Persevering!

Cara Famiglia,

Well this week has been pretty eventful! It started out on a kind of rough note, notably that Angelo, our number one investigator who was supposed to be baptized soon dropped us! It was really surprising. We showed up to the lesson with a member and everything and apparently he just had come up with a bunch of doubts. We think his girlfriend had something to do with it. But anyway we just had a super powerful parting lesson about the Book of Mormon, telling him how important it was that he continues to read and pray to resolve these doubts and follow Jesus Christ. We definitely moved him up on the number scale at least, but it's a bummer that he won't be getting baptized this transfer. We are also now working more with this awesome ex-communicated member named Guido, I dunno if I mentioned him before. He is super solid, and really wants to get re-baptized. We have taught him a couple times the past couple weeks, and we are seeing him this Friday with the Bishop so it should be really good. We are also working some more with Giuseppe, and hoping to get him baptized this transfer. He is super awesome when we teach him but sometimes he's hard to get a hold of and sometimes gives us bidones. Also yesterday we had an awesome experience! We went to do some finding in a little suburb city above Busto called Olgiate Olona. Basically we did a bunch of calls and then did the only four big palazzi in the city. As we were biking back we biked by one last really big palazzo, and we hesitated to stop and knock it, but we did! We did one staircase and there was nothing but J-Dubs and people not interested. Then the first door that opened in the next stairway was this 19 year old Albanian kid named Elvis! He's been in Italy for about nine years. He let us in and we proceeded to blow his mind with the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We taught everything and then right before we were going to teach the Joseph Smith story and share the first vision his mom walked in! We were afraid she wouldn't like us but she sat and listened as well! And then as we were explaining the Book of Mormon his 17 year old brother walked in and listen from there! It was a really super good lesson and at the end as we were leaving the mom was like 'You guys are always welcome here!' It was incredible! So now we are going back to see them again, and we are going to baptize them. It was a really cool miracle to see that the Lord is always preparing people. 

We also had dinner last night with this awesome couple that I don't know if I mentioned before, named Claudio and Louisa. Louisa is a member who's slightly less-active, she was baptized 11 or 12 years ago but she's brava. And then her companion Claudo is also really bravo. He's not a member (yet), but he brings his triple to work and reads during his spare time. He knows the gospel as well as we do! And as soon as his divorce from a previous marriage goes through so he can marry Louisa he'll get baptized. Also he is hopefully going to give us a sweet insider's look at the AC Milan stadium coming up, since he's worked there as a security guard.

This week the scriptures are awesome! I read the Book of Mormon every day and it is just too good. I was reading in 3 Nephi 9 today and it was talking all about repentance. I especially liked verses 13-15: 

13 O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?

14 Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.

15 Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.

Christ is just waiting for us to come unto him and repent! All we have to do is be humble and he's willing to completely forgive us. Repentance really is a miracle process, and I'm grateful that I can be a part of this work to call people to repentance and to come unto Christ. I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ, and that he is the Savior of the world!

I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

[The view from Anziano Smith's roof!]

Spiritual Earthquake!

Cara Famiglia,

Earthquake! That's crazy. I never would've imagined one like that happening in Virginia. Also good luck with the Hurricane coming up. 

This week has been pretty awesome, I am loving Busto Arsizio. Here's the run-down of our current investigators:

Angelo! He is the man. He got back from vacation and we have taught him three times since then and he's come to church. He's getting set to be baptized on the 17th of September, which is going to be awesome. We are really excited for him! We taught him the Word of Wisdom yesterday and he was like 'Yeah, I understand this completely. I will stop smoking five cigarettes a day.' He is also continuing to read and underline his Book of Mormon, in addition to using the index in the back to help him study. He is great, but pray for him so that he will be able to come to church instead of going to school after his baptism. 

Giuseppe is the man too. We went over last night with a member to see him and had a sweet lesson where we just read from 3 Nephi 11 and talked to him about the Book of Mormon. The member bore some super powerful testimony about the Book of Mormon and the church being true. We're pulling for him and he's really good about reading and praying, but we are going to have to move his baptismal date until after he comes to church. 

Wilson is kind of dropping off the list, we haven't been able to see him in over a week and he hardly answers his phone. Kind of a bummer since he's really nice and is gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but he is just sooooooooo busy with work. Another cool thing is that going through the area book we found this old investigator who is the husband of a member. Anziano Webb and Anziano Dean went and saw them on a scambio and apparently they're awesome, they just are waiting for a divorce for the husband, Claudio, to go through before they get married so Claudio can be baptized. We are having dinner with them tonight and hoping to get them regularly coming to church. But apparently Claudio reads the Book of Mormon a lot and knows everything about the gospel and that it's true. 

