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!!!!!!!!!