Un Sacco di Pazienza (A Ton of Patience)

November 7, 2012



Streets of Siena

So what’s a day in the life of an Italy Milan missionary during the election of the United States?? Picture this. My companion and I are teaching a lesson in the middle of the town square on a bench. Nice peaceful day, the sun is out. Many people walking by, ok... fine. So we are teaching a lesson, random Bangladesh man comes up to us (never seen him before) and asks us "Who’s going to win... At first I didn’t know what he was talking about, and then it hit me.  “Oh the elections.”  It happens at least a few times a day.  "Hey are you guys American?!!" "Yes" Who’s going to win?!" I respond "Bo" or Italian for who knows and then leave haha. I’m a missionary and we are not allowed to support, talk, or give opinions of any kind of government. So glad the election is over because now people will stop asking me questions I’m not allowed to answer!

Well update on the work. So far not much again. Man I think I’ve just been brought to my lowest. I can’t give anything more than I’ve already given. I’ve given exact obedience to the best of my ability, I stop anyone in sight who isn’t in a rush and will listen and we are asking for referrals. I’ve got nothing else to give. I’ve given my will and my might, and all I’ve got to say is that I’ve just been chastened, humbled and brought to the complete mercy, direction, will, and way of the Lord. Since I’ve accepted this and chosen to do; not what I want, but what the Lord wants, I honestly don’t have any idea what is happening, and maybe it doesn’t even look like it’s been better than my ideas and desires, but there is an eternal course here and I’m choosing to follow that one. Those who accept the call to serve don’t automatically accept the will of the Lord, it’s a choice you make when you get up every morning on time, that decision to go to the obscure dark alley where there is graffiti out the wa-zoo to find some homeless guy and give him a pass along card. It’s when you talk to the grumpy old guy who gets mad at you and then tells you that you are of the devil and we are liars and a few other things I can't repeat. Hmmm, do I honestly want to talk to that guy? heck no! But does the Lord want me to? you bet! So I do it anyway and I’m happy I do. That is submitting to the complete will of the Lord. I’ll be honest I don’t know what I’m doing, it doesn’t even look like I know what I’m doing or show any reward or success that what I’ve been doing is what a good missionary does, cioè, baptism. But who cares. I’m just following the one who knows everything and not asking questions, even though every second of my life in the mission field has been a struggle, a challenge, a doubt that what I’m doing or where I’m going is right where I need to be. The mission has brought me to my knees because I have nowhere else to turn, but in the end it all seems to work out. I would say Busto has been a big honkin storm and I’m just trying to somehow manage to make it through, but eveyone knows you need a GPS when you’re in the middle of the ocean trying to make it out of the storm, cioè by GPS I mean the hand of God. At least that’s what the brother of Jared did. He said hey I’m getting in this boat ready to go to the promise land. I bet he didn’t know that he was in for the ride of his life in that boat. Hey me either. I’m just doing what I’m told and I got in the boat because I wanted to get to the promise land and now that I’m here, I’m out in the streets slaying the enemy with the word of God and trying to not get kicked out of apartment complexes and find someone who wants eternal life. Man what an adventure. haha.

Anziano Benson and Anziano Merrill



Lake Como

Ok, well now in less dramatic story form the members in this ward are bravissimi! Our ward is jam packed with priesthood leadership. We have a former mission president, about 15 RMs a member of the stake presidency, and before they changed the ward boundaries there was a former member of the 70. So pretty much our ward dominates at being awesome. We just still are trying to get the work rolling. It’s getting better, but we are still in need of new investigators. There are a lot of part-member families that we can visit but they have a lot of things to work though and many of them don’t want to baptize. But we are praying for the opportunity to find some work to do other than banging of doors all day in the rain. I have learned as they say in Italian (Un saco di patzienza) or a ton of patience here in Busto, and I’m not really sure if I’ve done what I was called here to do but I’m trying to figure it out. I see people baptizing here and there and everywhere around me but I think so far I’ve been the one just finding and teaching and preparing all these people to be baptized rather than doing the baptizing. But we will see. We have a date of baptism for Nov. 21 and this guy is bravo. He said he is ready and nothing will stop him from getting baptized, but everyone has to take their stand against the wall of faith and actually put words into works of faith. Faith without works is dead no? Let’s just say we as missionaries are a little picky about who we let get in the font because there have been many people baptized and never seen again in church and if that’s what will happen we don’t baptize them. We look for those who are ready to give their all for the true church of Christ and endure to the end with real intent having faith in Christ.  

My new companion Anziano Merrill

Anyways that’s all for now. President Manwaring is just so amazing, you’re really lucky Dad that you have the opportunity to meet with him so often and learn from him. I wish I had his wisdom haha.
Ciao! Love Anziano Benson. 


P.S. we are trying to talk the Sicilian sisters in the ward to do a ward Thanksgiving, haha we will see what happens!

American Cemetary in Florence



Happy Halloween

October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins at Home in Idaho

Well yes, they do have Halloween here but it’s not quite like in the states. They like to have fun and go to the bar haha, so there is no trick or treating. But they do dress up in costumes at schools and the families do games together. We don’t have anything planned, but I think I’m just going to relax, after I go buy some candy haha. Thanks for sending the pictures of your pumpkins. I do have to say every year we get better at carving pumpkins. I remember when we did the first Adidas pumpkin and now its kind of a tradition. I think my favorite is the Italy one haha. You all did very well and they look great! I got the  letter with the fake mustaches. Thank you so much! It made my day haha. I was so happy when I got them! Especially in Italy. They don’t have little joke stores or cheap stuff made in China. It’s all super fancy and expensive. And of course I’m dirt cheap so I never buy anything here unless it’s on super sale haha.  I wish I could be there for Halloween with all the girls, but you’ll just have to take pictures and send them next week.  I would send some pictures home but apparently at Muhamed's computer cafe you get viruses on your camera or SD card so I think I will just go print a few off and send some in an envelope.

I don’t have a lot to say about the work right now. We are trying to visit some less actives now that we have bikes so that we can see if we can get some part member families baptized and reactivated. I had a cool miracle this week. And we are planning on baptism, but we will see. We have only taught him one time. I wrote more details in a letter I sent you.  The members are really good and they are super nice. It’s hard because after 7:00 the streets are absolutely dead. As for the bike problem we finally found one. The mission only buys used bikes so any bike stores don’t have any good mission bikes just some fancy road bikes for €1000. We finally found a bike though after going to some old grandpas fix it up bike shop where they don’t even sell bikes just fix them. Quite the ridiculous hunt but it’s nice to finally have some transportation since we are working in 3 cities it’s just impossible to get around without bikes. For now the bikes work but they all are junk so we will be doing some fixing up soon.

Anyway, the weather here is getting very cold and I know I’m from Idaho but after being in the heat every day I got used to it and now its super weird to be cold. I wish there was heat again because it’s freezing! Especially on bikes! It’s the super humid weather so even a little bit of cold makes it seem twice as cold. The mountains got plastered with snow with all the rain we got in the valley. I am going to have to buy some new bike riding gloves for winter and a beanie.  But anyways I’m doing good. Work has been tough but whatever that’s life.

Well I’m super happy to hear Ellis got a job! Congrats to her! Now she can make cinnamon rolls for us haha. I’m sorry Ellis but I don’t think the bakery is harder than working with Jerrod all day in the truck, or mowing lawns and weed whacking for 8 hours. But you do have to pay for gas and college so don’t quit haha. Hope you’re taking good care of the old Honda.

