Little Miracles

ahahahah what the massive gun! is that dads gun? like does he own it? wow that looks like you guys had so much fun! yous better take me shooting when I'm back! sounds like things are normal back home, thats good. I heard austin fullmer is home! good for him. I bet jen is so happy! man I miss my friends. 

This week was awesome! we saw so many miracles this week as we worked in faith and obedience! the highlight of those miracles was Kassi. Kassi is from Tanzania and shes 19. we found Kassi tracting an apartment complex. and of course we found her on the 4th floor last door! Heavenly Father definitely has a sense of humor with us missionaries. We see miracles when and how He wants us to. It was a Thursday evening and it was so hot all day.(about 110 with humidity) It was about 7:30 and we were just about to turn in and go have dinner and call it day but we both, as we rode past this apartment complex, just stopped. I was in front and elder latu behind me. we literally stopped at the same time and just stared at the building. honestly I think about 2 minutes went by and we just stood there looking and knowing eventually we were going to have to tract it but neither of us wanted to so we just stood there. I took a deep breathe and said elder.. then elder latu cuts me off and says I know, I know let's go hahahah. so we did it. every single door went cactus but like I said fourth floor, last door this short little african girl says please come in! there was no male there so we couldnt go in her house we taught in the stairwell. we talked about Gods love for us and what we can do to show our love for him. I asked her what she thought we can do to show God we love him, instantly she said go to church! usually people say like aww pray, read scriptures, be nice to others, but not Kassi. she gets it! she says I need to go to church to show heavenly father I love him. and before we even had time to extend the commitment she committed herself to come with us this sunday! WHAT! fast forward to sunday morning we are outside waiting and she gets out of a members car in a cute little flower dress all ready to go! church yesterday was one of the funnest days I've had in a long time! the members stepped up everyone was coming up and talking to her and she was attacked by the sisters and taken away to relief society! I could tell she loved it. I think her cheeks were getting sore from all the smiling she was doing that day! anyway going back to the beginning of the story as we work in faith and obedience God is with us in the work! we are teaching the restoration with her tomorrow and inviting her to be baptised for the 4th sunday in march:) pray for Kassi. 

I love you all so much. I love that everyone is doing good and happy and enjoying life! its easy to get caught up in the bad things in our lives but if we take a step back and realize how blessed we truly are then the stress seems to fade away. I love you all and appreciate your prayers and support! have a great week.

-elder guzzo

Nearer My God to Thee

Hey momma!

this week has been well, very slow. After getting my release date its been so hard to keep my thoughts focused and keep my motivation to serve. as each day goes by I feel myself getting closer. Its so exciting but so scary at the same time. when you serve a mission, all you want is to be able to know and feel that you have given enough. I know that satan works hard on missionaries especially ones who are nearing the end. I've never felt so inadequate before. Ive had amazing success on my mission but to think that its almost over makes me question if I've given enough. will we ever know if the Lord is pleased with our service? and how will we know it? I feel stuck in my own mind, as if I'm in two places at once, or as if perth and my mission life is tugging on one arm and home and the exciting challenges that are to come are pulling the other. have you ever felt literally at war with yourself? haha I have. Being mentally strong has always been one of my strengths. But I know I need the Lord on this one! this week we had a mission conference with a general authority. O. vincent haleck came to the mission. former mission president of the samoa mission and now serving in the second quorum of the seventy. we learned so much from him and president Lindsay. one thing we talked about is how as a missionary, we open the windows for conversion but conversion doesnt happen while we are there. conversion happens when we are gone. after we leave a commitment and promise blessings, they have to act. and if they do they will change.

I also had the opportunity of getting to have a personal interview with elder haleck. he is a great man! his wife went to provo high school and they met at BYU. we talked a lot about the challenges that are to come for me when I get home, he gave great insight and counsel.

my companion and I were on our way to an appt and we ran into these to less active members from NZ. not even on our ward llist or anything! but they were so cool, invited us in, fed us & sent us home with food. then the next day we get home at night and they are waiting outside our flat with the boot of their car full of groceries! YAYUR!! I love good people. we sang that song with a set of sisters as well. we sangat the mission conference and we sang at church this sunday. the Dianella ward is like a rest home but we had just about everyone in

the congregation crying! hahah it was a good day. anyway I love you so much. I got the valentines package!! LOL MOM your valentines poem in the package was so funny! hahah i was

cracking up and made latu read it too! you da best!! hahah I'm excited about flat robbie! hahah what a cute kid I'll be sure to work on that asap. love you:) -elder guzzo

Gooood Week

Hello hello!

first week of the new transfer done! so far I am loving me new area! my new soa is the man. hes half tongan half samoan! but he grew up in
sydney so hes not a freshie. thank goodness! I miss elder faagase but its all good. elder latu and I both got doubled in to the area and for
only being here half a week we SMASHED IT! we found 4 new investigators, set one baptismal date, taught 5 non member lessons,
and 5 less active lessons! pretty exciting.

this ward is so so so dry though.. its honestly like a rest home. EVERYONE qualifies for the senior discount at the chuck o rama. I swear.. fast and testimony meeting yesterday was... interesting! some strange people here.

but anyway its been a good weeek! my new flat is nice as well. its small but its nice and it has 3 air cons so it stays nice and cool! which is good because it is so unbelievably hot here! summer is definitely upon us in western australia! thats all I've got for today, we've got lots to do.

love you and miss you all! have a great day.
-elder guzzo

(And then came this.... Which made my night!!)

So I just takes to the mission office and they already have my flight plans!!!!!! I arrive salt lake june 18th 4:06 pm!! leave australia wednesday june 16th. Perth to Brisbane, Brisbane to la, la to salt lake. I'll most likely finish my mission in this area mom! I really hope so. I do not want to get transferred anymore. after this transfer I'll have two left! WHAT!!!!!

Australia Day

Transfer week!!
So for starters I'll give you the update with transfers! I'm going back to the city! i have been transfered to the maylands area, which is in Dianella ward! so I'm in president and sister lindsays ward lol. my new companion is elder latu, and of course he is samoan! hahaha so I'm excited! and this most likely will be my last area! how crazy is that! I have not heard back from president about my release date.. I'll email him this week or I'll most likely see him soon. But
regardless, time is going so fast! I cant believe january is basically over! where did it go?? and feb is a short month also. 

This week my district meeting was all about teaching people, not lessons. how we have to pray and seek the gift of discernment so that when we are prompted by the holy ghost we can adapt our lesson to the needs of our investigators or whoever we are working with. we had an exp[erience of that this week where we were teaching this less active member about the baptismal covenant and what we promise to do when we are baptised. as we were teaching it just didnt feel right. we could tell that quinten wasn't engaged in what we were teaching and the spirit wasnt there due to a lack of mutual understanding. we were both prompted to first of all find out if he even believed in God. we had always assumed he did and so we skipped a crucial principle we teach when we are teaching non members, so we asked him. to our amazement he said no! ding ding ding! there it is.. so instantly I remembered when Aaron was teaching king lamoni about, well a lot of things, but particularly about how we can know if God does exist.

But Aaron said unto him: If thou desirest this thing, if thou wilt bow down before God, yea, if thou wilt repent of all thy sins, and will bow down before God, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest.

And it came to pass that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord, upon his knees; yea, even he did
prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried mightily, saying:

O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I
will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said
these words, he was struck as if he were dead.

what I love about this is the power that aaron taught with. the faith of the king. we can say all day long oh I dont know if God exists, he hasn't ever shown me anything, but unless we do something to find Him, we will never know. God will always be God, with or without our
prayers, but we will be nothing without praying to him!! we also see that aaron was all in... if he receives an answer, he will give away all
of his sins! thats amazing!

the book of mormon is just too good. I need to read it through one more time before I go home! I'm half through Jesus the Christ for the second time! I seriously love that book! thats like me fav free time thing to do is read Jesus the Christ!

well my time here in rockingham has been great but I'm excited to go somewhere new! time always goes so fast when you are in a new area
with a new companion and all that. I'll miss a few people. the whites for sure! bro and sister white are the coolest ever. i dont have a
phots with them right now but Ill take one tonight and send it next week! busy day today! so much packing and goodbyes today! also i gotta go get a fresh fade before i go to my new area! the best barber in WA is down here in rockingham! gonna miss the haircuts here. anyway thats it for me! I love you all so much. the church is true never forget it.
-elder jake guzzo

I can honestly say I've never prayed like this in my life.

HEY! Ya know why fight it when you can just roll with it right? lol so yes I did tell her to add you!! They are a great family and they really look after us. Elder Pula started his mission in their ward and they loved him to death, and then I met them like she said in Merriwa and since the day I got here they have loved me and are so good to us. We are teaching their little girl Sienna the lessons on Tuesday night because she is about to be baptised. Being in their home reminds me of ours. They

show love the way we do..  I miss it.

So had a pretty crazy experience this week. Elder Kalio and I were walking to the Forrest's actually.. and as we were about to get to the train station there was this young lady sprawled out on the sidewalk with her belongings everywhere! she was crying and very upset! we ran up to her to help
and she just said that she had been mugged.. the usage of drugs was apparent so I'm not sure if her story all that believable, but REGARDLESS we started helping her and trying to calm her down. She was really in a bad way.. no shoes, no where to sleep (at least she said), dead phone, no money. My companion gives me the look like "WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO" and I felt the same way. All my life I've always had someone to look to when I don't know what to do. But not as a missionary, its just you. So we got all of her things together and got her up and we just started walking with her. We introduced ourselves and told her what we do. We began talking about God and what she thinks/believes about God. She said she believed in God but doesn't know why God has let this happen to her.. she feels forgotten about. It was hard, we didn't really know what to tell her... but we knew that we weren't the ones to tell her anything but that the spirit could. so we asked her if we could have a prayer with her and she agreed. I can honestly say I've never prayed like this in my life. I now know what it means to pray from your heart, with all your strength. I've never wanted anyone to feel the spirit more than I wanted her to right there. As we started praying she stopped crying but then as we finished she burst into tears again! She felt it. It was amazing! Whether or not we ever see her again I don't know, but I do know that meeting us that night changed her. She knows that Heavenly Father is there and hasn't forgotten her. It was pretty awesome.

Other than that this week was pretty normal. Ee are still struggling to find people to teach. We have one guy who is pretty keen but still not that solid. Anyway, time is flying already only two weeks left of this transfer! I love you and miss you all so much. Hope you all have a great week!
the church is true!
-Elder Guzzo

West Leederville

Gday! Wow I'm so jealous! sounds like such a fun wedding! did they have a reception? was that at cabo wabo? I think Ashley really lucked out with this guy.. at least from what I hear of him. Everyone else looks so good as well! I love the photo of grandpa and his girls! you all look amazing. And look at Dylan with his hair? looking good lol I knew he would come home and jump into that style! total SKUX. speaking of skux is ty wearing those pants I sent him? he looks way sharp in them. I hope and pray I don't miss another wedding.

pretty solid week here in West Leederville. we were able to teach 3 lessons with investigators and the members have really been looking after us. Last night an American family feed us Mexican food and I was in heaven! OH and how crazy is it that I saw that Atkinson girl?? smallest world. I saw her from from out the window when her and her dad pulled up and I was freaking out. I really didn't even know her that well but it was so nice to see a familiar face! shes a sweet girl. do you have the pictures she took? will you send them to me? I never even saw them.

There is this Italian sister in the ward who is soo funny. she heard my last name and obviously new it was Italian and FREAKED out! lol she had us over for dinner and just would not stop feeding us and talked my ear about right off. she is so sweet. and she is making me homemade cannoli's this week! mhhmm.

I love you all! the church is the same no matter where we go because all things are done under the direction of the priesthood! we are members of Jesus Christs church! I know it.

-elder jake guzzo

One Year Later....

Hello hello!

Well first you better tell the boots family(brother boots especially) i say hello! i reflect back on my farewell talk sometimes and it makes me cringe. my knowledge of the gospel and the book of mormon was primary level compared to what it is now. thank goodness i have a homecoming talk to redeem myslef. haha. topher is going to be a lights out missionary! he has no reason to be nervous.

This week! another busy one. my concept of time is gone.. the days all feel the same, i woke up today and didnt realize it was p day! The mini mission ended and we all meet back up at a chapel, the mini missionaries are given the opportunity to bear their testimonies and share experiences from their mini missions. it was SO cool! all i could think about was brandon as he's about to leave, and ty as the mission is not too far off. What amazed me was the power of these kids faith to come out and give up their time to do this!

Had another great week teaching *****! teaching is my drug. im addicted to teaching! if a missionary could teach all day everyday there would be no thoughts of home, or being sad, or discouraged. the feelings that come with teaching others about the restored gospel unforgetable, undeniable, unbelievable! ahha a lot of uns.. lol but its so true. teaching is what keeps us going. we taught some important commandments this week. Chastity, tithing, word of wisdom! she understood and accepted them all. she also passed her baptismal interview yesterday so we are 100 percent in the clear ready for the covanent! cant wait till friday.

Unfortunatly we couldnt catch up with carrol this week. it bums me out because she has been prepared and is ready. she just needs us to come over and have one more spiritual experience ans she will be hooked. with new people we find and teach it takes time for them to recognize the spirit for what it truly is. we dropped by carrols place probably 4 or 5 times before she let us teach her. then she realized what we had to say was good so she let us come back. from there we have to distinguish if she is for real by chruch attendence. if they come to church they are for real! we havent been able to really reach her the importance of church and we hope to next we see her. our job is just to present them pure doctrine and truth, their job is to use their agency. we havent been able to present her with enough yet.. sometimes i want to grab people and scream saying LET US FINISH! once we have taught them the basic lessons and commmandments then they can make their choice but it doesnt make any sense to stop seeing us until weve offered all we can offer. ah frustrating! but we still are feeling optimistic about her abd hopefully we can see her this week.

Im such a sook lately and i dont know why. i think being away from my family for an entire year has something to do with it.. a year is a long time not to see family. also, im genuinly loving those I serve and its turned me into a total baby. i dont want baptisms or high numbers to look good for my leaders or to show president what i accomplished this week. i just care for these people. i love them.

i read an article in this months ensign. called BECOMING perfect in Christ. if oyu havent read it yet do it! it tells us how the savior can transform us. change our expectations for ourselves and others! perfect doesn't mean without sin or mistake. it means completion, finishing, enduring. and applying the atonement on the way.

being a missionary will test you in every way possible. its up, down, left, and right. but one thing is consistant. if you work hard, you will be happy. if you give the lord everything he will take care of you. moroni 10:32 as you love lord with everything you have you will learn to love those around you. guys like us are far from perfect but if we let the atonement become our anchor even we can become perfected in christ. i love it. and i love you all! have a great week.

-Elder Jake Guzzo

The Most Amazing Week

Hello everyone!

This has been the busiest, most overwhelming, amazing week of my mission. I'm literally tired all the time. this week was constant go go go! transfers were hectic, picking a missionary up from the airport. I dont know how to explain it all that would make sense but just so BUSY!!

They do a program called "mini mission" here in the stake where priest age guys and girls get paired off with the missionaries or 5 days! they live with us and are basically missionaries for a short week. its pretty exciting for the youth to come out and do this. so not every companionship gets to have a mini missionary but elder poai and I were chosen. his name is khaleel. super nice kid but so unbelieveably shy. we picked him up up on saturday morning and he'll be with us till wednesday night. right when we got back to our area we had an appointment with ***** who is getting baptised on the 19th. we taught her the gospel of jesus christ! we had khaleel teach the last point, enduring to the end. he was so nervous! reminded me so much of being a new missionary! but he did a great job. I'm really impressed with how many youth will come out and do this mini misison. they are on school holidays so they are sacrificing precious time. I dont think when I was 17 I would have done it... very cool of them. after we taught ***** we went to see carrol. carrol is a fijian lady we found tracting. she is the sweetest most genuine lady ever. we went in and kept the same lesson plan that we had with ***** BUT at the end of this lesson I extended the invitation to be baptized by the priesthood authority of God. she looked up, paused... and said I would. yes, I will. it was the most textbook preach my gospel video lesson I have ever taught. this lesson showed me that Im a missionary. Ive been out an entire year and it finally shows.. my skills are being refined. I would have never in a million years pictured myself being able to teach like this. Ive learned to ask questions, listen, and teach to their needs. I dont mean to sound arrogant. ammon teaches us to boast not in ourselves but in the Lord. Im boasting of my heavenly father. the Lord truly blessed us that day! the faith of this young boy to give up his school holiday and come out with us brought a different spirit to the lesson. the Lord made sure we had a great experience so that khaleel can see the amazing side of misisonary work. what a blessing!

Another tender mercy I want to share with you. since i have been i the jandakot ward i have taken it upon myself to change the attitude of this ward in the mission. as you know last week was transfers and a new sister came into the area. she said to her companion. "Im so excited to be here, Ive heard amazing things about this ward and this district" WOW? two transfers ago people were dissapointed when they were called to come here... now its the place to be! and its nothing that specifically Ive done, but things heavenly father has shown us we need to do.

The assistants called and asked if we would be in their video for zone conference this week! haha we are supposed to give them a few video clips of us talking with everyone, a principle in preach my gospel. so we've been talking with everyone! one example today we pulled up to the drive through at mcdonalds and the lady took our order and asked anything else? and I asked have you ever wondered why you are here? where did you come from? and where are you going? hahhaha the lady didnt even respond it was so funny. so weve been doing goofy things like that hopefully it turns out good!

elder eti is from tuvalu! i do know that the fiji mission covers tuvalu. sounds like a fun week back home! oh and you know in sacrament meeting(fast and testimony meeting) i got up and went on a little rant about how proud I am to be American and how the independence of a free nation was a vital part in the restoration of the Lords kingdom here on earth. I tried not to be too loud and proud USA but i had too. hahah over all a great week. so so so busy i think when i sat down just barely it was the first time i though about home all week. Not that i dont miss all of you and pray for you all. my mind is just sinking deeper and deeper. i love you all.

-elder jake guzzo

Grilling at a ward party :)

Great week to be a Full-time Missionary

HELLO HOME!

What a great week to be a full time missionary. This week in the jandakot district we set two additional baptismal dates! the murdoch sisters and elder poai and I. We are so excited! The district is just flowing with energy and a desire to teach and serve. Her name is *****. She comes from a part member family and her parents aren't fully active. Brother reedy, myself and my companion went to their home to have a discussion with the father of the family about being the patriarch of his home and needing to lead by example. While there his 18 year old daughter came out and joined the discussion. We had a long talk about baptism and the blessings that come with being obedient. The father, with emotion, expressed to his daughter how he has been praying for an oppurtunity to tell her she needs to be baptised. I asked her how this made her feel and then followed up with a baptismal invitation for the 12 of July! Soon, but definatly possible. Exciting things are happening over here!!

 

I was studying this morning in Alma when he is giving advice to his son Corianton and he's telling him not to worry about the things he's done. Not to dwell on the past but to move forward. Then he goes on talking about crossing yourself or cross yourself of your iniquity. I had a little study on that and what exactly it means to cross yourself. What I came up with is self mastery. The Lord doesn't expect us to be without sin and mistakes but he does expect us to learn to overcome them. Easier said than done right? But its true. The mistakes we make can ultimatly become our greatest blessing. This family the ***** are great people but they have let laziness and pride distance themselvs from the Lord! I think last night the spirit told the father that what's done is done. He hasn't always been the best example to his family and hasn't been a preisthood leader. BUT he's ready to change and get things in order. THAT'S WHAT IT'S ABOUT! We didn't teach that lesson last night, the father did. We just invited the spirit with good questions. That's what the power of a priesthood holder in the home can do. Change hearts.

 

my ankle is getting better slowly but surely. sister davis came but and brought us food! but yeah still a little tender in the mornings but the swelling is going down. my range of motion is coming back as well. trying to still be careful with it but its feeling a lot better. I never got in to see the doctor. this hospital is a complete joke everytime I call to schedule it(exact time they tell me to call the previous time) they give me a new story about how I need to call a different day. WA truly does stand for wait awhile! all good I'm over it. Its healing.

 

sounds like some exciting things are happening. I'll for sure have to send brandon an email to congratulate him. I wish I understood back then how big of a deal becoming an Elder is. I just didnt get it.

 

aww tennis with gram very fun! tell her i love her. haha yeah soccer is pretty lame but the world cup is a big deal! go USA. 

 

Overall it's been a really great week! I love you mom.

Remember I'm Happy

HELLO MOMMA!

Sounds like quite the week back home! My cute baby sister is 15.. wow! I hope she had a great day. AND brandon!! wow I cannot begin to express how excited I am for him. There is nothing greater than being a full time missionary! he will see. Is he speaking spanish?

Ty the delinquent priest lol! goood for him such a big step. looks like you all enjoyed the simis pool for the last time? :( crazy

Well this week was good! to start off my district meeting went really well. i LOVE my district! the sisters are so gun and make things happen and the elders are solid! we had group p90x exercise last night which was awesome! a district that works out together, saves souls together! hahha also our district had the best numbers in the zone last week so thats always good when we are performing. you always say I'm only as happy as my saddest child, well I'm applying that to my district. In the sense that our district is only doing as well as the most struggling companionship. so when they arent doing good we all get together and work in their area to help them out! pretty good stuff!

Best- probably just how busy we were in general this week. it was stressful at times but way better than being bored. and the fact that we are doing so well is great!

Worst- so we set up to do a FHE with a part member family. the father is a less active member and his wife and three kids are not members so we had scheduled to do a fhe with them and they cancled an hour prior to the lesson. some times people just dont understand how much time and effort we put in to lessons. I'd rather them straight up tell us they arent interested than tell us to come and than cancel last minute.

Silliest-this didnt happen to us but the sisters in my district sisters hancock and tukuafu. so sis tukuafu is new and she was stressin about her appointment and remembering this ladys name so before the lesson she said it over and over again so she wouldnt forget. the ladys name is ashlee. so they get to the appointment and sister tukuafu shakes her hand and says "hi, I'm ashlee" hahaha the lady looks at her and is all you are ashlee too?? haha how funny is that?

another funny thing, also sad. I was working out with those exercise bands that have the handles and all that and so the band was hooked behind the door. so I was doing an exercise and the band stopper (like a baseball size ball that goes behind the door so you can pull it) anyway the door gets pulled open and the ball comes flying at me and just hits me square in the chest and takes me out. it hurt so bad but also was so funny i didnt know whether to laugh or cry ahahahaha! so yeah funny week.

so yeah thats that! but I love you so much mom. I hope you have a great week. and remember I'm so happy!

-elder guzzo