First Baptism!

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow this week!! I have like no time to write all that I want to about this week but I will try my best. It has been great. I think I will focus on Saturday. We preped the "baptismal font" in the morning. It was really just a minny backyard pool that we filled up. That was funny we climbed in with chairs hahaha. It was pretty funny and great. We then went and did a thing called gesso, it is where we stood in the Center and drew the Plan of Salvation of a sheet and it gets the attention of all the Italians and then from there we have Plan of Salvation pamphlets and explained it to them. In one our we had 3 numbers and a return appointment. It was great. 

    Then for the Baptism. Everything went great. The printer at the Church was not working and so me and my comp ran around looking for a place to print the programs for like an hour because everyone was closed. We then went back and I had to get changed and just a little bit after that we started. It was a little close but it all worked out. We got to see S***** sincerely happy for the first time. It was great. I was super nervous to say the Prayer in Italian but once we got in the font I was no longer nervous. It wasnt difficult because I didnt really remember saying it but I know that it happened. That might sound a little strange but I know it was becuase the Spirit helped me with it. I am so happy for him. I wil try to put on some pictures of the night. 

      Other than that this week has been good. Finding went good this week. Lots of that is because we went on an exchange and I had Anziano B. again and he is super excited about Finding so it makes it easier and more successful. We have lots of appointments this week. Overall this week has been great. I know this letter has been super short but it was good. I am happy to be here. We have transfer calls this week so that should be fun. This transfer has felt long and short at the same time but from what everyone is saying it just gets shorter and shorter so hopefully I will be able to work to the best of my ability these next two years. Hope everyone is doing well. I love you all and am so grateful for you. Have a great week!!

Love

Anziano Passantino

When in Roma

Family and Friends

This week has been filled with a lot of travel and a lot of fun and learning an all sorts of different things. We had Zone Conference on Tuesday and I was given the chance to bear my Testimony in Italian in front of all the other Anziani and Sorelle which was a bit nerve racking but everything went very well. I have been blessed to learn the language and because of this I have not being super diligent on language goals but I do know how important they are. The more we set goals the more we will succeed. I am trying my best to become better and better at this and the more I do it the more I have seen my language skills grow and grow. We then had Stake Conference in Rome both Saturday and Sunday. That was good. I did not understand all of it and some people I can understand a lot better but they were using very formal language with another form that is not used very often so it was difficult. Other than that the conference was great. It was all about missionary work and how we need to work more with the members. In our last 100 baptisms as missionaries 48 of them have come from members and 4 from door to door and street combined. It really helps and I know how important that is. My friend Anziano M. was transferred today. Too bad we will miss him but are excited for Anziano T. to come to Terni. I have spent a lot of time in Rome this week but have not seen a thing. Hahaha o well I will at some point im sure. I wanted to share about something I have been studying a lot about here lately. This is the importance of being humble and Charitable. I have found that in my life sometimes I get jealous at others for blessings they recieve and have a hard time showing happiness for others when these kinds of things happen to them. I have been working really hard on this. I know this is because of pride that I have in my life. I know that this is something I need to be working on and will continue to work on my whole life. I really like a talk called Beware of Pride by Elder Benson if I can remember correctly. It is great and has helped me to see how I can improve in this area. Also I will try to be more charitable. It is hard sometimes but I know that it is important. I have not always been the best in the past and hope to get better and better. I know that this life is based mostly on our journey to become like Christ. I love studying from the Christlike Attributes in preach my gospel. We gain so much from there. It is my prayer that we can all become more Christlike and to strive for this in our life. We will all come up short but as we use the Enabling Power of the Atonement we can continue to improve each and every day. I hope all is well at home and everyone is doing good. I think about you all daily but I know this is where I need to be so I strive to focus on the work each day. I know that this message is special, some may disagree with me but I have seen miracles in the lives of these people as they follow Christ, it is truly amazing to see the fruits of this work. We have a baptism on Sunday and I am so happy for him. I have been given a love for these people that I am so grateful for. I hope everyone is doing well and that you will try your best to improve and become like Christ each day and if you fall get back up and start continuing on the path. 

Love 

Anziano Passantino

sorry again for the spelling it is really hard!! 

