Serving An 18 Month LDS Mission

In the LDS church, when a girl turns 21 she has the opportunity to choose to serve an 18 month, self-funded mission. I have wanted to go on a mission since I was a little girl. My parents both served a mission in Rome in the 1970's. In 2001-2002, my sister Letty served as a missionary in Hong Kong and my brother Algot in the Philippines. As soon as I turned 21 I submitted my papers. The Prophet and 12 Apostles determine through inspiration which of the more than 300 missions worldwide each missionary will be assigned. I was overjoyed when I opened my mission call and discovered that I was called to Rome, Italy! I feel immensely blessed and I feel that God has been preparing me to serve the Italian people. Each week, while I am on my mission, I will send my sister Letty an email and pictures to post on the blog. I won't see this blog till I come home, so I will be unable to directly respond to your comments until then. However, the sidebar will always have a current street address for me, and I promise I will respond to your letters! If you would rather write via email, just email your letter to my sister and she will print it out and send it me with her weekly snail mail!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

MTC Letter #6

Hey everyone,
 
I hope everyone has had a great week. And happy late birthday to my nephew Emerson! Please give him hugs and kisses from me :)
 
I have been having a great time here at the MTC this week. I can't believe I only have 19 days left here. I am almost in Italy :)

This last week My companion and I have been working with our investigators. Hilda has a baptismal date on Sep 29 but she is having some trials from her daughter and her best friend. We have been trying to buoy her up and also are teaching her commandments tonight :) She is wonderful though. She feels the spirit she tells us and knows she is doing the right thing. Alex our other investigator is very friendly toward the church. He had to cancel our appt at the beginning of the week because his girlfriend Sofia was in the hospital from a head injury. My companion was brilliant and said while we were on the phone if she would like a priesthood blessing. We were able to  briefly explain and offer. Our next visit Alex told us Sofia would like a blessing and he had talked with his friend, Scott Acerson (our teacher who is still friends and in contact with the real Alex), more about the priesthood and priesthood blessings. 
 
We taught a lesson about the Holy Ghost and recognizing the holy ghost is there. He had a lot of questions about the plan of salvation and why bad things happen in this world. We pointed out that Christ had a life full of sadness and trials. Christ was not happy all the time, he wept. But Christ is perfect and offered love to all those he met. He is still praying to see if he believes in God and Christ or not.
 
So for our next visit with Alex we brought along two Anziani to offer "the blessing" to sofia. We met Alex and travled to Sofia's house on the autobus (we walked through the hallways of our building). After Sofia's blessing the Anziani did a wonderful job answering more of Alex's question about the blessing. This led us into our lesson teaching more about Joseph Smith because we saw from some of Alex's responses in earlier lessons, he did not understand or had prayed about Joseph smith. WE taught about how Joseph Smith restored Christ's church again on the earth, how he translated the BOM, and we also taugh about what the Doctrine and Covenants was and why it contains modern revelation. 
 
We also taught about a living prophet which he loved to here about. Alex asked what the prophet does. My companion looked at each other and began to explain to he visits countries, organizes the church and missionary work in the world, and also does the work of temples. We were able to tell Alex that the prophet had been in Italy in 2010 to break ground for one of the Lord's temples in Italy. And that once finished he could go inside and see all rooms inside during the Open house. Alex had gone to Temple Square with Scott once when he had come to visit Scott in Utah (alex actually has come to visit my teacher after his mission) and he had not been able to enter the temple because it was already dedicated. The idea that he could go inside and see it made him so happy. And I realized how blessed i am. I get to go to Italy and tell people about the temple and how families can be sealed together for eternity inside the temple. But I also get to tell them one is being built. They will be able to see it and go there. For the first time it hit me the wonderful joy and message I will be able to share with the people there. They won't just have to hear the message but they can see the temple being built and the Lord's house!!!  This lesson was a wonderful experience for me. Alex closed with a beautiful prayer about how he knows our church is good but just needs help believing that Christ and God are really there. It was wonderful :)
 
The next day my companion and I were talking about how soon we are leaving for Italy. It is really really soon. As I was thinking about going over there , I realized how blessed I am. I have dreamed my whole life to go to Italy. When I was younger my mom would show me pictures of Michelangelo's Moses and tell me we would go and see it someday. I would hear both my parents mission stories, the experiences they had, and the people they loved. Whenever people asked me the question, "where is your dream vacation?" or "what is the one place you would like to see before you die?" My answer has always been Italy. 
 
I remember my Mom teaching me Italian, studying Italian, and loving the people, the history , the culture and the food :) And now, I GET TO GO TO ITALY! God has called me to serve in Italy, a call issued by His living prophet on the earth. And I am not going there on vacation or for a study abroad that only last for a few weeks. I have the blessing to go and live among the people I love for a year and a half and serve them. I have the opportunity to serve them, help them, and to invite them to come unto Christ. How AMAZING is that !!!! I feel the immense love God has for me. I feel His hand has been in my life directing my paths and choices and I know He will continue to do so. I know that i live worthy and try my hardest, He will put people in my path that I can uplift, and serve whether they are baptized or not. The work in Italy is booming. All the older missionaries left 2 weeks and ago. One sister wrote us and said she is teaching over 20 lessons a week. That is what I have heard from all the missionaries there right now. I don't know if that is a lot compared to other countries but it sounds like a ton to me :) I am excited to go
 
Our new Anziani and Sorelle arrived yesterday. They seem super nice. One of the sisters I knew from my Italian classes at BYU. I did not know she was serving a mision or going to Italy
 
I hope you are liking all the Mormon messages I recommended. I understand if you don't have time to watch them though :) I found two more 1) Patterns of light 3 movie series by David A. Bednar about the light of Christ and revelation 2) Dare to stand alone -  story from Thomas S. Monson's history. Both are so good!
 
I love you all so much. I am excited and very nervous to leave for Italy but I know God will help me. He has promised me with peace ;) I love you all so much.
 
Love,

Sorella Preston
 
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