Muggio- Milano East Zone

September 11, 2013

"I found Elder Jensen Fresh off the Plane."
Both from the same home Ward in Idaho

"You Know You're in Italy When."

Well things are going well in Muggio. I am in the Milano East Zone. This last week was just absolutely exhausting. Transfers, and not to mention we are in charge of making sure everyone gets on the right train and everything. So we spent like 9 hours in the Milano Centrale Station helping new missionaries and everyone get to the right train and get to the new cities. Then we had a consiglio with the Mission President and we met with all the zone leaders in the mission. We are over 4 districts and 13 couples of missionaries. Most of the missionaries being younger than 5 transfers and well, now the phone rings off the hook for questions, problems, reporting numbers of the week, and so forth. It’s just a lot to take care of. We are doing our best to care for all these new missionaries and make sure that everything is going well for them. I love it but I’ve also never been so tired in my life. Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to make it through the day. It’s been a lot of fun though. My new comp Anziano Moore is a pretty funny guy. We make a lot of jokes and we have some fun. Thank goodness we have fun or I would be going insane right now! We are in a pretty big city. At least Monza is. It’s bigger than I can handle anyways!  I never have served in this big of a city. The ward here is massive, one of the biggest in all of Italy. They have a lot of members here and it’s a strong ward. They even have young men and young women’s every week, just like at home! I haven’t seen that since I left home! The church usually isn’t strong enough to hold such activities every week, but now we are in an awesome ward so the ward is able and willing to help us with a lot, and we have a fair amount of investigators.

"Goodbye  Anziano Guzzle." Sad.

Yeah the Monza Grand Prix was last weekend. There were a lot of people coming from out of town to see it. I don’t think I have ever seen so many Ferraris in my life, not to mention some Lambos. I was on my bike riding to an appointment just chilling behind a supped up Ferrari for like 5 minutes. Talk about distractions! I almost wrecked at one point because I got caught gawking a little too much at the 20 Ferraris parked on the side of the road.

Well, I really appreciate all the emails I get from home. I think about you guys a lot and how lucky I am to have such a good family. The situation in Italy has been really bad. Everyone is out of work, it is probably worse than that we had in the states few years back. Even the members are having a hard time and people are sleeping in the streets, it’s really sad.  I have been humbled, saddened, even desperate to help someone. What do you do in a situation like this? Ahh, man it’s just been tough. It has caused many to turn to God for help and we are doing the best we can to be his instruments.  


Goodbye Lecco. My Favorite City!

Love, Anziano Benson