 

Time is going fast. November hits 6 months and I’m already 1/4 of the way there. In May, it will be a year. Crazy how fast time goes. Ok so I did find out that if you send padded envelopes I won’t get charged for it; hopefully. Just make sure that you don’t send anything valuable because they will find a way to charge someone along the way. Maybe you could throw some of that Halloween candy in one for me, I don’t know haha. I cooked some skillet the other day it was not too bad some good sausage potatoes and veggies to go with. Reminded me of home.

I got a nice letter from Grandma B and I enjoyed it. Can I get the address for Grandpa Dance I can’t seem to find it? Thanks for everything I love all you Guys and have fun trick or treating! Tell the girls to eat some candy for me. Happy Halloween!

Love Anziano Benson

Bikes in Busto!

October 24, 2012

Busto, Legnano, and Gallarate are some great little towns! I love them! They are very clean, quaint,  places. There isn’t much hustle and bustle to go here or there. It’s really nice. They are similar to Idaho Falls, but they just need a temple! haha. I work in 3 separate cities and we use unlimited train passes to get to and from Gallarate, Busto, and Legnano. Work is a little slow because my comp has been sick, and we are starting with only a few investigators who we don’t know and they live forever away from the city so we have no way to see them.  We have no information about the area so we are basically working completely blind. We have some people we can work with but they live quite a ways away and we don’t have bikes and it’s just not working. This city apparently is a baptizing machine so I really want to stay here for a while and get some work going. We are trying to find some bikes to do some work since this is a bike or die city.  Bikes are a necessity since the church is an eternity away.  We have to bike/train/bike to get to the church.  I found out why everyone here steals bikes, and it’s because you can’t buy them here. There are absolutely no stores that sell them. Tough luck. Think we are going all the way to Milano to buy a bike so we can start some work. People in Italy don’t have cars. They use trains and bike so it’s a little difficult when you don’t have working bikes.

The ward is super awesome and it feels just like home... well kind of, not really, but the members are some of the best people you will ever meet haha. It’s really cool to have a bishop again, and it’s different to not be in the branch presidency that’s for sure.  Thankfully the people in the ward are super bravi and will help with anything we need. The Vescovo (bishop) helps us with everything so it’s super awesome! The cities are very different than Siena and the accent here is way way different than Toscana so I don’t understand them here haha. There are no mountains here so I never can reference the landscape haha. I’m so lost; luckily the towns are really small. I’m getting used to the subway in Milano as well. Milano is our district so we go there every week now.  This week we spent 2 days at Lake Como! That is where my zone leaders live, so we did comp exchange up there. A really beautiful place and we are going to Switzerland in a few weeks for p-day! It was really cool and I’m glad I got to go!

Well I’m really glad to hear about all the girls putting papers in and I can tell you that we need more missionaries! There are never enough. They have about 14 in Milan I think but there could be about 30 or more. Well that’s about it for now and I’ll chat later! Love you all.

Anziano Benson

Busto Arsizio

October 17, 2012 

Transferred! Yes, I’m in a new city and after some long exhausting apartment cleaning and lugging around 3 suitcases all over Milano and the subways and walking and then unpacking, I arrived in Busto Arsizio! This is just a little quaint town suburb of Milano and is about 25 min north on train. We have a ward of about 80 so it’s quite the jump in size from Siena. My comp is Anziano Merrill from Chandler AZ. He’s a really nice kid and seems just like a great guy! I’m pretty exhausted. Well, I literally know nothing about this city and neither does my companion, he’s been here a week and a half and we do have bikes! But already after 2 minutes on the bikes they broke so I’m just beginning my battle with fixing the bikes every day. It’s quite chilly up here compared to Siena and I might have to start bundling up! Snow will come soon.

We had some really sad goodbyes in Siena with some of the members since we left kind of by surprise, leaving them wondering who the Branch President will be, but it’s all taken care of with the senior couple. I look back and tried to figure out why I was in Siena because we didn’t have many investigators but I feel that it was honestly to strengthen the members already there. It was really awesome to serve with President (Anziano) Smith.  What an amazing missionary. It’s a lot different being in a branch presidency than being just a missionary but I loved every second of it! Sad that my time there is up, but it’s time to work in Busto!

I’m really close to Milano, and the Assistants to the President are in our district so it will be a lot of fun! Tomorrow is Zone Conference so we might get to see Anziano Sexton and some of the old friends from the MTC. My zone covers part of Switzerland so we are actually allowed to go there for p-day so we will see what fun things we can come up with. Quite the adventure since I have no idea where we are and neither does my comp! Oh well fun fun fun. Not a fan of bikes already haha, but they are handy to get around. The grocery stores usually consist of pizza, olives, pasta and cheese and that’s about it, but luckily there are a lot of foreigners in Milano so the area has some good variety. Mexican food is nonexistent but I’m sure I can brew up some salsa using some other spicy peppers they use here. I got a waffle iron so I will put it to use! I literally just got here so I don’t know anything else haha so I will talk to you all later.

Sorry to hear about state Ellis. Don’t worry I lost too. Work on getting into college! Thanks for the pictures!

My New Address

Via Madonnina del Grappa 5

20025 Legnano (MI)

Italia

Moving Forward

October 10, 2012

Well sorry, but we are at a ridiculous internet café and this computer is terrible and the keyboard buttons are all messed up so it will be a bit short today.

 

Well no news yet except that I will be in a new city next Wednesday.

Conference was great.  I am honestly glad they changed the age rule to go on a mission. It would have been so much nicer to leave earlier, and I think the high schoolers will take the mission more serious. It will be great to have more sister missionaries as well.  

All I can say it that I’m glad that Dad taught me how to work; although I didn’t always follow his example, haha, it is very important. I’m doing my best and holding up to what President Manwaring asked in being exactly obedient. It’s hard and I’m not perfect but I’ve tried my best.  Even though I worked my hardest every day of the mission, I still leave Siena with the same amount of members they had when I got here. I am happy with the work we accomplished here and I have no regrets.  I have met some wonderful people here and I am amazed at the faith of the members in this branch.  We are still working with several people that are progressing, and hopefully the people we taught will remember us and how they felt when we testified of Christ.  I will always remember them, and know that one person in all of this was definately changed, and that was me. 

So has Ellis applied for college? Who took her to the dance? And tell her good luck at State Soccer! Also, we now have a waffle iron so will you please send me a recipe Mom and also Dad's fresh salsa recipe?

Well I’m sick of typing on this piece of junk so I’m really sorry but I can’t take it anymore

Ciao,
Anziano Benson

PS: tell Grandma B that I enjoyed her email haha, but I can’t email back since there are some new email restrictions. Trying to be obedient! I can receive emails from grandparents, but I can only respond to immediate family as in parents and siblings. Love you all.

Looking Forward to Conference

October 3, 2012

So transfers. Nothing. Same. So happy to still be with Anziano Smith.  We are really looking forward to Conference. We will watch as many sessions as we can at the chapel.  They have a projector and everything and they just record the sessions and then we watch them late that night. 

Holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Honestly not a lot going on here, the weather is beautiful, but there are no orange leaves here, they are all still green! I kind of miss the fall colors but hey at least it’s not snowing...yet. Apparently the winters up north are really bad. Even in Torino and Milano it can get nasty so I might catch some of that sometime in the future. Not looking forward to the snow haha. Fun to ski in but not to walk around in a suit. Food is getting old. All we eat is pizza and pasta. It can get really tiresome especially since Anizano Smith and I are the chefs. Kind of lame, but whatever.
We did a cool little trip this week to Pisa and saw the leaning tower! We had some McDonalds and ate it in front of the tower and I’ll get you some pictures. We also had district conference (stake conference) this week in Firenze and we had an area 70 come, Elder Clifford Herbertson, and it was really good. The translator passed out during the conference causing quite a stir but it was all good.

Work is still progressing here and we are teaching people from all walks of life.  Well, I will talk you you all soon!

