Conference!

Ciao Cara Famiglia!

 

This week was basically highlighted by General Conference! We got to see the Saturday Morning session live on our Saturday night, and then Priesthood, Saturday Afternoon, and Sunday Morning(live) all on Sunday. It was great! They had some really good stuff, which I unfortunately cannot remember since I pulled an Anziano Smith and forgot my notes! I remember I liked President Uchtdorf's talk about living beneath Priesthood Privileges during the Priesthood Session, and hearing about the history of the Welfare Program. I also really liked the analogies David A. Bednar gave for receiving revelation; turning on a light switch vs. a sunrise. And the Waiting on the Road to Damascus talk from Pres. Uchtdorf. Too awesome! However, the best part was probably the shout out to the Rome Temple! We were talking to our Bishop about it afterwards and apparently he was at the groundbreaking ceremony and got to turn some ground! Right now I'm listening to some talks from Sunday Afternoon as I'm writing since we missed out on that session. We were going to print out all the talks we missed here in the internet place, but unfortunately the text isn't available until tomorrow! So I guess we'll just print them out next week.

 

Other than that this week has been pretty normal. Other big news is that Anziano Kimball and I are staying together for at least another transfer. They are actually adding a companionship of Sorelle here in Modena, so there are going to be six missionaries here in Modena and that will be our district! We will be the only Anziani, so Anziano Kimball will be the new DL. Should be good times. The new sister will be whitewashing here in Modena and training as well, and then one of the sisters who is already here is getting a new companion. The sisters are going to have the area divided for each companionship, and then we still cover the whole area.

 

Our investigators are going pretty well. Israel, who is Irese's brother and also Samson's cousin is really solid, he just can't get work off on Sunday! They also have a family friend named Sharon who has been present at a lot of the lessons we've taught their family. Both of them are basically ready to get baptized, they just need to come to church more. The main thing we're working on though is doing 20 invites every day to people we see in between finding activities and appointments. It's a mission standard of excellence to do so we're trying to do all 20 every day. It's cool because when we focus on doing it everything else seems to go better! The biggest hurdle is getting over ourselves and just not having fear of talking to anybody.

 

This week I received some missionary inspiration from 3 Nephi 7:18. Nephi is such a stud, he teaches so powerfully and strongly that it's impossible for the people to disbelieve him! And even when they couldn't not believe him, and they witnessed his miracles, they were still angry with him! I don't get some people. It inspired me in a couple ways - 1) We should try to teach with power and authority as much as possible, using boldness but not overbearance. This is a tough one for me because I have never been a super bold person, especially in sharing the gospel. But I have seen my fears of just walking up and talking to someone about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ diminish with lots of practice. 2) We are looking for the elect! Even when we teach really well and we know someone feels the spirit, they may not choose to act on it. It's a bummer, but we need to be finding the people that will receive us. I know that this work is truly the work of God! We are servants in the Lord's vineyard, and he is helping every day. I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world. I love sharing this knowledge with the people of Italy!

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Double Baptism All the Way!

Cara Famiglia!

 

This week was excellent! Last Thursday we headed off to Zone Conference in Verona. I didn't remember it all too well from when Mom and I went but it really is a beautiful city. It was really good, we talk a lot about the importance of inspired questions. One of my favorite things to do as a missionary is to think of really good questions that really dig deep in people to find out how the gospel can really help them. Even just asking why a lot is great! But in Zone Conference we took Jesus' example and asked some of his inspired questions to ourselves. It's really powerful asking yourself questions like "Whom say ye that I am?" "Where is your faith?" "Will you also leave me?" and "Lovest thou me?" It reminds me of how every transfer we do the Christlike Attribute activity in Preach My Gospel, which is great! Sometimes it feels like a game you can just never win, but it's good to try and progress to be more like the Savior.

 

On Friday we had an excellent day! I did my fingerprinting for my Permesso di Soggiorno so in about a month I should be totally legit here in Italy. Friday night was even better! Castro Ohene and Irese Asemota entered the waters of baptism, in addition to Castro's niece Jennifer! It was awesome. Samson got to baptize Irese since he got the Aaronic Priesthood last Sunday, Anziano Kimball baptized Castro, and an awesome recent RM from the ward named Jon Volpe baptized Jennifer. I've attached pictures. They are all amazing. Unfortunately though, at the time of this writing Irese has moved back to Nigeria and Samson is in Vicenza for a while before he goes to Holland to marry his fiancee! But we're hoping and praying that they stay strong and active in their wards. We even helped them find the addresses for the ward buildings nearest them. One of the best feelings in the world is giving recent converts a triple after they are baptized! That is our go to gift. Samson was already getting really interested in the Pearl of Great Price before he left! We hooked him up with a PGP manual that we found in our apartment.

