Yesterday was an amazing day! The whole Rome mission met together in Rome to listen to President and Elder Oaks' speak. Very rarely is the whole mission brought together, only when an apostle comes, so it was a very special occasion. It was so, so, so good to see all of my MTC sisters again! They all seem to be doing well. And the conference was really wonderful as well.
Elder Oaks requested to shake all of our hands before his talk and he greeted each of us by name and asked us where we were from. Then Sister and President Acerson gave talks followed by President Oaks (Elder Oaks cousin and an area president over some European missions). He talked about miracles in missionary work and the necessary steps to give 110% as a missionary.
Sister Oaks (Elder Oaks wife) then talked to us about never letting adversity get in our way, and reminded us that if we are diligent in small things great things will come to pass. Elder Oaks finished up the conference and talked about doing it right until the end and never letting up. The whole conference seemed focused on enduring to the end and giving our all. They shared a scripture in Alma 26 vrs. 22 that talks about those who repent, exercise faith, do good works, and pray without ceasing will be able to bring thousands of souls to repentance. Elder Oaks pointed out it said repentance, not baptism, and said that repentance means change.
In keeping with that same train of thought, I read a scripture during studies this week that I wanted to share. It is in Mormon 3:2-3. (I think!) In vs. 2 the Lord commands Mormon to go and cry repentance unto the people and he obeys the Lords command, then in vs. 3 it says, "and it was in vain." I realized when I read that scripture that sometimes we set in our mind that when we are obedient we will receive immediate blessings or everything will work out amazingly. My first thought after reading that was, he did what God asked, why didn’t it work? And then I realized God didn’t command him to go cry repentance promising him great success as a result, God just simply commanded and Mormon Obeyed, no strings attached. What an amazing example. We should never assume we deserve a specific blessing for our obedience. God blesses us in his way and in his time. (I don’t know if I explained my thought process very well.)
As far as the rest of the week went… we decided to set Iolanda’s baptism date. March 7th. I pray that all will go well and that her testimony will grow as the day approaches.
Saturday at the Caritas (soup kitchen type place where we do service) everyone seemed especially needy. You couldn’t go two steps without someone calling out for a napkin or a spoon or more food or less food, sheesh! Ha ha the funny thing was one of the tables actually took the time to read my name tag and then when they wanted something they called out Swenson, Swenson. It caught on and other tables started doing it too. I felt like I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to figure out what everyone wanted. A lot of the people at the caritas don’t speak Italian very well either because they are immigrants from other countries so it makes for some interesting conversation.
Sunday was day one of the 2 day carnival celebration. It is kind of like Halloween minus the scary haunted part and the door to door treats, ok I guess really the only similarity is costumes, but they little kids were sure cute. Oh and there was (and still is) confetti everywhere! Like and inch thick covering the whole ground. People were just walking around with bags of confetti throwing it at each other or spraying silly string. Good times.
Hmm... well I am about out of time so I guess that is it for now. I love you all and I am so grateful for you! Stay healthy and safe and dont forget to help out the missionaries! (referrals are a huge help!)
ciao!
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