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)