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 :)