Love
Anziano Benson

Working Hard in Siena

September 26, 2012

Well looks like everything is going well back home. Exciting to hear about Cache. Tell him good luck and he’s in for quite the adventure. I’ve talked to some Australian people and didn’t understand a word they said and they were speaking English...  Anziano Smith and I laughed really hard because it was just ridiculous the words they use. I’m sure New Zealand uses quite the diverse vocab as well. Sounds exciting that Pee Wee is going to Europe. If she toughens up she might get to play a lot. She better gain some weight though to play against Helga the Swedish monster haha. Yeah I did hear about the Siena game! Huge deal for them! Hope they keep on winning because otherwise they will get relegated. Forza Siena alla Vittoria! Hard when you start in negative points though. We will see what happens.

As far as the piano goes we actually have a sister in the ward that plays every week. She is not amazing but she loves doing it and she is learning new songs every week and she plays them very well for sacrament. I play when she is not there. Anziano Smith is quite the pianist as well. He played for a jazz group before the mission so he is really good. So we usually just do whatever. To be honest President hasn’t said a word about the car. But I’m almost sure we will lose the car in about 4 weeks. No news yet though... I’ve been seeing a lot of road bikers coming and going through Siena. You really need to ride here haha. Tell the girls good luck with soccer, and yes, send my absentee ballot to Siena, I would love to vote.  

Home of World Gelato Champions!
In San Gaminiano

  Well I’m not sure what to say this week to be honest. I finished the book of Mormon again haha. And I’ve also been reading it in Italian every day, but its taking a lot longer than in English.  I did make it through the words if Isaiah in Italian... barley haha. But now I’m through that, it’s pretty easy to read. I already blew 2 holes in my slacks so I might need a new pair. I’m not sure what to do because I’m only a few weeks away from having to wear a suit every day. Not super excited about that though because it’s still pretty hot for a suit. It doesn’t matter what I’m wearing. There are people still to be taught!!

Anziano Smith and I have been working so hard these last 11 weeks and we have this last week to finish strong then we find out if he is leaving or not. We have just been searching for that 1 who will be baptized and unfortunately that one person we haven’t been able to find, teach, and progress them through making commitments to read the book of Mormon every day, come to church every week, and pray every day. That’s the key. If they don’t do those things they don’t get baptized. Hmmm if that’s what you need to get baptized then shouldn’t we as members be doing the same things consistently??? Sure hope you all are because if you were an investigator you wouldn’t get baptized. Not only that but as members who have entered the baptismal covenant we promised at baptism that we would come to church for the rest of our lives till the day we die. If we are not doing that we can’t repent because we are not renewing our baptismal covenant every week by partaking of the sacrament. Sacramental renewal= forgiveness for sins=blessings and happiness. I’ve learned to be a lot more blunt on the mission too haha so I apologize in advance mom if I say it the way it is when I get home. It’s just that If you don’t say it the way it is to people they can’t change and repent because they didn’t know what the truth is if you didn’t directly state it.

As I’ve finished the Book of Mormon yet another time, I’ve learned that the entire story of the book of Mormon is a choice. There is a choice to follow Christ and keep the commandments or not. It’s YES or NO. There is no between. We either keep the commandments or don’t. As a result, there is either blessings or we become subjective to the captivity of the will of Satan. There is not one SINGLE example ever in the entire history of this earth where the people chose to follow God and were not blessed. It makes me think that it is just ridiculous to not choose to follow Christ. It will only lead to unhappiness and sorrow when we deny this truth. You make your choice. For every choice there is a consequence. Good or bad. Whose on the Lords side who? Now is the time to show, for thus the Savior soon come. Those who are righteous will be numbered among his disciples, those who are not; he shall proclaim I know thee not. Such sorrow I feel for those who denied the truth, for in that day they shall truly have sorrow. Don’t let that be YOU.

Anzianio Benson