Despite being sick zone conference really resonated with me. Elder Allen came to Italy for temple related reasons and decided to come talk to the missionaries in Rome. (He is a general authority related directly to missionary work. He was one of the main people to write preach my gospel) I really felt the desire to improve as a missionary . Sorella Worsham and I have begun watching the district together, as frequently as we can, and we are praying more earnestly to help our investigators. The hard thing is as soon as I started making strives to improve, I felt satan begin working harder to discourage me. Sometimes I feel like a bully when invinting people to be baptized, and I sometimes feel confused about whether or not I'm relly even helping anyone or not. I am trying to draw closer to my Heavenly Father and continue to be a good missionary, and to improve every day, but it's not always easy.
Our investigators are all doing fantastic. They still say that they don't feel ready to be baptized. We watched the restoration together this week, and asked them to pray if Joseph Smith truly was a prophet. I feel really strongly that once they have recieved that spiritual confirmation, they will be ready to make that commitment.
We set a baptismal date with one of our English course students this week. He may be moving to another part of Rome in the very very near future (if he hasn't already then in the next few days) so we will probably be passing him to another set of missionaries. (Sorella Worsham and I give really really great referrals.) He will still be working in our area, and so will still be coming to our English course, but he will attend church close to his home. He has been fantastic because he has asked really inspired questions. He is incredibly knowledgeable in various religions. He knows the bible a million times better than I do, and he often quoted the koran. I think that he has really been searching for the truth , and that is why he is so well educated in various religions. We have taught him some of the basic principles in English course but this week was the first official lesson we have had with him, and he accepted the invitation to be baptized! He is a really great example of someone truly prepared by God.
Also we are working with a ganz aged woman named Silvia who was first introduced to the church when she lived with an LDS family during a foreign exchange program. She is coming to a ganz family home evening tonight, and we are really excited to see how it turns out
Also I am not sure if you remember our Russian friends that have come to church a few times. There is a Russian LDS woman who is very good friends (I don't know exactly what their relationship is) with a non-member Italian man who lives here in Rome. He came with her a few times, just to bring her to church, and then I called him a few times to invite him to come indivisually. Last time he asked me not to call him too often because he lives very far away, but that he would come when he could. This Sunday he came again, by himself without me calling to invite him, and at the end of the service he told me he likes the LDS church more than any other church he has ever gone to.
I have realized that a lot of times we don't get to see the long term results of our actions. I will proabably not be able to see all of the people that I work with baptized. I do know that Heavenly Father has a very long term plan and sometimes we are only a small part of it, but everyone of us is essential.
I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thank you for all the support you provide.
Sorella Madyline Spencer
The pictures she mentioned above from their conference.
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