Faith is Power

Ciao tutti!

This week has been one of the best (if not the best) of my whole mission thus far.  Why?  It started out not so good... Wednesday evening Anziano Wilkinson got a call from one of the doctors in Germany and, basically, found out that we wouldn't be doing anything for another week.  The doctor told him to basically grow up and get to work.  Both of us were shocked and a little bit angry for a little while.  However, this turned out to be a huge blessing - for both of us.

Anziano Wilkinson hasn't got any better - he continues to get worse every day (as far as energy and soreness are concerned).  He has to fight a battle every morning up until the time we get out to work.  Words can't describe what happens.  When he's working - when he has the Spirit - he can work normally (this week it seems he's been more on top of it than ever).  When we get home and finish planning, he crashes; he's got nothing left at all.  The scripture that comes to mind comes from Moroni 7: "If ye shall have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."  In our case, the thing that is expedient is missionary work - the things that go on from 10 in the morning until 9:30 at night.  In that time, he has power.  He has life (remember, the spirit/light of Christ "quickeneth all things" and "giveth light to all things").  Every thing else, we suppose, isn't expedient.  Our faith has grown tremendously this past week.  We've worked harder and felt better than ever before.  The Lord's power is real.

The coolest miracle of the past week...  A man named Geris.  He's from Egypt.  Last wednesday he showed up to the "family night" that we put on at the church (lots of less active members, a bunch of the strongest members in the ward, and the investigators that we have, all of them come).  How did he find out about it?  Nobody knows.  A few weeks ago the Sorelle missionarie gave him an invitation card for English class (that we do every Tuesday and Thursday).  He came on a wednesday...  Anyway, after that, we got his information.  We had a lesson with him a couple days later.  He came to a baptism (and at the baptism he had an amazing experience - I wish you could have seen the smile that appeared on his face as the people were baptized!).  He came to Church.  We haven't been able to see him since church, but we'll see him again tonight, and we want to invite him to be baptized!

Easter in Italy is very different.  There isn't an easter bunny.  There isn't an easter egg hunt.  However, there still is lots of food!  On Sunday we went to a member's home for lunch.  It was really good.  In Italy, the day after easter (monday) is also a huge holidy (it almost seems bigger than the actual easter day...).  Everyone (literally everyone) goes out of the house - almost every single one of them to go to a park to do a barbeque.  It reminded me a lot of the 4th of July.  They cook meat, and more meat, and more meat, and then eat, and eat, and eat.  Our ward had an activity monday morning/afternoon where the members could bring friends and where less actives would feel less awkward (and there was a really good turnout).  It was a really good activity - everyone was really nice.  A little too nice.  Almost everyone there wanted to feed us.  I've never eaten so much meat in my life (I had more meat than anything else that day...).  It was really good!  Let's just say I wasn't hungry in the least the whole rest of the day (we ate about noon...)!

We've been continuing to teach the members, helping them to prepare their friends to recieve the missionary lessons and learn about the church.  It has been going really well.  These things that we have been doing haven't been us at all - it's all the Lord.  He has something amazing that He wants done.

As I was saying with working harder than ever before, we've been seeing lots of cool little miracles.  We've been giving away lots of Books of Mormon as we travel on the metro around the city.  We run into some amazing people.  Overall, everything just seems to be working out for us.  We really are being blessed for giving our all (in Anziano Wilkinson's case - more than his all!).

That's pretty much my week.

Oh, update on Anziano Wilkinson.  There was some good things that happened.  Our mission president and his wife have been talking with the doctors.  And, finally, they have approved us to be able to go get some tests.  We have an appointment for tomorrow morning, where the doctor will be doing a ton of different tests (and even a bunch that weren't planned in the beginning - Sorella Wolfgramm contacted another doctor and he suggested several other things that we should check for, so maybe that's why we had to do this extra week of waiting...).  We hope we can do something soon!

Thanks for you love and prayers!

-Anziano Barnes

La mia settimana, April 20

This week was pretty good.  We've started working more with the members, and so far it has been going really well.  Everyone we teach has left feeling very edified, and all of them have thanked us a ton for what we had done for them.  It's cool to think that we are doing "finding work" by teaching the members and helping them become missionaries as they love, serve, and pray for their friends (and then, of course, introduce them to us)! 

We had an amazing lesson with Fernando!  He came up with something while he was studying the scriptures that turned out to be perfect.  I don't know if I'll be able to explain it very well, but in the end it helped him understand a lot more about the plan of salvation - our purpose here on earth, why there is opposition, and lots of other things like that.  It was a really interesting thing that he came up with, but the Lord works in "mysterious ways" (the weirdest thing is how he came up with it - he said it came to him after reading the part in 1 Nephi where Lehi says to one of his sons that he wants them to be like the river, always flowing unto righteousness... I have no idea how that is related...).  In the end, he prayed to God again and said another beautiful prayer.  He's out of town this week, but we're trying to maintain some phone contact and to make those brief visits as spiritual as we can.

Unfortunately, Anziano Wilkinson hasn't been getting much better - that is, physically.  He's happy as ever (he actually seems happier - maybe it's just a contrast...), but his body isn't quite as good.  This past sunday he was as tired - exhausted - as he's ever been.  I've never seen someone look so rough; he had nothing left.  Even the members in church came up to him and were asking what was wrong.  Since coming back after church, we've been in the house and he's been resting.  We still don't know what the problem is.  We went to a doctor here in Milan last Friday, and all he did was prescribe some drugs to help him mentally - mostly to help with anxiety so that he could sleep well.  He has been sleeping more, but I think it's more of a case that he was so tired that he could not physically remain awake.  Fortunately, with the couple days of rest, he's got a bit more energy and feels a tiny bit better (but now his stomach is going crazy again).  We need to figure out what is wrong soon, because none of the things that the different doctors have tried to do for him have changed anything.  Keep him in your prayers.

So, since we were in the house, I've had a lot of time to study.  And, actually, I got to enjoy something that I haven't really done for a long time - sing!  I bought a CD that has about an hour worth of hymns in Italian (a guy sings the melody and there is accompaniment).  So, I opened up my Italian hymnbook and sang the bass line, harmonizing with the guy on the cd.  It was really fun and spiritually edifying.  It's cool how I can still achieve my missionary purpose to "invite others to come unto Christ" and help them do it also while we stay inside, for my companion is one of those "others" that can come to Christ!  This difficult time has definitely strengthened our love for each other and we've been helping each other grow spiritually.  And we've still been blessed as far as the work is concerned.  Let me share a little story...

Yesterday we got a call from a guy named Efrian.  He comes to church every once in a while (he's actually studying with a lot of churches right now...), we've taught him a few times, but he never has wanted to pray to ask if our church is the right one (he's pretty stubborn and it's really difficult sometimes to teach him).  However, he called us yesterday and said he was on the metro and was passing by our stop, and that he had some fruit that he wanted to give us.  Okay...  I prayed really quickly of what I could do for him, and a couple verses and a couple passages in a Joseph Smith pamphlet came to mind.  So, I wrote him a little note/testimony and left the things I wanted him to look over.  The things that came to mind were perfect for him and his situation.  Anyway, we live right next to the metro stop so we hurried and put shoes on and walked outside to meet him.  He gave us the fruit and we gave him our little message, which he committed to do (and then he also said that he is going to come to church this next week with us, and he wants to have a lesson with us right before - we didn't have to ask anything!).  Then, all of a sudden, one of his friends came out of the metro, and he introduced us to him.  Now, this friend will be coming to church on sunday and hopefully also to the lesson.  It's cool that even our "not progressing" investigators are doing missionary work for us!  The Lord blessed us with this cool little miracle, even though we had to stay in for Anziano Wilkinson.

Anyway, I'm so happy that I can be a missionary right now - there isn't anything that I'd rather be doing (well, I wouldn't mind being able to do this a little bit better...)!

Thanks for your love and prayers!

-Anziano Barnes

Valentin was confirmed!

Part of the Milano 2nd Ward

Sunset in Milan

Milan from the top of the Duomo

Buon Giorno!

This past week has been pretty good.  Valentin got confirmed on Sunday - he wanted me to do it.  It was a neat experience being able to be guided by the spirit - giving a blessing IN Italian!  We met another guy that is absolutely amazing - Nels.  He's a referral as well.  He's from Congo, is 27 years old, is a student here in Italy, and, now wants to be baptized!  Let me tell the story...

He met the missionaries a couple weeks ago in another part of Milan (and the missionaries assumed that he lived in their area, so they continued to teach him).  WIth them, Nels went to a baptism, and then was taught about baptism and confirmation.  After that, however, the missionaries learned that he lives in our area and so we got his information.  That was 3 weeks ago.  We finally were able to see him for the first time last Thursday.  We taught simply about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy of his own (he didn't have one yet...) with an invitation to read it and pray about it.  During the lesson, we felt that we needed to invite him to be baptized, so we did - he accepted!  We saw him the next day and set a firm date - April 30th - as well as teaching a couple other things.  He said he was going to come to an activity the next night and to church on Sunday.  However, he didn't come and we haven't been able to make contact with him.  We don't know what happened.  But, we'll keep trying.

