Dec07
December 7th, 2015
Good Morning and Greetings from Mistretta!
Hello Family and Friends! Another week has flown bye out here in the
mission field. I hope that everyone is doing well back at home. I hope
everyone is staying healthy, staying warm, staying safe and getting
ready for Santa Claus to come to town. We had ourselves a pretty good
week, that was full of things that I've nor seen or done before in my
life. Everything is good out here with us. All is well. I love you
all!
Last Wednesday evening, Nino took us to see a man that the
missionaries worked with in the past. His name is Giovanni. We knocked
on his door and the house looked in pretty rough shape on the outside,
what I saw on the inside kind of shocked me a little bit. This house
was, and I'm not going to sugar coat it, awful. There was no way to
heat his house, things were falling apart everywhere, his stove was
the greasiest and dirtiest thing I've ever seen...This house was in
real bad shape. I felt so bad for the poor fella the second we stepped
into his small little disastrous kitchen. Now it isn't completely his
fault that everything is like that, the house is really, really old
and just hasn't been taken care of very well. He just moved in there a
few weeks back. So we started to move into a gospel conversation and
Giovanni was probably one of the most disrespectful people that I have
met in my mission. Every time we would go to say something gospel
related, he would just shake his head no and try to argue with us.
Here in the mission field I usually have a good amount of patients for
people like that, but he was so rude and disrespectful...I had to bite
my tongue before I said something that wouldn't have been a good thing
to say. At one point he looked at us and said, "You (talking to all of
us) are not humble." He continued to say, "I'm just fine like this.
I'm just fine like this." but than he would complain about his
situation and how hard his life is. So we would, Giovanni we can help
you, we want to help you...and he would reply..."I'm just fine like
this." We tried our very best to let him know that we were simply
there to help, and he said that he didn't want us to come back. The
next day Anziano Da Ponte and I decided to head back down to
Giovanni's house to offer him some help one last time. We got there
and the exact same thing happened. We offered help in a really sincere
and humble way. He denied the offer and asked us to leave. Giovanni is
an interesting guy, who lives in a run down home and to be honest I
feel bad for him and the situation that he is in...I hope that one day
he will let down those feelings of pride and allow us to help him out.
We will see. It was a good learning experience.
We found ourselves a new investigator this passed week named Nino.
Nino is around 50 years old and is probably the most humble, kind and
genuine person that I have met in a long time. Nino is not a real
educated guy and to be honest I don think he can read that well, but
he is still willing to listen about Jesus Christ. Nino, our little old
blind member, had him over for dinner one evening and fed him some
really good food, because Nino, our little investigator, doesn't make
a whole ton of money. We were able to see Nino twice last week and
every time I see him, he is always smiling, always happy. He doesn't
need a big house, fancy clothes or grand dinners to be happy. Like I
said earlier, he is just a humble, genuine and good hearted person.
D&C 56:18... "18 But blessed are the poor who are pure in heart, whose
hearts are broken, and whose spirits are contrite, for they shall see
the kingdom of God coming in power and great glory unto their
deliverance; for the fatness of the earth shall be theirs."
On December 4th, we ran into Antonio Bartalota early in the morning
and he invited us over that even for dinner. Remember that Antonio and
Lydia are the ones whose mother was not doing very well. We got over
there that night and asked if we could say hello to their mom because
she has not been doing so well over this last little bit. We got in
there and she was not responsive at all and she was breathing in a
very strange matter. We all knew that she was really close to passing
away. We went into the other room and began eating dinner with Antonio
and Lydia. I love Antonio! He is such a good guy as well. Towards the
end of the dinner Antonio asked us what day it was, we replied with
December 4th. Antonio told us that on December 4th, 27 years earlier,
he was baptized. He was so excited and pumped when he found out that
it was the 4th. He had forgotten until he asked us that evening. We
closed the night out and headed home. The next morning we found out
that shortly after we left their home that night, their mom passed
away. Their mother had been suffering for the past 3 years and had
been confined to a hospital bed. Antonio and Lydia are the only kids,
so they have been taking such good care of her and have both been
carrying such a heavy burden these last few years. She was called back
home and you could see the burden lifted off of the shoulders of
Antonio and Lydia. I would ask that you would keep them in your
prayers these exit few days.
Saturday Morning we got invited by the Portera Family to go pick
olives off of the tree on their farm for some service. I've never
harvested olives before, so I was pretty excited by the opportunity.
Harvesting olives is a really cool process. They have to either beat
or shake the olives from the tree. The olives then fall onto nets that
are placed all around the tree and after we have shaken all of the
olives from the tree, we gather up the olives with the nets and put
them into big white bags. It is pretty hard work and it gave me a good
arm workout. I'll send some pictures and a video home of how it is
done. I'm working on taking NESSEN FARMS global. It has touched Howell
Valley and now Mistretta.
Saturday evening we went to the viewing of the Bartalota mother. That
whole process is very different here in Italy. Really different
indeed. They do not embalm dead people here in Italy, as they do in
America. They always have the viewing the day after the death
regardless and the funeral is always the day after the viewing. Here
they don't have Funeral Homes like Rudds Funeral Home in Tremonton.
Here they get them dressed in black clothing, placed in their casket
and the viewing is in that persons living room. It is really a strange
process. The front door of the apartment is always open and anyone can
show up to the viewing. The viewing is open casket but the funeral is
closed casket. I will explain it all better in a few weeks when I
skype home, it is much easier that way. Just know that it is weird. I
will also explain what a Catholic funeral is like, because she was a
Catholic, and just how strange those things are. It was an experience
that I will never forget.
Yesterday was a good day. It was testimony meeting and testimony
meeting is always pretty powerful down here in Mistretta. Nino got up
to bare his testimony yesterday and about halfway through he asked us
to go up next to the pulpit and stand next to him. He then proceeded
to give us the big shout out that anyone in the Italy Rome Mission has
every received before. He thanked us for everything and was so
grateful. I was fighting back the tears and trying not to cry, and
Anziano Da Ponte was doing the same. I love that little ole mostly
blind fella, and I would do anything for him. He is a hero of mine. I
will tell his story when I skype home for Christmas as well. Nino is
my Italian grandpa!
We also received our transfer calls on Saturday and we found out that
both Anziano Da Ponte and I will be staying in Mistretta for our 3
transfer together!
That about does it for this week. I have so much more that I want to
share, but because of all of the chores we did this morning and due to
the lack of time, I won't be able too. I just hope you all know that I
am grateful for each and everyone of you. I hope everyone is doing
well, staying healthy and loving life. This week, I didn't receive any
shots in the bum or have a gigantic eyeball....but it was still an
eventful week out here in Mistretta. All is well. Thanks for all of
the love, support and prayers.
Love,
Anziano JarDee Nessen
Ps.....I hope you all like my North Pole Tie. I will be wearing it all 31 days of December. It's a keeper.
Hello Family and Friends! Another week has flown bye out here in the
mission field. I hope that everyone is doing well back at home. I hope
everyone is staying healthy, staying warm, staying safe and getting
ready for Santa Claus to come to town. We had ourselves a pretty good
week, that was full of things that I've nor seen or done before in my
life. Everything is good out here with us. All is well. I love you
all!
Last Wednesday evening, Nino took us to see a man that the
missionaries worked with in the past. His name is Giovanni. We knocked
on his door and the house looked in pretty rough shape on the outside,
what I saw on the inside kind of shocked me a little bit. This house
was, and I'm not going to sugar coat it, awful. There was no way to
heat his house, things were falling apart everywhere, his stove was
the greasiest and dirtiest thing I've ever seen...This house was in
real bad shape. I felt so bad for the poor fella the second we stepped
into his small little disastrous kitchen. Now it isn't completely his
fault that everything is like that, the house is really, really old
and just hasn't been taken care of very well. He just moved in there a
few weeks back. So we started to move into a gospel conversation and
Giovanni was probably one of the most disrespectful people that I have
met in my mission. Every time we would go to say something gospel
related, he would just shake his head no and try to argue with us.
Here in the mission field I usually have a good amount of patients for
people like that, but he was so rude and disrespectful...I had to bite
my tongue before I said something that wouldn't have been a good thing
to say. At one point he looked at us and said, "You (talking to all of
us) are not humble." He continued to say, "I'm just fine like this.
I'm just fine like this." but than he would complain about his
situation and how hard his life is. So we would, Giovanni we can help
you, we want to help you...and he would reply..."I'm just fine like
this." We tried our very best to let him know that we were simply
there to help, and he said that he didn't want us to come back. The
next day Anziano Da Ponte and I decided to head back down to
Giovanni's house to offer him some help one last time. We got there
and the exact same thing happened. We offered help in a really sincere
and humble way. He denied the offer and asked us to leave. Giovanni is
an interesting guy, who lives in a run down home and to be honest I
feel bad for him and the situation that he is in...I hope that one day
he will let down those feelings of pride and allow us to help him out.
We will see. It was a good learning experience.
We found ourselves a new investigator this passed week named Nino.
Nino is around 50 years old and is probably the most humble, kind and
genuine person that I have met in a long time. Nino is not a real
educated guy and to be honest I don think he can read that well, but
he is still willing to listen about Jesus Christ. Nino, our little old
blind member, had him over for dinner one evening and fed him some
really good food, because Nino, our little investigator, doesn't make
a whole ton of money. We were able to see Nino twice last week and
every time I see him, he is always smiling, always happy. He doesn't
need a big house, fancy clothes or grand dinners to be happy. Like I
said earlier, he is just a humble, genuine and good hearted person.
D&C 56:18... "18 But blessed are the poor who are pure in heart, whose
hearts are broken, and whose spirits are contrite, for they shall see
the kingdom of God coming in power and great glory unto their
deliverance; for the fatness of the earth shall be theirs."
On December 4th, we ran into Antonio Bartalota early in the morning
and he invited us over that even for dinner. Remember that Antonio and
Lydia are the ones whose mother was not doing very well. We got over
there that night and asked if we could say hello to their mom because
she has not been doing so well over this last little bit. We got in
there and she was not responsive at all and she was breathing in a
very strange matter. We all knew that she was really close to passing
away. We went into the other room and began eating dinner with Antonio
and Lydia. I love Antonio! He is such a good guy as well. Towards the
end of the dinner Antonio asked us what day it was, we replied with
December 4th. Antonio told us that on December 4th, 27 years earlier,
he was baptized. He was so excited and pumped when he found out that
it was the 4th. He had forgotten until he asked us that evening. We
closed the night out and headed home. The next morning we found out
that shortly after we left their home that night, their mom passed
away. Their mother had been suffering for the past 3 years and had
been confined to a hospital bed. Antonio and Lydia are the only kids,
so they have been taking such good care of her and have both been
carrying such a heavy burden these last few years. She was called back
home and you could see the burden lifted off of the shoulders of
Antonio and Lydia. I would ask that you would keep them in your
prayers these exit few days.
Saturday Morning we got invited by the Portera Family to go pick
olives off of the tree on their farm for some service. I've never
harvested olives before, so I was pretty excited by the opportunity.
Harvesting olives is a really cool process. They have to either beat
or shake the olives from the tree. The olives then fall onto nets that
are placed all around the tree and after we have shaken all of the
olives from the tree, we gather up the olives with the nets and put
them into big white bags. It is pretty hard work and it gave me a good
arm workout. I'll send some pictures and a video home of how it is
done. I'm working on taking NESSEN FARMS global. It has touched Howell
Valley and now Mistretta.
Saturday evening we went to the viewing of the Bartalota mother. That
whole process is very different here in Italy. Really different
indeed. They do not embalm dead people here in Italy, as they do in
America. They always have the viewing the day after the death
regardless and the funeral is always the day after the viewing. Here
they don't have Funeral Homes like Rudds Funeral Home in Tremonton.
Here they get them dressed in black clothing, placed in their casket
and the viewing is in that persons living room. It is really a strange
process. The front door of the apartment is always open and anyone can
show up to the viewing. The viewing is open casket but the funeral is
closed casket. I will explain it all better in a few weeks when I
skype home, it is much easier that way. Just know that it is weird. I
will also explain what a Catholic funeral is like, because she was a
Catholic, and just how strange those things are. It was an experience
that I will never forget.
Yesterday was a good day. It was testimony meeting and testimony
meeting is always pretty powerful down here in Mistretta. Nino got up
to bare his testimony yesterday and about halfway through he asked us
to go up next to the pulpit and stand next to him. He then proceeded
to give us the big shout out that anyone in the Italy Rome Mission has
every received before. He thanked us for everything and was so
grateful. I was fighting back the tears and trying not to cry, and
Anziano Da Ponte was doing the same. I love that little ole mostly
blind fella, and I would do anything for him. He is a hero of mine. I
will tell his story when I skype home for Christmas as well. Nino is
my Italian grandpa!
We also received our transfer calls on Saturday and we found out that
both Anziano Da Ponte and I will be staying in Mistretta for our 3
transfer together!
That about does it for this week. I have so much more that I want to
share, but because of all of the chores we did this morning and due to
the lack of time, I won't be able too. I just hope you all know that I
am grateful for each and everyone of you. I hope everyone is doing
well, staying healthy and loving life. This week, I didn't receive any
shots in the bum or have a gigantic eyeball....but it was still an
eventful week out here in Mistretta. All is well. Thanks for all of
the love, support and prayers.
Love,
Anziano JarDee Nessen
Ps.....I hope you all like my North Pole Tie. I will be wearing it all 31 days of December. It's a keeper.
 |
| One of the bags of Olives that we harvested. |
 |
| Nessen Farms is going Global! |
 |
| Mistretta |
Antonio and I on his 27th year baptism anniversary!! I love Antonio!!
Anziano Da Ponte, Nino and I getting wood for his wood burning stove in his cellar.
I love Nino!!
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