This week has gone by way too fast but has been awesome!
We have some cool new people. Here's the cool story of a couple named Stefano and Katia. Saturday morning I got a call from an unknown number. I answered the phone and a man asked if we were the missionaries. He asked if we still met on sundays at 9:00 in the place near Via delle Panche (where our church is...). We said yes and asked a little bit about him. He knew the LDS missionaries a couple years ago. And, he has a new girlfriend that he wants to introduce to the church. So, excitedly, we planned to meet each other the next morning. They were only able to come to sacrament meeting, but the sacrament meeting was amazing - it was the best one that I've been in since being in Firenze! After the meeting, we talked some more with both of them - there's more to this miracle. It seems that the Jehovah's witnesses even played a part in bringing them to the truth! Katia, one day, was stopped by the JWs and was somewhat interested. When she told Stefano, he wasn't pleased because he doesn't like the JWs at all, and he told Katia that he actually preferred much more the Mormons. He had, at his home, 2 movies that the missionaries had left him; one was The Restoration (the story of Joseph Smith) and the other was about the Italian guy who found the Book of Mormon without the cover and title page. Together, they watched the movies, and Katia loved them! So, the next morning, they called us up, and the next day they came to church! In church they connected with our ward mission leader who will be coming with us to teach them for the first time tomorrow!
Another cool person - Carlotta. We were knocking on doors a couple days ago and met this really nice, 70 year old Italian lady. She's single and doesn't believe in God anymore. It turns out that she wanted to be a nun or do some other catholic school when she was 13, but apparently they wouldn't let her in or something because she was too young. And, after two years, other things were interesting her, and a little after that, with more knowledge and new ideas, stopped believing in God. At first, she seemed like a person with very little hope of changing. However, something pushed us to stay and to dig a little bit deeper. We invited her to pray (it took a while to help her understand how to actually pray and to help her want to do it there...), and she did. It was one of the most interesting, funny, and spiritual experiences I've ever had with someone and their first prayer. She said something like this "I used to believe in you when I was a little girl, but I don't believe in you anymore. I'm sorry. And, I'm sad because I don't believe because I probably would be better off if I did believe. Thanks for sending these two boys to help me believe again in you." In that prayer, she explained a lot more of the story behind all of those comments. However, that was the funny part that actually was really significant - she talked just like she would have (as an Italian, of course...) to a normal person. But that fact, even though it was something really cute and funny, was the thing that also made it super innocent and sincere.
And, yesterday, we had a training with one of the members of the 70 - Elder Causeè. It was absolutley amazing! ... I could write all of the things that God is trying to teach me right now, but it would take up a lot more space (I have 3 pages of little scribbles and notes that refer to some of these wonderful principles)!
Anyway, there is one thing that I'd like to share from the training. He asked us, "When was the last time that you felt the atonement of Jesus Christ in your life?" "How often do you feel it?" I know that as we apply the atonement and the teachings of Jesus Christ in our life more, we will be able to align our lives with God's will and thereby be much more happy and also able to do the work that is in store for us!
Grazie di tutto!
-Anziano Barnes
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