We also had probably the most productive lesson we've ever had with Fernando (the really smart Italian teacher).  He really has a testimony of the apostasy (as far as the corruption in the catholic church goes).  And, for the first time ever, he prayed TO God!  He said one of the most beautiful prayers I've ever heard and he did everything that one needs to in a prayer!  In this lesson, he really started to open up to us.  We learned that he has a son who is struggling right now.  He doesn't get along at all with the woman with whom he had this child.  However, he really wants to help his son, but his son is more attached to the mom (who, according to Fernando, is pushing him the wrong direction).  He wants to help his son have "protection" from Satan.  Fernando is going to try to bring his son to some of our lessons (however, his son leaves for the USA for a vacation today, so he'll be gone for a few weeks). ... 

Yesterday we had some really cool inspiration.  We were looking through our agendas at the ideas to find new investigators.  The number one idea that it gives us is to teach the message of the restoration to members in order to get referrals.  In short, we're going to do it.  We proposed our idea to the ward mission leader and he just lit up!  He's excited and wants to help us.  Somehow, this seemed to make something click between us, and he seems to really trust us now - we finally have the relationship we've been working for!

Ciao!

-Anziano Barnes

La Mia Grande Sentimana

Anziano Barnes, Valentin, Anz. Wilkinson

This week was absolutely full of miracles! Miracle number 1 - Valentin is back!!!  We made contact with him the couple times after he didn't come to church and it seemed like all was lost.  However, on Thursday we felt like we should call him again to share a quick scripture from the book of mormon and invite him to read it.  Then, saturday morning we got a call from him, saying that he really needed some help (his money was completely exhausted, and he couldn't pay to stay in his house)- he was, in a sense, "compelled to be humble."  We told him that if he would pray and if he would read the Book of Mormon, he could have a sense of peace, and that although we couldn't help him, God could.  That night, after conference, we happened to run into the Bishop (he was supposed to be there early, but due to a bunch of reasons - peoples' needs and poor traffic situations - was unable to arrive to the church on time, but he arrived right as we were leaving the church).  We talked to him about what we had just learned about Valentin's situation (and that it seemed like he might be in a state to return back to the church), and we sugeested that he talk with Valentin - and he did, right there on his phone!  That phone call was a complete miracle.  Anyway, to make a long story short, Valentin said he would come to the church the next afternoon at 5:30 (there would be people there all day because of general conference) and he would meet with the bishop in person then.  And, come Sunday, just like the old Valentin we knew, he showed up early - 12:00!  He got to watch a bit of priesthood session and then talked with the bishop.  The bishop is doing a ton for Valentin.  The cool thing was to see the light that was returning to Valentin.  On Sunday, we could tell he had changed (for the better) and was returning to the spiritual state in which he used to be in.  He told us on sunday that he wanted to be confirmed.  He said he's not interested any more in his old friends (who really have been jerks to him ever since they found out what he did) and wants new friends - members.  He wants all of the pictures that we took with him at his baptism (he had probably 50 or so with the members that came).  ANyway, he's happy again.  He feels the peace that comes from living the gospel.  And, last night he got a call from someone offering him a place to stay for really cheap (he still needs money though...).  However, we have faith that everything will continue to work out for him, for the Lord "shall prepare a way" for Valentin to "accomplish" His will.  Yeah, we got him back!

Another cool miracle was that one of the guys who comes to our English class came to conference (we didn't even remember inviting him)!  He seems interested in the gospel, so we think now is the time that we jump on the opportunity and begin to teach him!

Last night we got the phone call about what's happening with transfers - we're staying the same!  Finally I get to stay with someone longer than 6 weeks!  We're really excited, and we're ready to continue to change the city and continue to turn the work around, helping to spark the work in the whole mission!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the other huge highlight of the week - conference!  I learned a lot.  Two of the sessions (Saturday Morning and Priesthood) we watched in English (we had to watch them online because the television that was supposed to be used for showing it in English wasn't working for some reason).  We watched Saturday afternoon and Sunday mornning in Italian (we weren't able to see Sunday afternoon due to the time it was played - 10:00 to midnight...) - that was a cool experience.

Anyway, that pretty much sums of the cool things that happened this week - this work really is in the hands of the Lord!

-Anziano Barnes

Anziano Barnes on top of the Duomo in Milan

A cool sign?!