Another Week at the MTC!

Cara Famiglia,

Well another week has flown by here at the MTC. It's gotten to the point that everything basically seems the same. It's all just one big blur. And that's not necessarily a bad thing either! Italian is progressing great, we did a ceremony on Thursday where we committed to speak 100% Italian from now until we leave the MTC(Almost a month!) except for branch meetings and district meetings because our Branch President doesn't speak Italian. It's going pretty well, Italian is sweet! Also yesterday we taught the Restoration lesson at the TRC fully in Italian again. It was different because we did intra-district exchanges, so I taught with Elder Murray. We taught these two people that both served in the Milan mission, the girl was from Sicilia and they both talked soooooooo fast, but I felt like I could understand basically everything. The funny part was when I was talking about Jesus and I said 'Gesù Cristo ha soffrito per i nostri peccati' which instead of meaning 'Jesus Christ suffered for our sins' means 'Jesus Christ fried (like fried chicken) for our sins.' So the actual word I should've used was 'sofferto.' The people afterwards told me they almost burst out laughing, but it's better I do it here than in Italy.

Everything else is going well, the district is great. We get to go to the Temple today so that should be good. We are counting down the days until the new Italians get here, there's 24 new coming in a week from tomorrow! And we found out that the next batch that comes in six weeks after that will have 38 Italians! So there will be 62 Italians in the MTC in like 7-8 weeks. Ridiculous! Speaking of Italian, I found out that the best hymn ever is only in the Italian Hymnbook, called 'Mandate Voci di Gioa all'eterno', which roughly translates as 'Send Voices of Joy to all Eternity.' You should all try and find it and listen to it. Also, this week my companion and I and another Elder in our Zone are going to audition a special musical number of 'Come Thou Fount' to see if we can play it at one of the devotionals or firesides. We are also working on the a cappella song 'I Love the Lord' to audition as a Zone. That song is awesome too, it's basically 2 Ne. 4 put to the music of Be Still, My Soul, a winning combination [embedded below]. The Priesthood choir of something sang it a couple years ago in one of the sessions of conferences I think, so you should try and find it on youtube and give it a listen, it's way good. Also, props to the Evans sisters this week, both of them wrote me letters! It was good to hear from them; give everyone in McLean my best.

So this week I was really impressed with Alma 26. It's probably the best missionary chapter ever. Verse 12 is my favorite that says "Yea, I know that I am nothing, as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." It made me think about how the stereotypical thing to think about Italy is that you won't baptize anybody, but if we have faith we can bring to pass miracles anywhere. I'm grateful that a Temple is being built there because I know the Lord is preparing the people to hear the gospel. I've gained a great testimony of the power of the Spirit in conversion and how necessary it is. I know the Book of Mormon is true and I'm grateful for all the blessings the gospel has provided for my life.

-Anziano Benjamin Smith