Aug18
August 17th, 2015
Good Morning Everyone!!
I love you all and hope you all are doing well crazy to think that the
summer is coming to end. The summer always seems to go bye way to
fast. The weather here in Napoli has been really nice. It was pretty
warm during the week, but cooled off on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
It actually rained yesterday, which was a surprise because it usually
doesn't rain here in the summer. Rain is always a good thing. This
past week went bye so fast. The weeks continue to move faster and
faster.
To start off, I would like to tell you all what happens here in Italy
during the month of August. Missionary work during the month of August
in nearly impossible in Italy. This is the month where practically the
entire country shuts down and everyone goes on vacation. Everyone from
Florence and Venice come down to Napoli, while everyone from Napoli
heads down to Southern Italy. Now when I say everyone, I mean
absolutely everyone heads out on vacation. Nobody could meet with us
this past week and we seriously called so many people trying to get
something. We tried nearly everyone in our less-active member book, we
tried our area book, we tried calling English course
students.....Nobody could meet with us after Tuesday. So Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday and Sunday were long days of nothing but street
finding. In August all of the stores close ( except for the grocery
stores and they are only open for 4 hours at the max ), all of the
people head out of the town where they live, and on August 15th we
aren't even allowed to leave the house ( because it gets so crazy and
out of control outside ). When I first got here we had a solid 100
members in church for the first 3 weeks, yesterday we had 17 members
including four missionaries. Everyone is out of Naples. Everyone. Kind
of tough to get a lot of good missionary work done during the month of
August, but we tried our best this past week and saw some good things.
Hopefully this week will be better because everyone is starting to
return from their vacations and what not.
Before the big vacation spree hit we were able to see Salvatore ( The
Pizzeria Guy ) and Francesco ( The Martial Arts Guy ) and his wife. We
were able to finish The Plan of Salvation with Salvatore. We like to
break that lesson into two parts because it is a lot of information to
take in for one sitting. We finished it up and the lesson went really
well. He expressed how he loved hearing that his family can be
together forever. I love teaching the Plan of Salvation. Francesco (
The Martial Arts Guy ) and his wife are going through a really hard
time. His wife is having a ton of problems with work and they are
really struggling as of late. We were going to start the Plan of
Salvation but both Anziano Just and I felt like we should talk about
trials. We talked about trials that we have had in our lives and
talked about why we have difficulties in this life. It was a strong
lesson and they seemed to feel a little bit better afterwards. I love
these people.
The Assistants to the President came down to do Exchanges with our
Zone Leaders. They came down for 2 days and the second day they wanted
to do an Exchange with us. I went with Anziano Puff ( you say is like
Poof ). He is from Northern Italy and finishes his mission in 6 weeks.
He is 25 years old and used to be a model. He is the biggest, funniest
and cockiest person I have ever met. I love him haha! We got about 15
numbers in a two hour span and met tons of good people. It was the
funnest but also the most productive exchange I have been on.
Hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to meet some of the
people we talked with and get ourselves some new investigators.
We received transfer calls this past Saturday. Anziano Just is
heading up to Rome and I am staying in Napoli. I am getting an Italian
companion who is in his last transfer. His name is Anziano Lasarte. I
am excited to get an Italian companion, it is my goal to speak nothing
but Italian for our 6 weeks together. To bad that Anziano Just is
heading up to Rome. I really like Anziano Just and he is one awesome
missionary. Rome is lucky to be getting him. Our transfer together
went bye really fast.
That is about it for this last week for me. Things are going really
well. I am excited for the opportunity to serve with an Italian
companion but I am grateful for the chance I had to serve with Elder
Just. I hope that he was able to learn something from me, because I
learned many many things from him. I love you all so much and am so
grateful for all of you back home. I am grateful for your prayers,
love and support. I hope you all have a great week and be safe. This
week I have thought about many different things to share...I have
thought about prayer and fasting, I have thought about faith, I have
thought about working hard....I have thought about lots of things to
share a little message about. I want to share a little bit about one
of my scriptures.
Mormon 9:27 "Doubt not, but be believing.....and come unto the Lord with all your heart"
This life brings many different opportunities to have doubt, to be
fearful. Doubt means a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction. I
come across these situations every day. I see them in my own personal
life. I see them in the lives of our ward members. I especially see
these difficulties in the lives of our investigators. We all have
these times of doubt and these things seem to come more often than we
think. The one thing we must always remember is that if we trust the
Big Man in the Upstairs and turn everything over to Him....Everything
will work out. Everything. It is not always easy to trust God
completely, but we must learn to do it in order to get to where we
want to get. We cannot get through this life on our own. We may think
we know what is best for ourselves but the honest truth is God knows
much more than we do. As humans, and mortals, we look at things as of
this very moment and we sometimes have a hard time looking forward at
the future. Our Heavenly Father works in way that is eternal. He looks
at the grand scheme of everything. He is the only one who knows our
full potential. He is the only one that can help us reach our absolute
full potential. The only way He can help us, is if we are humble
enough to let Him into our lives and allow Him to be our guide. In
order to get to where we need to be, we need to give ourselves
completely over to Him. We have to be willing to change. We have to be
willing to sacrifice a little bit in order to become who He needs us
to be. Sometimes these things or changes might bring some doubt, or
even a little bit of fear....but let us remember that we are
absolutely never alone in this mortal journey. We have an Almighty
Being that is always there for us and will never leave us unaided or
unguided. We must seek Him and seek Him in everything. Let us always
have pure hope in what is to come and be consistently believing in our
infinitely loving Heavenly Father. I know that when we trust Him and
accept His will, we will never be lead astray. God is no respect of
persons, but He sure loves the humble. My challenge this week is to
completely trust in God. I challenge you all that the next time a big
decision is placed before you, that you humbly seek out The Lord and
talk it over with Him. He will always lead you on the right path and
that path leads directly home to Him. That is where we all want to be.
Doubt Not, but Be Believing... I love you all so much. Have a good week.
Be Humble, Be Fearless.
Peace be the Journey,
Anziano JarDee Nessen
Ps.....I will send out Pivtures and Videos tomorrow morning when I
have wifi. We had to work this morning so this P-Day has been kind of
crazy. I love you guys!! Have a good week. I will talk to you all
soon.
I love you all and hope you all are doing well crazy to think that the
summer is coming to end. The summer always seems to go bye way to
fast. The weather here in Napoli has been really nice. It was pretty
warm during the week, but cooled off on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
It actually rained yesterday, which was a surprise because it usually
doesn't rain here in the summer. Rain is always a good thing. This
past week went bye so fast. The weeks continue to move faster and
faster.
To start off, I would like to tell you all what happens here in Italy
during the month of August. Missionary work during the month of August
in nearly impossible in Italy. This is the month where practically the
entire country shuts down and everyone goes on vacation. Everyone from
Florence and Venice come down to Napoli, while everyone from Napoli
heads down to Southern Italy. Now when I say everyone, I mean
absolutely everyone heads out on vacation. Nobody could meet with us
this past week and we seriously called so many people trying to get
something. We tried nearly everyone in our less-active member book, we
tried our area book, we tried calling English course
students.....Nobody could meet with us after Tuesday. So Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday and Sunday were long days of nothing but street
finding. In August all of the stores close ( except for the grocery
stores and they are only open for 4 hours at the max ), all of the
people head out of the town where they live, and on August 15th we
aren't even allowed to leave the house ( because it gets so crazy and
out of control outside ). When I first got here we had a solid 100
members in church for the first 3 weeks, yesterday we had 17 members
including four missionaries. Everyone is out of Naples. Everyone. Kind
of tough to get a lot of good missionary work done during the month of
August, but we tried our best this past week and saw some good things.
Hopefully this week will be better because everyone is starting to
return from their vacations and what not.
Before the big vacation spree hit we were able to see Salvatore ( The
Pizzeria Guy ) and Francesco ( The Martial Arts Guy ) and his wife. We
were able to finish The Plan of Salvation with Salvatore. We like to
break that lesson into two parts because it is a lot of information to
take in for one sitting. We finished it up and the lesson went really
well. He expressed how he loved hearing that his family can be
together forever. I love teaching the Plan of Salvation. Francesco (
The Martial Arts Guy ) and his wife are going through a really hard
time. His wife is having a ton of problems with work and they are
really struggling as of late. We were going to start the Plan of
Salvation but both Anziano Just and I felt like we should talk about
trials. We talked about trials that we have had in our lives and
talked about why we have difficulties in this life. It was a strong
lesson and they seemed to feel a little bit better afterwards. I love
these people.
The Assistants to the President came down to do Exchanges with our
Zone Leaders. They came down for 2 days and the second day they wanted
to do an Exchange with us. I went with Anziano Puff ( you say is like
Poof ). He is from Northern Italy and finishes his mission in 6 weeks.
He is 25 years old and used to be a model. He is the biggest, funniest
and cockiest person I have ever met. I love him haha! We got about 15
numbers in a two hour span and met tons of good people. It was the
funnest but also the most productive exchange I have been on.
Hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to meet some of the
people we talked with and get ourselves some new investigators.
We received transfer calls this past Saturday. Anziano Just is
heading up to Rome and I am staying in Napoli. I am getting an Italian
companion who is in his last transfer. His name is Anziano Lasarte. I
am excited to get an Italian companion, it is my goal to speak nothing
but Italian for our 6 weeks together. To bad that Anziano Just is
heading up to Rome. I really like Anziano Just and he is one awesome
missionary. Rome is lucky to be getting him. Our transfer together
went bye really fast.
That is about it for this last week for me. Things are going really
well. I am excited for the opportunity to serve with an Italian
companion but I am grateful for the chance I had to serve with Elder
Just. I hope that he was able to learn something from me, because I
learned many many things from him. I love you all so much and am so
grateful for all of you back home. I am grateful for your prayers,
love and support. I hope you all have a great week and be safe. This
week I have thought about many different things to share...I have
thought about prayer and fasting, I have thought about faith, I have
thought about working hard....I have thought about lots of things to
share a little message about. I want to share a little bit about one
of my scriptures.
Mormon 9:27 "Doubt not, but be believing.....and come unto the Lord with all your heart"
This life brings many different opportunities to have doubt, to be
fearful. Doubt means a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction. I
come across these situations every day. I see them in my own personal
life. I see them in the lives of our ward members. I especially see
these difficulties in the lives of our investigators. We all have
these times of doubt and these things seem to come more often than we
think. The one thing we must always remember is that if we trust the
Big Man in the Upstairs and turn everything over to Him....Everything
will work out. Everything. It is not always easy to trust God
completely, but we must learn to do it in order to get to where we
want to get. We cannot get through this life on our own. We may think
we know what is best for ourselves but the honest truth is God knows
much more than we do. As humans, and mortals, we look at things as of
this very moment and we sometimes have a hard time looking forward at
the future. Our Heavenly Father works in way that is eternal. He looks
at the grand scheme of everything. He is the only one who knows our
full potential. He is the only one that can help us reach our absolute
full potential. The only way He can help us, is if we are humble
enough to let Him into our lives and allow Him to be our guide. In
order to get to where we need to be, we need to give ourselves
completely over to Him. We have to be willing to change. We have to be
willing to sacrifice a little bit in order to become who He needs us
to be. Sometimes these things or changes might bring some doubt, or
even a little bit of fear....but let us remember that we are
absolutely never alone in this mortal journey. We have an Almighty
Being that is always there for us and will never leave us unaided or
unguided. We must seek Him and seek Him in everything. Let us always
have pure hope in what is to come and be consistently believing in our
infinitely loving Heavenly Father. I know that when we trust Him and
accept His will, we will never be lead astray. God is no respect of
persons, but He sure loves the humble. My challenge this week is to
completely trust in God. I challenge you all that the next time a big
decision is placed before you, that you humbly seek out The Lord and
talk it over with Him. He will always lead you on the right path and
that path leads directly home to Him. That is where we all want to be.
Doubt Not, but Be Believing... I love you all so much. Have a good week.
Be Humble, Be Fearless.
Peace be the Journey,
Anziano JarDee Nessen
Ps.....I will send out Pivtures and Videos tomorrow morning when I
have wifi. We had to work this morning so this P-Day has been kind of
crazy. I love you guys!! Have a good week. I will talk to you all
soon.
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