okay so i'm not entirely sure where i'm going to go with this email today, but i'll just begin writing and see what happens. also, i'm using the church computer today which is really nice because it's been SO LONG since i've been able to use a keyboard. ahhh man i miss these things. it's really frustrating though because it's formatted differently. this might actually take a longer time to type than if i used my ipad. ah well. we'll see.
"And here's a picture from last week that I don't think I sent. If I did, sorry."
also my mum told me last week that my english grammar is getting really bad and i think i confirmed that when i went back through my weekly email and (keep in mind though that i only had a few minutes so i wasn't able to be very thorough) wasn't able to find anything wrong with them? that makes me sad because although i love italian, english will forever by my mother language and the fact that i'm forgetting how to speak it properly is breaking my heart.
sad day.
but on the flip side we did get 5 kilo bag of freshly picked oranges from an investigator, so there's that. we also found out today that our favorite cookies were on sale today. two euro for one kilo. TWO EURO FOR ONE KILO THAT'S SO GOOD. but also bad, because we're both already fat. gosh dang it italy is going to kill me.
another thing to be happy about is that we're going to palermo
(Source:http://www.easyjet.com/en/holidays/shared/images/guides/italy/sicily/palermo.jpg)
this week! and i'll get to see anziano young (my companion from brindisi) and anziano anderson (from my first district in pescara -- we were in the same district for 6 months) again!! ah man i'm so excited to see them again. i'll be sure to take lots of pictures and send them all. that's also why there's going to be hardly any pictures this week. i figured that i'll just send a ton next week. (yeah i know that's actually a lie i just didn't take any pictures this week. sorry.)
"Sorry for the lack of photos this week"
anyways! this week was pretty good. after a really nice p day with sun and what not, it got extremely windy and stormy and we actually thought we might die on our boat ride back to reggio from messina (we were there for district meeting). luckily, prayers work, and we had smooth passage despite the raging storm. the weather though did make it a little hard to do missionary work out on the streets and what not, so we spent quite a bit of time indoors calling old contacts. that actually turned out really well, and we were able to find quite a few cool people that we'll hopefully meet with in the upcoming weeks!
"She wrecked both me and anziano Peterson in checkers and she's 10"
honestly i think we've had more success doing calls than we've had contacting people on the street haha. and besides that bad weather, anziano peterson was sick for a little while so we stayed home for that as well. the weather has recently cleared up though, and it's now burning hot outside. oh goodness i think i might die of heat exhaustion. i'd still take the heat over the cold though. but MAN you don't know heat until you experience an italian summer as a missionary. and to top it off, this next summer is going to be a SOUTHERN italian summer. oh boy it's gon be hot. all the more reason though to go and get gelato though amirite? other than that, we just did a lot of finding and had some cool things happen. but before that, i want to talk about the important lesson that i learned.
so last week i mentioned all that stuff about rising to a new sense of commitment and moving into the realm of where you don't know what to do and how that's where miracles happen. here's that quote that i used from elder scott.
"When you push against the boundaries of experience into the twilight of the unknown, the Lord will strengthen you. The beauty of your eternal soul will begin to unfold."
and that's exactly what i tried to do last week! i pushed past those boundaries and moved into the realm that i hadn't known for awhile. it was a realm of consecration, of obedience, of willingness to do whatever the lord asked. and my thinking was "okay cool i'll move into this realm and everything will just happen perfectly. god will make miracles happen."
but that's not how it works. in fact, that's never how it's worked. god has always required faith before the miracle. why? because miracles don't produce faith, and it's not until after the trial of our faith that we will see miracles (or have the confirmation of our faith...however you want to phrase it). and that was the second step for me this week. step one was rededicating myself to the work, and step two was taking that leap of faith and trusting the lord enough to do something about it. and what i've been reminded of this past week is that the lord works by small and simple means. that brings me to alma 37:6-7 which says the following.
"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
"And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."
i sometimes feel like i need to be working miracles to find new investigators. i feel like his hand should be evident in everything that i do, every single moment of the day. but the fact of the matter is that it's not typically like that. and once i realized that the lord wasn't asking me to move mountains but move individual pebbles, the work became much easier. and that's what i think i love about the gospel so much is that it pushes us just enough to get out of our comfort zone, but not far enough that we can't do it. i love that so much about the gospel. we can be completely sure that we won't fail because this isn't the work of man, but the work of god. we can trust him completely. whatever the result may be of our actions, as long as we took that jump, we will be successful. and i've seen that this last week in the smallest of ways in the impressions to call a specific person, in the feeling to go to a specific place, in the desire to continue to share the gospel after a day of rejection, and above all in the hope that i feel at the end of each day thanks to the savior. it's an amazing thing to be a part of this great work. while i haven't seen the greatest success come from all this, i've felt joy all the same because i know that i'm doing the lord's work, and when we do the lord's work, we can be sure that we're not wasting our time. he will bless these people through me. whether or not i see those blessings come to them is of little importance to me. what does matter to me is that i'm worthy, dedicated, and doing what the lord asks so i can become who he needs me to be for these people now and all the people i'll meet in the future.
that's it for this week. sorry that this is so long and has hardly any pictures. my b. i'll be sure to compensate for that next week.
ooohhh and before i forget i thought i should mention to you guys that GENERAL CONFERENCE is coming up soon! i'm so excited for that! and i wanted to invite you guys to begin to prepare for that now! i may not be an apostle, but i can promise you that as you begin to prepare yourself to hear the words of the lord now, you'll be much more receptive to what the spirit has for you when it does come around. just something to think about.
love you all and hoping you have fantastic weeks!
che la gloria sia sempre a dio
anziano hansen
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