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

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