Meager in Milan: Ask & Ye Shall Receive

hey sorry y’all. i sent this last week but it didn’t send. SO HERE YA GO

today marks 17 months with the name tag and i could not be happier. i loooove being a missionary and teaching people and learning about the italian culture and giving everything to Him. it has truly been one of the most special experiences in my whole life and i am so grateful to be serving. one of the most significant lessons that i feel i have learned in my mission is “ask and he shall receive”. there are several scriptures that emphasize this phrase but i want to share my favorite:

“Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?--If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.” (1 nephi 15:11)

the key things that i learn from this are:

1. be humble

2. if you ask in faith THEN you will receive

3. you have to keep the commandments a.k.a. do your part

but if you do these 3 “simple” things, you can receive anything, if it be in God’s will. which hey, He wants complete happiness and joy for you soooo He will do anything for you to be happy. and He knows exactly what we need in our lives to have that joy. here are a few things that happened to me this week that proved this scripture true:

• we asked for our heater to be fixed because we kept trying over and over and calling people and asking advice. finally, the dude came and fixed it and now we have heating in the apt and hot water #hallelujah

• we asked for a car because we live out in the boonies and we missed our last bus (20:43) out to our apartment twice and had to take a taxi. and they gave us one!! our circumstances were in dire need of a vehicle

• i had been searching for my drivers license since i left my first city and thought it was gone for sure. then friday afternoon, i was looking for it in my bags and after a few minutes of ravaging through my stuff, i stopped and prayed to please help me find my dl and literally 2.4 seconds later, i find it.

• the senior couple from the military base was coming to visit and they asked if we wanted any american items so now we have peanut butter, maple syrup, and lucky charms :):):)

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• we asked aurora (a 12 year old cute dancer best friend of our girl, sara) on sunday if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes. okay hold on, back up: so sara is a member and she is 13 yrs. aurora’s dad is a member, but her mom is not. however, she comes to church sometimes with her dad. so on sunday, like 2 minutes before class starts, pres pulls us aside and asks if we’ll teach young women’s. we’re like SURE we know young women, we can do this. it’s only sara and aurora and they both seem cool (at this point, we’d never met aurora and we’d met sara twice) SO we teach us and then afterwards, we’re just talking and eating chips and that’s when we drop the question. so, we still have to get her moms approval and teach her the lessons and everything, but we have a pretty good start!

now for some random updates about this week:

• we had lunch with gerini and he seriously is like the italian version of gordon b. hinckley. in fact, we told him that and he just laughed.... which means they’re probably long lost cousins. (pis coming soon)

• we carved pumpkins with our cute valentina and then made pancakes to surprise her mom and fabio with a gourmet pancake dinner . we made sweet (maple syrup and nutella) and savory (prosciutto, olive, and parmigiano) pancakes and HOLY MOTHER. they were some of the best pancakes i’ve ever had in my life. i’m gonna miss italy. and that family. p.s. they’re getting married december 1st. :):):) auguurrriiii

• we had a hopping halloween party in mestre and man, italians know how to party! tons of food, dancing, games, and they even made an escape room downstairs! we left with tons of numbers from people that want to learn about our church!

• we went to venice again today and then also to murano (which is an island that specialize in blown glass) and we watched the, make a vase and y’all, watch a video of how they make blown glass cause it is so cool)

• we got a secret tour from a venezian of this tiny shop full of crazy blown glass. the total of all the art in the room costs more than my house! for example: one glass bird costs €55,000.

• lo and behold in venice, we ran into a couple from DALLAS. it was beautiful. and they had just gotten engaged the day before. AUGURI