Who do we worship

Sunday's primary lesson was about Elijah and the false priests of Baal.  Remember the time that the children of Israel were so wicked that Elijah called down a famine of three and a half years.  Toward the end of that famine, he met with the wicked king Ahab and told Ahab to gather all the children of Israel and all 450 of the false prophets of Baal, and the 400 false prophets the other idols.  They were all to meet at Mount Carmel.  When everyone was gathered together, Elijah asked them an important question, that we need to ask ourselves today.  1Kings 18:21. "How long halt ye between two opinions?  If The Lord be God, follow him,  but if Baal be God then follow him." 

Then he did the experiment.  Remember?  He asked the prophets of Baal: 

        Get two bullocks and you take one and and cut it in pieces and lay it on wood, with no fire under it.  Elijah said he would take the other bullock, and lay it on wood and put no fire under it.  

Then he said in Verse 24:  "call ye on the name of your gods , and I will call on the name of The Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God."

So all 450 of the priests of Baal, prayed all morning and afternoon, and cried in loud prayers and nothing happened.  They even danced and jumped upon the alter itself, and cut themselves til they bled, but nothing happened.  

So, Elijah sets 12 stones on the alter to represent the 12 tribes and then he sets the dry wood, and then the cut up bullock on top.  He proceeds to pour 12 barrels of water over all.  Then he prays to God and God sends fire, and it consumes the bullock, the wood, the rocks and all the water.

And the children of Israel were all convinced that The Lord is the one and only true God.

And the rains came and the famine was over.

When we liken this story to our day, we can certainly see how many different idols that people today worship, instead of God. It might be sports that interfere with going to church on Sundays.  It might be that we worship nature, and say we enjoy being out in the mountains instead of at church.  We might think that our time and our choices are more important than God's commandments are.    Whatever is the most important thing to us, is what we worship.  Whatever we think about all the time and whatever we spend our love, our energy, and our devotions toward, that is what we worship.  

Of course we have many interests and duties that take much of our time and that is as it should be.  It is a blessing to be serving a mission, where we don't have all the outside distractions, and we can truely worship and serve The Lord.   But we all need to ask ourselves, if we are not a bit like the priests of Baal, who put the faith in stone and beautiful idols.  

I thought it was interesting to read in the Bible dictionary, that Baal had many names.  One of which is Zeus.  After living here in this part of the world where the Greek Gods as well as the Roman Gids were worshipped, and where we can see the ruins of their temples,  I can easier imagine what life was like when the children of Israel got so wicked.

Those other gods have no power to save us, nor do they have power to answer our prayers.  Only our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have the power to save and to forgive and to bless us.

Transfer day

Every three months,  it seems like we loose a couple of missionaries and we get a couple of new ones.

Today is transfer day, and we had to say goodbye to sister Knudsen and elder Sorensen.  They have both been here for at least three transfers, which is four and a half months.  Sister Knudsen just has six weeks before her mission finishes, and her parents are picking her up and bringing her back to Battipaglia.  So it wasn't so hard to say goodbye.  Here is a picture of them on their last Sunday all together.

Elder Rasband and Sister Williams are on the right, and they are staying.  We love our missionaries. 

The elders fixed us hamburgers after district meeting last week and we went out all together to Donna Sofia's last week for a final pizza.

                           Here is a picture of their last English class in Battipaglia.  

                       We have had several really fun pdays with these missionaries.

                                                 Team tracking!  J.K.

                 English class graduation party was so fun thanks to their great planning!

                           Here is our Battipaglua District in Pozzuoli two weeks ago.

                          And we can't forget the truely mini ice cream cones!

And best of all, is their dedication to preaching the gospel.  They have been teaching some wonderful people here, and have not only planted seeds, but have shared their testimonies boldly and faithfully.  They will be missed greatly. 

Our primary class

We are down to small numbers with our little primary class.  During the summertime, we had lots of tourists and they would come to church, and bring their children.  We often taught primary in many different languages.  Now we just teach primary in Italian and in Portugese.  Gabriella, who is in the red dress, just moved here with her mom and sister, from Brazil.  She doesn't speak any Italian yet.  I print off the primary lesson from the Old Testament in Portugese, and with charades, a little English, and pointing to where we are in the lesson, she is able to understand what the lesson is.

The two D'Andolfo kids are as smart as can be.  Their mother has taught them the stories of the Old Testament, so they know them better than Carrie or I do.  

Last week, our lesson was about Elijah and the widow.  I thought I would have the kids do a little role play to introduce the lesson.  Jonathan, has lots of energy, just like any 10 year old boy.  So I thought I would try to tire him out a bit as I started the lesson.  I asked him to go outside and run to the end of the lawn and come back and touch the church and then run to the fence and back to the church.  The rest of the primary would watch him from our third floor balcony and we would count and see how many seconds it would take him.  He is very competitive, and so he ran as fast as he could and finished in just 20 seconds.  Then he walked back up the two flights of stairs, and sat down on his chair.  I asked him if he was tired.  He answered yes, and I asked him if he was thirsty, and he answered yes.  Then I told him he was in perfect physical condition to role play our Old Testament story.  I told him that we would pretend that he was a very hot, thirsty, tired prophet.  He immediately gets a gleam in his eye and shouts out "Elijah!"

His sister played the part of the widow, and Carrie, our president played the part of the widow's son.  We had a fun lesson.  I love working in primary with Carrie and these adorable kids.

This generation of children are extra prepared and even more valiant, in the gospel than their parents or grandparents.  With so many more sisters serving missions, I see even more strength in families even as the world becomes a more dangerous place and Satan has a bigger and bigger hold on the hearts of the children of men.  I know that these precious children have been saved for these the latter days, to prepare the world for the second coming of our Savior.  God is in charge.  Righteousness will prevail.  I am so thankful to be a member of his church.  I am so thankful that we could raise our children in the gospel.  I am so thankful that our family is eternal, and that we are sealed to each and everyone of our children, and they to theirs.

Another tender Mercy

1 Nephi 1:20. And the tender mercies of The Lord are over all...

Last summer of 2013, while I was mowing the lawn at the church, I lost my favorite pair of glasses.  I looked all over the lawn, a dozen times.  The missionaries and branch members scoured every square meter.  I knew they were there somewhere but we couldn't find them.  We have mowed the lawn probably 20 times since then and still we couldn't find them.  

And then, lo and behold, it came to pass, that Elder Rasband was mowing the lawn on Saturday, and he found my glasses!!!!!

Yippee!  I was so happy.  They were not even broken or smashed.  I can't imagine how they could escape being crushed or broken.  But here they are; another reminder that The Lord knows me and is watching over me.  I am very thankful.

A fantastic week!

I think that this has been the best week ever!  Monday started by traveling to Pozuoli for zone conference.  We get to see all the other missionaries in our zone and we get trained how to be better missionaries. We got a few pictures with all the missionaries.

Just us sisters.

Just our district

And just me and my companion!

Everyone sang to Paul for his birthday:

We had a good day.

Tuesday night we had a Western themed graduation party for our English class students.  I wish I got a picture of all of us line dancing.  Then we had a fun photo booth without an actual booth!

Plus good food, and singing with 2 guys playing fun old fashion western songs.  Everyone had such a lot of fun!

 

Wednesday, I cooked over at Gina's house and got to visit and talk with her.  I enjoy that so much.

Thursday we met Marianna's mom. Took a member to the hospital, and had English class.  We packed for our two day trip to Rome.  Friday and Saturday were fantastic! Three of our English class students rode with us to Rome.  We had set up appointments with three past Battipaglia missionaries who now serve in Rome to each have a last chance to bear witness of Christ to these three dear girls.  We saw Elder Duffin at 10:00.  He showed them the latest Mormon message, which was really good.

Then we took the girls to the bed and Breakfast they were staying at.  Our plan was to meet Sister Ghio for lunch.  But it just so happened that the bed and breakfast was in Sister Ghio's area.  So she met us at the bed and breakfast, and she came and made her famous tortillas, and we had a yummy lunch. For the spiritual thought that she shared, she picked a scripture that talked about how to know what to do.  You should fast and pray to get answers, which was one of the messages in Elder Duffins Mormon message.

Then we hurried over to the mission office where the Rome 2nd ward meets, and we met up with Elder

Ostler, who served in our town for 9 months. He organized a young adult activity so that our girls could meet some young adults from Rome.  After the activity, we stayed for the mission prep class.  

It was wonderful.  They broke up into 3 small groups and asked each of the potential missionaries to share their testimonies about personal experiences with having their prayers answered.  When the members found out that our girls were not members, they testified with such power and sincerity, that the spirit filled the chapel to overflowing.  Many of these kids have just been baptized and many are from other countries where life is even more difficult than in Italy.  Their faith was unwavering and strong and bold.  Their experiences were extraordinary.  I was crying my eyes out, because the spirit was so strong.  I felt so blessed to be there.

Saturday morning, we picked up Tom and Paula Heath, who have come to visit Italy.  It was so good to see them.

You would never know that Paula had been traveling for about 20 hours.  She looked beautiful and happy as always.

We started for home after waiting for two hours for them to get their rent a car.  We almost got home and Paula realized that she left her purse at the last gas station we stopped at, two hours before.  What a panic feeling.  Her passport, phone, money and credit cards were all in there.  After a prayer or two, Federica found the phone number for the AutoGrille we were at, and she called and discovered that someone had turned in the purse and it seemed that everything was still in it.  What a miracle!  I still can't believe it!  Paul and Tom drove one car back to the gas station which took two hours and then drove the two and a half hours back to Battipaglia!  But we were all so thankful for the miracle that everything was found! 

We had a great fast and testimony meeting today.  Primary was good.  I love our three regular primary kids.  It has been such a blessing for me to work with Carrie, the primary president.