Modena, Italy - January 26, 2011

So, as you know, we were meant to have zone conference last wednesday. It was incredibly awesome! Elder Kopischke, of the 1st quorum of the seventy, who is a member of the Area Presidency of Europe, came and did the whole thing. It was the longest zone conference I have ever been to, all the way until 6 pm (started at 10:30), and so awesome. He had served previously as a mission president in Germany (he is German), and told us tons of awesome stories and gave really solid, practical advice about things like how to know when to leave an investigator and go on to someone else, or how to help members get involved in stuff, how to invite people to church. He did a lot of role plays, and they were usually hilarious and also instructive. It was way cool. I loved it. One thing that President Wolfgramm, our mission president, mentioned before Elder Kopischke spoke was that one of the reasons he likes doing casa is because he looks at it as a game. Normally when people open the door they don't keep it open hardly any time at all, and just straight up slam it in our faces. He said he looks at doing casa like a game to get out a question before they close the door again. So Sorella Snodgrass and I started doing it, and it was amazing! We had so many conversations with people instead of just slammed doors. Not a lot of people necessarily let us in, but they talked to us. We're not talking questions just like, 'What's your name?' but more like questions of the soul, like, 'Well, what do you think the purpose of life is?' And it has been a blast. People talk instead of slam and it helps us feel a lot more productive in doing casa.

In fact, we've seen a lot of miracles in our finding work lately. For example, we had already knocked every single door in this one palazzo, but were back for a follow-up passby thingy, and there was a young Philipino girl waiting for the elevator. So I asked her if we could come up and talk to her family (talk to everyone, preach my gospel says, even when you have knocked all the doors and everyone else said no), so she said yes and let us come up with her! We went inside and met her mom, and I was feeling confused because I really did not remember having knocked on the door of any family from the Philipines, when out of the back popped this older talkative Italian man, whom we did recognize because he was the one who answered the door. It is his house, and he rents part of it to the family, but we did not know that when we knocked on the door and he answered. he was very polite, and kept telling us what a bravo man Joseph Smith was, and really was very polite towards Mormons but said he had already read the Book of Mormon and wasn't interested. Well, he was totally okay with us coming in to talk to the family, and we even had a Book of Mormon in Tagalog with us. (Usually before going out the door I try to pray and think about which Book of Mormon language to take with me that day, and that day I had felt Tagalog, and usually my companion tells me I am insane when I try to take Tagalog because it is such a random language.) So we taught mainly the mother and the old Italian man, actually, about the Book of Mormon, in English, too, because the man understands English abbastanza and the family speaks English much better than Italian. and then halfway through the lesson the man interrupts and turns to the mother and says, 'look at their eyes. You can see they talk with God by their eyes, can't you?' he actually was the most excited one in the room, and he is the one who had told us no when we knocked on the door! We were able to really discern some of the mother's most pressing questions of the soul, revolving around her family, and the old man even left half way through because, 'the husband and children must hear this message!' and went and brought the whole family. It gets even more incredible, at the end of the lesson the old man said kind of sheepishly, 'um, could I have another copy of the Book of Mormon? I would like to re read it.' And so we gave him one in Italian (we always carry one in Italian). And we have a return appointment tonight with the whole family and the old man! We are so excited! It was a really beautiful experience.

We have actually gotten many many comments lately about how clear our faces and eyes look and how bright, and from others even more specific things like how that means we talk with God or that we have the spirit or we represent Jesus Christ. It has been a really humbling thing, to think people really do look at us that way, and know that we really have a responsibility to represent him. But this is not only us, but all members have taken upon them the name of Christ at baptism. We really do represent Him in a very literal way. What a privilege! (in fact, someone in the priesthood session of this past general conference talked about this, about member missionaries or something, which I cannot remember the name of. But my friend Hermana Kinghorn mentioned Elder Nelson's priesthood session talk in her letters home recently, so maybe it is that one. Check it out!)

I read a talk of President Monson's today from the past general conference about gratitude. I realize that I really do need to be more grateful. As I write these awesome experiences we have home, I realize that I really am so grateful for the chance to be a missionary, for the things I am learning, for the people I get to meet and help and teach and even see baptized. What a privilege! But sometimes I am just so tired or we go a whole day where no one shows for their appointment or lets us in the door doing casa and so we return home without teaching a single lesson, or I have a headache or I am hungry and biking quickly because we are late, or someone awesome flat out tells us they want to settle for the terrestrial kingdom because it is easier, and I think how much I will be glad to return to normal life when this is over and not be a missionary any more. I think all missionaries feel that way at times. But I think that maybe a lot of these feelings stem from un-gratitude and that if we make a bigger effort to be grateful, to see miracles and recognize our blessings and what a privilege we have, a lot of our tired frustration and homesickness or hopelessness that anyone will ever open a door or get baptized will go away. I love the gospel. I love the interactions between different gospel principles. Gratefulness affects faith and hope and, therefore, miracles. I love being a missionary, and am excited to see more miracles together with Sorella Snodgrass here in Modena!