Merry Thanksgiving!

Cara Famiglia,

So this last week was Thanksgiving, as you probably know better than me. I enjoyed hearing about the usual Thanksgiving feast. Anziano Thompson and I had a nice Thanksgiving meal as well. We got pizza, kebab, focaccia, and gelato. It was filling and delicious, almost like a real Thanksgiving dinner. There might be turkey in kebab, I really have no idea haha. The weather is getting colder! For the past couple days it has been nice and cold and rainy. Fortunately we have had a bunch of appointments so we haven't been out in the rain a ton.

The biggest news this week is that Esther set a baptismal date for the 22nd of December!!! She is so awesome! We taught her for the third time and she had already read up to the book of Jacob in the Book of Mormon! And she said that when she reads something she likes she puts in on Facebook to share with everybody! It was awesome. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she even said "Yeah, I already believed we existed before this life." It was freakin' sweet!

We also have been able to see both of the part-member families we are working with and they are both so awesome! They are really close to just being baptized and can add such a huge strength to the branch here. On Sundays the chapel is almost full, it is awesome!

This week I also got to do a scambio with Anziano Wilkey!! He is in my district and was in my MTC group and is probably the most humble kid I have ever met. And he's British! He is a stud. We had a lot of fun together and worked really hard. It was weird to think how long it's been since we were in the MTC together.

I really liked thinking this week about Mosiah 28:3 - "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." It is so cool to see how their desires were completely aligned with God's to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of all men. And then just thinking about not all the success they had but also the trials and difficulties really gives a missionary strength and hope. I also really loved the cross reference to Moses 7:41 which you should all go look up! I know this work is the Lord's work and that he guides it every single day! I love you all lots!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Departing Pictures from Provo

Departing group:

 Left to right: Anziani Wilkey, Terry, Scheurn, and Smith:

 Anziani Parrish and Smith:

 Anziani Cluff and Smith:

Andiamo in Italia!

Cara Famiglia!!

Abbiamo ricevuto i nostri piani di viaggio!! Siamo molto contenti! That means we got our flight plans so we're for sure leaving next week to go to Italy! Here's the plan: Leave the MTC ... next Tuesday, Feb. 22nd. [Fly] from SLC [to] Denver ... to Frankfurt, Germany, arriving at 11:35 AM on the morning of Feb. 23rd. [Then we] arrive in Milano at 4:55 PM!!! Woooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Siamo troppo felice! Also we have a huge layover in Germany, something like 4 hours, so I should be able to call at least from there. I got a calling card from the bookstore yesterday so I should be good to go. Also, apparently the Mission President reimburses you for a second checked bag, so I'm probably going to buy one of the cheap ones from the bookstore so I don't have to worry about my bag being overweight. Should be good to go.

Other than that this week has been going great, typical week at the MTC. Italian is still good, we're really focusing on speaking as much Italian as physically possible in the last week. Last night we learned the last verb tense we're going to learn here, which is pretty exciting. The teachers have said that since now all the teachers are 100% speaking Italian they think we're a lot more prepared for full immersion than they were when they went. They said their teachers didn't speak that much Italian to them in the MTC, it was basically all English. But I'm sure we'll still be quite humbled when we arrive.

Music is good in the MTC. They still have the lame rule that you can't listen to any music at all because apparently some missionaries way back abused the privilege. But instead we can just play piano and make music! It's great. Playing piano helps lessen to shock of not hearing music almost ever. However, we do like one of the organists who plays the prelude and postlude music for devotionals. He always plays 'Army of Helaman' in the prelude and we even heard him playing 'Jupiter' by Gustav Holst during one of the postludes. I was so psyched, I wanted to go down and tell him thank you for giving me my soul back! I'm hoping we can listen to classical music in the field, if we can you should send a cd of The Planets.

Thanks everybody for the DearElders/letters I got this week or last week that I didn't mention or haven't written back (I'm surprised at how busy P-Days are even in the MTC!). So hopefully I should be able to write a bunch of letters today. I'm also probably going to mail a box home of some random stuff. Anyhoo, that's about all the news for this week.

So this week I was reflecting on how grateful I was for the MTC. I'm grateful for the scriptures, for the opportunity to have at least 3 hours every day just to study, grateful to have every meal planned out for me, grateful for awesome teachers who I hope I can be like in the mission field, grateful for my Savior, grateful for Preach my Gospel, grateful for living prophets, grateful for Joseph Smith and the early pioneer saints, grateful for my companion, grateful for my awesome district and zone, and grateful for everything else in my life. Non posso aspettare di andare in Italia e condividere il messaggio del vangelo di Gesu Cristo con loro, e io so che Dio ha preparato il popolo d'Italia a ricevere questo messaggio. So che Gesu Cristo e il nostro Salvatore, e mediante l'espiazione di Gesu Cristo possiamo essere purificati dei nostri peccati ed avere la gioia e speranza che solo puo venire tramite Cristo. So che anche il mio italiano non e perfetto, posso portare testimonianza della verita del Libro di Mormon, e che abbiamo un profeta vivente sulla terra oggi. Sono grato per tutte le benedizioni che il vangelo di Gesu Cristo mi ha dato, e voglio che il popolo d'Italia puo ricevere le stesse benedizioni. [I can not wait to go to Italy and share the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ with them, and I know that God has prepared the people of Italy to receive this message. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be cleansed of our sins and have the joy and hope that can only come through Christ. I know that my Italian is not perfect, I can testify of the truth of the Book of Mormon, and we have a living prophet on earth today. I am grateful for all the blessings that the gospel ofJesus Christ has given me, and I want the people of Italy to be able to receive the same blessings.]

Ciao!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Nuovi Missionari!

Cara Famiglia,

Questa settimana i nuovi missionari sono arrivati! Woohoo! That was the big news, there's 24 new Italians in the MTC. They are all pretty cool as far as I can tell, which I think is a requirement to be called to serve in Italy. There's 16 Elders and 8 Sisters, 6 Elders are going to Rome along with 2 of the Sisters, but the other 16 are all going to Milan! One of the Sisters is even being bumped up to travel with us because she's lived in Sardegna before and speaks really good Italian. In other news we are trying to sing the EFY Medley in Italian as a zone, I'm playing the piano for it! We practiced for the first time on Sunday and I was basically sight-reading but we're trying to be ready for Thursday auditions. Fun stuff.

Other than that it's a pretty normal week, not much new stuff going on. We taught in the TRC again this week all in Italian, the Plan of Salvation lesson. It was great, and Anziano Scheurn is rocking the Italian now. We taught these people who volunteer every week, it's a married couple where the wife is from Sicily and both of them served their missions in Milan about 5 years ago. They talk sooooo fast but they're really nice so it's awesome to teach them.

Hopefully we're getting travel plans this week! We are really excited, and can't wait until we see the papers in our mailbox. I dunno if I mentioned in a previous letter but we all got a letter from President Wolfgramm like 3 weeks ago that started "your MTC experience is drawing to a close..." and we were like yeah right! But now it really is. We basically have to write out mission goals out for him. Also he said he's going to be waiting at the airport for us, and some other travel stuff. All the news we hear out of missionaries in Milan from our teachers is that he's really cool, and that the work is amazing.

Honestly not much going on this week since every week is the same. I did get a nice all-Italian letter from Tyson! I understood almost all of it except the 'prendere due piccioni e una fava' phrase. But Fratello Tate explained it. I'm going to attempt writing him back a letter all in Italian. Sounds like everything is going well back in McLean, good work Packers, I can't believe they won.

I'm grateful to be here in the MTC, and I know this is where I'm supposed to be. I know the Book of Mormon is a true book and has all the answers to questions we have. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for how much the gospel and the church have blessed my life and the potential they have to bless others. I know this church is true, and I know my Savior lives. The church is true!

Love,
Anziano Benjamin Smith

Ciao!

Cara Famiglia,

This week has been pretty normal. Not much new stuff going on, we still have class all the time and Italian is going great. Yesterday we did the TRC all in Italian again, and we taught the Plan of Salvation lesson. It was cool because we were on exchanges with other Elders, so I got to see how the other Elders in the district teach and stuff. The lesson went well and they agreed to our baptism commitment so we're golden. Whenever we go in the TRC we say a phrase to pump ourselves up (or at least I do) where we say "Accenda l'acqua, perche oggi, batteziamo!"). Basically it means "turn on the water, because today, we baptize!!" Good stuff.

Oh! Also we played Come Thou Fount in Sacrament meeting. We might audition it to perform for a meeting or something, but I dunno. We're also really trying to work on 'I Love the Lord' as a zone because it's basically the best song in the world. It's really tough though because it's all a cappella and has a couple tough key changes. Also tell Sister Richards thanks for writing me and also tell her thanks for the arrangement she gave me of 'If You Could Hie To Kolob.' It's awesome! I can't play it perfectly yet but it's so intense and everyone in my district loves the arrangement.

Complimenti to Jeremy and Ashley for writing me this week. I am writing them back today. Oh also thanks for the letter from Sister Dickson! I have seen Maria a couple times, but not for the last 2-3 weeks. She was teaching on my floor but then we changed from our awesome building to a not-as-nice one. One funny thing I dunno if I mentioned is that since none of us (including the teachers) like having a chalkboard, we duct taped a 2x3 foot white board in the middle of the blackboard. It's really small and pretty silly but it's soooo much better than a blackboard. Also another funny thing that has been happening recently is DearElder making a fool of themselves. So what happened was I got this DearElder with letters that obviously weren't intended for me, but were still addressed to an Elder Benjamin Smith. Coincidentally, as I was thinking about how I should get them to him, another cool Elder in my Zone was like "Hey, did you know I know another Benjamin Smith who was in my lifeguarding class back home?" I was like "wow tell him to come get his mail! And to tell his family the right box number!" So we actually ended up seeing him and after a couple times actually remembered to bring his mail to give to him. So that got sorted out.....OR SO WE THOUGHT! Nah but really last night he saw me at dinner and was like "hey, this time some of your letters got spliced into my DearElders!" So me and my zone friend went over to his dorm yesterday and picked them up. He's actually a cool guy, but DearElder isn't. The mixing up of letters was pretty egregious(big english word!).

In other news if you guys have heard about the missionary that got hit by a car in Georgia, apparently he was serving in Elder Scheurn's sister's ward. Pretty crazy, apparently some guy was bending down looking for his glasses when he swerved off the road and hit the Elder who was riding his bike. He's in a coma and can't breath on his own, so keep him in your prayers.

This week's spiritual thought is an awesome activity Fratello Tate did last night. He brought in his friend who speaks Cambodian and had him share a really powerful spiritual message. The point was that we couldn't understand anything he said (literally Cambodian is crazy I don't know how people speak it), but that we could still feel the Spirit and the power of his message. The only thing we got was because he wrote on the board that he was talking about Mosiah 24:14-15. Those are some awesome scriptures right there. I know the Book of Mormon is a true book, and I'm grateful for the power the scriptures can have in our lives if we read and study them daily. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet who was called of God to teach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the work we are doing is the work of God, and that we are called to Italy for a reason. One of our subs gave us a great lesson about how when you get called to Italy people normally say things like 'Oh, you'll plant seeds' or 'It will be pretty, but you won't baptize anyone.' Basically he shoved that aside and said the seeds have been planted for 44 years, now it's time to harvest. All the news we hear out of the mission is that baptisms are going way up, and the people there are ready. Especially with the Temple being built, it should be an amazing time.

That's all I got for this week, ciao!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Another Week at the MTC!

Cara Famiglia,

Well another week has flown by here at the MTC. It's gotten to the point that everything basically seems the same. It's all just one big blur. And that's not necessarily a bad thing either! Italian is progressing great, we did a ceremony on Thursday where we committed to speak 100% Italian from now until we leave the MTC(Almost a month!) except for branch meetings and district meetings because our Branch President doesn't speak Italian. It's going pretty well, Italian is sweet! Also yesterday we taught the Restoration lesson at the TRC fully in Italian again. It was different because we did intra-district exchanges, so I taught with Elder Murray. We taught these two people that both served in the Milan mission, the girl was from Sicilia and they both talked soooooooo fast, but I felt like I could understand basically everything. The funny part was when I was talking about Jesus and I said 'Gesù Cristo ha soffrito per i nostri peccati' which instead of meaning 'Jesus Christ suffered for our sins' means 'Jesus Christ fried (like fried chicken) for our sins.' So the actual word I should've used was 'sofferto.' The people afterwards told me they almost burst out laughing, but it's better I do it here than in Italy.

