Rome 5 | week 13

 Anziano Smith and Anziano Blair at the Pantheon

6.30.2014

A lot of cool stuff happened this week. The highlight was definitely Laquilla. There was a family history conference there on Thursday night that we were invited to in which there were a few prominent Italian government leaders invited to as well. At first I thought it was going to be a waste of our time and money, but our leaders kept telling us to go. We didnt know anyone there, what to do, and it was going to cost about 50 euro in gas and 20 euro in tolls. We went anyways cause we were told to, and it ended up being worth every minute of time and every euro. The conference was really great. One of the Senior couples did a good job of explaing how familysearch works, and then our Stake President brought the house down explaining why we do it. Then he totally gave all the missionaries a shout out and told everyone visiting to talk to us. Right when the meeting ended, and woman came up to Anziano Blair and I and invited us over to her house to dinner. It was kind of random but we accepted. On the car ride over, we found out that she had a son who was baptized 3 years ago, and he has been on his mission in Portugal for 18 months now. She and her daughter never really investigated the church much at all, but were always respectful of the missionaries because of her son. We had a lot of fun at her house, and she taught us how to cook like 3 different things. After dinner, she broke down into tears and asked us why we served missions. It was one of the most tender moments of my mission teaching her about the Book of Mormon and promises contained in it. At the end of the night she and her daugther committed to read Ether 12 and then took us home. When we got to the Laquilla house, the other missionaries told us they have been trying to contact her for several weeks. It was totally a miracle (they didnt see her at the conference becuase they had to go to Rome for transfers). Anyways, it was a night I will never forget, and I hope I get to return one day. 

Saturday night we went over to a lesson with Lorenzo, and he was like, "you guys always work. take a break." Then he just started cooking pasta and turned on the World Cup. That totally happened like 3 other times this week. I feel kind of bad, but we cant really do anything about it. However, I have come to appreciate the game of soccer. As of 2 weeks ago I thought it was dumb, because the score was always 1-0. 

The other highlight of the week was meeting 2 new friends Hikmout and Emel.  Hikmout is 19 and has  been here in Italy for 18 months and speaks 7 languages. Emel on the other hand has only been here for 8 months, but he has traveled around all of Europe for the best 7 or 8 years. Both of them are from Afghanistan. We first met Hikmout on a bench at the beginning of last week, and he invited us over to his place later in the week. He opened up to us a lot and told us the story of his childhood, and it was really sad. I have never met kids who have lived through things that he has seen, and I really felt a lot of compassion on him. Sometimes I miss family and friends, but in the end I know that I am going home next summer and everyone will still be there. There are some people that miss family and friends and literally dont know if they will ever see them again. That is totally a different thing. Anyways, we were able to explain a little bit about our purpose as missionaries, and then he shared a little bit about his religious background. He is Muslim and after he finished explaining some of the basic beliefs they have, he asked if I followed/understood anything. I was like, uhh...no. Then he said, ya I dont really understand what you guys are talking about either. Then he showed us some video by a Muslim man for a few minutes and he said next time we can bring a talk by President Monson. It was really cool. Then he called us the next day and said his friend Emel wants to learn English, so we went over and met with him and it turned out he barely speaks Italian or English, so communicated was a bit challenging, but we figured it out. We taught him a little about introducing yourself in English for like 20 minutes, then he did his best to tell us about the last 10 years or so of his life. I dont think I have ever felt more compassion on anyone in my life. We were able to testify of the love of God in the simplest language we could and then knelt and said a prayer together before we left. When we left his house, I saw the people I was walking by on the street differently. I realized that everyone has their own problems and their own way of seeing the world based off of different circumstances, experiences, and choices instead of just people. More importantly, I knew that all of them were sons or daughters of God. Getting to know them gave me a stronger desire to share the gospel because I felt the need of it. It also made me really be grateful for a lot of things I take for granted, more respectful towards others, and less judgmental. Overall, this week was great. Ciao!

Anziano Smith