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

11/10

Hey Everyone,

We have had a good week together here in Caserta! Anziano   and I are really enjoying being together and having the opportunity to learn from each other. I love how willing he is to learn and to just talk to everyone because he cares so much about all of the people here. I would say that is one of his greatest strengths! It is awesome because we both love like the same exact things and almost every 20 min something happens where we say "Hey, the same thing happened to me", or "It was the same in my family" so we are having lots of fun:)

Unfortunately due to the lack of coming to church, we have had a few baptismal dates fall through this week but we are really striving hard to find out exactly what they need so we can work to their needs. Hopefully we can help them progress and help them really have that desire to come to church. 

We have been given a real miracle this past week as well. An investigator that we had when Anziano Burnham was here felt like she should come to church last week. It was really special because she is really amazing but she felt like everything happened too quickly at first and she feels a little bit more ready now. We were able to help her out a lot this week and she is really doing well. 

This weekend we worked a lot with the less-active members of the church trying to get them to come back. Anziano P and I visited 4 less-active members yesterday and tried to help them out a little bit. I feel like some people just need someone there to tell them they care about them. Lots of time weather it be on purpose, or by accident we exclude or offend others and the consequences are very strong. Now, I am a strong believer in the fact that we can choose to be offended or not and that we can include ourselves and be more outgoing, but I would say that we could be more careful. I would say that actions speak waaaaayyyy louder than words and that our example really matters. I only say this because I have unfortunately seen the results of many bad examples and the effects that it has on others and also those to whom in may even seem irrelevant. 

This is a large lesson that I have learned this week on how we can improve a little bit. I know that my example is not perfect and I need to get a lot better at this but everything we do or say to others will have some kind of impact on them so we must always be careful. I love all of you guys and am grateful for the many prayers and wishes. Have a fantastic week:)

Love 

Anziano Passantino 

11/4

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 P******. 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

10/27

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

10/20

Hello Everybody,

Well we have had another good week here. We loved being able to go up to Rome and have our Zone Conference there. I think it offered us all a nice refresher and it helped us to get a nice little energy boost for the rest of the transfer. Not to mention the fact that I love doing finding on the streets of Rome and seeing/meeting so many amazing people. The Lord blessed us with many miracles this week after a week that may have been a little bit harder. 

We had 2 new investigators this week The first is the mother of our new convert here named A******* who was born in Russia but has lived here for her entire life more or less. She has been praying to have the opportunity to share the gospel with her mother and this past week when we went to go see A******, her mother, Irina was the one that we actually taught. A****** was beyond happy that the joy that she recieved from the gospel is now being given to other parts of her family!

The other is a man here named L*****. He is an american that lives just down the street from us that we randomly met on the street. His wife lives here and is an Italian and he came here a lot for Judo. He was married and has remained here and now speaks both perfect English and Italian. He is really amazing, he grew up in the San Diego area but was born in China so actually he also speaks Chinese. He has showed some interest in the gospel as well and we are grateful for his friendship and we hope to be able to share this gospel and joy with him in the new future.

The hard part will be trying to get them to Church as they both have work problems but we will be fasting and praying and puting our faith in the Lord that He will provide a way for them to feel of the spirit as they come and join with us in Church. I am grateful for this work and the many miracles that I see each and every day!! Transfer calls are this week so we will see how that goes!!  Thanks for everything!! I love you all!

Love

Anziano Passantino