Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Buon Natale!


Cara Famiglia,

Christmas is coming! It seems like everyone here is getting into the Christmas spirit with Pandoro, Pannettone, Christmas Parties, and lots of trees and lights. Those first two things are Italian bread treats that are typically common around Christmas, especially in missionary apartments as gifts from members. I will try to bring a Pandoro home, because it is delicious and I'm not a huge fan of Pannettone.

This week everything continued pretty smoothly, except that sickness is still afflicting a number of our awesome investigators. Esther is still pretty sick and also Maurizia couldn't come to church because of illness this week. We were also missing some other key investigators in church which was a bummer, but it was a good week nonetheless.

We taught Tony yesterday and he is doing awesome! He and Jacqueline are both so ready for baptism and will be baptized December 29th. They are both feeling a little bit nervous and excited but they will have such a great experience! It is so awesome to see them progress and strengthen their testimonies.

Cinzia is also doing really well, we taught her with a member yesterday and it was an awesome lesson. Members make such a huge difference in teaching, they help so much and it just makes everything better! She is progressing slowly and surely. The Book of Mormon rocks.

We are also teaching a cool Peruvian girl named Adelaide who has been through a lot of churches and has already read 11 chapters in the Book of Mormon! She is really cool but unfortunately we can only meet once a week since she is really busy. Everything else is fine and dandy in Piacenza, including the fact that it snowed this last week again and is really cold every day. I love it!

This week we had our awesome Christmas Zone Conference with the Wolfgramms! Anziani Wilkey, Scheurn, and I got to give our final testimonies. It was scary. But it was an awesome conference and I got to see a bunch of missionaries, including Anziano DeVincent! He is such a stud. It was a great conference.

During the conference an Anziano shared a thought about the greatest Christmas gift of all time, the Atonement. It's interesting to think about gifts given during this time, and he mentioned that Jesus Christ gave the gift of the Atonement, loving and bearing the sins of everybody even though he knew not everybody would receive it. I've been grateful to see that gift have such an effect on my life and especially the lives of others that I talk to and see every day. The Atonement really is the greatest gift we have ever been given. I know that it can help us through good and bad times and that our Savior Jesus Christ has a perfect love for every single one of us. I know that this is His church and that He guides His work and us missionaries. I love you all lots, and have a very Merry Christmas!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

P.S. I got all the birthday letters finally! Thanks to Bishop Higbee, Fratello Osguthorpe, Sisters Richards, Scheurn, Hanks, Evans, The Goodsells, The Smiths, and Ashley for their letters!

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