Cara Family,
Life is good! We received our transfer calls last night and our district will be the exact same this transfer. No changes in our district. I'm actually pretty excited. This is my third transfer in Milano!!! I have officially been in Italy for 6 months, and on my mission for 8 months!!! Oh my how the time goes!!! When Anziano Clove comes into the field, in 6 weeks, I will be going on my sixth transfer!!! And I will have been here for seven and a half months!!! CRAZY!!!!! Thank you Mom for the letters you have written me this month. They have really helped me out a lot. Thanks for the update with little Natalie. How is she doing now? I am glad she is doing alright. And Mom, I would LOVE to receive the monthly ward newsletter each month. I really like this month's, I already read it all. Thank you for the birthday money. I have not yet taken it out because we haven't gone shopping yet. Maybe today, but we will see. Today we are going to the Duomo, and on top, because sad to say I have not even been yet. That will be a lot of fun.
One thing that I am learning, especially that our whole district is the same for another 6 weeks, is that the Lord will always help you in your trials and problems of life, but He will never take them away from you. There are some things that I must do better and with the help of the Lord, overcome these things. I no longer feel depressed, but this isn't like a "good day", I feel like I'm on the path to happiness. I read this really awesome story in an Ensign from 2007. In short, this sister read from the Ensign everyday while waiting for her daughter from school, and she noticed, after some time, that her life began to change. Oh, it is so good. Every time I tell someone about it, I always feel the Spirit, like right now. I really want to do that. Always read good things, the conference talks especially, since I missed a lot of them and didn't understand a lot of them becuase it was all in Italian. I read like 3 or 4 talks the other day and it helped me to be more positive. I love the srciptures, the Ensigns that we have to help us to be better. I remember Mom told us that when she asked Boyd how conference was, he said, "same old, same old." Well, we are humans and we can see in our daily lives how many reminders we have to have for ourselves, even when we do the same things over and over again. We have planners to help us to rememer what we are doing, calendars do the same, we set alarms for us to wake up in the morning, we write ourselves notes and we still sometimes forget. So if we need so many reminders with temporal things, how much more do we need reminders and little nudges for spiritual things? I've noticed in my life that when I am constantly thinking of the Savior, or of good things in general, I remember more to do what Christ would do. A quick experience. When I was working at Subway, for awhile, which I am not sure why, the radio at work was on the KLOVE Christian station for several weeks. And I listened to it a lot at home and I noticed that sometimes I would just start singing a song and it was always about Christ. It really lifted my mood and helped me to remember Christ more.
As I was writing this email, something hit me. We need to be immersed in the gospel of Jesus Christ, reading the things of His prophets and apostles, spiritual and testimony building experiences of others, the scriptures, listening to music that brings us closer to Christ and helps us to remember Him. We do all these things to help us remember Christ so that we CAN remember Him, so that we can better keep our baptismal covenants. When our minds are focused on the Savior, our heart begins to focus on Him and then it is easier to follow Him. But when we are far from Him, and we care more about the world, it is so much harder to remember Him and to know what He would do. What would Jesus do? The prophet and apostles tell us in ever Ensign, every church lesson, everything we do should be focused on the Savior.
I don't want to be one of those missioaries who say, " Well, I served a mission, I served the Lord for awhile, now I can get back to my life. Go back to doing the things I was doing before." But rather, I would like to do all these things to praise God. This reminds me of that movie that we saw, I think it's called Fighting the Giants. I love that movie. I feel the Spirit now just thinking about it. They changed their attitude from playing football for themselves, to playing football to praise God. A couple of weeks ago, I realized that I want to make movies to praise God. Making movies is a very temporal thing, but moives have really helped me to want to be better and to get up and change, they have really changed me, I have felt the Spirit of the Lord in a lot of movies that I have seen. And that's want I want to do. I want to make movies to praise God. Just like in Fighting Giants, it's all for God.
I am really excited for this new transfer, this new start, this new beginning. Even though our district is still all the same, I think this is exactly what I need. We are family. I am excited to change and to do better. A couple of weeks ago when I was getting ready for studies and I was late but this phrase came into my mind, "Repent, and make better choices." That's my phrase now. I say it to myself a lot. I know that the Lord can help me as long as I actually open the door for Him and let Him into my life. I am so grateful to be serving the Lord, Jesus Christ, and His children, my brothers and sisters, to be here on my mission at this precise time in my life. Even during the hard times, it is all worth it. This mission is helping me for my eternal salvation. I read a conference talk the other day by a sister, but I can't remember who, but she said she has a plaque that says, " I can do hard things." But then she said that she would like to change it and say, "With Christ I can do ALL things." That's how I feel too. I love you all and I am grateful for this change coming over me. Thank you all for your love, support, prayers, and thoughts. I love you all and I am looking forward so much, when I will be able to share with you this wonderful time in my life. Until then, God be with you 'til we meet again! I love you!!!!!!!
Love from your Sorella DeVocht
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