Mission Week 53 in Italy

This week was transfer week! I am now in Rome 5, a different church building and area in Rome that I haven't been to yet. Yes, I am in the Visitor Center again and my companion is one of my closest friends Sorella Belarmino!! She is Brazilian too. We had always wanted to be companions but never thought we would be. 

Since I was not going to be flying to my next area I took a train.  I stuffed as many things in my suitcases as I could. I was worried when I got on the train by myself how I would get 3 suitcases, my trumpet, my backpack and purse all off the train and get into Termini where my colleagues were waiting for me to get my stuff to my apartment. The whole ride from Pescara to Rome I prayed. I was mentally and physically prepared to haul it all. 

Once the train stopped I went to the front exit where my bags were and, randomly, a man came and grabbed my things for me. I was a little scared but something told me that everything would be okay. He helped me get it off the train. After a while I struggled on how to pull them. The same guy and another guy saw me struggling and offered to help me.  They took my bags with me safely to where my colleagues were. The first guy I spoke too had asked me if I spoke Spanish since I looked very Latina. I told him I spoke Portuguese; he was from Santo Domingo, he said. I then shared a little bit with him about the gospel and why I was here in Italy on a mission. The moment I went to give him a Book of Mormon as gratitude he was gone. It was definitely an answer to my prayers. 

My comp and I are doing a "blow-in" in this area. Which means all the missionaries that were here before had all been transferred out. So we are trying to find out our area by ourselves. Friday night we were invited to eat dinner at a member's house. They are from Sicily and they made us an amazing Tortellini soup. We shared a message with them about member missionary work and how we can help each other in gathering Israel. 

Just a few miracles in the visitor center this week. Saturday was a slow day and I was helping my companion with English as we waited for visitors. A couple walked in and stared at us, so I said Hello automatically assuming they were Americans since they looked like Americans. They then said with a thick accent that they speak Portuguese and are from Portugal. We then started speaking Portuguese with them and told them about the stain glass art. 

Another day, my companion and I were just watching the rain fall. We had no hope that anyone would come in on such a gloomy day. A young family walked in and randomly asked us how they could get baptized in the church and who to talk to. Sorella Belarmino (my comp) and I literally had the biggest smile. What a bizarre miracle. We then took them inside the little house in the visitor center and explained to them about baptism and the process we can do to become baptized and the importance of what that covenant means. They then asked if they could go to the temple and we walked with them just to the waiting room in the temple and they automatically could feel peace. They live about 3 mins away from the temple. We then exchanged numbers and they plan on coming to church sometime. 

There was an elderly couple and their friend that came in and had so much time and repeatedly said they were curious and wanted to know everything. We took the time to explain about temples and the role of Jesus Christ. They then asked us about the Book of Mormon. We explained it is another testament of Jesus Christ that proves the Bible is correct and that Christ lives. They immediately got interested and wanted to buy the books. We shocked them when we told them that the books were free. They were so happy and exchanged numbers with us too and said they would see us next Sunday.

So many miracles in only 4 days. Our God is a God of miracles. The visitor center and temple truly attracts people.


Sorella Hyatt🇮🇹

My favorite car

Sorella Belarmino and I

My new bedroom

My desk

Sorella Manucci and I

The Brazilians!

Pescara, Italy Weeks 16 & 17; Mission Weeks 50 & 51 in Italy

Week 17

I received the transfer call today and I am going back to Rome!  I will be in the area of Rome 5 and my new companion is Sorella Belarmino, she is Brazilian and is also a visitor center missionary.

What a long week. Last week my Pday was on Wednesday since my companion and I changed it so that we could go to the temple. It is always a blessing when we can go to the temple. 

After the temple the sisters that serve in Perugia came home with us. We were doing exchanges with them. We do exchanges so the missionaries can learn from each other. That night I was with Sorella Dwhmoh and we went and visited a family that my companion and I had been trying to visit the past week but they were super busy. We went without contacting the family and to our surprise they were home! We were able to read a couple of scriptures with them from 1 Nephi and strengthen their testimonies. It was a miracle!

The next day my companion and I had been invited to eat lunch with a member and his wife. The cool thing is this couple are both blind and it was amazing to see how they use their other senses to actually move around.
They took us to a Japanese restaurant. It was all you can eat sushi. The funny part was that I had to read the menu for this couple. This menu was not like a normal menu because they had weird names in Japanese. It did not really even explain what was in the meal or sushi, you only knew by looking at it. As I started to read the couple did not really get what I was saying and I didn't actually get what I myself was saying it was even hard to explain what I was seeing in the pictures because sometimes I didn't even know what fish was in them. My companion and I ended up getting the waiter to help since he had seen and worked with this couple before. The cool thing about this restaurant was their were cute waitress robots that would bring you the sushi from the kitchen and every time you grabbed the plate from them it would say enjoy! It was so cute and weird at the same time.

