Buona pesca! Happy peach! :)
Well, this week has been AMAZING. That about sums it up.
--This past week we went over to Guiliermo's house (the one whose son, Luis, is a New Convert, and whose wife is reactivating in the church), and had an amazing lesson on the Restoration, and invited him to be baptized on the 7th of March. He felt the Spirit so strongly, was in tears, and told us that he knew it was the right thing to do, but that he wanted to pray together with his wife to make sure, and that he would tell us on Sunday. So we show up on Sunday morning, and he is alreadying sitting in the chapel, silently reading his Spanish Book of Mormon. He looks up at me, smiles, and the first thing he says is "Elder, yes! 7th of March, I'll do it!" :) We had a wonderful lesson with him after church, and gave him a baptismal calender, marking the dates of things like when we would meet, the scriptures he can read and pray about, and the things he will have to do to prepare himself to be ready for that day. He loved it! The next day, Monday, I was on a scambio with one of the Assistents to the President, Anziano Gneiting. Total stud. He is also HUGE (6'6", 245 lbs). We went over to his house and taught him about the Plan of Salvation. He loved it! As soon as we mentioned the Celestial Kingdom and that families are forever, he and his wife both looked at each other in tears and just smiled. It was golden!! I loved every minute of it! He is so prepared, it is insane. His whole family is so prepared.
--We had so many miracles during my scambio on Monday. Another awesome one was when we went to visit one of our investigators, on a whim, named Max. We showed up at his real estate business, and he was so happy to see us. "Elders!" he said, "I was just talking to my workmate about religion. Explain to her what you believe!" So we were just like "well, twist my arm!" We had a wonderful discussion with them. His friend is a super nice young muslim woman, who is surprisingly open to learning new things! She even told us that she was very open to Cristianity, but had just not found the answers to the questions she had yet. We answered a few of her "tough" questions, and then gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read and pray about it. She excitedly accepted it and told us she would! What a great experience!
--Thought of the Week: I was reading in Mosiah 2, and loved this part:
17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. 18 Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another? 19 And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King! 20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another— 21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. 22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keephis commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.
What a great reminder that our Heavenly Father truly has given us everything, and that we should give thanks to him every day that we have another day to live! We are so blessed to have what we have!
--We had a Zone Conference Training this past Monday. Now that I get to do most of the training, it is so much more entertaining, but so much less of a surprise. (President Dibb tells us all the points beforehand that he wants us to teach.) We talked about teaching on the street, like our Savior always did, and we talked about loving our companions, investigators, and message. It was great! We made Zone Cards for our zone, with a picture of Jesus on the front with some awesome scriptures about having faith (Heb. 11:6, 1 Nephi 7:12), and then on the back we made up quotes for all 26 missionaries in our zone. We just made up funny stuff like "Faith is the cat's pajamas!" "Faith or bacon? I'll take faith!" "Faith said the little stream", "I love having faith!", etc. It was quite the hit. Everyone was laughing for like 5 minutes when we passed them out, including President! haha :)
But this past Conference...WE MET THE MORMONS! Yes, yes, we watched "Meet the Mormons". That was an amazing film! Especially the part when they played football!!! ...I am so sports deprived. I was jotting down a note but during that part where they were showing the Navy Football's game highlights I couldn't break eye contact, so my notes ended up slanting down like three lines. ;) But it really did have such an inspiring message as well. During the first part they are describing a young bishop from Atlanta, Georgia, and one of the members of the ward said something that hit me. He said "It's not an age matter. It is a matter of being in tune with the Spirit of God." It made me think of being a missionary. It is the same thing. I have seen that as I have learned to be in tune with those promptings, and really listen to what the Lord would have me do, I have been blessed with wisdom and understanding far above my own ability. And it is the same with each of us. I would reccommend that film to everybody! :)
--Miracle: We had some amazing miracles this week. One of the biggest miracles happened during scambio on Monday. We were finally able to meet with that young couple that we had met a week or two earlier on the street, and we decided to take Daniele with us. That turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life! We gave them a tour of the church, and then as soon as we say down at the beginning of the lesson (before we had even started teaching) Daniele bore a HUGE testimony about his conversion story, searching for answers and finding them, and how he knew that this message was true because of the feeling that came to him from deep inside his heart while reading the Book of Mormon, taking it as a challenge directly from God. It was so powerful, and brought the Spirit right away. We started with a few of the How To Begin Teaching points and then right into the Restoration. They were both fascinated the entire time, asking questions and participating fully in the lesson. But the greatest miracle was Daniele's participation. There were a couple of the points, like the Apostasy for example, where he just took it away, and explained it perfectly! Simply, powerfully, and with tons of testimony! He answered most of their questions himself, and did so in such a real way. Federica and Diego were deeply touched, and when we gave them their own copies of the Book of Mormon, Federica looked down intently at it and stroked it as if it already had great value to her. We commited them both to read and pray about it's truthfulness Also, Daniele talked several times about his baptism; to the point where they started asking us about how we performed baptism, and if they could see one done. Amazingly, we have a baptism coming up in Alessandria on the 21st of February, so we are going to invite them to see it! It will be a powerful experience for them! What a miracle!
Well,everything else is going really well. Thank you so much for your prayers, they are felt! I remember to pray for you all each week! Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Anziano Wilson
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