Buongiorno!!!! :)
Oh, Italy! What a special place! The very first thing on my mind today is the opportunity of a lifetime that we just experienced today!! So last week, we were invited to a dinner at one of our investigator's (Pietro) house (which was SO wonderful! They are so nice and sincere!). And as we were talking, his mother, who works at the public library in Rimini (the third oldest library in all of Italy), invited us to come today and she would give us a personal tour of ALL of it! Even the "restricted" rooms with all of the ancient books from the 1600s!! It turns out she is like the "boss" of the whole place, and so we were just walking past all of this security and staff and stuff, and she just showed us the coolest things! AND she let us take pictures of it!! And we even got to open up the old books and read through them! (they are all in Latin, so we couldn't really read them, but still!) There were old maps and old globes and old bibles in multiple languages...and everything! It was a bookworm's paradise! ....Don't worry, I took pictures!
But she just kept saying "Do you want to see this old room that's not open to the public..." and mid sentence we were like YES! We even found an old Bible in Latin from 1559!! I took a picture of the page that has Joshua 1:9 on it. :) She was so funny while we were looking it up, she was like " You know where that is, even in Latin...so you have memorized the entire Bible??" I wish!
It turns out that the library was the old library of a really rich old famous Italian guy, who in his will left all of his books and house to the government; so they made it into a library! One of the coolest things is that in one of the rooms, there is a secret passage way behind some of the "books" (classic, right?), which "books" were actually just carved into the wooden wall and painted to look like books. She even opened it up for us! It was incredible. The passage way in the attic leads to this awesome spiral concrete staircase which leads to the bottom floor. I felt like I was in some kind of a movie. Italy is awesome! :)
Well, there's not much to top that! ...I got a flat tire also....so I guess that was exciting too... But the work here is going so wonderfully! We recently met with a man named Claudio, who has been inactive for about 20 years...and actually stopped us on the street saying that he wants to start again on the road to Jesus! He asked us to give him a Book of Mormon, and if we could come to his house and teach him again, and help him come back to church! Twist my arm! It was a special experience to go over to his home with one of the members of the District Presidency, and welcome him back to the ward! He has already read over 115 pages of the Book of Mormon...in like 3 days! What a blessing! He is a really smart guy, and really sociable and just awesome! President Asioli basically just said "Claudio...we need you in the branch!" He has a great work to do in the Lord's kingdom.
Miracle: We have been seeing some wonderful miracles here in Rimini. The one I wanted to mention in particular happened on Monday while finding. We were out doing some work in the morning, and decided to be a little bolder, and invite people to be baptized right there on the street! As we were out doing that, we met an awesome guy, about 25 years old, named Nicola. He just returned to Italy recently from working for a year at DISNEYWORLD! We heard that and automatically he started smiling really big and saying "yeah, it's a pretty cool job, right?" Yes it is! He has the biggest smile ever, which he must have developed while on the job! But we started talking to him about religion, and about some of the basic beliefs of our church and the Restoration...and then we invited him to be baptized after he received an answer that it is true! And he accepted! He said that he had been spending the past few months on a "percorso spirituale" searching for the truth, and asking a whole lot of questions and not getting a whole lot of answers, and that of course he would follow Jesus's example and be baptized if he received an answer that it was true! We said a prayer right there and then to invite the spirit, and it was a wonderful experience! We set up an appointment to meet with him on Thursday! He would be such an awesome member here in Rimini!
Everything else is going great! We have been working hard and I know that the Lord is making big things happen here; I'm ecstatic to be a part of it! The Lord blesses His missionaries so much, and I have felt so much support and strength from Him; and I know that, in great part, because of all of your prayers in my behalf. Thank you so much for those! I always remember you all in mine, and wish you a wonderful week! In boca al lupo! :)
-Anziano Wilson
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
APRIL 23, 2014
Buona Pasqua a tutti!
