Hot! Hot! Hot!!!

Family! Care Mie! Confession time...I have been a bit homesick this week. But that just means that I have a great family back home who I love and care about!

This week was the start of my second transfer and so I made some goals! I will share them will you....because I know you like details :)

1. Be COURAGEOUS!
PMG (Preach My Gospel) pg 156 says "Pray for the faith and strength to be more bold in opening your mouth to proclaim the restored gospel".

2. Follow the rules with exactness.
At the MTC Anziano Jimenez (our district leader) gave me a blessing and said "live righteously and you will have miraculous experiences"

3. NO REGRETS
This is the greatest time of my life, the greatest thing I will ever do! If I give it everything I have and "stroke when I don't wanna stroke and kick when I don't wanna kick" I know that I won't have any regrets.

4. Strive to gain a greater understanding of the Atonement

5. In the same blessing at the MTC, he said "read and ponder the scriptures, you will find hidden talents in them"

I have also came up with some miracles that I would like to see in my mission!
1. Temple completed! There are so many people here in Italy that need the temple!
2. I would love to see a family that I teach go to the temple.
3. 12 baptisms. Before my mission I always hated when missionaries had a number. Because your mission isn't just about getting people baptised. But...our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, BAPTISM, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Recieving exaltation is a process. And the very first step is baptism. These people can't progress until they are baptised. They cant go to the temple and endure to the end without making those covenants.

I have prayed about it, and there are 12 people out there that I need to bring this gospel to. And I will do anything to find them!  There could be more, there could be less. But I know that when I have Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father on my team, anything is possible!

Thursday I started being courageous and I sat by myself on the train! And I even gave away a Book of Mormon to the lady I was sitting next to! We also had a lesson with Magged and he prayed with us for the first time! It was in Arabic and I couldn't understand a thing, but I felt the spirit so strong. (We heard "Mormon" so we think he was praying to know if it is true....I think)

Friday afternoon we had a lesson zero with a man named Manuele. He was found during exchanges, by Sorella Mitsvotai, so we didn't know what to expect. But the lesson went more than amazing! He is a golden investigator! He even came to church on Sunday and he had already read the first few chapters in the Book of Mormon and all the members love him!

July 27th....oh the cursed day. It was 43°.....which translates into 106°.... and add 85% humidity. We almost died a few times....okay maybe I am exaggerating a bit. But it was rough.

The miserable day of July 27th. 43°. And yes...I am really that tan!
Just call me a Lamanite. Samueletta the Lamanite.

So a few weeks ago we were on the train and this man comes and sits in the seats accross from us and says "I see you guys everywhere! Who are you?"......Oh we would love to tell you who we are! We would also like to give you salvation!...so we gave him a quick restoration lesson and a Book of Mormon. We asked if we could come teach him more. And he wanted to read the book first and then he would call us. (which not many people actually follow through with) But we got his number!

The next few weeks we probably saw him everyday! Coincedence? I think not! And everytime we asked him how the reading was going! Then one day he said he read some of the book and wants to know more! So we had our first lesson with him on Sunday. And I am excited to see where it goes! I really appreciate that he took the time to think about it before just jumping right in. It shows that he is serious and that he really wants to learn! Oh! His name is Amed and he is from the Congo!

This week I have been trying to find ways to apply the Atonement in my life. There is a talk by Elder Bednar called "In the Strength of the Lord" and he talks about the difference between the redeeming power of the Atonement and the enabling power of the Atonement. The Atonement isn't just for sinners trying to be forgiven, but it is also for saints who are striving to become better. President McKay said "The purpose of the gospel is to make bad men good and good men better". With that being said, that journey to becoming better doesn't have to be hard and we don't have to rely on our own limited capabilities to get there. Because in all reality, it's just not possible. We can't grow into godhood without the divine help from a godly power. That power is the Atonement. This divine help is all accessed through grace. The Bible Dictionary says that grace is "divine means of help and STRENGTH, given through the love of Jesus Christ". Having faith in the Atonement is what activates this godlike strength within ourselves to go from good to better.

Elder Bednar goes on to say "the enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity"

Missionary work is hard. It's exhausting, and I seem to be tired all the time. And that is a natural reaction to the amount of work we do. But at those moments when I just want to crawl in bed....I have started praying. Not praying that something will happen so that I can get to sleep in, or take an extra long nap, but I pray to have the strength to stay awake and have energy to perform the things that need to be done. After that simple little prayer, I always get a boost. I make it through, and I know that strength was given to me by the power of the Atonement. And even though it's a small thing, my Savior felt that struggle of mine and he found a way to help me overcome it. And I will be forever grateful that even though I am weak, there is always the enabling power of the Atonement to make me better.

Beautiful Italian Sunset

Yesterday my testimony in this was strengthened even more! We have been teaching a recent convert from Peru. He doesn't speak Italian all that well, and on more that one occasion he and I have related on this subject in the lesson. Yesterday we were teaching him about the Atonement and how it can help with anything! I told him how the Atonement helps me with speaking the language. That when I pray to have Christ help me, he will help me. Ricardo loves that I can't speak Italian. I don't know why! haha and he always has me say the closing prayer. I said the prayer, and these words were coming out of my mouth. Things that I didn't even know I could say. We finished the prayer and both Sorella Wightman and Ricardo looked at me with big eyes, not believing I had just done that! I was so glad that I could show Ricardo, right in front of him, how I use the Atonement, and I pray that he will be able to find how to apply the enabling power of the Atonement in his own life.

Our goal with Ricardo is to get him to the temple! We told him that the branch is going to Switzerland in November and we want him to be ready to go with them! When we said that in our first lesson he got so excited! Yesterday we brought him a temple  book and were explaining the different things of the temple. We told him about baptisms for the dead. His eyes got big and he said "you mean I can do that for my family?! They can be baptised too?!"....then we told him about how marriages in the temple are for eternity and he said "So I can be married forever? Even after I die? And my kids can live with me too?!" Yes!!!! And with God and Jesus Christ! Oh how I love being a missionary! I feel so privelaged that I get to be the one to tell them all of this!

Well....We are off to see the Wizard! The wonderful wizard of Rome!
aka The Pope. Going to il Vaticano today! :)
Pretty sure I am in the best mission ever. Just sayin...

Yummy pasteries and water while we are waiting for the bus! (that never came).