no coincidences

Well it's been another week! I can't believe how fast the time is passing. People were really hard to get a hold of this week. 

We did have a couple lessons though. One was Monday night after P-day. It was with our investigator Caster. That day before the lesson we called him to confirm and he asked if he could bring a friend! Haha we were ecstatic! His friend is also from Nigeria and his name is Lucky! He is so cool! That lesson was so spiritual just like the first. They asked such sincere questions and learned so much. Speaking Italian has forced me to simplify my teaching and now after teaching so much in Italian my teaching in English has also been refined so much. It's the perfect mix in English now because I teach simply and directly, but have the ability to perfectly articulate it. Diciamo the Africans speak English, but it's not your usual English and if you talk to them like you would to an American they may not understand everything. Anyways, it was so cool to see just how pure and simple teaching can have a profound effect on people. We weren't able to meet with Caster again during the week because He didnt answer his phone and he didn't come to church so now we have to move his baptismal date, but we have high hopes for this week. We will keep working with him and his friend Lucky! 

General conference was so awesome! We were able to watch the priesthood session live Saturday night and then Sunday morning, we watched the priesthood session in Italian with our investigator Nino and then the Sunday afternoon session later in English. I will definitely have to go back and watch the priesthood session again in English! Haha

Real quick though, one of my favorite talks in conference (out of the session I've seen) is the one by Gary E. Stevenson about the eclipse. But I also really liked Anziano D. Todd Cristofferson's talk in the Saturday morning session. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it stuck out to me that in one of the stories he said he talked about Jesus Christ and how Jesus Christ was preaching to the people and said one thing or another to them and they went away and rejected his message. It just stood out to me that even Jesus Christ, a perfect person and teacher, "lost investigators" and not all of his "street contacts" were just awesome and perfect. People had their agency and Jesus Christ did His part and that's all that mattered. 

I also loved what Anziano Ronald A. Rasband in the Saturday afternoon said about how to God there are no coincidences. To God it's all just part of the plan! Everything good thing that happens to us way back from the start is pretty much because God planned it that way! It's such an overwhelming thought. 

That's all for now! Love, Anziano Stucki