WEEK 21 ITALY RULES

Sooooo this week. My feet are still dying. They itch. And I have 7 warts... But I'm taking care of those with some apple vinegar. They say that kills 'em. We shall see. But yea besides that everything is great. Food's great. People are... okay. Italians are crazy but yeah. Everything is fantastical.

A couple updates on our peeps.

JUAN, oh Juan. He is going to be baptized... hopefully on the 18th of this month when it's planned for. He just keeps coming up with these crazy doubts that he throws between himself and baptism. He is confused as to why the Book of Mormon doesn't talk about animal rights... and how there aren't prophets today because no one can be like Jesus. He thinks all prophets are perfect and so we asked him about Old Testament prophets. He said those don't count because they're before Christ... I don't know. But at the end of the lesson, the Spirit basically just spoke through me to him, telling him that if he truly asks God, really really wanting to know the truth, he'll know. But he hasn't been asking or really wanting to know. So we shall seee...

Yilmaz ahh Yilmaz. What a guy. He read the entire Book of Mormon in a week and a half. So yeah. Not only that, he understood everything in it moreso than someone who has been reading the Book of Mormon for years and just finished their 40th time reading it. I'm serious though. He's just doing swell. Smoking problems yes, but we're gonna take all his cigarettes from him today to help him out :) Aren't we nice? Yes. We are. He's getting baptized November 1st.

Michele. He's insane. He's from Sicily and is just super super Southern Italian, aka crazy. He's super poor and always gives us his stuff when we come over... Yea I know... But he's incredible. I now know how to make all pizza and pasta and literally MAKE pasta and bread because of him. He's incredible and will be baptized one day. Hopefully he stops swearing so much before then...


So I've been studying the Christlike Attributes every so often, because it's one of the few important things that stay with us forever. So today I studied hope. And I just wanted to talk a little bit about hope because it's super super important for everyone.

So what is hope?
Hope is believing and expecting something to happen, but more importantly a trust in God's promises. In Moroni 7:41-42 it says that without faith, there can't be hope and that we can have hope through the knowledge and understanding of the Atonement and the power of the Resurrection.

Then there are tons of scriptures that talk about for what we should hope. Eternal life. That's basically the big thing we should hope for. 2 Nephi 31:20, Ether 12:4, and Moroni 7:41. Eternal life, eternal life, eternal life. Hope for it. Reach for it.

Then what comes from hope?
Obviously eternal life. But hope also accomplishes a lot of special thing. Like gaining eternal life. Hope also makes an anchor to the souls of men, helps us become steadfast, abouding in good works, and leading us to glorify God. Also, according to Ether 12:32 that man must hpoe or he cannot receive an inheritance... So if you want to receive eternal life, you gotta hope for it :) So hope for it!

So here's the last little part about Hope. It's important. It's a Christlike Attribute. If you don't have hope, it's just a super sad life. I feel bad for people who have no belief in any religion, because it means they have no hope. But here's something super SUPER important about hope. Hope means that we trust and have faith in Christ, in his Atonement, and in his resurrection. We have faith that we CAN change, that we CAN forsake our sins and start anew, that we WILL live one day, not only with our Heavenly Father, but also with our families for eternity in happiness. That is hope. Hope is faith that when we mess up, it's not the end. And let me tell you something, it's not the end. I haven't been here long, but I've already seen the power of the Atonement in so many people's lives. It's real. I can promise you that. It's so so very real and it works. Use it. Christ bled from every poor for you, specifically you. If you don't use the Atonement and repent, you're wasting that infinite, atoning sacrifice that he did just for YOU. Don't waste that. It's one of the best gifts ever given. Please please don't waste that.

That's it :)

I love you all!
Have a great week!
I'm weird.

Random pictures from Lecco last P-day and others.

But you all love me anyway.
Thanks :)
Bye.
Anziano Gu3 out.