Prayer

Written 3-26-14

 

Prayer it works.  All the time.  So this week has been horrible, miraculous and awesome all in one week.  

So we showed up for an appointment yesterday but the woman wasn't there and we couldn't enter the house without her.  When we called her and told her that she was furious with us.  I'm pretty sure she was having a bad day before we got there.  Well she invited us to lunch and we said yes because we figured we needed to please her.  But then after lunch she got into a huge fight with other members of her family that were there.  Needless to say by the time we left the appointment all we were able to do was share a scripture and say a prayer.  We're not sure if we're going back.  But the point of this experience is that afterwards, we decided to say a prayer.  I said it and pleaded with Heavenly Father to help us feel the spirit again and that we would be able to be happy and have a good day.  After a few minutes this peaceful warm feeling came over us.  I felt cheerful and confident and the rest of the day went great.  Whenever we pray with sincere hearts and allow Heavenly Father to communicate with us, He will answer those prayers.

So we finally presented our Ward missionary plan to Anziano Durand who is our bishop.  He made a few changes and now we will implement it in the ward.  I am so excited to see how this plan works in the ward.  We're going to do several activities, events, and other things to encourage the members to share the gospel with those around them.  

Friday we had dinner with our English class students.  After a meal of lettuce drowning in fry sauce (yes the Italians have fry sauce), mussells in a red sauce, cous cous with chicken and vegetables, coke, breadsticks, crostini which means crusts of bread and tiramisu, we shared a thought.  Our students are awesome and were the hosts were amazing.  It was wonderful because we couldn't eat the tiramisu because they use coffee in it.  When we explained that, the host cut strawberries for us and then they gave us the cream on top of the tiramisu.  I got a huge caffeine rush when we got home.  But what touched my heart was that during dinner the students thanked us for bringing all of them together.  I didn't want that night to end.  

We had a ward activity where a dentist came and taught us about dental hygiene.  After the activity we taught the dentist.  She accepted a Book of Mormon and I'm excited to see how she progresses.  After the lesson we watched Legacy in Italian and then had a pot luck dinner.  It was amazingly delicious and the members gave us tons of left overs.  they are amazing!

So we had an interesting experience.  People here have plastic flower pots with fake flowers in them sitting on their window sills.  Well apparently one of these flower pots fell off our neighbors window sill and hit a Jehovah Witness missionary on the head.  But it all happened right outside our apartment.  The JW's rang our doorbell and then the police came and asked us questions.  When we explained it wasn't us everything was alright and the police officer kept saying how they liked us because we were obedient and kind and help their people.  Then the firetruck came and took flower pots off of everyone's windows.  Hilarious, weird and a story that only happens on the mission.

So the biggest lesson I've learned this week has been about charity.  I've had a lot of frustrations, things that made me angry, and worries about different things.  Not gonna lie, it's been very challenging and the Lord is definitely putting me through a refiners fire right now.  But I was studying about charity and learned this principle.  When we constantly have charity in our hearts, that's when we can constantly feel the spirit and the trials are easier to handle and easier to learn from.  I'm so grateful for these lessons for life.

Scripture for the week:  2 Nephi 26:33

Word for the week:  Contagioso (cone-taw-gee-oh-so).  It means contagious.  Be happy.  It's contagious.

Challenge:  Pray to receive charity.  It is a gift from Christ and when we earnestly seek any spiritual gift, Heavenly Father will bless us with that gift. 

Love you all!  Thank you for the letters and cards!

Love Sorella Hatch