Addio Italia!

Cara Famiglia,

Merry Christmas!!! It was awesome to be able to talk to everyone yesterday. The Noda family had us over for Christmas and they are awesome! We were there all day and we watched The Emperor's New Groove in Italian and it was really funny. They also had a ton of awesome food, and Sorella Noda even got gifts for my companion and I! She gave Anziano Thompson a pasta recipe book and she gave me this awesome book of 90 Italian recipes that also talks a lot about the history of the various foods. It is awesome, I'll show it to you in a couple days!

This week the work went well. Actually great. Tony and Jacqueline are a go for baptism on Saturday which is going to be fantastic. It's going to be in Brescia since we don't have a font here in Piacenza. Unfortunately I won't be there! But Anziano Thompson is training so his trainee will be really lucky to come into Piacenza which is an amazing city! The work is going really well. We did Tony's interview and he is so humble and ready for the gospel, it's awesome! He reads the Book of Mormon every day and it just helps him feel the spirit so well. The Book of Mormon is incredible.

Then we also finally saw Esther again! She had been really sick which was a bummer but she has read all the way to Mosiah 7!! She puts up on facebook the stuff that she likes and her friends love the stuff she posts! She is so elect! Unfortunately her work situation makes it difficult to meet and come to church but she is so awesome. We will definitely be helping her to get to baptism.

We also had four people in church on Sunday which was really good. Three of them were husbands of sisters in the ward, and then also Cinzia came which was really good. Other than that we are just working with a bunch of potentials and there are some really cool people including some that have met with missionaries in the past. So pray everything goes well there!

I am really bummed for this weekend but also excited to come back and see everyone again. All I can say about the entire experience of my mission is that it has been one giant miracle. The most important thing I've learned and felt is the pure, complete love that Heavenly Father has for all His children and the importance of living the gospel of Jesus Christ. Whenever we are sad, discouraged, facing adversity, or even just going through the motions, turning to our Savior with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength will change everything. I'm grateful for all the experiences I've had in Italy, both good and bad, and especially for all the investigators, companions, members, new converts, and less-actives I've been able to get to know! The people of Italy are amazing, including all the non-Italians. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that it will help anybody who honestly reads it grow closer to their Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ more than any other book on this earth. It has changed my life! I love you all lots and thanks for all that you do!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Gesso!

Cara Famiglia,

So gesso can mean two things in Italian, either 'chalk' or 'cast' as in a cast you get when you get really injured falling off your bike! Just kidding, I didn't fall off my bike! Sorry to scare you on your birthday mom! Speaking of which, Tanti Auguri! I hope you have a fantastic day and everything goes perfectly! Also speaking of birthdays, say thank you to the Walton and DeVincent and Blake families for their birthday cards! They were much appreciated.

Today we didn't do anything for Pday except clean the apartment and take a nap. It was excellent. It is good to feel rested.

So the reason the subject is 'chalk' is because we tried it out as a new finding method this week. It goes like this: we get sidewalk chalk, go into centro on the main street, and start drawing out the Plan of Salvation. While my companion draws, I talk to people. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be and a lot of people stopped to talk and look at it. It was fun.

Quick other cool note to Elder Goodsell in Germany. His friend Anziano Day is in my district!! I got to do a sweeeet exchange with him, he is an awesome missionary and a funny kid. We found a ton of really cool people.

As far as the most important things go, Valerio got confirmed!!!!! Woooo!!! He is a stud. He said he just felt 'benissimo' after the ordinance. We also gave him the special Liahona issue about Temples and he was really excited to do some family history work.

We also taught Paola again, and she is awesome! She loves reading the Book of Mormon but is a little nervous for baptism. Pray for her!

We also had a cool little miracle this week that shows how bravo my companion is. We got a bidone and so we decided to walk to the train station to check times for a conference we had to go to. On the way through some really empy streets we saw one lady so we decided to talk to her. Turns out she has been going to a lot of different churches and is just really searching for the truth! We have an appointment with her tomorrow morning so pray that it goes well! We are looking for a lot of new people.

Another cool experience we had this week was with the branch, which every year co-organizes a concert with this little city near Piacenza. We got to go and hear it and had a little information table with Books of Mormon and stuff afterwards. It was awesome because some of the people that performed (including one fratello in the ward who is a dang good opera singer) have performed at the Scala opera house in Milano! It was my first time hearing real Italian opera.

This week we had a sweet conference in Verona, and I wanted to share a spiritual thought from something President Wolfgramm shared. He talked about how when Adam was in the garden the Lord asked him "Adam, where art thou?" and "Adam, where goest thou?" He talked about how those are really important questions in our life; the Lord may obviously wasn't asking Adam where he was physically because he knew, but he was giving him a chance to be accountable and make an honest evaluation at what point he was in living the gospel. We could evaluate our spirituality and ask where we are, and where we are going. I'm grateful that Jesus Christ is the way and also the light, which gives us a pretty clear path to follow. I love this work, and I love you all lots!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Transfers!

Cara Famiglia,

Even though the subject says transfers, Anziano Thompson and I are staying the same! It is awesome! I am really glad he is my last companion since he is such a hard worker and an awesome missionary. Everything in Piacenza is going just dandy! Today we are in Milano for Pday though. We saw The Last Supper this morning! And now we are going to play soccer with some Anziani here in Milano. Hopefully it won't rain.

So the work is still going awesome. Kind of a bummer was that Valerio didn't show up to church to get confirmed! We were kind of freaking out. But he just kind of had some last minute doubts or something, but we saw him yesterday and he is definitely committed to the gospel. He'll get confirmed this next Sunday. The biggest thing we are trying to do now is get him to wear a suit to church haha.

We are also still teaching Lalit, Tony, and Paola although we haven't been able to see them this past week and none of them came to church. It is tough to meet with people who are really busy with work. But we had an awesome miracle find this week! The Zone Leaders came and did a blitz scambio here in Piacenza, and Anziano Hardy was with my comp. They found this Ecuadorian lady named Ester who is married with a son here in Italy. Her entire family are members and live in Utah. We taught her and her husband a first lesson on Saturday and they are just so awesome! They are really searching for the truth. We taught her again Monday and she had stayed up til 2 am reading the Book of Mormon and the Restoration pamphlet and highlighting what she liked. She read 13 chapters! It was amazing. She is so awesome. Hopefully we can set a baptismal date with her by next week.

Other than that everything is going really well in Piacenza. The weather isn't too bad. We also had a good cleaning on Monday where we threw out a ton of old furniture and broken stuff from our garage and apartment. We actually have a little 'scarico' right across the street from our apartment where you can throw away old furniture, appliances, etc. and so we started bringing stuff over there. After we had brought a big wardrobe, a mattress, and a bedframe, they told us "Okay guys, that's enough for today." We were shocked to find out that at the dump here in Italy there is a limit of stuff you can throw away in one day! So we had to go back yesterday morning and we'll have to go back again tomorrow and maybe Friday. Missionary apartments have a lot of junk in them.

This week my companion was finishing reading the Old Testament and we were talking about some sweet verses in Zechariah(who?). In Zechariah 13:6 it says:

6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

It reminds me of when Jesus said "Greater love hath no man than he that layeth down his life for his friends" or however it goes. I'm grateful for the fact that we can truly come to know our Savior and what he has done and still does for us. I'm grateful that through him we can be the best person possible. I know this is His church and that this work is true. I love you all lots!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Baptisms!

Cara Famiglia,

Well this week was just fantastic! It was rainy and cold but everything turned out really well. Piacenza is full of miracles and everything is going great. Today we went to Bologna for P-day and it was actually a cool city, we saw some good stuff. The sad note was the last letter of Elder Dickson! I can't believe he's going home! It is scary how fast time flies. Tell him he had a beast mode mission.

As the subject line attests, the number of baptisms that took place for the Piacenza Branch this week was more than one! Rosa, Gianpaolo's wife, got baptized! And also Valerio!!! He had his interview Thursday and passed. We were going to have it be this next weekend but since we already had to go to Modena anyway for Rosa's baptism our Branch President recommended we move it up and save a trip for the members! So we had a bit of a last-minute organizational scramble but the baptism went really well. Valerio got baptized and afterwards bore his testimony and it was really great. He loves the Book of Mormon and is glad to have finally found the truth after what seems like a lifelong search. A lot of the members are really warming up to him too, which is cool. He will receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday!

Other than that we are still teaching a number of people. We haven't been able to see Angelo and Paola recently but Angelo came to church on Sunday and he is still awesome. It is tough to meet with them sometimes 'cause of work schedules and stuff, but they are great. We are also still teaching Lalit, the kid from Nepal. He also really likes the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized but his family is kind of against it. Pray for softened hearts!

My spiritual thought this week is a quote from President Monson's conference talk 'Consider the Blessings' from the most recent conference. After talking about a number of simple but powerful spiritual experiences he says:

"I never cease to be amazed by how the Lord can motivate and direct the length and breadth of His kingdom and yet have time to provide inspiration concerning one individual—or one cultural celebration or one Jumbotron. The fact that He can, that He does, is a testimony to me.

My brothers and sisters, the Lord is in all of our lives. He loves us. He wants to bless us. He wants us to seek His help. As He guides us and directs us and as He hears and answers our prayers, we will find the happiness here and now that He desires for us."

After reflecting on some of the more pivotal spiritual moments in my life I found that they were for the most part simple answers to prayers, even if the answer came a long time after the prayer. I know that our Heavenly Father has a great love for every single child and he knows us perfectly. I am grateful that he knows what is best for me and what will bring me the most joy. I know this is His work and that He guides it constantly. I love you all lots!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Teaching in the Rain!

