It's been another crazy week of driving all over the place and training the missionaries - it's been a blast! We've also been able to work some more with our new converts and also with Jessica and her parents, Francesco and Simona. Anyway, I'm writing a day early because this is the only free day we have this week (we'll be gone again for the next few days - actually the next week because we're doing exchanges with several of the zone leaders...). But, I'll tell you about the week!
One of the new convert families that we are working with is south american, composed of the mom, Consuelo, a daughter (probably about 18) named Sofia, and a 16 year old boy named Christian. They are an amazing family! They were baptized just a few months ago and they are already really solid. The mom was called last week to be the counselor in the relief society and Christian goes around with us to do missionary work (he is going to be a fabulous missionary - he's really sharp and he has a great testimony).
We've also been working more with the parents of Jessica. Both Francesco (the dad) and Jessica (the daughter who was baptized a few weeks ago) are doing fabulous! Jessica learned about personal progress last week and has already jumped in and completed a bunch of things! Francesco's faith has grown a ton and he's made a ton of progress in the Book of Mormon - in the past 5 days he's gone forward 20 chapters. Also, he told us about how he's been wanting extra work to get a bit more money, so he prayed, and then he got a call from his brother in law asking him to go paint his house and his little shop/restaurant! God answers prayers! Simona is still trying to avoid us, but Francesco told us last night that she said that she would be present for the next lesson. We'll see!
The trainings are still going really well. Almost all of the missionaries are responding positively and are giving good remarks about it. That's always good to here - the spirit is working through us! And, it also says something about the missionaries right now - they are great. One of the most important factors for a missionary learning and growing is his own openness and spiritual readiness to be taught by the spirit. So, if they're learning a lot, it's because they're really humble and they are searching for ways to improve. It's been really cool for me to feel an increase in love for these missionaries. It's getting easier and easier to love them and serve them. God is helping me get a glimpse of who they really are.
I've been trying to really listen to the spirit. So, whenever a thought comes into my head (talk to them, ask them this question, say this to them, etc.), I've been trying to act (I'm not perfect, but I've been making progress!), and some cool things have happened! Some of the missionaries have opened up, with others we discussed certain things and I found out later that the things we discussed were actually fixing problems that they were having, and so forth. One of my goals now is to grow my faith and trust enough so that I don't have any fear or hesitation acting on the things that come to mind. I'm also striving to purify my heart and make my motivating desire the welfare and salvation of both the missionaries and also the people here in Italy. When I'm able to remember this and make it at the forefront of my mind, everything else is super easy! One time, yesterday actually, we were beginning the training. I guess I wasn't quite in the right state of mind/spirit because I felt super weak and I wasn't doing a great job. A couple minutes into the presentation we had to turn off some lights (I had to go into another room), so I took that opportunity to open my heart to God and plead for help and discuss my needs and desires. I felt super good afterwards and I walked into the training like a new person - I think I was better able to help the missionaries more than I ever had before!
Thanks for your prayers and love!
-Anziano Barnes
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