As you all hopefully know, on Christmas day, missionaries are all allowed to Skype or Facetime or whatever (or call) home. This was, of course, the highlight of the week. I will now describe the WHOLE week, very briefly with lots of parenthesis---
The week, starting today and running backwards:
Today we tried to find a way into a castle, the door had construction blocking it, and there was no other way in, so that didn't work. But we DID see the Galileo Galilei Museum here on the River Arno. It wasn't as cool as the Uffizi Gallery, but any scientist would enjoy it.
Yesterday: We recieved two cancellations of our appointments (we were 'Bedoned' (trashed)) we had a fun lunch with Mauro (talked about the Plan of Salvation over Pizza). At night, we met with the new convert Iyke, who we love and he is totally awesome in every way.
Monday: a few other Bedones, and we had a good lesson with a few people (Lo Priore family, and John Bravo (who always makes us Ecuadorian snacks or meals))
The week, starting today and running backwards:
Today we tried to find a way into a castle, the door had construction blocking it, and there was no other way in, so that didn't work. But we DID see the Galileo Galilei Museum here on the River Arno. It wasn't as cool as the Uffizi Gallery, but any scientist would enjoy it.
Yesterday: We recieved two cancellations of our appointments (we were 'Bedoned' (trashed)) we had a fun lunch with Mauro (talked about the Plan of Salvation over Pizza). At night, we met with the new convert Iyke, who we love and he is totally awesome in every way.
Monday: a few other Bedones, and we had a good lesson with a few people (Lo Priore family, and John Bravo (who always makes us Ecuadorian snacks or meals))
Sunday: We were supposed to all have talks as missionaries. The bishop scheduled us all to give 5 minute talks about missionary work with members, christlike attributes, etc. He told me that I would fill in whatever time there was remaining. I figured Anziano Hansen and Castronovo would just give 2 minute talks (they don't speak italian because they are new), I was afraid I would have to give a 15 minute talk or something. Instead, the Sorelle talked over 5 minutes each, and I gave a 2 minute talk at the end instead. Yeah!
Saturday: hmmm, don't remember really. We do Correlation at out Ward Mission Leader's house every saturday (His name is Cristian and his house is along a beautiful ride near Arno), we speak of our goals, investigators, lessons, families, etc. We did a few pass bys and had success with one who wants to meet us later this week. We worked on one street in the Fog... it would have been more beautiful but we couldn't see much. Check it out on street view? Viadi Santa Margherita a Montici.
Saturday: hmmm, don't remember really. We do Correlation at out Ward Mission Leader's house every saturday (His name is Cristian and his house is along a beautiful ride near Arno), we speak of our goals, investigators, lessons, families, etc. We did a few pass bys and had success with one who wants to meet us later this week. We worked on one street in the Fog... it would have been more beautiful but we couldn't see much. Check it out on street view? Viadi Santa Margherita a Montici.
Friday: Christmas, we had a luscious Peruvian lunch with the Cabezas family (another breathtaking ride), we watched Big Hero 6, then went to the church to talk with our families. They are doing well... So am I
Thursday: We had a dinner with some great people (an American guy from Livorno dating a Sister Boschi here in Firenze) the food was great, the hospitality was amazing, we are grateful to the fullest degree. I am happy.
Sorry, no photos again. I am a little lame at that, but sometimes it is hard to send them.
Love all of you, gotta go!
Thursday: We had a dinner with some great people (an American guy from Livorno dating a Sister Boschi here in Firenze) the food was great, the hospitality was amazing, we are grateful to the fullest degree. I am happy.
Sorry, no photos again. I am a little lame at that, but sometimes it is hard to send them.
Love all of you, gotta go!
Anziano Isaac Benge
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Buon Natale Tutti e Tanti Auguri
Happy Holidays everyone, This week is very very busy with Christmas and we've been trying to hand out so many 'E Nato un Salvatore' cards. We go caroling all the time, we give the cards out to members, and yet we still have thousands to give in just a few short days... Not. Christmas lasts here until January 6th and they celebrate it the whole way. (Not really Christ's birth, just celebrating in general.)
A main part of this week, yesterday, was Zone Training Christmas. It was a normal zone training, and then at the end we had some wonderful homemade eggnog from the Sorelle missionaries and chocolate mousse. There was also a gift exchange (secret santa) and I got Dutch waffles, and gave a famous Firenze tie and some Top Ramen. Yeah! And yes, I got my mail.. yay!
It's been overcast, but I love the weather. The people aren't really friendly, but I love being a missionary!!! I hope I don't forget to write about Christmas, that would be awkward, but I am really excited because we have awesomeness planned.
Another weird thing. We went to the Istituto Prosperius to set an appointment for an MRI on my companions back, but they couldn't schedule one except the day of... so we worked out the insurance (in Italian) and then scheduled an MRI for 2 hours later (in italian). Let's just say that I grew my vocabulary a lot on Monday. We did the MRI and we get the results tomorrow.
I am very grateful to be here in Firenze this Christmas, (although I also have to give a talk next sunday, darn). I love the mission, I love the people. I love Austin and Iyke, I love Mauro (who got the priesthood last sunday!). I love Italy.
A main part of this week, yesterday, was Zone Training Christmas. It was a normal zone training, and then at the end we had some wonderful homemade eggnog from the Sorelle missionaries and chocolate mousse. There was also a gift exchange (secret santa) and I got Dutch waffles, and gave a famous Firenze tie and some Top Ramen. Yeah! And yes, I got my mail.. yay!
It's been overcast, but I love the weather. The people aren't really friendly, but I love being a missionary!!! I hope I don't forget to write about Christmas, that would be awkward, but I am really excited because we have awesomeness planned.
Another weird thing. We went to the Istituto Prosperius to set an appointment for an MRI on my companions back, but they couldn't schedule one except the day of... so we worked out the insurance (in Italian) and then scheduled an MRI for 2 hours later (in italian). Let's just say that I grew my vocabulary a lot on Monday. We did the MRI and we get the results tomorrow.
I am very grateful to be here in Firenze this Christmas, (although I also have to give a talk next sunday, darn). I love the mission, I love the people. I love Austin and Iyke, I love Mauro (who got the priesthood last sunday!). I love Italy.
Questions, comments, ideas, I'm always here:
-- isaac.benge@myldsmail.netAnziano Isaac Benge
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Florentino Fun
I definately sent an email last week; where it went, I know not.
Anyway, the good news for this week is that I am in Florence, (Firenze) and that we got transfer calls, and Anziano Hansen and I will be both staying here. Joyous news!
Other really goodnessess: Mauro is being baptized this Saturday by Anz. Hansen because he's been interviewed (surprise) and everything was just thrown together, but here we are! That will be great to see.
Good news: Tomorrow I should have my Permesso di Soggiorno again, I'll be heading up to Padova really early in the morning to get my replacement. It will be so nice not to worry about that! Friday we have a doctor appointment for Hansen's knee, and hopefully that will happen and we can figure that all out too.
The work is really steaming down the track, we get wrapped up tight and do work in the cold and it's so fun and happy. truly
We meet with Fratello Bravo, he's from Ecuador and we made him American Bacon Jalepeno Burgers with Scamorza Affumciata as the cheese. That was super good! I miss burgers sometimes. I bore my testimony in church. Pdays we visit museums (like: The Uffizi and Piazza Vecchia and Galleria Accademia), I couldn't be happier.
Tuscany is amazing, the people are amazing. The mission is amazing.
This week the Sorrelle Missionarie had a really good idea, they decided to wrap our Christmas Bigliettini (pass along cards) in gold wrapping paper, tied with a silver bow. The message is of Christ: christmas.mormon.org
or here: natale.mormon.org
and we took the Gift of Christmas to Piazza Sant'Ambroggio and did some caroling in Italian! We handed out so many of those gold wrapped cards! It was amazing and spiritual, the best part was that 2 random men jumped in and sang with us on one of the Italian hymns. We are definitely doing that every Sunday night now! Very effective and heart-warming.
Shout out to Anz. Hansen's mom who gave us 25 small gifts for Christmas, we open one every day as directed and it makes our mornings!
I love you all, I hope I explained enough because I gotta go! Any questions, ire, comments, or rhetorics?
--
Anyway, the good news for this week is that I am in Florence, (Firenze) and that we got transfer calls, and Anziano Hansen and I will be both staying here. Joyous news!
Other really goodnessess: Mauro is being baptized this Saturday by Anz. Hansen because he's been interviewed (surprise) and everything was just thrown together, but here we are! That will be great to see.
Good news: Tomorrow I should have my Permesso di Soggiorno again, I'll be heading up to Padova really early in the morning to get my replacement. It will be so nice not to worry about that! Friday we have a doctor appointment for Hansen's knee, and hopefully that will happen and we can figure that all out too.
The work is really steaming down the track, we get wrapped up tight and do work in the cold and it's so fun and happy. truly
We meet with Fratello Bravo, he's from Ecuador and we made him American Bacon Jalepeno Burgers with Scamorza Affumciata as the cheese. That was super good! I miss burgers sometimes. I bore my testimony in church. Pdays we visit museums (like: The Uffizi and Piazza Vecchia and Galleria Accademia), I couldn't be happier.
Tuscany is amazing, the people are amazing. The mission is amazing.
This week the Sorrelle Missionarie had a really good idea, they decided to wrap our Christmas Bigliettini (pass along cards) in gold wrapping paper, tied with a silver bow. The message is of Christ: christmas.mormon.org
or here: natale.mormon.org
and we took the Gift of Christmas to Piazza Sant'Ambroggio and did some caroling in Italian! We handed out so many of those gold wrapped cards! It was amazing and spiritual, the best part was that 2 random men jumped in and sang with us on one of the Italian hymns. We are definitely doing that every Sunday night now! Very effective and heart-warming.
Shout out to Anz. Hansen's mom who gave us 25 small gifts for Christmas, we open one every day as directed and it makes our mornings!
I love you all, I hope I explained enough because I gotta go! Any questions, ire, comments, or rhetorics?
Anziano Isaac Benge
The Uffizi museum
other casual famousness at the Galleria Accademia
the Cathedral from vantage of the tallest tower at the 'Town Hall'
The Uffizi museum
other casual famousness at the Galleria Accademia
the Cathedral from vantage of the tallest tower at the 'Town Hall'
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
South: guess where I am
A man and wife from Mississippi sat across from me on the train today. Why am I on a train? Good question.
A missionary was waiting for his papers to come to Italy, he got them and needed a companion to travel with him. The companion chosen was Anziano Foremaster's trainee... Which means I'm leaving...
Where am I? Good question.
The Trainer of Anziano Hansen (in his eight week) was asked to be in the mission office, they needed someone to finish training him. That someone was me. I am now senior companion, trainer, and also District Leader.
What on Earth is happening? Chaos.
I missed my train (it left early, curse Milano, it negates the ticket) and I only had €25, you cannot go to anywhere with €25 , Anziano Foremaster had a prompting to return, to check on me. He found me (without a phone mind you) asking people to borrow a phone. We pooled our money together and bought the 50 Euro ride with only 40 cents to spare between us. I boarded, and thus, I met these Mississippians.
I talked with them. I helped them find stuff, I shared the gospel. I thanked them as I got off. They asked: "so you mentioned that Italy is pretty safe."
"Yes, but I did get robbed last month." I say.
"So you don't have money?!" The wife gasps.
"No it's alright, the church office helps when our funds our low." I half lie, I currently have only copper coins in my pocket.
"Take this." The Mississippi drawl of the husband is interrupted as he drops a wad of Euro in front of me. It's fifty euro.
"I can't take this!" My stop is approaching and I'm protesting. These aren't members and I'm haven't even asked their names yet!
"Of course you can; and you will." The money is shoved into my bag before i can escape with my heavy encumbering luggage.
This is how I came to not be poor. What a blessed day.
Anziano Hansen comes from a family of 4 (a mom, and three brothers), he's the youngest. He's from Farmington and went to Davis. He's totally awesome, very energetic, and plays basketball and baseball.
Where am I?
(P.s. The work in Muggiò was really great too, lots of biking and lessoning. Anziano Foremaster is happy to have a trainee.)
1- outside my new apartment window
2- Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore
3- Anziano Hansen and my weird selfie face
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
You all thought wrong, I am sorry.
Wednesday night: Anziano Squire and I left at night to catch a train
to Milano. He is training a 'greenie' and I was going to be with
Hales. So I thought. That night, in the Navigli apartment, we got a
call from the mission president. Anziano Hales was having digestive
problems, and it hadn't seemed so serious, but the medical team the
church had just contacted him that night to tell us that Hales would
have to go home. He'll be able to come back out, but first he had to
resolve the sickness.
He was supposed to leave today, and we were going to be in a threesome
of missionaries up in the area of Muggiò. We arrived Thursday to
transfer circles to meet with Anziano Foremaster from Las Vegas, he
was instead going to be the senior comp. of us three and take us back
to Muggiò.
Thursday's chaos: on the train ride to the 'peasini' near Muggiò (the
work takes place in several tiny towns, the apartment is in Nova
Milanese) Hales gets a call and learns that there is a boycott for the
flight on Wednesday, he will instead leave on that Saturday. Whoa, so
we only get one day as a trio, then Hales would be home.
We teach an investigator named Francesco about the Word of Wisdom and
halfway through the lesson we get a phone call from president. We now
learn that Hales will not go home Saturday, but tomorrow, Friday the
13th with all the other returning 'dying' Missionari.
Whoa, they are going to take him to the mission home that night. We
run home, cancel an appointment, get together Hales' luggage and he is
whisked away without ado. Now you might be wondering: Who was
Foremaster supposed to be with? The answer is: he was supposed to
train a new missionary greenie as well, but his companion, Elder
Domes, had just received a surgery and would come a transfer late.