This week has been...great! Every week as a missionary is great! :) Even though it went back to pouring rain off and on (basta così)!, it has been good anyway! We have been working hard and really seeing some awesome miracles. We are doing all we can to help Cristian stop smoking (he is having a really tough time), but we have high hopes for him! He is really such an elect guy! We brought a new member, fratello Zinchenko (from Ukraine), to a lesson recently, and after we walked out, he said, simply enough, "that boy is special".
We had an AMAZING Easter Sunday lunch AND dinner! First we went to the Canuti's to eat an italian pasta, salad, barbeque meal.....all I can say is wow. I won't even go there. SO good! It was super fun to watch how Italians cook it, too! Nothing like it. Plus, they had like 2 kilos of extra meat left over (which is pretty pricey in Italy, so we almost never buy it), and so we have had steak every day for lunch since! It's like a one year subscription to the Jelly of the Month club! ("Clark, that's the gift that keeps on giving the whoooole year long"...)
Then we went to the branch President's house for dinner! We had homemade gelato and pizza! Doesn't get much more Italian than that! The way they make the pizza....it's just an art. ...We tried (emphasis on tried) to make pizza and gnocchi last week. It was...an experience! haha, I still have a bit to learn! The gnocchi actually turned out pretty good...relatively. But after seeing how the Italians do it, we are going to give it another shot!
As far as missionary work goes, it's going! The members in Rimini are so great, and so motivated! The Lord is preparing souls...we just need to find them!
Miracle: We experienced a wonderful miracle this week while on the train, on our way to a district meeting in Ravenna. A wonderful family (a mother, father, and 3 little boys) sat across from us on the train, and were excitedly talking about how they were on their way to an amusement park in Ravenna. After a few minutes of thinking about and praying for a way to strike up a conversation naturally with the, we began to talk! We joked about roller coasters and talked about our families, and how important they are to us. We had a wonderful conversation for about 30 minutes, and at the end we gave them a pass along card and invited them to attend church on Sunday. As they read the address of our church, Via Del Capriolo 12, they smiled at each other and laughed, and then looked at us and said "We live on Via Del Capriolo!" What a "coincidence!" They accepted the card, and we hope the invitation, and we went on our way. What a blessing it was to meet with them! On top of that, the mother's name is Celeste (which means celestial)! It's meant to be! :)
Everything else is great! We had a bit of a difficult week in terms of helping our investigators progress, but I know that the Lord has a plan and a time for everyone! The time on the mission is a time when you really learn a lot about the gospel, obviously, but also a lot about yourself. I have already been stretched and grown a lot, and I know that there is plenty more ahead! Bring it on! :)
I hope everything is well at home, you all are always in my prayers! Thank you so much for your prayers for me and the Lord's precious children we are called to serve. Love you all!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
This week has been...great! Every week as a missionary is great! :) Even though it went back to pouring rain off and on (basta così)!, it has been good anyway! We have been working hard and really seeing some awesome miracles. We are doing all we can to help Cristian stop smoking (he is having a really tough time), but we have high hopes for him! He is really such an elect guy! We brought a new member, fratello Zinchenko (from Ukraine), to a lesson recently, and after we walked out, he said, simply enough, "that boy is special".
We had an AMAZING Easter Sunday lunch AND dinner! First we went to the Canuti's to eat an italian pasta, salad, barbeque meal.....all I can say is wow. I won't even go there. SO good! It was super fun to watch how Italians cook it, too! Nothing like it. Plus, they had like 2 kilos of extra meat left over (which is pretty pricey in Italy, so we almost never buy it), and so we have had steak every day for lunch since! It's like a one year subscription to the Jelly of the Month club! ("Clark, that's the gift that keeps on giving the whoooole year long"...)
Then we went to the branch President's house for dinner! We had homemade gelato and pizza! Doesn't get much more Italian than that! The way they make the pizza....it's just an art. ...We tried (emphasis on tried) to make pizza and gnocchi last week. It was...an experience! haha, I still have a bit to learn! The gnocchi actually turned out pretty good...relatively. But after seeing how the Italians do it, we are going to give it another shot!
