Ragusa | week 8

 Anziano Smith, Anziano Morgan, Anziano Pingree

Regan with Anziano Blair

4.20.2015

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the list I made of the 30 biggest blessings I received on my mission. Well, I made that list a little too soon, because the past week and a half has included a couple that would have been on that list. On Tuesday Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to Rome, and the whole mission was able to attend a conference with him from 9:30 to 4 on Tuesday. We only took a 30 minute break for lunch, and the rest of it was training, instruction, and a question and answer session. I literally felt like I was there for 15 minutes and it ended. I made sure to arrive very early, so I could secure a front row seat. As soon as the conference started, Elder Bednar asked us to move our chairs as close to the front as possible and fill in all the isles with chairs because the sound system wasn't great. So...my chair was literally 7 feet from the podium and 4 feet from Elder Bednar's chair on the stand. 

I will remember for the rest of my life the things that I felt as he spoke to us, and I will treasure those notes that I took as a missionary, husband, father, and leader in the church. 

Wednesday night after the conference we met with a guy we found last week who is about to graduate with the equivalent of a graduate degree in Economics. It was our second lesson with him, and we were going through the Restoration pamphlet with him. We got to the part about the Savior establishing his church and calling twelve apostles. After that he asked, "why is necessary for their to be 12 apostles on the earth today, if we can study the words of the apostles and prophets in the Bible? Isn't it the same gospel?" I will summarize what I said to him:

Yesterday we had the opportunity of going to Rome to here one of the living 12 apostles speak to us. At the end of 6 hours of instruction and training, he shared with us his apostolic witness of the Savior Jesus Christ. That his tomb is empty, he lives today, and he guides and directs his church today through revelation to his authorized servants. After that testimony he invoked a blessing upon us that would be able to "continue as we commenced" (D&C 9:5) from that very minute according to our desires and diligence. That night we took an 11 hour night train from Rome to Catania. We left Rome at 9:30pm and arrived in Catania at 8:30am. I slept for a total of 2 hours last night. This morning I taught 2 people in Catania at 11, ate lunch, took a 2 hour bus back to Ragusa, walked an hour away for another appointment at 5, had a meeting with our church leaders at 6:30, and now we are meeting you at 7:30. I have been serving as a missionary for almost 23 months now, and the past couple weeks I have been getting especially tired and worn out, but today I wasn't tired at all. I know that I was blessed with that strength because of the blessing of Elder Bednar. He holds the same priesthood keys Christ's apostles held, and old of the Old Testament prophets. It is because of the witness of a living apostle and his priesthood authority that I am delivering you this message right now. That is why it is important to have living apostles who deliver the same gospel found in the Bible. 

After that I said that to him, I thought even more deeply about my response to that question. I remember in high school when we watched videos trying to scare kids out of drinking, drugs, and sex. There were drug tests to enforce adherence to those rules too. However, the kids who wanted to do those things still did those things. Then I thought of the meeting I just sat in. We were over 200 kids between 18-21 for the most part, with no supervision, no rule enforcement, and much, much, much stricter rules. Why is it that we do our best to keep them? The best answer I came up with was from a story in the Book of Mormon. Alma gives us the following insight from his experience. "And now, as the preaching of the word (aka Elder Bednar testifying of the Savior) had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else (aka Pam Stenzel videos), which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God (Alma 31:5)." It is because of living apostles that I want to keep God's commandments and they don't seem like a hinderment to my fun. 

Along with the conference, we have been blessed in many other ways the best week and a half. The referral's name we received in church last week is Nader. He is 24 years old and from Milano. It has been nothing short of a miracle to see someone change and grow so much in a such a short period of time. We have taught him only 5 times and he is praying reading the Book of Mormon each day, committed to live the law of chastity and word of wisdom, and he has come to church the past 2 Sundays. Originally we had a baptismal date with him for May 30th here in Ragusa, but he is going up to Milano for 2 weeks in the middle of the month. Right now we are trying to switch his baptism to May 16th in Milano so his whole family can see it. We haven't confirmed anything, but he told us one things is certain: he is getting baptized. 

Some people may wonder why we seek so much to help other people be baptized. That was another topic Elder Bendar talked about at the conference. He said, "If you asked the Savior what is the most important thing to him, what would he say?" He then said, the answer is in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. There is one instance in the Bible when Jesus has a limited amount of time with his apostles, and there is one instance in the Book of Mormon where he has limited time with the Nephites in America. At the passover meal in the New Testament, he instituted the ordinance of the sacrament. Among the Nephites he clarified the ordiance of baptism and instituted the ordinance of the sacrament. Therefore, the most important thing to the Savior is ordinances simply because that is the way that we can ultimately receive all of the blessings of his atoning sacrifice. We told that to Nader. We promised him that the Savior would be with him ever step of the way to help him live all the commandments he needed to live to get baptized because it is the most important thing to the Savior that he gets baptized and keeps that covenant for his whole life. That lesson was the one at 5 after the 11 hour night train ride, and it was one of the most spiritual of my mission. Suffice it to say, Elder Bedar really did bless a lot of missionaries and the Italian people because of his visit to Rome. 

Anziano Smith