happy happy happy

Buondì!!

I love Catania. I love Sicily. I love my companion. I love my

district. I love the gospel. I love being a missionary. And most

importantly I love my Savior. Just so happy right now.

Busy week! We spent Monday and Tuesday in Siracusa on scambio with the

sorelle there. I was with Sorella Ferre from Sandy Utah :) She reminds

me of Audrey haha so it felt like I was with my friends at home :) We

had a blast! We did about 7 hours of finding and it felt like we

talked to about the entire city of Siracusa but we got some great

potentials!!!

I met a crazy older man the other day on the bus (shocker). He made us

laugh pretty hard. EVERYONE tries to speak in English to us even if

they only know how to say "how are you" and then they switch into

Italian or dialect. Well this guy was about 6 inches from my face and

tried to convince me he is a dog hahaha. But the only word he knew in

English was "dog" hahaha. "Sono un dog." Over and over again hahaha.

He was barking at us and even lifted his leg and pretended to pee

hahahah. Can't say I've had that one before 😂 BUT, here's the cool

part. This had been going on for about 15 minutes and I was just dying

trying not to laugh. EVERYONE on the bus was overhearing this 50yr old

barking at 2 American girls and just dying laughing. So this guy in

his 20's was overhearing the "I'm a dog" conversation and came to the

rescue and started talking to us so the crazy guy couldn't. He was way

cool and we got his number for the elders. Thankful for that crazy guy

for getting the elders a new contact that is actually sane hahaha :)

We had Stake Conference so all the members from all of Sicily came to

Catania (including all 50 missionaries in Sicily). It was so awesome!

Elder Charles from England from the 70 came and spoke to us and my

companion and I got to talk to him for a few minutes afterwards. He

and his wife are awesome!

Zone Conference!!!!!!! Holy cow. I cannot believe we just had my 2nd

to last zone conference. I got my departure packet which kind of made

things feel more real. We talked about being "all in," our purpose as

missionaries, and our divine identity. It was amaaaazing. I loved it.

I just wish time would stop for a while :) We had a CRAZY weekend with

10 sisters in our apartment that should only be able to fit 3 or 4

hahaha and they're still with us today for a Zone pday so it's been

fun!

Last night we had a zone blitz and we all did finding together in

Centro. Some people were singing hymns, others were talking to people,

some were drawing with chalk and we had sooo much success from it!

Here are some of the cool stories:

I stopped this family and they responded to me in Spanish and told me

they're from the Dominican Republic. I called one of the new greenies

in our zone over who's from there too and it turns out they're FROM

THE SAME CITY. Sooo cool. We can understand Spanish pretty well

because it's so similar to Italian and they can understand us too so

it was really amazing! Anziano Sanchez was explaining the Book of

Mormon in Spanish and me in Italian but we could all communicate! The

Gift of Tongues is real! They promised us they will come to English

course tonight so hopefully we see some cool miracles from this

family!

I talked to another woman named Gabriella who has 2 kids and just told

me she feels like something is missing in her life. The other

missionaries were singing and she said as she walked by she just felt

so much peace. I got to talk to her for a good while and asked her if

she had ever prayed before and she said not since she was a young

child in catholic school. I explained to her that she can have a

personal relationship with God again and taught her how we pray in our

church. She said she would do it because she felt so "tranquil" while

talking to me :) The Spirit is so cool guys!!!! Hopefully we will be

able to meet with her again & follow up :)

This week I read the talk "What Lack I Yet" and have been trying to

focus on specific things I need to work on. I went through the

Christlike Attribute Challenge in chapter 6 of PMG and it helped me

think of some goals I want to work on :) It's a humbling experience

but definitely helps us strive to become more like the Savior. I

invite you guys to do it too! It's awesome. I love this quote by Elder

Bednar, “Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for

sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that

the Atonement is also for saints--for good men and women who are

obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become

better.”

I love you alllll. Sorry this was forever long--so much has happened

since last Monday! Hope you all have a great week :)

Con amore,

Sorella Hess

Via Genova 27

Catania 95127

Italia

Le foto:

Sorella Ferre aka my fav. Also Siracusa is beeeautiful

Pranzo with Dana and Agata and their cute kids

Reunited and it feels soo goooood. So fun seeing all our fav people at

stake conference!!!

Zone blitzes

Waiting at bus stops = serving in Catania.

Cutest zone ever

Another reason I love Catania. We run here every morning :) blesssssed

Zone frisbeeee today

Digiuni, miracoli, funerali!(2)

Ciao guys, 

I swear we just had P-day 5 minutes ago haha. Time really needs to slow down. We had such a cool miracle yesterday so I'll start with that! 

"Shoot, we haven't taken any pics this week....smile guys"

Sorella Sargeant and I fasted yesterday so that we'd be able to find more truly interested investigators this week. No joke, right at the beginning of sacrament meeting this couple walks in. We didn't know who they were so I went and sat by them. Massimo--the husband--is a member from Taranto (my 1st area!!!) but has been living in L'aquila (up north of Rome) for 8 years and is inactive. His wife, Monica is from Uruguay but moved to Italy when she was 11. She's not a member (yet😉) but is seriously soo sweet and interested in the church. They're married and in the middle of adopting a baby and ARE MOVING TO OUR WARD IN A FEW WEEKS :) :) :) She texted US after church and said thank you so much for making her feel welcomed and that she's coming to the Relief Society activity this Saturday night. A random inactive man just shows up at our church and brings his non-member wife. That doesn't just randomly happen while we happen to be fasting for miracles. Fasting works guys!! Punto.

