Chieti, Casoli, FrancaVilla, Pescara, MonteSilvano, Roma, Lanciano...tutta d'Italia!

Wow we've traveled a lot this week!!

General Conference

This weekend we had a feast when we were able to sit and watch General Conference. The repeating themes of the talks seemed to be Love for God and Neighbor, Service, The Book of Mormon, and Having the Spirit. I was impressed by the music and preparation of the brothers and sisters. I took notes also. President Holland's talk impressed me as he bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. He quoted his great-grandfather George Q. Cannon who said, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.” I also believe this is so.

President Bednar asked that we tell our family members that we love them and that we treat them with respect. I would like to tell my children that I love them. They are really important to me and I wish them the greatest happiness in life. I also love my husband who has been good to me. I respect and love my parents. My father and mother have done many good things for me throughout my life, which I appreciate.

YEAH CONFERENZA GENERALE!

Hello all you people in my life!

Well, another week has flown by. I can't keep them straight anymore, it's making me dizzy!Right now my companion has the flu, so i've been in hibernation mode. She wants to work, but we also don't want to make all our investigators sick so we have to sit at home. I cleaned everything.

This week we've been really trying to help the members. We've realized how neglected some of them have been recently, because they live about 2 hours away from the church and no one goes out to visit them. So we've been trying to make an effort and the members are SO happy! We've been seeing some good results from our efforts too. When I came into this ward the members didn't work with the missionaries at all, and now they're going up to our investigators and asking for appointments! We've really discovered that praying to find the right members for our investigators is extremely important. Some of the people that we thought wouldn't go well together are perfect fits.I'm excited for general conference...are you?

The times here are kinda crazy, we watch the saturday morning session at 6 pm, and then the saturday afternoon session on sunday at 2 in the afternoon. Sunday afternoon session is out of the question! Almost all of our investigators have been wanting to hear a prophet speak so they can gain their own testimonies. We are very excited and hopeful. I've realized how much of a blessing it is that we can hear the prophet speak. I was reading an ensign article yesterday about the martin and harris handcart companies, and how those pioneers gave up their lives in the hope of seeing the prophet. I was reading in Mormon 1 today about when the people went into apostasy and the Lord took away the apostles and prophets. It's a testimony to me of how much God loves us by giving us a living prophet.

Nino is making some awesome progress, as always. Before, his wife had to beg him to come to church with her, and now he's making HER come to church! haha he's so great. He's reaching out to the members and they're reaching back. I think he's going to be the next bishop. :)

So one last story and then i'm off. This one is about sincere prayer, and involving the Lord in all our decisions. So the other night we were trying to find some old investigators, and we finished early so we had an hour to do finding before we went home. We were sitting on a corner, discussing what to do, and neither of us had any idea. So I said a prayer and asked the Lord to lead us to where he wanted us to go to find the elect. I opened my eyes and waited for a response, and I felt I needed to stand up, and then I would know what to do. So I stood up and waited. Then I felt I needed to cross the street to throw away the piece of paper I was holding. We were staring down a dark and deserted street and my companion looks at meet and says "now where?" I said, "We need to walk down that street and do surveys." Yeah, random. We usually only do surveys at the park, and especially not at night in the dark. So we start walking and we spot these two girls who were hidden behind some trees and we go over to talk to them and they were both incredibly interested and both asked us for book of mormons and want to meet with us again. God does answer our prayers, even the most simple ones.

Lots of love to you all! Vi voglio un sacco di bene (I want for you all a sack of good) :)

Sorella Jenessa Miles

The pictures are from pday last week...it was my companion's birthday, and two sets of sisters showed up in Pescara to get their permesso's taken care of! We ate yummy pizza with french fries on it.

What do you get when you throw pasta into the ocean?

Apostasy!

Wow, has it already been another week?? I feel like I was just here writing to you all! Time is flying by on the mission...I hit my 7 month mark last week. I still feel like I was just in the MTC! So strange. Well, it's been a fun week full of finding and appointments! We have made a bunch of contacts with some ladies in the area doing house, and we're working hard to make things come of it. I've really discovered that doing house where there are actually houses is really effective, because people can see our happy smiling faces! No new investigators as of yet, but there are about 6 people who we've talked to and/or gotten phone numbers from, and a lot of them have potential...we'll see what happens!

We had an incredible appointment with our "golden family" the other day. We taught the plan of salvation to Chris, and he was asking a MILLION questions! Every question he's ever had in his entire life about God and our purpose. The incredibly beautiful and miraculous thing was that every question he asked was answered by the scriptures and the plan of salvation. It was really a testimony to me about how scriptures teach things that I never could as a simple sister missionary. They are so full of power-they are from God.

On Sunday we had a cool experience...we wanted to go and visit a family in our ward about getting involved in our missionary work, and when I asked the husband if we could stop by and visit them he said, "hey, why don't you come over for dinner because we're having a friend come over that we wanted to introduce to the church, and you can teach her." WOW. That was the first time we've ever had that happen between the two of us companions. So we go over and when I first met the lady I looked at her face and it completely threw me off-she looked EXACTLY like Mom 10 years ago! Yeah. So we talked to her about the church and gave her a Book of Mormon. We're hoping to do a family home evening with them sometime soon. YAY! This is how missionary work is supposed to happen!

The members in Pescara are really catching onto the fire. It's incredible. We were really excited when our investigator Nino came to church on Sunday with his new member wife Iolanda. He had an incredible experience, and the spirit was so strong when the stake president spoke. Nino jumped out of his seat at the end and ran up to meet the bishop and stake president and they immediately made friends and ended up hugging in the end. Yay! He's making so much progress. If you had known Nino before I came here you would have thought that he was a hopeless case. Now he's excited to start praying with his family every night, and he's reading in the scriptures with his wife nightly. It's such a testimony to me about example-his wife is incredible and loves him so much and wants them to do this together and eventually get sealed in the temple when it's built in Rome.

TEMPLE NEWS...so the first presidency had their big meeting last week to approve the temple, and then yesterday the commune in Rome got together to approve the permesso. We have been praying with all our hearts daily for this temple, and things are going forward! There will be a temple in Rome! Who would have ever thought? So much good is going on here. I love serving my mission, I love my companion, I love Pescara. It's definitely not easy in the slightest bit, it's probably the hardest thing i've ever done in my entire life...trying to convert catholics. haha, but it's true. I know it with all my heart.

I read an ensign article the other day about a pastor who converted himself to this church. He said that above all to be effective member missionaries we need to be an example of our religion, and live it. Second, we need to know and understand what we believe. What is the purpose in living a religion if you don't even understand it? The gospel makes sense...it's simple. If you don't understand it, then I suggest reading Preach My Gospel along with the Book of Mormon. It will change your life.

Have a wonderful week!

baci e abbracci,

Sorella Jenessa Miles

A lesson on the Holy Spirit

Today in Seminary was Meditation Friday. It is a day that the students have to catch up on their reading and we do Scripture Mastery. I gave a short lesson on the Holy Ghost and then had the students talk about their part.

Afterwards I read parts of this week's letter from Jenessa. It was so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop as the students learned how Jenessa was led by the Spirit. Thanks Jenessa.

Heeeey everbuddy!

Another week come and gone my goodness! I can't believe i'm already writing again. We've had a fun pday so far...we woke up early and ran out to the ocean to watch the sunrise, and we did our personal and language study out there.

This last week has been INCREDIBLE. We had zone conference on Thursday, and we had an incredible training from our zone leaders that I think will change our entire missions. All they talked about were the key indicators (our numbers) and what we can do to bring them up. It's really true, the higher your key indicators, the higher the baptisms!

I read this talk the other day, don't ask me where, that says that we need to be talking to at least 10 people a day about the gospel. So we made it our goal to talk to 10 people a day, and try to give out a book of mormon every day. So the day after zone conference, Friday, we went to go to an appointment, but our investigator wasn't home, so I said, "it's probably because Christ wanted us to find someone else". We felt prompted to go to a palazzo, and we rang everyone, but no one let us up. As we were walking away, a lady at the door was staring at us, and so we introduced ourselves and she kept saying she already had a religion, and "all roads led to Jesus," and we were losing her interest. Finally, I felt prompted to ask her "Do you read the bible?" and she said daily. Then I handed her a book of mormon, and said that it was another testament of Christ, scripture like the bible, and I told her the story of Joseph smith. She got really quiet, and the spirit was emanating. We asked if we could come back and teach her, and she said yes. Wow.

On Saturday, we started off the day by going to our inactive miracle friend Antonio, and we found out that he actually isn't inactive, he's not a member. Apparently he was baptized, but he wasn't confirmed, but he told us that he would like to recieve the Holy Ghost. I was so shocked! We might have to rebaptize him because we don't know if they have his records from his baptism 5 years ago. Crazy.

That afternoon we went to meet up with a potential investigator at the park...after waiting for a half hour we decided to give up. As we were walking away instead of letting us get sad I said, "It's probably because God wanted us to find someone else here!" As we walked through the playground, I saw a man with his wife and son, and I walked up to them and before I could get 3 words out in english he said, "I speak english! I'm from Maryland! Are you mormons? I see you everywhere! I've talked to your elders before, but nobody has ever told me what you're about!" We were more than happy to do so, so we explained to him the entire first lesson. He loved it all, and when we got to the Book of Mormon we invited him to read it and pray to know if it was true. He said, "I don't think you can convince me, but I will pray about it to know for myself if it's true and then be baptized if it's right." We were okay with that. Then I told him that they're building a temple in Rome, and that his family can be sealed forever and he was SO EXCITED! We had already talked for an hour and a half by that point, so he said, "okay, we'll meet next week and you can tell me about God's plan for us and how I can live with my family forever!" Wow. He and his wife are so great...he's already been following the spirit his entire life. He said he had prayed to know where to go about 5 years ago for work, and he felt the most random need to go to China, where he met his wife. He said "I KNOW that's why God wanted me to go to China...so I could meet my wife!" Oh I love them all so much!

