January 30, 2017

January 30, 2017

For P-Day we went to Rome last week that why there were the awesome pictures and we played zone calcio there with two zones of missionaries and it was super awesome to be there and meet more missionaries and just go all out.  Playing an epic game of soccer (calcio), we Played with italians, a brazialian, a Filipino, and a bunch of americans, so good.

I went on another scambio in Ascoli with Anz. Ruiz and we had a good time and at one point we were walking in Centro and there was a set up for this olive thing amd we inquired on what it was and it turns out they were shooting a tv thing there to say hey we are ok the earthquakes didnt really do anything. But as we were walking we were stopped by a woman and we talked with her and found out she was one of the tv reporters and talked to her about the gospel a little then she had to go work but the other tv reporter came over and she talked to us and we shared why we were there and such and she invited us to tell the whole tv people our message later at a hotel thing at six which was way cool, but one i would be back in Pescara at six and two that was the time for the Missionary broadcast and they were going back to Rome the next day so I hope they contact people in Rome because they were very nice people.

The missionary broadcast was absolutely awesome a very big spiritual boost and had some good changes to our schedule, so now i have more time on p-days and also a more flexible day so that will be cool to fully implement.

 Carlo's baptism has been pushed back a few weeks but it will still happen soon he just feels like he needs to make a few changes in his life first.  

-Anziano Olsen

"Music is given of God to further his purposes. Sweet melodies mellow the souls of men and help prepare them for the gospel. After men receive the truth, songs of praise to Deity help to sanctify and cleanse their souls.”
-- Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine (1966), 521

"Musica è da Dio per ulteriori i suoi scopi. Melodie dolce loro rilassano le anime degli uomini e aiutarli preparare per il vangelo. Dopo uomini ricevono la verità, calzoni di lode a Dio aiutarli santificare e pulire le loro anime."
-- Anziano Bruce R. McConkie, Dottrina di Mormon (1996), 521

January 23, 2017

January 23, 2017

So, people here are interesting and just because they work at a computer internet point doesn't mean they know how to actually use computers, which is ridiculous, but that's how it is.

Continuing with the people we were at a questura (immigration part of a police station) for my card to live here and two of the several earthquakes that day started shaking the building, not majorly at all just enough to be fun and since we are near the beach the buildings have a lesser chance of falling because science, but the police workers all ran away and hid somewhere leaving the rest of us just standing there waitn g for them to return for like 10 minutes after the earthquakes stopped. Strange people with mind boggling thought patterns.

The earthquakes were much stronger elsewhere and all the missionaries are safe but the people in the north got shook up quite a bit.

We progressed a ton with Carlo in the past week, we did a final push using a fast, blessing, and got him to an 8yr old member baptism. It was a good week he hopefully gave up smoking and drinking for good, and set his own baptismal date at the other baptism, we are so enthused that he could feel the spirit strongly enough to change his lifestyle, he even started coming his hair and dressing cleaner, you can really see a change in a person when they have the desire to change.

We also met with a referral from one of the members, Michele delle foglie  (Michael of the leaves) and his wife, they are like 80 and super cool. They loved every aspect of what we taught them about prayer and eternal marriage.  It was one of the best lessons, because she explained to us that she didn't just want to learn they wanted to understand everything and there curiosity led them to some of the most beautiful aspects of what we believe.  That we can pray to God with our own words, that we have been tasked to keep ourselves clean and pure, and that we can live with each of our loved ones again forever after this life. They basically invited themselves to church, set up a return appt., and wanted a Book of Mormon before we could even mention it.

Volete bene 

     -Anziano Hansen 

Prince cards :)

January 17, 2017 We taught a prince, of sorts

January 17, 2017

We went less active finding and just before we got to the bus stop we talked with a guy for like 30ish minutes about the gospel and ended up missing 3 buses because of it and not even finding who we went out for, but we met with that one guy so I think it was a success either way.

Also electricity running through a house really isn't that much at least not here, I mean it didn't hurt bad at all and I'm still alive so I think it's fine.

We got to teach a prince which was strange but still way cool. He was a super nice guy and he has his own buisness card thing (picture).  He is like crazy richer than anyone else here and he only married into the prince title and she even left him, he kept the title and its just strange, but anyway we could only teach him half the lesson because he insisted that we take a tour of his house which was super catholic.  Here is a list, he sleeps with a cross on his chest with 3 surrounding his bed, a prayer room with statues pictures and a bunch of cool catholic stuff, his own personal church downstairs with everything that goes with it.  It was just a oddly interesting experience, but we have a return date to continue teaching him so that's good. (The statue is his ex wife's aunt).

Anziano Farinotti and I found and taught a guy named Alessio who works at a car place and his friend who just happened to be there and they both have a book of mormon we have a new friend, and they know a little more about what we believe.

We had a meeting before zone conference that was really cool and i learned alot from all of it.  I also got a new free tie that is really cool which you will probably see in a picture eventually.

We later went on a scambio with the AP's (assistants to the president) and it was super awesome and a great learning experience. First off the wind was so strong we had to lean forward to walk and make progress. We taught a lesson to member family about missionary work and we taught a lesson to a random guy we met on the street and we also met a guy from Russian that neither spoke English nor Italian so that was very difficult to communicate (we needed you Cody).  We also went finding the next day by cleaning a park (because Italians think it is odd when two Americans start cleaning a park the Italians don't even clean). But we taught two lessons in the park and i had a full conversation with someone by my self so that was fun, and one of the lesson was to a guy that worked at NASA it was very interesting and he was super smart, obviously.

