Hope

I gave an adrestimento today about Hope, for our District meeting.  I learned so much and I thought I would write down a few of the things I learned, so that I can remember them.

Moroni 7:41 asks "what is it ye shall hope for?"  I think we all hope that we can be happy and that our family will be safe and happy too.

2 Nephi 31:20 says to , "press forward ...having a perfect brightness of hope."  

These pictures symbolize hope to me, because they are pictures of light. When we are discouraged we feel darkness and no light in our life.

"Hope is an abiding trust that The Lord will fulfill His promises to you.  It is believing and expecting  that something will occur." (Preach my gospel page 117)  Just as we believe the sun will set each day and rise again the next.  We believe The Lord when he says something.

In Preach My Gospel, it says, "when you have hope, you work through trials and difficulties with the confidence and assurance that all things will work together for your good.  Hope helps you conquer discouragement."

I love the scriptures that talk about hope.  Two favorite ones are: Romans 15:13. "The God of hope (will) fill you with ALL JOY AND PEACE in believing that ye may abound in hope."  And I found a new favorite in 2 Chronicles 20:15   .....".The battle is not yours but God's."  That scripture gives me a lot of hope.

Ether 12:4 says, "Whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world."

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we would ask The Lord each day to "touch my life with love, and fill my heart with hope."

Each of us can hope to shine with the light of Christ and to bring that hope to those we come in contact with each day. I remember a quote in a book I read once, that said "my hope is to tuck a bit of happiness in their pocket each day."

 Sister Julie Beck gave a beautiful talk about Hope and quoted her mother's motto for each day of her life:

        WELCOME the task 

that makes you go beyond yourself,

         And you will GROW.

When we have  hope, through the atonement, we are able to serve others and love them as God wants us to love.  When we have little or no hope we are thinking of our own troubles and we do not  believe that God can help us.  "Hope doesn't calculate the odds."   

The primary song we sang this week  for the primary program, summarizes it just right.

                                        What does the father ask of us?

                                        What do he scriptures say?

                                        Have faith, have hope

                                        Live like His Son

                                       Help others on their way."

Sister Susan W Tanner gave a talk in general conference in 2003 and told the following story:

A number of years ago our family lived in Brazil for a short while. Two weeks before we were supposed to return home, we were in an auto accident. As we drove home in pouring rain from sacrament meeting, we entered a neighborhood intersection. A car pulled out from behind a parked vehicle and hit us broadside. Fortunately no one in either of the cars was injured, but the automobiles were both quite badly dented. As my husband, John, got out to discuss our plight with the other driver, I kept reminding him that it was not our fault. Soon he returned to the car and slowly drove back to the little farmhouse where we were living, with metal grinding against the tires on every rotation. The other car followed. All John said was, “I’ll explain later.”

When we got home, John found our little envelope of emergency cash, and he paid the family to get their car repaired. They happily left. I was astonished. Then John gathered our family together. He was somewhat apologetic as he explained his actions. “I know this accident was not our fault, but as I was negotiating with this family, the only thought in my head was that only a little over an hour ago I had covenanted with Heavenly Father to always act as He would. I knew that if He were standing in my position, He would have had compassion on this family and would have done all He could to help them.” What an exemplary husband and father! He had remembered his covenants. Acting with Christlike love, he had softened hearts.

I testify to you that when I remember my covenants each day, I do feel hope and I feel love. I know that being steadfast in Christ brings a perfect brightness of hope to me and a love of God and all men to my heart.

I hope I can remember these things every day.  I hope these things might help one of you too.

Happy Thanksgiving

,

We are going to make Thanksgiving dinner for our branch and our English class and investigators.  It should be fun!  Paul is doing the turkey and the gravy.  I am doing cinnamon rolls and butter rolls, and several pies, and the missionaries will do the mashed potatoes and stuffing and vegetables. 

                                  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays!  

I will miss our family being all together, but it 's ok because I know I will see you all again real soon.  Only 15 more days!

