None. Just one phone call to the four American missionaries.
Let me back up a bit.
We've been having some very sunny days, followed by periods of intense rain, a classic italian spring. Yesterday, during one of these rain storms, at around 2:45 we got a call from our branch presidents wife. She told us that there was this small problem with the church attic where the rain water would leak in. Not a big deal at all, just if we had time, would we just quickly stop by the church to dry off the floor a bit? We answered that of course we could do that, we're all for serving the branch! So after our studies we decided to head over to the church. As we're walking up the stairs to the attic, a wet sock comes flying out of the door followed by a bare foot Anziano Allen just shaking his head. Turns out this "small leak" wasn't so small after all. The whole attic was filled with water as well as the balcony outside. Anziano Bell finally figured out that the balcony drain had been plugged up with a rag, thus trapping all the water inside. We're still trying to figure out which Italian thought that was a good idea. We spent the next two hours filling buckets and attempting to dry the attic. My biggest question is how we made it through the whole, rainy winter, without A) anyone plugging up the leak, and B) without ever hearing about the fact that our attic was a part time swimming pool...
Despite the crazy end to our week, we saw so many miracles. President Uchtdorf said "Man makes plans, and God laughs." And that is so true! Our best day this week was when NOTHING we had planned actually happened. Our scambio, lessons, and service, all fell through and we were left with a day filled with finding. After trying to talk with everyone in the piazza, we moved on to trying to show people on the streets Because of Him, the Easter video. We showed it to a woman on her way to work, and half way through the video, she started crying. When it was over, she thanked us over and over again, told us how beautiful it was, and asked when we could meet to talk again. I was so shocked I just stood there while Sorella Barnes wrote down her phone number. I have never had an experience like that. Ever. Soemtimes I forget that Heavenly Father is preparing people to put in our paths who are ready to listen. He knows so much better than we do the way things need to be done.
Another miracle was that our AMAZING investigator ASKED if she could be baptized in April. We had just read Mosiah 18 together, and were talking about how we do baptism in our church and what makes it different. Then BEFORE WE COULD EVEN ASK if she would pray about being baptized, she said "so when I get baptized in the next month, can I still wear makeup for my baptism?" Another moment where I just stood there with my mouth open.
My spiritual thought this week has to do with the line from 2 Nephi 2 about the "the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah." I've studied a lot this week about Christ's merits, mercy, and grace, and why it is only thanks to all of these things that we can return to heavenly father. I would like to invite you all to read "His Grace is Sufficient" from a BYU devotional by Brad Wilcox. I think that devotional does an amazing job of explaining what grace really means, and why it is through grace and mercy that we are saved. The other word, "merits" has filled a lot of my study this past week. We know that Christ was perfect, and that alone merits Him to atone for our sins. But there are so many other attributes that show how He alone could have performed an eternal atonement. He was only half mortal, meaning that He gave up the ghost, willingly. He died for us, suffered for us, prayed for us, willingly. It's a gift that is absolutely incomprehensible. I want to leave you all with this quote that I found during my studies, regarding the merits of Christ: “Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. … You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.” Lewis goes on, “Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means” - C.S. Lewis.
That spiritual thought is a bit all over the place, but if you have time this week, study about Christ's merits, mercy, and grace. I promise you that your testimony of Him and His atonement will grow. Mine absolutely has.
I love and miss you all!
Sorella Maxfield
No comments:
Post a Comment