Hey Arthur

Cara Famiglia,

We set a baptismal date with Arthur about 20 minutes ago! It was awesome! In fact, to explain who he is, he is a referral from a less-active family in our ward. He is from Peru and is 19 years old. This family took us over to see him last Friday because he's going through a rough time in life suffering from Hemophilia. But he has remarkable faith and really wants to follow Jesus Christ. So we went over and talked a little bit about faith and gave him a Book of Mormon in Spanish. Then we called him earlier today to find out when we could meet again and he said 'Come over in the next hour or so since I'm really tired from work.' So we sacrificed some P-Day time to go see him and asked him how the reading was going. He had read nine chapters in the Book of Mormon! And some various other parts. Then he started asking us some questions about life after death and such, and we proceeded to rock his world with the Plan of Salvation! We weren't going to but we said 'We can either teach you about what our church is(the Restoration) or the plan that God has for us in this life.' He answered 'the second one!' He understood everything and said it answered a lot of the questions he had! So then we set a baptismal date for November 12th! He is so awesome and humble and we are really excited to help him progress towards the waters of baptism. So pray for Arthur! 

In other investigators news, the pool is a little thin. But our teenagers are awesome; Saul is the man as is the aforementioned Arthur. We saw Saul last night and started talking about the Gospel but then ended up talking a good while about the Word of Wisdom with our all star member that we brought with us. However we still feel like he is holding something back, but he is still reading and praying and is really humble and has great desires. So pray for us to have the spirit of discernment so we can help him feel the spirit and see the need to be baptized. We also finally saw Roberta today, who is a referral from the Anziani in Varese. They taught her about six or seven times, and since they started the following things have happened in her life: her sister died of cancer, her daughter is addicted to drugs again, and she moved to a new city in our area. So her life is really hectic but she needs the Gospel really bad and recognizes that there must be something stopping her from meeting with us. She talks a lot during the lessons but says really good stuff! She is great, we can't wait to start teaching her more. Today we kind of re-passed the Restoration and next time we will watch the film with her about it to clear it up.

So the work is going really well. We are really stepping it up trying to talk to everybody and thus find more people to teach. Money quote from Preach My Gospel: "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find somebody to teach." The Lord is truly blessing us with lots of miracles and we can see his hand preparing people to receive the restored gospel. I am really grateful for the opportunity to participate! 

This week my spiritual thought is from 1 Nephi. I started over reading the Book of Mormon and I'm doing the activity where you color every time a reference to Jesus Christ is made. There are a lot! It's awesome to see. But anyway, in chapter 15 Nephi is talking about how Laman and Lemuel don't understand everything that Lehi says. And I quote:

6 And it came to pass that after I had received strength I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations.

7 And they said: Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive tree, and also concerning the Gentiles.

8 And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?

9 And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.

10 Behold, I said unto them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts?

11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.

I would echo what Nephi says in verse 11. I know that if we will soften our hearts and ask in faith, believing that we shall receive, with diligence in keeping the commandments, these things shall be made known unto us. Remember -- he that seeketh diligently shall find. Nephi is the man. I know the church is true!

I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith