Feet of the Apostles

We literally and spiritually had the opportunity, along with 200 missionaries in the Italy Milan Mission, to sit at the feet of an apostle of Jesus Christ and listen to his message.

Elder Neil L Andersen and his wife Cathy shared many wonderful lessons, but a few stood out. We were taught that God's elect are in every country and every city. We will see even greater miracles as we strive to 'be clean, be obedient and be busy'. As much as the leaders of the church care about our mission goals, they care even more about our lives. He challenged us to invest in our lifelong personal spiritual conversion while on our missions. Finally, Elder Andersen testified that he has a sure and certain witness that Jesus is the Christ; He will return; and He lives.

Invitation: We'll pass on the invitation Elder Andersen gave to us:

• In order to protect ourselves from future doubts, find and memorize 10 scriptures (5 in the Book of Mormon, and 5 in the New Testament) that you believe with all you heart.
• 2 example scriptures from Elder Andersen:
• Mathew 10:32 - “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven”
  John 11:25-26 - “... I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die

After Elder Andersen left the building, we continued our conference where Laura and Melanie Neilson shared the story from Admiral McRaven about making your bed every morning and accomplishing the first task of the day.

We had the unique opportunity to visit the beautiful small town of Torre Pellice where the apostle Lorenzo Snow dedicated Italy for the preaching of the gospel back in 1850 and the apostle Ezra Taft Benson rededicated it in 1966. We stood in the main piazza just below the hotel where Lorenzo Snow spent 6 months translating the Book Of Mormon into Italian. We literally walked where these apostles walked. We felt the importance of being representatives of Jesus Christ in Italy and humbled to be associated with so many that have answered the call to share the good news of the gospel here.  

The mountain peak (Mount Brigham) on the right of the church is believed to be the location where Elder Snow gave the first dedicatory prayer and Elder Benson rededicated this work

Some of the scenery near the trailhead to "Mount Brigham." We hope to have the chance in the future to hike all the way to the location of the dedicatory prayer

The park close to our apartment has a free cold filtered water station where we regularly refill our water bottles with both "naturale" and "frizzante" (fizzy) water. We are really enjoying the frizzante water lately

Three separate GANS (YSA) events we helped with this past week. We picked up 50 pizzas for an institute dinner dance at the Lampugnano church, we played at the weekly volleyball and soccer games, and then participated in another weekly evening lesson and dinner at the Cimiano church

An impromptu 4th of July bbq with some missionaries near the Milano area. Of course it ended in a water balloon fight