A Plethora of Pictures from Piacenza (and Pisa and plenty of peripheral places), plus pizza!

Benjamin's captions are included.

American Military Cemetery in Firenze

Anziano Benson and I at our favorite Pizzeria in Siena. I may have sent this picture before.

Anziano Thompson and I!

Me in Pisa

Botticelli painting in the Palazzo Farnese

Church where they announced the First Crusades (there is a funeral going on!)

Cinque Terre

Fratello Rotelli and I in the church in Siena, he was the Branch Clerk

In front of the Siena Duomo

Knocking doors in San Gimignano

Me and Sorella Feri, the Relief Society President

Me with Simone Rotelli, who was a counselor in the Siena Branch presidency

Painting of David with Goliath's head

Pizza. If my recollection is correct, it was a four cheese pizza. Delicious.

Streetlight decorations lining the streets of Siena for the Palio. Viva l'Oca!

The chapel in the church here in Piacenza

This is of me at the Palazzo Farnese with a skyline view of a church in Piacenza

This will be on the cover of my autobiography when I'm President of the United States

Miracles!

Cara Famiglia,

[Photo not taken by Benjamin]

Well I don't have much time to do email, today we are in La Spezia. We went to Cinque Terre for Pday, which is arguably the prettiest spot in Italy. I don't quite have enough time to send pictures so for now you can look them up. We are on our way to Milano because there is a conference for new missionaries tomorrow. Also quick shout out to Elder Dickson in Mexico, I got his letter! It was awesome. I laughed a lot at all the things he wrote, and I sent him a really good return letter but after placing it in the mailbox I realized I forgot to write 'Messico' on the envelope. It might still make it?

The real story is that this week we got blitzed by the traveling assistants, and we saw a ton of miracles. Everything is going really well! I was with Anziano Osborn who is in the group above me and we had some sweet success finding new people, including Eugenio, a student who is studying Anthropology. He let us in as we were knocking doors and we had a great lesson. We also taught Bismar and helped him see what he was missing out on by not reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, and he is progressing now. We also taught Gerald, a really cool guy from Johannesburg, South Africa who is here studying. He had a lot of great questions and was interested in the Book of Mormon.

Then Anziano Benson and Anziano Sciarretta also had a bunch of success. They set a baptismal date with this new investigator we have named Anna Maria. She is a typical Italian lady from Siena and is doing really well. We brought our Relief Society president to the lesson and they hit it off. She has a baptismal date for the 29th of September! They also found apparently the Bolivian version of Joseph Smith, a kid named Rodrigo. He is super elect and is going to be baptized for sure.

I would invite everyone to read 4 Nephi again and see what happens when the happiest people of all time turn into super unhappy people in just a couple pages! It is a good reminder to be humble always, never thinking to ourselves that we've "made it" in anything we're doing. I know Jesus Christ is the perfect example of humility and following his example brings joy. I love this work and I know it is His work. I love you all lots!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Pictures! Woohoo!!

I can't send it home, but I also have a video of the blessing of the horse of the Contrada del Drago! It was awesome! The priest splashed holy water on it, and then he touched it with the case that holds the thumb of Santa Caterina! It was sweet! Then he said to the horse: "Vai, e torna un vincitore!" which means "Go, and come back a winner!"

1) Me with the Oca flag before the Palio
2) Anziano Benson and I at our favorite pizzeria here in Siena with the best view of the city ever!
3) The head of Santa Caterina from the 1300s
4) The horse before it's blessing
5) Me!
6) Me again!
7) Inside the Duomo on the day of the Palio. It was awesome!
8) Me under the Oca flag in the Duomo
9) Waiting on the campo for the Palio to start
10) Me, Anziano Benson, and Matteo (new convert from Livorno living in Siena for a couple months) on the Piazza watching the Palio opening ceremonies!
11) Us with a little flag of the winning contrada after the Palio
12) Me on the track after the Palio
13) Kind of a bad picture but it's me with the tie that Anziano Richards sent me from Denmark with a view of the countryside in the background.
14) Pubblicità for The Dark Knight Rises ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Pictures!

Pictures from recent Zone Conference

Pictures!

1) Chiesa di Gran Madre, which poorly translated means 'Church of the Big Mama' hahaha
2) The view of the Paramount Pictures mountain that you see from our apartment balcony
3) Anziano Russo and I hitchhiking on Christmas Eve on the way to a member's house
4) The Duomo of Torino
5) La Mole Antonelliana
6) La Piazza San Carlo in Torino with the Twin Churches

 

  

Picture from before transferring to Torino

Milan soccer stadium pictures!