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
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