Sept. 26, 2016

Famiglia mia!

I can't believe it's been another week! I hope everything is going great for you all wherever you are in the world :) Caserta sta fiorendo ancora! Caserta is "flowering" (not a verb in English but you get the point) :)

We had an exchange this week with the Sorelle from Battipaglia which was a blast as always! I was with Sorella Roberts who goes home this next transfer. She's an angel. We were able to see lots of miracles together on the scambio and had a blast! 

Since last week was pretty insane and we were only in our city for a solid 2.5 days, we hadn't been able to see very many of our investigators for a while but scambi bring miracles!! We were all getting ready for English course and Ester (our 19yr old investigator) called us!! She asked if we were at the church and we said yeah for English course. She said she was outside and wanted to do a lesson with us after so she would stay for corso! Miracle!!! We hadn't been able to see her for a couple weeks because we've all been so busy. She's still reading il Libro di Mormon though and loves it! She said the prayer at the end of English course in front of 50+ people and I had a major proud-mama moment. Our lesson went so well too! She's unreal!! I wish so badly you guys could meet her. She came to church on Sunday which was a miracle because we had to walk to her house which is 3 miles in the opposite direction from the church and from our house (did that sentence make ANY sense? Haha probably not). BUT, we finally made it and she loved church! 

We ran into one of our former investigators and she told us that she's still reading the BOM and is now in Alma 28!!!! What?! That's incredible. We've been praying hard to know if we should start teaching her again or let her have some space for a while and I think that was Heavenly Father telling us to keep meeting with her.

Friday night a lady in our ward invited all 6 missionaries and 3 of our ward's recent converts over to her house for an FHE/dinner. I haven't eaten with Italians here for almost 2 months and Mammmmaaaa Mia, SO much food. I woke up the next morning and my abs were sore hahahaha. It stretched our stomachs :)

Currently typing this from the pier on the Amalfi Coast. This is the closest thing on earth to the celestial kingdom. We've spent today in Positano and Amalfi and it's been absolutely amazing. I can't even begin to tell you how beautiful it is. Better pics to come for next week because I forgot my card reader for my camera so iPad pics will have to do :(

I taught the training this week in our District Meeting on conversion and it really got me thinking about different examples in the scriptures of people that were truly converted. I invite you all to study this week in the Book of Mormon and find one of the hundreds of stories of people who were converted unto the Lord and who had a "mighty change of heart." I promise as you study and strive to become converted, "surely there will not be a happier people among all the people who have been created by the hand of God." 4 Nephi 1:16 :) 

"Inni di vittoria avanzando canterem.

Fieri noi sarem di viver per servire ̑il nostro Re."  Chiamati a servirLo.

Baci,

Sorella Hess 

Pics:

Sorella Roberts and Mary Joy (member from Nigeria!!) I loooove her.

Gelati con tutte le Sorelle insieme!

Ester wrote this on the board in church on Sunday :')

Positano 

Currently writing this email from this pier in Amalfi #blessed

Sent from my iPad

Caserta, Taranto, Rome, Caserta!! Sept. 19, 2016

Ciao amici e famiglia!

Got my permesso after almost 8 months haha

Such an amazing week!!! Monday after we emailed for a little bit, we took a train down to Taranto!!! It was so so good to be back :) We stayed the night with the Sorelle there and then on Tuesday we picked up my Permesso (visa). We met a super nice lady named Mariella. She bought us gelato and we talked to her for a while. I've only had random people buy us food one other time on my mission so it was pretty cool :) Then we went to English course and I got so see some of my favorite people from Taranto! So fun!! Favorite quote from the night was from one of the members who we used to visit all the time: "Sorella Hess!! You can actually speak Italian now!! I remember when you could only say small little words and didn't understand anything." Hahahaha thanks Sorella Mazzolari😂❤️

Wednesday morning we took a train directly from Taranto to Rome with the Taranto elders. We got there and then went and finished our P-day. We saw the Trevi Fountain and also the Vatican! We didn't go inside the Sistine chapel but we walked around in the piazza for a while. Mamma Mia. Rome is amazing! Hopefully I get to serve there at some point :)

trevi fountain 

Thursday was the MISSION CONFERENCE. All the missionaries came up except for the ones in Sicily so we had 140 missionaries there! It was the most missionaries I've seen since the MTC. President Kearon (the European Area President from England) spoke to us and it was amazing. I don't even really know how to sum it all up because it was so good. 

He talked a lot about how we need to become the message we are sharing. We have the happiest message in the world!! People can be with their families for eternity! Our Savior lives and loves us! We can be forgiven of our sins! I've been thinking a lot about what I can do to become the message so that people can tell that there is something different about us. "Let people think that 2 angels just left their house when you leave a lesson." 

the Vatican

Remember the lady with the cute shoes on the train a couple weeks ago? We had a lesson with her this weekend that went really well. I love Italy. I love Italians. I love the culture here. I love the food. I love it all.

part of my MTC group reunited

It's been a weird week being out of our city and we're thankful to be back to our nice (almost brand new) mattresses at home after sleeping on old ones on the floor all week haha. Caserta feels like home to me. Tante belle cose a voi! Ci sentiamo!

❤️/Sorella Hess

pretty streets in Rome 

1- got my permesso after almost 8 months haha

2- trevi fountain 

3- the Vatican 

4- part of my MTC group reunited

5- pretty streets in Rome 

Rough Drafts, Identity Crisis, Taranto e Roma bound Sept. 12, 2016

Me, C, F, L Sorella Jarnagin, and Denis
(member). How stinkin cute are her daughters?

