Buongiorno!
I hope that everyone had a wonderful week and that all is well wherever you may be! We had a really good week week with some really good lessons. We are finding new work and have been able to see progress in one of our investigators. He is reading in the Book of Mormon and keeps coming to church each week and he is continuing to learn more and more. He is super awesome. We are excited to be able to continue to see him and meet with him. We have a lot of good work going and really are hoping to get a lot more going too. We are working hard to continue to push ourselves and to be better missionaries. We saw some really cool miracles this week. We went and visited a less active that we both never have seen and he is going to start coming back to church. He still reads the Book of Mormon every day from what we understood. He has three copies and one stays at work. He was super awesome to meet with and he has a family that aren’t members that haven’t been to church and we will make sure that we get them there too. We had amazing conversation with these two people while we were waiting for an appointment that fell through. I really enjoy having those conversations even though sometimes we never may see the results of where that conversation went.
I am really liking the Trapani area and enjoying working with Anziano LaPray, he is a really great missionary and he will do wonderful things here in Italy. Not sure at all if we will be going another one together or not. His uncle worked a lot on a movie coming out soon which is the story from the Mormon message Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light. Sounds like it will be pretty good so you guys should check it out it is called, Just Let It Go. Anziano LaPray wants to be here for Christmas to be with all the members.
The food is really good down here. Haven’t eaten a ton, but what I have eaten has been really good. I was hesitant to share last week what I ate in the fear of losing friends, but we ate horse last week. I didn’t know until the MTC that they eat horse down here. I can’t lie…. it was good. I love the brioche which is a nice big roll and then they slap three different flavors of gelato on them. They are amazing. I often think it is funny when we will be eating here and people will be talking about food for a good portion of the meal, but I honestly can’t laugh too much since my family does the exact same thing hahaha. We must have close Italian ancestry honestly. Trapani is awesome though.
If you have Meet the Mormons on DVD the bonus features have a lady that comes from Paceco which is just outside of Trapani. It has a lot of shots of the scenery around where I am at. It’s got an amazing story in it as well. [The extra feature on the DVD is entitled “The Artist.”]
In my study right now I am in the war chapters of the Book of Mormon and I love seeing the characteristics of Moroni and how steadfast and faithful he is to what he believes and the people he is to protect. It’s really amazing and I love this verse in Alma 48
17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.
He was a valiant man stalwart in what he believed and fought for. There are many characteristics that we can take from him and one I like is to just stand up for what we believe. That doesn’t mean we don’t have to be Christ like about it at all, but we can stand steadfast for what we believe. This week my ponderizing scripture is Matthew 16:25.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
I really love this scripture a lot. Just helps me remind myself that I have to use all my energy to give myself to the service of the people here. I love being able to have the opportunity to serve others. During lunch time this week we watched a Mormon message entitled Lift and it is such a touching story on service. I invite you all to watch it. It is really amazing and I love the quote at the end from President Spencer W. Kimball voiced by Elder D. Todd Cristofferson.
“Not only do we “find” ourselves in terms of acknowledging divine guidance in our lives, but the more we serve our fellow men in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls. We become more significant individuals as we serve others. We become more substantive as we serve others–indeed, it is easier to “find” ourselves because there is so much more of us to find!”
Such an amazing story of service. That I always enjoy seeing. We can pray and then search for acts of service each and everyday. We can look for the ways we can serve each other as family members, friends, and strangers. My invitation to you is to prayerfully seek out a service opportunity this week. I would love to hear the experiences you have from this. I love how through this we can sometimes be the answer to someone’s prayer.
I love you all and hope that you all have a fantastic week and a Happy Halloween! I won’t be able to dress up as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle this year so Hudson (my little cousin) will have to fill in for me. Love you guys!
Love,
Anziano Garrett
[Here is a photo of zone soccer, courtesy of Anziano Cannon’s blog]
Zone soccer, Palermo Zone, October, 2015 (photo from Anziano Cannons’ blog)
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