Eccomi - Week 81

Hey everyone, another week down. The time keeps getting shorter. This week was a little anticlimactic, but nevertheless was a good week.

We had a branch activity for the Festa Delle Donne. We fed all the sisters in the ward dinner, and the primary kids performed some talents, and we ourselves also performed a little talent. We did the morning routine of a missionary, where I controlled Anziano B.'s hands (his face and body, but my hands) We'll just say everyone got a good laugh out of it. There were a lot of potentials that showed up to the activity. One of them I particular, J.P., really enjoyed the courtesy of the members in this branch.

Saturday we had a lunch with G. and his grandchildren A. and J., and we had a great time with them. We had a great discussion with A., about how much our agency really affects our lives. Sometimes we think of everything such as rules, restrictions, or limitations just as things to keep us from being ourselves. But there is nothing that stops of from being ourselves. When we choose to follow the guidelines or rules, it is because we want to. Sometimes we kid ourselves into thinking it is just pear pressure or just to please someone else, but in reality, we chose to do it, because deep inside us, that is what we wanted to do. In following the gospel and in life we understand that the rules are for our benefit, and no one can force us to follow or break the rules. God gave us agency to learn and grow, and every choice we make, is a just more proof of us being ourselves. We chose to either stay protected or see if something bad might happen.

P. is doing great. He is coming to church frequently now, and the members are doing a great job trying to fellowship him. We still need to choose a date for him to be baptized, but we can see the testimony in him taking hold.

We saw M. after a little break, and we focused on the most powerful experiences we have in the gospel. When we have confirmations of truth, or spiritual experiences that really touch us, it is a convincing evidence of truth. We can go forward in life, but we can never deny the truth that we felt at that time. We all have major changing points in life, and we always need to hold on to those memories, because they help us remember why we are on the path we chose. It gives us a reminder of the feeling that was felt during that experience.

A really cool thing that happened this week. We were visiting a family this week, talking about a friend that they were thinking about. We talked about many ideas of how we could help this friend, but none of us felt certain about what to do. After reading some things, we decided we needed to kneel in prayer. We offered a prayer, and I kid you not, moments after when we were casually talking about something, a word that came out of my mouth triggered a thought in the members head. This thought of hers was the exact solution we needed to help this friend of theirs, and we saw immediate results. We were able to set up an appointment with their friend, F., because we followed the impressions of the spirit and had kneeled in humble prayer.

Anyways I am excited to still be working in this beautiful country of Italy, I am grateful to help these wonderful people. I know that God is waiting to aid us in our needs, and that he is much closer than we think. I know that we can all receive his help, if we humbly seek and ask of him. I know it with all my heart.