Hello everyone! It's me again.
So first, how about an update on transfers? It's that time of year again already. I found out that I will be spending six more weeks in Pesaro. I love Pesaro, so I'm not too upset about it. Anz. Valentine will be staying with me. Here's the crazy news: we're getting two extra missionaries! There will be four Anziani in Pesaro. Whew. Our apartment has enough room. We spent most of our P-Day today trying to organize the apartment. It doesn't look to bad. We look like a missionary apartment now with the way everything is crammed in. We'll be a little cozy, but it'll be ok. We're excited. It will definitely be a blessing for the work here in Pesaro, and I'm sure the members will love it too.
Let's start off with crazy miracle time. We have an eternal investigator named Carmine. He has been investigating the church for over a year and he's been coming to church for a while. In every way except baptism, he is a part of the branch. He's super awesome. He has a great testimony and great humor. He loves my last name too. Every time he sees me he says it as loud as he can and says "un nome forte!" Hah! He's never had anything against getting baptized, but he's always told the Anziani he wasn't ready to pick a date. He wanted to wait until the time is right. So, we just treat him like a member of the branch knowing that when the time is right he'll come to us.Well, on Sunday he had us over at his house and told us that he is ready. He wants to be baptized on August 10th! There will be a baptism in Pesaro! We are excited and he is very content. He's planned out the whole ceremony. It's kind of funny to watch. It's almost as if he's planning a wedding. We're glad to see that he's ready and so happy about it.
We've been trying to put more emphasis on member missionary work lately. A few weeks ago, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles did a conference about missionary work called the "Work of Salvation." If you haven't watched it, go watch it now. It is awesome and does a wonderful job talking about the members' responsibility in missionary work. When we have such a great gift as the Gospel, we should have the desire to share it! Imagine that you found the cure to cancer. Would you hide it, or would you share it with as many people as possible? Of course you'd share it with everyone you saw! That's the same way we should treat our testimonies. Our testimonies are precious. Just as that cure to cancer is a cure to physical disease, even more are our testimonies cures to spiritual disease. If you have a testimony, regardless of the shape or size, you have the responsibility to share it with those who have not yet realized their own and even with those who already have one. The Savior Himself said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:19-20). If you have a testimony (and I know that all of you reading this have a testimony of SOMETHING in some way or other) go share it!
There's my discourse for this week. I hope you learned something. I love all of you. As always, thank you so much for your emails, letters, prayers, and thoughts. I'm grateful to know that I have so many wonderful people supporting me.
Vi voglio bene,
Anziano Simcox
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