Buon summer to all, and to all a good, non-airconditioned night!
So, it's HOT! And Italians don't believe in air conditioning...they are convinced that it makes you sick in the throat and whatnot. ...We were sitting in ward council meeting, and I was sitting right in front of the fan, while fanning myself with a pamphlet, and the bishop comes in and gasps "Elder Wilson! Doesn't that...(hmmm, what's the translation in English...) "non ti fa male??" (doesn't that do bad to you?) and I was just like, "no way, in Idaho it snows in July!" haha. He was shocked. But actually, it has been raining a lot lately, and so it cools down sometimes...doesn't help the humidity at all, but for an hour or so it is bearable. So no complaining here! :D
This week has been great! We are working hard and seeing miracles! We printed off a picture of Morris in his baptismal garb to give to him this week, and we wrote on the back the first line of one of his favorite African songs "I have decided to follow Jesus! No turning back! No turning back!" He sang it for us this week, it was pretty awesome. The African population here in Italy is so wonderful. All (or at least the overwhleming majority) came here by boat as refugees from the wars that are going on, and have suffered so many hardships to get here to Italy. Something like 30% of the travelers die on the sea while making the journey. They are such humble and believing people.
-While we were setting up the sacarament, Fratello Saliaj (who is from Albania, and thinks he speaks English) turns to me and is like *extends his hand* "the cloth! yeah elder, bring that... that.. bring the action!" hahaha! He is a hoot!
- We taught a lesson in Spanish this week! There is a man from Peru here that is a member, but doesn't speak Italian yet because he recently moved here. It was pretty fun. he is a great guy! Yo estoy aprendiendo Español muy bien! (?)
I was reading recently in True to the Faith (wow! What a book! I had no idea how interesting it is!), about having faith in Jesus Christ, and what that means. During one of our lessons, the member with which we were teaching brought up a great point about how having faith is so much different that believing. "Anyone can believe in Christ, and still not follow him. Even satan believes in Christ!" That was really interesting to me when i pondered about that and studied it more the following day. So I was reading, and it expressed three elements that must be present in order for one to have faith in Christ. (And I didn't write it down and bring it with me, so I will have to paraphrase, but it is in True to the Faith under "faith" if you want to read it, I would reccommend it!) 1) Belief and acceptance of Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. 2) An accurate idea of the true character of Christ. 3) A willingness to act upon this belief and knowledge and to put it into practice in our daily lives. Belief. Knowledge. Action. I found the second point especially interesting. An accurate idea of the true character of Christ. It reminded me of a quote from President Uchtdorf that I wrote down somewhere in my Preach my Gospel. It read something like this. "The truth is, those who diligently seek to learn of Christ eventually will come to know Him. They will personally receive a divine portrait of the Master..." I love that! We all receive our own personal portrayl (I know I slaughtered the spelling on that word! whoops!) of Him. I know I have seen that in my life, and continue to receive, piece by piece, greater knowledge of who He really was and is, and His infinite love for each one of us.
Miracle: Our miracle this week was wonderful!! Silvio, a friend a co-worker of Presidente Caramia, is awesome! We have taught him 3 times up to this point, always with Presidente Caramia--who has been a HUGE help in explaining each doctrine in detail; the way he teaches...it is majestic! But this last Sunday, he came to church with Ezio during their work break, and Ezio gave a talk in sacarament meeting! It was very powerful. This past lesson, Silvio accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 22nd of August!! He is so sincere and humble, and willing to follow Christ! We extended the invitation after reading Alma 7:14-16 with him, and there was a brief pause while he pondered the words "venite e non temete", and he finally said "Va bene! Cosa devo fare per prepararmi?!" What a golden question! The spirit was so strongly present. We explained to him that we would be his guides every step of the way to help him know exactly what the Lord expects of us before we enter into the covenant of baptism. He was visably excited, and so was Presidente Caramia! My companion saw him out of the corner of his eye giving a little fist pump in the air after Silvio accepted. We will meet with them again tomorrow. Being a missionary is the best!
Everything in Rimini is going swimmingly! (except for us...we are away from the beach of course). But we are working hard, and the Lord is truly working miracles.I hope all is well at home, I love you all and remember you always in my prayers! Thank you so much for your support and prayers for our investigators and in my behalf; I feel of your strength and will be forever thankful for it!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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