Saimo noi, la luce less'amore

Bishop asked me to play the piano for a funeral on Friday of an older man in the ward who passed away. It was such a spiritual day. His wife and daughters aren't members of the church and it was hard to watch them so heartbroken thinking they wouldn't be able to see their dad ever again. That morning we had taught a lesson to a new convert on the Plan of Salvation and then being at that funeral afterwards just confirmed my testimony of it even more. We are so blessed to know that death isn't the end!! I'm so thankful for the knowledge we have of where we came from, why we are here, where we are going, and how we can reach the highest kingdom of glory. The gospel brings so much peace and comfort in our lives! 

Visiting older ladies in the ward is the BESST!

New mattress today, we live in the old elder apartment so it was a necessity hahaha

Other than that, not much out of the usual happened. Getting creeped on, eating pasta, teaching English Course, preachin' the gospel...all that good stuff :) I love you guys! I love this church and all the blessings that come from being a missionary. You don't have to wear a name tag to be a missionary though ;) Pray for opportunities to share the gospel! Vi voglio un mondo di bene! 

Baci da Bari

Sorella Hess

Via Orazio Flacco 13/3
Bari, Italia
70100

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!

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. 

💕

Cari miei!

Lots of craziness this week and I don't have a lot of time, but here's some pics of this week with some of the highlights! 

Le foto:

Our bff Gaia❤

Deborah passed her Baptismal interview so things are good to go for this Saturday :)

Isn't she the sweetest?? 

Can't believe this crazy adventure started one year ago this week. I'm thankful for everything I'm learning and for how my testimony has grown. I'm so thankful for our Savior. No matter what we're going through, He is there and loves us perfectly. I'm thankful for the power of prayer and that we always have someone that's listening. Love you guys so much! Baci! 

Pasti, pizze, e pigiami! (2)

Hi guys! Our wifi stopped working last night before my group email sent so we had to send them off this morning! Not breaking rules :) I hope everything is going well for you guys! We're so blessed to be here in Caserta right now.

Il battesimo di Gianfranco!
Gianfranco was baptized this Saturday! It was amazing! So my companions and I have been teaching him and his best friend Rory together since July when I got here but Rory left for Chile for a few months so we passed him to the Anziani because he's a man. The baptism started on Standard Mormon Italian Time...it was supposed to be at 11 but it actually started at 12:07 haha. We have to do the baptisms here on the military base in the "nondenominational chapel" (covered in everything catholic haha) because we don't have a font in our church. The font was super shallow and only went up to their knees and Gianfranco isn't a small guy. He's easily 6'2" haha so they basically pancaked him flat on his back on the ground haha! But they got it done and he is now a member of the church!! It was a great day :) We had lunch and dinner with American families on the base afterwards so that was fun! I'm so thankful I was able to be here to see it.

Zina our cute Ukrainian simp & babushka :)

Our cute little 9yr old Nigerian investigator is all set for her baptism on Feb 3rd! We are so excited for her--not only for her baptism but also because her family has started coming to church again. We've been visiting them several times a week since I got here and the first time they came to church was Christmas and they've only missed one week since! I get teary-eyed every time they walk into church as a family. 

Pizza party with Veronica (our new convert) and the rest of our English Course friends :)

A few nights ago we were at our favorite pizzeria and our friend Gerry from English Course walked in and paid for our pizza for us! I felt like I was serving in Utah haha. I always hear about that happening to other missionaries but it's never happened to me haha! So blessed!!

Comp item. Matching "ciao bella" pajamas hahaha...matching white fleece pants and all.

We had a few meal appointments this week which was really fun. Sorella Neuberger had her first Italian meal appointment because typically the Americans are the ones to invite us over here. Italian food is the best. I can't count how many times I've said that on my mission haha.

I'm so happy to be here as a missionary at this time. Last night we were doing finding as a district in centro and I just felt so grateful that I get to constantly be sharing my testimony of Christ and the Restoration of the gospel. What a privilege that is!! Sono veramente grata per il mio Salvatore Gesù Cristo e per tutto ciò che lui fece per me. So che Lui espiò per ognuno dei nostri peccati e se ci pentiamo, possiamo tornare al nostro affettuoso Padre Celeste. So con tutto il mio cuore che Dio e Gesù Cristo apparvero a Joseph Smith e che Joseph restaurò la vera chiesa di Cristo sulla terra di nuovo. Cristo vive e questa è la Sua chiesa! 

Spero che la vostra settimana sia fantastica! I love you guys!! 

Sorella Hess

Piazza Monte Gemma 9

Roma 00141 Italia 

Il battesimo di Gianfranco!

Zina our cute Ukrainian simp & babushka :)

Comp item. Matching "ciao bella" pajamas hahaha...matching white fleece pants and all.

Pizza party with Veronica (our new convert) and the rest of our English Course friends :)