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)

The First and Last Supper

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

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

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

This is a message for: You

--Anziano Benge

You know who you are. :)
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)