Resegone, Bergamo, Volleyball, and Commandments!

(Anziano Wilkinson)
Last week we had an unfortunate turn of events with our P-day activities. We decided to take a hike up in Lecco with some other anziani and so we started out early so as to have enough time to come back and finish doing the other things we needed to do to prepare ourselves for the week. We had a great time hiking to the top of Resegone peak and we even celebrated our arrival with a typical Italian Easter cake called a colomba haha. For some reason, however, the group decided to take different way down. I was against this idea but I was out numbered so I had no choice haha. Anyway, long story short, we got lost on the way down and ended up making our four hour hike an eight hour one, in the which we hiked 17 miles and took 37000 steps... on a mountain... we were all pretty tired in the end haha. So needless to say, the rest of our day was shot and we only managed to get home by the end of the day. We definitely won't be doing that again any time soon! Haha

This week we played volleyball with some other missionaries around the Milano area and it a bunch of fun! Luckily the field was indoors and the sand was heated, because it was really cold and rainy! We had a blast, but after so many hours of running around in the sand my legs started remembering our misfortunes on Resegone and we had to call it quits haha.

Then on this past Tuesday we had another crazy thing happen that ended up taking up a bunch of our time! So that day, April 25, is Italy's Independence Day, so obviously it was a national holiday. Apparently the Anziani of Bergamo didn't get the memo and ended up stranded in a small city in the mountains about two hours away from their home with no bus to take them there. So naturally, we, having a car, got a call from our president asking us to do a rescue mission for these poor stranded anziani haha. It was a long drive, but it was fun and the mountains were gorgeous! Bergamo and it's surrounding areas are easily some of my favorites in our mission! The mountains are super green and steep and every once in a while you drive though charming little towns that look like they could be part of a storybook. Let's just say that this little detour was more than worth it for my companion anziano Farneman and I haha.

Aside from these adventures, we had a fantastic lesson with one of our investigators, Viviana! We talked about obedience and commandments and more particularly about how they don't restrict us, but rather, free us! God is our loving Heavenly Father, and because of this, He gives us commandments so that we can know what things make us happy and what things make us unhappy. It's always our choice to obey the commandments, but every time we do we are guaranteed blessings! As our Heavenly Father has declared in the scriptures, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." He never varies from His promises! When we obey, He blesses! Always! But when we disobey, we forfeit blessings and become slaves to the consequences of sin, which consequences range from legal trouble, to addictions, to haunting memories and feelings of guilt. Obedience to true principles frees of from these things and that's why God commands us to obey them! This principle clicked for Viviana and the spirit testified powerfully of the truth of it. She's now anxiously anticipating learning more about what those commandments are so that she can live them more fully! She has a great desire to do what's right and she's one of the most sincere learners I've ever taught!

I hope you have a great week and remember to obey the commandments!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson