Week 4 in Busto

Cara Famiglia,

 

This week is going great! We are continuing to work with our progressing investigators and trying to find even more. Rafael is super solid, we are contacting him daily to make sure he's reading and praying and feeling the spirit every day. We are teaching him Tithing on Saturday, and assuming he accepts it he should be good to go for the baptismal interview the next Saturday and ready for baptism on August 13th. I don't know if I mentioned this last week, but he's already even payed to go on the temple trip with the ward in September! And his wife is becoming re-activated as a part of his conversion. I love eternal families! Filippo is up and down. Right now he is kind of in the middle of an upswing(we hope). He is good about reading when we leave him assignments, he just doesn't recognize that he knows the Book of Mormon is true! We are trying to help him recognize the spirit (thanks Preach My Gospel Chapter 4, you rock!). Akil is a stud. He is one of the coolest guys I've ever taught. Totally homeless and jobless but still has a strong faith in God. The only problem is he smokes, and because he doesn't have a job he doesn't know if he's going to stay here in Legnano much longer. But he really likes our lessons and gets a lot out of them. Keep praying for him! Alex is another baptismal date set for August 13th. He is also struggling but we are doing our best to help him along. We also set a baptismal date for August 20th with an investigator named Wilson, who is from Brazil! He is the man, really humble and sincere and all his answers to our questions are about 100% doctrinally correct! We are actually going to start trying to include his 12 year old son in the lessons too and help them both be baptized at the same time!

 

So basically all these people are awesome. We are working with them towards baptism and we are optimistic about all of them. We had a great training from the zone leaders yesterday in District Meeting about following up as a major way of helping people progress and sifting through to find the elect people, and it's helping out a lot. Life is good, and I love being a missionary here.

 

This week I've been trying to imagine myself a lot more as a non-member trying to imagine how I would get by without the knowledge I have of Christ, the Plan of Salvation, and everything the Gospel really entails. It kind of strikes me as how badly I've taken it for granted, this knowledge is the greatest thing in the world! So basically my spiritual thought of the week is to be grateful for everything that the Gospel gives, it's not something to be taken for granted. It also helps prayers a lot to be grateful for blessings. It reminds me of a cool Neal A. Maxwell quote I read either today or yesterday where he compares the dunes of adversity through life being dwarfed by the Himalayas of blessings that the Lord has given us. I'm so grateful for everything in my life! And I love you all!

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Dine and Fandy

Cara Famiglia,

 

In honor of Diana's birthday I though I would make the subject a spoonerism, in the spirit of how the work is going here in Busto Arsizio. Happy Birthday Diana! You rock!

 

Well the work is carrying on. We have four people with baptismal dates set for the 13th of August. Unfortunately, in Italy almost everybody leaves for a month vacation in August. We hope the ward is here to come to the baptisms. But they are all really solid people. The first is Rafael, who is still the man. We can only see him Saturdays and Sundays after church, but he is progressing really well and is already talking about going to the temple in a couple months. Next is Filippo, who we finally set a baptismal date with! He is cool, we just need to get him a little more focused. But he is finally progressing because he is finally reading and praying. We also had a miracle this week with a new investigator named Akil! He is this awesome guy from Albania. He's Muslim, and fought in the war in Iraq alongside Americans against Saddam Hussein, and when he came home his family called him a traitor against the faith. His wife left him for that reason, and his family basically hates him so he came to Italy. Now he's homeless and jobless, and yet really wants to meet with us because he "doesn't want to lose his faith." He is going to be baptized on the 13th of August, 2011. It is amazing to see the change in him as he accepts Jesus Christ as our Savior and continues to make the changes necessary to prepare for baptism. He is sooooooo great! Then the last baptismal date is the miracle kid Alex. We need to help him a little more to get ready, but we are really praying for him. He is searching for answers, and we know this is the response he is looking for.

 

Anyway I'm out of time, but I love you all! The Book of Mormon is the word of God.

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Best.....Week......EVER!

Cara Famiglia,

 

Can I just say this was probably the best week of my mission and thus the best week of my life? It is amazing to be here in Busto, Anziano Webb and I are tearing it up. We had sooooo many miracles this week and the work was on fire, all thanks to the Lord for preparing people for us to find. It started out last Friday, we went out for like 20 minutes before weekly planning started and we prayed that we could teach a lesson and find a new investigator. So we go to this park near our house and just start talking to people. We saw a guy down the path but felt inspired to talk to a girl before we got to him. Her name was Melinda, she's from Ghana, and she was asking all the right questions. It was amazing! My bad for not following the prompting to bring an English BoM when we left, but we said 'Will you still be here in 10 minutes?' and she said 'Yeah!' so we ran home and grabbed a copy in English. Then we came back and finished the lesson. She is awesome. Then later that day we talked to this Brazilian guy who had already met the missionaries about a year ago but had fallen out of contact with them. His name was even still in the phone! Aaaaand we met an awesome Italian lady named Francesca who was super interested in hearing about the gospel. That was Friday, but wait, there's still two more days in the week!

 

On Saturday we were doing finding in Busto Arsizio and got a call from a certain Massimo who neither of us remembered talking to, but who wanted to meet with us, so we set up a lesson in the church that afternoon. We saw him and taught him about the Restoration and he accepted a baptismal invite! Following which, we taught our progressing investigator Rafael with this amazing member Mario Ricca who helped us out a lot on the Plan of Salvation lesson, and set a baptismal date with him. And it didn't stop there! We went to teach a recent convert's parents a lesson, we were originally just going to teach the idea of God being our loving Heavenly Father, but as it started we just went to teach the full first lesson. it was unreal, we had a sweet lesson and everything was great. And then we challenged them to baptism and he said yes! And it didn't stop there either! That evening we had about an hour to knock some doors and so we found this giant 14 story palazzo. We start knocking, not much happening, and then Anziano Webb calls a door. He says 'we are totally getting in here!' A kid opens the door without a shirt on. We do a little approach and ask to come in, but he says no. Then we teach and testify some more...and he lets us in! His name was Alex. He started out not really being super religious (although he said he had studied with Jehovah's Witnesses in the past), but it ended up being an amaaaaaazing spiritual lesson. The spirit was seriously smacking everybody in the face. We did a short lesson for like 10 minutes about the Restoration, and then we challenge him to baptism!!! Dun dun dunnnnnn!! And he said 'It will take faith, but yes.' He is sooooooooooooooooo awesome!

 

And then Sunday rolled around. Sunday morning was really tense, as we were going in planning to talk to a bunch of the members and set up lessons with them. And then seven investigators came to church! It was unreal. We had Rafael, Angelo (who miraculously improved his progression over the past week), Massimo, Angelo's girlfriend, a guy named Carlos who randomly met the missionaries a year ago and who we met in the train station about two weeks ago and invited him to church, Filippo, and a Spanish lady who is living with this awesome family in our ward named the Bermudes Family. Seven!! It was amazing! Church was phenomenal, especially for Angelo who accepted a baptismal invite yesterday. The week was amazing. We taught a total of 22 lessons, it was ridiculous!

 

So basically the work is going crazy right now. We are addicted to inviting people to baptism. In fact, today we are going to invite a lady named Manuela to baptism who we met in the park yesterday and had an awesome lesson with.

 

In other news, the past two days the Traveling Assistants came and did an awesome two day scambio with us. Guess who I was with? Anziano Duersch, who is an amazing missionary, mainly because his trainer was Anziano Hekking! He is seriously awesome, and we tore it up. Between the four of us we taught 12 lessons in two days. Anziano Duersch really inspired me to be better and it was a sweet scambio.

 

So that's basically all that's going on right now. Keep up the prayers because we know they are working. We are so schocked by all these miracles that we keep asking ourselves whether we are really worthy of them! There are seriously hundreds. I know that this gospel is true, and that living it brings 100% joy to people. We see it every single day. Keep being awesome and I love you all very much!

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Busto Arsizio #1

Cara Famiglia,

 

Well here I am in Como for P-Day. Funny story, the reason we are here for P-Day is because at transfers I accidentally took Anziano Portellano's small bag and he took mine. It is fortunate that we are in the same zone or we would probably have to wait to get it for another week or so. We met here because it's halfway in between. Como is beautiful though! Also Busto Arsizio is awesome. Anziano Webb and I are tearing it up here. For the first time in my mission we are teaching all Italian people! Not that it's a bad thing, but in Modena a lot of the people we taught were African. It's just different. But we have some awesome investigators.

