Caserta | week 7 {new companion, miracles, happy in Caserta}

Regan's companion sent us this picture labeled "Anziano Smith preaching the good word!" 

Regan's new companion Anziano Hatch! 

Regan: "We met these two ladies at the entrance of the Reggia Gardens and the Lord truly just placed them right in our hands. They began asking questions and we ended up becoming great friends, taught them almost the entire restoration, and then left with an invite to read and pray! Awesome! And they gave us Nutella sandwich's in return. Preachin the good word on P-Day!"  

Anziano Smith and Hatch at Reggia Gardens 

 Beautiful waterfalls at Reggia Gardens

 More waterfalls!

Regan's previous companion Anziano Heder making pretzels! (even though they aren't companions anymore, they still live in the same apartment)

A new haircut! He kinda looks Italian to me! 

Pizza man!

 Kebabs

Regan's first Napolitano pizza that he said was amazing!

I do not know where to begin for my email this week. This week has been absolutely amazing. In the mission call letter it says that more happiness and joy than you have yet experienced awaits you as you serve the Lord with all of your heart leaving behind all other personal affairs. I can honestly say that the past 4 or 5 days working with Anziano Hatch have been the best days of my whole life. Anziano Heder and I went to pick up Anziano Hatch and Tingey from Napoli Centrale on Thursday night and it was so good to see them. I got to know both of them fairly well in the MTC and it is incredible to see how different they are after 6 months. Seriously, they are both men. They are both extremely humble kids who work really hard. They also both have an incredible sense of humor which makes are house super fun. Anyways, Anziano Hatch came to Caserta really optimistic that we were going to do amazing work and see a lot of miracles here. The last 4 days we have not seen anything but miracles. It has been amazing and over all it has strengthened my faith and trust in the Lord. I seriously cant write the least part of which I feel about the work we have been doing the past few days. All I can say is that I know that this church is true and Heavenly Father wants all of His children to feel the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. This knowledge has changed my attitude that this service is a privilege rather than just a responsibility or a duty.

So this week has been a new experience for me as well because this is the first time I have been the missionary who has been in the city longer. For the first time I kind of had to lead the way around the city and lead lessons. However, it is kind of ironic because Anziano Hatch has taught me more in the last 4 days about missionary work than I have like ever known. It is such a blessing to be able to work with him in this city. It was really neat because we have not done any English Course publicity since I have been here and on Thursday night we had about 7 new students. I dont know how that happened, but it did. We split the course into two groups and Anziano Hatch and I took the new students. We had a really fun lesson and for the spiritual thought we decided to leave it open to questions which I have never done before. That was the best idea ever. Instead of guessing what people need to hear, just ask them. It was great and hopefully we will be able to have success from English Course going forward.

We had a linger longer (lunch) after church on Sunday and we dont even really have to introduce Salvatore and Alina to the ward anymore. They are tight with everyone. It is so cool. We also had a couple other investigators in church who we found Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and we have really high hopes for them.

Aside from all the awesome work, we have also had a lot of fun this week. I got a haircut and just told the guy to make me look good. I didnt think he would give me a fro, but he did. I rocked it for one night then when back to the normal. The people of Caserta are awesome. They make me laugh and smile every day, like when old women ask me to escort them past a park with scary dogs, haha. Anyways, I am excited beyond belief for this transfer and hopefully a few more here in Caserta with Anziano Hatch. Sorry for the short letter. There will be more next week for sure.

Love,

Anziano Smith

Brindisi | week 6

Regan and Anziano (Elder) Pizza in Lecce Centro

Anziano Brown and Regan in Lecce

Anziano Andreason and Regan

Lecce

More pictures of Lecce

Regan said they try to get a picture of this graffiti every time they ride the train to Lecce and he was the first one to successfully get it!

Anziano Smith, Anziano Brown, Blessing, Victor, and (don't know the name of their child!)

Their last gelato together before Anziano Brown gets transferred to Palermo and Anziano Andreason to Malta

The view from the balcony at Regan's apartment

Regan and Anziano Andreason with the Palma family for FHE (family home evening)

Regan with Anziano Baggaley

Regan with his friends from the English class they teach

The elders with Sina and her friend

Final goodbye to Anziano Brown and Andreason! 

Well, this week started with an awkward situation when I got my haircut without knowing any haircut lingo. He asked me something and I said “si” having no idea what he said and he started shaving the sides of my head super short leaving everything on the top like some Italians have. Then I had to tell him to cut everything on the top as well. It is all okay now though.

Anyways, the bad news is we had transfer calls this week and Anziano Brown is going to Palermo and Anziano Andreason is going to Malta. I am going to miss them both a lot. They will be great in each of their new cities. If anyone can learn Maltese quickly it is Anziano Andreason. He is super smart and has been fluent in Italian forever. Cool stuff to be trilingual. Anziano Brown had been here for 3 transfers, so we knew he would probably go, but I was still super sad when we got the call. Right after we went to visit Victor and Blessing for the last time together. They were also sad about the news. We had a great lesson with them about the Restoration and how it will bless their family and especially their kids as they grow up. From now on Anziano Pizza and I will visit them together. Anziano Brown and I also found a sweet park/center area in San Vito that we will do some work at this upcoming week. Exciting stuff. So, as we returned to Brindisi around 8:20 we noticed a ton of lights and everyone walking towards the water. We decided to check it out, and it ended up that the city decided to throw a massive party. I am not sure why, but it was awesome. They had a firework show, which I definitely underestimated. It was probably the best firework show I had every seen. The only bad part was I did not have my camera. Nonetheless, it was really cool. Now worries though, we still made it back to our apartment before curfew.

This week we helped the Arcaro family move. It was great. Fed us an awesome pronzo, then loaded their stuff into a truck and had to take three trips to get it to their new house which was about a 25 minute drive. It took all day, but it was a great use of time because I seriously came to love that family. They are really nice and super faithful. They have to drive about 35 minutes to get to church and they are the only members in their little city. They have a son who is about 1 and another one on the way. Them and Victor and Blessing are the only two young families in our ward. They both rock.

So on Monday I went on a scambio (exchange) with Anziano Baggaley who is our zone leader. He came from Lecce and worked with me Monday night into Tuesday afternoon. I learned a ton from him. He is seriously the man. He is an incredible teacher. Scambios rock because I learn so many new things from each missionary out here. Each one has unique talents and personalities. Speaking of which, tomorrow two new missionaries will be coming to join our Brindisi penthouse tomorrow night. Elder Jepsen who I met at our last zone conference and a greenie who flies in today. I finally wont be the baby anymore!!! Anziano Jepsen is awesome though. We will have a sweet house. We usually only get pizza once a week on peve so we dont get super fat. However, we have to take the greenie on his first night. I am excited for the special occasion-Thursday night pizza.

So every missionary has a book called a dedica that all the missionaries write in before they get transfered. Last night we all wrote in each others dedicas and it was super sad. We have had an amazing 6 weeks together full of hard work that has really united us together. Hopefully I will serve in the same zone as Anziano Brown and Anziano Andreason later in my mission and I will be able to see them at zone conference again.

So this week I finished the Book of Mormon. Moroni 10:32-34 was amazing. I love how the Book of Mormon starts and ends. It is beautiful. 1 Nephi 1:20 is like the thesis statement, and the end of Moroni is point of the whole book. The tender mercies of the Lord are over the whole earth. I have especially seen them here in Brindisi for me and for others. Victor has the most powerful testimony of the tender mercies of the Lord. He says that every month he pays his tithing right when he gets paid and he doesnt know how he will be able to pay rent, the bills, and food, but he always can. Also, through this mercy we can become perfected in Christ. That is the most beautiful truth that we should always hope for. Day by day we can slowly change and one day become perfect like Heavenly Father like Jesus taught us in Matthew 5:48.

"Today is the day I will open my mouth, I will shout from the rooftops the truth will come out. And I am sharing my soul in the words that I speak with the love that has made me this way. Yes today is the day that I proclaim what I believe."

Those are the lyrics to the chorus of the song that wakes us up every morning. I love it. Im officially a 2nd transfer!

Love,

Anziano Smith