19th Letter from Varese

Dear Loved Ones,

I had an awesome birthday! Richie was confirmed that day. It was the best gift ever.

Sorella Mcnamara supports me in meeting my personal goals. She is diligent in doing the basic things- popp charts, getting up and going to bed on time, etc.  This week I told her that I would like to increase the spirituality of our evenings while preparing for bed. She suggested that we read Jesus the Christ together and discuss it together. Last night after programming we went on the roof and read together. I can feel that thirty minutes affecting the rest of my work. We are more united as a companionship and edified in the rest of our daily activities.

This miracle illustrates the power of inspired nightly planning! A few weeks ago, while planning for the next days activities, we followed President Wolfgramm's advice to visualize the people in whom we would contact the next day. We imagined meeting a young university man who was half Italiano and half South American. The next day while waiting at a bus stop we talked to a few people who weren't interested, and then we began talking with this guy. Turns out he met with the anziani a few times in the past. He has had testimoni di Geova missionaries and evangelists visit him before so he was welcome to having us pass by. After exchanging his contact information and setting up an appointment it hit us, "Wait, Mikele is half Italian half South American. He is the man we planned to meet last evening." Even if we remembered that we had planned to contact someone like him after the fact, it helped us realize that the Lord placed him in our path. Our meeting was not by chance.

 Since then we have had two awesome lessons with him. In our second lesson he opened up his heart to us and layed out all of the problems that he is facing in his life. He asked lots of questions about the atonement and expressed his desire to be relieved of his burdens from sin. As tough as this guy seems his eyes welled up with tears several times and the spirit touched his heart. I remember him pausing at one point in the lesson and asking us, "Out of all the people you could have talked to, why did you decide to talk to me that day on the street?"  We could honestly say, "We know it was not by chance. We had prayerfully imagined meeting someone like you, and after having talked with you, we knew the Lord placed you in our path Mikele. He has been preparing you to receive the gospel at this time in your life." He paused and said, "I just want peace. I feel really good when I meet with you, but everytime I pray I feel so guilty. Can you guys tell me what will help me? What should I do?"

The Spirit was at its peak, we saw the target and boom we gave him the baptismal invite for 30 of June. He accepted it wholeheartedly and dedicated himself to prepare for that date. It is so amazing how the Lord's will can come in line with our when we seek revelation in nightly planning.

Hey Richie just walked into the internet point, he wants to say something to y'all. He says, "Hi, it's Richie!" He doesn't know what else to say haha. " I am happy I met your daughter. And she's really awesome and her colleague. Ya!"

Love ya all!

 Sorella Oakes