This week we have been preparing for a baptism. There is a girl that we have been teaching for a while and were helping her understand the Book of Mormon. This coming Thursday she will be baptized. She found the church when she was 15 but her parents did not let her get baptized, but on Thursday it is her 18th birthday so she will finally get to do what she has dreamt of doing; she will get baptized! Thursday is transfer day so I will probably not be able to see it but we have been helping set up the baptism and helping her prepare for it. 

On Friday we did not have very many plans but our Brazilian friend randomly invited us to come over for a visit and we were very excited because my comp and I had prayed for someone to invite us over. Once we got there she had asked us if we had at least an hour because she wanted to make us Brazilian food. We were so shocked and I was ecstatic. She made beans, rice, and meat so fast. I felt like i was at home for a second. After the amazing food she prepared my comp and i spoke with her about temples and family history. We encouraged her to do genealogy work and she accepted the challenge. It was so good to be with her.


This week has been very good and just full. Hopefully next week with transfers will be just as good.

Sorella Hyatt🇮🇹

Week 16
This week was a good week. We are still getting invited to bunches of meal appointments from the members. We are getting to know our members a lot better and gaining their trust.
We had a funny day. Last Tuesday we got invited to a members house and it was the bishop's wife. We had confirmed with her the night before and thought it was weird that she never responded. The next day my companion and I happily got on the bus and found her house without a problem. Once we rang the apartment doorbell her daughter asked who it was and we responded it was the sister missionaries all of a sudden she freaked out and said ummmmm ok...

It was weird but she had opened the gate for us. Finally we got inside the apartment and about to go up the stairs and the wife came out talking very loud on the phone and signaled us not to come up stairs and to not leave. Poor lady was getting frustrated on the phone. We probably stood there confused for about 15 mins as she spoke her fast Italian and then finally she gave us a hug and said "well, I thought I had texted you last night to tell you we couldn't have you guys over." We were in confusion because she never did. So we told her we could leave but she told us to come in and see her dog. So, we did.  Kinda weird but the meal was good.

This week we went to our Brazilian friend's house. We hadn't been able to see her in about 2 weeks but we finally had the chance to Monday night. We taught her the Restoration of the Gospel. I taught her in Portuguese and felt like I was in Brazil for a little bit. We gave her another Book of Mormon since her son took her last one. We invited her to pray about the things we had taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and she said she would. She is a very elect person and she loves God. After that she made us hot chocolate and gave us a little piece of cake. We were able to talk to her about her family. She is such a sweet lady. 

That same night we had a dinner appointment with a member. She made us something called Risotti. It was super good. It is a type of rice they make here that is very different than how we make it at home. It is kind of like a creamy rice. We were able to talk to her about family history and how important it is. 

Also, this week we tried to visit an inactive member and usually we walk to her house which is about 35 minutes but it was cold so we had decided to take the bus. We were talking and accidentally forgot to get off so we decided to get off at the next stop. When we did I heard my companion yelling, "No!" because she accidentally left one of her gloves on the bus and the bus was already gone. I laughed and she laughed. Thankfully she had another pair of gloves. 

One more experience which was pretty cool this week was my companion and I were waiting for a bus to go to Montesilvano to go to a lunch appointment with a Venezuelan member family.  While we were sitting and waiting a lady sat by us. She soon read our name tags and asked us who we were. We told her we were missionaries and she smiled at us. She randomly asked us if we had a message for her. My companion just looked back at me and I had the feeling to tell her about the Plan of Salvation that Heavenly Father has planned for us. As we were explaining she had cut me off at the part of the fall of Adam and Eve. She continued to say that 25 years ago her son had died and only today she was remembering him. She looked very sad and as we got on the bus.  My companion and I continued with the Plan of Salvation and explained to her about temples and temple work. We told her because we have temples we can be SEALED to our family members for TIME and ALL ETERNITY. We have the assurance that we will see all of our loved ones again. She rudely told us to stop talking and my companion and I were very surprised. After about 5 minutes this lady started asking us more questions about the temple and what we believe about the afterlife. We had a wonderful conversation with her. She kept saying that we had met her for a reason and she needed to hear our message. After she had asked us how we could keep in contact with her so we exchanged phone numbers and she was very happy. It was great experience to have comforted someone through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Oh how I love the Plan of Salvation. I love how well Heavenly Father has planned for us to come down here to earth to gain a body and to experience joy. I love how perfect He is and His plan and how He knew that Adam and Eve would fall so that men might be. God provided us a way to return to His presence even then and that was through His only Begotten son Jesus Christ. Thanks to Christ we will be able to be resurrected and be able to return to our Father's presence.


Sorella Hyatt🇮🇹

"Eat Well, Live Better" 

 "H"...Hyatt

The family we ate Sushi with

"Knocking" on some doors