Adversity & the Atonement

Ciao Famiglia!!

Thank you for all of the amazing emails this week!
I have been in my own little world for 9 months now and it is hard to hear all of the things that have been happening back home. It almost seems unreal the trials that everyone is facing. Life seems to be taking its toll on everyone these days. But it is comforting to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is constant in this world of change. The one thing that we can hold strong to. My prayers are with you all and I hope that the sunshine will come out soon.

Speaking of Trayser going on a mission, what has he decided, to go right after graduation or to go to school for a little bit? I have decided that he is going to Germany on his mission! Everyone I meet tells me that our last name is German, and I can just imagine Elder Wiltbank speaking that language!

I am glad your Christmas package finally came!! And that you like it! :) And thank you for sending me so much for my birthday! It will definitely be a little party when I get it!

For Mom - a small 4" nativity ornament.

For Dad & the boys.

This week has been great!

On Monday after Pday we had a lesson with our wonderful Carol, and we established a baptismal date!!!!! February 1st! She is such an amazing girl with a monster of faith and I have learned so much from her!

Tuesday was the lucky day of 20! I felt so spoiled! I don't think I have ever had a better birthday or felt more loved!  In the morning we had district meeting and Sorella O'Connor made chocolate chip cookies for us to eat. Then after district meeting I walked into the Steurers office to a pack of missionaries singing happy birthday and a beautiful cake made by Sorella Viazzo (who is American). Turns out that the Anziani had been planning it for days! They are so nice! And President Waddoups heard that it was my birthday and invited me and Sorella O'Connor over to the villa for dinner and a sleepover!

Well kinda...because it was transfer week and Rome 2 is the center of the mission, it is where everyone goes between being transferred. And we are in charge of making sure that all the sisters have companions. This transfer we had 3 Italians come in, and they came a day early. So Sorella Waddoups asked us to come stay at the villa and the next day take them on splits and show them "real missionary work". But it was still really fun! The villa is sooooo much nicer than our apartment and we had clean sheets and we got to take a shower standing up! (our shower is really awkward and you have to sit down). And we ate dinner with the President and they even got me birthday ice cream! (like I said, I have been so spoiled)

Sorella Wiltbank with Sorella Viazzo

Photo courtesy of Sorella Steurer.

Wednesday we took the Italian greenies around. It was a lot of pressure! It was their first missionary experience and I had to make sure I was always on my guard and being a good example! It really made me appreciate my wonderful trainer who had so much patience with me, and I have been wondering how in the world she did such a good job at always being the best missionary! (and still being such an amazing person and studying for me and sending me a birthday email:)

Then that evening after we took the greenies back we did a lesson with Luca! He is doing so good! We are working slowly, but I can see his faith growing. We still need to figure out how to pass him to the Anziani. He has such an attachment with every set of missionaries and we don't know how to break it to him that only one set of us should be teaching him the lessons. But we will figure it out!

The rest of the week has been pretty slow (and I don't have much time left) so I will spare you all the boring details.

But this week I have had some really good studies. I started the Book of Mormon again and I was initially going to share with you some thoughts about that, but getting my emails this week, I want to talk about something else.

There is a quote in Preach my Gospel that I love, it says,
"All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ"

What does that mean exactly? Sometimes the logical part of us (and also I remember my mother telling me) that life is unfair. That sometimes that's just how things are. It all comes back to the plan. The plan of Salvation. It is a perfect plan that makes the unfair things, in the end, fair. But without an understanding of the plan, things may seem a bit hopeless.

In a talk by Linda K Burtan she says this:

"Why does the Lord allow suffering and adversity to come to us in this life? Simply put, it is part of the plan for our growth and progress! We “shouted for joy” when we knew we would have the opportunity to come to earth to experience mortality. Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught, “Our needed conversions are often achieved more readily by suffering and adversity than by comfort and tranquillity.”
The example of a faithful pioneer sister illustrates this truth. Mary Lois Walker was married at age 17 to John T. Morris in St. Louis, Missouri. They crossed the plains with the Saints in 1853, entering the Salt Lake Valley shortly after their first anniversary. On their journey they had suffered the privations typical of other Saints. But their sufferings and adversity did not end when they reached the Salt Lake Valley. The following year Mary, then 19, wrote: “A son was born to us. … One evening when he was two or three months old … something whispered to me, ‘You will lose that little one.’”
During the winter the baby’s health declined. “We did all we could, … but the baby grew steadily worse. … On the second of February he passed away … and so I drank the bitter cup of parting from my own flesh and blood.” But her trials were still not over. Mary’s husband was also stricken, and three weeks after losing her baby, he died.
Mary wrote: “So was I, while yet in my teens, bereft in the short period of 20 days, of my husband and my only child, in a strange land hundreds of miles from my blood kin and with a mountain of difficulty before me … and I wished that I too, might die and join my loved one[s].”
Mary continues: “One Sunday evening I was taking a walk with my friend. … I was reminded of [my husband’s] absence and my intense loneliness, and as I wept bitterly I could see, as it were in mental vision, the steep hill of life I should have to climb and felt the reality of it with great force. A deep depression settled upon me, for the enemy knows when to attack us,but our [Savior, Jesus Christ,] is mighty to save. Through … the help given of the Father, I was able to battle with all the force which seemed to be arrayed against me at this time.”
Mary learned at the tender age of 19 that the Atonement gives us the assurance that all things that are unfair in this life can and will be made right—even the deepest sorrows."

I know that the Atonement of Jesus is real. I know that we can find comfort in our Savior, if only we open our eyes to see that he is there. I know that he has a plan and that in the end, all will be made right. And the first step in coming to Christ is to plant the seed. Have a desire to find comfort in him and let that desire grow.

I hope that this week will be a great week for everyone! You guys keep me going! I love you!

Sorella Wiltbank