Jackson Weekly Vol.14

Sorry everyone that emails are exposed this week I can't figure out BCC on my phone. So if anyone desires to write back be sure to not do reply all.

Sorry this one's a long one. But it was a week with an extra day...

You know how people talk about feeling a weight being lifted off of their shoulders? Well, I had that experience this week. One morning I was feeling the effects of walking around with my heavy backpack the day before, it wasn't that painful but I was feeling a little uncomfortable. So I took my English and Italian Bibles out of my backpack and it made it much better :). 

This week once again had highs and lows. For instance with the language. One or two people thought that I was from Italy which made me feel pretty good. But of course, I was humbled when a couple of people said "sorry I don't speak English" after I asked a question in Italian... I didn't even try to save it, I just walked away. And today I was trying to speak and literally everything left my brain. I could barely say my name. But I'll just blame it on being pretty tired this whole week.

We got to meet [redacted] in person and it was great! He's a "less active" but that's kinda not his fault...as in because by law he's not allowed to leave a certain town. But he's diligent at reading his scriptures, praying, everything really, and we're working with him to prepare him for the temple when he is able to be a bit more free. He was so excited when we said that's what we wanted to work on. He basically got arrested almost 10 years ago, and was only in prison for 6 months but now the government keeps saying they want to watch him one more year, over and over. But he says this year is it because basically he'll be set free and live with his sister or he'll be under house arrest another year in his sister's house (since the local government is tired of paying for him when they say he's been ready to enter the real world again for years) so that's good news. His life isn't easy and he shared a lot of his pain with us. But he has a lot of faith and hope for the future. And so do I.

We're also working with another member and preparing him for the temple as well. That was also a weird experience. First off, on the way there someone may have taken us to the highway on our bikes. I won't say who but let's just say that after that I was put back in charge of navigating (and I had to explain how one of the intersections worked between these two highways, it was actually fun). Anyway the street the member lives on was very utopian and had like an artificial, cartoony feel to it. And then we get inside and it looks like a movie set. Everything was just a little smaller than normal, everything was perfectly tidy, he had a tiny kitchen/TV room, and everything was old but not in a used, nasty, gross way. It felt like I was in the Truman Show.

As you may have noticed p-day was a day late this week. This is because we had Zone Conference yesterday! I think it was actually 4 zones. Not only did we get to hear from the Wood's we also got to hear from President De Feo, the Europe Central Area President. He was nice enough to speak in english even though he is a real Italian. He taught us about our mantle as missionaries and said it was made up of three things. The first is authority. It is an unconditional gift. As a set apart missionary you have the authority to find, teach & preach. The second is power. The power to overcome. Overcome the world and ourselves. And the third was also power. But this time the power to preach/be effective. And both of these powers are Conditional. We receive that power when we keep our covenants and when we are obedient. He said he doesn't like rules and understands that we might like our standards. But he said that's why it's important to understand the doctrine and knows it really just to give us power. He also talked for like 2 more hours about other things but I got pretty tired. 

Presidente & Sorella Wood also gave amazing counsel and talks. I feel so blessed to have them as my mission leaders. Every time I see them I'm instantly in a good mood. As they walked in we were all standing and Sister Wood saw us down the hallway and started crying the instant she saw us. So naturally alot of us were smiling and wiping away our tears too. Later as we sang the EFY medley President Wood started crying. That made it really hard to keep singing so I had to look away from him. And then he said that he wants to share what he felt in that moment to everyone in the world, because he felt as if the heavens were open. I felt even more greatful for the Wood's as we got to hear first hand from President De Feo that once accompanying a member of the 12 assigning mission calls he recalls that that certain member of the 12 asked to go back 4 missionaries, and then waiting a minute saying the spirit told him he needed to change that Elder's call. He then assigned him to the next mission over from the one previously selected. When President De Feo asked him why (it was the same country same language same culture) he said it was because that Elder and that mission president would get along better and were meant to be together. Another testimony that we're not just assigned to a place, a language,or a country, but a certain leader. 

Sister Wood talked about the Book of Mormon, it's importance and power-which I think is the biggest thing I've been learning so far on my mission, and will continue to learn the rest of my life. Also the Book of Mormon videos are really entertaining when you don't have access to anything else... As always my mission president gave the best and most inspiring talks and advise. While he talked about a lot of things some key moments really stood out. One is that he said he he knows some of us our struggling and that he wanted us to know we're not alone. And I thought that was pretty generic and basic, but still nice. And then he said "the Lord has told me who you are". 😳. I'm wouldn't say I'm having a really hard time (yet), but I felt reassured knowing that if/when I do have hard days or months that the Lord is aware of me and when needed my president too. Very quickly he also shared how to work towarads miracles and expect them and more about the Book of Mormon being so powerful.

I feel like a lot of this has been kind of spiritual. And at least at the time of writing this, I'm still full of the spirit after zone conference. But I'll just share one little quote from I think President Nealson; he says: "coincidences are miracles where the lord wants to remain unknown". A large part of coming on a mission was because of my witness of all the little things God has given me and knowing it's not a coincidence. Certain friends, even random people I've met here, certain aspects of my mission call and president, even just when I see a little Mini hardtop, I know it's not just a coincidence. 

God is a God of miracles, expect them and work to have them in your lives.

Oh and the subject line of this email is from seeing a girl who looked like a young Anna Wintour. So naturally I wanted to name this like a magazine and maybe one day it will be published like Vouge. I guess I haven't changed all that much 🙃.

I took like 0 pictures this week so I'll throw some in from the Castle from last p-day
-me with the Howe's our sweet senior couple leaving us soon
-views from the wall we got to walk on
-the castle itself



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Visiting the Italy Milan Mission & bringing Jackson home -- Getting to Italy

Image
Dad, Mom, Madi and Carson traveled to Italy to visit Jackson's mission, meet the people he had taught and served, and bring him home. This a complication of notes, pictures, social media posts and memories documenting the trip. Sorry it is a little disjointed as some is in first person, some third, some present tense and some past tense. Wednesday July 31st (social media post by Mom) On his very last day as a missionary, Anziano Puzey was still able to be the answer to prayer. This story is what I call a divine signature. When things so miraculously align that it feels as if Heavenly Father puts His signature to it saying ‘I’m here.’ He was out touring Milan for his last pday with another missionary who is waiting on his parents to get there and they ran into my childhood friend’s daughter. She is a classically trained violinist and she was there for a 3 week program. The program ended today and she had to make her way to a hotel in Milan on her own to fly home tomorrow (her progra...
Read more

Temi & Israel

Image
I have already written about the people who were baptized this past week but as a little reminder: Temi and her 3 kids were invited to come to church in the middle of Febuary and have come every week since. We were able to give her the Book of Mormon on that first Sunday and explain a few things about our church and set up a return appointment. Israel and her other sons found friends in the primary and, for the first time, found a church they wanted to keep coming back to. As they kept coming, they truly became a part of the branch and are known by all. They were baptized just a few days after Israel's 8th birthday and enjoyed celebrating with the whole branch. It was a great ceremony and it was so amazing seeing everyone come together. Our primary played a big role. We had them give a special musical number and a few kids talked about their baptismal experience. We had a couple of talks given by the primary leaders that know Israel really well and I think it helped them feel so sp...
Read more

End of June

Image
June is already over! I feel like it is still supposed to be spring, how is it moving by so fast? These past couple of weeks have brought some of the biggest changes that I have seen. We have seen constant miracles and have grown so much here in Como! We took zone conference to heart, and we know that the Lord has prepared at least one person a day. And we have seen that tenfold (well okay not really but still a ton). And the weird thing is that I would say we have been putting in a similar amount of work, but the faith I had in my previous statement was just more true than ever. And this leads to some great things! We have had a woman chase after us asking if we could meet with her and her son. I have sat next to people on buses who said they ran into missionaries years ago and would like to meet some more. We were even approached on the train by a guy who said that he is just searching for this relationship with God like he hasn't had before.  Following the 2020 co...
Read more