Please pray for our investigators! They are all awesome and need help to get baptized. 

This week in studying Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel I was looking at the Charity section. It is awesome! And then it directed me to read 1 Corinthians 13 which is probably one of the best chapters of scripture I've ever read. 

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Basically you can do all the good actions in the world, but if your heart isn't full of charity behind those actions it doesn't profit you at all! Also I would recommend reading the Bible Dictionary entry on charity, it is short and sweet. So this week I am really working on being more charitable and loving towards all the people we meet, and to my companion! I know that this work is true and that when we have charity we are more willing to help share this gospel and bring it's blessings to everyone we meet. I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Pictures!

It's Baptism Time!

Cara Famiglia,

This week was fantastic! Marked by an awesome baptismal service of Rafael Di Iorio, who is the man. The baptism was amaaaazing, there was such a great spirit there. And Rafael is such a stud. Also his wife who is now re-activated! She even gave a talk at the baptism! And their son Nicolas is the man. But anyway, Anziano Webb baptized him into oblivion and it was amazing. We are super excited for them because they are going to help out the ward so much. Even though a lot of the ward members were out of town the baptismal service was really good. One of the highlights was afterwards Rafael's wife made a bunch of treats (she apparently makes decorative cookies for parties and stuff sometimes) including very detailed Book of Mormon, missionary, and angel cookies. When I can I will send pictures home. And then the day after the baptism I confirmed him in church! I was pretty nervous but it turned out pretty good I thought, now he's got the gift of the Holy Ghost and he's good to go! 

Other than that we are still working hard on finding other people to teach and baptize. We are still working with Wilson who reads and prays solidly, but is incredibly hard to get a hold of and teach. His work is terrible, hopefully we can set up some sort of schedule or something. Another miracle happened the other day as well. We were stopped at a red light and waiting to go and Anziano Webb suggests we race across the intersection (which may have been somewhat unwise). So I'm like 'Yeah, bring it on!' and when it turns green we start racing. I was ahead slightly and I hear Anziano Webb cackling as he catches up so I turn around to look and right then he just eats it! His bike chain popped off or something so he just fell down right on his side. It was intense and then the bike kind of fell on him. So I stop on the side (by this time we're basically right at the other side of the intersection) and run and help him, pull the bike off him. He says he almost blacked out but he got up and walked it off and just had a scratch on his elbow. So we're sitting on the curb recuperating and this guy in a wheelchair comes over and talks to us and helps wash off a little bit of blood with his water bottle. We start talking and his name is Piero, and we got a return appointment with him! He was a really cool guy. Then even better, this couple who had driven by drove back around and stopped their car to talk to us, and they said 'Hey can you come to our house and talk to us about your religion?' Cha-ching! So we walk right over to their house which was super close and taught them. Turns out they had met the missionaries twice before but fallen out of contact with him. And now Giuseppe has a baptismal date for September 10th (Elder Dickson's birthday!). So we once again for maybe the 100000th time realized how many times the Lord blesses us by putting people in our path. The strange thing is that it was really weird how Anziano Webb's bike stopped working right then, it had never broken like that before. So we count it as a 100% miracle, and now have another very promising baptismal candidate with a date. He is the man too! He reads and prays like nobody's business. 

So other than that the work here is going great. I love it! Being a missionary is so awesome. There is nowhere else I would rather be. 

I wanted to share an observation I had in reading the war chapters still. In Alma 61 Pahoran has just gotten an angry letter from Moroni who calls him a traitor and reprimands him for not helping out the armies. Pahoran's return epistle makes him realize that he totally misjudged what was going on for Pahoran, and for me is a great example of not being offended. When he has reason to be angry back instead he responds like this: 

9 And now, in your epistle you have censured me, but it mattereth not; I am not angry, but do rejoice in the greatness of your heart.

I think the world would be a much better place if everyone followed this Christlike attribute of not being offended! I'm sure we can all put ourselves into both Moroni's and Pahoran's positions at different times, and change how we react. I really liked this. I know the Book of Mormon is the true word of God and that if we read it and live by it we will grow closer to Him. I am so grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and I love you all a lot!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Pictures from Modena

Pictures from Anziano Smith's previous area of Modena.

Ancora a Busto!

