LIBRO DI MORMON

As a family we are reading the Book of Mormon. It has not been as easy as I thought it would be. A few times we have lost sight of our goal and gone a day, or a week without reading. But somehow we find our way back We try to read a chapter a night. However, there are nights when we are tired and it is late and we end up reading only a few versus. Our goal is to finish before Robert comes home from his mission. We have less than 6 months. I know we can do it. We are past the half way mark and we are getting to "the good part". (The whole book is good, so let's say we are getting to my favorite part!).

The last time that I read the BofM from cover to cover for my personal study/reading was a few years ago. I actually finished it about the time that Robert arrived in Italy for his mission...so that was May 2010. As of late I have been feeling the desire to read it again...so towards the end of August I set a goal for myself that I would read it one more time before Robert got home. But then I saw on Facebook a BofM reading chart that if I followed it I would be able to read the whole book from cover to cover starting on Sept 1st and finishing on Dec 31 of this year. I thought it was a great idea and committed myself to do it.

A few days later we were at Deseret Book and the LDS Distribution center (we are lucky to have one about 5 minutes from our home). While there I found a triple combination of the BofM in Italian! I was thrilled. I know that I have mine from my mission "somewhere" in our attic but still need to do some more organizing and haven't found it yet. So I bought the triple...thrilled to be able to read again in Italian. My goal than becoming something even more exciting and appealing to me. I decided that I would read the Bof M in Italian, following the same reading chart. I thought to myself...what better way to finish off Robert's mission than my going back to my roots as a missionary in Italy.

Let me explain....my mission president, Vincenzo Conforte, suggested to me that if I really wanted to learn Italian and to feel comfortable talking about and teaching the gospel to other people then the best thing would be for me to read the BofM in Italian. So I started on my journey with my English and Italian scriptures next to each other on the kitchen table reading out loud first in Italian, then in English. I still remember sitting at the table in the apartment in Taranto reading, thinking to myself that I was crazy and would never make it through to end. I didn't understand one thing that I was reading, or very little of it. I wrote to Presidente Conforte asking him what I should do. I was really struggling with the language, and felt like the task was overwhelming. He suggested to me to put away the English version of my scriptures and to just read in Italian. So I did what he asked, and continued reading. I did have a dictionary handy, but a lot of the words weren't in it, and soon the dictionary was put away too. I figured that as a missionary I would be teaching by the spirit, so I might as well read by the spirit...and it worked. I began to understand what I was reading. And the more I read the stronger the spirit. I gained a better understanding of the BofM because of the words used. I felt the spirit more because I relied on the spirit more. My testimony grew and by the time I finished the book, after 5 1/2 months I knew even more than before of the truthfulness of the gospel of  Jesus Christ. I put into practice what we would ask the people that we taught. I got on my knees and prayed to know, again, that the church was true and that I was on my mission for the right reasons. I will never forget the feelings I felt as I knelt and said that prayer. I was in another country speaking, reading, and praying in another language, yet...the spirit and the answer was still the same. I realized then, as I have many times since then, that the BofM is true and the gospel is true and the church is the same no matter where you go. We all are brothers and sister, and children of our Father in Heaven.

So here I am now, 23 years later...doing it again. I am reading the BofM in Italian. I understand a lot more now that I did then. I am loving every minute of my reading. But the spirit is the same, because the gospel is the same.

I feel so blessed to have served a mission, and in Italy..that was an added bonus. I had the opportunity to learn a new language...something that at the time seemed so overwhelming to me. I felt so inadequate of the calling that was before me. I remember thinking, "I will never get this language, it is so hard, and I'm not smart enough"....but you know what? I got it! And I love it! I feel more Italian than American sometimes! And that is okay!! It is my second home!  I am actually jealous because Giovanni an the boys are Italian, and I'm not...but I will claim it anyway.

I am so glad that I went to the distribution center that August afternoon. I feel like I have found a long lost friend. It also makes me feel closer to Robert and what he is experiencing in Italy. I remember those days of walking along the bumpy cobblestone streets, looking at the ruins around me, the buildings and the people and thinking how blessed I was to be in such an amazing place. I have relived part of my mission because of him. It has been an amazing 19 months for me. The experiences that he has shared are ones that I remember having. I thank the Lord every day that Robert is serving a mission, and I thank Him as well because I am able to remember mine a bit clearer.

I love il Libro di Mormon!