As far as missionary work goes, it's going! The members in Rimini are so great, and so motivated! The Lord is preparing souls...we just need to find them!
Miracle: We experienced a wonderful miracle this week while on the train, on our way to a district meeting in Ravenna. A wonderful family (a mother, father, and 3 little boys) sat across from us on the train, and were excitedly talking about how they were on their way to an amusement park in Ravenna. After a few minutes of thinking about and praying for a way to strike up a conversation naturally with the, we began to talk! We joked about roller coasters and talked about our families, and how important they are to us. We had a wonderful conversation for about 30 minutes, and at the end we gave them a pass along card and invited them to attend church on Sunday. As they read the address of our church, Via Del Capriolo 12, they smiled at each other and laughed, and then looked at us and said "We live on Via Del Capriolo!" What a "coincidence!" They accepted the card, and we hope the invitation, and we went on our way. What a blessing it was to meet with them! On top of that, the mother's name is Celeste (which means celestial)! It's meant to be! :)
Everything else is great! We had a bit of a difficult week in terms of helping our investigators progress, but I know that the Lord has a plan and a time for everyone! The time on the mission is a time when you really learn a lot about the gospel, obviously, but also a lot about yourself. I have already been stretched and grown a lot, and I know that there is plenty more ahead! Bring it on! :)
I hope everything is well at home, you all are always in my prayers! Thank you so much for your prayers for me and the Lord's precious children we are called to serve. Love you all!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
APRIL 16, 2014
Ciao-issimo a tutti!
Italy is so great! The people here are one of a kind! :) I was just thinking back this morning at all the crazy experiences I have already had, and just all the mannerisms and everything of the people here. You would just never see so many things in America...ever. haha. Like 90 year olds everywhere on bikes, INSANE drivers, and just so much kindness, too! We had an investigator and his sister the other day, that we barely have even met, invite us to come over and eat dinner with them to thank us for the "free book." (Of Mormon.) haha. Italians are great!
Let's see...another wonderful week on the mission! It is such a privilege! We had such a miraculous week, I wouldn't have nearly enough time to write it all! (But I'll probably try anyway!) :) We ended up teaching 29 lessons this past week (the mission average is like 7 lessons), and 8 of those were member-present! It was such a miracle. As we added up our numbers at the end of the week we both were just kind of taken aback, because we hadn't been thinking about it all week; we were just taking it one day at a time and working as hard as we could. The Lord has been so good to us. And to me. I am so thankful for His support and love for me, even with all the silly mistakes I make every day. Being a missionary is such a blessing!
So I'm just going to skip the side-salad, if you will, of the week, and go right into the meat!
Miracle: We saw so many wonderful miracles this week! On Sunday Salvatore and Elisabeth, and their 4 little boys, our new family of investigators, came to church (a 40 minute drive away from their home)!! And they loved it! They are such tender-hearted; as we talked about eternal families in gospel principles they both listened intently, and at the end of the lesson President Caramia gave a wonderful analogy about marriage. He compared it to buying a house, knowing that it would be destroyed. "I would never buy a house if I knew that it would one day be destroyed! So why do people do the same thing with marriage?" President Caramia is such a good teacher, and it was such a blessing that he was even in that class with us (That is the first time he has come to gospel principles instead of the other class, since I arrived in Rimini!) The entire ward was so warm and friendly and basically smothered them with smiles and welcomes...it was so great!
But the best part of the miracle was that during sacarament meeting, one of the little kids, 3 months old, got a little fussy, and so Elisabeth took him out of the room during the sacrament. Soon after, their 3 year old did the same thing, and so Salvatore took him out. As soon as sacrament was finished, 3 women from the relief society got up, unasked, to go take care of the little kids! Soon both Salvatore and Elisabeth came back in the listen to the rest of the meeting! It was so wonderful! The other two children, ages 4 and 6, were absolute angels, sitting reverently in their chairs the entire time! It was a wonderful experience!
Another wonderful miracle happened as we met with Cristian yesterday! He is such a man of faith, with a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of everything we have taught, but he is struggling at the moment with smoking, and so we have been slowing down a little to help him through that. Well finally, after about a month of thinking about it, we brought him a calender, and sat down together to ponder a date of when he thinks he can be ready and completely worthy to be baptized. He has repeatedly expressed his desire to us to be baptized, but he has just been having some rough times. So we decided to do the only thing really that we knew to do: to pray right then and there with him to decide on a date. We did so, and the Spirit was so strong! We sat in silence for a few minutes, and then he said "2 months." So we set the baptismal date for June 15th! As we said that, he said "June 15th...that's my father's birthday." (his father had passed away, at least we think, a few years ago) He continued,"That's not a coincidence..." It was so special for us to experience that together! Cristian is such a champion! He needs your prayers to help him overcome smoking, though!
Another wonderful little experience we had while we were walking around in centro, doing some finding work. We met a man and started talking and walking with him for about 5 minutes, before stopping in the middle middle of the place to talk. As we spoke, 2 Argentinian(?) people started walking up to us saying "los missionarios!" (Luckily we understand at least that much spanish, haha) As we spoke with them (I can understand about 80% of Spanish, since it's so similar to Italian), we learned that he was a STAKE PRESIDENT from Buenos Aires, here visiting with his wife, so they could see the Rome temple! AND it turns out that the man we were talking with, though he was Italian, also spoke Spanish! So we asked the members to bear their testimonies about how to know the truth (through prayer), and then asked him to offer a prayer for us! (the man we were talking with translated it from Spanish to Italian for us....so he heard every word!) It is so awesome to be a missionary! :)
Well, this keyboard is about the worst I have ever seen; my fingers hurt from having to press so hard. So I'll wrap it up there! It has been wonderful in Rimini!
I love you all so much, and thank you for your support and prayers in my behalf. I need them, and feel much strength from them. I always remember you all in mine! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
APRIL 9, 2014
Buongiorno a tutti i miei cari amici!
This week has been so wonderful! GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! That is definitely the first thing that comes to mind when I think back. What an inspiring conference! It is so wonderful as a missionary; I feel as though the Lord has special things during the sessions that He wants to tell His missionaries, and I felt so many wonderful impressions as I pondered and listened for answers to my pre-written questions. The answers always come! What a blessing it is to be able to listen to the servants of God called to lead us in our day! One of the sister missionaries that is serving here in Rimini is a convert to the church. She was baptized just 3 or 4 years ago... the only one in her immediate family I believe. It was really a privilege to hear her reactions and testimony about the conference...how much it means to her. She just kept saying things like "We are SO blessed to be members of the church." and "My mom is ready to hear the gospel!" and "So many people don't even know that this exists!" It made me really start thinking about how very blessed I have been in my life, and how blessed we are. Out of the billions of people on the earth, only 15 million have this knowledge. Only 15 million know where we came from, the real reason we are even here, and where we are going! We are so blessed. What a wonderful opportunity we all have to serve...to provide others happiness not only for the here-and-now, but for eternity.
We are seeing so many miracles, it is marvelous! We have been working hard with Morris and Cristian and Peter to overcome their present challenges, and get them back on the path towards baptism. The Lord has blessed us all so much, and has been guiding us to many who are being prepared! The gospel truly changes lives.
It is HOT outside! Besides the fact that it was a rainstorm this morning...I think summer is just about here. Which is going to be....awesome? Very hot! But Rimini is so beautiful, I am so blessed to be here!
The weeks just kind of mesh together on the mission, it is pretty weird. Time marches swiftly on! It reminds me that I have to cherish every moment of this short two years I have to serve the Lord.
Miracle: This week we had an amazing miracle! We were blessed with a wonderful referral from Crotone in the Rome mission- a mother, Elisabeth, father, Salvatore, and 4 little kids all under the age of 7! A family! We met them in the church (they drove 30 minutes to meet us there!) this past Monday, and had a wonderful first encounter. They are both familiar with the Restoration, already have and have read a little of the Book of Mormon, and have a LOT of questions! Missionaries love questions! Their little kids were a little rambunctious, as are all kids, but polite and sweet. And they got so excited when we pulled out a picture of Jesus, and when we said we were going to come to their house to teach them more. Little children are so close to our Savior. We also found out that they live in the same town as our District President, President Caramia! So we contacted them and their son who is a returned missionary is going to go with us to the next lesson we have with them tonight! Families are so wonderful; it is such a blessing to teach them!
Everything else is wonderful! I just love being a missionary! I was reading my journal the other day from when I was in the MTC and I realized two things. 1) I was SO bad at Italian, haha. and 2) The mission has blessed me so much to come to a knowledge of my Savior. I love Him so much, and hope to give my full heart and soul in showing it through service to others. What a blessing to be here among the Italians! I love you all and thank you for your support and prayers. I always remember you in mine!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
This week has been so wonderful! GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! That is definitely the first thing that comes to mind when I think back. What an inspiring conference! It is so wonderful as a missionary; I feel as though the Lord has special things during the sessions that He wants to tell His missionaries, and I felt so many wonderful impressions as I pondered and listened for answers to my pre-written questions. The answers always come! What a blessing it is to be able to listen to the servants of God called to lead us in our day! One of the sister missionaries that is serving here in Rimini is a convert to the church. She was baptized just 3 or 4 years ago... the only one in her immediate family I believe. It was really a privilege to hear her reactions and testimony about the conference...how much it means to her. She just kept saying things like "We are SO blessed to be members of the church." and "My mom is ready to hear the gospel!" and "So many people don't even know that this exists!" It made me really start thinking about how very blessed I have been in my life, and how blessed we are. Out of the billions of people on the earth, only 15 million have this knowledge. Only 15 million know where we came from, the real reason we are even here, and where we are going! We are so blessed. What a wonderful opportunity we all have to serve...to provide others happiness not only for the here-and-now, but for eternity.
We are seeing so many miracles, it is marvelous! We have been working hard with Morris and Cristian and Peter to overcome their present challenges, and get them back on the path towards baptism. The Lord has blessed us all so much, and has been guiding us to many who are being prepared! The gospel truly changes lives.
It is HOT outside! Besides the fact that it was a rainstorm this morning...I think summer is just about here. Which is going to be....awesome? Very hot! But Rimini is so beautiful, I am so blessed to be here!
The weeks just kind of mesh together on the mission, it is pretty weird. Time marches swiftly on! It reminds me that I have to cherish every moment of this short two years I have to serve the Lord.
Miracle: This week we had an amazing miracle! We were blessed with a wonderful referral from Crotone in the Rome mission- a mother, Elisabeth, father, Salvatore, and 4 little kids all under the age of 7! A family! We met them in the church (they drove 30 minutes to meet us there!) this past Monday, and had a wonderful first encounter. They are both familiar with the Restoration, already have and have read a little of the Book of Mormon, and have a LOT of questions! Missionaries love questions! Their little kids were a little rambunctious, as are all kids, but polite and sweet. And they got so excited when we pulled out a picture of Jesus, and when we said we were going to come to their house to teach them more. Little children are so close to our Savior. We also found out that they live in the same town as our District President, President Caramia! So we contacted them and their son who is a returned missionary is going to go with us to the next lesson we have with them tonight! Families are so wonderful; it is such a blessing to teach them!
Everything else is wonderful! I just love being a missionary! I was reading my journal the other day from when I was in the MTC and I realized two things. 1) I was SO bad at Italian, haha. and 2) The mission has blessed me so much to come to a knowledge of my Savior. I love Him so much, and hope to give my full heart and soul in showing it through service to others. What a blessing to be here among the Italians! I love you all and thank you for your support and prayers. I always remember you in mine!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
Sunday, April 6, 2014
APRIL 2, 2014
Buongiorno!!!! (Insert witty comment here.) It's good to see...or imagine to see all of your bright and shiny faces! It's a beautiful day outside today! Which is wonderful...but kind of worries me, because it is going to start getting super hot really soon. And Italians don't have air conditioning...hurray!
