le piccole vittorie (letter from 9/10/14)

Carissima famiglia,

How are you? Thank you for the emails, I am praying for each of you.

We said goodbye to one of my favorite African families in the world this week. We sang African spirituals together and I seriously can’t help but smiling my ears off when they sing for us.

My biggest miracle for the week was a victory we had with one of our less-actives. She”s come to church 3 times in a row. Sorella Lopez and I worked so hard to get her to come, and then one week she just shows up. She told us that she wants her kids in the Philippines to go to church, so she realized she needed to come too. We shared the story of the Prodigal son with her. It is seriously one of my favorite parables of all time. It’s a perfect story for all of us. No matter what we have done, our Father is waiting for us to come, and will run to us when we decide to come back to Him. It was all we could do to keep back our tears as the reality of this message touched her and us.

On Friday we did service for one of our members as we prepared to get her house painted. It was so fun to see all her little knick knacks and learn all about her life. Service has really opened her heart to doing missionary work. When I first got here, she refused to even think about giving us a referral.

On Saturday morning we taught the restoration to a man Sorella Lopez and I found and were just now able to see. It was one of my favorite restoration lessons. He is so open and excited. When we started talking about the confusion between all of the different churches, his eyes lit up and he wanted to know why. He is searching for the true church and wants to read the Book of Mormon

Sunday I got eaten alive by mosquitoes. I was really annoyed. So we ran home to get bug spray. While we were spraying ourselves down on our balcony, our neighbor dropped her rug and asked us if she could have it. Well, this was a blessing in disguise, I was determined to pray with her. She invited us in and we shared our beliefs about Christ. She has so so much faith, it was inspiring. She is away from her entire family and working here in Italy to send them money. She relies on God more than many people I have met. Sometimes God works in mysterious ways. I will take the 1000 mosquito bites to get a new investigator!

Sorella Bennett and I are working super hard. We are out all day, talking to people, passing by people, doing everything we can to bring the truth to others. It was a good week. A long week that was one of the more emotional ones on my mission. I don’t know why!

I had the blessed opportunity to hear the testimonies of Sorella Bennett and Sorella Ervin on Monday…(two of my companions who are almost finished with their missions) Ah. They’re just so wonderful. I think I’ve learned the most on my mission from working with companions and learning how to love them and let them serve me. I love these 2 girls with all of my heart, and they have definitely changed who I am.

Vi voglio bene,

Sorella Strong