BUON CAPO D'ANNO A TUTTI! (quasi) And a HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :)
This week has been FULL of miracles! I love the Christmas season!
It was wonderful to be able to Skype home, you all have gotten so big!! Time is sure flying by.
--I should take more notes (well, any notes...I guess "more notes" implies that I do take notes...) So!
--Christmas was a BLAST! We had a sleep-over with the Elders from upstairs, opened up presents on Christmas morning, played some games, and then went over to the Lazartes' house. They are such a nice family! They have been in Italy for 14 years or so, but they are from Argentina! I LOVE South Americans; they all just are so selfless, not to mention they love the missionaries so much! Sister Lazarte was SO overjoyed to have the missionaries over. While we were playing Monopolio (Spanish version) with her two kids (I totally won by the way, just in case you were curious. I was like "what? you can unmortgage things for the same price AND sell houses back for full price?? This is child's play! Plus they were so willing to do business with me! I was thinking "at my house you have to give an arm and a leg and probably a real American Dollar to get any real business deals going. I like this!" ;) ), I would glance up and the mom would just be sitting on the couch looking at us with a huge smile on her face! She has a boy out on a mission in Rome right now, so I think she was pretending that we were him. I LOVE them though!! And the lunch was D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s Delicious! ("But Anziano Wilson," you may be asking, "how do you know how to spell that word so well?" I know how to spell delicious because in the 3rd grade [I think?] it cost me the spelling bee championship!! Grr!!) It was so good that we didn't even need to eat dinner! (we definitely didn't have room!)
--I heard recently that down in Napoli for New Years the Italians literally throw all their old stuff (refrigerators, couches, ovens, etc.) out the window. People die every year. Silly Italians; I'm happy I live in the north where they are normal...ish. :D
--So today is New Year's Eve. We are required to stay indoors from 5pm onward...so that's pretty fun. NOT. Staying inside for a missionary is like the worst thing ever. Luckily, I took up collage-ing as a past-time, so I will be making some awesome pieces of art. I had a pretty good teacher. I don't know if you guys know him, it was some Italian named Micheal-Angelo or something like that. I can't remember.
--All of (well, about 70%) of the members of our ward went on a ward temple trip together this past weekend to the temple in Switzerland. It is the closest one to here, and it is about 8 hours by car to get there. What a sacrifice some of these precious members make to go to the House of the Lord. It really makes me grateful for the 40 minute drive to Idaho Falls :P But, they all had so many wonderful experiences! There were 6 people who went through for the fist time, and 2 families were sealed together for time and all eternity. The sacrament meeting right after everyone came back was so powerful. mA few members bore testimonies of their hardships getting there, and the blessings received because of them, and the rest of the members are just "recharged" with the Spirit! It is like a new ward! I love the temple!!
--Scambio: I had a great companionship exchange with Anziano Lewis here in Alessandria, this week. Anziano Lewis is the district leader here. He is a hard worker, and a diligent missionary. We had a day full of street contacting, and so it was a good opportunity to help him realize that people will stop and talk with us, but only if we say the right things, and to help show him how to jump straight to the Restoration in whatever conversation we may be in. We ended up teaching six lessons on the street and finding a new investigator who invited them over to his home to meet with him and his wife this Sunday! What a blessing!
Miracle: We had a wonderful miracle...yesterday, in fact. We are meeting with a 15 year old member of the ward, because the bishop has asked us to help her gain a testimony and support her in her membership (she is the only active member of her family, and lives 30 minutes away from the church, and has very poor male examples in her life; her father included). We had planned to talk about setting New Year's goals, but right as we brought it up she said "Well, I don't even know if by next year I'll still be a Mormon, so...goals...I don't really know!" It kind of took us by surprise, since she has never expressed any doubts or anything like that...in fact, just a few weeks ago she gave a really moving talk in sacrament meeting about the importance of the family. But it was amazing to me how the Spirit completely took over the lesson, and we were able to address each one of her doubts and concerns, and resolve them. I found myself making really good comparisons to everyday things, recounting experiences from my life that applied perfectly to this situation, and bearing powerful testimony. By the end we were all in tears and she muttered, "I know. I know it's true. It's just hard sometimes." We helped her to realized that God prepares a way for each one of us (1 Nephi 3:7), and that our real strength relies in Him (Alma 26:12). It was such an intense lesson...and a great testimony-builder for me, not to mention a memory that I will forever remember. The Lord's promises of unloosing our tongues and giving us the words to speak are true! What a blessing it is to be a missionary!
--I hope you all are doing well! Everything here is well! I love you all and pray for you "always and forever". I love technology.
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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