The Dream Team Stays Together! And more!

Cara Famiglia,

Well the news is that Anziano Webb and I are staying together for a third transfer! It is kind of unheard of, but the crazier thing is that our district leader is staying in Varese for his fifth! So our District will be mostly unchanged again. Anziano Anderson is actually going to open up a new coppia in Mestre, a.k.a. Venice! I am excited to stay with Anziano Webb though, he is a stud and we are both growing a lot together. 

This week was really good! We didn't quite reach the goal of 20 lessons, but we did some good work. Highlights include that we were finally able to come in contact with an investigator named [Janelle]! She is American, married to and Italian guy here in Italy! And she is awesome. She first met the missionaries about the year ago and is basically half-Latter-day Saint/half-Catholic. She is a really cool lady and is really truly honestly seeking to understand whether the Book of Mormon is true. She really recognizes it's importance and definitely has the faith and everything to get an answer. She just needs to read and pray about it! She says sometimes she feels 'foreign' reading it though, I think just because it's a new book of scripture, but she committed to read as much as she could and keep praying. She is sooooooooooooo golden though! Another highlight is we came in contact with a referral from Belgium, a 16 year old Ghanaian kid named [Saul]! He is a stud! He had an Italian Book of Mormon already from the missionaries in Belgium and had read about 14 chapters in 1 Nephi! And he is basically just awesome; at the end of the lesson he asked "So when are we seeing each other again?" We are also helping Umberto make some progress, he's feeling kind of unworthy to pray and feels a lot of anger in his heart over past situations he's had to go through, but we had an awesome lesson last night with a member who bore some solid testimony and helped him realize he needs to pray! Anyway, the work is going great here in Busto and we are really excited to keep working together. 

This week I would like to share as a spiritual thought basically all of Mosiah Chapter 4! It is amaaaaaaazing! Such good stuff about how the Atonement works and what blessings it can give us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is a true book of scripture, and I am so grateful to have it in my life and be able to read it every day! I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and that the Atonement is real. I love you all a lot!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Sacro Monte pictures!

From our awesome hike at Sacro Monte today by Varese! This was a series of 12 chapels that depict the life of Jesus, surprisingly including post-cross events! And the 'Ascension of Mary?' They were depicted with Terra Cotta statues, and it was awesome!

Busto Arsizio #11

Cara Famiglia,

This week went by pretty good! We did struggle to find new investigators though. But we have some good prospects coming up. We actually finally were able to teach this family that we found a couple weeks ago. Yesterday we taught them; the husband is [Ravith] from Sri Lanka, and his compagna is from Ecuador. He is Catholic, she is Evangelist, but they are both really cool and really receptive to the Restoration. They said yes to the baptismal invite! Giuseppe's situation has gotten a bit tricky, but we are still hoping it will turn out with the best. He seems to be experiencing a lottttttt of opposition from his family and acquaintances, which just means that he's that much more ready and will be a great member! I don't know if I've even mentioned Umberto before, he's an awesome guy who stopped us on the street a couple weeks ago and wanted to know who we were. It was a Saturday, so we invited him to church, and he's come every week since! That's three weeks! His progress is a little slow though, he is still hesitant to accept to be baptized, but we are working on it. And we are continuing to improve our finding so we can help get more people to come unto Christ.

This week I got to do a scambio with Anziano Kimball! It was really cool, also kind of strange working with him again. I think he's gotten to be an even better missionary than when he trained me, and we did some good work.

This week's spiritual thought is a powerhouse from Mormon chapter 9:

19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

Sometimes we as missionaries, and probably as members, underestimate the fertility of the area we live/work in for missionary work. We talked in District Meeting about how in all the cities all of us have served in, members have said 'Oh, this area is really hard to do missionary work in!' And too often we believe it! But the reason we may not see miracles isn't because the field isn't white, it's because our faith isn't strong enough to thrust in our sickle with all our might. We decided the best way to move forward in faith was to recognize miracles more often, and share them with members to help them see that missionary work can move along at a blistering pace. It was an interesting thought, and it worked really well last night when we tried it before teaching the Bishop's family. Members love to hear missionary miracles! So everyone who reads this should go ask the missionaries serving in their ward to hear about the miracles they see and then put their faith in the Lord and help share the gospel! I'm not trying to say that in a self-righteous or reprimand kind of way, but miracles can help strengthen faith a lot. I hope this spiritual thought makes sense, it does in my head.

But more importantly, I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Persevering pt. 2!

Cara Famiglia,

We are working hard here in Busto and Legnano, although we are still struggling to find new investigators. We have really improved our work with the Book of Mormon and our inviting, but we can definitely still improve. Keep praying for these people! Giuseppe is becoming a little flaky, his compagna is kind of holding up his progress. We haven't seen him, or any of our other investigators, in about a week. We taught 18 lessons last week and got some new investigators but they kind of dropped off. This week we have taught eight lessons the first two days and we have two for tonight, but they are mainly with members! Which is not a problem, but we are doing a lot of finding to harvest the elect. We unfortunately haven't been able to contact Elvis since we taught him in his house last week, but we did pass by and drop off a couple of copies of the Book of Mormon in Albanian for him and others in his family to read. But hey, even when the investigator pool is low the mission is still awesome! We see little miracles every day just to show that the Lord is preparing people. Yesterday we taught this lady a lesson on the street and talked all about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. And then we challenged her to baptism, and she accepted! It was great until she didn't give us her phone number. But she was really elect, and I'm really praying she reads the Book of Mormon and prays and receives her answer. 

We're emailing later today because we went to Milano for P-Day and saw a castle and a smaller version of the Arch of Triumph(sp?) from Paris. I love serving in Italy, everything is awesome, including the people! 

This week's spiritual thought comes from Romans 8, which is probably one of the best chapters of scripture I've ever read! In verse 18 it sums up pretty well one aspect of patience:

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

The sufferings we have in this life are 'not worthy' to be compared with the glory that awaits us if we are following Jesus Christ! It's a pretty humbling thought. I think sometimes we lose sight of the hope of better things, which is one of the easiest traps to fall into. However, we should be constantly hoping and searching to always move towards eternal life with our Heavenly Father. I know that this church is the true church of Jesus Christ, and that it is led by a living prophet of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Pictures: The first three are from Milano today, the panorama one is a little poorly done on my part but it's not too bad. The last one is one of the main churches here in Legnano.