Brindisi | week 8 {free pizza for english lessons!}

This is the pizzeria where Regan and the other elders got free pizza for teaching an English lesson. They were invited to come back every Monday to make the exchange! Regan said this place could have been straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean :)

Anziano Pizza, Anziano Alvey, Anziano Jepson, Anziano Smith

This week started off my meeting an amazing couple named Maria and Batista. We met them on the street and got their number. We called two days later and they actually said we could come over which was a first. They live in a super nice apartment right off the center. They told us they respected us so much for leaving our homes and learning a new language to share this message they would at least take the time to hear us out. Turns out they already knew a lot about the church from the internet, and we got to explain a lot about how we have the Book of Mormon and why it is so important. They also had a question about Adam and Eve so we read pretty much all of 2 Nephi 2 which they really enjoyed. They said they would invite us over to Pronzo and we could talk more. I am super excited. Hopefully we get a call soon.

The next day was miracle day. We have been teaching on average about 3 lessons a weeks since I got here. Lame, I know. Last Friday we taught 5 lessons. First we taught Corridino who is making unreal progress. He is keeping all of his commitments: reading from the Book of Mormon and praying each day and he is also smoking less and less. I am so happy for him. I know he is taking the steps he needs to make to come closer the Savior. Next, we taught Verah. It is a true shame I have not written about her earlier because she is amazing. However, we have only been able to meet with her once a week the past 3 weeks and she cannot make church on Sunday. Nevertheless, I can feel how special she when we teach her. She is from Nigeria, and she learned English in school so it is great to be able to teach someone else in English. Our last visit with her we taught about the importance of prophets and we read a lot from King Benjamins address to his people in Mosiah 2-4. She loved it and we left her with the talk "The Race of Life" by President Monson. We then went to Fratello Grecos house to give a message to him and his wife who is not a member. We had an awesome lesson on faith center around Alma 7:11-13 and how this is the absolute core of our faith. We left that lesson and went outside and there were three rainbows on top of each other. It was so legit. Then we taught two more lessons to English course people. Our English course got up to 25 people this week!

On Saturday we had a branch activity in the morning which ended up being walking to a park that was about 15 minutes away and then shooting some hoops and having a spiritual thought. It was kind of random, but I liked it. Right after the spiritual thought an American guy named Tim showed up. We met him earlier that week and told him we would be playing bball possibly and we gave him the address. We didnt call him or anything and he just showed up. He wanted to hang out with us really bad because his two best friends growing up were Mormon and served missions, so he just wanted to see what mission life was like I guess. He was awesome. We ended up staying to play basketball with him longer with some other people at the park. We ended up having on odd number so I said I would just go on a jog around a little trail they had that went around the bball court cause I missed running a lot (no worries, I was within sight and sound of Anziano Pizza). I ended up going 62 minutes and almost 8 miles. It felt so good in the moment. Sunday morning my legs ceased to function. Today I am finally almost healed. That night we taught Victor and Blessing. It was bomb as usual. Victor is an amazing cook and always gives us dinner. On Saturday he made us really good chicken to go over some rice and really good fruit. I love them more and more every week.

Monday night we went and taught English course at that pizzeria I talked about last week. We taught a 20 minute English lesson to the 6 people that worked there and then they told us to sit down and brought all of his free pizzas. They said they wanted us to come back every Monday night from now on. We will so be there for English course, spiritual thought, and hopefully more free pizzas.

So, I have gotten to know Anziano Alvey and Anziano Jepson a lot better this week. They are both amazing guys. The past 2 weeks I have been super locked in and focused so my personality/sense of humor hasnt really come out with them yet. However, Anziano Alvey is the funniest missionary I have met yet. Today he was like Smith do you have a girl writing you and if so is her name Barbara? Haha, Im glad I get at least 4 more weeks with them.

So, yesterday I was reading in PMG in the first chapter about my purpose as a missionary. One sentence really stuck out to me. It said, your desire to share the gospel will increase as you understanding of the Atonement increases. Then next morning I decided to study the Atonement out of Gospel Principles. I realized that I can gain knowledge about the Atonement when I read from there and the scriptures, but understanding of the Atonement only comes through personal experience with it. I need to try to have more experiences with the Atonement through my faith and repentance. When I use the Atonement through repenting a becoming better and feel the fruit from it, then I will desire to share it more and have more power behind my words. Everyone take care! Love you all!

Anziano Smith