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For the second time in my mission, I blew out of a city in Napoli, to go train in Rome opening up a new companionship. Though the first time was with an italian who left me a week later, I was feeling some real dejà vù as I headed up on the train. This time however, when I got off the train there was not a single missionary. I stepped out into the huge Termini station with my bright red suitcases and I was completely alone. Sometimes all I've wanted was just a couple minutes to myself, but this time I was actually pretty stressed. I felt like the guy from The Other Side of Heaven who just gets dropped off some place and hangs out until someone comes to find him. So I just dragged my luggage around Termini until I finally spotted those white shirts and ties. For anyone who's a missionary right now let me just tell you: we're incredibly easy to spot.
When I made it over there, I finally met my new companion, Sorella Brooks! She's from Colorado, but comes from a military family that moved around a lot. The best part is that she wants to be in the Air Force. So that means "Six months to Healthy Living" [trademark President Pickerd] is off to a killer start. Former cadet Brooks is kicking us all into high gear over here in the Rome 2 house. And by all of us, I mean my companionship and the other Rome 2 sister, because I finally got my mission dream of living in a four sister house! It's a "all that and a bag of rats" as my companion said.
Our fee days here in Rome have been busy, interesting, and adventurous all at the same time. On Saturday, we were planning on meeting a potential of the other sisters in the church so we got everything set up and headed over. Once we got there, we realized that the Rome 5 ward was already using the church for a baptism that evening. So we just decided to surprise attack this potential by having her first lesson be at a baptism. Then, about 20 minutes before the baptism started, another one of the other sisters potentials walked into wanting to see the baptism. So on Sorella Brooks first day we took two women who we had never met before to the baptism of someone we didn't know from a ward that wasn't even our own. Then we walked home in the pouring rain, and Sorella Brooks said "well, I don't know what I thought the mission was when I signed up, but it definitely wasn't that. Are things always that unorganized and last minute?" Yep. Pretty much.
My spiritual thought this week comes from a part of preach my gospel that I was reading the other day. It says “When conversion takes place, it is through the power of the Spirit. In order to succeed in missionary work, these three things must occur:“We must understand what [a person] must feel in order to receive conversion.We must understand how a missionary must feel in order to teach with the converting power of the Spirit.And then we must understand how a member must feel to succeed in participating in the conversion experience”
The spirit is the only thing that can convert someone. We are not here as missionaries, or as members, to push or pull or drag people into the church. It is something totally guided by the spirit. We are the tools thst can bring the spirit, and present our beliefs in a way that will help people better understand our message, but the converting process is not a process that we can force by our own strengths. Missionaries can't "convert" anyone, in the same way a mother can't force her testimony onto any one of her children. I love the fact that Heavenly Father already has the perfect method of converting people through the Spirit, and that we are here as the instruments to help in that effort. I'm so grateful to Him! I love my mission, and I love the chance I have to serve the Italian people.
I love you all!
Sorella Maxfield
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