Hey Arthur

Cara Famiglia,

We set a baptismal date with Arthur about 20 minutes ago! It was awesome! In fact, to explain who he is, he is a referral from a less-active family in our ward. He is from Peru and is 19 years old. This family took us over to see him last Friday because he's going through a rough time in life suffering from Hemophilia. But he has remarkable faith and really wants to follow Jesus Christ. So we went over and talked a little bit about faith and gave him a Book of Mormon in Spanish. Then we called him earlier today to find out when we could meet again and he said 'Come over in the next hour or so since I'm really tired from work.' So we sacrificed some P-Day time to go see him and asked him how the reading was going. He had read nine chapters in the Book of Mormon! And some various other parts. Then he started asking us some questions about life after death and such, and we proceeded to rock his world with the Plan of Salvation! We weren't going to but we said 'We can either teach you about what our church is(the Restoration) or the plan that God has for us in this life.' He answered 'the second one!' He understood everything and said it answered a lot of the questions he had! So then we set a baptismal date for November 12th! He is so awesome and humble and we are really excited to help him progress towards the waters of baptism. So pray for Arthur! 

In other investigators news, the pool is a little thin. But our teenagers are awesome; Saul is the man as is the aforementioned Arthur. We saw Saul last night and started talking about the Gospel but then ended up talking a good while about the Word of Wisdom with our all star member that we brought with us. However we still feel like he is holding something back, but he is still reading and praying and is really humble and has great desires. So pray for us to have the spirit of discernment so we can help him feel the spirit and see the need to be baptized. We also finally saw Roberta today, who is a referral from the Anziani in Varese. They taught her about six or seven times, and since they started the following things have happened in her life: her sister died of cancer, her daughter is addicted to drugs again, and she moved to a new city in our area. So her life is really hectic but she needs the Gospel really bad and recognizes that there must be something stopping her from meeting with us. She talks a lot during the lessons but says really good stuff! She is great, we can't wait to start teaching her more. Today we kind of re-passed the Restoration and next time we will watch the film with her about it to clear it up.

So the work is going really well. We are really stepping it up trying to talk to everybody and thus find more people to teach. Money quote from Preach My Gospel: "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find somebody to teach." The Lord is truly blessing us with lots of miracles and we can see his hand preparing people to receive the restored gospel. I am really grateful for the opportunity to participate! 

This week my spiritual thought is from 1 Nephi. I started over reading the Book of Mormon and I'm doing the activity where you color every time a reference to Jesus Christ is made. There are a lot! It's awesome to see. But anyway, in chapter 15 Nephi is talking about how Laman and Lemuel don't understand everything that Lehi says. And I quote:

6 And it came to pass that after I had received strength I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations.

7 And they said: Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive tree, and also concerning the Gentiles.

8 And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?

9 And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.

10 Behold, I said unto them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts?

11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.

I would echo what Nephi says in verse 11. I know that if we will soften our hearts and ask in faith, believing that we shall receive, with diligence in keeping the commandments, these things shall be made known unto us. Remember -- he that seeketh diligently shall find. Nephi is the man. I know the church is true!

I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

General Conference

Cara Famiglia!

 

Well this week was awesome, highlighted of course by General Conference, which was a spiritual powerhouse. I really liked basically every talk. I liked Robert D. Hales saying "Many times we pray for patience, but we want it right now!" and also Tad R. Callister's talk about the Book of Mormon was really good. But like I said, they were all amazing as you know. I love that we have living prophets and apostles guiding the church and receiving modern revelation! It is incredible! And a second temple in Provo, Utah! That will be awesome.

 

This week was good with investigators. We've taught [Saul] five lessons in a row with members present and he is the man. He's really sincere and super humble and understands everything really well. Unfortunately he stood us up to come to General Conference in Milano but he's still awesome. He just needs a super solid testimony of the Book of Mormon and he'll get baptized! But he is progressing really well. We kind of dropped Umberto, he just was not reading or praying and didn't understand why he should, even though our member just tears it up the lessons. We just bore testimony and talked about how prayer and scripture study are exactly what he needs but he wouldn't commit to do it! We might see him sometimes in the future. Also we had an awesome scambio two days ago where we found an Italian family of five! They are really nice and we are going back to see them on Sunday, so we're super excited to teach them. Basically everything is on fire in Busto Arsizio.

 

This week's spiritual thought is one of my favorite scriptures of all time in the Book of Mormon that I read this morning, in 2 Nephi 26:27:

27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.

It's great! Christ forbids absolutely nobody from salvation, we are the ones who forbid ourselves! I have gained a great testimony on my mission of the power of us to determine our own salvation(in a way) by making the right choices. I know that the best choice is to follow Jesus Christ and his perfect example, and I know that this is His church!

Lots and lots and lots of love!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Miracles and Conference Time Again!

Cara Famiglia,

Well we had some more great miracles this week! Busto Arsizio is amazing. It is good Anziano Webb and I are staying together because we are absolutely tearing it up over here! Last Thursday was amazing! (Probably because it was Austin's birthday!) It started in the morning, when we went to do some Parco. We weren't having much success, but then we found this guy named Renzo who was fixing something on his bike. We stopped and talk to him a bit, and then asked if he wanted to sit down. So we proceeded to sit down and present the Joseph Smith story and the Book of Mormon. We were about to just leave the Spanish Restoration Pamphlet because we didn't think we had a Book of Mormon in Spanish with us, but then BOOM! Anziano Webb pulled it out of his magic backpack! It was sweet. Then we proceeded to fix a baptismal date with him for October 22nd! Right there on the bench in the park. He is the man. We've taught him again since then and he actually gets it! He is awesome, so definitely pray for him. Then that afternoon we taught two lessons in casa! One was with a teenage kid from Morocco, the other with a 17 year old kid named Fanso from Senegal. We gave Fanso a Book of Mormon in French and taught a lesson in the hallway. It's really apparent that a lot of the teenagers here actually do want to know God, and are just trying to find out the way! Then we finished Thursday strong with a member present lesson with Solomon, our awesome Ghanaian kid who is progressing really well. He's another really sincere and smart teenage kid just trying to find the truth. He wants to be baptized but his parents are kind of against it, so pray for a miracle to happen there!

Other than that we are just keepin' on. We had a sweet lesson with another Temple Square Referral named Valeria, but she asked for a bit of time before she meets with us again. Oh well, at least she has a Book of Mormon now, and she even gave us one of her friends as a referral! We are still trying to work with [Ravith] and Elisabeth, but they are super busy, as is Luis. Umberto is doing okay, last night's lesson didn't go to well but we really want him to succeed. He just doesn't pray! Pray for him to pray! Anyway, the work here is just awesome, thanks for all your prayers and support!

This week's spiritual thought is centered on General Conference this weekend, for which I am soooo excited! It's gonna be awesome. I was reading through a bunch of the past conference issues and I found two talks that I really liked. One is called "That Your Burdens May Be Light" by Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy. Money quote: "Burdens provide opportunities to practice virtues that contribute to eventual perfection." The other awesome talk is called "Love and Law" by Dallin H. Oaks. I would recommend both as some warm-ups for Conference this weekend. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, and that the Book of Mormon is they keystone of our religion. I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

The Dream Team Stays Together! And more!

Cara Famiglia,

Well the news is that Anziano Webb and I are staying together for a third transfer! It is kind of unheard of, but the crazier thing is that our district leader is staying in Varese for his fifth! So our District will be mostly unchanged again. Anziano Anderson is actually going to open up a new coppia in Mestre, a.k.a. Venice! I am excited to stay with Anziano Webb though, he is a stud and we are both growing a lot together. 

This week was really good! We didn't quite reach the goal of 20 lessons, but we did some good work. Highlights include that we were finally able to come in contact with an investigator named [Janelle]! She is American, married to and Italian guy here in Italy! And she is awesome. She first met the missionaries about the year ago and is basically half-Latter-day Saint/half-Catholic. She is a really cool lady and is really truly honestly seeking to understand whether the Book of Mormon is true. She really recognizes it's importance and definitely has the faith and everything to get an answer. She just needs to read and pray about it! She says sometimes she feels 'foreign' reading it though, I think just because it's a new book of scripture, but she committed to read as much as she could and keep praying. She is sooooooooooooo golden though! Another highlight is we came in contact with a referral from Belgium, a 16 year old Ghanaian kid named [Saul]! He is a stud! He had an Italian Book of Mormon already from the missionaries in Belgium and had read about 14 chapters in 1 Nephi! And he is basically just awesome; at the end of the lesson he asked "So when are we seeing each other again?" We are also helping Umberto make some progress, he's feeling kind of unworthy to pray and feels a lot of anger in his heart over past situations he's had to go through, but we had an awesome lesson last night with a member who bore some solid testimony and helped him realize he needs to pray! Anyway, the work is going great here in Busto and we are really excited to keep working together. 

This week I would like to share as a spiritual thought basically all of Mosiah Chapter 4! It is amaaaaaaazing! Such good stuff about how the Atonement works and what blessings it can give us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is a true book of scripture, and I am so grateful to have it in my life and be able to read it every day! I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and that the Atonement is real. I love you all a lot!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Sacro Monte pictures!

From our awesome hike at Sacro Monte today by Varese! This was a series of 12 chapels that depict the life of Jesus, surprisingly including post-cross events! And the 'Ascension of Mary?' They were depicted with Terra Cotta statues, and it was awesome!

Busto Arsizio #11

Cara Famiglia,

This week went by pretty good! We did struggle to find new investigators though. But we have some good prospects coming up. We actually finally were able to teach this family that we found a couple weeks ago. Yesterday we taught them; the husband is [Ravith] from Sri Lanka, and his compagna is from Ecuador. He is Catholic, she is Evangelist, but they are both really cool and really receptive to the Restoration. They said yes to the baptismal invite! Giuseppe's situation has gotten a bit tricky, but we are still hoping it will turn out with the best. He seems to be experiencing a lottttttt of opposition from his family and acquaintances, which just means that he's that much more ready and will be a great member! I don't know if I've even mentioned Umberto before, he's an awesome guy who stopped us on the street a couple weeks ago and wanted to know who we were. It was a Saturday, so we invited him to church, and he's come every week since! That's three weeks! His progress is a little slow though, he is still hesitant to accept to be baptized, but we are working on it. And we are continuing to improve our finding so we can help get more people to come unto Christ.

This week I got to do a scambio with Anziano Kimball! It was really cool, also kind of strange working with him again. I think he's gotten to be an even better missionary than when he trained me, and we did some good work.

This week's spiritual thought is a powerhouse from Mormon chapter 9:

19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

Sometimes we as missionaries, and probably as members, underestimate the fertility of the area we live/work in for missionary work. We talked in District Meeting about how in all the cities all of us have served in, members have said 'Oh, this area is really hard to do missionary work in!' And too often we believe it! But the reason we may not see miracles isn't because the field isn't white, it's because our faith isn't strong enough to thrust in our sickle with all our might. We decided the best way to move forward in faith was to recognize miracles more often, and share them with members to help them see that missionary work can move along at a blistering pace. It was an interesting thought, and it worked really well last night when we tried it before teaching the Bishop's family. Members love to hear missionary miracles! So everyone who reads this should go ask the missionaries serving in their ward to hear about the miracles they see and then put their faith in the Lord and help share the gospel! I'm not trying to say that in a self-righteous or reprimand kind of way, but miracles can help strengthen faith a lot. I hope this spiritual thought makes sense, it does in my head.

But more importantly, I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Persevering pt. 2!

Cara Famiglia,

We are working hard here in Busto and Legnano, although we are still struggling to find new investigators. We have really improved our work with the Book of Mormon and our inviting, but we can definitely still improve. Keep praying for these people! Giuseppe is becoming a little flaky, his compagna is kind of holding up his progress. We haven't seen him, or any of our other investigators, in about a week. We taught 18 lessons last week and got some new investigators but they kind of dropped off. This week we have taught eight lessons the first two days and we have two for tonight, but they are mainly with members! Which is not a problem, but we are doing a lot of finding to harvest the elect. We unfortunately haven't been able to contact Elvis since we taught him in his house last week, but we did pass by and drop off a couple of copies of the Book of Mormon in Albanian for him and others in his family to read. But hey, even when the investigator pool is low the mission is still awesome! We see little miracles every day just to show that the Lord is preparing people. Yesterday we taught this lady a lesson on the street and talked all about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. And then we challenged her to baptism, and she accepted! It was great until she didn't give us her phone number. But she was really elect, and I'm really praying she reads the Book of Mormon and prays and receives her answer. 

We're emailing later today because we went to Milano for P-Day and saw a castle and a smaller version of the Arch of Triumph(sp?) from Paris. I love serving in Italy, everything is awesome, including the people! 

This week's spiritual thought comes from Romans 8, which is probably one of the best chapters of scripture I've ever read! In verse 18 it sums up pretty well one aspect of patience:

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

The sufferings we have in this life are 'not worthy' to be compared with the glory that awaits us if we are following Jesus Christ! It's a pretty humbling thought. I think sometimes we lose sight of the hope of better things, which is one of the easiest traps to fall into. However, we should be constantly hoping and searching to always move towards eternal life with our Heavenly Father. I know that this church is the true church of Jesus Christ, and that it is led by a living prophet of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I love you all!

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Pictures: The first three are from Milano today, the panorama one is a little poorly done on my part but it's not too bad. The last one is one of the main churches here in Legnano.