January 6, 2010

Hi everyone-
Happy New Year, and happy day of The Befana. We rang in the new year by having an early curfew and then spending all day the 1st deep-cleaning our apartment. Good times. It's been a bit of a crazy week here in Cagliari, but overall it's been good.
Wednesday we went with the elders to a city in our branch about an hour away for a "business trip." A member in Rome gave us a bunch of referrals. She had been talking to some friends online about the Church, and for Christmas wanted to send them the missionaries. We went to visit all these people with letters from the member in Rome and a copy of the Book of Mormon and we sang them Christmas songs. We had great success! It was a great day. It really made me realize even more how important members are in missionary work. If we had tried to talk to these people by ourselves, we probably would have been turned away. In fact, many of them mentioned that they had turned away previous missionaries. But because we were sent by a member who they trusted, we were warmly received. It was a great day. The elders are going to visit them later this week and try to teach them more!
Susan is getting ready for her wedding on Saturday!!! She asked us to be their witnesses. Then we got un-invited, then invited again, the re-un-invited. So as of now, we're not the witnesses for the wedding, but she did tell us we can come and bring gifts. She also tried to tell us that it's the witnesses' responsibility to buy the wedding rings. We tried to explain that that is in fact the husband's job to provide the ring, so we'll see how that goes. Once she gets an idea in her head, it's hard to convince her otherwise. We love her despite her craziness and are super excited for both her wedding and her baptism next week!
People are still out of town for the holidays. The holiday season here lasts until today, so hopefully our investigators will be returning soon so that we can meet with them. We do have a lesson planned tomorrow with the three muskateers (Ilaria, Alfredo and Maurizio). They are so wonderful! They've been super busy but are doing well.
This week we had a huge miracle! We were able to meet with Caterina! She hadn't been able to meet with us because the nuns where she lives told us that if she meet us, they would kick her out and leave her homeless. But apparently they had a change of heart and she is now free to meet with us! It was a fun surprise when Susan brought her to the appointment. She is doing well. She is really shy when it comes to talking about spiritual things, but she is warming up.
I just finished the war chapters in Alma in the Book of Mormon. I love those chapters! They are so applicable to the spiritual "wars" we have in our own lives. One of my favorite stories in the war chapters is the letters between Pahoran and Moroni. Moroni writes a somewhat mean letter to Pahoran accusing him of some wrongdoings that he didn't do. Pahoran's reply is full of love and kindness. He explained the situation and admired Moroni for his passion in his cause. It is such a beautiful example of forgiveness.
I also read a talk by President Faust about forgiveness, called "The Healing Power of Forgiveness." He quotes Dr. Sidney Simon, who said:
"Forgiveness is freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. It is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves."
How beautiful is the opportunity to forgive and love others as Christ love us. It is a hard task, but with His help, anything is possible.
Have a great week! Vi voglio bene!