 

Not much else is going on here in Modena. The weather is finally getting pretty nice, we are looking forward to when we can take our jackets off in the middle of April. Also today we finally made it to the Ferrari Factory! They have some pretty nice cars, some of which they let you test drive. Only 60 Euro for 10 minutes, and only 500 Euro for an hour drive to the mountains! We actually asked them and they just let us sit in it for free, I will attach pictures of that as well.

 

In preparation for General Conference I've been reading some of the talks from the last general conference. They are all so good! I was recently reading Richard G. Scott's talk "The Transforming Power of Faith and Character" and it is really good. 'You become what you want to be by consistently being what you want to become each day.' It applies really well to missionary work because we always have things to improve on. If we want to be a successful missionary, or obedient, or spiritual, we have to do those things every day! I can't just decide one day halfway through my mission to become the missionary I want to be, it requires work. I'm doing my best to keep improving each day so that I can look back on my mission and say 'I have no regrets; I did my best.' Keep doing the little things everybody, the church is true!

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

It's Raining Baptisms

Cara Famiglia,

 

I feel so spoiled in Modena! Everything is too good. But anyway this week was great! We've been doing a lot of teaching and running around to appointments, it actually felt really strange today during P-Day when we had a free hour of nothing. I was soooo bored! I thought to myself 'I would rather be out tracting than just sitting in the apartment.' But oh well, P Day is still good to relax. Next week we have plans to go to the Ferrari Factory place and then play soccer with one of our investigators who is getting baptized on Friday! This Friday is going to be epic, Castro is getting baptized along with two of his nieces(who the sisters taught). We are also hoping and praying that our other investigator, Irese, who is Sampson's cousin can be baptized on Friday. She is being interviewed by one of the President's counselors tomorrow while we're at Zone Conference in Verona, so pray that that can go well.

 

Other than that we have some new and old investigators progressing nicely. It's sad because Sampson and Irese are actually leaving Italy forever like next week! Sampson is leaving for Vicenza this weekend and then moving to Holland to be with his fianceè, and Irese is going back to Nigeria to be with her husband! We are going to miss them a lot, they are an amazing and super spiritual family. Sampson's other cousin and the brother of Irese, Israel, is a really smart guy who is progressing and very interested. The only problem is his work schedule that keeps him from being able to get to church, although apparently he is interviewing for some other job soon.

 

Last week something awesome happened! We were tracting in these really new palazzi and it was going okay, and we knocked on this door and he wasn't super interested, but we kept talking and he let us in! It turns out he was way nice, his wife(I think they're married, you can never tell here!) and 9 year old daughter were also there. We talked to them for like 20 minutes about what we believe and gave them a Book of Mormon with some reading to do. And then they invited us over for dinner! We were so shocked at how nice they were. They actually really remind me of the Barringer family in our ward. So we went over to their house last night and had dinner which was cool, and taught them a half-lesson about the Plan of Salvation. They seemed interested and had definitely done the reading we left, so we are hoping to get back and help them progress towards baptism! They would be the best addition to the ward here, they're so nice!

 

We also have a cool investigator named Guido who is really sincere. His biggest hangup is the idea of a God allowing suffering in the world. It's a tough question to answer sometimes, but we are making some great progress thanks to the scriptures! There are answers in there for everything!

 

Anyway, not much else going on here. I did another scambio in Piacenza with the District Leader, it was fun. Scambi are good times. Also the ward is still awesome, we are working on getting better at bringing members to lessons since we have so many that are willing to come and help out!

