January 20

Hello peoples! Hope you are all doing well!

Well let's see, we had some cool stuff happen this week.

While on the train on the way to Mont'Isola for our lesson with Andrea, we spoke with this Peruvian woman. It turns out she was baptized in Peru when she was 12 years old, probably 20 to 30 years ago, and hasn't been back to church since then. We were almost at our stop and we were trying to exchange numbers but we had to get off at this stop or else we would be extremely late to our appointment, so we left a bigliettino with her and told her to call us immediately. We got off the train and walked for 5 minutes feeling awful because she hadn't called us and we should've just stayed on the train. Well we stopped for a second, said a quick prayer asking for some help from God, and we took maybe 10 steps more and then the phone starting ringing... It was in fact her. That was awesome. She has a husband and at least one child, a young man who is 16 years old. She said they are Catholic but "[she] will never forget [my] church," referring to the Church. So we are hoping to see some awesome things come from that. That was an incredible tender mercy from God.

Besides that, Andrea will be baptized on the 30th of January and I know that day will just be incredible, no doubt about that. That family is just so prepared and so understanding and humble. It's amazing.

So I was reading and found this quote by Joseph Smith.

“We know not what we shall be called to pass through before Zion is delivered and established; therefore, we have great need to live near to God, and always to be in strict obedience to all His commandments, that we may have a conscience void of offense toward God and man. … Our trust is in God, and we are determined, His grace assisting us, to maintain the cause and hold out faithful unto the end, that we may be crowned with crowns of celestial glory, and enter into the rest that is prepared for the children of God.”

I love a phrase he uses at the beginning, "live near to God." I've been studying a lot about this these past while. I've been researching all over the scriptures and general conference for ways to "live near[er] to God" every day in every thing I do. I think this is an important message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that we get better each day and we live that much nearer to God in everything we do, the way we change from day to do. It's a gospel of progression. God doesn't ask for immediate perfection, but He does ask for immediate progress, and that's what we had to do.

I hope you all have a fantastic week. Know that I love you and I respect you.

Have a sweet week!
Anz. Ben Guthrie