For starters, Sundays are amazing. Every Sunday we go for a temple walk. It's beautiful. So many thoughts were in my mind as I was sitting outside in the glory of God's creations.
The first vision entered my mind as I looked in the clouds...I might have shared this already.
"Vidi essattamente sopra la mia testa una colonna di luce piu brillante del sole, che discese gradualmente fino a che cadde su di me. Quando la luce stette su di me, io vidi DUE personaggi il cui splendore e il cui gloria sfidano ogni descrizione, ritti sopra di me nell'aria. Uno di essi mi parlo, chiamdomi per nome, e disse incando l'altro: Questo e il mio filgio diletto. Ascoltalo!"
(that was all from memory, btw! NBD :) )
As I look into the clouds, I think not even the rays of the sun are anywhere close to being as bright as God's glory!
Then there are the mountains!!! Oh my!! "the footstools of the Lord"! wow! The mountain of the Lord, (the Provo temple) is at the foot of a mountain of the Lord! see what I did there??
I love God! I love Jesus Christ! they created this beautiful place for us! and yet, the best places are without of reach, they are the reward of making it to the next life.
But sometimes I wonder, as I look at the mountains, do angels come down and walk along the mountain ridges? although their world is more majestic, do they come and walk here and reminisce?
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I had a neat experience the other morning. We had outside exercise time and I was stretching on the grass and ....you know how the Y mountain and the mountain behind the temple cross and create a "v"? ...well the sun rose between the mountains and I literally saw the sun rays beyond the peak of the mountain. I saw specific rays, it was great! so beautiful!
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Ok now to the temple experience: we did the special part before the endowment. I hate the using the word...it makes me feel so bad when others use it because its so sacred! WHY would you say that word?! everything that we discuss is so sacred, it makes me sad. I refuse to use that word unless i am inside the walls of the temple.
I proxied for 7 women. 4th name down was Eliza Lilly Gregory, from England 1874ish.
The first part began and the woman pronounced those 6 words and I FELT IT! Eliza was waiting for someone to do this for her. It was like I was her. She felt it too. WOW!
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So many great things are spoken of in all the wonderful talks we hear
Sister Allen, wife of Stephen B. Allen Managing Director of Missionary Dept., shared something
very special and silly.
We've all seen Finding Nemo correct?
Well Sister Allen shared an experience and she said her husband said, "do you think the Lord will give you revelation through a children's movie?"
He told her, "just keep swimming!"
As Dori would say, "what do we do? we swim!" sing the song! Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!
Never left your head go under water, if all you can do is keep your nose over the surface, keep breathing. keep treading!
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Then her husband, Stephen B. Allen spoke and he started by saying, "after my talk, you will be shown Sister Monson's funeral. Since that is so sacred and somber, I cannot give you the talk I planned on. The Spirit told me this earlier but I didn't listen. So just know that the Holy Ghost is going to teach through me. I have no notes. Hopefully, the Spirit will teach you what you need to know"
WOW! No notes. Only, the Spirit. Powerful?! YES~
as the time went on, he would stop in the middle of a sentence and just stare out, and say "that was more inspiration".
He had the tech crew prepare the MoTab Choir version of Come, Come Ye Saints (a special song for me, and a perfect missionary song) and we sang it with them! it was sooo amazing!
The Spirit has been speaking to me a lot this week, saying: there is something powerful about singing. there is something special about singing in a group.
I sang in the choir for the Tuesday devotional yesterday and I found out why: a choir is (in this case) 600 people all testifying at once.
It is a group testifying all at once.
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On Sunday, after that talk we watched Sister Monson's wife funeral. if you CAN, watch it!
My biggest inspiration was: live in a way that the Lord will be able to say, when you meet Him again, "well done thou good and faithful servant". Imagine that, really...close your eyes and picture yourself standing in front of the Lord, walking into His presence, and being WORTHY of Him saying that to you. Having Him be able to call you His FRIEND!
so wow, missionary life is incredible.
once we get to the next life, we'll have better vocabulary. worldly language just doesn't do ANYTHING justice.
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Cool thing I heard from yesterday's devotional from Elder W. Craig Zwick:
The Lord will bless me much later in my life, and when I ask Him why He will say, "it is because you served a mission. This is going to bless me forever!
He also repeated a few times, a phrase that goes along with the rest in your quote book, Mom.
It goes right along with "dont ride the chair"
"Its not easy, but it's worth it"
3 Nephi 4: 31-33 perfectly describe the way I feel. gushing forth of tears and all that!
Do you know what the word Hosanna means? "Save now"
I know that missionary service is tough. Each morning I wake up ...in the first 2 minutes I go through this process
"I will not get up. I will stay in bed for 10 minutes. I'm not ready"
then ...I am endowed anew with power from On High and I do get up. Because I am not important right now, the work is. My progress in becoming Christ-like is, but my needs are last. I only qualify for the power of God when I put His will first. Part of becoming Christ-like is getting out of bed.
"This is a consecrated place"
There are trials, but this is the place to learn.
Remember what I said earlier, Mom, the righteous have trials. The more righteous you are, the more trials you will have. BRING ON THEM TRIALS!
Speaking of, my ITALIAN is so much better.
Posso parlare piu and capire piu. Sento meglio in merito al mio Italiano. Io amo parlare and imparare le cose dello Spirito Santo. Quando insegniamo, io so che lo spirito lavora mediante la mia fede in Gesu Cristo.
My grammar isn't perfect, but I'm learning so much. Soon ill be writing all of my letters in italian! Sorry! You'll just have to learn so that we can talk to each other.
Another cool thing I learned - the word for "keep" in English is "sostenere" in Italiano.
so...essentially, sustain means to keep
"may the Lord bless you and keep you"
"may the Lord bless you and sustain you"
Sounds better that way doesn't it?
We have this weekly thing called TRC where we "visit teach" members. It's so cool. They've all served missions and everything but we meet with them and teach them/ The first time we did this was amazing. I feel that He was touched through the Spirit, we were worthy of saying what He needed.
We have met with a man named Alessandro Avenius. he's jewish and italian and he's from New York. He has schizophrenia, and he takes medicine and we were able to talk to Him about why personal revelation and hearing the Spirit are so important...trust me, it connected to Him. I thought it was great because we felt the Spirit! and we know that he did too.
Next week we have in field orientation: we get to place copies of the Book of Mormon in Provo!!!!
how cool!
OK SO ...now to the good part!!!
June 11 is when we leave. Our flight is at 12:30 pm and we arrive at the airport at 8:00 am. we fly to Chicago, London, then Milano!
we arrive in Milano (their time) at 1:30 pm Wednesday June 12!
we are allowed to call from the Airport! I'll call you all! we can talk!
YAY!
we'll get the set plans on sunday but this is what the Travel person said when they went to the consolate. Maybe if its not write, I'll write Tanner and Tanney you can send a quick letter to me back so that we're all set on the plan. if you can make time to talk, i'll leave messages on your phones!
it's almost time! 13 more days!!!!
Please know that if I had the time, I would respond to ALL of your comments and questions. Please know that I feel everything that you say and I am touched by all and so proud of all that you do! please know that!
I LOVE YOU ALL! You are my sunshines, my only sunshines, you make me happy, yes, every day! I hope you know, dears, how much I love you! please don't forget i'll see you some day!
I love you Tanney. I love you Evie. I love you Mommy. I love you Georgie ;P
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