Jul09
Peace be the Journey
Good Morning Everyone. I love you.
Little Announcement.....I am not longer going to be able to respond personally. I am trying to cut down on my email time. If you have questions of any kind I would love to try answer the best I can. I am sorry for this. Thank you for all of your love and support. I will still try to do the best that I can with responding, just from now on if you don't get a personal response you know why. Thank You. I love you!
Last Monday, after emailing everyone, we went and saw some really cool places around Napoli. We went and saw two giant castles, and some other cool buildings. The Castles here are incredible. P-Day's are much better here in Napoli, because there is just so much to see.
Last Tuesday we were teaching a lesson to one of our Investigators at our church. His name is Sergio. During the lesson he brought up the word Debolezza. I knew that I knew that word......It just wouldn't come to mind for the life of me. So I looked up the definition in my Italian Book of Mormon and that didn't help me out either. For the life of me I could not figure out what Debolezza meant. So our investigator was wondering what the difference was between Sin and Debolezza. My companion answered the best he could, and I had nothing. After my companion tried to explain the difference between these two things, our investigator still didn't get it. Finally when the lesson was over I said...."Man I am sorry but what does Debolezza mean?" He said..."It means weakness." A thought instantly came to my mind about a talk by Boyd K . Packer from a Liahona that talks exactly about the difference between Weakness and Sin. I ran to the supply cupboards, found the Liahona and began running down the roads of Pozzuoli trying to track down our investigator. We caught up to him, out of breath, and handed him the Liahona and simply invited him to read it. Yesterday he showed up to church with The Liahona and simply said Thank You. We couldn't answer his question very well, so I thought we would let Elder Boyd K. Packer do it. Kind of a Miracle.
Wednesday was a good day and a good day for sure. As many of you know I was able to meet my mom in Napoli. We were able to spend about 20 minutes together and simply talk. It felt beyond good to hear her voice and hug her. To be 100% honest, afterwards I felt no Homesickness. None at all. IF anything I felt more motivated to work harder and harder. It was a good 20 minutes even thought it went by way to fast. I was just super grateful to be able to see my Momma. Did me good.
Thursday we had a zone conference......and we got IPADS. They are so cool and seriously so nice. I love technology. Also at Zone Conference I got a Selfie Stick for my birthday. I love the Selfie Stick. I have used it a TON since Thursday. I love that thing! Also I received a Wilson Football. Thank you so much to all those who sent prayers, love and gifts my way for my birthday. Thank you so much! I love you all. I truly have such an amazing family and support system. I love you Guys!
So here we started working with a Less-Active United States family. They are awesome. The Dad was a Marine and the Mom is in the Navy. They have 3 little kids. Hanna who is 7. Russell who is 5. and Amzy who is 2. They are incredible people. We went over to their house on Friday Night. We taught their little kids about the God Head and then they cooked us dinner. I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time. They are the funniest people I have met on my mission. They are so happy and seriously love the gospel. I love the Hubbards. Goodness....They even bought us a football. So now we have two! They are a good family. My goal is to get them ready to go through the temple by the time that I leave here. I love those guys!
Anziano Fullmer and I have been doing the "Football Finding" once a week. We simply go down to the Boardwalk one evening a week and start playing catch with the football. My Companion never played football before the mission. He was in Choir and Has an Amazing Voice......Let's just say that he now has the desire to look into football after his mission. He is always begging me to play catch with him at night right before we go to bed. We have a long, tall hallway in our house....So we usually play catch right before going to bed. He likes it and I like it. I really like Anziano Fullmer. He is a good guy! While doing finding with the football tons and tons of people look at us, talk to us and want to play catch with us. We have met tons of young teenage boys who we are going to start teaching (Which is good, because we are really lacking youth in our branch here in Pozzuoli). So we are really hoping for some youth to come from this Football Finding. It works.
This week I want to give my spiritual thought on Knowing the Intent of Our Enemy.
We all have weaknesses. Each and every one of us here upon the earth struggle in some way or another. The Author of Sin knows where we struggle. We must know what we have a hard time with so we can know the intent of our enemy. The enemy in this case is the Adversary. The Creator of Evil, of the Devil, will focus on the things were we are weak. He will feast upon these things again and again if we so choose to let him. After he has gained control over the small weaknesses of ours, he will begin working on getting us to commit bigger and more serious sins. In the Book of Mormon we learn that "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass" ( Alma 37:6 ). Our Heavenly Father uses small and simple things to bring beautiful, powerful and amazing things to pass. But from the 2nd Book of Nephi we learn from Chapter 2 Verse 11 that...."There is an opposition is all things." Our enemy, Satan works the same way. He doesn't go after the big and serious sins right from the start. He gets us where we are weak. He traps us with our own small weaknesses. He uses these small weaknesses to "get gain....over the hearts" of the children of God ( Alma 47:14 ).
Through all of this, we have hope.
The Savior Jesus Christ suffered for our weaknesses. He paid the price in full for all of the areas in our life where we come up short. The Only Begotten of the Father has given us the opportunity to "make weak things become strong" (Ether 12:27). The enable the atonement of the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and to turn our weaknesses into strength....We first have to be humble enough to accept the fact that we cannot win in this fight for exaltation without our Savior and Redeemer. In Ether 12:27 it says..."I give unto men weakness that they may be humble;" Let us be humble. Let us have the courage to admit that we cannot win this war alone. If we humbly submit to His will, The Savior lovingly says..."My Grace is Sufficient" (Again Ether 12:27). Let us be more humble and a bit more grateful to our Eldest Brother and Best Friend. Let us use Him and His strength in the day to day combat between good and evil. Let us know and be humble enough to see within ourselves where we are weak, so then we will know right where the devil is going to attack. My challenge this week is to truly know the intent of our enemy. This means to acknowledge the areas of our life where we are not firm. After that we must humbly turn to our Loving Savior, Jesus Christ. Through Him, and only through Him, can "weak things become strong" (Ether 12:27)
"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; Therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God (and His son, Jesus Christ ), for in ( their ) strength I can do all things." - Alma 26:12
In closing I would like to bare my testimony. I know that I am weak. I know that I am nothing. This life is not easy. We must fight day in and day out to simply avoid the fiery darts of the adversary. I testify that we are not alone in that fight. We are not perfect. We have all slipped up, we all will slip up sometime today, and we will continue to slip up for the remainder of our life here upon this beautiful earth. I know that even though we all have weaknesses, that through the Grace of God....We can overcome them. The Grace of God refines us. The Grace of God helps us to become our best selves. "Yea....the Love of God, is the most desirable of all things." ( 1 Nephi 11:22 ). His Love and His Grace are right before us. I know that if we become humble and allow the Savior of All to make our "weak things become strong"... Then we will truly be on the path of becoming our best selves.
I love you. I love you all. Thank you for everything. For the prayers, the love and and the support. You are all so amazing. Be safe this week. Until next week.....
peace be the journey,
Anziano JarDee Nessen
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