Rome 5 | week 3 {Easter, Because of Him, BBQ}

Lunch at Momma Gigantes 

Boy with a UGA sweatshirt on! Go dawgs! 

Dinner with Lorenzo 

Elder Smith with Nem 

Regan loves making fruit smoothies! 

Mumtosjon and his beautiful art 

4.22.14

I really enjoyed this past week cause I got to know our members and also the people we are teaching a lot better. Our ward mission leader is Fratello Arena and he works for the church in an office in Monterotondo with Fratello Bruno. They are both from Sicily and they are hilarious. Each week we try to go to their office for correlation and it is really cool. They have incredible desires to help us out with our work and make it a lot of  fun as well. It will be a lot easier when we get our own chapel to have activities, english course, etc. I think I already wrote about that. 

So last Tuesday we were walking home to lunch, and this really nice guy stopped us to ask who we are. We talked for like 10 minutes on the street about our purpose as missionaries, and we set an appointment to meet him the next day at his school. It turns out he goes to school right across the street from our apartment. We met him on Wednesday, and we went into his art room and had an incredible lesson. His name is Mumtasjon, and he is from Afghanistan. He has an incredible story. Anziano Gemmell and I both felt a lot of compassion for him, and we were incredibly impressed with what he has made out of his life. He speaks Persian, Urdu, Italian, and English fluently, he is really good at art, and he is also studying something else that is really complicated-cant remember what right now. Anyways, he does not come from a Christian background, so we explained the plan of salvation very simply-how Jesus was chosen before the world was created to be the Savior and Redeemer. Teaching the plan of salvation really simply was extremely powerful. I learned that is not important at all to be elegant with my words if I am just sincere. We also briefly touched on the fact that there is a living prophet and he got really curious. Seriously though, we have met him twice and he is already like a brother to us. I cant wait to see him again. 

So last week Lorenzo told us that he wanted to invite us over for dinner and another lesson. I honestly wasnt expecting much since he is a single man. He came out of nowhere with easily one of the top 5 pastas I have had on my mission. I was in shock. When I was in the MTC they taught us that we need to teach the Restoration according to peoples needs and concerns. Honestly, I havent been great at the my whole mission, but Friday with Lorenzo I think I figured out the key. I have to get to know them well before I teach them! We talked about his life for like 30 minutes before the lesson. It made teaching the lesson so much easier because we knew what he cared about and was important to him. Then it was so easy to teach that God has given us the Gospel of Jesus Christ and living prophets to lead us and guide us so we can be our happiest as we live our lives. It made me realize that I have to truly get to know people before I ever teach them and leave them committments to do. I cant believe it took me quasi 11 months to learn that. 

Easter was great! Most of our branch was on vacation so only like 15 people were expected in church. Due to that, it was decided that we would only do 1 hour of church. Turned out we had like 40 and the Stake President came to visit which was unexpected. He did not even know that we were only doing one hour of church, haha. Anyways, it was a great meeting. After church we went to Fratello Brunos house and his wife cooked us a really good Easter pronzo which included lamb. It was delicious. After pronzo we watched some of the Bible videos on the Resurrection. If you have not seen the Bible Video "Because of Him" watch it right now! It is incredible. Then Fratello Bruno shared a video with us that he made from his mission. It was a video of funny stories/testimonies/exeriences of people that he taught on his mission. It was incredibly touching and made me want to work more diligently cause Italians are seriously the best! After that we went to an investigators home whose basement got flooded the night before. There was a bad rain storm and their basement is underground so about 15 of us cleaned out his basement for about 2 hours. Service is the best! Sunday night we went and visited Nem. I think I wrote about him last week too. He is from the Congo and he was baptized like 10 months ago. He is preparing to go on a mission right now. We went over and read some of Alma 26 with him and got him psyched to go on a mission. He told us about how he is already be a missionary at his work through the language he uses. He told us that everyone notices that he has changed his language, and it allows him to talk about the church. He is the man! 

Yesterday was a holiday here in Italy, so it was a deep cleaning day for the apartment and we also had lunch with Mamma Gigante. She is probably the most famous member here in Rome 5. Her last name is Gigante and everyone calls her Mamma Gigante. We went over to her house along with 3 other families from the Branch and had a BBQ in which we ate for a solid 3 hours. Im still full today. 

Anziano Gemmell and I are working really hard and we are also having a lot of fun together. I have really come to appreciate his sense of humor as he is always finding a reason to be happy. Like, when we get someones number on the street or get an appointment with someone, he says "I get buckets." It is funny, but at the same time we realize that any time we have any success it is only because of the tender mercies of the Lord. It is not us at all. The morning we found Mumtasjon we talked to a solid 60 people. Then when we were 2 minutes away from home, he stopped us and asked to meet with us. Prime example of how we are only instruments just like Ammon said in Alma 26. It is incredible to see the hand of the Lord as we try our best to serve him. I know that this is his work and his church, and it has brought me more joy and peace than any other time in my life. I cant put it any better than Ammon: "This is my life" (Alma 26: 36). Ciao!

Anziano Smith