Okay, so they sadly don't celebrate thanksgiving in Italy...
But there is still great food here so I can complain too much! Last week we hadtransfers
and I met my new comp Anziano Mattson! He is a wiz withanything mechanical and
he loves to get his hands dirty working on fixing things. He is a really hard
worker and is always trying to dowhat's right; he's a great guy. We get along
well and make a good teamwhen we're working together to tackle the tasks before
us. I can tell this will be a good transfer!
So now that I'm back and settled in Pisa we are hitting the
road with more determination than ever to utilize our time well and help as
many people as we can. We're especially working hard to involve the members in
our work and just uplift the ward in general. It's been a fun transfer so far
and I can't wait to see what lays in store for the rest of it!
The weather is finally changing here in Pisa and we are
breaking out the jackets, sweaters,and scarves. It's so sad that it's getting
cold now, but I suppose we've evaded it long enough so I can't complain! The
only problem is is that it comes with a lot of really cold rain, which isn't
exactly the funnest but we survive haha.
Recently I was reading in the fifth chapter of Luke and I
came across the story of Christ calling Peter to be an apostle. Before meeting Christ,
Peter and his fellow fishermen had been struggling in their efforts to catch
anything despite the long hours they had been putting in. But after listening
to the Savior give a sermon, Peter began to regard Christ as someone to be
respected. At the end of his sermon, Christ tells Peter to thrust out to sea
and cast his nets in the water to catch fish. Peter's response was a humble one
and an important one, in which he said, "Master, we have toiled all the
night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the
net."
How often to we find ourselves in a similar situation to
Peter? The situation where we try our best to do what's right (in Peter's case
to make an honest living) and despite our best efforts we find little success
or, in Peter's case, none at all. Many time we lose hope and become doubtful
when our efforts to do something prove fruitless. But we should never forget to
have the humility to do just as Peter did and trust in the Lord.
Many times the Lord withholds success from us so that we can
turn to him more fully and give our trust to him. It is many times our humility
which unlocks the windows of heaven to pour out success upon us. For Peter, by
having the humility to trust in the Lord's instructions he pulled so many fish
that it filled two boats to the brink of sinking and stretched his nets nearly
to the point of breaking. This same blessing of success is outstretched to us
as well if we humble ourselves as Peter did! No matter how fruitless our efforts
to do what is right seem at times, I promise that our efforts are not forgotten
by the Lord. Instead of complaining when blessing don't come immediately, we
should humble ourselves in the face of hard times, follow the Lord's council,
and say to him as Peter did: "at thy word I will [keep trying]".
So if hard times happen to have washed up in your lives, I
invite you to ask the Savior what he would have you do and have the humility to
do whatever it is that he instructs. I promise that as you make this a pattern
in your life you will find that hard times will turn into huge success,
sometimes so huge that you won't even have room enough to receive it! So
whatever it is that is giving you difficultly this week, don't give up on it,
just keep trying to do what is right and the Lord will bless you with success.
Have great week everyone and enjoy thanksgiving!
-Anziano Jake Wilkinson
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