A week of Miracles

Heather Hastings	Nov 26 (2 days ago)

Saturday was the baptism of Giovanni, a guy who lives here in the town of San Giovanni on the street Via Giovanni da San Giovanni. Crazy, right? Anyways, he is amazing. He is separated from his wife because she decided to be lesbian but he has two adorable little girls, Giorgia (3) and Alessia (2). he used to be a hard core drinker and would smoke at times, but over the course of time he has left all behind and now he is a miracle. He prays with his girls and he loves this gospel. The baptism was great, which was followed by a great stake conference. Good stuff. They are really emphasizing family history work and the temple here, and missionary work. It’s cool to see.

Gabriella is the mother of Giovanni. She is 59 turning 60 in February and we have a bap date with her for January 3rd. She is Siciliana and her husband died 25 years ago (i think) so she's a trooper. She was an orphan and at like ten years old lived in  nun house for 8 years, but not she disagrees with the catholic church and how they function. She knows everything-teaching her is so easy, that it's difficult because we don't know what to teach! She just needs to stop smoking. That is our goal. She has three weeks now to stop and we will make it. She lives with Giovanni and neither of them really has work, but they are making by. They are so funny too. Mircale people, they are.

Sara is a ragazza of 19 years. Sorelle before me found her, or she kind of found them. She has so many problems in her life: anxiety, depression, her dad left when she was 10 and holiday season is tough for her, she smokes, she is getting out of an abusive relationship, she has fear and I could go on... But, she is a miracle. Seriously peeps, we don't know how blessed we are in America to have this Gospel. It is the ultimate key to happiness! Well, Monday in district meeting the Anziani said: no one in our zone is setting bap dates. Why? SO they did a role play with us. I now have a strong testimony of role-plays, even though I hate them. So that night we visited Sara, and after all this time, we decided to just go for it. It worked. We set a bap date with her. but, the miracle about it was that she was so depressed and she had just told us more bad news... then we said, we want to put this goal to a date so we can work towards it since you have already decided to be a Mormon (she wants to go buy a bunch of skirts and she evens wants to go on a mission!)Anyways, January 17th is our date! After we set it, she changed, completely. I never have seen her smile like that! It was incredible. This is the power of the atonement, of the Gospel. It changes people for good, it makes us happy. I can bear witness of that.

And all these people live here, in San Giovanni, where they are building the chapel. And, one of the members is moving to San Giovanni. Good stuff.

Well, this week there has been lots of fog everywhere... it's kind of creepy sometimes. Mostly, it's just really cold and humid.

Christmas has been on my mind a lot. I just keep thinking how blessed we are back home... and that this time now, is for these people, because their lives are so much different, and they work so hard and struggle so much. I am so very grateful to be here. Things are going really well right now. Also, with all these conferences, we have gotten to ride in the car with the Anziani. (Remember how president doesn't like elders and sisters being together) Well, we are special. He likes us. It’s fun.

That's about it. Love you all. More to come later.
Write me letters this week! Zone meeting is Friday the 5th.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorella Hastings =)

Love and Be Loved

25 Days of Christ

Heather Hastings	Nov 26 (2 days ago)

My Italian hand made mini nativity

Our green apple juice?

Our Christmas tree that has been up since last year

And my invite: 25 days of Christ. DO IT! Please? It will change you, I promise. It will grow you. You will be happy. Every day, starting December 1st, read the scripture that I wrote down and think about Christ. Think about your relationship with him. Put His teachings into practice. keep me updated on how it goes along the way :) I really want everyone in the family, and anyone else, to do this. Be awesome!

And no, for anyone wondering, we have appointments set up as normal tomorrow and we might eat hot dogs and potatoes for lunch. Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Sorella Hastings =)

Love and Be Loved

19/11/2014 Mission tour

Heather Hastings	Nov 19 (9 days ago)

"This life isn't about getting home in the rain... it's about using what we have to persevere."

-Wise old funny President Dibb

It rained, it poured, it thundered... ALL DAY YESTERDAY. But, we had mission tour! And at the end president Dibb said the previous as all the missionaries gloomily looked out the window wondering how we would get home in that mess.