 

In studying for our lessons for Guido we look for scriptures about optimism in the face of adversity and how it's always a choice, no matter what, to be happy even if your circumstances are really terrible. We left him Doctrine and Covenants 122 to read, and I hope he does because it's really powerful! Another good scripture is Alma 28:12 and 14. Verse 12 is good about having hope for the righteous that are slain, and than verse 14 is great about missionary work and the effect it can have! One of my favorite things that happens here in Italy is people just willing to talk to us for like 20 minutes. Whenever we have conversations like that we also feel really good about it because we could just teach and testify, even if the numbers don't show a lesson or baptism or anything. It's good to make the non-number missionary work effective. I know this church is true and that the Lord really does prepare people gradually to hear the gospel. It's amazing to see!

 

I love everybody!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Email Lost

Boo! I wrote a nice email and thanks to the internet it's allllllllll gone. Suffice it to say this week was good. Sampson got baptized and then confirmed on Sunday. Pictures should be attached. We're hoping to have a five or six person baptism day on March 26th, so pray for that to happen. This week's spiritual thought is D&C 123:13-17. Waste and wear out your lives in spreading the gospel, even through small things!

-Anziano Smith

Modena Week 2

Cara Famiglia,

 

This week has been a good one in Modena! The weather has gotten a lot better than it was my first week. It's been at least sunny almost every day since last Tuesday.

 

So the big news this week is that we are hopefully having Sampson's baptism on Saturday! He's being interviewed tomorrow, so pray that that goes well and he can be baptized. We also have 2 baptisms scheduled for the 26th of this month, and then hopefully one the week after that, with another one on either of those days. Our goal is to get 6 baptisms for the transfer and we have five of them pretty for sure! It's a good time to be here in Italy, especially in Modena.

 

So yeah didn't really mention this much in the last email, but my companion is Anziano Kimball from Highland, Utah. He's a super cool guy and a great missionary, really good about taking the work seriously and is very obedient which is great. We get along together well, and are working hard.

 

The ward here is amazing! We have about 45 people that come regularly every week and we have a really nice ward building. It seems brand new, I don't know how old it actually is. We even have three guys in the ward who have all gotten back from serving missions in the past 2 months! Two brothers, who went to Paris and London respectively, and then one guy also named Sampson who served in the Rome Mission and gave his homecoming talk my first Sunday here. Everyone is great, and excited to do missionary work because they want Modena to be part of a stake.

 

Anziano Kimball and I are the only two Elders here, there are also two sisters, Sorella Langham and Sorella Snodgrass. They are good as well. Our district also includes Reggio nell'Emilia (they actually had a nice baptism in our chapel last Saturday that was cool), and Piacenza where our district leader is. I had a fun exchange in Piacenza with the DL's companion last Friday/Saturday, we had a sweet experience where some guy flagged us down as we were biking home for the night and talked with us with his wife for about 20 minutes about who we were. We got to give him a Book of Mormon and bear testimony and it was great. They are from Pisa but they were in Piacenza for work and apparently the man was always curious about who we are. Apparently there's some lame 'documentary' going around Europe that confuses Mormons with the Amish. And a lot of people mistake us for Jehovah's Witnesses too.

 

So this morning I really liked reading Helaman 3:35, in relation to Alma 17:2-3. It talks about how important prayer and fasting are and how we can grow in joy in our soul! It's great. The scriptures are amazing. I know this church is true and that the work here is truly inspired of God, and I'm amazingly grateful for the opportunity to work with the people here!

 

-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:

Modena Modena Modena! -- First Letter from the Field

Ciao!

 

So here I am in Modena, Italia. Yes, that Modena that is the birthplace to Ferrari and Lamborghini. We should be hitting up the museum for them one of these P-Days. Anyhoo, let's see if I can remember anything about getting here.

 

Flights were good, I still hate flying. We arrived in Milan about 5 pm and walked out of the terminal where the President and his assistants were waiting. So we got all our bags and everything and drove to the mission home in Opera, which is a southern suburb of Milan. We had some orientation stuff and did interviews with President Wolfgramm, and then did some tracting. I was quite nervous. It was Anziani Webb, Murray, Gray(one of the assistants) and I. We went and knocked doors in a couple Palazzi, it was awesome hearing real Italian! Even though I couldn't understand like anything. We had a fun experience where Anziano Gray left us to try it alone while he hid behind a corner, so we were talking to the guy and he said something really fast that none of us understood, so then Anziano Murray was like "....so can we come back another time and talk more?" Then he was like "oh, maybe." Turns out that what we didn't understand was that he said "I'm not interested and I'd prefer if you guys didn't come back." Fun stuff! We actually did get two return appointments though, one lady knew who we were and tried to invite us in like 5 times but we couldn't. After about 45 mins of that, we went back to the mission home and went out to a local restaurant for pizza. Italian food is soooooooooooooooooooooooo goooooooooood. I don't even remember what type of pizza I got or what exactly was on it, but it was delicious.

