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