✨Sii una luce✨

Met some AMERICAN girls the other day outside our apartment (WHAT).
The asked to take a selfie with us so of course we did ;)

Buongiorno cari miei!
I hope you all had a fun Thanksgiving! Ours didn't disappoint. We were
spoiled by some of the American members here :) #blessed.
This week was awesome come sempre. We had an awesome DDM. One of the
elders taught about the diligence and I loved how he explained it. The
work for diligence in Italian is diligenza and the verb for that is
diligere. The translation for diligere is "to love tenderly." In order
for us to be diligent, we need to love people tenderly. One of my
favorite books, PMG (hahaha embracing the missionary life 😊), shares
this quote by Ezra Taft Benson, “I have often said one of the greatest
secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get
the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if
he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and
he will be happy. There will be no homesickness, no worrying about
families, for all time and talents and interests are centered on the
work of the ministry. Work, work, work--there is no satisfactory
substitute, especially in missionary work.”
I love that!! I've definitely seen this on the mission. The happiest
days are the ones where you go to bed at night completely EXHAUSTED
because you've been running around all day from appointment to
appointment sharing the gospel. :)

Gesso!!

Casertavecchia today :)

We started advertising for the church's Christmas campaign this year,
"sii una luce." I think it's "be a light" in English :) We've already
seen so many miracles as we've used it in finding this weekend. The
Spirit is so strong at this time of year. I invite you all to go on
Mormon.org and to do the daily challenges with us as we "light the
world" this Christmas season!! :) Another cool thing our Zone is doing
for every day of December is that each companionship is giving away a
wrapped copy of the Book of Mormon to someone as a gift. It'll be over
250 copies of the Book of Mormon given away just from the Napoli zone.
You guys are all more than welcome to do it with us ;) Be a light!!


The field is white here in Caserta. I'm learning so much every single
day from my companion, our investigators, the ward members, the
scriptures, and the Spirit!! We were watching a video on gospel
library the other night and they said something interesting about how
God doesn't need us to go do His work in the mission field necessarily
but He knows that WE need the opportunity. It reminded me of this
quote by President Uchtdorf, "God does not need us to love Him. But
oh, how we need to love God!" I love you all!! The church is true :)

Con amore,
Sorella Hess

Via Caduti sul Lavoro 3
Caserta, CE 81100 Italia

Met some AMERICAN girls the other day outside our apartment (WHAT).
The asked to take a selfie with us so of course we did ;)
Gesso!!
Casertavecchia today :)

"God is great, pizza's good, and people are crazy."

Ester & Pia

Picking up Sorella Neuberger

Well this week was absolutely not what I was expecting but it was
great!! We got our transfer calls Monday nights and I thought I would
for sure be transferred because I've been here since July, but.....I
found out I would be staying here and getting a new missionary! I was
so happy!! I love it here so much and am excited for the opportunity
to train a new Sister!

We had a crazy week getting everything ready and so Sorella Jarnagin
could say bye to everyone. We had a really cool lesson on Tuesday
before English course with our investigator Stefania who's 19. We
taught her the Plan of Salvation with one of our recent converts,
Luana. Stefania accepted a baptismal date and has already started the
Book of Mormon so we're excited about that :)
Thursday morning we took the train to Napoli and waited for my new
companion to get here. She got off the train and I immediately knew we
would get among great :) Her name is Sorella Neuberger from Lexington
South Carolina. She went to BYU for the past year and is so cute.
We've already had so much fun together so the next few months will be
a blast!! She's taught me so much already. The first day we had
English course and she bore her testimony at the end and was so sweet
and brought the Spirit. The next day I showed her how to do English
course finding and she just jumped right in and started talking to
people on the street. It was so awesome to see how willing she is to
talk to anyone. She's amazing :)

Saturday night we had a Thanksgiving Party at the church with the ward
members and then we also invited people from English Course. We had an
awesome turnout!! We added a new investigator named Omayra who's from
Columbia. She's so nice and seems really interested in the church so
I'll keep you posted! 😊

First Napolitano Pizza

Sunday we had a gesso with the Anziani and yet again she just blew me
away with how brave she was! We added a new investigator right there
on the street and she seems really promising. Caserta sta fiorendo
ancora!

I'm so thankful for this opportunity I have to be a missionary. Il mio
cuore è pieno (my heart is full). "All that I treasure most in life
began to mature in the mission field." -Richard G. Scott. I invite you
all to take a minute to write down some of the things you are thankful
for and you will be overwhelmed by everything the Lord has given us. I
love this time of year and the Spirit that is in the air. It's
especially strong out here on the mission as we can focus on serving
other people and helping them feel the Spirit. La vita è bella!!