Today was a wonderful P-day! We had the chance to go visit San Marino, which I guess technically is outside of the country...because it never became a part of Italy... But there are tons of really old towers and castles and statues and super cool ruins up there in the mountains! I felt like I was in the middle of Lord of the Rings. I took some real nice pictures, so don't worry! :)
The work here in Rimini has been going pretty well. We have been having some struggles finding people to teach...and getting investigators to come to church...but overall it has been going well! Christian came to church for the second time this week (for all 3 hours!!), and he loved it! At the end we were like "that was a pretty long block of church wasn't it?" and he was like "No not at all! I am ready for more!" :) He is such a champion.
So we are teaching an investigator named Davide who is just 9 years old, and so when we go over to teach him we can't just do the "normal" type of lesson because he gets super bored...so we have been making it fun! The last time we met with him was super awesome! ...side note...So, in primary I learned how to make these cool origami frogs from one of my friends, and over the years I got pretty good at making them, so they actually jump reallly far! (I may or may not have had some pratice at making them during primary...but of course I was also listening!) But anyways, that obscure skill finally came in handy! We made a bunch of those frogs, and brought them to his house. We read about captain Moroni, and how he fortified all of his cities, and about how when the Lamanites came to battle against these strongholds they were defeated super easily because the cities were prepared. So we gave Davide, his mom, his dad, and us each 3 frogs. We then cut out little squares of paper to be our "cities", and each took a full sheet of paper to "fortify" our cities. We said that you could do whatever you want with the paper except cover the city, just try to make walls to prevent the frogs from getting in. And then we BATTLED! Frogs of all sizes were jumping all over the place. It was such a fun time!
Then we related it to the fact that Satan sends tons of "frogs" at us, in different sizes and styles, but that if we are protected by fortifying ourselves, they won't be able to break through! But that it is important to make sure there are no weak points in our walls (I moved my walls so that there was a little space in between them, and so a bunch of frogs broke through), or else our city will not be protected. And that if we work at it every day to fortify the weakest points in our walls, it will become very strong! (The dad made this hugely tall, elaborate wall, that was totally impossible to break through, even with the huge frog). I thought of a quote that I think Elder Richard G. Scott said once....or maybe I just thought it up...but it is a great quote regardless! "Fortifying the weakest areas of our lives creates increased overall strength." Then we read about what characteristics made Moroni such a great leader. It was one of my favorite lessons I have had so far in Italy. :)
Miracle: We have been seeing so many wonderful miracles here in Rimini. These past few weeks we have been working especially hard to find new investigators to teach, but after many hours of finding we just couldn't seem to get any really solid potentials. As we did some finding work yesterday we were blessed with two miracle-finds of people just so prepared and ready to hear our message. The first was a young man named Pietro. We met him in the park as he was walking his pet Ferret...and as we stopped to stare for a moment at the fact that he had a FERRET on a leash, he came up to talk with us. He said that he recognized us as Mormons because he had been reading a blog of a Canadian video-gamer who had served a mission (It only added to his excitement to learn that my companion is Canadian!), and was really interested to learn more about our church and beliefs! We exchanged phone numbers and set up an appointment to meet with him tomorrow! We are very excited about it!
Our other miracle find was a young university student from China, whose name is Xiaolong. We began the conversation asking him if he believed in Jesus Christ, to which he replied "our culture is different." We started a conversation about the culture in China, and commented that there are even members of the church there. He began to ask many questions about religion and beliefs, including if we had ever had an experience where Jesus had helped us in our lives. We were able to share with him special experiences that we have had throughout trials in life, and his entire countenance changed. He was touched, and said that he had been searching for something to believe in, and asked us if we could meet sometime! Twist my arm! We excited agreed to meet with him! What a wonderful person! The Lord blesses his missionaries so much!
