Il Miracolo dell'Amore (The Miracle of Love)

 11/10/2024

Well, here we go! This "avventura" to serve a mission to Milan, Italy is about to begin! We checked into the Missonary Training Center yesterday and got upacked. We'll be here for about 10 days before leaving for Italy for 18 months. Wow. This is really happening!

 My brother Jeff was getting released today from his calling as a Bishop of his ward for the past 5 years, and so we decided to go to church with his family to hear him and his wife speak about their experience. Before they spoke, we partook of the Sacrament, and as we did, I had a profound experience. 


I have always been a visual person; I can see things in my mind very easily as I think about people, places, experiences, etc. As I was thinking about the Savior during this reflective time (the highlight of our church experience each week), my mind was taken to a church building, much like this one, but only in Milan, Italy. I saw members of the church there, just like the ones I was sitting next to here in Orem, Utah. I saw their faces, their families, and then something beautiful happened. I saw myself amongst them; sitting with them, worshipping with them, serving with them, trying to speak to them in my non-existent Italian. And I felt their love and acceptance of me, a stranger in their country. I saw hands extended to me, I felt their embrace, and in that moment, an overwhelming feeling of love for them washed over me. COSA?! (What?!)

How is this possible? How could I be overcome with love for a people I hadn't even met yet? For complete strangers? The customs, the language, and life would be completely different from mine, and yet I felt a love for them and from them that was palpable. And I was made to understand for a brief moment what the pure love of Jesus Christ can do for us...and to us.  It transcends race, religion, politics, culture or tongue. It reminds us that, despite our differences, we are all connected; we are brothers and sisters of a Heavenly Family. What a miracle. 

John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 





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