 

My second day here we challenged this awesome guy named Rafael to baptism and he accepted! He is a stud. The only problem is that he, like many of our investigators, is super busy and can only meet on Saturday and Sunday. But we're going to fix a date with him when we see him next. We are also teaching a cool guy named Filippo who knows more about the Bible than anyone I've ever met. Sometimes it's kind of distracting. We're hoping he can progress towards baptism because he's come to church four times and has a bunch of member friends, but he's just doing the bare minimum of keeping commitments.

 

So in fact we do not actually live in the city of Busto Arsizio, we live in Legnano, a small suburb about 5 minutes away on train. Both cities are smaller than Modena. We mainly work in Legnano, Busto, and another city called Gallarate, about 10 minutes past Busto on the train. The church is in Busto, and is the 2nd floor of a palazzo. We take our bikes everywhere even when we go to other cities.

 

The ward is really good! It is pretty big, although not quite as big as Modena. But it is still nonetheless a ward and we have awesome members. Sunday was a cool Sacrament Meeting, I bore my testimony about how happy I was to be here and it was great. Then we had this guy who's in our ward who's also in the Stake Presidency get up and bear his testimony about how the ward needs to help out the missionaries and told them to pray for us by name. It was pretty powerful, and we're working a tonnnnnn with members here. We have five lessons planned to teach members this week and will get even more the next week, we are trying to jumpstart missionary work through them. It really is so much easier and better that way!

 

So this week I did a scambio in Varese with our district leader and it was awesome. One of the best things I learned is the power of using the First Vision in finding people. We talk to people about something simple like prayer, faith, or the family, and then tie it to the Restoration. I told the First Vision on the street like seven or eight times in the past two days, and it works sooooooo great! We got so many people to listen to us and we gave out a ton of copies of the Book of Mormon too! It made me realize how grateful I am for that special and sacred event, and how powerful it is to share with people. I know that Joseph Smith really saw God the Father and Jesus Christ in that grove, and it is really a gift to be able to share it with people every day. To quote Ezra Taft Benson(although on a different subject) "I love this work, and it is work!"

 

I love you all and hope you are all doing great!

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Ciao Modena!

Cara Famiglia,

 

Well, the time has come. I am leaving Modena to go to Busto Arsizio, a city north of Milano in the Como Zone! I am actually pretty sad to leave, I love this city! But I am also really excited to go to a new city and meet new people. My companion there will be Anziano Webb, who was in the MTC with me at the same time and he's a stud!

 

This week has been great! Although our investigators are kind of bumming us out with not coming to church and being free for appointments, they are still all great. Paolo will be baptized sooner or later, he is too good not to be. Also we picked up this awesome guy named Ciro from the Sorelle. He is a stud and also needs to get baptized. He's tight and he makes us amaaaaaazing food all the time. He's from Napoli so he's a great cook and is basically the coolest guy ever. If I ever visit Napoli I will stay at his house, it is already decided. He's also teaching me a bit of Napolitano, it's awesome. Chris, a friend of Castro, is also a stud investigator but super busy and doesn't have a working phone right now so it's almost impossible to see him.

 

I am really going to miss all the people here, especially the amazing ward. The people here are seriously awesome, and I love them all.

 

I was reading Alma 5 again this week, which is definitely my favorite chapter in the whole Book of Mormon. It's amazing. I've probably written home about it before, but it is definitely something to write home about. This time I was struck by verses 48 and 49, and I kind of want that to be my theme as a missionary, just bearing pure testimony of the Savior and the Restoration of His gospel all the time! I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer who has indescribable love for us. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity I have to Preach His Gospel here in Italy and help in the great work of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. I love you all so much!

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Doin' Work

Cara Famiglia,
 
This week was good in Modena! Anziano Hutchinson and I are having a lot of fun and working super hard as well. We are doing a lot of finding work currently because our investigators are all super hard to reach/see. For example, Paolo, who is the man and will be baptized, works all week long and we can only see him on Sunday. If we could see him more he'd be baptized by the end of the week. Also Move to Napoli day from last week. But we are doing a lot of solid finding work, talking to a ton of people each day. My companion jokes about how many pass along cards I give out, I seriously go through like 50 a day. I'm hoping in the end it will work out! Even if one person reads one pass along card my entire mission and actually decides to listen it will be a victory! We are also cruising along on our goal to give out Books of Mormon this transfer, it's awesome.
 
We had our last District Meeting on Monday and had the Traveling Assistants come and do a sweet addestramento about how to get investigators to pray! It was sooo good and obvious and simple, but so genius. So we are excited to help investigators pray to know that the Book of Mormon is true. We also had a sweet in-depth discussion about Moroni 10:3-5, it's such a solid, true passage of scripture. Other than that Modena is going great. Dunno if I mentioned last week but we got a new Bishopric in the ward, which was surprising. But it was our Ward Mission Leader, and now we still don't have one, so we're kind of in limbo.
 
 This week I really liked a passage from 2 Corinthians, chapter 12 verses 6-10. It's a super good passage about humility and overcoming weaknesses. Every day as missionaries I think it's good to work on a weakness, because through Christ our weaknesses become strengths! It's like the mathematic example from Believing Christ, where even if my talents are only 2 on a scale of 10, with the infinite power of Christ it equals infinity! Kind of a cool thought I think. Can I just say I love being a missionary? This is already decisively the best two years of my life, and it's not even halfway done yet. I love this work, I love bearing my testimony every day, I love sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ every day, and I love you all! Thanks so much for everything!
 
-Anziano Benjamin Smith

Modena Week 17!

Cara Famiglia,

 

Well it sounds like everybody at home had a busy and fun week doing lots of things, but I have you beat because I'm on a mission in Italy! Ha! Pride aside(and also bad rhymes), this week was excellent, and today we are going to Parma for P-Day to go bowling with the Anziani from Reggio and Piacenza!

 

We had a sweet lesson with Paolo this week, he basically taught us about prayer and feeling the Holy Ghost. I love teaching him because the spirit is always super strong, probably how it should be in all lessons. He's really humble and sincere and definitely has a strong desire to strengthen his relationship with God, so we are excited to help him progress. He's sooo going to get baptized and sealed in the temple. The only problem is he works a ton during the week so we can only see him on Sundays after church. We also taught a good lesson with the miracle guy, Giuseppe, who is also trying to find God in his life. He's given us three bidoni though, and each time we had a member there with us. But we are still workin with him. Unfortunately we dropped Michael for now, he wasn't really progressing enough, but we are working hard to find some new investigators and help them progress. The work is going really good here.

 

This week also had the worst day of my mission. Last Friday we had four straight awesome appointments fall through, including two with a member. The worst part is that as part of one of the appointments falling through, one of our best investigators, Bouba, moved to Napoli without saying anything! It was a major bummer. And then literally 30 minutes later we called one of the other investigators who had given us a bidone and he had also moved to Napoli! It was literally Move-to-Napoli day, and it was not fun. But it was a good learning experience about how to cope with some major disappointment.

 

There was also a sweet zone conference this week, again held in Modena. We learned a lot about just how to be better in every way, especially in using the Book of Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon! I dunno if I mentioned but we had a goal to give out 50 copies this transfer and we are currently at 29, so we are on track to reach the goal. It's awesome to give people a copy of the greatest book in the entire world, for free too! We always try to literally pour out our testimony to people when we give them the Book of Mormon, it's really great.

 

Well this week I really liked reading some stuff in Doctrine and Covenants Section 6. My favorite is verses 22-23, which was conveniently already highlighted in my scriptures. It's a really good thought that we don't really ever lose a testimony, we just forget it momentarily! It made me think of the part in the New Testament where Jesus says the Holy Ghost will bring all things to our remembrance. A lot of times I think we need to simply confirm our testimony, not ask for a whole new one. I'm really grateful for the testimony I have that Jesus Christ lives as our Savior and Redeemer, who atoned for all of us. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know this church is true, and this work is amazing!

 

I loooooooooooooove you all!

 

-Anziano Benjamin Smith