Ciao!
Before I go on to tell other things, I think I'll finish my toe story... Anyway, I went back a couple days after the injury to get an x-ray to check if there were any serious problems. They found that there is a small fracture near the tip of the toe, but there aren't any other significant problems. And, this fracture isn't even that big of a deal because I can't really do anything to make it heal other than just wait. So, I've still been able to get out and work and do everything pretty normally. The big difference is that I'm wearing sandals!...
Anyway, this week was great! It went by so fast again! I can't believe it's been a whole week since general conference! I learned so much there! I think that the biggest message that God was sending me was that I need to always be focusing on the reason behind all that I do. I tend to get caught up with less important things and distracted by them, which makes it so I can't serve with 100% of my heart, mind, and strength. And, actually, the whole conference experience helped to teach me this as well. This conference, more than any other that I've watched in the past 5 or 6 years or so (when I started to really pay attention), it was difficult for me to keep focused. I had to remember my questions and my desires, I had to be focused on my purpose in helping and lifting others and remove any distractions, and I had to pray like crazy to keep the spirit! If I wandered in the least from these things I could feel a physical difference, and I wouldn't learn. It was really cool because God was reinforcing the message that I was hearing with experiences to put it into practice. Furthermore, I got lots of answers to my questions and I feel really good about what I've been invited to do by the Spirit!
We've been continuing to work with Pilar, who is doing super well! She had spoken to us about how sometimes it's hard for her to have a desire to read the Book of Mormon. However, ever since conference, she has had a deep spiritual hunger! She's been reading like mad! And, she's feeling the presence of the Spirit much more (she's a bit embarrassed to talk about these experiences though, mostly because her boyfriend, Mario, keeps on telling her that it's the Spirit and she doesn't want to admit that he is actually right)! Anyway, her testimony and desire is growing rather nicely.
We've also been working with Gianni (who is the father of Mario, Pilar's boyfriend). He's been living with someone (a less-active member), and they're going to get married in a month and a half. He wants to get baptized! He'll do it the saturday after they are married!
Other than that, we've been on exchanges and we had a mission council with all of the zone leaders. Oh, but first, we had a cool miracle that I want to share. We have a list of new converts of the past 3 years that we need to contact. We had contacted nearly all of them (at least by phone) except for this one guy that didn't have a phone number listed (José from South America). We planned to pass by his home the night of a ward council meeting (so we could report on the work we had done with these converts), which was also the day before we needed to turn it all in. We didn't have much time, so we planned to just stop by and see him, get his phone number, and set up an appointment. As we were walking down his street, we spoke with a lady from Ukraine who was a talker. Anyway, while we were talking with her, there was a South Ameriacn lady that walked up the building where José lived. She saw us and gave us a kind of funny look. Then, she just kept staring at us for about 30 seconds. Finally, she came over to us and said "You are new here, right?" We said yes, and I went to talk to her as Anziano Jenson spoke with the talkative lady. We said that we were trying to contact a lot of new members of the church and that we were specifically searching for José. She said that she knew him! I assumed that they were married and both members of the church, so I asked a couple questions to see if they both were. Nope. I was completely wrong. They're not married (yet, she said...) but they live together (uh oh, there's a problem...). And, José was baptized a year ago, but she said "I haven't been baptized yet." Well! We got all of their information and we went off to ward council! Now we have a lady that is interested in getting baptized (and also a bit of work to do to help her and her boyfriend live the commandments so that they can she can become a member and so that he can be an active member of the church)!
The couple exhanges that we had went really well. In Verona, I was able to be with Anziano Neff (an old companion). It was great!
A couple days later we did an exchange in Mestre (right next to Venice). I was with Anziano Marino, an Italian. We also had a good scambio! Unfortunately, I guess I worked my toe too much on the scambio before with Verona (we were out walking the entire day) and it started hurting really bad again (it had actually gotten to the point where it didn't hurt anymore...). So, we had to take it easier on the toe. But, fortunately, the schedule worked out perfectly and I was hardly on my feet at all! We had to drive out to a lesson with an investigator named Peace. There were 4 of us missionaries (Peace was our investigator, but he actually lives closer to the missionaries in Padova, so we went to teach him for the last time and introduce these other missionaries and let them meet Peace). It was quite a cool experience. He opened up to us about his past and explained to us why he thinks that the restitution part of repentance is so hard (he gave us the example that if he killed someone and went to that person's family to apologize in person, that they'd probably kill him back). Fortunately, he's never done something that serious (but he was surrounded by it all the time), and we were able to clear up some concerns. it was perfect too, for the Padova missionaries because they got to see exactly what he's going through and where he's at on his spiritual journey!
All in all, i'm doing really well. I'm feeling great spiritually. I have a lot of things that I know that I can do better (I've been given lots of experiences to try to put into practice the things I learned at conference, and even though many of them are tough and get me for a bit, I remember what I've learned and turn to God and he helps me get out of it). I've had lots of sweet and tender experiences with the Atonement and with prayer as I've been filled with peace and given strength and help to change and overcome temptations and trials. It's so cool! My desire to serve is soaring high again and I'm becoming a more equipped instrument in God's hands!
Vi voglio bene!
-Anziano Barnes
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