Happy Easter!

Well, another week has come and gone. It is crazy how fast the weeks seem to go when you are on a mission. The MTC felt like a life time (as did my first transfer) but they are really a lot faster now. It's nuts. It really makes it so you don't ever want to miss a moment. I try to soak everything in, even the hard times. We have had a nice and wet week so far. I am NOT a fan of being wet all the time but good news... tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70's... just in time for General Conference and Easter! I can't wait! I have never been so excited for conference before. I just can't get over it... how cool is it that we get to listen to a Prophet?!?!?! We are doing a "Zone Blitz" on Friday were we hand out stuff and sing and things like that and we are going to invite people to watch conference. We were talking about how everyone would come if we were to say, "Come listen to Moses speak" When in reality...that is what it is! A prophet just like Moses, it's so cool. Who wouldn't want to watch conference? Anyway, sorry, my missionary excitedness is coming out a little too much. Ha ha.

Our new apartment is just wonderful. Moving was SO stressful and things were a mess but now it is so nice! We love it! We live in the same complex as some of the Elders (but not in the same building) and this morning we were surprised with a full out breakfast. It had everything, eggs, pancakes, bacon, toast (buttered and everything), apples and smoothies! They are so kind. We actually woke up and ran over to our other pad to clean it all up for morning exercise. As we were walking back we get a call from the elders asking us where we are. (Side-note: here you can't get into a building without getting "buzzed" in) So, we were right across the street from the building and we see them outside of our building. They all see us and run away. The thoughts that go through our heard was.. "oh great, what are the elders doing?" They all run away and we get to the outside of out building and there is breakfast. It was a fun surprise and I'll consider that my "birthday breakfast in bed!"

This week was rather slow because of all the moving craziness. I got meds for my sinus infection and I feel much better now. It seems that on a mission everything that goes wrong is just magnified. I swear, Satan does ALL he can to stop this work, but he's not very good at it. Ha ha. I feel like I don't have many exciting things to say this week. We are really doing well. I am loving the English sisters. Sister Wadsworth moved in this last cycle and we already feel like best friends. I love getting close to the other sister missionaries. We have so much fun together.

I am loving reading the Book of Mormon as a missionary. I love the Book of Mormon, it is so simple and so perfect. I was reading in 2 Nephi 2 and there is a perfect verse about how I feel about my Savior. It's verse 2 and it is what I would want to be my theme in life. I am so grateful for the Savior and His sacrifice for us. We were talking in our apartment the other night about how frustrating it is when people yell at you or are rude. We talked about Elder Hollands talk one year ago called "None were with Him" and how we need to make sure we never let our Savior stand alone again. That is why we are here. I loved this quote from Elder Holland,
"May we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in the word only and not only in the flush of comfortable times but in the deed and in courage and in faith, including when the path is lonely and when our cross is difficult to bear. May we stand by Jesus Christ "at all times and in all things and in all places that we may be in, even until death" for surely that is how He stood by us, when it WAS unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone."

This Easter season, let us vow to never let our Savior stand alone again! I am so grateful that he died for us, that when times are hard, He knows how we feel. I know He lives, I know He loves each one of us. I am so thankful I can be here serving Him and our Heavenly Father.

Thank you all for what you do! I love you all and can't wait to hear from you :)
Con Amor- Hermana Passantino

PS: Ok, my official address is Doris with 1 "r" not 2. Thanks!

Melissa's New Address

All letters can now be sent here!
1443 Dorris (or Doris) Apt 3B
Bronx, NY
10462

Please send any packages to the mission home address! Thanks!

Bed Bugs, Moving, Sinus Infection, and Spring Time

Hello!
I am missing everyone so much! I hope all is well and that everyone is enjoying the fact that spring is coming up! Woo Hoo! This last week has had some really nice days and really gross days. I love the nice days, it is so much more enjoyable to be outside walking around.
This week has been a good one! It's been crazy! The talent show went AWESOME! It was so fun and I was so proud of the youth. They did great! The bed bugs have struck again and so that was good times. But here is the news, we're moving! In fact, we've been moving for the last couple of days. They called on Sunday and said, oh, you are moving tomorrow. Um, WHAT? It was stressful but we got them to change it to Thursday. The hard part is, is that we have to wash EVERYTHING! That is what is taking forever. But we are handling it and I will put the new address at the end of this email. The best news, NO MORE BED BUGS! Woo hoo!
I've been sick all week and I think I have a sinus infection which is just dandy. It's rough but I'm surviving. Maybe I can get some meds soon. I am sick of being sick. We saw a headless pigeon on the train track the other day. It was sad, but don't worry, I took a picture!
We went to City Island on Saturday and looked up a less active. She has a daughter that wants to be baptized! Woo hoo! I love to see how the Lord blesses people. Everything happens at the right time! We are also teaching Antonio, who has a baptismal date for the 25th of April and Lux, the daughter of Soledad. She has been forced to grow up very fast but we are hoping everything goes well for her. She is a great girl.
I have been thinking so much about the Pioneers and early saints of the Church. I am SO grateful for their sacrifice for this gospel! What a blessing it is! I know I don't have a lot of spritualness today... but I am loving feeling the the Love of the Lord for me but especially for others! It's truly amazing! I love you all! Thank you so much for your love!
Love, Hermana Passantino

