Hello everyone! Well this week has been quite tiring and filled with tons of various activities.
To start, last Wednesday we drove 3 hours to Modena for a conference with half the mission and the new area president for Europe, President Kearon. Overall it was a pretty great conference. We talked a lot about being master teachers and listening and following the Spirit. It was odd though because I came back to my last city after being gone for a week or so. But it was a great experience.
Then the next day, Thursday night, we drove to Milano from Pordenone, which is more or less 4 hours of driving there. I feel really bad because I'm still not allowed to drive because I have to do this
driving training, so Anz. Vaclaw drove all 6 hours to Modena and back and then all 8 to Milano and back in like 4 days. I was extremely tired from just sitting in the car that long, so I can imagine that it
was much worse for him. (P.s. Italian cars, at least ours, don't have cruise control...) Anyway, we went to Milano for mission council on Friday with all the other zone leaders and sister training leaders with President and Sorella Dibb and President Kearon. It was my first mission council so I wasn't really sure what to expect, especially with a general authority there. But it was cool. We just talked about everything we learned from the conference and what things we as the leaders of the mission wanted to specifically invite the mission to work on. It was cool because I've always seen the outcome and heard a lot about mission council, so it was sweet getting to see the inner workings of it all.
Then Friday afternoon we did a scambio with the assistants in Milano. We went and visited one of their new converts who I had heard a lot about from various AP's, so it was cool actually meeting him.
On Sunday we went to visit a less active family with the American Ward mission leader. That's been one of the weirdest things. Americans and Italians are so very different and I've gotten so used to the Italian way of doing things and now all of a sudden, I'm halfway back in America. It's a bit odd still. But we went and visited this family and they haven't been to church in a couple of years, but when we got there, they were super open and nice and just spoke to us like regular human beings. I didn't really know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. We didn't have a lot of time there, but we are definitely going to pass by them again.
Well that was basically the extent of the week. Lots of exciting full days. Lots of not exciting, empty days. But overall, Pordenone is great. I'm loving it. Time is going by just a tad too quick for me, but I can't help that. I guess at the same time it is also going to slow. Time is just a weird concept on the mission. Eh whatever hahahha.
I wanted to share with you all an experience I had a few years ago. This came to my mind because I've been thinking a lot about Christlike love the past few days. I remember back during my senior year of high school, we were at the state track meet and I was competing in triple jump. This was an event that I had been competing in since my sophomore year at the state meet. I had done quite well throughout the year in the other meets and had a really good chance at possibly winning or at least placing in the top 3. We each had 5 jumps and after my first 3 I had the 8th place jump and I hadn't even gotten close to my average jump. The feelings going thorough me were total disappointment, anger, discouragement. I felt like I was letting my coach down, my dad down, and myself down. I had worked for years at this, the final track meet as a senior. I had the chance to win and I was blowing it.
Both my coach and my dad came over and tried to comfort me but I wasn't listening to them. My mind was totally clouded by frustration and I wasn't listening. I was tearing myself down more and more. Out of no where, one of the coaches from another team came up and started talking to me. He saw my frustration and disappointment. He told me to lift my head up and to do what I knew how to do. This man was from another school, one that always had a jumper who placed around me, but regardless of that competition, he tried to help me. Before that day, I had talked to him maybe 2 or 3 times at other meets and during basketball season, but I wouldn't consider us more than acquaintances. It surprised me so much that I couldn't ignore what he was telling me, so I listened. In the next two jumps and surpassed my average jumps and ended up placing much higher than I expected. I don't know why he came to comfort me, but looking back on that day, I know he was touched by the Spirit to do that.
I've seen little experiences like this as I've looked in my past that were obvious signs from God has he slowly and step by step, opened by heart to the point where I would accept Him. I've seen that there are people around us that will never give up on us even when we've already given up on ourselves. That is Christlike love to me, at least one side of it. I will never forget that day.
I hope you all find something good everyday. Look for gifts from God. Look for His hand in your life. I promise you it is there. Sometimes, we just need to open our eyes.
I love you all.
Do great things today
Anziano Benjamin Guthrie
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