Cara Famiglia,

It's raining a lot here! Although I probably have no right to talk since there is a hurricane going down on the east coast. We hadn't even heard anything about it until last night when we were teaching a part member family. I'm grateful that everyone is doing alright! It was also really sad to hear about Chris Lewis, that is such a bummer. I was always impressed with his testimony and commitment to the gospel, and I'm especially grateful for all the times we got to go home teach him and learn from him. He was awesome!

Happy Halloween! Today we toured Piacenza a little bit, we went to a place called the Palazzo Farnese where they have a bunch of art, including a painting by Botticelli that was really cool. There was also a great one of the giant battle in the Bible where Joshua stops the sun so the battle can go on. Then we went and saw the church here in Piacenza where the Pope signed the document that authorized the first crusades. There was actually a funeral going on though, so we didn't really get pictures. Italy is awesome.

This week the work continues to grow! We are seeing a lot of progress in our investigators. Also, Gianpaolo got baptized!!!! It was really cool, even though I barely know him haha. He had a really great baptismal service and this next week he is going to baptize his wife. The unfortunate thing is that since there is no font here in Piacenza, we have to do baptisms in either Modena or Brescia. Fun stuff.

Alex, the Ukrainian guy, is awesome! He believes the Book of Mormon is true but is still waiting on a concrete solid answer and a direct answer on baptism before he takes the big step. It is tough because he has learned everything we have to teach and is moving back to Ukraine on Saturday. But we have his info to give to the missionaries there and found out the church is right by his house in his city there, which will be great. He is a stud.

Another couple we are teaching is Angelo and Paola. They are both from Ecuador, and have two little daughters! Angelo was baptized about three months ago, and Paola just recently started meeting with the missionaries. It was really cool in our lesson yesterday to hear her say "I can already see the difference in my life from reading the Book of Mormon." But she smokes and is kind of hesitant to set a baptismal date. But they are so awesome!

Valerio, who I don't know if I talked about in recent emails, is getting his baptismal interview tomorrow! We hope he will pass! He is such a cool guy and just looooves reading the Book of Mormon. Every time we assign him chapters he calls us the next day telling us what he thought about them. After yesterday's lesson we forgot to give him stuff to read and he called us a couple hours later and reprimanded us for that haha, it was funny. If all goes well he should be baptized November 10th.

Other than that nothing much is really going on. The weather is getting slightly colder but it's not so bad because fortunately we just have a ton of appointments to run to! Missionary work is so great when it is the busiest.

So this week we also had stake conference, broadcast via technology to our branch here in Piacenza since Verona is a two hour drive away. One of the former counselors in the Stake Presidency talked a lot about David in the Old Testament, and so I decided to re-read some of his story today. I love the verse that describes when he faces Goliath:

1 Sam. 17:45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

It is a pretty epic story that exemplifies the strength of the Lord that is with us as we face trials. I was also thinking about it more since in the art we saw today there was a big painting of David holding Goliath's head. But the point is, God will help us face the impossible trials in our life! Obviously David was the favorite to lose, but he won because of his faith, diligence, and obedience. I know that as we follow Jesus Christ and His gospel we can have the strength of the boy David and overcome any doubts, discouragements, or difficulties that we face. I know this church is true. I love you all lots!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Baptizm!

Cara Famiglia,

Baptism happened this week! Martin got baptized! We met with him last Thursday morning to see what he had decided and he said "Yeah I want to be baptized this weekend." So on Sunday he got baptized and confirmed! It was a really great service, we had some members that speak English give talks and us missionaries did a special musical number! He had a really good experience and bore his testimony afterwards, and his wife was crying she was so happy. So it was a great Sunday.

Congratulations to J [a family friend who just got his mission call]!!! Berlin is gonna be awesome! Almost as sweet as Italy haha.

That's basically the biggest news this week. Bright and Collins both came to church again, but they left before the baptism unfortunately. We saw Bright yesterday and he is the man, reading the Book of Mormon and praying and sees a difference. We are still working with some other investigators, Ali, Antonio, Giovanni and Gabriella, etc. that we hope will be making some progress soon.

Fun random story: in most missionary apartments, at least here in the Italy Milan mission, there is a large collection of Ensign/Liahona magazines piled up from over the years. A lot of time I read them when I have some free time, and so today I picked up an issue from way back in April 1994 and there was an article about member missionary work in [our home] stake! It was crazy.

Torino is still doing great, it is getting quite cold. I am rockin' the scarf and jacket almost every day. But there are still lots of people to talk to and the work is going really well. My companion is a stud!

This week I wanted to share a really cool verse I found about faith in Alma 44! It is verse four and it says this:

4 Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith.

It's some awesome testimony thrown down by Moroni to Zerahemnah, and really shows the all-encompassing trust in God that defines faith. Moroni didn't have any doubt that his faith in God would see him through all the wars and everything, and I just thought the scripture was really good! I know faith has power to work miracles because we see them every single day! I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and will bring us closer to God than any other book, and will truly strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and his gospel when we read it every single day. I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Pictures!

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