This week was the wonderful, blessed, holy day of Pasqua.
Easter here is celebrated from Thursday until Monday night, and
unfortunately for me, this was my only Easter in Italy. They hand out
giant chocolate eggs as gifts, and they have an alright seasonal
dove-shaped cake called Colomba that they eat.
Spring has brought me allergies, and also a slight sickness in my
belly. Nevertheless, the work goes on. Friday night we had dinner with
Sorella Letizia Boschi at her house, with Riccardo and her parents. We
ate delicious homemade pesto genovese, and creamy cheese potatoes, and
chocolate cake. We shared our Easter message and bore testimony. Anz.
Harris is struggling with the language enough that we've decided to
try speaking Italian 24/7 so he can participate more in lessons.
Sunday, heaps of people came to church, and it was a very spiritual
day. We had to do translation for the CTR 10 class, because there are
many visiting Americans. (Speaking of visits, this city is 'flowing'
with tourists. I am glad that I'll probably leave before summer when
it will go nuts)
Easter night, la sera Pasquale, we had a wonderful dinner with the
Morelli family. Brother Morelli is the one who did the direct
translation at the microphone for Elder Christofferson. His wife and
daughter were there, and his eldest son, Christian (the old ward
mission leader), is away on vacation in the US of A. We ate some nice
spinach pasta from Alto Adige, and roast potatoes, and well-made
chicken loaf stuff...I'm not sure if I could explain...
Not much else has happened, we've been doing finding, we watched Meet
the Mormons with Malu, and all of our other investigators seem to have
evaporated into 'quel vuoto che non ha fine'
Buona Pasqua!
I can't say much more, other than I know that our Savior lives. He is
the One who overcame death, both physical and spiritual, and he is the
head cornerstone of this Church. A Catholic man told us we would be
damned for preaching against the 'oldest religion in Italy', but I
only felt a quiet gratitude for our Lord and Mediator; the work is
hard, but I've felt his hand in the everyday life I give out here in
Firenze. I know He lives, I know He loves, and I know there's a plan
for each of us.
Study, pray, be good. Nel nome di Gesù Cristo, amen
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Shaking the Hand of an Apostle: No Photos Sorry
I don't have proof, just a few hundred alibis. Yeah
Anyway, this Sunday was our Stake Conference with Elder Cristofferson,
he is so apostolic!! I don't know if that means anything special, but
to me I know he is an Apostle of the Lord, very humble, quiet, but a
special witness of Christ.
Mainly I would like to share how he told us that any point in our life
can be a turning point, and how important the family is. He promised
so many blessings at the end, for families, and then asked to shake
the hands of all the children and missionaries. It was a great
conference, and many people were touched, including several
investigators and less actives.
The rest of our week was a numerous amount of 'bidones', where we
confirm and they still don't show up. We met with Joseph, who still
understands very little, but his home gives us an infinite supply of
referrals and new investigators, so we're always working with that.
We are using the new Easter videos to do finding...if you haven't seen
them go find the site!
Followhim.mormon.org or seguiLo.mormon.org
#Hallelujah, right?!
Well that's all, Buona Pasqua!!!
--Anziano Benge
Anyway, this Sunday was our Stake Conference with Elder Cristofferson,
he is so apostolic!! I don't know if that means anything special, but
to me I know he is an Apostle of the Lord, very humble, quiet, but a
special witness of Christ.
Mainly I would like to share how he told us that any point in our life
can be a turning point, and how important the family is. He promised
so many blessings at the end, for families, and then asked to shake
the hands of all the children and missionaries. It was a great
conference, and many people were touched, including several
investigators and less actives.
The rest of our week was a numerous amount of 'bidones', where we
confirm and they still don't show up. We met with Joseph, who still
understands very little, but his home gives us an infinite supply of
referrals and new investigators, so we're always working with that.
We are using the new Easter videos to do finding...if you haven't seen
them go find the site!
Followhim.mormon.org or seguiLo.mormon.org
#Hallelujah, right?!
Well that's all, Buona Pasqua!!!
--Anziano Benge
Shaking the Hand of an Apostle: No Photos Sorry
I don't have proof, just a few hundred alibis. Yeah
Anyway, this Sunday was our Stake Conference with Elder Cristofferson,
he is so apostolic!! I don't know if that means anything special, but
to me I know he is an Apostle of the Lord, very humble, quiet, but a
special witness of Christ.
Mainly I would like to share how he told us that any point in our life
can be a turning point, and how important the family is. He promised
so many blessings at the end, for families, and then asked to shake
the hands of all the children and missionaries. It was a great
conference, and many people were touched, including several
investigators and less actives.
The rest of our week was a numerous amount of 'bidones', where we
confirm and they still don't show up. We met with Joseph, who still
understands very little, but his home gives us an infinite supply of
referrals and new investigators, so we're always working with that.
We are using the new Easter videos to do finding...if you haven't seen
them go find the site!
Followhim.mormon.org or seguiLo.mormon.org
#Hallelujah, right?!
Well that's all, Buona Pasqua!!!
--Anziano Benge
Anyway, this Sunday was our Stake Conference with Elder Cristofferson,
he is so apostolic!! I don't know if that means anything special, but
to me I know he is an Apostle of the Lord, very humble, quiet, but a
special witness of Christ.
Mainly I would like to share how he told us that any point in our life
can be a turning point, and how important the family is. He promised
so many blessings at the end, for families, and then asked to shake
the hands of all the children and missionaries. It was a great
conference, and many people were touched, including several
investigators and less actives.
The rest of our week was a numerous amount of 'bidones', where we
confirm and they still don't show up. We met with Joseph, who still
understands very little, but his home gives us an infinite supply of
referrals and new investigators, so we're always working with that.
We are using the new Easter videos to do finding...if you haven't seen
them go find the site!
Followhim.mormon.org or seguiLo.mormon.org
#Hallelujah, right?!
Well that's all, Buona Pasqua!!!
--Anziano Benge
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
This is a message for: You
--Anziano Benge
Ok, let's talk about this week... It wasn't great.
We had sun, we had cancellations, we had lunch. I'm not sure I can
expound much. Our favorite part of this massive finding week was going
down to Montelupo, where we passed by a few inactive members and an
ex-investigator. We had no success there, but did some finding, had
some conversation, gave out pamphlets. It's a beautiful little town!
Our main focus of our work is with Luigi, who we saw Saturday and has
a very strong testimony (he's just SO busy), we have Alessandro and
Manuela who decided to move again because they found mold spores
everywhere (we bought them a Winnie the Pooh hat and boots for their
soon due daughter). We meet with Joseph and his wife and daughters in
Empoli, but they don't understand anything we teach or our purpose,
they'll have to be dropped unless they begin listening and committing.
I'm happy, even though my shoes are falling apart around my swollen
feet, and the Spring has arrived. Tuscany is awesome, the work is
marvelous, and the truth is real... Next Sunday, Elder D. Todd
Christopherson is coming to our Stake Conference, hopefully I'll say
something on that!
Ciao
(Here is a picture of a Toscana seesaw in front of a massive Villa, in
Montelupo)
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Another Email
Now that I'm done volleyballing and 'footballing', and I'm covered in mud, I decided I should probably write an Email. Sorry I've been so bad a writing, sometimes it feels more like I'm rewriting journal entries instead of actually talkin to anyone. I just need to realize that these emails are going to people, and that some people read them, so they should be fun or something.
This last week was our last week with Sorella Hogan, her release date is the end of this week. It's been a great time, and she's one of the best missionaries.
Our district held a funeral for her:
Top: (me, Anz. Stanley, Anz. Taylor, Anz. Castronovo, Anz.Harris, Anz. Kenny)
Middle: (Sorella D'Aleo, Sorella Taylor, Sorella Castro)
Front Center: Sorella Hogan
It was the best funeral ever. We even carried her out in a 'coffin', I don't know why, but we did.
