So this past week we set a goal of 21 lessons taught since the week before was a bit less than the 21 we promised haha. On Saturday night we were only at 14 taught, so we proposed the idea of what I like to call "Miracle Finding." So starting after lunch, we planned to follow the Spirit and go wherever we felt to go and just talk to everyone and have 7 prayer lessons. Unfortunately we only got 5, but we were more than content with that because miracles happened. Just one to name occurred right after we said a prayer for guidance in our finding as we began the Miracle Finding. As soon as we got up from the bench, I felt impressed to talk to this older man on a bench near us, so we did. As we started to talk to him, he said he spoke better English and Italian, which was true. The problem was that he was Serbian and couldn't speak either well enough for us to actually communicate with him. Anziano Taylor was just struggling to help this man understand the words like God, church, Jesus, etc.. We were basically lost as to what to do with him. Right then a group of 4 younger adults came up and saw we were speaking English and quickly asked us where a good pizza place was. We answered and I noticed an accent they had. As they walked away I asked them where they were from and as you can guess, Serbia. What are the chances of that happening? Regularly, 0%. On God's time during Miracle Finding, 150%. Sadly it didn't go to far after that. 3 of the 4 young guys were glad to help translate for a minute or two but the 4th one was really eager to get away from us. So not much else happened but we are going to meet with him later to give him a Book of Mormon in Serbian. Miracle Finding brings miracles.
Another cool experience happened Monday and Tuesday. So Monday we went to this little outskirts part of Milan to find this less active member. From the metro stop we walked probably 2-3 miles to find his apartment complex and..... it wasn't there. His number was building #133. We found everything up to 109 and then everything past 147. There was no 133... so we walked the 2-3 miles backed to the metro and went to our dinner appointment. So we felt like that was just a faith test from God saying, "Let's see if they'll follow the Spirit and walk all the way there and look around even though he's not there." That's okay, we need to be tested some times. The fun part was the next day,Tuesday. We went to a different outskirt of Milan to find a different less active. When we got off the train, we found a map and realized his address was like a 10 mile trip by bus north of the train station. So we both kind of felt like "ughhh we have to do this same thing again we just did yesterday and he probably won't even be there...." But we did it anyway. We got to the closest bus stop but still had to walk about a mile to his street. Found his group of apartments and saw his name!!!! wooooo!!!! So then we walked around his apartment for about 20 minutes knocking on random doors and couldn't find him still... AND his phone wasn't working... So we were just really confused as to what was going on in God's plan at this time. THEN he called us and the phone call actually worked and we FINALLY found him. We had a sweet sweet lesson with him about enduring to the end. He's only like 17 years old so we could connect with him really well. But in the end he's probably coming to Church this next Sunday and we're gonna reactivate him and his whole family!!!
Those are just a couple of the ways we got to be a part of God's work this past week. It's always just an awesome experience.
Random pictures of Castello (Castle) Park.
I guess my message I want to leave with all of you today is about member's missionary work. We've been talking a lot as a district here about how to really use our ward to increase the work we're doing here. Because we actually found out that the Cimiano Ward is the LARGEST ward in all of Europe. So yeah. We decided we should take advantage of that hahaha. But what really got this conversation started was a quote from Elder Bednar. He was talking about this same topic and he said something along the lines of this. Members need to stop praying for the missionaries to find more people to teach and baptize. It is the members job to find people for the missionaries to teach. Missionaries should teach and then find just a little. We can go walk around a park and talk to 200 people in a day and MAYBE find 2 new investigators. Members already know way more than 2 people who we can share the Gospel with. So go share your friends with the missionaries!!! Unless they aren't obedient missionaries. Then I don't really blame you.
As I say that, it reminds me of another story from Elder Bednar. When he and his wife were in school somewhere... don't remember where but yea. The missionaries came over to their house on a Saturday and basically spent the first half of the day at the Bednar's house like hanging out with their kids and stuff like that. At the end of this they shared a spiritual though, prayed, then asked for referrals. Basically Elder Bednar told them that there was no way he would give them referrals when they spent half a day messing around at there house. He could tell they weren't obedient missionaries. So yeah. I understand if you don't want to share your friends with non-obedient missionaries. But share them with obedient ones.
Everything is going great here in Italy though. Kind of the same as always. So yeah...
I guess my message I want to leave with all of you today is about member's missionary work. We've been talking a lot as a district here about how to really use our ward to increase the work we're doing here. Because we actually found out that the Cimiano Ward is the LARGEST ward in all of Europe. So yeah. We decided we should take advantage of that hahaha. But what really got this conversation started was a quote from Elder Bednar. He was talking about this same topic and he said something along the lines of this. Members need to stop praying for the missionaries to find more people to teach and baptize. It is the members job to find people for the missionaries to teach. Missionaries should teach and then find just a little. We can go walk around a park and talk to 200 people in a day and MAYBE find 2 new investigators. Members already know way more than 2 people who we can share the Gospel with. So go share your friends with the missionaries!!! Unless they aren't obedient missionaries. Then I don't really blame you.
As I say that, it reminds me of another story from Elder Bednar. When he and his wife were in school somewhere... don't remember where but yea. The missionaries came over to their house on a Saturday and basically spent the first half of the day at the Bednar's house like hanging out with their kids and stuff like that. At the end of this they shared a spiritual though, prayed, then asked for referrals. Basically Elder Bednar told them that there was no way he would give them referrals when they spent half a day messing around at there house. He could tell they weren't obedient missionaries. So yeah. I understand if you don't want to share your friends with non-obedient missionaries. But share them with obedient ones.
Everything is going great here in Italy though. Kind of the same as always. So yeah...
Love ya all :)
Hope you're doing great!!
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