One Week Under My Belt

Hello to All!
Sorry if this is short but the computers here are timed, I feel like I am back at the MTC. This week has been difficult for me. I have tried so hard to put myself into the work, and I have, but as usual, new situations effect me pretty bad but I am continuing to move forward. It is nice to know I have one week under my belt but I still feel like I don't know anything. Church was rough because I didn't understand ANYTHING but the members are nice, they just speak to me and I look at them with a blank stare and hope they understand that I did not understand a thing they said. The bishop is really getting the ward excited about missionary work which will be great! It seems to be a pretty strong ward so that is good. We have a couple of investigators that we are hoping will get baptized soon, a couple of families which is great. The hardest thing is getting people to church because everything is just so spread out and no one really understands the purpose of going to church every week. We have a member family that lives in the poorest zip code in the US, Mot Haven. They live in the projects there and it is so sad to see their circumstances and makes me blesses for what I have. Today we got to go to the temple which was really nice, it is right in Manhattan and so it was cool to go down there. As a Spanish speaking sister I will never really be in that area, it is SO different than the Bronx. It was fun to be able to see the New York that you think of when you think of the city. I hope to hear from everyone soon. Please keep me in your prayers. Love you all!
Hermana Passantino

Our Christmas Gift

One of the very best gifts we received today was hearing the voice of our wonderful daughter! Entering the mission field only a few days before Christmas is a challenging way to begin her mission in New York but she is determined to work hard and serve the Lord. She has a great training hermana and has already traveled on the bus and train. Three families fed them on Christmas Eve and they were in the Mission Home for dinner and a conference for Christmas. She misses everyone and appreciates your letters, packages, and emails but mainly your prayers! Thanks for being such a strong support for all of us!
Love,
The Passantino Family

Can You Say Culture Shock ???

Well, here I am. I made it to New York safe and sound. It is very weird to think that I am actually here. My first area is in the Bronx. My trainer is Sis. Walker and she has been here for about 6 months. We live with two other sisters. One is English speaking and the other is madrine speaking. Our planes were pretty delayed yesterday. Our plane flew to Chicago first, we stayed on the plane and then came to New York. There we met the Mission President, his wife and the AP's. They took us to the mission home and we had dinner. This transfer was really weird because they did transfers last week so we didn't have a transfer meeting. That night they drove us right to our areas. I'm not going to lie, I am having a hard time. I didn't sleep at all last night, not even for a second so I am pretty out of it today. It's p-day so it's been kind of a weird day anyway. It is very cold and as we walk down the street no one will even look you in the eyes. It's pretty weird. The city is just so different than anything I've ever lived in. I'm going to have to buy some ear plugs because it is SO noisy outside our apartment. On Friday (Christmas) we have a big mission meeting which should be pretty cool. I think I am just a little bit of shock still. I look around and think, "wow, 16 months of this." I know it will be wonderful but today is just odd. I almost wish my first day was a normal one so that we can just get to work and I can stop thinking about myself. I haven't even had time to think about the stress of not knowing Spanish... goody. I was able to give a Book of Mormon away on the plane and that was pretty cool. They lady I sat next to was really nice and a real new yorker. She gave me the insides and outs of it all and as we got off the plane she gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek. That was weird from going from having no human contact at all at the MTC to this, but it was fun. I miss you all and look forward to hearing from you. I didn't have any new e-mails, I'm guessing it's because I just checked my e-mail a couple days ago. My address here is:
1414 White Plains Road 1st Floor
Bronx, NY
10462
Please write me but send packages to the mission home still. Well, I love you all! Please keep me in your prayers and pray for the people in New York, I think they need it!

Adios CCM and Hola New York!

Adios CCM!

So to explain the subject, CCM is MTC in Spanish. That's right, I am leaving tomorrow. I can not even believe this time has come. I'm pretty sure every emotion is running through me right about now. I am way excited, scared, nervous, happy... EVERYTHING! I don't feel very prepared when it comes to Spanish but I can bear my testimony so hopefully that will work for now. I know my last weeks e-mail wasn't too full of stuff because I didn't have much time, sorry about that. As far as my leg goes, it is fine. They took an x-ray to make sure the clots weren't calcifying or whatever and he said they were ok, he saw something in the xray but said it wasn't a problem. I am just taking some blood thinners and have to massage my leg out every night but I will be just fine. It doesn't even hurt that bad anymore. As far as the fire alarm goes... well, it is a loooonnnggg story but to make it short, the alarm goes off at like 12:00 am, I jumped out of bed and started yelling at someone to turn it off... I was like pacing the room all mad that the alarm was going off. Who even knows why, then my roommate starts hitting the smoke detector and it took us about 3 min to realize it was coming from a big red box, not the smoke detector. So another roommates was like, I SMELL SMOKE. We all kind freaked out at this point, I grabbed my name tag and my blue care (which gets me food and such) and we left the building and went to the gym. We were all just sitting in the gym laughing about how funny the whole situation was. Come to find out there was not fire at all, some pipe had burst. It was grand experience. Really wonderful and funny to look back on. I didn't know a fire alarm could get me so worked up. Ha ha. This week has gone by SO fast! Nothing too exciting has happened, just been working hard to get all the things done that I need to. This P-day was VERY busy. A member of our stake presidency had us write our own "Declaration of Faith" before we leave for the field. Mine kind of sums up my feelings and goals here from the MTC so I thought I would put it in this e-mail. I love you all! Thanks for the letters and I can't wait to hear from you while I'm in New York! Feliz Navidad!!!!!!

