June 27, 2016

Fasting is a blessing

We had one of the greatest miracles yesterday. We Fasted as a mission for The Elect to come forth and for those that care on date will be baptized. Well last night we went to go drop one of our investigators. Meaning stop teaching him because he wasn't keeping his commitments, anyway long story short, his heart was changed. He was literally a different man. He kept telling us how much happier he is and how much more joy he had. He was pointing out all the blessings he has been receiving. He is now on date for baptism. 

This Gospel is true. Heavenly Father truly can change the hearts of those willing to let him. I love you!

Elder Verdoni

Letter to Mom

This week was awesome. We went to the Temple on Tuesday. We went to the Columbus temple. I really really love the temple. I received some clear revelation that brought me great peace. President and Sister Porter were waiting in the Celestial room and both hugged me. It was really special. I love how the Temple can purify you. Burns out all the impurities. That was a great day. 

Friday I had to put on a zone conference for a bunch of mini missionaries. It was us, our Stls (Sister Training Leader,) and another zone leadership. It was a lot of fun. It was like an actual zone conference. I had a ton of fun putting it on. Ii was very spiritual. 

The Porters leave today. So sad. But I'm really excited for the Welchs (New Mission President.) I am learning a lot of more of the weight of my calling and the responsibility that I have, and the capability that I have to do it. 

June 20, 2016

This week has been great! My new companion is Elder Mckay. He is from Louisiana. He's been out for 18 months now. We had a great week in our own area. We found some great investigators. And finally got a certain one to come to church. He loved it and felt the spirit. 

Saturday was a really good day. We did service in the morning where we dug out posts and tree stumps. Then later we were to give some priesthood blessings. But we really wanted to prepare for them. We just recently listened to Priesthood Power by Elder Groeberg. It really opened my eyes to the sacredness and power of priesthood blessings. We brought our suits to the church and spent a good amount of time cleaning off the dirt off ourselves and putting on clean clothes. I love the quote from the talk, "I will not, I cannot approach God with dirty hands, and muddy clothes." It reminded me of the scripture Psalms 24:3-4. Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Any way the blessings were like the most powerful I have ever been apart of. It was awesome. The spirit was with us all day long and I felt great. 

love you!
Elder Verdoni

June 13, 2016

Standing for what is right is rarely easy

Transfers came again! Elder Love is leaving and my new companion is coming tomorrow! 

We had a good week. It was honestly like super fast. We went on three exchanges. not much really happened. umm ya, I had three different companions for three different days, that was fun. 

But I did learn a valuable lesson this week. Standing for what is right is rarely easy. Sometimes you will feel alone isolated and confused. But one thing I know that when you are doing right, the world might hate you, but you will stand shoulder to shoulder with Christ. I love you!

Elder Verdoni

June 6, 2016

Hey everyone sorry I didn't email last week! It was a crazy week. My pday had to be moved to Wednesday and that it self was super busy. But I am good and alive. I have learned a big lesson recently. It is simply to focus on whats right and build on the good. There is no point on focusing on the negatives. We all make mistakes and we all have problems. But how we fix that is not by beating our self or others up. We have to do something harder. Find something that is good, and making that bigger.

Light casts out darkness.build the light. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 

Romans13:12

Elder Verdoni

June 1 , 2016

Letter to Mom -Memorial Day the Zone had an activity so P-day is today. 

The finding activity on Monday was fun. We got the whole Zone together and we found 22 new investigators. It was tons of fun. Yesterday we had our leadership council. It was President Porter's last I'm pretty sure. The main message that I got was pretty much That the spirit is everything. It is the gateway for the atonement to work in us and change our natures. It was awesome.

This last week we did a lot of service. like tons. But guess what? I sang in Sacrament meeting! We had 3 nonmember friends of a youth come and sing with us and another member. We sang the Efy medley. It combines As Sisters In Zion with We'll Bring The World His Truth. It was actually sounded really good! I was nervous at first because our ward is massive but I was pretty confident after a while. President and Sister Porter happened to be there so that was great haha.

You know its really hard to convey through email, and I'm sure Michael (older brother on a mission in Liberia) can agree, how much I have changed or what I experience. Or what I go through. It's actually just difficult to convey it anyway. But I will try my best. In the past 11 months, I've been through a lot and experienced a lot too. I've changed so much. I know who I am. I know my potential. I know how to live the doctrine of Christ and how to teach it. I honestly had no idea what it was before my mission. I'm not afraid to do hard things. But to tell you how I know these is impossible. But I love you mom!!! I never want to leave. I'm so pumped for these next 13 months haha

Sister Bukhari and Sister Gessel

.Elder Hulet, my first ZL - He goes home in two weeks :(

Elder Bluth

Leadership meeting

Zone Workshop

Brandon in the background!