Rule 207: Pasqua is the Most Important Holiday!

April 8, 2015

What an amazing week! So much has happened I know I am not going to come close to remembering all the wonderful miracles we have seen this week! 

Well first things first: PASQUA!!!! (or commonly know in America as Easter). What a wonderful Easter/Conference Weekend! They weren't going to show General Conference here at the Bologna church but I convinced them to. We were able to get a less active and an investigator to come watch with us!  I watched some in Italian and some in English! It was cool to be able to watch in Italian and understand everything, but I liked hearing the apostles actual voices. We weren't able to see the last session because it aired too late here in Italy. However I loved every single talk. I could never pick a favorite because they were all wonderful. I loved how a few people talked about Adam and Eve because we have quite a few investigators who don't understand the Fall. We are excited to use these talks with our investigators and less active members.

 

We also had a scambio (exchange) with the Verona sorelle (sisters). I went to Verona with Sorella Marostica. However we got stuck in Bologna for an extra 2 hours because we missed our train... twice! Um so the first time was because we had gone to the wrong binario (umm platform? is that English?). The first time we missed our train we decided to do some finding. We talked to 3 amazing people! One guy for so long we missed our second train. After we missed our second train we helped a nice women take her bags to the bus station. We saw so many miracles in those 2 hours we know we were in the right place, the right city at the right time. This scambio was my absolute favorite. All the lessons and the people really helped me and I felt like I helped them. Can I also say Verona is my favorite city in all of Italy. It was beautiful! And so quiet compared to Bologna!  I rode a bike like a pro! Dad can be proud of me! 

In other great news my companion and I reached President's challenge to teach 21 lessons this week! I love my companion and her work ethic. I know we will see many more miracles this next week. I will try to learn to type faster so I can share them all!!!

LOVE YOU ALL

,

Sorella Dani Hamblin

Rule 203: He Is HERE! Don't Forget It!

April 1, 2015

What a week!  As we were walking to the internet point today I was talking to Sorella Distante and all of a sudden she wasn't there. I turned around and there was a woman talking frantically to my companion. I walked over to where the lady was thanking my companion for the work she was doing. She had such a beautiful testimony of the Savior. She told us that she has a daughter our age and she is lost. We asked if we could meet her daughter and she readily accepted. I know God led this woman to us today and I am thankful for her strong testimony. It strengthened mine. 

We are seeing some really sweet miracles with the Perche Egli Vive (Because He Lives) video, especially with the less active members in our ward. We met a woman that hadn't come to church in over 10 years for the first time last Saturday. She expressed how she felt alone. She said her family, mother and sister, don't talk to her because she doesn't come to church. Her children aren't members and won't come to church with her. She doesn't know the Ward so she is scared to come. We told her we could come with her!  We were able to share the new video with her and we were able to discuss the miraculous love of our Savior. We did not know the theme of the video would be that He is here. I am so thankful for this video. It was perfect for her. She came to church the next day. It was such a spiritual experience. As she grows stronger in this gospel I know she can help her children embrace the gospel as well.

Yesterday we had an appointment with a lady we met on the bus. We knew she had some contact in the past but turns out she was baptized! She's a member and we didn't even know it. She didn't even know it! It was a miracle that we found her because we just decided to talk to her on the bus. I know the Lord led us directly to her because I remember I was sitting by a lady but I had a strong impression to tak to the lady behind me instead. It was Evelyn this wonderful member! The Lord really does guide every single footstep.

I am thankful for all the tender miracles we are seeing here in Bologna. Sorella Distante and I are beginning to see that our work here in Bologna is with the less-actives in this Ward. There are so many. We have 8 that we meet with and we are meeting 3 new ones this weekend. 3 of them came to church on Sunday! I know the Lord doesn't want to lose a single one of His sheep. I strongly believe that it has been a struggle to find progressing investigators here in Bologna because the Lord wants us to focus on the less-active members first. This Ward can be greatly strengthened by these members coming back to church.

Another wonderful miracle this week was an investigator telling us that she does (eventually) want to be baptized. Sorella Distante and I have been inviting everyone! She has some family issues but she knows that this church is true. I am thankful for the power of the Spirit.

I am excited for this Conference Easter Weekend! I love this church. I love the prophet! I love Easter! And I love my Savior! He is here with us. I know this with my whole heart. And I love being a missionary and telling everyone that He lives and He loves us. There is no better thing in the world!

Vi voglio bene,

Sorella Dani Hamblin

Sorella Distante and I on the streets of Bologna

Italian Easter tradition:  Making a cake shaped like a dove...

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!