10th Letter from Varese

Dear Family,

We set a solid baptismal date with Sander!!!!! Yesterday morning we fasted and prayed and the Lord poured out His power and blessings. During the appointment, Sander and his mom (Dominga) were present. We asked him right at the beginning if he had prayed if our message was true. He smiled and timidly lowered his head and mumbled, "Yes. I had a dream." Sorella Walton asked, "What was in your dream?" He responded, "There was a great light and there was a man dressed in white who showed me a piece of paper with a scripture written on it. When I read it, the man said that it was true."

Dominga glowed and she listened to her son. We asked Sander to be baptized. He was too shy to respond. His mom lovingly said to him, "Sander, when you are baptized, you will have the most wonderful feeling. It is the best experience you will have in your entire life. It is only through baptism that you can enter into the kingdom of God and live with Jesus. Do you understand how important this is, son?" Sorella Walton and I were blown away! We were expecting Dominga to be hesitant about allowing him to be baptized since she has been inactive for years. We were also worried that she would say that he is too young to make this decision.

With the support and sincere testimony of his mother, Sander looked up and beamed and said, "Yes, I this is what I want." He will be baptized April 22!

It is beautiful working with part-member families, especially inactive members, because as their loved ones are baptized, they are strengthened and reactivated. Now our little branch will have another family coming to church. Dominga has been bringing her mother and her two baby girls to church as well. Now we can start a primary, whereas there has only been one baby in church until now. The Lord is pouring out His blessings and I am filled with love and gratitude to Him!

Another fantastic miracle! Remember Janella? She is the 17 year old girl we met in the elevator in our apartment. After teaching her for a while, she was not very interested in applying the gospel in her life, so we stopped teaching her and left a note to the missionaries for future reference. But while we had been teaching her, her mom's boyfriend always listened in on our lessons. He would pretend to fix the t.v. for 45 minutes, or stand close by in the kitchen cleaning or something. When we would finish and walk out the door, he would always shake our hand and say, "You guys are welcome here anytime. Janella really needs this. The youth these days need to be educated about this religious stuff because it keeps them out of trouble."

Anyway, after we had stopped visiting them for a while, we started to bump into Piero and Janella's mom all the time! On the street, on the bus, etc. The other day we were returning home from an appointment in a neighboring city, and we Piero, Janella's "stepdad"/mom's companion was on the bus. He immediately opened up to us about how he has lost all faith and hope for a better life. Between the challenges of blended famillies, past divorces and paying the bills he is quite discouraged. Sorella Walton and I followed the Spirit in sharing scriptures and bearing testimony about how Christ can help him with these temporal problems. He listened, but then would refuse to believe any of it. When we invited him to pray he said, "I do not pray". We responded, "well then we will pray for you". He was taken aback, and it really touched him that someone cared about him. As we got off the bus he casually said, "If you ever want to come by and talk, you are welcome to". We set an appointment, and even though he acted like he did not care, you could tell he did.

When we came to his house for our appointment, Janella joined us in the lesson. Gabriele came with us- his experience and testimony was perfect for Piero. At the end of our little lesson, Piero said, "Alright, I am going to give this a try. I am going to pray tonight for the first time in ...20 years." When we asked him to pray with us he said, "How? I do not remember any of the prayers?" He was incredibly humble when we helped him pray with his own words. He was very sincere and had real intent. It is really incredible participating with grown people saying (perhaps their first) personal prayer with God. It is very special. I am so grateful for the things I learned in primary.

I am grateful for the beauty and simplicity of the gospel. I am especially grateful for repentance. I cannot describe exactly how it all works, but I know that it is real. I know the Savior is our mediator to communing with our Heavenly Father. I know that all the things that last come from God. I am grateful for the words of our Prophet and apostles! Wasn't conference incredible! I especially loved Elder Eyring and Elder Nelson's talks. It was so interesting, Sorella Walton and I had a long conversion that morning about how we would raise a child with special needs. And then there were two people who addressed it in conference! That was cool.

Well, this letter has been a bit random. Just wanted to let you know about how wonderful Varese is.

Situation and question: Let's say Sorella Walton and I have two minutes in the bus to tell someone about their purpose in life, and relation to God. Would/how would we present it differently to men versus women? Make sense? Hope so.

Love you,

Sorella Oakes