New Everything

Written 4-9-14

Ciao Tutti!

Wow so much stuff has happened this week it's insane.

First Transfers.  So the suspense of transfers was insane.  We finally got a call... Sorella Bennett went off to Pisa.  Yes as in the leaning tower of Pisa Pisa.  So excited for her.  I went to Genova and stayed with the beautiful Sorella McCann and bade farewell to the sisters going home.  It was so bittersweet to say goodbye but I am so grateful that we will see everyone we know on this earth again when we are in Heaven.  After helping Sorella McCann clean her apartment, I met my beautiful new companion.  Her name is Sorella Gjika.  She's about 5 foot 2... maybe shorter.  She's from Albania and we have laughed since we met.  We became immediate friends and I could not ask for a better companion.  She speaks English, Italian and Albanian which is such a blessing for this area because there are tons of Albanians in Savona.  She loves to eat healthy so we're switching to salads and healthy snacks and less pasta.  Hopefully my pre mission fitness level will return.

So we've had so many miracles this week.

First our investigator A. and his girlfriend M.  So we would teach A. then he would drop off the face of the planet and we wouldn't be able to contact him for weeks.  Then we would get an appointment and the cycle would repeat.  However before Sorella Bennett left we had an appointment to say goodbye.  I figured that would be the last time for weeks.  Nope.  The next day as we were dragging Sorella Gjika's luggage back to the apartment, I round a corner and there they are.  A. walked right up to me and immediately asked when our next appointment was.  I was so shocked and happy at the same time.  What a beautiful miracle.  Our appointment is this week and I'm hoping they'll both really start progressing.

This same thing happened with our investigator F.  We stopped at her house and after weeks of not seeing her, not only was she there but we scheduled an appointment and left her with a scripture.  We had dropped her as an investigator a week earlier because we couldn't get in touch with her.  Well we had a lesson and committed her to baptism at that lesson.  She wants to be baptized and follow God.  We're trying to find a way to help her come to church and keep that commitment.  But that baptismal date is a major victory!

Our other baptismal date M.  We stopped by and I could tell that she was having a really rough time.  Through the power of inspired questions... yes they do work... we were able to discover that she has tons of confusion and worry.  She wants to sincerely find out for herself is the church is true but she just hasn't received her answer yet.  We spent an hour talking about the spirit and how we receive answers.  Then Sorella Gjika asked her if we could pray with her and we had her ask if the church was true.  She said the most beautiful prayer in spanish and... through the amazing blessing of the gift of tongues... I understood most of it.  It was one of the most humble prayers I've ever heard.  She sincerely pleaded with our Heavenly Father.  Then she stopped talking and just continued praying.  The spirit was so strong.  Sorella Gjika and I sat there praying for that she would receive her answer and feel comforted.  Well after we prayed, I felt prompted to invite her to come with us right then to watch General Conference at the church.  she was hesitant and we reassured her that she could leave if she wanted to.  Luckily her house was only 5 minutes from the church.  She stayed the entire session and said she liked what the speakers said.  It was amazing.

Finally.  We got a call from S. that her daughter was in the hospital and wanted to see us.  Both of them were having a really rough time and needed some cheering up.  So we bought tickets, literally ran onto the bus and then for some reason I don't know why, the bus driver left us at the top of this hill and announced that he was done for the night.  Luckily I knew where we were because Sorella Bennett and I had biked in that area before.  We weren't sure if we should walk to the hospital, wait for the next bus that wasn't secure or go to the station and try and catch another bus.  We prayed decided to wait.  Luckily the next bus came and we got to the hospital.  S. was so happy to see us.  We chatted for a while and then we really had to go because we were already late for being home at night.  Well we realized that we had accidentally lost track of time and that there weren't any more buses running.  I thought we were miles away from home and we weren't sure what to do.  We started walking and using the map.  Well after a while I realized we were right by down town Savona.  We found the fortress and then literally ran home.  We made it with literally a minute to spare.  While it was slightly nerve wracking it was also tons of fun running through the streets of Savona in the cool spring evening air with a little drizzle of rain.  

So the principle in all of this is that God answers prayers.  When we ask him how He wants us to conduct our lives He will help us.  Either He will say yes, He will say no or He will say it's up to us.  Other times He will wait for us to make a decision and then guide our path.  

Life is so much better now.  The days seem to float by filled with laughter, tears, the spirit, sweat and tons of hard work.

The word for this week is Albanian:  Te dua.  (Tuh-doo-uh).  It means I love you in the romantic sense.  But I thought it was cool.

Ciao!

Transfers

Written 4-2-14

 

Just so you know, every transfer period that's what the subject line will be.  So the big news is... I'm staying in Savona.  My companion Sorella Bennett is heading to Pisa... yes as in the leaning tower of Pisa.  She will be a sister training leader.  I'm so excited for her and grateful for the experiences we had together.  My new companion will be Sorella Gjika from Albania.  She was a sister training leader in Rimini and she will be the senior companion.  She has three transfers left so we're pretty sure Savona will be her last city.  I'm so excited to have this new experience.  I'm really hoping she'll teach me some Albanian and cook authentic Albanian food.  Also, she speaks Italian, English and Albanian.  I'm hoping to start speaking Italian with her 24/7 because up until now, I've only spoken Italian when I'm either talking on the phone or at a lesson.

I've been in Italy now for two tranfers.  12 weeks!  Holy smokes!  It's been an amazing and difficult journey.  Here are the biggest lessons I've learned so far:

1)  The gift of tongues is real.  There is no way I've been able to learn this much Italian in such little time without the Lord's help.  I still have a long way to go but now I can understand 70% of what people say, have a full conversation on the phone, give my part of a lesson and get around Italy.

2)  That the gospel is truly proclaimed by the weak and simple.  The Lord has shown me every single one of my weaknesses and more in plain loud view.  I've learned what my strengths are and how to capitalize on them.  I've learned which weaknesses I need to start working on now and which ones will be overcome later.  It will be a life long process but it has already been a blessing.  I've learned to celebrate the small victories every day such as remembering where that scripture was or booking an appointment over the phone in Italian.  That keeps my confidence up.  I've also learned the power of a testimony.  Ironically, it's the lessons where all I've done is bore testimony of the principles over and over and then kept my mouth shut the rest of the time that have been the most spiritual.  

3)  I've really learned for myself that where we focus our energies makes a huge difference.  These last two transfers, I didn't know it, but I was focusing on all the things I couldn't do yet and everything that was frustrating me.  No wonder I felt anxiety, depression, fear, worry, and frustration 24/7.  But when I focus my energy on the accomplishments, miracles, blessings and things I learned during the day, I feel happy and content.  

4)  I've learned how my anxiety manifests and what I can do to manage it.  That was a really hard pill to swallow but a huge blessing because I have these tools for the rest of my life.  

5)  I've learned soooo much about being a teacher.  It's been confirmed to me that my career path will be teaching.  I don't know which subject yet but I've learned more principles on teaching here than I ever learned in two years of college.  The biggest one is that students respond to you how you treat them.  

6)  The biggest lesson I've really learned for myself is that as a missionary, I have to rely on the Lord 24/7.  I've always been an independent and strong willed person.  But it took trials where I had felt like I had been broken down to my very core for me to realize that the only way to feel happiness and peace was to turn to Heavenly Father.  I'll also be developing this skill for the rest of my life, but my testimony has been strengthened a hundred fold that God truly is our Heavenly Father and He knows everything about our lives.  

So experiences this week:  An embarassing one was that we gave a prayer lesson with V. the fruit shop owner who gives us free fruit every time we stop by.  I gave the prayer.  She had told us she was dating a guy and that he had gone on a trip.  I prayed that he would be safe.  Well what I didn't know, and she had explained to Sorella Bennett in extremely fast Italian was that they broke up lol :).  Oh well.  It's the thought that counts.  

