Leaving for Italy

Dustin is finally setting off on his adventure. He leaves for Italy tomorrow (2/28/2012). I am looking forward to hearing his voice from the airport. I wanted everyone to have his new mailing address.

Elder Dustin Tyler Memmott

Italy Milan Mission

Via Antonio Gramsci 13/2

20090 Opera MI

Italy

His e-mail address is: dustin.memmott@myldsmail.net

I learned that it takes the $1.05 stamps to mail a regular letter. The postman said this should cover up to 4 pages handwritten and 2-3 on printer paper.

I am so excited for him to start his new journey. Hope everyone will pray for him and a safe flight.

I will post when I hear from him and know he is settled.

ready for field

Only 6 DAYS left until I am on a plane! I will be a stranger in a strange land! I'm so excited it's crazy! I was pretty apprehensive last week and had a half break-down/melt-down/freak-out, but it was only momentary and now I feel much better. I feel like I know what to teach, how to teach it, and to some extent how to teach it effectively. The hardest part about these last few days and I’m sure the days to come is that we have finished all our study material that is MTC study material. We have started to move on to In-field language study material. (We for some reason are ahead of what other groups have been at this point. we are already done with everything and we are only here for 8 weeks not the normal 9 that all other Italians are. So I guess the Lord must really need us in the field.) Anyhow, it's hard to focus when you know that you have done all they wanted you to in the MTC, and also when you know that in a week you will be immersed in the language! It’s hard to plan lessons for our "Investigators" here because we know that in a week they won't exist...they don't REALLY exist now but it's even harder to care and love a fake investigator when you know that you will be disappearing soon. Maybe there is somewhere a lesson to learn in this for the field and transfers, I will have to reflect on it I guess. Anyway we are all REALLY trunky and it's hard to work but our Teachers, MTC President, and our Branch President have all promised us that if we use this week wisely we will learn as much as we have in the last 3 weeks. Which in some ways I have seen. I'm not too nervous about the language in Italy, I feel like with all the new programs in the MTC the missionaries leaving for foreign language missions are more prepared than they have ever been in the history of missionary work. I feel I can at least stumble my way through any lesson and bare my testimony in some roundabout very simple really wordy way about mostly anything Gospel related. Now I’m starting in on some of the everyday words that I haven't been focusing on. Most if not all of our study has been on Gospel related vocab and words we need to teach and explain teachings and principles and doctrines. So now I’m finally to the point where I can start learning everyday words like... Bank, Store, Sweater, Airport, Fork, Cup, Window, Etc... They are mostly just places and objects. As far as verbs go...I probably know about 100-125 verbs at this point. And probably know how to conjugate about 50-75 of those correctly ha-ha, maybe only Nate will understand conjugating verbs...we don't do it a whole lot in English. In fact we do it in a completely different way. Ha-ha other languages are fun.

I'm doing really good and trying to memorize plenty of scriptures. Since I really have nothing to do other than study and study and that gets boring. I am trying to memorize the scriptures that I think will be really useful. I have only 3 Memorized so far, but my goal is 1 a day so here we go. I hope to have at my fingertips 100's of scriptures in Italian that I can pull out as needed. Just from personal experience practice teaching here in the MTC that seems like one of the most useful things I could have. :) Also my Testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much this week. I think I have learned one of the truths of missionary work and why missionaries, when doing the work properly, have such a growth in their testimonies. When you teach about something your testimony of that thing grows each time. If you are working hard to give the best lesson you can then it's a sure thing. Me and Anziano Malan had to give a lesson about Chapter 5 in PMG (Preach My Gospel) (Which by the way everyone should read) which is The Book of Mormon. The chapter is about how it is our most effective tool and the key to conversion AND retension...retention...my English is getting bad... the key to the keeping of converts once they are converted...sigh... anyways while we taught about the Book of Mormon my testimony was strengthened and for the first time in my life I think I understood what many great men have meant when they said that they have a "Burning testimony of the Book of Mormon" I can feel that smallest deepest inside core of my testimony becoming uncollapsable like Enos. (I think in English its unshakeable faith...not sure) Anyways I know that it is the most powerful and correct book on the earth and know it will change so many lives.

I really can't wait to go and help people...that is the hardest part of sitting here in the MTC for this last week. Just waiting to go out and do the real thing. To go out and REALLY change lives. To take this message that will do things for people that will extend into the eternities!

 Dustin

He is doing well and ready to get to Italy and serve the people. So proud of him. I will post his address in Italy soon.

Hello from the MTC

Dustin sent a video from the MTC and it was big enough that I could not post it here. Instead I posted it to youtube and made it private so that only the people with the link can view it.

if you would like that link then contact me.

janarn13@hotmail.com

turning out... not in.

Dustin's letter was so uplifting to me this week that I had to share. He amazes me as he continues to grow as a missionary and I can feel his spirit stretching. Keep writing to him. I will post his new address as he leaves and settles in Italy.

He writes....

Buon pomeriggio mia famiglia!

I hope that you are all doing well and everything is good at home! Just got back from the Temple and some good ole Temple breakfast. (Really good) I am feeling well and myself and Anziano Malan are doing well this morning. We have already done our Laundry, gone to the Temple, eaten breakfast, and after we e-mail Anziano Malan is going to get a haircut, after that we are done for the day and can write letters and sleep!! I will try and write most of you. but if the letter doesn't get mailed today just know that it will be there the next day. I can write until P-day ends at 6:30 but the mail gets picked up at 3:30 so i have to send what i have done and then do more! I got your packages and had a really good Giorno di San Valentino! I love the tie and candy and all the other stuff i asked for. It was all perfect. Thank you all for the letters, as I think i have said before, they are like water in a dessert. so keep sending them.

The MTC is going really well, and time here is fast coming to a close. We just recently started teaching each other (Anziano Malan and I teach Anziano Money & Treadway.) and they pretend to be people they know who are not members. It is really fun and i enjoy having an opportunity to act. It's also a great opportunity to see how it is as an investigator. I have learned a lot of things just by being taught something or by NOT being taught something. Because you are so focused on playing the role of someone who knows nothing about the Gospel as we do. It really helps to see that you need to explain like EVERYTHING to them. Every Gospel term that we take for advantage. Like Priesthood, or Apostasy, or what a Profet is or what the Atonement was, or how to pray, or What the Holy Ghost is. It's hard for me having grown up in the church to understand that they dont know all the things i have known all my life. As the time goes on here at the MTC and my language improves I begin to love to teach more and more. At first I dreaded teaching and was so worried and teaching felt like such a burden. But now i am learning how to do it and enough of the language that i can struggle through almost any LESSON. (The rest of life maybe not so much.) I enjoy getting to know and relating the Gospel to these people we teach. (Even though they are made up characters played by the other Anziani or our teachers) I have even come to love them in a sense, even though they are not real.

We had an amazing set of Devotionals this week. On Sunday we had the amazing opportunity to hear from Elder Bednar!! He gave what may have been the single most life changing talk (for me personally) that i have ever heard. Or at least so far as the Missionary Field is concerned. It was about the Character of Christ and how we can become more like him. The thought he shared was that in the scriptures there are countless times when the Savior has just endured some amazing burden or injustice and the first reaction is to turn outward and care for others. For example after the Judas betrays Jesus there is a brawl that breaks out and one of the guards loses an ear to the blade of Peter. After just having been betrayed and doomed to death It would have been easy and justified if Jesus had been worried or thinking of himself. But he reaches out and heals the ear of the guard. Even after betrayl by his own Apostle he thinks of others and not himself. and he gave several more examples of how Jesus in the greatest times of distress always sacraficed himself for others and never put his own needs in front of others. The Idea is that as a Natural man we tend to worry about us and turn inward when a trial arises. We worry about us and how we are going to get through it and what we can do for ourselves and how we achieve more or what we want or how we could feel better. But Jesus always turns outward when the natural man turns in. It has changed my life since the short 3 days i heard it. I now think to turn out and not in. I find myself doing more charitable things and my goal is to never think of myself. I feel so great. This SIMPLE principle has brought me so much closer to God and SO much happier since i have started to apply it. So famiglia! Turn out. Not in!

Also we had Don R. Clarke come last night (Member of the 70) and he talked about having a love for the people and praying constantly for them and being obedient.

He told a story of a young missionary who had a companion who didnt wake up at the right time, who didn't study with him, who didn't want to do any work, who stayed too dinner to long, and went home at night too early. He however was doing everything right and was ready to study without his companion and worked hard in everyway he could ( as the Junior Companion) and the Mission President asked him "Is is hard when your companion doesn't want to follow the rules." and he said "It's very hard being the only one who is doing what is right, when everyone around you is doing what is wrong." the Misison President then asked him "Why are you so obedient if it would be easier to follow the lead of your companion and slack off." the young missionary then said something which i hope to never forget and i think is just as much applicable to me as it was to him and all missionaries. he said "President, at home i had a car, i had a good job, i had a girl i loved, i had a place to live, i was going to a good school, and i did NOT give all of that up to come out here and be half-obedient, to serve half of a mission, to struggle through each day not wanting to do the work. I refuse to have made all of those sacrafices for nothing, this mission needs to be worth everything i gave up. And it won't be that way if I don't do all i can every day. Because those things i sacraficed meant alot to me and this mission needs to be greater than those things or i wouldn't be here. I won't let anyone else decide my mission for me." I in nearly every aspect have left everything that missionary left and i will never forget those words. Yesterday i got a letter from my Mission president (We all did) and he wanted us to write a page about our goals for the mission. I think i will inculde that sentiment somewhere. I am also going to ask him to give me a trainer that will work me into the ground, the hardest working missionary int he field. The missionary that is going 100% from sun-up to sun-down. Because if im going to suffer through everyday, dreading and not wanting to do what i came here to do then i might as well go home. I want to work hard and do everything possible for the Lord. at time i don't want to work and i just want to sit there and tell stories and laugh and be lazy, but i'm praying for the Lord to change me so that i can be focused all day every day. Please pray for me in that aspect.

Well, time is running short, hopefully i will get letters to most of you and the everyone next weekas it will be my final P-day here at the MTC and then you probably wont get any handwritten letters.

I love you all and pray fervently for you ALL every night.

Vi amo!

Anziano Memmott.

The Language

The letter we recieved from Dustin this week was a lot about the language.

"All is going well with the language and other learning. There has been somewhat of a click with the language this past week where I began to understand how Italians think. It's very different from us. For example, instead of saying "will you say the prayer?" they say "Will you make the prayer?" they use the verb for "to make/to do" for alot of things because it's easy to conjugate and use. They just think in a different way, and form sentences and thoughts in a much more poetic way than we English speakers do.

I have decided that when I get back I am going to go to a college that offers Italian and build on what knowledge I will have. I don't want to lose it but more than that I want to make it better. I want to improve my Italian throughout my whole life. It's so much better than English and in fact, when mastered it is easier to say what you want to in Italian, it's much shorter. So hopefully when it comes that time, you guys can look at those colleges that offer Italian and Theatre and tell me where you sent my applications. hehe"

I am so happy that he is falling in love with the language. I truly believe it will make fluency easier for him. Falling in love with the people and the work is just around the corner.

He also talked this week of how much he misses music. Music is such a huge part of his life and though he can carry a tune inside of his head, he misses the audible flavor of his favorite escape. Of course, the music that he IS exposed to is quite often repeated so much that it drives him nuts.

He writes...

"Things are just the same old same old in the MTC. I miss everyone and everthing alot. I miss music so very much. If we sing called to serve one more time I think I might go postal."

I had a laugh with this one hearing that most missionaries end up feeling the same while  they are there but then often later find it is their favorite song.

He misses everyone, but is doing amazingly well. Keep up the prayers and letters. He loves getting a letter.

He told me, "A letter a day...keeps the crazies away!" If everyone writes him... I am sure he comes close to that.

 This is Dustin's prized collection of the letters he has recieved since he has been in the MTC!
Keep writing! As you can see... it matters to him.

 I am told this set of headphones is a blessing. There is only one pair in their classroom but if you need to concentrate they make it possible.

 This picture is for Karlee. He is sporting the new tie she sent him. It looks great!

This is his pencil. He is proud that he is still getting use out of it.

A letter from Dustin

Famiglia!                  02/01/2012

How is everyone? I am doing great, i am sitting here at 6:30 in the morning and I have just switched my laundry into the dryers and have a while to write you all before We head off to the Temple. I hope everyone is enjoying the pictures and i hope that Mom got the blog set up to the point where Nate and Sydney could see my Testimony and the First Vision. II will be sending more pictures this Wednesday as always! I hope that everyone is doing well and reading their scriptures! (Karlee! :) ) and i hope everyone is eating lots of Cafe Rio, and or Sizzler those things are what i miss the most in here. (food wise of course)(and Chicken Puffs and all that stuff too!) this morning we are going to go and eat breakfast at the Temple cafe before we do some sealings. (For children to parents)

Sorry that one accidently sent, it's really easy to do that...

anyways i was just about to tell you about my investigators and the language.

We have two investigators as i have told you in the past. And we teach one every day minus Sundays and Wednesdays. One of them is named Eloise (Sorella Fairbanks (Sister Fairbanks)) and the other is named Jahd (Fratello Merrell (Brother Merrell)) Things with Jahd are going really great. I have memorized the baptismal challenge and this last week we challenged him to be baptized and he accepted. He said he was nervous and wasn't sure if he would be ready, but we told him that we are here to help him get ready. So now we have 2 weeks to get him all ready for baptism. We have to teach him all the Lessons which is something that we have never done. It all the 4-5 weeks i've been here we haven't made it to the end of the 2nd lesson with any of our investigators, we always have to jump around and teach them about some random thing like Faith, or Hope, or Prayer, or REteach the Restoration. (It's hard to explain well enough in Italian.) (For NEW Italian speakers) BUT he is doing all that we challenge him to and he is moving along nicely. Eloise on the other hand is a trainwreck. She is also the reason we do so well with Jahd, Alot of these things we have never taught to anyone and so we get in the Lesson and discover that we want to say something but we don't know the words! So we can't say it! So we always have pretty rough lessons with her. She is our "Crash Test Dummy" for Jahd. We crash and burn and then fix the lesson for Jahd...being that she is only fake we want to drop her and start over. We have kind of dug a hole with her. She asks us alot of questions that we can't answer in Italian. I have just read "Our Search for Happiness" my Russell M. Ballard and now know much more about the apostasy and the orginization of the church when Christ was on the Earth. I also started reading the New Testament for like 20 minutes every day in addition to my BoM for 30 minutes. I really don't know the Bible AT ALL other than some basic story line that was taught in Seminary. But my knowledge of events is getting better. I am learning how to show people through the Bible and the Book of Mormon that there was a need for an Apostasy and that We have THE SAME church that Christ Organized while HE was on the earth. Hopefully i know alot more about this all by the time i come home. :)

Anyways, things here at the MTC are great, last night was the 50th anniversary of the MTC (In whatever form it may have been) and we had Russell M Nelson AND Jeffery R Holand come and speak to us in a Devotional. SUPER awesoem experience and i feel luicky to be here at the 50th. Gym time is great and when i get back we (The Boys) will have to ball it up.

I love you all and hope that you are all reading and praying. I love you guys alot and can't wait for some homecooked food in 23 months....(only 99 more weeks to do i think... :) )

Well Ciao for now family! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Anziano Memmott