Buongiorno a tutti!
This week has been amazing! I am so thankful for the
opportunity and blessing it is to be a servant of the Lord in this wonderful
time when He is hastening His work! --First item of business...we are now
cleared to be using the Ipads! Missionary work with and iPad is pretty
awesome. We can watch a Mormon Message with anyone, whenever we want! It makes
it so much more focused on the needs of the investigator; I am thankful for
this inspired instrument!
--This week is transfers week!! dun dun dun... It is a
big deal for the missionaries! So my companion, who is finishing his
mission, is being transferred (surprise there!)...all the way to America!
So I will be staying here in Montevarchi to finish out my mission. This will be
my 6th transfer as a Zone Leader, and I am so thankful for the Lord's goodness
in allowing me to continue to teach, testify to, and help inspire the other
missionaries. I hope to be worthy to the call and responsibility to do so. I
will be getting a man named Anziano Johnson as my new companion. I am
excited about that. I have only met the man once, but he seems like a really
cool guy, and I am excited to work him hard before they send me home, too ;)
Montevarchi is a really special place, and we are expecting great things
in this next month!
--We have been so blessed recently! It just seems like
we always run into everyone at exactly the right times! More that 5 times
this week, we have run into a "random" person on the street that
Anziano Quinton wanted to say goodbye too and introduce me to before he
leaves. We have now met everyone that I need to have met before he
leaves. It is amazing how the Lord works...everything just falls into place.
--So many people have been placed into our path recently
that are ready for the gospel. Just a few days ago we were literally
standing in one spot in the middle of the park waiting for one of our
investigators to show up, when 3 people, one after another, walked up to us and
recognized us missionaries for the Church. We exchanged phone numbers in each
case, and have already met with one of them! It is incredible the kind of
miracles that happen when you are on the Lord's errand.
--Timothy is doing really well, still. We haven't been
able to meet with him recently because he is sick, but he continues to be an
inspiration to me of humility and great desire to follow Christ. This week he
invited another one of his friends to meet with us, and now he, Elliot, has a
baptismal date for the end of June as well! Timothy even lives close to
him, and offered to pick him up and show him how to get to church! What a stud!
--The Rossi family is doing really well. We went over
recently for dinner and they asked us all sorts of questions about what we do
as missionaries and why we obey certain commandments. Whenever we go over there
one of them yells "The mormons are here!!" They always hammer us with
questions, but we welcome it! That is why we are here! Last time it was
"Why do you dress so funny?" I replied it was because if we are
trying to represent the Lord, it is important that we maintain a clean, modest
appearance. They loved it and have never given us a hard time since!
--We are meeting with another man named Festus. He is a
Nigerian man who has been in Italy for 8 years. Never in 8 years has he been
able to see his family, and recently he lost a sibling in an accident. He
was overjoyed as we taught him that families can be together forever. He was
touched by the Spirit and accepted to be baptized on the end of June! What a
miracle!--One of our Italian investigators, Stefano, is about our age and has
been having a lot of questions about the importance and power of prayer.
We are working with him on that...but the real highlight is that this week we
discovered that he is one of the best guitarists in the world...seriously. He
is insanely good. Don't worry, I got a video ;)
--We read about the story of the 2000 stripling warriors
recently with Paul. He loved it so much. But it was also a great reminder
for me of that wonderful chapter. The words that I remember reading so
many times were just as inspiring as ever.
"Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear
death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did
upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did
not doubt, God would deliver them.And they rehearsed unto me the words of their
mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it...And now it came to pass
that when they had surrendered themselves up unto us, behold, I numbered those
young men who had fought with me, fearing lest there were many of them
slain. But behold, to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen
to the earth; yea, and they had fought as if with the strength of God; yea,
never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength; and with
such mighty power did they fall upon the Lamanites, that they did frighten
them; and for this cause did the Lamanites deliver themselves up as prisoners
of war."
What an inspiration! They had been taught by
their mothers that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. I know
that that is true.
--Miracle: This week has
been full of miracles. We are being so blessed in this special land; the Lord
has been placing people in our path left and right. One of the miracles that
happened recently I would like to share. We had just finished church and
decided to go to Arezzo to meet with the three investigators with a baptismal
date that were unable to attend church because there was a strike with all the
buses nearby the city. We tried to call all three of them, to no avail. None of
them answered the phone! So we sat on this bench, wondering what was the best
thing to do, when we saw a man turn the corner and walk towards us. I stood up
and stopped him, asking him about his beliefs in Jesus Christ. He answered that
it was one of the most important things to him, and that he would love for us
to come to his home and teach him and his wife and four kids. He is free
every Sunday afternoon, and so we expect some wonderful things! What a
miracle it is to see the hand of the Lord in guiding his children to us, His
servants!
--Everything in Montevarchi is really
going well. We are so blessed. I am excited for Anziano Johnson to come
down, we are going to do some good work and work hard. I really want to make
good use of the limited time I have left, and finish out my mission strong. I
thank you all for your love and support and prayers. I pray for you all many
times each day.Love Anziano Wilson
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