A beautiful one was we were doing a pass by to one of our investigators and I started talking to this man.  He had tons of health problems and was really sad when i started talking to him.  We left him with a verse and a prayer.  At the end of the prayer, the look of happiness and gratitude on his face was indescribable.  He thanked us for sharing some happiness with him.  Earlier that day I had been feeling depressed and anxious but after that experience I felt happy and peaceful.

So how am I doing now?  Honestly I'm doing fantastic.  I'm excited for this next transfer to feel happy, be healthy, and use these new tools and lessons to be a better missionary.  

Thank you all for your prayers, love and support.  Also a shout out to all you other missionaries... the Lord is truly proud of all of us and every effort we put forth to accomplish this work!

Challenge of the week:  Celebrate the small victories.

Scripture of the week:  Proverbs 3:5-6

Word of the week:  Transferimento.  (trawns-fair-ee-mento.)  Transfer.

Vi Voglio tanto bene!

Prayer

Written 3-26-14

 

Prayer it works.  All the time.  So this week has been horrible, miraculous and awesome all in one week.  

So we showed up for an appointment yesterday but the woman wasn't there and we couldn't enter the house without her.  When we called her and told her that she was furious with us.  I'm pretty sure she was having a bad day before we got there.  Well she invited us to lunch and we said yes because we figured we needed to please her.  But then after lunch she got into a huge fight with other members of her family that were there.  Needless to say by the time we left the appointment all we were able to do was share a scripture and say a prayer.  We're not sure if we're going back.  But the point of this experience is that afterwards, we decided to say a prayer.  I said it and pleaded with Heavenly Father to help us feel the spirit again and that we would be able to be happy and have a good day.  After a few minutes this peaceful warm feeling came over us.  I felt cheerful and confident and the rest of the day went great.  Whenever we pray with sincere hearts and allow Heavenly Father to communicate with us, He will answer those prayers.

So we finally presented our Ward missionary plan to Anziano Durand who is our bishop.  He made a few changes and now we will implement it in the ward.  I am so excited to see how this plan works in the ward.  We're going to do several activities, events, and other things to encourage the members to share the gospel with those around them.  

Friday we had dinner with our English class students.  After a meal of lettuce drowning in fry sauce (yes the Italians have fry sauce), mussells in a red sauce, cous cous with chicken and vegetables, coke, breadsticks, crostini which means crusts of bread and tiramisu, we shared a thought.  Our students are awesome and were the hosts were amazing.  It was wonderful because we couldn't eat the tiramisu because they use coffee in it.  When we explained that, the host cut strawberries for us and then they gave us the cream on top of the tiramisu.  I got a huge caffeine rush when we got home.  But what touched my heart was that during dinner the students thanked us for bringing all of them together.  I didn't want that night to end.  

We had a ward activity where a dentist came and taught us about dental hygiene.  After the activity we taught the dentist.  She accepted a Book of Mormon and I'm excited to see how she progresses.  After the lesson we watched Legacy in Italian and then had a pot luck dinner.  It was amazingly delicious and the members gave us tons of left overs.  they are amazing!

So we had an interesting experience.  People here have plastic flower pots with fake flowers in them sitting on their window sills.  Well apparently one of these flower pots fell off our neighbors window sill and hit a Jehovah Witness missionary on the head.  But it all happened right outside our apartment.  The JW's rang our doorbell and then the police came and asked us questions.  When we explained it wasn't us everything was alright and the police officer kept saying how they liked us because we were obedient and kind and help their people.  Then the firetruck came and took flower pots off of everyone's windows.  Hilarious, weird and a story that only happens on the mission.

