Hello!!!

Wow, what a tiring week. hahaha. I meant to say, what a fantastic week. We went to a (more-or-less) Zone Conference in Catania yesterday. It was awesome. What I learned was this:

1. Love the Gospel and Love the Members
2. Express your love

So, I definitely have the first one down, so now I just need to show them my love more, bear my testimony more, and help them feel the love. I think that's the same thing that we need to do with just everyone: Help them feel God's love. I feel it. Do you? If not it's probably because you're not looking for it.

Other than that, this week we postponed Cristian's baptism, but we also set another baptismal date! Things are really picking up here in Gela. I think it's good because our city is generally viewed as a city that doesn't really do a lot, but I think that it's going to start doing tons, and everyone's view of Gela is going to change. I hope that Gela can become like Cosenza. The thing that I loved about Cosenza is that even we had just a little branch, we had the blessing of great members that loved to help us. We have good members here, we could just use a few more of them. haha.

Did I tell you that I'm starting to eat really healthy now? I was already trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, but now I've stepped it up: I eat whole grain pasta! haha. I found out that white bread, white pasta, and white rice is all at the top of the food pyramid along with sugars, fats, and all the things that you should eat sparingly. Basically, if you want to be healthy you should also be eating whole grain. I actually really like it for certain pastas, although for others it still tastes better to use normal pasta.

About every transfer we get something called the Italy-Rome Forum. It's a couple pages about where people are serving, who's finishing the mission, who's coming in, and it has a message from President and Sister Kelly, and also from the Assistants. Well, the last one had Sorella Miller (from my MTC district) on the back as one of the people who was finishing the mission. I guess I didn't really think too much about it, until this time when I was looking where everyone was at (and I always look where the people from my MTC district are) and she wasn't on there! Wow. That was so weird. I'm now at the point that I've been on my mission longer than any Sister missionary. haha. weird. I miss Sorella Miller. Now our MTC district is incomplete.

At this conference the only one there was Anziano Garvin, and he flew in from Malta to do some things for his green card (type thing). He's been out on Malta for 5 months!! haha. Crazy.

This week I want to recommend that you all read Matthew.  I also highly recommend Jesus the Christ by Talmage. Incredible book.
Jesus Christ lived a perfect life. He suffered for all the sins of the world (every one of our sins). He also overcame death through the resurrection. He organized His church. He called Twelve apostles. He performed many miracles. He is my personal savior, and He died for me. That actually makes me feel sad, but He did it so that I could repent of all my mistakes and be purified through His blood. I bear witness that I have felt the cleansing effect of the atonement when I have repented of my sins. It's incredible! I can think of one experience in particular where I would describe the feeling as a white light inside of me that is warm and comforting. I know that anyone can repent if they choose to.
God loves us so much that He gave us His son, Jesus Christ. I hope that we can all learn from His life.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

What a great blessing.

At the Conference in Catania President Kelly spoke a lot about our thoughts, and I really like an example he gave. He said that a bad thought is like this: You're looking outside of you kitchen window, and you see a nasty stray cat. You can sort of look away from it, and wait until it walks away. On the other hand, you can give it some milk, open you door and let it into your house.

Basically, if we have bad thoughts, we should ignore them and draw our attention to something else. The next thing is to fill our mind with good, productive, uplifting things.

Anyway, I hope that you were able to learn something too from the conference and everything.

Have a great week!
Love,
Anziano Banks