|
[Between saying and doing, there is the sea in the middle]
2/5/18
Allora carissimi, [So dear],
(if you're an Italy Rome Missionary, you should get that)
I promised a good email this week, and I'm ready to deliver! I went into this week even more determined to make some miracles happen and see God's hand in the work, as I tried my hardest. The week started off amazing right off the bat doing some "finding." Then we felt the prompting to go see our recent convert Luca, who hasn't been able to come to church for a good bit. It was just what all of us needed! We talked with him about how he's doing, and Luca ended up giving us more of a spiritual thought than we gave him! I love him because he's got such amazing faith, and absolutely loves bearing his testimony to everyone he talks to. As we were talking to him I just had a confirmation that coming to see him had been the right choice, and as he was speaking to us about how we can be more positive and confident in our missionary work, I felt like my Heavenly Father was almost speaking directly to me through him. Definitely one of the cooler moments I've had following the Spirit.
On Tuesday we had district meeting, and afterwards all 12 of us (I love having a huge district) went out to grab pizza. Turns out while we were all eating at the pizza place a friend of the Bishop's wife was there and called her to just say how amazing it was to see so many missionaries all together, and just the light that was radiating from us. After all the tough moments we have during the week, where it seems like we don't make a difference in people's lives, it was like getting a big dose of sunshine. It was nice to hear Sorella Salvatori's testimony about the impact we have just being present here on the streets in Pescara! I absolutely love coming to church, taking the sacrament, and feeling the spirit so strongly every single week of my life! I've been able to notice even better than ever when I do or don't have the spirit with me, and it's something I hate living without.
We got to teach Louis about marriage this week and it was hilarious! We were able to talk about the importance of families, temples, and also what being married for time and eternity means. He's about 25, and we were telling him that it was time to stop messing around and how he needs to start looking for a wife. My favorite part of the lesson was when Anz Strong and I pulled out our temple recommends and explained what it means and requires to enter the temple. He's really excited, and it would be amazing to see him get to enter the Rome Temple when it's opened! (no, I don't have any inside news on that.)
On Wednesday we got to teach Adamo (practically a member by now, just hasn't been baptized), who is still struggling with keeping commitments, however on Sunday he had a good time in priesthood translating for a member visiting from Brasil, so maybe that will push him a little more. We also got to visit the Di Marzio couple and have a really amazing lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A really cool moment was when we were talking about baptism and the scripture Mosiah 18:8-10 came to my mind. I decided to have them read it and it turned out to be the exact set of verses that helped Fratello Di Marzio make the decision to get baptized exactly 7 years ago! We learned so much from talking to them about their relationship with the Savior and also how they came together thanks to the gospel - they got married a year ago, and Sorella Di Marzio is actually from Mexico; they started communicating with each other thanks to both of them being members! They said they spent Sunday afternoons a lot of the time on Skype talking to each other about the things they learned in church and bearing testimony. #RelationshipGoals It's amazing to see how strong their marriage is because it has an immovable foundation on the gospel. The night ended even better when we met Fratello Di Marzio's friend at the train station and it turns out he's read the entire Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, AND Doctrine & Covenants!! He's also read the Bible in Latin and Greek, in addition to English and Italian. Meanwhile, his girlfriend is reading the Bible for the third time in Italian! They said they would love meeting with us and Fratello Di Marzio to talk more and discuss what we believe - and we'll see how it goes this week.
The rest of the week was spent "finding," pushing through rejection, and having cool conversations with people in Pescara! Anz Snyder and I did a scambio [exchange] together and had like the funnest time ever on Saturday morning doing a sondaggio [poll/survey] about America. It's eases into the gospel sooooo smoothly, and we got to give 3 copies of the Book of Mormon away. One was to this guy who actually got our attention since he was singing opera while walking his dog, and then he ended up being pretty intrigued by what we believed.
Comunque, [Anyway] it was a great week! I learned a ton, and I'm suuuuper stoked for these next 2 days since we have zone conference in Rome. 1. It's in Rome and I can't get enough of that city! 2. We get to have some awesome training from the mission leaders, which we've been studying for the past couple days. Out of all the things I've learned in the past couple days, it's that we absolutely need to do our best to enjoy the moment - don't think too much about the future, and put the past behind you - because that's how we fill our mission with the most amazing experiences as possible. Whenever we make a mistake we shouldn't shame ourselves and say we aren't worthy of God's redeeming love, instead we need to learn how to constantly repent - even for the smallest thoughts or actions. If we do that, and make turning towards Christ a consistent daily process, we will always be able to find happiness as we face the unknown ahead of us.
