El Capo

Familia y amigos!

Well I think I should explain the subject line first, (El Capo). It basically means stud here in Argentina and the Elders say it all the time about good Elders, we say, 创Que Capo创 it's pretty funny. This week/today we went to the zoo in Mendoza! Lets just say it was a lot different than the Zoos in the states. I didn't see one worker in the whole big park, only at the beginning where you pay... And the cages for the animals were big enough that you could go in and reach your hand in and feed them. So many people at the park were feeding the monkeys and stuff it was crazy. I don't think the maintenance there was very good becuase as we were watching the monkeys a bunch found a way out of this huge fence/cage and stole some things right out of this guys backpack next to us!... We were like what in the world!!!! They all started going crazy and then just started jumping through all the trees in the oark wherever they wanted, and there wasn't a worker in site. It was actually pretty fun, but a little crazy. Its a big zoo that overlooks the city of Mendoza, because it is on a hill and its really pretty. We went with lots of the Elders in our Zone so it was a lot of fun. I have made some really good friends already with lots of the Elders so my funny personality has started to come out here finally in Argentina haha!!

This week I went on my first splits or 创divisiones创 with an Elder named Elder Mamani. He is from Buenos Aires also, but his family is Bolivian. We went on them because he is companions with the District Leader and the DL needed to come to our area and do the baptisimal interviews. SO I stayed the night in a city called San Jose with Elder Mamani and the Zone Leaders! It was a lot of fun and a good change for a day. The zone leaders are awesome too and very spiritual and loving. They are from Buenos Aires and Paraguay! So I have had a lot of opportunity to practice and continually refine my Spanish!!! I am feeling much better with everything in the language, (dont get me wrong It's still incredibly hard, and I still don't understand a lot) But I can really feel my improvement a lot more. I got to help Elder Mamani write his sort of 创farewell创 letter from the mission with his life goals, and what he felt he has accomplished in his mission. It has to be written in English so it was interesting trying to decipher what he was writing in English and correcting it. We all had a good time together, and at the end he awarded me with my first tie in the Mission that is a special tie with the Argentine colors from Buenos Aires!! I was very grateful and it was just awesome of him!

This last Saturday a counselor in the Bishopric talked to me and asked me to give a fifteen minute talk(in Spanish obviously) the next day at church. Now Saturday was already a very busy day for us, and I was a little nervous, but I had faith that it would all work out. It did :) I prepared the talk on one of the missionary lessons called the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a little shaky, not going to lie, but I felt like I said the words that needed to be said, and that everyone could understand what I was saying. I was very grateful for my Heavenly Father and the mercy he shed on me to help me out with that!!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ really is so simple. It is Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentence, Baptism for the Remission of sins, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and ENDURING TO THE END! Basically our purpose as missionaries is to invite people to live that, and reap the blessings of following the example the Lord put forth. I think the reason that we don't receive more and more revelation sometimes is because we haven磘 mastered the basics. That's why we are constantly learning the first principles over and over again, because they are vitally important. When we understand and apply those pricipals we are able to comprehend the greater and deeper doctrines of the Kingdom of God. When we exercise our faith in the little things, the Lord sees it fit to reveal greater things. We can learn more through mastering and putting to practice the basic principles, rather than reaching beyond the limits of our current understanding. When the basics become our basics the complexity and greater grandeur of the Gospel takes root in our souls inter the enlarging of our understanding of the greater things. How grateful I am for the simplicity that becomes the depth of eternity through diligent obedience to the basics. I don't
think I explained that very well, but there is a much better explanation by Hyrum Smith about the first principles of the Gospel in P.M.G. that you should look up!! ANyways I am beginning to find myself more and more in the service of my fellow men, and I am starting to understand greater things through the Spirit. The mission is amazing, hard though it may be, it molds the boy out of the man of God. I磎 so grateful to be a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ at such a young age! I am so happy and grateful!

We have our first three baptisms this week and I am so excited :) :) They are either Saturday or Sunday, but keep these amazing people in your prayers, Rosio, Luciano, and Ornela! I love you all keep smiling through the hard times, and know that the Gospel is true!

Love,
Elder Passantino