Tower of Terror...in real life

Buona Pasquetta!!

I love Easter in Italy! We've had such a fun week. Today we are having

Pasquetta at the church with the whole ward. We've been playing

volleyball, ping-pong, calcetto, soccer, Just Dance, etc. all day long

and it's been a blast! Bari knows how to party!

Sllllaa Bellomo

We've had a great and busy week--complete with 2 exchanges.

We took a train for an hour and a half to Foggia and spent a day with

them from Thursday to Friday. I was with Sorella Manning who's in her

2nd transfer. We had a lot of fun and were able to teach some cool

lessons. We came back Friday afternoon and went directly out to

Bitonto with the ZL's and did some finding and then we came back to

Bari for our Mexican Fiesta night with the GANS (YSA). Whooo!

Saturday Sorella Holmes (one of the Sorelle we live with) wasn't

feeling very well so her comp spent the morning/afternoon inside with

her and then I spent the evening in with her so Sorella CB could go

out and not go stir-crazy.

Yesterday we had pranzo with Giuliana and Pippo :) She's a recent-ish

convert! They spoiled us and treated us like family. I love them!!

Afterwards we had some meetings and then went to the senior couple's

house for a Nacho Party!!! Leftovers from the fiesta night. We

all piled into the elevator afterwards (...10 missionaries hahahaha)

and literally before the elevator doors had shut we started dropping

from the 5th floor. We were jam packed in that tiny elevator and all

screaming and sweating and freaking out hahahaha. Luckily Anziano

Fitzner was there and he was a fireman back in the day so he knew to

pry the door open and we all jumped out before it dropped all the way

to the very basement hahahha. Memories😂 Lesson learned, the weight

limit posted inside the elevator isn't just a suggestion.

Cute Sorella Manning in Foggia!

Easter eggs from members yesterday

I love this time of year and that we get to reflect on our Savior and

His Resurrection. This week I've been studying a lot and teaching a

lot about the purpose of life. We are here on the earth for a lot of

reasons but the biggest ones are so that we can have a body, to learn,

to grow, and to experience JOY! Our Heavenly Father wants us to be

happy!! When things aren't going our way, we shouldn't ask why it's

happening but what we are supposed to learn from that experience. We

are never alone! Our Savior has been through it all and understands us

perfectly!

Giuliana and Pippo!!

Vi voglio tanto bene! Grazie per il vostro amore e sostegno. Sono

davvero grata per voi!!

Con tanto amore,

Sorella Hess

Via Orazio Flacco 13/3

Bari, Italia

70100

Le foto:

Easter eggs from members yesterday

Giuliana and Pippo!!

Sllllaa Bellomo

Cute Sorella Manning in Foggia!

I love you a latte🐮

We ciao tutti!

This week was CRAZY. Here are some of the funny things that happened
because I don't think I ever fully tell you guys how fun and
entertaining the mission is:

Zone Conf with my fav italiana

First off, we started teaching a lady from Romania this week. She and
her husband speak pretty Italian pretty well and were telling us how
they studied with the JW's in the past. But instead of saying
Testimoni di Geova, she said Testimoni di Genova hahahaha which is a
city up north. Also she kept saying Dios instead of Dio and just other
funny stuff that made us laugh :) They come to English course and a
few weeks ago we had taught them the verb "to believe" and then during
the spiritual thought at the end I was bearing my testimony on the
Savior and she stands up and says, "I believe!!!" Hahahaha I lost it
guys. It was so funny. She's a crackup😂

There's something about southern Italy that makes people think that
modesty just goes out the window from April to October. For some
reason people think it's okay to just feed your baby in public on a
bus with no blanket or just pee on the sidewalk in front of two sister
missionaries walking down the street. I wish I could say that it only
happened once this week but that'd be a lie. 😂 Sorry for the TMI
hahaha :)

WE GOT A NEW PHONE!!! Praise the heavens because our ghetto flip phone
stopped . recognizing our SIM card so we haven't been getting calls
for like the past week or so.
"Ciao Anziano...Mi senti?" "Si...?" "Lo so. Abbiamo un nuovo
telefono." 💁🏼 hahaha.

Service!!! So there's this field behind our church where literally
hundreds of homeless people live and they leave a lot of trash outside
our church on the road. We decided to clean it up a little bit because
it's pretty bad haha. People were driving by and literally clapping
and honking for us as we did it hahaha. I guess they were impressed :)
Good way to get the church's name out there :)

Here are some of the quotes of the week:
"I was really just feeling emotionally constipated.... oh
wait...that's not the right word.... emotionally CONSOLATED.... that's
not right either. Whatever..."  -Anz Carroll in our district😂

*President at Zone Conference yesterday asking the senior couple what
they had to do in preparation for the mission* "well we had to be out
of debt, retired, etc...." "what else did you have to do?" "A
colonoscopy..?" 😂😂😂 we all died!

Okay I'm done sharing stories :) This week was super awesome though.
We had 2 super successful ward activities! There was a talent show on
Thursday night and lots of our contacts came! Then on Saturday we had
STARLAT!! It's a charity concert that the ward here does every year.
Singers in the community perform and we ask people to bring boxed milk
instead of a ticket and then we donate it all to families in need in
Bari. This year by the end we had 1,365 liters of milk!! Soo cool!!
Also we easily had over 200 people there and probably more than half
of them weren't members.

-STARLAT Latte!!🥛🍼🐮

Yesterday we had Zone Conference so that's why I'm emailing today :)
It was amazing! We focused on using the Book of Mormon to find answers
to questions. It's so amazing that we have the word of God right at
our fingertips. I'm so grateful for the BOM and the answers we can
find!! We also got to watch the video of them putting the angel Moroni
on the Rome temple. If you haven't seen it yet, I definitely recommend
watching it! It was so powerful seeing him blowing his trumpet out
over Italy telling people to get ready because the Savior is coming!
The work really is hastening and I'm lucky enough to be a part of it
:)

Ok this is the longest group email I've written since the MTC I'm
pretty sure haha but I hope you guys have a fun week!! Happy Easter!!
Go watch the Prince of Peace video!! Vi voglio bene! Eat some Cadbury
eggs for me and remember the real reason for the season--our Savior!

Con amore,
Sorella Hess

Via Orazio Flacco 13/3
Bari, Italia
70100

Le foto:
1-Advertising for our English course while at the phone store hahahah :)
2-BITONTO. Who knew it was this cool?!
3-Zone Conf with my fav italiana
4-one of the many Bari fountains with my cute collega last night
5-STARLAT Latte!!🥛🍼🐮
6-Bari Sorelle!
7-Bari Zone

Advertising for our English course while at the phone store hahahah :)

Bari Sorelle!

Bari Zone

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 😍

💕

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! 

🎶"And the walls kept tumbling down in the city that they loved"🎶

My people :) 

Sorry we're a day late! Yesterday was Zone Conference so P-day was bumped to today. #notapostate :) I hope somebody got my Bastille song reference in the subject line...We went to Pompeii today for P-day😊 It was the coolest!!

This week was unreal. Easily one of the best of my entire mission. We are happy the holidays and Italian parties are coming to an end and hopefully people will want to start meeting with us again but the Lord has provided for us these past few weeks and we've been able to stay busy. We've been to Napoli 5 times in the last week for last P-day, MLC, Zone Meeting with the District Leaders, Zone Conference yesterday, and today to Pompeii!! Lots of traveling but each of the meetings have taught us so much and we're ready to attack 2017! 

It's been TROPPO FREDDO this week. Probably the coldest I've ever been in my life haha. No joke. We are wearing so many layers it's ridiculous. (3 pairs of tights guys😂) It snowed in Caserta for the first time since 1986 and the whole city pretty much shut down for the entire day even it only lasted for a few hours haha. Every time we go to Napoli our train goes right past Vesuvio and it is BELLISSIMO covered in snow. We're so blessed (we say that probably a hundred times a day).

Remember the less active we have been working with that came to church on Christmas?! She came again this Sunday and brought her 3 cute kids! We are teaching her 9yr old daughter! We were so happy to see them together in church :) It's so special to be able to see people come back to the fold❤

Last night after Zone Conference we were visiting a Less-Active member in the ward. She had a friend over at the time, and I'll be honest, I was initially a little disappointed because I didn't think we'd be able to get them all to come together and listen to the spiritual thought because there were a lot of kids and people there. BUT, we were able to sit them all down and teach them the Restoration. It was amazing and we added the friend as an investigator. She has a cute 8yr old daughter too! I was also super proud of my companion in that lesson. She continues to amaze me every single day and she teaches me so much. I swear I'm learning more from her than she could be learning from me. I'm blessed with the best!

This past Zone Conference could easily be one of my very favorites that I've had so far on my mission. We focused on the Holy Ghost and preparing ourselves for the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast we will be having in a few weeks. I learned so many new things!! I could go on all day. One of my favorite parts was at the end when we had a group discussion about our favorite verses in the Book of Mormon about the Holy Ghost. I loved the verse that someone shared from 1 Nephi 4:6-7. "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth." I think this applies to all of us in some aspect or another with school, work, family situations, missionary work, friends, etc. I know I definitely feel like this as a missionary. I don't know what I'm doing a lot of the time. There are days when I don't feel qualified, but as we pray to be led by the Spirit, we will be able to go forward with faith and the Spirit will guide us to do the things we need to do to fulfill this work.

President Pickerd shared a footnote from a scripture that I've been thinking a lot about this week. It's in Joseph Smith History at the very end. It's Oliver Cowdrey talking and he says, "These were the days never to be forgotten." I know this is true with wherever we are RIGHT now in our lives. We will look back on these days and always remember them! Give it all to the Lord. As the time is flying by on my mission, I pray that I will be able to do this so that as I look back on my mission for the rest of my life, I will have no regrets. This is the happiest and most rewarding hard-work ever. I love my mission and being a representative of my Savior. A lunedì💕

Con amore,

Sorella Hess

Via Caduti sul Lavoro 3 

Caserta, CE 81100 Italia

Le foto:

Pompeii today! Vesuvio is in the background :)

Our cute Nigerian friends💕

La conferenza di zona