WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG - April 7th, 2010

First things first, then I'll explain the title:

TO DO
- find out when the missionaries PDay is and invite them to come with you all to activities or sites in DC.
- make arrangements necessary to have the family in Napoli for March 26, 2011 (I think i should be done with the mish then?) for Marco and Valentina's wedding ceremony (they have only had the technical state wedding but haven't celebrated it yet or had a ceremony that the church recognizes so that they can go through the temple). They are the new convert couple that we do stuff with all the time...I think I sent a picture of them from Christmas Eve.

GOOD LAUGHS FROM THE WEEK
- when the angry old woman who called us because we had given our phone number to her married husband. It was poor Sister Casalingo who answered the phone and as patiently as possible explained who we were and our intent. The funniest part of the whole situation was that afterward Sister Casa couldn't stop giggling for about 20 minutes and just kept shaking her head and repeating, "I can't believe it, I can't believe that woman thought we were trying to hit on her husband, I just cant believe it."

-best April fools joke anyone has every played on me: we were on the metro on our way to do casa at a specific stop we had previously planned. when we got to that stop the metro stopped for abot a minute, everyone lined up at the doors, then the train just moved on without ever opening the doors. Everyone was getting really upset, a few started to run up to the front of the train to yell at the driver, then one of the passengers standing near us started cracking up and said, "It's April Fools Day!!!"....which in Italian is called "the fish of April." I'm sure that's not why the doors didn't open but it sure helped to lighten every one's mood.

The not so funny part of the story... When we got to the next stop, Sorella Casalingo and I were about to hop on the train going back in the opposite direction so we could go to the stop we had chosen, but then I remembered what one of you had told me last week about the missionaries in Oakton Stake always assuming that if they got lost it was for a purpose. I told Sister Casa about that and so we did casa nearby the stop we had been taken to instead...it was hailing and raining and no one let us in. Maybe someone just needed to see us??? who knows.

FAVORITE PEOPLE OF THE WEEK:
- The Italian flower man (still don't know his name) that owns the fancy flower shop down the street and that I have been inviting to church every week for the past 3 months. This week I tried bribing him with chocolate to come to church. Unfortunately he said he'd just trade me some free flowers for the chocolate instead.
- The old construction worker Italian man that randomly burst out into song as my companion and i walked by with our flowers. It was some song about roses. we invited him to church. he didn't come :(

FAVORITE MOMENT DURING CONFERENCE:
- Tito came to both sessions on Sunday which was awesome! During the Japanese mans talk when he mentioned that the missionaries had told him that he needed to take up the challenge at the end of the book of Mormon and really read daily and pray to know the truth Tito leaned over to me and said as if he had just had some big epiphany "hey, that's what you guys keep telling me!" Afterward the conference he said something to me about how now he understood why i was always so persistent in asking him if he had read in the BOM whenever we called and he really appreciates that we do so.

Alright...so back to the title. Why can't we just all get along instead of it being necessary for us to all accept one religion. This is something that a lot of people have been asking us recently and as someone who likes to study other religions, cultures, etc. it is often difficult for me to answer. There are so many Italians turned atheist, Buddhist, or just have their own theories because they just want peace. And indeed, they do seem more peaceful in a lot of ways than those who are hard core into whatever other religion. On Easter, before we ran off to Conference, my comp and I went to a Multi-religious Easter potluck lunch. We were invited by the Arabic professor that is friends with the BYU Arabic professor who is now the mission president down South. It was mostly a bunch of super open minded Syrian and Moroccan Muslims, a few Jews, a Catholic priest, and a few random other people that were doing there own thing religiously. It was nice to be in an atmosphere where people weren't yelling scripture verses at us to prove to us what "the real name of God is" or "what time of the day Jesus was really crucified."

So I have really been trying to strengthen my testimony of Jesus Christ this week so that I can respond with more ease. I learned a lot about the importance of the atonement. Every time anyone sins they are lead to unhappiness and feelings of guilt and shame. If people aren't feeling good about themselves then there is no way we can all get along as well as we should! It is only through Christ that we can have those feelings taken away. From what I understand, Buddhists believe that overcoming cravings stop us from suffering. It is also through Christ that we can easiest overcome carnal cravings.

Also, it is ONLY through the priesthood authority restored on the earth today that we can feel the joy of having the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The Fift of the Holy Ghost is literally a foretaste of eternal life and a record of heaven. When we get a glimpse of what heaven tastes like we can more fully achieve the goal of just having peace.

Plus, see Mosiah 24:5-7. This population loved each other, were well behaved, etc but they were not taught in the ways of Christ/God. Therefore, when it came to interacting with other populations they were not fair, and they were selfish, mean (sorry, I don't have the scriptures in front of me right now so I don't remember the exact words). Without the grander perspective and deeper understanding that we are all Children of God that need to use Christ's atonement through the teachings of the restored gospel we may be good to those that are similar to us or close to us but won't have the drive to be good to EVERYONE.

Ughh, internet time is never long enough to really describe my thoughts clearly.

Love you all.
Hope you all share the gospel with your friends so that we really can have more peace.

Love,
SLC