Brindisi | week 16 {zone conference, 2 funerals, still loving Brindisi}

Another week in Brindisi has come and gone. It seems like I am writing home every other day. My time here has been much enjoyed and it is incredible to look back and see how I have grown in these past 4 or so months. I have never been much of a talker or socializer in my life, but that is certainly beginning to change. I remember always being in my car 5 minutes after church ended or like 10 minutes after school got out. I am not like that anymore. It has become so evident to me that our relationships with others are so important and we should always treat them with a ton of care and love. I say this because we often go through our branch list to contact people to go visit. There are about 25 or 30 active members here in Brindisi and about 70 inactives. We have spent a lot of time and effort to reach out and contact all of them. I have met with many of them and it always saddens me and fills me with compassion to listen to their stories. Many have been through heart-wrenching experiences that I certainly cannot relate to, but I know the Savior can. Anyways, I have learned that everyone in the church needs good friends and support/encouragement throughout their whole lives. Visiting so many people and listening to just a part of their life stories has made me want to be a lot better listener and more concerned about their circumstances.

In the past 10 days we have gone to 2 funerals. 1 was for the mother of a lady in our ward and another was for Fratello Frascaros father. He is a really bright and funny guy - always making a joke or doing something funny. We had no idea his dad was in bad health condition, and we got a call on Wednesday morning saying that his father died the night before and the funeral would be that afternoon at a Catholic church right down our street. We went to the funeral and we saw the really rude guy I wrote about last week and probably my favorite English course student (Pietro). They were both his nephews. We had no clue. It was actually kind of cool because Anziano Alvey gave an amazing spiritual thought the night before at english course on the plan of salvation and what it means for our families. The funeral was actually the first Catholic Mass I have ever attended, and it was a neat experience. It was certainly an eye opening experience to see a lot of people who were suffering and sad and think of the message of glad tidings we are called to teach. It really made me want to be better.

The next day was Zone Conference up in Bari. The assistants gave an awesome lesson on introducing the Book of Mormon to people on the street. The key that stuck out to me was giving other people a chance. It is way cool to listen to missionaries who have been out year 18 or 20 months and listen to their teaching skills/the people they have become. Always inspiring. I have to go now. Sorry this letter is short. Missionary work is the best and I am truly loving my time here. These truly are the best two years! At least so far.

Love,

Anziano Smith

Brindisi | week 15 {"The Lord gives us miracles when we least expect them"}

 Regan emailed me this picture and in the subject line wrote: "my week in summary." Haha! 

Anziano Queresima, who Regan says is "literally the bomb!" 

Regan with 2 new elders that he says are amazing, Anziano Queresima and Anziano Kwodjo 

 Regan said these are some of his friends from English course

HAHA Regan told us to zoom in and read the note from the apartment committee from the night before...it says "PLEASE is very important to not disturb the STILLNESS from 2pm until 5pm and also in the night, thank you." hahahaha I guess they are too loud during the afternoon when all of Italy shuts down to take naps!

Really good pizza that Regan promised us we would have someday ;) Plus, look at his precious face! I know I am biased as his sister, but he is just sooo cute!

Regan's new coat. Under this picture he wrote "fresh as can be." Haha love this kid! 

Regan with Fratello (brother) Palma, who Regan said is "THE MAN" 

Regan with Anziano Baggaley & Anziano Peachey (zone leaders). He says he loves them both so much! 

Regan said this was the best pizza of "this week"!

Regan with Victor, Blessing, Joseph, and Feliscia! We can't wait to meet them someday, such great people :) 

Pretty picture of the port. Regan said this is where they tracted on Sunday night.

Hello fellow Americans! I hope all is well as thanksgiving preparations are underway. There will be no such activities here as we just finished celebrating Saints Day and the Day of the Dead. All the holidays here are different and they tend to throw me off a little bit. Nonetheless, the Christmas spirit is starting early here and I like it. 

Anyways, we had a pretty eventful week in which I learned a lot of things. First off, we had District Meeting in Lecce and Anziano Baggaley gave me a talk to read called the "The 4th Missionary." It is about 30 pages. Anyone who will serve a mission must read this talk beforehand. It was super inspiring and made me want to be a lot better. Nuff said about that. 

So, Tuesday night and Wednesday morning Anziano Baggaley and Anziano Peachey (zone leaders) came and did some scambios with us. It was a blast. Tuesday night I went out with Anziano Jepson and Wednesday morning I went out with Anziano Baggaley. I am so lucky to be able to learn from them because they are seriously the best of the best. So Tuesday night we all went out around 5 and planned to meet up for pizza together at 8:30. It was 8:28 and Anziano Jepsen and I were on our way to the pizzeria and this guy grabbed us and was like "Anziani I have to buy you a drink!" He literally pulled us into a bar, and I was really annoyed at first. It was a man who Anziano Jepsen and Alvey talked to the day before. Anyways, we got a drinks and were talking for about 10 minutes and then the bartenders asked us who we were and we ended up teaching them the full restoration lesson. They gave us their numbers and told us they wanted a Book of Mormon. It was a testimony to me that the Lord gives us miracles when we least expect them. Wednesday morning I went out with Anziano Baggaley, and I seriously love him like a brother. He so humble and genuine with everyone he meets. I look up to him a lot. 

Ok so I want to skip all the way to Saturday cause we had a really cool night. That morning I studied the Restoration in a lot of depth. I really really really wanted to share what I learned with someone that day but we did not have much planned other than going to San Vito at night to visit Victor and Blessing. I prayed that somehow someone would let us in their house and we could share this message IN their home. We talk to people for like 8 hours a day, but it is always on the street. No one has let me into their house to this point on my mission other than members and a few less actives. We got back from San Vito at 8:20 and were just doing some street contacting right outside of our apartment. We saw a man trying to move a desk on his own, so we offered to help. We helped him carry it up. After that he would not let us go until he did something to pay us back. We told him all we wanted was to share our message with him and so he invited into his house. I thought it was going to be just like the The District. We teach and he starts crying and says he wants to be baptized. Instead we taught him about the The First Vision and then in his exact words he said "You said you were coming to share a message with me. That is not a message. Did you guys study before came here? If so, you should have studied better." Anziano Pizza and I did not know what think. We then shared our testimonies of God and that he lives and he wants to communicate with us, so he called a prophet to reveal his will to us in these days just like in days of old. The lesson totally changed. It changed from reciting a story and some points to helping him realize that he was a son of God and there is a way to come unto him. Im really grateful he was super blunt and told us off. It humbled me and made me want to testify with my soul instead of just my mind. All in all, it ended up being really good, but he said he wasnt interested in learning more. He even gave us some food to eat for lunch on Sunday. This morning I was doing jump rope at 6:45 on our balcony and realized that he is the same guy who sits on his roof every morning smoking a huge pipe. He said hi and asked if we liked the food he gave us. Didnt think I would every see him again, but it turns out we will be awkwardly staring at each other every morning bright and early for at least 4 more weeks. 

Church was also great this Sunday. It was a really good fast and testimony meeting. The sacrament hymn, the sacament, and the testimonies were most spiritual. There arent really words to describe the feelings and thoughts that come your mind when the Holy Ghost comes into your mind and heart other than this is all true! We have such great things to hope for! Always be happy and do good! It was an awesome week. Never expected the two best teaching experiences of the week to be the bartenders or the super rude guy, but Heavenly Father can definitely see into peoples hearts better than I can. One two minutes before pizza night and the other right when we were about to go back home for the night as well. Always finish. Always finish strong! 

Anziano Smith

Brindisi | week 14

 Anziano Pizza rescuing a cat from a tree!

Hello Fellow Americans,

It has been two weeks since I last wrote and much has happened. I will go over some of the highlights quickly. 

First of all, there are two new missionaries in our district who are instant legends. Anziano Querisma from Torino (in Italy) and Anziano Kwodwo from Ghana. It is so cool meeting missionaries from different parts of the world. I have only talked to them for about an hour at our last District Meeting (which is every Tuesday morning), but that was certainly enough to tell that they are incredible missionaries and really cool guys as well. Hopefully I will be able to go on some scambios with them this transfer.

So, at the beginning of English course we all meet together for announcements, prayer, introducing new people, etc then we split into the advanced and beginner course. Last Tuesday after the prayer, Anziano Pizza made a comment after the prayer about how the fun course would remain in the chapel while the boring course went with Anziano Alvey and I to the Relief Society room. Some of us took offense to that comment and decided to act. So...we have advanced english course pizza party Wednesday night at the best pizzeria in Brindisi. It was so legit! Only 4 of them could make it, but it was awesome to say the least. No worries, it was not a night off of missionary work. Half of the time we were talking about prayer and it was really awesome to talk about the gospel in a more relaxed, informal setting. They really opened up to us more than they do during our spiritual thoughts. We also gave Salvatore (my favorite student) the past 2 conference talks by President Monson and he read both of them that night. He is awesome.

The coolest experience of my mission by far was this past Thursday morning. There is a school right outside this park where we have been visiting a family for the past two weeks and we usually try to meet them around 12 or so. On Thursday we finished talking to them around 12:40, but we dont go back to the apartment until 1:30 for lunch. We decided to walk around the park for a while. Turns out there is a school right on the other side of it which gets out at 12. There were 4 or 5 students sitting and talking with a teacher and I told Anziano Pizza we should try to talk to them. The teacher was a really funny guy. He was kind of poking fun of us at first, and then he was like, "Class! come listen to the American kids!" All of the sudden about 25 kids who were all 17 and 18 were standing around us. Anziano Pizza introduced us and talked for a while. At first they were kind of making fun of us and not really listening. They could tell I was the new kid and pointed at me and were like say something in English to us. So I whipped out my Book of Mormon out of my bag and started explaining what it was in English. I wont lie, I was scared at first, but as soon as I opened up my mouth there was absolutely no fear. It was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever felt. It got absolutely dead silent when I opened it up to the picture of Christ ministering to the people in Ancient America. Anyways, we told them all about English course and all of them freaked out and said they wanted to come. They haven’t come yet, but we will see.

On Friday I went on a scambio with Anziano Jepsen all day. He is a champ. He works like there is no tomorrow and I love it. We divided the morning into visiting less actives and x investigators with street contacting on the way to both. We were so effective I felt like we did a days worth of work by 2pm. That morning we found Sorella Dimurri who has not been to church in about 15 years. Talking to her for an hour was heart-wrenching. She has gone through so much pain. She firmly told us 3 times that she could never accept the existence of a God again. However, she was so kind to us and gave us her phone number and told us we could come back because she is pretty lonely. Situations like that call for miracles. They call for power beyond our own to reach out in compassion and help another feel of the healing and power of the Atonement. She is an absolutely perfect example of a sheep the Lord needs fed.

This Sunday we only had 20 people at sacrament. Nevertheless, it was an incredibly spiritual sacrament meeting. It truly does only take 2 or the 3 people to be gathered in the Lords name to invite the Spirit. They hymns, sacrament, prayers, and talks were some of the most beautiful I have ever heard. The members here truly are inspiring. Their faith is so vibrant and they are about 25 out of a city of 70,000. They all know it is true and sacrifice so much for the gospel. They make me want to be better not only now, but for the rest of my life. So long until next week!

Love,

Anziano Smith

Brindisi | week 12 {Monday is Pday, no one gets transferred!}

Anziano Smith, Anziano Jepsen, Anziano Alvey, Anziano Pizza

Ah! We can't wait to go visit Brindisi one day! It sure seems like a special place

Lasagna Anziano Pizza made for the elders last Friday for weekly planning. Delicious!

Regan said this was a local duomo (big Catholic church)

Sure looks beautiful there!

Anziano Pizza and Anziano Smith

Well, this was a shorter week since pday was changed to Mondays but I still have some good stuff to report. First of all, I dont think I have given the members here from Brindisi enough love in my emails home. They are super legit. Prime example. Last Friday Fratello Frascaro asked us to come to the church really quick to help him with something for his family history and he bought 4 wheels of focaccia for the 4 of us. It was so nice of him. 

On Saturday I went on a scambio with Anziano Jepson. That night was easily one of the best of my whole mission. Anziano Jepson decided to go out to see someone they met on the street earlier that week. She told them they could come back and talk. She was about an hour walk from our apartment. I thought it was a very questionable decision to go and see her, but he wanted to, so we did. After 40 minutes of walking came across an older couple and a younger lady sitting on a bench and we stopped to talk to them. It was a way neat experience for me to say the least. Anziano Jepson talked to the younger lady (who wasnt super interested in our message) while I talked to the older couple. We ended up talking for like 30 minutes. It boosted my confidence a ton to know that I can hold a conversation completely on my own. Anziano Pizza is giving me control of the phone now which is another big step. Anyways, I gave them a Book of Mormon which they said they would read. Only problem with contacting them again is they have no idea how to use the phone they have. Getting a hold of them might be a problem. I had to take her phone from her and call my phone to get her number cause she didnt even know it. We shall wait and see.

Then we finally got to the apartment we were going to in the first place. It was a very very nice lady who was in probably the nicest apartment I have seen since I have been here. She showed us pics of her kids weddings which were incredible. We got to know her better for like 20 minutes and then asked if she has met with the missionaries before. It turns out she is the great aunt of Anziano Liccoli who was the missionary that I came to Brindisi to replace. I was so shocked. He is from somewhere in Northern Italy. We then taught her the lesson on the Resoration. She said she wasnt interested in meeting with us again, but I still felt amazing after that lesson. It is really neat to think of how much joy God lets us feel when we do our best. I know that I am not by any means a perfect teacher, and I have thought a lot of times that I could have given another person a better chance to here this wonderful message. However, the only thing that matters is that I keep trying to grow in my love for the Lord and others and do my best and that will be enough because the Lords grace is sufficient. 

Next big moment from the week: Transfer Calls!!! Our whole house is staying together this transfer. I was psyched! We actually got the call while we were at Victor and Blessings for dinner and a lesson. We had an amazing dinner of pasta and fried chicken sandwiches. It was legit. Anyways, all the elders here truly are my brothers. This work unites us like none other. I love them all so much and am so happy to hear that they are all doing well. 

Im out of time. Everyone just know that the Lord lives. He loves everyone one of us no matter what we do. We can never go so far away that we are out of his sight. We are his children and always will be. It is the quest of a lifetime to come to know him more intimately and serve him with all our might! 

Love,

Anziano Smith