Hey Hey Hey! This will be crazy because we have to take a train backto Taranto today in a little bit to pick up my Permesso (basically my visa to stay in Italy). It will be fun/weird to be back in my first
city! We stay there until Wednesday morning and then are taking a
train from Taranto to Rome for a mission conference on Thursday! It
should be a fun week! Here's to over 16 hours of trains this week! Le
vite delle sorelle. 🇮🇹❤️

-We had to drop one of my favorite investigators this week and it was
pretty hard. It's tough when we have the gospel that brings us so much
joy but people aren't ready to accept it. It's like giving someone the
best present ever and them saying "non mi interessa" (I'm not
interested). I know there are prepared people here. We're praying so
hard that we will be led to them and that they will be led to us.

-Our senior couple this week took us to the American military base for
lunch (American burgers 😍) and then took us to the Navy Exchange
store and let us get some stuff. Bath and body works, American shampoo
and conditioner, etc. We were happy campers. :)

-F is our investigator from the Philippines and she's so ready
to be baptized!! We practiced the baptismal interview questions with
her the other day and she did great. Only problem is that she lives
over an hour away from the church and doesn't have her license yet.
She's taking her driving test in a few weeks and we are praying so
hard that she'll be able to start coming to church.

Sweet church we found the other day when we visited a less active. I
love my mission. This kind of stuff is almost on every corner. 😍

My identity crisis moment. Waiting for the bus in Bellona :)-We highlighted our hair this week and mine turned out good. Poor

Sorella Jarnagin on the other hand.... Haha lets just say she got to
experience what it's like to be a redhead.... Well more like an
orange-head ;) We fixed it and she's back to her beautiful self :)

-I forgot my name tag the other day and we were running late to catch
our train to go to a lesson so we called the elders and had them bring
me one of their extras. Buongiorno!! Sono Anziano Caliò. Haha yeah I
was Anziano Caliò for the day. Identity Crisis or what? An elder's
name tag is better than no name tag I guess :)

We were talking with a member the other night (Jessa-literally my soul
sister. She's unreal) and it was amazing what she said. We were
talking about the Atonement and how when we stand before Heavenly
Father at judgment day, we will basically hand Him a paper of our
life. We can give ourselves a lot more work because we control how
many rough drafts we have to do, but we can turn in a perfect paper
because of the Savior. We don't have to use an eraser and leave behind
black marks. The Atonement allows us to start over on a fresh new
sheet and we will be able to turn in a perfect paper. I'd never
thought about it like that before but I loved it. I'm so thankful we
can get a fresh new page each time we sbagliamo (mess up).

Sorry this is so scatterbrained. We have to get going but I hope you
all have a great week! Since we only get an hour of P-day today, we
get to spend the rest of our P-day in Rome on Wednesday so we're
planning on going to either the Vatican or hitting downtown Rome
(Trevi fountain, Coliseum, etc.) Stay tuned :)
Vi voglio un mondo di bene!

Con amore,
Sorella Hess :)

Cibo messicano, casa dei pazzi, complimenti = nuovi simpatizzanti :) Sept 5, 2016

I love it here🇮🇹

Hi guys! I hope you're all doing well and having a fun Labor Day
weekend!! It's still hot & humid as ever here in Italia but we're
surviving :)

We had a lesson with one of our investigators named O who's been
meeting with the missionaries for a while and it went so well! We
hadn't seen her for pretty much the whole summer because she's been
out of town but she called us to say she's back and wanted to meet
with us! We talked about faith with her and at the end she just
started crying and said she had been missing feeling the Spirit like
that so much and how she knew that Heavenly Father had sent us to be
in Caserta at this time. It was super powerful :)

La casa dei pazzi!! The house of the crazy!

We also taught E and P (the two sisters) this week! They're on
fire!! We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they were loving it!
They had both read a bunch of the BOM and could explain the story
perfectly. The little sister P (15) told us that she cried at the
part where Sariah was waiting for her boys to return from getting the
plates from Laban. She said she could just imagine how scared she was
and how much she loved her kids and wanted them to be protected. I
think our Heavenly Father is the same way with us! He wants us to
return to Him so badly and it's up to us to make the correct decisions
in this life so that we can.

Dopo la mostra ieri sera con il nostro amico Denis ed Anziano
Allen!! "Facciamo un corso d'inglese gratuito ogni Martedì e Giovedì!"

We were on the train the other day going to visit an investigator and
my awesome comp complimented this lady's shoes. It triggered a whole
conversation and we were able to teach her a lesson on the train and
pray with her! (We pray in public alllll the time haha). She seems
super excited and invited us to come visit her this week! Compliments
go a long way :)

An American family in the ward fed us CAFE RIO this week!!!!!! Never
been so happy :) Go eat some Mexican food for us :) We miss it!!

Slla Jarnagin, Pia, Ester, and yours truly (with crazy flyaway hair🙆🏼)

I wanted to give my #1 BFF a happy birthday shout out this week!!!
Mama Hess is turning 29 this Saturday😉 I'm so so blessed to be her
daughter. Thank you for your example to me!!! I love you and miss you
❤️🎉 Tanti Auguri!!

One more thing. I've been trying for these past few weeks specifically
to align my will with the will of the Lord and to be an instrument in
His hands. This is His work and I'm just lucky enough to be the
mouthpiece. I love this verse of "I'll go where you want me to go."

"So trusting my all to thy tender care,
And knowing thou lovest me,
I’ll do thy will with a heart sincere:
I’ll be what you want me to be."

Love,
Sorella Hess

1- Slla Jarnagin, Pia, Ester, and yours truly (with crazy flyaway hair🙆🏼)
2- La casa dei pazzi!! The house of the crazy!
3- Dopo la mostra ieri sera con il nostro amico Denis ed Anziano
Allen!! "Facciamo un corso d'inglese gratuito ogni Martedì e Giovedì!"
4- I love it here🇮🇹