The Endless Week

I'll keep this week's email sweet and succinct. 

(Ed in italiano per loro che abitano qui)

Tengo quest'email settimanale che sia dolce e succinto.

We spent a majority of our mornings in the Questura, the government offices, trying to figure out Anz. Douglas' permit to live here.

Trascorrevamo la major parte dei mattini alla Questura, provando a quadrare il Permesso di soggiorno di Anziano Douglas.

No luck. We're supposed to wait for an appointment that they wrote and sent in the mail, but A) we don't have a key to our mailbox. And B) Douglas' name isn't on the mailbox. So, this should be a strange week.

Senza colpo di fortuna. Dobbiamo aspettare una lettera su cui è scritto il nostro appuntamento, però, (A) non abbiamo una chiave della cassetta postale e (B) non c'è il nome di Douglas sulla cassetta neanche al citofono. Dovrebbe essere una strana settimana a venire.

Thursday we had Zone conference in Mestre (along with a Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner together.) and it was a good day. Sunday night we had an exchange with the Venezia zone leaders, so we had to go to Mestre again until Monday.

Giovedì facevamo la conferenza di zona a Mestre. È stata una buona giornata ed c'era la cena natalizia insieme nel mezzo. Domenica sera siamo andati a Mestre di nuovo fino a Lunedì di fare lo scambio di colleghi.

It was actually the best exchange i have ever been on, and I've never had some much success as a missionary while finding. We were using this year's Christmas video, and in one hour we had several people stop!

Veramente è stato lo scambio migliore di ciò che mai ho fatto; non ho mai visto successo così facendo la ricerca per strada. Usavamo il video natalizio #SiiunaLuce ed in un'ora singola, parecchia gente si fermavano!

I have seen this gospel change people, and it's changed me. Be a Light and see what you can change, see who's heart you might touch.

Ho visto i cuori cambiare dal Vangelo, eppure mi ha cambiato. Sii una Luce e vedi che cosa puoi cambiare, guarda per chi la verità tocca.

Vi voglio tanto bene!

P.s (shoutout to Mauro and Ester, both recent converts who have been members now for just about a year!)

P.s (auguri a Mauro ed Ester, i convertiti che compirà un anno nella gregge di Gesù! Vi voglio bene. Un abbraccio a ciascuno!)

--Anziano Benge

1-Sunset after a late lunch. Tramonto dopo un pranzo tarde

2- Cose natalizie a Pordenone. Christmas stuff in Pordenone

3- the zone. La zona di Venezia (Pordenone are the first 2 missionaries on the left in both the M and F rows)

Italy Treats one Well

And insipidly, another week has fled.
And I don't have any more photos for you, I'm sorry.

This week our ward was on a trip to the temple. So we focused our week
on passing by long-missing members. We traveled to Porcia to pass by
them. En route, we met a man named Robert. He is from Ghana, and
really didn't speak English that well.
At one point in our discussion, Elder Douglas said "Awesome!" And
Robert thought that he had said a word in the Twi language "boasom" or
something. Which means "I love you."
So of course Robert just starts cracking up, and couldn't even finish
the conversation because he's laughing. He left us like that, without
us getting his number, but at least he was in a good mood.

Saturday we had dinner with the Giurintano family. And Elder Douglas
had his first experience with trying to play chess with a 90 year old
Siciliano. I usually play, but I escaped it fortunately.
Sunday was really nice. Belal, from Pakistan, came to all three hours
of church and participated in the lesson. He says he likes
Christianity, but still doesn't quite understand Christ. Of course, do
any of us? As we learn, you can only teach someone as far as you know
for yourself. We did our best, bearing testimony in Gospel Principles
class, but it still seems he uses church only as a past time.
For dinner, we were invited to the American bishop's home, and we ate
South Korean food, and Philippine food, and then went to another
member's home for pies, pies, and more pie.
Americans are so awesome in a completely different way than Italians
are, but it is very hard to switch cultures like that for me.
Yesterday we had troubles with Elder Douglas' documents, so we have to
go in Friday this week. Aye, I've spent too much time in government
offices. Beh, persevereremo

Va bene, quel è tutto per questa settimana.
Sii una Luce. Sii come Gesù, la Lace del mondo.
Tvb
--Anziano Benge
(Austine, a recent convert in Firenze, emailed me this photo of him,
Iyke(far left), and Rocky(middle).) they are all new converts and I
really miss that city! Him and Iyke just received the Melchizedek
priesthood.

Time Surpasses

Wow, another week gone by! Sure enough, we spent our last Pday in
Venice. This Pday was in Claut, and all this travel is so fun. I must
admit

Thursday we had a SUPERB thanksgiving with the Hart family. And we
jammed together, making music with so many instruments and voices. So
cool. I feel like that was my first thanksgiving dinner inside of a
home. My only memories of other dinners have happened in churches. So,
yes, this was a triple special experience. The Harts are an amazing
American family. Again, such a good night

The time has raced by, and we've kept ourselves busy. Friday, we
spent our day in Maniago. It is Italy's knife/steel capital (who knows
why), and we did finding and passed by an old investigator. We didn't
find him, sadly. It always seems to happen that way. We got home cold
and wet, but it was fine.

Saturday, we decided to pass an inactive Roberto who lived in a
distant place called San Vito al Tagliamento. (You can look these all
up if you want.) The city was a 22 km bike ride from our apartment, so
we got there and we were exhausted. We rang, knocked, and there was
nothing, so we went and got gelato. When that was done, we tried
again, riding once more from the city center to his home. No luck, so
I began writing a note about how'd we missed him.
A couple passed as I was writing and I said, "Scusate" (okay I'll just
tell you in English)
I said "excuse me. Do you know (said Roberto)?"
They said, "Yes."
Me, "We are missionaries from his church and wondered if he'll be back soon."
He said, "No he won't.... Ha, just kidding it's me!"
I laughed, asked how they were, and then told them of how we had
ridden 1.5 hours to find him. He said he didn't have time and escaped
inside. What?!?
HOW DISAPPOINTED we were. I mean, come on!
We rode back (in the dark, with only one working light, yikes) and got
dinner at an "American" Diner. So sad, but we did give an English
class flyer to the waitress and talked with her. So that's good

Sunday, was fine. Nobody we've invited showed up though.
I can't remember anything special Monday. Tuesday, we had district
meeting as usual. Then at night we ate with another American family,
the Gublers, which was also way fun. All the Italians are on a temple
trip, so this week will be slow with the member work. I love this city
and the people.
I can barely believe how great God's work is though! There is so much
more good than bad, so much more light than darkness. Remember which
side you're on. A man cannot serve two masters.
Love you all!
--Anziano Benge
1-San Vito al Tagliamento
2-Claut Forest
3- Venice

A Green Missionary's First Lesson

Dear Readers,
As you have probably noticed, the work in Pordenone is a bit slow. We
get lessons, but not as often as other cities. So with this in mind,
you must realize that my new 'Verdino', fresh out of the MTC
companion, had his first lesson in Italian on Monday.
And of course, it was a Siciliano man, that neither of us could
understand, and he's Xmafia, explaining how many people he's killed.
But don't worry he's reformed now, though he won't come to church
because 'the bishop is evil, and the members are all afraid of him.'
Oh well, we did our best, and although he's done 15 years behind bars
and committed every known crime, he's a really sweet guy with a really
well-raised family. Anziano Douglas (my trainee's name) liked the
lesson a lot. Welcome to Italy...

Anziano Douglas is from the Riverside area in California. He's fresh
out of High school, is a gym/beach/videogame type of guy, and is
really strong in his testimony. We're very different, but have enough
in common to teach awesomeness.
(His mom is from Napoli, but she never taught him Italian, though he
speaks it extremely well already)
I picked him up Thursday from Milano and have already showed him
around the city. Sunday we had a lunch with members in Budoia,
tomorrow for Thanksgiving we have lunch/dinner with an American
family, and last night we ate with the Rust Couple. At least we're
getting fed!

The work is picking up steadily, 3 non members came to our Italian
Ward, and it's exciting. One other funny part of the week is that we
discovered that Anziano Douglas' IPad they issued him is completely
busted. It has no camera app, can't download anything, has no
Bluetooth, and no Siri. It's useless except email. Haha, we'll get a
new one later, but for now I am the only one with the Area Book App.
As the mission has gone fully digital, it's a bit hard to have only
one functioning device for Area Book, when we need two!

Other than all that, life is good. We Pdayed in Venezia, and I think
that's all for today.

E pluribus unum, Doctrine and Covenants 38:27.
"Unity, harmony, goodwill are virtues to be fostered and cherished in
every home. Slander is poison to the soul." President David O. McKay

--Anziano Benge
(Mountains are always nice
Anziano Douglas and I (the two in the center) when I picked him up in Milan)

What Brings You Joy?- Happy Thanksgiving

Another week blows by in the wind, another chill sweeps through the air.

My scarf doesn't keep out the bitter cold bite, but I don't really care.

   On Saturday we received our transfer news, and as suspected, Anziano Green will be leaving to Vercelli. I will be finishing my mission here as a New Missionary Trainer. Whoa...quite the change I may say. I take a train today after 4pm to Milano and I'll pick him up tomorrow morning! So exciting.

   Sorella Barlow, the British sister in my district, is going home. Today is her last day. The sister that will be coming up to replace her is Sister Carter! The same Carter that I just had in my district in Livorno! So yeah, both the sisters (Carter,Marshall) will be in their fourth transfer and neither speak the language too well. Likely I will be the only one in the district to speak Italian unless my newbie missionary somehow already speaks it.

   This last week we did a lot of saying goodbye, and Anz. Green finally finished the process with his Residency Permit and has it now. I'll have to do this process again with my new companion, which really sucks because doing the math, I have already spent 60+ hours inside the immigrant office/questura during my mission.

Anyway, I am loving this mission even though it's difficult. I am excited to train. Please remember that all the unfairness in the world is made up through hard work and then, the Grace of our Loving Heavenly Father and the Son.
Stay happy 
--Anziano Benge

(Autumn Dolomites, up by Claut)

A sick daze

Green had a sore throats and cold symptoms all last week. Now it's
been passed off to me. And I spent all my time writing to family, so
it'll be a short email. Sorry.

Pordenone is cold, and so is Trieste (what we did last Wednesday was
tour there). The work has been slow because it seems everyone is sick,
but Monday we saw the Giurintano family and ate a lentil pasta with
them. Every time I go over the grandfather plays two games of chess
with me. Let's just say I need to practice.

Last week there were a bunch of cancellations just as we'd be leaving.
It's so annoying when that happens.
The biggest change of all is that we've gone all digital now. We spend
many hours taking our Area Books and transferring the paper
information to our iPads. We no longer use missionary planners, as it
is all on our new app. The conversion process is difficult, and fairly
boring. It doesn't help that I have to do it all on an Apple device.
(Sorry for those who prefer Apple), but I mean there are way to many
glitches. There's also no reason my iPad should freeze when ever I use
the mail app or Area Book app, I have several GB of free space still.
It's started happening that when I try to add a new person or lesson
on the app, that my whole iPad crashes...and of course, Non esiste il
tech support.
This conversion is going to take me a very long time.
The Bora hasn't hit yet. I am suspenseful for that.
Next week are transfers, I will let you know next Wednesday. I will
very very very likely be staying here (although I thought the same in
Livorno).
Until next week!
--Anziano Benge
1- Anz. Green admires weapons in Trieste; S. Giorgio castle's museum
2- Trieste (not my favorite pDay)

An Extremely Short Email

I just threw some random contacts on this email, so I hope you don't mind!
As always, I am doing well. I'm keeping this email short because of
technical problems and time. Today's Pday was up in Barcis, so I tried
writing this on a bus, but it kept crashing. Sorry
We had our American Military Ward Halloween party, lots of people came
and we met many contacts. I got to go on Base and did some shopping at
the commissary (peanut butter, root beer, pop tarts, Jalapeño cheetos)
for things that I haven't had here.
We had a lesson with a newly moved in member named Race, from Idaho.
What a cool guy.
That's all. Love you all

--Anziano Benge
(Me forgetting to smile at Barcis with the district)