Week 54

Hello friends and family. How's everything going? Modena is still great as always. Sadly though, this transfer they'll be closing one of the companionships, so it'll just be two anziani and two sorelle here
in Modena. Sad day. But it'll be good nonetheless.

So yeah, Christian has officially returned. We'll be seeing him later this week and getting his baptism all set up again, so that's really good. We also met this random guy that a newer member brought to
church last Sunday. His name is Roberto and he seems pretty awesome. He's very religious and asks tons of great questions. It'll be exciting to see where things go with him. There's also Gianni. Cool
guy. He and his friend Patrizia will totally be baptized soon. They just have a hard time getting to church because Patrizia's mom is the one with the car and they live outside of Modena. But they rock
nonetheless. That's basically that, yeah.

So I fell upon this crazy verse in Moses, chapter 7, verse 26. This is Enoch speaking of when the Lord shows him many things. These are the words of Enoch and that which he sees.

"And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced."

That's just scary. Satan held a great chain which veiled the whole earth in darkness. As he did so, he laughed and his angels rejoiced. That is not a pretty picture. Sadly, we live in these days where Satan
does hold a chain over the earth, not because he is more powerful than us, but because we put ourselves under his hold. But there is hope. The Atonement of Jesus Christ can break those chains of Satan, which are the bands of death, both physical and spiritual. From Lehi to his sons, he pleads to them, "Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust." Shake off the chains. But how do we do that? Again, if we have faith in Christ, we will have power to do anything that is expedient in Him. To quote my all time favorite scripture in Alma, chapter 7,

"And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

Christ took upon Himself death, both in the Garden of Gethsemane as he took all sins, pains, infirmities and illnesses upon Himself, and also on the cross on Calvary as he "gave up the ghost." Because of these deaths, He overcame both the physical and spiritual death for all, the physical being overcome three days after His death through the Resurrection and the spiritual eventually being overcome on the great and final judgement day when all will return to the presence of God to be judged for his or her own actions. Because of Christ, all who lived on this earth and received a mortal body will be resurrected and overcome physical death. All will also overcome spiritual death for a
time being. It depends on us whether we will remain in the presence of God and be spiritually alive or be cast out because no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God and live in spiritual death outside the presence of our Heavenly Father.

Through Christ's sacrifice and earthly mission, He made it possible to loose the bands of death, to loose that chain in Satan's hand which veils the earth with darkness. Let's fill this earth with light. Spread the love of Christ. A few years ago, when President Monson was asked what members around the world could give him for his birthday, he responded without any hesitation, "find someone who is having a hard time and do something for them." This should be our daily goal, to make every day easier for those around us. So often we get caught up in our own lives and our own problems and we forget those around us. We must open our eyes and look around us. There are people out there who need us and we need them. Let us succeed in serving those around us more fully. Let us spread this Christ-like love. This is my prayer.

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week.
Do great things today.
Spread the light.
Anziano Ben Guthrie.