Anziano Ruiz in the Italy Rome Mission: Carlo, Carlo and Carlo

February 12, 2018

Another great week in Italy! This week flew by! We had 5 meal appointments it was awesome! The members here are pretty sweet even though we are pretty small in numbers! We meet with different people almost everyday and they always feed us haha. It's the best I love Italians!

We met with three people named Carlo this week and that was pretty sweet. The first one we met on Pday when we were walking to the local neighborhood castle. Haha it turns out that he actually worked there so he told us to come back the next day because it's closed Monday. So on the way home from DDM we went up there to meet him and it was super cool! He gave us a free tour of the castle, then we got to the top and had an awesome view. We taught him the restoration and he was really into is. He told us that he was really passionate about out church. So we taught the restoration on the top of Castle this week. I need to start making a list of where I've taught the restoration, it gets pretty interesting in this mission!

We also met with Carlo Napolitani this week and he's not from Napoli but we went out for a pizza anyway. He has known the missionaries for a like 9 years and we are hoping to help him out. For the last Carlo we had a nice pranzo with him, read some of the Book of Mormon and talked about salvation. It was pretty sweet, he has known the missionaries for like 20 years but hasn't seen them in a couple so he was happy to receive a call from us. We hope to be meeting with Carlo, Carlo and Carlo again soon!

Also this week I had the chance to do a baptismal interview for a guy from the other missionaries in my district. It was a super cool experience. It's crazy how much God uses his children to reach out to other children. I didn't even know this man and I felt the greatest love for him. Experiences like that help me remember how much God loves each and every one of us and how important it is to remember that it is our responsibility so show that love to those around us! Remember to never kick out a genuine thought!

I have been studying charity a lot lately and I found a word that linked to it really well. That is compassion, I looked it up in the dictionary for a clearer definition and it says that compassion is a "deep understanding of and sympathy for another suffering" and "the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it". Reading that I thought immediately to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. His Atonement did not just give him a deep understanding of our suffering but it gave him a perfect understanding. He is the best help that we can receive in any affliction. I know he lives, that he loves us, and that he is waiting for us to reach out and receive his love and also show it to others.

Vi vogliamo bene!Buona settimanna!

Love Anziano Ruiz