Happy December everyone! We (finally) got our first snow last Saturday. It was great. Anz. Parker was not as thrilled as I was. Winter is my season! We decorated the apartment! Anz. Parker's family sent him some tinsel and we found a little Christmas tree in the cellar. We put all our presents around the table, plugged in the tree, and it actually turned out to be a nice little reminder of the holidays! I love Christmas!! It's a little different here in Italy. It's definitely not as commercial as it is in the States. Not as many people put up lights. I guess it's a little harder when everyone lives in apartments, but we've seen a few strands hanging from balconies. I miss a lot of the things I'm used to around this time of year, but I'm trying to experience Italian Christmas as much as I can and see what I can add to my own traditions.
It's been a cold week mostly. It finally went below 0°... Celsius that is. Don't worry. Still, that's decently cold I think. I'm tired... like... all the time. I'm finally not sick though. I had a cold the whole last transfer I think. I'm glad that's finally gone. Our district went caroling at the Duomo (big white cathedral) this week! It was actually really effective. It's much easier to start conversations with people when you're singing as opposed to asking "Have you ever seen this book??" People need some Christmas cheer. Anz. Sexton asked one man "What do you like about Christmas?" to which he responded, "Nothing." Ouch...
The challenge lately has been finding people to teach. The cold is scaring people off I think. Nevertheless, a couple new people have surfaced. We had an appointment yesterday with someone we met on the Metro. We went to his house and taught him a bit about the Book of Mormon. He was pretty quiet most of the time. We were asking questions, trying to get him to open up. We could tell there was something, but we couldn't quite get it. At the end we asked if he would pray with us. After a few awkward sentences and some silence, he looked up and told us his problem: "I don't know how to pray." It made me realize the importance of the simple things. Here we were focusing on bigger things, without even checking up on the simple things first. It was a good lesson to me to always pay attention to the little things and not take for granted the knowledge that is available to me.
Prayer is a conversation with God. It's something I've definitely learned how to do here on my mission more than any other time in my life. That's not to say that I didn't pray before my mission, but I definitely do it better as a missionary. Missionaries pray all the time, together and privately. One week, I should count how many times we pray. That'd be an interesting statistic. The beautiful thing about prayer is that it works both ways. We talk to God and He talks to us. We don't need a single thing except for our hearts. We talk to God exactly as we talk to any other person, for He is literally our Father.
In the end, remember that there is always someone praying for YOU. He is Jesus Christ. He is your Savior. "And it came to pass that Jesus departed out of the midst of them, and went a little way off from them and bowed himself to the earth, and he said:... Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me" (3 Nephi 19:19, 23).
Con amore, Anziano Simcox
The pictures are our Christmas tree and our Thanksgiving dinner.
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