Caserta | week 6 {Transfer calls, New Years Eve, invitation for baptism!}

Anziano Heder and Anziano Smith 

Anziano Heder and Smith at New Years Eve dinner 

Grilling eel! 

Anziano Bird and Destiny 

With Anziano Graham and Cremonese

So, I have big news that I was not expecting. I thought I was going to be companions with Anziano Heder for the rest of his mission (two more transfers), but not so. We got transfer calls on Saturday afternoon and Caserta is going back up to a 4 man city! Anziano Hatch is going to be my new companion and Anziano Tingey is going to be Anziano Heders companion. I am so excited. Anziano Hatch and Tingey were both in my MTC group. They are both great missionaries and I cant wait to work with them. Anziano Tingey has been in Sciacca his first four transfers which is a tiny city in Sicily and Anziano Hatch has been in Catania. Im grateful he has been companions with an Italian for the last 2 transfers so Im sure he is a lot better than me at Italian. This is good news. Having a 4 man house will be fun as well. They come in Wednesday night. Looking forward to it. 

This past week I have gotten to know the missionaries from our district a lot better and really look up to them in many ways. So every Tuesday we have a district meeting in Napoli which consists of opening prayer/song, fun fact, italian tip, spiritual thought, 20 minute training, and then pizza at Sorbillos. Anziano Bennet is our district leader so he runs the show every week and blows my mind without fail with how amazing his lessons are. Anyways, he asked me to give the addestramento (lesson) last week. He is sure no easy act to follow, but he and the other Anziani made me feel good and seemed to appreciate it. I gave it on consecrating ourselves to the Lord based on a talk that Anziano Bednar gave at the MTC in 2011. That talk has really helped me understand how to fulfill my purpose as a missionary better and Im so grateful for living prophets and apostles who help us know how to be successful in happy as missionaries and throughout all of life. 

That same night was New Years Eve, and Joe and Vincenza invited us over. It was a lot fun. Vincenza went to college in the states back in the 90s and majored in art. She took us upstairs and showed us her portfolio which was super impressive. We then proceeded to eat the biggest meal of my life. We started of with some mozzarella di bufala with bread, ham, and salami, and olives, scones, green beans, and I ate a couple really good chocolate truffle things. Then we moved on to spaghetti which was followed by all of the sea food: clams, fried cod, fried squid, and fried/grilled eel. By that time we had to go, so it was probably a good thing I didnt get dessert. Joe is really nice and always drives us home even though they are only about a 20 minute walk away from our apartment. That was nice of him because it was a little dangerous here in Caserta on New Years Eve. Definitely the first time in my live I have heard legitimate bombs going off. 

So last week Anziano Birds companion had to get transferred early to fill another missionarys spot in Sardegna, so he was companionless. So...Anziano Heder and I went to stay with him all day on Saturday which just so happened to be the day that they had a baptism!  It was easily one of the best days of my mission. So we met Anziano Bird in Napoli that morning and then went to Pozzuoli and we were getting everything ready for the baptism all day. We cleaned to the church, made the program, got the clothes ready, and then filled up the font. It took 3 hours for the font to fill up and we couldnt leave it, so we just picked up some pizzas and ate while the font was filling up and talked about our missions for a couple hours. It was really cool, cause we never really have time to do anything like that ever. The Sister missionaries and Anziano Graham and Cremonese came down a little later as well. I feel so lucky to be able to serve with these missionaries here in the Napoli Zone. The longer I stay here, the more I realize that these kids are the most incredible people on earth. I love them all a ton. Anyways, the baptism was slated to start at 5 and Destiny showed up at 4 because he was so excited. He got all dressed and stuff and we just talked for a while and it was great to get to know him better. Everything went perfectly. A ton of members came and it was a really diverse crowd. The branch in Pozzuoli has a good amount of Nigerians, Ghanans, Americans (because of the military base), and obviously Noptons (not Italians-completely different thing). 

This week was also very exciting for us because we made a lot of progress with Salvatore and Alina. They accepted our invitation to be baptized at the end of this month on January 25th. We are going to have to push it back maybe a couple weeks because they have to attend at least 3 sacrament meetings first. Alina works Saturday night until 3:30am and has made it to church the past two Sundays at 10:30 which is right after sacrament meeting. She is so amazing for making that effort to come, however, we know they have to come to sacrament meeting as well. Overall, everything is growing great with them and the rest of Caserta. Definitley look forward to the new Anziani which should give the city a really big lift. Happy New Year everyone!

Anziano Smith

Caserta | week 2 {district meeting, exchanges, all is well in Caserta!}

A beautiful Christmas tree in Caserta

Anziano Smith, Matteo, and Anziano Prieto 

Lunch with the Giuseppes family

Anziano Prieto with Joe and Vincenzas family

 Anziano Bryant (assistant) and Anziano Smith

Anziano Prieto (assistant) and Anziano Smith

Napoli 

More shots of Napoli! Sure looks like a beautiful place 

Streets in Napoli

 The district waiting for a table at Sorbillos, a pizza place in Napoli!

That's a lot of pizza! 

I have absolutely loved working with Anziano Heder here for the past 2 weeks! I think I said this before but Caserta used to be a 4 man house, but now it is just Anziano Heder and I. Therefore, we have double the work to do. It has been really nice to have a full schedule and always be busy with appointments. First of all, I want to say that our district here in Napoli is really amazing. Anziano Heder and I go to Napoli ever Tuesday for district meeting at the church there. There are 12 missionaries that all meet there (2 districts of 6). We talk about missionary work together and then Anziano Bennett who is our district leader always gives us a short lesson. His lesson last week and yesterday were two of the best I have ever heard. He talked about change and growth which really helped me out a lot. It is kind of easy to fall into a routine doing the same thing day after day, but he talked about the need for constant growth or the gifts that we do have will be taken away. Yesterday our lesson helped me even more. Just like falling into routines with habits that are not good, it is also easy to fall into a routine with teaching the same thing or approaching everyone person the same. He talked about how we need to focus on what people need and what they are capable of accepting (aka not feeding people meat when they need milk). He also taught the coolest way to teach the gospel. He told us that as missionaries, we cant just tell people the truth and expect them to accept it. We have to help them discover it for themselves. We have to ask good questions and open the scriptures and guide people to discovering the truth. Instead of a lecture, our lessons should be a conversation. This is much easier said than done. 

 Anyways, I had the opportunity to go on an exchange on Monday with Anziano Prieto who is one of the assistants. He is from Brazil and has been on his mission about 22 months now. He was the absolute perfect example of teaching a family according to the principles that Anziano Bennet talked about at District Meeting. We went over to the home of a couple named Joe and Vincenza. They are from italy, but he lived in the states for 23 years and she did for 6 so they both spoke fluent english. They have two daughters though who only speak Italian and a friend named Matteo came over so we did it all in Italian. Anyways, they fed us a really good dinner and then Anziano Prieto led a lesson on how this gospel is a protection for our families in a spiritually dangerous world. It was absolutely perfect. After that lesson I just wanted to talk to Anziano Prieto for days about how he developed such amazing teaching skills, but more importantly the power he has behind is words. That night it was like 10 and we were all getting ready for bed, and we were all exhausted. Anziano Prieto was in our bathroom trying to fix a leak in our shower even though he was leaving back to Rome first thing in the morning. He also wrote thank you notes for Anziano Heder and I before he left and hid them in our stuff. I found mine this morning. It is amazing to me how that is just who he is. No one in the world knew or ever would have known (unless I put it on the internet) that he fixed our shower. He just wanted to do it because that is who he is. 

So we also taught a lady named Adele twice this week who knew the missionaries from a long time ago. She has been way over the top nice to us, and it has been awesome to get to know her. On Monday morning, she gave us this cake that she told us was unique to Napoli that we had to try. I ate it, and it was soooo good. Then I found out it was soaked in rum. oooops. Other than that, everything has gone super smoothly. 

We also met this guy named Salvatore on the street last week, and he blew my mind with how open he is and willing to listen to our message. He is an active Evangelist, but he was intrigued by the fact that we were young kids from America sharing a message about Jesus Christ. He said he would meet us the next day at church to talk and he actually showed up!! We just talked to him for a while about his religious background and gave him a brief overview of the Book of Mormon and how it can strengthen our relationship with the Savior. He said he wants to hear more and is meeting us again tonight! 

We have met with about 5 other potential investigators this week i wish I had time to write about. However, I do want to talk about the members here for a minute. There are a bunch of way cool American families here who treat us so well. For example, the Salviti family has been so awesome for us. We have an investigator named Giuseppe who we know through english course, and his family invited the Salvitis over to learn how to make lasagna from scratch and they invited us over as well to translate. It was really cool to get to know the Salvitis and Giuseppes familiy better. Brother Salviti has been in the Navy for almost 18 years and has a way cool story. They invited us to come over for dinner next monday night and share a message to their teenage son and daughter about preparing to serve missions. They also invited us over for xmas eve. Definitely looking forward to it. 

Overall, I have enjoyed my first 2 weeks in Caserta immensely. The branch rocks and we have a really big teaching pool right now which is new for me. Im definitely learning on the fly, but Anziano Heder is a super experienced and awesome missionary who always knows exactly what to say and do. District Meeting and pizza at Sorbillos in Napoli is way fun and a highlight every week. Our district is full of super cool guys as well. Side note, Anziano Graham ran a 4:07 mile in high school and is training for the 2016 olympics right now. Im definitely getting to know some really awesome guys and growing spiritually more than I could in any other place. All is well in Caserta!

Anziano Smith