Il fine del anno - Week 71

Hey everyone. I hope you had a great Christmas, and that you were able to spend it with someone special! This week was a very happy week for my companion and I. We were able to spend a lot of our time with members, enjoying the holidays with them and remembering Christ with them. Our Christmas Eve was very occupied with traveling to different families. We were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to get to everyone we wanted to see. We had planned out efficiently what we needed to do, and with a little help from above we were able to see 4 families that we wanted to see. I t helped me appreciate a planned out day. If we hadn't really written out what/who we were going to do/see and how it would be accomplished we might not have had the opportunity to see some families. Our Christmas Day was very nice and simple. We went to lunch with the Perez family and watched some nativity videos with them, and spent a good deal just being with them. After we were able to skype our families (who would be excited for that????) and then spend the rest of the night with the Bressans.

Natale con la famiglia Perez

The rest of the week was really mixed with seeing other families in our branch and finding people to teach. We had been struggling lately to find  new people to teach, but really have been blessed these past couple days. When we were teaching G., his friend M. became very interested in our message. We hope to be able to see him. When we were at a members house, his non member mother was very open (well for a very Catholic woman asking questions) and she let us teach her a little. We have been working hard and can see that our efforts will surely be paying off soon.

When we were teaching M., he said something that quite frankly concerned me. He spoke of a concern that members are not as good people as they should be. Although this should not affect personal testimony, it still leaves the worry that our example is noticed, for good and for bad. Testimony IS personal and nothing should be more important than our personal commitment and covenant with our Heavenly Father. But as members, we also need to be living to the standard that our father in heaven wants us to live. People who have never heard of the church will look at people that are members and start formulating opinions. With those first impressions from our actions, a firm desire or no desire to learn about our gospel can start to form in these peoples lives. We should always be examples among the believers, so that when people meet us, they can see the gospel within us. I have a firm belief of personal testimony and I hope that M. can see past the faults of a select few that may have tampered with his testimony.

This week in my studies I was able to really focus on the importance of our father in heaven. My companion and I were discussing how we know he loves us and I started pondering about prayer. He asks of us to pray always, day and night, in faith. He promises to answer our prayers and bless us. I know of that for a fact because I have received many answers to my prayers, but then I started thinking about a more simple reason why he wants us to pray. He knows the thoughts of our hearts, why do we need to pray? For one, to recognize he is there, and two (what really struck out to me), is that he wants to listen to us and talk with us. Have we ever thought about that? That he may just want to be a part of our life? How many times have our parents tried to start a conversation with us and we shut down the conversation thinking that it is an interrogation?  All they usually want to do is speak with us, and be our friend. That is how I know my Heavenly Father really cares. He wants to make our relationship personal, and not just him being the almighty and all knowing dad that he is.

I hope everyone has a great new year, and that we can all start 2016 with a bang! The church is true!

Anziano Chase