8th Letter from Varese

Dear Family,

Thanks for sending me Weylin's letter. I am so proud of him! Sounds like he is working really hard and is focused on the work.

Much has happened this week. We had a multi-zone conference in Milano. President Wolfgramm is one of the best leaders. Sorella Walton told me that when he was serving in the Milan Mission back in the day, he never trained. Sorella Walton told me, "I guess President Wolfgramm is such a great leader because he is a humble and obedient follower." It reminds me of a little thought that I had this morning while reading 1 Nephi 2. After Lehi receives the revelation that their family needs to leave their home and travel in the wilderness, each son responds in a different way. Laman and Lemuel are angry in their hearts and murmur, Nephi prays and the Spirit softens his heart and increases his faith..and then there's simple Sam. After Nephi tells him about the confirmation he received, he tells Sam and Sam believes in his younger brother's words. There is not much written about Sam in the Book of Mormon, but from the little that we know, he was very faithful and obedient as well. It takes a lot of humility to follow the counsel of your younger brother.

Anyway, President Wolfgramm is a great teacher because he has studied and pondered Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon. It is a part of him. He is always striving to follow the counsel of the presiding authorities and the words of the Prophet, rather than come up with his own original missionary plan. He is in tune with the will of the Lord. Thus, our conferences are incredibly spiritual and we receive much revelation concerning our work. I am striving myself to put everything that he taught us into practice. Having been an accountant for many years, President Wolfgramm is all about being organized, measuring and evaluating so that we can increase our effectiveness and success as missionaries, and see more results in our work. Wow, it's been very challenging and rewarding to improve my personal organizational skills, and make measurable goals in budgeting, in planning lessons, and in my study programs. Sorella Walton and I have been doing lots of roleplaying so that we can teach with more fluidity and unity...through all of these things we are becoming so much effective.

The assistants used a quote in our meeting that hit me, "When the wind comes, the pessimist complains. The optimist hopes the wind will change, and the Milan Italy missionary (we can say proactive person) re-adjusts the sails." Honestly, for the past few weeks I have felt like there is a big brick wall here in Varese, blocking our investigators and us from progressing. For several reasons, it just seems as if no matter what we do, we are not seeing the results. Let me tell you, I am deeply grateful for the challenges we have faced. I have poured out all the love that I have to the people we teach, and we have contacted and talked to as many people as we can. At night, I have really communed with Heavenly Father and felt that He is listening and understanding every word. My faith has been growing so much more than I ever thought possible. From an eternal perspective, I know the Lord is giving us these experiences to push us, to help us reach our full potential.

I had a fever for a few days last week, and so I got a priesthood blessing in church. There were some really neat things that the Lord wanted to tell me concerning the work. One thing that the blessing said was that there are people that the Lord is preparing now to receive the gospel here in Varese. I know that is a blessing that can apply in any area, as we live worthy of our calling, but it was really powerful and nice to hear it. I cannot describe my feelings, but I have been so overwhelmed with gratitude this week. I can feel that we are about to find those prepared people, or maybe that we have already met them. I cannot describe what is driving us to work so hard, or why we are so excited about the work.

We do have one great investigator from Togo Africa, named John Edem. He is really solid and committed. I think he'll be the first to be baptized. He is very respectful, super humble and teachable, already reads the Bible every day. He is just...elect. I love teaching him. I feel so much peace when we teach him, because he has a pure and good spirit. He reads the Book of Mormon on his own, and vividly recalls all the little details about what he read during the lessons. He told us that he would decide next time if he will get baptized in April. We are seeing him tonight!!! Pray for him!

This week Sorella Walton and I hosted a branch party. We had called each member of the branch to participate in some way. Some brought food from different random countries all over the world, and other families dressed up in costumes and we had a little show. It was hilarious! Our branch members are so strange, comical, unique...they have a lot of character. I love them sooo much. The branch members make Varese special. To describe the activity in a few words, Sorella Walton fiddled, I pretended to ride a horse with an old mop, our branch President and Sorella Mariani danced like Russians, a Patriarch talked for twenty minutes about how he was not worthy to give patriarchal blessings...it was a blast. As much as we tried to plan and organize everything, it was a big smorgasbord of talents. Lots of laughs and our branch became a lot more united.

Well, thank you for your support and all the letters. Sorry that I do not write handwritten letters very much. Know that I love you a lot!

Sorella Oakes