Anziano Hutchinson!!!!

Benjamin's email this week:

Ciao!

 

So Anziano Hutchinson is my new companion! He is a stud, he was in the group above me in the MTC and is super cool. He's from Bountiful, Utah, and got 5th in states in HS Wrestling in the 119 weight, after being ranked 2nd (look out Elder Dickson!) But yeah he is a really cool guy and I am looking forward to working with him this transfer. He came from Prato, a city right next to Firenze, and says Modena is a prettier city. Today in Modena for P-Day we also have the Anziani from Siena who stopped by on the way home from a permesso appointment in Mantova, and the Anziani from Mantova also came to spend P-Day here. It's fun stuff, especially since Anziano Portellano from my MTC district is here, he is the man.

 

Our investigators are going good, we have some solid ones that I'm feeling really good about that are progressing well. Michael should be baptized on June 11 if all goes well and he gets to church a couple more times. We are working well with him and he is a really good guy. Also Paolo is great, even though we couldn't see him this week he assured us he would read the assignment we left him. We are hoping to teach him a good lesson about eternal families this week to really help him see the potential of blessings that are awaiting him. Also I don't know if I mentioned this last week but we are teaching this lady named Gabriella who is Italian and believes basically everything! She has all this Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic art and stuff literally covering her walls at her house. We're trying to get her focused on figuring out the gospel as the one way we can return to live with Heavenly Father.

 

Also, I don't if I mentioned before but they re-aligned our district this transfer to include Reggio and Piacenza, so now there are 10 people in our district! It is huge. And yesterday at the District Meetings the Zone Leaders came too, so it was packed. We are also holding some cool mission Zone Meetings here next week for the Firenze and Bologna zones, so that should be good.

 

Spiritual thought for the week is appreciation for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This morning in companionship study Anziano Hutchinson and I listened to this awesome talk Jeffrey R. Holland gave to mission presidents a couple years ago where he basically says "We obviously preach the Atonement as the single most important event in human history, but we shouldn't shy away or try to teach around the Restoration for fear of offending people! The Restoration is what gives us and all of God's children the access to the Atonement that is necessary to return to live with Him!" I'm not as good at saying it as Elder Holland unfortunately, but it was a really good talk. I was also really struck again by the section in Doctrine and Covenants that talks about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. I am constantly impressed by what he did to help bring this gospel to light and that he had enough faith to go and pray in a grove of trees almost 200 years ago. I know that Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God who saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, who was called as a prophet to help bring all of God's children to salvation. I know the Book of Mormon is true and testifies of Jesus Christ. I know that this work is the work of the Lord!

 

Lots of love! (especially for Mom!)

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Still in Modena?????

Cara Famiglia,

 

The answer is yes! I am staying in Modena. Anziano Kimball, however, is not so lucky, as he is being transferred to GENOVA!! He is going to be training again aaaand opening a new companionship! Pretty intense! He is super excited though, his brother served in Genova in the Milan mission about 10 years ago. My new companion will be Anziano Hutchinson, who is one transfer above me, I knew him in the MTC and he's a really good guy, so I'm looking forward to serving with him.

 

This week was pretty exciting. The first thing I would bring your attention to would be last Thursday. Guess how many lessons we had planned? Answer: 9. Guess how many fell through? Answer: 9. Buuuuuut, it was still an awesome day because we taught three new lessons and picked up three new investigators, two of which are now progressing! And one accepted a baptismal commitment! And they were all even Italians! So even though that day was kind of rough it ended up being dang good. Also, for the second time in my mission so far, a family invited us over for dinner after knowing us for only about 10 minutes. It was great, but unfortunately they weren't really interested in the gospel. But we did get a nice Italian dinner. Our other investigators are doing well. Paolo is an awesome guy who is the companion of a sister in our ward, i.e. they are not married but live together with a kid. He's known the church basically his whole time being together with this lady but only just recently said he'd be interested in learning about the gospel. I don't know if I've mentioned him in previous emails since we've only taught him two or three times, but he is a stud, really sincerely wanting to find God in his life. At our appointment on Sunday after church, he showed us that he had taken a bunch of notes on the Alma 32 reading assignment we left him! It was awesome! I loooove when investigators keep commitments. Our other investigators are doing great too, progressing along pretty nicely. Pray for them!

 

This week in studying for Paolo's lessons we were reading about faith and I was really impressed with the Hebrews 11 and Ether 12 team-up. They both just give a run down of amazing miracles all throughout scriptual history wrought by FAITH! It was literally awesome, to see how much Faith is a principle of power. It is also good to know how to increase your faith based on Alma 32. I still always remember the quote I think from Sister Hekking who wasn't even my seminary teacher, but who says 'great faith has a short shelf life.' I know that as we read and hear the word of God, and pray, our faith will increase! I've seen it go up a lot since I've been out here, and every day and night I pray that I can have enough faith to work miracles here in Italy. And it works! I challenge everyone reading this to improve their faith every day, it makes life much better.

 

I love being out here in Modena! I love Italy! I love being able to wake up and go out to spend 100% of my time serving the Lord, without having to worry about school or anything! I know Heavenly Father answers prayers, even if it's not always the way we expect! I love you all!

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

The Saga of the Fridge Lives on!

Cara Famiglia,

 

Sorry I keep mentioning the fridge in the subject line. Let it be known that even with being fridge-less for 3 weeks now we are still working super hard. But yeah, they said it should be ready today, so we are really hoping and praying it is so we can get some real groceries again.

 

The work is going good in Modena! We are continuing to work with Michael towards baptism, although he is a little flaky on appointments recently. We will probably have to push his baptismal date back to early June. But one cool thing is that we recently picked up an awesome investigator named Bouba! He is a Muslim guy from Guinea who doesn't speak Italian very well (apparently they speak French there), but after reading the Book of Mormon and praying he believes in Jesus Christ being the Son of God and wants to be baptized! The only problem is he doesn't want to do it anytime soon because if he does his brother will kick him out of the house and he doesn't have anywhere else to go. Pray for him! He is super solid. Fortunately one of the recent RMs speaks French though, so we will be taking him to most of our lessons with Bouba.

 

Other than our major investigators we are doing a lot of finding work. Also, this is my week to be Senior Companion for this transfer! It is kind of nerve wracking since I am still by all standards very young in the mission making calls and setting up appointments and stuff, but I am learning a lot. Anziano Kimball is a great example of a missionary too, so I don't have to pull things out of the air as to what the Senior Comp. should be doing.

 

Recently in district meeting we had an awesome discussion about the 'Bear Testimony Frequently' section in Preach my Gospel (Pg. 198 in English). It has some really great stuff about why testimonies are so powerful and how to use it. They taught us a lot in the MTC about how our testimony is the most powerful thing we use to teach, and I have definitely found that to be true. I would encourage everyone to read it and think about how you can strengthen your testimony by bearing it frequently! It really works. I'm grateful for the testimony I have that the Book of Mormon is true, God is our loving Heavenly Father, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It feels good to bear your testimony all day, every day, no matter what the results are. I know that this work is true and is led by God. I really liked the simple remark from Marcel's letter where he talks about how everybody, no matter what their circumstances, needs Christ. It's so simple but true! We run into people all the time who say 'Oh my life is good right now, don't worry about it.' And I just think 'ahhh but there is so much more!!' I'm truly grateful for this wonderful opportunity to be a servant in the Lord's vineyard, and to help bring about the Lord's work daily.

 

I love you all!

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Food poisoning! And another broken fridge!

Cara Famiglia,

This week was pretty interesting. It started off good last week, when we got our new fridge! But it only worked for an evening, so...still waiting on the repairs for it. Hopefully it arrives either tonight or tomorrow morning. Modena is still great though, the weather is awesome and we are picking up the pace with finding work since a lot of our potential investigators aren't panning out. We have a couple awesome ones though, including a surprise one who now wants to be baptized, named Eric! He's tight. Also we have Michael who should be baptized on the 28th. Pray for them both!

To explain the first part of the subject, let it be known that over the weekend about 150 of the Young Single Adults (GANS) in Italian came to Modena for an activity. They had a dance Saturday night and then a Sacrament meeting Sunday morning, so the regular ward meeting was pushed back to 4:30 in the pm. After church on Sunday, some of the ward members pushed some food off on us, including a rice meal. Naturally, as polite missionaries, we gladly took it home. Fast forward to Monday lunch time, and we're like, "Hey, let's eat this leftover rice from the GANS activity for lunch! Good plan, Anziano!" So we each heat up a bowl. Anziano Kimball wolfed his portion down, but I only took a bite cause I wasn't feelin it. I ended up just eating chips and some other random stuff in the kitchen for lunch. An hour later the party began! Anziano Kimball succumbed to food poisoning, and so we ended up staying in the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday. It was rough on him, although he didn't seem as bad as when I had food poisoning in High School. He's feelin about 90% now though, and it's P-Day so we should be ready to get back on track tonight and finish out the week strong.

This week since we were inside for a couple days I got to read and study the scriptures a lot, which was pretty enjoyable actually. It kind of felt like being in the MTC again, where you just have a ton of time to study. I was really impressed by another verse about the Stripling Warriors, in Alma 53:20:

And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.

I love reading about the stripling warriors because they are examples of absolute obedience, unrestrictive of time or place. The example they set for us is ridiculous! But the blessings the received are so true. I know that obedience is the key to success here on the mission, and I'm grateful for a trainer and companion who helps with that. I know that this work is true, and that Heavenly Father prepares his children to accept the Gospel. I know that Jesus is the Christ, and he leads his church today through living prophet. I know the Book of Mormon is true!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith