Rome 5 | week 8

5.26.2014

This week has been full of awesome miracles. It totally all because of Anziano Blairs incredible faith too. He is so incredible and has taught me so much this last week. Even though doesnt speak very well yet (as no greenies do) he has touched the hearts of so many people doing the best he can with what he has got. Example number one: we were walking to the ATM to get some money, and we saw these two African guys selling some drums. I noticed Anziano Blair wasnt next to me anymore, and I looked back and saw him on the ground jamming out with these two African guys. It was so cool. We ended up talking to them for like 45 minutes and giving them a Book of Mormon in French (their native language). Unfortunately they live in Ladispoli so we referred them the next day. Then we went to get a sandwich and the guy had a ukulele. Anziano Blair asked for it and played it for like 10 minutes while the guy was making our sandwiches, now he wants to meet up with us next week. It has been so awesome to see how he has already been able to show his love for these people even if his language isnt great yet. That is seriously all God asks us to do-to do our best with what we have. Speaking of Anziano Blairs epic first full week in the mission, Jenny (the first girl he stopped who was Philipino), turns out to be a member of the church. She was baptized 19 years ago and then moved to Qatar and then Saudi Arabia where it was against the law to have a Book of Mormon and there was obviously no church. She just recently moved here to Italy, and unfortunately has a stomach ulcer which never allows her to leave the house. Last week she left her house to walk around for the first time in a couple months and we were the first people she saw. Last night the Sisters went over to visit her and it turns out that she and Sister Matthews are from the same place. They talked for like 2 hours and also started teaching her friends. Anziano Blair and I were in shock when we found out about all of this. It was incredible. 

On Wednesday we had to go to the post office to do some stuff for Anziano Blairs permesso in Rieti which is easily the prettiest city/drive to get their I have seen here in Rome 5. We were there all morning and no one in that city has ever seen missionaries. Everyone was really curious about who we are and stuff which was a first. When we were at the post, one of the manager ladies walked up to us and just asked if she could learn more about who we are. That has not happened my entire mission. On Saturday night we drove to her house which was like 15 minutes past Rieti. The city where she lives is stuff that you see paintings of. It was absolutely unreal. They lived on a mountain looking over a super green valley with a river running down the middle of it. Im so mad I did not have my camera. Anyways, we got to her house and she had a cake ready for us and her son and husband were all waiting for us when we got there. That never happens. Never. Being able to share the message of the Restoration with them gave me a lot of joy. I honestly felt true joy and happiness being able to teach a family who was so kind to us and respectful of who we are. We invited them to come to church with us one week and found out they live 30 minutes closer to the Terni church. It broke my heart, but in the end it is all the same because I know the church up in Terni is just as amazing as Rome 5. Unfortunately we might have to give them to the Terni Anziani to teach from now on. This week we worked really hard and found a lot of awesome people. Everyone we found was referred to Terni, Ladispoli, the Sisters, and Rome 2. It made me think of Alma who had more joy in the success of his brothers. I still havent gotten to that point, but I have another year to do so. 

Saturday morning I fell into my old ways of forgetfulness. I left the keys in Fratello Arenas office (keys to the car and house) which was closed for the day and Anziano Blair left his keys at the house. I also left the phone in the car which was locked at the time. Since we couldnt call anyone or get anywhere, we had to take the train to Rome to the office to get the spare keys. That was totally inspired because we met Gaisa who was on the train going to Rome as well. She is a woman we met from Nigeria last week but didnt give us a number or address to reach her again. She is honestly just as humble and curious as Calra (post lady) and we cant wait to meet with her and her husband sometime soon. It was funny because I make a lot of mistakes (like locking up our phone and losing all the keys) but Anziano Blair always says, "Dont worry, its all in the journey." Its so true. That is like my new life motto. Seriously though, talking to Gaisa for 45 minutes was so humbling. She was telling me about how she has been searching for work here for 2 years and cannot find anything. She said, "America is my dream. I hear that people there can get 2 jobs if they want." Every time I have heard of someone working two jobs it has been with a complaining attitude. I have never heard anyone say it is their dream. Im learning so many lessons from everyone I meet. It is incredible. Gaisa made me want to be more grateful, Carla made me want to be more respectful and loving towards other people, and the guys from Senegal just made me want to make everyone have a good time. So awesome. Have a good week!

Anziano Smith

Rome 5 | week 7 {new companion, Ostia, training}

Queresima and Sorgiacamo

The missionaries in their district! 

Their super fly car! 

Driving by the Coliseum

Regan's new companion Anziano Blair! Regan already loves him 

5.19.2014

This past week has been incredible and a bit crazy at the same time. It started off by seeing a lot of people who Anziano Gemmell wanted to say bye too. We got to eat dinner with the Criscone family and also Flavio and Francesca. Both dinners were delicious and a lot of fun. We all miss Anziano Gemmell. He really is a great missionary, and Im sure he is doing great work in the Sard land. His travel plans to get there made me laugh really hard. He had to take two trains to get to the coast, a 20 hour boat ride, and then another train and lastly a bus. Haha, I hope he made it alright. I had no idea Sardania was so far away.

I had two days from when he left to when my new companion got here, so I got to choose any companionship in the Rome Zone to work with for two days. It was a no brainer. I went to stay in Ostia with Anziano Baggaley and Anziano Zemp. It was in awesome two days. I have to tell one funny story from my time in Ostia. There is a family there who has an 8 year old son who was a little scared to get baptized for some reason. His mom asked the elders to come over and teach him the lessons to help him get ready for his baptism. Anyways, they have been trying to set a date with him withing the next month or so. He turns 9 in July, but he keeps saying that he wants to get baptized in August. If he gets baptized in August, it is a convert baptism on the records of the church. Anziano Baggaley was like, "Come on man, you do really want to be a convert do you?" It was hysterical. I will never forget it. On a more serious note, I learned so much from that lesson. Anziano Baggaley taught so simply and so clearly, and it was one of the most spiritual lessons I have witnessed on my mission. It made me want to teach everyone like I was teaching a child. Another cool part of going to Ostia was going to their correlation meeting. They had an awesome ward missionary and 5 ward missionaries who all came. They were so awesome and really inspired me. It was funny because their ward mission leader works in tourism and hasnt been able to come to church the past 5 weeks or so, so they wrote his name on the progress record, hahaha. Anyways, they are doing awesome missionary work in Ostia and their members are incredible. After correlation we all went out and got gelato together by the beach which was fun. 

Friday morning at 7 I went to pick up my greenie from Roma Termini. His name is Anziano Blair, and he is the coolest kid ever! He has taught me so much. In the MTC he  got to hear from 5 apostles! He is so ready and excited to do missionary work that is has increased my faith a lot. Our first night together, we got to teach Lorenzo a lesson with Fratello Calabrese on the plan of salvation and then Lorenzo made us dinner. It was a really good first lesson for Anziano Blair. He is definitely better at the language than I was as a greenie, so I was really impressed. He also did an awesome job introducing himself and sharing his testimony in church for his first Sunday. Also, the first lady he stopped on the street was Philippino. She spoke English and he got her number, no big deal. We are really excited to work together for at least the next 6 weeks and hopefully more. I am also excited because for the first 12 weeks of the mission their is in extra hour of comp study where we do this program to go over the basics of missionary work. I feel like I need it for myself just as much as Anziano Blair does. It will be really nice for me to be able to review and improve a lot of things. Other than that, we didnt have a lot of time to see people this week cause we were all over the place/getting adjusted. However, we are good to go now, and it should be an awesome summer!

Anziano Smith

Rome 5 | week 6 {Gemmell transferred, Regan training new companion, more miracles}

 Anziano Gemmell

5.12.2014

This week started with some awesome scambi magic in Terni. We go there for an exchange once a transfer to work with the other elders. We helped them a lot and learned a lot from them as well. I got to go out and work with Anziano McClellan (aka McCmillionare) in the morning and Anziano Stephens at night. It was incredible. Right after language study, Anziano Stephens and I went to a park and the first lady we talked to was a lady from the Dominican Republic who moved here with her daughter a few years ago. She was really funny and extremely nice to us. We talked about the church for about 25 minutes and then at the very end we left her a pass along card for English Course, but we didnt say much about it at all. That night at 7 she showed up to corso with her daughter and friend! It was the coolest thing ever. The English Course at Terni rocks too. They have a member who is the coolest guy ever. Hes ripped and has long hair and speaks perfect English. At the end of English course every Tuesday he brings his laptop and speakers and teaches everyone an American song and then everyone karaoke's together. It is so cool. I havent seen anything like it my whole mission. Im kind of jealous.  

This week we saw some serious miracles when we were finding. It was really humbling and taught me that I always have pray for inspiration to be guided by the Holy Ghost or I will never find those who are wanting to learn more about the gospel. Friday we went to Monterotondo to their downtown area and the entire city was just chilling there. There were food stand, preparing for a concert, people were shopping, ect. It wasnt a great atmosphere to stop and talk to people and a lot of ragazzi were making fun of us. It was kind of awkward, but I had a feeling that we had to be there. I literally had no idea why. I saw this lady walking towards us in sunglasses, heels, and a shopping bag (not usually the type who gives us the time of day), and I randomly decided to stop her. We talked for 30 minutes and she is totally searching for the gospel in her life. Anziano Gemmell and I were speechless as we were walking away, because neither of us would have ever wanted to do finding in that atmosphere but we were totally guided. The same thing happened on Saturday. We planned to take the train to Monterotondo for the morning, and we waited at the station for an hour and a half. 4 trains were suppose to come and everyone waiting was mad cause it was hot outside and the trains were messed up. We decided to stay in Passo Corese for the morning, but it was so hot and there was no one on the streets. We were just walking around aimlessly looking for anyone, but it was close to lunch and everyone was just inside cooking. We said a prayer that we could find someone before lunch, and then we totally did. We went to a park and there was a lady from Moldova who was a about 25 with her 2 year old son. She has struggled with her faith in God, but was really willing to listen to us. We didnt talk about anything other than the love of God and how is just waiting for us to come unto Him so he can bless us. She felt the Spirit for sure and promised to come to church the next day, but she wouldnt give us her number. Yesterday she didnt come to church and we were super bummed. Last night at 10:45 I was like 2 seconds away from falling asleep and the phone rang. It was her (Tamara) and she said she wanted to come but something with her son came up and she couldnt but promised to come next week. Anziano Gemmell and I were so psyched we talked until like 2 in the morning last night. Neither of us could sleep worth our lives. Biggest miracle ever. 

Other awesome news. There was a Young Single Adult activity at Rome 1 last week for all the YSA in Napoli and Rome. Daniel and Antonio went and called me on President Crisciones phone! It was so good to here from them and they were really happy. I am so glad they have made some other friends in the gospel cause I know it can be tough to live the gospel without friends who support you. There faith to live the gospel in a city where the church is small is so inspiring. They are true pioneers.  

Also, Saturday night we had Stake Priesthood meeting which was great. I leaned over to Gemmell and said, "If our members were true ballers, they would take us out to pizza or gelato after." There is no way Canzachi or Criscione heard me cause they were sitting on the other side. When the meeting finished, he looked at us and immediately asked if we wanted pizza or something. Our members are true ballers. President Criscione and Fratello Canzachi are incredibly funny, magnify there callings in the priesthood, have amazing families, and are always happy. They really are the best guys in the world. It is incredible to think missionaries have only been here in Italy since 1965, and all these amazing people have already been found, taught, and baptized by the missionaries. Thinking of that gives me the strength to keep going no matter how hard it is sometimes. President Kearon told us a couple weeks ago, "There are so many cultural, religious barriers between you guys and Italians that your only shot is the  feelings they have when you testify." It is true. It is incredible to see the people living in a society such as this who are so converted to the gospel. And now they are getting a temple!!! Serving here in Italy has opened my eyes to so many things that is one of them.  

I have one more piece of big news. Anziano Gemmell is getting transferred to Sassari in Sardegna Thursday afternoon and I am getting a greenie straight from the MTC! There are two greenies coming in. One is from Texas and one is from Maryland, and both of them look sweet. I cant wait to pick him up Thursday morning. It will be a huge learning experience for me to train. Im really looking forward to it. I will miss Gemmell too cause we have become so tight. I have more inside jokes with him than anyone and we have worked so hard together. Im excited to go visit him at BYU-Hawaii after the mission! That is happening for sure. He finishes in December, then he will be going there. Hope everyone has a stellar week. Take care. 

Anziano Smith 

Rome 5 | week 5

 Driveway to Vaccoronos house

5.5.2014

This week we were really lucky to be able to visit a lot great families. It started off by visiting the Salminci family. They are the friends of a family in our branch and have been to church 2 or 3 times in the past. We met them last week at a party at Mamma Gigantes house, and they invited us over for dinner at their house. It was a really cool experience. There was a really big soccer game coming on at 8:30 that the father told us he had to see at least 3 times. His wife took a little longer than expected to finish making dinner, so we didnt finish eating until right at 8:30, but we told them right when we got their that we wanted to have a short lesson after dinner. He turned off the tv and missed the first 15 minutes of the soccer game to listen to our message. This may not seem like a big deal to all of you not sports fans, but for those of us who are truly attached to a team, you would know that this was a miracle. I have a vivid memory of 4 years ago in January when the missionaries came over to my house for dinner. Duke was playing Wake Forest and the missionaries asked me to turn of the tv for a spiritual thought. I scherz not, I was offended at those missionaries for weeks. Anyways, I respect people when they have games to watch. It was super nice of Ricardo to listen to us while Man U was playing a semifinal game in some tournament. 

May 1st was a holiday and we had two awesome appointments. One was a ward party at President Crisciones house for a cookout. It was the 3rd time I have had Mexican food on my mission. It was so good. After we ate, President Criscione, Brother Canzachi (his second counselor), and Brother Bruno asked me if I was descent at ping pong. I said yes, but at that time I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Brother Canzachi changes, puts on a headband, and get his personal paddle that he brought and sprayed it down with some stuff. They were the 3 best ping pong players I have ever seen. They destroyed me and it was kind of embarassing. It was a fun afternoon nonetheless. Then I taught my first English Course since I have been in Rome (the sorelle usually do it) which was also fun. The best part of the day was going to the De Nunzios. They spent 8 hours over the course of 2 days making us arinchini. I dont know why but I felt a special connection with that family the first time I met them, and I love them a lot. They are incredible people. Fratello De Nunzios parents and uncle were there as well who are not members. After eating, we had an awesome lesson on the Saviors love and read 3 Nephi 17:15-25 together. It was a special lesson. Teaching from that chapter really helped me feel the Saviors love a lot stronger. 

On Saturday we had a Zone Conference at Rome 1, and Elder Snow came who is in the First Quorum of the Seventy. His message was absolutely perfect. He is over the church history department, and focused his remarks and learning from the past and always remembering. He read Moroni 10:3 which we read to all of the people we teach and related it to keeping a journal and always being grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord. It was an incredible message to us all. If we are reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and going to church, we all have plenty manifestations that Heavenly Father lives and loves us, we just need to recognize and remember them. After the conference we stopped by the temple to take a pic cause it was on the way. It is making real progress. Made me way happy.

Speaking of remembering, I wanted to share one more thing. Honestly, this week was a really tough week. Anziano Gemmell and I worked really hard and contacted a lot of people. So far none of them have come through. This morning I was looking through my journal deciding what I would write about, and I realized this week was incredible. We had some awesome appointments and a lot of other awesome stuff I dont have time to write about. Honestly, I didnt even realize it was a good week until I went back and looked at my journal and remembered the blessings the Lord poured out on us. It really reminded me of the importance of taking the time to stop and think of our blessings and truly being grateful. I can remember talks in General Conference from President Monson and Uchtdorf about the importance of gratitude for our daily happiness, and I truly understood why this week. The Lord wants us to say thank you and recognize His hand in all things. And thus it is. 

Anziano Smith