Il vangelo co porta la pace

La mia famiglia e i miei amici,

Grazie per your emails and everything.  I just want you all to know that you are in my prayers every moment, and if I’m not praying, my heart is in continuous prayer like it talks about in Alma 34. I promise 🙂

It has been such a week! Sorella Holloway and I are staying together another transfer, and I am so so so happy about this! The work is really beginning to hasten here, it’s so exciting.  This week was one of those roller coaster up and down weeks that was so beautiful and only hard because of what’s going on mentally in my head, if that makes sense. This transfer I’m approaching on my half-way mark, and that is scaring the heck out of me for some reason.

But, this week was filled, filled, filled with so many miracles. We were able to teach 5 member-present lessons! MIRACLE.  And let me tell you, once we brought these members, it made the difference.  We were finally able ot set a baptismal date with an investigator that has been investigating for at least 6 months. At first she didn’t even believe in God, but thanks to the Book of Mormon, she has started to develop a personal relationship with Him.  It was such a beautiful lesson filled with the spirit.  She literally said: I am searching for direction in my life.  I don’t know which path to take.  I am waiting for the illumination from God to know whether this is it.  Because if I commit to this, I will have to completely change my life around.  We then asked her, what are you expecting from God? She didn’t really know.  Our member explained that sometimes our answer is just peace, simply peace.  Our investigator then began to explain that the only time she feels peace in her life is when she is with us or when she is reading the Book of Mormon.  We then promised her that as she covenants with God through baptism, she can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and have that peace with her all of the time.  Mamma mia, it was a beautiful lesson, and please keep her in your prayers that she will have the strength to really make these changes in her life.

We are also trying to help another investigator keep the word of wisdom on smaller levels – beginning with giving up coffee every morning 🙂 Our members have been wonderful with this, as they take her orzo and invite her to family home evening 🙂

Yesterday, we had a great day of finding miracles as well 🙂 You know that family who let us into their house a couple of weeks ago, they became new investigators! Yesterday, we prayed with a man on a bus and he had true, genuine interest and also became a new investigator.  Just talking to more and more people and doing our best to follow the spirit, the Lord will bless us.  Something I have learned is to always heed the promptings of the Spirit, and even if nothing comes of it, maybe God is just testing us to see if we will follow Him, but God always keeps his promises, always.  He’s God! He can’t lie.  He WILL fulfill His part of the covenant if we do our part, I know that this is true.

I also finished the Book of Mormon again this morning, and I was filled with such an overwhelming sense of peace and gratitude for this book.  As I flipped through the pages, noticing all the things I had underlined and written, I was filled with such gratitude for all the mornings of personal study, where this book has truly given me the direction that I needed, the peace I was seeking, or whatever, as I truly sought the Lord in prayer.  Ah, it is such a beautiful book and it is the word of God. No, I have never ever heard a voice or anything.  But, when I really try to do what it teaches me, I am blessed, I am happy.

I want you all to know that, I truly truly truly love my mission. I have never been so happy, so stressed, or so… fulfilled so much in my life. I love the people of Italy, I love the gelato, the language, the Catholicism that is everywhere but still brings people closer to God, and just the beautiful history. I love the people that I meet from all over the world. Literally, all over the world, from every part, especially here in Florence.  (This week we ate this delicious bread from a less-active from Brasile…Brazil… can’t remember how to spell that in English. yum.)

La vita è bella, e la felicità è una scelta.

Vi voglio un mondo di bene,

Sorella Strong