Jan18
January 18th, 2016 // #3 of 2016
Good Morning Family and Friends.
I hope this email is finding everyone healthy and happy this morning.
I hope everyone had a great week this last week, and I hope that
everyone will have a fantastic week this week as well. I don't know
about you all but it feels as if yesterday was Christmas. January is
zooming on by for me up here in the mountains. We had a pretty good
week up here in Mistretta. The weather fell through the floor Saturday
during the night and we had about 3.5 inches of snow Sunday Morning.
These poor Italians don't really know what to do with snow. You can't
find a snow shovel anywhere in Mistretta, their snow boots are pretty
weird looking, they don't have scrapers for their car windshields in
the morning and they don't have a snow plow for the roads. Poor
Italians, but that I don't understand is how a city that gets snow
every year can still year after year not prepare themselves a little
bit for what is coming. It just makes me laugh. You can also see that
no young fella up here has every tossed a baseball or football around
with their old man. Abbi has a better cannon on herself than 95% of
the Italian young men that I've seen. Anziano Da Ponte and I have had
a little fun in the snow and plan on building a snowman when we get a
minute. Everything is cold, frozen and covered in snow up here in
Mistretta, but all is well. We are healthy, happy and our missionary
work is going well. All is well. Let's get the weekly report rolling.
Monday we had our P-Day. We didn't do a whole lot. We took care of the
necessary things to prepare us for the week and wrote emails home to
our family and friends. After our P-Day was finished we planned to
meet with one of the families that we contacted a few weeks ago. We
should up on the door step of the one house and the father answered
the door. We said, "Hello." He simply replied, "Tomorrow at 7?" We
agreed and we're pumped because he seemed really sincere when he asked
us to come back the following day. So after that plan fell through, we
headed over to s large building and started doing home house tracting.
We quickly found out that every Monday evening the Catholic Church
here in Mistretta airs the Mass on television. Nearly every single
door we knocked on had the Mass on their tv... As you can imagine it
was slightly difficult to enter into those houses. We meet some kind
people, but we didn't have a lot of luck. We knocked the big building
and made our way over to Nino's house to help him out. He asked us if
we could study with him for a little bit. Of course we agreed.
Studying with Nino is always a good night to close out the night. He
is always so grateful and whenever we are with Nino...I seem to learn
something from simply observing or listening to him. He is truly an
inspiration to me. Throughout my life I have taken daily scripture
study for granted, so many times I shamefully admit. Here is one thing
that Nino has taught me, not using his mouth or his words but with his
actions.... One morning we stopped in for a little visit only to find
Nino struggling to read from his Book of Mormon. Nino's right eye is
completely gone, with that eye he see's nothing. His left eye
functions, but very minimally. When we walked in that morning, he had
a special pair of glasses on that he made himself when he first found
out that he was losing his vision. He took the right lens completely
out, and somehow managed to super glue an eye piece that diamond
jewelers use over top of the left lens so he would be able to read
something. Now these glasses put a major strain on his one half
functioning eye, but yet he still continues to read the scriptures
every single day. When we show up most days his left eye is bloodshot
because of his homemade reading glasses. That man is heaven sent... He
is an inspiration to me. For the rest of my life, whenever I feel like
not reading the scriptures because I am to tired or just to lazy....I
will think back to my good pal Nino Purpari. I love the guy.
Tuesday we had our weekly district meeting down in Palermo. The
Wardles, the senior couple here in Mistretta, had to travel to Rome
all last week to Rome because they received a new car. They are always
our wheels to and from places our of Mistretta. We woke up bright and
early Tuesdsy morning so we could catch the bus we needed. We road the
bus down the mountain, and caught the train that was heading to
Palermo. District Meeting was good. We received a training from a
Sister that will be heading home in a few weeks. She talked about
Charity and the importance of loving the people. We can all use a
little help in the Charity category sometimes, so that training was a
good one. We when we got back to Mistretta, we stopped by Dr. Enzo for
a minute to talk we him. We set up our next appointment and he thanked
us for saying hello. Still, no one is attending our English Course.
That means one of a few things. Number 1 - Everyone in Mistretta
speaks English perfectly and they don't need it. OR Number 2 - Nobody
cares about learning English ( one of the most powerful languages in
the world ) for Free. We are going to continue to put some publicity
up around the city and hopefully somebody will show up in these
upcoming weeks. Afterwards, I mentioned earlier the one family that
asked us to return the following day at 7. So we headed back over to
the apartment and I just happened to look in the second story window
only to see the same Father we talked to the day before. We rang the
doorbell and no answer. We rang the door bell yet again, and no
answer. Even though we could hear people whispering inside and
shuffling around. Finally after a few minutes a little girl answered
the door and told us that her parents were not home. I asked when we
could return when the parents were home. She told me next week at 7.
So he thinks that he snuffed us, but little does he know that we will
be showing up tomorrow night at 7 pm with big ole smiles. I was pretty
frustrated, but then just had to laugh. Hopefully he will climb off of
his high horse and let us in tomorrow night. We are praying for good
things there.
Wednesday Morning is when we planned to have a lesson with Dr. Enzo.
We had everything set and ready to go. We had a member prepared, our
lesson planned and we were ready. About 30 minutes before our lesson
that we were so excited for, everything fell right through the floor
and we lost the lesson. It's always a good start to the day, when
everything falls through the floor right from the beginning. We just
had to laugh and roll with our back up plans. Nino scheduled an
appointment for us with two ladies that he used to work with in the
kitchen at the hospital. They were kind ladies. Kind of different and
they had some very strange viewpoints on things, but they were kind.
We brought them a lesson about hope. They thanked us for coming, but
when we tried to schedule a return appointment, they acted like I was
trying to pull their teeth out with a pair of pliers. So I don't think
we will be returning over there anytime soon, but they were kind.
Afterwards, we decided to go and visit Lydia Bartalota ( the sister to
Antonio. Their mother passed away in the beginning of December if that
helps you remember ). She was required to take care of her mother
24/7, 365 days a week for a solid 3 years...and during that time she
has become a little hostile towards the church, even though members
have constantly gave her a hand and the missionaries have stopped by
often for a spiritual message. Anyways, she has not been to church
since the passing of her mother and we wanted to see if there was
anything that we could do to help. From the very first step that we
took walking into that house, we could tell that there was absolutely
no spirit there. It just seemed dark and gloomy. From the beginning
she was very hostile with us, and I mean very hostile. Nino was there
along with us, but he let us do the major part of the talking. We were
very patient, kind and loving with her....even though she decided to
treat us like we were children and that we didn't know anything. She
has had problems in the past with different members in Sicily and she
hasn't seem to be able to just let it go. It came to the point in the
lesson that Anziano Da Ponte sat back in his chair, looked at me and
said in English...."Break her boxes" or in other words "Let her have
it." I just bore testimony on the Atonement and that Jesus Christ
knows perfectly what she was going through and I told her that she
needs to let this go, because holding onto these problems is doing no
good for anyone. Nino bore his testimony. Anziano Da Ponte bore his
testimony. The spirit was booming and she began to cry pretty hard.
The Holy Ghost basically flipped that house, that attitude and her
past upside down. It was pretty neat to take part of it. We said a
closing prayer, and left as friends. We said to her on the way out,
"see you at church on Sunday."
Thursday Morning, we finally got over to Dr. Enzo's to teach him the
first half of the Plan of Salvation. We brought Nino along with us.
Nino and Dr. Enzo have known each other for years and years, but
haven't seen each other for a long time. It was neat to hear them chat
back and forth about the good ole days before we started in with our
lesson. They laughed and told us a few stories from way back when. Our
lesson went really well. Dr. Enzo was really receptive and the spirit
was definitely there with us. Nino bore a pretty powerful testimony at
the end of the lesson on how the Plan of Salvation has affected his
life, ever since he asked accepted the gospel 40 years ago. It put the
cherry on top. Nino we really excited to hear that we are working with
Dr. Enzo. He said, "If you guys get him, I think it would be a real
hit to this city..." He was pumped, and as were we. That evening we
headed back over to Nino's house and pack some wood down for the next
few days. Afterwards we planned to have one of our investigators meet
us there for a little visit. Carmen is her name and we have met with
her, just it had been a good while because of the holidays and all of
the parties and celebrations. We didn't have a lot of time, but we
were able to be with her for a little while and have a little lesson
on the importance of daily scripture study. She committed to read the
scriptures daily and especially the Book of Mormon. She is a super
nice lady and a good person, she just needs to apply herself a little
bit. After the small lesson with Carmen, we rushed over to the church
for English course. Once again, no one showed up. We decided to call
Antonio Bartalota, so we could talk to him about the lesson we had
with his sister. He thanked us for bringing the spirit and opening her
eyes a little bit to the reality that was in front of her. He did say
something that got under my skin and has stuck with me ever since. He
looked me right in the eyes and said, "Anziani ( Elders ) you guys
lack some experience..." Personally, I thought that was a pretty
ignorant comment to make because he doesn't really have a clue what
experience we do or do not have....but I as well do not want to be
ignorant and say that we know it all. It was good practice for me to
hold my tongue. That night with his sister, The Lord was speaking
through us. It wasn't us saying whatever we could to hurt her feelings
or make her feel ashamed, the Lord was surely speaking through the
both of us. After he left, we hiked over to Nino's and I was pretty
hot inside, meaning I was a little fired up at some of the comments
that were directed at us out of ignorance....but Nino helped me
realize that it doesn't matter. So many people in this world want a
God that is comfortable, that gives the people whatever they feel like
they deserve, or that will change a rule here and there to make us
more popular looking in the eyes of the world. That is most definitely
not how it goes. Our Lord is definitely not a comfortable one, and I
can testify that He will never conform to the wants and wishes of "the
world". Too many people sit on the fence, as was said in an email I
received this morning, and it can no longer be like that. We must
decide where we stand. Do we want to be comfortable and roll with the
crowd, or do we want to choose to rise above this dark and dreary
world that we live in. I can tell you that I know what side is going
to win in the end. The script has already been written. Now, we must
choose if we want to win, or if we want to lose. It's the little
things that matter and it's the little things that will keep up afloat
through the deep waters of sin, temptation and trial. The little
things such as family prayer, daily scripture study, tithing, fasting.
These little things will keep us afloat in this world that seems to be
drifting farther and farther away from The Savior of All Mankind,
"because it is too hard" or "not the cool thing to do". I pray that we
can all remember to do these little precious things each day, to keep
us close to the One who has overcome this world, the only One who has
ever overcome this world.
Friday Morning, we began an exchange with our District Leader. We
decided that I would be heading down to Bagheria, a small town just
outside of Palermo, with the DL and that Anziano Da Ponte would remain
in Mistretta with the companion of our DL. Our DL is named Anziano
Andersen and his father is Elder Andersen of the 70. As you can
imagine, Anziano Andersen is a good missionary. During our Scambio we
didn't necessarily have any grand miracles or anything of the kind,
but what we did do was work our tails off together. We were
practically jogging in between appointments and places that we needed
to be. We got a lot done that first evening together, even though what
we did will not show up on the numbers that get sent to our Mission
President each week. It's not about that. It's about working, and
working hard. Anziano Andersen is a sports guy and so we get along
just fine. A lot of people thought we were brothers. He is a good kid
and I learned a lot from him. Saturday Morning he scheduled an
appointment with me to head back to the family that I met just before
Christmas when we went in our first exchanges. I was really excited to
see them again, as they were excited to see me again. We had a really
nice lunch together and they dropped me off at the train station we
could catch the train back to Mistretta. When we returned to
Mistretta, Anziano Wardle, Anziano Da Ponte and I went to visit Dr.
Enzo. On Friday morning he went to a hospital near Messina to have
some tests taken on his lungs. So Saturday evening we stopped in to
see how they went. Everything went well and he is healing up fine. It
was surely an answer to our prayers and we were pretty excited, as was
he. We weren't there for long, only a few minutes...but he used to be
very cautious towards us missionaries and now it is not like that.
Those walls of defense that he placed up long ago, are starting to
weaken. It's a beautiful thing to see the Spirit of the Lord work on
somebody little by little each day. After our little visit there, Nino
invited us all over for a really nice Pizza Night. He is always so
happy to have us over and nothing makes him happier than a living room
full of people eating at his kitchen table. He was smiling from ear to
ear all night and we were as well. We all had a good time, and for
some reason he continued to thank us for coming...even though he did
everything. He is one of the best hearted people that I have ever met.
I want to stuff the ole feller in my suit case and bring him home with
me.
As I said in the beginning, we got lots of snow Saturday during the
night and because of the harsh conditions....Church was cancelled.
Anziano Da Ponte and I were invited over to the Portera Family's home
for lunch and we stayed with them for a little while to keep out of
the cold and nasty wind. Around 6 we decided to head around to all the
homes of the members ( with our branch presidents permission ) and
bless the sacrament for our members. We bundled up all nice and warm
with our suits, gloves, coats, beanies and I even wore two scarves. We
were well prepared. We made our way around the town, stopping first
with Vito ( Nino's older brother ) and then on down to the Portera
Family's home, then back over to Nino's and we finished up at the
Wardles apartment at around 9:30. I was immensely touched by the way
these faithful members of Mistretta prepared their dining room tables
for the sacred ordinance of the sacrament. Each member had his own
different idea, but they each wanted it as close as they could get it
to the real thing. Some used napkins as the white cloth, with others
used nicely hand made white cloths. The one that touched me the most
was Nino. He cleared off his kitchen table with his normal red and
clean table cloth and headed upstairs to fetch a white one. He came
down the stairs with a white sheet, that had a few stains and
butterflies trimmed the edges of cloth...I had a thought come to mind
that it was perfectly acceptable to the Lord. Of course it wasn't all
white and beautiful as are the ones we use for sacrament, but it was
the absolute best that our little 65 year old, mostly blind member
could do to turn his dining room table into the sacrament table. I was
fighting back the tears as I stood to break the bread and saw the
tablecloth in rather rough condition and seeing a butterfly or two
poke out from the edge of the cloth. Once again, on my head...I knew
it was acceptable unto the Lord because Nino was providing the best
that he had. It gave me a new outlook on just how important and divine
the sacrament truly is. I once heard a quote and it said something
along the lines of..."If we could fully comprehend the complete
importance of the Sacrament, we would crawl on our hands and knees
every Sunday morning to partake of it." It was a wonderful opportunity
we had last night to bundle up and trek through the snow to our
members homes. Something I will never, ever forget.
There is my weekly email this week my family and friends. I'm sorry
that I have been slacking on the little thought duty. I promise that
next week I will have a little something, something prepared for us
all. I would like to thank each of you for the love, support and
kindness that you send my way. I thank you for the prayers offered on
my behalf, as well as on the behalf of Elder Just. I can testify that
the power of prayer is real and it is truly powerful. I have felt a
few distinct times during my mission your prayers literally pushing me
forward. I thank you for it all. You have a great week and take real
good care. We are going to find a snow shovel and shovel some walks
around Mistretta. I'll talk to you all next week, until then...I love
you! I love you! I love you!
Anziano JarDee Nessen
Italy Rome Mission
D&C 104:82
I hope this email is finding everyone healthy and happy this morning.