Friday: a normal day of missionary work in Lissone, Seregno, Muggiò,
etc. we bike everywhere at a hasty speed. So many kilometers are
covered and so many people are taught...
Saturday we get a call from president that tells us that SURPRISE,
Anziano Domes is coming on Wednesday (18th) and I am supposed to go to
Bergamo and be in a threesome there! I will be the senior companion of
three and I'm supposed to be in Bergamo until the end of the transfer.
President thanks me for being so malleable and flexible then hangs up.
So am I at Bergamo? No! He calls us again on Monday and tells us that
Domes is NOT coming, the mission office has changed their mind again.
Arghhhhh. Anyway. Until I get another surprise tonight or tomorrow, I
am serving in Muggiò with Anziano Foremaster.
I have to do much to unpack, and I don't trust that I'll be here long,
but.... Yeah
Saturday was the awesome day. I came here just in time to see our
investigator Benjamin get baptized and set apart on Sunday. We are
also working with Joshua (bapdate of Dec. 5), Francesco (to be
baptized in December), Nicola (a strong investigator), and many less
actives and members.
I already like this ward immensely.
Eventually I will stay put somewhere, but I know that the work is
going forth and I love it all the same. I hope I didn't confuse
anyone...
Vi voglio bene
--Anziano Benge
to Milano. He is training a 'greenie' and I was going to be with
Hales. So I thought. That night, in the Navigli apartment, we got a
call from the mission president. Anziano Hales was having digestive
problems, and it hadn't seemed so serious, but the medical team the
church had just contacted him that night to tell us that Hales would
have to go home. He'll be able to come back out, but first he had to
resolve the sickness.
He was supposed to leave today, and we were going to be in a threesome
of missionaries up in the area of Muggiò. We arrived Thursday to
transfer circles to meet with Anziano Foremaster from Las Vegas, he
was instead going to be the senior comp. of us three and take us back
to Muggiò.
Thursday's chaos: on the train ride to the 'peasini' near Muggiò (the
work takes place in several tiny towns, the apartment is in Nova
Milanese) Hales gets a call and learns that there is a boycott for the
flight on Wednesday, he will instead leave on that Saturday. Whoa, so
we only get one day as a trio, then Hales would be home.
We teach an investigator named Francesco about the Word of Wisdom and
halfway through the lesson we get a phone call from president. We now
learn that Hales will not go home Saturday, but tomorrow, Friday the
13th with all the other returning 'dying' Missionari.
Whoa, they are going to take him to the mission home that night. We
run home, cancel an appointment, get together Hales' luggage and he is
whisked away without ado. Now you might be wondering: Who was
Foremaster supposed to be with? The answer is: he was supposed to
train a new missionary greenie as well, but his companion, Elder
Domes, had just received a surgery and would come a transfer late.
Friday: a normal day of missionary work in Lissone, Seregno, Muggiò,
etc. we bike everywhere at a hasty speed. So many kilometers are
covered and so many people are taught...
Saturday we get a call from president that tells us that SURPRISE,
Anziano Domes is coming on Wednesday (18th) and I am supposed to go to
Bergamo and be in a threesome there! I will be the senior companion of
three and I'm supposed to be in Bergamo until the end of the transfer.
President thanks me for being so malleable and flexible then hangs up.
So am I at Bergamo? No! He calls us again on Monday and tells us that
Domes is NOT coming, the mission office has changed their mind again.
Arghhhhh. Anyway. Until I get another surprise tonight or tomorrow, I
am serving in Muggiò with Anziano Foremaster.
I have to do much to unpack, and I don't trust that I'll be here long,
but.... Yeah
Saturday was the awesome day. I came here just in time to see our
investigator Benjamin get baptized and set apart on Sunday. We are
also working with Joshua (bapdate of Dec. 5), Francesco (to be
baptized in December), Nicola (a strong investigator), and many less
actives and members.
I already like this ward immensely.
Eventually I will stay put somewhere, but I know that the work is
going forth and I love it all the same. I hope I didn't confuse
anyone...
Vi voglio bene
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Transfers: Farewell to Padova
Saturday morning: Jeff Tume shows up at the church, we started filling up the font a little bit late, its not quite full enough when noon rolls around. We proceed anyway, Jeff Tume was baptized here in Padova by my hand; we had to do the deed twice, because a knee popped up, but it was good.
He was confirmed and recieved the Holy Ghost on Sunday through Anziano Driver's blessing.
Later, during a short lunch with Brother Tume, we recieved our transfer calls.
I was expecting to stay here in Padova for one more transfer, but SUPRISE!!!!
I will be returning to Milano (darn) but in the area of Navigli, the southern part.
My companion will be Anziano Hales, and I will be senior companion (but only six transfers old?)
Yay, the problem is that the ticket costs more money than I had, after getting robbed, Milano costs way to much and so the Office is going to have to help me a lot. Anziano Squire will be training a greeny here in Padova, Driver and Scoggin are also staying.
The week has been sad, I wont see Tenal nor Voltalina get baptized, but it is all well. I love my calling, and I love the church.
You'll hear from me next in Milano! ciao
--
Thanks for all the birthday wishes, I believe this was one of the best
weeks but not because of my birthday....
The work is really great, Tenal is excited for baptism. Fratello
Voltalina is ready for next week. We are loving the Italian autumn.
Nothing could be better... But wait there's more
Sunday came along, Jeff (an investigator of the other Elders), he came
to me and asked me how I was. Then there was a surprise... Jeff is
being baptized this coming Saturday (7th) and he wants me to do the
honors of baptism! Whoa... I've never been to a lesson with him or
anything but he said that the spirit prompted him to ask me. Anziano
Driver and Scoggin might be confused, maybe even a little angry, but
I'm so excited!
Monday we went to the Zuppa family for a surprise party. Surprise, I
knew it was a surprise party. Trick is on them. The were kind enough
to buy me a cake and even a Tshirt. They are so nice.
Another cool couple, Stephano and Lorella, they are investigating the
church as well (the other Anziani's) but they bought me a hat. Driver
bought me a scarf, he even made me a peanut butter silk cake. What
huge gratitude I have to him! That was all yesterday.
I love this mission and I hope to change Italy for the best! Love you all
-1- real Italian pizza, finally
-2- Fratello Voltalina and his creamy cake of Nutella
-3- Italy graffiti in Padova
--Anziano Benge
--Anziano BengeSunday: a Lutheran church invited us missionaries to go sing in
Venice. The event says it is a multi-denominational choir concert.
Turns out, it was actually just a normal Lutheran service because the
missionaries are the only non-Lutherans to show up. Five o'clock rolls
around and we go sit in the unpadded pews. We wait through the entire
mass service, reciting scripture (Abraham apparently ate focaccia),
and we listened to their speakers and their choir. All of the songs
were in English, the talks and scriptures in Italian, the program was
in German... At the end, there were refreshments and that's when we
sang. We preformed Genti Guardate, (Hark all ye nations) , and I am a
child of God in Italian, nobody listened, but we did bring the spirit
in, finally.
Today we have to do emails because tomorrow there's a meeting for
Squire as district leader... Yeah, no real Pday... Oh well. Gotta
go... Enjoy these photos of Venice I took.
place. Yeah, Padova is fantastic, but Italy in general is still
unnervingly awesome. They sell everything by the kilo, they have
gorgeous churches everywhere (more than they have gas stations), the
food is bomb. This week we were invited to go sing in a Lutheran
church by our stake, 12 missionaries have the opportunity to go sing
these hymns, but even greater... The church is famous and is in
Venice...
Lucky me, I will be able to tell people I sang in a choir at Venice!
The updates on my robbery last week: we haven't recovered anything and
we're still working on getting new Permits of Stay. Members were asked
to provide food for us by the bishop.
We ate a meal at the Zuppa family's (see photo) this past Sunday.
We've had many things dropped off for us, our fridge is jammed with
Italian snacks, we have infinite Ragu. It's all well.
The work: Tenal had his baptism moved to November 14, which means that
I might get transferred and miss it. Voltalina and Wilfred are
progressing spectacularly and we will see them enter the water soon.
Work is very fine and detailed.
Everything slowed down a bit this last week with the robbery and
pouring rainy weather, but it's all picked up nicely.
I know this church is true and the work is going forth !
If you have comments, questions, concerns or complaints
Just email me :)
--Anziano Benge
(Real spaghetti and spaghetti sauce: not the healthy unoily stuff in
America) Sorella Zuppa serving up dinner....
This transfer will be great, and I'm looking forward to it. Love this gospel and mission. Questions?
--Anziano Benge
companions, Anziano Driver and I finally found them both at the train
station. Anziano Scoggin is Driver's junior companion, he is from
Boise, but did some college at BYU. He loves reading and playing Magic
the Gathering. Sadly, he is also a vegetarian, lunches are now
strange.
My companion is from Kansas City. Anziano Jacob Squire also went to
BYU, he loves music, played in a band, he has a slight lisp and treats
his bike like it could explode any second, but he is very energetic
and diligent. He adores member work and already loves Padova. I really
like him and he's going to teach me a lot it seems.
This week has already been fabulous. We met with Wilfred on Friday and
gave him a restoration lesson, we also met with him Monday and he said
he will come to church. He is so humble, extremely willing to learn.
We've also met Fratello Voltalina, who is working to get rebaptized.
We are sure he is ready And our lesson is awesome. He also made a
Nutella cake that we ate, our dinner with him on Friday will be
delicious.
We printed out a pass along card, 530 copies or so, and we really hope
that it's gonna do good.
The main thing this week had been General Conference, ovviamente, and
three new apostles! Here, we watched the Saturday morning session at
6pm live on Saturday and then watched priesthood and the afternoon on
Sunday morning, then Sunday morning's session at 6pm again. I loved
the talks, and I was fortunate enough to hear it in English so I got
all 100% instead of pieces in Italiano.
He was confirmed and recieved the Holy Ghost on Sunday through Anziano Driver's blessing.
Later, during a short lunch with Brother Tume, we recieved our transfer calls.
I was expecting to stay here in Padova for one more transfer, but SUPRISE!!!!
I will be returning to Milano (darn) but in the area of Navigli, the southern part.
My companion will be Anziano Hales, and I will be senior companion (but only six transfers old?)
Yay, the problem is that the ticket costs more money than I had, after getting robbed, Milano costs way to much and so the Office is going to have to help me a lot. Anziano Squire will be training a greeny here in Padova, Driver and Scoggin are also staying.
The week has been sad, I wont see Tenal nor Voltalina get baptized, but it is all well. I love my calling, and I love the church.
You'll hear from me next in Milano! ciao
Anziano Isaac Benge
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Auguri
Thanks for all the birthday wishes, I believe this was one of the best
weeks but not because of my birthday....
The work is really great, Tenal is excited for baptism. Fratello
Voltalina is ready for next week. We are loving the Italian autumn.
Nothing could be better... But wait there's more
Sunday came along, Jeff (an investigator of the other Elders), he came
to me and asked me how I was. Then there was a surprise... Jeff is
being baptized this coming Saturday (7th) and he wants me to do the
honors of baptism! Whoa... I've never been to a lesson with him or
anything but he said that the spirit prompted him to ask me. Anziano
Driver and Scoggin might be confused, maybe even a little angry, but
I'm so excited!
Monday we went to the Zuppa family for a surprise party. Surprise, I
knew it was a surprise party. Trick is on them. The were kind enough
to buy me a cake and even a Tshirt. They are so nice.
Another cool couple, Stephano and Lorella, they are investigating the
church as well (the other Anziani's) but they bought me a hat. Driver
bought me a scarf, he even made me a peanut butter silk cake. What
huge gratitude I have to him! That was all yesterday.
I love this mission and I hope to change Italy for the best! Love you all
-1- real Italian pizza, finally
-2- Fratello Voltalina and his creamy cake of Nutella
-3- Italy graffiti in Padova
--Anziano Benge
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Singin' in Venice
--Anziano BengeSunday: a Lutheran church invited us missionaries to go sing in
Venice. The event says it is a multi-denominational choir concert.
Turns out, it was actually just a normal Lutheran service because the
missionaries are the only non-Lutherans to show up. Five o'clock rolls
around and we go sit in the unpadded pews. We wait through the entire
mass service, reciting scripture (Abraham apparently ate focaccia),
and we listened to their speakers and their choir. All of the songs
were in English, the talks and scriptures in Italian, the program was
in German... At the end, there were refreshments and that's when we
sang. We preformed Genti Guardate, (Hark all ye nations) , and I am a
child of God in Italian, nobody listened, but we did bring the spirit
in, finally.
Today we have to do emails because tomorrow there's a meeting for
Squire as district leader... Yeah, no real Pday... Oh well. Gotta
go... Enjoy these photos of Venice I took.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
A quick update from Italy....
place. Yeah, Padova is fantastic, but Italy in general is still
unnervingly awesome. They sell everything by the kilo, they have
gorgeous churches everywhere (more than they have gas stations), the
food is bomb. This week we were invited to go sing in a Lutheran
church by our stake, 12 missionaries have the opportunity to go sing
these hymns, but even greater... The church is famous and is in
Venice...
Lucky me, I will be able to tell people I sang in a choir at Venice!
The updates on my robbery last week: we haven't recovered anything and
we're still working on getting new Permits of Stay. Members were asked
to provide food for us by the bishop.
We ate a meal at the Zuppa family's (see photo) this past Sunday.
We've had many things dropped off for us, our fridge is jammed with
Italian snacks, we have infinite Ragu. It's all well.
The work: Tenal had his baptism moved to November 14, which means that
I might get transferred and miss it. Voltalina and Wilfred are
progressing spectacularly and we will see them enter the water soon.
Work is very fine and detailed.
Everything slowed down a bit this last week with the robbery and
pouring rainy weather, but it's all picked up nicely.
I know this church is true and the work is going forth !
If you have comments, questions, concerns or complaints
Just email me :)
--Anziano Benge
(Real spaghetti and spaghetti sauce: not the healthy unoily stuff in
America) Sorella Zuppa serving up dinner....
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Ladri, a story of sadness.
You know, really just a normal week except that WE GOT FLIPPIN' ROBBED! It was terrible.
It was the early morning on the 8th of October, sometime while we were sleeping. One of our balcony doors was accidentally left open and someone managed to climb up onto our balcony, open the door, and steal stuff.
Not a single person awoke, so we are thankful we got robbed instead of murdered, but that morning was interesting. Nothing in our bedrooms was taken, and only the two studies got robbed, but we awoke and couldn't find the cellphone for Squire and I. We searched the whole bedroom (where we usually keep it) and then went in the study. The next few minutes were like this:
"The phone isn't on the desk." I said.
"Perhaps in your bag?" Anziano Squire suggested.
"Uh... Where's my bag?"
"Wait. Where is my bag?!"
"What the..."
"And my iPad! And my camera!" Squire paled here....
"Um." I left the room and checked the balcony door in the other Elder's study. Sure enough it's wide open.
With the rest of the morning, we made an inventory of things lost:
From Squire: 1 iPad, the companionship phone, a bag, a camera, a wallet, 4 debut/credit cards, drivers ID, permesso (the thing that lets us live here legally).
From me: my bag and wallet, my cards, my ID and permesso, 12 Euro, a map of padova.
From Scoggin: his wallet and money means, a Magic the Gathering deck.
From Driver: nothing
All in all, we have to get new Permessi di Soggiorno, which are super expensive. Squire and I have no phone, scheduling is hard... This week still was nice in someways...
We have no money for food, so the members of the ward are inviting us everywhere or making meals. Our member work is improving already!
We've met with Fratello Voltalina, he is ready for baptism and we love talking with him. Wilfred, he meets with us a lot every week at his store. He is ready to progress, he always wants us to come back soon! It's quite nice. Mainly, the work has continued even without money.
I love Italy considerably and Padova is grand! I know the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses everyone, I've seen miracles here already!
Vi Voglio bene. If you have questions, just ask.
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Not in Kansas Anymore
This transfer will be great, and I'm looking forward to it. Love this gospel and mission. Questions?
--Anziano Benge
companions, Anziano Driver and I finally found them both at the train
station. Anziano Scoggin is Driver's junior companion, he is from
Boise, but did some college at BYU. He loves reading and playing Magic
the Gathering. Sadly, he is also a vegetarian, lunches are now
strange.
My companion is from Kansas City. Anziano Jacob Squire also went to
BYU, he loves music, played in a band, he has a slight lisp and treats
his bike like it could explode any second, but he is very energetic
and diligent. He adores member work and already loves Padova. I really
like him and he's going to teach me a lot it seems.
This week has already been fabulous. We met with Wilfred on Friday and
gave him a restoration lesson, we also met with him Monday and he said
he will come to church. He is so humble, extremely willing to learn.
We've also met Fratello Voltalina, who is working to get rebaptized.
We are sure he is ready And our lesson is awesome. He also made a
Nutella cake that we ate, our dinner with him on Friday will be
delicious.
We printed out a pass along card, 530 copies or so, and we really hope
that it's gonna do good.
The main thing this week had been General Conference, ovviamente, and
three new apostles! Here, we watched the Saturday morning session at
6pm live on Saturday and then watched priesthood and the afternoon on
Sunday morning, then Sunday morning's session at 6pm again. I loved
the talks, and I was fortunate enough to hear it in English so I got
all 100% instead of pieces in Italiano.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Already 200 days in Italy
Transfer Calls: Anziano Stoll and I are locked in a supreme battle of missing blinks. A calculating inhalation only breaks the silence of our fight... Who can go the longest without blinking? Benge, or Stoll? Then suddenly the phone leaps off the table and charges us.
Ok, I didnt happen like that at all. But we did get transfer calls. Anziano Stoll is heading away to Liguria coasts while I will stay here at Padova.
My new companion will be Anziano Squire, who is apparently from Kansas, so I've heard. Anziano Driver is also staying, his comp. will be Anziano Scoggin or something.
This week we had some good lessons with Tenal, preparing him for his Baptism. We also met with Kenneth, and old investigator, he needed us to help him translate some English legal work into Italian, so we took oppurtunity. Our impromptu lesson of skill led to him accepting later dates to meet again. Cristiano is still avidly avoiding us it seems, super sad that.
Mostly, I just want to say, It is darn cold here. Once, the cold wind and biting shiverdemons here set off my cold and I stayed in a good long morning with aching glands and throat as sore as a cactus cufflink. The work is picking up, the outdoor traffic of pedestrians has vanished overnight, Gelaterie have been abandoned. Truly, the northern winds have conquered Padova. The good gospel still moves forth.
--
--Anziano Benge
church is non existent and nothing works when using Padova's wifi. I
am sending this from a mall. Technology is rather frustrating, is it
not?
Today, I am sick. Yesterday I had a sore throat, today it has worsened
to tender swollen glands as well. It's not terrible, I'll be fine
unless it gets worse, but it is very tortuous to ride a bike until my
throat is rasped by heaving breathing.
Last week there was a Scambio, Anziano Beaulac and I were together
again for a day, this time I was here in Padova. While Beaulac and I
were teaching Tenal, our ex'Islamic friend, we invited him to baptism
at the end of October and he accepted! We are really nudging him in
ways he doesn't like, such as asking him to come to church when he
works every morning. He understands that he needs to be baptized and
come to church, but he is shy, and his difficult schedule hasn't been
changed. Tell you what though: it's great to have a bap- date.
We have another investigator here as well. An English speaking Indian
man (awesome phone sales accent included) who works at the downtown
library has given us permission to visit him often. He asks wonderful
questions, and already is excited to read the Book of Mormon we gave
him. The only problem again is schedule, he works two jobs every day.
He asked us to meet him at work for lessons (mental image: we all
stand together guarding a gallery door as we talk about the gospel),
so that's what we do.
Cristiano is struggling, he won't set appointments with us and doesn't
come to church. Wilfred, a new Nigerian, he has like epilepsy or
something and will suddenly stop talking with a four second pause and
blank look, he is fun and we've begun meeting.
I finally ate at a member's house last Thursday night. The bishop
invited us over to eat with his family, so we took a train to
Montegrotto Terme (a super old history site for Roman baths: see
photo) and ate with Vescovo Rosa's family. It was good.
This, I hope, was satisfying as news and I haven't forgotten stuff.
The temperature has cooled, autumnal storming nears, glands swell, and
success appears. My testimony has truly grown, and I know I have
brought others towards Christ. This mission is magnificent. Our
Heavenly Father has infinite love. Vi Voglio Bene.
Ok, I didnt happen like that at all. But we did get transfer calls. Anziano Stoll is heading away to Liguria coasts while I will stay here at Padova.
My new companion will be Anziano Squire, who is apparently from Kansas, so I've heard. Anziano Driver is also staying, his comp. will be Anziano Scoggin or something.
This week we had some good lessons with Tenal, preparing him for his Baptism. We also met with Kenneth, and old investigator, he needed us to help him translate some English legal work into Italian, so we took oppurtunity. Our impromptu lesson of skill led to him accepting later dates to meet again. Cristiano is still avidly avoiding us it seems, super sad that.
Mostly, I just want to say, It is darn cold here. Once, the cold wind and biting shiverdemons here set off my cold and I stayed in a good long morning with aching glands and throat as sore as a cactus cufflink. The work is picking up, the outdoor traffic of pedestrians has vanished overnight, Gelaterie have been abandoned. Truly, the northern winds have conquered Padova. The good gospel still moves forth.
Anziano Isaac Benge
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Progressivamente meglio
--Anziano Benge
church is non existent and nothing works when using Padova's wifi. I
am sending this from a mall. Technology is rather frustrating, is it
not?
Today, I am sick. Yesterday I had a sore throat, today it has worsened
to tender swollen glands as well. It's not terrible, I'll be fine
unless it gets worse, but it is very tortuous to ride a bike until my
throat is rasped by heaving breathing.
Last week there was a Scambio, Anziano Beaulac and I were together
again for a day, this time I was here in Padova. While Beaulac and I
were teaching Tenal, our ex'Islamic friend, we invited him to baptism
at the end of October and he accepted! We are really nudging him in
ways he doesn't like, such as asking him to come to church when he
works every morning. He understands that he needs to be baptized and
come to church, but he is shy, and his difficult schedule hasn't been
changed. Tell you what though: it's great to have a bap- date.
We have another investigator here as well. An English speaking Indian
man (awesome phone sales accent included) who works at the downtown
library has given us permission to visit him often. He asks wonderful
questions, and already is excited to read the Book of Mormon we gave
him. The only problem again is schedule, he works two jobs every day.
He asked us to meet him at work for lessons (mental image: we all
stand together guarding a gallery door as we talk about the gospel),
so that's what we do.
Cristiano is struggling, he won't set appointments with us and doesn't
come to church. Wilfred, a new Nigerian, he has like epilepsy or
something and will suddenly stop talking with a four second pause and
blank look, he is fun and we've begun meeting.
I finally ate at a member's house last Thursday night. The bishop
invited us over to eat with his family, so we took a train to
Montegrotto Terme (a super old history site for Roman baths: see
photo) and ate with Vescovo Rosa's family. It was good.
This, I hope, was satisfying as news and I haven't forgotten stuff.
The temperature has cooled, autumnal storming nears, glands swell, and
success appears. My testimony has truly grown, and I know I have
brought others towards Christ. This mission is magnificent. Our
Heavenly Father has infinite love. Vi Voglio Bene.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Salboro, Finding, stuff like that
Salboro
We also found a bunch of people suddenly wanting English class. On our last class (Tuesday) we had eighteen or so people show up, while usually we have maybe four, many of these new 'students' wanted to know about our church more. One couple will be meeting and having a lesson with the other Elders and in my intermediate class I even taught the Restoration. It's
A very exciting time!
The weather has changed, the wind is turned, the sky is casting cool clouds over us. He heat has diminished fabulously and autumn waits to be sprung. It's cool enough that I sleep with sheets and tonight I may use a blanket as well.
We did much finding work this last week, and we are dearly hoping that our 'friend pool' increases in depth. Agnis and Fred are much to busy to meet with, which is charitably infuriating, and Cristiano cannot meet because his car was taken (impounded by his mother it seems?) , we told him we can visit at his house or even a nearby park, but he says nothing about doing either. I wish we had his address.
His is the life here in Padova. Love it!
The mission is the best!
--Anziano BengeMy interesting part of this week was our trip to a small town called
Salboro. I loved it, it was so calm and Italian. The ride to the town
was about 40 minutes, and after we got there we were a little hesitant
to do missionary work because it was farther from the church than we
had expected. After working for some time, we ended up handing out
many pass along cards and we even got an inactive member's number that
we happened to meet. What "luck".
We also found a bunch of people suddenly wanting English class. On our last class (Tuesday) we had eighteen or so people show up, while usually we have maybe four, many of these new 'students' wanted to know about our church more. One couple will be meeting and having a lesson with the other Elders and in my intermediate class I even taught the Restoration. It's
A very exciting time!
The weather has changed, the wind is turned, the sky is casting cool clouds over us. He heat has diminished fabulously and autumn waits to be sprung. It's cool enough that I sleep with sheets and tonight I may use a blanket as well.
We did much finding work this last week, and we are dearly hoping that our 'friend pool' increases in depth. Agnis and Fred are much to busy to meet with, which is charitably infuriating, and Cristiano cannot meet because his car was taken (impounded by his mother it seems?) , we told him we can visit at his house or even a nearby park, but he says nothing about doing either. I wish we had his address.
His is the life here in Padova. Love it!
The mission is the best!
--Anziano BengeMy interesting part of this week was our trip to a small town called
Salboro. I loved it, it was so calm and Italian. The ride to the town
was about 40 minutes, and after we got there we were a little hesitant
to do missionary work because it was farther from the church than we
had expected. After working for some time, we ended up handing out
many pass along cards and we even got an inactive member's number that
we happened to meet. What "luck".
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Conference (di Kearon)
As you may know, we had a mission conference last Wednesday from Elder Kearon of the Seventy. Our train left at 6:10 in the morning and we made our way to Modena. Sadly, I didnt see much of the city, and not even a glimse of the Ferrari factory, but the conference was grande.
It all began with Kearon shaking every single missionary's hand, and then a brief talk by the President Dibb and his wife. They spoke on preparation and planning. Kearon added to that afterwards talking about attacking the day and pretty much everything else that had to do with missionaries.
The spirit was strong, the conference lasted a long while, and it was a marvelous experience. One huge point we discussed was about the Spirit's role in conversion. We discussed how every true conversion for members was when a person became independantly reliable on the Spirit and our Savior. We also talked about example, and how it affects companions and members and investigators, and we also talked about a great deal of other things.
I wish I could put more notes here.
The rest of the week has been a bit slower, sadder, all that... Brother Fred, he's going back to Nigeria so we cant meet with him until he returns. Fred and Agnis they have tougher schedules and we can hardly meet them. Tonight we cross our fingers and pray to meet.
Crisitano, he didnt come to church and his schedule also changed. We told him that church is switching to Sacrament first (a recent announcement from sunday) and he said he'll be there. We can hopefully meet with him next week.
The rest of everything has been finding work, passing cards, the Saturday 'mostra' that we do, and having people refuse to give phone numbers... its not terrible.
I do love this mission and I'm excited to see what I can do and change.
miss you all!
--
One place in Bologna, I never got good pictures of the really tall tower or cathedral on the hill though, sorry.
--Anziano Benge
opportunity to serve in Bologna for a day. My companion for the day
was Anziano Beaulac, he's from the French side of Canada, and a really
fun guy! He is a Zone leader, that is why I had this opportunity così.
Almost immediately when I arrived in the beautiful city we rushed off
to an appointment (which the investigator didn't show up at)
We went home a bit disappointed and I dropped my stuff off and ate
some pasta. Afterwards we found a member's address and went to help
her fix a refrigerator (unclogging a drain), then we went to another
appointment! We did finding all the way.
The next appointment that night was with a 19 yr old Italian who is
very ready and has a baptismal date and everything. We met at a
member's house and we talked about temples and eternal goals. The
lesson went very well, at the end Anziano Beaulac even taught them
French.
On the way home that night we got gelato, and I got chocolate chip but
instead of a cone I got it on focaccia. It was alright, but probably
too sweet.
Maybe I'm filling this with unimportant stuff but we also met a crazy
man. He was convinced that anyone who used money was from Satan. We
asked him to pray and he told us that there was more than one God,
which one should he pray to? We tried to teach him again because he
obviously didn't listen, he interrupted and told us the sign of the
beast is 666. He said it like 30 times. As we thanked him for his
time, he denounced us and said we were using money evilly just like
everyone else.
You sure meet interesting people on a mission.
The next day was simpler, since we had to catch a train early, we
stopped at a cafe where an investigator works. We ended up having a
conversation with him, his coworker, and his employer. Also, at the
same time, people were coming in and ordering coffee and stuff,
everyone was joining in conversation!
By the time I left on Saturday, to return to Padova, the Bologna
elders had 4 more potential references!
It was pretty cool, now I want to try Cafe finding more often...
Other than that: just normal finding, calling investigators who can
never meet, etc. the good life, I love this city and mission!
Today, for PDay, all missionaries are supposed to do this huge deep
cleaning (so fun!) and so we've been inside all day. After I send
this, I will do shopping and then go clean again. (More fun than this
morning!)
I hope you all know why I'm out here, I hope you know what good this work is!
Love you all!
(Galileo stood up there!)
I'm getting to know the other elders very well, we are all from Utah except Anziano Driver, but we all get along very nicely. Anziano Moser is a cowboy type from Herriman Utah, Anziano Driver is from a tiny place in Washington state, a very beautiful area. He spent a lot of time in the Colombia River Gorge, or some name like that. Everyone is funny and witty with intellect.
I'm excited for Friday, I'll have an exchange in Bologna! The zone leaders will be doing the 'scambio' and we'll see what I do and where I go in Bologna, but I am very excited. I will tell you all next time.
For now, I must go and eat lunch. Email if you wish for the Carbonara pasta recipe, I will not disappoint.
Love you all!
--Anziano Benge
named Cristiano, Who is a nonmember but lives with an active family.
Right before we came and taught him at the church, his wife called and
told us to be careful with him. Apparently he didn't like somethings
about the church, but he has been coming to church for three weeks.
She advised: "just be nice, don't start with Jesus."
We promptly asked him how he was and then what he thought about the
church. He liked it so we had asked him about Jesus. Yes, that was a
complete disregard to her advice.
Interestingly enough, he took it very well and we showed him the
Easter video from the church, and we're going to meet with him next
week. He is very opened the book of Mormon and our religion, very
ready, but we will need to do some work.
Other than that the week has been pretty slow, just doing small things
missionary do. Talk to people and try to hand out things when they
reject us. We teach English class, which I teach the basic class by
myself, and that is always fun.
I am loving Padova, and all the sights. We have Galileo's tower here,
castle walls, mansions, villas, and to top it off, pasta. I like pasta
very much, if you want a killer recipe, email me!
transfer calls soon, it feels even longer. I will probably stay here,
but who knows?
For those who write to me, thank you tons. We were told to change our
schedules for next week, and we will be having Pday on Tuesday next
week. So if you want me to respond, please write Monday evening or
before.
Also, my knee feels way better, went from pain when I walked to
nothing overnight! Awesome stuff.
We've done lots of finding here, and on Sunday we were supposed to do
a ward Mostra (a display) at Parco di Trenno, but nobody showed up
except Brother Lauriola, the ward mission leader. We didn't have a
table or anything, so we just did finding work with this 55 year old
member, in the heat, with this huge bag of Books of Mormon and
pamphlets. Lauriola is super funny, shoving pass along cards into
hands, and then asking them if they know Mormons, then before they
could answer, he'd step aside and gesture to us. Hmmm, it was silly,
and hardly worked. We handed out 1 book and got no numbers, but it was
still good.
Monday was district meeting, as usual, and then we did an exchange (or
scambio) with the other Anziani, I was with Anziano Robb in his
apartment, and it was fun. That night, we met in it ha man named Vito,
and was super ready. He kind of said he wanted to know our church was
right, so he just asked lots of questions, but then we asked him to
read a restoration pamphlet, he said yes, but he'd also start the Book
of Mormon, we had no objections to that.
Yeah, that's the week, lots of finding, lots of canceled appointments,
and street lessons, but I feel the work could suddenly spike soon. (
hopefully before August when everybody disappears for vacation )
Date: Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 12:39 AM
My knee has been progressively getting worse within the last week.
Last Tuesday, I slipped on a wet grate, didn't fall, but I threw my
knee out or something. Now I can barely walk, and Anziano Crowther
thinks it might be a torn meniscus or another type of injury così. I
will get I checked out this week.
I just hope it doesn't take the fun out of this Pday, I am currently
on my way to Lugano, Switzerland on a really crowded train. I am
excited, but lots of the best stuff in Lugano is either expensive or
really far to walk.
This week has just been a lot of finding. I wish I could say tons but
all that's happened is a woman from Kaysville came to church, asked
for a blessing for a stomach problem that she needs surgery for it. I
gave my first blessing, luckily in English, and it was great to help
someone's life! The woman is a model here in Milano, so I guess my
first blessing was actually for a model, not what I expected.
Yesterday Crowther had a meeting for district leaders, and I went on
exchange with Anziano Sosa from Santo Domingo, he only speaks Spanish
and Italian, so it was fun, but everything is just finding.
Mi dispiace, voglio dire più. Io ho amore per questa missione e le
persone già. Non la cambierei per niente! So che questo vangelo è di
Cristo ed è un vangelo restaurato.
Dichiaro a voi che Dio ci benedirà se osserviamo i Suoi comandamenti;
vi voglio bene e Dio vi vuole perfino più.
Ci sentiamo
--Anziano Benge
--
Date: Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 9:20 AM
Date: Wed, May 20, 2015 at 3:41 AM
It all began with Kearon shaking every single missionary's hand, and then a brief talk by the President Dibb and his wife. They spoke on preparation and planning. Kearon added to that afterwards talking about attacking the day and pretty much everything else that had to do with missionaries.
The spirit was strong, the conference lasted a long while, and it was a marvelous experience. One huge point we discussed was about the Spirit's role in conversion. We discussed how every true conversion for members was when a person became independantly reliable on the Spirit and our Savior. We also talked about example, and how it affects companions and members and investigators, and we also talked about a great deal of other things.
I wish I could put more notes here.
The rest of the week has been a bit slower, sadder, all that... Brother Fred, he's going back to Nigeria so we cant meet with him until he returns. Fred and Agnis they have tougher schedules and we can hardly meet them. Tonight we cross our fingers and pray to meet.
Crisitano, he didnt come to church and his schedule also changed. We told him that church is switching to Sacrament first (a recent announcement from sunday) and he said he'll be there. We can hopefully meet with him next week.
The rest of everything has been finding work, passing cards, the Saturday 'mostra' that we do, and having people refuse to give phone numbers... its not terrible.
I do love this mission and I'm excited to see what I can do and change.
miss you all!
Anziano Isaac Benge
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
A Party in the USA
On Sunday there was a ward lunch. To see to well known families moving
from our already small ward is tough, but one is returning to the
United States and the other family is going home to Brazil. Both of
them will be missed.
To celebrate with them we had a ward lunch that was themed for both
the counties. Italians did their best to make American foods, I had
macaroni and cheese, potato salad, and such. They also made salads and
chicken, there were heavenly deserts, and they had chili. It was
probably the biggest ward organized event that I have seen in Italy so
far.
Our investigator, Cristiano, he came to church for all three classes
and the lunch afterwards too. We haven't been able to set up a time to
meet with him, but he rather enjoyed himself and fits quite well with
the ward. He was the only nonmember there, our missionary work at the
lunch was limited to in actives and members but I got to know many of
them and I'm finally feeling comfortable. This is only my second
transfer here in Padova but the other missionaries say I'll be here
for four, which means I'm glad I'm friendly with the ward.
The most popular desert was brownies, which they don't have here for
some reason. Anziano Stoll made three pans and they were gone very
quickly, everyone took about three pieces I think.
Good job Stoll, he made Italian browny addicts now.
The bike ride home was sad, Anziano Stoll ripped his suit pants while
climbing on his bike, this was a problem...
Wednesday we must wear our suits to the Area seventy's mission
conference and this was Stoll's only suit.
All of our time yesterday was looking for a place to repair it. We
passed three closed places, riding all over town trying to get his
pants fixed, since everyone takes August off for some reason...?
Today I got a haircut... Um, sorry for jumping around...
Many of our appointments have fallen through and the work has slowed.
We have many more coming soon though!
Funny story time:
My companion's birthday was last week. While at Agnis and Fred's house
they knew he liked plantains and beans so they cooked us both some for
a birthday gift. After our lesson we began eating... Stoll does like
plantains and beans but not fish, he hates fish as much as I do- come
to find that the plates are a huge pile of beans and fried plantains
with a chopped, cooked, unflavored fish on top. It was terrible.
Everything tasted like fish, fortunately they left the room to have us
eat alone so they didn't see our faces when we bit on bone, or scraped
the fish to the sides of our plates.
They returned after I had eaten a pound of fish beans, they saw I was
eating slow and she said I was full. I agreed, Stoll said he was too.
Neither of us finished but at least I didn't eat a fish head or
whatever else was thrown on top...
That's the story... Yay. Anziano Stoll had a terrible birthday dish
and so he said he'd cook for his birthday from now on.
When my birthday rolls around I'm just not going to tell anyone, it's safer
I love this mission, I love the people, and I'm glad to serve! This
church is true!
Vi voglio tanto bene!
--Anziano Benge
from our already small ward is tough, but one is returning to the
United States and the other family is going home to Brazil. Both of
them will be missed.
To celebrate with them we had a ward lunch that was themed for both
the counties. Italians did their best to make American foods, I had
macaroni and cheese, potato salad, and such. They also made salads and
chicken, there were heavenly deserts, and they had chili. It was
probably the biggest ward organized event that I have seen in Italy so
far.
Our investigator, Cristiano, he came to church for all three classes
and the lunch afterwards too. We haven't been able to set up a time to
meet with him, but he rather enjoyed himself and fits quite well with
the ward. He was the only nonmember there, our missionary work at the
lunch was limited to in actives and members but I got to know many of
them and I'm finally feeling comfortable. This is only my second
transfer here in Padova but the other missionaries say I'll be here
for four, which means I'm glad I'm friendly with the ward.
The most popular desert was brownies, which they don't have here for
some reason. Anziano Stoll made three pans and they were gone very
quickly, everyone took about three pieces I think.
Good job Stoll, he made Italian browny addicts now.
The bike ride home was sad, Anziano Stoll ripped his suit pants while
climbing on his bike, this was a problem...
Wednesday we must wear our suits to the Area seventy's mission
conference and this was Stoll's only suit.
All of our time yesterday was looking for a place to repair it. We
passed three closed places, riding all over town trying to get his
pants fixed, since everyone takes August off for some reason...?
Today I got a haircut... Um, sorry for jumping around...
Many of our appointments have fallen through and the work has slowed.
We have many more coming soon though!
Funny story time:
My companion's birthday was last week. While at Agnis and Fred's house
they knew he liked plantains and beans so they cooked us both some for
a birthday gift. After our lesson we began eating... Stoll does like
plantains and beans but not fish, he hates fish as much as I do- come
to find that the plates are a huge pile of beans and fried plantains
with a chopped, cooked, unflavored fish on top. It was terrible.
Everything tasted like fish, fortunately they left the room to have us
eat alone so they didn't see our faces when we bit on bone, or scraped
the fish to the sides of our plates.
They returned after I had eaten a pound of fish beans, they saw I was
eating slow and she said I was full. I agreed, Stoll said he was too.
Neither of us finished but at least I didn't eat a fish head or
whatever else was thrown on top...
That's the story... Yay. Anziano Stoll had a terrible birthday dish
and so he said he'd cook for his birthday from now on.
When my birthday rolls around I'm just not going to tell anyone, it's safer
I love this mission, I love the people, and I'm glad to serve! This
church is true!
Vi voglio tanto bene!
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Something wetter this way comes.
A different season comes! (And great was Fall of it) 3 Nephi 14:27, but I'm talking about the approaching Autumn, that kind of fall.
If you've ever been in an Italian rainstorm, you would know to expect lightning, I absolutely love lightning and thunder so when it rains I become a happier man. I also love rain, that helps too. It rained almost all night, I woke up cold, I wore a jacket to come do emails, etc etc... Perfect weather I think!
We've met Cristiano Friday, he promised us he'd read the Book of Mormon but didn't come to church, I guess just one commitment was what he could handle. We are trying to meet again this Friday. Tomorrow is Anziano Stoll's birthday, we will be going to Agnis and Fred's house to celebrate (and give a lesson of course), this may be the first time I have Nigerian food if they cook anything. I hear it's weird, I'll tell you about it if I remember. Last week we got them ready to read the Book of Mormon as well, we will give them a nice little lesson about revelation to re-cover how our slow lesson went last Wednesday,
Everything else here is just long days of little things. We met a man in a little store, he loved Mormons and said he wanted to come to church, he refused to give us a number for him, but he took the address and we will see about that as well. His last name was one of the most popular last names I've heard of in Italy, there are so many! The last name, is Gallo, which to anyone who speaks a Latin based language can guess, means rooster. There are a lot of Roosters in Italy, hmmm
Sorry, was I off topic?
I've covered most of the important parts, and I will again tell you all that my PDay will be on the 25th, a Tuesday, for next week. I will not see your emails until maybe Friday unless they are a day earlier than usual. The reason for this is a mission conference. Elder Kearon, the new area authority, is coming to visit the mission, on Wednesday I will be in Modena for this meeting and participating with all of that. You will get news on that if I remember it as well... The Tuesday PDay might throw me off schedule.
To end, I'm going to be silly, many of you will not know, but I think my family might read my emails out loud together, that means you must read this part out loud, I will subconsciously-overwhelmingly-allworldy laugh at you and your bad Italian (unless you can speak Italian) make sure you read it with your best mafia accent and all.
Chiaramente amo questo Vangelo di Gesù, amo questa chiesa, amo la missione. Ogniqualvolta il seme di fede ci sembra piccolo o meno utile, piantatelo e guardate il seme diventando un albero meraviglioso. In modo che la mia testimonianza potrebbe sembrare piccola, è piantato, fermo, immobile, l'albero cresce mentre l'amore per nostro Dio si rafforza.
I know the church is true, I don't just love and support it, I want to live it, I know our Heavenly Father has this plan, and this gospel for us.
Love you all!
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
A Bunch of Bologna
One place in Bologna, I never got good pictures of the really tall tower or cathedral on the hill though, sorry.
--Anziano Benge
opportunity to serve in Bologna for a day. My companion for the day
was Anziano Beaulac, he's from the French side of Canada, and a really
fun guy! He is a Zone leader, that is why I had this opportunity così.
Almost immediately when I arrived in the beautiful city we rushed off
to an appointment (which the investigator didn't show up at)
We went home a bit disappointed and I dropped my stuff off and ate
some pasta. Afterwards we found a member's address and went to help
her fix a refrigerator (unclogging a drain), then we went to another
appointment! We did finding all the way.
The next appointment that night was with a 19 yr old Italian who is
very ready and has a baptismal date and everything. We met at a
member's house and we talked about temples and eternal goals. The
lesson went very well, at the end Anziano Beaulac even taught them
French.
On the way home that night we got gelato, and I got chocolate chip but
instead of a cone I got it on focaccia. It was alright, but probably
too sweet.
Maybe I'm filling this with unimportant stuff but we also met a crazy
man. He was convinced that anyone who used money was from Satan. We
asked him to pray and he told us that there was more than one God,
which one should he pray to? We tried to teach him again because he
obviously didn't listen, he interrupted and told us the sign of the
beast is 666. He said it like 30 times. As we thanked him for his
time, he denounced us and said we were using money evilly just like
everyone else.
You sure meet interesting people on a mission.
The next day was simpler, since we had to catch a train early, we
stopped at a cafe where an investigator works. We ended up having a
conversation with him, his coworker, and his employer. Also, at the
same time, people were coming in and ordering coffee and stuff,
everyone was joining in conversation!
By the time I left on Saturday, to return to Padova, the Bologna
elders had 4 more potential references!
It was pretty cool, now I want to try Cafe finding more often...
Other than that: just normal finding, calling investigators who can
never meet, etc. the good life, I love this city and mission!
Today, for PDay, all missionaries are supposed to do this huge deep
cleaning (so fun!) and so we've been inside all day. After I send
this, I will do shopping and then go clean again. (More fun than this
morning!)
I hope you all know why I'm out here, I hope you know what good this work is!
Love you all!
Monday, August 10, 2015
Carbonara
Carbonara di Como (Bengese)
Ingredients (where X is any positive number)( 500 grams will feed 3-4 missionaries)
100 times X grams - Spaghetti noodles
X eggs (500 grams of pasta is 5 eggs)
Parmesan cheese (grated) or another grated cheese (about 1/4 cup for every 5 eggs)
Ground black pepper
Bacon or cubed ham (to taste, but I do 50 grams per person.) bacon is much better
To cook- follow carefully.
-Separate eggs whites from yolks. The eggs whites in a larger bowl, the yolk in a smaller.
-Add the cheese to the yolk and stir thoroughly, it should be textured. Add pepper to yolks, I usually put a fine layer of paper over the whole surface of the egg mix. (It should be to taste, but pepper is an important flavor.)
- Whip the egg whites into a froth with beaters. It should take a minute or two. The eggs will settle so whip them again as the bacon and pasta finish cooking if you want.
- Sing merrily while cooking but do not get distracted.
-Boil spaghetti as normal. (Before adding pasta to boiling water, we add salt and a tablespoon of olive oil to the water)
-Chop ham or bacon into pieces (kinda diced), cook the meat fully in a large and deep pan. (If you cook bacon you can break it to pieces after cooking if you want. But it should be hot.)
- If timed correctly the bacon should finish as the pasta does. Strain the pasta and put the fresh noodles into the still-hot bacon frying pan. The pan should be hot enough to cook eggs still.
- You may need a hand to help (but it is possible to do it alone, don't stress), have your daughter or brother or husband or someone stir the pasta into the meat without it leaving the deep pan.
- As the pasta and meat mix in the hot pan, quickly add the cheese yolk pepper mix and keep stirring. Right when the yellow egg thickens or seems cooked or opaque, turn the heat off. This step should only take 1 minute or less, depending on pan heat.
- Immediately add the egg whites and keep stirring for a moment, if you don't have a deep large pan to stir in, then it will take a lot of talent to keep the pasta off the floor and counters.
If you really don't have a big enough pan (too much food, too small pan, too untalented stirring, etc.) go ahead and transfer it into the dry pot you used for spaghetti and stir the whites in there.
Serve hot or warm or whatever. Add pepper as needed.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
When they tell us not to, we do anyway
(Galileo stood up there!)
I'm getting to know the other elders very well, we are all from Utah except Anziano Driver, but we all get along very nicely. Anziano Moser is a cowboy type from Herriman Utah, Anziano Driver is from a tiny place in Washington state, a very beautiful area. He spent a lot of time in the Colombia River Gorge, or some name like that. Everyone is funny and witty with intellect.
I'm excited for Friday, I'll have an exchange in Bologna! The zone leaders will be doing the 'scambio' and we'll see what I do and where I go in Bologna, but I am very excited. I will tell you all next time.
For now, I must go and eat lunch. Email if you wish for the Carbonara pasta recipe, I will not disappoint.
Love you all!
--Anziano Benge
named Cristiano, Who is a nonmember but lives with an active family.
Right before we came and taught him at the church, his wife called and
told us to be careful with him. Apparently he didn't like somethings
about the church, but he has been coming to church for three weeks.
She advised: "just be nice, don't start with Jesus."
We promptly asked him how he was and then what he thought about the
church. He liked it so we had asked him about Jesus. Yes, that was a
complete disregard to her advice.
Interestingly enough, he took it very well and we showed him the
Easter video from the church, and we're going to meet with him next
week. He is very opened the book of Mormon and our religion, very
ready, but we will need to do some work.
Other than that the week has been pretty slow, just doing small things
missionary do. Talk to people and try to hand out things when they
reject us. We teach English class, which I teach the basic class by
myself, and that is always fun.
I am loving Padova, and all the sights. We have Galileo's tower here,
castle walls, mansions, villas, and to top it off, pasta. I like pasta
very much, if you want a killer recipe, email me!
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Oh, I know not what to write...
Not really even a predicament, but my mind is blank; not a single
idea. I do love Padova and the work that we do here, but maybe I'm
just not in the mood. It's been a long, hot, hard week. I prayed for
rain, and there was rain, during the night. The days are just humid.
Last Wednesday we had dinner with an inactive member, we made
quesadillas and guacamole to show her Mexican food for some reason...
I know his is a lame email. Sorry to those who really care, but
sometimes I just have nothing to say.
I love this mission, I love this gospel. I don't love emailing on
Wednesdays, but I'm supposed to. I'm alive and well, and the church is
true? What else can matter? I apologize if I ever send another one of
these. Hopefully not soon. Love you!
Questions?
--Anziano Benge
idea. I do love Padova and the work that we do here, but maybe I'm
just not in the mood. It's been a long, hot, hard week. I prayed for
rain, and there was rain, during the night. The days are just humid.
Last Wednesday we had dinner with an inactive member, we made
quesadillas and guacamole to show her Mexican food for some reason...
I know his is a lame email. Sorry to those who really care, but
sometimes I just have nothing to say.
I love this mission, I love this gospel. I don't love emailing on
Wednesdays, but I'm supposed to. I'm alive and well, and the church is
true? What else can matter? I apologize if I ever send another one of
these. Hopefully not soon. Love you!
Questions?
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
The days fly, like drops of sweat
Whoa! It's already Pday again? I would like you all to know,
unbelievably, that this next Monday is my 1/5th done mark. I don't
know how, but I'm one fifth done with my time here among the saints of
Italy.
The speed has in fact made me reflect assuredly that the Mission is
too short in some ways. Then I think of how long away lunch is, and I
seem to change my mind... Funny how he body and world works isn't it?
È così.
Padova is fabulous, as anyone could expect, and my Italian is still
progressing although it seems like everyone here speaks English in
some way.
I'd say the most stressful part of this weekend was Sunday. (Short
Italian lesson: the Italian word for stress is: stress. And the
Italian word for weekend is: weekend. Go figure...)
Earlier in the week, we met a Russian member who is having some heavy
border-crossing problems. She wants to return to her home in Finland,
but her niece (of her guardianship custody) does not have the correct
papers to,return with her. The lady explained she's been sleeping in
train stations and with only a suitcase of clothes for a month... Yes
this lady is a member and she wanted help from the ward. Sunday, she
needed a ride, which we asked a councilor to do, and then our Swedish
friend that we met my first week also came. He is the one seeking
political asylum, and wants the churches help. Italy and Sweden are
wanting to deport him home to Iran, where he's wanted for being a
Christian, and will be killed. The only hope he had was for our bishop
to write a letter to validate his religious certificates from his
baptism and priesthood ordinations. Our bishop told him (translating
through us missionaries) that the church is not recognized as
politically responsible by Italy... Or something. The letter would do
nothing, and the bishop could only pray, and tell him to receive
political asylum from a job. Rojo, the swede, could only say he's been
trying for a job for 4 months. But really, there is no work...
Pray for the members, pray for our two country-crossed friends, and
pray for the Rome Temple... The members pray so,hard, and so often for
it to be completed...
This church is true and even these people in hard times hold fast to
the rod, why can't we? Keep your testimonies of Christ strong...
Sono grato per le cose che ho imparato, sono grato per l'amore da Dio.
Riconoscete la mano di Dio e le nostre benedizioni affinché
ricevessimo più!
--Anziano Benge
unbelievably, that this next Monday is my 1/5th done mark. I don't
know how, but I'm one fifth done with my time here among the saints of
Italy.
The speed has in fact made me reflect assuredly that the Mission is
too short in some ways. Then I think of how long away lunch is, and I
seem to change my mind... Funny how he body and world works isn't it?
È così.
Padova is fabulous, as anyone could expect, and my Italian is still
progressing although it seems like everyone here speaks English in
some way.
I'd say the most stressful part of this weekend was Sunday. (Short
Italian lesson: the Italian word for stress is: stress. And the
Italian word for weekend is: weekend. Go figure...)
Earlier in the week, we met a Russian member who is having some heavy
border-crossing problems. She wants to return to her home in Finland,
but her niece (of her guardianship custody) does not have the correct
papers to,return with her. The lady explained she's been sleeping in
train stations and with only a suitcase of clothes for a month... Yes
this lady is a member and she wanted help from the ward. Sunday, she
needed a ride, which we asked a councilor to do, and then our Swedish
friend that we met my first week also came. He is the one seeking
political asylum, and wants the churches help. Italy and Sweden are
wanting to deport him home to Iran, where he's wanted for being a
Christian, and will be killed. The only hope he had was for our bishop
to write a letter to validate his religious certificates from his
baptism and priesthood ordinations. Our bishop told him (translating
through us missionaries) that the church is not recognized as
politically responsible by Italy... Or something. The letter would do
nothing, and the bishop could only pray, and tell him to receive
political asylum from a job. Rojo, the swede, could only say he's been
trying for a job for 4 months. But really, there is no work...
Pray for the members, pray for our two country-crossed friends, and
pray for the Rome Temple... The members pray so,hard, and so often for
it to be completed...
This church is true and even these people in hard times hold fast to
the rod, why can't we? Keep your testimonies of Christ strong...
Sono grato per le cose che ho imparato, sono grato per l'amore da Dio.
Riconoscete la mano di Dio e le nostre benedizioni affinché
ricevessimo più!
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Everything has changed.
First off, this is not Milano, this is Padova. Super gorgeous and I
love it more everyday.
Secondly, I live in a apartment with the whole district (Anziano
Stoll, Anziano Moser, Anziano Driver, and I ) and we all share a
packed fridge.
Thirdly, I have a red one-speed bike that I take everywhere.
Just let me know if you have any questions, but this city rocks. The
archaicness (not a word) and the canals, rivers, streets, are all
super awesome, but so far the people are way nicer too.
On my second day, when we went and applied for a spot to set up a
table in Prato Della Valle, we walked past a indoor fruit market, I
saw they were selling fresh pears and papaya and mango and stuff, so I
slowed a bit. The store owner came out, and jokingly yelled at us
"comprate! Comprate! Comprate!" And explained I would return later. He
asked us who we were, so we gave a whole explanation and I asked if
when I came and brought fruit if he'd like a free Book of Mormon. He
said yes. That was awesome.
This man, Tiziano, two days later, took our Book of Mormon when we
returned. We didn't get a chance to give him a full lesson, but we did
give him reading assignment and the promise. As I turned, and tried to
buy 3 pears, he shook his head and said just take them. I resisted,
which just led to him throwing 2 huge nectarines, 2 plums, 5 apricots,
and 6 banana along with the pears into a bag for free. I want to feel
bad, but he was way nice, and I guess he knew the Book of Mormon was a
favor from us.
I ate 2 pears, both plums, and a banana that night. Yum.
Allora, this week was good, though we just did finding as usual.
Ever Saturday we have a 'mostra' in Prato Della Valle, and we just
stand, handing out things, with a table. We do English class twice a
week, but nobody comes to the basic class I'm supposed to teach.
That's about it...
I love it all. Also, I've never been happier...
Remember always that we are children of our Heavenly Father, and,
always change the world in the way it needs to be changed...
C'è sempre speranza, c'è sempre amore.
--Anziano Benge
love it more everyday.
Secondly, I live in a apartment with the whole district (Anziano
Stoll, Anziano Moser, Anziano Driver, and I ) and we all share a
packed fridge.
Thirdly, I have a red one-speed bike that I take everywhere.
Just let me know if you have any questions, but this city rocks. The
archaicness (not a word) and the canals, rivers, streets, are all
super awesome, but so far the people are way nicer too.
On my second day, when we went and applied for a spot to set up a
table in Prato Della Valle, we walked past a indoor fruit market, I
saw they were selling fresh pears and papaya and mango and stuff, so I
slowed a bit. The store owner came out, and jokingly yelled at us
"comprate! Comprate! Comprate!" And explained I would return later. He
asked us who we were, so we gave a whole explanation and I asked if
when I came and brought fruit if he'd like a free Book of Mormon. He
said yes. That was awesome.
This man, Tiziano, two days later, took our Book of Mormon when we
returned. We didn't get a chance to give him a full lesson, but we did
give him reading assignment and the promise. As I turned, and tried to
buy 3 pears, he shook his head and said just take them. I resisted,
which just led to him throwing 2 huge nectarines, 2 plums, 5 apricots,
and 6 banana along with the pears into a bag for free. I want to feel
bad, but he was way nice, and I guess he knew the Book of Mormon was a
favor from us.
I ate 2 pears, both plums, and a banana that night. Yum.
Allora, this week was good, though we just did finding as usual.
Ever Saturday we have a 'mostra' in Prato Della Valle, and we just
stand, handing out things, with a table. We do English class twice a
week, but nobody comes to the basic class I'm supposed to teach.
That's about it...
I love it all. Also, I've never been happier...
Remember always that we are children of our Heavenly Father, and,
always change the world in the way it needs to be changed...
C'è sempre speranza, c'è sempre amore.
--Anziano Benge
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Expectations (paragonare alle realtà)
Transfer calls, everyone totally expects to go into transfer 3 with a
new companion. We all knew Anziano Crowther would leave, and as
normal, me, fresh out of being a greenie, would stay in Lampugnano. I
presumed I would be staying, along with all the members.
Calls for transfers came on the Third, and they tell me our copia
(companionship) is being closed, we have to empty our apartment
because there are no elders coming to replace us.
Anziano Crowther is going to Pordenone, as zone leader, he gets a car,
and he's next to a military base so he gets a real American church,
with a basketball court, carpet and a water fountain. He's really
excited about the car though, because there's not a lot of areas with
cars.
You all probably don't care about that though... You might wonder wear
I'm going... The answer is Padova, or in American English- Padua.
That's about all I know, except I leave tomorrow, and my companion is
Anziano Stoll.
So yeah, that's cool... :) my second city already.
Much of this week we've been packing and cleaning the apartment and
passing food, and investigators, papers, and notes to the other
Anziani.
Yesterday we ate with the Cuba family, to say goodbye kind of, and
when we finish emails we are going to go play basketball with the 15
yr old son,
Other than that this week has been slow, and hard. I did a scambio on
Friday with Anziano skinner, walking forever to pass by an inactive,
that was fun. Um, yeah, we've taught some lessons on the street, but
now that we have to pass everyone, it's been nothing personal... I
don't know? Send me questions if you want to know anything more.
Keep praying, keep singing, and continue to persevere in all, allowing
none to lead you astray!
Remember, scripture study is the most powerful prep for a day!
--Anziano Benge
new companion. We all knew Anziano Crowther would leave, and as
normal, me, fresh out of being a greenie, would stay in Lampugnano. I
presumed I would be staying, along with all the members.
Calls for transfers came on the Third, and they tell me our copia
(companionship) is being closed, we have to empty our apartment
because there are no elders coming to replace us.
Anziano Crowther is going to Pordenone, as zone leader, he gets a car,
and he's next to a military base so he gets a real American church,
with a basketball court, carpet and a water fountain. He's really
excited about the car though, because there's not a lot of areas with
cars.
You all probably don't care about that though... You might wonder wear
I'm going... The answer is Padova, or in American English- Padua.
That's about all I know, except I leave tomorrow, and my companion is
Anziano Stoll.
So yeah, that's cool... :) my second city already.
Much of this week we've been packing and cleaning the apartment and
passing food, and investigators, papers, and notes to the other
Anziani.
Yesterday we ate with the Cuba family, to say goodbye kind of, and
when we finish emails we are going to go play basketball with the 15
yr old son,
Other than that this week has been slow, and hard. I did a scambio on
Friday with Anziano skinner, walking forever to pass by an inactive,
that was fun. Um, yeah, we've taught some lessons on the street, but
now that we have to pass everyone, it's been nothing personal... I
don't know? Send me questions if you want to know anything more.
Keep praying, keep singing, and continue to persevere in all, allowing
none to lead you astray!
Remember, scripture study is the most powerful prep for a day!
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Long time
transfer calls soon, it feels even longer. I will probably stay here,
but who knows?
For those who write to me, thank you tons. We were told to change our
schedules for next week, and we will be having Pday on Tuesday next
week. So if you want me to respond, please write Monday evening or
before.
Also, my knee feels way better, went from pain when I walked to
nothing overnight! Awesome stuff.
We've done lots of finding here, and on Sunday we were supposed to do
a ward Mostra (a display) at Parco di Trenno, but nobody showed up
except Brother Lauriola, the ward mission leader. We didn't have a
table or anything, so we just did finding work with this 55 year old
member, in the heat, with this huge bag of Books of Mormon and
pamphlets. Lauriola is super funny, shoving pass along cards into
hands, and then asking them if they know Mormons, then before they
could answer, he'd step aside and gesture to us. Hmmm, it was silly,
and hardly worked. We handed out 1 book and got no numbers, but it was
still good.
Monday was district meeting, as usual, and then we did an exchange (or
scambio) with the other Anziani, I was with Anziano Robb in his
apartment, and it was fun. That night, we met in it ha man named Vito,
and was super ready. He kind of said he wanted to know our church was
right, so he just asked lots of questions, but then we asked him to
read a restoration pamphlet, he said yes, but he'd also start the Book
of Mormon, we had no objections to that.
Yeah, that's the week, lots of finding, lots of canceled appointments,
and street lessons, but I feel the work could suddenly spike soon. (
hopefully before August when everybody disappears for vacation )
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Torn meniscus or something
Date: Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 12:39 AM
My knee has been progressively getting worse within the last week.
Last Tuesday, I slipped on a wet grate, didn't fall, but I threw my
knee out or something. Now I can barely walk, and Anziano Crowther
thinks it might be a torn meniscus or another type of injury così. I
will get I checked out this week.
I just hope it doesn't take the fun out of this Pday, I am currently
on my way to Lugano, Switzerland on a really crowded train. I am
excited, but lots of the best stuff in Lugano is either expensive or
really far to walk.
This week has just been a lot of finding. I wish I could say tons but
all that's happened is a woman from Kaysville came to church, asked
for a blessing for a stomach problem that she needs surgery for it. I
gave my first blessing, luckily in English, and it was great to help
someone's life! The woman is a model here in Milano, so I guess my
first blessing was actually for a model, not what I expected.
Yesterday Crowther had a meeting for district leaders, and I went on
exchange with Anziano Sosa from Santo Domingo, he only speaks Spanish
and Italian, so it was fun, but everything is just finding.
Mi dispiace, voglio dire più. Io ho amore per questa missione e le
persone già. Non la cambierei per niente! So che questo vangelo è di
Cristo ed è un vangelo restaurato.
Dichiaro a voi che Dio ci benedirà se osserviamo i Suoi comandamenti;
vi voglio bene e Dio vi vuole perfino più.
Ci sentiamo
--Anziano Benge
David V. Benge
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
The testimony grows (and vocabulary)
Thursday was English class, and lots lots lots of finding. Even when
our tactics change, everything still is finding. But, Friday, we had
zone training, very fun and spiritual, and it was good to change
schedules a bit.
Saturday we met with Caparasso, here's his background-
He called because he wanted to come to church, he said he saw some
stuff online, and got our number online too. We meet with him on
Saturday before church, and turns out he downloaded all of gospel
library, bought a triple combination online, and has already read to
chapter 14 in first Nephi. Whoa. Sunday he came to all three classes,
and participated in gospel principles, we then met Monday and he said
he would get baptized after reading all of the standard works. Yeah,
he lives in our ward boundaries and everything. We are kind of just
stunned, and the lessons are too smooth and stuff. So, we set up
another appointment for Saturday, and he just barely called, and told
us that his wife ( practicing catholic ) found out about his 'meeting
with the Mormons' and he can't ever meet again. Yep, darn. He's a
seventy five year old man, and was hiding this from his wife, and now
we can't meet, and he can't come to church. We are really sad, but he
told us that he will still read all of he standard works, because he
doesn't think his wife knows that the Mormons have their own books.
What a funny guy.
Sunday we also had a stake priesthood meeting, and gave a blessing to
a young girl who went through a surgery Monday, she's fine, but our
Sunday was busy.
Monday we made lots of calls, and no appointment was made, but that
night we started an exchange with the zone leaders. I was with Anziano
Hansen here in Lampugnano and this is his last transfer. It was
raining all day tuesday as we walked around and knocked doors. Not
much happened, and it was sad, but he stayed up beat even after 140
rejections. I loved working with Anziano Hansen, what a great guy!
Only one man opened to door to us, and then to our surprise, he let us
in, and then sat us down, told us that he didn't want to talk about
our church, but wished us luck, and then let us leave... That was
weird.
Anyway, that's was the week. I am glad that it is raining, and I'm
glad that I am here. I love Italy, but even more, I love this gospel.
I would be happy to serve anywhere.
Stay strong my friends!
--Anziano Benge
our tactics change, everything still is finding. But, Friday, we had
zone training, very fun and spiritual, and it was good to change
schedules a bit.
Saturday we met with Caparasso, here's his background-
He called because he wanted to come to church, he said he saw some
stuff online, and got our number online too. We meet with him on
Saturday before church, and turns out he downloaded all of gospel
library, bought a triple combination online, and has already read to
chapter 14 in first Nephi. Whoa. Sunday he came to all three classes,
and participated in gospel principles, we then met Monday and he said
he would get baptized after reading all of the standard works. Yeah,
he lives in our ward boundaries and everything. We are kind of just
stunned, and the lessons are too smooth and stuff. So, we set up
another appointment for Saturday, and he just barely called, and told
us that his wife ( practicing catholic ) found out about his 'meeting
with the Mormons' and he can't ever meet again. Yep, darn. He's a
seventy five year old man, and was hiding this from his wife, and now
we can't meet, and he can't come to church. We are really sad, but he
told us that he will still read all of he standard works, because he
doesn't think his wife knows that the Mormons have their own books.
What a funny guy.
Sunday we also had a stake priesthood meeting, and gave a blessing to
a young girl who went through a surgery Monday, she's fine, but our
Sunday was busy.
Monday we made lots of calls, and no appointment was made, but that
night we started an exchange with the zone leaders. I was with Anziano
Hansen here in Lampugnano and this is his last transfer. It was
raining all day tuesday as we walked around and knocked doors. Not
much happened, and it was sad, but he stayed up beat even after 140
rejections. I loved working with Anziano Hansen, what a great guy!
Only one man opened to door to us, and then to our surprise, he let us
in, and then sat us down, told us that he didn't want to talk about
our church, but wished us luck, and then let us leave... That was
weird.
Anyway, that's was the week. I am glad that it is raining, and I'm
glad that I am here. I love Italy, but even more, I love this gospel.
I would be happy to serve anywhere.
Stay strong my friends!
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
The Italy question
It finally looks like it might rain this week, a lot! That is one
thing that makes me happy.
We are teaching nobody, still. We finally had a lesson with Antonio at
his restaurant, but he said he is not interested in changing faiths,
so we gave him a Book of Mormon, with our testimonies inside, a
pamphlet and finished with strong testimonies of the restoration. The
only question is why does nobody want to change. Everybody thinks
everybody else is the problem, and it is really out of hand. We have
Catholics every single day tell us that Catholicism is wrong, but they
don't need our religion. Every person we share the gospel with admits
it is true, and then tells us it's not important though, because they
already pray, and trust God. Etc.
We share the Message, and then...
"- I haven't read the bible, but I know that Christ loves me. I don't
need prophets because I have Christ. Bye, thank you.
- Christ was a prophet, and I think everyone can receive revelation,
I already pray so you can't change what I think. Bye, thanks.
- nope
- Nope I'm catholic, and even if the church is not of God, I like it!
I I'm going to be catholic until I die."
Those are the same answers we get every single time, and it is very
very very exhausting. La energia è sfinita.
I wish I could say more...
We found Anna last pday. Anna is a Chinese woman who speaks no
Italian, and little English. We taught here as best we could why we
wanted to share the message, and then met her again, and taught her
about God and prayer, we are trying to follow up with her and meet
with her again before we pass her to the Cimiano area sisters. We are
excited for her, and we hope she prayed for the love and witness of
God. Nobody has met with us.
On a side note, I bought 3 ties last week (100% silk, made in Como) so
I have 8 ties total now, instead of 5. So that's nice... Anyway
Vi amo, e ci sentiamo dopo!
--Anziano Benge
thing that makes me happy.
We are teaching nobody, still. We finally had a lesson with Antonio at
his restaurant, but he said he is not interested in changing faiths,
so we gave him a Book of Mormon, with our testimonies inside, a
pamphlet and finished with strong testimonies of the restoration. The
only question is why does nobody want to change. Everybody thinks
everybody else is the problem, and it is really out of hand. We have
Catholics every single day tell us that Catholicism is wrong, but they
don't need our religion. Every person we share the gospel with admits
it is true, and then tells us it's not important though, because they
already pray, and trust God. Etc.
We share the Message, and then...
"- I haven't read the bible, but I know that Christ loves me. I don't
need prophets because I have Christ. Bye, thank you.
- Christ was a prophet, and I think everyone can receive revelation,
I already pray so you can't change what I think. Bye, thanks.
- nope
- Nope I'm catholic, and even if the church is not of God, I like it!
I I'm going to be catholic until I die."
Those are the same answers we get every single time, and it is very
very very exhausting. La energia è sfinita.
I wish I could say more...
We found Anna last pday. Anna is a Chinese woman who speaks no
Italian, and little English. We taught here as best we could why we
wanted to share the message, and then met her again, and taught her
about God and prayer, we are trying to follow up with her and meet
with her again before we pass her to the Cimiano area sisters. We are
excited for her, and we hope she prayed for the love and witness of
God. Nobody has met with us.
On a side note, I bought 3 ties last week (100% silk, made in Como) so
I have 8 ties total now, instead of 5. So that's nice... Anyway
Vi amo, e ci sentiamo dopo!
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Transfer one, ha finito
Date: Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 9:20 AM
The yogurt here in Italy is fabulous, I eat pear, pineapple, raspberry, coconut, or mango yogurt every morning now with a bowl of cereal, they all have real fruit pieces and everything, just another reason to love Italian food.
--Anziano Benge
Well, sorry, but this is not really how to start a letter home, but I must apologize for not sending one last week. I'm still loving it here in Italy, although it's really tiring, but there's not too much more to ask for other than investigators that answer there phones, investigators that actually show up to meetings, friendly people, and member missionaries; other than than, there's not anything I feel I am lacking.
Last week was transfers, Anziano Crowther and I are still here, although he is district leader. But the Sisters are now Sorella Dixon and Sorella Griffin who was transferred here from Genova. The Anziani are Anziano Robb, who lives in Boise originally but used to live in Layton, and his companion, as anyone could have guessed, is his trainee, Anziano Skinner, from Layton. It feels like home. For those who don't know, Anziano Skinner is from my stake in Utah and even went to the same Aaronic Priesthood Camps and same High school. It is really cool.
This week has been long and hard, with less people showing up to things less people talking to us, and many activities that no nonmembers show up to. Even less people in church, the only thing there is more of is sweat. All I can say is 'this is sososo so So Sooooo different from the mission in Tennessee'
Non c'è più di dire.
Last PDay we threw a disc around, kind of made me miss Ultimate a bit, but I don't have much more to say. I will end this by asking you all to just pray for hearts to be opened, and for it to drop below 80 degrees Fahrenheit, but no matter how hot it gets, I know this gospel is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! Until next time!
--Anziano Benge
Discepolo degli Ipad
Date: Wed, May 20, 2015 at 3:41 AM
Last Wednesday we finished off with a lesson of the Restoration with an inactive family. Suprisingly there were 2 nonmembers there, so we asked them to come tonight as well. We will see, but they seemed honest when they said yes. That night we also talked to the owner of a restaurant, and he wants to meet with us too. As of now, we have not.
Giovedì, we searched and talked to people, walking several miles, and then had English class. That day just was hot, and full of hunger.
Friday, it rained, and there was a boycott of public transportation. So that kind of was dumb, so we walked everywhere, and honeslty found only a couple people... it was hard.
Saturday we had lunch with a crazy catholic (again), we are never eating with him again, because we told him we wouldn't. It was free pizza, but he just rants about seeing demons, only sleeping 3 hours every night (no wonder he's nuts), then he proceeded to tell us the Catholic church was true, because Peter told a bishop that the Church was going to be destroyed, so they changed the entire church so it couldn't be destroyed. First off, that makes a church NOT true, and it's also not history. We also got a lecture on various translations for his bible.
That night, we had a ward talent show, and our skit about the lives of missionaries was funny, and went well. The rest, was good, and we listened to lots of singing, and dancing. But nonmembers were there and we met, so it was a good experience.
Sunday was church, and lunch with the ward mission leader. Always fun with that family. than that night was met with a less active family, and I got licked by lots of dogs. Darn. No future appointments still.
Our investigators still can't meet... such a shame.
Monday was Zone Meeting, and we got spiritual nourishment, and then we got Ipads... Yeah. I don't know, but its awesome, we cannot use them until Friday, but we set them up, and its cool having Ipad (minis)... We hope it hastens the work, although we cannot use Facebook yet. At least we can show spiritual videos on trains or busses, in parks, or anywhere.
Monday to Tuesday, we did a Scambio (exchange?). I forgot what they are called in English, but it was awesome. I was with Anziano Fields, and we only stopped one person the whole time, but that's because the other 6 stopped us. Whoa, that never happens. We had many a lesson, and many gospel discussions.
If we cannot meet with our investigators this week, it will be disappointing, its been too long.
Please pray for faith, and a way for their doors and hearts to be opened.
Miss you all, Ciao!
(If you have questions, please email me, because I don't get a lot of Emails) isaac.benge@myldsmail.net
--
Giovedì, we searched and talked to people, walking several miles, and then had English class. That day just was hot, and full of hunger.
Friday, it rained, and there was a boycott of public transportation. So that kind of was dumb, so we walked everywhere, and honeslty found only a couple people... it was hard.
Saturday we had lunch with a crazy catholic (again), we are never eating with him again, because we told him we wouldn't. It was free pizza, but he just rants about seeing demons, only sleeping 3 hours every night (no wonder he's nuts), then he proceeded to tell us the Catholic church was true, because Peter told a bishop that the Church was going to be destroyed, so they changed the entire church so it couldn't be destroyed. First off, that makes a church NOT true, and it's also not history. We also got a lecture on various translations for his bible.
That night, we had a ward talent show, and our skit about the lives of missionaries was funny, and went well. The rest, was good, and we listened to lots of singing, and dancing. But nonmembers were there and we met, so it was a good experience.
Sunday was church, and lunch with the ward mission leader. Always fun with that family. than that night was met with a less active family, and I got licked by lots of dogs. Darn. No future appointments still.
Our investigators still can't meet... such a shame.
Monday was Zone Meeting, and we got spiritual nourishment, and then we got Ipads... Yeah. I don't know, but its awesome, we cannot use them until Friday, but we set them up, and its cool having Ipad (minis)... We hope it hastens the work, although we cannot use Facebook yet. At least we can show spiritual videos on trains or busses, in parks, or anywhere.
Monday to Tuesday, we did a Scambio (exchange?). I forgot what they are called in English, but it was awesome. I was with Anziano Fields, and we only stopped one person the whole time, but that's because the other 6 stopped us. Whoa, that never happens. We had many a lesson, and many gospel discussions.
If we cannot meet with our investigators this week, it will be disappointing, its been too long.
Please pray for faith, and a way for their doors and hearts to be opened.
Miss you all, Ciao!
(If you have questions, please email me, because I don't get a lot of Emails) isaac.benge@myldsmail.net
Anziano Isaac Benge
Expo 2015
Date: Wed, May 13, 2015 at 9:39 AM
Mother's day was awesome. It felt only a little bit silly talking to my family that I just recently came from. I understand that it was important, but not too much has changed at home.
You might hear me complain of the heat. But here 'Fa Caldo', and missionary attire makes it hard to walk around in the sun all day. The mission work goes well as it can, even if it is all done in the shade.
Last P-day after email, we visited Le Colonne di San Lorenzo and just walked around down town. Not much else.
Thursday, was hot, and we just did a ton of finding near or in Parco di Cave.
Friday, we looked and searched, and contacted, and nothing. Really hard day of heat and no success. We wonder as a companionship why there is no trust or work... Is it the EXPO or the sudden flood of immigrants or something? We have no clue, but nobody will even stop sometimes.
Saturday we went to Como. The ward of Como invited our district, to do missionary work with their missionaries and members. We were assigned a member (ours was 16 yrs and named Giacommo) and we were assigned areas to visit inactives (we got 6 names, and went to Chiasso). Turns out, Chiasso is in Switzerland, another country visited for me! Como was beautiful, and the whole area was stunning, but none of the inactives were actually living at the addresses we had, so in the end it was just heat and walking again. That night, back in Lampugnano, we met Chris and his son, they speak English because they visit America often, and we gave the whole first lesson. Chris didn't give us a number, but they have a Book of Mormon, and our number... pray for them to call us!
Sunday was Mothers day, so after church and lunch with members, we did our family message home. And that was great! The family's home we did our contacts at are American, the Crisciones, so it was fun to just talk and hang out with them too. The father, 'Gio' works at the Expo and that night promised all the missionaries free tickets. Whoa! (usually 39 Euro)
That is the reason we are doing Email later today is because we just got back from the Expo.
The Expo was huge, a massive covered area of a mile long (or longer) with pavilions linning both sides, it was massive, and even with our time we only managed to visit a few. The Expo has a theme of Agriculture and Food Technology, so I knew to expect tons of Enviromental stuff but, I actaully didn't like it too much. Sis. Criscione had a stroller, and toured with us so it was cool to also skip a few long lines. hahah, nothing like disneyland though.
-Mexico Pavilion- History of Beans and Products in Mexico, or something... Lots of people, too much to read..
-South Korea- A cool building filled with pots, they talked a lot (100%) about fermenting food in these special pots, and then eating it healthy... Hmmm.
-Uruguay- showed a video about how natural they were, how healthy, and how enviromental they were, it was strange and they just tried to appeal to Mammon, (if you don't understand, translates as Worldly things...) They left no impression other than confusion and sorrow for the world.
-Belgium- The most impressive of them all. Showed a plant-fish cycle and it was some cool ideas. The plants rotate over water, and around light, the fish in the water provide for the plants... it was cool. Belgium also talked about eating insects as protein... hmmm
-China- What? That's always the question with China I think.. What? They had a short display of history of China, and silk. Then told us to eat healthy, and then showed us a video that made no sense. It had no words, and just showed lots of random scenes of laughing heads, fireworks, creepy old lady, a chef, a pianist, a chemist, and a bullet train. They were in honestly no apparent order, and babies were crying in the watching audience. It was frightening and applied to nothing in any culture.
United Kingdom- Their theme was that the UK was leading the world in creativity and fixing problems... the hive of the UK. Worst ever... we walked through an empty elevated garden (no displays and nothing to see) then we went under a mesh of metal poles broadcasting Bee sounds, and then you could go on top, where there was a bar, and nothing else but mesh and bee sounds. If I were give it a theme, I would say ''United Kingdom, we hum and spend money on metal and gardens... 1% creativity?''
USA- Lots of politians talking about farming and Food Bill stuff (they are really good at talking) They introduced drip farming, with sideways gardens that follow the Sun and tilt and turn. A good idea to conserve water and use a lot of electricity. Cool idea for Skyscrapers...
CocaCola pavilion- Gave a free bottle of Coke, ew... and talked about recycling... ok.
Pavilion Zero- Gave us a history of agriculture of the whole world, kindof, and then used the scare tatic of scary sounds and fake piles of garbage everywhere. Lots of projectors and sounds, challenged to Waste zero percent.
That was all...My overall experience was saddening, wish I could see more country's displays for cool stuff not just uncool stuuuufff... but oh well. If they had instead spent these billions dollars for world hunger instead of the Expo, probably would have been better.
Oh well! Off to do missionary work. Pictures next time!
Worry about salvation and charity, not food. The food comes with righteousness, but a man cannot live on bread alone.
Questo vangelo può cambiare il mondo per il bene!
Ci Vediamo!
--
You might hear me complain of the heat. But here 'Fa Caldo', and missionary attire makes it hard to walk around in the sun all day. The mission work goes well as it can, even if it is all done in the shade.
Last P-day after email, we visited Le Colonne di San Lorenzo and just walked around down town. Not much else.
Thursday, was hot, and we just did a ton of finding near or in Parco di Cave.
Friday, we looked and searched, and contacted, and nothing. Really hard day of heat and no success. We wonder as a companionship why there is no trust or work... Is it the EXPO or the sudden flood of immigrants or something? We have no clue, but nobody will even stop sometimes.
Saturday we went to Como. The ward of Como invited our district, to do missionary work with their missionaries and members. We were assigned a member (ours was 16 yrs and named Giacommo) and we were assigned areas to visit inactives (we got 6 names, and went to Chiasso). Turns out, Chiasso is in Switzerland, another country visited for me! Como was beautiful, and the whole area was stunning, but none of the inactives were actually living at the addresses we had, so in the end it was just heat and walking again. That night, back in Lampugnano, we met Chris and his son, they speak English because they visit America often, and we gave the whole first lesson. Chris didn't give us a number, but they have a Book of Mormon, and our number... pray for them to call us!
Sunday was Mothers day, so after church and lunch with members, we did our family message home. And that was great! The family's home we did our contacts at are American, the Crisciones, so it was fun to just talk and hang out with them too. The father, 'Gio' works at the Expo and that night promised all the missionaries free tickets. Whoa! (usually 39 Euro)
That is the reason we are doing Email later today is because we just got back from the Expo.
