No time at all...and niente

Transfers
I have nothing to say , and no time to say it. We saw Anziano Young
off, my new companion will be Anziano Jaques, but he comes in tomorrow
from Bolzano so I know nothing about him. I spent 2 weeks with Anz.
Young here in Novara, and he's a good guy! Now he's gone, but we had
good work! Our week has been finding, and member passbys, and saying
goodbye.
I'll be in Vercelli with Anziano Penfold and Anziano Carnahan until
tomorrow, but now I've got to go... We'll hear from each other!

--Anziano Benge
(Arona, a beautiful lake city)

Novara, the Italian China

The covered hall to the castle in Vigevano

The view from the castle's hall (Vigevano)

This email title is not in reference to our Chinese investigator Ting,
who is taking the lessons. She is from near Shanghai, kinda. And has
lived here for a few years and has started saying prayers, it's
awesome.
No, really the title is because this area in Piemonte (Piedmont), is
packed with rice paddies and more rice paddies. On trains, we just see
blue sky on the ground as well as upwards. It's cool, but it also
makes Novara the highest population for mosquitos ever. Darn
My companion is Anziano Young, he is from Bountiful UT and totally did
the theater program at Woods Cross High school. We already sing around
the town, except I don't remember English or lyrics. He has really
really bad allergies, but it only uses like 50 tissues a day and
doesn't stop the work. Hopefully it gets better in summer or he's
going to have a hard summer, poor guy. I'm his 4th companion and this
is his first city still. His last two companions both were moved to
the office, so I really hope it doesn't happen to me as well.
We have Ting as our progressing investigator, everyone else are
inactive, and of course we do 6 hours of finding everyday. Yeah.
Novara is nice, nothing compared to Firenze, I wish I hadn't been
transferred but it wasn't my choice. I've seen Mortara (it's ugly) and
the awesome village of Vigevano (awesome castle and piazza there).
That's it for now!!

--Anziano Benge
(The only thing in Novara is outside our window)

Always Space Transfers

--Anziano Benge

Surprise surprise, I was told Sunday that I am leaving (at noon
today), luckily I had given my testimony because I wasn't told until
after sacrament. I had two days to say goodbye to everyone and pack.
No more Firenze, no more Toscana, and exactly like when I came to
Florence, I'm replacing the Elder who is going into the office.
Apparently whenever the train a new Office Elder early, I'm supposed
to go clean up whatever city they're leaving.
My new city: Novara, for those who have never heard of it (most of
you), it borders my first area of Lampugnano on the west, but is in
Piedmont and is the second largest city in Piedmont after Turin. Also,
I hear, that there is literally nothing there. Who knows, it doesn't
even have it's own ward, and I'll have to go to Vercelli every Sunday
on train.
My new companion will be Anziano Young, he's been there for four
transfers so he might only stay these last two weeks. He's the trainee
of Anziano Taylor, the Zone Leader here in Firenze. I'm not way
excited, and I hate being thrown around, but I'm going in with a good
attitude. Apparently there are some nice lakes to visit, and Aosta (A
city I want to open) is in my zone, and so is the Matterhorn..so,
yeah!
I said goodbye to Mauro, the wonderful man who was baptized soon after
I arrived. I said goodbye to Austin and Iyke, my Nigerian brothers. To
Malu and Paolo, who hopefully will be baptized this summer, and she
gave me two really nice expensive pens (and a kilo of fresh Parmigiano
to take with me). I will miss Firenze!!! I will miss Bishop Ferrini,
Isaac Tatsap (mission leader), Fratello Riccardo Brighella (we helped
him optimize his new smartphone with accessibility for his 96%
blindness), Sorella Letizia Boschi, Fratello Rich Rodgers, the Mulkay
twins, Richard Boakye from Ghana, Jerry and Patrick as well, Luigi,
Alex, 'crazy' Roberto Romagna, Alessandro e Manuela, Felix, and
everyone!!
We had a successful week, we taught, we set a baptism date with Felix
(who just moved from the Reggio missionari to us). We worked hard, and
we stopped weirdo agnostics on the street. There was a soccer game
yesterday 3-on-3 in a tiny court, Missionaries versus ragazzi (some
boys that had made fun of the other Elders). I didn't play, because
I'm terrible and it wouldn't have been fair, but I taught 3 watching
children the gospel and they accepted it and brought pamphlets to
their parents. The game's deal was, if the 'Americans' win ten points
first, then they were allowed to teach the Italian teens the first
lesson; if the Italians won, then the Americans would buy kebap for
them all. We won 10-7 fair and square. Anziano Taylor and Anziano
Pesci will teach them this coming Saturday.
Last Friday we were near centro to teach a lesson, then we stumbled
into 20 carabinieri with riot shields, and another handful with gas
masks and suits. We got ourselves away, and found out that ISIS was
doing a demonstration parade thing. Nothing bad happened, other than
we had to cancel our lesson.
That's all for now! I love the mission!
(The banks of Parco Cascine from Viadotto del'Indiano)