Hey everyone. Honestly, I don't have enough time to write a novel today, so I'll give your eyes a break. Just a few thoughts though.
General conference was fantastic. www.conference.lds.org. During this conference, my testimony was really strengthened about the fact that there is a living prophet on the earth today. As members of the Church, we definitely take that for granted. Take these words from Elder Ballard: "I was invited to participate in a popular radio talk show... After some initial discussion of the similarities between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Christian denominations, the host asked this significant question: 'What makes your church different from other churches?' 'Let me answer your question with another question,' I replied. 'If Moses were on the earth today, would you be interested in what he had to say?' 'Of course,' the talk show host responded. 'Everyone would be interested.' 'Well, that's our message to the world,' I said. 'There is a prophet of God on the earth today who has the same power and authority that Moses had. God directs His Church through His prophet today, just as He did in Moses' day.' My host was silent for a moment-which, as you know, can seem foever on the radio. 'You're right,' he said at last. 'That is different.'"
This story always comes to mind when I think about the fact that we have a living prophet on the earth. It's quite a miracle. Anyway, I enjoyed all of the talks that were given. I'm trying to study them every morning in my personal study. It's nice being in the office, because I've been able to talk the talks and put them on a flash drive. I hook that into our portable DVD player in our apartment so I can listen to them while I study or while I wash the dishes or whatever. Another talk I really enjoyed was by Pres. Uchtdorf during the Priesthood session. It was titled, "Lord, is it I?" He said that often we get so caught up in wondering how others are doing in their personal salvation that we forget about our own. He said instead of asking, "Lord, is it him?" We should be asking, "Lord, is it I?" This is the question that the disciples posed the Master when he said that one of them would have betrayed him. Each asked if it was himself that was to betray the Master. This world would be a better place if each evaluated himself before evaluating others.
Anyway, I loved conference. I'm always grateful for the spiritual boost. As far as my own personal life/work, it's going alright. We've had a good week both of office work and of missionary work, so I've been grateful. One challenge with working in the office is that we only have several hours each evening in which to do missionary work. It's sometimes hard to focus for those few hours, especially when we have nothing planned, or when appointments fall through. It's taught me the importance of planning. If we don't plan, our work suffers greatly. We got to about Tuesday this week and realized that we had nothing concrete planned for the week. We sat down and made a bunch of calls and were able to set up appointments for every day of the week, which is a missionary's dream! By the end of the week, our week will look almost like we did the work of normal missionaries, which is quite a blessing and we are very grateful for it.
Dolores is still in the hospital. She has been moved to a hospice center on the other side of Milano. Despite this she is still strong and she seems to be getting stronger every day. We try to visit her 2-3 times a week. She loves when we come and we've been able to give her support and just be there for her, if nothing else. Every time we go, we read a little bit with her from the Bible or from the Book of Mormon. Her husband or her nephew will usually read in their native language of Tagalog and we'll follow along in Italian or English. I've been able to learn a few words in Tagalog and I can pick them out when they read or pray.
Other than that, we have a few potential investigators that we are trying to set appointments with. It's frustrating when you know that you have something that would definitely help these people, but they don't accept. Especially when they tell you quite honestly that you have something they want, but then they don't take the steps necessary to have it. As a missionary, it saddens me because I genuinely love the people I meet. I think it's a sort of superpower given to missionaries. I love people I hardly know. It's a strange feeling. I might just barely have met someone, but care for them as if I had known them for thousands of years. That's how I feel about Dolores and Ronaldo. In all honesty, I hardly know them, but I care for them a lot. For the upteenth time, I'll share with you one of my favorite scriptures. "Perfect love casteth out all fear."
I said at the beginning I wouldn't write a novel. Sorry! I honestly don't know much of what I want to write before I start. I just let my fingers and my brain go. Hopefully I don't rant too much. Anyway, I love you all so very much and wish you the very best. Vi voglio un sacco di infinitissimo bene.
-Anziano Simcox.
Picture: I know I've sent pictures of this castle before, but I had never been inside of it until last P-Day. This is the view from one of the terraces looking into the courtyard. The castle is actually just long passageways forming a square with a big courtyard in the middle. That day there was some sort of old car show.
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