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

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

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

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.

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

--

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!

--

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!

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.

Teach to Find, find to Teach: Photos

Email: May 6th

​Expo stuff...

​Questo vangelo è da Dio!​

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!