All was well.
This week for the work was slower, but on Saturday the other Anziani's investigator Jerry got baptized!! He's so cool, and is helping me to learn Twi, which may not be the most useful language but.. whatever.
Richard, our Ghanian Twi speaker came to the baptism, and decided he wanted this covenant himself, so we set a day for April 9th. He's excited and told us he already knows the the Book of Mormon (in Twi: Mormon Nwoma No) is true and he loves our message.
Alessandro and Manuela are really close to the due date of their baby, so they disappeared and we can't reach them.
Malu, or Brazilian investigator and boyfriend Paolo still love us, they interrupt our lessons with worldy comments and questions like "Did you play lots of videogames before the mission?"
I have to tell them that we were talking about Joseph Smith, not videogames and they aren't that closely related. It's really hard, and I'm learning that my Italian still really needs improvement, no matter how many compliments I recieve. Anyway, Harris was given a free Playstation Control custom made with AC Milan style and logo print... it's probably worth up to 70 dollars or so, and he got it for free and can't even use it.
We love it here in Italy, in Firenze, and we are happy. The cold rain makes it hard on us, and our shoes and socks, but it's awesome still!
So che questa missione è la cosa più preparato per me, imparo tanto e mi sto svilupando ogni giorno. Questo vangelo è perfetto, questa chiesa è il regno di Dio sulla terra. Nel nome di Gesù Cristo, amen
Until later!
So che questa missione è la cosa più preparato per me, imparo tanto e mi sto svilupando ogni giorno. Questo vangelo è perfetto, questa chiesa è il regno di Dio sulla terra. Nel nome di Gesù Cristo, amen
Until later!
Ciao
-- Anziano Isaac Benge
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Still Florence, Still Awesome
(Galluzzo, a tiny place— we were passing an inactive's house)
--Anziano Benge
made a lot of phone calls which went unanswered. Alessandro and
Manuela canceled, so did Malu, Alex disappeared. We had new missionary
training, right after church, so we sat for that entire day. Monday we
had President's last zone conference, so we sat practically all day
for that as well. Sorella Hogan got sick that night, so we gave a
blessing. That turned into a blessing ourselves because we ran into
John Bravo, who also seemed like he'd vanished. We had a lesson on the
street, he told us he was getting kicked out of his house and all his
work problems but asked the Lord for help, which then we ran into him.
He promised to come to church.
We run into a lot of people on 'accident'.
They aren't accidents.
Yesterday we met Richard and gave him a restoration lesson. He's from
Ghana. Immediately after, two different people stopped US while we
were applying for a bus pass and asked if they could come to church.
It was awesome.
Ah well. I'm out of time! Until next week, Ci sentiamo. If you don't
know the church is true, find out now!
P.s. (It's hot and rainy here!)
--Anziano Benge
made a lot of phone calls which went unanswered. Alessandro and
Manuela canceled, so did Malu, Alex disappeared. We had new missionary
training, right after church, so we sat for that entire day. Monday we
had President's last zone conference, so we sat practically all day
for that as well. Sorella Hogan got sick that night, so we gave a
blessing. That turned into a blessing ourselves because we ran into
John Bravo, who also seemed like he'd vanished. We had a lesson on the
street, he told us he was getting kicked out of his house and all his
work problems but asked the Lord for help, which then we ran into him.
He promised to come to church.
We run into a lot of people on 'accident'.
They aren't accidents.
Yesterday we met Richard and gave him a restoration lesson. He's from
Ghana. Immediately after, two different people stopped US while we
were applying for a bus pass and asked if they could come to church.
It was awesome.
Ah well. I'm out of time! Until next week, Ci sentiamo. If you don't
know the church is true, find out now!
P.s. (It's hot and rainy here!)
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