Anziano Hutchinson!!!!

Benjamin's email this week:

Ciao!

 

So Anziano Hutchinson is my new companion! He is a stud, he was in the group above me in the MTC and is super cool. He's from Bountiful, Utah, and got 5th in states in HS Wrestling in the 119 weight, after being ranked 2nd (look out Elder Dickson!) But yeah he is a really cool guy and I am looking forward to working with him this transfer. He came from Prato, a city right next to Firenze, and says Modena is a prettier city. Today in Modena for P-Day we also have the Anziani from Siena who stopped by on the way home from a permesso appointment in Mantova, and the Anziani from Mantova also came to spend P-Day here. It's fun stuff, especially since Anziano Portellano from my MTC district is here, he is the man.

 

Our investigators are going good, we have some solid ones that I'm feeling really good about that are progressing well. Michael should be baptized on June 11 if all goes well and he gets to church a couple more times. We are working well with him and he is a really good guy. Also Paolo is great, even though we couldn't see him this week he assured us he would read the assignment we left him. We are hoping to teach him a good lesson about eternal families this week to really help him see the potential of blessings that are awaiting him. Also I don't know if I mentioned this last week but we are teaching this lady named Gabriella who is Italian and believes basically everything! She has all this Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic art and stuff literally covering her walls at her house. We're trying to get her focused on figuring out the gospel as the one way we can return to live with Heavenly Father.

 

Also, I don't if I mentioned before but they re-aligned our district this transfer to include Reggio and Piacenza, so now there are 10 people in our district! It is huge. And yesterday at the District Meetings the Zone Leaders came too, so it was packed. We are also holding some cool mission Zone Meetings here next week for the Firenze and Bologna zones, so that should be good.

 

Spiritual thought for the week is appreciation for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This morning in companionship study Anziano Hutchinson and I listened to this awesome talk Jeffrey R. Holland gave to mission presidents a couple years ago where he basically says "We obviously preach the Atonement as the single most important event in human history, but we shouldn't shy away or try to teach around the Restoration for fear of offending people! The Restoration is what gives us and all of God's children the access to the Atonement that is necessary to return to live with Him!" I'm not as good at saying it as Elder Holland unfortunately, but it was a really good talk. I was also really struck again by the section in Doctrine and Covenants that talks about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. I am constantly impressed by what he did to help bring this gospel to light and that he had enough faith to go and pray in a grove of trees almost 200 years ago. I know that Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God who saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, who was called as a prophet to help bring all of God's children to salvation. I know the Book of Mormon is true and testifies of Jesus Christ. I know that this work is the work of the Lord!

 

Lots of love! (especially for Mom!)

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith