I was completely fascinated with mother natures mood swings. It was bizarre. But...welcome to Italy I guess. Its always unpredictable like that. Perhaps that's why I like it here.Well, I officially have acquired a new skill. ha ha One of our members came up to us missionaries after Church and told us she wanted to teach us how to make scarves. If you know me very well, I'm all over anything scarfy. So on Saturday we shared a spiritual thought with her, had lunch, and she taught us how to knit! It was hilarious. It was just me, my companion, and then 4 elders. It was kinda fun I guess. I just got frustrated because after our appointment was finished all that I had was like...a half inch of scarf. We all just laughed about it because it's not like we have time to just sit down and knit. Apparently the elders knit at night when they could write in their journal or something. Good times.We had a really great appointment with our investigator named Diana last Wednesday in the church. We had a lesson all planned for her and felt really excited about it, but like many of the lessons we plan for on the mish...we were just supposed to do something else. She has been worried about her health (no need for details really) and the elders were in the church, early for Family Home Evening. So we asked her if she would like a blessing. She said that she did, so we went and got one of the elders, and one of the members gave her a blessing. After the blessing, they left the room, and she started crying and said that the pain was completely gone! She said it just happened gradually throughout the blessing. She and Sorella Chevalier were crying and I wouldn't be surprised if I was just awkwardly sitting there with my mouth open. It was so amazing. She asked us how she could thank Heavenly Father for what He did and Sorella Chevalier asked her to be baptized. Well, she didn't quite accept....she doesn't feel like she's received an answer to prayer about if this church is true. She came to church on Sunday (her second Sunday in a row mind you.) :) I get the feeling that she is expecting a voice or something to literally tell her that the church is true. We've prepared a great lesson for tonight with her about faith and the Holy Ghost. I'm really excited and really feel like she's making progress. She's fantastic and I'm so excited to keep working with her.We also got to go do some service for a great lady in our ward who's been having some back problems. Can I just say, there have been so many times (and no doubt, there will be many more) when I have just felt so blessed and grateful for everything that we have. This member, is from Egypt and was originally Muslim. She was telling us about how she found the church and stuff and I just felt so amazed at the things that this woman had to do to become a member of the church. We've made friends with the people that work at our fruit and vegetable shop and they, too are Muslim. They're fantastic. But apparently it's like the ultimate betrayal to leave that faith. There's really strict rules for us about teaching people who are Muslim because they can get killed for changing faiths. Things like that just hit me sometimes and I just feel really grateful and I don't have to worry about things like that. I hope this didn't sound like a slam against the Muslim faith. I've actually read a little bit about they're faith and it helped me understand them better. I still think our friends at the fruit stand are great. I just talked to them like 20 minutes go. But yeah...just be thankful k? :)As a last thought (and it just might be a stupid one) we were leaving a member appointment the other night and we were walking to the bus stop...I was walking down the dark little Italian street...and then WHAMY the most beautiful, full moon. It was ideal! I think I might have made an audible sound when I saw it. (Yup, I am that ridiculous.) It was beautiful and I just thought, "I wish everyone could see what I'm seeing right now. I wish they could stop what they're doing and see this beautiful full moon." So I had a thought, when there's a full moon here...is there a full moon there? I only ask this because, if so, then maybe some of you guys saw it! We maybe shared a little moment and you had no idea. Okay, so sometimes I'm awkward and think the moon's a good time. Also, I realize that I should have paid more attention in Astronomy class. Well signing off for now. Love you all lots and lots! Take care, be happy, love your life, and as always, there's LOTS of Italian love comin' your way, Sorella Hansen

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Note from Aubry: I was intrigued my Mal's question, "Do we see the same moon?". I thought I knew the answer but I'll admit I wasn't sure. So I turned to my ultimate resource...GOOGLE. And yes, we do see the same moon. It's slightly different due to rotation and orbit and lots of other things I don't totally understand, but for the most part we see the same moon. So there you go. :)