March 30, 2011
Dear Friends and Family,
My email will have to be a little shorter this week, but I have a little less to share anyway. We had a lot of 'finding work' because most of our investigators are now new converts (or dropped...) :(
But I am in Bergamo today! It's my first time out of Milano 1 in 2 months for more than a couple of hours. I am on 'scambio' with Sorella Baranova. She and I have EVERYTHING in common! We have similar spiritual gifts, the same favorite scriptures, we have VERY similar views on life, the Gospel, and practically everything, and she has taught me so much! She is from Russia, and she's 26. Our birthdays are 5 days apart though, so we've decided that we will serve together that transfer so we can celebrate them together. I hope that the mission president agrees...
One of the really cool things that happened this week is Rita set a baptismal date!!!!! April 16th!!!!! I hope that I can still be in Milano 1 for that! Transfers are next week, so everything could change again. Plus we have something like 9 new Sorelle coming in, so it's likely that S.lla Noteware will be training. So who knows!?! But I'm so proud of Rita! She has had SO much opposition, but she has really begun praying and reading, and we can just tell that her relationship with God is so much tighter now! It has been hard for her because her parents are very strictly of another faith, but in the words of her mother (Antoinette), 'Better Mormon than nothing!!' Speriamo that she really means that. Antoinette has been at some of the lessons, and she really likes the Book of Mormon. I wonder if maybe one day she will also decide to convert. 'Piano piano,' as all the Italians say. Sometimes we have to let people take the time they need to let the Spirit effect them.
I am so grateful every day for this mission! I'm learning SOOO much, and I can't believe that every day my testimony grows MORE! I have seen miracles in my life and the lives of SO many people every day! If there are any of you reading this email that are considering a mission, I say YES!!! There are blessings that I would never have known if I had not gone. I wouldn't have known that I didn't know either. But the blessings are incredible! I'm so excited to hear news from you that there are more Sorelle being called to Italy, that you are reading my emails or blog, that you are seeing miracles in your life, or that you have been blessed by your mission.
Thank you all for your kindness and support! I wouldn't be here without YOU! Sometimes you don't know how much you affect others, but everyone in my life has built me into who I am and who I am becoming. Thank you!
I'd like to end with a scripture that really touched me this week. I have been really thinking about the influence of the Holy Ghost that we can feel in our lives. It is the simple things that we do every day to be worthy to feel that Spirit. And one of the main purposes of feeling the Spirit is so that we can feel the love of God for us which 'is the most desirable above all things' (1 Nephi 11:22). And the scripture that touched me is in 2 Nephi 28:32. It says, 'I will be merciful unto them, saith the Lord God, if they will repent and come unto me; for mine arm is lengthened out all the day long, saith the Lord God of Hosts.' He is just waiting for us to turn to him. He will bless us with this love through the Spirit.
I know this is true, and I pray that you can all feel His love this week as you turn to Him in prayer.
With love always,
-Sorella Willey
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Sorella Willey
Sorella Elizabeth Willey
Missione Italiana di Milano
Via Gramsci, 13/4
20090 Opera MI
ITALIA
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