January 23, 2017
Mirakli Kulljum!!
That's our motto.
"Miracles every day".
This week was probably the only time ever I could walk into a Maltese convenience store and hear the Mormon Tabernacle choir singing. Ha-ha, I was kind of surprised when it happened.
I was sick all week but today is beautiful outside and I am feeling somewhat better. I did feel protected at times, like miraculously being able to sing at branch conference and not sound like a dying cow, or not needing to hack up a lung while I was getting an ultrasound of my knee.
Conference was great!!!!! One of the highlights was President Pickerd meeting with O. I use the analogy of a Christmas tree: sometimes, if you have two people who have both been craning their heads for a few weeks to try and see if a Christmas tree is straight up and down, they could both be wrong. That seemed to be the case for us, as President told us repeatedly how he believes O. is significantly more prepared for baptism than we have been treating him. He has shown quite a bit of faith coming to church every week, even the times when he is the only non-English speaker there and there is no translation; he comes just because it feels good to be there.
This week was probably the only time ever I could walk into a Maltese convenience store and hear the Mormon Tabernacle choir singing. Ha-ha, I was kind of surprised when it happened.
I was sick all week but today is beautiful outside and I am feeling somewhat better. I did feel protected at times, like miraculously being able to sing at branch conference and not sound like a dying cow, or not needing to hack up a lung while I was getting an ultrasound of my knee.
Conference was great!!!!! One of the highlights was President Pickerd meeting with O. I use the analogy of a Christmas tree: sometimes, if you have two people who have both been craning their heads for a few weeks to try and see if a Christmas tree is straight up and down, they could both be wrong. That seemed to be the case for us, as President told us repeatedly how he believes O. is significantly more prepared for baptism than we have been treating him. He has shown quite a bit of faith coming to church every week, even the times when he is the only non-English speaker there and there is no translation; he comes just because it feels good to be there.
Yesterday morning we
taught him... On our own!! It was super hard but we've really been blessed with
the gift of tongues and when our member couldn't make it things worked out ok.
Here is an insight into my language speaking right now: I said my first only
Italian prayer in a couple months with President Pickerd during my interview.
And it was a STRUGGLE. Its shockingly hard to do it in Italian as oppose to
Maltese these days. Yikes.
In his talk, president DeCarlo recounted many of the great things that have happened in Malta this year. His son will be the first ever Maltese missionary. An apostle wrote a letter to the Maltese saints. At the dedication of the great building we currently use, a representative of the president of Malta and the vice mayor of Mosta both came to support us. The branch presidency felt inspired to give them a copy of "The Family: a proclamation to the world".
Later, people from
Mosta loudly protested this support. The responses of these officials to that
criticism show something quite special. President
DeCarlo believes it shows that both guests had actually read the proclamation,
specifically the part that speaks about calling officers of government to
protect the family. He believes that this gave them the courage to stand up to voters
and defend completely their decision to attend the dedication, saying that the
people could learn a lot from our church. In my opinion, it is no coincidence
that both have since been elected to higher positions in the government. The
Lord has blessed them.
Speaking of good people, there are tons of people here who have the Terrestrial kingdom locked up. They are just great people. I feel we are getting so close to finding some of the right ones who will lead the church here in Malta. Part of that has already been happening as three men were advanced to the Melchisedek priesthood on Sunday in our tiny branch! Yay!
Tomorrow the Thompsons come at 5 am to pick us up to fly to zone conference! Woohoo!
Love,
Speaking of good people, there are tons of people here who have the Terrestrial kingdom locked up. They are just great people. I feel we are getting so close to finding some of the right ones who will lead the church here in Malta. Part of that has already been happening as three men were advanced to the Melchisedek priesthood on Sunday in our tiny branch! Yay!
Tomorrow the Thompsons come at 5 am to pick us up to fly to zone conference! Woohoo!
Love,
Anziano Cannon
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