Dear Family and Friends,
Thanks for the photos this week! It was fun to see camping and stuff! I'm starting to feel much better now, and we have been going crazy this week teaching people! We had Stake Conference this Sunday, and it was really fun to see all those people there from all over! It was especially fun to see people from Modena there, and it made me miss my old city a little. But at the same time I keep falling more and more in love with Verona! I am SO excited to be able to spend another transfer here with my dear Sorella Hanks! We have been having a great time, and she is learning Italian SO well! She studied at school a couple of years ago, so she already spoke pretty well, but pretty soon I'll bet she passes me up!
This week I had an interesting experience. After Stake Conference, we met a man at the bus stop. I was asking him for directions, and he said, "I was once a Mormon too." We talked for a while. He had converted to Islam when he married a woman from Tunisia. I asked him why he left the Church. He said, "I feel that all religions are the same. We all worship the same God, teach the same principles, and have basically the same beliefs. It's only the name that's different. I just made a choice." I bore my testimony that I knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and he said, "We're all sons and daughters of God." He wanted to argue, so all I could do was give him a Book of Mormon, tell him to read a chapter that came to mind and pray about it, and then I bore my testimony that I knew that it was true. He said he would read, and I hope he will. (We can only be truly converted if we are daily studying the scriptures, the true word of God.)
I left the bus stop feeling kind of strange inside. I know that what he said was true, in many ways. We all do worship God. We do use different names for Him. We are all children of a Heavenly Father. It bothered me that what he said made sense, because I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know that's it's true, so I had to figure out why I felt like crying. What I discovered as I thought about all that on the way home, was that there is something very important that he didn't understand.
We can't get back to God alone.
Because He is perfect, we can't "dwell with God" (1 Nephi 10:21) without being cleansed from sin. The ONLY way that we can be cleansed from sin, is for there to be an "infinite and eternal sacrifice" (Alma 34:10-14) and then for us to have faith, repent, be baptized, be sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and endure in "faithfulness unto the end" (3 Nephi 27:19-21). Therefore, we cannot "merit anything" of ourselves (Alma 22:12-14) and "if Christ had not come . . . there could have been no resurrection" and we must have been dead forever (Mosiah 16:6-8).
But Christ DID come. He DID atone for our sins. I did a 2 hour study of the Atonement yesterday for a lesson with an investigator, and EVERY act in the atonement was necessary. One of my zone leaders reminded me that even the betrayal and forgiving were absolutely essential to this great and last sacrifice. The difference between our church and other churches (among many), is that we KNOW that Christ is the head of the Church. We know that He lives and directs a living prophet. The Book of Mormon is the only proof that we (those who are priesthood holders) hold the priesthood of God. It is the only proof that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet.
My favorite verse this week is also from Mosiah 16:9
"He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death." I know this is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I'm grateful more and more every day for this opportunity to share this with others, and I can't believe how much my testimony has grown as I've been here. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes all the time, and God shows me that He is in charge, and helps to overcome all my difficulties.
Ok, one last scripture...
Alma 58:10-12.
This is the one I'm recommending for you all to look up and read. But it shows the need for prayer, faith, courage, and acting. God wants to help us, but we must first ask in faith, act in courage, and then he will direct us and help us conquer.
Thank you all for your friendship and love! And your prayers!!!!!
I love you all.
Keep the faith!
-Sorella Willey
Sorella Willey
Sorella Elizabeth Willey
Missione Italiana di Milano
Via Gramsci, 13/4
20090 Opera MI
ITALIA
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