28/1/15 Reggio Emilia

Heather Hastings			Jan 28 (2 days ago)
So Wednesday the last: pre-transfer day. Packing, cleaning. We planned to take a train around 4:15 to Firenze. We had a fun time hauling around my bags in the rain to the Firenze apartment, where we stayed that night. Then the next morning we get on the train and head to Bologna, where Is aw Sorella Hamblin! That was fun. And what you're waiting for... Reggi Emilia. It is a nice city. Smaller than Firenze, about the same size as Arezzo probably.  Well, my new companion is Sorella Pavich. She pretty much came trained- she's great. Already she speaks really well Italian and she knows the system. She is from American Fork, is 19. She is a dancer and is super skinny, but super sweet. It will be a good transfer. The ward we are in is at risk of becoming a branch! And our missionary numbers her are so small. I don't like it and we're going to change that. We have like, two investigators who are legit. Thursday night I met one of the ysas, and now I am excited to be here. It is a cool ward anyways. Her boyfriend is leaving on a mission and she is about to leave too, but it's super hard for her. I told her I know how she feels. We got fed pizza too, and that was fun. The bikes are fun. My legs are sore and it FREEZING here now, but it's fun. I got stuff to keep me warm. I haven't had African food yet, but it will come. So some people we are working with: Maybell and Thompson (husband wife, from Ghana) - Very interesting. Thursday we tried to teach about prophets and it turned into a huge discussion about Jesus, and also how we can all be prophets or prophetess’s because God speaks to all of us. That was a tough lesson. She didn't get the whole prophet thing... Then yesterday, we tried to teach the plan of Salvation with a focus on the Book of Mormon, which we got from a prophet, revealed Rom God. They won't accept the Book of Mormon and we got stuck on Adam and Eve. 2 Nephi 2:25. Adam fell that men might be... sigh. We're going to have to try a new approach. Pretty much, they won't accept other scripture. Mamma Mia! Then there's Mercy- From Nigeria. She has a six month old son named Wisdom. She has been preparing to get baptized into the Catholic church, and then we came along. We watched the restoration with her, we read 2 Nephi 31. She believes our church, she believes the restoration. The only problem is commitment because she gets food from the Catholic church Saturday, then if she doesn't show up to their church on Sunday it looks bad. She's got to figure out what to do. She is nice and really sweet though. Naomi- she is our bap date, but she hasn't been taught for six weeks because she keeps cancelling. Yeah, we'll work on that... Chiara- Italian! Ok, you all have to go look this up on YouTube paqman87 (or it might be pagman87) then look at the videos. Long distance relationship. Chiara is 17, and her boyfriend Alessandro is like 26. He is a return missionary but he is a video filmer, and they are really close. She has been thinking about the church for two years and finally she requested our info. Our concerns with her are her relationship with the boy and also the ward, because she goes to his ward not ours. But we have a bap date for March 20 so that’s our goal! She is cool. We taught her the first two lessons and she's great. Has read the BoM twice and the D&C. She made us lunch yesterday. She's a character, but legit and sweet. That's about it. We are working (or trying to get ahold of! No one answers our calls) with a lot of meno attivi here to get more numbers in church. I am excited to see how things progress here. I have not eaten African food yet. There is a really yummy gelateria here though with raspberry cheesecake gelato :) Saturday, we had one miracle lesson. After spending the whole morning inside planning and making plans for these less actives, we spent the whole day finding. It’s exhausting. Well, the ward is like 60 %Foreign and 40Italian. It is interesting. I like this place! Next week or the next we are going to the Ferrari Museum :) A couple of things: we do not check the mail often because the mail box is in an inconvenient place. So, I would recommend sending me mail to the mission home please! That never changes. But here is my address if you are just dying to send me a letter, except for Weston. You can't use this address. Sorella Missionaria Hastings Via Don Jodi 6/4 Reggio Emilia 42121 (RE) Italia Also, mom if you could get a taco seasoning packet and throw it in your next letter, that would be grand. Thanks :) And if anyone has new cool music, send me through email and I can put it on my flash drive. Finally, we just did an Italian fast for the Rome Temple. The work is slowed so we are praying hard. I miss the Temple. So visit it at home. Please? Thanks. Love you all! I am doing well and very happy to be relaxed a bit here. My companion is a trooper, we just need to get us some more investigators to teach. Oh! We dropped a lady. She was crazy psycho, oh man. Maria Grazia. She was asking us why her boyfriend doesn't love her. She didn't want to get rebaptized. I think she is just really old and confused. She talked so much... you need patience with these people. That was an interesting lesson. Oh, and we teach English class every Tuesday and Thursday night. That is fun. Anywhooo, ya'll are great. Loves ya! P.S. I just realized I have been gone for 7 months. What? When did that happen? I look forward to your mail at zone conference!!!  Fotos: Giovanni my new comp The walls who do you think you are to build a wall under my graffiti? Us with Chiara More to come next week.  Sorella Hastings =) Love and Be Loved