"He asked me to perform the baptism"

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow another week here in Italy. This week was both long a short at the same time. I was feeling a little under the weather all week. I am starting to get over it now but I felt pretty bad around Wednesday. It was just a little cold I think but everything is getting better now. We have had a harder week in terms of teaching. We have 6 investigators and only one came to church and he is getting Baptized in two weeks. We have Stake Conference this coming up week and tomorrow is my first Zone Conference. I am looking forward to that. About this guy who is getting baptized, his name is S****** and he has been taking the lessons for a while now. He comes to English course every week twice a week. He is a huge fan of the Band Genesis and he sings them all the time to me in English. He always try to speak to me in English it is pretty funny. He is a good guy. He has asked me to perform the Baptism so that will be a good experience for me. I am looking forward to that opportunity, and am honored that he chose me to perform it. He is the one in the pictures that I will try to send.

 The language is coming step by step. It is hard to always pay attention when I dont know what is going on in the conversation. The hard part for me right now is having just normal conversations. When we are teaching and talking about the Gospel I am blessed with the ability to understand for the most part what is happening its the normal conversations that are still difficult for me now. This is also hard becuase I cant really relate to people or get to know them and their needs if I cant talk to them about normal everyday activities. I am doing really well though. My comp helps me as I make mistakes. We work good together becuase I am the one that wants to talk to people but cant becuase of language barriers so I stop the people start a little converstion then he finishes it by talking about whatever. Just a little team I guess haha. Everything is going well, we love all the people here. I know that this is the Gospel of Christ. I have witnessed the spirit touch people. One of our investigators prayed for his life to change for the better then the next day he ruined his hand in a machine at work. He took this to be a sign from God as the next day the Missionaries showed up. We were able to get him a book of Mormon in his native language and he is traveling to Sri Lanka this week to help his mother who is in bad health. He has said that he wil read the Book of Mormon on the plan where there wont be any disractions so hopefully this happens. I am so grateful for the Gospel. It has changed my life for the better and I wouldnt rather be anywhere else right now. I am thankful for my family and friends and their example to me!! I hope everyone is doing well and has a great week.

Love

Anziano Passantino

ps Sorry about the spelling mistakes it is harder to type on these Italian keyb

Week # 2

This week has been great. I feel more in the flow of things now but obviously don't know everything yet. I am starting to understand Italian pretty well but speaking and responding is the hardest thing for me. I am lucky to have a comp from Italy that speaks great and others that help me along. So we have had a great week this week with lessons. This week we went on our first splits. My comp and another elder that live with us are district and zone leaders. They went to some meetings in Rome so I was with Anziano M. He is awesome and has a great spirit. He is somewhat new as well as he came in the transfer before me. We are both still struggling with the language but he can speak better than me but I think I understand a little more when others speak so we were a good combo. We didn't really know what to do always but we did good. We had to go to a lesson and teach. The lesson was in Italian, Spanish, and English to these guys from Ecuador but they are awesome. They had family from America there and they had lived in Italy for a while so they knew Italian also. We were very grateful for the relatives from America because if we didn't know how to say something we could ask them in English and they would translate into Spanish and then we would continue in Italian. It was a good lesson. I feel like we did well even though we are not super experienced but we both taught by the spirit so it went well. It was a miracle that we got there because it was in a city that we didn't know and we both were a little lost but somehow we made it. I love it here. We are in an Internet point right now which is a little bit different for me but its cool, I keep getting sprayed by a little air freshener hahaha. Wow the food is great. Yesterday was the first day that we didnt have pasta haha. It is one of the few things we can cook and is something that others usually cook for us. But yesterday we got a Taco Salad which was fantastic because it was new and different from pasta. So like everyone knows we get a lot of food at appointments. When others cook they give you a ton. First like 3 servings of Pasta then another plate with meat and beans or rice. Then a desert then fruit to top it all off. This is of course with bread and with this raw meat that I am not very fond of because it is raw meet but of course everyone says that I will like it by the end of my mission so I guess we will see. So for study I have started the Book of Mormon. In a talk called the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar he gives the suggestion to read the Book of Mormon and have a question and just study the Book of Mormon about that topic. Right now I am doing the Atonement and the Enabling power that it can give to people along with the forgiveness part but more specifically on the Enabling power of it. I would want everyone the read another talk by Elder Bednar about the Atonement and Journey of Our life. It is perfect about this and has changed the way I study and pray. It is absolutely perfect. I hope everyone will find a question they  need answered then read the Book of Mormon and continue this as they finish to start again with a new question and then after a 20 years we will have quite a collection of doctrinal based questions answered as we study it. I am going to try it! I hope everyone is doing good. Thank you for all the emails and love. I am working hard and it is coming step by step! Have a great week. 

Love

Anziano Passantino

The first week in ROME!!!

* Note from Kindra - Only two of us got e-mails from C.J. on his P-day saying that he was online really quick and would get on for longer later. Well, we waited and waited and never heard anything...

Family and Friends.

I am sorry for all that happened yesterday. It was kind of a crazy day. We went to this awesome place for our Pday and it was incredible. I cant really describe it because it wont even give it any credit but hopefully you will get the card in the next few days. After we were going to go to this lesson and it is an hour away from our house. We were going to come back and Email after so I didn't really think about who I was emailing at that time. We were running a little late for our train back after a great lesson and we were in such a hurry that we got onto the wrong Train. It took us to the middle of nowhere and we were stuck there. There were not any trains until 11 oclock and that is way past when we are supposed to be back. We had to call everyone and let them know. It was freezing cold and we couldn't go inside for the reason that there were a bunch of people sleeping there and so we couldn't do anything to wake them all up. We waited outside and sang songs huddled next to each other. I can only imagine what we looked like. hahaha. We didn't get home until 1 in the morning which was a little hard because we had to get up at 630 right after. Hahaha it was a fun experience because we learned a lot. Always double check the signs at the stations:) My trainer was super worried and upset with himself. Speaking of him. He is Italian. He speaks perfect Italian from the North where they speak a lot clearer and he is really cool. He didn't know any English 2 transfers ago but now he can speak almost fluent English. His district two transfers ago told him that they were only going to speak English with him the entire time so he learned very quickly. hahaha he is helping me a lot. I am in the North most part of our mission where they speak the best Italian and so it is helping me to understand. Lots of the time I don't understand but I can understand a lot more than I ever thought I would when I left the MTC. So we got here on Wednesday and we saw the Temple and the Colosseum. Those were both really cool. The temple is coming along really well. I cant wait until that is done. We still dont know when that will be but we are hoping it will be done within my mission because it gets pushed back all the time. It was hard to say goodbye to all my district from the MTC and everyone there on Sunday but I loved talking to the family on the phone. We have been doing a lot of teaching. We have 6 investigators and they are all awesome. Hopefully we can continue to help them come closer to Christ in the next few weeks. My city is cool, it is the safest city in the mission so im sure Mom will be happy about that. We stay in an apartment with two other Anziani and they are both from the US but one speaks fluent Italian because he grew up here but he also speaks all English also. The other one just came the Transfer before me and he is awesome to. We all get along very well. Church was different but great, the ward is awesome and the Mother of one of my teachers at the MTC is here and she is the one that took us to that awesome place yesterday. Almost a city on a mountain. I have so much that I want to say but so little time. I love everyone here and everyone back home. I know this work is the work of God. I know this is Christ church that has been restored to the earth. I have seen miracles happen in the few days that I have been here. I want everyone to feel the joy that I have by serving and being a member of this wonderful church. Thank you all so much for all of the support I have been getting from home. I love you all and again I am sorry about the mix up. My Pday is on Monday from now on. I hope everyone has a great week.

Love

Anziano Passantino


***Note from Kindra*** If you click on the tab "Presidente or Sorella Waddoup's Blog" you can see lots of pictures of C.J. Here is a link to my favorite post http://romeitalymission.blogspot.com/2013/10/dinner-with-new-missionaries.html

Last week in the MTC..it's go time!

