Today we woke up to quite an interesting experience. There
was an earthquake at around 2 am a little over 100 kilometers south of Ancona,
where I'm serving right now. No one in my city was hurt and the tremors were
mild enough for us that we just went right back to sleep after they happened,
but apparently that wasn't the case down south. Many people were hurt and an
entire village was practically destroyed. I'm doing just fine myself though, so
no worries! In fact, this morning my companion and I took a hike up in the
mountains south of Ancona and had a fantastic time seeing the beautiful views
and breathing the mountain air. I'll post some pictures below!
In the past two weeks we had the wonderful opportunity to
meet and teach many amazing people. The first is a man named Effrim from
Albania that has lived in Italy for many years. He has met with missionaries in
the past and supposedly been taught by them, but it having been a long time
before, we asked him if he'd be interested in hearing our message again. He
accepted and listened very intently to our message about the restoration of the
church of Jesus Christ and one could tell that he was deep in thought as we
explained the doctrines behind this concept. He accepted the invitation to read
the Book of Mormon and pray about it in order to receive a confirmation of the
truth of our message. He also happily came to church the next day and had a
great experience! He is expressing a real desire to learn about the blessings our
Heavenly Father has in store for him. I don't know what made the difference
this second time he was taught, but apparently the Lord has prepared him to
take further steps along the path of discipleship in this later stage of his
life and the difference is already noticeable in him!
The other is a very humble and sincere woman who has been
searching for years for a stronger relationship with God. Her name is Rosy and
she is from Peru; our week has been a very international one to say the least!
As we shared with her the concepts of the restoration she asked us many
intelligent questions and paid close attention to what we shared with her. A
recent convert in the Ancona Branch named William had invited her to learn
about the doctrines of our religion that have recently changed his life and she
accepted the invite. She has studied with many other churches in the past and
had not found success in her search to know God better. As we taught her the
doctrine of personal revelation ("if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask
of God") and asked her if she had ever received an answer to a questions
she proposed to God in prayer. She told us that one of her prayers was answered
during our lesson with her. The spirit was strong and her humility and
sincerity allowed her to be taught during this lesson more by the Holy Ghost
and less by the actual words that we used.
It's such a special experience to be a missionary for our
Heavenly Father and to be in his service full-time for these two years. Above
all I've been thinking about a verse in the scriptures that contains a promise
concerning missionary work of the church of Jesus Christ in our times. The
verse says, "Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the
children of men." I love this verse because of the surety of the
statement. "A marvelous work is about to come forth." It doesn't say
"might come forth" or "could come forth" it says
"is". The Lord is pulling things together to fulfill his promises
that he has been making since the beginning of time and today those promises
are being fulfilled. We see so many people every day that have been and are
being spiritually prepared to make greater promises with their Heavenly Father
and the hand of the Lord is quite evident in all of their lives. It's humbling
to be a part of the fulfillment of this promise because the gospel of Jesus
Christ means so much to me personally. We have the chance to become perfect
through a life of faithful trust in our Savior and He is anxious to bless us
beyond our wildest dreams. We have a Father in Heaven who loves us and knows us
each individually; He has a plan for us and is moving mountains to help us
become the amazing people that we have the potential to become.
Have a fantastic week and remember to thank our Heavenly
Father for His many blessings!
-Anziano Jake Wilkinson
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There was a leaf hanging from a spiderweb and I couldn't
resist taking this picture hahaha.
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