Ben' last letter!

Ciao Tutti!!!!

I believe this will be the last letter I write because next week I will be traveling to Milano.  But this week has been pretty emotional.. haha.  To begin with one of the elders in the apartment was hit pretty bad by a car.  We get a call from his companion and he told me that they were in the hospitale and he had to get x-rays.  Right now he's wearing a neck brace.  But what we had to do was go back to the place he got hit by a car with and pick up the bikes that were locked up.  I'm sure my parents might of done this before but we had to ride steering our bike while holding the other.  The bike I was holding was tough because it was the one that was hit so the wheel was bent.  But we managed to make it back which was nice.  This last Saturday I gave my last talk.  It was interesting we had just finished lunch and the branch president called saying that the person he had assigned couldn't make it so he asked me.  I only had a night to prepare but what I ended up talking about was patience.  I thought it was perfect for what the ward needed and was really thankful that I was able to give it.  It was nice I really felt the spirit and the members seemed to of liked it as well.  We also got to eat with president Quartarone and he has been such a huge help in the missionary work here.  I've really enjoyed him being the branch president and know that the work is going to go up from here.   Monday I had my last Zone Meeting and I had to give my dying testimony which was super weird..  I can't believe that these two years are finishing it's been such a special blessing.  A cool miracle that happened this last week was it was POURING rain as we were doing pass bys.  I was just amazed/irritated because it seemed like there was just a small cloud above us but it was pouring and we were drenched.  As we were riding to pass by a less active members home my companion screamed out from behind me, we should say a prayer!!  I was amazed my initial thought was why pray its not that big of a deal the rain will eventually stop but then I thought no we should pray.  So we did.  As he was praying the rain stopped.  I just sat there for a few seconds thinking how many miracles I've seen in the mission it was really a humbling experience.  I'm so thankful for these two years the things I learned and also the chance to strengthen my testimony so many people have touched my life.  This is the church of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is our Savior and God loves us.  I'll see you all soon  and love you all!!  

SEMPRE AVANTI

Anziano Thomas

On top of II Duomo

Michelangelo's La Pieta

Ben in Firenze! (Florence)

II Duomo

Small cars in Italy

November 13, 2013

Ciao!
Another pretty normal week a lot of finding work.  Time is still flying by however.  One cool miracle that we had this last week was Thursday we were doing a ton of finding work. The whole day talking to a lot of people without anyone stopping, we get to the night and we are walking down the street and we start talking to this guy from Peru we talked about the book of Mormon and he said we can come see him this next Sunday with his family!  We were super happy!  Even though everyone else before him rejected us it felt great when we finally found someone that would listen to us.  This week the other anziani had 2 baptisms!  A woman who was baptized a year ago her husband and 16 yr old son were baptized this last Saturday strengthening the branch!!    The baptism went great the only thing was the water was freezing.  Church was great as well all the talks that were given were nice.  We are trying to pass by a lot of members and strengthen the trust with us and the members. the members are really nice here.  Yesterday we ate with a man from southern Italy and he almost killed us with all the food we ate haha hope this week went well for all of you! Ciao!

Fort in Livorno



Ben' loves his cousin Spencer who is now an eagle scout!  They both did similar eagle projects -Christmas gifts taken to the Navajo Indian reservation.  I also love the family picture in the bottom left corner, scriptures, and Italian language book.

3 Weeks Left, still working hard!

Ciao!

This week you could say has been one of the harder weeks in the mission.  Just for the fact that we've been doing constant finding work with no success.  It was a hard week but we got through it and that's great haha!!  No one really was interested this week I don't know what it was and on top of that it rained....  it's funny to look back on now but in the moment it was rough.  Something good this week that happened was we had a zone conference in Florence and Elder Teixiera from the area 70 came and spoke to us.  I've heard him speak before, but this time was one of my favorite conferences I've had.  The only bad part was everyone was walking up to me and saying wow your done you only have 20 days... but it was fun.  We saw mostly members and had family home evening and English class.  For English class I substituted for a member because he went to the temple and it went well there were only 2 students in his class but it went really well I enjoyed it they were cool guys.  Family home evening was good we were in charge of the lesson and we talked about the holy ghost and its different roles.  Then we did an example with a bowl of water and put a layer of pepper inside and then put a knife inside saying that the bowl filled with water is the world.  The pepper is the sins.  And the knife is us.  When we put the knife in you could see it was dirty but with a rag we cleaned it off (repentance) put dish washing soap on (the holy ghost) and when we put the knife back it the pepper was pushed away.  The people there said I was a magician haha but it went well.  We are working just trying to find some investigators this week will be better love you all!

Ben

Elba Island.  This is Napoleon Bonaparte's villa where he was exiled.

Napoleon

Portoferraio