Monday, September 11, 2017
September 11, 2017
Ok, just like I have read with other missionaries, we too are
expanding our resource pool and recieving the ability to use facebook. I
thought we would be using our wierd area specific emails for this, but we will
be using our old Facebook accounts so that'll be interesting for sure. They
asked us to send this out so that if you ever end up seeing that I am on Facebook
or messenger I'm not being a scemo missionary, I should actually be doing good missionary things (I don't
really know what yet, since we havent had our training yet, but you'll see.
Ok a cool experience we had during the week was seeing two times
we were guided to do certain things or extend certain invites. For example one
time during a lesson we brought out the talk to investigators and friends of
the church or something like that and in it it referenced a scripture Alma 42
that must have hit this person we were shoeing the video to since she asked for
my Book of Mormon and searched it up and read most of the chapter right then
and there then asked some great some great thoughts showing she had had her own
learning experience in that moment.
Also during that lesson we gave them two chapters to read since
we didn't know which to give them in that moment, but when we saw them the next
day she asked a question near the end of the lesson and expressed doubt in her
faith in Christ and we taked for a little and gently led her back to one of the
invite scriptures Mormon 9 which addresses this specifially, so I hope she can
once again have her own experience and grow her testimony on the things that
she has learned personally through the spirit.
There was also a grand festa in our little city called Santa
Maria, this city is usually dead as a doornail but for these last three days it
was the place to be. There were games, food, rides, a roller coaster, and a
concert stage. There were preformances like a talent showing singing thing the
first night, modern dance the second, and a band came and played the third
night. These were especially crazy since each of these events went for more
than 3-4 hours each. We don't know exactly how long they went but the last
night we were awaken by one of the loudest firework shows ever at almost 1 in
the morning.
Oh yah transfer calls were this week, I stayed in Catanzaro with
Anziano Haws. yeah let's gooo!!
September 4, 2017
So, basically at the
beginning of the week I went on a split with one of the Anziani from Cosenza,
Anziano Youngblood, and we were able to go around through the parks and do a
bunch of finding. Because there weren't very many people out we talked to just
as many people as we could to try to make it worth it. It was a great Scambio
and although not much came of it, we were able to get to know each other a
little better at very least.
Also this week we went
to look for a less active member and so we looked up the address and found the
street, now we just need to find the number. So we walk down the street and
then it turns into a hill and just keeps going up. Since the number system was
made before some of the these house we thought we were almost to 106 when we
saw 108 but the next house was 108 B and this continued for too many letters
and then we were left with at least 4 houses of 106 A-D so we searched and
found nothing but on the way back met a person who at least somewhat interested
in the English group we do here so eh we'll see.
In fine, we were able
to meet with the Gelato family people quite often, which was really nice
because there are always many many questions to answer or to show how to find
the answer at very least. We are excited to see where this goes so I'll let you
know.
I was also able to
meet an investagator that has been talked about for my whole transfer here as
incredible and all this stuff and after 6 weeks I finally met her for only a
few minutes but now I'm excited for her to return so that we can finish
teaching here and give the chance to act on the faith she has been finding even
while she has been away.
Today are transfers so
I might be shuffled or maybe nothing changes at all, who knows but whatever
happens it will be the right thing!
I wish you all the
best week ever and for those that start school good luck.
-Anziano Hansen
Friday, September 1, 2017
August 15, 2017
At the beginning of the week
we totally cleaned our house sooo well and took everything out of the closets
and laid it all out, we literally had a small department store in our house it
was great! We went through it chucking all the un salvageable items and and
snagging a tie or something but that was about it and another Anziano came in
and snagged a full suit from it.
Then there was a whole
lot of not much
then we went to
Cosenza on the way to Zone conference and we tried to get in there church to get
our stuff and the garage like portone broke itself so our stuff was stuck in
there until 630 the next day when the branch Pres. dropped off a key at the
church in the middle of the night so we could get it the next morning and then
we left to Taranto which is an epic place and we played Foosball and I bought a
new jacket and it was just nice.
I love you all so much
and I know everything will work our for the best!!
the force is granted
to those near this monument
looking professional
until they pan out and see your shorts
beautifully taunting
ocean
Oh also I gave a talk
and a member took this and made me promise to send it to ya'll.
August 21, 2017
OK, so I started this week out with a zone conference at
Taranto, we were able to learn a whole lot about how to be better missionaries
ovviamente and more specifically how we can be more creative when finding and
they laid down some numbers that really put everything into perspective, like
how much time we actually have to help these people is short so we have to make
it worth it.
Just as a small thing
we saw a Calcio game between Crotone and Milano so that was pretty cool.
Crotone (a city near my city) lost but there were so many people there it was
absolutely insane with all the chants and cheers. I mean it was awesome even
though we were a mile away five floors up looking between buildings but I'm
sure it was amazing!
We also found two
people here that work at a gelateria that are super curious about everything
and are asking all the right questions and truly have a desire to act on what
they want to know, we shared what the book of Mormon is and she asked instantly
how she can read it, and when we told her that we have church, she just almost
yelled "Federica dobbiamo andare alla chiesa dei Mormon!"
We are super excited
to keep working with them and answer all their questions, so great!
We also came to
Crotone and bought 17 calzoni for all of us so we ate well today, we will
probably just play Foosball the rest of the day whooo! it's so much fun just
because it's Italy and it's just more exciting that way.
Hope you all have a
great week!
August 7 2017
So after I spent 4 days in
Crotone for Pday, DDM, and a Scambio I finally came back to my area
Catanzaro and we did some finding along the lungo mare (street next to the
beach) and practically no one is there since they are on the beach or on
vacation because ferragosto (the holiday that lasts a month). We did talk to
some really cool people and we did ukulele finding where we just walk around
playing a few chords or song we know and talk to the people who stare at us or
who are just youth in general.
We were able to meet
with a young couple, like sixteen years old young, and met with them again this
week and taught them a little more about our beliefs and tried to understand
why one didn't believe in God and the other did but not fully. At very least I
hope we helped bring them closer to their Father in heaven.
Also about half way
through the week we got a call from Salt Lake from a daughter of a member, who
is on a mission there, who wanted us to get in touch with her friend here and
teach her the gospel. This wasn't a problem in fact it was a delight. The
problem was we didn't know that the call came from Salt Lake because all we
heard the first time was Sorella Ranieri which is also her mom's title for us
so we assumed it was her (she called us back later and it was fine) but before
that when we tried to call her back and no one answered our phone went ka-poot
and we went on a long journey to try to add credit back on our phone when it
turns out you just go to your everyday tabaccheria and buy more credit there,
the more you know.
We were also called by
the spirit yesterday to go to the upper part of the city for who knows what
reason and we met a lot of people and found people that were both interested in
the gospel and others in English course, so even though the family we had
planned to go find wasn't there it was more than worth it trip for us to go all
the way up there.
This week we went to a
cool park with a bunch or artwork and took a picture on the mare and I did a
drawing based on the picture on the book "All my friends are dead"
just for fun, enjoy!
July 31, 2017
So
transfers came at the beginning of this last week and I got transfered down the
bottom of the foot of Italy in the area of Calabria, the name of my city is
Catanzaro hence "cat city". This place is actually really cool and it
has some of the best stuff like a great apartment and friends at a pizzeria and
stuff it is a little harder work but the harder the work the more satisfying it
is for us here, also the bases are completely unreliable but it works our
patience.
I have been enjoying
this area and my new companion (yet another) Anziano Haws except this one is
from Utah. He is great and also one transfer younger than me, so this is my
first time being the senior comp. it really doesn't mean anything especially
since he is only one behind me so its just fun because we are basically on the
same level in most things.
Also my mother in the
mission died, Sorella Calió, she was the oldest Sorella in my district when I
was "born" in the mission so yeah she is cool.
Before I left I got to
say good bye to a bunch of members and it was really nice to be able to see all
of them and sad I'm leaving but I'll see most of them again probably.
We had a good first
week in this city doing finding and waiting for busses and we found some cool
young people we hope to meet with again this next Thursday so we are super
excited!
For P-day we went over to Crotone, a nearby city, and saw a
castle over there which was pretty neat. There was a tunnel that just kept
going in complete darkness and it was just so awesome! We also toured a few of
the churches here just because when your in Italy and you want to see something
interesting there is a church on most corners. District photo and others
of the castle
July 10 2017
So at the beginning of this week was the 4th of July so obviously
we had to do something celebrate. We didn't really have anything planned but an
amazing member family, of whom the wife is American (idahoan
specifically), and the husband is Italian and their adopted child is English,
took us to this very American-like place in the mall called old western and it
was closer to being American than every other place that I have treid like
it.
Then for English
course we talked about the history of the 4th and some of the events leading up
to it, they then took us out to pizza to celebrate our independence day with
us.
We also had a board
game activity and that was fun. We had a few members come but that was about
it, we had tried to contact several people but nothing pulled through. It was
still super fun to eat food and play some good'ole Monopoly and uno and even
darts.
Then. this
Sunday before church we met with an potential investagator who had been coming
to church for several weeks we could just never meet with him during the week.
During this lesson we could really feel the spirit and a member came in
randomly and shared his conversion story then left (it was unexpected but still
good). Now I don't know how it works in America but here you usually don't
invite people to be baptized in the first lesson because they get scared easily
and don't like to make commitments but for the first time ever we did a
baptismal invite in the first lesson and it was awesome!! He was telling us
that he was already reading the Book of Mormon and loves it and through his friendship
with a member he was able to learn even when we weren't teaching him and he
already knew that the Book is true and the word of God and that Joseph Smith
was a prophet that restored the gospel again on the earth.
I was a little too
into the lesson and gave him a baptismal date for two weeks from now which
would be fine since he has been to church enough times, but we have to teach
him all the lessons this week before the interview which I don't know if it is
possible but we will try. With this he accepted on the condition that the water
must be warm since he has some heart issues,. I am super excited to guide him
farther along this path and help him to find the thing at church that takes
away his "sentimento vuoto".
We just got back from
Positano which is a beautiful city on the Amalfi Coast and it was absolutely
gorgeous!! We walked around saw the amazing city and went on the dock (not in
the water although we wanted to really bad) and the water was sooo clear and
blue, it was just amazing. If anyone ever wants to go to Italy, go to this
coast it is beautiful also I've heard Positano is more pretty than Amalfi but I
don't know for sure, at very least they are on the same coastline so Yah.
I hope you all had an
amazing week! I am super thankful for all the support you guys give to me,
don't forget to be awesome!
July 3 2017 Zone Conference
OK, so this week we were able
to meet with this family that came to church last week, and we were able to
talk about the restauration and the blessings of unity and peace that can come
from following the gospel.
Next up is zone
conference!!! We had really awesome addestramenti (lessons) by President and
Sorella Pickerd about how to better study the scriptures and how we, both
personally and as a group must recognize the plateaus we may be stuck on in the
language or the work and really drive ourselves to burst forth out of our
comfort zone and just be better.
We also talked about
how we must use and study Preach my Gospel in the best way possible so that we
can know and understand the message enough to explain it simply and also to be
confident in the message of joy we bring, and to have no fear and put it all
our there!
We got to meet the
family of one of our members who is here to recognize her Italy citizenship
(she is from Brazil) (She speaks Portuguese e Spanish e English e is learning
Italian) . So her family is here for a while and when we had a pranzo
appointment with them there was also some more friends there from Chile. So we
are there with those that speak all these different languages and there isn't one
language that everyone speaks so for the most part they spoke Spanish and it
was actually quite easy to understand it although I still have no idea how to
speak it.
Also the referral that
we got from the Caserta Sorelle lived out in the middle of nowhere so we got
dropped off and called this lady and eventually found it. We had a really good
lesson and we can tell that she is searching and really has a desire to find
the truth, we are excited to continue to teach her.
Sunday we had a family
and a Milano missionary who finished his mission 2 weeks ago, Anziano George,
from California. He gave us some good scoops on a few of our friends up north
and it was cool to see another missionary literally just after his
mission.
That's my week in a
wrap, Good Luck with Life! and remember to be Happy!! (:
June 26 2017 Pompeii
Although nothing super
interesting really happened this week there were some cool miracles that got
tossed in near the end of the week, so I'm happy! (:
First was that we got
to contact a referral from the Battipaglia Anziani and he lives in Pompei which
I had heard was a run down but as far as extremes go it is still a good city.
(This is the modern city of Pompeii, although that would be cool to teach an
ash statue some gospel.)
We met him and it was
a good encounter, he is into equestrian stuff and has traveled throughout
Europe for it and I'd just an interesting guy to be around.
He seems open to new
ideas about the gospel, and we hope we can help him find more joy.
Then a lot of finding
and not much of anything then at church a potential came to church again and we
are super excited to finally be able to meet with him this week.
Also a family in the
ward just brought another non member family just because and we taught them
during second hour and will be seeing them again tomorrow so we hope good on
that one.
Then to finish off the
day we got a referral from the Caserta Sorelle about a quote "bomb
family" that live in Castellammare and are "looking for truth"
so we are excited to be able to share with them our message and to lay before
them the perfect plan created for all of us here on the earth.
For P-day we are doing
some emailing and then going shopping so I'll send ya'll a picture if I end up
buying anything but for now this is what I got.
-The main square in
the modern city of Pompeii
June 17, 2017 Stone caskets
So for the most part
of the week we were inside since my companion got food poisoning or some kind
of inflammation of the stomach or intestines.
We did get some great
help from a couple of amazing members so we are super thankful for them and
their help.
Funny story I starting
telling people he was poisoned by food since I don't know how to say food
poisoning so I just translated it directly, which sometimes works but in this
case, it just did not.
You are actually
supposed to say (the English equivalent) intoxication by feeding.
Luckily he was feeling
well enough by Sunday to do the Musical number we had been preparing and it was
soo much fun and everyone loved so we were happy.
Today we just went to
the national archeological museum in Napoli so that was super fun and then we
went to go see 50 pizzerie on the coast but when we got there, it was closed so
we were disappointed since we had wa
key for an hour but we
still ate pizza and did emails and we were with friends so that makes the best
kind of Pdays anyways!
You are all awesome!!
Tell me about the updates in your lives, because I probably haven't heard about
it.
Vi voglio bene!!
- Anziano Hansen
PS you think they
could start a stone casket collection like these ones?
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