Slow Down

Written on 3-5-14

 

That's what I've done this week.  Slow down and go back to the basics.

Thomas:  I have an investigator that told me to wish you happy birthday.  I forgot to write it in my email last week.  AUGURI.  (Ow-goo-ree)

This week I learned a few words.  First of all, the word spaghetti literally means multiple noodles.  If you have one noodle it is spaghetto.  Also, in the states we use the word lasagna.  Lasagna actually means only one of the lasagna noodles.  The proper word for a pan of lasagna is Lasagne (la-zawn-yay) because it becomes plural when you add the E.  Also Halloween is a new holiday in Italy, only about 5 years old.  I was in English class and asked if the phrase trick or treat existed.  It does.  "dolcetto scherzetto." (Dole-che-toe-scare-set-toe) Fun right?  I love learning new Italian fun phrases.  

This week I also learned never ever again to eat torte verde (a pastry filled with spinach that is extremely rich), Focaccia formaggio (focaccia aka white bread drowned in olive oil with formaggio cheese aka super creamy fatty cheese inside) and focaccia with cheese and ham inside it all in one setting.  My companion and I were so sick for hours.  Yet it is all deliciously worth it in a weird way.  

So we lost all of our baptism dates.  None of them are coming to church or progressing.  But the work moves forward.  We've been doing tons of passbys, and other lessons.  But one of our less actives finally came to church.  During testimony meeting she bore her testimony and asked the elders in the middle of her testimony to come teach her son.  It was a funny moment but it was also a blessing for us and the branch.  

So apparently there was a chocolate festival in Savona and Sorella Bennett and I thought we would attend it today for P day.  Yeah it ended last Sunday.  We were pretty bummed but now that is on my bucket list.  And luckily there's never an end of chocolate here.  

We had a scambio where we switched companions with our sister training leaders.  I went with the beautiful Sorella McCan back to Genova and Sorella Bennett stayed with Sorella Lyman in Savona.  What a blessing that was.  Sorella McCan and I taught an incredible lesson to A.  Apparently A. wasn't interested in the church at all but we taught her the restoration and she accepted everything on the spot.  We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said the closing prayer at the end of the lesson.  The spirit was so strong and Sorella McCan and I taught as smooth as butter (and belive me, I'm in Italy.  I know butter.)  I'm sad I won't be able to teach her again but so grateful for that lesson.  But that day I got to see J. again.  Last time we scambioed I taught J. with Sorella Durfee.  It was so awesome to see him again and help him learn a little bit of English.  The Lord works in awesome mysterious ways.  At the end of the day we got the best dessert I've ever had in my life.  We got gelato but:  They filled the cone with warm nutella and then chocolate and strawberry gelato on top.  Let's just say I was in dessert heaven for an hour as I savored every last bit of it.  Nutella makes the world go round.  When we got back to the apartment I witnessed how we can be angels for others.  So (without too much detail) this transfer has been extremely rough for me.  There's been a lot of trials and extremely hard situations.  When I got to the sisters I laid there on the bed bawling my eyes out as one of the sisters gave me a shoulder massage, we listened to uplifting church music and all of them gave me words of encouragement and strenght.  I will be eternally grateful to these sisters.  I was able to vent to Sorella McCan and she helped me think of more solutions to handle everything.  I've made some changes and everything is sooo much better.   

We taught P. again and met her husband A.  They are both extremely strong catholic but that lesson was one of the most spiritual this week.  They are amazing.  We taught the restoration and they understood all of it.  We gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to begin reading it.  It's amazing to see the look on an investigators face when they feel the spirit for the first time.  This peaceful look comes on their face and you can tell they are surprised and relaxed for probably the first time in a long time.  

Family and friends thank you sooooo much for your letters.  I got the package mom and thank you thank you.  Sydney, your announcement is sooooo sooooooo cute and you are gorgeous.  

We taught V again.  I love her soooo much.  We talked about how we are children of God and reminded her how she is a daughter of God.  I could tell that she didn't know that for herself.  But I felt the most overwhelming love for her from our Heavenly Father that He knows her and loves her.  That experience helped strengthen my testimony of that.  I can say that I know with all my heart that we are children of a Heavenly being.  Heavenly Father knows our every aspect of our hearts and minds better than we do.  His son Jesus Christ knows what we love, what our frustrations are and the little things that bug us.  He also has an infinite amount of solutions for our trials.  All we have to do is ask.  He literally walks by our side with His hand stretched out.  Asking is hard and can be uncomfortable.  But when we sincerely ask for strength, love, friendship, the Savior will give it to us.