The Expo was huge, a massive covered area of a mile long (or longer) with pavilions linning both sides, it was massive, and even with our time we only managed to visit a few. The Expo has a theme of Agriculture and Food Technology, so I knew to expect tons of Enviromental stuff but, I actaully didn't like it too much. Sis. Criscione had a stroller, and toured with us so it was cool to also skip a few long lines. hahah, nothing like disneyland though.
-Mexico Pavilion- History of Beans and Products in Mexico, or something... Lots of people, too much to read..
-South Korea- A cool building filled with pots, they talked a lot (100%) about fermenting food in these special pots, and then eating it healthy... Hmmm.
-Uruguay- showed a video about how natural they were, how healthy, and how enviromental they were, it was strange and they just tried to appeal to Mammon, (if you don't understand, translates as Worldly things...) They left no impression other than confusion and sorrow for the world.
-Belgium- The most impressive of them all. Showed a plant-fish cycle and it was some cool ideas. The plants rotate over water, and around light, the fish in the water provide for the plants... it was cool. Belgium also talked about eating insects as protein... hmmm
-China- What? That's always the question with China I think.. What? They had a short display of history of China, and silk. Then told us to eat healthy, and then showed us a video that made no sense. It had no words, and just showed lots of random scenes of laughing heads, fireworks, creepy old lady, a chef, a pianist, a chemist, and a bullet train. They were in honestly no apparent order, and babies were crying in the watching audience. It was frightening and applied to nothing in any culture.
United Kingdom- Their theme was that the UK was leading the world in creativity and fixing problems... the hive of the UK. Worst ever... we walked through an empty elevated garden (no displays and nothing to see) then we went under a mesh of metal poles broadcasting Bee sounds, and then you could go on top, where there was a bar, and nothing else but mesh and bee sounds. If I were give it a theme, I would say ''United Kingdom, we hum and spend money on metal and gardens... 1% creativity?''
USA- Lots of politians talking about farming and Food Bill stuff (they are really good at talking) They introduced drip farming, with sideways gardens that follow the Sun and tilt and turn. A good idea to conserve water and use a lot of electricity. Cool idea for Skyscrapers...
CocaCola pavilion- Gave a free bottle of Coke, ew... and talked about recycling... ok.
Pavilion Zero- Gave us a history of agriculture of the whole world, kindof, and then used the scare tatic of scary sounds and fake piles of garbage everywhere. Lots of projectors and sounds, challenged to Waste zero percent.
That was all...My overall experience was saddening, wish I could see more country's displays for cool stuff not just uncool stuuuufff... but oh well. If they had instead spent these billions dollars for world hunger instead of the Expo, probably would have been better.
Oh well! Off to do missionary work. Pictures next time!
Worry about salvation and charity, not food. The food comes with righteousness, but a man cannot live on bread alone.
Questo vangelo può cambiare il mondo per il bene!
Ci Vediamo!
Anziano Isaac Benge
Lampugnano
Date: Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 4:01 AM Part 2
- our apartment is very American Style, and large. Via Tibullo 6, 20151 Milano
Image from the back wall of the bed room. Kitchen and Bathroom to the right.
Friday we did lots of planning, and lots of study. New missionaries get an extra hour of companion study, so I will have extra study for 12 weeks. (Mission fact: We stay up 30 minutes later and wake up 30 minutes later because of Italy's schedule)
I ate real pizza (mmm) and then went to an Inactive member's house (The Cubas) amd taught Sis. Cuba and her son about putting Christ in their lives. They came to church Sunday so, maybe YAY! They live in Sedriano. Next we went finding at Parco Villa Scheilber and only talked to one guy who wasn't way interested. Then we headed home. One thing I have already learned is that public transport takes forever and wastes a lot of time if you don't contact.
Saturday we went to Bande Nere and found a couple more guys that are more interested. We don't actually have any investigators right now that meet with us, so its really hard, but I know that if we work hard we will be blessed, and blessing the lives of others. After lunch, we headed to Via Copernico in Pero, Via Console Marcello, Via Gabbro, and Via Cerkov to visit inactive new members. None of them could be found, and even one of the addresses was non existant. Then we found Yakov, he asked us to sit next to him on the Red Line Metro, and now he might be a new investigator (as of today hasn't answered his phone though).
Sunday: My first in Italy, and it was hard to understand, but I don't give a talk until next week so I'm good there. A guy in sacrament meeting fainted during his talk though, so very exciting, and sad. We also gave a blessing to a sick lady, and then ate Lunch with the Lauriola family in Pogliano and Dinner with the Falva family. Giving both families a lesson was a treat, and it was the first time I have felt comfortable speaking Italian. In between meals we went finding, and found another 2 potentials. One was a kid from Africa who spoke a bit of English, it was great bearing my testimony in full without language worries, and I know we really touched his life. We prayed with him, sadly, but we hope for the best, he moves to London really soon, but he said he ould find the missionaries in London. Yay.
Monday we began paper for my Permesso, or my permission to stay in Italy and live here, and the we did finding, and tried to find more inactives at Via Della Martinella and Via Albino. Niether we there again, but later we found an Egyptian kid who ACTUALLY is meeting with us tommorrow! We have an investigator! He needs an Arabic Book of Mormon but speaks Italian well enough to give him lessons. I'm so excited. (Italian Tip: You can Buy 2 liters of carbonated fruit juice for under 1 Euro, and its way better than any drink in the USA)
Tuesday: We taught the Espiritu family (there are two Espiritu families this is Espiritu 1) in their home near Tirana Piazza and also talked to some weird people, but anyways, the Espiritu lesson was awesome. We taught this Fillipino family about the Restoration, because their son Joshua who is 9, and baptized and confirmed, is inactive, so we both bore good testimonies, and Joshua promised to read the Book of Mormon. Wonderful! Tuesday night they also have Serata Familiare with the ward, it's like Young mens are womens, but the whole group of young adults receive a lesson and then play games.
Today, is PDay, and we will be seeing the city a bit, and shopping.
Pray for Yakov, Osama, and all of Italy! I love this gospel, and everyone here! Ciao!
Image from the back wall of the bed room. Kitchen and Bathroom to the right.
Friday we did lots of planning, and lots of study. New missionaries get an extra hour of companion study, so I will have extra study for 12 weeks. (Mission fact: We stay up 30 minutes later and wake up 30 minutes later because of Italy's schedule)
I ate real pizza (mmm) and then went to an Inactive member's house (The Cubas) amd taught Sis. Cuba and her son about putting Christ in their lives. They came to church Sunday so, maybe YAY! They live in Sedriano. Next we went finding at Parco Villa Scheilber and only talked to one guy who wasn't way interested. Then we headed home. One thing I have already learned is that public transport takes forever and wastes a lot of time if you don't contact.
Saturday we went to Bande Nere and found a couple more guys that are more interested. We don't actually have any investigators right now that meet with us, so its really hard, but I know that if we work hard we will be blessed, and blessing the lives of others. After lunch, we headed to Via Copernico in Pero, Via Console Marcello, Via Gabbro, and Via Cerkov to visit inactive new members. None of them could be found, and even one of the addresses was non existant. Then we found Yakov, he asked us to sit next to him on the Red Line Metro, and now he might be a new investigator (as of today hasn't answered his phone though).
Sunday: My first in Italy, and it was hard to understand, but I don't give a talk until next week so I'm good there. A guy in sacrament meeting fainted during his talk though, so very exciting, and sad. We also gave a blessing to a sick lady, and then ate Lunch with the Lauriola family in Pogliano and Dinner with the Falva family. Giving both families a lesson was a treat, and it was the first time I have felt comfortable speaking Italian. In between meals we went finding, and found another 2 potentials. One was a kid from Africa who spoke a bit of English, it was great bearing my testimony in full without language worries, and I know we really touched his life. We prayed with him, sadly, but we hope for the best, he moves to London really soon, but he said he ould find the missionaries in London. Yay.
Monday we began paper for my Permesso, or my permission to stay in Italy and live here, and the we did finding, and tried to find more inactives at Via Della Martinella and Via Albino. Niether we there again, but later we found an Egyptian kid who ACTUALLY is meeting with us tommorrow! We have an investigator! He needs an Arabic Book of Mormon but speaks Italian well enough to give him lessons. I'm so excited. (Italian Tip: You can Buy 2 liters of carbonated fruit juice for under 1 Euro, and its way better than any drink in the USA)
Tuesday: We taught the Espiritu family (there are two Espiritu families this is Espiritu 1) in their home near Tirana Piazza and also talked to some weird people, but anyways, the Espiritu lesson was awesome. We taught this Fillipino family about the Restoration, because their son Joshua who is 9, and baptized and confirmed, is inactive, so we both bore good testimonies, and Joshua promised to read the Book of Mormon. Wonderful! Tuesday night they also have Serata Familiare with the ward, it's like Young mens are womens, but the whole group of young adults receive a lesson and then play games.
Today, is PDay, and we will be seeing the city a bit, and shopping.
Pray for Yakov, Osama, and all of Italy! I love this gospel, and everyone here! Ciao!
One of our common transportation methods, the Tram
--
Anziano Isaac Benge
Here: Lampugnano
Date: Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 4:01 AM, Part 1
We tried to talk to a lot of people in the airports, and nobody was really super interested, but I handed out a BOM with my testimony inside, but the guy left in on his chair in Heathrow. Va beh. Our layovers were actually really short, and before I knew it, I was in Italy. When we arrived, we got picked up by the president and his wife and drove to Opera. (Roads are terrible in Europe and so is this keyboard), I was sweating like crazy in my suit. Lucky for me, I only have to wear suits Sunday now. After we ate a small lunch (way better than the MTC) we headed on the Metro to the Duomo, the most famous place in Milan. We began contacting, and I was rejected like 40 times before 2 hours were up. We went to bed early that night, and woke up at 6:30 like normal. This is when we received our trainers and areas. My area is the Lampugnano Milan area, and my companion is Anziano Crowther from Colorado.
Opera
Mia collega.
The mission is the heart of Milan, and the whole mission. It's pretty much the entire west half of Milan and the outlying towns around. When you see a street, feel free to Google Street View it. First things we did after arriving in Lampugnano was I got cash, an abuonamento (city public transport pass), and then we went finding in Parco di Trenno, a huge park here. We found 2 guys, GianLuca, and Fernando. I didn't say much because my Italian is not that good apparently. hahah, ok. I'm getting better very quickly. This place is wonderful. (TIP: Italians hate being helped, there is almost no service, and NEVER ask to help Italians with the dishes, they will not let you)
After finding in the Park, thursday night, we went to "English Class", nobody showed up really, but the church is only 2 km away from our apartment. This is where I met the rest of the district.
Opera
Mia collega.
The mission is the heart of Milan, and the whole mission. It's pretty much the entire west half of Milan and the outlying towns around. When you see a street, feel free to Google Street View it. First things we did after arriving in Lampugnano was I got cash, an abuonamento (city public transport pass), and then we went finding in Parco di Trenno, a huge park here. We found 2 guys, GianLuca, and Fernando. I didn't say much because my Italian is not that good apparently. hahah, ok. I'm getting better very quickly. This place is wonderful. (TIP: Italians hate being helped, there is almost no service, and NEVER ask to help Italians with the dishes, they will not let you)
After finding in the Park, thursday night, we went to "English Class", nobody showed up really, but the church is only 2 km away from our apartment. This is where I met the rest of the district.
Teach to Find, find to Teach
Insegna trovare, Trova insegnare. We've taught a lot and we even received another contact after meeting with Mohep this week. Mohep brought his friend Badr to the lesson, and Badr is really really strong of faith. He was helpig Moheb understand, and it's cool to suddenly have another investigator. Although, we need Another Book of Mormon in Arabic... hmmmm
Italy is as beautiful as ever, but we also got caught in the rain without coats or umbrella available once. It wasn't cold or too terrible, but when it rains here NOBODY is outside, and our finding work hits a Zero. Only one man talked to us, and he stopped us asked why we didn't have coats, felt how wet our shirts were, and then we taught him in the middle of the storm, and we prayed, I hope he contacts us later.
Yakov has't met with us, but we know he will because he's the one calling us to set up appointments, and even wants to come to church.
This morning, instead of studies, we met Angelo, who wanted to drop our lessons, but he's read the BOM 3 times, and instead of dropping us, we instead got him to commit to coming to church! Yay!
Last P-day we shopped, we had training yesterday from the Mission President, which was good, but another weird thing that happened was the Opening of the Milano Expo.
There was a bomb threat on the Red line metro (which we always use) and the Zone leaders told us to not do finding Saturday and Sunday. There were riots everywhere, and they said to only leave the apartment for lessons, and of course church. May 1st, opening of the Expo, and was also Labor Day for Italy, but hopefully the work picks up this week!
Italy is as beautiful as ever, but we also got caught in the rain without coats or umbrella available once. It wasn't cold or too terrible, but when it rains here NOBODY is outside, and our finding work hits a Zero. Only one man talked to us, and he stopped us asked why we didn't have coats, felt how wet our shirts were, and then we taught him in the middle of the storm, and we prayed, I hope he contacts us later.
Yakov has't met with us, but we know he will because he's the one calling us to set up appointments, and even wants to come to church.
This morning, instead of studies, we met Angelo, who wanted to drop our lessons, but he's read the BOM 3 times, and instead of dropping us, we instead got him to commit to coming to church! Yay!
Last P-day we shopped, we had training yesterday from the Mission President, which was good, but another weird thing that happened was the Opening of the Milano Expo.
There was a bomb threat on the Red line metro (which we always use) and the Zone leaders told us to not do finding Saturday and Sunday. There were riots everywhere, and they said to only leave the apartment for lessons, and of course church. May 1st, opening of the Expo, and was also Labor Day for Italy, but hopefully the work picks up this week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)