Well, that's about it for this week, congratulations for making it all the way to the end! :) I love you all and thank you so much for your support and prayers and love. I remember you all in my prayers! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
Today was a wonderful P-day! We had the chance to go visit San Marino, which I guess technically is outside of the country...because it never became a part of Italy... But there are tons of really old towers and castles and statues and super cool ruins up there in the mountains! I felt like I was in the middle of Lord of the Rings. I took some real nice pictures, so don't worry! :)
The work here in Rimini has been going pretty well. We have been having some struggles finding people to teach...and getting investigators to come to church...but overall it has been going well! Christian came to church for the second time this week (for all 3 hours!!), and he loved it! At the end we were like "that was a pretty long block of church wasn't it?" and he was like "No not at all! I am ready for more!" :) He is such a champion.
So we are teaching an investigator named Davide who is just 9 years old, and so when we go over to teach him we can't just do the "normal" type of lesson because he gets super bored...so we have been making it fun! The last time we met with him was super awesome! ...side note...So, in primary I learned how to make these cool origami frogs from one of my friends, and over the years I got pretty good at making them, so they actually jump reallly far! (I may or may not have had some pratice at making them during primary...but of course I was also listening!) But anyways, that obscure skill finally came in handy! We made a bunch of those frogs, and brought them to his house. We read about captain Moroni, and how he fortified all of his cities, and about how when the Lamanites came to battle against these strongholds they were defeated super easily because the cities were prepared. So we gave Davide, his mom, his dad, and us each 3 frogs. We then cut out little squares of paper to be our "cities", and each took a full sheet of paper to "fortify" our cities. We said that you could do whatever you want with the paper except cover the city, just try to make walls to prevent the frogs from getting in. And then we BATTLED! Frogs of all sizes were jumping all over the place. It was such a fun time!
Then we related it to the fact that Satan sends tons of "frogs" at us, in different sizes and styles, but that if we are protected by fortifying ourselves, they won't be able to break through! But that it is important to make sure there are no weak points in our walls (I moved my walls so that there was a little space in between them, and so a bunch of frogs broke through), or else our city will not be protected. And that if we work at it every day to fortify the weakest points in our walls, it will become very strong! (The dad made this hugely tall, elaborate wall, that was totally impossible to break through, even with the huge frog). I thought of a quote that I think Elder Richard G. Scott said once....or maybe I just thought it up...but it is a great quote regardless! "Fortifying the weakest areas of our lives creates increased overall strength." Then we read about what characteristics made Moroni such a great leader. It was one of my favorite lessons I have had so far in Italy. :)
Miracle: We have been seeing so many wonderful miracles here in Rimini. These past few weeks we have been working especially hard to find new investigators to teach, but after many hours of finding we just couldn't seem to get any really solid potentials. As we did some finding work yesterday we were blessed with two miracle-finds of people just so prepared and ready to hear our message. The first was a young man named Pietro. We met him in the park as he was walking his pet Ferret...and as we stopped to stare for a moment at the fact that he had a FERRET on a leash, he came up to talk with us. He said that he recognized us as Mormons because he had been reading a blog of a Canadian video-gamer who had served a mission (It only added to his excitement to learn that my companion is Canadian!), and was really interested to learn more about our church and beliefs! We exchanged phone numbers and set up an appointment to meet with him tomorrow! We are very excited about it!
Our other miracle find was a young university student from China, whose name is Xiaolong. We began the conversation asking him if he believed in Jesus Christ, to which he replied "our culture is different." We started a conversation about the culture in China, and commented that there are even members of the church there. He began to ask many questions about religion and beliefs, including if we had ever had an experience where Jesus had helped us in our lives. We were able to share with him special experiences that we have had throughout trials in life, and his entire countenance changed. He was touched, and said that he had been searching for something to believe in, and asked us if we could meet sometime! Twist my arm! We excited agreed to meet with him! What a wonderful person! The Lord blesses his missionaries so much!
Well, that's about it for this week, congratulations for making it all the way to the end! :) I love you all and thank you so much for your support and prayers and love. I remember you all in my prayers! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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