When in Rome: sick and rainy days

Gooooooood moorrrniinnggggg friends!

So! You're actually going to be getting this on Monday because right now we're in Messina and there's wifi here so here you go!

This week has been pretty hectic and this next week is going to fly by! This past week both Anziano Silver and I have been kind of sick. It actually only kept us home for one morning, because the other days we decided we were healthy enough to leave. It's still pretty cold though. It didn't snow again this week, but there was a bit of hail and a TON of rain. Ahahahaha it was funny. On Saturday it rained really really hard for about 5 minutes. Do you know where we happened to be for those 5 minutes? Outside, walking to the bus stop. Hahahaha we spent all the rest of the morning inside and then the five minutes where we're outside it desires to pour. We were soaked hahaha but we loved it.

This week I learned to appreciate the small things. Things like finding out our investigators actually don't need to work on sundays and can actually come to church. Things like eating pancakes and syrup for breakfast.

Things like members offering us rides home after church on sundays (<---- really grateful for that one actually. Home is a walk that takes about an hour so we were happy 😊). Things like having doterà cough drops my mum put in my suitcase months ago to help my sore throat. Things like getting fresh clementines from members after helping them put apps on their tablet. There's so many things to be grateful for if we'll just open our hearts to the love that surrounds us.

Another huge miracle for me this week was learning that God can change our desires. As I was pondering this last week during a nightly prayer I had a thought come to mind about why I'm doing this mission. Is it because I really want to do it, or because I feel like it's my duty? And I realized that while my intentions were good, they weren't the best. That matters to me because I honestly believe that when my intentions and desires are correct, the spirit will flow that much more easily and I'll be that much more in tune with the will of God. But how can I change my desires? They're natural, aren't they? While that's true, God is able to work with even the smallest of desires. I think of two things when it comes to this. One is Alma chapter 32 when he speaks about the seed of faith. I believe it is the same thing for all desires to do good.

"Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell...ye will begin to say within yourselves--It must needs be that this is a good seed...for it beginneth to enlarge my soul...to enlighten my understanding...to be delicious to me." (Alma 32:28)

I love that it says "it beginneth" to enlarge, enlighten, and be delicious. Overtime, if we will allow God to do so, he will help us change our desires even until the point where those righteous desires manifest themselves in the way we live our day to day lives. It takes time, but it's possible.

Pday adventures!

The second thing that comes to mind is Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's conference talk from last April.

There's two parts I'd like to share really quickly.

"With the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the strength of heaven to help us, we can improve, and the great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don’t always succeed." He then continues, saying "Please remember tomorrow, and all the days after that, that the Lord blesses those who want to improve, who accept the need for commandments and try to keep them, who cherish Christlike virtues and strive to the best of their ability to acquire them. If you stumble in that pursuit, so does everyone; the Savior is there to help you keep going."

Isn't that one of the best things you've ever heard? God will not only bless us according to our desires, but He'll help us get to that point where our desires are correctly aligned with his will. He's in every step that gets us to eternal life, and it was meant to be this way. We were never destined to walk this path alone, but with the help of Gods. Our destiny is to succeed.

But, of course, we've got to go and ask for help first. It's when we kneel in humble prayer and ask Him to help us change -- and REALLY mean it -- that we merit the help of heavenly aid in our daily lives. After that, all he expects is that we just do our best.

Man. I really just love this gospel.

"Us on the ferry to Messina this morning"

We're spending p day in Messina today, and then tomorrow we'll be heading down to Catania for zone conference, which will be on Wednesday. Looking forward to being in Sicily for a little while😎🇮🇹

I also just realized that we took like, zero pictures this week.