Happy America day friends!🇺🇸💙❤️🎇 we got to celebrate by having zone conference followed by a Zone Pday! Yay for hot dogs and parties! Although I've definitely decided I will never spend another Fourth of July outside of America, because I miss our beautiful country! Oh well, if I can't spend it in the US, I may as well spend it in Bella Italia! Zone conf was a great way to spend the holiday though, hearing awesome trainings from President and Sorella Allen❤
We also had scambio his week with the Prato sorelle! I was with Sorella Harris and we hiked a hill together. Nice. Gaia had just bought a four-month-old puppy, so you could say it was worth it. Seriously though, I learned so so much from Sorella Harris, and it was so fun being her last scambio comp before she goes home!
Another highlight was seeing Betty this week! We've been working in some temple prep stuff with her, and she is doing so great! She also told us this week that she wants to get stuff in order to serve a mission in about a year! So we were pretty dang happy about that!
We also had the best lesson ever with young Carolina!! Seriously it was so neat. She asked so many great questions and prayed for the first time at the end of the lesson! In her prayer, she asked for help in being more open and to be able to know for herself if our message was true. We have another appointment with her tomorrow, so keep her in your prayers!
There was also an awesome appointment with my bffs the Larrains! No squid this time, just cow intestine in a bowl of corn. Shoot me. They think it's hilarious to bring a food I dislike
to the table each week and make me try it. Such an odd relationship we have. Sorella Larrain still finds it so odd that I don't love random organs or fish, and yet she was disgusted when
I mentioned that cookie dough tastes good right out of the bowl. Ridiculous. Seriously though, I just love them. I feel like I can just chill when I'm with them. Also, this convo happened:
Sorella Larrain: Next time, we'll eat cow heart!
Me: noooooooo
Her: come on, it's great!
Me: oh yeah, cookie dough is nasty, but cow heart is fine? Come on.
Something I love that was brought up multiple times this week is the concept of being "born again". Sorella Allen talked about it in her training on zone conference, as we discussed ways to make the sacrament a more personal experience. Our relief society president brought it up in her lesson on Sunday. One thing I love that she did is that she asked all those who had children to describe their emotional state right before and during childbirth.
Yikes.
There were a lot of feelings listed, including weakness, pain, fear, etc. She then brought up how all of these feelings are pretty awful and crazy, and yet women who've been through childbirth willingly decide to have more children. Why? Because the minute you've got your adorable kid in your arms, all those less-than-awesome feelings melt away and you're left mainly feeling joy.
She compared this process of childbirth to the act of being born again spiritually. This idea of being born again causes discomfort, pain, weakness, and fear at times. Repentance and change have never been easy. However, in the end, we feel so much joy that we don't really remember the hard parts of the process as visibly. I absolutely love the idea that thanks to Jesus Christ and His Atonement, we really can be spiritually reborn. If we are putting ourselves through the process of change and repentance each week, then us taking the sacrament on Sunday seals the deal. It's better than rewinding- it's literally like a restart button we can continually use to better ourselves, and to bless the lives of others.
Because as Ezra Taft Benson said, "Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men change the world."
xoxo
Smeds❤💙🇺🇸🎇
1- Random Humanitarians 2- Following Jesus 😉 3-Moroni??? 4-It was a good lesson. He was very receptive 5-7 Scambio w/ Sorella Harris to visit Gaia(& her puppy) 8-9 She drew me a picture 😍😭
10- My favs, the Larrains 11-14 Zone Conf. & 4th of July Pday 💙🇺🇸❤️
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