Week 3

This week was another busy, but good week! We had a "scambia" which
means exchange in Italian or splits in missionary terms... I was with
one of the STL's Sorella Dew and she was so much fun! I was laughing
so much at everything she said and we were kind of just tender mercies
for one another! One of the funniest things she said was, "I've
decided that it's so humid in Italy because of everyone boiling their
pasta!" I mean it makes sense...
Last Monday for p-day we went to Rome! I LOVE the Trevi Fountain and
the Spanish Steps, so we went to both of those places! The funny thing
is that the Trevi Fountain wasn't full of water, it was full of men!
They were cleaning it and collecting the money. The Spanish Steps are
under construction right now too, so that was kind of lame! But we
happened to run into a set of Elders basically as soon as we got to
Rome, so we just went sight seeing with them. One of them was Anziano
Carroll and we were in the MTC together, so it was way fun to catch up
with him and hear about his first few weeks in Italy! We talked about
who had seen the fanciest cars and eaten the best things. Had the
funniest language mistakes, etc. he insisted that we walk down kind of
the main shopping street in Rome that has all of the super high end
stores i.e. Gucci, etc. that was "divertenta" (fun). And for anyone
who cares to know... Olive Green is so last year; electric blue,
bright red, floral and jungle prints, and shoes with two inch or more
soles are the style. Oh there's actually a super cute hair style I
right now amongst the women too! So get ready because short hair is
going to be in style soon! Anyway, it's a short bob on one side and in
the back, but then tapers longer on the other side... I've seen it a
few times in America, but it's just done better over here or
something. Haha
I've been trying to ease into using the phone, but mostly it just
terrifies me because what's if I don't understand right and then we
are in the wrong place at the wrong time??!! But I made three phone
calls this morning and no harm has come of it yet so... There's hope.
Yesterday was pretty frustrating as far as the language goes. Church
is always the hardest for me- I never understand anything! But church
is always entertaining. First of all it always starts at least fifteen
minutes late. Second of all people just wear whatever they want to.
And italians have this weird idea that white tennis shoes are a normal
persons "nice dress shoes"... Cosa?! (What?!) And there's somewhat of
a false doctrine problem... Obviously I don't understand the lessons
well enough to know perfectly for myself, but it's usually small
things that get cleared up during the lesson and don't get left false.
Yesterday though... Oh man. There was a guy in Gospel Doctrines and I
don't know exactly who he is, a member I would assume but in my short
history of three Sunday's here I had never seen him before, but anyway
we were talking about the creation and how everything is made for the
use of man and this guy started a huge Italian-Style-"Discussion"' aka
Argument about how it says in the scriptures that we aren't supposed
to eat meat... Yeah, I've read the scriptures and it doesn't say that.
1 Nephi 16:31 point proven. People believe the craziest things
sometimes...
Anyway, the metro is always a fun place too. You've always got gypsie
women with their babies or little kids and it's sad to see, but if you
tell them you're s missionary they basically run away... Weird, but
works for me! The gypsie men all play the accordion and oh my gosh
I've never heard a more obnoxious sound in all of my life! I don't
know if it's the fact that I'm stuck on a stinky gross metro with a
bunch of people that are standing and/or sitting waaaaaay to close to
me and then he is just making unnecessary noise on top of that or
what, but if I never hear another accordion in all my life it'll be
too soon. Actually, in recent days there have been a few that are
pretty good, so it's not so bad!
Okay that's all I have time for, I love you all! I can't wait to hear
from you next week!
Vi voglio bene!
Sorella Hatfield

P.S. This is from today. We went back to Rome. We just couldn't help it! I❤️ROMA

Week two in Ostia

Okay I'll try to answer everyone's questions first and then tell about
this week a little bit more! We have about a fifteen minute walk to
get to church. Yesterday it was especially fun because of a rain
downpour! Good thing I brought my CUTE umbrella! The church is not a
church... It's just a building that the church has renovated and it's
really nice. I'll take some pictures and send them to you. Dad can you
get me the exact dates that Mcarthers will be here? That'll help be
able to help them a little better.
It is so nice here! A little humid and rainy the past two days but
other than that it's so nice! A little n the chilly side but I can
deal at this point... There's no snow!!!
The language... Mama Mia! Okay I can understand pretty well if I focus
pretty hard. I can basically say anything that I want to say and
Sorella McKenzie is really good about helping me when I make mistakes.
It's difficult, but not impossible. And yes, since last week my
Italian when I speak and my understanding has improved drastically!
Meno male!! (Thank goodness!)
Sorella McKenzie and I get along, yes. She is a little bit of a
stickler for the rules and I'm a little more free spirited, so there's
a little tension there, but I'm still being obedient, I promise! I
just do things my own way. No surprise there. We agree on one thing
though and that's chocolate, so problems solved.
This week was really busy! We visited a lot of less actives, but
meeting with our investigators was difficult this week. I told my
companion that our next lesson we are laying down the rules of this
missionary game. We are here to teach repentance and baptize converts.
Don't believe me, ask the Apostles. If they want to learn about the
gospel and are dedicated to committing and to changing then I am more
than happy to teach and help and love, but I'm not here to play games
with them. This is not dating people. Get with it. Your eternal
salvation is at stake! Okay, so maybe it's a little bit like dating...
Your eternal salvation is basically at stake with that too....
Comunque (anyway) our investigator pool is dwindling and the less
actives aren't showing too much hope right now either, so I'm praying
for miracles. In a nutshell this is how the days go... I say ciao to
someone and then my companion (bless her heart) takes the conversation
from there for the most part. I have some input if I can follow the
conversation. Haha but it works because she doesn't like starting
conversations and I'm more than happy to start a conversation and I
can't carry the conversation for very long but she can so it works!
I've got to go, but I'll send some stories and pictures a little bit
later. You probably won't get them until tomorrow tho!

I love love love you all!
Sorella Hatfield

Week one in Italia

Well I don't really know where to begin so I guess I'll start at the
beginning and try to tell you everything! The magic potion for flying:
1 dramamine  + 1  Benadryl = a very sleepy but not pukey Sorella
Hatfield. It's was great! I slept the whole way to Italy! We made it
through customs and everything no problem with everyone's luggage. We
waited for a few minutes and then these really tall and really white
guys with name tags came through the doors... Never have I ever been
more relieved to see missionaries! We took our bags to the van and
then went back inside to wait for the second group of missionaries ( a
group of native Italians from the north and one Sorella from Costa
Rica) to land and meet up with us. Sorella Wise was so funny. After
the flight board showed that their plane had landed she said, "Yay! We
aren't the greenies anymore!" But she quickly changed her mind when
the "new" greenies showed up speaking flawless Italian! Greenies in
Italian is "Venerdini". The first thing we did was... Go see the
temple!!! It is beautiful! We didn't get to go inside, but just being
on the grounds was pretty special! Seeing how the Italian missionaries
reacted to it was sweet, one of the Sorelle and in very broken English
said to me "I have been praying for this temple and now to see it
means so much for me and the people of Italy". It truly is an honor to
be serving here and I don't feel worthy if such a calling or blessing.
Before we left the MTC we saw the elder from Italy who is going to
Florida and he said to us with tears in his eyes, "Thank you for
serving missions. Thank you for serving in Italy." I almost cry every
time I think about it. We stayed at the mission home for two nights
dpi paperwork and being trained with the iPads and such. The Villa
(mission home) is so cute! Sorella Waddoups (the mission presidents
wife) has a blog... Find it! She keeps it very well updated with
stories and info and pictures! Just google her name and my mission. My
fist area is... OSTIA! It's right on the coast and only about and hour
metro ride from Rome, so on p-days we can go anywhere in Rome that we
want to except for the Vatican! Today is beautiful however so we are
going to the pier this afternoon and into Rome next week! Sheesh I
have so much that I want to tell you guys! Next week I will just send
pictures of my journal! My companions name is Sorella McKenzie and she
is from Mountain Home! We get along super great! I am her first
Venerdini! My first day here we taught two lessons and we have 4
people with baptismal dates and two more hopefully by the end of the
week. A for the language... I probably understand about 60 percent of
what is being said, but I'm already teaching half the lesson,
answering the phone, texting, contacting on the metro and streets and
I ORDERED MY FIRST ITALIAN PIZZA IN ITALIAN ON FRIDAY! So I guess you
could say I'm doing pretty well... Just to prove how well I'm doing
I've got a story for you all! Make sure you pee before you read about
it because I don't want any of you to have an accident. We were on our
way home from the Merx's and we were in the station(awesome family
I'll tell you about later in the email) and we saw a guy that Sorella
McKenzie knew from the English course that we teach and the two
members that were with us also knew him so they started talking and I
asked him if we were going to see him again at English course in
Tuesday and said, "a Martedi?" And apparently my pronunciation was
terrible because he thought that I said "Ha morte di?" Which basically
doesn't really make a whole lot of sense but "ha morte" means "to
death" so when you try to put it together and make sense of it, it
sounded like I was telling him that I'm going to kill him. Seriously
about died laughing when I figured out why he and the other two
members looked so confused and my poor trainer had to clarify that I
was trying to ask if we would see him on Tuesday. Oh good times...
Really though, I guess that most new missionaries don't start doing
things until the third month/second transfer or so. I thought I was
just being normal and trying to help my companion and be a good
missionary. Don't get me wrong, this mission thing is kicking my butt
(obviously)and yesterday I wasn't so sure about it, but we taught a
couple about the plan of salvation and I remember why I was out here.
Yesterday was full of tender mercies for me and the biggest one is
truly a miracle and I'm still in shock a little bit! Mom, do you
remember at quick draw when that lady gave you her sisters information
for me?! Their family (Merx) is in my ward here in Ostia and last
night we went to dinner at their house! She is an angel and I am so
grateful for her! One of the members that went to dinner with us is
named Nohemi and she is sweet! She was baptized in Bolivia 30 years
ago, but we haven't been able to find her records so she was going to
be rebaptized. Her daughter, Alejandra (20yrs old) got baptized last
month and when they sent her baptismal information to SLC to have it
recorded, the computer liked her records to her moms records and we
were able to find Nohemi's membership records! It was a miracle!

Okay, so yeah next week I'll send some journal entry stuff and then
I'll actually be able to talk about more normal life stuff with all of
you! Talise, Happy Birthday! Mindy, thanks for the video of your
little man- too stinking cute!!! I'll send some pictures in a
inferential email! Love you all so much! Thanks for all of your
thought and prayers!!
Love, Sorella Hatfield