Sunday, May 7, 2017

Rain, Viviana, Soccer and the Savior

(Anziano Wilkinson)
We all know that "April showers bring May flowers", but, when Italy forgets that it was April until the last week and just decides to keep on pouring into May, we can expect flowers some other time. That is our reality this week. That old time saying put a nice due date on most of the worlds downpours and trickles in Italy, like a washed up high schooler, rushing to finish his procrastinated homework the night before. Of course, dealing with the rain gets a lot easier in missionary life if one happens to be in possession of a Toyota Yaris. Haha

We this past week was a pretty great one! It started with a solid lesson with Viviana about the Ten Commandments. We are so excited about Viviana's progress and the way that she is trying to bring the Spirit into her life! It was a great lesson! She, sadly, wasn't able to make it to church this week due to complications, but it'll be good. She plans on introducing us to her boyfriend Adrian sometime soon, so wish us luck!

This weekend we went on exchanges with the Anziani in the town next door, Merate (a thirty minute drive). And that went really well. We got some good work done and saw some awesome people up there (which basically looks like a brand new city compared to a lot of Italy as the oldest parts seem to have been built around the 70s and 80s at the earliest).

On Saturday we had a YSA/missionary activity where we came to the church and played sports. Mainly handball and soccer were played but we did some other games as well. It was a good time and we had Paul, our new convert, there... And he brought 7 of his friends! They made a soccer team and it looked like team Nigeria vs. Team Italy haha. It was great! You just have to try hard to integrate them and make sure things are communicated correctly for them because Italians don't speak English that well, and the Nigerians often don't really speak Italian. But it was a great success!  This week I wanted to share that truly, our Heavenly Father loves us! He has very high expectations for us, it is true. But, He knows that we can all make it. And He wants to help us and will help us as we strive to be like Him and His son. Miracles happen everyday, and I would argue that the very greatest of the miracles that happen are the ones that deal with our very nature. When we put ourselves trustingly in the hands of our Savior, and He takes what was once raw material with only great potential, and makes us more than we could ever become by ourselves. He does this by changing changing our hearts when we let him and try.

I hope that you have a fantastic week and remember to let the Savior change your hearts!


-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

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