Il fine del anno - Week 71

Hey everyone. I hope you had a great Christmas, and that you were able to spend it with someone special! This week was a very happy week for my companion and I. We were able to spend a lot of our time with members, enjoying the holidays with them and remembering Christ with them. Our Christmas Eve was very occupied with traveling to different families. We were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to get to everyone we wanted to see. We had planned out efficiently what we needed to do, and with a little help from above we were able to see 4 families that we wanted to see. I t helped me appreciate a planned out day. If we hadn't really written out what/who we were going to do/see and how it would be accomplished we might not have had the opportunity to see some families. Our Christmas Day was very nice and simple. We went to lunch with the Perez family and watched some nativity videos with them, and spent a good deal just being with them. After we were able to skype our families (who would be excited for that????) and then spend the rest of the night with the Bressans.

Natale con la famiglia Perez

The rest of the week was really mixed with seeing other families in our branch and finding people to teach. We had been struggling lately to find  new people to teach, but really have been blessed these past couple days. When we were teaching G., his friend M. became very interested in our message. We hope to be able to see him. When we were at a members house, his non member mother was very open (well for a very Catholic woman asking questions) and she let us teach her a little. We have been working hard and can see that our efforts will surely be paying off soon.

When we were teaching M., he said something that quite frankly concerned me. He spoke of a concern that members are not as good people as they should be. Although this should not affect personal testimony, it still leaves the worry that our example is noticed, for good and for bad. Testimony IS personal and nothing should be more important than our personal commitment and covenant with our Heavenly Father. But as members, we also need to be living to the standard that our father in heaven wants us to live. People who have never heard of the church will look at people that are members and start formulating opinions. With those first impressions from our actions, a firm desire or no desire to learn about our gospel can start to form in these peoples lives. We should always be examples among the believers, so that when people meet us, they can see the gospel within us. I have a firm belief of personal testimony and I hope that M. can see past the faults of a select few that may have tampered with his testimony.

This week in my studies I was able to really focus on the importance of our father in heaven. My companion and I were discussing how we know he loves us and I started pondering about prayer. He asks of us to pray always, day and night, in faith. He promises to answer our prayers and bless us. I know of that for a fact because I have received many answers to my prayers, but then I started thinking about a more simple reason why he wants us to pray. He knows the thoughts of our hearts, why do we need to pray? For one, to recognize he is there, and two (what really struck out to me), is that he wants to listen to us and talk with us. Have we ever thought about that? That he may just want to be a part of our life? How many times have our parents tried to start a conversation with us and we shut down the conversation thinking that it is an interrogation?  All they usually want to do is speak with us, and be our friend. That is how I know my Heavenly Father really cares. He wants to make our relationship personal, and not just him being the almighty and all knowing dad that he is.

I hope everyone has a great new year, and that we can all start 2016 with a bang! The church is true!

Anziano Chase

Il dono del servizio - Week 70

Christmas is right around the corner and with that comes the time of gratitude and service. This week, with lots of people being busy with family activities and other appointments, we decided to give
some little acts of service. We decided to clean up the front of the church, which had been overrun with leaves, sticks, and lots of pollen (that ended up making me a yellow minion by the end of the
service....) it was nice to be able to just give service to the branch. There are lots of things we can't do due to our lack of mechanic/plumbing/whatever knowledge, but simple yard work we can do. Friday we had our Christmas zone training. It was in Mestre which is a pretty far travel, but it was a nice training. We focused on our Christmas initiative that the church started (È nato un salvatore) and other ways we can give service to people. And then we ended with a gingerbread house making contest. Our gingerbread house was broken in pieces so we decided to just eat ours. Then that night we had our branch Christmas dinner. I was set to be Babbo Natale, and one of the kids found my suit before I changed, and all the kids tried to prove me to be an imposter (just like in "elf") but they loved it regardless and it was a blast. We ate some cultural Gorizian food and it was a nice night. The children had their primary program the next day and then we went with the two youth in the ward for a walk to Fiume Isonso.

Zone training

Babbo Natale 2k15

Monday we were able to see G., and he was just happy to have us over. He does not have a lot going on for Christmas and was happy we wanted to see him. This really made me think about the importance of being a friend to those who may not have a family to spend time with. We all are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, and everyone deserves to feel happy at this time of year. We watched Gioisco il mondo with him and shared a Panatone with him. Yesterday we spent some time with M. sharing some nativity scriptures with him, and went with our English class for a walk in the centro Di Gorizia. We are going to be visiting a lot of families these next two days and I'm very excited. I'm still getting to know everyone, and the spirit of Christmas just makes everyone a little more open and warm, so I'm soo excited.

 Fiume Isonso

Una chiesa di Gorizia

In Italy they don't put the bambino Gesu in manger until Christmas Eve

I've been pondering a lot about this Christmas, and how i wont have another Christmas as a missionary (well until I'm an old buff grandpa being a missionary with my wife) and i thought about how blessed I am to serve full time for the savior. People everywhere in the world recognize (or at least should, hence why we still have to teach people about Christ) Jesus Christ as the savior and reason behind Christmas. I don't have any work, family, dogs, or anything else to keep me from sharing the reason for the season. How amazing is that? We are so blessed to have a savior, and in reality we should be giving to him. Isn't it his birthday? What better way to give to him than by feeding his sheep and sharing the restored gospel with those we come to know? I truly am grateful for this time to serve him. I hope we all can have a wonderful Christmas, and not forget to put the "Christ"  in our Christmas this year!

Porteremo al mondo la sua parola - Week 69

Hey everyone, I hope you all are enjoying the winter season. It's not been too cold but it always seems to reach 0*C at night at some point or another. This week was a very hard working week, but not too much to report. My new companion Anziano B., is a really nice guy. He really loves his mission so far, and just wants to help people. He doesn't know this area too well because he has been here for just a month, but it is a really small city so we have it all memorized already haha. There are no real progressing investigators here, some few long time investigators, but our branch of 35 is really great. They all are really sincere and want to help us, so we are going to do a lot of family mission plans with them.

Christmas lights in the streets of Gorizia

So there are a few long time investigators that I got to meet. L., is an old Italian who just loves to talk to missionaries. This week we made a special effort to see him because his wife was at the doctors all week and he just loves us. He loves it when we call him nonno and he just likes that we listen to him. He believes what we say to be true, he just has a couple of doubts in some areas and an
old man mentality (which means "I'm to old to change") but he is great. We focused with him on Romans 1:16 and not being ashamed or afraid to make steps towards Christ in the gospel. If we believe in something we should never be afraid to defend it or make the changes necessary to stay in harmony with our beliefs. The next man we saw was M., another Italian middle age man. He is also very believing of almost everything we teach, he just has a strong opinion of people and some doubts, but we are focusing on how faith is a personal matter and not a democracy that the people decide.

Church

Other than that we were on the streets 24/7. The city is small and sooo many people know us so the work is slow, but we know as long as we are out doing the work we need to, the lord will bless us with someone who is ready to receive the gospel. Something that really hit me in one of my studies this week was a scripture from Mosia 5:13. "For how knoweth a man the master whom we has not served and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?" This Christmas we recognize Christ as the savior and him with our Heavenly Father as the masters. We can study all we want about this people, but in order for us to truly understand them, we need to apply their teachings through service and works. We start to understand things through their eyes, because we are serving them and doing as they would want us to do. Our hearts combine in a sense, because they are unified in purpose.

 Not bad for a 10 second timer!

Slovenia border

I know this gospel is true. Obedience to the gospel and its commandments is the only way to eternal happiness. I know it. I know Christ gave us his life so that we all may be resurrected. Have a great week everyone!

Transfers - Week 68

Hey everyone, so today I have been train riding so please excuse me if my writing is a little off, it's been a long day. Soooo, I am now in a new city, the city of Gorizia. I haven't seen it in daylight yet, but I've heard it's a nice city. We received a call yesterday from the assistants saying our transfers would be a day early, so it really hit us by surprise. Unfortunately this meant that I would not have as much time to say goodbye to members. It was really sad for me, but I tried to see as many people as I could before I left. (Every missionary was affected by this and members weren't too happy but we do what we have to do) my new companion is Anziano B. He is in his 4th transfer and looks like a real good guy. I have a lot of hopes for this upcoming transfer.

Goodbyes

Sorry that I have don't have soo many exciting details on the week, but I'll try to give some recap on the thoughts I've been having this week. First off is on a quote that I saw. The quote was "winners win, because winners work". I thought long and hard about this. As a missionary I know the best way for me to get the most out of my mission, is to put the most INTO my mission. When we try and decided what makes us a winner, it is easy to get caught up in the competition, and in the end not everyone can win a race. But in God's game, we all can come out winners, if we work to come closer to Christ. When we plant a seed, we work to nurture it so that it will grow. Faith only grows when we work on our testimony and knowledge of the gospel.

The second thing I was thinking about was how I can focus on Christ this Christmas season. Gorizia is a small city with a small branch. I do not know anyone, nor does anyone know me, and Christmas is almost upon us. I could sit around feeling lonely, but I thought about what Christ himself would do, and that is go about doing good to everyone and spreading the love of the gospel. It doesn't matter who we are with or where we are. All that matters is why we celebrate the season. I really hope that I can resemble Christ and help people to remember the significance of Christmas, that a savior is born.

I have a testimony of this gospel, I know that is the truth upon the earth, and that we can all receive a witness of it by faith and revelation. I love this gospel and its teachings! Have a great week everyone.

È nato un salvator - Week 67

Hello everyone. I hope you all had a good week. My weeks are going faster than ever. Although I did not have a Thanksgiving dinner this week, I have plenty to be thankful for. This week I started off with a scambio in Varese with Anziano S. We were teaching one of their investigators who is having a little trouble with his testimony. One of his friends who had been taking the lessons had stopped taking them and was speaking bad about the church in front of him. So we talked to him about the importance of receiving personal testimony. It is easy for us to get discouraged when other things are being said about things we believe in. When we go to our heavenly father we are able to receive our own personal divine testimony, which is truly something that no one else can change. We hope they are able to move forward with him and that he will receive an answer to his questions.

In church we were able to teach some new people this week that a member brought. Two of them really stuck out to me. E. is from the Ivory Coast and only speaks French, but T.G. learned French
when he was young and was able to translate for us when we taught him. I was truly grateful for many things in that lesson. One, that the lord had given us an aid in a new convert at the exact time we needed it, and two, that the spirit is truly the teacher in our lessons. I was not able to speak French directly to him, but I was able to see the spirit testify of every thing my companion and I would say. The Lord really does aid us in every way. The other investigator, F., was also really great. He was really moved by the fact that we aim to learn more in church and that we focus on the teachings and how they apply to us directly. We don't just listen to the talk by the speaker and then go home and say it was a good service. We have classes and participate together so that we can ALL come closer to our Heavenly Father.

Other than that we have been hitting the streets focusing on the new church initiative for Christmas, which is " È Nato un Salvator " which is focusing directly on the birth of Christ. It is easy to get wrapped up in the festivals and activities that come with the Christmas season, but when we take a moment to acknowledge the reason behind Christmas, and more importantly why it is important that Christ was born, we are able to feel closer to him. Yes Christ is the savior and we celebrate his birth at this time, but the focus from this phrase is to discover why it is important that "A savior is born", why he needed to atone for us, and why he is called the savior. I think this type of thought can really help us understand the true meaning of this holiday and why Christ is so important to us.

Anyways I hope you all have a great week, and are able to think about how others can feel the love and importance of this holiday season!

Anziano Chase