I hope everyone had a great week this last week, and I hope that
everyone will have a fantastic week this week as well. I don't know
about you all but it feels as if yesterday was Christmas. January is
zooming on by for me up here in the mountains. We had a pretty good
week up here in Mistretta. The weather fell through the floor Saturday
during the night and we had about 3.5 inches of snow Sunday Morning.
These poor Italians don't really know what to do with snow. You can't
find a snow shovel anywhere in Mistretta, their snow boots are pretty
weird looking, they don't have scrapers for their car windshields in
the morning and they don't have a snow plow for the roads. Poor
Italians, but that I don't understand is how a city that gets snow
every year can still year after year not prepare themselves a little
bit for what is coming. It just makes me laugh. You can also see that
no young fella up here has every tossed a baseball or football around
with their old man. Abbi has a better cannon on herself than 95% of
the Italian young men that I've seen. Anziano Da Ponte and I have had
a little fun in the snow and plan on building a snowman when we get a
minute. Everything is cold, frozen and covered in snow up here in
Mistretta, but all is well. We are healthy, happy and our missionary
work is going well. All is well. Let's get the weekly report rolling.
Monday we had our P-Day. We didn't do a whole lot. We took care of the
necessary things to prepare us for the week and wrote emails home to
our family and friends. After our P-Day was finished we planned to
meet with one of the families that we contacted a few weeks ago. We
should up on the door step of the one house and the father answered
the door. We said, "Hello." He simply replied, "Tomorrow at 7?" We
agreed and we're pumped because he seemed really sincere when he asked
us to come back the following day. So after that plan fell through, we
headed over to s large building and started doing home house tracting.
We quickly found out that every Monday evening the Catholic Church
here in Mistretta airs the Mass on television. Nearly every single
door we knocked on had the Mass on their tv... As you can imagine it
was slightly difficult to enter into those houses. We meet some kind
people, but we didn't have a lot of luck. We knocked the big building
and made our way over to Nino's house to help him out. He asked us if
we could study with him for a little bit. Of course we agreed.
Studying with Nino is always a good night to close out the night. He
is always so grateful and whenever we are with Nino...I seem to learn
something from simply observing or listening to him. He is truly an
inspiration to me. Throughout my life I have taken daily scripture
study for granted, so many times I shamefully admit. Here is one thing
that Nino has taught me, not using his mouth or his words but with his
actions.... One morning we stopped in for a little visit only to find
Nino struggling to read from his Book of Mormon. Nino's right eye is
completely gone, with that eye he see's nothing. His left eye
functions, but very minimally. When we walked in that morning, he had
a special pair of glasses on that he made himself when he first found
out that he was losing his vision. He took the right lens completely
out, and somehow managed to super glue an eye piece that diamond
jewelers use over top of the left lens so he would be able to read
something. Now these glasses put a major strain on his one half
functioning eye, but yet he still continues to read the scriptures
every single day. When we show up most days his left eye is bloodshot
because of his homemade reading glasses. That man is heaven sent... He
is an inspiration to me. For the rest of my life, whenever I feel like
not reading the scriptures because I am to tired or just to lazy....I
will think back to my good pal Nino Purpari. I love the guy.
Tuesday we had our weekly district meeting down in Palermo. The
Wardles, the senior couple here in Mistretta, had to travel to Rome
all last week to Rome because they received a new car. They are always
our wheels to and from places our of Mistretta. We woke up bright and
early Tuesdsy morning so we could catch the bus we needed. We road the
bus down the mountain, and caught the train that was heading to
Palermo. District Meeting was good. We received a training from a
Sister that will be heading home in a few weeks. She talked about
Charity and the importance of loving the people. We can all use a
little help in the Charity category sometimes, so that training was a
good one. We when we got back to Mistretta, we stopped by Dr. Enzo for
a minute to talk we him. We set up our next appointment and he thanked
us for saying hello. Still, no one is attending our English Course.