So Elder Fingerle and his beautiful wife came to tour our mission. They are from Germany and he is in the area seventy. Very cool people. We got to read some talks and read all of Matthew prior to, and then we discussed them at the conference. I will send you all the talks because they are great and I think you should read them with all the free time you all have :)

Anyways, they talked a lot about remembering spiritual experiences and recognizing the spirit. That is a goal on my mission is to make the most of every moment and remember and record these small little spiritual experiences I have. Last week, we got on the train and walked down the aisles looking for someone we could sit by. We walked past this man and then I thought, we should talk to him. But we had already passed by him and then it would be awkward. So I quickly battled it out in my head then thought, why not? Let's talk to him. So we turned around, went back to that car and I said hey, can we sit and talk with you? Sure he said. So we did. And it turns out he has a wife and lives in our area, and is going through some struggles. He wants to meet with us but he hasn't called us back yet. Ricardo, is his name. But anyways, it is small little feelings like that where we need to learn to recognize in order to get the blessings.

Also at the conference they talked about... FAMILIES. We are using the My Family Booklet and are to use familysearch.org with member families and recent converts. This is big stuff, it's a big deal! Especially because WE have family from Italy, we need to be on top of it. And they emphasized very strongly how we can use this and also mormon messages with people... with having an ipad. Yeah, so no ipads yet for us. :(

In short, the conference was wonderful. They made us turkey and stuffing and jello and potatoes and pumpkin cake. I was in heaven. So yummy. And afterwards, then Anziani got to drive us home! It is about an hour car ride from Firenze to San Giovanni, and they are the zone leaders so this one time president said, give them a ride. It was fun. I like cars. They are warm.

Well in the life here in Montevarchi, it is going well. This past week for companionship inventory, we counciled each other. We wrote out lists about each other and talked out our feelings. We made goals and plans and we are good :) silly girls.

A miracle! This past Sunday, maybe of the members and investigators said that the night before they prayed it would not rain so that they could come to Church. All of their prayers came true! Sunday morning it was nice and sunny, and we had some great numbers at Church. Prayers and miracles are real!

Have I told you about the accents here? The Toscana accent is horrible. In dove? They say, instead of da dove. And their "C" sounds like an "H", though H doesn't even be pronounced in Italian. So strange. It's a work in progress to learn on my part.

We have a bap date! Gabriella, the mother of Giovannni (who is getting baptized this Saturday). Gabriella's date is the 3rd of January so she can stop smoking. Next week I will tell all about those we are working with. We have some miracle people here, and you want to know about them. Unfortunately I am out of time this week. But, I love you all. Enjoy yourselves and keep looking for the blessings in your life.

This Gospel is the truest their is, we have prophets, we have the bible and the Book of Mormon, and we have eternal familes. With obedience and faith and works like Christ, what else do we need? Life is so great. Live it up! Send me mail!

Vi voglio molto bene! Grazie tutti, per tutto. A dopo!

Your commitments that I'm committing upon you:

Read those talks!

Invite someone to Church this week

Use Familysearch.org (aka Facebook for the Dead)

Think about Christ, be awesome

Be grateful, be happy :)

Sorella Hastings =)

Love and Be Loved

22/10/2014 The twelfth week

Heather Hastings	Oct 22 (1 day ago)

So much happens in the space of a week and I always have so much to tell, yet I never know what to write about. While Elder Jones is baptizing by the handful practically, we here in Milano are struggling a bit to keep people. They don't come to church and like to get flaky with us. It was a tiring week, but we had some good miracles.

Also, we find out about transfers on Saturday. I am a bit nervous. My first 12 weeks of training are over and then I'm just a normal missionary. I don't know what will happen. I might leave, we might stay, Sorella Carter might leave... we don't know. But in the meantime please pray for me! And, don't send any mail to my personal address, only to the mission home for this week. I will let you know next week if I get transferred...

On Sunday, it was interesting day. I wrote a nice poem about the atonement during sacrament then we went to lunch with our Filipino family. Their food is different but so yummy. Pictures included. Look at that cute little girl! We are trying to get them to the temple. Monday Tuesday we did a scambio again. We are doing another scambio tonight. We had miracles though, in that three people pretty much came up to us asking to come to church! But we passed them on to the Anziani. 