So the biggest lesson I've learned this week has been about charity.  I've had a lot of frustrations, things that made me angry, and worries about different things.  Not gonna lie, it's been very challenging and the Lord is definitely putting me through a refiners fire right now.  But I was studying about charity and learned this principle.  When we constantly have charity in our hearts, that's when we can constantly feel the spirit and the trials are easier to handle and easier to learn from.  I'm so grateful for these lessons for life.

Scripture for the week:  2 Nephi 26:33

Word for the week:  Contagioso (cone-taw-gee-oh-so).  It means contagious.  Be happy.  It's contagious.

Challenge:  Pray to receive charity.  It is a gift from Christ and when we earnestly seek any spiritual gift, Heavenly Father will bless us with that gift. 

Love you all!  Thank you for the letters and cards!

Love Sorella Hatch

CIBO

Written 3-19-14

 

It's true.  Life in Italy revolves around food, sleep and missionary work.  So last pday we just walked around Savona.  What a privilege it is to live here in this beautiful city next to the sea

So one part of missionary work is to help people with any projects.  We were able to clean Sorella S.'s house and it was awesome.  It's amazing how when we serve someone, it immediately lifts our spirits.  

So I got a shiny new bike this week because my old one literally died.  The M. family in our ward came with us to the Decathlon (aka BIG 5 times ten) and drove the bike back in their car.  It is so much easier to ride around Savona now because my brakes aren't dying and neither is my back.  YAY!

So our investigator G. finally came to church this week.  It was so wonderful to see her and her beautiful family.  They left after sacrament but we're hoping they come again.  We taught them about the temple and it was a beautiful lesson.  

So we're working with a new family from India.  A., his wife, N. and their daughter A.  We had another appointment with them but we got the times mixed up and they weren't expecting us.  But they let us in.  We answered more of their questions.  They confessed they hadn't been reading the Book of Mormon so we challenged them to start reading it.  Then the husband A. announced that he's going back to India for three months for education.  We're not sure exactly what we're going to do with this family but we're hoping that the missionaries in India will teach the husband and we can continue teaching the wife and daughter.  They gave us dried plantation banana chips, these clear, crunchy potato chip things and this gummy purple Indian dessert called Aluva.  Mom do you know what that is?  Can you research it for me please?  It was delicious. 

Sunday the Relief Society president and her husband invited us for lunch.  It was the best lunch of my life.  It was a 6 course italian feast.  We started off with olives, salami, prosciutto, 5 different kinds of bread and bread sticks, deviled eggs, these puffed pastry things filled with cheese.  Then came the pesto covered pasta and the pasta covered in a mushroom sauce.  Then came the curried turkey leg, salad, peppers drenched in olive oil, and more bread.  Following that was the egg plant with herbs and mozzarella cheese on top, more veggies and other goodies.  Then the fruit... I ate an orange and kiwis.  Finally dessert which was this creamy cheese stuff that tasted like icecream covered in a strawberry sauce and homemade tiramisu.  We ate over a span of three hours so I wasn't dying after.  We finished off with tea.  There was another family there and they spoke french so we were speaking Italian, French and English all at the same table.  AMAZING!  Also this family lives up in the mountains of Finale Ligure so they live in Italian paradise.  

Monday was an awesome zone conference.  The theme was that the power behind us as missionaries is greater than the obstacles in front of us.  I bawled the entire time and met amazing new missionaries.  I absolutely love all the missionaries here.  

Yesterday we had an absolutely amazing experience.  We went to W and L's house.  W wasn't there but L. was.  We sang hymns for him and played the piano.  He is really old and has really bad health and suffers a lot.  He then told us more about his life.  He is such an example to me of persevering to the end even when life is so incredibly difficult.  

Thank you everyone for all of your love, support and prayers.  The mission is hard but I've seen more blessings and refinement now in my life than ever!

The scripture this week is Ether 12:27

the challenge this week is to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help you have an experience where you are in the right place and the right time for that miracle to happen.

The word of the week is sbadigliare (sbaw-dee-lee-are-ay).  It means Yawn.

Love,

Sorella Hatch