Palio Time

Cara Famiglia,

It's Palio time! That, together with the fact that Italy made it to the final for Euro 2012 in soccer, made it slightly tough to talk to people yesterday, especially because Italy got rocked. Oh well. The Palio should start officially in about four hours. Look for me on the campo.

The work this week went a lot better than last week. We were able to see a bunch of less-actives and members to introduce this missionary program we are starting in the branch. We told the members that the first purpose is simply to strengthen the faith and testimony of the branch, and then that missionary work will be a natural result. We are hoping and praying that it works!

We taught the miracle chinese kid on Saturday (Kellen) and he is awesome. He really liked the Restoration film in chinese, is going to read the Book of Mormon, and even said he wants to bring a friend to meet with us. So we are hoping that goes well. He is really busy during the week though and so we will probably have to wait to Saturday to see him again. We also found a new investigator named Jennifer who is from Nigeria. She met the missionaries about seven years ago and then they found her on scambio two weeks ago. She actually seems pretty brava and interested so we will also see where that goes.

This week I was really impressed with a line from Robert D. Hales' talk from the most recent conference. In talking about the Sacrament he said: "As we sing the sacrament hymn, participate in the sacrament prayers, and partake of the emblems of His flesh and blood, we prayerfully seek forgiveness for our sins and shortcomings. We think about the promises we made and kept during the previous week and make specific personal commitments to follow the Savior during the coming week." I really liked the idea of 'participating' in the sacrament prayers and also the idea of not only looking backward at the previous week we think about commitments and ways we can make the coming week more exemplary of the savior's life. I am really grateful that every Sunday we can partake of the Sacrament since we need to be reminded often of the eternal significance of the Savior's sacrifice. I know this is the Lord's work. I love you all lots!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

P.S. I got the two letters mom sent in the mail. Grazie!