"Kindness is the essence of greatness" Anziano Wirthlin
Buon Mercoledì a tutti!!! Today it's not too hot, there's at least
some wind. This morning we played tennis with the Branch President and
his wife, it was a lot of fun. This week either it wasn't as hot as it's
been in the past or we're so burnt we can't feel it anymore.
We were able to meet with a sister who was baptized 18 months ago
and sadly is less active. She and her husband were investigating the
church but he couldn't get over the requirements of the word of wisdom.
So she is the only member in her family, then recently, she also had a
baby girl and seeing as she lives kind of far away, it's a hassle for her to
get everything in order so that she and the baby can come to church, but every
once and a while she does come.
Anyway, we met at her house (sadly her husband was working) and she
might be the most normal member that I've met in Italy (normal in the sense of
lifestyle and social class.) Plus she has a very strong testimony.
We now are trying to meet her husband and to start helping him make
progress because if their whole family were members it would be a huge help and
hope to the branch to have an entire family that's relatively young.
Also, Tamara came back from vacation and we were able to see her
yesterday. She's finished the Book of Mormon again, this time in Russian.
That's twice in less than 5 months. She is absolutely in love with the
book. We tried to set a baptismal date with her but she said that she is
still confused and is not ready. However, her comments and answers say
otherwise. So our goal is to help her recognize that she is ready.
She is also worried about what her friends will say/think and we feel she
isn't 100% on board for the lifestyle changes required, however, she knows it's
true.
My talk went well which I based it off of this one by Heber C.
Kimball http://www.lds.org/ensign/2011/01/the-potter-and-the-clay?lang=eng
it's called the Potter and the Clay. I'm assuming that he used Isaiah
64:8 for inspiration. Both the talk and the verse are a great analogy for
putting our trust in the Lord and being humble. It's nice giving talks in
Italian because you take more time to say the same thing you would say in English.
;) Anyways, the talk went well, it's the putting it into practice that is
the hard part. But the closer we come to the Lord the more weaknesses he shows
us. Fact. Take it how you want to.
President Pipolo said something in his talk that I really liked.
He talked about how no matter how much we like something we can never
substitute it for what the Lord has already established. I'm not sure if
that makes sense. He used this analogy. That even if we like Cola
drinks so much that we drink 2 liters a day, if we try to use it as fuel in our
cars it will never work. It doesn't matter how happy it makes us cars
require gas. Similarly, the Lord has made it so that for us to know his
will for us, we need to pray daily, and to read the scriptures daily. Only
in this way can he give us the knowledge that we seek.
I guess this morning at like 1 o’clock; there was an earthquake at
Scilla. It's like 20 kilometers away. Thankfully no one got hurt
and there wasn't any damage done but it was 4.6 on the Richter scale! We slept
through the whole thing.
So Mattie is a secret world cup level goalie, huh? 9 attempts out of
10 aren’t bad! Why didn’t you ever want to play with us?! That's
great about the 200 people in church! How is it going with that German family
of 4 who were baptized recently? Well I'm out of time and things to say.
Mom, I hope it's long enough for you. Remember to take plenty of
pictures at the Bern Kastel wine fest. But not too many, I really miss
those German festivals.
I love you all, and I hope that all is well with you, ciao. =)
--
"Look inside yourself, you're more than what you've become.
Remember who you are." The Lion King
Anziano Stewart
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