That means one of a few things. Number 1 - Everyone in Mistretta
speaks English perfectly and they don't need it. OR Number 2 - Nobody
cares about learning English ( one of the most powerful languages in
the world ) for Free. We are going to continue to put some publicity
up around the city and hopefully somebody will show up in these
upcoming weeks. Afterwards, I mentioned earlier the one family that
asked us to return the following day at 7. So we headed back over to
the apartment and I just happened to look in the second story window
only to see the same Father we talked to the day before. We rang the
doorbell and no answer. We rang the door bell yet again, and no
answer. Even though we could hear people whispering inside and
shuffling around. Finally after a few minutes a little girl answered
the door and told us that her parents were not home. I asked when we
could return when the parents were home. She told me next week at 7.
So he thinks that he snuffed us, but little does he know that we will
be showing up tomorrow night at 7 pm with big ole smiles. I was pretty
frustrated, but then just had to laugh. Hopefully he will climb off of
his high horse and let us in tomorrow night. We are praying for good
things there.
Wednesday Morning is when we planned to have a lesson with Dr. Enzo.
We had everything set and ready to go. We had a member prepared, our
lesson planned and we were ready. About 30 minutes before our lesson
that we were so excited for, everything fell right through the floor
and we lost the lesson. It's always a good start to the day, when
everything falls through the floor right from the beginning. We just
had to laugh and roll with our back up plans. Nino scheduled an
appointment for us with two ladies that he used to work with in the
kitchen at the hospital. They were kind ladies. Kind of different and
they had some very strange viewpoints on things, but they were kind.
We brought them a lesson about hope. They thanked us for coming, but
when we tried to schedule a return appointment, they acted like I was
trying to pull their teeth out with a pair of pliers. So I don't think
we will be returning over there anytime soon, but they were kind.
Afterwards, we decided to go and visit Lydia Bartalota ( the sister to
Antonio. Their mother passed away in the beginning of December if that
helps you remember ). She was required to take care of her mother
24/7, 365 days a week for a solid 3 years...and during that time she
has become a little hostile towards the church, even though members
have constantly gave her a hand and the missionaries have stopped by
often for a spiritual message. Anyways, she has not been to church
since the passing of her mother and we wanted to see if there was
anything that we could do to help. From the very first step that we
took walking into that house, we could tell that there was absolutely
no spirit there. It just seemed dark and gloomy. From the beginning
she was very hostile with us, and I mean very hostile. Nino was there
along with us, but he let us do the major part of the talking. We were
very patient, kind and loving with her....even though she decided to
treat us like we were children and that we didn't know anything. She
has had problems in the past with different members in Sicily and she
hasn't seem to be able to just let it go. It came to the point in the
lesson that Anziano Da Ponte sat back in his chair, looked at me and
said in English...."Break her boxes" or in other words "Let her have
it." I just bore testimony on the Atonement and that Jesus Christ
knows perfectly what she was going through and I told her that she
needs to let this go, because holding onto these problems is doing no
good for anyone. Nino bore his testimony. Anziano Da Ponte bore his
testimony. The spirit was booming and she began to cry pretty hard.
The Holy Ghost basically flipped that house, that attitude and her
past upside down. It was pretty neat to take part of it. We said a
closing prayer, and left as friends. We said to her on the way out,
"see you at church on Sunday."
Thursday Morning, we finally got over to Dr. Enzo's to teach him the
first half of the Plan of Salvation. We brought Nino along with us.
Nino and Dr. Enzo have known each other for years and years, but
haven't seen each other for a long time. It was neat to hear them chat
back and forth about the good ole days before we started in with our
lesson. They laughed and told us a few stories from way back when. Our
lesson went really well. Dr. Enzo was really receptive and the spirit
was definitely there with us. Nino bore a pretty powerful testimony at
the end of the lesson on how the Plan of Salvation has affected his
life, ever since he asked accepted the gospel 40 years ago. It put the
cherry on top. Nino we really excited to hear that we are working with
Dr. Enzo. He said, "If you guys get him, I think it would be a real
hit to this city..." He was pumped, and as were we. That evening we
headed back over to Nino's house and pack some wood down for the next
few days. Afterwards we planned to have one of our investigators meet
us there for a little visit. Carmen is her name and we have met with
her, just it had been a good while because of the holidays and all of
the parties and celebrations. We didn't have a lot of time, but we
were able to be with her for a little while and have a little lesson
on the importance of daily scripture study. She committed to read the
scriptures daily and especially the Book of Mormon. She is a super
nice lady and a good person, she just needs to apply herself a little
bit. After the small lesson with Carmen, we rushed over to the church
for English course. Once again, no one showed up. We decided to call
Antonio Bartalota, so we could talk to him about the lesson we had
with his sister. He thanked us for bringing the spirit and opening her
eyes a little bit to the reality that was in front of her. He did say
something that got under my skin and has stuck with me ever since. He
looked me right in the eyes and said, "Anziani ( Elders ) you guys
lack some experience..." Personally, I thought that was a pretty
ignorant comment to make because he doesn't really have a clue what
experience we do or do not have....but I as well do not want to be
ignorant and say that we know it all. It was good practice for me to
hold my tongue. That night with his sister, The Lord was speaking
through us. It wasn't us saying whatever we could to hurt her feelings
or make her feel ashamed, the Lord was surely speaking through the
both of us. After he left, we hiked over to Nino's and I was pretty
hot inside, meaning I was a little fired up at some of the comments
that were directed at us out of ignorance....but Nino helped me
realize that it doesn't matter. So many people in this world want a
God that is comfortable, that gives the people whatever they feel like
they deserve, or that will change a rule here and there to make us
more popular looking in the eyes of the world. That is most definitely
not how it goes. Our Lord is definitely not a comfortable one, and I
can testify that He will never conform to the wants and wishes of "the
world". Too many people sit on the fence, as was said in an email I
received this morning, and it can no longer be like that. We must
decide where we stand. Do we want to be comfortable and roll with the
crowd, or do we want to choose to rise above this dark and dreary
world that we live in. I can tell you that I know what side is going
to win in the end. The script has already been written. Now, we must
choose if we want to win, or if we want to lose. It's the little
things that matter and it's the little things that will keep up afloat
through the deep waters of sin, temptation and trial. The little
things such as family prayer, daily scripture study, tithing, fasting.
These little things will keep us afloat in this world that seems to be
drifting farther and farther away from The Savior of All Mankind,
"because it is too hard" or "not the cool thing to do". I pray that we
can all remember to do these little precious things each day, to keep
us close to the One who has overcome this world, the only One who has
ever overcome this world.
Friday Morning, we began an exchange with our District Leader. We
decided that I would be heading down to Bagheria, a small town just
outside of Palermo, with the DL and that Anziano Da Ponte would remain
in Mistretta with the companion of our DL. Our DL is named Anziano
Andersen and his father is Elder Andersen of the 70. As you can
imagine, Anziano Andersen is a good missionary. During our Scambio we
didn't necessarily have any grand miracles or anything of the kind,
but what we did do was work our tails off together. We were
practically jogging in between appointments and places that we needed
to be. We got a lot done that first evening together, even though what
we did will not show up on the numbers that get sent to our Mission
President each week. It's not about that. It's about working, and
working hard. Anziano Andersen is a sports guy and so we get along
just fine. A lot of people thought we were brothers. He is a good kid
and I learned a lot from him. Saturday Morning he scheduled an
appointment with me to head back to the family that I met just before
Christmas when we went in our first exchanges. I was really excited to
see them again, as they were excited to see me again. We had a really
nice lunch together and they dropped me off at the train station we
could catch the train back to Mistretta. When we returned to
Mistretta, Anziano Wardle, Anziano Da Ponte and I went to visit Dr.
Enzo. On Friday morning he went to a hospital near Messina to have
some tests taken on his lungs. So Saturday evening we stopped in to
see how they went. Everything went well and he is healing up fine. It
was surely an answer to our prayers and we were pretty excited, as was
he. We weren't there for long, only a few minutes...but he used to be
very cautious towards us missionaries and now it is not like that.
Those walls of defense that he placed up long ago, are starting to
weaken. It's a beautiful thing to see the Spirit of the Lord work on
somebody little by little each day. After our little visit there, Nino
invited us all over for a really nice Pizza Night. He is always so
happy to have us over and nothing makes him happier than a living room
full of people eating at his kitchen table. He was smiling from ear to
ear all night and we were as well. We all had a good time, and for
some reason he continued to thank us for coming...even though he did
everything. He is one of the best hearted people that I have ever met.
I want to stuff the ole feller in my suit case and bring him home with
me.
As I said in the beginning, we got lots of snow Saturday during the
night and because of the harsh conditions....Church was cancelled.
Anziano Da Ponte and I were invited over to the Portera Family's home
for lunch and we stayed with them for a little while to keep out of
the cold and nasty wind. Around 6 we decided to head around to all the
homes of the members ( with our branch presidents permission ) and
bless the sacrament for our members. We bundled up all nice and warm
with our suits, gloves, coats, beanies and I even wore two scarves. We
were well prepared. We made our way around the town, stopping first
with Vito ( Nino's older brother ) and then on down to the Portera
Family's home, then back over to Nino's and we finished up at the
Wardles apartment at around 9:30. I was immensely touched by the way
these faithful members of Mistretta prepared their dining room tables
for the sacred ordinance of the sacrament. Each member had his own
different idea, but they each wanted it as close as they could get it
to the real thing. Some used napkins as the white cloth, with others
used nicely hand made white cloths. The one that touched me the most
was Nino. He cleared off his kitchen table with his normal red and
clean table cloth and headed upstairs to fetch a white one. He came
down the stairs with a white sheet, that had a few stains and
butterflies trimmed the edges of cloth...I had a thought come to mind
that it was perfectly acceptable to the Lord. Of course it wasn't all
white and beautiful as are the ones we use for sacrament, but it was
the absolute best that our little 65 year old, mostly blind member
could do to turn his dining room table into the sacrament table. I was
fighting back the tears as I stood to break the bread and saw the
tablecloth in rather rough condition and seeing a butterfly or two
poke out from the edge of the cloth. Once again, on my head...I knew
it was acceptable unto the Lord because Nino was providing the best
that he had. It gave me a new outlook on just how important and divine
the sacrament truly is. I once heard a quote and it said something
along the lines of..."If we could fully comprehend the complete
importance of the Sacrament, we would crawl on our hands and knees
every Sunday morning to partake of it." It was a wonderful opportunity
we had last night to bundle up and trek through the snow to our
members homes. Something I will never, ever forget.
There is my weekly email this week my family and friends. I'm sorry
that I have been slacking on the little thought duty. I promise that
next week I will have a little something, something prepared for us
all. I would like to thank each of you for the love, support and
kindness that you send my way. I thank you for the prayers offered on
my behalf, as well as on the behalf of Elder Just. I can testify that
the power of prayer is real and it is truly powerful. I have felt a
few distinct times during my mission your prayers literally pushing me
forward. I thank you for it all. You have a great week and take real
good care. We are going to find a snow shovel and shovel some walks
around Mistretta. I'll talk to you all next week, until then...I love
you! I love you! I love you!
Anziano JarDee Nessen
Italy Rome Mission
D&C 104:82
View from the balcony of the Bagheria Anziano!
Beautiful!
See it snow's here! Brrrrrr.
 |
| I just love Nino! |
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