21/01/2015 Transfers

Heather Hastings			Jan 21 (9 days ago)
First, I will start by telling about New year’s because I failed to recount that story. It was a crazy day- we went to Firenze and were supposed to be home early, but we missed the train (as usual) and got home late. So We stopped by a small store, I bought some nuts and made Pecan pie with Walnuts while we watched 17 Miracles, and drank hot chocolate. We wanted to go to bed early but instead we just went to bed on time. It didn't go as planned, but it was nice. About midnight all the fireworks were going off, it was crazy!!! For a good half hour they were booming and exploding. Needless to say we did not sleep well nor could we see them from our window. SO, they like to party here, and we obviously could hear that. But that was our night, nothing too exciting, but kind of sort of relaxing. As for this week... I will start with last week. I already told you we went to Porto Venere for pday, and it was absolutely incredible! We woke up waaayy too early, ran for the train, but then the time there was great. We missed three trains and so we didn't get home until like 7 at night, but anyways it was a wonderful day. Thursday a miracle happened: we finally met with Sara! I think Sorella Friedbaum had only met with her three times this Whole transfer, whereas last transfer we saw her almost every day. Well there are still problems with her and Giovanni but I guess now they are not together, so that's good. We are trying to get an English class going so we went to the Commune here, but they just said there is no space. It is really hard sometimes not having a Church building. It makes things interesting. Then, that evening we went out with one of the Young women, Nicol, who speaks perfect English (we don't understand how) and we got gelato and talked all night in English. She helped us with Italian and it was fun! The big miracle of Thursday was Gabriella. She called us on Wednesday and said she wanted to see us. So, we went on Thursday and prepared a lesson for her. We sit down as usual and start talking. She tells us that she feels like she committed the biggest sin possible, by being so close to baptism and that she was ready, she stopped smoking- but then she got weak and started again and couldn't get baptized. They are about to lose their house and all sorts of stress there is for them, but she told us she realized how much peace she had before and now she wants to get back to that point. And she told us she wants to re-set a bap date. Yeah, we were pretty happy! She also told her she has been praying (she's Golden) and the other night felt this warm arm on her shoulder, like it was heavenly father telling her it will be ok and she is forgiven. Prayers do come true! So Friday, we head out early to Arezzo and get two lessons, then head back to San Giovanni to have lunch with another Young women, Chiarra. Their family is struggling and the Whole situation is crazy, but we took her out to pizza and gelato and she really enjoyed it. The miracle here is that night she went to seminary, and she hasn't been for a while. Then on Sunday she told everyone but out date out- I think she needed it. We also met a cool lady on the train that day named Silvia who tried out other religions and doesn't like em, but she loves to read and grabbed the Boom of Mormon and started reading it. Pretty cool. Don’t know if we will see her again, though. We got her number so speriamo bene. Then, we ended the night with my favorite- Jasmin. We had dinner with the brava cook Muma and her. They are great, and when we come back to visit Italia, they will give us a place to stay :) Saturday, it happened. We wake up and do studies. The clock read 8:34am, the phone starts buzzing. I ignore it. Sorella looks at it and says, "It's president Dibb." So I take a deep breath and answer the phone, knowing that when pres. calls this early it means training. I answer, and tells me the news. He says I am happy with your work in Montevarchi, but it is time for you to go. He is sending me away, to a place called Reggio Emilia. My heart sunk. That meant Sorella Friedbaum is training. But why? I am Learning to love it here. Two transfers is not enough! Gabriella is going to get baptized! I had considered hashing it out with him on the phone, telling him I don't want to go, asking to what it would take to stay, but I couldn't find the words to say it. So here we are! Sorella Friedbaum will be training (she is worried because she can't speak very well, and, she is Young!) But she will do well. As for me, I am going to little Africa land. Yup. Reggio Emilia is a ward