Carnevale, Conferenza di Zona, e Casa in Casa

Hi family and friends 😊

We saw SO many miracles this week!! Monday night I was on a scambio with Sorella Manning from Tooele. She's been out in the field a grand total of 2 weeks!!! It is so fun being with new missionaries. We had a lesson with Angela and Carlo and were able to add them as investigators! They are in their mid twenties and are dating. They took us out to get focaccia and then we had an incredible lesson with them about prayer. They asked US if they could try praying right then and there. Some of the most powerful moments I've had on the mission are the first times that people pray. Then they asked us all about how our marriages work in the church so we went on to talk about temples and eternal families. Such a cool night! We are way excited to work with them!

The next morning we were out doing finding and met several interested people. One lady stopped us and said she had met with the elders in the past and that she still reads the BOM and loves the comfort it brings her! Whattt?! Her name is Irma and she's from Georgia (the country, not state lol) and has lived in Italy for 10yrs. She came to English Course on Thursday and brought her BOM with her. So cute! 

We've been doing a lot of finding this week! I've never really done a lot of house to house finding on the mission because it's really hard to get into apartment complexes here because you have to talk to them through an intercom and get buzzed in. President and Sorella Pickerd talked about it at Zone Conference and said that we shouldn't be scared of it and that they both saw a lot of success from it when they were serving here, so we did it for a few hours this week. We saw lots of "Go away Jehovah's Witnesses" stickers haha and we only got yelled at twice so SUCCESS. Nobody let us in, haha but we tried hard :) Piano piano.

Zone Conf was awesome. I love President and Sorella Pickerd. The Zone Leaders and I taught an addestramento on "we invite, they commit, we follow up." It's been really neat this week to see how much more effective our lessons are as we plan our lessons around the investigator's need...not just necessarily the next lesson on the progress record. Haha I know none of you back home care about that haha but we've been seeing lots of miracles from it.

There's this holiday here in Italy called Carnevale that they celebrate for an entire week. I don't really know what they actually celebrate but it's kinda like a Halloween I guess. They all dress up and just party. Haha the ward had a huge party Friday night and mamma mia, they get crazy in Bari! They had Just Dance playing on the projector in the chapel and Bishop and his wife and all these old couples in the ward were going crazy! Hahaha we were dying. Luckily for us, we had to be home at 9 so we didn't have to help clean up all the confetti and food and streamers ;) The party was just getting started by the time we left haha. Several of our friends from English Course came and lots of Less-Actives we work with!! 

Anywayyyy. All in all, it's been solid week. I love the mission and I love you all!! Keep reading the scriptures!! I promise it will bless you!! Thanks for your emails and letters :) I still appreciate them a lot :) 

Con affetto,

Sorella Hess

Via Orazio Flacco 13/3

Bari, Italia

70100

Le foto:

Le Sorelle di Bari at Zone Conference

Last night with part of the district 

Today in Alberobello! It's a city with all these little houses called "trulli." It's such a cute place!

Polignano!

Well this week didn't go exactly as planned haha but when does it ever?? :) I was still super sick from the food poisoning all week so we weren't able to go out very much. We made it to English Course and DDM but I was dying at home in bed other than that up until Friday. We went to the doctors office on Thursday night and they checked my blood pressure and it was at 78/57 hahaha. It's supposed to be 120/80. Oops. "Ma come stai in piedi bella?!" I couldn't keep anything down all week and was down 10lbs at one point haha. Don't worry mom, I gained it back from our lunch appointment yesterday haha ;) 

There is a super incredible new convert here in the ward named Valeria who was baptized on Christmas Eve. She reminds me so much of Veronica from Caserta. They both searched out the church on their own and were baptized within weeks. Such amazing stories!! We had a lesson with Valeria on Saturday afternoon and we watched the Mormon Message "Grazie a Lui" or "Because of Him". I've seen it hundreds and hundreds of times on the mission but this time was different. I felt the Spirit so strongly. Maybe I was just extra sensitive to the Spirit because we hadn't been able to teach much this week but I cried as they talked about how thanks to the Savior, we can have a new start, live again, we never have to be alone, and we can find true happiness! 

