Recharging Spiritual Batteries - Week 16

Hello Everyone,

It has been pretty cool this week. I wore my sweaters for the first time and my suit all day after the temple. I've had a little cold but everyone has it. They think it is because of the rapid change in weather. We went by the old Branch President's house and he and his family fed us soup. It was really good. Here the use a vegetable called Wiskil. It was still a little too warm out for soup. People here have a different concept of cold. 

This week we went to the temple as a mission. We went only with our zone and each zone was assigned a session. We had to be at the temple at 9:30 am for the 10:00 am session. To arrive and go all together we had to leave from Mita at 5 am, meet in Jutiapa at 6 am and leave for Guatemala City. It was about 2 1/2 hours by bus and we took one of the old school buses. We got there a little early so we went to the distribution center to get a few things then went to the temple. I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to go to the temple as a zone. It has helped me feel the Spirit more strongly in my life and lessons. It was a good bonding experience for us as a zone and in my companionship. I love the Guatemala City Temple. It really helped me recharge my spiritual batteries. Now I feel like our lessons are going even better than before. 

This week we had 3 investigators in Sacrament meeting. Lisset Arrieta, Erick Montenegro, and Neddy Najera. All three are now fechas de compromiso. Lisset we haven´t placed a date yet because we´re doing our lessons in the Branch president´s home and she´s a family friend. So when we´re there we feel like were being supervised as opposed to having a lesson with member. And they warned us that they want us to take it slow with her and yet they are watching documentaries on the Book of Mormon and all the church videos. We believe she can be ready to be baptized the beginning of March if not sooner. We are going to try to have a lesson in her home sometime this week.

Erick this week asked us what he needs to do to be baptized. We have a date set for the 6th of march and we told him he needs to get permission from his mom since he is only 14. The problem is she lives in the US and he tried to get baptized when he was 10 but she didn't let him. We are praying that, now that he is older, she will let him be baptized. We know he will go to church, his 19 yo brother is a Recent Convert and they've gone to church the last 3 Sundays.

We went by Morris´ house again last night. And his mom said she had another surprise for us. To which I said, I don't think I like your surprises anymore.... NOPE. She brought out a Scorpion! I was like; NOPE. That's a big bowl of NOPE soup. But they had cut the pinchers and tail off so it was harmless.

Until Next Time,

Elder Mattiaccio

Soccer and Surprises - Week 15

I got my Valentine's package. Thank you so much everyone. I love the hugs. I'm not sure when I'll be able to make the pie but I'll let you know.

The heat has passed. for the most part. It's really windy now and all the people besides us are wearing jackets and sweaters. It's always funny because they always ask "aren't you cold?" and we reply "Cold!? this feels GREAT!" 

We've started a weekly soccer game with the young men in our branch. We're using it as an activity to get them more united as a youth and as well to fellowship our young investigators and less actives. It's been working really well. Lots come out and they all invite friends. 

Just yesterday we were finishing up our visits and decided to drop by Morris´ house. We taught them the books in the Book of Mormon song (I didn't think that it would work in spanish) and he and his brother, Diego, learned it really fast. Then they said they had a surprise for us. They brought out a plate with some sort of meat on it and said "here, try it." We did, and it tasted alright. it was a little tough but tasted like chicken. then they showed us what it was from. It was IGUANA!!!

Love you all. Until next week.

Elder Mattiaccio

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This is Gabby (Frankie's mom), I just wanted to share a little message I received from Elder Belmar, Elder Mattiaccio's companion. We sent him a few things and he was nice to email me to thank me. Here's his email:

Muchas gracias tía gaby por mandarme esas galletitas estaban muy ricas y la bandera esta muy chilera :) tiene un muy buen hijo y aca tiene un buen papa ajjajajjaja 

En la laguna de Atescatempa, cerca del Salvador jijijiji Pday de zona jijijii  

Hala Madrid!! ajjajajja Papa e hijo.................

Discovering The Area - Week 14

This week has been pretty hot. I think it is because of the lack of wind. There have been a few overcast days where it was nice and fresh out but then when the clouds went away it was hot again. The sun is hitting us super hard. We've started using sunblock. Normally it isn't too bad but this past week, whoo.

 This week there are a ton of transfers in my zone. every companionship has a change except for ours. Both Hna Woodward and Hna Campbell are leaving. Also E Borda, E Baum, E Wood, E Rodriguez and E Samoni is finishing his mission and going back to El Salvador (short trip relatively speaking). Although I didn't really get to know them that well I'm still going to miss them. Man, and this is going to happen every 6(ish) weeks. We pretty much knew that we wouldn't have changes. Since I'm in training they're not going to change my companion halfway through. And then this new missionary wouldn't know the area either. Just wouldn´t make sense. But Elder Belmar guessed every single change. 

