Captain Moroni

(Anziano Wilkinson)

This week we had the chance to go visit Milan again! As always, it's a terribly long train ride, but we survived it once again. The reason why we went up there was because there was a meeting for trainers and trainees in order to help the trainees understand how things work as well as give us trainers a refresher course. Basically, they told us what to do if we got hurt or sick, or if a bike breaks, or if an emergency happens. Nothing's super special, but all important stuff geared at helping us be more informed and more efficient. It was nice though to see many of my good friends there as well, since many of them are training or for some reason or another showed up to the church building we were in.

We also found some cool places to explore in Ancona as well! There is apparently an abandoned fort in the top of the highest peak overlooking the ocean. It's open for people to walk through the grounds (but not the buildings, sadly haha) and it's pretty sweet, kinda like Chernobyl in a way! Here's a picture of the view from atop the peak; in the foreground is a super old Jewish cemetery (or at least it looks super old):

And here's also a random art price that we found that was pretty awesome. It's called "La Porta di Nu" if I remember correctly:

Lately I've been reading in the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon about the conflicts between the Nephites (the good guys) and the Lamanites (the bad guys). The Nephites had relatively recently switched from a monarchal government to a more democratic form of government and two decades later there apparently still existed a faction of opposers of the change. They referred to themselves as kingmen and advocated for there to be a king once again set up in the place of their "chief judge". They didn't have much success and when the matter was put to a vote, the voice of the people expressed that they would much rather have the freedom to choose their rulers. Eventually a portion of these kingmen dissented from the Nephites and joined the Lamanites and proceeded to rally them up to go to war with the Nephites. This began a long and difficult war between the two groups where one group was fighting unjustly for greater power and the other fighting (or rather defending) for their liberties and lives.

A prominent figure in the recount of this conflict was a man named Moroni, who was the captain of the Nephite armies. He was a man of great integrity and faith and when the liberty of his people was threatened, he was the man everyone turned to for the defense of the people. Alma 48:16 sheds some light on the type of person Captain Moroni was. It explains that Captain Moroni's "heart did glory in [the defense of his people]; not in the shedding of blood but in doing good, in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God, yea, and resisting iniquity." Clearly from this verse we can gather that he was a great guy, whose glory was in doing good, but verse  17 sheds even more light onto the quality of his character when it says, "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men."

What a statement! Basically, if everyone was like Moroni, there would be no evil in the world, because we would all be beyond the influence of it! He was a man whose heart was set entirely on doing what was right and he was driven by the cause of freedom and defense of the many things he was grateful for, like his family, his country, and his right to worship (Alma 46:12). Imagine if we were all a little more like Moroni! Imagine if we were all a little more committed to "doing good,... keeping the commandments of God,... and resisting iniquity"! The world would be a much better place, without a doubt. Take some time today and think about this; think of ways you can be more fully dedicated to good causes and good things and remember the promised blessings, including that, if we would all do it, then "the very powers of hell would be shaken forever". We may not be able to convince everyone to be more like Moroni, but if we can do our part, then I am certain that we can make a difference, even in our own small ways. As Mother Teresa once said, "What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean, but if we didn’t do it, the ocean would be one drop less."

I hope you have a great week and that you find even more ways to be even more valiant in "doing good"!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

The Gospel Blesses Families

(Elder Cummings)

Yesterday Foua, Leng, Chen, Teng, Rose, and Kou all came to church.  They are one big happy family all together!  The baptism for mom and the oldest two will be next weekend.  They are excited.  It has been a process for sure.

We were talking to Foua about when things really changed.  She has had missionary contact since 2009, and was never willing to come to church and even talk with the missionaries about baptism until very recently.  What was it?  She began reading in the Book of Mormon every day.

Everyone has their own conversion process, but gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon is essential for each convert into the church.  From a testimony of the Book of Mormon a sure testimony is gained of Jesus Christ and his work on the earth.  As Foua has studied the words of prophets in the Bible, but especially in the Book of Mormon, she has grown in faith, and now moves forward with baptism unto repentance.

The Book of Mormon invites all to come unto Christ.  Read it!

With love,

Elder Cummings

Halloween, New Companion, & an African woman gave me a dress

(Sister Ellsworth)

Ola!

We had a crazy week this week! It started off with a companion transfer and I have a new companion named Sister Oliver. She's from Washington State and has been in Portugal for one year. (Yeah she's old...) Haha. I made it to my four month mark this week! Can you believe it? Whew. Some days it feels like I've been here forever and some days it feels like it's only been a few days. My companion is from the United States but we only speak Portuguese. I haven't spoken any English for almost 5 days (besides a couple of specific vocabulary words). Wooooooot! She's a really fun companion. We love to mess with the Elders, as seen in one of the photos. That was after they had scared us during lunch at the Chapel and caused us to drop our lunch all over the floor. We printed out pictures of them and left them all over their door. The sticky note says "tomem cuidado" which means take caution. Stay tuned for more pranks....

Also, weird thing happened this week. We were talking to this big ol' mama African lady, you know like one of those ladies from the deep south except Portuguese style so a lot more sass and attitude, and I wanted to be nice so I told her I absolutely loved her African dress. She invited us into her house to talk, sat us down on the couch, disappeared into another room, and came back with African dresses for the both of us. So now we have legit African dresses! Haha! Her son is marked for baptism in a few weeks.

One thing about Portugal is basically everyone is learning English and so sometimes people will ask us to teach them English words and such. Manuela was being all sassy with us and the Elders, teasing us about random things and I tried to teach her the word sassy. She thought about it for a second and responded in a thick Portuguese accent: "I am sexy?" All of us missionaries were doubled over in laughter. Then she tried to correct herself and asked: " I'm saucy?" We spent 5 minutes trying to help her say sassy but it just wasn't quite right every time.

A few of you were asking for my address and here it is:

Rua Jorge Barradas 14C

1500-370 Lisboa

Portugal

I WOULD LOVE LETTERS! We only get mail once a month or so, basically whenever someone goes to the mission office, so it's a real treat to get mail.

As for Halloween, they don't really celebrate it here like they do in the States. They will buy costumes and such but don't go trick or treating or carve pumpkins. We have an activity tonight to teach the members how to make caramel apples and carve pumpkins.

Don't mess with the sisters!

Our authentic Halloween costumes

AMO VOCÊS!!!

Sister Ellsworth

Buon Halloween!

(Anziano Wilkinson)

This year's Halloween was admittedly not very eventful for us; just any other day pretty much. Halloween is just barely starting to become an observed holiday in Italy and as of yet they're still at the stage where old people get quite confused when kids come up to their door saying "dolcetto o scherzetto!" (trick or treat!). I'd say they've still got a few decades before they'll be up to pace with America haha. On the bright side though, we happened to get a ton of food given to us on Halloween. I guess this year a bulging sac of food will have to do in place of a bulging sac of candy!

On another note, Anziano Larsen and I recently met a kid named Jackie who is a pretty solid magician! When I first saw him, he was deftly moving a deck of cards around in his hands, swiftly maneuvering individual cards and periodically shuffling in a way that appeared very skilled. I recognized immediately that he would know a magic trick or two, so I asked him to show me one. He proceeded to show me a seemingly impossible (as always haha) trick where he practically made my card appear out of thin air. Then he showed me another and another, each one just as amazing as the last. I was quite impressed, to say the least!

We got to talking and eventually I asked him if he would be willing to listen to our message about the restoration of the gospel and he agreed. As we explained to him the doctrines of the restoration, he became quite interested, asking dozens of questions about prophets, the atonement, and the Book of Mormon. As for his religious background, he doesn't really have one. He believes in God and is part of a christian family, but he's rarely ever been to church and never read the bible, but it was clear to see that when we started expounding on these simple doctrines that gears were turning in his head. Gaps were being filled and understanding multiplied as we shed new light into his heart.

