It's Baptism Time!

Cara Famiglia,

This week was fantastic! Marked by an awesome baptismal service of Rafael Di Iorio, who is the man. The baptism was amaaaazing, there was such a great spirit there. And Rafael is such a stud. Also his wife who is now re-activated! She even gave a talk at the baptism! And their son Nicolas is the man. But anyway, Anziano Webb baptized him into oblivion and it was amazing. We are super excited for them because they are going to help out the ward so much. Even though a lot of the ward members were out of town the baptismal service was really good. One of the highlights was afterwards Rafael's wife made a bunch of treats (she apparently makes decorative cookies for parties and stuff sometimes) including very detailed Book of Mormon, missionary, and angel cookies. When I can I will send pictures home. And then the day after the baptism I confirmed him in church! I was pretty nervous but it turned out pretty good I thought, now he's got the gift of the Holy Ghost and he's good to go! 

Other than that we are still working hard on finding other people to teach and baptize. We are still working with Wilson who reads and prays solidly, but is incredibly hard to get a hold of and teach. His work is terrible, hopefully we can set up some sort of schedule or something. Another miracle happened the other day as well. We were stopped at a red light and waiting to go and Anziano Webb suggests we race across the intersection (which may have been somewhat unwise). So I'm like 'Yeah, bring it on!' and when it turns green we start racing. I was ahead slightly and I hear Anziano Webb cackling as he catches up so I turn around to look and right then he just eats it! His bike chain popped off or something so he just fell down right on his side. It was intense and then the bike kind of fell on him. So I stop on the side (by this time we're basically right at the other side of the intersection) and run and help him, pull the bike off him. He says he almost blacked out but he got up and walked it off and just had a scratch on his elbow. So we're sitting on the curb recuperating and this guy in a wheelchair comes over and talks to us and helps wash off a little bit of blood with his water bottle. We start talking and his name is Piero, and we got a return appointment with him! He was a really cool guy. Then even better, this couple who had driven by drove back around and stopped their car to talk to us, and they said 'Hey can you come to our house and talk to us about your religion?' Cha-ching! So we walk right over to their house which was super close and taught them. Turns out they had met the missionaries twice before but fallen out of contact with him. And now Giuseppe has a baptismal date for September 10th (Elder Dickson's birthday!). So we once again for maybe the 100000th time realized how many times the Lord blesses us by putting people in our path. The strange thing is that it was really weird how Anziano Webb's bike stopped working right then, it had never broken like that before. So we count it as a 100% miracle, and now have another very promising baptismal candidate with a date. He is the man too! He reads and prays like nobody's business. 

So other than that the work here is going great. I love it! Being a missionary is so awesome. There is nowhere else I would rather be. 

I wanted to share an observation I had in reading the war chapters still. In Alma 61 Pahoran has just gotten an angry letter from Moroni who calls him a traitor and reprimands him for not helping out the armies. Pahoran's return epistle makes him realize that he totally misjudged what was going on for Pahoran, and for me is a great example of not being offended. When he has reason to be angry back instead he responds like this: 

9 And now, in your epistle you have censured me, but it mattereth not; I am not angry, but do rejoice in the greatness of your heart.

I think the world would be a much better place if everyone followed this Christlike attribute of not being offended! I'm sure we can all put ourselves into both Moroni's and Pahoran's positions at different times, and change how we react. I really liked this. I know the Book of Mormon is the true word of God and that if we read it and live by it we will grow closer to Him. I am so grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and I love you all a lot!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith