Sister Arndt's Italy, Milan Mission: 2017-05-17 Bullet Points

This week was insane!! Where to begin?? Which story to tell?? Okay, bullet points because so much happened

- heart attacked the door of a couple members going through a rough moment

- had third consecutive meeting with Bishop's family, who we love, in preparation for their daughter's baptism

- started chatting with Bishop's neighbor and set up an appointment to see her the next week (tomorrow)

- met with a less-active Francesca and had an AMAZING lesson with her

- met with Muslim investigator who is amazing

- met with member Gabriela

- got a MIRACLE text from an old contact who wanted to see US. Came to our church, loved it, almost stayed for a little girl's baptism but had to leave. Wants to do a project on us Mormons and show it to people. Ok???!?!

- Muslim investigator Maryam came to church which was the second consecutive Gospel Principles class on the Priesthood which interests her a ton

- bishop's daughter's baptism

- Maryam came to said baptism, started crying during the baptism because felt the Spirit so strong, asked the Anziani for a baptism after having heard a lot about the priesthood. It was an amazing blessing, the Spirit was so strong. She is unlike any other investigator!

- Facetiming family!!!

- met with a member Graziella who gave us a bunch of pastries for breakfast. Lesson was super guided and even though everything was telling us that she wouldn't know anyone, we felt prompted to seriously challenge her to invite one of her friends to meet with us and she was totally down. I don't even know when the last time was that she did that! Probably years! So stoked for her to see this one go down. Love her, she's got class but she's also super mild. Love her.

- met with Maryam again. Exhausting lesson because it's just not teaching that we are used to but we got our point across about the need to be open-minded and we also listened to her well. At the end, she did one of her prayers for us. Which is like, really nice. It was a silent prayer, she just sort of moved her arms in flowing motions. But, it was nice that she prayed for us :)

- visited with a less-active named Assunta who our RS President referred us to. We were both beat so our focus was...not even elsewhere, it just straight-up didn't exist haha. But we were glad to meet with her (been going on four transfers that we've been trying to see her)

- learned how to tie ties during a very effective district meeting (yes, I know what a double Windsor is)

- went on a freaking voyage out to the edges of Firenze to find a year+ old referral who we don't believe lives there anymore, but we did get to wander around the Tuscan countryside for a good hour and talk to a couple people. Anyways.

Today we went to a secret rose garden! Nothing like strolling around, smelling and looking at bellissime roses in peace and quiet, knowing that the piazza above you and the city below you are teeming with tourists that...the rose garden knows nothing about :) magnifico.

A thought I've been having recently is just how true it is that God doesn't give us punishments, He tries to protect us from the natural consequences of the things we call, "sins." You know that this is true because of how much He and His prophets weep over people's wickedness. If your best friend was hanging off of a cliff with one hand as a mean joke, would you get mad at him? Or would you probably start crying and begging him to get himself off the ledge and into the safety of your arms? I can attest that you wouldn't be mad. I can attest that God isn't mad at us when we mess up! He loves us! He's sad when we make bad choices, as sad as we are. But He still loves us and is constantly urging us to get out of danger and into His loving arms.

Anyways, that's all for this week! I love you all and hope you have a good week!