Later that night we were out as a district in centro doing finding for English Course. It was pouring rain, freezing cold, and people weren't really listening to us. I remember thinking to myself, "Who in their right mind would be out here doing this right now if they didn't know this church was true? We're advertising a free English Course we teach just so people might feel the spirit during the spiritual thought and want to learn more about our church." I looked around at my district of ten 18-21yr olds trying to share the gospel and felt so proud to be a member of this church. The reason we stand out in the freezing cold, leave our family, friends, school, work, etc. for 18 months-2 years and get rejected time after time is to find the lost sheep like Valeria and Veronica who are searching for the way back home. We sometimes have to go through the 99 lost sheep to find the 1 who is willing to listen to us. Sometimes it's more than 99! We know the blessings that come from this gospel and we want our brothers and sisters to feel that same joy. I love being a missionary. I love the joy that comes from the small things in this work! I love my Savior, being His representative, and being on His errand. I love you all!!! Spero che la vostra settimana sia bellissima!! 

Con amore,

Sorella Hess

Via Orazio Flacco 13/3

Bari, Italia

70100

P-day today :) Polignano!!! Troppo bello 😍

BARI :)

Buongiorno guys!

Well I did it! I finally left Caserta. It was harder than I thought it'd be! I sure loved my time there but I'm excited for this next adventure down in..........BARI LIBERTÀ!!! Monday night I was with the Battipaglia Sorelle in Caserta when we got transfer calls and we found out that they were getting blown out too so this past week was insane with getting everything ready to go for the 4 new Sorelle coming in. 

We packed and left Caserta Tuesday and spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Battipaglia getting their apartment clean and packed up. 

Bye to Luana and Veronica 😭

Wednesday was crazy haha. We got all-you-can-eat sushi with the Anziani in Salerno (which is so so beautiful) for pranzo and then later that night we had a dinner appointment with a member. They fed us a ton come sempre. We wanted to stop by one last lady right before going home that night and turns out she had made us dinner too!!! Sooo, it was 9:20pm and we had to be home at 9:30 and we still had a huge plate of food and we were already stuffed from eating literally right before it. We pounded down the food in like 2 minutes flat and ran home hahaha. The stuff we put our poor bodies through on the mission😂

Thursday we took a train up to Rome for MLC. All the Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders in the mission stayed in the Villa (mission home). It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot!! Sorella Pickerd gave an addestramento and talked about the word "peculiar" and how it's used in the scriptures. In the Bible dictionary it's defined as "One's very own, exclusive, or special; the Lord's own special people or treasure." 1 Peter 2:9 says, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." I love this!! We are different from the rest of the world! We have the light of the Spirit with us! I read the talk, "Zion in the Midst of Babylon" by David R. Stone from April 2006 this week during studies and I really liked it. It talks about how to live in the world but not be of the world and how to have courage to be different from the world. I encourage you all to read it! :)

I got to Bari Friday night and finally got to unpack my bags!! It feels so nice after a couple weeks of living out of a suitcase :) My companion is Sorella Sargeant from Boulder City Nevada. We were in the same MTC group and we actually met at BYU before we left. She's the sweetest thing ever and we're gonna light up Bari Libertà this transfer!!! Also, I'm so excited to be back in Puglia just about an hour from my first area :) You know what that means? I get to eat panzarotti again! 

Panzarotti from La Maddalena 

Sunday was crazy being back in a full-Italian ward. They're all so in gamba here. Bari is the promised land!! After church we had a meal appointment (they have a missionary feeding calendar in the ward!!!!!) and they started eating these things called "cozze" (mussels). Well some of them told me to try it and I wasn't gonna say no, so I ate some raw cozze. Let's just say I now have food poisoning and don't feel that great today hahaha. Welcome to Bari!!