We our short on people to teach right now. Remember Laura and Dani? We decided to drop them because they are ignoring us. It's been a while. Sabrina and Julia both have a baptismal date and we teach them, but neither came to church this week. Diego isn't really progressing either. We have a lot of less actives and a lot of potentials lined up this weekend, and things are going to look up! Maybe tansfers with change things too. The work is good but it's not always easy. That's about all I have to say for this week. I love you and am always grateful for your prayers and support.

Today for pday we might take a nap and play some frisbee. We might visit the cemetary for fun too, ha.

Ether 6:7

Go study Moroni chapter 7. I studied it this morning. Good stuff!

I Love you all!

Talk to you next week!

"Life is not a Goblet to be drained; it is a measure to be filled."

Sorella Hastings =)

Love and Be Loved

Another week 15/10/2014

Heather Hastings	7:14 AM (3 hours ago)

I never know how to start these weekly letters. Last week’s birthday was great! Fuddruckers American style hamburger with cheddar cheese, an Oreo milkshake, French fries. Mmmm :) Then the chocolate factory... pictures will follow. A good day indeed. That night, we went to out ward Mission leaders house to help his daughter with English for a college class. Well, they made us dinner and surprised me with a cake. It was perfect! 

This week we just went around Milano in search of some things. We ate a Kebab for lunch today, finally. Look it up. It's like a gyro, kind of sort of. They are everywhere on the streets here. It was good! But what is the mystery meat? No one knows.

Well, I got to do the scambio this past week in Lugano. La Svizzera è bella! It was like dream land. So beautiful, but so very expensive. The missionaries who live there have to shop in Italy every pday because it so expensive. Craziness. But I had a great time and loved Sorella Boscia! In fact, Liz, she reminded me a lot of you. She is 36 years old and dated someone for five years, got engaged, then broke it off and decided to go on a mission. We spoke only Italian and I did fine! I learned a lot and it was a really cool opportunity. Becca, Lisa and Liz, I love you all :) she felt like one of my sisters and so I thought of you all a lot. Oh, and go buy a Toblerone bar if you want some Swiss chocolate :)

This week in church our dear friend Sabrina came! Ok, I may have said before that she is crazy. She is so funny though and we have a bap date set with her. Well, she was really nervous and tired and asked for coffee. Of course, we didn't have coffee. Then in sacrament meeting, she wanted to clap after a family sang a prelude song. She was getting annoyed that parents were making the kids stop playing and be reverent because she thought they should be allowed to play. Then, towards the end, she pulls out her pack and tries to roll a smoke... during sacrament. We told her to put it away and wait... aside from that, she liked it! We visited her yesterday and thankfully, she said she will come back. Phew. 

Then, on Monday: superhero day! We visited a sweet less active lady who needed us, then district meeting, then pizza, then we helped a lady in the ward recover her passwords from her computer and contacted her niece, then our friend Rosa... remember the girl we were teaching English? Yeah, her. Well, she didn't pass her English test. Just this last Thursday she decided to Move back America. We we hurried and met up with her on Monday at McDonalds. She left yesterday to fly to New York! She wants to live there until January to study English, then come back in January to Italia and finish school. We had a lesson with her on Alma 26:36-37 (I think) and Mom, I gave her a meet the Mormon bracelet that said, "One choice changes everything." It was sad because she was my first goodbye but we are so happy for her! She's so brave. I just know good things will work out for her.

What else to say? We are busy. Time is flying. Sometimes it’s a like a dream, listening to all this Italian around me. In this past week I really feel like my Italian has exploded. The gift of tongues and the power of God through prayer is real! It's SO cool! 

We did laundry this week and it took two whole days for our towels to dry. Welcome to Europe... fun times. I am glad that I also bought that quick dry towel.

Life is good, as I've said. Nothing to worry about me. I have the coolest companion ever and we get along mostly great. We laugh so much, and she's so crazy, but she is such a good teacher and example to me. She makes me come out of my comfort zone, and we work well together. 

La vita è bella!

Vi voglio molto bene! Grazie mille tutti per ogni cosa!!! A dopo!

Sorella Hastings =)

Love and Be Loved