Barsimeo's Baptism!

Maribel's Baptism!

Soledad's Baptism!

Fun "Sister's Lunch" with my good friend Sister Baxter!

We are teaching Adison and his family. Junior, their cousin, (next to Sis Walker) lives in PA.

Lincoln Medrano proposes to Hermana Passantino?

The Leon girls are the "Missionaries" teaching us!

Defending our "Titles of Liberty"in the snow for a youth activity.

"The Real" little Italy in the Bronx!

Eating FREE Cannoli's at the Bus Stop

New Email Address!

Melissa's new email address is melissa.passantino@myldsmail.net
She will be getting a new address sometime next week!

Another 6 weeks in the BX!

Well, transfers have passed and here I am still in the Bronx with Sister Walker. I am so happy. Our way of working here is going to be a bit different now because so many people have gotten baptized. It's crazy! Speaking of our baptisms... they went AWESOME! Maribel's was so good and she is on fire. She has already started her family history and is going to the temple soon. So here is a crazy story, the Thursday before she was supposed to get baptized her boyfriend, Gabriel, who is the one who introduced her to the church, had to go to the hospital because he had an infection in his spine. Luckily he is getting it taken care of but we weren't sure if she wanted to get baptized without him. She said, "I'm not doing if for him!" and so everything went through as planned, but it was sad that he wasn't there. We got permission to go to Manhattan and visit him and that was really cool. He is doing a lot better. So then, we had Soledad interviewed by President Darger and she got baptized on Sunday! It was so cool to see her come out of the water. Man, the Lord has blessed his people so much! I love it!

Last P-day we went to the Zoo! It was pretty fun with some actually good animals. We were right next to the "Real Little Italy" and so we had some yummy Italian food! Then that night, we were in a part of our area that has a lot of Italians and we stopped in a bakery and we got free cannollis! They were SO good! I loved that place already...

We don't have a lot of news this last week. The weather is getting nicer which is great because all weekend we were soaking wet! We are preparing for the ward talent show and all of us missionaries are doing a dance with the youth. I will try to record it so you can get a copy!

My thoughts have been so much on Joseph Smith lately and the early members of the church. I am so grateful for their sacrifices so I could be here now. How amazing this gospel is. Every time I teach it it just makes more sense. I love it! I am so happy to be here.

I love you all! Thanks for your love and support! Hey fam, thanks for the dearelder birthday package! I was just done with my V-day candy and now I have more! Ha ha! LOVE YOU ALL!

Love, Hermana Passantino

I Love Bed Bug Protection Kits!

Thanks Family for sending me a wonderful bed bug protection kit! I am not totally ready to take on those stupid bed bugs! Haha, I loved my packages from my fam! And I got to see pictures of my new house and my sweet new nephew! WOO HOO! I showed those pictures of Charlie and Matthew off to EVERYONE! I just kept walking around showing members of the ward, they all think they are so cute and they don't understand why I don't look like my family. Ha ha! I showed Santos a picture of Charlie and he said we have the same face... WHAT? Who knew I looked like Charlie?
Well, this week has been another good one! Maribels baptism is on Saturday and I am SO excited! She is awesome! Soledad and her daughter Luz are supposed to be baptized on Sunday but they have run into a couple of road blocks so we'll see what we can do. So here is a crazy story... I believe I have told you about Barsimeo. We started teaching him but he is in the Elders area so we handed him over. But he still called us with questions and would come to the church so we could teach him. So we kinda team taught him with the elders. So last Wednesday he did one of his church visits and I felt prompted to ask him when we was getting baptized. He said, soon I hope. So I gave him a date of THAT Sunday. He accepted! And it went through! We had another baptism! The elders were in shock because they have been trying to get him to accept a date FOREVER! It was awesome! I loved seeing another person accept the gospel! I'll send pics soon!
Transfers are next week so we'll see what happens! We had a sisters lunch up in Scarsdale with Sister Smith yesterday and it was so fun! We really enjoyed ourselves. We have such solid Sister Missionaries here. I would not be sad to be with any of them! They all are so awesome! There are about 18 of us!
Well, I best be off! I love you all! Thanks for the letters and packages :) I LOVE hearing from everyone! I'll let you know if I got transferred next week!!!
One quote I love by Joseph Smith
:Happiness is the object and design of our existence: and will be the end thereof if we pursue the path that leads to it. and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God" SO GOOD! Have a wonderful week!
Love, Hermana Passantino

Ususally the international sign for choking means I'm being SERIOUS!

Ha ha, oh man, my subject line makes me laugh. Let me explain the story. So, Mondays we have district meeting and then we all go out for lunch as a district. We went to this Diner called Georges which we all love so much. Anyway, we were all eating and all of the sudden, Hna Walker made Elder Hellburg laugh. He then started choking on his hamburger. He is always joking around and we all thought he was kidding. There were about 4 of us there that were CPR certified but no one thought he was serious. He finally stood up and made it very obvious that he couldn't breath. I was far away from him but stood up to run and help when when the "white hand book" rules popped through my head and I thought, "I can't touch him!" ha ha, well, I yelled at Elder Fox to help him and he just poked him, thinking he was still kidding. Finally as I was about to hurdle over the table to get to him, a little Hispanic man helped him out and the food was dislodged and he was ok. We all laughed about it later but it was scary at the time. Later, Elder Fox said, "We need to come up with a sign so we know that you aren't joking" Elder Hellburg then said, "Usually the international sign for choking means I'm being serious!" It was funny and we all laughed about it later but it was pretty scary at the moment!
This week has been wonderful! We now have three baptisms set up for March including Maribel! Woo hoo! We showed her the new Joseph Smith movie but she told us she has prayed about him early in the week and knew it was true! I am so excited! She is so rock solid and is going to make an amazing contribution in the church. She is already sharing it with so many people. I just love her!
We got hit with a lot of snow this last week. On Friday we spent two hours shoveling snow by the church. It was fun but we were soaked! The Wilhites made us muffins and hot chocolate when we were done which was awesome. I just love them! On Saturday we had another youth activity and we talked about the Title of Liberty and then made our own. We then went outside and had a giant snowball fight while "protecting" our titles of Liberty! It was a blast! Who knew you could have so much fun playing in the snow in a skirt! Speaking of the snow, east coast snow is the pits! It is soooooo slushy. In fact, there is this awkward kind of snow here that is like half way between snow and rain. We say "oh great, it's slushing outside!" It's funny. I am glad that winter is ending! I am hoping next winter I will be upstate in a car or something, I am sick of cold feet!
We had a miracle of 7 people at church on Sunday! That never happens. One was a new investigator named Jesus. He is awesome and I love speaking Spanish with him because I can understand and he teaches me a lot. We were going to pick him up for a family home evening and in our planner we put "Pick up Jesus" it made us laugh and so as our back up plans we put "hang out with the 3 Nephites" oh man, missionary humor is so lame but oh so funny!
We had interviews with President yesterday and those were wonderful! I love my mission President! He is truly called of God. I talked to him about how great the work is going here and it seems as though Sis walker and I might be staying another cycle together. There are no for sures but we are hoping, the work is in full force!
Update on moving, we are moving for sure but we will not be moving till the end of March or beginning of April. Hopefully I'll still be in here in the Bronx, transfers are in about 2 weeks!
One thought I would like to share is from a letter I received from my friend Elder Hendricks who is serving in Argentina right now. I'll just quote what he said, It's long but good!
"As Pres. Uchtodorf said in conference, "It is often the trial of adversity that we learn these most critical lessons that form our character and shape our destiny. The things the Lord can do with us are incredible. We just need to let him do it! Trust in him that he knows best! One last quote by Pres. Howard W Hunter. 'If our lives and our faith are centered on Jesus Christ and His restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on Christ and his teaching, no other success can ever be permanently right' These are the days that shape who we will be the rest of our lives. And if we choose Christ and live his teachings, everything will turn out alright. And we will be as a diamond upon black velvet. Shining out despite all the challenges and struggles around us"
I loved that and I don't have much to add to it. It was a very uplifting letter.
I love you all! Thanks for being so wonderful and supportive. Have an awesome week!
Love, Hermana Passantino!

Santo's Baptism! He is happy he just doesn't like to smile!

How to make Hermana Passantino happy in New York -- Besides Baptisms Of Course!

Icicle found at an investigators who lives behind a house in a shed.

Sweet Jessenia

Hermana Passantino and Hermana Walker by Saturday Night

Happy Valentine's Day! 4 Princesses in the Bronx!