 

That night we actually got to sleep in a hotel in Opera, and then the next morning we went to the ward building in Milan for the Milan 2nd ward, where we found out our cities! I got Modena, in case you didn't know. Anziano Scheurn went up to Lecco, Anziano Portellano went to Torino, Anziano Wilkey to Prato, Anziano Russo to Pesaro, Anziano Warren to Udine, Anziano Murray to Ancona, and Anziano Cluff to Siena. Good stuff, some of the Anziani from the other district went to Trieste, Savona, Vicenza, Pisa, Alessandria, and I don't remember where else.

 

So then Anziano Kimball and I got on the train to Modena, it was about a 2 hour ride. The first night here was sweet. We got to the apartment, which is ridiculously large. It's just the two of us, but we have two bathrooms, a bedroom, a clothes room, a study room with two big desks, a living room, and a kitchen. I will try to send pictures. Also our landlord guy is amazing, his name is Silvio and when he talks to anyone he says "hai capito?" and the end of almost every sentence. We have a view of a couple soccer fields right outside our windows. So anyway, we put my stuff in the apartment and then headed out on our bikes. Modena is fun to bike around in because it's completely flat. First we went and visited a former investigator named Lorrena who we serve by helping her dad Angelo get up and walk around, he's pretty old so he needs some help with that. Then we went and taught a lesson to a guy we're teaching named Castro from Ghana. He's a stud! We taught him the Restoration lesson and I gave him the baptismal commitment and he accepted! He should be baptized on March 19th, and he's really interested in our lessons and stuff. Last night we taught him the Plan of Salvation part 1 and the Word of Wisdom and he seemed pretty on board. Our teaching pool is great right now. We have 7 investigators with Baptismal dates, although I still haven't even met all of them. We're teaching a guy named Daylight Sakey (goes by Sakey) who Anziano Kimball says is super ready and willing to be baptized, but his work schedule is ridiculous, so we don't get to see him that much. I still haven't met him. We're also teaching an awesome guy named Sampson Omogun from Nigeria, who's making a lot of progress and it feels like he teaches us when we have lessons with him. He's so ready! But don't worry, we are also teaching some Italians. Currently we're teaching a guy named Fausto who is cool and seems interested, but he's not progressing quite as fast as some others. We're also teaching a guy named Giuseppe who is a 20s age guy who's studying law, he seems really cool, we're just trying to get him to read and pray before we start teaching him more often.

 

So anyway, teaching is going good. We usually only do finding work if appointments fall through, because our days are literally filled with teaching people! It's crazy. We have to take like half an hour at least every day to call people to confirm and set up appointments. Doing casa (knocking doors) is fun. One of my favorite things is when people say they aren't interested we still ask them if they know anyone who would be. Everyone always says "Ah, no, non conosco nessuno" (I don't know anybody). We kind of laugh and say "ah I'm sorry, buona giornata!" Also the bike I've been using for the past week was pretty trashy, for example the brakes were essentially non-existent. So I had to buy a new bike today, which is solid and should last a long time. I also got a good shoulder bag to use for going around.

 

Let's see, other news not much is going on. My first gelato was excellent, you can get three scoops in a cone for 2 euro! I got Nutella, Kit Kat, and Ferraro Rocher. So good. But that and the pizza the first night are about the only times I've eaten outside our apartment since getting here. Every morning I usually have toast with Nutella, water, and some clementines. Lunch we make pasta very often, and then we don't actually eat dinner. Today for P-Day we still need to do shopping, and then a reactivating member named Luca is taking us on a 30 minute tour of the Duomo here. Should be sweet! We taught him a lesson last night about the Melchizedek Priesthood, he's working towards getting that.

 

So this week I really liked praying. The second night before I went to sleep I was feeling pretty homesick, but I had a good long prayer and then many the next day to help. I love being here and I love working to bring people closer to Christ. My favorite way to cure homesickness is to teach a lesson, it reminds me why I'm here and how awesome the Gospel is! Anyway, that's all the news for this week, until next time!

 

Ciao!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith