Ciao tutti!
I hope that everyone is doing well and you had a great week! This week flew by for us and we were super busy once again! We had some really special lessons with people this week and look forward to being able to teach some more lessons this week! One lesson that sticks out to me in particular was last Monday night we talked about recognizing answers from the Lord and seeing the Lord’s hand in all that we are doing. It was super cool and special to be able to discuss how we feel the spirit when the Lord is trying to speak to us. It is something that is very interesting since I feel personally it comes in different layers of levels. It is not always the same feeling. I am so very thankful though to practice the opportunity to feel the spirit more.
It definitely took some time for me to recognize how I felt it at times. I have learned so much in how he speaks to me and I realize that this will also be a life long feat to accomplish fully.
We learned a lot this week in the moments that we were able to have with all the other missionaries of the zone. We did a scambio in Messina Wednesday to Thursday and then in Reggio Calabria from Thursday to Friday. It was super fun and we were able to have a great time learning and doing missionary work with them. Some of the lessons that I learned that I loved was precisely on love towards others. I was able to observe the great love that Anziano Brandon has for everyone and that was something that I was super touched by in observing that with everyone that he interacts with especially his companion Anziano Moscon. It was something that shows his love for the Lord in the way that he treats others. I loved being able to work with Anziano Jackson in Reggio and seeing his intuitiveness and all the time he spends looking for small ways to improve and adjust so he can be the most effective missionary that he can be. We had a great week on the scambi and had to use some money to buy food while on the road, but we definitely ate well which was really nice hahaha. I love being able to spend time with the other missionaries and learn all that we can from one another, seeing and observing the different styles of work and how to things is great for all of us.
We had some other great lessons with some less actives at the end of the week that we are working with. It was super cool that we were able to see one of the less active families in church yesterday along with two of our investigators and one of their husbands who is a less active. It was super cool and a big miracle/blessing for us. I really enjoyed church this past Sunday and had the opportunity to bear my testimony there. I was super happy in being able to listen and feel the great spirit that we can always feel when people share their testimonies. I love how testimonies work and how they are so different, but yet so the same each time we bear it. I love that we can think of so many things that we want to share when in the process of bearing testimony. I love the fact that the spirit can just give us the words that we need to say each time whether for the benefit of others or ourselves. It is so special to be able to listen to and bear testimony. I know that as we bear testimony that is when we can gain a stronger testimony as well. I love this quote from President Boyd K. Packer.
“Oh, if I could teach you this one principle. A testimony is to be found in the bearing of it! Somewhere in your quest for spiritual knowledge, there is that ‘leap of faith,’ as the philosophers call it.
It is the moment when you have gone to the edge of the light and stepped into the darkness to discover that the way is lighted ahead for just a footstep or two. ‘The spirit of man,’ as the scripture says, indeed ‘is the candle of the Lord’ (Proverbs 20:27).
“It is one thing to receive a witness from what you have read or what another has said; and that is a necessary beginning. It is quite another to have the Spirit confirm to you in your bosom that what you have testified is true. Can you not see that it will be supplied as you share it? As you give that which you have, there is a replacement, with increase!”
I know that we can really come to find a great testimony as we bear witness of the things that we know and the things that the Holy Ghost has taught us and will yet teach us in those many moments. Our testimonies should be living and continuing to thrive with the nourishment that we give it by reading, praying, learning, having experiences, obeying gods commandments, etc., and simply also bearing that testimony and sharing it with others. I am grateful for my testimony and I hold it dear to my heart, and I hope to always make it thrive and grow consistently throughout my life. Hope you all have a great week and a wonderful time with everything that you have going on! Go Cubs!!
Love,
Anziano Garrett
Mission conference with Elder Russell M. Nelson, October, 2016, Rome, Italy
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