It was a good week that even consisted of a long anticipated
field trip to TORINOOOOOOOO to pick up my permesso di soggiorno (residency
permit). Finally I'm legal!
We set a baptismal date this week with a woman named Karina!
We are so excited for her. She is great. She has real intent and came to church
and loved it this past sunday.
We have a lot of things happening here in Cimiano. We did
the math and we had about 50% of our lessons planned cancel on us in this past
week. We are working on having more solid backups, but it's hard in a big city
because of travel time lost. I know numbers aren't everything, but they are
important, and I would like to be able to get the numbers here in this city up.
We are praying to know what we can do to better the quality of our backups and
ensure that we have less cancellations.
We also had a great scambio this week! Sorella Smart is a
good missionary. She is calm but powerful and she teaches with the spirit. It
was wonderful.
I am super tired and I'm pretty sure that I've aged at least
a year for every month that I've served. But it's great. I wouldn't have it any
other way.
In recent news, an Elder in my district is like obsessed
with the Paleo diet. So I caved and decided to try it! Wish me luck! (Meal
appointments with members and investigators don't count. It is literally
impossible to not eat carbs in Italy.)
We have been talking a lot about consecration lately. I have
such a strong desire to just be a good and consecrated missionary. We are asked
to leave behind all personal affairs. It's not easy. And I can't even honestly
say that I've been able to do that. But I am putting forth some extra effort
and making a few extra sacrifices to show God that He is the most important
thing in my life. And my desire to follow Jesus Christ is stronger than my
desire to do anything else. It's not easy. But I don't want to stand in front
of my Savior someday and have Him ask me why I wasn't just a little bit more
focused or just a little bit more dedicated.
I know that in each of our lives, we will have to make
sacrifices to be disciples of Jesus Christ. The path to discipleship is simple.
But it isn't necessarily easy. I do know though that the happiness that Christ
promises us if we follow Him is much greater than anything else we can imagine.
I owe everything to Him. He saved my life and has given me the possibility of
eternity with those I love. There is nothing that I wouldn't do for Him to show
Him my gratitude and love.
I invite you to read the book of Matthew and think about
what it means to be a disciple of Christ and what it means to really follow
Him.
I love you all. Thank you for your support!
Love,
Sorella Tokarski