Also this week the small miracle was nutella.  I had decided to buy nutella today because I've craved it for an entire transfer.  So V. received a 12 pound jar of nutella... yes such things do exist.  It's bigger than my head.  She literally gave us half the jar in a container.  We have about six months of nutella now... if it's eaten sparingly.  I hadn't been praying my guts out for it, but that was a small miracle to me because it showed me that Heavenly Father knows exactly my wants and needs every moment.  He knew that I wanted Nutella but was hesitant to spend money on it.  

Wow I guess this week revolves around miracles and nutella.

Anyways love you all sooo sooooooo much!  

Scripture for the week:  Helaman 14:8

Words of the week:  Lasagne, Spaghetto, Dolcetto Scherzetto

Challenge for the week:  Pray to be an angel in someone's life.  

Gem Cleaning

This post was written on 2-19-14

Buon Giorno Tutti!

So on Monday we cleaned the ENTIRE apartment.  It took us from 8:00 in the morning to 5 in the evening.  We literally cleaned EVERYTHING.  But not gonna lie the apartment smells really good now and we hardly had to do any cleaning for P day this morning.  

Good news.  THERE ARE ANZIANI NOW IN SAVONA.  We have Anziano Christensen and a greenie coming to Verazza, a city close to Savona.  This is a huge blessing for us.  Sisters cannot visit single men so we are able to give tons of scedas (records of investigators) to the Elders.  We are hoping that the work will really take off soon and that the church will grow.

So Sunday we had 3 investigators and 4 inactives at church.  WOW!  We've kinda plateaued right now so that was a miracle.  We also had a couple from a cruise who spoke English and a family from California because the husband is stationed in Italy right now.  It was so weird to be greeted by someone with an American accent.  But sacrament meeting was so spiritual.  The talks were fantastic and sitting next to one of our inactives, hearing him sing the hymns... it was priceless.

So please please pray for our branch.  The members are not as involved with the work as we would like and we are struggling to grow.  But with faith and effort, we will achieve the goals we have.  

Yesterday we had an awesome appointment with one of our less actives V.  she received a 12 pound jar of Nutella from an admirer for Valentines Day.  So we made crepes and helped her eat it.  DELICIOUS!  We also shared with her the book of Enos.  She shared a beautiful experience of how prayer has helped her life.  There was a wonderful spirit there.

So we visited a less active D.  D hasn't come to church in a long time and we've stopped by the house before she's just never been there.  Well she was finally there.  Half way into the conversation, come to find out that she does martial arts... in fact she does jiu jitsu and krav... aka the ones I do.  We bonded instantly.  To have someone in the mission who shares my passion, it felt amazing.  We talked about fighting for a while and then the conversation moved on.  All of the sudden she asked us to start reading preach my gospel with her.  She used to be a ward missionary and wants to start studying it again.  The spirit truly works changes in people's hearts.  

So how's the language, well I can understand about 80% now of what people say.  My goal is to understand 100% by the end of this month.  I know I can do it.  

We had a wonderful appointment with a less active Sorella N.  A friend had recently passed away and she wanted to know where we go after death.  We were able to teach her about the spirit world, resurrection and that families can be together forever.  We committed her to start preparing to go to the temple and it was a beautiful lesson.  

Thank you to everyone for the beautiful valentines day cards.  They are so lovely!  I truly felt the love from home.  Thank you thank you thank you.  

So I had a cold all week but it has finally lifted.  I have a new appreciation for my health now.  Now it's time to start losing all the pasta, pizza and sugar pounds that have accumulated this transfer.

Love you all sooooo much!  

The scripture for this week Alma 37:6-7

The challenge for this week:  Set a goal for this week and plan out how to accomplish it.  Then ask Heavenly Father for help to do it.  I promise if you do this, you will see how he helps you everyday to accomplish that goal.

Phrase of the week:  Lui Ci Ama.  (Loo-ee Chee Ahma) God loves us.

Buon Settimana

Sorella Hatch

A Child's Prayer

This post was written on 2-25-14

 This song has taken on a new meaning for me now.  So first, last P day.  It was the best ever!  We went to an Italian buffet for lunch.  Pizza, pasta, lasagna, caprese salad, fried vegetables, rolls, fish, gelato, cookies, cakes, sushi, you name it it was there.  It was one of the best meals I've ever had.  After we toured the fortress of Savona.  Savona is a very old city with a lot of history.  It was MASSIVE and one of the coolest things ever!  We also went to an archeological museum at the fortress and saw old pieces of pottery, jewelry, clothing, weapons, farming tools, and all sorts of stuff from the excavation of the fortress.  It's moments like those that make being in Italy all worth it.  

