Pesaro - Week 45

Hey everyone,

This week was a little uneventful, but in 2 years of

work, there has to be those weeks every now and then. Work is going

really well with Darlington. He came to church and we had a great

Sunday school lesson on the atonement. A bunch of our less actives

were there and Darlington was able to hear a lot of great testimonies

on the atonement. We were also able to visit Mariano and Anna, our

grandparents in Pesaro. They always love talking about the plan of

salvation, and how we always need to look at the family we want to

have in the after life, because time here on earth is so short. It is

really hard for me to not see them want to be baptized, but they are

such great people.

Also a funny experience, we met a lady, who wasn't exactly all

together in the brain, she invited us to talk to her, and she kept

calling us beautiful young men and kept kissing my companions hand.

At my guess she was probably 80+ years old and when we would talk to

her only half of it would register to her. After she would register it,

she would immediately go back to telling us we were beautiful. We

walked away feeling very strange, but boy is it a funny memory.

We had a lot of appointments fall through this week so it was pretty

hard to stay motivated, but we have some good potential stuff set up this

week and are hoping for the best. I have been studying a lot about

studying, and I found some real good quotes. Spencer W. Kimball said,

“I find that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and

when it seems that no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is

speaking, that I am far, far away. If I immerse myself in the

scriptures the distance narrows and the spirituality returns. I find

myself loving more intensely those whom I must love with all my heart

and mind and strength, and loving them more, I find it easier to abide

their counsel." As a missionary I feel the joy of teaching people more

when I, myself, am learning with them. The spirit is a powerful

teacher. We have to let it abide in us always to receive the blessings

from it.

Jeffrey R. Holland: “Hold fast to what you already know and stand

strong until additional knowledge comes.” When we are studying, we

need to recognize that we can't let go of the knowledge we gained from

our past studies. We need to regurgitate our previous knowledge and have a strong assurity in what we know, and then when that new knowledge comes, it will just reinforce everything else also.

I hope you all have a great week, enjoy the sun, invite missionaries

over, and take a dog for a walk!!

Anziano Chase

Festa Dei Popoli - Week 44

Hey everyone,

 I hope we all had a good week. This week was

actually pretty busy for us. On Thursday we went to visit Urbino, a

local college in the mountains, with one of our English students,

Roberto. It was quite a view. This college is like its own little

kingdom in the mountains. Roberto is a really nice guy and loves to

take us places and learn English. during this trip I thought that it

was time to ask him a little bit about the church. He was very

intrigued by our religion and I gave him a Book of Mormon in English

and Italian. I gave him a challenge to read the book in English first

and that if he finished it in English he would be able to speak a lot

better than he did before. He loved that challenge and asked if he

could come to church one day. We were more than excited to say yes to

him.

On Sunday, after church we were invited to this fair called the festa

dei popoli. We were invited along with many people of other religions

to be a "book". We were there for people to learn about our religion.

We got there and it started pouring rain. With that rain hardly anyone

came to learn about religions. But a really neat thing was the other

religions that were there to be "read" asked to learn about our

religion. It was really awesome to be able to share the simple

principles of our beliefs with them. We don't think anyone of them

would change their religion, but it helped them understand why we

believe what we preach. It was an awesome experience to be able to

share this and also learn about their beliefs. An amazing experience.

Darlington progressed a little bit this week, but hasn't been reading

as much as he should be. We had to go back and talk about the purpose

behind the Book of Mormon. It is truly here to help you know that, if

you believe the book is true, you believe that the prophet Joseph

Smith was called of God, that all the principles given by the prophets

are true. I really thought about this myself, and it can't be any

truer. How can you not believe the prophet is called of God if you

believe in the cornerstone of the gospel of Jesus Christ to be true.

I hope we all can read the Book of Mormon, and go back to our

foundations of our testimony. The Book of Mormon should be the base of

it, it is the only pure foundation that cannot be broken. I love the

Book of Mormon and its teachings. I love this gospel, and I love being

a missionary.

Anziano Chase

Firenze - Week 43

Hey everyone,

 I hope you all had another great week as summer just began. Congrats to all my pals out there who just finished high school. But even a bigger shoutout to my bro because it is his birthday today. And also my sister had a birthday last week, and I didn't forget it, but here is the week late shoutout to for everyone to see.

This week was full of adventure. So I have a great friend in Vicenza that came down to San Marino on Saturday. He needed some translation help from me so my companion and I went up there to give him some help. Once again San Marino was awesome, and I got to see an old friend. Oh, also as a present for helping him we once again have some special stuff, that you all can see in the video link I'm sending. (This was so fun to film)

View from San Marino

A much anticipated purchase made in San Marino

On Sunday we went to Firenze, more commonly known in English as Florence.
We had our stake conference there so we got to take a little trip out west. Conference was really great and Elder De Fayo of the 70 gave a great talk about how we need to always look at the little missionary moments we can have every day. It doesn't take going to everyone you see and asking them to learn about the gospel, but by living the gospel we can make missionary moments happen without even trying. Service, love, and charity lead all missionary work. After the conference we were able to take a quick tour of the center of Firenze. I wish I would have had more time to look around the city, and buy stuff, but hopefully I will be able to make a trip back within the next year.

Darlington has been doing well. He has been working on some documents and what not, so we had to push back his appointment to tomorrow. Hopefully we keep him moving forward. It has been hard to find solid investigators lately, but we are pushing harder to open up some new options here in Pesaro.

When teaching our investigator Maurizio, we showed him a video called "mountains to climb". I really love this video. It talks about how people face trials that effect their lives in ways they never wanted. They thought they had perfect lives before and now think all is lost because of their trial. But then it talks about how we come to Christ and that no trial is impossible when we turn to the Savior. This was vital for him because of the many trials he has had to face, but then when I was thinking about it, it wasn't just for him to see, but myself, my companion, and everyone. It affects us all. Trials suck, I wish they weren't here, but without trials, there would be no success, no knowledge of accomplishment and joy. Even then, they Savior still makes the trial so much easier. He has given us the best help in himself. He suffered for our sins, to make them bearable.

I hope we all can look at the problems we are going through and see the savior pushing us forward. If we can't, it is because we aren't seeking his help. All we have to do is ask, and live as he as asked of us. I know this gospel, is more than just a gospel. It is a foundation of living. We can all better ourselves, by living the gospel of Christ. Have a great week everyone!!!

Anziano Chase 

Pesaro - Week 42

Ciao tutti

I hope everyone had a great week like I did.

This week has been just busy busy busy. Thursday I went to Bologna to pick up my new companion Anziano Richardson. I got there around 8 in the morning and when he showed up at 1, our next train going back to Pesaro was delayed for 2 hours. We were standing around with some other missionaries and all of a sudden our train wasn't even on the list of departing. It had come 30 mins earlier than it was supposed to with the delay. So we ended up leaving another hour later after that. It wasn't too bad thought because it gave Anziano Richardson and I plenty of time to talk with old missionary friends.

Anziano Richardson is a pretty cool dude. He is from Arizona and has been in Italy for 4 months. He wants to join the army when he gets home, and is a proud gamer nerd. He is very social and loves to make everything fun. Needless to say, we are getting along really easy right now. I have bright hopes for this transfer.

This weekend in Pesaro there was a gelato festival down on the beach streets along Pesaro. Let's just say we have eaten more gelato than a normal person should in a weekend. While we were down there we met a nice man working one of the side shops. His name is Marcello and he is from Santiago, Chile. His father was a Mormon until the day he died, so he enjoyed talking to us. He is not overly convinced to make a change from his religion, but after I told him about Dad serving in Santiago, he was totally cool with us coming and talking with him.

We have made great progress with Darlington. We were talking with him, and one of our members, Daniel walked into the room. Daniel is friends with Darlington, but has never come to a lesson. We were talking about the Holy Ghost, and the blessing of baptism, and Daniel gave a powerful testimony about how the Holy Ghost really helped him know that his baptism was a true covenant and blessing that he went through. With that Darlington said he wanted that same feeling, and we are now prepping him for baptism in the next few months. We really hope he stays strong in this desire.

Yesterday was yet again another Italian holiday (I swear there is one almost every week). We got invited by our branch president to go on a hike. We took an investigator Moret with us, and hiked to an arch. It was a pretty view in the mountains, a different touch from the beach city we live in.

I was thinking a lot this week about after L. Tom Perry died, how much joy he had in his life. No matter what was going on in the world, his life, or elsewhere, he always had a smile on his face. He truly loved who he was, what he believed in, and he loved everyone he came into contact with. It made me really hope that I can have this same joy that he always had, and that comes from loving the savior and our Heavenly Father. The love we have for them will multiply the love we feel for everyone else. It makes the world a happier place.

I love being out here in Italy, I love meeting new people and sharing with them the joy I have found in my life. It is one of the greatest joys I have ever known! Everyone have a great week!

Anziano Chase