Rome 5 | week 7 {new companion, Ostia, training}

Queresima and Sorgiacamo

The missionaries in their district! 

Their super fly car! 

Driving by the Coliseum

Regan's new companion Anziano Blair! Regan already loves him 

5.19.2014

This past week has been incredible and a bit crazy at the same time. It started off by seeing a lot of people who Anziano Gemmell wanted to say bye too. We got to eat dinner with the Criscone family and also Flavio and Francesca. Both dinners were delicious and a lot of fun. We all miss Anziano Gemmell. He really is a great missionary, and Im sure he is doing great work in the Sard land. His travel plans to get there made me laugh really hard. He had to take two trains to get to the coast, a 20 hour boat ride, and then another train and lastly a bus. Haha, I hope he made it alright. I had no idea Sardania was so far away.

I had two days from when he left to when my new companion got here, so I got to choose any companionship in the Rome Zone to work with for two days. It was a no brainer. I went to stay in Ostia with Anziano Baggaley and Anziano Zemp. It was in awesome two days. I have to tell one funny story from my time in Ostia. There is a family there who has an 8 year old son who was a little scared to get baptized for some reason. His mom asked the elders to come over and teach him the lessons to help him get ready for his baptism. Anyways, they have been trying to set a date with him withing the next month or so. He turns 9 in July, but he keeps saying that he wants to get baptized in August. If he gets baptized in August, it is a convert baptism on the records of the church. Anziano Baggaley was like, "Come on man, you do really want to be a convert do you?" It was hysterical. I will never forget it. On a more serious note, I learned so much from that lesson. Anziano Baggaley taught so simply and so clearly, and it was one of the most spiritual lessons I have witnessed on my mission. It made me want to teach everyone like I was teaching a child. Another cool part of going to Ostia was going to their correlation meeting. They had an awesome ward missionary and 5 ward missionaries who all came. They were so awesome and really inspired me. It was funny because their ward mission leader works in tourism and hasnt been able to come to church the past 5 weeks or so, so they wrote his name on the progress record, hahaha. Anyways, they are doing awesome missionary work in Ostia and their members are incredible. After correlation we all went out and got gelato together by the beach which was fun. 

Friday morning at 7 I went to pick up my greenie from Roma Termini. His name is Anziano Blair, and he is the coolest kid ever! He has taught me so much. In the MTC he  got to hear from 5 apostles! He is so ready and excited to do missionary work that is has increased my faith a lot. Our first night together, we got to teach Lorenzo a lesson with Fratello Calabrese on the plan of salvation and then Lorenzo made us dinner. It was a really good first lesson for Anziano Blair. He is definitely better at the language than I was as a greenie, so I was really impressed. He also did an awesome job introducing himself and sharing his testimony in church for his first Sunday. Also, the first lady he stopped on the street was Philippino. She spoke English and he got her number, no big deal. We are really excited to work together for at least the next 6 weeks and hopefully more. I am also excited because for the first 12 weeks of the mission their is in extra hour of comp study where we do this program to go over the basics of missionary work. I feel like I need it for myself just as much as Anziano Blair does. It will be really nice for me to be able to review and improve a lot of things. Other than that, we didnt have a lot of time to see people this week cause we were all over the place/getting adjusted. However, we are good to go now, and it should be an awesome summer!

Anziano Smith

Rome 5 | week 6 {Gemmell transferred, Regan training new companion, more miracles}

 Anziano Gemmell

5.12.2014

This week started with some awesome scambi magic in Terni. We go there for an exchange once a transfer to work with the other elders. We helped them a lot and learned a lot from them as well. I got to go out and work with Anziano McClellan (aka McCmillionare) in the morning and Anziano Stephens at night. It was incredible. Right after language study, Anziano Stephens and I went to a park and the first lady we talked to was a lady from the Dominican Republic who moved here with her daughter a few years ago. She was really funny and extremely nice to us. We talked about the church for about 25 minutes and then at the very end we left her a pass along card for English Course, but we didnt say much about it at all. That night at 7 she showed up to corso with her daughter and friend! It was the coolest thing ever. The English Course at Terni rocks too. They have a member who is the coolest guy ever. Hes ripped and has long hair and speaks perfect English. At the end of English course every Tuesday he brings his laptop and speakers and teaches everyone an American song and then everyone karaoke's together. It is so cool. I havent seen anything like it my whole mission. Im kind of jealous.  

This week we saw some serious miracles when we were finding. It was really humbling and taught me that I always have pray for inspiration to be guided by the Holy Ghost or I will never find those who are wanting to learn more about the gospel. Friday we went to Monterotondo to their downtown area and the entire city was just chilling there. There were food stand, preparing for a concert, people were shopping, ect. It wasnt a great atmosphere to stop and talk to people and a lot of ragazzi were making fun of us. It was kind of awkward, but I had a feeling that we had to be there. I literally had no idea why. I saw this lady walking towards us in sunglasses, heels, and a shopping bag (not usually the type who gives us the time of day), and I randomly decided to stop her. We talked for 30 minutes and she is totally searching for the gospel in her life. Anziano Gemmell and I were speechless as we were walking away, because neither of us would have ever wanted to do finding in that atmosphere but we were totally guided. The same thing happened on Saturday. We planned to take the train to Monterotondo for the morning, and we waited at the station for an hour and a half. 4 trains were suppose to come and everyone waiting was mad cause it was hot outside and the trains were messed up. We decided to stay in Passo Corese for the morning, but it was so hot and there was no one on the streets. We were just walking around aimlessly looking for anyone, but it was close to lunch and everyone was just inside cooking. We said a prayer that we could find someone before lunch, and then we totally did. We went to a park and there was a lady from Moldova who was a about 25 with her 2 year old son. She has struggled with her faith in God, but was really willing to listen to us. We didnt talk about anything other than the love of God and how is just waiting for us to come unto Him so he can bless us. She felt the Spirit for sure and promised to come to church the next day, but she wouldnt give us her number. Yesterday she didnt come to church and we were super bummed. Last night at 10:45 I was like 2 seconds away from falling asleep and the phone rang. It was her (Tamara) and she said she wanted to come but something with her son came up and she couldnt but promised to come next week. Anziano Gemmell and I were so psyched we talked until like 2 in the morning last night. Neither of us could sleep worth our lives. Biggest miracle ever. 

Other awesome news. There was a Young Single Adult activity at Rome 1 last week for all the YSA in Napoli and Rome. Daniel and Antonio went and called me on President Crisciones phone! It was so good to here from them and they were really happy. I am so glad they have made some other friends in the gospel cause I know it can be tough to live the gospel without friends who support you. There faith to live the gospel in a city where the church is small is so inspiring. They are true pioneers.  

Also, Saturday night we had Stake Priesthood meeting which was great. I leaned over to Gemmell and said, "If our members were true ballers, they would take us out to pizza or gelato after." There is no way Canzachi or Criscione heard me cause they were sitting on the other side. When the meeting finished, he looked at us and immediately asked if we wanted pizza or something. Our members are true ballers. President Criscione and Fratello Canzachi are incredibly funny, magnify there callings in the priesthood, have amazing families, and are always happy. They really are the best guys in the world. It is incredible to think missionaries have only been here in Italy since 1965, and all these amazing people have already been found, taught, and baptized by the missionaries. Thinking of that gives me the strength to keep going no matter how hard it is sometimes. President Kearon told us a couple weeks ago, "There are so many cultural, religious barriers between you guys and Italians that your only shot is the  feelings they have when you testify." It is true. It is incredible to see the people living in a society such as this who are so converted to the gospel. And now they are getting a temple!!! Serving here in Italy has opened my eyes to so many things that is one of them.  

I have one more piece of big news. Anziano Gemmell is getting transferred to Sassari in Sardegna Thursday afternoon and I am getting a greenie straight from the MTC! There are two greenies coming in. One is from Texas and one is from Maryland, and both of them look sweet. I cant wait to pick him up Thursday morning. It will be a huge learning experience for me to train. Im really looking forward to it. I will miss Gemmell too cause we have become so tight. I have more inside jokes with him than anyone and we have worked so hard together. Im excited to go visit him at BYU-Hawaii after the mission! That is happening for sure. He finishes in December, then he will be going there. Hope everyone has a stellar week. Take care. 

Anziano Smith 

Rome 5 | week 5

 Driveway to Vaccoronos house

5.5.2014

This week we were really lucky to be able to visit a lot great families. It started off by visiting the Salminci family. They are the friends of a family in our branch and have been to church 2 or 3 times in the past. We met them last week at a party at Mamma Gigantes house, and they invited us over for dinner at their house. It was a really cool experience. There was a really big soccer game coming on at 8:30 that the father told us he had to see at least 3 times. His wife took a little longer than expected to finish making dinner, so we didnt finish eating until right at 8:30, but we told them right when we got their that we wanted to have a short lesson after dinner. He turned off the tv and missed the first 15 minutes of the soccer game to listen to our message. This may not seem like a big deal to all of you not sports fans, but for those of us who are truly attached to a team, you would know that this was a miracle. I have a vivid memory of 4 years ago in January when the missionaries came over to my house for dinner. Duke was playing Wake Forest and the missionaries asked me to turn of the tv for a spiritual thought. I scherz not, I was offended at those missionaries for weeks. Anyways, I respect people when they have games to watch. It was super nice of Ricardo to listen to us while Man U was playing a semifinal game in some tournament. 

May 1st was a holiday and we had two awesome appointments. One was a ward party at President Crisciones house for a cookout. It was the 3rd time I have had Mexican food on my mission. It was so good. After we ate, President Criscione, Brother Canzachi (his second counselor), and Brother Bruno asked me if I was descent at ping pong. I said yes, but at that time I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Brother Canzachi changes, puts on a headband, and get his personal paddle that he brought and sprayed it down with some stuff. They were the 3 best ping pong players I have ever seen. They destroyed me and it was kind of embarassing. It was a fun afternoon nonetheless. Then I taught my first English Course since I have been in Rome (the sorelle usually do it) which was also fun. The best part of the day was going to the De Nunzios. They spent 8 hours over the course of 2 days making us arinchini. I dont know why but I felt a special connection with that family the first time I met them, and I love them a lot. They are incredible people. Fratello De Nunzios parents and uncle were there as well who are not members. After eating, we had an awesome lesson on the Saviors love and read 3 Nephi 17:15-25 together. It was a special lesson. Teaching from that chapter really helped me feel the Saviors love a lot stronger. 

On Saturday we had a Zone Conference at Rome 1, and Elder Snow came who is in the First Quorum of the Seventy. His message was absolutely perfect. He is over the church history department, and focused his remarks and learning from the past and always remembering. He read Moroni 10:3 which we read to all of the people we teach and related it to keeping a journal and always being grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord. It was an incredible message to us all. If we are reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and going to church, we all have plenty manifestations that Heavenly Father lives and loves us, we just need to recognize and remember them. After the conference we stopped by the temple to take a pic cause it was on the way. It is making real progress. Made me way happy.

Speaking of remembering, I wanted to share one more thing. Honestly, this week was a really tough week. Anziano Gemmell and I worked really hard and contacted a lot of people. So far none of them have come through. This morning I was looking through my journal deciding what I would write about, and I realized this week was incredible. We had some awesome appointments and a lot of other awesome stuff I dont have time to write about. Honestly, I didnt even realize it was a good week until I went back and looked at my journal and remembered the blessings the Lord poured out on us. It really reminded me of the importance of taking the time to stop and think of our blessings and truly being grateful. I can remember talks in General Conference from President Monson and Uchtdorf about the importance of gratitude for our daily happiness, and I truly understood why this week. The Lord wants us to say thank you and recognize His hand in all things. And thus it is. 

Anziano Smith

Rome 5 | week 4 {Vatican, Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, all in 1 p-day!}

Piazza del Popolo

Vatican

Vatican

 Trevi Fountain

 Coliseum

 Coliseum

 Coliseum

Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

Gelato!

 Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

4.28.14

So, as you can probably tell from the pictures last pday rocked. We went to Rome and met up with the Anziani from Ostia which are Anziano Baggaley and Anziano Zemp. Zemp and Gemmell were companions in Bitonto and Baggaley and I were really close last summer in Brindisi/Lecce. It was so fun being in Rome all day with them. I also get to see Anziano Pizza and McCllelan every Tuesday at District Meeting. We drive to Terni to have DDM in their chapel every week and it is a lot of fun. It is so good to meet up with missionaries I have served with in the past. They are seriously like brothers to me. 

Unfortuately, most of the people we have been seeing were busy this week, but it still ended up being really fun and productive. On Thursday night we had a party for English Course in the Hotel. The Sisters made banana bread and all of the Italians wanted the recipe. It was really good. I totally forgot how much I loved banana bread. Anyways, the English Course at the church is the Sisters course, but we always go to do lessons/they need a ride home after because the buses dont run that late. Anyways, we went to their party and became good friends with some of the guys from the corso and I think we are going to get a pizza with them and do a lesson at the end of this week, so we are looking forward to that. After corso, we tried to go find a contact that the sisters have at eurohotel which was right across the street. We took the wrong exit on the roundabout and got an a freeway towards Napoli that had no exit for 30 minutes. We ended up paying 6 euro in tolls and took us forever to get back. We will use the nav for everything from now on. 

Friday night we got to go visit the De Nunzio family from a ward. They are so cool and live in a village on the top of a mountain that is sweet. They had some friends visiting from the North who are investigating the church, and we were able to leave a message on the Restoration. It went super well, and we are headed back over there on Thursday night. Fratello De Nunzio is from Tropany (in Siciliy) and he wants to make us arinchini (probably the most famous Sicilian food). It is a holiday here in Italy May 1st, so we will go there for dinner and a lesson with their friends who will still be in town. Should be fun.

Saturday morning we went to Rome so I could get certified to drive the car. In New Zealand they drive on the left, so Anziano Gemmell and I felt more safe about me driving the car, haha. We met President Waddoups at about 11. I thought it was going to be a 5 minute stroll around the block. Instead we drove around Rome for a solid hour, and he took us to the temple as well. It made me so happy to see the temple. It looks really good, and I think it will be done before I finish! 

On Saturday night we met with a man named Hector who the Sisters found a couple weeks ago. He was so nice to us, and he was really humble. He and his wife are from Albania, and they moved here and have 2 kids. We had a great Plan of Salvation lesson, and he really wants to come to church next week. Hopefully there is more to report on that next week.

Anziano Gemmell and I both started to get a little fatigued from journal writing this week. I have missed 2 or 3 days my whole mission of writing. Nontheless, at times when it is 10 oclock there is no desire to put any thought into writing. This week we came up with a game to make journal writing very amusing. We started writing in our journals using Book of Mormon language. Now it is the funnest part of the day. I will quote a few entries from my journal this week:

And it came to pass that Pres said, what doest thou desire to see? And we said, the house of the Lord. And thus we began to ascend to the mountain of the Lord. As we thus arrived, we stopped our journey for the space of 10 minutes for a picture. While I labored to release the parking break, Pres said unto me, art thou a wimp? And it came to pass that Gemmell began to mock me as well. Nevertheless, I heeded them not. 

The day was far spent, and we decided to stop to talk to 8 ragazzi in the piazza. A girl from the land of Napoli reached to hug me. I said, reach thou not youngblood. I am not yet released from my calling.

And it came to pass that as we began to journey towards EuroHotel, we did err. Or in other words, Anziano Gemmell did err insomuch that he put the navigation away. And it came to pass that we lost our journey towards the land of Napoli for 30 minutes and were taxed with 6 onti (which were equivalent to 6 euro, or in other words 2 nopton pizzas). And we humbled ourselves by grabbing the navigation we recommenced our journey towards EuroHotel. 

And while we were thus laboring with all our might, we began to obtain buckets. 

This is abnoxious. I know. However, we are having a lot of fun as you can tell. Hope everyone was a great week as well.

Anziano Smith