Rome 5 | week 20

8.18.2014

Things in Rome 5 are seriously going awesome. I feel so lucky to be in my 3rd transfer here with Anziano Blair. This week we had a couple awesome experiences, but the coolest of all was with our friends from Nigeria: Daniel, Noel, Samuel, and Tony. They got here in Italy 4 months ago on a boat. Their first day here was in Sicily and they met the missionaries who gave them a Book of Mormon, but didnt have a phone yet to switch contact info. The next day they got transfered up here like 5 minutes away from Fiano Romano where we meet for church. Anyways, we met them on the bus last week then they invited us over to their place on Wednesday afternoon. We showed up and it was an refugee camp with a couple thousand people living in it. We walked back to their room and their were 7 guys living in 1 room with a bathroom. That may sound kind of depressing, but it was the coolest thing ever. The first 15 minutes there we were just cracking up they were making us laugh so hard. They were the happiest people I have seen my entire time here in Italy. Then they told the whole story about how they already knew the missionaries and stuff, so we started to talk about the church a little. I asked Noel what are some of the blessings he has recieved from God in his life, and I will never forget his answer. He said, "We would be here all night man if you wanted me to answer that." So cool. We had an awesome lesson, then we went back on Sunday afternoon to see them again and they wouldnt let us in the camp cause we werent certified to enter. They are totally down to meet us somewhere else though. So glad we met them this week. 

Friday and Saturday were good days too. Friday was deep cleaning day all day for the whole mission cause it is a huge holiday here in Italy. We finished cleaning early afternoon then went up to Terni to be with them for the night and do an exchange all day Saturday. We had a lot of fun and I was able to work with Anziano Bee for the first time since the MTC last June! It was so fun going out with him. He just got blown into Terni with Anziano Pingree (greenie) so they dont really have any work yet, so we just went street finding all day. Usually street all day is pretty brutal, but Bee and I had a lot of fun with it, and we found some sweet people. One guy even sang to us in English. Interesting experience. 

Francesco took us out to lunch this week which was a blast! There was a restaraunt in the mountains by his house, and i seriously felt like I was on a campout back in the states. Only difference was it was delicious Italian food instead of burgers and hot dogs. Francesco is a lifetime friend for sure. We had a lesson with him after lunch on the top of a mountain looking over a huge valley and it was sweet. It was probably the first time on my mission I had a lesson in a really pretty place in nature. Definitely something I wont forget. Pretty memorable week. Have a good one. 

Anziano Smith