Livorno

Livorno is great. It is a lot smaller and quieter than Firenze and slightly cleaner and more spread out than pescara. I think it will be a great area to serve in. Already I am feeling so pumped and excited for the work here, and that is thanks to the zone conference we had 2 days ago. Usually zone conference is a few weeks into the transfer, but there was a member of the 70 coming and so it was moved up to accomadate his schedule. I am apart of the Pisa zone, but am combined with the Firenze zone for zone conference so I got to return to Florence again for a day, it was almost as if I never left. :) Anyways our zone conference was absolutely amazing! Elder and sister Kopischke came (from germany) and spoke to us. And I guess Elder Kopischke is going to become our new area president soon so that is part of the reason why they came.

Sister Kopischke was so funny and very expressive in her talking. English is obviously a second language for both of them, and her English was not quite at the same level as her husbands, but never once did the smile leave her face. She talked with her whole body. Really it was inspiring for me (not because I want to learn to talk with my whole body like that) but because even though she did not speak perfectly she was definitely understood, and just seeing her up in front of us fearlessly sharing her testimony gave me the courage to try a little harder to open my mouth and just speak, even if it comes out a little wrong, it is understood and the language of the spirit is universal.

Elder Kopischke spoke for nearly 4 hours (there was a lunch break inbetween), but I could have listened to him go on for 4 more, it was that good. At the beginning of his training he told us all to write down what we wanted to get out of this zone conference and any questions we might have on our minds and then promised us that they would be answered throughout the conference. He told us that we should never go into a meeting without doing that activity, and suggested we tell our investigators to do the same when we commit them to come to church. I can't even beging to explain everything he taught us, but maybe I can try and convey some of the feelings I had from it. It felt like he addressed nearly all of my concerns and questions and I think that feeling was universal for everyone there. He mentioned Focus, how all of us need to have a focus and a dream. Now I dont know if anyof you have heard the prophecies about the church in Europe, but there have been statements made by prophets about this part of the world, but sometimes it is hard to remember we are apart of that vision. I know that I have had a discouraging thought or two wondering if anything I am doing will even make the slightest difference, but Elder Kopischke assured us that if we put ourselves in the vision we are apart of it. Joseph Smith had a vision of what the church would become and he only lived to see a small slice of that, yet he never stopped giving his all for the vision and dream that he had. Often times we hear about faith the grain of a mustard seed having the power to move mountains, and when things don't magically happen we wonder if our faith is not strong enough or what we are doing wrong, but Elder Kopischke told us with the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountians, here is your pick and shovel. It is true, if you had enough time you could move a mountain. Faith is not simply a matter of being super spiritual and magically watching the wolrd change around you. It is a matter of rolling up your sleves and going to work. We were able to ask questions and get feedback from him and someone asked him what he learned from President Monson, and he said that we all know president monson tells a lot of stories, and uses a lot of examples in his talks, but president monson is not just telling a story, he IS the story. We all have unlimited potential, but more often then not at least for me you think you have to reach some cosmic spiritual level before you will see miracles, but that is just not true. I feel like sometimes we try to force spiritual things, but there is no need to force them, or to run from them we just need to let them happen. One of my favorite quotes, and I can't remember if I have already shared this one or not, is “do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks and then the performance of your task will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle.” I feel like there are miracles just waiting to be performed here in livorno and I am so excited for this transfer and for my companion sorella Crandall. It really is amazing to think that we started our missions together not even put together a sentence in Italian and now just 8 months later we are speaking full conversations. The Lord is truly great.
I wish you all could have been there at that zone conference to hear the talks and feel the spirit. It was just so wonderful. Sometimes we kinda get stuck in a rut, and feel like the ability to change is far beyond our reach, but we all have the power to press forward and rely on the spirit and to be apart of a world full of miracles.

I don't have any pictures yet of livorno, and I guess that is ok cause the computure I am on wont read my flash drive anyways so I will hopefully get some out with next weeks email. Happy Father's day to all the dad's, especially my amazing father. Love ya Dad!

I hope you are all enjoying your summers! You are always in my prayers.

Lots of love


P.S. If any of my friends are reading this and they are engaged, or putting in misison papers, or feeling guilty for not writing more misisonaries you had better write me and let me know! :)