Que Tal

Dear Family and Friends

Another week has come and gone in good old Argentina! Time seems to be flying these days as the work becomes more a second nature, and the joy of my life. This week we were able to sing in a choir in front of about 500 future missionaries in the stake center of our zone. Two members of the Seventy came and that was a cool experience because there were only about twenty of us Elders who were asked to sing. There were future misionaries from all the provinces around Mendoza that came. Something even cooler is that the girl we just recently baptized, Denise, and her older sister who is a member as well, went and both came back with the convictions that they wanted to serve missions. It was a hapy day for me :) So I guess we will see one day. It is a breath of fresh air out here when you see two young women striving to do what is right, and go the opposite way of the majority of the youth here in Argentina. It gives me hope for the future.

Being an American down here is difficult sometimes because most the people have no idea what America is like. They hear stories and things and believe those things. Someone told me yesterday that the U.S. wasn´t in World War 2... It took me a while to calm down about that... Haha, now I have gotten better at it and have learned to laugh about it. It does give me a testimony of the importance of education though, and how we need to seek all the best learning; Secular and learning by faith. We won´t be saved in our igorance. There is a hard thing down here that we see all the time. People drop out of school to go do some low paying job. They think that it is great at first because they are making money as a kid, and then they face the reality that it doesnt cut it to provide for a family. So they live in poverty the rest of their lives. As missionaries, we sometimes stress the importance of education here to those wayward ones who can´t quite yet see the bigger picture.

We have 4 baptisms planned for this FRiday!!! I am so excited I can´t wiait! We have been facing road blocks all along the way so we could really use some prayers to help these people accomplish their goal and enter the straight and narrow way. Their names are Joel, Sofia, Fiorella, and Giuliana. We are working hard to make it happen so that has been great!! There isn´t a lot to report this week, but we are keepin on and we are hapy. Spanish is coming better and better. It really is such a blessing. I hope that I can master all the basics by the time I get home, and I have faith that I will. Wait, we did have raviolis twice this week which was great but nowhere near my dad´s :) Alright I love you all, keep working hard!!

Sincerely,
Elder Passantino

In the Land of Grapes

Hola y como están familia, y mis amigos!!!

Well, this week has been a really great and fun week. We baptized a 13 yr old girl named Denise this weekend which was wonderful!!!! She asked me to baptize her and I was of course glad to do it. She is really awesome and I´m so excited for her and her future! :) Her mom, Sofia, and her younger brother Joel are both getting baptized this weekend!!! It´s just so amazing to see the Gospel change people. When we first ran into them, they were having lots of problems with their family, like for instance they were getting in a lot of fights. The longer we met with them the greater change you could see, and they told us since we have been coming they have been a thousand times more patient with each other and they aren´t yelling or fighting anymore so that was a huge blessing. Sofia also has two other children that are 18 and 16 and they both are already members of the church and they have started attending again and feeling of the sweetness of the Spirit. It is so amazing to help families out, because that is a central point of the Gospel.

Another huge milestone this week is that we reactivated this lady named Monica Hidalgo. I have been working with her since I got to Argentina and she always said she knew she had to come back to church but she would never commit. She has nine kids and the oldest four are members and the youngest 5 are not. The Father is also not a member of the church. We have been working a lot with two girls (her daughters) Fiorella, and Giuliana and they have been coming to church for the last month and so and are just so ready to be baptized. Fiorella told us of how she received her answer that the church was true when she prayed and read the scriptures. It was so awesome! But the problem was the Father said he didn't want any of his kids getting baptized if the Mom didn´t start coming back. SO SHE FINALLY DID! After many years, she was welcomed back with open arms here by the awesome members :) She had previously been praying if she really should go back to church, and she opened the Book Of MOrmon and had the answer come to her through what she read in 3 Nephi. It is such a testimony that our Father in Heaven knows His children, and will help them when they seek Him. So this weekend we will baptize Sofia and Joel, and then next weekend we will baptize Fiorella, and Barbara!! Im so excited and happy!!!

This week I was asked on to give a surprise talk which are always fun huh? :) I spoke about listening to the Voice to the Good Shepherd. I started with reading parts in John 10(one of my favorite chapters ever) and how we need to know and be familiar with Him and His voice when he calls. I turned to Heleman 5:30 to explain how the voice is and then to some parts in the Doctrine of Covenants to show that when his servants speak with the Holy Ghost they are in a way hearing His. Then I stressed the importance of not becoming so distracted that we aren´t able to hear it anymore. Then I read the promises from the Lord in D and C 93:1 and Revelation 3:20-21! I felt like it was the best talk I have given yet in Spanish and I felt very happy and content about it, it was great!

So this week we were walking down the street and this guy was trying to insult of so he just started yelling ´´Bush´´ at us! Hahaha, we laughed way hard because it was probably one of the dumbest things I have seen and heard in a while. My companion pointed at a Bush and said ´´Bush´´ in spanish and it confused the guy it was a funny moment. Some people are just weird like that, and I have learned to really laugh at things like that because most the people have no idea what they are talking about. Also some crazy people, when you say that you are American they bring up the Falkan Islands war or something and say we helped out. They tell it so dang far fatched it's so ridiculous. I'm pretty sure the U.S. stayed out of it, but they say we helped and that we sent mercaneries and killed all their like 16yr old soldiers... It's so not true. I guess that's what happens when you have government controlled news stations.

The mission is receiving 15 more latino missionaries this next transfer so that should be cool. It will help all of us gringos get down the language a lot better. Spanish is going better and better for me. That is what the gift of tongues is, when we use it for the edifying and teaching of the Gospel, not in random blabbers and unknown tongues. I am very happy and blessed to be where I am and doing what I am doing. I am meeting amazing people and gaining amazing friendships, but more importantly I am doing the Lords work. I love you all so much :)

Love,
ELder Passantino

It's True!

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week has been a great and successful week. We really just set our focuses and got our goals done, according to the will of the Lord. We have worked really hard and now we have four for sure baptisms lined up for the next three weekends. We are working hard on two others as well, and doing our best to help them enter the waters of baptism. The four people are Denise and Sofia, who are a Mother and a daughter who are both extremely excited for their baptisms and are just so awesome! Denise quoted back to us the story of the tree of life and Nephi’s struggles with his brothers. It was incredible, she just took it upon herself to find out if the Book of Mormon is true and she now has a stalwart testimony that it is. She is only thirteen too!!!! The other two, are two girls named Giuliana and Fiorella. They are 11 and 16. Fiorella told us of her experience as she knelt and prayed to ask if the church is true. She said she asked God if she should be baptized. She told us that she felt something she had never felt before, and although she didn’t hear a voice or see a vision, she knew that God wanted her to be baptized. Their sister Barbara is 14 and she hasn’t been as interested and as willing as the other two, but we asked her to pray as well. She told us as she prayed she received the distinct response in her heart that she needed to go to church this Sunday.
I just love how God speaks to us!!! He doesn’t yell, he doesn’t force or take away our right to choose, but He answers us in the way that he Answered Elijah, through a still and small voice. Something interesting is that the Holy Spirit speaks to our Spirit and sort of pushes us in the right direction. That is how one of my best Elder friends put it in the MTC. He had been only a member for about a little over a year and a half and he said he knew he had to serve a mission. He told of how his conversion went, ´´I didn’t understand everything, and I wasn’t exactly sure, but all I knew was that I felt something tell me this was right, and it silently led me by the hand along the path that God wanted me to be.´´
As I think about it more, it is how everything in the Kingdom of is conducted; by the inspiration and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. As Peter says men and prophets spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit. The sweetness of the Spirit can be so easily offended that it is hard to feel sometimes, but in the quite moments between God and our own selves is when we learn the profoundest truths, simply because we are allowing ourselves to be taught by the Holy Ghost himself; the third and sealing member of the Godhead. It is so important to keep him with us. He can unlock the treasures of knowledge that we couldn’t ´´reform´´ or reason with ourselves.
The question we always get is, ´´why are there so many churches? ´´ It is because many have denied the Spirit which giveth utterance on the truth doctrinally, and of course the existence of God and Jesus Christ. Whenever people testify that God and Jesus Christ live, the Spirit will testify that that is true, and it will make them feel good, but it takes the humble seeker to find out the doctrinal truths that every church in the world argues upon. That is why God reveals it to the weak things of the world and withholds it from the learned who believe that their opinion is the very truth of heaven and earth. Is their any wonder why men and women from 19-26 serve missions for Jesus Christ. It is because we have received the witness of the Spirit and not of men and know that what we teach and represent is true, not just based upon another scripture which can be interpreted 10 different ways by different religions. It is because the weak things of the world (or the humble testimonies) will one day confound the learned, and inspire the true in heart. As missionaries we are searching for the searchers of truth, and are willing to ask God for themselves. They don’t have to believe us at all. They just have to believe God, who cannot lie. I am so grateful for the sacred calling I have to be God´s instrument in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. This is the truth, and even if all those I loved, and know strayed, I could not because the witness of the Spirit is stronger than the influence and reason of man. I am so happy. I am working hard. And more grateful than ever before in my life. I love you all!!!

Love,
Elder Passantino

Keeping on in Argentina!

Happy Birthday to my angel Mom! I hope you know that I am working my hardest, and knowing you that is probably the greatest birthday present that you would ask for. You showed and taught me how to love others and that fame, and material things just really aren’t that important. I am using the skills you gave me to preach the true Gospel in love and truth. And thank you for that Wonderful and Spirit filled e-mail Dad. I am so grateful that I have a stalwart Priesthood holder Father who has an unwavering testimony of the truth to be my best friend and guide!! I miss you dearly right now Dad. It’s been a good but difficult week. I have had a lot on my mind this week, lots about the Spirit and how to keep it with me always. Your email hit me right on when you talked about how you wanted to keep it with you always!! That is how I am right now, and I am struggling to do so. As a missionary Satan puts so many little things in the way to detract from the Spirit. Down here in Argentina there is pornography on the television and on all the magazine stands. The country is dying in immorality and it really saddens me. The language is getting better and better, but I am still trying to find an effective way to study.

We are working with all of those five people Mom and we are almost a hundred percent sure that they will all be baptized this Month (Feb)!!! It is such a miracle from God. Sofia, who is the mother of Denise, accepted the same baptismal date as Denise which is the 12th. She cried as we extended the invitation to follow in the Saviors footsteps and bore testimony to us that she knew what we were saying was true. Denise, 13yrs old, took the initiative to read the Book of Mormon by herself and she literally explained to us the story of the tree of life in all its aspects. It was a phenomenal and Spirit filled experience. She is so ready and bore to us her testimony of the truthfulness of these things. She said she prayed and felt something different and felt a peace come over her. The rest of their family are members too so we are completing a family! I am so happy for that, and this Wednesday we are planning on setting 3 baptismal dates with Fiorella, Barbara, and Giuliana. They are the only nonmembers in their family too and they have a way strong desire to get baptized. If all goes to plan, and we follow the Spirit, we have a guaranteed 5 baptisms in the month of February which would be amazing!! It is very good for the mission and I am full of joy over it :) I´m trying so hard Daddy, I feel like Moses felt when he said, ´´I now know that man is nothing, which thing I had never supposed.´´ I feel in the depths of humility and can only go on with the help of the Lord. I hope you know that I am working my hardest. This Gospel is sooo true and I know it through the power of the Holy Ghost!!!!!! I am seeing miracles! Thank you for your love and prayers!
Love,
Elder Brian Passantino