First of all, it was great to talk to you fam! You're cute! Ha. I love ya.
My companion is the GEMmiest GEM that ever GEMmed. A lot of you probably don't know what GEM means... Grow Every Missionary. Basically it means to leave things better than you found them. I could talk about Gemming for ever. Maybe someday I'll sit down with you and express my feelings about GEMs. My collega has already changed my life this last week we've had together. Almost two weeks! Mamma mia. She is incredible. I can't even express how much I love my dear Sorella Padula... We are seeing so many miracles.
This miracle is called "questo si chiama 'finding through members.'" Saturday night Sorella Padula and I had been wandering around trying to contact less actives. None of them were home. First, an explanation: For our vision for the Sorelle they all have calendars on which they write one forever finding miracle a day and one member miracle a day (or more if they want). Of course, we want to be the examples. So Saturday it was about 7:45. We had had a good day of finding and taken a lot of information for people. But after we stopped by a less active and she didn't have time for us, I said to my companion "Sorella, we need our member miracle today. What do we do?" She paused and said, "Okay. I have an idea. You're going to think I'm crazy a little, but let's try it. We are going to call this member and ask if there is someone we can go teach tonight with her." Va bene! She makes the call and the member at first responded "Sorella I'm not sure!" Sorella Padula reassured her "Sorella, the Lord told us we have to teach a family and that it would be by a member! What can we do?" And the member says "Well, you know...I have been praying all day for this family and how I want them to hear the gospel! Come and I'll take you to them!" So we went. And she presented us to 2 families. On our way there Sorella Padula said "Questo si chiama 'finding through members'." She is a GEM.
Another miracle: Siena. Friday afternoon. Okay first... at the beginning of the week we had called Siena and asked them what miracle they wanted to see for the blitz. They said they want a baptism this transfer. I asked if they had any dates. They said no. So I said okay on Friday we are going to set a baptismal date. All four of us will pray for that all this week. So back to Siena. Friday afternoon. We had had a fairly unsuccessful morning of work, Sorella Seare and I. We had an appointment set up for the after noon with a potential who we were planning on setting a date with. THe lesson went pretty terribly. She wasn't ready and didn't accept the date. We left the appointment and called the other sorelle. Sorella Padula and Willis had also had no success and received some cancellations. But what does Sorella Padula say? "Va ben, dai c'è un'ora ancora." Okay! Sorella Seare and I set out to find our elect person who would accept a date on the street. We stopped so many people and no one was interested. We got close with one woman and her two children but in the end she rejected us. We started heading back the direction of home and I saw this woman at the corner of my eye. So we stopped her. Here's a brief summary of our conversation: "buon giorno signora! i know that whatever difficulty we have to face in life, we can still have peace." She responded that she didn't know how to have peace in difficult times but that she liked to pray...so we bore testimony how our message would help her and with the Holy Ghost after baptism she would have that constant companion. THen we brought in the Restoration: "200 years ago Christ restored his true church on the earth through a prophet with the proper authority to baptize. What would that mean to you to have THE true church on the earth?" "Well, I haven't ever really thought about it. There should only be one though..." "We are representatives of Jesus Christ. The CHurch of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is the only true and living church on the face of the earth. I know that you believe in prayer. Do you believe God responds to prayers?" "Yeah! Of course!" " Do you believe that He could tell you if this was the true church?" "Well, yes. I guess he could." "When he answers your prayer that this is the true church, would you be willing to join it?" "Yeah! I really think I would if He responded and said yes." "This is the only true church on the earth. Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper authority to receive a remission of your sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost?" "Yes. I want to." "Will you prepare yourself to be baptized the 8th of June?" "I hope to be ready! Yes! I really hope to do it!"
Whoa. That's what I was thinking. We set up an appontment, exchanged information, and said a prayer with her. And then after she left Sorella Seare and I said a prayer of gratitude right there in the street. We had to run back to the apartment to be able to catch the train, but when we got there all four of us cried together and knelt down and said a prayer of gratitude. I learned alot on Friday about goals, faith, and diligence. Mamma mia. The Lord can work miracles when His servants strive to have these things.
So much I could tell you! I love my life! I am so blessed to be in this calling. It is changing my mission. My life. My eternity! Mamma mia... quanto benedetta sono io. (How blessed I am!)
Vi voglio un mondo di bene! (I want a world of good!)
Sorella Forbes
The very first Sister Training Leaders of the Italy Milano Mission!
and they can have fun too!
No comments:
Post a Comment