Love One Another

(Anziano Wilkinson)

We had a pretty eventful week this week! We had a mission-wide conference up in Milan on Sunday and had the chance there to hear from an member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Jeffery R. Holland! The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is a group of twelve men who have been chosen by revelation through a living prophet, just like the original twelve apostles in the Bible. We believe they are called of God and that they hold the priesthood authority to administer to the church on a global scale. They travel the world addressing members of the church and any number of other groups in order to carry forth Christ's message of faith and repentance. And seeing as there are only twelve of them and they can't be everywhere all at once, it is a really special opportunity to have one visit and to be taught by one in person!

The conference was held on Sunday, but our trip up to Milan started on Saturday morning and was made in two parts since Ancona is the farthest city from Milan in our entire mission and the conference was to be held in the morning. So the first part of our trip was up to Bologna, which is roughly halfway, where stayed the night with the Anziani there. The same day they just happened to be holding a meeting in the Bologna chapel for church leaders in the region, so I got the chance to see many of the friends I had made in Pisa and Livorno almost a year ago! It was really a special experience for me. Those people are truly great people.

The next morning we traveled the last leg of our trip to arrive in Milan and for the next hour or so I had the amazing opportunity to see all of the missionaries I had served with and had become so close to. It was wonderful to be able to catch up with my old companions and friends again. The group of us that came in to Italy on the same day all got together and took a picture; some of them I hadn't seen practically since we got off the plane together! I was really glad to have the chance to see them and everyone else who I'd gotten so close to over the past 14 months.

The conference itself was really amazing as well. Our mission president and his wife both addressed us with powerful, brief, and caring messages that only helped set the stage for Elder Holland's talk. Elder Holland decided not to use a microphone or the pulpit, but rather opted to walk down the aisles and talk to us face to face, which was really neat and gave the meeting a lighter mood than it would have had if we had just watched him at the pulpit. He talked about many things, and he even let us ask him a few questions. One of the questions asked was, in effect, "how can we learn to care about other people more deeply?". His answer was simple but powerful: we are naturally filled with more love for other people when we learn to love our Father in Heaven more deeply. He taught us that if we focus our efforts on loving God and doing the things that make Him happy, we will naturally learn to do the same for our fellow brothers and sisters.

His answer reminded me of two very powerful scriptures, the first one being Mosiah 2:17 in the Book of Mormon, which reads, "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." And the second being Matthew 25:34-40 in the New Testament, which says, "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

I love these two scriptures because they contain such powerful truths, one being the God loves His children and that he doesn't desire our suffering and another being that when we serve others, we are in turn serving God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was never intended to secure only the happiness and salvation of single individuals, exactly the opposite, in fact. In order to live the teachings of Christ, we must necessarily love and serve others! There is no other way. We simply cannot be selfish and righteous at the same time; those words are practically antonyms in God's vocabulary! Everything He has ever taught us since the very beginning has been based around His desires for us to 1) love Him and 2) love each other (Matthew 22:37-40). He wants us to love Him because He so deeply and infinitely loves us, even to the point of giving His only perfect Son to pay the price of all of our sins, pains, and imperfections. And because He loves ALL of us, it hurts Him to see us treat each other with apathy, hatred, violence, or in any negative way at all.

Our Father in Heaven desires our happiness and He knows that true happiness is found only in loving selflessly. By learning to love others, we learn to love God and by learning to love God, we learn to love others. Elder Holland's explanation of this truth was very simple yet very powerful. The simple act of loving our Father in Heaven helps us to love others, which, as we know, will in turn make us happier.

Have a great week and look for the chance to love others this week! Open a door for someone, wash someone else's dishes for them, offer to help under any circumstance that presents itself! Doing so will only make you happier!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Our Steadily Emptying Teaching Pool

(Elder Cummings)

Because of some technical difficulties yesterday I am sending this email a day late.

Elder Perkins and I have had an incredible week!  We have learned so much as this month begins to wind down!  In our personal area we will be having five baptisms this weekend.  Five people coming into the covenants of the restored gospel!  This is exciting!

Diana's wedding went wonderfully!  She and Mario are now legally and lawfully wedded and getting ready for the next big event Sunday night.  Diana, her daughter Lurena, and Mario's children Breana and Andre will be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  The weekend before general conference and they all will be members of the church with full fellowship.  Fantastic!

Tawn is all set to be baptized Friday night as well!  He is the last of his mom's sons to find the church.  The process with him has been a long one, and a fun one.  Missionaries started teaching him about six months ago from level zero.  Tawn had no habit of prayer, no real comprehension of Jesus Christ, and an open mind.  As he has kept the commitments we have given him he has grown his testimony and resolved his own concerns about the gospel.  He has come to know the truth of the restoration, the reality of Christ, and Tawn is ready and excited to make the first of his saving covenants this week.  We are excited for him as well!

With all of the baptisms, our teaching pool is looking as if it will be waning.  After setting goals and acting in faith we found a new investigator, Lily!  She is the nine year old daughter of semi-active parents who have slipped under the radar of past missionaries.  She wants to be baptized and we will be seeing her again on Friday to teach and prepare her for an October date.

And the miracles continued into last night.  We had a lesson with Aly Sanchez after a month of no contact.  We thought she had lost interest and no longer had a desire to study with us.  After a series of road trips that included a visit to temple square in Salt Lake she returned home to Merced, called up some of her member friends to set up an a lesson time, and came with some big news.  After doing some catch up and saying the opening prayer we told her that it seemed like she knew what she wanted.  Her response?  "Yes, I want to be baptized."  Before we could even reach down to pick up our jaws off of the ground she decided on a date in October.  The Lord is hastening His work.

We are so happy to be teaching so many people with a desire to come unto Christ through baptism!  It is the best way to empty a teaching pool!

There are some exciting things going on in the Merced Zone!  This is a great way to end the transfer!  We will make this next week a great one!

With love,

Elder Cummings

Pictures!

(Elder Cummings)

This is the first wedding I have ever attended!  Diana and Mario got married on Sunday so that she could be baptized this next Sunday with her daughter and two oldest step children.  We are excited.

FYI, I will be sending my weekly email out tomorrow.  Don't expect it today.

One of the projects Elder Perkins and I have been working on this transfer is getting an up to date key ring.  Previous zone leaders did, but their marking systems all failed to endure.  After several weeks of getting keys figured out, we went by Brother Donaldson's house and pounded in the labels so that they will not be lost again.

Post nightly planning bathroom selfie: One of us sits still a little better than the other ;)

Week of the Full Moon

(Sister Ellsworth)

Ola! E Tudo bem!

This week was probably the most insane week so far. Every day was so busy and crazy weird things happened every day! We blamed it on the full moon....

Monday we found out that one of our long time friends who has been coming to church for the past couple months was never baptized! Her name is Ester and she's married to one of our recent converts. She doesn't speak Portuguese very well but she speaks Hindi, Norwegian, English, and a couple others. We taught her the lessons and she was baptized on Sunday!! Woot!

It really cooled off this week and we've started wearing jackets at night.

Also Sister Williams and I got to use our medical knowledge this week when we saw an elderly man fall outside our Church. We helped call an ambulance and get him to the hospital. I don't know what happened to him though...

Miracle at Church! It's very hard to have people attend church but we had 3 of our investigators at church this week! I was looking around and counting and was dumbfounded.

This week I really learned a lot about patience and that some things come in the timing of the Lord. Heavenly Father always answers prayers but it might not be in the way you want, when you want it, or the answer you want. I was reading in D and C 121, where Joseph Smith is pleading for God to help the saints. In verse one he says; "O God, where art thou?" It's such a desperate, heartbroken plea that I think many of us have.

The answer given to him is found in verses 7 through 9.

 7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

 8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shall triumph over all thy foes.

 9 Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.

Have patience! If things are hard, just wait a bit. It will get better. And if things are great... wait a bit. Things change :)

I love you all and I have never been so happy. I hope all of you turn towards Christ in your times of struggle.

With love,

Sister Ellsworth

Portuguese sunset

Old Barreiro!

Sergio, Ester, Sister Williams, and I! It was a great baptism!

Our act of service one day was helping a fisherman pick up little crabs. He would haul a bucket of them up, dump the crabs on the sidewalk, and frantically scoop them up. He taught us how to pick them up without getting pinched. Reminds me of all the days we went crawdad fishing!!

Wedding Bells

(Elder Cummings)

We have seen another miracle this week!  Elder Perkins and I were led to contact a former investigator about a month ago.  Her name is Diana, and the man she is with, Mario, is a less-active member.  In the household there are six children, three of them eight and older.

When we first made contact they were so happy to see missionaries again!  From the teaching record it has been a little over a year since missionaries had gone by.  They invited us to come back for dinner, then another time for ice cream, then just to share messages.

Diana and Mario live in the Merced 1st Ward boundaries (so they are not Hmong).  At the beginning of the year the ward council set a goal for ten convert baptisms in the year of 2016.  Rolling into September they were sitting at two.  Elder Perkins and I have spent time in prayer and study and through it all the Spirit has confirmed to us that ten is an inspired goal from God.  With four months to go, we have been going to work to reach this goal the Lord has set.

This last week we got a text from Diana telling us that she and Mario finally decided to get married and that she and her children want to be baptized as soon as possible.  This will be a huge boost to the ward missionary goal and we are rejoicing!

September first, Elder Perkins came across this scripture in the gospel of John, chapter 4 verses 35 and 38:

"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest...I sent you to reap"

This work is truly in the Lord's hands.  Faith supported by righteous actions allows us to participate in its rolling forward.  There are people all over the world who are being prepared to receive the gospel.  There are prepared people all over the world who are receiving it.  "There is not more compelling work than this, nor any which brings greater satisfaction" (Preach My Gospel, First Presidency Message).

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Jared Cummings

At zone conference this last week we were there early to set up.  The vehicle coordinator took off with his wife to go to a wedding, so we had his truck for an hour with permission from him to "take it for a joy ride."  We did...to McDonalds for breakfast.

That night we had exchanges with the assistants, but our car which had our overnight stuff was forgotten in Merced.  Their car, and the truck made it to Fresno.  The next morning we drove with them back to Merced and started our morning schedule at 8:00.  It was rough.

La Grotte di Frasassi

(Anziano Wilkinson)

Today we got to visit a cave called La Grotte di Frasassi, which is a massive and absolutely beautiful cave filled to every corner with stalagmites and stalactites. The ceiling continuously drips mineral-packed water that creates beautiful pillars and rock-cicles over the course of thousands of years. It's an absolutely gorgeous sight and being surrounded by these unique structures and marveling at their many colors is certainly an exciting experience. I'll attach a picture here of one of the largest ones in the cave. It stands as tall as a six story building! It's amazing how many beautiful things there are in this world.

This week we had a lesson with a man named Giuseppe. He has been smoking for years and we are working with him to help him quit. We've tried various approaches to help him develop the internal drive to leave cigarettes, but, despite the facts that he wants to quit and knows that smoking is hurting him, he has failed to make any noticeable progress towards quitting. This week we met with him and talked to him about the importance of goals and planning. He told us that planning and goal setting weren't things he normally did, but rather, that he mostly just went with the flow and concerned himself with the present rather than worry about the future. We taught him about the importance of the principles of good planning and goal setting and helped him to understand that rarely does positive personal change ever take place without both of those elements.

Elder M. Russell Ballard, a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles once said, "I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life." Without good goals and proper planning to accomplish those goals, we are likely to reach "but a small part of our full potential" by the end of our lives. If we want to accomplish something in our lives, whether it be running a marathon, quitting smoking, or enhancing the lives of other people, we must set goals. A runner must prepare and must have a plan of action in order to become physically fit enough to run a 26.2 miles in one go. The same is true for any other goal. We can't simply sit around wishing to do that thing we've always wanted to do, or visit that place we've always wanted to visit, or become that person we've always wanted to be. If we want to realize our dreams, we must do it by way of goal setting and planning.

So we helped Giuseppe understand these principles and he has begun to take the first steps to turning his desire to quit smoking into a goal. After all, goals are no more than desires and dreams with a plan! I believe in that lesson we helped Giuseppe to start thinking more about his own personal commitment and duty in achieving his own aspirations. We helped him to understand that no one can make him achieve a goal without his own personal involvement.

In this life, we are to prepare ourselves to meet God. Christ Himself gave us the inspired commandment to be "perfect, even as [our] Father which is in heaven is perfect." If we are to accomplish that enormous task, then we can't simply overlook goal setting and planning. The Lord will magnify our efforts as we display our sincere desires to become like Him. And while we may never reach the Lord's standard of perfection while we're still on the earth, with goals and plans we will be able to get closer. And thanks to the atonement of Jesus Christ, this lofty goal of perfection is achievable! We are able to become perfect in the end, but it requires sincere effort and trust in Him. We can show that effort and trust by setting and achieving goals and in return He will bless us to do and become far more than we ever could on our own!

Set great goals and don't forget to have a great week!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Transfers!

(Sister Ellsworth)

Ola!

It's transfer weekend! Basically our whole mission exploded. There was 14 whitewashes, which is where both missionaries are taken out and new ones are put in. Usually there's like 4 or 5 whitewashes in a transfer.... BUT! Sister Williams and I are staying in Barreiro! Woot!! The rest of our zone is completely changed though.

This week the heat got up to 107 ish degrees.... It was definitely motivation to tech lessons indoors! haha. Also this week we had a lot of success teaching and one of the days we taught for 7 hours straight. In our English class we taught people how to sing the Once There Was A Snowman song with the little dance and everything. They liked it!

I got to go to my first Portuguese wedding this week! It was a lot of fun! (As much fun as a missionary could have at a wedding lol) Lots of little cakes and pastries! I think the best thing about Portugal is all of the little shops with cheap food.

They have McDonalds here! And it;s just as bad as it is in the states XD

This is my "Stop taking pictures and let me eat" face

​​

Love you all!

Sister Ellsworth