September 28th, 2015

September 28th, 2015

Good morning everyone. I don't have a lot of time this week unfortunately because I have so much to write about. So I am going to try and get as much in as I possibly can. I hope you are all doing well and everything is going great back in AMERICA. I love you all so much. Thank you for everything.

First off, we received transfer falls on Saturday morning. I was expecting to stay in Naples for another 6 weeks at least, well my expectations were wrong. I am heading down to Sicily to re-open an area that was shut down to missionary work. I am excited to re-open a little town called Mistretta. It is in the center of Sicily and is up in the mountains. I have heard that the work there is rough, but I am hoping to fix that with hard work and a lot of love. I will be companions with another Italian, which is exciting. He is younger than me in the mission, so it is a big opportunity to be the senior comp and re-open a pretty rough area. Hopefully we will make the most out of the opportunity that we have before us. The Zone Leaders here in Naples will be splitting and both training which is the best case scenario, because they know all of the people that we have been working with. I am sad to be leaving Naples so soon, because I have come to seriously love some people here. It is going to hurt saying goodbye these next few days. 

Yesterday during sacrament no one knew that I was getting transferred, because everyone along with me thought that I would be staying a little while longer. Here in Italy after we receive transfers calls, they always let the departing missionaries stand up during sacrament and say a few things. Yesterday we had a few investigators in church that I am extremely close with and I couldn't bring myself to tell them that I will be leaving in the next few days. They called for the missionaries who would be leaving to come up and so I stood up.....I bore my testimony and said my thank you's. Immediately after sacrament ended, Mario the guy from English Course came directly to me in tears and hugged me. I started to cry. After I let Mario go, I looked to my right and Francesco, the martial arts guy, was right there teary eyed as well. We hugged and cried and held on real tight. I thought it was going to be hard to say goodbye, but I didn't think it would be that hard. It is crazy to me hoe close I can grow to someone in just 12 weeks... Saying my goodbyes is going to nearly kill me on Tuesday night. I love this place and these people. 

This Morning we dropped Anziano Lazarte off at the train station because he is heading up to Rome to finish his mission tomorrow morning. I love Anziano Lazarte. We got along super well and I tried my best to soak up all of the experience he had. He was a wonderful missionary and finished his mission with honor. He will do big things in this world, just as he did throughout his 2 year service. 

We were able to see the Ukrainians this past week and we were able to get out to their house. We ordered two Book of Mormons in Ukrainian so they could have a copy in their own mother-language. We had a great lesson with them and they are truly incredible people. One of the Zone Leaders will be taking them over and continuing the lessons with them. 

Anziano Lazarte and I got to go over to Francesco's and Anna's house Friday evening for Martial Arts and a lesson. Little did I know that it would most likely be my last time over there. We had a sweet material arts lesson and worked hard. Afterwards we taught them the back end of the Plan of Salvation and bore powerful testimonies on the importance of the family and how families are forever. It was great and we had a good night together. 

Last Monday night we had an awesome family home evening with Luigi, the one guy who came to us a few weeks ago ready to give up on life. We did it on Charity and the spirit was so strong. I love that guy. We will be having one last lesson with him tonight before I have to say goodbye. The other Zone Leader will be taking Luigi over. 

It is never fun to get blown out of an area, but it is comforting to know that the people that I love here will be in good hands. As I said earlier...I haven't said my final goodbyes yet, but when I do....it is going to hurt. Napoli is a wonderful place, full of wonderful people. I am going to miss this place and the people in it. FORZA NAPOLI. 

I am sorry for the lame email this week.... I am low on time today. I just want to bare a short testimony...

Jesus Christ is our Lord, Savior and Redeemer. He is the Prince of Peace, The King of Kings, The Author of our happiness. He suffered for every pain we would ever feel, every tear we would ever shed, every sin we would ever commit. He paid that eternal price for us. He loves us perfectly; as does the Father that sent Him. Their love is unending. I know that we have a Father in Heaven who knows each one of us perfectly. I know that God hears, listens and answers our prayers; no matter how large or small they may be. I know He always responds. That response might not always be the answer that we want, but His answer is always the response that we need. I know that with faith, truly all things are possible. That divine Father above has blessed every one of us here upon the earth with talents and gifts. It is our responsibility to discover which abilities we have been given and use them to bless the lives of others. I know that we are never alone and that we are never left unaided in our trials, and times of difficulty. There are forces both seen and unseen that are constantly sending us love, comfort and support. As my favorite scripture says..."I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." We are never alone. I know that Families are Forever and that the blessings we receive from the Holy Temple are eternal. I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph Smith indeed translated the Book of Mormon. I know that The Book of Mormon came from God and it was truly written for us in these last days. Jesus is the Christ. The Book of Mormon is true. Families are Forever. God lives and loves us. He hears our prayers. We are never alone. 

I love you all so much. Thank you for everything and anything. I am heading down to Sicily on Thursday. I am sad to be leaving, but excited for the new experiences ahead. I hope everyone has a good, safe week. I love you all so much.

I love you all. Vi Voglio Bene. 

Anziano JarDee Nessen 

September 21, 2015

September 21, 2015

Good Morning My Friends and Family!!  

I hope everyone had another amazing week this past week. I hope school is going well for everyone. I hope work is going well for everyone. I hope everything is going well for everyone. I hope everyone is healthy and happy. You all are incredible. Thank you for all of the love, prayers and support. Things are great over here in Napoli. Anziano Lazarte are doing well and staying healthy. This week is Anziano Lazarte's last week in his mission. He is a stud and is not letting the fact that he is going home next week get to him. He is the man!! I love the guy and we are getting along really well. All is well over here in this part of the world. I hope and pray that all is well back home in the promise land. 

Last P-Day we found this huge open park up on the hill here in Napoli. We took my trusty Wilson football, along with our soccer ball, and played in the open space for hours. We tossed the ole pigskin around for hours and kicked the soccer ball around for a little bit. It was so nice to get out of the crowded city for a minute and play on some nice Italian crab grass. When we would throw the football around, so many people would stop and watch forever. It hit me that 90% or more of these people have never seen people place catch with a football, let alone even seen a football in their life. Afterwards we went and checked out some $50 dollar suits. There were some nice looking suits, but we didn't end up buying anything. It was a solid P-Day and it felt good to let Wilson fly a little bit. 

The Zone Leaders for our Zone serve in Napoli with us. We have all become pretty good friends this transfer. I might have mentioned a few weeks back that us missionaries are responsible for teaching the gospel principles class on Sunday. In my first city, Crotone, gospel principles class was awesome. Everyone was respectful, everyone participated, it was easy to feel the spirit. It was awesome in Crotone. Well... Napoli is a different story. To be bluntly honest, the gospel principles class here in Napoli is a War Zone. It is hard to get the members to pay attention, to participate. It is sometimes a bit tough to bring the spirit... It is a War Zone. Back to the Zone Leaders now. Last week i sent home a picture of us playing basketball in the morning. We decided to make playing basketball in the morning just a little bit more meaningful. We decided to make it kind of like the NBA Playoffs with a best of 5 series (starting Monday mornings), and the loser has to teach the gospel principles class on Sunday. Last week Anziano Lazarte and I killed the other Elders in our best of 5 series....So they ended up teaching gospel principles yesterday and yet again....it was another War Zone. I love our Zone Leaders. They are awesome guys and we are all super close. We have started a little tradition for lunch on Friday's. We call it Burger Friday ( original I know but it is the best we could do ). We buy around 3 pounds of hamburger meat and grill up some fresh American style hamburgers. 

On Thursday we had our Zone Conference for this transfer. It was powerful. We received trainings from our Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders and our Mission President. Our Zone Leaders training was Rising Up and Daring to be Missionary. It was sweet. They challenged us to speak with every single person that takes a glance at our name tag. I never noticed how many people look at my name tag, until we were challenged with this. Our Sister Training Leaders spoke on the importance of the first three hours of the day. It was pretty good. Our Mission President gave a sweet training titled "Fear Not." It was powerful. I love the scriptures from D&C 6. 

33 Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.

34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

Zone Conference is always great. Always seem to walk away a little bit re-amped. 

Investigator Report:

•Francesco and Anna ( Martial Arts Guy ) - They are doing well. The wife is a devoted Catholic and we feel that she feels like we are just there to prove the catholic religion wrong, which it is, but we are not here to prove them wrong. We are here to help other find pure snd everlasting happiness. We are not asking them to change completely. We are simply inviting them to "Come and See." We decided to print off a talk from Elder Bednar and read it with them. It went well and, like every time an Apostle speaks, the spirit is powerful. We explained that we were not there to tear down the things that they believe, we are simply there to give them something that no other religion can bring them. The lesson went really well, really well. We were able to bare powerful testimonies and really open their eyes to who we are. They agreed to "Come and See." Unfortunately they did not show up to church yesterday, but hopefully next week they will be able to come. 

•Salvatore -  Salvatore is doing well. His Pizzeria is kind of struggling right now, but they had a good weekend this last weekend which was a blessing. Again, his pizzeria is literally 1 minute from our church and 3 minutes from our house....So we stop by and see him everyday and see how he is doing. He is reading the Book of Mormon here and there...but every time he reads, he finds something they he likes. He is such a stud. I love the guy. We will see Salvatore Tuesday morning and Friday morning.

 

•Luigi - Luigi is doing really well. We had a great Restoration lesson with him this last week and he has a baptismal date for the 31st of October. He wasn't scared to ask questions and stop us if he didn't understand. It was awesome! He also did not come to church yesterday which was a bummer, but he is reading the Book of Mormon everyday. We plan on teaching him the plan of salvation this week and we are having a family home evening tonight with him and some members. I love Luigi. A few weeks ago he was in so much pain. He was lost and searching for anything to bring him a little piece of happiness. A member hear in Napoli brought him to us and his life is truly changing right in front of our very eyes. Instead of being the worn down and beaten guy I met a few weeks back, he is looking much better and feeling much better. I can see in his eyes that there is still pain, but that pain isn't nearly as deep as it was a few weeks back. He is finding happiness and joy in the right place, that being in Jesus Christ. I love Luigi. I am super excited for him! 

•Tanya and Lisa ( the Ukrainians )- At Zone Conference we received some material in Ukrainian for them to use that is in their own mother language. Tanya ( the mother ) speaks Italian fluently, but the daughter has a hard time understanding everything. We were pumped to get them copies of The Book of Mormons and the pamphlets in Ukrainian. They are doing awesome. They came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. They are looking for something spiritually stable in their lives and I am glad that they found us. We plan on meeting with them this Tuesday and Thursday to teach them some English and a Lesson. They are fantastic and are doing really well. 

Those are our main 5 investigators that we are really focusing on. We have some others, but I will have to fill you in on them next week. We have some good work here in Napoli and we are continuing to see miracles. Life is good. 

English Course Update: 

English Course was good this last week. We had a new young couple show up on Tuesday and they were really interested in our church after the spiritual thought at the end of the English lesson. The girlfriend came up to Anziano Lazarte and began speaking with him about the Holy Ghost and the role of the Holy Ghost. Anziano Lazarte did a fine job explaining to her what the Holy Ghost is, what the Holy Ghost does, how we feel the Holy Ghost...all of these things. She explained that she was evangelist and told us all about how wonderful her preacher or pastor is. She said and I quote..."My Pastor ( or Preacher. Whatever the evangelists have ) is incredible. Last night he called me on the phone and as soon as I answered the call.....The spirit absolutely overcame my entire body. The spirit engulfed me." This kind of caught me off guard and I'm sure the look on my face was pretty blank.... But she did agree to take a Book of Mormon and began reading it. That's my English Course story for the week.

The weather here has been SO HOT this past week. In the high 90's with around 366% humidity ( slight exaggeration there ). As soon as we get outside of our apartment in the mornings, I can literally feel the moisture just start to stick to my skin and clothes. It is wonderful. We have heard from multiple people that this past summer here in Napoli was the hottest summer in over 100 years. I believe they because boy oh boy it was warm here and still is. 

That about wraps up my week here in Italy. Things are really well. I love my companion. We are getting along super well. Our work is great. The people we are meeting with are incredible. I am happy, healthy and content. Things are great. I love it out here. This week I want to share a few small quotes I found a couple weeks back. 

"Good character is to be praised more than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece, by thought, choice, courage and determination." -John Luther 

 

Another quote that I love is... "Be the same man in the light, that you are in the dark." -Jabari Parker's Father. 

Another thing I heard once during football was..."It doesn't matter who you are and what you do when you know someone is watching. What matters is who you and and what you do when no one else is around." Coach Ras said that when I was a Freshman and it is something that I have never forgotten, nor will I ever forget that. 

That is my spiritual though this week. Character. Character is everything. It doesn't come all at once, we must construct it within ourselves. My invite this week is to be the person who is willing to help, who is willing to give, who is willing to love, who is willing to sacrifice, who is willing to serve both in front of others and in private. My invite is to do good, to do good. Not to be recognized by others or to gain recognition in the eyes of man. 

 

Mathew 6:1-4

1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Let us do things, because they need to be done. Let us do these things out of the goodness of our hearts. Let us do things for the right reasons. 

I am not sure about you guys but the days seem to continue to fly bye faster and faster. Time flies. It surely flies. Crazy to think back to a year ago and think what I was doing. Lots of things can happen and change in one year. I love you all so much. I hope and pray that everyone is doing well. I hope and pray that everyone has a wonderful week this week. Truly....Thank you all so very much. Thank you all for the love, support and prayers. I will talk to you all soon. Have a good, safe week. 

 I love you all!!! Vi Voglio Tantissimo Bene!!! 

-Anziano JarDee Nessen

 

Meet Carmella. Carmella is 3 years old and comes to English Course every single Tuesday and Thursday with her older brother. From my first time at English Course here in Napoli she has been my best friend. Wherever I go, She follows. Whatever I say, she repeats. Whatever I do, she does as well. Wherever I sit, she is always the person right next to me. She is always holding my hand and kissing me on the cheek. This picture pretty describes our friendship (She said "Oh Yeah!" and I obviously thought it was pretty funny). Always laughing. Always smiling. I love Carmella. 

 

 

This little guy was in Salvatore's pizzeria the other night. I had seen him one time before this last week. We were in the pizzeria when I felt a little tap on my back. I turned around to find little Pasquale standing there and he asked if he could take a picture with me. How could I turn down this little guy. That was the second time I've met him and we are apparently pretty good friends. He always talks to me about America and loves to show me that he can count to 10 in English. Being a missionary is so fun. I live for stories and experiences like this. 

 

 

This little guy wanted to make a handshake after English Course the

other night. This is the final product. You will see him shoot a fake

blow dart at me... That is another game I started with the younger

kids at English Course, but that's a different story. You will also

see Carmella again at the end of this video. I love being a

missionary. 

 

 Here is Carmella saying her famous..."Oh yeah!!"

 

 

 

 

Our Pig-Skin Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Newest Tradition

Burger Friday!

 

9 Months Down!

9 Months Down!

Good Morning Everyone!! 

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day and Labor Day weekend. I hope everyone had a good past week of school and work. I hope everyone that had the chance to go to Peach Days enjoyed it. I hope everyone is happy and healthy. I love you all. Things over here in Italy are going very well. The weather is cooling down, all of our investigators have returned home from their vacations and my companion and I are starting to really click. This past week was probably the best that I have had so far in my mission. We are staying healthy, having fun, working hard and enjoying out time here in the wild and crazy Napoli. 

Anziano Lazarte is the man. He finished his mission in two weeks from today and he is still going very strong. This last week we really started to fire on all cylinders. Our lessons are getting better, our finding/tracting is becoming more effective, our time management is clutch... We are doing really well together. I love Anziano Lazarte.

Last week for P-Day we decided to go to Pompeii. It was packed with people but it was pretty neat to see. It was cool to look back and remember learning about Pompeii in the 5th grade and then actually have the opportunity to see the real thing. The buildings, architecture, the way things were preserved....It was pretty incredible to see. Pompeii was a pretty evil place at the time it was destroyed and it is still an evil and corrupt place.....it was a good experience and something I will never forget. This week for P-Day we are going suit shopping. We have been talking with people that own suit stores around town and many of them have agreed to sell us a suit for 50 bucks. So today we are going to see if we can find ourselves some new getty-ups to wear. A nice 50 dollar suit hand made in Italy isn't to bad. 

English Course Update for the week.

Last week we split classes again and we taught the basic course. We went through the lesson for about 45 minutes and then moved everyone in a nice little circle. We pulled up a chair and began to ask them different questions. We asked what their favorite colors where, what their favorite movies are, what year they were born....all those types of questions. The final question I thought to ask was "What is your greatest fear?" We heard many different responses from spiders, to deep water, to heights and a few even said death. As we were going around the circle I made sure that I skipped over myself so I could answer last. The last person to answer before me was Mario, the older gentlemen who had us over for a pizza a few weeks back, and he said.."Death." At this point in the English Course it was time for the spiritual thought and we really didn't have anything in specific planned...but with Mario going last and his response being "Death" we knew just what to do it on. We began to bare testimony that we do not need to be afraid to die if we have done the things necessary during our life on earth to prepare ourselves to meet our Father in Heaven again. We bore testimony that this life, this earth life, is the time for us to prepare to meet our Heavenly Father. That this earth life is a time for us to be tried and tested and pushed to the limit, so we will be ready to receive the eternal glory that is in store for us, that is if we do right. The students then looked at me and asked what my biggest fear was. I replied "That I am not making my Mom who has now passed on proud." We closed the spiritual thought and ended English course with a prayer. Afterwards, there is a mom who has two younger boys and they always come to English course and they are wonderful people, this one mother came out of her way to shake my hand and she said to me..."Trust me because I am a mother. Your mother is proud of you." It was definitely a tender mercy because Tuesday was not the easiest day, but having her come out of her way to say that made Tuesday a little bit better. Might not have been a tender mercy or a miracle for anyone else, but it sure was for me. 

English course is great, our students are great, and we always make it fun. English course is the best! 

We were finally able to get over to Francesco's house again. It had been about a month since we had last met with them, so it was good to finally get over their again and be with them. Anziano Lazarte is kind of a spastic character and doesn't have the best control over his body. He is a smaller, faster and athletic kid.....just doesn't have the best control over his body. As we were doing the self defense and martial arts lesson, there were many time that he came close to laying a nice bare fist on my face...So I would pull off and remind him that we do not have gloves on and that it is going to hurt if he catches me. So the lesson went on and we learned some new things, and then we became to do what the Italians call "Shadow Boxing" or when you work on technique, but don't go full speed because you don't have gloves or protection on. Anziano Lazarte again started to go a little hard and a little harder and a little harder. I reminded him that it was just for fun and we went there to prove anything to anyone. It almost seemed as if I was speaking to the wall because no more than 30 seconds later he came at me pretty hard and caught me right square in the nose with a bare fist punch. The Blood came flowing out, my eyes got all watery and I just stared at him like..."Really?" Haha. I am not going to lie, I wanted to smack him upside the head....but the only thing I could do is laugh. Goodness gracias it hurt so bad and he felt pretty bad but I told him not to worry about it because it was an accident. Francesco's was a good time and it went well with them. They are going to take a little time and a lot of patience, but I believe that they will accept it some day. We just have to continue to take the spirit with us and make sure they know that we love them. They seemed a little happier this time and they didn't seem so weighed down by the stresses of work and everyday life. Made me happy to see them relaxed and worry free. I love Francesco and his wife. They are like family to me. Afterwards I was thinking that, Anziano Lazarte was the first person to punch me, but then I remembered my senior year of basketball and what happened after we beat desert hills. There is a good memory for you for the week!! 

We got ourselves some new investigators this week which is always nice. We got the Ukrainian Mom And Daughter which was a huge score. They are incredible and looking for something. I will give you more on them next week, but just know that they are awesome! Our friend Luigi who came to us last week is doing really well. We met with him a few times last week and he has began reading the Book of Mormon and even accepted a Baptismal Date for Halloween. So if all goes well, I might just get to dress up this year on Halloween. That would be incredible. Luigi is so humble and looking for a change so badly. I love the guy. He can overcome these problems and struggles. I know he can and he will. Salvatore our pizza guy is doing really well. This last week we taught him the word of wisdom and he agreed to stop drinking coffee. He doesn't smoke or drink, so the word of wisdom was something he really liked and understood. His son, who is two years old named Pasquale, got pretty sick the beginning of last week. We told Salvatore that if he would pray for his son, that he would be healed in the morning. Sure enough....Salvatore prayed for his boy and the next day Pasquale was find. He is reading the Book of Mormon and we even got him the gospel library app on his phone so he can always have it with him. I love Salvatore! He is the MAN!! 

This past weekend we had Stake Conference. The Saturday sessions were held at the Pozzuoli Church and The Sunday Session was actually held up on stage at the same movie theatre where they played Meet the Mormons last weekend. It was a pretty interesting session and environment, but it went really well. Everyone was able to have a seat and be in the same room. The Temple President from Switzerland come down and joined us. He is a spiritual giant. He even gave his talk in Italian. He was one of the humblest people that I have ever met. His talks were powerful and he did a really good job speaking Italian. Our stake president is a PowerHouse as well. He is not scared to drop the hammer and make bold statements. I love that about him. He is 35 years old and will most likely be called to the 70 next fall after he has been released from his current calling as stake president. He speaks English perfectly and is one of the harder working people I have ever met. He has changed our stake over here and changed it for the better. He is the man! Stake Conference was great and it was cool to experience it in another country. 

That about does it for me this week over here in Napoli. I love you all. 

Unfortunately we live in a fallen world, which means we will each experience some times of difficulty and pain. Out here I meet people everyday that are going through a hard time or struggling in some kind of way. I know at home that there people going through times of struggle and times that look pretty gloom. Everywhere we look: there is suffering, there is pain, there is heartache, there are trials, there are tears, there is death. All around each and everyone of us, we not only see but we experience what it is like here upon this fallen world we call Earth.

We all have our struggles and trials, no matter how large or small they may be. We have all experienced a little bit of sadness, some heartache, a few disappointments and I am here to tell you that we will continue to have these time of trial for the remainder of our lives. Trials, disappointments, sadness, sickness and heartache are part of this life, but they can lead to growth, progress and refinement. Times of difficulty can either make us or break us. Our happiness depends on how we choose to respond to these times of heartache and pain. We can do one of two things. We can ask.."Why me?" "What have I done to deserve something like this?" Or we choose to say.. "What am I supposed to learn from this?" "What am I to change?" "Who can I help?" Again I repeat...Trials, disappointments, sadness, sickness and heartache are part of this life, but they can lead to growth, progress and refinement. The key word is can. These times of trial can turn us into someone stronger, someone better if we so choose to allow them to do so. We choose to allow our trials and difficulties to make us stronger by asking ourselves the second set of questions above (those are only a few). We must not allow ourselves to become "hard hearted", as the scriptures say, when these times of sadness come along. We must not look to the sky and ask.. "Why me?" Self pity and closing off your heart to God and to others only drags the sting of the trial out longer. 

I have always had a pretty incredible example of choosing to ask ourselves the second pair of questions above. That would be my good ole Papa Jon. Him and Momma Mandee had just gone through the temple. They had become spiritually clean and put God first. Things were on the rise. Less than one month after we had made the covenant to become an eternal family, we were in a car accident that took Momma Mandee. I cannot imagine the scale of his heartache and pain, the absolute emptiness he felt, the fear of raising to crazy little boys while trying to maintain a job. Through all of this, I cannot remember one complaint ever coming from his mouth. Of course there was pain and there was hurt, but there was a complaint. I have many amazing examples of good, strong, faithful and loving people in my life and I thank you all for these examples of how to press forward with faith.

Again, we receive these trials not to harm or to hurt, but to give us opportunities to change, progress and become stronger. Often times we feel that nobody knows what we are going through, that nobody knows the depth of our suffering...but I know that there is someone, and not just any other someone, that knows perfectly the heartache and pain we experience. That being our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He suffered for our sins, but He also suffered for every pain we would ever feel, every heartache we would ever experience, every trial we would face...He endured these as well. Not only did He endure, but He also overcame. He knows our trials, pains, sadness and heartache absolutely perfectly. He knows how to help us. I testify that because Jesus Christ paid the ultimate and everlasting sacrifice. That sacrifice allows us to experience pure joy and happiness, and an amount of joy and happiness that is infinite. We are mortals cannot understand completely the sacrifice He made or all of the incredible blessings that come from His saving atoning sacrifice. I know that "because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so." (Elder Holland) 

I phrase I often heard when I was young is.. "It doesn't take long to find someone else who is having a harder time than you." Let us all be more aware of those around us, because we have no idea what they may be struggling with at that time. Let us look for opportunities to serve and to love while are we are in our own times of pain. Let us be grateful for these opportunities to grow and to become someone better than we were before. Let us have faith in Jesus Christ and the truly healing power of His perfect sacrifice. Let us press forward with a smile on our face, no matter how hard it may be. The Savior has promised angels on our left and our right to bear us up (D&C 84:88). We must ride out the storm, and ride out the storm with a positive mindset. Being negatived envies us the opportunity to learn and progress from these trials. Again...We must ride out the storm. In some cases comfort comes soon, in others it comes a little while after, in some instances complete comfort will not come until heaven....but for those who have faith in Jesus Christ and trust in Him....The comfort will come. 

Alma 36:3

3 And now, O my son Helaman, behold, thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day. (Substitute your own personal name for Helaman. If you are a lady.... Tyke that includes you, change the son to daughter.)

D&C 58:2-4

2 ...He that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.

3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.

4 For after much tribulation come the blessings.

Mosiah 24:14

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs,....that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

Romans 8:18

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

There are some amazing promises from our Father in Heaven found in the scriptures about trials and what will happen if we remain strong and true. I testify that these things are true. I testify that Jesus is the Christ. That He suffered, bled and died for each and everyone us. I testify that He lives and because He lives we can overcome any difficulty, any hardship, any trial and any weakness. Jesus is the Christ. I testify that He loves us perfectly and that perfect love with never fade or never dim. 

I love you all so very much. Thank you for all of the love, prayers and support. Every have a good week at school and work. Be safe. Take care. Stay healthy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everything. You are all incredible. I will talk to you soon.

it is worth the pain,

Anziano JarDee Nessen

 

Meet the 6 am BALLER KREW of NAPOLI. 

 

From Left to Right.
Anziano Jake Flynn, Anziano Joshua Nomellini, Anziano Gaspar Lazarte
and ya boy....Me.

Most deacon church ball teams would most likely beat us....We are
pretty rusty and the court conditions here are far below par.....but
we do what we can. ( The green square on the backboard is duck tape,
that we put there so we would have something to at least aim at.)

 

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day!

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Labor Day!! 

I hope the Nessen bunch had a good time up at Downata Hot Springs and I hope that all of my family and friends have a good Labor Day today. I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy. I hope everyone had a good first week of school. Crazy to think that Tyke is in High School already. I can't believe that it is already September. I hope the weather was and is nice back home. Here it is cooling down a little bit which is nice, but it is still pretty warm. Everything is good here in Napoli. Here is a small report of this past week. 

First, I would like to talk about our Investigators. Salvatore, the pizza guy, is doing very well. He was unable to attend sacrament meeting yesterday, but he is still progressing towards baptism. We had a lesson with him this past week on Wednesday morning and taught him The Gospel of Jesus Christ ( which is Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end ). It went well. We invited him to continue to read The Book of Mormon and also to continue to pray. He committed and said that he would. We stopped in the Pizzeria on Thursday evening to see how he was doing. As soon as we walked in Salvatore walked into the back room and grabbed his Book of Mormon. Before he got to us, I noticed that there were some sticky notes that weren't there the day before. With a smile on his face he opened up the Book of Mormon and began telling us all about what he read. He told us how he opened it up randomly and found a bunch of scripture on Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. I noticed that he had many things underlined as he was flipping through the pages showing us what he read. He was so excited to show us and it was cool to see his face light up. I love that guy and he is doing really well. Hopefully we will get him a baptismal date this coming week. That is our goal for him for this week. 

Francesco and his wife, I had not seen in quite some time ( at least 3 weeks, which is a pretty long time to not see some pretty important investigators ). They had been on vacation and we couldn't ever really get our schedules to line up. We kept in good contact through phone calls and text messages, but as for face to face interaction.....we weren't able to see them for 3 weeks. They were unable to come to English course, we couldn't see them on Wednesdays for our weekly Martial Arts Lesson.....They got pretty busy. Anyways, we called them last Monday night and asked if they could come to English Course the next day, which was Tuesday. They said they would come, but as the clock ticked past 7 Francesco and His Wife were nowhere to be seen. About 7:30 I heard the church door open and I decided to walk out into the hallway to see who it could be. As I turned the corner and saw Francesco and His Wife walking up the stairs I instantly got so excited. I through my hands up in the air, just like I used to do when we would score a touchdown on Friday night, and I charged after them down the flight of stairs inside the church. We botched each other ( where you kiss with cheeks. Italian culture that is kind of different but you have to do it to show respect ). After a little while of talking with them, we walked into English Course and all of the other students got excited as well. It was a good day! Safe to say I was pumped to see the kick boxing champ. We still weren't able to get over to their house for a lesson, but this week is looking better. Hopefully we will get over there and teach a good lesson soon. 

English Course Update. We are still getting new students at our English Course which is good. We still have the seasoned veterans and the people that never miss, but it is good to see a few new faces. Last Thursday we were actually able to split the courses because we had so many people. We had an advanced course and a beginners course. Anziano Lazarte and I taught the beginners course, while the other two Anziani taught the advanced course. We decided to do a spiritual thought on the Book of Mormon and used one of the Mormon Messages. We showed the short video clip and bore testimony on it. Afterwards we had a man, Genni ( Pronounced like Jenny in English ), come up to our asking us a lot of questions about The Book of Mormon. He said that he was Catholic for 28 years, but was converted to Buddhism. In the beginning of our small conversation he said that he didn't want a copy, even though the copy of The Book of Mormon is free. We talked and we answered his questions the best we could and by the end of our small conversation he wanted himself a copy and even asked if he could meet with us the next day. We weren't able to line our schedules up, but we have an appointment this Tuesday before English Course. Hopefully all goes well there. On Tuesday at English Course we had a man show up right as soon as English Course was over with one of our members. The mans name is Luigi and he is probably 45 years old. The member asked us if we could talk to him and see what we could do to help. We pulled Luigi aside into another room in the church and sat down. He told us a pretty incredible story about his life and the problems that he was having. He told us that his family has practically abandoned him, his wife left him, he has no job, no food... He even told us that he was considering taking his life earlier Tuesday morning. Anziano Lazarte and I set there silently wondering what we should do and his we should approach this tender situation. He went on to pour his heart out to us and the more he spoke, the stronger the spirit seemed to be in the room. He said, "Me coming here to this church, to meet you two, is me completely giving myself over to Jesus Christ. I have nothing. No job. No family. No friends. I have nothing. I need Him and His help to turn my life around. I need Him." He was crying and both Anziano Lazarte and I were fighting back tears as well. It was truly incredible to see someone sitting right across from me, take the first few steps on the path back to Jesus Christ, which is the path that leads to Eternal Joy. The love of our Savior is very real. I see it in my own life, but also in the lives of others every single day. No matter what we have done, what we continue to do, and no matter how far away we may feel from Him...He loves us perfectly. We are ever out of reach from Him, but in order to reach Him we must stretch forth our own arm and grab His. He is there and always will be with His arm outstretched, we must humble ourselves and reach towards Him. When we do this, He will catch us every single time. We will begin working with our Branch President and Luigi together to see what we can do. 

Friday Night was kind of a Special Night over here in the Napoli area. They showed the movie, Meet the Mormons in a theatre for the first time in Italy. They rented out a giant movie theatre which had 456 seats and challenge the members and missionaries from around the Napoli area to fill every single chair. The movie didn't start until 8:45 pm and so we thought that we ( we being the missionaries ) wouldn't be allowed to go because it was so late, but to our surprise our mission president gave us the thumbs up and granted us permission to go. I was able to see Meet the Mormons one time at the MTC, but I was excited to see it again and especially in Italian. Meet the Mormons is a pretty amazing movie. One of my invites this week is to find a copy of Meet the Mormons and sit down as a family and watch it. It is around 1 hour and 30 minutes long and truly it is well worth it. It was a really good experience for our investigators to see the blessings that come when we have God as our number one priority. It was an awesome night and one I will never forget. Again.....rent Meet the Mormons this week and watch it as a family. I know you will enjoy it just as all of us in that Movie theatre did. 

That about sums up this week. It was kind of a different week, with some ups and downs...but that is life. Just have to continue to press forward and move along with the work. This week I would like to talk about one thing, and that being Gratitude. 

I would like to start with one scripture.

D&C 59:21

21 And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things.

Having Gratitude is something that I have never been very good at. I often find myself looking at the glass half empty, rather than looking at it half full. This past week I have really tried to look at the glass half full, rather than focus on what is lacking. This week I have tried to be grateful for the bottom half that is still in the glass, rather than complain that there is only half of the glass left. We have all had times in our lives when our focus has been on the things that are lacking, rather than the blessings that we have just before us. I read the talk from the 2010 October General Conference titled, "The Divine Gift of Gratitude" from President Thomas S. Monson ( I would invited you all to find a little time this week to read this talk and read it with sincerity. As it did for me, it will open your eyes a little more at all of the things that you have been blessed with. Also as it did for me, it will help you become a little more grateful for the small everyday things that we often take for granted. ). 

In this life there are so many things to be thankful for. From the sun and the stars in the sky, to the trees and flowers rooted in the soil. From the cars we drive, to the food we are able to eat. From the pure natural beauty of the mountains, rivers, lakes and oceans, to the technologically advanced cell phone in your pocket. From the bed you have to sleep on, to the blanket, sheets and pillows sitting on top of that bed. For the ability to record the football game while you are at church, to simply having a TV in your living room in the first place. From our family members and loved ones, to our best friends. From our health, to our incredible bodies which bless us with the opportunities to see, hear, taste, touch and smell. We have so much to be grateful for. No matter what our circumstances may be in this life and at this very moment, if we each take the time to stop and think...We would all have a pretty long list of things to be grateful for. We are so blessed. My invite this week is simple.....look what is left in the glass, not that which is lacking. Some days this may be harder than others, but a grateful person is a happy person. 

D&C 59:7

7 Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.

President Joseph F. Smith, sixth President of the Church, provided an answer. Said he: “The grateful man sees so much in the world to be thankful for, and with him the good outweighs the evil. Love overpowers jealousy, and light drives darkness out of his life.” He continued: “Pride destroys our gratitude and sets up selfishness in its place. How much happier we are in the presence of a grateful and loving soul. 

I love you all. Let us all be filled gratitude in all things. Have an amazing week. Thank you all for the love and support. You are all amazing and I hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day. God Bless and Take Care. I'll talk to you soon.

Peace, Love and Blessings....

Anziano JarDee Nessen