Finding. For those of you who are unfarmiliar with the term, it basically means going around, sharing a little message with random people, and then asking them if they'll let you come over to teach (and eat a good lunch if you play your cards right). Finding in each city is a bit different. Whereas in Battipaglia we were blessed with one populated street in the whole city, here we're blessed with the metro. I love the metro. We hop on, have some gospel conversations, and then when we've reached the end of the line, we get off and our favorite gelateria is right there. Amazing. This week, while on scambio, Sorella Johnson and I decided to try a new finding technique on the metro; Metro Preaching. We walked in to a semi crowded car, and started out with a "Buongiorno tutti. Siamo missionarie per la Chiesa di Gesù Cristo dei Santi degli Ultimi Giorni. Come state?". Basically anyone who was bold enough to keep eye contact with us for the whole time qualified themselves for a one on one conversation and a free copy of the Book of Mormon. I was completely out of my comfort zone preaching in front of a bunch of random strangers, but I thought aa lot about why I had no need to feel uncomfortable. People probably thought we were crazy, some were probably annoyed we disturbed their morning Instagram scroll, and others (mostly asian tourists) probably snapped some pictures thinking we were a hired Roman metro show. But in the end, the message we're sharing is the message of Jesus Christ. It applies to everyone, even if they're unaware in this moment. The important thing is that people heard, and the ones who were ready openly accepted our invitation to talk some more.
The most amazing miracle of this week actually started almost a year ago. Summer 2017: I'd just recieved my mission call and was feeling pretty pumped about it. Some time later my friend Louisa told me she found a man at Temple Square from Rome who wanted to learn about the Mormon church. (Louis, you're going to blow up the work in Washington. I'm so excited for you!) We started messaging on Instagram for a bit, and then once I got out on the mission I tried to set him up with the Anziani in Rome. He was traveling often and after December, we lost contact with him for a while. Flash forward 6 months, and I recieve the attatched photo from our Anziani here in Roma 3. They decided a couple days ago to go through the old email account for this area, and they found one unread email. A man had emailed the Elders to set up an appointment months ago, but no one had seen it! So they quickly emailed him back and set up an appointment. When they went to see him, he talked about how he lived in Utah and had a bunch of Mormon friend's there, and one of them was serving a mission here in Italy. It was shocking when we started putting the details together from my story and the Anziani's to see how Heavenly Father prepared this man to meet the missionaries. He knows so perfectly every one of his children, it's amazing!!
We had an awesome gesso where all these cute little bambini came up and started helping us draw with the chalk. I love little bambini.
The church is so true and the gospel is true and Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that he atoned for our sins and that His love for us is without bounds. His Atonement is infinite. He knows our pains, our joys, our trials, and our afflictions. This quote from President Hollands talk is absolutely beautiful and I want to leave it with you guys.
"The Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone. But Jesus held on. He pressed on. The goodness in Him allowed faith to triumph even in a state of complete anguish. The trust He lived by told Him in spite of His feelings that divine compassion is never absent, that God is always faithful, that He never flees nor fails us."
Vi voglio tantissimo bene!! La grande missione italiana di Roma è il migliore missione che c'è e questo vangelo ci insegna come si vive una vita piena di felicità, gioia, e speranza.
Sorella Maxfield
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