Elder Isaac Benge

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Singin' in Venice

--Anziano BengeSunday: a Lutheran church invited us missionaries to go sing in
Venice. The event says it is a multi-denominational choir concert.
Turns out, it was actually just a normal Lutheran service because the
missionaries are the only non-Lutherans to show up. Five o'clock rolls
around and we go sit in the unpadded pews. We wait through the entire
mass service, reciting scripture (Abraham apparently ate focaccia),
and we listened to their speakers and their choir. All of the songs
were in English, the talks and scriptures in Italian, the program was
in German... At the end, there were refreshments and that's when we
sang. We preformed Genti Guardate, (Hark all ye nations) , and I am a
child of God in Italian, nobody listened, but we did bring the spirit
in, finally.
Today we have to do emails because tomorrow there's a meeting for
Squire as district leader... Yeah, no real Pday... Oh well. Gotta
go... Enjoy these photos of Venice I took.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

A quick update from Italy....

And the breaking news from the Italy Milan mission is: I love this
place. Yeah, Padova is fantastic, but Italy in general is still
unnervingly awesome. They sell everything by the kilo, they have
gorgeous churches everywhere (more than they have gas stations), the
food is bomb. This week we were invited to go sing in a Lutheran
church by our stake, 12 missionaries have the opportunity to go sing
these hymns, but even greater... The church is famous and is in
Venice...
Lucky me, I will be able to tell people I sang in a choir at Venice!
The updates on my robbery last week: we haven't recovered anything and
we're still working on getting new Permits of Stay. Members were asked
to provide food for us by the bishop.
We ate a meal at the Zuppa family's (see photo) this past Sunday.
We've had many things dropped off for us, our fridge is jammed with
Italian snacks, we have infinite Ragu. It's all well.
The work: Tenal had his baptism moved to November 14, which means that
I might get transferred and miss it. Voltalina and Wilfred are
progressing spectacularly and we will see them enter the water soon.
Work is very fine and detailed.
Everything slowed down a bit this last week with the robbery and
pouring rainy weather, but it's all picked up nicely.
I know this church is true and the work is going forth !
If you have comments, questions, concerns or complaints
Just email me :)

--Anziano Benge
(Real spaghetti and spaghetti sauce: not the healthy unoily stuff in
America) Sorella Zuppa serving up dinner....

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Ladri, a story of sadness.

You know, really just a normal week except that WE GOT FLIPPIN' ROBBED! It was terrible.

It was the early morning on the 8th of October, sometime while we were sleeping. One of our balcony doors was accidentally left open and someone managed to climb up onto our balcony, open the door, and steal stuff.

Not a single person awoke, so we are thankful we got robbed instead of murdered, but that morning was interesting. Nothing in our bedrooms was taken, and only the two studies got robbed, but we awoke and couldn't find the cellphone for Squire and I. We searched the whole bedroom (where we usually keep it) and then went in the study. The next few minutes were like this:

"The phone isn't on the desk." I said.

"Perhaps in your bag?" Anziano Squire suggested.

"Uh... Where's my bag?"

"Wait. Where is my bag?!"

"What the..."

"And my iPad! And my camera!" Squire paled here....

"Um." I left the room and checked the balcony door in the other Elder's study. Sure enough it's wide open.

With the rest of the morning, we made an inventory of things lost:

From Squire: 1 iPad, the companionship phone, a bag, a camera, a wallet, 4 debut/credit cards, drivers ID, permesso (the thing that lets us live here legally).

From me: my bag and wallet, my cards, my ID and permesso, 12 Euro, a map of padova.

From Scoggin: his wallet and money means, a Magic the Gathering deck.

From Driver: nothing

All in all, we have to get new Permessi di Soggiorno, which are super expensive. Squire and I have no phone, scheduling is hard... This week still was nice in someways...

We have no money for food, so the members of the ward are inviting us everywhere or making meals. Our member work is improving already!

We've met with Fratello Voltalina, he is ready for baptism and we love talking with him. Wilfred, he meets with us a lot every week at his store. He is ready to progress, he always wants us to come back soon! It's quite nice. Mainly, the work has continued even without money.

I love Italy considerably and Padova is grand! I know the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses everyone, I've seen miracles here already!

Vi Voglio bene. If you have questions, just ask.

--Anziano Benge

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Not in Kansas Anymore

This transfer will be great, and I'm looking forward to it. Love this gospel and mission. Questions?

--Anziano Benge

Thursday we had transfers. After waiting patiently for our new
companions, Anziano Driver and I finally found them both at the train
station. Anziano Scoggin is Driver's junior companion, he is from
Boise, but did some college at BYU. He loves reading and playing Magic
the Gathering. Sadly, he is also a vegetarian, lunches are now
strange.
My companion is from Kansas City. Anziano Jacob Squire also went to
BYU, he loves music, played in a band, he has a slight lisp and treats
his bike like it could explode any second, but he is very energetic
and diligent. He adores member work and already loves Padova. I really
like him and he's going to teach me a lot it seems.
This week has already been fabulous. We met with Wilfred on Friday and
gave him a restoration lesson, we also met with him Monday and he said
he will come to church. He is so humble, extremely willing to learn.
We've also met Fratello Voltalina, who is working to get rebaptized.
We are sure he is ready And our lesson is awesome. He also made a
Nutella cake that we ate, our dinner with him on Friday will be
delicious.
We printed out a pass along card, 530 copies or so, and we really hope
that it's gonna do good.
The main thing this week had been General Conference, ovviamente, and
three new apostles! Here, we watched the Saturday morning session at
6pm live on Saturday and then watched priesthood and the afternoon on
Sunday morning, then Sunday morning's session at 6pm again. I loved
the talks, and I was fortunate enough to hear it in English so I got
all 100% instead of pieces in Italiano.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Already 200 days in Italy

Transfer Calls: Anziano Stoll and I are locked in a supreme battle of missing blinks. A calculating inhalation only breaks the silence of our fight... Who can go the longest without blinking? Benge, or Stoll? Then suddenly the phone leaps off the table and charges us.
Ok, I didnt happen like that at all. But we did get transfer calls. Anziano Stoll is heading away to Liguria coasts while I will stay here at Padova.
My new companion will be Anziano Squire, who is apparently from Kansas, so I've heard. Anziano Driver is also staying, his comp. will be Anziano Scoggin or something.

This week we had some good lessons with Tenal, preparing him for his Baptism. We also met with Kenneth, and old investigator, he needed us to help him translate some English legal work into Italian, so we took oppurtunity. Our impromptu lesson of skill led to him accepting later dates to meet again. Cristiano is still avidly avoiding us it seems, super sad that.

Mostly, I just want to say, It is darn cold here. Once, the cold wind and biting shiverdemons here set off my cold and I stayed in a good long morning with aching glands and throat as sore as a cactus cufflink. The work is picking up, the outdoor traffic of pedestrians has vanished overnight, Gelaterie have been abandoned. Truly, the northern winds have conquered Padova. The good gospel still moves forth.

Anziano Isaac Benge

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Progressivamente meglio

--Anziano Benge

I failed to send off the email from last week, our internet at the
church is non existent and nothing works when using Padova's wifi. I
am sending this from a mall. Technology is rather frustrating, is it
not?
Today, I am sick. Yesterday I had a sore throat, today it has worsened
to tender swollen glands as well. It's not terrible, I'll be fine
unless it gets worse, but it is very tortuous to ride a bike until my
throat is rasped by heaving breathing.
Last week there was a Scambio, Anziano Beaulac and I were together
again for a day, this time I was here in Padova. While Beaulac and I
were teaching Tenal, our ex'Islamic friend, we invited him to baptism
at the end of October and he accepted! We are really nudging him in
ways he doesn't like, such as asking him to come to church when he
works every morning. He understands that he needs to be baptized and
come to church, but he is shy, and his difficult schedule hasn't been
changed. Tell you what though: it's great to have a bap- date.
We have another investigator here as well. An English speaking Indian
man (awesome phone sales accent included) who works at the downtown
library has given us permission to visit him often. He asks wonderful
questions, and already is excited to read the Book of Mormon we gave
him. The only problem again is schedule, he works two jobs every day.
He asked us to meet him at work for lessons (mental image: we all
stand together guarding a gallery door as we talk about the gospel),
so that's what we do.
Cristiano is struggling, he won't set appointments with us and doesn't
come to church. Wilfred, a new Nigerian, he has like epilepsy or
something and will suddenly stop talking with a four second pause and
blank look, he is fun and we've begun meeting.
I finally ate at a member's house last Thursday night. The bishop
invited us over to eat with his family, so we took a train to
Montegrotto Terme (a super old history site for Roman baths: see
photo) and ate with Vescovo Rosa's family. It was good.
This, I hope, was satisfying as news and I haven't forgotten stuff.
The temperature has cooled, autumnal storming nears, glands swell, and
success appears. My testimony has truly grown, and I know I have
brought others towards Christ. This mission is magnificent. Our
Heavenly Father has infinite love. Vi Voglio Bene.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Salboro, Finding, stuff like that

Salboro

Another church (medieval) and Stoll's smiling face.
We also found a bunch of people suddenly wanting English class. On our last class (Tuesday) we had eighteen or so people show up, while usually we have maybe four, many of these new 'students' wanted to know about our church more. One couple will be meeting and having a lesson with the other Elders and in my intermediate class I even taught the Restoration. It's
A very exciting time!

One of the common outdoor markets that seem to happen every day.
The weather has changed, the wind is turned, the sky is casting cool clouds over us. He heat has diminished fabulously and autumn waits to be sprung. It's cool enough that I sleep with sheets and tonight I may use a blanket as well.
We did much finding work this last week, and we are dearly hoping that our 'friend pool' increases in depth. Agnis and Fred are much to busy to meet with, which is charitably infuriating, and Cristiano cannot meet because his car was taken (impounded by his mother it seems?) , we told him we can visit at his house or even a nearby park, but he says nothing about doing either. I wish we had his address.
His is the life here in Padova. Love it!
The mission is the best!
--Anziano BengeMy interesting part of this week was our trip to a small town called
Salboro. I loved it, it was so calm and Italian. The ride to the town
was about 40 minutes, and after we got there we were a little hesitant
to do missionary work because it was farther from the church than we
had expected. After working for some time, we ended up handing out
many pass along cards and we even got an inactive member's number that
we happened to meet. What "luck".