Every year my family participates in the Festival of Trees for Christmas. Whether Grammy Barb is working the information stand or we're the only 40 people keeping the cinnamon roll guy in business, it's always a fun way to get to know our community a little bit better. (and to eat some real good cinnamon roll with 0 guilt.) Heavenly Father probably knew that I was pretty bummed about missing it two years in a row, so He just sent a Festival of Religions to Rome! We had our own booth set up with a big model of the temple and a bunch of copies of the Book of Mormon. (no cinnamon rolls though...) It was a great way to make ourselves a bit more publically known in Rome and interact with some people from other faiths. We invited a bunch of people to the Visitors Center and got invited to participate in another religions festival at a local college! (Also just like the Festival of Trees there was some free entertainment including; a chinese christian group that worships through dance, the hindu man who led us all in meditation, and a woman who read from her book "The Myths and Magic of Plants")
Besides our participation in the Festival of Religions, things at the Visitors Center are going great and we're just starting to understand our role a little bit better. I never thought that I would be the witness to so many people being touched by the spirit in one confined space. But really, as people walk on to the temple grounds, they feel something different. There's a peace and a stillness that comes from being in such close vicinity to the Lord's house. We've met people from all over the world with all sorts of different religious backgrounds. This week we spoke with a couple from Georgia. He was Catholic, she was a member of the Church, but they both talked about how they found common ground in Christ. I know that that's what draws people to the temple. It's a place where people feel closer to Christ and where they can find a common ground.
I hope you all had the chance to watch Conference this weekend. I absolutely loved that talks that were given! My personal favorite was the one given by Tad R. Callistar. I encourage you to go read it! As good as it is, that's not what I want to write my spiritual thought on. Instead, I wanted to talk about my testimony of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ. His Gospel. While we were building up for Conference, there were so many rumors going around the mission about what the next big policy change would be; Missions shortened to a year? Dress Standards changed to jeans and a T-shirt? One hour church?? It was all anyone could talk about. I thought a lot about how important it is that we have our testimonies rooted in what's most important: Jesus Christ. We can't have root in the social atmosphere of the church, though it is something that we can enjoy. We can't have root in a certain policy or tradition because ultimately, that's not what's important.
What's important is Jesus Christ. Faith in Him is important. Repentence through Him is important. Baptism in His name is important. Receiving the Holy Ghost through His authority is important. Enduring to the end with Him is important. When we keep our focus on Him, we will be less worried about what minor policy change or disruption to our tradition may come. We can instead focus on our personal relationship with Him and on our personal journey to exhaltation.
I know that our Savior lives. I love Him with all my heart.
Buona Settimana a tutti!
Sorella Maxfield
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