Declaration of Faith
I will cheerfully go about doing good every day of my life. As I continue to rely on the spirit, I will always follow its promptings and never have the words, "I wish I would have listened..." come to mind. I will love the people I serve and I will teach them of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice and love for each one of us. I will bear my testimony often and work on my personal testimony every day. I will live worthy of the spirit every day. I will use the atonement everyday. I will live worthy of the title: daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, friend and one day wife and mother. I will work my hardest every day because I know my family, my companion, my investigators, my mission president and most importantly my Savior are counting on me. I will learn Spanish so I can teach effectively. I will remember my Savior every day and show gratitude for all the blessings in my life. I will never forget that I am a daughter of God and that he knows me personally and will remember that who the Lord calls, He also qualifies. I will come home knowing that I did everything in my power to fulfill my purpose.

Hope you enjoyed that. I have loved my time here at the MTC! I am sad to leave but excited to go. Thanks for all of you. Have a wonderful Christmas and never forget the reason we celebrate this wonderful time!
Love, Hermana Passantino
PS: Sis Uchtdorf spoke in Relief Society! It was awesome!
PPS: Rhandi and Rochelle, thanks you SO much for my Christmas packages! You rock!!! I will send you a letter from the plane. Love you!

More Electric Shock

Thanksgiving Shock

Hola!

LDSmail.net is being silly. I just wrote a really long and fantastic e-mail and it got all messed up so sorry that this will be so short. Next week will have to be a longer e-mail. This week was great. Elder Costa spoke on Tuesday and it was amazing. One of my favorite talks so far. Sis. Dalton spoke in Relief Society and I loved every second of it. She had one really good quote that said, "when you are in the middle of a hill, you never turn around and go back" When things are hard and we're running uphill we might want to go back but it is so worth it when we make it over our challenge and make it to the top. I taught the Plan of Salvation in Spanish this week and it went well. The lady I taught was from Honduras and I couldn't understand a word she said because her accent was so strong. It was a fun and interesting experience. I also taught some other class a 15 min lesson in Spanish about my fav scripture, it was good and I really feel the spirit when I testify in Spanish. I guess that just means that it what I am supposed to be doing. Ha Ha. Ok, I had a great long story about the fire alarm that went off in our building in the middle of the night but I will have to save that for next week. Just as a sneak peek, we had to evacuate our building in the middle of the night. Awesome. Ha ha. Um, quick note. I got a letter from Hna Sanders Dad and she is home in the hospital with Dengue Fever or Hepatitis. Please keep her in your prayers. She's from Canada and we all know how I feel about the health care there... so yeah, she needs the prayers :) I got my travel plans this week! I am leaving on Tuesday the 22. My plane leaves at 7:10 and flys into the New York Laguardia airport at 3:40 pm. I leave the MTC Tuesday morning at 4am! Yuck! Well, I love you all. Again, sorry this is so short! I will get one more chance to e-mail from the MTC so I'll make it good next week! Have a fantastic week! Do some service or something, it will bring someone else some joy! And you too!Oh I almost forgot... my leg is good. I didn't need to have the fluid drained. More about it next week!
Love, Hermana Passantino
PS: As a fair warning, I didn't have much time today so I didn't get as many letters as I wanted written but for those of you who write me, you will get a long one after my plane ride :)
PPS: Start sending letters to NY now so they don't get stuck here. Don't forget that Dearelder.com is still working for me to get letters until next Tuesday :)
PPPS: Study topic this week is hope
PPPPS: Sorry if I forgot stuff in the e-mail, I am typing like a crazy person!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!

It's snowing! Who knew I would ever be so excited about snow. Well, it's actually cold but I think I am loving the snow because I have no need to drive in it. Ha ha. And it brings the Christmas spirit. Yesterday is the first day it actually felt like Christmas time. Since I was here before Halloween it hasn't felt much like Christmas. Wasn't the Christmas devotional fantastic? I love hearing from our Prophet. We are so blessed! This last week FLEW by! I can't believe it's Monday again. If my whole mission goes this fast it will be done before I know it. It was a really good week. Sister Lant, the General Primary President came and spoke on Tuesday and it was great. We got a new district on Wednesday and they seem pretty good. There were two new Hermanas in the group. They both have pretty rough family situations and it just makes me so grateful for the supportive family and friends that I have. So Wednesday we got called down to the health center (by "we" I mean my district). It turns out that there was another major outbreak of the swine flu here at the MTC. It hit 40 people in two days. So we all got the H1N1 vaccine.... how exciting. I hope everyone is staying healthy there! It seems that everyone at the MTC is sick. When we are all gathered together for devotional you hear someone cough every three seconds... it's gross. My teacher, Hno Hubers, grandpa died this week so he was really sad all week but he also felt at peace. I love how much the gospel can help us in times like those! What a great gift we have to know that we can be with our families forever! I had another physical therapy appt on Thursday. The physical therapist (who is neighbors with Nathan Melton by the way) wanted me to recheck with the doctor here and have my leg checked out. The doctor here didn't even look at it but is sending me to some Doctor in Orem to get all the fluid out of it. So I have that doctors appt tomorrow. It has been going down a lot the last couple days so maybe he won't have to do anything, I heard they have to stick a big needle in the get all the nasty fluid out. I guess we'll see! Darn trashketball! So we heard a rumor about Tiger Woods... I don't know if it is true, rumors run like wildfire here at the MTC. Everyone is dying for outside information. Ha ha. I get my travel plans this Friday! I am so excited. A lot of people have been writing me about Christmas packages so just as a general statement (I mean, whoever wants to can totally send me a package ;) Please send them to my New York address. It should be on my blog too. It will be easier for me to get them and not worry about the weight of my bags on the airplane. Some have asked what I want. The things I need are WARM CLOTHES! I am already freezing here in Utah and I can't even imagine what New York will be like. Sweaters and cardigans would be great. And stamps are always fantastic! Thanks for those of you who asked. (Wow, I hope that didn't sound rude like I expect anything, writing in here is just a lot easier than writing a bunch of letters because I can't e-mail everyone! Sorry!) I can't begin to express how grateful I am for the love I have felt from all my family and friends. I feel SO loved! I love the Christmas season and the joy that it brings. It breaks my heart to know I won't be with my family. They are what make Christmas perfect for me. I am grateful for the chance to try to make someone else have a fantastic Christmas! I bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting yesterday in Spanish. I was so nervous but it turned out ok. I think I can do this Spanish thing! Keep writing if you can. This free dear elder situation is only gonna last two more weeks :) Love you all! Have a fantastic week!
Love, Hermana Passantino
PS: I love when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang "Unto Us A Child Is Born!" It was amazing and it reminded me of my mom :)
PPS: My first companion (Sister Sanders that went to the Peru MTC) went home on a medical release. I don't know what is going on but please please keep her in your prayers!
PPPS: My major study topic this week is Faith!

Hermanas Passantino, Veazy, and Wolfgramm, Melissa "Mom" of the district and fun at physical therapy!

3 Weeks to Go...

Hola! How is everyone doing this week? Well, my past week was really good. It was kind of weird having Thanksgiving because it sort of threw us off but it was such a good day. Well, let's start from the beginning... (ps: sorry, I know these weekly updates could get boring, when I am in the field they will be a lot better because it won't be the same thing every week) Anyway, the rest of P-day was good. I got 4 packages in the mail :) One from Mom and Dad, one from Kindra, a pumpkin pie from Alaina and her sister and one from Hna Sanders family! They sent me a big box of candy! They are so nice! Side note, I got a letter from Hna Sanders and she is the only North American sister in the Peru MTC. It's been pretty tough so if you could keep her in your prayers that would be great, oh and Elder Fogelman is in here district there... crazy! Anywho... Tuesday was awesome! I was singing in the choir for devotional and ELDER OAKS came! It was so awesome! I love when apostles come because they bring such an amazing spirit! Wednesday I had some more physical therapy (more on that later) and had subs as teachers, because it was the day before thanksgiving. Thursday, Thanksgiving, was great. We had our morning devotional with Elder Holland! It was so cool! A couple weeks ago we wrote out questions we would ask an apostle and he answered some of them. Then just talked about what he is thankful for. We did a humanitarian project which was great. I got to help out a lot because they had all the coordinating sisters help and so I got to spend some time with the MTC presidency which was really cool. We had a evening devotional and Pres Smith had anyone who wanted to talk about what they were thankful for. The meeting had the potential to be really good but some people just acted really dumb up there and so it was an interesting fireside. And they turned Christmas lights on at the MTC! You all know how much I love Christmas lights so that was really exciting! Friday I taught the first lesson for the first time in Spanish. I think it went ok, I knew a lot more than I thought I did so that was exciting. The frustrating thing is when I think I finally get somewhere in Spanish someone starts going all crazy speaking it and then I realize I don't know that much. Ha ha, but it's ok. I can see the improvement so it's all good. Saturday we went to the RC (the referral center where people who call in for something or who get on mormon.org and chat. We go in there and call people to make sure they got their free Book of Mormon, etc. or chat with people) anyway, we went there and I got to talk to two really cool people. Both of who accepted to have the missionaries come over, it was great! Sunday is always wonderful! I sang in church with the other Hermanas and that was ok I guess. I've been fighting a cold all week so my ears and nose were all plugged up and I couldn't hear myself, hopefully the spirit was there because it could have sounded bad! I got a letter from Shanelle today and she got transferred out of the city which means she probably won't be my trainer :( But that's ok, wherever I go will be great. I also don't think I will be going early, if I was I would probably know already. We are getting a new district in our zone this week and 3 new hermanas are coming! Woo Hoo! I am still doing physical therapy for my leg. Today the physical therapist worked really hard on it and it hurt so bad! He says he's not sure why it is not getting better. There is a part that is just full of fluid and then all these hard spots around it. One at t he bottom of it hurts really bad. He said he thinks those area blod clots but I guess there is another hard thing like floating around in the fluid part that he isn't sure of either... really assuring I know. Ha ha, but I am sure it will get better before I leave. I just wear an ace bandage around now. It's grand. I love you all a lot! Keep writing! And take advantage of dearelder.com, those free instant letters will only work for three more weeks :) Love, Hermana Passantino
PS: This week I'm studying Christlike attributes :)

Group Pictures with the District before they left

Feliz el Dia de Accion de Gracias!

Hello to All! I hope that everyone is having a fantastic thanksgiving week! This week has been really good! The new hermanas and I have been getting along very well and we have a lot of fun together. Let's see... there wasn't a lot that happened this week. We had Sis Cook from the YW General Precidency spoke at RS this week and it was amazing. We got 700 new missionaries into the MTC this week so it was a little crazy. They don't have any new ones come in on Thanksgiving week so the doubled up last week. It has been very packed! Other events this week. I went to the doctor for my leg. It was still really sore and full of fluid so I decided to have it checked out. The doctor told me I need to do physical therapy soooo.... yeah. I have to do physical therapy twice a week. They put heat on it, then massage it out (which is SO painful) then I have to do all these stretches and exercises, then they do some sort of electro therapy something where they put electric shocks through my leg. It's very interesting. I guess I banged it up pretty bad. There are some really hard spots in my leg that the doctor said need to be taken care of or they might turn into some sort of calcium something. It's interesting but it's getting taken care of so no worries. It's just annoying to have to go twice a week. Oh well... it gets me out in the real world. And by real world I mean taking a 5 minute walk to the BYU health clinic. Ha ha. I have figured out that the MTC has given me a wonderful gift, and that gift is being able to take outside shots in basketball. I know, it's a miracle! I have avoided playing basketball in the gym because let's be honest, I am no good at outside shots. But I decided to join a game of knockout (they call it lightning here) and what do you know... I won! And it wasn't because they were being easy on me. We were playing from the three point line and I just kept making them. It has now become my favorite gym time activity. CJ, you would be proud of your sister! We'll see if this gift actually lasts. So I have decided that it would be fun to let everyone know what I am studying this week and then have whoever wants to study it too! And write me about what you studied! Sounds like a good idea right? So, this week I am studying two different things. One is the topic of grace and the other is the topic of obedience. I am studying grace because it's interesting and obedience because that is the topic I am writing my talk on this week. So write me if you have any insights you would like to share! I teach my first lesson in Spanish this week. Please pray for me, I don't know how I am even going to do it! It will be Thursday night, so any prayers are welcome :) Our favorite district in the zone left for Argentina today. We were all so sad to see them go. Then today we were walking to lunch and heard someone yell out, "Hermana Passantino!" I thought I was seeing things because there were the elders that were supposed to have left early this morning. I guess their plane got delayed till tomorrow. It's too bad for them but we were excited to see them back! It's like you get into a little family with your zone and it's so sad to see people leave. I have decided to make this week my week of gratitude so to end I just want to list off some things I have been feeling extra grateful for lately, in no particular order.
1. The restoration of the gospel
2. The temple
3. My family!
4. Good examples in my life
5. My families gourmet cooking
6. Health
7. Warm beds
8. The priesthood
9. Friends
10. The atonement
11. Knowing I am a daughter of God
12. The Book of Mormon
13. Letters :)
14. Friendly people
15. People who talk to me in Spanish, but talk really slow 16. E-mail 17. The snow 18. Joseph Smith 19. My companions 20. My membership in the church!
I hope everyone's Thanksgiving is fantastic! I know it will be a different one for me and my family but I am so grateful to know that I can be with them forever so really, one or two thanksgivings away won't be too bad! I love you!
Love, Hermana Passantino
PS: For all of you who think I hurt myself from being competitive... that's so not true. I was just trying to get my stupid eraser in the trash can... anyone else would have done the same thing!
PPS: Laurie... I love my Bidwell junior high shorts!

Finally... a few pictures.

The Injury !!!

The First Picture is Incident #1 (she's pointing the the ripped nylons), the second picture of of Incident #2. (Read previous letters for further details)

It Feels Like I'm Repeating Week 1!

Hello To All! Another week has passed me by and I'm about to hit the half way point here at the MTC... pretty crazy! This week was actually a really hard one. I knew I was going to miss Hna Sanders but I didn't realize how much I would! It strange how after three weeks of a constant companion I felt SO strange without one. I've been getting used to being a solo and the elders in the zone are really good about it. I pretty much switch from one companionship to another, it's funny and it's a good way to get to know people. The new hermanas are great! Once again, two of them moved up to a higher spanish class so we only have two new ones. They are awesome! Hermana Veazy is from North Dakota and going to the Oakland/San Fran mission and Hermana Wolfgramm is from Salt Lake and is going to Spokane Washington. We share a room and I do a lot of different activites with them so it's really fun. We are all pretty different but get a long very well. Luckily they are early risers like me and we get stuff done in the morning. I know Dad, I am sure you don't believe I am an early riser but I get up by 5:30 every morning so I have time to ready my spanish Book of Mormon out loud. Well, a little run down of the week. Monday was a good P-day, I felt very strongly that day of needing to be better and more diligent in my studies and I've tried really hard with that this week. We had a zone activity that night where some elders from the zone taught us to our needs and we taught them. It was really good and it was fun to be able to teach someone something that wasn't part of the first two lessons. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the first two lessons, but it was a good break. It was also nice to be taught as who I am. We role play ALL the time and always pretend to be investigators so it was nice to just be me.. Um, tuesday was a pretty crazy day. I almost went to the doctor for my leg. Don't worry, it's better now. It just started filling up with lots of fluid type of stuff and was getting us worried but I decided to wait it out and it's going down now. (PS: family I sent you a pic of it... it's great!) Wednesday I had to say goodbye to my dear Hermana Sanders... it was so sad. The whole day was pretty off for me but meeting the new Hermanas was fun. I got to do a little MTC orientation with them on Wednesday and it felt nice to be helping someone else out instead of worrying about myself so much. Hna Peterson (one of my teachers) paid me a very high compliment and said that I am at the same level with gospel understanding that she was when she returned from her mission. I think it was something that I needed to hear because I have been feel very inadequete latley. I like her a lot... I think one reason I'm going spanish speaking is because teaching in english is easy for me so Heavenly Father knew I needed a bigger challenge in my own life. I hope that doesn't sound like I'm trying to brag or toot my own horn or anything... cause I'm not. I just find that Heavenly Father knows us best and he knew I needed something that would challenge me. The rest of the week felt a lot like my first week in the MTC. It was just a lot of change and took some adjusting to. The teachers interview us once a week and it is nice to be reassured that they want to help us as much as possible. Thank goodness for sundays in the MTC! This sunday was amazing and something I needed! Sister Oaks (Elder Oaks wife) spoke at Relief Society and Sheri Dew spoke for our sunday night fireside. It was such a spiritually uplifting day! We also found out that Elder Holland is coming for Thanksgiving!!!! I'm so excited about that! The MTC is such a different experience but it is so good! My testimony grows every day and I am able to become closer to the Savior every day. What an amazing gift we have in the atonement! We are so blessed to know how much our Heavenly Father loves us! I know he loves every single one of us! Even if someone doesn't believe in him, He believes in them. It's so great! Oh, random note that is not related to what I was just talking about. Yesterday during our temple walk I was walking back to the MTC and I said to my companions, "You know, I just wish my friends would drive by so I could wave to them and not be breaking any rules." Then about 30 seconds later my name is yelled and there is Brianne, Chels, and Jenn waving and screaming from their car! It was crazy and sooo exciting! Totally made my day soooo much better! It was awesome. Ok, to end this e-mail here is a quote from True to the Faith... it is so good. Thanks for all the love! "If you have a difficult task before you, Heavenly Father is pleased when you get on your knees and ask for help and then GET ON YOUR FEET and GO TO WORK!" It's so true!
Love, Hermana Passantino
PS: Random note, if you use dearelder on Saturday I won't get it till Monday or Tuesday... just so ya know :) thanks for all the support from everyone!

Soon to be a Solo Sister 10/9/09

Hello again! What another great day it has been. I enjoy P-days here in the MTC but I feel like they are so busy, which is good, it's like any other day. Busy. Ok, let's go through the week. Tuesday was an interesting day. It was kinda hard because I still struggle with Spanish a lot. I have been feeling that the more I talk spanish the more I will understand. I recognize now that it is the spirit helping me out and letting me know how I am going to learn Spanish best. And silly me thought that it was my own thinking. It's important for us to understand that as we ask for help it's not going to magically happen, that the spirit will testify to us how we can make it better. Does that make any sense? I hope so. Devotional on tuesday was really good. President Rasband from the presidency of the seventy spoke. He was the mission president of my mission! He had all the people going to New York, New York North stand up. It was only me and Hermana Anderson. She was my original compenara but got moved up to the advanced class. So, that was some good times, standing up in front of the whole MTC. I love devotionals on Tuesday! Um, wednesday was pretty normal. I had a good chat with my teacher, Hermana Peterson and she helped me plan better so that my study is most effective and it's been helping a lot! We had another task at the TRC this week. We had to get to know someone, ask to share a message with them, set up an appt, and say a prayer in spanish. Then we taught lesson 1 in english. It went really well, well, the lesson did. The spanish was still way shaky but much better than the week before. We had an interview with Hermono Huber afterwards and he told us that we were doing good. He even got a little teary eyed when we was talking about it which made us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.Mitch came to visit me and it was great! I love that I get to see family! It makes everything so much nicer! Nothing really exciting happened Friday but ohhhhh Saturday. What a day on Saturday. So, we once again played the joyus game of trash-ketball. It is a class favorite and always enjoy ourselves while we play. So, just to have a visual, the room is set up so there are two desks where the plays "shoot" the erasers from and then the trashcan is hanging up on the chalkboard, you know where they have those clippy things where you can hang pics up on? Ok so, you guess the verb and then shoot your eraser, whoever gets it in first wins. So, I am obviously pretty competitive and randomly not too bad at the game. So, one shot I took got stuck up on the chalkboard or "backboard" and I thought I would do a cool move and just tip it in. Well, I tipped it in, but went up with too much force. I came down on the tray of the chalk board... well, my whole thigh came down on the tray of the chalkboard. I fell to the ground holding my leg in major pain. I was laughing because it hurt so bad and I didn't want to cry in front of everyone. Everyone else was laughing too until they noticed that I couldn't get up because my leg hurt so bad. So...I finally hoppled my way to the bathroom to look at the damage. There was an insta-bruise on my whole right thigh with a cut in it as well. It hurt so bad the tears just started rolling, it was so gross looking! So we went to the gym because they were the only medical staff around and they cleaned it up and wrapped it up to try to help with the swelling. Since then I have been walking around with a limp, which is so embarrassing! I can hardly sit because the bruise wraps around my thigh. It is sooo gross. Today it is starting to feel a little better but man, it looks nasty. I will send you pics fam! Don't even worry. It's kinda weird and lumpy but I don't think anything is wrong. I kind of ruined trash-ketball for the class. Hno Huber felt SO bad... Oh well, it's a funny story. I'm doing better today so I am sure it will heal soon. Sunday was super busy. I got called as coordinating sister for our Zone. The other sisters in our Zone leave tomorrow and Wednesday. I was going to be the only one! But we are getting 4 new hermanas which I am so excited about! I won't be the only one. Hna Sanders leaves early Wednesday morning. I am so sad to see her go. I was so worried about having a comp I liked and I got one and now she is leaving me :( Her family sent me a box with a bunch of canadian candy in it! She has gotten me addicted to candy which is NOT good. After she leaves I'm gonna have to slow down on the candy situation. Oh, I got a letter from Shanelle today and she said that she could prob be my trainer and she also said I might be going to New York early. The elders that are going home from NY are going a week early because they coulnd't get any flights, so they might be shipping me out there early, we shall see! That would be pretty sweet! I hope everyone is doing well. I miss everyone so much! Sometimes you forget the world is going on without you. It's wierd. I know that our Heavenly Father is looking out for each one of us! How exciting it is to know what we know! Go share it with someone! Everyone deserves to be as happy and feel loved! Thanks for the letters.
Love, Hermana Passantino
PS: I heard that my e-mail was wrong on the blog so if you tried to send me something it might not have worked. So re-send it please :)
PPS: The RC was awesome again this week. We had some really good chats and got to teach the plan of salvation to someone! It was so cool!

Note- The E-mail Address has been fixed, sorry!

11/2/09 MTC

Hola!
How great to be able to write again. Sorry it is so much later than last week. We had such a busy p-day. We printed out our e-mails this morning and then read them, did laundry, wrote letters, and stuff, and now we are e-mailing right before dinner. For all of you that have written me, your response is in the mail :) Week two at the MTC has for sure been better. The days are very long but the week went by so fast. We have gotten really close as a district. We love our elders. They are so fun and really bring an awesome spirit. L. Tom Perry came for our fireside on tuesday evening. It was of course awesome. We got really good seats and it's just so awesome to be able to sit so close to an apostle of the Lord. What an amazing man he is! So many funny/awesome things have happened this week. We play this game called "Trash-ketball" during some of our spanish lessons. The elders get pretty into it. So we played this week and Elder Origer was a little too intense, stepped on me with his man boots and ripped my nylons.... not good! It was pretty funny though! Another funny moment, we were practicing in class using the 'nosotros' form (the we form) and saying random things. I was talking for myself and my teacher, brother Huber, and said, in spanish of course, "We are sad" and my comp asked, "why are you sad?" I said, "Because we are casada"... Bro Hubuer just started laughing so hard and we were like, what in the world is so funny? I was meaning to say, because we are tired... which is consada... but instead I said, because we are married, which is casada... good times. By the way, my teacher looks like Josh Hartnett... ha ha. Thought Brian would appreciate that one :) Hermana Sanders got her travel plans and leaves next week. I am so sad to see her go! I don't know what I am going to do without her! We get along so well, I think I am spoiled and I won't get a companera like her ever again! Unless it's Shanelle! We have started giving the elders nicknames which is good times. Elder Petersen is 19 and just a really sharp elder, but one of the most sarcastic people I've met. His nickname is Delfin Muchacho. We were talking about how I have swam with dolphins and he made fun of me... but he likes dolphins too. After typing this I am realizing that that probably isn't that funny to anyone reading it, but it's funny to our district. Sorry for the inside jokes. Ha ha. We had our first teaching practice in the TRC. We had to meet and greet people in spanish, testify and make an appt to come back to see them. Then we taugh the 1st lesson. The spanish was rough! But the lesson went great! I LOVE teaching! Especially the first lesson! It is so great! We also got to go to the Referal Center and talk to real people. It's way fun donig the chat, because we chat with people that get on mormon.org. I talked to a lady on the phone who called in for a Book of Mormon. She was awesome! She just got off drugs and said it was all because of the grace of God. She was excited for the missionaries to come over. I hope it all works out. I met some elders going to France and they bore their testimonies in French. It was cool because I understood most of what they were saying. Testimony meeting yesterday was really good, I pretty much understood everyone, that is probably because one of the first things they teach you is how to bear testimony. I love singing in spanish! I really have no clue what I am saying but the hymns are so powerful. This week has been full of spiritual experiences. My testimony of the restoration and Joseph Smith have really grown a lot this week. I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father loves us so much that he would once again restore the gospel on the earth. It is so amazing that we have it now! Doesn't it just make you want to go out and share? Man I love it! Now to end with a funny story. My comp and I wake up around 5:50 am so that we can get a warm shower without waiting in line. I am pretty out of it when I get in the shower, esp when I walk in the bathroom, because the lights are just so bright. The other day I was walking in the bathroom and walked next to this automatic air freshener thing and it sprayed me right in the eye! Talk about a wake up call, it took me forever to figure out what had even happened. It was so funny! Thank you all for the letters and love! I can't tell you how much letters help me. And anyone can e-mail me, but make sure you put your address because I can only e-mail my family back! This week has been so much better! The spanish still boggles my mind but I try not to stress about it too much! Love you all!Love, Hermana Passantino
PS: If anyone feels the need to send me anything... I could always use some popcorn, stamps, hair spray, and lotion :)
PPS: For my Utah and/or Idaho friends, could someone go to a distribution center and see if they have True to the Faith in spanish? I need it way bad!
Gracias!




Note - Don't forget to leave comments and we will send them to Melissa in our letters!!!

Melissa's First Letter !!!

Woo Hoo! I finally get to e-mail my family! I have about 25 minutes to write this e-mail. We get thirty minutes each monday to e-mail. Anyone can e-mail me and I can print them out and read them later so they don't take up time for my e-mail writing. As you probably have figured out, my P-day is monday, hence, me writing this e-mail. We just got back from the temple. We go to the 7am session so we have to be at the temple at 6:30. It was good to be able to go there this morning. These last couple days at the MTC have been crazy! The first day was so long! We got in and they had us drop our stuff off at our rooms and then brought us to our classroom. We kinda did some getting to know you stuff with our district. We started out with 7 elders and 4 hermanas but 1 elder and 2 hermanas went to the advanced spanish district. My comp was one that was moved up so Hna Sanders and I ended up together. We get along really well. She is a lot like me and we laugh a lot. I am so happy that I have such a cool comp. The only sad thing is that she is leaving in 3 weeks to go to the MTC in Peru :( After that I will be a "solo" sister because I will be the only sister in my district. Once that happens I'll have a comp but she won't be in my district and probably not in my zone. I just do things like laundry and gym with her. The rest of the time I always have to be with two elders. It will be interesting to see how that goes. So I don't even remember much of wednesday, it seems so long ago. I didn't sleep that night, suprise. Thursday we learned how to pray in spanish. I am getting ok at it and when I pray I say as much as I can in spanish but do part of it in english too. We met our branch presidency on Thursday and they are aweomse! They love the hermanas! They told us that if the elders get our of hand that we can pull our "sister" card and let them have it. Ha ha, no wonder so many elders don't like sisters. We get treated very good here. The elders stand whenever we walk in a room and whenever we sit down at the table to eat and they always take our trays for us which is way nice. Friday was a very difficult day for me. They kinda just shove spanish down our throats without teaching us things like how to pronounce words and simple words like, the, it, he, she, etc. It has been very hard for my comp and I because neither of us took any spanish. All the elders have had spanish and they are WAY more advanced than us. We try not to compare ourselves but it gets pretty difficult when we can't understand anything! We both broke down on friday because we feel SO overwhelmed with things we have to do. It was such a hard day and night and deff the longest day so far. Saturday was better. I prayed so hard that I would feel some sort of comfort on satruday and try not to get overwhelmed. Saturday the pressure of all I needed to learn was still there but I was able to feel calm about it. It reminded me of the scriptures when Christ says he will make our burdens lighter, even though they don't get taken away. That scripture rang true to me on Saturday. Sunday was awesome. We get to listen to music and the spoken word and then have relief society. Sister Matsumori taught relief society. Sacrament meeting is about 75% in spanish with one talk being in english. We had a "temple walk" where we got to walk around the temple, take pics, etc. It was fun and I saw some people I know. The fireside sunday night was by a branch president for the MTC. He talked about proof that the Book of Mormon is true. It reminded me a lot of Brian, he would love it. I'm going to try to write him about it but it was kinda confusing stuff so we'll see how well I remember. All in all I am doing good. I now understand why a mission is so hard. It is hard not to be envious of the missionaries that are going english speaking, a lot of the time I wish I was because the spanish is SO difficult for me. But I'm spanish for a reason so it will all work out. I miss you so much! As cheesy as this sounds I look at a picture of my family to give me strength when I feel like breaking down. It helps a lot. The spirit is so strong here and it's a very unique place. I like it more and more as the days go on. Please let people know they can e-mail me here! Also, dearelder is the best thing in the world!!!!! It is so cool getting the letters that fast! And thank you to everyone who has written me and sent me stuff. I haven't gone a day without mail yet :) I can't wait to hear from you!
Love, Hermana Passantino

Airport and MTC Pictures !!!

Chico Airport
Saying goodbye before the waterworks started

Rhandi dropping off Melissa at the MTC

And she's off !!!

Doesn't she look beautiful?? Ready to serve

the Lord!

She Made It!

Melissa (Hermana Passantino) entered the Missionary Training Center today at 1:15 .... she made it, safe and sound. Her cousin Rhandi dropped her off and said that it was a quick but happy goodbye but Melissa was ready to start her grand adventure ... let the fun begin. Weekly letters will be posted as soon as we get them.. pictures coming. Please leave comments, we will send them in our weekly letters to Melissa, just another way to show her your love. But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't forget to write her, addresses posted on the sidebar!

My Backyard

In anticipation of everything getting moved out of our house I've been taking many pictures to try to capture the place I've called home since 3rd grade. I love this house and I love all the memories that I've had here. As I've thought about it, I've decided that my backyard is my favorite place in Chico. It's my favorite because of all the memories that I've had in my backyard. Here are some of those memories that come to mind....

1. When we first moved into our house our backyard was just an acre of weeds and dirt. I used to think it was fun to go out into the weeds and pick "flowers" for my mom. She was so kind and always accepted my gift with such love.

2. My dad was involved with the young men program in our ward and our backyard was a perfect place to hold a mud football game. My mom, sister, and I did some shopping while the boys were playing. We came home and opened the garage and there were all the young men changing! I was in 3rd grade! (so that memory was more of the garage but the mud football game that caused them to change took place in the backyard)

3. We planted fruit trees in the back of our backyard which were great. One evening we were having a bbq with the Ysasagas and Ashley and I were out exploring the backyard. We walked by one and almost stepped on a snake. I know this might seem silly but we were so scared! It was HUGE! By the time our dads heard us yelling and came running to us, it had slithered away so Ash and I really the only ones that know how BIG it was!

4. I loved when our pool was built. It was finished while we were in Alaska over summer break. We got back to Chico around midnight but we wanted to have a first swim in our pool, so our whole family jumped in! We had no lights so we really couldn't see what we were doing but it was so fun to have that family moment.

5. Growing up we always were playing with our neighbors, the DeLeos. My favorite thing to do was play wiffle ball in the backyard. Our yard was a perfect set up for a game! Whenever someone hit the ball in the pool it was a home run!

6. The first (and only) time I ran away, I ran away to a corner of my backyard.

7. I loved sitting on a ladder, picking cherries off the tree and eating them.

8. I'm pretty sure almost every birthday dinner of mine was a bbq in the backyard

9. The first time I held hands with a boy was in my backyard

10. The first time I kissed a boy was in my backyard (and yes, the hand holder was also my first kiss)

11. In the winter we used to sit in the spa and see who could run and jump in the pool and swim around the longest

12. I helped my dad build Sadies dog run that's in the backyard

13. We used to sleep out on the trampoline all the time.

14. My high school graduation party was in my backyard.

15. Even though at the time I wasn't the biggest fan of yard work, I love how beautiful our backyard always is.

16. Playing basketball with my family was so fun. We used to go out and play H.O.R.S.E. all the time, the boys would usually win but it was so fun!

17. Just sitting outside after having Sunday dinner with the family and chatting

I've loved this house and loved living in Chico. It still doesn't feel real that soon I won't be coming home to it. It will always be my favorite place in Chico.

I Love New York!

New York here I come! I got my mission call! I'm going to New York, New York North and I'll be a Spanish speaking missionary! I couldn't be more excited! I'll be going into the MTC October 21, 2009. I'll be in the MTC for 2 months and then I'll be off to New York. One more piece of good news is that one of my best friends is also in that mission and she is Spanish speaking too! I can't wait to go!

They're Gonna Call Me On A Mission!

That's right.... I'm going on a mission! Pretty crazy right? Well some of you already know about it but I haven't told tons of people so don't feel bad if you feel out of the loop. I have decided that serving a full time mission for my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is not only what is best for me right now but it's what I want to do! I can't wait to go and serve for 18 months. This decision has been a long time coming and it came down to me just making the decision to do it and then just going for it! Last fall is when a mission first started making little appearances in my thoughts. Come February/March of this year I decided to put a mission in the back of my mind and think that finding a job was the choice for me. In June I started my summer job as an EFY counselor. As a counselor we get to give nightly devotionals and one of them was on learning to recognize the promptings of the spirit. I would tell the girls that anything good comes from God so if you feel like you should do something, and it's good, then just do it! In my mind I'm thinking little things like, smiling at someone, saying hello, etc. But as I pondered this concept I realized that once we get a hold on doing those little things we need to realize that the big things can be good too, even if they are scary, like going on a mission. I had been having promptings about a mission for almost a year now, perhaps it's time to practice what I preach and following the promptings of the spirit. So I did and here I am! I know that this is the right choice for me and I am so excited. Of course, I'm scared! There is a lot of unknown but the one thing that I do know without a doubt is that my Heavenly Father loves me, He knows what is best for me and He'll always be by my side so no matter what everything will work out great! My papers went to Salt Lake today so within two to three weeks we'll know know where I'm going! Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!

EFY: Verily, Verily Provo 7A

Well my last week of EFY was just great. It was such a stress free week. My girls were fantastic and really helped me have a good week. My roommates were amazing and we just had so much fun! I was back to the 14-15 year olds this week which turned out great. At the end of EFY I am amazed at how strong the youth of the church are. I seriously love them. EFY was great this year! I already miss it so much!

Two of my most favorite people in the whole world! I miss them!

We find things to do to enjoy ourselves during lunch

Me and my co counselors with our company flag on games night. Notice how verily is spelled with two "r's"... fantastic!

I love Britt! And our dog breeding pens!

EFY: Perish Not Provo 6A

After a fantastic two week vacation home I came back to EFY for my last two weeks. This week was most commonly known as Jo Bro week because the Jonas Brothers were coming to Provo for Stadium of Fire on the 4th. We sure do love the Jo Bros at EFY. This was a week of firsts for me. I had the 16-18 year old group for the first time this summer and I also had the joy of living in the Riv. Our company spot (where you meet your whole group for just about everything) was up in Heritage Halls so we got A LOT of exercise! It was probably the hardest week I've had at EFY but it still turned out good (for details just ask me :) At least I was able to become best friends with all the BC's! Our group was big and we had fun (even when mice run through our scripture study) This will be a week to remember forever!

I swear he is Jacob Black and just didn't feel like telling us.

I finally had some fellow Laker fans in my group... boy was I happy about that!

Me and my girls... all 12 of them. It was a pretty big group

Me and the co counselors! We are still having No Touch EFY so this is our way to post for a pic without actually touching each other

EFY: No Harm Provo 3B

NO HARM! Here was week two of EFY. Our company name was No Harm and it sure was an interesting week. It was for sure different than week two. First off EFY started some new rules and the week was dubbed "No Touch Week". Because of everyone getting so sick last week this week we couldn't hug, high five, escort, or shake hands. Pretty much we just couldn't touch each other at all. They almost got rid of slow dancing but brought it back because that was just a bit too drastic. Other than that it was a good week :) I had the 14-15 year olds again and we had fun. My co counselor Manda was AMAZING! I had so many little tender mercies this week. My cousin brought me soda a couple times, Brianne came and saw me. Chad brought me soda and cookies, Brett had lunch with me twice. Alaina, Nadya and Ashley were in town and came to see and me and Manda bought me Jamba juice when I missed breakfast. It was a great week!

At Tuesday night dance! The sweatband is a must!


So Friday night after the dance there was a huge thunder and lightning storm! We got soaked on our way back to the dorms! We were all so wet but it was exciting

EFY : Send Forth Provo 2A

Well, I thought I would do a little blog update for each session I do of EFY. Last week was the first session of the summer for me and boy was it crazy! I had 14-15 year olds and they were a blast. Luckily I taught that age group for student teaching so I had a little more experience with them. There were two sessions going on in Provo and ours had about 1,300 participants. The other session had over 700 and we got to combine for the dances. It was pure madness! I've never seen so many kids in one place. The other crazy part of last week is that everyone got sick! About 1/3 of all the counselors were sick and a whole bunch of participants were sick. My co counselor Adam got very sick and was out for a couple of days so it was pretty nuts taking care of all our kids with my other co counselor Andrea. Our group was amazing and we had a lot of fun. There were some crazy adventures but all it all it was amazing! I loved my girls, Andreas girls and all of our boys. They were all so strong in the gospel and grew even more. This week should be interesting. We have a smaller session with only 1,000 participants (ha ha) and it's supposed to rain all week so we'll see how it goes!

This was about 2/3 of the participants at the dance. Like I said, it was crazy!!!!

Me and my co counselors! So fun!

Since I've Grown Up...

Well, I guess being home makes it so that I'm not very good at updating my blog... so, I believe now is the time. I was just catching up on a recent LOST episode with my mom (she is the only one that will watch LOST with me) and then Kindra and Charlie came over, so while Charlie is occupied with his Mimi (my mom) and Kindra eats lunch I figure, why not do a little update?

I had to say goodbye to my students. It was so sad. They were amazing and I miss them so much. I seriously think about them everyday and I can't wait to go see them in a couple weeks :)

This was my Honors class... I have a picture with every class period (all 7 of them) but I figured I only needed to put one on here. Can you spot me in the middle of all these junior high kids? I look like one of them!


This is me and my amazing cooperating teacher Anne Black! I love her! We were a perfect match!


Well, I graduated, who ever thought the day would come. My family came up and it was awesome. Commencement was amazing and convocation was great too. I definitely shed tears. I never realized how much I would miss BYU-Idaho. It is such an amazing place and I have grown the most in my life while attending that school. I miss the spirit there, the people there, and even all my classes. Haha. Anyone that is even considering going to BYU-Idaho should go! It's amazing! I can't wait for my little brother to start there in the fall. Here are a couple pics from that fantastic day!

Just a few odds and ends that have happened so far. My friend Diannah got married in the Sacramento Temple! It was amazing and fun to be part of her wedding. Brian went to his senior prom and of course looked as handsome as can be. And my parents sold their house after being on the market for one week. A big blessing but we have to be out by June 25th :( I am about to start EFY in a couple weeks and I can't wait! Here are a few pictures!


Diannah and Cody walking out of the temple!


The bridesmaids and flower girl!


Brian on his way to prom. Sooo GQ

So we had this hillbilly night for student ward and they taught us a interesting dance. Andrew and I were having a good time. Haha

Some more hillbillies having a good time!