Wow,

Well this came really quickly. Don't get me wrong I am way stoked to go to Italy and even more so to be out of here. But I am way nervous. I do love it here and love hearing the General Authorities Speak each week but I want to get to work. I am beyond excited that I get to go serve those in the Italy mission and those that may even be long extended family. I love hearing stories and hearing experiences about all these things that will happen there. I am going to miss my teachers. They are super awesome!! Each one out of the four of them have a new perspective to give and I love it. Three out of the four served in Italy and the other one is from Italy and he is excited for us to go teach to his people. We have these things called guided study where they help us with a certain subject just one on one and tell us what to do to get better at it. I really like these and I also like when they take that time to help me with what to expect and what to know. This last week I had one from our Sister teacher and we talked about the mission and she helped me and just let me ask any questions I had and what to expect there. She gave me the truth rather than trying to just sugar cote it but now I feel ready for what might happen and I am grateful for that. Each one of them is super supporting and helps me in a different way that I need and I couldn't have asked for better teachers and a better way to learn about the gospel/language. General Conference was amazing wasn't it? I learned a lot about all of the questions I had and I loved all the talks. My favorites were Pres Uchtdorf on both the Saturday session but more so in the Priesthood session. I couldn't help but think about how it might be here in a few months or even weeks we he said, Stand Up men of God and dust off and get back to work. We will all have times where we feel like we can't get up but thanks to our Savior we can get back up with his help and Do it "right now". I also couldn't hold back tears as Elder Holland Talked about those with physical disabilities. They are so much greater than us in So many ways and I thought of seeing them someday after this life in there Perfected bodies and it made me happier than ever before. I thought of Lauren our cousin and how sweet her spirit is. I thought of all these missionaries who although they have physical disabilities are still out here serving missions. I had and Elder sit by us in a devotional the other day and he was in a wheelchair and his comp helped him in and out whenever he needed to sit down. I wish I could be that Christlike in my life. Also we heard the singing group Vocal Point from BYU at a devotional Sunday night and they were fantastic. They are all without instruments and they sing. They brought the spirit to the meeting with their voices as they sang Hymns that were important to them in some way or another. I loved that and it made me Think of my buddy Jack Hansen and how he can bear his Testimony with his voice and bring the spirit with it as well. I am grateful for good music because it has a special effect and with it we can be sure that Christ is happy when we listen to good wholesome music. I have heard lots of music used in the other way but when used correctly in can bring tears to the eyes of all who are hearing it. I loved this week. Conference was great and I hope everyone took the challenge of writing down questions and having them answered through Conference. I am grateful for this Gospel and the opportunity I have to serve the people of Italy. I am thankful for you all and your friendship and love and hope you all have a great week. 

Love 

Anziano Passantino

Whatever you do WATCH GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!

Hey family and friends. I was hoping that this week I could write a big long letter in my family letter but I took to long on the person ones so I will have to cut it pretty short. I am sorry. This week hasn't been very exciting but we had this devotional this past Sunday that was amazing it was given by the President of the Provo Temple he a spoke about woman and their ability to access the priesthood in there lives. I really liked it. He spoke about the sanctity of women and how much they are favored by the Lord. It was great. He shared an experience when he was with Elder Ballard at a stake Conference and Elder Ballard stopped in the middle of his talk and stood up and called all the men in the conference to repentance. He said that they were not treating God's daughters with the respect they deserved and that needed to repent at that moment. He told them that if a man raised his voice at a women then they needed to repent because of the love God has for all of his daughters. I really liked it and I wish I could share more but the point of all this is that the Spirit was stronger to me in this talk than any other I had ever heard. I felt the spirit testify each time he spoke and it was fantastic. The devotionals are so good here. Each time they speak we can feel the spirit testify of what they are saying. I wish everyone could listen to the Character of Christ by elder Bednar. It changed my life for sure. I wish I could be better at being more like Christ. I really wanted this letter to focus on the importance of Conference this week. I want everyone who reads this whether you are LDS or not to watch Conference. I promise all of you that if you go into Conference with a question in your heart and in your mind it Will be answered. I KNOW this can and will happen if you do this. The Prophet and Apostles are inspired by God along with all others who will be speaking. They have the spirit with them and will speak about what you need. I know some of you won't believe what I say but I promise you that if you try it, it will happen. The MTC is great and I am learning more and more each day. I do love it here and hope that I will continue to grow in the Language and the Gospel in these next two weeks. I will not stop trying that is for sure. I love you all and more importantly Jesus Christ and God do also. Thank you all for everything.

Love 

Anziano Passantino