Week....I don't really count (Vicenza - Week 25)

Hey everyone, another week, another email about the life of a missionary. We have continued to make progress here in Vicenza, and the work keeps moving foward. Where to start....

Well first off, we had a country wide fast in Italy for the progression of the temple in Rome, and our whole Sunday was dedicated to the blessings of the temple. Now I always am happy to talk about the temple because of all the blessings I have seen from working there, so I was especially excited for the 6 hours of church (2 wards). The spirit dwelled in the church the whole day, there was just a feeling of complete joy. Everyone here in Italy wants to have a temple, and we could all tell by the amount that fasted and bore testimony of the temple. There was one thing I especially liked. I can’t remember who said it, but they talked about temple recommends. "If you don’t have access to a temple, STILL be worthy and GET a temple recommend" The idea behind this is to me, two things. One, if there ever is the chance for us to visit a temple, we will have our recommend. The second, and more important I think is, with a temple recommend, we are practically showing ourselves and God that we are worthy to take the covenents in the temple and to dwell in the house of the Lord. What greater blessing can we receive than if we are worthy to be in the most holy of places??? We all need to be worthy of a temple recommend, and if you can get one, GET one! There is no reason, no excuse for not wanting to go to the temple. Our progression does not end after baptism. We still have sacred ordinances to perform in the temple!

In the Italian Branch I had the lovely privelage of translating from Italian to English for a member who does not speak Italian. It was a great learning experience but I know the gift of tongues works because being able to hear everything in one language and saying it at the same time in another language, especially when I am still not perfect at the language, is not easy. I know I was being blessed to speak better, and it helped me know my Italian is growing and that I am getting really comfortable speaking to anyone and everyone.

Lots of good things going on. We were not able to meet with Josephine this last week but we have an appointment with her tomorrow and hoping for the best. The work with Daniele though, has improved better than we thought. We taught him the piano di salvezza, and he said that in times past when he heard this same message that it did not really make a difference, but he feels like now is the time for him to make that next step in his life. We are meeting with him Saturday and hoping to set up a baptism date with him.

We met another new investigator named Freedom, from Nigeria. He loves letting people preach to him, so he naturally accepted our invitation. When we taught him the restoration, he was like "Of Course, that makes perfect sense, there should be a prophet and apostles". We are hoping that he continues to have the desire to make a change, as we know that it is going to change his life for the better.

We also have been making slow progressions with Luke and Katelyn. We taught the plan of salvation to them with the McBryde family and there was a calm that just settled in when we taught. They have not expressed a desire to be baptized, but they do believe what we are saying is true doctrine. They both head off for a few weeks so we won’t be seeing them for the next little while but we are praying that this message continues to run through their mind. Even if they are not baptized we know that even hearing our message is going to help them. That is something I have really learned out here.  There will be rejections, there will be people who just love our message, but not want to change and be baptized, but why do we teach and invite others to come unto Christ and be baptized? Because we want every soul to return to our heavenly father.

Little spiritual thought or two:

Alma 37:36 There are two things I especially like in this verse: "Let all thy doings be unto the Lord" and "Let all the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord" - I feel like the first part of doing everything unto the Lord comes from when our heart is first placed on the desires of the Lord. If HE is on our minds first and foremost, our actions will naturally follow in his name, and in his ways.

Alma 14:13 "Be it according to the will of the Lord. But, behold, our work is not finished" - The Lord will always guide us and let us know what is to be done. If he wants us to stop, it will be his will, but if not, keep going. All of us still have lots of work to do for the Lord, we are not finished. We still have a mighty work to do, whether it be in the home, at work, as a missionary, as a parent, husband or wife, teenager, whatever it may be we still have work to do!

I know that we are in a marvelous time, and age where we are able to freely follow our beliefs and that this gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the true and restored Gospel on the Earth. We can know for ourselves through reading the Fruits of the Gospel, The Book of Mormon. Through asking God we can know that it is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that Thomas S Monson IS the living prophet on the earth today. "If Any of you lack Wisdom, Let Him (YOU) ask of God" I know all of us can receive the same comfirmation of the truth from our loving Heavenly Father. I know these things to be true!

Buon Settimana e ci vediamo!

Anziano Chase