1/19/15

Family and Friends,

Well I was a little bit shocked when I got on my email today and found out about the news for this week. I am not sure exactly what to say as I just sat here for the past 20 min thinking about all of the amazing memories. I had a little bit of a miracle, friday night in fact, while I was saying my nightly prayers. I have developed the habbit of writing down promptings and spiritual ideas or revelation as I say my nightly prayers. This friday as I was praying, my thoughts were on those of my family and those who either have or have not had the chance to recieve the joy and knowledge that comes with the Restored gospel of Jesus Christ in these last days. I prayed for those, not in my emediate family, namely Aunts, Uncles, cousins and Grandparents and that they might be touched by the Love of God this next week. I don't know exactly what will come of this situation and I don't think we are ment to understand everything that happens in God's PERFECT plan. I do know, however, that the Lord loves you and that you will be blessed beyond belief for your love and Charity to your Sister both her on the earth and after. I know that God lives, that Jesus Christ is His only begotten son who came to earth to suffer not only for the sins of the world but also for the sorrow that we sometimes feel sorrow but we know that "men are that they may have joy". I know that The Enabling Power of the Atonement is real and that it can and will give us the strength to do whatever the Lord sees fit that we do. One of my favorite quotes from Elder Henry B Eyring is "If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing."

My advice would be that of Elder Worthin when he said "“Be assured that there is a safe harbor. You can find peace amidst the storms that threaten you. Your Heavenly Father—who knows when even a sparrow falls—knows of your heartache and suffering. He loves you and wants the best for you. Never doubt this. While He allows all of us to make choices that may not always be for our own or even others’ well-being, and while He does not always intervene in the course of events, He has promised the faithful peace even in their trials and tribulations.”  I love you all and hope that everything goes well this week.

Love

Anziano Passantino

1/5/15

Sorry I lost track of time as I was writing and forgot to do a big email. I love you all soooooooooooooooo much. I hope you all had a happpy New Year and that this year will be filled with happiness and joy!! Thank you all sooooo much for your support. The work is going better and we are doing well here. I am grateful for you prayers and support. You guys can take little parts of the person emails to put on a big one if you want but just make it a review of what I said!! Love you all!!

12/29

Dear Family,

I hope everyone had a great rest of the Christmas week!! We had a great time at Christmas and we feel grateful to have members willing to invite us over for this amazing day!!

 I am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ, and the opportunity that we have each and every day to testify of Him brings me more joy than I can possibly describe. I have tried this week to reinforce in myself the knowledge of the importance of bearing testimony of Jesus Christ. It is sooo important to testify of Him because as we do so the spirit can testify to others of the truth of what we are bringing with us. Something I have always struggled with is saying the right/most important thing without adequate preparation but I have learned in my mission and can testify of how the spirit will literally give you the words you need to use at the correct moment, especially as we testify of our Savior Jesus Christ and let others know exactly who we are as His representatives. It has been something on my mind that has really stuck out to me recently. 

The work has been going okay, it could be better, but we cannot complain. Last night was one of the more productive nights that I have had here in Caserta as we were able to go and see different members and less-actives with our Bishop and share quick 20 min messages with them about the Savior and His earthly ministry and what He actually did here to save us. While pondering and praying about the message of Christ and the mission of His earthly ministry I have come to realize exactly the importance of Him descended below all things. The condescension of Jesus Christ is something that I hadn't really grasped until recently. And if He, being perfect, had to descend below all things, who I am I to complain during trials or abandon ship when things begin to get difficult? We talk often about His perfect example but how much do we really understand about it and how much do we really put ALL His teachings into practice? I think more than anything it has served as a reminder of the importance of being humble and willing to submit our will to the Fathers "even as a child doth submit to his father" as said in Mosiah. I Love my Savior and am grateful and humble to be his representative for those that we come in contact with here in Italy. I know that we must always continue to grow and learn on this our journey through life and that if we will endure to the end, we will receive eternal life. Of this I am sure.

 I love you all and hope and pray that everything is going well. I love you all and Hope you have a great New Year!!

Love

Anziano Passantino

ps haha in this pic, I tried to time a jump so that I would be bigger than Anziano Pingree and totally failed as you can see, haha o well these are the families that we were with for Christmas! Love you

12/16

Family and Friends,

Well this is going to be a little bit of an awkward email seeing as how last week I told you I would be training... Well it turns out that the Elder that was supposed to come here got sick and had to stay in America... That means that I will not be training this transfer but instead will be with and Anziano Sejko. He is from Florence Italy and it is his last transfer here in the mission! I got the call from President as we were leaving the house to go get the greenie hahaha. It was a bit of shock. I guess this is why I never tell you guys this kind of stuff before it happens. hahaha

Other than that big mix up it has been a good week. I wasn't able to write yesterday because we had our Zone Conference. This next transfer there will be lots of new people leaving. At ZC yesterday we had 9 missionaries say their departing testimonies and that is the last time we will see many of them. There are 26 missionaries going home which for our mission is a very large number. 

It has been a week of adjusting a little bit to try and get everything ready for a good new transfer. I had a really special experience yesterday as I was able to find out about something special. The anziani in the Rome 3 ward have asked us and the Senior Couple, the Andersons (who are really amazing by the way), here to help them out recently. They have and investigator that was very close to getting baptized when his son found out that he had to have multiple Brain Surgeries for a tumor that they had found in his brain. The best hospital in Italy for these types of procedures is found in our area her but about 1 hour away from where we are. Last Monday we were able to give up a little of our P-day to go visit these people in the hospital. 

As we got there we had the opportunity to give a blessing to this boy, who wasn't really conscious. The doctors told us that they thought this boy would have passed away the day before. The spirit was very strong as we also gave blessings to his mother, his father, and his aunt (his aunt lives in America in Utah and is the only member of the church) I was blessed with the opportunity to give the blessing to the father. It is incredible how much blessings are guided by the spirit. As we left that night we felt a special spirit of love and gratefulness for all that we have and all that has been given to us. 

Yesterday at Zone Conference I was able to talk to the elders of Rome 3 and one of them came up to me thanking me for going. He told me that after that night, Carlos (the father) had called him and said that the blessing was given almost as if I was reading his mind and that all things that were said were answers to his prayers and they gave him the comfort he needed. I felt grateful for the Priesthood and for the opportunity we have to bless the lives of others through it. I don't know why the Lord let this miracle happen through me or for what reason I was the one there but I feel grateful for the chance I was given to see this miracle. The younger boy also is doing better and was taken off oxygen for the first time in months yesterday. I love this work and am so happy that I have the chance to be doing it here:) 

I hope everyone is doing well and that all goes well with the week. I hope everyone gets ready for this special Christmas time and remembers why we have it:) I love and miss you all!!

Anziano Passantino

ps thanks to all those who sent me a letter or package for Christmas!! It is always great receiving stuff from home!!

12/1

Hello Everyone!!

How was Thanksgiving??

We are doing really well here in Caserta. The Lord really is blessing us. I love seeing the different ways in which we get blessed as missionaries because for some reason it seems as though the blessings come in different ways each and every time. Anziano Pingree and I really are doing good! He is a great missionary and I know he is going to do amazing things in his mission and throughout his entire life.

This week we were not able to teach a lot of lessons which seems to be somewhat of an ongoing theme that we are trying to shake off here. Luckily the Lord knows what He is doing in the sense that He will have us do what He needs done. The great thing is that I know that Anziano Pingree and I are striving to do our best at this work and never get discouraged. It is fun having not only a companion but a friend by your side as you do the Lord's work.

To be 100% honest we haven't really taught like we normally would be this entire transfer. It is hard but I think it has helped humble me a little bit. Right when I thought I was becoming a better teacher the Lord made me get better at finding and talking to literally everyone we see. We are on the streets doing lots of surverys about happiness, talking about the family, talking about English, and all different types of things. We also have Bikes that were given to us so we are expanding the ability to travel to different parts of the city. (It is really funny seeing a 6'8 guy in a suite get on a bike made for someone my height haha). We are having a lot of fun and getting to really love the people here. 

Something that has been quite a big focus for me this week was just having the faith to do what the Lord wants. I haven't always understood this principle although I feel to have had a good amount of faith my entire life. I know that the Lord blesses those who are obedient and who follow His council while following the promptings of the spirit. I think faith has a lot to do with our attitude. The more faith we have that the Lord will bless us the better our attitude will be when we are called to go finding or work with members and He blesses us with the boldness to do/say what He needs said/done. This is the best work ever!! I love it and I love doing it here in the BEAUTIFUL Country!! Thanks for all the support!!

Love
Anziano Passantino

11/24

Hello Family,

Well I hope that you all have had a amazing week! I know I have. We have really been blessed this week as with all weeks. We are really looking foward to Thanksgiving Dinner with the American families but the only problem is that we are not allowed to stay at dinner appointments for more than 45 min or 1 hr and 15 min if there is an investigator so it will be quick but fantastic. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were a little bit slow but on Thursday we were really blessed. After having visited many of the members here and asking them to pray for missionary experiences the Lord has blessed us, along with others involved, with the opportunity to share the gospel with new people. This week we were able to have a lesson with a lady who was taking the missionary lessons in San Diego right before coming here. One of our members gets her nails done at this lady's shop and someone or another the gospel was brought up and it came out that she had been taking the lessons. She is really an amazing person and I am super excited to have the opportunity and experience to share the blessings and joys of this gospel with her. She is very sincere and outgoing and we feel eternally blessed to have members that pray for and act upon spiritual promptings to share the gospel. It is a little bit strange teaching in english although it should come naturally but the spirit was very strong in our first incounter and we are really looking foward to the next. 

We also had a thanksgiving party for our english course and the members of the ward here on Friday and it was amazing. There was tons and tons of food and everyone ejoyed themeselves. 

As with many, I have been pondering deeply on the importance of gratitude in these last few days.The talk given by Elder Deiter F Uchtdorf in this past April Conference has wayed on my mind a lot recently. I remember how he has asked us to be grateful in our circumstances whatever they may be. Rather than be grateful for things we should have an overall feeling of gratefulness in general for the circumstances we live in. Something that really hit me in his discorse was that we as children of God are not made for endings but that all endings in mortality are "temporary pauses that one day will seem small compared to the eternal joy awaiting the faithful." I would invite each one of us to ponder this talk as this week passes and pray about how we may better apply it into our lives.I know that I can personally do better in my life at being more thankful by getting better at my return and report in my nightly prayers. 

 I would add my testimony to his as he says "Brothers and sisters, have we not reason to be filled with gratitude, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves?...  Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christlike attributes! A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues" 

I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys spending time with the family:) I am grateful for each one of you and all that you do to support me and my efforts here. Have a great week!!

Anziano Passantino

11/14

Family and Friends!!

Well the mission just doesn't produce bad weeks. Maybe some better than others but never bad, and I can say the same about this one. We have had a fantastic week and I am super excited to be with Anziano Pingree. He is super awesome and we get along super well. He has taught me a lot already and is an amazing missionary who speaks really well for being in Italy for only around 4 months.

We had an amazing week and it has been very efficient. We have really hit it off together and we have some great goals for this next week and I can feel that there is a lot of amazing work that is about to happen.

This last week we had an amazing Halloween party and there were over seventy people there that participated, along with the fact that they were able to mix and mingle with the members and get to know them. Our English Course right now is really exploding with potential. After transfers were all finished we were able to meet with some of our new members and help strengthen them. 

Hopefully we can get a lot of work done this transfer, there isn't a lot to report for this week other than we are happy to be together and looking forward to everything. 

There are defiantly people to find here. We are all doing really good with good attitudes and heads up. We need to find and help these people grow and feel the blessings of the gospel. 

Thanks for everyones prayers and love! I hope you all have an amazing week!!

Love

Anziano Passantino