So work this week was extremely slow.  We had a lot of appointments fall through and spent hours calling investigators, and potential investigators.  But it's moments like those where the miracles happen.  Monday we spent the day biking around the city visiting potential investigators.  None of them were home but we ran into people throughout the day that wanted to hear our message and made appointments with them.  It's amazing how the Lord works in our lives.  And then at the end of the day I got a Briocche gelato.  Basically a croissant with three flavors of gelato sandwiched in it:  Pineapple, dark chocolate and nutella.  Icecream bliss.  

So right now we are trying to build a ward mission plan for the branch.  It's hard because we don't have a lot of members to help us do the work.  But we're hoping that the ward mission plan, and later on individual family mission plans will help further this work even more.  

Also, we have finally received Anziani in our city.  Anziano Christensen and his greenie Anziano Sordes are able to help visit all the single men and with two pairs of missionaries, this work will hopefully take off.  

Don't remember when but we went to Albenga earlier this week.  We made piadinas for lunch and sat on the beach eating piadinas, basking in the beautiful gorgeous sunshine and listening to the ocean.  It was one of the best moments of my mission.  I thought about the missionary my Heavenly Father wants me to be and made some resolves to be better.  

So why do I refer to A Child's Prayer?  Because this week has been one of the hardest weeks ever.  But I have learned a most beautiful lesson.  I have spent days now where I am constantly pouring my heart out to Heavenly Father asking Him to fill me with strength, love, happiness, and joy.  Our Heavenly Father knows EXACTLY how we feel and is always ready to give us what we need.  We just have to ask and have faith that He will give it to us.  Sometimes He witholds the blessings we ask for.  I've learned that is a sign that either He trusts us to make our own decisions or He is testing our faith, endurance and patience.  

My perspective of our Heavenly Father is so different now.  I used to think of God as this almighty powerful being who made the earth but that having an actual personal relationship with God was kind of strange and weird and since we can't actually see Him, I relied more on my friends and music whenever I was going through hard times.  Now my Heavenly Father is my best friend.  He is literally walking next to me holding my hand.  He has filled me with love and happiness when there was literally none left in my heart.  He has given me feelings of peace when my anxiety was so high I thought I was going to blow.  It is through the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ that all of this is possible.  I am so grateful for my Savior and my God.  

Scripture of the week:  Joshua 4:1

Challenge of the week:  Take a moment to pray and pour your heart out to God.  Watch the miracles that happen.

Word of the week:  Padre Celeste.  Salvatore. (Paw-dray Ch- el- estay)  (Sal- vuh- tor- ay).

Love you all

Sorella Hatch

Christmas Day post

This was written on Christmas day in the MTC.  12/25/2013

Dear family and friends,

On this beautiful Christmas morning I am so grateful for this Gospel.  I only have 20 minutes to write so there won't be much detail.  I'm so tired and sick all the time but I have seen the Lord working miracles for me to keep me going.  Thank you sooooo much Aunt Karen for the homeopathies.  Can you send me a list saying what they are and what they do?  Dad, Mom, David, Thomas and Kyli, I love you guys sooooo much!  Thank you for the amazing gifts.  David I can't wait to read the play.  Tell the Ford's thank you for the beautiful letters.  I will treasure them.  This morning my roommates and I exchanged gifts and opened presents.  I will never forget that experience.  Thank you for all of your emails, cards, letters, notes, etc.  It truly means a lot. 

I invite all of you to take a few minutes and read Luke 1-2 and ponder the purpose of Christmas.  They have really focused on that here in the MTC and it has brought such a profound and deeper meaning to Christmas.  We watched the Nativity last night and Mr. Krueger's Christmas.  Both of those shows truly depict why we celebrate the birth of our Savior.  This is a season of love, service and giving.  I hope you all feel that spirit in your hearts.  The hymn Silent Night in Italian is titled, "Nato e Gesu"  Literally translated:  Night of Jesus.  Christmas truly is the celebration of our Lord and Savior. 

Mom, we are singing Where Shepherds Lately Knelt today for MTC choir.  It is no accident that this hymn was picked.  I wish you could hear the chorus of Angels that sing with us when we practice. 

I didn't make the MTC talent show with O Come O Come Emmanuel but that's alright.  It was a blessing from the Lord for me to practice it. 

Love you all soooooo sooooooooo much.  Merry Christmas.  Froliche Weihnachten.  Buona Natale.  More details of Christmas coming next week.  Hugs, Kisses, Smiles, laughs, tears of joy.  Arrivederci!