Merry Thanksgiving!

Cara Famiglia,

So this last week was Thanksgiving, as you probably know better than me. I enjoyed hearing about the usual Thanksgiving feast. Anziano Thompson and I had a nice Thanksgiving meal as well. We got pizza, kebab, focaccia, and gelato. It was filling and delicious, almost like a real Thanksgiving dinner. There might be turkey in kebab, I really have no idea haha. The weather is getting colder! For the past couple days it has been nice and cold and rainy. Fortunately we have had a bunch of appointments so we haven't been out in the rain a ton.

The biggest news this week is that Esther set a baptismal date for the 22nd of December!!! She is so awesome! We taught her for the third time and she had already read up to the book of Jacob in the Book of Mormon! And she said that when she reads something she likes she puts in on Facebook to share with everybody! It was awesome. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she even said "Yeah, I already believed we existed before this life." It was freakin' sweet!

We also have been able to see both of the part-member families we are working with and they are both so awesome! They are really close to just being baptized and can add such a huge strength to the branch here. On Sundays the chapel is almost full, it is awesome!

This week I also got to do a scambio with Anziano Wilkey!! He is in my district and was in my MTC group and is probably the most humble kid I have ever met. And he's British! He is a stud. We had a lot of fun together and worked really hard. It was weird to think how long it's been since we were in the MTC together.

I really liked thinking this week about Mosiah 28:3 - "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." It is so cool to see how their desires were completely aligned with God's to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of all men. And then just thinking about not all the success they had but also the trials and difficulties really gives a missionary strength and hope. I also really loved the cross reference to Moses 7:41 which you should all go look up! I know this work is the Lord's work and that he guides it every single day! I love you all lots!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith