It's a Beautiful Day!

Hello to all!
Today is a nice sunny day, much different than the last couple days, it has been raining non-stop. That is always fun as a missionary in the city because we just get to walk around in the rain... woo hoo! Ha ha, but don't worry, I have a good umbrella (and it's cute too!)
This last week has been a tough one. If I could describe it in one word.... frustration. This has been one of the hardest weeks of my mission as far as the work goes. Missionary work is so interesting, you put your whole heart into it and it takes all your energy to try and help these people progress and gain those blessings that Heavenly Father has just WAITING for them. But everyone has their free agency and needs to decide for themselves what to do. I am not going to go into details of what happened this week because they are not important but we'll just say, Mildred didn't get baptized. Her baptism was canceled 3 hours before it was supposed to happen. Her interview was a struggle as well last Wednesday night. It was raining that night and Sis. McMillan and I had no umbrellas with us. So after we dropped Mildred off we sat on a bench (while it was pouring rain) and just looked up at the sky. Sometimes, missionary work is hard. Ha ha. But it's ok... things will work out for the best. After we sat and stared into the dark NY sky while getting drenched we bought ice cream and cookies to make ourselves feel better. Nothing like emotional eating right? Ha ha... But everything will work out, I have faith in that. The good news is, I'm still happy and working hard! I know that the Lords hand is in everything we do here so He is in charge not me (as much as I want to be sometimes... ha ha)

Besides all of the frustrating things that have been going on (Mildred is just one of them) We have had some small miracles that are always so wonderful! We had interviews with President and that was just great. I love President Smith! He always has the right things to say! He is just wonderful and it's always a boost to have interviews. It's sad now that we only get to have them every other cycle, but always great to have them!

I also got to watch the Relief Society General Broadcast! It was amazing! It is so great to listen to a Prophet of the Lord! I loved the different talks and themes. Before the broadcast our stake had a mini conference and dinner. The conference was great and talked about Charity and the food was wonderful (You can imagine how nice it was since I am part of the New York New York stake... very ritzy) It was fun for a change since I live in the ghetto of Manhattan. But I loved it and the spirit was so strong. I am SO excited for conference this week! WOO HOO!

Well, sorry this is so short, time is running out. I am going to the Museum of Natural History today *(for the third time) so that should be fun! I love you all! Thanks for all you do! Can't wait to hear from you all!
Con amor- Hermana Passantino

P-day at Central Park! We found this cool place that was in the park and also showed some of the city!

Every Friday we play dominos with Don Frank. He is a member that can't leave his house but he's so nice!

The Botanical Gardens! This overlooked the Rose Gardens.

In the Botanical Garden you can plant and water things. It made me miss our garden at home. I helped by watering the squash!

Manhattan North Zone ALWAYS REPRESENTS!

Hello from yet another BEAUTIFUL day in New York City! I am getting excited for our P-day today because we are playing a football game against the Manhattan South Zone... it is obvious we are going to win :) Ha ha... it should be fun! I really like my zone here. It is totally different than when I was in the Bronx but it is still a blast. We don't see everyone as much so when we get to get together and have fun it is always enjoyable!

It has been a good week for Sis. McMillan and I! We have been doing A LOT of tracting! We did this thing called a "Zone Blitz" in the elders area and Sis. McMillan and I felt like we should tract in their area for them. So we said a prayer and I picked a building and a floor to tract. Out of 6 doors we got into 3 of them and taught 3 lessons! Let me tell you, that never happens. It was really cool and hopefully it will help the elders out with some investigators (now if only that would happen in our area). We are kind of revamping our area right now trying to find some solid people. It has been difficult but we are working hard. It seems that with every area and every companion, you kind of have to find your nitch and figure out what you are meant to do together in that area. Sis. McMillan and I are in the process of doing that right now. So we will continue to press forward and do our best! The good news... we have a baptism this Saturday! Woo hoo! Mildred (the Mom of Marible, my recent convert in the Bronx) is getting baptized. It is so exciting! Saturday will be a great day. We also have the Relief Society broadcast which I couldn't be more excited for. Speaking of conference...

Sis. McMillan and I are doing what we like to call "Conference Prep". We are writing down a couple questions/thoughts that we would love to have answered or gain some insight on during conference. We pray about them every night and we are also going to fast about them. I am looking forward to this and encourage all of you to do it as well. I know that each speaker is inspired and called of God and that we really will get all that we need to out of conference! Hello!!! It's a living prophet for our day speaking to us, how could you not learn something from it! (Ok, sorry, I get a little excited about conference :)

So fun story of the week. We have a district lunch every Thursday after extended weekly planning. This last week we decided to have a picnic in the park by our apartment. It was so fun! We sat next to the water and just chatted but then this nasty giant goose kept coming over to us. I believe I have gotten my very strong dislike for birds from my father so I was freaking out. I made the elders chase the goose away every time it got too close. Then all these pigeons came out of no where and were like swarming us! I couldn't take it! It reminded me of one time when Brian was little and he wouldn't eat his lunch because there were pigeons everywhere and he kept saying "I feel like I am eating them!" Ha ha, I hope my fam remembers that one! Anyway, I strongly dislike birds around me while I am eating and the elders got a nice workout chasing them away for me.... they are so kind. Ha ha!

This morning I was listening to some CD's that my fam just sent me and that one EFY song came on "Shine the Light" I couldn't help but giggle as I thought of some of my favorite women doing a girls camp music video to that song :) I was just laughing the whole time! I miss you guys! That song will never be the same!

I hope everyone is doing good! I am doing great and moving right along. Sometimes I think time is going WAY too fast for me! It needs to slow down so I can get more stuff done. Thanks for all the love you send me!

Con Amor- Hermana Passantino

Greetings from New York City

Hello to all from a BEAUTIFUL day in New York City! I just got done sipping some hot chocolate in central park and it occurred to me, I live in this city, how cool is that? I just love it here. I am in downtown Manhattan right now because my companion is going to a Broadway play with some other sisters and I am going to be hanging out with Sis. Child! I am so excited! Last p-day was great because I had the chance to go to yet another Yankees game! It was a blast and a home run at the bottom of the 9th made it so the Yankees won so we had some excitement as well! It was wonderful! Thanks to Elder Hellbergs birthday, his mom got some tickets for us so we had great seats too! It was a blast!

It has been a really good week for Sis. McMillan and I. We are enjoying our small area and trying to find new things to do to keep it interesting. Luckily, we both are kind of crazy and we keep ourselves laughing a lot. For example, the other day I was walking down some hard marble stairs and I fell down a flight of stairs. Ha ha! It hurt really bad and I think my bottom is bruised pretty bad ( I can't sit for long periods of time now) and I also pulled a muscle in my arm. But we had a very good and long laugh about it and now every time I sit, we just laugh... it makes it not hurt so bad. I looked SO funny when I fell. Luckily, no one else saw. And don't worry, I'm not the only one that has moments to laugh at... the other day we walk into a lesson with Lewis (who is so cool and told us he knows Joseph Smith is a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true! Woo Hoo) Anyway, we walk in and right before we sing, Sis. McMillan gets a horrible bloody nose. She just puts some napkins in her nose while I sing the opening song by myself (awkward!) So we continue to teach the lesson while poor Sis. McMillans nose is just leaking blood.... Lewis gave her some ice and she just taught along with ice and napkins holding the blood... yummy! Ha ha, it was a great adventure.

Mildred (Maribles mom) is getting baptized on the 25th and we are SO excited! We also have Lewis lined up for a date and a man named Ramon. He is bedridden (paralyzed from the head down) but we found out we can have him baptized. It will be a challenge but I am excited for him!

I thought September 11th would be a lot cooler but since I live in the Little DR no one really cared. But don't worry, I showed my American Pride and wore Red, White and Blue! We got to see the big spot lights they put in place of the towers from where we were so that was cool!

Yesterday we had yet another amazing Multi-Zone conference! It was so good! I wish everyone could feel what it is like to be in a room full of missionaries! The spirit is SO strong. It just makes me so happy to be a missionary and to be part of this work. Every zone conference the missionaries that are leaving give their testimonies. It was so weird to have Sis. Walker and Sis. McMillan up there. So many missionaries that I know will be going home soon. It is weird growing up in the mission. Our time here is SO short and I want to use every minute I can! Sometimes the days get long and things are frustrating but it is so great to get together with other missionaries and our Mission President and talk about how we can be better. Being a missionary is something I would never trade. I love this work! I am so grateful I can be out here.

I hope everyone is doing fantastic! I miss you all and can't wait to hear from you!

Love, Hermana Passantino

I Heart New York!

Hello to all!
I hope everyone is doing fantastic. Don't worry I survived the "hurricane" last week. Ha ha ha! Everyone was freaking out thinking we were going to be hit, but not to worry, I think it rained like two drops... but I kept my umbrella around just in case! It has been a very good week for Sis. McMillian and I. Can I just say that I love working with her!

Last week for P-day Sis. McMillian and I went to the New York Botanical Gardens! It was SO beautiful! I was in heaven with all the trees and stuff. I never realized how much I missed nature but man, when you live in a giant city, you really start to miss that stuff. I loved every part of it and I hope to go back again because we didn't get to see everything. I felt like I wasn't even in NY anymore. It was a wonderful change to the big city craziness we deal with every day.

We have been working hard trying to find new investigators. We do a lot of tracting still and we are doing a lot of look ups. Our area is so small but we have A LOT of former investigators which is good because we are trying to look all of them up. Our area is about 5 blocks by 10 blocks! Super small. If you look at a map of Manhattan and you find the street Dyckman (200th street) from that street to the top of Manhattan is our area. It is called Inwood which is part of Washington Heights in Manhattan. As most know, Manhattan is kind of broken up into smaller parts like, Washington Heights, Harlem, etc. So everyone living in the Washington Heights area goes to our ward.

Our ward is great and I really like the Bishop too! He is a teacher in the Bronx and he is so friendly and willing to help out. I can't even begin to explain how wonderful it is when the Bishop is willing to help so much with missionary work, everything goes smoother. He is very aware of the different people that have been baptized and what they need, it is great!

So here is a funny story. On Friday a member took all of us missionaries in the Washington Heights area out to dinner. As we were on the bus on the way to eat and there was this rather LARGE man sitting next to me. I was kind of just looking around the bus and all of the sudden he raises his hand and starts petting Elder Berry's head. Elder Berry turned around with a look on his face saying, "who in the world is touching me" Then this man continues and says, "Wow man, you have really soft hair, I like you Jehovah Witnesses" Ha ha ha, we were all trying to hold in our laughter! If you knew Elder Berry it would be that much funnier. I just love that random things like that happen here, they always make us smile. Luckily I contacted the guy and he's meeting with the missionaries. Ha ha!

We had a great training by Sis. McMillian at district meeting this last Monday that I loved. She talked about adapting our lives to the Saviors teachings. It was wonderful and really motivated me to do better. She gave us this quote that I really liked by Harlod B. Lee.
"This is your day and the only day that you have to be concerned about. Yesterday is gone, there is nothing you can do about yesterday except repent. There may be no tomorrow." Sometimes we worry too much about things that are out of our control, now is the time to deal with the now and we will be ok! I loved her training!

All in all things are going wonderful! I love the work! Nothing makes me happier. I hope all is well with everyone and that everyone had a safe Labor day! Love you!

Con Amor- Hermana Passantino

My new companion Hermana McMillian! My first day in Inwood on top of a project building.

My new area...Inwood. It's so small! Taken off the top of a project building.

George Washington Bridge over Hudson River! One of the borders of my new area.

5 of us on our way to new areas..we all had to get on a bus with our luggage...we were very annoyng!

This happens often! Thank you subway grates!

My last district in the Bronx with our tie dye shirts!

Saying goodbye to Bishop, Jefany, Betty & Juan

My last day in the Bronx...helping Ramon in his food truck.

Sis. Passantino Sang as she walked and walked and walked....

Ha Ha, ok so my subject line is really lame but I feel like ALL we do is walk here. Our area is small so we obviously don't take a bus or anything but my feet are starting to hurt, I am almost excited to wear my ugly sister missionary shoes again so my feet don't hurt so bad. I swear everyone we teach lives on the highest floor of every building with no elevators whish makes life fun as well. Gotta love it! But it is great because I'm keeping that missionary weight off which is always a good thing :) Especially with all the spanish food we eat! I am still not used to Dominican food but I am hanging in there and eating more than I used to!

This week has been a good one. Sis. McMillian and I are working on revamping our area so we are doing a lot of tracting but we have actually had some pretty good success. We are using this video called "Finding Happiness" and it is only 5 minutes long so we have people watch it and it gets them interested, then we set a return appt. It has worked out great. We like to tract in the projects because a lot of people there are receptive (although sometimes the smells drive us out... ha ha)

I got to do a training for district meeting this monday and it went really well. I was asked to do it on Miracles which is great because I had done that once before in my old district. I studied more and gained even more insight on miracles in our lives. We really have to be prepared for them and work for them. Our faith will be tried but if we really desire a true miracle and do all we can, it will happen! It was a good training for me since as missionaries we want to see miracles every day. It was also a good reminder to look for the small miracles in our lives because there are everywhere!

Want to hear something crazy? A small box of cheese-its here are SIX dollars... I know right? What a joke. I have been wanting cheese its but I am just tooo cheap to spend that much. Oh NY, it is so expensive!

We started an English class yesterday! I "borrowed" some of the materials we used in the Bronx and started it up here. It was SO fun and I really love teaching a class. I think it's the teacher coming out in me. The other missionaries just laugh at me because I get so excited. The people here love having a free english class and work hard because they really want to learn.

Well, my time is limited so I better go! Sis. McMillian and I are going to the Bronx to visit the Botanical Gardens today so I am excited. I hope all of you are doing fantastic! Thanks for being so wonderful! The church is sooo true right? I love it!

Love, Hermana Passantino