but it is full of Africans, and they eat lots of Fufu. Yay...We will be on bikes and my new companion is Sorella Pavich. I am bottle breaking, she's in her 3rd transfer. So that's exciting I guess. I really don't want to go, and I felt more upset than sad about it. Oh well, here we are. Saturday we then set a bap date with Gabriella! I told her the news and she got upset too. We get affezionato to these people and then president sends us away. It's tough. But, she now has a bap date again and I hope she can make it. She really wants it. We also saw this homeless guy named Giuotono who we teach every Saturday night because he comes to the Church and sits outside during mass to collect money. Someone gave him food, and he tried to share it with us. He’s really sweet. He has nothing and still he shares. Sunday, I gave a talk in Church. It was already planned so it worked out perfectly that I am leaving I guess. A little ironic, because it was on the importance of Church but all the people who didn't come are the ones who needed it... anyways, it well, and after words I got complimented on how well my Italian is and how much I have grown. I am glad. I feel like the gift of tongues really is a gift for me, and it's pretty cool, though I still have a lot to learn... then we went home but it took forever. These correlation meetings with Italians last forever! We got home and had lunch at 5pm, but we made a pretty darn good stroganoff. Monday, we had district meeting. Not much to tell. We tried to say bye to Mery and Michel but they weren't home, so we went to Jasmins and we taught some English and said goodbyes. I will miss her. She is 12 but she is a great girl. Then, we had dinner with a member. She took us out to eat at a Chinese restaurant! It was really yummy, but she made us eat so much! Sushi, A starter, then a main dish, then fried ice cream. Oh, but it was soo yummy! Mmmm. She only kept us out until 10pm though, no biggy. I love going to sleep with a stuffed belly... yeah... bitter sweet times. Finally, we arrive at Tuesday. A busy day. Gabriella calls and says, sorellina, come over at 5. See you then. Um, well we already have plans, but ok. So we went with a member to visit a less active- pretty much, she wants to come to Church, but she has a small baby, and her husband doesn't want anything to do with the Church and her heart is very closed. Let's just say it was a tough lesson and it was very hard not to judge. After her we headed to Arezzo and had lunch with Susan. Another miracle, as we driving down to town she pretty much almost drove off a Cliff! Someone helped her and they towed her car out, but man, she just needs to lose some stress. Susan is Amazing, and we had a good lunch with her. I ate oysters for the first time-kinda squishy. I will miss her, my Nigerian friend. She can't write very well and she wrote me a letter- the second one she had ever written. I feel special. We said bye to crazy lady Casucci who loves Arizona, and I said bye to Sara and Chetti, and then Carolin and Andreina (the domenican house) and then, the hardest one... Gabriella. We were sitting at the table just talking have good conversation, laughing. After a good time it was time to go. She didn't want to stand up. So we sat a bit longer. Finally, we had to say goodbye. Mia nonna italiana. Mom, Gabriella is as old as you. She has taken care of me all these days. She told me it was like sending off a daughter or niece that you will never see again. She almost cried, this tough Sicilian Women who gave a man a black eye with her purse one time. Did I mention because she grew up with nuns? That was the hardest goodbye. And Giovanni, too. I don't want to go. It's frustrating that I can't do anything about it. I want to know what God has planned, but I know his plan and his will is perfect and I trust that. So that's enough for me to go. Well, Today I will finish packing. Then we are going to Firenze and tonight I get to crash with the Sorelle there (they have a leather couch!) and Friesbaum goes up to Milano. Then tomorrow, I get to travel with two Anziani to Bologna (woohoo!) Then meet my new collega. So that's the plan. I will give you my address next week. In the meantime, you can send mail to the mission office. I am excited slightly, but still sad to leave. I love you!!! So very much. Life is crazy but it's good. It’s good stuff. I am happy Lisa finally has a baby! I so wish I could hold her. But hey, the Italian kiddos here are cute too. I guess I can hold out for 11 months. Well, I think that's all I have to tell for now. This gospel is a miracle. Prayers come true, and I have seen so much this transfer just how miraculous prayer can be. If you have the faith, anything can happen. Padre Celeste is up there just waiting to give it all to us because he loves us! Be well, have a good week! Ciao a tutti, a dopo! :) p.s. It is carnivale season now! I still don't quite know what that means. We came home from Church and the piazza was covered in confetti!!! Fotos: With Sara and her evil dog, Milo. Gabriella- mia nonna Italiana. Susan Arezzo Jasmin Anziani us Confetti Sorella Hastings =) Love and Be Loved