{"id":265,"date":"2013-06-01T22:58:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-01T22:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/?p=265"},"modified":"2013-06-01T23:02:25","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T23:02:25","slug":"265","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/265\/","title":{"rendered":"Has it really been a month already?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Caro la mia famiglia,<\/div>\n

Congrats for being done with school! My thoughts have been with you all this weekend as I thought of the twins graduating and walking in their graduation robes and getting their diplomas.\u00a0 And everyone else, I love you all and miss you, and I think of you and pray for you every day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I am not really sure what to say this week.\u00a0 It has been a wonderful week, as always.\u00a0 Sometimes I feel like I need to write home all of these positive things, but I want to be real too… we’re all human, right? So sorry this one will be a little short \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Let’s see.\u00a0 Funny moments?\u00a0 SO MANY.\u00a0 Basically, my district thinks I’m crazy.\u00a0 I’m not crazy, I just love to laugh \ud83d\ude42 and they’ve figured out I’m gullible… Who doesn’t love a gullible person who loves to laugh? Right?<\/div>\n
I love Italian.\u00a0 We learned the subjunctive this week.\u00a0 Pretty confusing but pretty fun once you get it \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 I JUST LOVE ITALIAN.<\/div>\n
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We are teaching Rosalba and Sebastian still.\u00a0 And it is so fun! We taught them each about The Book of Mormon and The Plan of Salvation.\u00a0 The Plan of Salvation is such a beautiful plan.\u00a0 It is such evidence of God’s mercy and love for His children.\u00a0 We can be with our loved ones for\u00a0eternity<\/i>\u00a0It’s so powerful.\u00a0 It speaks to people’s hearts.\u00a0 There are so many questions that people have, and usually, the Plan of Salvation can answer these questions.\u00a0 Sebastian asked us… if God loves us and this is His plan of happiness, why would there be suffering in the world?\u00a0 Why does he let children starve?\u00a0 Why is there danger in the world?\u00a0 We opened up to 2 Nephi 2 in the Book of Mormon and read some verses there.\u00a0 I know that the Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul. After talking about this, we asked him to follow Christ’s example and be baptized by someone holding the authority of God. AND HE SAID YES!!!! We asked him why, and he said it was because of the spirit that he feels when he reads and prays about the Book of Mormon.<\/div>\n
Rosalba is a little more difficult, for she grew up Catholic and can’t change from that! But we know that she feels the spirit.\u00a0 We asked her to read Alma 36, the story of Alma the Younger’s conversion.\u00a0 I will let you know next week what she thought of that \ud83d\ude42<\/div>\n
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Can I just tell you how much I love the Book of Mormon? I’m serious.\u00a0 Read this book.\u00a0 IT’S SO GOOD. It has such a good story, philosophies, and above all, it is the word of God.\u00a0 It is another testament of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.<\/div>\n
Thinking about the Plan of Salvation a lot this week as we had the blessed opportunity to watch Frances Monson’s funeral on Sunday night.\u00a0 It was a beautiful service.\u00a0 (and shout out to my lovely roommate Sarah Abbott who played the violin so, so beautifully. All the missionaries were talking about that musical number afterwards.) I am so grateful to know that I can be with my family for all time and all eternity.\u00a0 I can’t wait to bring this knowledge to the people of Italy.<\/div>\n

Another thing that I really loved was a point from last night’s devotional.\u00a0 Elder Zwick of the 70 told us about how he was behind the construction fo the Portland temple.\u00a0 Unexpected rain came for 9 days, and they had to completely redesign the foundation.\u00a0 We will experience setbacks, but as we rely upon the Lord, we can completely redesign our foundation upon Him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I am running out of time, but I love you all! I love the Book of Mormon. It brings me such peace and answers my prayers.\u00a0 I made a goal to read the whole thing again in the 6 weeks that I am at the MTC, and I am right on track. Today in the temple, I read the best chapters. 3 Nephi 8-11. My heart was so full, and I can’t ever deny the Spirit and the witness that I received today. \u00a0 Read them. Love them. Ponder them.\u00a0 Jesus Christ is the light and life of the world.\u00a0 Sometimes things seem so dark and hopeless and confusing.\u00a0 We don’t know where to go or what to do.\u00a0 But his arm is outstretched towards us, and once we take it, we will see His light and He will guide us in the direction we need to be.\u00a0 We can find Him through obedience. I know this and believe this with all my heart, for my heart burns with this knowledge!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I love Him so much.\u00a0 I wear His name on my chest every day, and I am learning of Him, trying to do as He did, and testifying of Him, so I can one day become like Him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Vi voglio bene,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sorella Emma Strong<\/p>\n

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Caro la mia famiglia, Congrats for being done with school! My thoughts have been with you all this weekend as I thought of the twins graduating and walking in their graduation robes and getting their diplomas.\u00a0 And everyone else, I love you all and miss you, and I think of you and pray for you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emmaletters.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}