When we went to Ascoli I went on a mini scambio (exchange) with Anziano Ruiz and after he did a backflip on a sketchy public trampoline we taught like 20 raggazi what mormons are and invited them all to English course, we also met a small polish family that recognized missionaries from 15 yrs ago in Polland and brought up English course before we did and plan on going, so that’s going to be cool. And there will be a baptism in Ascoli in a few weeks for someone they met a while ago so that is exciting.

So this week I was also asked to give a blessing (in Englisn luckily) to an Afrikan member who had been sick for an entire week and it was a super spiritual experience for me to be guided by the spirit, and even though I had been slow in my words a feel sure that they were the right words because she actually did get better that next day.  So the lesson learned here was to trust in the spirit fully even if you are unsure of yourself or if it doesn't come all at once just be patient, bear with it and trust.

And i would like to leave my testimony through some scriptures.
Moroni 10:5 and Moroni 8:26

The prince cards
A cool building in pre-Rome Ascoli

Remake of a picture Trent took on his mission in the snow

Jan 9 2017 Miracles do happen- Ryan bought a pair of skinny jeans!

January 9, 2017

So I am no longer the youngest in the district, which is fun, that title goes to an Anz. Daniels from Elko NV.  He a pretty awesome guy and he has shown me how much I have really grown in only one tranfer, it's truly a growth I would never have noticed otherwise. 

We got a couple more bidones always dissapointing ma we must keep moving.  Then for a dinner we had with a member family and a non member family we were going to share like a ten minute spiritual thought but it fell to crap and turned into a beautiful two hour lesson, which was fine becuase italians take forever to cook and get ready so the dinner wasnt even ready yet.  We answered a lot of great questions and they want to know more and we will probably meet with them soon.

I did a scambio in Terni and taught lesson to this guy named Mario from Napoli, he was... different.  He loves the Madonna randomly touching your face and turning of the lights when we pray and a random parts during the lesson... who knows why, he's Italian. Boh.
But i learned a bunch about just relaxing when i speak and not being afraid to take pauses and speak from the heart.
We also bought some scambio stretch skinny jeans for like 15€ becuase saldi (sales)where everything is like 50%off everywhere.

We went looking for this potential investigator and it had snowed and was still snowing a little plus the humidity plus being by the sea made the cold cut through your jacket, but we went out anyway. We found the street he supposedly lived on and after a while pf walking we kind of gave up, there weren't even any houses on the street at all, but i talked with my comp. and it was like we walked this far might as well walk to the end of the streetand there was a split we decided to go up and as we looked to the left there was literally a sign with our investigator's name on it pointing down the other street.  So we were like... no way so we walked down that street and there was an even bigger sign with his name on it also apparently it was his buisness, he wasnt there but we found where he will be and it was awesome.

Anziano Olsen and i in most of them
Anziano Blackwell on the left and Anziano segura on the right.
Me redoing a picture i remember trent did when it snowed on his mission.

Jan 2 2017 Swag new cut

January 2, 2017 My first haircut

So I got my first hiarcut in Italy at this place that can only be described as hipster swag which is a phrase that I have never used before but they are the only words i have for it.  They do an awesome job, wash your hair twice and clean so you don't have an itchy shirt afterwards. 

We also had District Meeting and we exchanged gifts and learned that both Anziani in LAquila are leaving to be replaced by anz. Whited and Anz. Daniels (a greenie) which means i am no longer the youngest, awesome.

Since almost everyone is busy during Christmas we didn't do much but we did make a ton of cookies for the Bosco family.

We went and saw the going to be new church they are building in Pescara and stopped by to visor with some nice people at a bakery and they gave us free food becuase we were nice.  It was a really good cheese muffin dolce thing. 

We did deep cleaning for basically all of Saturday until it was late and then we ate gummies and drank coke.  We also tried to pop some sparkling cider (which took forever to find) right at midnight. Then we went to bed right after since it had been a long day and we were super tired.

We had church and met this guy who just looks like Luigi so much except really old and his white moustache turns yellow becuase cigarettes are terrible. But he was really nice anyways.

We also ate with the awesome Conforte family who has a daughter going to the provo MTC soon to go to Chile.  So I got to walk down memory lane through the MTC which was fun.
Auguri Auguri 
Buon anno
  -Anziano Hansen

Also Happy Birthday Brookie, ti amo e il tuo esempio a me e io spero che quando torno che posso essere piu come tu.  Teni la tua forte e bella personalità

Dec 26 2016 pic

December 26, 2016

This week was just awesome in general but at this moment I don’t have a ton of time so i will shrink this email down to pure awesomeness.  We tried to go Caroling in L'Aquila and Ascoli and it worked pretty well in Ascoli and we sang not too terribly in the cold. 
In L'Aquila we painted their house and that was really cool and we were going to go caroling but after the earthquake five years ago the centro still isn’t built so it is basically a ghost town most of the time. But we made good friends in a Christmas mercato.
Then we had an awesome baptism that practically fell in our lap be since she was taught here then moved and came back so she could get baptized by her brother here, so that was amazing to be apart of.  L'Aquila had brought an investigator with them but he was literally in the bathroom for just the actual baptism part so that was a little disappointing pero it was still very spiritual and a happy time.
I got to Skype my family and they are awesome, I love them so much. It was very fun to try to explain to them all of the random things people do here and also their habits that aren’t that good but whatever its Italy. It was great to see them happy and know that what I am doing blesses them.
We got to watch Rise of the Guardians which has a cooler name in Italian that translates to The five legends and that was fun.