Wednesday, February 17, 2016

I treni.... - Week 78

Hey everyone. I hope you all had a good week. This week has still been wet, we scarcely get a day without water pouring down on us.

So this week has been busy. Thursday we went and did more work for the Codarin family. I love working in the fields with them. It's a different type of work than I'm used to, but missionary work means service, and I enjoy this service. We are really close with D., the father who is not a member. He acts like a member, but for some reason is not baptized. We have been trying to figure out what is keeping him from this step, but we know the spirit is working hard on him.

P. is doing ok, he's been busing traveling, but still is reading from the Book of Mormon. G. is doing good, we watched the Mormon message about leaving behind old dirt that has been transformed into something better. (I think I translated that right. In Italiano il titolo è Redenti) we all make mistakes, but the atonement helps clean us, and we are able to "recycle" these things to make a pure field, a pure body. 

We had to go down to Mestre this week to do an exchange with the zone leaders. We also have to travel two more times this week, and it takes 3 hours in train to get there. So we have been on trains for 8 hrs so far this week, and have another 12-16 to go... But we are able to sit and talk with people more freely. We met this one lady named S.. I won't lie, she might have had a couple of loose bolts and screws in her. She's from Ukraine, and we spent two hours with her on the train. We taught her many of the lessons, and then somehow at the end of our train ride, she had given us jewelry, taken our pictures, given us postcards with her address in Udine, and Ukraine, and had answered so many strange questions about religion... But hey at least it's a strange story I won't forget.

Our exchange with the zone leaders was nice. It was pouring rain, but we were able to talk to a lot of people. A lot of people in Mestre are stranieri or tourists who visit Venezia (which once again we didn't go see......) but we were able to get the zone leaders a couple of potential people to teach. 

Due to traveling and being in Mestre, we haven't been able to see a lot of people, but the days have felt useful and full. This week my mind has been focused a lot on the commandments. When we think about the 10 commandments, we believe them to be logical, which they are. So that being said, it is easy to follow them. But then we look at the word of wisdom, some people have trouble finding the logic in not drinking coffee or tea. We can go all scientific and dive into the details of whether or not coffee and tea are technically bad, but that still causes debates. When I think about the commandments, I have to blot out the logic of why a commandment is given. I do believe that there will be given revelation as to why coffee and tea are not good in the future, but the scientific reason should not be my reason to follow the word of wisdom. When Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac, was that really a logical commandment? When the lord commanded Joshua and his people to walk around the walls of Jericho multiple times in order to capture the city logical? They honestly are not. But what we learn is, by our faith in keeping any commandment, we will be blessed, and I believe we sometimes need illogical commandments to test our faith. we can understand the blessings of the commandments, after the obedience to the commandment. It is not bad to ask the physical or logical reason why we follow a commandment, but it is more important that we follow the commandments, because of our faith in the almighty.

I have a testimony of this gospel, and of the following of the commandments. They never lead us astray!

Cinnamon Rolls


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