Vi voglio un tacchino di bene🦃❤️

Caserta

Sorella Hess

Le foto
Ester & Pia
Picking up Sorella Neuberger
First Napolitano Pizza
Caserta

La vita è bella 💕

Veronicas baptism!!

Helllooooo :) :) :) It's been such a great/crazy week!! I'll start off with the highlight...Veronica's Baptism!! Everything went perfectly and she was so so happy. She was baptized on the US military base and we had a lot of support from the ward. She bore her testimony at the end and said that it was the happiest day of her life and that the feelings she felt were indescribable. 😊 It's moments like that that make the whole mission 100% worth it. All the hard days and cancelled appointments. My heart just felt so full. I'm so thankful Heavenly Father allowed us to be a small part of her conversion. She's amazing💕

We had Thanksgiving with an American family in the ward on Friday night which was awesome. We're so blessed here in this city haha. It's getting really cold really fast. We've whipped out all the coats and tights and it's still freezing! This humidity is brutal. We're "babysitting" Sorella Wise from Battipaglia for the next 4 days until transfers because her companion finishes her mission tomorrow so we're having fun in the trio!

I was studying repentance the other day and found this quote by Spencer W. Kimball that says, "True repentance makes a brilliant day out of the darkest night." I love that. Repentance doesn't have to be a sad and hard thing. Someone loved us enough to give His life for us so we don't have to pay for our own mistakes. All we have to do is repent and come unto Him. As I watched Veronica take the sacrament for the first time as a baptized member of the church yesterday, I thought to myself how incredible it is that we can renew our baptismal covenants every single week.

I love the 2nd and 3rd verse of "As Now We Take The Sacrament" that says, "As now our minds review the past, We know we must repent; The way to thee is righteousness--The way thy life was spent. Forgiveness is a gift from thee, We seek with pure intent. With hands now pledged to do thy work, We take the sacrament. As now we praise thy name with song, The blessings of this day Will linger in our thankful hearts, And silently we pray For courage to accept thy will, To listen and obey. We love thee, Lord; our hearts are full. We’ll walk thy chosen way."

I love you guys. Thank you for your examples and testimonies. Pray for missionary opportunities :)

Baci da Caserta,
Sorella Hess

 Il battesimo!
La Reggia la settimana scorsa :)

9 months, la Reggia, benedizioni ovunque!!

Buongiorno a tutti!

We are so excited for this Saturday for Veronica's baptism. She's doing amazing! She came with us this past weekend to Pozzuoli to see a baptism and she loved it. We were on exchanges the other night and I was with Sorella Crandell from Lindon and we had a really powerful lesson with her. We talked about eternal marriage, temples, family history, etc. Back in our mission conference a few weeks ago, Sister Nelson (Russell M. Nelson's wife) invited us to explain to people that their ancestors are likely listening into their lessons and are also progressing in the gospel. We aren't only sharing the gospel with one person but most likely affecting generations! She invited us to pray to be able to find people whose ancestors have already accepted the gospel on in the Spirit world and are waiting to have their work done on earth. We explained all this to her and she was so excited to get started with family history work. She bore her testimony in Fast and Testimony Meeting yesterday and brought her parents to church. On the way to Pozzuoli we were talking to a lady about the church and Veronica jumped in and bore her testimony of the church and how much joy it's brought her already. And she told us she's already set aside the money for her tithing that she'll pay next Sunday right after she's baptized :) She's so in gamba (on the ball).

We celebrated my 9 month mark getting pizza after English course. Italy is so awesome. We just choose a random pizzeria every time (because there are like 20 within 3 blocks of our apartment haha) and every single one is delicious. I'm scared I'll get transferred somewhere else and the pizza won't be good to me anymore because this zone is known for having the best pizza in Italy 😍

This week has been incredible! It's so hard to summarize a whole week in an email but these have been the main highlights! I love Caserta :) Sta fiorendo ancora!

One of the Mormon Messages we show quite a bit is "Your Privilege, Your Potential" by President Uchtdorf. It's one of my favorites! It's about the man on the cruise who thought that he had to bring his own food so he ate crackers and beans the whole week and stayed inside his room. Then on the last night, he realizes that the price of the ticket included food and all the parties! We need to live up to our potential! We've been given so many amazing gifts that we need to take full advantage of so that we can become who God wants us to be! The Atonement, Book of Mormon, conference talks, the Ensign, technology, etc. are all tools that we've been given so we can reach our full potential!

"If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.” Joseph Smith

I love you all! Spero che la settimana prossima sia fantastica!! 

❤️,

Sorella Hess

Le foto:

Scambio in Battipaglia! I walked 13.3 miles that day😂 I beat you Mom and Grandma ;)

At the baptism in Pozzuoli on Saturday night! Sorella Crandell and Veronica :)

La Reggia for pday today! 

My cute collega :)