Rule 200! Don't Give Up On Anyone!

March 25, 2015

What a wonderful week! Last Saturday there was an 8 year-old getting baptized! Sorella Distante and I knew that this was a great opportunity for our investigators! We invited EVERYONE! After many calls and texts we invited over 100 people. 100 people!  And 3 people came! It was a miracle!  I know it may sound small but it was HUGE! 

One of the people was Lisa who I talked about last week. She was really touched by the hymns. We had an opportunity to sing a couple hymns with her right before the baptism and she really felt the spirit (and we know it wasn't because of our wonderful singing abilities). 

Another was Marti. She was a girl I talked to on the bus the other day. She had never heard of the Church, but agreed to come to the baptism. Afterwards she said is was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. 

But, the biggest of all was Chiara! She met the missionaries 20 years ago. She has studied with the missionaries off and on since then. 20 years!  It actually really surprised me when she said she really wanted to come to the  baptism. After the baptism she told us that we needed to talk. She had received her answer. She knew!  It was one of the most wonderful things I had ever seen on my mission. I saw her change overnight. She still has some things to overcome before she can be baptized. But I have seen her heart change. 

This is a Gospel of miracles. This Gospel is true. Maybe not everyone knows it yet, but one day they will. Everyone will have their time. I am thankful I was born within the church. I don't know why I can have the opportunity to have the Gospel early in my life and others didn't. But I do know that God loves ALL his children. He has a plan for us all. 

Presdient Dibb has asked me to really help my companion learn English. She doesn't think she is doing very well, but I am impressed by her determination and how far she has come in 3 weeks with only me to practice with!

Sorella Distante and I went to New Missionary Training in Firenze yesterday. It was so great to hear from our leaders and learn. I feel like I learned more than the new missionaries! There is always something we can do to improve. We also have to remember it is important to not become overwhelmed either. We can take it 1% at a time. If everyday we improve ourselves by 1%, piano piano... we will eventually make that 100%. 

Vi voglio bene,

Sorella Dani Hamblin

A LITTLE EASTER TREAT!

GIANT CHOCOLATE EASTER EGG!

SORELLA DISTANTE WITH HERS!

NEW MISSIONARY TRAINING

SORELLA JOHNSON WITH ME!  WE BOTH ARE TRAINING NEW MISSIONARIES!

THESE TWO SORELLE STAYED WITH US WHEN THEY CAME TO PICK UP THEIR PERMESSO DI SOGIORNO.

Rule 190: Don't Eat Pizza From Strangers! (Seems obvious, right?!)

March 18, 2015

Well another wonderful week with my wonderful companion, doing the wonderful work of the Lord. We are beginning to think our phone is broken because no one answers our calls or texts. We had a great Zone Training on setting baptism dates... we are still working on the setting appointments stage... But, honestly, I have never been happier. We come home everyday exhausted knowing we did all we could. That's all I could wish for. I love my sweet companion so much!  She is always trying one more person or one more door!

We did have a great miracle last weekend. 

We taught our investigator Lisa on Friday about the Plan of Salvation and then invited her to baptism. She said she needed to think about it. We are happy she wants to find an answer for herself, but we are worried because she didn't talk much during the lesson. The next day we saw her on the bus! Huge miracle! We were able to talk to her and she really opened up to us. Now we understand her situation more and she trusts us. 

I am so thankful for the daily miracles we see. The Lord's hand is in our daily lives. He directs our paths. 

Sorella Distante and I got rained on, lost, and possibly food-poisoned this week but we wouldn't want to be anywhere else! 

Love this work! Love our Savior! And I love y'all!

Buona settimana!

Sorella Dani Hamblin

Rule 170: Who Needs English Anyways!?

March 11, 2015

Okay I thought I was surprised last week when I found out I was training... well SURPRISE! She is Italian! There was only one Italian in the group coming in and I got her! She doesn't speak English... I am sorry but in the next 12 weeks my emails will probably be even harder to read. 

Anyways, this week has been great! I am so out of my mind tired but that is because we are working harder than ever. I think everyone needs to stop by the Spain MTC before coming to Italy because this girl really knows how to do missionary work. Her name is Sorella Distante.  Yes, it really does mean distant or far. :) She is so amazing, I don't know how I got blessed with such an amazing "greenie". She is exactly what Bologna needs. She cannot stop talking to people. Seriously, we are late to everything because she has to talk to one more person, or try one more door. Something funny we have found is that all the Italians like to talk to me and all the foreigners like to talk to her.  I know we are going to some amazing "greenie" miracles in the next couple months. 

Nothing terribly exciting happened this week, just doing wonderful finding work. I really have learned to love finding work. I love talking to these people. I love giving them an opportunity to have more hope in their lives. We met some wonderful people this week. One is from Brazil, but has lived here for 20 years. We taught her the Restoration last night. I could tell she couldn't understand all that we were teaching, but the Spirit was so strong. The Spirit really is the teacher. Every time I teach the Restoration I get so excited. This gospel is true. We really can receive answers to our prayers like Joseph Smith. God does answer prayers. Every prayer! All we need to do is ask. Is there anything more wonderful really? There is a God in Heaven that loves you. You never need to fear because you can overcome all with Gods help. I love being a missionary. 

I love you all!

Sorella Dani Hamblin

Pic: My "greenie" on her first day! And it took half my mission, but I finally saw Anziano Crowther at transfer circles #FHEsiblings 

Rule 160: IF YOU AREN'T CHANGING, YOU AREN'T GROWING!

We got transfer news on Saturday. Sorella Hogan is going to Busto Arsizio and I am staying in Bologna and training a new missionary.  I am sad Sorella Hogan is leaving!  She was a GREAT companion, I am going to miss her singing opera music to me all the time!   :)

We also had our scambio (exchanges) this past week. I was with a new missionary named Sorella Marostica. It was so great to work with her. Of course, as most scambios go, all of our appointments cancelled. So, we did a lot of finding work. It was one of my favorite finding days because we talked to so many different people. We talked to people from Poland, Hungary, Turkey, California, Romania, Spain, Nigeria, OVUNQUE! I don't know how that happened, but it was really fun! And only the Americans had ever heard of the Church before. A lot people think we are Amish... working on changing that!

We met a cool woman on the train from America but lives here now. Sorella Marostica had an English Book of Mormon (which was a miracle!) so we were able to give it to her! She asked why Catholics have not adopted the Book of Mormon yet... :)

The theme for the past week has been "change"! If you aren't changing, you aren't growing. If you feel comfortable where you are at then you aren't stretching yourself. That is what repentance is, a continual change of heart towards God.  Remember to keep changing for the good!

Love you all!

Sorella Dani Hamblin

PS Shout out to Kate who got her call to Lima Peru! I am so excited for her and her choice to serve!

PPS permesso di sorggiorno" is what we get here in Italy from the government in order to stay (Sorry about all the Italian!)

Bologna District

I am going to miss Sorella Hogan!

Rule 157: Enjoy the journey and keep moving the WORK along.

It has been the busiest week! With Zone Conference, Stake Conference, and traveling across the country to pick up my companion's permesso,  I feel like we have been out of Bologna more than we have been in it!

Last Friday we had Zone Conference in Venezia-Mestre. It was such a great conference. We talked about how our Decisions Determine Destiny. Every decision we make today affects our future. It is important that we decide today to make decisions that will improve our tomorrow. We also watched "Meet the Mormons" at Conference. It was so good. We just found out that it will be translated into Italian by May! 

We also got another great announcement. This is from President Dibb's letter this week:

"For the past two weeks, Sister Dibb and I have been traveling the mission meeting with all of the wonderful missionaries serving here. As we have done so, we joined with others in expressing our belief that the year of 2015 is going to be the best year ever in the history of the Italy Milan mission. In the middle of last week, when we only had a couple of more zone conferences remaining, we received a letter from the Area Presidency that has confirmed again our belief. 

We are pleased to announce that on Monday, April 27th, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles will be coming to Milano for a six hour conference, just with the missionaries of our mission. We have all been invited to sit at the feet of one of the living prophet, seers and revelators of the Lord and receive his instruction on doing our missionary work."

We have already seen some amazing miracles as we are trying to make 2015 the best year yet. Bologna is changing!  I can see it. We received some amazing referrals from the anziani (elders) this weekend and got 3 new investigators because of it! Sorella Hogan and I are seeing some wonderful fruits from our labors and are teaching some amazing people. We gave our investigator Camilla a restoration pamphlet but we hadn't explained the Book of Mormon yet. We brought a Book of Mormon for her to the next lesson and she told us she was planning on buying it! She wanted it so bad! 

We also had Stake Conference this past weekend. The Venice stake just had their Stake Presidency reorganized so it was a beautiful Conference. Anziano DeFeo from the 70 and Anziano Texiera, the Europe Area President, came. The Conference was so wonderfully simple: everyone talked about Christ. That should be our focus always. It was one of my favorite Stake Conferences I have ever been to. Anziano Texiera talked about Daniel and the importance of prayer. It is important that we are not ashamed to pray in front of people. Who are we trying to impress: God or other people.

Lastly Sorella Hogan and I traveled to Sanremo Monday and Tuesday so she could pick up her permesso. We had a nice 7 hour train ride there. Sanremo is beautiful and right on the beach (considered part of the French Riviera)! We got her permesso with only a few bumps in the road! It was a long trip and I am glad to be home in Bologna! 

We are ready to find some more miracles this week!

Hope all you stay warm this week! Sounds cold!

Vi voglio bene,

Sorella Dani Hamblin

P.S. Shout out to Danielle who just got her mission call to Denver, Colorado!!! I know she will be great there! Colorado should get ready!

Rule 154: Just Keep Finding!

February 18, 2015

We have had a great week here in Bologna! 

We found a 17 year girl named Camilla who is a Bologna Miracle! We found her just talking to people on the street. We had our first lesson at the public library on Saturday. She is amazing. She told us how she came to believe in God even though none of her friends do. As we were talking she told us that she thinks we met for a reason! She has such a pure spirit and we are so excited to work with her!  

We also found another couple, Sara and Salvatore. Salvatore has actually met missionaries before. He has played basketball with them down in Napoli! He said the missionaries always won :P 

I don't have a lot of time to email today... we took too long on our hike today. We hiked to San Luca, It is a church that overlooks the whole city. The "hike" is actually the longest covered pathway in the world... 660 arches.  You can see some pictures below.

Anyways, sorry for the super short email! 

This week I studied obedience. My companion and I are obedient but we are making the commitment to be exactly obedient. Obedience comes as our love of God and our Savior grows. Everyday we can improve ourselves and devotion to our God even if it is just 1 percent :)

Love you all,

Sorella Dani Hamblin

Photos at San Luca:

Rule 148: Snow is also one of the Devil's tools

February 11, 2015

IT SNOWED!!!!! I got new shoes just in time! Yay for warm feet!

The snow is pretty and all but it makes everyone cancel on us and not come to church. Regardless, we had a pretty great week! 

Our ward mission leader gave us a family to contact that used to take lessons from the missionararies. We have been trying to find them for a while.  We didn't have their phone number so all we could do is pass by their home. One morning our appointment fell through and I really felt like we needed to go try this family again. We had the opportunity to go to another investigator's home or try this family again. We chose to try the family. We didn't know which doorbell was their's but after trying a few we think we figured it out. When we rang the bell we thought was their's the lady we talked to said they weren't home. We started to walk to the bus stop. Then a lady ran up behind us and said she was the woman we were looking for. She remember the past missionaries and was excited to have us over again! I am thankful the Spirit led us to find this family again. 

A friend sent me this quote this week.  'I didn't know what love was until I went on my mission.' It so true! Sorella Hogan and I are having a hard time finding investigators who will progress in the gospel here in Bologna. Despite this we both feel such a love for this people and for this city.  It doesn't really make sense, but I think we have a little of what our Savior feels for us. You want this so bad for this people and when they reject it you hurt!  Not because you lost a chance for a future baptism, but you hurt because you know they are missing a chance to find their Savior. The Savior is the whole purpose of why we are here. This Gospel has a lot to it: Joseph Smith, living prophets, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, temples, Word of Wisdom, family history but all this points to the Savior. I think we get distracted sometimes. Whenever we get overwhelmed I think it helps to just think of one thing. The Savior. Like in primary when the answer is always Jesus :) He really is always the answer! 

Remeber Him :)

VVB,

Sorella Hamblin

Snow in Bologna!