Christ walked my path before, he's walked yours too

Happy almost April, and happy bday shoutout to my dad! For those of you who see him this week, give him an extra big hug for me!!! I love you dad
Well friends and fam...even with an awesome comp who literally is me, i am her... being in beautiful italy among some of the most amazing people sharing the happiest message to the world, Satan is real, and he is powerful, but it's up to us whether or not we let him take over our lives and our happiness.
Let's start with last Wednesday...
Me and Sorella Meager every night before bed watch a mormon message, and that night in particular, we were both just feeling extremely sad and overwhelmed...which turned into a a nice cry and talking session and then crying ourselves to sleep....sometimes that just happens, but you remember tomorrow is a new day, and a fresh start at things again.
Well next morning, we wake up and nothing changed...we were both still feeling down, so we just tried to go about our day and be happy. Scripture study Thursday morning was one I'll never forget. lots of prayers, lots of tears....but I always feel so much peace through the scriptures, especially times like these. Like the quote, "we talk to god through prayer, and god talks to us through the scriptures." It's so true, almost an instant it was as if God was talking to me when I came across D&C 68:6- "wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for i the lord am with you, and will stand by you, and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the son of the living god, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come." So we went about our day and it went a little something like this:

One appointment canceled on us, but we still had one planned with Silvana, so we went and talked about eternal families and the blessings of the temple. Sorella Meager invited her to be baptized, the spirit in the room was strong, everyone could feel it, but she got shut down. As a missionary the rejection never gets easier, you think we'd be use to it by now as we get rejected everyday, but it doesn't...you just have to pick yourself up and keep going. I mean it would only make sense that we have to face some rejection since we are representatives of Christ Who was rejected till his very life was taken from him. Even Christ though, the most perfect human who walked the earth still got laughed at, mocked, and rejected, but that didn't stop him from doing the work he was sent here to do. He's the perfect example I invited her to read again and pray that night about the Book of Mormon if it was true....(follow up in next weeks email.) 

After the appointment, salt lake called us to give me instructions how to fix my iPad, so we had to go get wifi which we happened to be next to la romana (a gelateria.) while I was on the phone with them, Sorella Meager was syncing her area Book with mine, and boom...2 weeks of lessons, other data deletes itself....all that info gone and there's no way we can get it back. Crap...thats always stressful We run after to catch our bus, which happened to be out of service, and had to wait another 20 minutes for the next one...we sat there at the stop talking about the day, about how even though we get along so well, we get to be here as missionaries in beautiful  Italy, it's not easy...you struggle, you cry, you doubt, you worry....but it reminded me of a talk Elder Holland gave: "I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience.Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” 16 then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life." 

Guys it's so true! Not even just as a missionary but life in general...Elder Holland said it perfectly. How could it be easy for us when it was never ever easy for him?? when times get rocky, the path seems foggy....life isn't just a breeze, because salvation isn't easy. We have trials, we have weaknesses, we have all these things to help refine us, to make us strong, and to take these opportunities not to turn away from Christ, but to turn towards him for help. 

I want to end this weeks email with a poem I wrote before my mission...it's called the missionary

Soon I'll be a missionary,

Even at times it feels a bit scary.

Going out to a foreign land,

Teaching of Christ and his eternal plan.

You leave your family, home, and friends behind,

To teach and testify to those you find.

At times you'll feel lost, discouraged with despair,

Those are the times you'll pour your heart out in prayer.

Because Christ has been there, he's walked in your shoes,

He knows what it's like to repetitively loose.

To be blown off, laughed at and mocked,

Even after all of that this was still his same thought. 

These are all of god's children, I love them all the same, 

I'm not here seeking for glory riches or fame.

I'm here to spread the gospel to all mankind,

To teach and testify to those I find.

As missionaries we do the same, 

everyday we represent Christ's name.

Through it all we will learn our weaknesses and find our strengths, 

But we never forget god's arms are reached out full length. 

Always waiting for bus 44

 

Falling asleep on the escalators...