Ragusa | week 3

Great picture from Sister Waddoups blog! 

The best gelato in the world according to Regan!

3.23.2015

3 days of this week were spent traveling to and from mission conference in Palermo and learning from our leaders there. It seems like my whole mission wherever I have been serving has been the farthest area away from where the meetings are held. Im not sure why, but every time zone conference rolls around, its like Im going on a mini 3 day vacation. I thought having to fly from one country to another (Malta to Italy) was a bit absurd, but taking buses from one side of Sicily to the other proved to take even more time. However, it was probably the prettiest bus ride of my life. Sicily is such a beautiful island. My first Sunday here in Ragusa I was talking with the Elders Quorum President, and he asked me if I knew what God did after he finished creating the earth. I said, well, He put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He said, he did something before that. He kissed Sicily. It made me laugh so hard. Sicilians are definitely proud of their island. 

Mission Conference was wonderful. Elder Texiera of the Seventy visited with us, and he gave a remarkable training. He is one of the 3 area authorities for Europe. I spoke to his wife after the conference, and she said that they do 3 or 4 mission conferences a month in Europe and that is Elder Texiera's favorite assignment as a General Authority. He is certainly very good at inspiring missionaries, because he inspired all of us. I felt a strong desire to improve as a person and as a missionary in many areas. He trained us for about 2 hours without any notes, and he talked covered so many topics and told so many stories. Hearing him and Elder Kearon last year were such special experiences. Their knowledge of the gospel, personal experiences, and passion for the Lords work is contagious. It seriously runs in their blood. I cant wait to hear from Elder Bednar next month in Rome!

At the end of this week we had two great experiences. The first was on Saturday night at the Moores home. They are a member family from Nigeria who invited us over for dinner. We just so happened to show up at the same time as another couple they are friends with. Im not sure if they planned that out, but it sure went great. The 6 of us ate some African fried rice, and then we explained that we wanted to share a message before we left. We showed a Bible Video which naturally led into a conversation about their faith in Jesus Christ. We were able to share the message of the Restoration and the Moores shared their testimonies of the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith. I love the Moores.

The second unique experience of this week actually happened this morning. We got a call last night from the Sorelle because the husband of a woman they visit was in critical condition in the hospital. He was having heart problems and the doctors were not able to figure out what was going on. He wanted a priesthood blessing, so we offered to go visit him and his wife in the hospital this morning. Fortunately the nurses let us have some alone time with him in his room. After talking for about 15 minutes, we explained about the power and authority of the priesthood and how it has been restored by a living prophet just like in Biblical times. We laid our hands on his head and blessed him. We promised him that he would soon return to full health and go back home. It was a very simple blessing, but I felt so much peace inside, and this couple was extremely grateful. On our way walking out of the hospital several people were whispering about us, and some people started laughing. I used to get embarrassed sometimes, but I have seen too many miracles on my mission to ever be embarrassed of wearing my suit and tag everywhere I go. It reminded me of a scripture I have heard a million times: Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity (1 Timothy 4:12). 

Anziano Smith

Ragusa | week 2

3.16.2015

Ragusa has become one of my favorite cities I have served in my whole mission in a very short period of time. This week we were able to see a lot (Ibla, San Giacomo, Modica) and also meet a lot of awesome people. 

One of my favorite parts about Ragusa is that it has the most modern church building I have ever seen in my life. It was finished 1 year ago, and the members clean it spotless every week. It also has accessories that I have never seen before in any of our churches such as magnets on the walls and backs of the doors to keep them open, a touch pad feature on the all of the locks to make locking and unlocking the doors less irritating, and a very high quality sound system throughout the church. However, my favorite part by far is the basketball court in the parking lot. It is probably the nicest goal I have seen my whole mission. 

Last pday while the Sorelle were emailing, I was able to shoot for 2 hours on a good goal with a good ball for the first time my whole mission. I almost felt like I was at home for the first time in forever. It felt so good to shoot again...even though I was terrible. Our pday ends at 6, so we planned to leave the church at 5:30 to go get some stuff from our apartment before we went out to visit some people Monday night. I was really sad when it was 5:30 cause I just wanted to stay and shoot hoops all night. But we left. 

At 6, Francesca (awesome lady who brings us food to our place all the time) called and asked if she could bring us over more food (3rd time in 8 days to be exact). After she gave us the food she asked us what we were doing the rest of the night. We told her we were going to visit a friend named Gianmarco down in Ibla. When we told her we were going to walk, she said we were crazy cause it was raining outside, so she offered to give us a ride. In the car, she asked us who Gianmarco was and when he was excpecting us. The truth was neither of us had ever met him, and we did not have an appointment set. He was an ex-investigator we found in the area book we decided to pass by. She called us absolutely crazy for wanting to walk down to Ibla (30 minute walk downhill, 1 hour walk back uphill) in the rain to meet someone we didnt know or have an appointment with. But I knew we werent crazy, because the night before we prayed during daily planning as to who we should visit. We looked over about 12 peoples records and felt good about Gianmarco, so we chose his name. She reluctantly dropped us off, and we soon found out that he had moved. We started to walk  back up from Ibla to Ragusa which is a hike. 10 minutes into our walk uphill a lady stopped us and asked if we wanted a ride up to our church at Ragusa. We obviously accepted and soon found out that the missionaries invited her 18 year old son to play basketball with them 1 year ago and they were really nice to him. We got in her car, picked up her son from a tutor and they drove us back up to the church. This woman and her son asked us in the car all about our missions and our beliefs and we talked for about 10 minutes in the parking lot once we got to the church. I could feel the Spirit so strong. 

When we finished talking I realized we were standing right where I was playing basketball until 5:30 and how I didnt want to leave. Sharing the gospel with that mom and her son brought me more peace than I have ever felt on a basketball court. It was so clear to me that Heavenly Father knows what will bring us the most happiness, but he will never force it upon us. He wants us to choose it. I realized that when I seek his help as we did and Sunday night, make a plan, and then follow through with faith, He is always with me and miracles happen. That is why he asks us to trust him and lean not on our own understanding. That is a lesson I will never forget. 

We had a lot of fun this week too. We had a member take us and the sorelle to Modica which is a town nearby with some of the most famous chocolate in the world. I have never been a dark chocolate kind of guy, but that has definitely changed. They had 20 different types of dark chocolate to sample for free, and I tried them all then bought 4 huge bars of it. I ate them all in 2 days. We also had an English course student take us out to pizza for his birthday. English course is a really cool thing, because we can make such good friendships with people in a normal way...probably the only normal way to make a friend as a missionary. Gabe has been coming for a year or so I think, and he is way nice to us. He took us out to a really nice pizzeria Saturday night, then he came to church Sunday morning as well which was great.

This week I did something that I have never done before. I was going through the area book and looking for old friends of the missionaries who we may be able to contact again. I turns out the the Sorelle use to live in the apartment that we live in now. There were a lot of people who the sorelle taught and their information was left in our house. I found somewhere between 15 and 20 people who were really good friends of the sorelle, but never met the anziani. As missionaries we are always looking for people to serve and teach because that is what we do 24/7, and right now we dont have that much work. However, I had a feeling that I should give all those people over to the sorelle for them to contact. When I did that, I got the same feeling that I got on Monday night when Carimina and her son dropped us off at the church. I thought of the covenant when we make with God when we are baptized to lighten each others burderns. Even though I dont understand how, I came to realize that when I lighten others burdens, I am lightening my own. 

This week at District Meeting, I had everyone take a turn reading this quote by President Monson. We read it 6 times. "There is no higher end than this, that we should choose to accept his discipline and do his work throughout our lives. Nothing else, no other choice we make, can make of us what he can." I know that this is true. I also know that this is Gods work. I could feel that when I realized I was happier teaching than shooting hoops. I also knew that this was Gods work and not my own when we gave the Sorelle those names of people to go see. Im so grateful that we have a living prophet who guides us today just like all the prophets we read about in the Bible and Book of Mormon. 

Buon bracketology!

Anziano Smith 

Ragusa | week 1

3.9.2015

This whole past week has been surreal. I dont even know where to begin. 

Overall, Malta was a really difficult city for me to serve in for various reasons, but the Lord blessed me so much in my last couple days there. President De Carlos son, Aaron, got a concussion and was in the hospital. He asked us to take Damyan to visit him and see how he was doing. We met up with Damyan just a few minutes before we went, and he said, "Ive got a feeling that we will be able to recruit Aaron back tonight." Damyan is such an awesome guy. Aaron really appreciated our visit, and said he would love to meet with the missionaries again when he gets out of the hospital. 

The OKeeffes also had a farewell dinner for me that was unreal. He made 3 different types of fish that I loved, and I dont even like fish. After dinner he asked for a blessing because he has been sick for the past couple weeks. It was a really special blessing, not because of us, but because he had great faith in the power of the priesthood. That is one thing I have seen on my mission. The most spiritual moments have been when other people have had great faith, then the Lord can use us as his instrument more powerfully. It is because of that that I know that blessings do not come from us, they only come through us. Priesthood blessings truly do come from heaven. 

