Modena Modena Modena! -- First Letter from the Field

Ciao!

 

So here I am in Modena, Italia. Yes, that Modena that is the birthplace to Ferrari and Lamborghini. We should be hitting up the museum for them one of these P-Days. Anyhoo, let's see if I can remember anything about getting here.

 

Flights were good, I still hate flying. We arrived in Milan about 5 pm and walked out of the terminal where the President and his assistants were waiting. So we got all our bags and everything and drove to the mission home in Opera, which is a southern suburb of Milan. We had some orientation stuff and did interviews with President Wolfgramm, and then did some tracting. I was quite nervous. It was Anziani Webb, Murray, Gray(one of the assistants) and I. We went and knocked doors in a couple Palazzi, it was awesome hearing real Italian! Even though I couldn't understand like anything. We had a fun experience where Anziano Gray left us to try it alone while he hid behind a corner, so we were talking to the guy and he said something really fast that none of us understood, so then Anziano Murray was like "....so can we come back another time and talk more?" Then he was like "oh, maybe." Turns out that what we didn't understand was that he said "I'm not interested and I'd prefer if you guys didn't come back." Fun stuff! We actually did get two return appointments though, one lady knew who we were and tried to invite us in like 5 times but we couldn't. After about 45 mins of that, we went back to the mission home and went out to a local restaurant for pizza. Italian food is soooooooooooooooooooooooo goooooooooood. I don't even remember what type of pizza I got or what exactly was on it, but it was delicious.

 

That night we actually got to sleep in a hotel in Opera, and then the next morning we went to the ward building in Milan for the Milan 2nd ward, where we found out our cities! I got Modena, in case you didn't know. Anziano Scheurn went up to Lecco, Anziano Portellano went to Torino, Anziano Wilkey to Prato, Anziano Russo to Pesaro, Anziano Warren to Udine, Anziano Murray to Ancona, and Anziano Cluff to Siena. Good stuff, some of the Anziani from the other district went to Trieste, Savona, Vicenza, Pisa, Alessandria, and I don't remember where else.

 

So then Anziano Kimball and I got on the train to Modena, it was about a 2 hour ride. The first night here was sweet. We got to the apartment, which is ridiculously large. It's just the two of us, but we have two bathrooms, a bedroom, a clothes room, a study room with two big desks, a living room, and a kitchen. I will try to send pictures. Also our landlord guy is amazing, his name is Silvio and when he talks to anyone he says "hai capito?" and the end of almost every sentence. We have a view of a couple soccer fields right outside our windows. So anyway, we put my stuff in the apartment and then headed out on our bikes. Modena is fun to bike around in because it's completely flat. First we went and visited a former investigator named Lorrena who we serve by helping her dad Angelo get up and walk around, he's pretty old so he needs some help with that. Then we went and taught a lesson to a guy we're teaching named Castro from Ghana. He's a stud! We taught him the Restoration lesson and I gave him the baptismal commitment and he accepted! He should be baptized on March 19th, and he's really interested in our lessons and stuff. Last night we taught him the Plan of Salvation part 1 and the Word of Wisdom and he seemed pretty on board. Our teaching pool is great right now. We have 7 investigators with Baptismal dates, although I still haven't even met all of them. We're teaching a guy named Daylight Sakey (goes by Sakey) who Anziano Kimball says is super ready and willing to be baptized, but his work schedule is ridiculous, so we don't get to see him that much. I still haven't met him. We're also teaching an awesome guy named Sampson Omogun from Nigeria, who's making a lot of progress and it feels like he teaches us when we have lessons with him. He's so ready! But don't worry, we are also teaching some Italians. Currently we're teaching a guy named Fausto who is cool and seems interested, but he's not progressing quite as fast as some others. We're also teaching a guy named Giuseppe who is a 20s age guy who's studying law, he seems really cool, we're just trying to get him to read and pray before we start teaching him more often.

 

So anyway, teaching is going good. We usually only do finding work if appointments fall through, because our days are literally filled with teaching people! It's crazy. We have to take like half an hour at least every day to call people to confirm and set up appointments. Doing casa (knocking doors) is fun. One of my favorite things is when people say they aren't interested we still ask them if they know anyone who would be. Everyone always says "Ah, no, non conosco nessuno" (I don't know anybody). We kind of laugh and say "ah I'm sorry, buona giornata!" Also the bike I've been using for the past week was pretty trashy, for example the brakes were essentially non-existent. So I had to buy a new bike today, which is solid and should last a long time. I also got a good shoulder bag to use for going around.

 

Let's see, other news not much is going on. My first gelato was excellent, you can get three scoops in a cone for 2 euro! I got Nutella, Kit Kat, and Ferraro Rocher. So good. But that and the pizza the first night are about the only times I've eaten outside our apartment since getting here. Every morning I usually have toast with Nutella, water, and some clementines. Lunch we make pasta very often, and then we don't actually eat dinner. Today for P-Day we still need to do shopping, and then a reactivating member named Luca is taking us on a 30 minute tour of the Duomo here. Should be sweet! We taught him a lesson last night about the Melchizedek Priesthood, he's working towards getting that.

 

So this week I really liked praying. The second night before I went to sleep I was feeling pretty homesick, but I had a good long prayer and then many the next day to help. I love being here and I love working to bring people closer to Christ. My favorite way to cure homesickness is to teach a lesson, it reminds me why I'm here and how awesome the Gospel is! Anyway, that's all the news for this week, until next time!

 

Ciao!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith