One down, fifteen left!

(Note: One down, fifteen left title refers to transfers)

My people! It's been a good week, no?

I'm running out of time so I'll make this quick! Won't be as long as others, but I hope you'll all enjoy it anyways😊

I'll go ahead and get right to it. Monday was awesome! We got up early and went straight to Rome. Don't remember whether I told you or not, but we went first to the Trevi fountain.

The inscription translated: "Clemens XII Pontifex Maximus decorated the Virgin Acqueduct and committed it with abundance and salubrity to the magnific cult in the Year of the Lord 1735, 6th year of his pontificat." (Source: http://www.trevifountain.net/description2.htm)

"TREVI FOUNTAIN"

"Thing is massive"

A nun :) 

"Anziani!"

We had plans to meet up with some of the dying missionaries, but they ended up not showing up. It's alright though, because the Trevi fountain is beautiful! We also explored the area a tiny bit

"Didn't even want to get close cause it looked so expensive"

and got some postcards to send home. After we left though we saw them on our way out, and we were able to say goodbye to them. Even though I haven't known them for very long, it was sad to see them go. We then went to McDonald's

and the Spanish steps

On their way to the Spanish Steps

"The Spanish steps"

(which, sadly, were closed)

"A visualization of my disappointment of the steps being closed"

and then met up with the l'Aquila Anziani! We tried to find the pantheon and got lost

"Me and Anziano Krogue who's from North Ogden!"

"They were fake feathers. Why were they there? I have no idea."

"The Roman Forum again! Hopefully we'll be able to go in it sometime"

and ended up at the colosseum instead😅

"Ahhh so cool eh?"

"We tried twice to get a picture...

"...and in each one someone was just standing there  -_-"

ah well. Sometimes I forget I'm in Italy until I see it! We went back to Pescara after that

"Waiting in the metro :)"

and went to a lesson we had with V and his family, who are members. They loved the lesson! It went really well, and afterwards they made us doughnuts.

Tuesday was good. We ran that morning up a hill by our house,

"Where we ran to this morning!"

"The view"

"Montesilvano"

"Again with Anziano Krogue"

and the view was AWESOME. We then had studied and then went to district meeting. Forgot to mention to you all, but my comp is the new district leader! It was a good meeting. Anziano Krogue is leaving, and Anziano Burgos is coming in. That night, we had a solid lesson with M, English course, and then a lesson with M. That one was a little less awesome because he loves the cross (literally thinks it's more important than Christ, God, and the Madonna all together) and he likes to talk about it, so the lesson didn't really go anywhere. But! He promised to meet with us again, so we'll hopefully be able to have a better lesson.

Wednesday...honestly I can't remember what we did on Wednesday. Eesh. That's happening more often nowadays. Everything's already blending together, and the days fly by. From here, I know it's only going to get faster. That's why I need to make this time count! Since I can't remember what we did, I'll talk about the cool realizations I've had this week. The first is about believing. We've been going around reading the "do I believe?" talk from this past general conference

with all the members, and I've been thinking a lot about it. Do I believe? Not just in this gospel, but in what I'm doing? Do I believe I can have success? Do I believe there are people here that've been prepared for this gospel? Do I believe that the Lord will help me convey the message He wants me to convey? It reminds me of a scripture in nephi. He's actually quoting Isaiah, so you can attribute it to him. Anyways, he says

"if ye will not believe surely ye shall not be established." - 2 Nephi 17:9

And that reminds me of another scripture in Ether which says

"And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God." - Ether 12:18

I love these two scriptures. And it makes sense! I have a really dumb example to help with this, but here goes! Yesterday I tried making minestra. However, it looked pretty bad. It didn't look anything like what it should look like, and I was disappointed. I tasted it too, and it didn't taste very good. But I was confident it would turn out okay if I followed the recipe!

And look! It turned out awesome! Why? Even though it looked bad at first, I kept working at it because I believed it would turn out okay. Most importantly, I followed the recipe. When it looked bad, I stuck to it. Similarly, life is, at times, seemingly impossible. It doesn't turn out the way we want it to. However, God has given us a way to succeed. We have his teachings and the teachings of his prophets. If we follow them with the faith and belief that God will "consecrate our afflictions for our gain", everything will be just fine. No biggie.

Another quick little realization: I don't have to share this gospel with strangers. Too often I look at other people here and think "okay it's us and it's them." But it's not. This is not a world where we are
divided into groups of whether we've chosen Christ already or not. In fact, EVERYONE here and anyone who ever will be here has chosen him already. I just need to help them choose him again. And I don't have to share this gospel with them from the perspective of a stranger. I just need to be their friend first! And I can do that. WE can do that.

Thursday was good! Started out with correlation, which was good. We made cookies earlier in the week too that we took to a few members that afternoon. M cancelled on us, and so did M, so we had
English course and then went home. It was a super cool day though cause it rained A TON. Apparently it's supposed to rain basically non stop this summer. Also, lightning struck literally less than half a mile from our house. I was standing outside on the balcony when it happened and it was the loudest thing I've ever heard haha.

Friday we went up to Teramo!

"View from Teramo"

"A [soccer] field I saw up in Teramo"

And guess what? MIRACLE! We went to see J, who's a less active member. Last time we talked about maybe teaching some of his friends, and this time we meant to talk about a talk about the essential role of member missionary work. However, just as we started, his doorbell rang. He looks up, smiles, and says "it's my friend." So we taught him! And he agreed to meet with us again! He's super cool. We then saw F, took the train back, got some pizza, and finished the day.

Saturday we had another miracle! One of the sisters investigators brought a friend for us to teach after our lesson with Massimo, the new Venezuelan convert. His name is R, and he loves us! He likes
the Catholics, but he wants to know more about us. And during the lesson he said "you guys are like a calm sea. I can tell that the Holy Ghost is with you." WHAT. Seriously. We've seen so many blessings
because of our willingness to make and set goals, be obedient, and work hard. No, we don't set the best goals, but we know that God magnifies our efforts when we try our best to be our best.

Sunday was tranquillo. We watched the Western Europe conference broadcast. Not sure what all was said, but elder Christofferson 

(Source: https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/images/leaders/d-todd-christofferson-large.jpg)

spoke, as well as a few other general authorities. We had plans to meet with C, but she didn't come and wouldn't answer our calls. We tried to see T, but he wasn't around. We did a tiny bit of finding, watched fireworks for a minute or two, then finished the day with some
studies we missed from the morning. All in all, it was a good week!

What's been super important for me is just remembering to be happy whilst all this is happening. I hope you all haven't forgotten either! BE HAPPY!😊

Bouna settimana! (Have a good week!)

Anziano Hansen