Grazie per tutto che fate, e siete tutti bravissimi figli amati di Dio,
[Thank you for everything you do, and you are all very good children loved by God,]
Vi voglio bene, [I love you]
Anziano Samuel Parker
Here's a great quote:
“It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.” - Abraham Lincoln
^Remember who you are, it's the key to happiness
1 The concert hall in Chieti where they had the 200th anniversary on Friday, so the #1 violinist in the world was playing there apparently!
2 & 3 Chieti, absolutely love this country
4 The one, the only - Anz Snyder (he's a stud)
1/29/18
So I'll begin by saying sorry for the short email, next week I'll try and make sure it's better.
This week was really tranquillo [quiet]. We had some solid member appointments, got to give people some church tours and talk to them about the restoration, and we also got to do a good chunk of "finding" - as per usual!
I just finished the Book of Mormon this morning and am planning on restarting tomorrow, hopefully I can finish again by Mother's day. Maybe you guys can read with me, and make it a priority too. It literally can give answers for all the big questions.
In other news, I got to sing on the lungomare [seafront] accompanied by our friend Joshua! His mom comes to our English course, and his whole family is really nice to all the missionaries. We came across them on Saturday and they asked if I could sing something on the spot, so I tried a couple songs! It was super nice to sing again, since it been a while since the last time I did something like that.
The Church is true, members (especially Italians) have amazing testimonies, the Book of Mormon changes lives, and beaches are awesome, even in winter!
Ciao ciao,
Anziano Samuel Parker
1 Anziano Hansen's amazingly-tasty-you-can't-believe-there's-spinach-in-it-pasta
2 More omage to Dean Martin in Montesilvano (his birthplace)
3-5 beach today
6 Restoration Gesso yesterday
1/22/18
Ciao tutti, [Hello Everybody]
Ummm, è quel momento della settimana per scrivere, e non so che cosa sia successo durante la settimana, quindi proverò a ricordarmi. [Ummm, it's that time of the week to write, and I do not know what happened during the week, so I'll try to remember.]
Sorry for that italian bit, I just started writing and the Italian just spilled out. I had a really chill week with Anz Strong, and we had success doing finding! Tuesday we were able to watch President Nelson's broadcast and see the new first Presidency of the church. My favorite part of that night was pulling out the new first Presidency photo to show somebody we were talking to and explaining that we have a living prophet on the earth. There is so much power and knowledge that comes from that doctrine of God always working through prophets.
I guess the highlight of the week was being asked really thought provoking questions when we talked to people during "finding" and being led to have really amazing personal studies because of it. I learned so much, especially from a conversation I had with a guy named Luca, where we talked about the purpose of faith. We added him on messenger and then literally the next day we had an hour long chat about faith, the divinity of Christ, and the purpose of this life. Eventually we sent him the whole chapter of 2 Nephi 2, which answers all of his questions - soooo cool how powerful that chapter is. #PresidentPickerdHaRagione (it was the main theme of our last zone conference.)
We did my favorite sondaggio "Credi in Dio?" [poll] ("Do you believe in God?") a couple times and had pretty good results. It's crazy how many people don't want to put an x on a white board... We ended the week with an English Course and I got to make friends with a whole bunch of ragazzi from Foggia - Anz Smith and Sellers, hopefully they come your way, I gave you guys a shout out.
I'm just loving Italy and this mission right now! Literally my focus every day is to follow the Spirit as best as i can, and that always leads to a happy day.
Basta per adesso, e buona Settimana!
[Enough for now, and good week!]
Anziano Samuel Parker
1 & 2 Gesso Sunday Night
3 Didn't buy it
4 Calendar for 2018 with Jesus Quotes for every day!
5 Normal sized Italian Car
6 A Store full of Pandoro
7 un muro [a wall]
[A New Colleague, A New City]
1/16/18
Scherzo!!
[Joke!]
Jk, I'm still in Pescara, but I do have a new companion - Anziano Strong! Quick run down on him: he's from Hotchkiss, Colorado and is the oldest in his family (just like me!). He has been in the mission for 1 yr and 3 months now, and is better than me at biliardino [Fooseball] (I'm hoping to be able to beat him by the end of the transfer, speriamo!) [Let's hope] We're looking forward to having a lot of fun together this transfer - we already started out strong with a great p-day in Ortona. It's a super tranquilla città [quiet city] that we visited that has a castle and some nice coastline.