This experience got me thinking about truth and how it works. Prophets teach us that all truth can be gathered into one great whole, whether it come out of the mouth of one of God's spokespersons or out of a science lab; it's all the same and all comes from the same source, which is our Father in Heaven. With a puzzle, when we have all the puzzle pieces, then there is only one obvious way that it all fits together smoothly and creates a whole image. And truth is the same way! If we were to have all the pieces, then they would all fit together nice and snugly and it would make perfect sense; there would be no confusion. But the problem is that in this life we simply don't have all the puzzle pieces and, by design, as long as we're still on the earth we never will manage to gather all the pieces. On one end of this puzzle we have religious truth, which is complete enough for us to see the image that is starting to take shape, depicted in bright, vibrant colors. On the other end of this puzzle we have scientific truth, also depicted in bright, vibrant colors, but colors from a different spectrum. In times past, the lack of scientific knowledge left this part of the puzzle quite unfinished and indistinct, so it wasn't hard for people to believe that all of the puzzle pieces belonged to the same puzzle. But now, with today's much more developed understanding of scientific truth, we can see the image start to take shape. Yet from what it seems, it almost looks like an entirely different puzzle from the first, since the colors are different and the images don't seem to align yet. This causes many to proclaim that they are two separate puzzles and in fact do not go together at all. They say that one puzzle depicts fanaticism and falsehoods while the other depicts truth and reason and thus they do not go together. They complain that the puzzle of truth would have been long ago finished if its pieces hadn't been mixed with those of an entirely different puzzle. Sadly, many deny true science while many others deny true religion.

The truth is, however, that both halves belong to the same puzzle and that ignoring or rejecting one half or the other is to ignore or reject half of the truth. Let us not forget that all truth comes from the same God and that he is not limited to only physical or only spiritual means of communicating it. Truth is truth, so let us be grateful for that portion we have and diligently and humbly seek that portion we lack. One day it will become quite clear to us all how the two halves of this puzzle fit together, so let's not hyperventilate if for right now we can't see it all!

Anyway, I hope you had a great Halloween and that November proves to be just as good!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Transfers, Baptism, All You Can Eat Pizza

(Sister Ellsworth)

Ola!

Transfers are this week! I'll be staying in Barriero but my beloved trainer is going to Cais Cais! My new companion will be Sister Oliver and I'll meet her tomorrow.

Alda was baptized this week! It was an awesome baptism. She's already proving to be an awesome new member and is helping us teach two of her friends right now. She's such a spunky Portuguese lady!

It rained all week long... I loved it but i suspect in a few week it won't be so fun. It gets quite windy so an umbrella is pretty much useless.

As an end of the transfer party we went to Pizza Hut (yes they have that here!) and our Zone crowded out the restaurant and ate a grand total of 32 pizzas. And we had a competition between the elders and sisters and the sisters ate more pizza than the elders! HA!

The quote of the week comes from Manuela, our recent convert. We were over at her house for lunch and we were talking about how difficult it is to eliminate distractions long enough to sit down and read scriptures. She said: "I figured it out, Sisters! I just hide in the bathroom!" Whatever works right?? She also taught us how to make Portuguese soup, which is very similar to cream of potato soup or something like that.

Also our good friend Victor got a cat! Probably the most cuuddly thing i've ever held in my life.

Churro break! The have churros everywhere for really cheap. It's one of those things where if you have a really good day... CHURROS! Or if you have  a really bad day... CHURROS!

Beautiful Alda!!

Our daily confiscation of cigarettes from our investigator who is going to quit smoking. XD

Sweet is the work! Portugal is the best land ever, Portuguese is the prettiest language, and the people are awesome.

Love all of you!

Sister Ellsworth

Miracles, Miracles and more Miracles!

(Elder Cummings)

It has been an amazing week! For the second week in a row we have had a baptism. I have been promised that I would see many of the house of Israel come to the covenants, that I would receive them with rejoicing, and continue to build the kingdom with vigor and enthusiasm! That matches perfectly how I feel! The baptism last night was for three convert-aged children and one child of record. Words cannot describe how happy I felt to have so many dressed in white!

As soon as we begin to empty our teaching pool into the font the Lord fills it back up again! Saturday night at 8 pm we were in a lesson with what became three new investigators. It was powerful! It was picture perfect "how to begin teaching" setting, and the teaching was to the people's needs. At some point in the last week or two I saw a clip from something David A. Bednar did, a question and answer about his calling as an apostle. He spoke about why he does question and answer style discussions in so many of his interactions with the saints. As part of his response, he said "So it's not a large corporation. And the apostles are not the board of directors. This is an individual work. The Savior knows people by name. He knows their circumstances. And He directs us in our work to bless the lives of individuals, not run a gigantic organization." Teach people, not lessons! Teaching that lesson to Bertha, Jessica, and Armando, I was focusing on the individuals. I had the liberty to do so because I trust that I know the doctrine well enough not to have to worry about what I am saying, and I have the same kind of trust in my companion. The teaching setting was powerful. All three of them accepted a date. Bertha and Jessica came to stake conference. Bertha and Jessica came to our Preach My Gospel baptism. Bertha and Jessica's member fellowship took them on a church tour (without us saying anything to encourage it) while waiting for the baptism to begin. Bertha is already reading the Book of Mormon faithfully and is already inviting those she meets to her baptism. Bishop Castleton has met them. We have a member present set up for our return appointment, and the team-up is on board to schedule the return lesson in their home. This has been the best investigating situation from beginning to now that I have seen. When they are baptized on November 12 they will be the first that I have ever baptized found through missionary efforts. The night before we taught them I had been praying for the opportunity to baptize someone found through missionary efforts. Bertha's family came to us as a referral from the Spanish elders talking with those they see. I prayed the week before for direction in finding. I felt I was doing all I knew how to be led to those who are prepared to receive the message of the restoration. I prayed that the Lord would lead them to me. Last night a sister called us to schedule a time to meet her and her nonmember brother who wants to be baptized. We see them tonight. Over the phone we set a date for November 26. We are also teaching Foua's sons almost daily to help them be prepared for baptism on the 5th with Foua. Our first month together Elder Perkins and I didn't baptize. Our second month together we baptized two. Third month to date we have had four convert baptisms. Next month we are already set up for at least seven. This is exciting and invigorating!

My personal studies have been incredible this week. I have learned things about the atonement I had never supposed. It finally clicked today as to WHY the Holy Ghost brings remission of sins. I found that answer as I studied the Savior's response to temptation in Matthew 4. It connects to Matthew 12:43-45, the JST of said verses, and the sacrament prayers. I have pondered deeply Alma 34 and 42. This week I truly have grown in gratitude for my Savior and in understand of why it had to be Him. I feel deeply blessed with this knowledge. True religion is revealed religion!

The work progresses!  This is true joy!

With love,

Elder Jared Cummings

Mac n Cheese

(Anziano Wilkinson)

This week has been a good one. Anziano Larsen and I have been keeping nice and busy and I have been helping him to get a taste of Italian cuisine along the way. On a more American note, however, this week we decided to take on the challenge of making Mac n Cheese for lunch despite the lack of cheddar in Italy. So in order to find the appropriate substitute we decided to make a meat and cheese plate for one of our meals. It was amazing, to say the least. Anziano Larsen go the chance to sample for the first time all of the most common meats and cheeses and I got to chow down along side him.

After our very "scientific" inquiry into which cheese would serve as the best substitute for cheddar, we decided to try a combination of cheeses. The result didn't taste at all like traditional Mac n Cheese, but it still tasted amazing; probably better! We're going to continue to try new combinations until we find the best one, so wish us luck!

We also had a zone training this week for all the missionaries in our zone. Among the topics discussed was sincere prayer, which I found to be quite helpful. It helped me to think more on the sincerity of my own prayers. I think often prayer can be overlooked sometimes, but truly when we put our heart into our prayers we begin to see the Lord work even greater miracles in our lives. When we pray, do we have real intent to act on the promptings we receive? Do we strive to do our part after we have prayed or do we just talk the talk? Do we fall into hasty, repetitious patterns or do we speak from the heart?

The difference between a meaningful prayer and one said without meaning is like night and day. Prayer is like a conversation with our Father in Heaven; we express our gratitude to Him and petition for help and guidance and He responds through feelings and promptings of the Holy Ghost. If we were to ask our earthly fathers, for instance, for something (like a car or money to go to the movies) with a half-hearted attempt, then we are not very likely to get what we are looking for. The same is true with our Heavenly Father. When we don't really put our hearts into our prayers and petitions, He   gives with an equally pathetic response. But when our prayers are sincere and meaningful, He gives us an outpouring of blessings. If we want to access the blessings our Father in Heaven offers us, then we must ask as Moroni teaches in in the Book of Mormon, "with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ" then "he will manifest" unto us the blessings we seek (Moroni 10:4). This principle is so true! I've seen the difference that sincere prayer makes in my life and it never ceases to amaze me. God answers the prayers of His sincere children!

Have a great week and strive to make your prayers a little more meaningful while you're at it!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

I didn't get a picture of the Mac n Cheese, but here's a picture of the amazing meat and cheese plate! And yes, there are indeed ten different cheeses on that plate haha.