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