Rome Time
Regan leaving Caserta and saying bye to Elder Hatch...they were both so sad to leave eachother!
Double rainbow after a hail storm
Gelato after General Conference
Regan's new view! He is living about 20 minutes outside the heart of Rome
Regan with his new companion Elder Gemmell from New Zealand
4.7.14
Im not going to lie. Leaving Caserta was really
tough. It honestly reminded me of leaving home. I love the missionaries,
members, and all of our other friends down there so much. My last night Daniel,
Antonio, Marco, Tingey, Hatch, and I went out to Alinas restaraunt for dinner.
It was a ton of fun. I remember when we were saying bye outside and there were a
bunch of stars in the sky, and I said, dont worry guys, we will be brothers
forever. Antonio looked up at the sky and said, "hai capito?" (Do you
understand?) It was so funny. Everyone there is being left in good hands with
Hatch, Tingey and the most recent additions to Caserta- Anziano Jepson and
"Wrangler tough" Rutlidge. They are all incredible missionaries, and
I cant wait to talk to them after the mission about everything that happens
there.
Last week I was
telling Anziano Hatch that I wanted a new study journal. When we get
transferred, we write dedicas (goodbye/thank you type letters) for all the
anziani. When we were saying bye, Anziano Hatch gave me a sweet study journal
with his dedica on the inside. It was really hard saying goodbye. Anyways, I
say this because there was a girl at the train station who saw this all go down and
was really touched. We asked her to take a pic of us, and then she started
asking us who we were. I took the train ride up to Napoli alone, cause Hatch
had to wait for Jepson. I ended up teaching her and her friend on the train.
Then the people sitting across from us wanted to listen. Then the ragazzi in
the back of the cart came to listen. It was so weird. My first time being
companionless on the mission I was teaching like 9 people.
Anyways, I was so
happy when I got up here to Rome. Anziano Gemmell is awesome. Like I said last
week he is from New Zealand, he has the coolest accent in the world, he plays
rugby, and he is hilarious. The past couple days have been a blast and I cant
wait for the rest of the transfer. I hope we get at least 2 transfers together
up here. Anways, about Rome 5. It is absolutely unreal. We are about 20 miles
outside of the heart of Rome and it is beautiful green rolling hills
everywhere. We got a brand new apartment 3 weeks ago, and we have a car. One of
the best parts of having a new house is that our neighbors dont hate us, haha.
At least not yet. We met 1 of our neighbors Saturday afternoon and
she was so nice. We are planning on taking her something this week. One of the
downsides of Rome 5 is that everything cost a fortune. It is a really, really
nice area. Like all of the apartments are well kept up, the streets are clean,
the stores are nice, and there are no dangerous places. I took my suit to get
it dry cleaned when I got here in it was almost triple what I paid in Caserta.
Nonetheless, we are lucky to be in such a sweet city.
Also there are two
Sister missionaries here in Rome 5. This is the first time I have had Sister
missionaries in my ward, and it is actually really cool. Sorella Palmer is a
greenie (this is her 2nd transfer) and Sorella Vincent is in her 9th. They are
seriously great. We watched conference at the church Saturday night
and most of the day Sunday. General Conference was absolutely incredible.
We only got to watch 3 session- 1 in English and 2 in Italian. Listening to the
words of the prophets made me so happy. At the beginning of President Monsons
talk in Priesthood session I committed myself to share my testimony about the
gospel at every chance I get after my mission cause I never want to stop being
a missionary. It is seriously the best. His talk only got better when he quoted
Jabari!! Honestly though, I know with all of my heart that he is a prophet of
God. At the beginning of conference I had the question written on the top of my
notebook, "How can I feel/show the love of God." I got 3 pages of
really good notes, and all of it was about how I can show Gods love. I realized
that we feel it when we show it. That is why our mission calls say that greater
happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you serve the Lord
leaving behind all other personal affairs. When we do our best to show Gods
love to His children, then we feel it stronger than we ever have for ourselves.
I am so excited to work with the missionaries and members here.
Everyone I have
met so far has been so nice and incredible. Almost all the men in this branch
are returned missionaries and over half of them speak perfect English. Also,
the Stake Patriarch is in our branch. Last Friday we were right by his house
and there was a hail storm so we stopped in. His wife made us dinner and we
left a spiritual thought...and then we saw a double rainbow. So cool. Song long
until next week,
Anziano Smith
