Rome 5 | week 16

 Poggio view

7.21.14

So the end of July and August is sacred vacation time to Italians...so for the next couple of weeks my emails might follow a bit of a different pattern than usual. We will probably have about 20% of our members in church the next 3 or 4 weeks, so Anziano Blair and I got assigned to teach Priesthood and give talks, haha. Hopefully we are blessed to find some more people in this area while most of the people are are now teaching are on vacation.

When Anziano Blair first got to Rome 5, we went and found this antique shop in Monterotondo with a bunch of old stuff that people had donated, or this man had somehow gotten a hold of. We got some new chairs for our desks and some other random stuff we needed for the apartment. Anyways, we got really tight with the guy that worked there, and so we have gone back to visit him 3 times just to talk and everytime he has introduced us to some of his friends. Naturally, they ask who we are, and then we have a good gospel conversation. We went the other day and were able to teach one of his friends for probably 20 minutes or so, and then we opened a box of 20 old Bibles. They were printed in 1900 and he had copies in French, English, Italian, and German. We were going through all of them, and when we were leaving he gave me one for free because he said we were the only ones that would have actually appreciate them. Definitely one of the coolest gifts I have ever gotten. 

The other interesting thing that happened this week was our shower. So we have kind of been struggling recently to get home on time, because most of the people we have been seeing are only free at night around 730 and they dont live in Passo Corese. Its something that I know we need to work on, but I have kind of justified it since we are doing good work. This week we were home late 3 nights. All 3 following mornings, not a drop of hot water in the shower. I am convinced it is like the Liahona shower that works according to our obedience, so now we are serisouly going to be home on time from now on. 

This week I was really touched by Helaman 12:1-6, and the pinciple that God gives us trials to humble and us and help us rely on him. This week we were able to see Emel again and we also started teaching 3 new guys from Nigeria named Raymond, Latif, and Samuel who came her to Italy on a boat that was super dangerous. Those 4 guys are so humble and so reliant on God in their lives and it has been because of the trials they have overcome. It is a principle that we here all growing up, but it is something that I truly know now. Being able to get to know the foreigners who have left everything and sarificed so much to get here is really touching and a great  blessing to me. I have learned that it is so much easier to be friends with people who are humble and they are so much more likeable. There is no way I will ever forget getting to know these people and a the things I am learning from them. 

Anziano Smith