Cara Famiglia,
Welcome to Torino! This city is awesome! It is wayyyy way bigger than any city I've served in before. I am serving in the Torino 1 ward, which has four Anziani, we live with the other two. The apartment is pretty nice, we live on the 7th floor of a palazzo and from the balcony we can see the Mole Antonelliana (this big building that dominates the Torino skyline, look it up!), as well as that mountain from the 'Paramount Pictures' thing in movies way off in the distance. We travel around mainly on bus and tram, and lots of walking. It is nice to not be on a bike. The ward is pretty big, probably around 80-90 people come every week. For real though, this city is just massive, especially compared to Legnano/Busto/Gallarate. There are endless people to talk to, it's great!
The work is going really good too, we are seeing tons of miracles. Just a couple days before I arrived Anziano Russo and his companion miraculously found a less-active Nigerian member who is married to a non-member guy from Ireland. So they set up an appointment for us to see him, and we went and taught him. And now he has a baptismal date for the 15th of January! His name is Matin, he is super bravo. We gave him a Book of Mormon and the next day we called to follow up and see how it was going, and he had read 12 chapters! He is really just a super cool guy. We are also teaching an awesome Peruvian guy named Antonio, he is also doing really well with the Book of Mormon and came to church on Sunday! His friend Sandro is also kind of involved, but seems less interested. Yesterday was full of miracles, we taught six lessons! So we are praying a lot to stay humble and grateful for all the lessons the Lord is blessing us with.
This week I found a really awesome scripture in Alma! It is in chapter eight, verse ten:
10 Nevertheless Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance.
I may have mentioned this before, but I love the idea of 'wrestling with God in mighty prayer.' Prayer is something I think we can constantly work on, and to make our prayers 'mighty' takes a lot of practice. I am really grateful for the power of prayer in missionary work, and I can truly feel and see the evidence of all of your prayers every day. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, and that the Book of Mormon is true. I love you all lots!
-Anziano Benjamin Smith
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Christmas is coming!
Cara Famglia,
Christmas is coming! Happy December! The weather does not feel like Christmas though, it is still Autumn type weather here. Pretty crazy. But it is cool because in Legnano and Busto they put up Christmas lights all over centro, and in Busto they have a cool manger scene on the main piazza. We are even busting out the pass-along cards with the nativity scene on them haha.
The work is going well. We are teaching Isaac and Rita, and they are both doing really well. They really really really need to just get a job, get married, and get baptized. We pray for them to get a job often. Isaac came to church on Sunday, unfortunately Rita could not because she was sick. And Isaac fasted! And it was his birthday! It was really cool, he's great in church. Even though his Italian is a little tough, he tries really hard to understand everything, and actually gets a lot out of the lessons. We taught him about Following the Prophet during the first hour of church and he was excited to learn that there's a prophet on the earth today. We are really lucky to have that knowledge! We are going to see him tonight with a member and it is going to be great, we are teaching him about praying often. If you go into Preach My Gospel, you can actually count 15+ blessings promised just in the 'Pray Often' section!
We were also struggling to find new investigators this week, but last night we found one! It's a 20-year old kid named Miguel, from El Salvador. He is cool, and we are going back to teach him Saturday with a 21-year old member kid from El Salvador. So we were really excited about that. We even had a copy of the Book of Mormon in Spanish to give him!
This week my spiritual though is from the spiritual giant, Abinadi. I've gained a lot of respect for him as a missionary, thinking about how the only possible hint of success he may have seen as a missionary was seeing Alma say 'Hey guys, maybe he's right?' before Alma was kicked out of the High Priests' Group. But Abinadi is the man, in Mosiah 16 he throws down some T(testimony) of Christ:
9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.
So remember that Christ is the real Christmas light! I'm very grateful for Jesus Christ being the light and the life of the world, for myself and for my family. I know that God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in the grove of trees in the year 1820, and that "the field is white already to harvest" has never been repealed, but is a truth revealed to a prophet of God. I see the fruits of this "marvelous work and a wonder" every day! I love you all a lot!
-Anziano Benjamin Smith
Christmas is coming! Happy December! The weather does not feel like Christmas though, it is still Autumn type weather here. Pretty crazy. But it is cool because in Legnano and Busto they put up Christmas lights all over centro, and in Busto they have a cool manger scene on the main piazza. We are even busting out the pass-along cards with the nativity scene on them haha.
The work is going well. We are teaching Isaac and Rita, and they are both doing really well. They really really really need to just get a job, get married, and get baptized. We pray for them to get a job often. Isaac came to church on Sunday, unfortunately Rita could not because she was sick. And Isaac fasted! And it was his birthday! It was really cool, he's great in church. Even though his Italian is a little tough, he tries really hard to understand everything, and actually gets a lot out of the lessons. We taught him about Following the Prophet during the first hour of church and he was excited to learn that there's a prophet on the earth today. We are really lucky to have that knowledge! We are going to see him tonight with a member and it is going to be great, we are teaching him about praying often. If you go into Preach My Gospel, you can actually count 15+ blessings promised just in the 'Pray Often' section!
We were also struggling to find new investigators this week, but last night we found one! It's a 20-year old kid named Miguel, from El Salvador. He is cool, and we are going back to teach him Saturday with a 21-year old member kid from El Salvador. So we were really excited about that. We even had a copy of the Book of Mormon in Spanish to give him!
This week my spiritual though is from the spiritual giant, Abinadi. I've gained a lot of respect for him as a missionary, thinking about how the only possible hint of success he may have seen as a missionary was seeing Alma say 'Hey guys, maybe he's right?' before Alma was kicked out of the High Priests' Group. But Abinadi is the man, in Mosiah 16 he throws down some T(testimony) of Christ:
9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.
So remember that Christ is the real Christmas light! I'm very grateful for Jesus Christ being the light and the life of the world, for myself and for my family. I know that God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in the grove of trees in the year 1820, and that "the field is white already to harvest" has never been repealed, but is a truth revealed to a prophet of God. I see the fruits of this "marvelous work and a wonder" every day! I love you all a lot!
-Anziano Benjamin Smith
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