New missionary conference, snapshots and reflections

Here is by our house,  

Some German artists painting the image of the clock tower in Vicenza 

This week we were able to go to a new missionary conference,
which was fun and inspiring. Because of the new flight plans of the
new missionary group of Anziano Minor, my new companion I am training, they were not able to get a regular training in the first day of all the basic rules and things.

Anziano Johnson and I (he was in a 2
companion district with me for two transfers when I was first a district
leader in Trieste) 

Not only did we get this at the conference, but also some good
spiritual instruction. Our President Dibb had to go back to the states
for a month to have an operation, but will be back soon I think. In
his place was Elder Lee, who is the branch president down in Sienna.

He and his wife were great, they reminded me of many things I need to
do as a missionary and also of the atonement of Jesus Christ, how we
need to be depending on that great sacrifice of our Savior always, to
help us lighten our burdens and overcome our weaknesses. Only through
obedience can we really get the full benefits of these blessings.

 

I pondered on that this morning, and I was thinking about the blessings
of following commandments. 

In Doctrine and Covenants 130: 18-19 it says, 

18 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life,
it will rise with us in the resurrection.

19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life
through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much
the advantage in the world to come.

I think that this intelligence is really referring to the state of our
being. How we become more knowledgeable on how to become more
christ-like, with less of a desire to sin or to be unkind to our
neighbors, in addition to the revelation we can recieve through the
Holy Spirit. When we look at obedience to the commandments as a matter
of how we progress in this life instead of imposing rules, it becomes
much easier and I feel I actually benefit more from living a high
standard of living.

We also had a great lesson with a member this week, we talked about
the same things in John 15, how when we obey the commandments we are
showing are love in trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, and
we can allow Christ's love to abide in us.

 Some graffiti.

I also loved the conference, we had a question answering game and me and Anziano Minor won. We got a chocolate bar. Yes!!

This week we were also able to go out with our American members again,

Peter (who is actually in the Italian branch and speaks Italian) and
also we are going out with Farris today. Its really fun to take the
youth out and help them develop, it reminds me of when the
missionaries did that with me.

I'm continuing to learn a lot helping people and having fun while doing it!

Love you all!
Anziano Day

Here is a tortilla I made