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

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

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

On Friday I had an exchange out of Padua! For the scambio I had the
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!

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.

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

The title of this email is referring to yesterday. We talked a man
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!