Week 40: Work Your Heart Out

Emailed on March 30th:

I AM SOOOO TIREDDDDDD. I have never been so busy, so exhausted, so happy, or so stressed in all my life. It’s hard to know that there are all these peoples' salvation riding on how obedient you are being, how well you study, if you understand the spirit telling you which scriptures to read and which questions to ask. BUT I know that even if every person I ever teach never chooses to commit to Christ and be baptized. I am learning so much about how REAL the gospel is, that being baptized means a LOT. It is a covenant to Heavenly Father that you are going to do your best to be the best person you can be. It means that you are going to try to figure out how to use the enabling power of the Atonement in your everyday life, and that you will be Christ like in your very nature. It means changing. And it isn't easy. But it's making me want to become like this so that I can help other people reach the same destination of eternal life. So in the end, it will all be worth it :)

For pday last week we went to see one of the big churches in Rome, San Giovanni. It was beautiful! We also saw Santa Croce, which is where the (supposed) shroud that Christ was buried in is housed. We met a bunch of Americans on spring break. They were all really nice. It is hard to not talk to people about our beliefs in situations like that because we are inside another church, but we usually give them mormon.org cards and tell them to go look it up :) They are always so surprised to meet Mormons in Italia of all places! It's pretty funny :)

The rest of the week was full of teaching appointments, we finally got a pattern set up with most of our simpatizzanti (investigators) to see them 2-3 times a week. We had some really frustrating lessons because a lot of the people we are teaching are verrrrry set in their own beliefs, even if they aren't necessarily Catholic. I thought that would be the hard thing is that "Italians are Catholic," but it just depends on the person. It just so happens that most of our people right now are very credenti nelle loro credenze (believers in their beliefs). But they are feeling the Spirit, and that is what will convert them. I have really realized this week that each investigator needs to have his or her own experience with the Atonement to really become converted to Christ. It’s our job to help them have those experiences by developing faith in Christ and His role and acts as our Savior, because then they feel a desire to repent. And we know from Moroni 8 that baptism is the fruits of repentance, and that we need to be baptized by water and the spirit to enter into the kingdom of God. So we must be baptized by someone who has the correct priesthood authority of God to do things like baptisms, and then we need the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have really come to love the meaning of the baptismal covenants and what it means to have the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am so grateful to be a member of the true church of Jesus Christ!

Also, in preparation for Easter, we taught about the Atonement of Jesus Christ in gospel essentials. We showed the new church video, He Lives, and it is sooooo goood. If you haven't seen it yet, do it right now. I have just been full of a lot of gratitude towards the Savior for His sacrifice for me. And one of the things that I have come to learn as a missionary is that even if I were the only person to ever live on the earth besides Christ, He would still go through the whole Atonement again, just for me, or for any one of us, because He loves us perfectly. I am so happy that it is Easter AND conference weekend, and I can't wait to hear what you guys learn at conference! HAPPY EASTER!!!!!

I love you each so much, you are all in my prayers every day.

Love,

Sorella Decker

Chiesa di San Giovanni

"Keys of the priesthood" is a common theme around here.....

Chiesa di San Giovanni

Us with Fernanda! She is so cute :)

When it rains....it POURS