Where to begin....
This week was such an incredible week. I love the Brancasi's with all of my heart it makes me ache at times. PLEASE family, pray for them. We will see them at the Rome Temple some day. Please, your prayers are being heard! Please continue to pray for them to know that these things are true. I thought that you all might appreciate to hear the experience that they had in Church this last week. After making many sacrifices to go to Taranto the see the Church, the Lord rewarded them openly with so many blessings this past week. Lina is a woman that would slide right in with all of the Julie Beck's in all of Utah, always ready to serve, help, uplift, and give her all. When she arrived to the Church it was a bit funny how she described the scene, a saying that we from Utah know all to well. She explained that "you all are like a bunch of busy-bees working in a beehive! Everyone with something to do!" After all, it was President Hinckley that explained, "Activity is the genius of the Church". I began to laugh at her comment. Giuglio expressed the humility, the absolute love and unity of the members. I told him that the lesson he heard in Gospel Principles as well as Sunday School was heard in the proper language in every part of the world by every member of the Church. He said to me, "Anziano, I think that's the definition of unity." They are so incredible, but after all that they observed and noted from the way things went in the Chiesa di Gesù Cristo dei Santi degli Ultimi Giorni, was highlighted when Lina partook of the Sacrament for the very first time. She expressed to us how an emotion came over her to the point of tears and she couldn't hold it in anymore. The same thing happened just yesterday with Giuglio when we went to go see him. He knelt and thanked the Lord for having brought him to know the true church of Jesus Christ. They know that this is true. It's a bit interesting talking with them due to the fact that they have a great testimony in this Church already. In a very funny mode, to show how Giuglio is, we explained to him that on one hand we have a piece of a cake that he can have, on the other hand we have the recipe, an infinite amount of ingredients, and also the Chef to show him everything he can do, what would he rather have? (In hopes to show the difference from the Church that he has known to that which he is finding) An intelligent man, he knew exactly what we were getting at from the moment we started the example. With a big grin he looked at us and said, "I'd eat the cake first and then make my own!" hoping to avoid leaving behind the traditions and the joy his beliefs has brought to him. It's going to be a lot of fun to see how the Lord uses the Book of Mormon to strengthen their testimonies to the point of baptism. They will be baptized, and we will go to the temple with them some day. I am as sure as it as I have ever been in my entire life. Another great experience that happened this last week, that absolutely built my testimony so strongly about the love of God for all of us. About a month or so ago we were with Sara. We were talking about the love of our Heavenly Father and how much He cares for each and every one of us. Sara was having difficulty in believing that. We shared that He cares about each one of our necessities and cares with every bit of His endless and divine love. She still couldn't believe it. I asked her what her necessities were and her cares in this moment. She said, "I need to find work and I need to build a relationship with my family, I need to stay close with them." We said that the Lord always works through small means to bring great things to pass. The Spirit prompted me to promise her she would find work and that her family would be united if she would read a chapter a day. I shrugged off the prompting with a big lack of faith. Italy is no place to find work and her family is already divided through divorces and contentions. It came again, "Promise her this." Again, I shrugged it off, thinking that I wasn't capable of doing that. In the mercy of the Lord, it came again, "As My servant, promise her this in My name." It hit me so strongly and I did so. She accepted the invite and we moved forward, being that she had a couple of interviews at Rome and the only opporunities to find work were there, dividing her family. As we left the lesson I just said now what? How will this happen? What can I do to help her find work? I remembered the promise the Lord made to her that evening. I fasted in that moment that she might read those chapters we had talked about. The weeks passed. The interviews came and gone. The phone never rang for her. The hope was being lost. She got to the point that she wasn't even answering our phone calls due to the stress and the anxiety from the situation. I continually thought to myself, "How could I make that promise? Now what's going to happen?" The Lord continually pushed us all forward. This last Friday Sara called us to see us in Church. When we got there she explained she had some bad news. She finally received the phone calls. The first, from the company telling her that she didn't get the job. The second phone call from the girl that did get the job and describing how lucky Sara was for not having received the job due to the fact of high hours, low pay, and the distance from home. Then a third call came... From an old teacher in High School that thought of Sara for an opportunity this Summer. Out of the complete blue she recieved this call to go to Spain this Summer with her mother and that teacher on a paid three-month teaching experience of the Italian language. Not only had the Lord blessed her with work but had brought her family together in a way that she could not have ever comprehended. My heart began to pound within me when she started to share this with us. Family, I leave with you my one-hundred percent conviction that the Lord lives and loves us. That He is so aware of what we need and how we need it that He will do ANYTHING when we do the small and simple things. I love you all... Thank you for teaching me the little things.
Anziano Gatchell
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