Sorella Seargants mom sent a Valentines Package

I'm excited for this next transfer! It's gonna be a blast. Thank you guys for your prayers and support! Love you all :)

Con amore,

Sorella Hess

Piazza Monte Gemma 9

Roma 00141

Italia 

1- Bye to Luana and Veronica 😭

2- MLC Training Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders
3-Panzarotti from La Maddalena 

4- Lungomare in Bari today 

Un anno!!(2)

Hi guys! 

Il battesimo di Deborah :)So this has probably been the craziest week of my entire mission. My cute bff Sorella N went home this last P-day for a couple months and it broke my heart to say bye to her. She's a rockstar. I've learned SO much from her. I'm SO very grateful we got to serve together and know that we will be friends for the rest of our lives :) I've been bouncing around the zone between my area and the other sorelle's area (2hrs away from Caserta) so we could still do some work in our own city and get things ready to go for Deborah's baptism.

Monday and Tuesday I spent in Pozzuoli. Wednesday I took a train by myself to Caserta (with permission from President😊), and one of our recent converts, Luana, was waiting for me there to be my comp for the day. I can't explain to you guys how much I love her. She was baptized back this past April and is doing Pathways (online BYU-I), learning English, living with an American family in the ward, working, and constantly helping the missionaries. She's awesome. It was a lot of fun to be with her. We got to go to District Meeting, out to lunch as a district, taught some lessons, and had a meal appointment with the family she lives with. The Pozzuoli Sorelle came and met up with us that night and stayed with me there in Caserta.

Thursday morning I worked on planning the baptism and making the program and getting everything ready to go and then we took a train back to Pozzuoli. I CRASHED on the train. Sleeping on a futon and living out of a backpack for a week isn't the funnest haha. Life of missionaries I guess haha. "I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord." :)

Friday we spent the morning in Pozzuoli and then went to Caserta. We got a lot of good stuff done and I was able to pack up a lot of my stuff and apartment. We get transfer calls tonight but President already told me I'm leaving Caserta...just didn't say where I'm going yet...which makes sense because it's been 5 transfers (7 months) since I got here. I'm dreading saying bye to this city and the people here. It feels like home and like they are my family. I spent the night with the senior couple Friday and Saturday night which was fun! Weird sleeping in a bedroom by myself though! They took me out to dinner for my 1 year mark which was really nice of them! Blessed with the best in this mission.

Saturday was the baptism!! Everything was crazy trying to get 15 people from Caserta to Pozzuoli on trains but it all worked out. The baptism was perfect! Deborah was glowing afterwards :) It was such a great day. 

Sunday she received the Holy Ghost and it was really powerful! I was so happy to see her family there all together in church. They are the sweetest people!! The mission is so rewarding.

I just want to bear my testimony on trusting in the Lord. Things will always work out if we put our trust in Him. We are never alone! What a blessing that is to know that no matter what we are going through, there is someone with us. He loves us and is aware of our needs. A lot of things haven't gone according to plan this week but one thing I've learned is that sometimes things are out of our control and the best thing we can do is have a good attitude and move forward with faith trusting in the Lord. Ok, enough preaching. I love you guys! This is Christ's church!! Have the best week! Also s/o to my little brother for entering the MTC this coming Wednesday!! Fiji is lucky :) And Happy Birthday to Sadie Paige for turning 13 this Sunday! 💕

Con amore,

Sorella Hess

Piazza Monte Gemma 9

Roma 00141

Italia 

Le foto:

1- Il battesimo di Deborah :)

2- Pozzuoli 

3- L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele in Napoli on my year mark :) finished this baby by myself! 

4- Fuori la Reggia oggi! Don't judge our ugly shoes and socks...massive rainstorm came and our other ones were destroyed so we bought some ugly 2 euro shoes and socks hahaha. The mission brings out our worst sometimes hahaha.