November 7th, 2016 // 100th PDAY as a Missionary

November 7th, 2016 // 100th PDAY as a Missionary

Happy Monday Family and Friends.

Welcome to November. I never thought that we would ever reach this point, but low and behold...here we are. Today is my 100th P-Day here in the mission field. Time is moving fast, and each day the passes I seem to become a little more excited to see all of you, but as well a little more grateful for this beautiful country, these wonderful people and this truly amazing culture. Luckily, I still have one more full week to soak it all in. I would like to THANK each one of you for all of the love, support and prayers that you have sent my way during my time here in the mission field. I have said it before, and I will say it again, but there have been times in my mission when I have literally felt those prayers pushing me along. I love you all, truly I do. Here are some of the highlights from this last week here in Southern Italy.

Last Monday was Halloween, and speaking of which...I hope you all had a great Halloween!! The Musicco family invited us out to their home for dinner. We arrived and found the kitchen table all decorated and as soon as we came out of the elevator, the two little Musicco kids were in their masks hiding in the hallway and they scared us half to death. We had a nice dinner and had a good time together. Vittoria also invited one of our new investigators, Beatrice, over and her family as well to spend some time with us. It was awesome. We all laughed, joked and had a good time. Near the end of the evening, Elder Jacob and I grabbed the two little masks and went and hid. The kids would come and find us and we would scare the pants out of them. It was seriously so fun. They would just giggle and laugh. We played for a little while and we headed back to Bari. It made me think of all of the times when Tyke, Maci, Abbi and I would play games like that. The parents thanked us for making the kids night, and we thanked them for having us over. I will send some pictures home of our little family home evening together, Halloween style. 

Tuesday was some sort of Holliday over here in Italy, and to be honest I am not really sure what they celebrate...but we only had two people show up to our English course. We actually had a lot of fun. Following english course we headed over to a members home to assist him in carrying his mother in law up a few flights of stairs. She is a little old lady, who unfortunately is confined to a wheelchair. In their apartment building there is no elevator, so Elder Jacob and I picked her up and carried her home. The member was so grateful for us being willing to come over and lend them a hand, seriously so grateful. Elder Jacob and I were excited about being able to perform a little bit of service that requires a little bit of work with our hands. 

Wednesday morning we headed out to Trani once again to meet with The Musicco family and our investigators Rosa and Beatrice. We decided to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Near the end of the lesson, Rosa and Beatrice kind of spoke up for the first time about their feelings about this whole Mormon thing. Rosa said that she enjoys it, and said that if she didn't feel like it was for her...she would never be apart of another lesson again. Luckily she continues to come and to listen. She has begun reading from the Book of Mormon, which is always nice to hear. She explained that she keeps her copy of the Book of Mormon on her nightstand right next to her bed. Beatrice shared a little experience with us that was pretty neat. She randomly flipped the Book of Mormon open and read a few scriptures from the 12th Chapter of Helaman. She had a few questions and Elder Jacob did a wonderful job responding to her questions. The verses that she randomly opened to were about missionaries and missionary work. She said, "Maybe this is some sort of sign..." We invited them to continue to read and to pray. Following that lesson, we headed down to Lecce, which is another city in our zone, to go on exchanges or splits with the elders down there. I was with a missionary who was pretty young in the mission, so I decided that during our little exchange that he was going to be the senior comp. He was going to make the decisions and take the lead in everything that we did. He is Italian and so he doesn't have any trouble with the language. We started at 4:00 pm and walked...and we walked....and we walked....and we walked....and we walked. Sadly, they didn't have any appointments scheduled, and so we had ourselves a long night of tracting. I asked if there were less actives that we could go and see. None. I asked if there were some members that we could go and visit. None. That night, after we had nearly walked to the moon and back...I humbly gave this missionary some ideas and things that they could do that would be more productive as well as effective. It was a great exchange and we had a good time. That missionary is truly a stud and a solid missionary. He is one of our district leaders here in the Bari Zone and is doing a great job leading his district. 

Skip forward to Friday. Again, on Friday morning we headed out to Trani to visit with the Musicco family and our new friends Beatrice and Rosa. We originally planned to do a little review of some of the things that we have already studied and make sure that they had understood everything well. Before the opening prayer was said, we asked all of them how they were doing. I then asked if someone would be willing to offer the opening prayer for us. Marianna said that she would be more than willing to offer it, and that she was going to include a lady that lives in her same apartment building. For this lesson we met at Marianna's home who lives about 5 minutes on foot from Vittoria's house. I asked if this lady was okay, and right then Marianna and Lucia became very emotional. Marianna went on to explain to us that there is a young mother living a few floors above her that is being beaten and threatened by her husband. They went into details about what he has done to both her and the children and the things that he has threatened to do, and honestly there was a lump in my stomach. We listened for about ten minutes, and I couldn't say a word, I didn't know what to say. When Marianna finished describing what is going on just a few floors up, a thought came to my mind that we should all kneel in prayer and pray for this poor young mother of three. I invited all those who were physically capable, because I knew that Marianna has problems with her knees. I asked if Marianna would be willing to offer the prayer, and she explained that she has knee problems but that she wanted to kneel anyways. It was powerful to see a lady who should be physically incapable of kneeling on a hard tile floor, just completely disregard her own health issues and capabilities to kneel in prayer for a lady who lives a three floors up in the apartment building. She said a short and sweet, but powerful little prayer and the spirit filled the room. The Holy Ghost put one topic in my mind as we arose from that prayer, and it was gratitude. We all all seven of us around that kitchen table took a little look into our own lives and realized just how blessed we truly are. We talked about Jesus Christ and how He is able to comfort, help, lift and love anyone in any situation. Sometimes we may have the thought, "Well, Christ never went through a divorce... So how can He truly understand how I am feeling right now?" To be honest, I am not sure how He does it, but I simply know that He does. We bore testimony of Him, of His redeeming power and His infinite love, even for that young mom who is dealing with something pretty difficult at the moment. I bore witness that there are Angels on her right and on her left that are supporting her, strengthening her, loving her and comforting her in every moment. I truly feel that we would be shocked and amazed if we could take a glimpse on the other side for just a moment and see the great the number of Angels that are around us, helping us, loving us and assisting in every second or every single day. It was a powerful lesson, and we all walked away with a prayer in our heart for that young mom. 

Yesterday in sacrament meeting, a younger looking couple walked in and sat down. I was a little surprised because they weren't our or the sisters investigators and I had never seen them before. Come to find out, that they are not members and that the lady had come into contact with the missionaries back in 2000. After Sacrament meeting we headed downstairs for the Gospel Principles lesson. Lucky for us, the teacher wasn't there and so we were asked to teach the lesson. We got downstairs and I began flipping through the manual and saw lesson 36, Eternal Families, and picked that one right away. This couple, Domenico and Nicla, are not married but they are getting ready to get married. The lesson went pretty well. At the end Nicla kind of opened up and explained how she felt. She said and explained that we hear these things and we want to believe that they are true....but to me they just seem like fairytales. She also said that she feels that Heavenly Father has abandoned her. Now, I have heard that phrase many times throughout my mission. Many times. Each time it comes up, I tend to ask..."How is your scripture study coming along? How often do you vocally pray? When was the last time that you attended your church meetings?" Usually these questions are followed by some pretty weak responses and excuses. Now, I didn't ask her any of these questions, but I've seen so many people over here in this country that do very little for Him, but yet expect Him to place 1 million in the back, a medical degree on the wall and a Lamborghini in the garage. Anyways, the lesson was coming to a close and we were running out of time and I wanted to respond to her comment about the things we were talking about and how they are most definitely not fairytales. I told the story that I've told hundreds of times. A young mother and her two little boys left home one morning, for the last time all together. I bore testimony that thanks to the covenants and promises that we made in the temple that morning as we kneeled at that alter in the Salt Lake Temple that I will be able to spend forever with that pretty lady that I said goodbye to over 16 years ago. I talked about how the ugliest phrase in any language is, "till death do us part..." To me, it makes no sense that we come here to this earth. We get married. We start a family. We overcome trials, difficulties and heartache together. We work together. We grow. We cultivate these relationships. We sacrifice so much for each other. We dedicate ourselves to one another. We grow old together. We do everything together...and then death comes alone and we are separated. That makes no sense. God would not put us here on the earth in families to do and go through all of those things here in mortality and then death comes along and we head on over to the other side where we are just friends, one big happy family with everyone here upon the earth. That makes no sense, and truly that "till death do us part" is the ugliest phrase that ever has been and ever will be said. I bore testimony that all sacrifices that are necessary to go to the temple are worth it. Honestly they shouldn't even be called sacrifices, we should just have the faith that the blessings that we will receive from those temple promises and covenants will make us INFINITELY more happy than whatever thing we may be doing at the present time that is keeping us from entering the House of the Lord and making those promises. I implored Nicla and Domenico to always have the temple in mind. I explained that obviously they will have to take some steps before they jump to the temple, but that the temple should always be in their minds. They are great and we will be seeing them this Saturday afternoon.

Family and Friends that wraps up this week here in Italy. So heading into my last week and knowing that next Monday is my last PDay, I kind of want to explain what's going to take place next week. So next Monday morning, the 14th, Im going to hop on a train here in Bari at 7:00 AM and that train will be taking me to Rome. I will arrive in Rome at about 11:30 AM. Then I will be heading from the Train Station to the Mission Office where I will turning in my iPad and all that good stuff. Following that, I will be heading out into Rome for my final PDay in the mission. I plan on heading to the Vatican and seeing as much as I possibly can, given that I have neve served in or even near Rome. SOOOOO....next week, I will not be responding to any emails personally. At about 5:30 AM to 6:00 AM next Monday morning I will be sending out my last and final email to everyone, but I wont have the time to respond to anyone personally. So if you have any questions or anything at all, please send me an email before Saturdayand I will respond to that question or whatever it may be in my final weekly email. 

Everyone...I love you. Goodness, I really do. The excitement is really starting to build and I can feel just how close we are, but I am grateful that I still have one more week. There is still so much to do. I will see you all next week in the Salt Lake Airport. I will talk more about that next week, but for now just know that I love you all and Im grateful for each and everyone of you. Please be safe and take really good care. 

God Bless and Much Love. 

Here's to one more week...

I love you.

Elder JarDee Nessen 

Pictures from Halloween. Anziano Cagnacci is one of the Elders that I went on exchanges with this week. Also pictures from our PaintBall Pday today here in Bari. Good times!!