Everything else is going well, the district is great. We get to go to the Temple today so that should be good. We are counting down the days until the new Italians get here, there's 24 new coming in a week from tomorrow! And we found out that the next batch that comes in six weeks after that will have 38 Italians! So there will be 62 Italians in the MTC in like 7-8 weeks. Ridiculous! Speaking of Italian, I found out that the best hymn ever is only in the Italian Hymnbook, called 'Mandate Voci di Gioa all'eterno', which roughly translates as 'Send Voices of Joy to all Eternity.' You should all try and find it and listen to it. Also, this week my companion and I and another Elder in our Zone are going to audition a special musical number of 'Come Thou Fount' to see if we can play it at one of the devotionals or firesides. We are also working on the a cappella song 'I Love the Lord' to audition as a Zone. That song is awesome too, it's basically 2 Ne. 4 put to the music of Be Still, My Soul, a winning combination [embedded below]. The Priesthood choir of something sang it a couple years ago in one of the sessions of conferences I think, so you should try and find it on youtube and give it a listen, it's way good. Also, props to the Evans sisters this week, both of them wrote me letters! It was good to hear from them; give everyone in McLean my best.

So this week I was really impressed with Alma 26. It's probably the best missionary chapter ever. Verse 12 is my favorite that says "Yea, I know that I am nothing, as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." It made me think about how the stereotypical thing to think about Italy is that you won't baptize anybody, but if we have faith we can bring to pass miracles anywhere. I'm grateful that a Temple is being built there because I know the Lord is preparing the people to hear the gospel. I've gained a great testimony of the power of the Spirit in conversion and how necessary it is. I know the Book of Mormon is true and I'm grateful for all the blessings the gospel has provided for my life.

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Monopoly and Brother Holland's Opus

Cara Famiglia,

So this week has flown by as usual. The MTC is still the same, and is going great. Classes are fun and we've learned a bunch of new Italian in the past week so that's good. Yesterday in the TRC we taught the first lesson fully in Italian for the first time. It was kind of scary but I think we did well. The first part of my subject line comes from that, it's a really funny story. We were getting to know the people (it was a guy and a girl), and the guy said he was from Napoli and the girl was from Roma. So my companion was asking them if they liked those cities and so he said Ti piace Roma? [Do you like Rome?] to the girl and she was like yeah it's great. Then he was trying to say the same thing for Napoli but he accidentally said what basically sounded like 'ti piace monopoly?' [(Do you like monopoly?] It was really unexpected and funny and the guy was just like "I mean, yeah, I like to play monopoly." Maybe it doesn't sound as funny in the email but it was really funny in real life.

The other exciting thing that happened this week was that last Tuesday (after P-Day was over so I didn't write about it then and they don't actually tell you who's coming until like 10 minutes before) Brother Holland came to speak! It was awesome, he's really passionate about missionary work and really lays it on missionaries to be better. One of the things he said that I liked was something like "Called to serve...we sang that as our opening hymn and I've sung that song ten thousand times. Called to serve -- but so what? You better do something about it!" It reminded me of Elder Bednar's talk from a while ago where he said "don't just go on a mission, become a missionary!" He also talked about Peter and the feed my sheep story after Christ was resurrected, and about how awesome Preach my Gospel is. It was a great talk. Also I'm hoping Brother Gong comes to speak tonight, that should be sweet. Also on Sunday we had a talk from our new MTC President who's name is Gordon Brown. It's funny because there was a counselor in the last MTC Presidency who's last name was Clegg. I hear David Cameron is running for MTC President in 2012. Scherzo!

Not much else is going on, the schedule is basically the same all the time. On Thursday we're going to only speak Italian, which should be fun stuff. Oh one thing is I actually saw David Cramer on the campus yesterday, he was walking in to volunteer for the Norwegian TRC. So I talked with him for a little bit, that was cool. Also everyone at the MTC gets really mad when the mail is closed, so unlike when we were at school we didn't like the federal holiday yesterday because no mail came. Today should be like Christmas for mail; they closed the mailroom early on Saturday too.

Sono molto grato per questa possibilita d'essere nell'MTC. So che Il Libro di Mormon e vero e so che c'e un profeta vivente nella terra oggi. Sono grato per tutte le benedizione di Dio che ho ricevuto, e so che il popolo in Italia hanno bisogno d'ascoltare al nostro messaggio. So che Joseph Smith era un profeta di Dio, e che ha tradotto Il Libro di Mormon. [I am very grateful for this possibility to be at the MTC.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and I Know there is a prophet living on the earth today.  I am grateful for all the blessings of God that I have received and I know that the Italian people have need to listen to our message.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he translated the Book of Mormon]

-Anziano Smith

Time's Fun When You're Having Flies - Kermit

Cara Famiglia,

The MTC is still flying by. I can't believe it's been a week since I wrote you guys, it feels like yesterday. My companion and I always joke about how fast time goes and we say 'It's service day tomorrow!!' almost every day. Service Day is Friday where our district does an hour of cleaning in our building in the morning. But it always seems like it's the next day. In big news the older districts left today, which is pretty sad. The residence seems really empty without them, and our table at lunch will be less crowded. That includes Elder Luke from Stafford who was my former ZL and he's going to Rome, he's a cool guy. The only exception was Elder McMullen (sp?), one of the Elders from England, is staying for an extra month or so because he had to get wrist surgery a couple weeks ago from some pre-existing wrist injury. But he's really cool and optimistic about it.

Also, I got to be a host missionary this week! Basically my job was to tear families apart. Not really, but that's what it sort of felt like. I would take the Elder from the car to the administration building to have him get his tags and everything and then show him where his classroom/residence was. The first Elder I hosted probably thinks I'm really dumb because I couldn't find his classroom; the reason was because we were in the wrong building. But oh well. Then the second Elder I hosted was from upstate New York going to Rio de Janeiro and his name was Elder Dickson! He was a cool dude, and he actually lives down the hall from me and is in my branch. When I took him to his classroom I thought he might get Maria Dickson as his teacher because she taught on the floor where he was (it's our old room that my district misses because it has a white board instead of a chalkboard and is nicer in general). But alas, she wasn't. I did hear about Palmer, I last talked to him on Thursday or Friday, I don't remember, but he told me he was leaving Saturday morning. Didn't get to see him take off or anything, I saw his companion later in the day to ask about him though.

Italian is still going awesome, we had a talk with our teachers on Thursday and got really pumped about about the SYL(Speak Your Language) mentality. Basically we all want to speak Italian as much as we possibly can, so I try to almost never speak English. Unfortunately one of our teachers, Fratello Taylor, is leaving, but we met our new teacher Fratello Tate yesterday. He's a really nice guy and served in the Catania mission, so that should be good. On his last day Fratello Taylor just showed us pictures from his mission and stuff, and our district gave him a thank you card from the bookstore. I dunno if I mentioned before, but he was the last American to serve in the Switzerland part of the mission, soooooo lucky. I'm hoping they open it up to Americans again while I'm there. Also had some sweet pictures of other Milan Mission shenanigans that gives us something to look forward to.

I did get the package Mom sent with the cd, so that's good. And I have played a fair amount of piano here, I played for Priesthood and two Sacrament meetings on Sunday. One was ours and the other Sacrament Meeting was a special one for all the employees that work in the cafeteria on Sunday, that was really cool.

This week we had an awesome discussion about being afraid in one of our classes. Basically, we determined that we have nothing to be afraid of because the Lord is on our side. We looked at that awesome scripture in 2 Kings 16 I think where it says "do not fear, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." And then another awesome couple of scriptures are 2 Tim. 1:7 and D&C 68:6. Brother Bulloch talked about an occasion how they encountered a large Catholic youth group thing and just thought of that scripture and so they decided to go testify to them. It sounded really awesome, and it gets me pumped up to go talk to people in Italy about the gospel. I know this church is true, I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I know that the work we are doing is the work of God. I'm very grateful for my family and all they've done for me and am thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I finished reading Jesus the Christ this week and it basically blew my mind, it's such an awesome book. I learned so much and gained a lot of appreciation for what He went through.

Ciao!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

MTC 3.0

Well I had a long email written out but it got lost so I'll try and re-create it in all it's glory.

Cara Famiglia,

This week has been good and flown by, it feels like just yesterday I was sitting here to write you guys. To Mom: I got the overnight package and it was sweet, good to get all that stuff. Also I dunno if I ever told you guys but there's a silly rule that music is banned in the MTC. But you can still send me CDs. I've also gotten some DearElders from Mom and Dad, it sounds like you got my letter with pictures (PS DearElder is the best system ever, it's better than email because I can read it every day!). Sounds like everything is going well in McLean though. New Year's was a completely normal day here except that we got no mail :( and they specifically had all the District Leaders tell people not to stay up late. For P-Day today we get to go to the temple for the first time since we've been here, it re-opened yesterday.

Classes are going really well, we have a ton of classes every day and my teachers are cool so that's fun. Italian is still awesome, I feel like I'm picking it up pretty well although I'm sure I'm going to be humbled when I get to Italy. Yesterday in the TRC we had a cool experience where my companion and I had to talk in Italian for 15 minutes straight because one of the teachers was pretending to be an investigator that we were taking for church. So we talked to him about his family, his work, and if he'd kept up his commitments to pray and read the Book of Mormon. I was happy to be able to understand most of it, and I was even able to answer a question he had pulled out of the Book of Mormon about the Godhead in understandable Italian. So that was sweet. Unfortunately the English part didn't go as well, we taught the Plan of Salvation lesson and she was fine with it until the last bit, when we couldn't answer her question about kingdoms of glory satisfactorily. But we talked about it afterwards in class as a district and figured out how to answer it in the future. Also I don't know if I mentioned but every Sunday night they show various church films and talks that you can see. So on Sunday we watched the Joseph Smith movie. It was awesome and got us all pumped up to do missionary work, especially because it has my favorite quote where it says "Shall we not go on in so great a cause?" It reminds me how important this work is, and one of my teachers made a cool remark that kept him going in the field where he would knock on a door and think to himself "wow, this person has no idea that I am about to share the most important message in the world with them." I thought that was a good optimistic thought. I have a testimony now of how important missionary work is, and I know that all of us missionaries are specifically called to serve wherever we are assigned. I know that this church is true, and I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I can't wait to get to Italy and share my testimony with the people there. Love all you guys,

Ciao,

Anziano Benjamin Smith

P.S. my MTC Box # is 308, and my departure date is 2/23/11. Tell everyone to write me through DearElder!

Benjamin at the MTC: Christmas

1. Anziano Scheurn wearing his new Washington, D.C. shirt (present from my parents).

2-5 A bunch of the Italian elders getting together to sing Christmas songs in Italian one night. We put our name tags on the little tree as ornaments.

6. First temple walk to the Provo Temple.

7. Elder Pieper and I (He lived on Palmer's Floor at BYU and left for Paris, France a couple days ago.)

8. Anziano Scheurn (my companion) and I.

9 - 10. My district. (From left to right, Elders Russo, Cluff, Warren, me, Portellano, Scheurn, Wilkey, and Murray.

11. Elders Wilkey and Portellano.

12. My companion and I taking the typical map picture. We're pointing at Milan, Italy.

13. Biking missionaries statute covered in snow from a big storm we had last P-Day. Unfortunately all the snow is gone today.

14 - 15. We built a snowman, actually two. You can see the snowman's companion behind us.

16. I can walk up walls.

17. Christmas lights at the MTC! Apparently they've never done this before, so it's a big deal. They look really good though and they are still up which is nice.

18. Anziano Scheurn with glasses with fake mustache.

19. Singing/playing guitar at the MTC. Not me, some random Elders.

20. Me using Diana's awesome present as a straw. They also made for very effective whips.

21. My zone Leader, Elder Luke, who is from Stafford at the temple.

22. My bed, which is made every day. I'm on the top bunk.

23. My end of the room. Note the Arabic prayer rug and Italian plug.

24. My desk: it's much cleaner than the one the international Elders use.

25. One of my name tags.

Benjamin leaves for the MTC and makes new friends!

1. Benjamin and his Dad--last goodbye at the MTC

2. Grandpa gives Benjamin goodbye hug at MTC

3. Benjamin arrives at the MTC

4. Benjamin's favorite fast good--Last Supper

5. Inside In'N'Out with Grandpa

6. Tuesday night dinner with friends at Brick Oven in Provo

7. Tuesday lunch with the Gongs at the Church Office Building

8. Benjamin and Dad at Salt Lake Temple

9. Monday night at Grandpa's with Uncle Gary

10. Benjamin arrives in Salt Lake City as a missionary

I Missionary Now

Cara Famiglia,

Buon Giorno! Come state? Italian rocks. I will explain the [title of this post] later.

First things first, thanks to everybody for the packages. I got the DearElder package(I think I mentioned that last week), and then I also got mom's Christmas package with wrapped stuff. Anziano Scheurn loves all the stuff you got him, he is in fact wearing the Washington DC shirt right now. Also tell Sister Karen Daniels thanks so much for her package! I just got it yesterday because the mail service was closed Christmas Eve/Christmas Day and then Sunday as well, but it was like Christmas all over again! She got me a bunch of awesome food and wrote a great letter. I'll be writing a response later today.

Hmmm not much is going on at the MTC. In Italian I just call it the MTC, but with the C you say the 'che' sound in English. So like...M-T-Chay. There's a saying I've heard a lot that the weeks feel like days and the days feel like weeks which is definitely true. Wednesdays are the worst days because we have gym time in the morning right after breakfast and then straight up class until 9 pm with breaks for lunch and dinner. In gym I usually run a mile every day and then play some basketball or volleyball. I need to learn how to make layups. And to answer mom's question, I have had one soda since I came in, it was a Jones BubbleGum Soda bottle from the bookstore; Jones soda is good, but not the best soda I've ever had.

Christmas was awesome! The festivities started on Christmas Eve when Presidents and Sisters Breinholt and Clegg spoke to us in an evening fireside. Good messages about giving the gift of service and how Christ was the greatest give Heavenly Father ever gave. Another cool part was when Sister Clegg had everyone in the auditorium sing the 12 Days of Christmas MTC Style in sections based on where we were seated. It goes like this by days: 1-A Rock Solid Testimony, 2-Two haircuts free, 3-Three new companions, 4-Chocolate Milks, 5-Hours of gym, 6-Six Thirty Wake up, 7-Lukewarm Showers, 8-Hours of rest, 9-Vaccinations, 10-New Commandments, 11-Loads of Laundry, 12-Hours of classes. They are all really funny and true about the MTC.

Christmas Day the big surprise was the visit of Russell M. Nelson. He spoke in our Christmas Day Devotional and talked about missionary work. Apparently the following countries have been dedicated for missionary work: Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Angola, and Montenegro. Ask Jason Richards if he knows the capitals of all those countries. He also gave a funny quote where he was talking about people asking us if we believe in the Bible. He said "of course we believe in the Bible, our members wrote it!" It was comical. Elder Nelson also spoke in the Christmas Day Fireside where some MTC people did a condensed rendition of a Christmas Story, pretty well done. He also spoke at Priesthood Meeting on Sunday Morning about the Abrahamic Covenant and gave a ton of scriptures about it, very interesting. He also spent a lot of time explaining what the original Greek and Hebrew words in the Bible mean.

Not much else is going on, just class all the time. P-day is good, although the Temple is still closed so we have a ton of free time with nothing to do today. Haven't gotten to go yet unfortunately. Also, I have determined that the worst parts of being on a mission are the following: 1)Shaving every day, and 2)wearing a watch. I don't like either of them. But I''m coping. Just kidding, it's not a big deal at all, but I'm not used to it so it's kind of annoying.

Tell Taylor Richards congrats on her mission call! Anaheim California Spanish Speaking woooo!! That would be sweet. If I see any missionaries going there I'll tell them to look out. This week I also saw a Vanem! I was like 'Hey, my brother went to Estonia!' He was a solo elder though, and he was hanging out with the Elders going to Finland. I've also seen Elders this week with tags in Creole(going to Boston), Vietnamese(going to Australia), Cambodian, and Marshallese(going to the Marshall Islands). Whenever I see someone with a cool language on their tag I ask them where they're going. I've also seen Elder Dickson a fair amount this week, I talked with him for about 15 minutes before the Christmas Day Fireside so that was cool. In his district there's a kid who was in my ward at BYU.

Oh before I forget! The subject of my email refers to the Missionary Talent show which was Christmas morning. One of the numbers that was most hilarious was a bunch of Russian/Ukrainian elders got up on stage. Then they started singing Bad Romance by Lady Gaga but instead of singing 'caught in a bad romance' they sang 'you missionary now' in English with thick russian accents. It was hilarious. They also did a bunch of dancing that was reminiscent of the music video. Everyone gave them a standing ovation. We also got to watch Mr. Krueger's Christmas on Friday night, that was cool, being able to watch a sort of actual movie.

This week I read Our Search for Happiness by M. Russell Ballard and also most of True to the Faith. I'm also about 200 pages into Jesus the Christ and it is blowing my mind. James Talmage is the man. There's so much knowledge packed into that book that it makes the Savior a lot more real. It's helped me gain a greater appreciation for what He did while He was here. I also printed out and put up pictures in my room of some of the notable spots on our trip to Israel which helps remind me of what's good. I know this Church is true, and that Joseph Smith really is a prophet of God who translated the Book of Mormon. Love all you guys.

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

P.S. Tell jason richards thanks for the emails and I'll be writing him back. Also tell Sally Evans/Susan Hekking thanks for all the letters from people in the ward. Even though some of them still say 'have fun in Washington' its still good to get letters.

First letter from the MTC!

Cara Famiglia,

The MTC is great! Sto molto bene. Mi piace parlare in italiano tutti i giorni. Italian is the bomb.com. Sooooo...let's see if I can remember everything that's happened since Wednesday.

