Except it wasn't borderline.
Because when one has only a week left in the mission, one leaves the mission and the country. Just for fun.
Lolol basically we had scambio this week in firenze, and the mission office bought us tickets that changed trains in the Rome mission🙃 so that was funny. And then today for Pday, we went to SAN MARINO 🇸🇲🏰🌊 a country within a country haha! Literally this adorable country up on this hill in the middle of Italy 🇮🇹 Not bad, not bad. Plus, we went with the other sorelle in our zone, which means we got to see my past comps Orr and Carter, and Anderson from my MTC group🎉
Anyways, back to the Firenze stuff ⚜️ My last scambio was such a neat experience. Well tbh, it was weird in a lot of ways to be back in my old city and with my previous companion, Sorella Wilson. Back to the good ole days or something like that😂 It was crazy cool though because when we went to the church for English class, half of the ward was there! And it was so funny because they all reacted in the same way. They were first like "ciao sorelle" because it was pretty normal to see the two of us lol. Then about 5 seconds after, it would register that I wasn't serving there and that’s right about the point where the hugging and laughing and almost crying happened😂 Bishop Ferrini nearly fell out of his chair haha! And the following morning, we got to have a breakfast with the Larrain family❤️ Thankfully we didn't have squid or cow intestine this time- just cereal hahaha! It was so neat- I just felt like I was back home. There were some cool discussions had over that table, and I just left with my heart feeling full. I've never gotten to go back to a city before, and it was a really special experience for me. It had only been a month, but it was so nice to see them all again, and I felt so much love ❤️
So due to scambio in Firenze plus a couple baptisms and meetings, we haven't had a ton of time in our own area. BUT we met a super cool lady on the bus named Lina. She was casually reading the Bible lol😂 we saw she was reading in Exodus about the 10 commandments and we were like "hey which commandment do you think is most important?" And she was like "obviously to love God, because if you love him, you naturally follow all of the commandments."😳😳 um, yeah. So we kept talking with her and then we had an appointment with her a couple days ago. She wants to meet again this weekend so we can teach her and her sister, so we're pretty excited! We've also been working with the members a lot, trying to get them excited about missionary work! We've been working on a specific fireside for it that will happen on saturday. Pretty exciting stuff!
Honestly, the emotions have been pretty rough this week. It's weird being in this kind-of limbo. My place is still here in Italy, but soon it won't be, and that's hard. It's resulted in a rollercoaster of emotions. I woke up the other day feeling less than awesome and decided it was time for a 'coming to God' moment. So I went and had a good long chat with Him, and I kinda realized that although I do pray a pretty good amount, 1) I need to be more open and real with God, and 2) I mostly pray about other people and what to do for them, instead of chatting with Him about my own problems or questions or desires. Idk, I guess I sometimes feel like I ask too much of Him. Shortly after this, we were doing personal study. I was reading in the Book of Mormon, in Ether. I've read the Book of Ether a million and one times, but this time around it struck me more than it ever had. As a refresher, this is the awesome story of the Brother of Jared, and his interactions with the Lord. The first thing that stood out to me was at the beginning of one of these convos.
Ether 2:14 And for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord.
Oops. Like @me next time. Like I said, it wasn't an issue of not praying, or having crappy prayers or something like that. But was I actually conversing with the Lord, and calling on Him? Not very well. Yay for that call to repentance. Anyways, the story goes on and the Lord gives the brother of Jared instruction on the ships his people will need to cross the seas. The brother of Jared follows all of this, and comes back to the Lord for help with issues such as direction and airflow and whatnot. Then he asks for a solution to a third problem.
Ether 2:22-23 Behold, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness? And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?
Now this got me thinking in ways it never had before. I stopped reading for a sec and was like "Hold up brother of Jared... don't you think you're being a bit needy right now? Like, air and steering, yes those were needs. But you don't need light to survive. Hadn't the Lord already done enough for you?" But the Lord didn't seem to view it that way at all.
Ether 2:25 And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?
The story continues and the brother of Jared brings stones for the Lord to light. Now let's think about this for a sec... Not only was the Lord totally ok with this additional demand, but He even agrees to do it according to what the brother of Jared wants. And the brother of Jared decided he wanted glowing rocks🤔 Let's be real- the Lord probably knew a lot of other ways to get light in these boats, and a lot of ideas were probably better than that of the brother of Jared. And I guess it really struck me that the Lord loved the brother of Jared enough that He 1) solved the necessary problems for the voyage 2) agreed to solve the light problem, even though it wasn't a requirement 3) did it the way the brother of Jared wanted. He didn't need to do any of this, but He did. He did it because the brother of Jared humbly asked, and it didn't interfere with His will. In the next chapter, the brother of Jared made a lil comment that hit me right in the jugular.
Ether 3:2 O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires.
There's really no such thing as asking too much from God, so long as we are working to be humble and worthy. He loves us- so much so, that He's commanding us to call on Him so that He can bless us. That's pretty cool stuff. And if God is ok with this whole glowing rocks thing, I have a pretty good feeling He's going to be pretty chill with most things we ask Him.
xoxoxoxoxo
Smeds🇸🇲🇮🇹⚜️
1-Back to Firenze & the Larrain’s:) 2&3 Rome mission😉 not as good as the Milano mission, but it’s aight 4&5 Teaching Primary…never a dull moment 6-14 San Marino!
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