This week went by pretty fast, it was a whirlwind from Monday to Thursday, sending Anziano Toronto and MacDonald off to the Napoli Zone. We visited all the people Anziano Toronto has become friends with during his time here. From Wednesday evening to Thursday night Anziano Snyder and I were together, and it was so weird to only have 2 Anziani in the house!! I don't know how I survived the first 7 months in a house with just 2 missionaries.... way too quiet as I'm now realizing. We had a good day with some fun finding an made a really good ragù for Anz Hansen and Strong to eat that evening, since we knew they were probably going to be pretty hungry. We kept it on the stove for a full 8 hours (secret being lots of water) and it turned out bellissimo!! [very beautiful]. It was the best ragù I have ever made Con l'aiuto di Anz Snyder [with the help of Anz Snyder].
We had some really good days finding people to teach this week, and it was probably the most fun I've had finding during my whole mission! I don't know why or how, but I have gotten super relaxed and confident with talking to people on the street. A lesson we had in priesthood meeting during church tied in really well, it was on the general conference talk from President Eyring, "Fear Not to Do Good" - which focuses on a scripture from D&C 6:33-37. This scripture explains to us that as long as we are planting our best, the product of our efforts surely will be harvested. Just knowing that everything we do will be rewarded is such a profound promise!
Tempo è scaduto per adesso, quindi - alla prossima!
[Time has expired for now, so - see you next time!]
Anziano Samuel Parker
1 Sono io... [It's me]
2 Really nice last supper depiction
3 Anz Strong e Anz Parker!
4 La vista dal Castello
5 Nuovo Distretto! Da Sinistra a Destra: Anz Hansen, Anz Snyder, Sor Lalonde, Anz Parker, Sor Warner, Anz Strong, Sor Acerson, Sor Schnell
6 Vecchio Distretto! Da Sinistra a Destra: Anziano Parker, Macdonald, Toronto, Snyder, Anz Bohn, Rummens e poi Sorella Batres, Cook, Warner, Lalonde, Acerson, Schnell
[Befana, the witch who uses a vacuum cleaner!]
1/8/18
This was a slow week for us in terms of missionary work - just normal finding, a really awesome conversation with an atheist, and then a pretty solid lesson with Adamo and Emanuela involving soccer and hunting. That was pretty fun.
Other than that, probably the biggest news is that President Monson, the current latter-day prophet, passed away on Wednesday (Tuesday in American). It's been really special to be able to reflect on all of his teachings and look over all my notes relating to him. It's incredible to think of how long he dedicated his life fully to the Lord - from the age of 36 to 90 years old he served as an apostle. He was able to change thousands, maybe millions of lives, and inspire many. He was renowned for the many personal and touching interactions he had with many people. I have several favorite quotes from him that have particularly inspired me while serving on my mission:
"For each of us must run the race called mortality; and must make the decison: Shall I falter or shall I finish?"
"The worth of a soul is its capacity to become as God"
"The great test of this life is obedience."
"Decisions are constantly before us, to make them, courage is needed."
And my favorite of all....
"I know of no experience more sweet or feeling more precious than to heed a prompting only to discover that the Lord has answered another person's prayer through you."
That last quote is what drives me every day. I look up to each one of the leaders of the church because I know they have spent their time mastering how to follow the promptings of the spirit and being on the Lord's errand. It amazes me that when I follow a prompting, overcome my fear, I am able to see how the Lord helps me touch the life of someone new. That's the best way I can sum up my life as a missionary in the Italy Rome Mission. I may not find many people that will receive the gospel, but the Lord is able to use this as a time of preparation, to help me become a better person too. President Monson was a shining example of a servant who put all he had in the hands of the Lord, and I want to try my best this year to be like him.
.... the title of this week's letter refers to Befana, a witch who on the f6th of January - in the place of Santa Claus - flies on a broom down all the chimneys and leaves treats in stocking. However we learned in English course that she has recently upgraded to a vacuum, thanks to the new technology that's being released these days!
Ciao ciao,
Anziano Samuel Parker
1 Awesome jacket
2 Fresno was definitely not founded in 1972
3 I used to ride bikes, this thing is like my dream - simple but cool
4 Quotes from Pres. Monson
Showing: [38,39,40,41,42 of 81 entries]
|