The morning I left Malta, I wrote a letter to Anziano Rasband thanking him for our time together. Initially I felt like we didnt get too much done in our 6 weeks together. I prayed that I would be able to remember some of the contributions we made in building the church and strengthening the members as I wrote him. I flipped through my journal and realized we did much more than I thought. As I wrote down 7 or 8 of our experiences I had an overwhelming feeling that the Lord was pleased with our efforts. We visited the sick together, we served our members, we strengthened the new members, we invited a few less actives back, we taught people on the streets and in their homes, we invited 2 people to be baptized, and we gave 3 priesthood blessings together. We also had a lot of unforgettable funny moments together that I wont put on my blog for now, haha. 

The past 3 days in Ragusa have been equally exciting and eventful. Sicilians are incredible. My first morning here a lady called us and told us she was bringing us over some food to our apartment at 1030. She gave us pasta, 4 jars of sauce for the pasta, 2 fresh loaves of bread, 2 bags of fruit, a jar of nutella, and some parmagiano for the pasta. I thanked her so much and told her I would see her on Sunday. She then told me she was not a Mormon, she was just a really good friend of the missionaries. That was Friday. Today is Monday and she is bringing us food again to the church at 4. The kindness is kind of confusing, but I am not complaining. 

It was a real pleasure to meet all the members on Sunday as well. The lesson in Elders Quorum as well as the talks in sacrament meeting where very spiritual, and almost everyone personally welcomed me. There are about 60 or 70 members here too. After church on Sunday we were invited over to Sorella Rollos house for lunch. The food was obviously exquisite...again. But the best part was hearing her testimony and learning about her conversion story. She told us how she wanted to be a missionary to her friends and family so bad, but no one would listen to her really. She said that she felt it was almost impossible to be a missionary here. We asked her how the missionaries found her and how she was converted. She said that there was one day where she felt the need to come closer to God than ever before and she prayed sincerely for help from Him. The next day the missionaries knocked on her door. I have heard several stories like that on my mission. It is such a strong witness to me that "miracles never cease." 

I am also really fortunate to be with companions with Anziano Di Donato. He definitely rivals for one of the funniest companions I have had. Each night when we come home, he films himself for 3-4 minutes talking about what happened that day that was funny and he compiles it together into a 20 minute movie every pday called the "Ragusa Report" which is modelled after the Colbert Report. It is hysterical. He sends it to his ex comps to keep them posted on what is going on. 

Well that is about all for this week. I am extremely happy to be here in Ragusa, and it is kind of sad to think I only have 11 more weeks of being a missionary. I am going to soak up every single day of it, because I love the mission. I am also going to try to take a lot more pictures here in Ragusa with my comp which should be easier since I bought a selfie stick a couple days ago. It has come in handy almost every day since I bought it. Happy March Madness. 

Anziano Smith

Malta | week 23

3.2.2015

The big news for the week is that I am leaving for Ragusa (in Sicily) on Wednesday which should be my last destination before I return home. It is always bitter sweet to leave as this is my 4th time to do so. Anziano Rasband and I have had such an amazing time together; I really do wish that we could have done more than 1 transfer together. He will be training a greenie who is Italian and does not speak any English. That will be a first in many ways for Malta, but I know the Lord was in that decision. It will be great to meet up with them at mission conference and zone conferences in the next couple months to hear about how the work continues to advance in Malta. 

Speaking of the work going forward in Malta, President De Carlo had some great news this past Sunday. Someone from the church translation department in Salt Lake called him late Saturday night to inform him that he would be flying down to Malta in April to visit the branch and discuss the translation of the Book of Mormon into Maltese which could be approved immediately. The Book of Mormon in Maltese is the best thing that could ever happen for the missionary work on this island. I know that the future missionaries would learn the language much better than I did, haha. More importantly the Maltese will be able to understand the gospel in their own language. Everyone here is so excited and eagerly awaiting his arrival in April!

It will be hard to leave as I have come to love so many of the people here. The church is certainly not big in numbers, the faith these people have is something I will never forget. Most of them are from foreign countries and have recieved the gospel in a miraculous way. Others are still learning and preparing to accept it. Our friend Paul was not able to get baptized in February as he was working double time almost the entire month as he was preparing to leave Malta for Mexico, but he is already in contact with members in Mexico and will meet the missionaries there hopefully next week. That is one of the miracles of the church. It is everywhere! 

I am really looking forward to Ragusa as well. My new companion is Anziano Di Donato. He is half American and half Italian, so Im sure he will be able to recover any Italian skills I developed before coming to Malta and also add to it. I have heard all wonderful things about the members of the branch there, and I have been told it will be the best food I have eaten my whole mission. More news to come about that next week. 

Anziano Smith