Week 22. 5 Months in.

Well well well....We meet again. Kind of. This week was okay, but ended bleh.

So basically here's the deal here in Cimiano.

Juan, I absolutely love Juan. But he has just lost all desire. He was truly repenting and now he's coming up with any reason to not do the right things. I honestly am totally lost with him. Like I don't know what to tell you about him because I'm so lost... I think I've literally felt what God is feeling for him right now. Yesterday was just a bad day, one part because of Juan and my being sad on his part and the other because of this.

Gabriele. He's the boyfriend of this member Valentina. They're both 18 and super cool and speak pretty good English. But we've been teaching Gabriele since I got here and he's made tons of progress. Quit smoking and everything. He has started to understand who Christ is for him and everything. But in our lesson yesterday, he told us he wanted to stop the lessons for now. He said he appreciated everything we had done for him throughout that time, but that he doesn't feel like anything has changed... It literally stung my heart, and I could see it hurt him to say it. I felt awful after that. I just felt like I didn't give it everything I had or that I didn't give him the best chance. I'm positive I did, but the failure just brings those thoughts.

THEN on top of those two people, Yilmaz, who is a miracle investigator and is totally going to be baptized on November 1st!!!! Problem... He's moving before then... So yeah... He'll be baptized in Varese by the Anziani there... So that stinks... But honestly as long as he gets baptized, I don't care who does it or where! So I'm content :)

But I've been studying a lot about the Christlike attributes, which you should all do, because they rock, and make you a better person, and they rock. So I studied about Virtue, which I knew what it was but never really had a solid definition for it. But I've found this. Virtue is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards. What you choose to think and do when you are alone and believe no one is watching is a strong measure of your Virtue. Being virtuous means:
- being clean and pure spiritually

- being focused on righteous, uplifting thoughts and putting unworthy thoughts out of your mind
- obeying Gods commandments and following the counsel of Church leaders
- praying to resist temptation and do what is right
- quickly repenting of sins.

So yea some interesting cool stuff there. Some very important stuff there. Some stuff we should all strive to apply to our lives. Now here's something I really liked. A reward, let's say, is a controlled mind and ease in resisting temptation. That controlled mind leads to it being easier to resist temptation.

I share this stuff about virtue with you to invite you to become more virtuous. The mind can be a scary place, let me tell you. But I know, because I've been working on this, that as you work on gaining all these Christlike attributes, especially that of virtue, that Satan will have EVEN LESS power over you. Do everything you can to keep bad thoughts out of your mind. That is where it starts. As you keep your mind clear, temptation will cease. The best way to keep it clear is fill it with something else, like Church related things: scripture verses, hymns, talks, etc. Fill it with the good stuff and then you'll do good stuff.

That's it :)

Love you all!!!
Have a fantastical week!
Anz. Gu3