A Prophet of the Lord 29/4/15

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Heather Hastings	Apr 29 (5 days ago)

Buon girono a tutti! What a marvelous week we have had. Well, in reality we have had a very slow week and we still are struggling with people to teach and having our lessons go through. But, we had a miracle Monday and I will start by telling you all about it.

Sunday first- no investigators in church. That was sad, but we did have some less actives come, and they changed up the bishopric so that was interesting. Sunday after we visited a less-active with her sister and we made some progress! She wants her son to get baptized next year, after he turns ten. So that was a good lesson and we talked about our baptismal covenants, what they mean. Then we got to come home early, plan as normal and then prepare for bed- we were asleep by 9:15 because Monday morning we woke up at 5am, took the 6:13 train and headed to Milano for the Anziano Bednar mission conference!

By 9:20 all 242 missionaries were there in the chapel, the sisters in the front five rows. Around 9:30, Elder Bednar walked in with his wife, Elder Teixera and wife and Brother James Allen and Wife, with President and Sorella Dibb. Smiles all over my face, I was so happy! After we sang an opening hymn, we all stood up and sang the mission together. As we sang the words in Italian with meaning and sincerity, I teared up a bit- the spirit being so strong. Man, it was so cool! And it was only the first ten minutes! After that, Elder Bednar got up and we were all expecting some sort of prepared talk, a training on how to use the iPad, etc. He gets up and introduces some things, then starts out a discussion by simply stating "It's not about the iPads" and then asks us to share our thoughts and responses. 

We talked all together, a discussion, him guiding our responses by his comments and questions. Best example I have ever seen from a teacher on asking good questions. We talked about our agency, how we are agents in life not objects. The ipads are objects, like a pen, and will just be another object or tool to enhance the missionary work. With being agents, we talked about agency. We do not have "free" agency, but we do have moral agency. We talked about how we can be life-long missionaries and not just be returned missionaries. Everything we are doing now will prepare us for the future, for marriage, for families. They seemed to talked about marriage a lot... 

The whole conference was just incredible! The spirit was so there, so calm, so powerful all at once. This man, this prophet called of God just having this discussion with us. We covered some basic doctrine and some deep doctrine. We talked about covenants and what they mean. A covenant is determined by God, and like baptism for example we agree with Him to follow his terms, do our part (obey commandments, serve him) and he'll do His. That being said, we don't have the option to brake our covenants because we already said we would follow it! But we have the choice still, and should we chose wrong we are breaking our end of the covenant. We talked about our mission purpose- everything is centered on that! To invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel by faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism for immersion, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end.

The pattern of the Gospel is one eternal round. What are the first principles and ordinances, the most important, that Jesus teaches us? Both in the bible and the Book of Mormon? You think they might be important, yeah? The whole thing was just a super spiritual, guided learning discussion together. The gears in all of our heads were cranking like crazy, and it was so cool, so much a testimony of the power of God. We learn by our heart, not by our logic. We learn as we feel it though the Holy Ghost. Our knowledge is never complete, it is ever perfect, but it "grows brighter until the perfect day" and we just keep learning, keep climbing up. My companionship with a companion now is great prep for the future. Faith: ACTING on the teachings and principles of Jesus Christ, which then gives us the power from God. But we have to make that first step. 

We learn step by step, "line upon line, precept upon precept." We were promised some great blessings of power and knowledge by Elder Bednar if we would study specific things, like we talked about the connection of understanding to the heart and stuff. It is very brief, but those are some things that stood out to me. We had a bit of training on technology, but really we just focused on the spiritual aspect. I made a comment once, and (with all humility, and shyness) I stood up and said what I learned, then Elder Bednar said wow that is really great, and only knew how to express his impression with a German word. So that was cool! 

God calls prophets. This man, Elder David A Bednar, is a prophet seer and revelator of God. I was there, and witnessed his representation of Christ! He is funny, he is way too intelligent, and he loves to joke and loves the other apostles. His wife is just as great. It was so wonderful, such a great opportunity. He left his testimony with a special blessing upon our mission for success. He truly is a servant of God and holds the keys of the power of God. What a miracle!

About these iPads, we are in the waiting period now. They have not yet arrived, but we should have them within the next few weeks. We have some initial training to do to make sure we use them as representatives of Christ, and to be safe in all aspects with them. So, I'll give more updates in the coming weeks.

As for skyping on Mother's day: I only just realized yesterday that mother's day is in two weeks! I don't know our plan for that. I would like to chat with just mom and dad for a bit, and maybe just Lisa and Becca for a bit, and maybe Liz for a bit, then everyone together. I don't know. As long as we can talk I'll work with it! The very soonest I would be able to get on is 1:30pm my time. It's possible we could do it at night, but I just don't know.

Well, some other events this week: There was a baptism on Saturday! It went really well for the Anziani, aside from the fact that one of the speakers spoke for 30 minutes instead of 3-5 minutes... We made banana bread that day, and it wouldn't cook so we kept checking it. Well, one time pulling it out my arm hit the oven and I got a lovely burned, which now I have a nice scar from that. Thanks to my companion’s family for sending her with Doterra, we put oil on it and it helped. 

We were doing some door knocking last week and we are not allowed to enter the homes of Muslims, but we met one and ended up teaching a lesson through the door. Then her husband came her and we gave his a pamphlet. That was a first. Monday night we had FHE with our new bishop, and on the way the buses went on strike, and it was raining, so a random man offered to give us a ride. We so went with him and met his wife and two children, from Ghana. We are going to meet with them on Sunday, so that's a cool double miracle! Yesterday, we met a group of American on study abroad- that was really exciting. They are so nice, so happy, so kind to us, are interested in who we are and what we do. Why aren't all people that friendly?

On Friday, we had three solid appointments- but as weekly planning went on, every hour we basically had a cancellation. So that turned into an eventful day. Well I will try to remember to tell about that next week, because time is up. I've got to do some technology training!

I am loving being a trainer, by the way. Sorella Montagnoli is pretty much awesome. She full of all kinds of new ideas and spunk. Things are going well. I love you all, I hope you are happy.

Your homework: study the atonement. Scriptures, preach my gospel, conference talks, just study it. It will bless your life. Have a fantabulistic week!

Pictures: Friday was Italia’s Independence Day

We have some intense language studies

Baptism

We found a waffle maker like what we have, I think

Sorella Hastings =)

Love and Be Loved