seizing the day

Oh family, I always have all these cool stories and experiences that I want to tell you during the week, but then when P-day comes I can't think of anything. Haha
​
I am literally just looking through our planner to see what interesting things we did this week. Hah

Allora, this past week we had zone conference. Purtroppo I didn't get any pictures, but it was awesome! They talked a lot about loving our mission and seizing the day. In my interview with president he just asked me what my biggest concerns were. I said I just wanted to finish strong. He gave me advice as always and promised me that at some time or another I would have a confirmation that my mission was successful. I thought a lot about that as I went into zone conference the next day. We went through most if the conference and all the trainings and testimonies were good, but I didn't feel especially impacted by anyone in particular. It wasn't until the very end of the conference when there were the missionaries who will be going home this transfer bearing their testimonies. This time it was a sister missionary who bore a simple and powerful testimony of Jesus Christ and the Atonement. I don't even remember what she said that made me think this, but I suddenly thought about many many people who I have met in my mission who, when they pray about the church or about the Book of Mormon search for signs to prove to them that these things are true. I also thought of how we are so often warned to not look for signs, but that those who believe without great signs will be blessed. It is a very wide misunderstanding and it can be frustrating with all the people we meet who think like this. In the moment a thought came to me that I had never considered. I realized that that is the way I was thinking! I looked at this sister missionary who had been an outstanding missionary. Her mission had been built from the bottom up of small but numerous acts. I realized that mine was like that too. I didn't need to search for a one or two big moments that define my mission, but rather continue to do the small things that contribute to the final outcome. 

Also, this past week we also had a very unique experience. Thursday was the most packed day ever. We had quite a few lessons and had to run around everywhere. We went around to different things in the morning and had a couple of lessons and then didn't return home until about 3:30. We hadn't eaten lunch yet and (long story short we were trying to save money last week and so we didn't buy very much food, but maybe we tried a little too hard because we kind of just had a lot of random wierd foods so I couldn't find very much to eat and kind of just didn't eat very much food at all for breakfast haha) we were just going to go make food really quickly when our zone leaders called and said there were some missionaries from Slovakia who had an Italian investigator who didn't speak Slovakian at all and English only a little, and so they wanted to do a Skype lesson with us, them, and her so we could communicate to her better since we speak Italian. We agreed and then a bit later the Slovakian missionaries called us and we talked with them for a bit about the Italian woman (Antonella was a her). The lesson was going to be at 5:00 and by the time we ended up finishing talking to them on the phone it was 4 and we still hadn't eaten! I swear there were angels helping me as chopped up peppers, potatoes, and onions practically flew from the cutting board to the frying pan. I ate at fast as I could and then we rushed out the door to go to the church's institute building where we could use Wifi. We arrived just in time and we began the call. The other missionaries just kind of sat off to the side and we just went off talking to her in Italian. She is from Northern Italy and just moved there to Slovakia because of her husband's work. After awhile we handed it back over to the other missionaries and they taught her the lesson they had prepared as we translated and expounded everything in Italian. It was such a unique and cool experience. Antonella was so nice. She has A LOT of doubts though. We focused a lot on just how she can recieve a testimony of these things. We invited her to pray and read the Book of Mormon, but she wasn't convinced that that would help her. She even doubted if God even existed or if she could recieve an answer from him. We invited her to just try it and she kind of just said, "We'll see!" We had a long conversation with her and finally at the end just invited her to say the closing prayer. She did and in it said that she hoped something good would come out of these lessons. That's kind of where we are at with her. We can definitely promise her that good things will come out of this, but she will need to do something if she wants to find out for herself. Anyways, it wasn't at all the outcome we wanted from the lesson, but it was a really cool experience and we should have another call this week so we will pray that things go better and that she can just exercise a little bit of faith!!

Anyways, that is my assaggio for y'all this week. 

Love you, Anziano Stucki.