Transfers!

Cara Famiglia,

Even though the subject says transfers, Anziano Thompson and I are staying the same! It is awesome! I am really glad he is my last companion since he is such a hard worker and an awesome missionary. Everything in Piacenza is going just dandy! Today we are in Milano for Pday though. We saw The Last Supper this morning! And now we are going to play soccer with some Anziani here in Milano. Hopefully it won't rain.

So the work is still going awesome. Kind of a bummer was that Valerio didn't show up to church to get confirmed! We were kind of freaking out. But he just kind of had some last minute doubts or something, but we saw him yesterday and he is definitely committed to the gospel. He'll get confirmed this next Sunday. The biggest thing we are trying to do now is get him to wear a suit to church haha.

We are also still teaching Lalit, Tony, and Paola although we haven't been able to see them this past week and none of them came to church. It is tough to meet with people who are really busy with work. But we had an awesome miracle find this week! The Zone Leaders came and did a blitz scambio here in Piacenza, and Anziano Hardy was with my comp. They found this Ecuadorian lady named Ester who is married with a son here in Italy. Her entire family are members and live in Utah. We taught her and her husband a first lesson on Saturday and they are just so awesome! They are really searching for the truth. We taught her again Monday and she had stayed up til 2 am reading the Book of Mormon and the Restoration pamphlet and highlighting what she liked. She read 13 chapters! It was amazing. She is so awesome. Hopefully we can set a baptismal date with her by next week.

Other than that everything is going really well in Piacenza. The weather isn't too bad. We also had a good cleaning on Monday where we threw out a ton of old furniture and broken stuff from our garage and apartment. We actually have a little 'scarico' right across the street from our apartment where you can throw away old furniture, appliances, etc. and so we started bringing stuff over there. After we had brought a big wardrobe, a mattress, and a bedframe, they told us "Okay guys, that's enough for today." We were shocked to find out that at the dump here in Italy there is a limit of stuff you can throw away in one day! So we had to go back yesterday morning and we'll have to go back again tomorrow and maybe Friday. Missionary apartments have a lot of junk in them.

This week my companion was finishing reading the Old Testament and we were talking about some sweet verses in Zechariah(who?). In Zechariah 13:6 it says:

6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

It reminds me of when Jesus said "Greater love hath no man than he that layeth down his life for his friends" or however it goes. I'm grateful for the fact that we can truly come to know our Savior and what he has done and still does for us. I'm grateful that through him we can be the best person possible. I know this is His church and that this work is true. I love you all lots!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith