Ragusa | week 2

3.16.2015

Ragusa has become one of my favorite cities I have served in my whole mission in a very short period of time. This week we were able to see a lot (Ibla, San Giacomo, Modica) and also meet a lot of awesome people. 

One of my favorite parts about Ragusa is that it has the most modern church building I have ever seen in my life. It was finished 1 year ago, and the members clean it spotless every week. It also has accessories that I have never seen before in any of our churches such as magnets on the walls and backs of the doors to keep them open, a touch pad feature on the all of the locks to make locking and unlocking the doors less irritating, and a very high quality sound system throughout the church. However, my favorite part by far is the basketball court in the parking lot. It is probably the nicest goal I have seen my whole mission. 

Last pday while the Sorelle were emailing, I was able to shoot for 2 hours on a good goal with a good ball for the first time my whole mission. I almost felt like I was at home for the first time in forever. It felt so good to shoot again...even though I was terrible. Our pday ends at 6, so we planned to leave the church at 5:30 to go get some stuff from our apartment before we went out to visit some people Monday night. I was really sad when it was 5:30 cause I just wanted to stay and shoot hoops all night. But we left. 

At 6, Francesca (awesome lady who brings us food to our place all the time) called and asked if she could bring us over more food (3rd time in 8 days to be exact). After she gave us the food she asked us what we were doing the rest of the night. We told her we were going to visit a friend named Gianmarco down in Ibla. When we told her we were going to walk, she said we were crazy cause it was raining outside, so she offered to give us a ride. In the car, she asked us who Gianmarco was and when he was excpecting us. The truth was neither of us had ever met him, and we did not have an appointment set. He was an ex-investigator we found in the area book we decided to pass by. She called us absolutely crazy for wanting to walk down to Ibla (30 minute walk downhill, 1 hour walk back uphill) in the rain to meet someone we didnt know or have an appointment with. But I knew we werent crazy, because the night before we prayed during daily planning as to who we should visit. We looked over about 12 peoples records and felt good about Gianmarco, so we chose his name. She reluctantly dropped us off, and we soon found out that he had moved. We started to walk  back up from Ibla to Ragusa which is a hike. 10 minutes into our walk uphill a lady stopped us and asked if we wanted a ride up to our church at Ragusa. We obviously accepted and soon found out that the missionaries invited her 18 year old son to play basketball with them 1 year ago and they were really nice to him. We got in her car, picked up her son from a tutor and they drove us back up to the church. This woman and her son asked us in the car all about our missions and our beliefs and we talked for about 10 minutes in the parking lot once we got to the church. I could feel the Spirit so strong. 

When we finished talking I realized we were standing right where I was playing basketball until 5:30 and how I didnt want to leave. Sharing the gospel with that mom and her son brought me more peace than I have ever felt on a basketball court. It was so clear to me that Heavenly Father knows what will bring us the most happiness, but he will never force it upon us. He wants us to choose it. I realized that when I seek his help as we did and Sunday night, make a plan, and then follow through with faith, He is always with me and miracles happen. That is why he asks us to trust him and lean not on our own understanding. That is a lesson I will never forget. 

We had a lot of fun this week too. We had a member take us and the sorelle to Modica which is a town nearby with some of the most famous chocolate in the world. I have never been a dark chocolate kind of guy, but that has definitely changed. They had 20 different types of dark chocolate to sample for free, and I tried them all then bought 4 huge bars of it. I ate them all in 2 days. We also had an English course student take us out to pizza for his birthday. English course is a really cool thing, because we can make such good friendships with people in a normal way...probably the only normal way to make a friend as a missionary. Gabe has been coming for a year or so I think, and he is way nice to us. He took us out to a really nice pizzeria Saturday night, then he came to church Sunday morning as well which was great.

This week I did something that I have never done before. I was going through the area book and looking for old friends of the missionaries who we may be able to contact again. I turns out the the Sorelle use to live in the apartment that we live in now. There were a lot of people who the sorelle taught and their information was left in our house. I found somewhere between 15 and 20 people who were really good friends of the sorelle, but never met the anziani. As missionaries we are always looking for people to serve and teach because that is what we do 24/7, and right now we dont have that much work. However, I had a feeling that I should give all those people over to the sorelle for them to contact. When I did that, I got the same feeling that I got on Monday night when Carimina and her son dropped us off at the church. I thought of the covenant when we make with God when we are baptized to lighten each others burderns. Even though I dont understand how, I came to realize that when I lighten others burdens, I am lightening my own. 

This week at District Meeting, I had everyone take a turn reading this quote by President Monson. We read it 6 times. "There is no higher end than this, that we should choose to accept his discipline and do his work throughout our lives. Nothing else, no other choice we make, can make of us what he can." I know that this is true. I also know that this is Gods work. I could feel that when I realized I was happier teaching than shooting hoops. I also knew that this was Gods work and not my own when we gave the Sorelle those names of people to go see. Im so grateful that we have a living prophet who guides us today just like all the prophets we read about in the Bible and Book of Mormon. 

Buon bracketology!

Anziano Smith