La vita è bella

Cara Famiglia,

Life is good in Torino. Everything is going really well! And the weather is even really nice, it's not super cold. No snow yet, and apparently much milder than it normally is here this time of year. Christmas was great, it was good to be able to see you guys and talk at the same time. The family we were with all day was super nice. The dad is our Ward Mission Leader, and his wife is a really good cook. They made us soooooo much food! We had a good time.

The work is going really well. Our investigators are progressing nicely. Matin is progressing like crazy for his baptism on the 15th of January, he is all the way to 2 Nephi 25 in the Book of Mormon! He is awesome, we had a really good lesson last night about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a member. He is so golden. Another baptismal date we have is Bright, I dunno if I've mentioned him before. He's from Nigeria and has a date for the 22nd, although we haven't been able to see him this last week. He is really good though, and is reading in the Book of Mormon. We also set a baptismal date with our man Josè, from Peru! He is a stud, he's really nice and so sincere in his desires to follow Christ. He told us that he wants to quit drinking before we even said anything about the Word of Wisdom, so he is great! And then the last baptismal date is Valentina, the 19 year old daughter of our new convert Christy. She is awesome, and had met with missionaries in the past, and she accepted a baptismal date for the 28th of January. At the end of the lesson she said an amazing prayer it was so great! I love seeing investigators progress.

Other than that Torino is just awesome. I love my companion and we love talking to people all day, there are endless people to talk to! I wanted to share a scripture I found in the Book of Mormon recently that is super awesome. It might be kind of a stretch though, but I thought it was cool. It is in Alma 17 (which is a sweet chapter, the entire thing is really great) and part of verse 31:

"My brethren, be of good cheer and let us go in search of the flocks, and we will gather them together and bring them back unto the place of water".

I kind of though of it in the sense of Christ being 'The Good Shepherd', going in search of the flocks and gathering them to bring them back to the place of 'living water'! It hit me how that is our role, being representatives of Jesus Christ and searching out flocks of people to bring them unto Him. I'm really grateful that I get to talk to dozens of people every day about this gospel and the happiness it brings, and I know that this work is true! I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God written for our day and that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

Lots of love!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith