Week 96 - Ward Family Home Evening

Hello everybody,

This week we had some pretty interesting experiences. First with not being able to write (but that's last week's news) Other than that, on Tuesday, we had divisions with our District Leader, Elder Ashcroft.  He came with me to work in Las Brisas. We were working in an area not too far from our house but far enough to have to take a bus to get back. We were working and it was starting to get late. I decided to visit one last family before heading back to work closer to our house. We shared our message with the dad and were in the process of closing when the mom got home. When we were getting up to leave she said "and what about the coke¡" I thought she was just joking because here we can't drink coke and she knew that, and she was halfway joking. She had sent her daughter to the tienda to buy us a snack and wanted us to wait. We were waiting and waiting, and while we were waiting I looked at my watch and it was 7:45. The buses that go back to our house stop running at 7:30! That made me all the more anxious because we still had to walk up the huge hill. "this sector is basically two long roads going down the side of the mountain. We got up and the road going back down to our house was empty. A few cars passed but we aren't allowed to hitchhike. So I just said a little prayer in my heart that God would send a taxi or a bus so that we could get down in time for our dinner appointment. We weren't waiting too long when a micro bus came by. It was probably the last one to be going down and we were already going to arrive late. It was pretty full already but we had no other choice. We got in and were basically standing up hunched over inside the bus. The highway going down is super windy and the drivers here drive pretty aggressively. I was praying the entire way down that nothing would happen. Nothing did. We got down and went with our assistant to the ward mission leader (jajaja that's not his official title. I just like it because it reminds me of 'The office'). He invited us because he and his wife were newly weds and he just got his call to be the assistant ward mission leader. The funny thing is that that dinner was supposed to be for my companion and I but, because we had short notice about divisions, Elder Ramos was in San Jose Las Rosas. So our district leader enjoyed the dinner that should have been for just us... Oh well.

On Friday, when we were in that same area again we went down an alley knocking doors and at the end I could hear the river that was at the bottom of the rivine. I looked up and saw houses on the other side and wanted to go. We started climbing up and the houses and rooftops turned into barns and sheds. We were walking a little bit when a guy called us. He was a farm worker and told asked us how we got there. He explained that we were on private property and that there were guards. At his advice we went back the way we came. But we had mistakenly trespassed on private property. Oops. Oh well. No harm done. My companion didn't want to and I thought it was just because he didn't want to get his shoes dirty, not until after he told me the Spirit told him not to. We weren't in any real danger but I told him that even though I am the Senior Companion he has a right to receive revelation too and should speak up.

On Saturday we had a ward Family Home Evening in preparation for the Ward Conference the next day. We we're going to call and remind all of our investigators and converts to go when I asked my companion for the phone to start calling. His response frightened me. "I thought you had it." We tried calling it from a pay phone until someone answered. Apparently, he left it in the house of one of our converts before lunch. We had to stop what we were doing and walk all the way back to the other sector to get the phone. Luckily we got it back and called everyone. The turn out was pretty good.

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Las Brisas, Zona Florida, Guatemala Sur

Week 95 - Switching it up

Hey guys, sorry for the late letter. I didn't have time to write on Monday due to some errands I had to run. Not sure that all of you know but my mom is from Guatemala. Recently we found out that because of her being from here, I can have a double citizenship. I wasn't too worried about doing it, but President Shummer suggested I do it. So, I went to the Immigration building to try and start the process. I also asked President if my family who lives here could take me since I didn't know exactly where the immigration building was. So my companion and I went early in the morning. Come to find out, I need a bunch of documents to be able to do it. Documents that I don't have on hand here. So, after all that, we're going to have to do it through the Guatemalan consulate back home and do the process remotely. But it would have been cool to leave as a legalized Guatemalan citizen. But at least I got to spend some time with my family here. It was actually pretty interesting. I went with my mom's cousin, Marvin. It was a great experience. Marvin and his family took us out to eat at a really cool place called Cayalá. It's a shopping center that's made to look like the Spanish Colonial era of Guatemala. We ate some really good burgers there and I got to know a part of my family that I didn't know very well. Unfortunately, all of the pictures I took are lost forever because my memory card got a virus- so all of the pictures from the last two weeks got corrupted and I couldn't recover them. :( The traffic here is horrible and we didn't get back to our area until 430, so that is the end reason why I didn't write on Monday like normal.

But in other news... This week was interesting. Our area is so large we work by sectors (well, really we do in every area, but especially this one) And this week we decided to change up the days we would visit each sector. It was interesting because we would find new people because we would be in an area a day that is different than normal. We also found that we couldn't visit certain people who we would normally try to visit. So it had its ups and downs but I think we're gonna stick with it and try and make the scheduling work with the people we couldn't visit. 

One of the new people we were able to visit this week was a family I had contacted a week ago, The Zaput Family. I had talked with the wife (Arelis) but, because the husband was not home, we couldn't enter the house to teach her. We went another time and they were on their way out the door. But on Sunday we had an appointment for the afternoon when the husband should be home. We arrived and they were again getting ready to leave. We asked if we could share our message and the husband (Oscar) said it'd be fine. So we went in and taught them about the restoration. They said they had distanced themselves a bit from church but their son was going to a Christian bible study group and they were kind of getting the feeling that they should start going to church again. They were super receptive and accepted a baptismal date. It'll be a bit tricky since Oscar will only be there on Sundays but we're gonna try to teach the rest of the family during the week and that he can catch up a bit on Sunday.

The other is a kid named Kibn (pronounced "keevin"). My companion and I were contacting near a hill looks like a more like a concrete wall when we found him. We were just knocking doors and my companion knocked his door. His mom answered and told us to come back maybe another time (classical "I'm not interested" response) I was knocking on another door talking with someone and my companion was talking with someone in the street when the grandma came out practically yelling "Come back! Come back!" My companion tried to figure out what was going on while I finished my contact. She took him back to the house we had just contacted and was inviting him in. when I finished I went to see what was up. Turns out that when we left, Kibn showed up. His mom wanted us to talk to him because she said he was a bit of a wayward child. We sat down and talked with them for a bit and we judged that he might not be as (wayward) as his mom thinks. Maybe he has some things he could change but they were normal things of adolescence. We explained that anybody can change if they put their faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement- that we all have the freedom to make our own decisions but we also would have to accept the consequences of our actions- that if we make good decisions we will get to return to live with our Heavenly Father again, and if we don't we may be separated from his presence forever. In the end we felt they both understood the principle of agency and the positive effect it can have in our lives as well as the negative. It all depends on whether we are willing to follow God's plan and put His will before our or if we are going to use our agency to do whatever we want, regardless of the consequences.

We visited family that we found a couple weeks ago, the Alvarez Family (I don't remember if I've mentioned them before...) Anyway, we had left them with a pamphlet to read but they hadn't read. We explained the reason why we leave "homework" and testified of the truthfulness of the restoration. I know the Spirit testified of our words because the mom was crying and the dad personally committed to reading the pamphlet before our next lesson. We arrived for our appointment on Sunday and we had just barely gone in when the son and his girlfriend came looking for her coin purse. Here, coin purses are where women put ALL of their money. In it she had left over 350 Quetzales (=approx. $50) So we decided to help them look. We looked and we looked. We lifted up couches we dumped the kid's toys all over the floor to see if it got mixed up in that. We lifted up the couches again. She retraced her steps. Nothing. It occurred to me to say a prayer but I forgot in all the ruckus. We ended up sharing something brief because of the time the search took up but we asked if they had made the effort to read and they said they had! I was so happy. It was a shame we couldn't talk about everything we wanted to but now they had a start. At the end the mom included in her prayer thanks that we had come, for help to keep reading, and that the son's girlfriend could find her money.

That's all for today. Until next week.

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Las Brisas, Zona Florida, Guatemala Sur

Week 94 - Special People

Hey everyone.

The highlight of this week was getting to know Emily. Emily is the daughter of an investigator who has been receiving the missionaries for a long time now.... She has a syndrome where her bones didn't form properly and they are super brittle. When she was a baby, when they would lift her up to change her diaper they would break her femur. She can't really speak because she never developed language but her spirit is huge! I don't know how to explain it. I just love people with disabilities or deformities. Maybe it is because I have a sister who has deformities as well. I feel like they are the noble and great ones that Abraham talked about when he was shown the preexistence. Really I feel like it is an honor every time I meet one. 

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Las Brisas, Zona Florida, Guatemala Sur

Week 93 - Temple Trip and Bus adventures

Hey everybody. This week was super  full of meetings and stuff. I felt like we hardly had time to proselyte, but we made the most of the time we had. 

On Friday we went to the temple as a zone. We left super early because of the ridiculous traffic in the morning here in the capital. We got really lucky because now, if the temple is more than an hour away we can't go. President Shumway pretty much generalized it that everyone in the cap can go because if not, nobody would be able to go because of the traffic. We got there actually super early for our appointment. So we went to Dunkin Doughnuts and ate before entering the temple. I can't help but tell you guys every time that the temple is awesome. The Spirit that is felt is unlike anywhere else. It is the only place I feel like when I'm praying that I am LITERALLY talking with God. It is like a conversation. I ask something and I feel an immediate response. While we were there on the grounds, we saw an old friend: "Elder" Oscal. He finished his mission about 2 months ago and he lives here in the capital. He was there as part of a sealing. No, it wasn't him getting sealed, it was one of his buddies. It felt so weird seeing him without a plaque. I've actually seen various returned

missionaries come back. Anyway, back to the story. On our way to the temple we took what the people call "red buses". They are kind of sketch. All of the old school buses we don't use anymore get sent here. They basically strip everything non-essential and put bars on the roof so people can go standing up in the aisles. It's fairly interesting. They are all competing for the passengers so they always go super fast and cram as many people as they can so they can collect more fares. We were going comfortably seated in on when we heard a *bang*. The tire blew out. So we all had to get off the bus and get on another bus. We went from comfortably seated to uncomfortably crammed and standing. :( On the way back, we went with an entire other zone. It was a bus full of missionaries. hahaha.

Then on Friday we had a Multi-Zone conference. This time I just went with our district leader. This time, someone else's bus blew their tire and they all boarded on our bus. The only bad thing is that we weren't exactly sure where to get off the bus and now we couldn't see out of the windows. We got to a point where I knew we had passed our destination so we got off and got on another bus going the opposite direction. This time I told the attendant to let us know when our stop was coming up so we wouldn't pass it again. We still got there early and we hadn't passed it by much. It was an awesome conference. President made a change to our study schedule. He gave us an extra 30 minutes for companionship study. Something I've always felt we needed. With only a half hour we could never really plan the way we should or needed to but now, we're gonna be able to plan like they taught us in the CCM.

I almost forgot! Last week after writing I went to San Pedro Sacatepequez. On the bus ride there I asked a lady if she knew where the RENAP (Registro Nacional de Personas) was in San Pedro. She said she lived there and gave me directions. I almost just left it at that, but I felt a strong impression to talk to her. I noticed she had a lanyard that said "Alorica" and I recognized it from a member who had studied English there. I asked her (now in English) if she spoke English. She said yes. So then i started a conversation with her. She told me about herself, I told her about my job as a missionary and asked (all in English) if she would like the sister missionaries to visit her. She said yes! She even offered to take me to the RENAP building. Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed. But I passed the reference to the sisters and they're going to visit her this week.

After we just took some pictures of the main plaza and the main cathedral. I bought some típica fabric because the market there is the best there is.

See ya next week.

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Las Brisas, Zona Florida, Guatemala Sur

Week 92 -Las Brisas

Hey guys! Sorry for the short letter last week. This week has been pretty cool. Elder Ramos is a pretty cool kid. He's 19, from Sao Paolo, Brazil, and his native language is Portuguese. Portuguese is really similar to Spanish but a couple parts of grammar change and some pronunciations. He's just starting his mission, I'm his first companion after his straining which makes me his "stepfather". This is the third time I've been with a missionary right after their training. First with Elder Campos, then Elder Cussi, and now with Elder Ramos. It's pretty cool because they are still pretty moldable and especially now that I have 21 months of experience in the mission field, I can impart of all my knowledge and wisdom. He helps me a lot too. His youth and newness give him a certain spark for preaching the gospel. Even though the language sometimes still gives him trouble he isn't afraid to talk with anyone. He's a little bit unorganized leading the area for the first time but he'll get used to it. Really, it has been a great start to the change. We have three areas that we work in: the Mero (the very)  Brisas, Vista Hermosa, and Bosques. Each one increasing in elevation and steepness :O. In one of our areas, there's a street that looks more like a wall. Seriously, it goes pretty much straight up! It is interesting because in Las Brisas it has a city feel but once you go to Vista Hermosa it is pure outside of the cap. We have to take buses to get to all of  our area. I imagine that, because of the hugeness and the general unfamiliarity of it all, that there are places that haven't been touched by the missionaries. 

On Thursday, we were walking to our area that was a bit far away when I noticed we were walking neck and neck with a guy and he seemed to be interested in us. I felt strongly like I should talk to him because if not it would be kind of awkward walking next to him the entire way and not talk to him. I started asking his name, if he had heard of the missionaries, the usual chit chat. Then, I felt impressed to ask him if he would let us accompany us to his house to share a message with him. To my surprise he said "Yes." Normally, contacts in the street aren't very effective here. There are no real addresses and generally people lie about their address or phone number, sometimes even about their name. So, when he said "yes", i was pretty surprised. He didn't even look like someone who would be interested. His name is Sergio and he was getting back from rollerblading in the capitol. He took us to his family and his mom had been investigating the church a long time ago but never had gotten baptized. She asked what was necessary to be baptized in our church. So, we explained about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited them both to baptism and they accepted. Wow. If I hadn't thought to talk to him we would have totally missed him and his family and might not have found them at all.

On Saturday, we went to an area that Elder Ramos and his trainer never really touched. We decided to visit an old widow. When we got there she had company but she is so friendly she invited us in anyway. She is fairly popular in the neighborhood where she lives. Everyone calls her "abuela" (Grandma) and always stops by to visit her and help her out. She was making some plastic flower decorations so we decided to help her. It was really cool. She is 72 and was baptized two years ago. She said she had gone through all the churches: Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Catholics, even the Jehovah's Witnesses, but she didn't feel "the call" until she found the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We helped her out for a bit but it was lunch time and it had just started to rain so we had to leave. The village where she lived was up on a mountain (like most of our area) so the rain was just pouring down the streets like a river of mud. We had no choice. Like a song I remember from my childhood "Can't go over it. Can't go under it. Can't go around it. Gotta go through it" So we went and by the time we got to the bottom our pant legs were soaked and our shoes filled with mud and sand. We got to the Lutin Family's house and I had to take off my shoes and wring out my socks so my feet wouldn't be swimming all day. hahaha

Looking forward to more adventures here with my Brazilian companion. 

Love you all! 

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Las Brisas, Zona Florida, Guatemala Sur