                                                    I am so thankful for our family!

                               And I am thankful that we can be missionaries here in Italy.

                       

We are thankful for friends and missionaries, both here in Italy and back home.  We pray for each of you and are so thankful that you have been a part of our life.  May God bless you and keep you safe until we see you again.

Love, 

Paul and Geri

Learn a new thing each day

At our District Meeting yesterday, Sorella Barrona gave a really good lesson on Knowledge.  Knowledge is one of the Christlike Virtues that are listed in Preach my Gospel, and it is a virtue that I need to seek.  She said that every evening at dinner time, her dad would ask his children to name one thing they learned that day.  In fact, her dad had a small journal that he kept each day that listed one thing he learned each day.    She asked us to pair up and share one thing that we learned the day before.  It was very interesting to think about, " what did I actually learn yesterday"

                            In the Doctrine and Covenants Section 42:61 it says:

                                            And in Section 30:19, it says:

I think that we need to pay attention and learn from the people around us; our family members, our neighbors, and even from those who have different opinions and beliefs.  

We can learn from our trials and from our weaknesses.  

We can learn so much through observing nature and the creations of God.  

God gives us so many opportunities to learn and grow.

D&C 88:118 says to "seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning even by study and also by faith.

My parents, my husband, and his parents are such good examples of ones who seek learning.  I am going to keep a little journal now about just one thing I have learned each day, so that I will be more obedient to the Lord's council.

(As I was just making myself a fruit smoothie, I learned that the strawberries I thawed out a bit before adding them to my drink, were actually cut up red bell peppers!  Does that count?)

Battipaglia Missionaries

I have tried to put together pictures of all the missionaries who have served with us in Battipaglia and the dates they have been here.  

We arrived in Rome on Jan 31st, and stayed at the Villa with President and Sister Kelley.

We drove down to Battipagia the very next day after a quick summary of the branch and getting our phone and directions for the three hour drive.  We arrived in the afternoon of February 1st met up with the elders.  There were two anziani here and they lived right across the hall from us.  They were Elder Vitali and Elder Taylor.  We got just one picture of Elder Vitali because he finished his mission four days after we got here.

Elder Carr came to replace Elder Vitali on February 5th.  He and Elder Taylor were so blessed to have the opportunity to teach Flavia the rest of the missionary lessons and be involved with Flavia's baptism.

           Elder Carr went to Malta and Elder Ostler came to Battipaglia on March 21.

In May we had big changes.  We were getting three new sisters who were moving into the elder's apartment across the hall from us, and we found another apartment for the elders.  Elder Taylor finished his mission, and left to go home.  So on May 2nd we got the three cutest sisters you ever did see.  Sister Rossell, Sister Wagoner, and Sister Wright

          Elder Bandiaky replaced Elder Taylor.  They made a great pair!

By the first of June, our cute Sister Wright had to go home because of her health.  We were so sad to loose her because she was such a faithful missionary.  She was replaced by Sorella Matthews.  Elder Ostler went to Sardania and we got Elder Apple.  Here we are at Zone conference with president and sister Waddoups.

We enjoyed having the sisters serve here in Battipaglia.

July 16th saw some more changes.  Elder Apple left and Elder Skankey came to be with Elder Bandiaky for just a week before Elder Bandiaky had to leave to go home because of problems with his knee.

So on July 25th, we got a surprise transfer, because we got Elder Ostler back and he received a new companion: Elder Phillips.  

Also in July, Sister Rossell got transferred to Fogia and that  left us with Sister Wagoner and Sister Matthews.

In September, Sister Wagoner finished her mission and headed home, and along came Sister Buckley who loves Soccer just like sister Matthews does and she loves everything outdoorsish including gelato!

Next transfer, in October, we lost Sister Matthews to Messina, and we got Sister Ghio!  We had no idea what a treat we were in for with Sister Ghio's incredible tortillas!

We kept these four missionaries all through November and December.  In January Elder Ostler was transferred to Sicily and Sister Buckley finished her mission and left us for home.

We got  Sister Mitzvotai to replace Sister Buckley.  She is almost six foot tall and sister Ghio is barely 4'11".  They had lots of fun with that!

Elder Duffin became our new District leader to replace Elder Ostler.  These four missionaries were dynamite!

On February 22nd, after serving here for 7 months, Elder Phillips got transferred to Sardania, and Sister Ghio was transferred to Rome.  

We received Sister Webster who was tall and new from the MTC.

                                 Elder Line came to replace Elder Phillips.

                We really loved these missionaries.  They served together for three months.

                   May 17th they took away Sister Mitzvotai and Elder Duffin.

But we got Elder Sorensen and Sister Knudsen who both had lots of energy and were fun.

Next transfer, June 28th, Elder Line was transferred and so was Sister Webster.  Boo hoo.  It is so hard to get so close to each and everyone of these missionaries and then they leave our life so soon.

But the good news is that they always replace them with someone we love also.  We got Elder Rasband fresh from the MTC and also Sister Williams who is from Canada.

I think they will be remembered for their fun Western party they organized for our English class.

 In August Elder Gemmell came.  He is from New Zealand. He speaks really good Italian.

And in September, Sister Barrona came.  She is new but already speaks Italian like a pro.

At th end of October, Elder Rasband left us for Palermo, and we got a wonderful new missionary from Mexico, who's name is Elder Trejo.

Assisi..... Home of St. Francis of Assisi

For PDay, Monday, we went up to see Assisi, which we had been told was one of the favorite places other senior couples had visited.  It is a quaint medievil mountain top town in Umbria, which is north east of Rome.  Saint Francis, who is the patron saint for Italy, was from this town.  So he is known as Saint Francis of Assisi.  He lived in the late 1100's- early 1200's .  He started the Francescan order which is a life style of poverty and service.  We have read many things about him, now that we visited Assisi, and we have discovered he was a very good person, who helped many many people during his life time.  First we visited the church that was built over the place he died.  It is in a little city called Santa Maria degli Angeli. (Which we were told is the city that Los Angles, California was named after)

Then we drove to Assisi, which was just a few miles away.  It is set up on the mountain.

                 We drove to the castle on the top.  It is called the Rocca Maggiore.

We walked all around inside, up the stairs to the tower, down the stairs and through many rooms.  

There were stairs everywhere.

I especially enjoy the many cool doors in the Castle .

We went down a steep stone staircase and through a very long tunnel, 

and then up five or six levels of stairs to the west tower, where we had an incredible view of the whole valley below.

The next picture is a view from the west castle tower down on The Basillica of Saint Francis

And these pictures are from the castle to the other buildings around and within the castle walls.

After touring the castle, we went down to the town of Assisi and walked from one end to the other, beginning with the Basilica of Saint Clare.  

Clare was a contemporary of Francis. She started the Second order of the Francescans which was for the ladies.  Throughout medieval Europe in the early 1200's, thousands of women were joining convents and religious orders.  This allowed for women who were often poor and widows, a safe haven where they could be looked after.  This time period experienced a fast following for the second order.  The women lived a life of poverty and service.

The town was lovely, and we enjoyed a leisurely walk through it to the opposite end where the Basilica of Saint Francis is.

After about a 45 minute walk we made it to the end of the town where we could see the famous Basilica of Saint Francis.  It had a long lawn leading down to it, which had the word PAX  (pax means peace in Latin.  And Assisi is said to be the city of peace.)  made out of large shrubs in the middle of the lawn with a symbol above it, which is the Francescan Symbol.

No pictures were allowed to be taken inside the church.   I found this one picture of the inside murals, on a wall up in the big castle we visited first.  So I took a picture of a picture!

I am sorry this blog is so long, but it was a very long day with so much to see.  I spared you about 100 other pictures I took!  My legs are so sore from taking so many stairs and walking so much today, but it was all very worth it.