Jan. 7, 2015

Well everyone, it has been I think since I sent out a big email. We are in Montevarchi, me and my companion Sorella Friedbaum. The work is slow right now. We are struggling to keep appointments and to even keep our investigators. I talked about Gabriella before... she started smoking and so now her bap date didn't happen. It was supposed to be last Saturday. She wants to wait for things to calm down before we reset it so that she can reach it. 

Sara also her bap date is canceled, because she is dating a new convert who has a complex marriage situation and it's just all kinds of fun. We haven't seen her for two weeks! She kind of hates us right now. Being two young missionaries who don't speak well, we aren't sure what happened, but have no fear! We have an appointment with her finally tomorrow, and we apologized, so all should be well.

Life in Italia is wonderful. It amazes me every day to walk down these ancient streets and associate with strange people. The other day, all of our appointments canceled. We took a different route in Arezzo and went to find an old Lady named Rina. So, I've mentioned before about how there was an apostasy in Arezzo and the branch closed, then moved to Firenze, and a year and a half ago this branch of Montevarchi opened up. Well when all that happened many members stopped going to church, and now some don't know it's back. Well this lady Rina pulled her records at that point. She is 90 years old. She likes to tell us about her stories... she was an orphan, her dad died in the war. She met President Eisenhower (I don’t know how to spell) when he came to save Italy? She would hide up in the hills and in the Duomo back during the war. Arezzo was a proprio war town. And almost every day I get to walk through the old castle and bricks streets. It's amazing. And these people, they are amazing.

 Some random things real quick: I made a really yummy pineapple chicken for us with rice this week.

This morning we helped a member move into her new apartment in San Giovanni! Very close to our house. That is why we are emailing late- we bumped things around a bit.

I sent some fotos home, more next week.

It is really cold and humid and my skin is so dry! Why? I have never had dry skin before. Non capisco.

Gabriella often gets mad at me because she says my skirts are too light. No worries mom, I am staying warm enough anyways.

Saldi time!!! Twice a year Italia has sales, For a whole month. That time is now! SO we did some Firenze shopping today :)

Bufano was Tuesday*-the holiday where they leave their stockings out at night and then an ugly witch comes and leaves them candy if they are good, coal if bad. And the buses go on festival schedule, we are late to all our appointments, I make my companion walk instead of waiting and she hates me, then we make brownies and all is good.

We are getting bikes! Not sure when but we asked for them and president said yes.

I love you all! The church is so true and so wonderful. Ya'll are so incredibly blessed at home, me including. Love you all. Be happy. Say your prayers. Read the scriptures. Send missionaries letter in the MAIL BOX. It's easy. :)

Vi voglio bene!

Sorella Hastings =)

Love and Be Loved

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