Brownies, Baptism and Love
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| Polignano a Mare |
Another great week here in Brindisi! Our investigator who has a baptism date is doing awesome. It has been such an amazing experience to see him accept the gospel. He is such a great kid. He speaks english so I am able to help teach more than I usually do. In his interview he showed some interest in a mission! I was pretty stoked when he said that.
Last week we met another guy on the streets and we showed him a video about Jesus Christ. He really enjoyed it so we picked a time when we would be able to meet again. So this week we have been able to meet with him a couple times. All of the lessons have been going way good; on Thursday we challenged him to get baptized! He accepted and is willing to work towards that date! He is such a humble and nice guy. I think I am learning more from the people we teach than they learn from me! Luckily my trainer is an awesome teacher and knows what he is doing. On p-day we went to Polignano a Mare. It was so gorgeous there!! Way cool place.
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| Polignano a Mare |
I was listening to a talk by President Uchtdorf and he was talking about faith and some things you can accomplish with faith. He also talks about things faith cannot do. It cannot violate someone's agency. Heavenly Father will not force anyone to follow Him, He will however invite and reach out to them, but He will never make you follow Him. We cannot "force our will upon God". We cannot force God to do something that we want if it's not His will. Even if we think it's for the best. He said "The purpose of faith is to not change God's will". We are all going through trials. Some trials may seem harder than others, and sometimes it might seem unfair. But God has a plan for us. He loves us! He knows exactly what we are going through. It is our job to trust in Him. If we can do that, we can make it through any trial. Thank you for all the support and the love you guys have shown me!! Love you guys!
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| Meet Flat Stanley, Raife's classroom friend, he came for a visit and even helped make brownies! |
This week was solid. So last week we were trying to figure out some creative ways we could meet with this family; they are always too busy. Every time we scheduled to meet with them, they had something going on! So we made these guys an American desert; brownies! We figured if brownies wouldn't work, nothing else would. So we took them over and the next day they texted us telling us the brownies tasted amazing and that we they wanted to meet with us again on Friday! Haha, the lesson went well, but we never saw them at church. Maybe next week! Then our investigator had his final interview and is ready to be baptized! He gets baptized this Saturday, and we are so freaking stoked! He's an awesome kid.
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| Some great missionaries from the Bari Zone in Alberobello. |
On our P-day this week, we went to Alberobello. It's a city with really old houses called Trulli. They were way cool! Such a beautiful place! One of the members in our branch told us they would be able to take their houses apart really quick so that when the tax collector came by they wouldn't have to pay taxes on their house. I don't know if that is true but that's an awesome story haha!
When I was scrolling through gospel library this week (pretty much a missionary's twitter) I read this awesome quote by Ezra Taft Benson and it said “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human behavior" Christ isn't going to take away our problems, if He did, we wouldn't have a chance to grow. What He will do is give us the strength to get through them. We are never alone. Let Christ into your lives and watch what he can do! Hope everyone has a good week, love you all!
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Anziano Vrska and I in our Comp cardigans.  |
Popping week down here in Brindisi. I don't even know where to start! On Monday night, we had just finished emailing our families and wrapping up our p-day; when we were leaving the church and this guy with a beard was standing at the door reading an English course poster we had put up. So we asked him if we could help him. He said, '"yea, I've lived by this church forever and was just kind of curious of what you guys believed in and stuff". Haha, so we told him that we could help him out with that! He ended up coming to church this Sunday and we plan on meeting with him this week. What a miracle. We also got a referral from the church website! Which is pretty rare here. It was this kid who's friend that lives out of the country just got baptized and told him how it has changed his life. So now we are meeting with him, and he is awesome! I also had to give another talk this week so that was pretty fun as well, haha.
But the highlight of the week definitely had to be Saturday. This Saturday our investigator got baptized! It was such a cool experience! We headed down there early with him and the branch president took us all to lunch. It was so nice of him! Then he got baptized, the spirit was so strong! After, when we were driving home he told us how he felt so good and happy. It has been amazing to see how the gospel has effected his life. |
| Just Hanging' in Brindisi this P-Day. |
This week is Valentines Day!! The two most important commandments are about love. The first one is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" and the second one is "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”. Thomas S. Monsan said something really cool as well "We cannot truly love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey". This Valentine's Day show everyone around us how much we love them. Even if, with some people, its a little harder. Also remember how much your Heavenly Father loves you! He knows each one of us personally and what our needs are.
I love every single one of you guys!! Thank you for all the love and support you have shown me!!
Anziano Andersen⛷⚽
