Mailing address

Ben's mailing address at the mission home:

Anziano Charles Ben Thomas
Italy Milan Mission
Via Antonio Gramsci 13/2
20090 Opera MI
Italy

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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Buon Natale! Merry Christmas!

Ciao Family and Friends
Christmas was great and I really enjoyed getting to skype my family!
A lot has happened these past two weeks. With the work we found this
really cool guy named Alfredo from Ecuador and he is really open to what
we have to say. We have seen him once and we should be seeing him
again this next week after the Christmas holidays. We had a really
spiritual lesson with him where we bore strong testimony that through
Gesù Cristo his sins can be forgiven. He really liked that because
he's felt bad about the things he's done in the past. So we are
excited about him!
These past few days I have never eaten so much in my life! From
Christmas Eve all the way unto tonight we've eaten with members.
Dinner. Lunch. Dinner. Lunch. Dinner. So much good food. Christmas
day we ate with Claudio M. and his mom had 6 courses for us to eat!
Almost all of it was fish. It's a tradition here in Genova and I
think most of Italia to eat Fish for Christmas day. But I loved it
ate some salmon and shrimp which was great! After we went to Bishops
house and I got to skype my family for about 1 hr 30 min. It was
great to see everyone and here how everything is going. After I went
downstairs and hung out with the bishops family and played some soccer
with Alessio the Bishops son which was great!
Christmas Eve I had a really cool experience. We went to the Duomo of
Genova and had midnight mass there. I loved it. I was the first time
I went to Catholic mass here in Italy and it was very interesting.
After I got to shake the had of the Bishop and he saw my name tag and
he just commented on it a little saying "Thomas" and giving me a
thumbs up haha.
Today we went to Savonna for P'day. My comp Anziano Webb started his
mission here and he got to show me around. We went to the church in
Savona and it's really small because it's only a branch but we bumped
into one of the members and they took us out for lunch. After we
walked around centro and it ended up being a nice last day in Italy
for Anziano Webb. Tomorrow we go to Miliano and drop him off and I
get my new comp and we are coming back to Genova. We are going to
have a lot of work to do here in Genova especially because the other
companionship got closed so we are getting all their investigators.
I'm looking forward to having a lot of work and helping a lot of people
out. Things are going great and this Sunday I'm giving a talk to the
ward on my preparation to becoming a missionary. I'm really glad I got
this topic because I'm directing it right at the youth so pray that
everything goes well with that! Missionary work is going well I'm
about to finish The Book of Mormon again and am loving it. Especially
every time I read it I find something new. Right now I'm in Ether when
the brother of Giared crossed the seas. Thanks for all the support I
know that this is God's work and I am so thankful that I am a
missionary of Jesus Christ! Love you all and have a great year!!!!!
Anziano Thomas

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Ben at Cinque Terre

Anziani Webb & Thomas

Ben's p-day December 19, 2012 at Cinque Terre

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

December 11, 2012

Ciao tutti!
This week was good. We taught Erminio again and we might see him again before he goes to Brasil for his 40 day vacation. The lesson went well we taught him the Gosple of Gesu Cristo. It was cool because we were talking with him and he was like, you know what.. I've been thinking lately. When I fly over to Brasil it's going to be a long flight, I was thinking to bring the Book of Mormon along with me. It was great and I talked to him a lot about this time in Brasil will be a great relaxing experience but at the same time he can make it a spiritual experience by praying and reading everyday. It's going to be tuff when he leaves because right now he's our only progressing investigator but we will find new people. As of with the work, it's been a interesting week. We have found a lot of new investigators. But the problem is we teach them once and then after that they don't want to hear anymore from us. As missionaries we have been invited to give the baptismal invite on the first lesson every time and I feel like that's why many of our investigators have dropped us. We give them the bap invite and then they realize what our purpose is and also what the goal is. It's great because it weeds out all those who are just there to "learn about what we believe" and not are serious about really changing. But we will find new investigators and find new progressing investigators as well.
Today started off terrible but then became one of the best p days I've had on my mission. So early in the morning around 8 I had an appointment for my documents so I can stay here in Italy another year. We planned to get the documents done real quick and hop on a train for Cinque Terre. We got down to the Questura and we were one of the first people in line. We got up to the sportello and the woman was like your missing 4 photos of yourself. So we sprinted all the way to the train station took a quick picture and sprinted all the way back to the Questura. Unfortunately it took too long and I ended up missing my train. I was very upset. Anyway we switched our plans and decided to go up to the Genova Forts. It was AMAZING. We climbed up the Genova mountains and got to one of the forts and couldn't get in at first. We searched everywhere and finally found a hole and got inside. It was so beautiful everything. We had a view of all of Genova and went all over the forts it was such a great day. Tonight we have English class and a new convert. This week was great and we are working hard looking for new investigators to bring unto Christ! Hope you all of feeling the Christmas Spirit because I am getting super excited for Christmas! I would like to wish two ragazzacci out there Spencer Murphy and Daniel Thomas a very special Happy Birthday and I hope all your birthday dreams come true ;) Much love to you all
Anziano Thomas

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

December 5, 2012

Ciao tutti!
Today we went around Genova again. It is such an amazing city so much to see. We went and saw some markets, went into some Italian stores for some clothes shopping and then ate at McDonalds... haha I know but every now and then you got to get a burger. This week went well. We had a new guy come to church named Dritan who we found on a train. He's from Albania we passed him to the other Anziani because Dritan speaks alright Italian but Anziano Mustaferaj is from Albania so it works out better. Also Erminio came to church which was way cool but the bad news is that he will be going to Brasile for a 40 day vacation so I'm really bummed about that, he leaves the 14.. Other than that he's still reading a doing awesome! I was kinda bummed this week some of our new found investigators dropped us. One was because HE was attracted to me.. this is the 4th or 5th time I've had one of my investigators be attracted to me.. all of them men. Awkward situation but this week we'll find some more investigators! Things are going well we are in a hurry this week we are teaching English class at 7 tonight and we usually have 8-10 students.  I really don't teach English it's all conversation and if they mess up I correct them. But thanks for all the prayers, hope all goes well this week for you. Grazie per tutto vi voglio bene!
Anziano Thomas