I still Heart New York!

I am not doing well with creative subject lines, sorry about that. I think I am getting "less funny". Everything that I think is funny is missionary related... like quoting the Joseph Smith movie in spanish... wow, my sense of humor will be way out of wack by the time I get home. Ha ha!

Well, it has been a pretty good week here in Inwood. I am working hard at preparing myself to take over the area. It is kind of nice to know that I HAVE to have a new companion for the next cycle because my companion is going home. Next week will be interesting. Sis. McMillan leaves on Wednesday but they are not going to have transfers for another week. Which means I am companion-less for one week. But guess who else is going to be companion-less? Sister Baxter! That's right! I talked to President Smith about it yesterday and Sis. Baxter and I get to be companions! Woo hoo! I am so excited, even if it is just for one week. I think we will be spending half the time in her area in CT and the other half the time here in Inwood. We'll see. But just as a fair warning, it might be a little crazy next P-Day so I don't know if I will get to email or not.

So guess what? Lewis is getting baptized on Saturday! Woo hoo! He already has had his baptismal interview so now we just have to get the program together. I am so excited to have him take that step to baptism! Now let's just pray it goes through... baptisms in this area have been hard for some reason but I'm excited still!

We had a great show up at church this last Sunday. It was the best we've had so far. Lucinda came and LOVED it! She is so cool and I love teaching her. This last lesson she told us she knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and that she knows she needs to follow the Word of Wisdom and Tithing... woo hoo! She is great and I am excited to see what happens with her! It amazes me the blessings that come to those that are willing to keep the commandments of God. If only we could all be like that. Sometimes I think we are too quick to justify or bend the rules. If only we had enough faith to obey with exactness, the blessings would be poured out to us just like it is to our investigators.

So funny story of the week. The other night as I was falling asleep I could have SWORN that I heard a mouse running around our bedroom. I of course freaked out. I was NOT going to have a mouse running around while I was sleeping. So I spent the next hour or so lying in bed with my eyes wide open and every time I heard what I thought was the mouse I would grab the flashlight and try to spot it. I then took the liberty to pick up any sort of food that could even entice the little guy. I seriously think I was going crazy. Sis. McMillan just laughed at me as I turned the flashlight on every 25 seconds to find the mouse. Needless to say, we never found what was making that noise. But so help me if there is a mouse I WILL HUNT IT DOWN! Gross New York City and they mice everywhere... and pigeons. Gross pigeons. Why do people feed them?

Well, I hope everything is going well for everyone else. I am loving life here. We are doing some shopping today for Sis. McMillans last P-day... woo hoo! Shopping in New York :) I love you all!

Con amor- Hermana Passantino

PS: I just realized I say "woo hoo" way too much! Sorry about that!

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

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

Oh the Joys of New York City!

Hello to all from the Island of Manhattan!
It is so weird to be in a different place emailing this week. I just got so used to the Bronx. Ha ha, it really did become like home to me. It feels so strange to be in a different place with all new missionaries to work with. In the Bronx, all the missionaries worked very close together but here we are all pretty spread out which makes things interesting. I am living in a two man pad so it is just me and Sis. McMillian. Luckily she is AMAZING and we have so much fun together. She is a blast! She only has this cycle left and then one more.... which is so sad! She goes home with Sis. Walker (my trainer). Sis. Walker is in my zone which is also fun, I get to hang out with her on P-days and stuff.

So, Inwood is similar to the Bronx in many ways. For example: It smells funny here, we have learned to "not inhale" and also to "look before you step" because of all the dog poo. Of course, I learned these things in the Bronx but it's nice to know I can use my previous education to help me out here. Ha ha. We continue to get hit on ALL the time. But here it's a little different because there are SO many spanish people, we get cat called at in spanish more than in the Bronx. The same "Bronx Juice" hangs out in the streets which makes for fun puddle jumping in the rain. The aroma of weed is everywhere, especially in the the projects.... good times.

Here's a fun story: On Saturday we were sitting in McDonald's waiting for a member to come meet us. We were sitting there for about 10 minutes and in that time I saw THREE that's right, THREE drug deals... ha ha. It was a shock for me let me tell ya. I never knew McDonald's was the place to buy drugs.... interesting.

The people we teach here are wonderful. Our area is really small so we walk everywhere but our teaching pool is huge! We have a lot of people to teach and they are all so great. I feel like my spanish is already improving because we speak it so much here. It's great! Oh guess what? We are teaching Maribles mom! Isn't that cool! Maribel is one of my converts in the Bronx who is AMAZING and her mom is getting baptized in September! Small world right? She is great and so fun to be around! We also are teaching this family who have been taught for a long time and they FINALLY came to church this last week! So cool! I love it! The work here is going strong! We keep VERY busy and have about 10 to 15 more lessons a week here than I did in the Bronx which is nuts. Sis. McMillian and I come home exhausted every night.

Oh one more funny story: On Sunday we went to this members house to eat. She is really nice but then she started kind of digging into the elders because they forgot an appointment they had with her the night before. Then she starts going off on a rant about how the missionaries can't speak spanish.... literally she went on FOREVER! She was like, "You don't even understand what I'm saying" when in reality we ALL understood her. We all left frustrated because she dug into us, the funny thing is that we understood her and answered her questions and everything. Usually people area really patient with us because we are learning spanish but I guess it wasn't good enough for her... Oh goodness, just when you think your spanish is getting better, someone shoves it in your face that you are still a "gringa" and have a horrible accent and can't express yourself. There are always challenges but it's ok!

Oh guess what? Sis. McMillians brother is going to be in the MTC with Brian! (Speaking of, will someone please forward Brian my emails until I get his email address? Gracias!) Her brother is going to Peru and will enter the MTC next week! They have to be friends! I am so excited for Brian and for him to be in the mission field with me! Woo hoo!!!!

All in all I am doing wonderful. The letters have been getting a lot fewer people! Ha ha!!! But really... here's my new address so feel free to write :)

678 Academy St #A5
New York, New York
10034

I love you all! I am so grateful for the blessings I have in my life. Being a missionary is the best thing ever. It is hard, almost every day, but the blessings I see in peoples lives amaze me. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything!

Con Amor- Hermana Passantino

Goodbye Bronx!

Yes, it's true. I am leaving the Bronx. Who would have thought this day would ever come? Sis. Child and I had a feeling I might be leaving but we didn't find out till last night. So today we are trying to run around and get things taken care of and say goodbye to as many people as possible. I am so sad that I won't get to see very many people. Transfers is hard, they just rip you out of your area and throw you somewhere new. We all know I'm not good at stuff like that but I am sure I will do fine. I am going to Inwood (Washington Heights) which is the very northern tip on Manhattan. It's pretty cool that I'll get to be in the city. We don't use metro cards there so I'll be walking EVERYWHERE. That is going to be interesting. I will be with Sis. McMillin. I don't know her super well but she was Sis. Walkers MTC companion and every time I've met her she has been great. I am excited for that. She will be leaving right before Thanksgiving so yeah, it's gonna be a fun ride. I know that being there will help my spanish A LOT! They don't speak much spanish here but there is like the Little DR so I'll be getting very used to Dominican spanish.... it will be interesting. I am so sad to leave the Bronx, it really has become like a home to me, but it will be good for this area to get something new.

This last week has been just fine. We had a ward training that was really good. They invited the whole ward to come and we talked about different things like, how to prepare a talk, how to receive personal revelation, things like that. It was really good and something that really helps out the spanish wards here. Wow, I just love this ward, it will be so weird to leave it! I love the members and all the people that I have been able to meet. Yesterday there was a little party for the end of institute and I just cried through it, I didn't even know I was leaving yet, ha ha! I just feel so close to all these people. I kind of hope I don't spend 6 cycles somewhere else because I just became so attached to this place.

I am so sad to be leaving Sister Child. She has become my best friend and it will be so hard to not see her and talk to her every day. I can not believe what best friends I have created on my mission. It is amazing the relationships that form while working together for the Lord. All of the missionaries I serve around will always be remembered. I am so happy I have this chance to find the most amazing friends. Elder Hellberg and Sister Adjei are leaving this area too! (We all started our misssions here in the BX) I think we all feel the same way about leaving, sad to leave what we are familiar with but excited for a new adventure. Sis. Adjei is going upstate and Elder Hellberg is going to a different zone in the Bronx. Wow, change is so weird but it will be good. Like I've said before, I think one reason I have to serve a mission is to learn to enjoy change and learn how to handle it.

Speaking of change, there are a lot of changes going on at home too! I can't believe Brian is leaving on his mission next week. I am so excited for him! He is going to LOVE the MTC! There is a guy here, Juan Rosario, who will be in the MTC the same time as Brian. They have to be friends! Juan is going to Colorado spanish speaking. He helps the missionaries all the time and will be a great missionary! Oh man, I am SO excited for Brian! He is going to rock the missionary world! In other home changes, I can't believe Alaina is getting married. How weird! I've been thinking how it's probably good that I'll be going to Texas after the mish, because everything will be too different in Chico anyway... oh changes, bring them on I guess!!

Well, sorry this letter isn't super spiritual. Mainly me blabbing about transfers. Although there are so many changes going on in life, they can always be for our good. I like to think of it this way, if there were no way to change, there would be no way to be able to be forgiven for our sins and ultimately, live with our Father in Heaven again. We are given the chance to change and improve every day of our lives. What a blessing! Hard times come but because of our Saviors sacrifice, we can make it through anything. I am so grateful for the plan we have here. For the opportunity we have to change and become better every day!

I love you all! Thanks for all you do!!! You are the best!

Con Amor- Hermana Passantino