Oct 26, 2015

Baptism and the Temple!

This week was awesome! On Friday we went to the Indianapolis Temple. It is so beautiful. The temple is truly the closest place to heaven on Earth. I felt heavenly Father's love for me so strongly. 

Saturday "P" and "Ky" were baptized!! That was amazing, they fought hard for that and I am so happy for them. I really love Fort Wayne so many miracles happen here. It's been hard these past couple of weeks, but somehow we are hitting all of our goals. I have no idea how it is happening. But we are doing it. 

We truly can do all things through Jesus Christ. I have a firm testimony of Him. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know He is the son of God. I know they love me. They have helped me in all of my struggles. Being out here has changed my life. 

Elder Verdoni

Letter to Mom

This week was really great!! Well first off on Monday I found out I love Burlington Coat Factory! It is one of my favorite stores. Wednesday - District meeting this week was awesome! I trained on Revelation through the Holy Ghost and Finding by the spirit.

WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE ON FRIDAY. The Indianapolis temple is so pretty. So pretty. It was really nice to sit and relax in the Celestial room. Really amazing feeling of pure peace after a stressful couple of weeks. It was funny because I forgot my temple recommend so they had to call President Wimpy. He said to give me a hug and tell me that He loves me. So that was worth forgetting it. 

The Bassetts Took us there. They are service missionaries for family History. They treat us like their Grandkids. They literally do anything for us. They also have a 30 year old down syndrome son. He is so fun. I really love him too. But we found out they are leaving Wednesday back to Utah. Really sad. Every Sunday night of my mission we went over to their apartment for ice cream. 

The next day, Saturday, we went back to the Indy temple for our recent convert temple trip! That was so cool!! Really blessed out here and really loving it. My comp and I get along really well. And yes we are being fed more so that's good.

Temple Trip

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Companions

Working so hard 

Halloween package received!

October 19, 2015

Way Too Cold

Well if you couldn't tell, it's getting cold over here. yay I love the cold :(

We walked outside on Sunday to walk to church at 7:45 am and guess how cold it was. 28°  I was dying. And it's supposed to get like 40 degrees colder with wind and snow and ice. and I'm on a bike. Yayay. haha so excited. Well I get to tell cool stories though right?

We are having two baptisms on Saturday! "P" and "K", They are related to our last baptism "C" and "K". I'm so excited, they have come a long way. Being a missionary is so cool because you get to see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ really does change lives. It's truly amazing. It also can be heartbreaking, but the good weighs out the bad. I've changed my attitude so far. At every opposition I face I see it as one step closer to a miracle, and it's so true though.

We get to go to the Indy (Indianapolis) temple this Friday. I'm so so excited for that. Oh fun fact, I almost got hit by another car this week. That was cool. Love you all!

Elder Verdoni

Letter to Mom

We saw a lot of miracles yesterday, we found four new investigators! Also really cool, so someone in priesthood bore testimony about indexing and family history. He said if it wasn't for indexers he never would have found them! So good work! (Indexing lets you type names from old records into a database that people worldwide can use to find their ancestors. I do quite a bit  Indexing info)

Ya It's cold!

 Training Meetings

  

1.why
2.way too cold

Oct 12, 2015

Weekly Update

This week was much better than last haha. Still really slow but we found more new yesterday and Saturday. Its pretty cool, If you set goals out of faith and you pray in faith and you continue to act in faith, Heavenly Father will help you reach your goals. Whatever it may be. I've seemed to learn that pattern lately. If you put your trust in Jesus Christ and His atonement, you really can do all things. 

Something else that is really cool about being on a mission is seeing miracles happen so plainly. That's probably because we couldn't do our work without them but still. I don't know why but I just never really thought that miracles happened that much. But God has not ceased to be a God of miracles. There are still miracles. If He is the same yesterday and forever, He has to perform miracles. Miracles were performed by Christ and they didn't stop there. If they did God would cease to be God. And if God ceased to be God we would cease to exist. Well I'm still here. The only reason people don't see miracles is because they don't have the faith necessary for it. I'm paraphrasing all this from Mormon 9:15-21. I really invite you to read and ponder the message it's saying.

But nonetheless miracles are happening, even though they are small. I hope all you had a good week! love you!

Elder Verdoni

Letter to Mom
It's been kind of warm lately, and we have to wear our suit-coats biking so I'm back to being hot again haha, yay.

We had dinner at the Bishops last night and that went really really well. Dinner was fun and lots of laughs. The spiritual message was so spiritual and for some reason we were all laughing in the closing prayer. Anyway we were asked us to be judges in the primary program and Bishop gave us three assignments. And we walked away with homemade donuts! Best dinner ever!! We had a really good stake conference too. Its theme was keeping the Sabbath day holy. Love ya!

(I only took one :/  I'll repent and fix that for this week I promise)

 

Oct 5, 2015

The lord is my light, whom shall I fear?

Transfers were on Tuesday! Elder Heiner left to Northern Kentucky to be a zone leader, so that is cool! My new companion is Elder Taylor, he is from Layton, Utah. He is really fun and not afraid to talk to anybody.

Well it's been another slower week. We are starting our teaching pool over again. Trial by fire, all of our old investigators have dropped us. Which would seem bad, but I see it as a chance to increase my faith and move the work more up north where we live. I will not get discouraged or give up, I think this actually might be a blessing in disguise. I'm pretty excited about this upcoming Transfer.

General conference was this weekend! It was so good I learned so so much. I went in with some questions and came out with many many answers. That was amazing. It was so amazing to see three new apostles called. That hasn't happened since 1906 or something. If you missed it or didn't get a chance to watch it, it's on Lds.org. Saturday's conference was a blessing because we were inside most of the day. The high on Saturday was 53 but it stayed around 46 degrees. And it misted all day long, misted, like what? that's a thing? I was so cold. I'm so not ready for this winter haha and to think I will be biking in it. Yikes. 

That has been my week pretty much, hope everyone was good this week. Love you all!!

Elder Verdoni

Letter to Mom
Wow 100 days! that is crazy. (He's been out now over 100 days) This week has been the longest week of my mission. not the worst, just the longest and probably hardest. I have a lot of responsibility at such a very young age in the mission. I lack experience in almost every area of missionary work yet the Lord has entrusted me with a new missionary and to be a district leader of two areas of sisters. And we are building our teaching pool from the ground. I have felt inadequate and unqualified. But I know in whom I have trusted. I have trusted in my God and savior and will trust in them forever. I know that the Lord does not call the qualified but qualifies those who are called. In the paraphrased words of Dale G Renlund, The Lord does not call you because of what you have done, He calls you because of what He needs to do through you. General conference was awesome. I received so much revelation about all that is going on. I know that I can't do it on my own. But if I trust in God and the atoning sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ I can do all things. 

 My new companion Elder Taylor

 Cold selfie

Last selfie with my dad (Trainer)