un'avventura a Trieste, conferenza di zona, e più! - An adventure in Trieste, Conference area, and more!

This week has been very full, as usual, and oh so delightful, as usual. Thursday Sorella Sloan and I both went to Trieste to work with the sisters there, Sorelle Arume and Jones, for the day. The train ride was marvelous and the last stretch followed the coast line. It was incredible. Trieste is BEAUTIFUL. There are a lot of great old buildings and they have a interesting balance of both mountains and sea. The roads are reminiscent of San Francisco, hilly and steep. The views are lovely and the combination of sea and sky meeting the stark mountains is spectacular. We had a great time riding the bus and teaching some amazing people. We brightened lives, established baptismal dates, and were exactly where the Lord needed us to talk to his children. We had a great time. We worked hard and between the four of us, we did 7 lessons in one day. Mariana keeps coming to church and our Italian ward FHE. She talked about having real spiritual experiences and she likes reading the Book of Mormon with us. She told us she went into a beautiful Catholic church and at the end wrote in their book for visitors that she is attending a new church. She is making a lot of progress and it is awesome. Her daughter came to our last lesson as well. Mandy is amazing. She went to Austria for the weekend and told us she felt so sad she couldn't come to church. She is beginning to see how much she needs it. And, at the FHE for the American ward, we had prayed a lot to know what to do and we talked about receiving answers to prayer. It was exactly what she needed. She found an answer in the scripture she was asked to read. It had been sitting in her lap the whole time we talked about it. It was amazing. Dustin returned from the states and we planned his baptism for the 28th. Sorella Durazzani in our ward, is crazy, but lovable, and she had us call a sister who used to live in the ward, but is now living in a country where there is not the church. I didn't know what to say, so I sang her a hymn. She cried and said it was exactly what she needed. It was so nice to be able to do that for someone I don't even know. We had a break through with Massimo on Tuesday. He has told us before the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but that there could not be one true church. This does not make sense. We realized Tuesday, thanks to the Spirit, that his real problem is that he was concerned that if there was only one church, not everyone would be saved, and he did not believe God was like that, but that he loves his children. WE are incredibly blessed to know that God is EXACTLY like Massimo expressed and wants to save all of his children. We taught him about the mercy and grace in God's plan for us and about the opportunity we will ALL have to hear the gospel. It was a miraculous breakthrough and he called us spontaneously  yesterday to set up another appointment. He said it makes sense now. Thank Heaven. Yesterday we had Zone Conference with the amazing Elder Caussé of the seventy. I learned so much, I can't even express it. His words changed me for the better and will continue to benefit and change my mission every day. We will be inviting everyone to baptism, every lesson, starting with the very first one. That is what Jesus would do. We will act in faith instead of fear and I am so excited about it. After zone conference we rode home with the Herndon's. Interesting tidbit: Italian truck stops include not only beer, soda, candy, and sandwiches, but handmade pasta, chocolates, fancy smoked meats and wine. You could have an exquisite gourmet dinner in the cab of your diesel engine for only slightly more than the cost of your hand-beaded seat covers. Gotta love them. I love you all bunches!  Do some good this week. Pray to meet new friends and share the light of the gospel with them. There is no greater work, nor greater joy. It will bring you a greater love and greater happiness than you can imagine.