Vivere con un Scopo - Week 50

Siamo qui di nuovo come sempre. Questa settimana andata, secondo me, benissimo. 

Missions are full of disappointments, cancelled appointments, and long days. But the tender mercies of the Lord and the little blessings we get make it all worth it. One day this week we had a couple appointments that just didn't go so great. One of our investigators was telling us of the struggles he is having with his wife and her opinion of him coming to church. Then the next lesson we had went completely south. We thought to ourselves, "ugh looks like it's back to the drawing board on what we can do". We had a potential lesson set up for that evening and it was on the same street as the church. Being the intelligent missionaries we thought we were, we left from the church in search for the right number. We didn't, however, realize our church was on a main street that goes for kilometers. His number was 6 and the church was 236. We walked for an hour going almost 2 miles and when we got there we didn't see the name on the building. Disappointed, we walked away, but out of the corner of my eye I saw another complex with the same number 6 on it. For some reason two buildings had 6 on it. We checked that one out, and the name was there. We rang it, and he answered. His name is Delfino, and he is 18. He is the son of a less active, and wanted to know about his fathers religion. We had a great lesson and he wanted to know more. As we walked out the door, I completely forgot about all the rough things we had gone through that afternoon. I was just so excited for the good that just came. A mission isn't a cake walk, it isn't walking to a street full of people dying to get baptized, but it is a blessing. We can't understand true joy until we have had to walk on the tough side.  We need to struggle a little. Every trial makes every blessing just so much more meaningful. I've really learned that out here.

So more on Delfino now. He really is one of those blessings. We have seen him a couple times since we first met him this last week and he wants to be baptized. He said the plan of salvation is just something that sounds right, like why wouldn't we follow something like this, it is the way to God. He just is so open to the gospel. I'm excited to see how much he progresses. He also is a good drummer, and after one lesson we played some drums together. I certainly don't have my uncle's skills, but it was fun to bond with him.

Charles is making some progression on his hunt for the truth. We talked about crossroads in life and how sometimes God permits us to make the decision of what path to go on. He won't tell us every time at the crossroad. We talked about a message that Elder Holland shared a couple years back about how a father and son prayed to know what way to go. They made a decision and went down one fork of the road. After a bit they realized it was the wrong road so they turned around and went the other way. The son, confused, asked the father why God led them the wrong way. The father replied saying that God let us go the wrong way just enough for us to know that the other way was the right way. Sometimes we get stuck at a crossroads and will have to make decisions on where to go, but we can be assured that God will help us in whichever path we start on, as long as our will is in line with His will. He will guide us if we choose wrong, and affirm us if we choose right.

I came across a young adult devotional that really had a huge impact on me this week. The talk is titled Vivere Con un Scopo: L'Importanza dell' "Intento Reale" this was given by Randal L Ridd of the young men's presidency. He talks a lot about how we need to really have a purpose behind the things we do. I could talk about every bit of this talk, but for time's sake, I'll narrow it down to two parts of his talk I liked. The first is about a story of when he was a boy in seminary. They were given stars for every chapter they would read in the Book of Mormon. At first he didn't really care about it, but as he fell behind, he changed his mentality. He found himself wanting to read the book, and every time he got a star he felt good. At the end he realized he hadn't gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon, what he had truly gained was Stars, that was his real intent. He quotes "Looking back, I can see that the Lord was totally fair with me. Why should I have expected to find anything other than what I was looking for? I never really stopped and asked myself why I was reading the Book of Mormon. I was drifting, letting worldly motivations guide me, only to find out that I had read the right book for the wrong reason. Real intent is doing the right thing for the right reason." Sometimes we lose our sight on why we really should be doing things and when we establish real intent, we will receive real rewards. The other part I would like to finish with is about our focus. He shared a video and asked people to watch and see how many passes were made from a team. After, he asked how many knew the amount. After that, he asked how many noticed the extra things that happened in the background also. He compared this to life. "Our focus in life is so important. As this test demonstrates, we typically find what we are looking for. Or, as the scriptures put it, “Seek, and ye shall find” (Luke 11:9)." If we set our focus on the gospel we can find so many things, that we would miss if we focused only on the things of the world.

I know that when our intent is to serve God, when we establish that as our purpose, that God will bless us immensely. I know He is proud of each and every single one of us. Have a great week everyone!

Anziano Chase 

Perché egli vive🇮🇹🇮🇹🇺🇸🇺🇸

Fuddruckers??? - Week 49

Hey everyone, 

So you're probably all wondering why Fuddruckers is my title. So, I used to go to Fuddruckers a lot back home, after every trip to Knott's Berry Farm, and even for one of my birthdays. I love their burgers and the cheese dip for their fries. We were at district meeting, talking about the things we love about America and I brought up this place. Anziano Squire, who serves in Varese where we held our district meeting says, "you know, the only Fuddruckers in Western Europe is here in Varese". I flipped out! I refused to leave Varese that day until I saw it for myself. It does indeed exist here! I was so excited I just bought a big meal, and was way too happy! Happiness can come from a good burger joint haha

This week started out a little rough, but really ended on a high I think. With August in arrival, vacationers are starting to come from around the world. That also means that everyone in Italy is preparing to leave themselves for vacation.  August has a name for itself, because no one is ever home here. We haven't quite hit that month, but more and more members and investigators are starting to be gone. With this realization, our work goes down. It becomes harder to see people. There are plenty of tourists and vacationers to talk to, but when it comes to actually teaching people for the long run, it becomes more of a challenge. That being said, we had a lot of people gone this week. However, we did not let that get to us, and we still had some pretty good success.

Charles is making some real progress on his Book of Mormon reading. We read about Nephi following the promptings of the lord even though he didn't know where he was suppose to go in Jerusalem. We then talked about how faith is an action. There can't be any faith, if a change/action isn't being made. We can say we have all the faith in the world, but if we don't act on the faith we have of that thing, it will never make a difference to us. Nephi had faith, he didn't know what was going to happen, or what to do, but he acted. He made a choice in his faith, and that faith led to blessings. Charles really liked that discussion, and really is reading for understanding and truth.

Frank made some huge progress this week. We brought him a Book of Mormon and had a discussion about the restoration. We talked about prophets, and he asked us if there truly could be more prophets than Jesus, because he believed there were. We talked about the prophets in the bible and Book of Mormon, and then we talked about Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson. He was so excited to know there was a prophet who could help us out today. He accepted our invitation to read the Book of Mormon, and wants to know a lot more about the gospel.

Also today we went to the city Como. Now I'm a beach type of guy, but this city with its mountains and lake is pretty dang cool. I hear Switzerland is even better, but Como blew me away. It is like a dome of mountains surrounding a lake and city. It was very beautiful. We hung out with the zone leaders there and it was quite a nice day.

I've been studying a lot lately about love. For the ward family home evening my companion and I were asked to teach the lesson, so we talked about love being an action, and how WE CAN CHOOSE to love. It is easy for us to look at the simple things that we don't like about others, but when we do that we are choosing to not love. The great commandment of God is to love, and something one of the members commented I really liked. It is difficult to love everyone, but not impossible. We all have our free agency

And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.

Helaman 14:30

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

1 John 4:7

Love should always be our first and most desirable choice with others. Whether they have done you wrong, or refuse to better themselves, God has asked us to love them. He loves all of us, more than we can imagine, and as we are all his children, we should do the same.

I love this gospel and really know of its truth. I hope everyone has a great week!

Anziano Chase

Perché egli vive🇮🇹🇮🇹🇺🇸🇺🇸

Quante cose possiamo fare in un settimana????? - Week 48

Ciao tutti, questa settimana ho avuto un cambiamento e con questo cambiamento ho andato avanti con il lavoro. This week was my first week in Busto Arsizio with Anziano Mortezazadeh. For being in his third transfer, he is certainly on track to be a great missionary. I have extremely enjoyed my time with him. So we got to Busto late Wednesday after leaving Pesaro, and we got straight to work. We planned out what we wanted to do together and we made a goal to make it happen. On Thursday we got my things situated, got our food for the week, and went to work. We have a lot of new converts here, so we have been working on teaching them the things they need to know to receive the melchezidek priesthood. They really are a bunch of good people. They all were a span of conversions, all helping the next person gain their testimony.

On Friday, we had an appointment with Wilson, an investigator from Kenya. We had a great lesson with him on the priesthood, and then he had his interview for baptism. He passed his interview so the next day we had his baptism. He is just so full of the spirit. he really knows that God loves him and wants to do all he can to serve him. We had a great baptism and he brought his family to watch him get baptized. We really think this was a great example for his family to follow. My companion was able to baptize him. It was pretty great because he is the same height as me, but Wilson is like a giant, so it was a little funny to think a smaller person was going to baptize someone soooo tall. It all went well, and he was confirmed the next day.

We saw the joy that Wilson had from his baptism and we really wanted everyone we teach to have that same feeling. We hit the streets with an energy of desire, and it really payed off. A couple of our set appointments fell through during some days, but we never lost faith. We made a plan and knew we would find someone else to teach. If anything went wrong, we knew we would find something to make up for it. After an appointment fell through one afternoon we had a perfect experience of how God never lets us down when we are working hard. We met a woman named Kafiia, who was watching her daughter playing in the park. We didn't know what we were feeling, but we knew we needed to talk to her. We introduced ourselves, and she welcomed us to sit down and teach her about our church. It was a great lesson, and she just wanted to know more and more. So we gave the sister missionaries her number and they are now teaching her. At first we were a little upset that we wouldn't be teaching her because there are sister missionaries in our area, but we were glad she was being taught. Almost coincidently, the sisters had a person for us to teach. God never let us down.

For the pday fun of missionary work, we were able to visit Expo Milano today, which was so cool. So expo has a whole bunch of countries that have pavilions sharing a bit about their culture and how they are trying to make a better world with conserving food and being innovative. We went through a ton of places, if there was a country you wanted to see, more than likely it was there. We went through too many to really say here. We met some Mormons that were working in the United States pavilion, and we had American burgers with them. I made sure I went through Chile for my dad and Colombia for my cousin. I tried to find the Philippines but I couldn't find it. You can go through expo for a week and still have not seen it all fully. 

This week really made me appreciate planning. With buses and trains really controlling our time, and having to balance appointments and what not, being well planned really makes it easier for us to feel balanced with the day. We knew when we left the house in the morning that we were sure of what we had going on, and that we were not missing anything, because we planned the day out. It also made it much easier for us to feel ok when something unexpected was thrown our way, because we were always planning and always knew what we could and couldn't do. I did not really ever have a minute to breath or lay down during the week, but I never felt overwhelmed. I really know that planning, and of course God helped us have a good week.

I would like to just end with a quick thought on some scriptures I liked.

"...for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men" (2 Nephi 33:1) We are not the teachers, we are merely the voices, the walking speaker. We need to know what we are teaching, but when we speak with the power of the Holy Ghost, it does the rest. His power is infinite and he is the converter.

"And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things" (1 Nephi 11:22) Love is so important in missionary work, and in the gospel. How can we share the gospel if we are not excersizing the first law of the gospel, love. The gospel brings nothing but love to the world, and the love of God is immeasurable.

I know this gospel to be true, I enjoy every minute that I spend sharing it with others, it really molds me, and I see it changing other people's lives. It really is founded on the fact that the Book of Mormon is true, and that we have a living day prophet in Thomas s. Monson. I love it.

Have a great week everyone!

Anziano Chase

Arrivederci Pesaro - Week 47

Hey everyone,

This week we moved our PDay up one day due to a lot of missionaries going home this transfer. This is my last day here in Pesaro. I will be moving to a city called Busto Arsizio, a small city just a couple kilometers north west of Milan, so I will be visiting Milan a lot. I will be with Anziano Mattezazadeh, who has been in the mission for just 3 months. I am very sad to be leaving Pesaro, but I knew it would come eventually. Saying goodbyes and having PDay one day early made this week feel way too short. 

For Fourth of July we had such a great experience with our English class. They all invited us to have an American afternoon with them. They picked us up at noon. (We wore red ties and jeans. Only because we wanted red white and blue for lunch😅😅) we went to lunch at an "American" inspired restaurant called Old Wild West. They brought us American flags, and before we entered, together we sang the star spangled banner. None of them knew the tune so it was funny to see them singing it. We all ate big burgers, and one of the people made us an American flag style cake. This activity was by far one of the coolest things I've ever been involved in, and made it so much harder for me to say goodbye to my English class friends.

Most of this week I have also been walking around in sandals, due to having an ingrown toenail problem. Let me just say, they aren't the most fun things around, and I look like a dweeb with them and church clothes, but oh well.

Darlington is closing in on being baptized and I know that he will baptized after I leave. I was glad I was able to help him realize his desire to follow God, and I knew I was here to help him on that path. Also we had two great experiences in church that made leaving Pesaro even harder... So during the Sunday school session of church, we got asked by two people to teach them some lessons. So my companion and I did a split with some members to teach them. I taught a lady the plan of salvation, and she became overjoyed thinking about the celestial kingdom and wants to do anything to go there: be baptized, follow God, just so she can live with her family forever. It was so amazing to hear her have this huge desire, more than any one else I've taught before. To top it off, the other investigator that my companion taught, came up during our testimony meeting, to tell everyone about the spirit he was feeling, and how he knows he found the place where he belongs, the home he has been searching for. This really was hard for me to see as I was leaving, but I know that they are in good hands in a great city, I am really excited for them as they will be taught by great missionaries.

I have been thinking a lot about change lately, mostly because it is something we really don't control. I don't control where I go, who I serve with. We don't control the weather, when we die (well we shouldn't try to make ourselves die when we want) we don't control Gods decisions. But with all this change, we are still able to control our actions. If I get a new companion, I still control how I am with him, if I am in a new city, I still control what I will do in the city. I don't controls the results, but I have a lot of control of what I work to do. We can't control Gods commandments, but we can control our actions to them. We have so much agency. God wants us to act, to make decisions. It is only so we can grow.

I'm sad to be leaving Pesaro, but I am excited to learn more in my next city. I love it out here, and know the gospel is the ultimate source for growth. Have a great week everyone!

Anziano Chase

Andiamo avanti - Week 46

Hey everyone. 

This week certainly was full of good memories. To start off, we found ourselves a furry little friend one day. We were at one of our local parks looking for people to talk to, and my companion spotted something along the walkway. We took a closer look and it was a hedgehog! We noticed it wasn't running away, or hardly even moving. At that instance we knew it was going to die. So we decided to take him and try to nurse it back to health or at least give it a nicer way to die than be attack by an animal in the park. We brought him back to our apartment and he ate some spinach. We named him Bernie. He sadly parted this life like we expected him to, but we think he was much happier to go out the way he did. We made a memorial for him.

On Saturday we had scheduled interviews in Rimini. We got to Rimini, and there were no buses that would come to take us to the church in the time zone we had to get there, so we walked probably for 45 minutes from the train station to the church in our suits, in 29 degree weather (Celsius). We get there and as soon as we sit down in the church, our president calls us and said he had to cancel our interviews due to the overwhelming traffic to get there. We were a little upset to say the least, not mad, but upset. We now had to make the same walk back in the summer sun. We got back to Pesaro and my bike had a tire pop, and to top it off I got a really bad ingrown toenail. I couldn't think anything positive about the day.

God has a way of making things better. We were able to on Sunday, have a great lesson with Darlington on the word of wisdom, and he shared with me how much more he has been noticing God in his life. He said he still has hard days, but when he does something pleasing to God, he is able to notice the blessings that come from it. This made me feel exactly the same way. Sure I had one rough day on Saturday, but I was able to have a great Sunday, and still find the good things in everything. We cannot acknowledge a great day if we haven't had a sucky day. Darlington has been progressing a lot and it just was so great to see him help me out as well.

We have been doing a lot of member visits and less active visits. We went to visit one of our less actives that is a caretaker of a villa, that I've mentioned in the past, but this visit I really think made an impact on him. We had a good discussion about how experience shouldn't limit your faith, but how faith is ever growing and even when you have experienced many things in life, faith or belief still leads to action. You can't dwell on the past if you truly have faith in something. Faith is change going forward, action that shapes your future, because you are the one acting on your faith. "Faith without works is dead". We can't tell ourselves, well I had faith but you haven't experienced what I have in my life. You don't understand how hard of a time I have had. Faith is a desire to believe and change. True faith is unbreakable. We all live different lives, have different experiences, but faith is what keeps life moving forward. Without faith there is no progression, no desire to make anything of life. I'm not even talking just about faith in God, but faith in general. Faith in a better future, faith. This really struck the less active we talked with. He has had a hard life, and claimed his experiences can't help him believe in anything, but when he looked in his self, he realized he had lost faith in anything. He was at a standstill. I really think this helped him look for some sort of faith to change his outlook on life.

I know that this gospel is here to bless us, and helps us make the necessary steps to return to our Heavenly Father. I love him, and even more I know he loves me. Have a great week everyone!!!

Anziano Chase