I got here, and went through the whole introduction, got my name tags and books and everything. My host missionary(who's Chinese speaking) told me my bag of scriptures/PMG/other stuff wasn't nearly as big as his, so I was glad about that. After all that stuff I went up to where we have hours and hours of class every day and met my teachers. They are awesome, their names are Fratello Bulloch and Fratello Taylor. They both served in Milan, Italy and are really cool. Fratello Taylor was actually the last American missionary to serve in the Switzerland part of the mission before the EU decided to be dumb and ban Americans from serving there. Hopefully that will change when I'm in the mission. We went through a gym orientation video on the computer and then met everyone in our district. My companion is Elder Scheurn(pronounced like sure with an 'n' at the end) and he's from Gilbert, Arizona. I asked him if he knew any Higginsons and he said the name sounded really familiar but he didn't know for sure. He's a cool guy, he played football and wrestled and did track in high school so he's quite athletic. Also in my room are Elders Wilkey and Portellano. They are both sooooo awesome. Elder Wilkey is from Bournemoth, England and has the sweetest British accent ever! Now our district says stuff like 'rubbish' and talks in a British accent all the time. Elder Portellano is from France, near Marseille and basically already speaks Italian because he studied it for a couple years in school. His English is a little shaky, he can speak pretty well but it's hard for him to understand when teachers/fireside speakers talk fast. He also finds the phrases 'What the heck' and 'come on' to be hilarious. It's soo funny to hear him say those two. Also in my district are Elder Cluff, from Provo, Utah about 5-10 minutes away from the MTC, he lives near Utah Lake apparently. His companion is Elder Murray from Filler or Filer, Idaho, I dunno how to spell it. Then the last companionship in our district of 8 is Elder Russo from Sacramento/Georgia and Elder Warren from Dallas, Texas. Our district is amazing, everyone is really cool and really dedicated to studying and learning Italian. Our teachers have us really excited to go to Italy.

Italian is, as I said, flippin sweet. It sounds so cool and I love speaking it all the time. When Elder Portellano doesn't understand things in English sometimes I explain them to him in Italian. I feel like I'm picking it up pretty fast, I can already pray, bear my testimony, tell the story of the first vision, and talk about a bunch of gospel stuff in the language. We have a district goal to only pray in Italian from now on. Oh also, I'm the district leader, so I get to coordinate stuff for our district and pick up mail every day! Wooooo!! Getting Dear Elder letters rocks, and packages rock even more. I've gotten the dear elder package mom sent and I'm going to pick up another package that I got after I finish laundry.

Oh also for Mom I met that Elder from Stafford, VA who is going to Rome. His name is Elder Luke and he and his companion Elder Miller are our Zone Leaders. They're both really cool and live two doors down from us. Ummmm, other stuff.....I put up my Italian flag in our room, so that's sweet. I'm also rockin my Prayer Rug in our room, it combines with the Italian flag for some sweet decorations. Other than that not much is going on, we have class all the time and it's nice to get P-Day today to just relax. Unfortunately the temple is closed for the next two weeks, but that just means more chill time on P-Day. I also dunno how to send pictures yet but when I find out I'll send some. I've only seen Elder Dickson a couple times, yesterday we met in the bookstore and bore our testimonies to each other in our languages. He also saw me from a distance on the first day and called my name out and waved as I was walking to my dorm.

The MTC is amazing though. The Spirit is so strong here and it's cool to see so many people focused on learning the gospel to serve people. Io so che la chiesa e vera, e che Joseph Smith e un profeta e vide il Padre Celeste e Gesu Cristo. Io so che Il Libro di Mormon e vero, e che siamo chiamati di essere missionari in Italia per servire il poplo d'Italia. That's a simple testimony in Italian, some of the 'e's should have accents on them but I don't know how to do that. Love you all!

Ciao,
-Anziano Benjamin Smith

P.S. Oh also we went to the TRC (Teaching Resource Center) for the first time yesterday. What you do is you talk to 3 people for five minutes in Italian, just getting to know them and then saying you have an important message for them that you want to talk more about, and try and get a followup appointment. It's pretty tough and my companion is struggling with the language a bit but he's learning well and can almost tell the First Vision story in Italian with some pronunciation a little off. Ma tutto e bene. Then after the Italian bit we go teach a first lesson to someone in English. It'll be that way for the first 4 weeks I think, then we do everything in Italian. Ciao!