Cara Famiglia,

The first piece of news is that I'm staying in Busto with Anziano Webb for another transfer! It is good, we work really well together and are seeing a lot of miracles. Our zone almost stayed the exact same actually. One change is that Anziano Kimball is going to be the new zone leader in Como though! He's a stud. 

Also the big news that I foolishly forgot to mention last week is that this Saturday Rafael is getting baptized! He passed his interview on Saturday so he's good to go. It's gonna be excellent, like I said before he's already set to go to the temple with the ward in October. We're really excited! In other news, Wilson the Brazilian is also still awesome. Every time we teach him his responses to questions make him seem like he's already a member. The only problem is his ridiculous work schedule that makes it hard to have appointments. But he's reading and praying and really getting a testimony. Angelo, another awesome investigator should also be getting back from vacation this week, so we're really excited about how the work is going.

This week we had a tender mercy from the Lord. It was Sunday night and we were struggling at the end of a difficult week. We had been having statistically our worst week of the transfer and were kind of bummed out. So we were doing some casa and hoping for a miracle. And it happened! We got in and taught an awesome Restoration lesson to a family of five Italians! They are so awesome. The mom was super interested and the dad was cool too, and they have three daughters. We challenged them to baptism right then and they said that if they know it's true they will do it. We were stoked! I really think they are promising, and we are really excited to go back and teach them tomorrow. We also found this awesome guy on the street the other day named Mohammed! He is a non-practicing Muslim guy from Morocco, but he gave us his phone number and address so we decided to go see him. Turns out he's super awesome and really receptive to the Book of Mormon and our message. He even prayed correctly at the end of the lesson! So we have high hopes for him as well. 

This week in my Book of Mormon reading I started the war chapters in Alma. I really liked how it talks about the causes of why the Nephites and Lamanites were fighting. In Alma 43 it talks about how the Lamanites were simply fighting because they were inspired and stirred up to anger by the wicked leaders, and that they were fighting 'like dragons.' But then in verses 45-46 it says: 

45Nevertheless, the Nephites were inspired by a ^abetter cause, for they were not ^bfighting for monarchy nor power but they were fighting for their homes and their ^cliberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church.

 46And they were doing that which they felt was the ^aduty which they owed to their God

I really liked the idea of being inspired 'by a better cause.' As missionaries it seems sometimes like we're at the forefront of the battle against the adversary, and he definitely fights like a dragon sometimes. But it helps a lot to remember that we are inspired by a much better cause, the best one in the history of the universe. I know that the message of Jesus Christ that we bring can overcome any opposition and as we are here working to find the elect the Lord is helping us. The gospel is sooooooooo true. I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

The Work

Is going great!

 

Cara Famiglia,

 

So this week was kind of a refiner's fire. We successively dropped or were dropped by three of our baptismal dates. For various reasons. Akil, who is a stud and knows the gospel is true, went back to Albania to fight to regain his family's respect. It sounds kind of movie-like, but his story is sooo sad. We taught him a last lesson before he left and he was tearing up a lot. So pray for that to go well. Filippo is such a roller coaster. He is really up and down with keeping commitments and how lessons go. Basically he is taking a month break from us, but he will end up getting baptized I'm pretty sure. Alex is also kind of a bummer, we had a good lesson before he took of for a month or so as well, and basically told him how important the gospel can be to him but how important commitments are as well. We'll see where that goes. I dunno if I mentioned Wilson last week, he is super solid. He has a baptismal date for August 27th and we hope he makes it, the biggest problem is that sometimes he has to work on Sundays. But he's reading and praying and everything, and the lessons are going well.

 

So in general the work is a little different right now. We are actually still teaching just as many lessons but with different people, we are really focusing on picking up new investigators this week and talking to as many people as possible. It's great to see people that are prepared by the Lord to receive his gospel.

 

Also we had a sweet training this week with 14 companionships from across the mission. A bunch of people from my MTC group were there so that was good, and we learned a lot about how to be better teachers! Woohoo!! Teaching rocks. Also I finally got that package from the Young Men in the ward, they are all studs and I liked their letters. Also the American candy and the American flag were excellent.

 

This week I started reading more from the New Testament. It is really awesome, and it's good to read the stories of Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem. I don't know if I've ever read it before, but I'm definitely learning a lot! So I would recommend that everyone read it and learn from Jesus' amazing example as a teacher and as our Savior. He truly is the perfect example for us to follow and I know that as we search to become more like Jesus Christ we are blessed and we become better people. I love you all!

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith