Biongiorno cari amici! This week was a bit of a tough one, I’ll be honest, but we are still alive! And also the town’s crazies haven’t kidnapped us yet, so there’s a point for the home team.
What did we do this week? Loads of finding haha.
It’s crazy though to look at the work now versus when I got here. When I first arrived in Varese and had a correlation with the branch mission leader we told him that we got a new simp (someone wanting to take the missionary lessons) that week. He was floored. Someone had just flipped the table on his expectancy of the work here. Work was pretty slow here from what I’ve heard, but especially from the expectancy of the members that I have seen who don’t expect anything new to happen. Now, we are averaging 2 new simps a week and I think more for the Sorelle, we have all set a few baptism dates, and the work is going. I’m happy with that. Quite a bit actually.
What else do you all want me to put in these things? Email me! squire.jacob@myldsmail.net
Honestly though, I’m pretty happy here and it seems that I am learning a ton. I know that this is the best experience I can be having right now, and I’m glad I can help some others out at the same time!
Cultural bit: never underestimate how much pasta Italians actually eat. I watch my Italian comp consistently put down five bowls every day at lunch.
Spiritual bit: Something Anziano Savage said to me a while back has a stuck with me for quite some time. He said that going into his second city he thought he needed to work with humility and working with others. He said, however, that not too much time into that he realized that he was good at those. At the end of the experience herealized that the Lord had actually wanted him to develop patience, and without him knowing it helped him to do it.
“My ways are not thy ways, neither are my thoughts your thoughts”. Isaiah’s words have true meaning and significance. I wish to share a metaphor, if I may. A child and his family decide to go on a roadtrip. This roadtrip will be long but that’s ok. The child brings a rubix cube in the car with him to work on, and routinely asks his father for help with it. Focused and determined, he works and works on it with the help of his father and finally finishes the cube. Upon looking out the window he then sees that they had actually arrived at their destination.
We are the kid with the rubix cube. We think that the main point sometimes is to finish the puzzle that we made out for ourselves. We need to be more loving, we need to be more active, etc. We think we know what we need to do at every step of this life, but honestly, there is a lot that we will not realize. We may get done with that puzzle and look up to realize that the Lord had a different, much grander vision in place for us. Whereas, we spend our time fixing many tiny details, he takes us to the destination and makes sure we get there. Often times though, if we are too focused on the cube, we won’t see the true journey that he is taking us on.
Coming here to Varese I thought I had to work on humility, turns out I actually need to work on my patience, and that I’m on the right track right now for humility. Reading through my journals too I realize that the Lord has been taking me on a much grander journey than I ever imagined, and I haven’t even noticed it.
A lot of the time you won’t know where He is taking you, but I can at least promise that if we stay in the car (keep the commandments, and our covenants) that the Lord will make sure we get to where we need. Trust Him, because I have a secret: the all knowing being knows what He is doing. Do what He says and you won’t have to worry. I testify He loves us and is more than willing to help us change. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Anziano Squire
Elder Squire 