Week 20 - Moroni 9

People have a lot of strange thoughts about Mormons. The questions we most often get as missionaries are 1) so you guys are Jehovah's Witnesses? and 2) ‎You guys can have more than one wife, right? No and no. But this week, we had several questions that were so strange, I'm still trying to figure out how these people thought them up. Following is my personal favorite:

"Yes, I've heard of Mormons before. You guys have that special symbol, with the triangle and the eye, right?"
"siete illuminati?"
"Yes! That's another name for your organization, right?"
"Um no ma'am, we're not illuminati"

The questions weren't the only strange part of our week. We started out by getting snowed out of Battipaglia during Pday last monday. As in there was an inch of snow so Italy decided to cancel all trains going anywhere. So we had to emergency sleep over in Pozzuoli, which was awesome to spend some more time with the Sorelle there. Long story short, Italy was still freaking out about the snow, so we didn't end up getting back to Battipaglia until Tuesday evening at 6. BUT. There's a lesson to this story, besides just learning to never trust the Italian public transportation system. On our way back to Napoli, we were sitting on the metro, just chatting in English, when this man stopped us mid conversation and asked, in english, what we were doing here. I was so excited. I explained everything about why we're in Italy, who we are, and what makes us different from other religions. He listened patiently, asked me questions  about the Book of Mormon. He started to leave for his stop, and I offered him the Book of Mormon for him to start reading. He quickly mumbled about all these excuses about him traveling and not having much time, the usual, and then left. I was so bummed that nothing had come from the conversation and started putting the book away, when all of a sudden I felt a tap on my shoulder. The same man came back and said "actually, can I have it?" I think I might have scared him with how quickly I handed it over. I don't know what happened with him, but after it happened, Sorella Barnes said "I'm convinced that if the only reason we had to sleep over in pozzuoli was so we could take this train and talk to that man, Heavenly Father would send a Siberian snowstorm to make it happen."

That's what I'd like to hear testimony of this week. Heavenly Father always has a plan for us, even when we can't see it. He's working with people that will help us grow, and working with us to help other people grow. The best thing to remember is that he's always helping us steer our lives. Just as he did in biblical times, he's working miracles to help us come back to Him. I'd love to invite you all to read Moroni 9 sometime this week. It's an amazing chapter, and I can testify that it's true that God is still a God of miracles. I've seen some of the craziest things on my mission that can't be described in any other words than divine intervention.

For example. For the past transfer, a woman has been sitting on our Potentials board. I honestly don't even remember how she got up there, I think we found her in area book. We had no number for her, no address, and no information besides the fact that at one point the missionaries had met her. This past week, we put her on what we call the "dropping block" which basically means that if we can't find a way to contact them, they get put on the back burner for 6 months. We were out doing some house to house because it was raining, and we weren't having much luck. We knocked on one door, and finally they opened! The woman was having a big birthday party, and mistakenly thought we were guests. Right when she was going to shut the door, another woman came up the stairs. She was a guest, but immediately recognized our tags and told us to come up to her apartment for a minute. So she left the party, and we talked to her a bit and found out she was the woman who we'd been looking for for the past 6 weeks! It was amazing. We taught her a bit of the plan of salvation, and she asked if she could meet us again to talk some more. It was a huge testament to me that Heavenly Father is always putting things in line for our lives. He led us to that house at that time on that day so we could start teaching this woman.

I love this gospel so much, and I love the opportunity I have to be serving a mission!! I would recommend it to anyone who's even had the thought cross their mind. It's worth it.

I love and miss you all!
Sorella Maxfield 

Sorella Barnes