What a great privilege to talk to you guys on Sunday. I was bummed Anthony and Jennifer weren´t there, but 40 minutes flew by. This last week continued to bring big blessings as a result of serving a mission. The zone conference was incredible and if every young man was invited to attend a zone conference for missionaries, I think that would be a great thing. The Spirit and teaching which occur there undoubtedly would inspire a young Priesthood holder to serve the Lord in this capacity. One of the things that I took away in higher perspective was the fact that the person who needs to benefit the most from the mission is my personal self. One of the Assistants gave a training on a Checklist by President McKay. He wrote 25 points to review with frequency on a mission to see what areas should be improved. This Elder also related an experience of a missionary who chose to go home during his mission, posing the doubt that he would be happier ``in the world´´ than striving to keep the commandments of God. The comment was made that we really can see those people who are aligning themselves for eternal life and those who are not. Those who are choosing the will of God and humility to find out what that will is, show the change that occurs in them through the way they live. I haven´t developed this thought more, but it is very true. As children of God, we were all given that light of Christ to help us discern between good and bad, and the more we choose the good and excercise faith, the more we will desire to follow the example of our Redeemer.
One of my favorite experiences this week happened just yesterday, while teaching about the Restoration to a couple. The highlight of the lesson, generally, is the Spirit which testifies to the people during the account of Joseph Smith´s vision. As I told the story of what happened in that sacred grove, it almost appeared as though time stopped in the room and all the sounds of the refrigerator, dogs barking, etc. went on silent. This of course is no coincidence. The Holy Ghost is a testifier of truth, and has the power to drown out the physical world in order to allow us the ability of learning about spiritual things. One of the things that we are encouraged to do as missionaries is to teach the message of the Restoration of the Gospel to the members of our ward. If any of you haven´t heard the message from the missionaries, ask them to pay you a visit and teach this message. They will be appreciative for the opportunity to bear testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel.
I took a couple pictures of the sky which has had some very pretty and unique colors and clouds lately. I don´t know if the pictures do justice for how great the scene was.
With love and charity
Elder Graziano
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