It's true that 100% obedience brings blessings! We have 4 new investigators in less than a week, which is the norm for missionaries to find in an entire TRANSFER in Italy....all just by trying as hard as we can to do 15 hours of finding work a week, talking to 10 people a day, giving out 3 BOMs a week, and having members at every single lesson. The harder we work, the more we are blessed! We're also trying to be bold, and we are weeding out our investigators to find those would want to be baptized, so we can spend more time finding the golden investigators. We just tell them that's our purpose, and it's actually helped us to overcome a ton of "icebergs" that have been keeping our investigators from progressing.

My companion sister Crandall is incredible. She is such a blessing, and she is the best missionary ever. I am learning so much from her and her untiring diligence in becoming better!

"If you want a thing bad enough to go out and fight for it, work day and night for it, give up your peace and your sleep and your time for it. If only your desire makes your aim higher never tire of it. If life seems all empty and useless without and all that you dream and you scheme is about it. If gladly you'll plan for it, fret for it, sweat for it, pray with all your strength for it. If you only go ater the thing that you want with all your capacity, strength and sagacity, faith, hope and confidence, stem pertinacity. If neither poverty nor pain nor famine and gaunt, can keep you away from the thing that you want, if dogged and grim you besiege and beset it, you'll get it!!!" -Vaughn J Featherstone.

I love you all so much. Questo è il lavoro del Signore. So che sono qua per portare i suoi figli alla vita eterna. So che con tutto il mio coure che questa è la chiesa restaurata, e questo è il lavoro meraviglioso. Vi amo, e Dio vi ama anche...non mai dimenticarla. Voi siete sempre nel mio coure, e i miei preghiere.

Baci e Abbracci!

Sorella Jenessa Miles

ps, if you don't understand italian, 'google translate' works incredibly well! ;)

The Plan of Salvation

Here they are...my Seminary students. Some are hiding but there are 29 in the picture (the girl (Heidi) in white is really not wearing a hat). Look at those happy faces. I love it when people are happy. It brings me a lot of joy.

Yesterday and today was a lesson on the Plan of Salvation. I must say that I thought it went really well. The students were asked to get into groups and look up the answers to questions about The Plan in the scriptures. After they drew an illustration of their part and then were asked to do a presentation. They were absolutely wonderful. It was a challenge to do a presentation with 20 minutes of preparation and stand up in front of everyone.

See if you can answer the questions:

What is our relationship to God? Hebrews 12:9
What is God’s plan? Moses 1:39
What is the difference between God’s plan and Satan’s plan? Moses 4:1-4
How will agency effect eternal progression? 2 Nephi 2:27-29
Using the scriptures you have read, describe how The Plan affects you and everyone on earth.

According to Hebrews 1:1-3 what was the assignment that God gave to his Son?
How do the stars, planets, and the earth remain in their places? D&C 88:41-47
Who was the earth created for? Isaiah 45:12, 18
For what purpose did God create the earth? Abraham 3:24-25
In whose image were Adam and Eve created? Genesis 1:26-27
When you think about the creation and look at the creations of God around you, what does this testify to you?

What was the state of Adam and Eve in The Garden before the Fall? Moses 3:15-25, 2 Nephi 2:23
What were the events that led to the Fall and what is the Fall? Moses 4:19-31
What is the state that Adam and Eve were in after the Fall? 2 Nephi 2:22-25, Moses 5:11
What would happen to us physically and spiritually if everything remained in a fallen condition? 2 Nephi 9:6-10
Since we face so much temptation in the world today, what can we do in cooperation with the Lord to change our natures and resist evil? 1 Nephi 2:16; Mosiah 3:19: 4:1-3; 5:1-2; Ether 12:27

What is the purpose of life on earth? Alma 34:32; 2 Nephi 2:25
Why was it necessary for us to come to a physical earth and get a physical body? D&C 93:33-34; Moses 1:39
What are the consequences of the Fall of Adam and Eve to all mankind in mortality? Helaman 14:16, 18
What are the blessings that await us if we keep our second estate? Abraham 3:24-26; Mosiah 15:23-25
Since Satan will eventually be cast into outer darkness, why did God allow him and his followers to come to earth and tempt us? D&C 29:39How can we distinguish good from evil? How are we to judge right from wrong? Moroni 7:12-14
Why was a Redeemer chosen even in premortality? What would result if there were no Redeemer? 2 Nephi 9:7-10
Why did Jesus Christ need to come to earth and take upon Himself a mortal body? 2 Nephi 2:6-8; Alma 34:9-16; John 1:7
Who will be saved through the Atonement? Alma 11:40
How does the Atonement help us overcome the effects of the Fall? 2 Nephi 9:3-13
On what conditions can we be forgive of our sins and bring about the plan of redemption in our own lives? Alma 42:9-15

What is the difference between physical death and spiritual death? How are we rescued from each one? What is our part in overcoming spiritual death? 2 Nephi 9:6-23; D&C 29:40-44
Where do we go when we die? What important works that we know of are going on in the spirit world? Alma 40:11-14; D&C 138:11-17, 19
What will we be like when we are resurrected? Alma 11:42-45
Who is the Great Judge? D&C 137:9Where will we go after we are judged? Why will people be placed in those places? 1 Corinthians 15:35, 39-42: D&C 88:28-32