Chapter Five: The 3rd Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Sicilians

Jacket season is almost here!!! =/ It's still too warm for a suit!!

Allora.  I feel like Jacob, like my life is passing before my eyes like a dream.  Holy cow time goes fast, We're looking for tricks to help it go by slower but the only solution that works that we've found is to be bored.  But as a missionary that is nearly impossible... so it's just something that we need to accept and move on, making the most of our time.

Man, this week I watched the priesthood session.  Holy Moly.  Elder Christofferson's talk was a bomb!!  We've shared it with like 5 people this week already.  And then the talks that followed were equally amazing. 

As far as work goes things here are moving along.  It's hard to find time to do finding.  We have so many new converts (about 18) within the past year.  And previously, the missionaries have continued to meet with them, which is completely normal for the 1st year, but the problem is there has been no integration into the ward so it's almost like they are still investigators.  So during the week we do our best to meet with them and to help them stay strong, etc. 

Then we have our current investigators on top of that and not much time for anything else.  Plus Anziano Giovita has been here since February so he's become pretty good friends with everyone and is pretty attached to them. So it's kind of a difficult situation.  Anyways, were teaching a little girl, Nicole (10 years old) who wants to be baptized, her mom is a less active member.  Man she is so great! There is actually something that really shocked me the 1st lesson that we did with her.  She knows all the doctrine.  We break our backs trying to help grown men and women understand what it is that we teach, but with Nicole she knows already everything just from growing up with her less active mom and from primary every once and a while.

On Saturday it rained pretty hard for a good 20 minutes and after the streets were filled with water.  there was a good foot of water afterwards, and in some places even up to 3 feet.  JUST AFTER 20 MINUTES! Anziano Giovita started singing "cuz this is Africa, this is Africa, we're in Africa!!!"  Granted that it was raining really hard, I had to get out of the car for 45 seconds and I was 100% soaked, and it lasted for merely  moments.  That's just a taste of Sicily, or I guess a reminder because you've all lived it already. =)

This week I thought a lot about sacrifice.  How if we aren't willing to sacrifice, we will go nowhere because the Lord knows that he can't rely on us.  I think that is why he uses covenants so frequently, so that we will be willing to sacrifice because we know that he will always keep his word if we do what we've promised. I really appreciate D&C 97:8-9.  This morning in personal study I found this from a talk on lessons learned from the 1st vision. (referring to just before Jesus and God appeared) "as great as the power of evil might be, it must always withdraw with the appearance of righteousness."  So as long as we are righteous we have no need to worry that evil will have power over us.

I love you all, and hope to hear from you next week.  Ciao!!

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"Look inside yourself, you're more than what you've become.  Remember who you are."  The Lion King
Anziano Stewart