Sand, Daniele, and the Atonement

(Anziano Wilkinson)

For P-day today we made a trip out to Rimini for a zone Barbecue where we grilled and played plenty of beach volleyball and soccer. I was pretty excited to get my toes into the sand and play beach volleyball in particular (although we weren't on a real beach). And grilling is always a great time since it's not every day that we have access to a grill! With all the running and diving I did today, I'd say it's pretty safe to say that I might be a little sore tomorrow, but it was all worth it!

This week we had a very great experience with a man named Daniele. Daniele lives right across the street from our church building and always says hi to us through his window when he sees us. He is super nice and also super Italian, which is fantastic. He is a very kind man, especially towards the missionaries in particular, seeing as he is known to bring us desserts from time to time haha. He invited us over to talk one afternoon and so we happily agreed. We proceeded to have a very interesting conversation about tourism in Europe and which places were the best to visit. He told us many funny stories about the places that he's visited and things he's experienced in foreign countries. Apparently Moldavia is the coolest place to visit in Europe for the cheapest price, so write that down for when you take your next trip to Europe!

During this visit we were able to not only get to know Daniele a lot better but also his mother and father, whom he takes care of and lives with. They are all such nice people and amazingly hospitable. They kept offering us coffee and asking us, "are you sure you don't want any?" each time we declined the offer haha. But the best part of the encounter was when they allowed us to share a spiritual thought with them before we left. We shared with them a short video about Jesus Christ and the impact that the gift of His atonement has on each of our daily lives. The spirit was strong as we bore testimony of the reality of Christ's atonement and it was clear to see that they were touched by our message.

We're excited to see how else we can bring more light into their lives and to share with them the message of the restoration. The hearts of Daniele and his family have been prepared and I couldn't be more excited to share more of the happiness I feel in living the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Have a great week and don't forget to utilize the power of Christ's atonement!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

The Fields Are White

(Anziano Wilkinson)

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

There was a leaf hanging from a spiderweb and I couldn't resist taking this picture hahaha.

Life in Ancona

(Anziano Wilkinson)

We've been having a great time in Ancona recently! Today we went and visited yet another castle up in the mountains, not San Marino this time, but a small place called Gradara. This castle was much bigger than any I have seen in Italy and so much more full of life. It was like a little medieval town on the outside of the castle and the whole experience was a blast from the past. There was medieval music playing, people dressed up in old costumes, and decorations to make the ambiance look like we had basically walked into a magical city haha. It was definitely worth the trip!

Meanwhile, back in a Ancona we have been seeing great things happen. Miracle after miracle keeps coming to us just as we think it can't get any better. But instead of just talking about it, I'll share a few of them!

So on Sunday we ended up having our evening plans fall through at the last minute and so we decided we'd call some people up to see if we couldn't set up an appointment. We ended up calling one of the people we teach and asking if we could pass by him, he told us he had some time and that we could find him at a park where he was hanging out with some friends. So we showed up and to our surprise, what turned out to be "some friends" was more like thirty people, some playing soccer, others just sitting on benches chatting. We spent a while getting to know many of them and in no time we were all laughing and joking together. After a while we asked if we could share a spiritual thought and we ended up teaching the plan of salvation to a huge portion of these people. It was an amazing experience to be able to stand and testify to so many people of the plan of happiness our Father in Heaven has made for us. They invited us to come back this next Sunday as well because I guess they gather like this every Sunday evening. In one night the number of potential people we have to teach easily doubled. Teaching so many people at once made us feel a little bit like the original twelve apostles must have when they taught large crowds of people in the streets of the ancient Roman Empire. It was definitely an experience to be remembered.

Another miracle happened a little bit earlier in the week when my companion had to be present at a district leader meeting. The it works in our mission is that every district leader in the mission and our president in essence signs on to a virtual skype-based chat room and participates via internet. I was not a part of it so I did not have really anything extremely productive to do. Not long after we had gotten to the church in order to get wifi for this video conference, we heard the doorbell buzz. I answered the door to find a woman who had seemingly randomly showed up to ask if she could come in to warm herself (yes, it was cold that day, and rainy, I'm really not sure how that happened in the middle of summer, but hey, it happened). I talked with this lady while my companion participated in his video conference and got to know a little about who she was. It became very clear to me that she had experienced a lot of hardships in her life. We had the chance to talk about the healing power of our Savior Jesus Christ and about how she could access that power just as easily as anyone. One could tell that she found hope in the words I shared with her and she gladly accepted the invitation to learn more about what we believe and about how she could more effectively access the power of the Atonement. I don't know how the video conference my companion needed to attend happened to fall on the only cold day in August and how this lady, chilled by the cold, happened to be in the right place at the right time to find our church at one of the few times when people were there not on a Sunday, but to me it was no coincidence. This woman (whose name is Magdalena) needed to hear the message we shared with her. Our Father in Heaven set things in place so that she could find us when she needed it most.

The list of miracle we saw this week does not end with these two; there are many many more that we have been a part of! The work of the a lord is moving forward here in Ancona and all thanks to the faith of everyone involved. It has been humbling to have been a part of these amazing experiences and I hope to continue to see more as we keep working hard and seeking the guidance of the spirit in our daily lives. If anything can be learned from these experiences, it's that God has a plan for his children in a Ancona and loves them, just as He does for all of us.

Have a fantastic week and look for the miracles!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Remini and Pinkeye

(Anziano Wilkinson)
This week has been a very eventful one. Amid the normal business of teaching lessons and getting things done, Anziano Hansen contracted pinkeye! He is basically all better now, but that put an unexpected twist in our plans. As soon as he wasn't contagious and was feeling better we were back out and working again! I've been spared from it, it seems, but I'm still nervous that I might get it too...

On Tuesday we got to do an exchange with the zone leaders in Rimini, which is one of the most beautiful cities in all of Italy and is known for it's beaches and summer beach parties. I got to spend the whole day getting around in an air conditioned car (a rare luxury as a missionary in this mission!). We got some great work done and I was glad to get to know them better. We spent the next day (today, P-day), with the Anziani from Forlì peddling along the shoreline in a four-person bike. We rented it for two hours and got a pretty solid work out by the end, but it was super fun and absolutely worth it! I'll attach some pictures at the bottom.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about Christlike attributes and the importance of developing them in our lives. Preach My Gospel outlines several of the most important ones like Faith, Hope, Charity, Virtue, Knowledge, Patience, Humility, Diligence, and Obedience. The book explains what each of them are and what blessings come from developing those attributes. It has been said that the character of Christ is what enabled Him to perform the atonement for us. If He was not perfect in character, He would have been just like any of us, but since He was perfect, He was so much more. In this life, we are to strive to be like Him, because God has asked us to "Be... perfect, even as [our] Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). And the promise to this is "happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come" (The Living Christ). As we develop Christlike attributes we progress on the road toward perfection; it's a goal we won't reach in this life, but it is a goal that our Father in Heaven has promised is possible for all of us. Think about the example of Christ this week and contemplate on how you can commit yourself more fully follow Him. There is no greater reward than happiness and no better way to find it than through the example of Christ.

Hope summer is treating you well! Till next week!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Ancona!

So last week I got transferred to sere in the beautiful city of Ancona! It's an amazing city full of amazing people and after only a week here I can tell it is only going to get better! The city is on the eastern coast of Italy and is at the very bottom of the Milan Mission. It's a minor port city, mostly for ferries that will take you to a number of different countries around the Mediterranean. Too bad I have to stay here in Italy or else I might consider visiting Greece for one of my P-days! But anyway, Ancona is covered with rolling Hillsendales sand and open space, which is a big change from all of my previous cities. There is so much open air here and so many beautiful views of the sea and the land. The people here are amazing too! The city is very diverse and not too big. We are always on foot or in bus (Finally, no bikes!). The branch here is full of great people that are excited to be a part of the church and I am more than excited to help them in this beautiful city for the next few months!

My new companion is named Anziano Hansen and he is my first companion that has been in the mission for less time than I have, not by much though. He is very into baseball and is very dedicated to serving the Lord here in Ancona and also dedicated to eating healthily and getting daily exercise. He hopes to play baseball in college when he gets home and so he wakes up early to get extra time to train. His dedication to the work is equally strong during the day, taking care to be effective with his time and kind with everyone he encounters. He and I are getting along great and are enjoying serving in Ancona a bunch!

This week I spent a good amount of time studying Isaiah 1:18, which says, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." I love the promise in this verse. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow". All of us have made mistakes from time to time in our lives, and many (if not all) of us have made some pretty big ones. Those sins weigh upon us like sandbags hung around our necks. They leave marks of scarlet on our consciences that we can't remove by ourselves. But Christ payed the ultimate price for us in order to remove those crimson stains. His atonement, if we turn to him with our whole hearts, can make our sins "as white as snow". He said once, "come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). That promise is still extended to us today! If we come unto Christ, he will heal us. If we let Him, He will lift from us the weights of sin and regret. What an amazing gift! I'm so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. Because of him, we can become clean, whole, and at peace.

Have a great week and remember the promise in Isaiah 1:18!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson