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