Going on in so great a cause

Cara Famiglia,

This week was sweet in Siena!!! We had a bunch of cool miracles that we saw and the work is going really well. Also the weather is now perfect and General Conference is coming up! It's like Christmas! Speaking of holidays, I think Elder Goodsell forgot my birthday was October 19th, not September 19th, but I thank him for his birthday wish nonetheless. I sent him a letter a couple months ago but I got the address wrong or something so it got sent back. But I will write him a letter today. I also got a sweet letter from the Blake family! They are awesome!

This week we were finally able to make contact with Anna Maria again! She is awesome. We talked to her on the phone, and then her mom kind of dropped us and hung up. But then she called us back and said she wanted to meet again. She wants to be baptized but has to talk to her mom about it. She is super brava.

We also had a sweet miracle find this week! We were knocking doors down some random street and just happened to stop Selifa. She is from Togo and is a student here at the University. She's been in Italy for three years. She used to be Muslim but then converted to Christianity. So we talked to her about the Book of Mormon and set up an appointment for the next day. She even said "I have a friend I can bring too!" So we went the next day and taught Selifa and her friend Noelli(sp?), also from Togo. Now they both have a baptismal date for October 28th!!! They are really cool, and in between the first two lessons she read all the introduction stuff plus four chapters of the Book of Mormon! And we brought Bianka to the second lesson and she and Selifa instantly became good friends. It is awesome! Members make such a huge difference in the work.

We also taught a really cool kid from Cameroon named Crèpin. He was only in Italy for a week but it was a really cool chance to give him a copy of the Book of Mormon and commit him to read it. He seemed really excited to hear about it and hopefully will have a chance to meet missionaries in the future.

The branch is doing really well too, and with the BYU students here now the chapel is always full. They are also really helpful and willing to come to lessons with us and a lot of them speak really good Italian. Two of them gave talks on Sunday, and they were phenomenal!

This week I was reading talks in preparation for General Conference, and I came across a gem in a talk from Boyd K. Packer. He says: "If someone is looking for a church that requires very little, this is not the one. It is not easy to be a Latter-day Saint, but in the long run it is the only true course." (Guided By the Holy Spirit, April 2011). I am grateful for the constant sacrifice involved in serving in the church of Jesus Christ, because it helps us learn to become more like our Savior. I know this is His church, and that the Book of Mormon is the true word of God. I love you all lots!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

P.S. Big thanks to Aeldste Richards for the referral! Hopefully I can find him, but if not some missionaries will.