Planting Seeds

Cara famiglia,

Mom I hope you had a good birthday! I ate gelato in celebration of you, don’t you worry.  I’m going to email you a picture of the proof 🙂 (By the way it was THE BEST GELATO I have EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.)

Hello from Rimini!  Rimini has beautiful, beautiful, beautiful sunsets.  There is a picture attached 🙂 Forgive me for my emails being slightly boring and rambling lately.  It takes energy to be creative!  And I am not really sleeping lately, so P-day is always a day where I kind of just crash and can’t really think straight 🙂
This week I have done a lot of reflecting, (we do that on missions, don’t we?)
I am here because of one simple word: love. Isn’t love everything? It’s what makes life worth living.  We all want to feel loved, accepted, and appreciated. And the gospel of Jesus Christ provides that for us.  I just want so badly for others to see that! We feel love within our families, within our friends, and with God.  When life gets tough, just reach out and love. It’s so empowering.
Being in Italy, a country entrenched in tradition and Catholicism, every day I come to understand the Restoration of the gospel just a little bit more.  We teach the Restoration to every person that we can.  The Restoration clarifies all of the doctrinal confusions and questions.  Haven’t you ever had a question for God? Haven’t you ever wondered why something was the way it was?  Joseph Smith did too.  And God answered his prayer.  He will answer yours too.
We found a family that the missionaries had taught a couple years ago.  We taught them a lesson in their home, and if they know the Book of Mormon is true, they agreed to be baptized!  Not everyone is ready now, but they could be ready in the future.
I have been pondering about what my role is in missionary work, and I think I am being a planter of the seeds.  Maybe I won’t see the fruit on the tree during my mission, but someone’s got to plant the seed for it to grow, right?  Being surrounded by so many amazing members where I am serving, I wish I could tell all the missionaries that served all those many years ago the true difference that they made as instruments of God.  It’s incredible.
Funny moments from the week:
– Knocking doors, someone answered without any pants on. (Again… this seems to be a strange pattern…)
– It is raining, a lot.  My companion refuses to use an umbrella, since she’s from Washington.  About 50 people tried to sell us a 2 euro umbrella.
– We have a neighbor that turns our power off in the middle of the night. Like three times. Yeah, it’s hard to communicate in Italian at 3:00 in the morning…
Although sometimes it gets discouraging when people keep turning you down every day, we have fun and we know how to laugh at ourselves!
I know this gospel is true with all of my heart.  I love being a missionary, and I love my Savior.  I see His love in all the little things every day.
Vi voglio bene,
Sorella Strong
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