April 25, 2016

Come va?? How's it going everyone?
We had transfer calls this past weekend and guess what?! We're staying
here for another 6 weeks! Haha no surprise there because greenies
usually stay for at least the first 12 weeks in one area :)

Our week was good! On Monday night we had the YSA/Youth night that I
mentioned last week and Eva ended up coming and she brought a friend
so that was awesome!

Tuesday and Thursday night before English course we had a lesson with
a woman named "M". She's probably in her early 50's and is super
sweet. She's Catholic but has been reading the BOM and loves how
"beautiful and simple it is." :) I know I felt the Spirit in the
lessons so I pray it touched her heart too and she'll be open to
learning more about our church. I can't even tell you guys how amazing
it is teaching someone how to pray and then experiencing them saying
their first prayer out loud. She gave such a sweet heartfelt prayer
and I felt like my heart was going to pound out of my chest :)
Missionary work is the best.

Wednesday Sorella Adamson was sick and the senior missionary couple
here in Taranto (basically our parents away from home😊) insisted that
we stay home so she could rest. Let's just say our apartment got
really clean, I read half of Alma, I watched the District 1 & the
Joseph Smith movie & Meet the Mormons, and I read like 10 talks from
conference😉 We were happy to get out of the house and to get to work
the next day :)

I can't believe I've already been here in Italy for a whole transfer!
Time really does fly when you're having fun!!

Last night we were eating pranzo with some members and then we were
watching Mormon Messages together and we watched one of my
favorites--Dayton's Legs. I remember watching it in seminary my
sophomore year and feeling the spirit and now 3-4 years later I still
felt that same spirit. One of our transfer goals we made this week is
to invite every member in the ward to pray for a missionary
opportunity or a way to serve someone like the boy in Dayton's Legs. I
encourage you all to pray to find a way to be a missionary and help us
missionaries in the field out because we need all the help we can get
and member referrals are the BEST😊

Vi voglio bene!! Siete il meglio! I love you all! You're all the best!

Sorella Hess

Sent from my iPad

Cute De Giorgio Family for pranzo yesterday
Duomo in Città Vecchia

April 18, 2016 Mammmmaaa Mia

April 18, 2016

Mammmmmaaa Mia. So much has happened since last week!! Here are some
of the cool/crazy/funny highlights from this past week:

-We were crossing this busy street & I was literally 1 inch from being
nailed by a guy on a bike FLYING through a crosswalk. There were
Italians who saw it happened and freaked out at him for me haha.
-We had a scambio (exchange) in Crotone
-Taught some people from Nigeria in ENGLISH🙏🏼 And I could understand
the ENTIRE lesson and added in lots of comments😏
-Got asked at least 4 times in a 10 minute conversation with a 40+yr
old man if I have a husband or boyfriend.
-Met my first J.W. and she wanted to bible bash, but we were
Christlike and listened to her for 20mins, bore our testimonies on the
BOM, and then left😉
-The mosquitos in Taranto are alive and well. They're not just any
mosquito though, they're tiger mosquitoes and their bites are 10x
worse. I learned my lesson and now sleep with bug spray on.
-Remember the cute 15yr old from a few weeks ago who came to a ward
activity with her mom? Her name is Eva:) We met up with her on
Saturday to get gelato & gave her a BOM. She's the sweetest girl:) She
even stayed for our gesso in Centro and helped us! We have an activity
with the YSA and the youth tonight and we invited her so we're hoping
she can come.
-A widow in our ward in her late 80's is in the hospital so we went to
go visit her. I am so so thankful for our healthcare/hospitals in
America. I was blown away. There were 6 old women crammed in this tiny
room, it smelled so bad, they were all crying and in pain, it was
filthy inside, etc.
-The Anziani (elders) were doing some less-active finding on an old
ward list and found a man who lives in Città Vecchia--a little island
in the middle of the bay. We as Sorelle aren't allowed to go there at
night haha, so that kind of tells you what it's like. Little bit scary
:) They told us about the sister of this man that we should go visit.
She's so cute!! Her brother is about 30yrs old now and was baptized
when he was 9. But 5yrs ago he was in a motorcycle accident and now is
completely handicapped. He's missing half his brain so he is
bed-ridden, but such a sweet man. He kept saying "I was baptized" over
and over:) It was really cute! His sister's not a member, but she
seemed pretty interested in us and our message so we're going back to
visit this week:)

All in all it was a good week! My eyes were opened a little but it's
okay :) We had a lot of fun in Crotone! I haven't felt creeped out by
men yet until then though haha. "Smile Sorella, I want a picture with
you so I can always remember you. I will post it on Facebook that I
met a blonde American." One man pulled out his phone to call someone
and said something really fast in dialect that we couldn't understand
and next thing we know there are 15 guys standing around us telling us
how "Bella" we are... Awkward... Hahaha. It's okay though because we
were safe and taught some awesome lessons :) Heavenly Father protects
His missionaries.

I was reading the talk by this morning by Elder Rasband from this last
conference and it was so amazing!! I encourage you all to go read it
and to ask yourself if you are trusting in the Savior and reaching for
His hand like Peter. We have to trust Him and acknowledge Him in every
aspect of our lives. There are tough times but if we have a
relationship with the Savior, I know we can overcome our trials :)

I love you all! I love my mission! I love being a missionary! I love
these people! And I love our Savior!

I hope you all have had an exciting week too:)

Ps. Huge shout out to Audrey for going into the MTC this Wednesday!!
She's gonna be amazing in London❤️

Pics: cutest Sorelle in Taranto.... Haha jk, the ONLY Sorelle in Taranto :)
Cute Eva at our gesso :)
Città Vecchia

Monday April 11, 2016

Hey everybody!!

How's it going? I hope everything's going well for you all:) We had
another good week in Taranto. It's crazy how fast time is flying. I'm
loving it here:)

We've been doing a lot of finding this week trying to find new
investigators. So we spent a lot of time handing out pass-along cards
and talking to people. We found this really cool park that's right on
the ocean and we talked to a bunch of people there!

Italians are so funny & honest haha. The other day, my hair was up in
a bun and I wasn't wearing much makeup. We had walked about 8 miles
and needless to say, I looked gross. A cute girl in our ward met up
with us in Centro to do a gesso (chalk-finding activity) that night
and told me that she likes me better with my hair done and with makeup
on. Hahaha😂😂😂 Ya I know, thanks😘

We set a baptismal date for our investigator 'M' for April 23rd, so
hopefully everything goes according to plan. She's awesome and has
such a strong testimony! I hope she has the courage to go through with
it! We watched the Restoration video with her yesterday and she really
liked it. I love the Spirit that those videos bring.

I was reading Elder Holland's talk this morning and I really loved how
he said, "Please remember tomorrow, and all the days after that, that
the Lord blesses those who want to improve, who accept the need for
commandments and try to keep them, who cherish Christlike virtues and
strive to the best of their ability to acquire them. If you stumble in
that pursuit, so does everyone; the Savior is there to help you keep
going. If you fall, summon His strength. He will help you get back up.
He will help you repent, repair, fix whatever you have to fix, and
keep going. Soon enough you will have the success you seek."

That's such a powerful thought. I'm so grateful for the knowledge that
our Father in Heaven loves us and will bless us even though we are all
far from perfect. He knows our hearts and will bless us if we're
striving to be obedient😊

We're doing a scambio (exchange) in Crotone from Wednesday to Thursday
night so it'll be fun to see new cities and how missionary work goes
there😊

I love you all! Thank you for your support!! Hope you have an awesome week!!

April 4, 2016--Week #8

Hi Fam/Friends!!

I hope you enjoyed conference! Wasn't it great? We are so blessed to
be able to hear from our leaders of the church and receive personal
revelation from our Father in Heaven. We had a Taran-totally awesome
week here in Taranto...hahaha that wasn't even funny😂

Wednesday was Specialized Training (mini Zone Conference). We talked a
lot about the importance of PMG and the LDM (Libro di Mormon). It was
fun to meet the whole zone for the first time and to see President and
Sorella Waddoups again.

I had my first scambio (exchange) Wednesday night to Thursday
afternoon with Sorella Muçe--one of the sweetest people I've ever met.
She's serving in Crotone which is about 5hrs away from here. She's
Albanian but has lived in Italy since she was 11. She's only 1
transfer older than me in the mission so there were two greenies on
the loose in Taranto😁😂 but we managed to get by! I kind of know my
way around the city and she knows the language so it worked out😊 We
had fun talking to everyone we could and doing the best missionary
work we knew how to do.

So it was her companion's birthday on Thursday and we wanted to get
her a cake to surprise her, so we went to the store to buy one. We
made sure to check the ingredients so there wasn't any coffee or
alcohol cuz you know...Europeans likes their coffee and alcohol:) Well
anyway, we were at lunch for her birthday and started eating the cake
and let's just say it tasted a little funny... Turns out they don't
tell you that there's alcohol in the frosting! Hahahaha OOPS!!😳😅
#greenieproblems! Good thing there aren't cars in this area because
missionaries getting a DUI probably wouldn't be the best church
headline😉 We stopped eating once we realized what it was:)

On Friday night we stopped by M's house to drop off her birthday
present. We had a lesson with her and set a return appointment so we
got to officially add her as a new investigator! We are so excited to
work with her:) She just turned 9 and is the cutest thing ever. We
gave her a book with the stories in the BOM for kids and she read 2
chapters right when we gave it to her! She's awesome:)

We watched the Saturday Morning and Sunday Morning sessions live (6pm
for us) so it was really fun knowing all of you were watching it at
the same time as us, halfway across the world. The talks and music
were so amazing. I definitely felt the Spirit--even in the sessions
that we watched in Italian that I didn't completely understand. It'll
be good to read through them again and really study what they are
teaching us.

I'm so thankful to be here serving these great people. These past two
months have been incredible. The gospel is such a blessing. I look
around this city and just feel so blessed to have been raised in the
church. There are many people who are ready to be a part of this
church, we're just doing our best to find them:)

Also, everyone should read the book called "Our Heritage." It's all
about the Restoration of the church:) "Every happiness and every joy
that has been worthy of the name has been the result of keeping the
commandments of God and observing his advice and counsel." "I can say
to you, my brethren and sisters, the happiest people in this world are
those who love their neighbors as themselves and manifest their
appreciation of God's blessings by their conduct in life." -George
Albert Smith

We're going to beach in Pulsano today (not to swim😊) so that's why
we're emailing earlier than usual. I hope you all have a great week!
Vi voglio bene!!

Sorella Hess

Sent from my iPad

Sorella Muçe ( we went on splits)
























Sorella Adamson (my companion)

Cute M and her family (M is the cutie in the middle)

march 28, 2016 Week #7

On Mon, Mar 28, 2016 at 11:24 AM, Whitney Elisabeth Hess <whitney.hess@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Buona Pasqua tutti!

I hope everyone had a great Easter! We sure did! We saw some amazing
miracles this week!

Tuesday we had a District Meeting and had a big lunch together and
then we had another lunch with a less-active member in our ward! Holy
cow. I've never been so full in my life. I literally had to say a
prayer in my heart to be able to keep it all down. I was full for
basically 24 hours after haha.

We made some cute little Easter treat bags for our less-actives and
investigators so we delivered a lot of those this week which was fun!
Pretty much every person in our ward is somehow related so it's fun to
meet them all and try to figure out who is related to who😊

From Thursday afternoon to Friday afternoon we fasted so that we could
find some new investigators to teach, and it was amazing how soon
after we started seeing results!! We had a ward movie night on Friday
and as we were about to start, we saw a teenage girl and her mom that
we didn't recognize so we went up and talked to them. Turns out
they're both Catholic but are interested in our church so they decided
to come to a ward activity!! (WHAT?!😍 Golden!!) We got their numbers
and are excited to try and meet with them sometime this week.

Saturday night we did a "Gesso" in Centro. We bring a bed sheet and
Sorella Adamson draws either a scripture or the Plan of Salvation or
something, and the rest of us go and talk to people as they stop to
see what she's drawing. I was pretty nervous because I hadn't really
done any finding on my own yet, but I stopped 3 teenaged girls and
showed them the new "Hallelujah" Mormon Message and bore my testimony
of the Savior to them. I'm pretty sure they understood what I was
saying😂 I got their numbers and we're gonna try to call them and meet
up this week so we'll see how it goes😊

I just wanted to take a moment to publicly thank my parents for making
me stay in piano lessons for all those years even when I fought it and
didn't practice:) I've had to play in church/RS every week so far and
they tell me what song it is right as we're about to sing it...so
thankfully I can kind of sight-read😊

Italians take their Pasqua (Easter) really seriously! Holy cow!
They're all out of school for like 5 days for it! Today (Monday) is
called Pasquetta (Little Easter) and it's the day they all actually
celebrate since they go to church on Sunday. The whole ward has been
here at the church since 10am for games, lunch, karaoke, movies,
volleyball, etc. They take advantage of any reason to get together
with friends and to eat and have a good time. I love Italians😊

I'm so excited for General Conference this weekend to hear from our
leaders of the church. I encourage all of you to go in with a question
and to truly listen to hear what Heavenly Father is trying to tell
you. I'm grateful for this Easter season and for the knowledge we have
that the Savior lives! "Oh sweet, the joy this sentence gives, I know
that my Redeemer lives."

Our address is:
Via Carlo Sforza 4/1
74100 Taranto Italia

I love you guys!! Hope it's a great week for you all:) Happy Conference!!

Sorella Hess

Gesso with the Anziani and Tayna in Taranto

Sent from my iPad

Cute Tanya--15 year old in our ward

Delivering our Easter Treats