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