This week we again have been focusing in the area called "the champas". We´ve been finding so many investigator but when we go back for the second appointment they aren´t there. That's the hard part here. The people here don't really work by set schedules. They just go when they are needed. And because everything is so close, sometimes they just go out and we miss them. For the most part we try going back by a little later and they're there, but sometimes not. Each day we're discovering more and more of this area. And each new area is bigger than the last. We're now thinking about separating it into 3 areas. Central, West and Champas. My area is HUGE! Sorry no stories this week. Time got away from me.

Until Next Time,

Elder Mattiaccio

Making Progress - Week 13

Hello Everyone!

This week went very well for us here in Mita. We worked super hard this week. We've organized our area into 2 sectors that way we can focus more on one sector and not have to travel across the town between appointments. This week we've been "echando fuego" in the champas. We´ve been going barrio by barrio looking for new investigators. We have been finding at least one really good investigator everyday. 

This week we saw some progress with our branch wanting to help us out. On saturday we were able to go on divisions with a few members of the elders quorum so that we could cover more ground and get to more of our appointments. I went with the Elders Quorum President, hno Walter Gamez who is also a returned missionary. We went to the champas while my companion stayed more towards the city center. Even though I was nervous being really in charge, no one to bail me out, all of our lessons went really well. A few of our appointments fell through so we tracked a little bit and found a young family. It was a really good experience to take the lead in the discussions. We also had a consejo de rama (branch counsel) with all the presidencies except our mission leader. He had to go to Guatemala for the weekend so he wasn't able to attend. But we were able to see where we could help out in the branch and they were able to make a few assignments to help us with our investigators. All in all, things are improving. Our branch is starting to progress and we're seeing some good progress in our investigators.

This week we helped a member move. Here people move a lot. We raced him from his old house to his new house since we couldn't go with him in the back of his pick up. And we won every time. For the most part we were just walking, not even running. BUt then he tried to beat us so we had to run. But it was all cool. 

Today we woke up early to go climb a hill (they call it a mountain but its nothing like those in Utah so "hill") in our area. We were going to climb a volcano as a district but the rest chickened out. :/  But this way is better. It was difficult cuz we were literally just climbing it. There wasn't really a trail at all. But we got to the top and could see our entire area. It was really cool. And on the way down we followed a mountain bike track. 

My spanish is really improving. I had another talk in church this Sunday, and I felt like it was a train-wreck but everyone said they liked it. Our Branch President called us the night before to tell us we had the talks. I spoke on the talk that Pres. Monson gave in the October general conference "Be an Example and a Light". But besides that I feel fairly confident in my spanish. Talking on the phone is the only hard part as of right now and that's because the phones here aren´t too good and especially the phone of the missionaries. Yeah it's a Nokia and it's never going to break but the speaker isn't the best. But hey, at least we have a cellphone.

My time is up, until next time!

Elder Mattiaccio

Miracles and Meals - Week 12

This week we really saw miracles. We haven't been having too much success with getting our investigators to come to church. We have one investigator who is good to go for his baptism just needs his interview. He had an awesome experience a few days ago. He prayed and asked God if this church was true; if he needed to be baptized, and that night he had a dream that he was talking to an angel and said the same question and told the angel if the church was true to hand him 9 letters and if not hand him any other amount. And the angel/person gave him 9. He was so excited when he told us. Also, saturday we decided to go explore a part of our area that we didn't really know. Its called "the Champas". We never went there because the missionaries before had knocked the entire area (supposedly) and had 0 success. We were walking and found out that this area is a lot bigger than we thought. We were kind of just walking and saw a guy who didn't look too interested. But my companion had a feeling to talk to him. His name is Vladimir Linares and he and his wife were super excited and motivated. He told us he wouldn't be able to go to church since he had to work. So we went back the next day (sunday) and they were both there, ready to go. They came with us and stayed for the 1st two hours! We have an appointment with them for tuesday and are going to take a member who lives near by.

To answer some of your questions:

We don't really cook much. We don't have a stove really. We have a hot plate. Most of the time we just eat cereal for breakfast. We eat our lunches from a comedor. We normally go to a member's house to eat lunch everyday that we can. It's a little difficult since she has to leave since she doesn't have a husband and we can't be alone with her but we normally work it out just fine. We talk to her kids (whom we baptized Morris and Diego) and make sure they are doing good. 

The branch is pretty smallish. There are like 140 members but our attendance has never been above 100. And everyone arrives late - to everything. It's kind of difficult when we try to have activities with members because they all arrive late then we can't stay as long or even at all sometimes. I'm not talking "mormon standard time" activities start around 1-1.5 hours after they are scheduled. Church starts on time now but the members still arrive late. We start church with our investigators and about 20 other people. Also, the priests don't bless the sacrament... it's assigned to different members each month. Same with preparing the sacrament. Were trying to talk to the priests and teachers but that's just the way it has been. 

Until next time,

Elder Mattiaccio

Minute to Win It - Week 11

¡Buenas todos!

This week we had a lot going on. Last monday, after writing, we got together as a zone and played some minute to win it type games. One where we made a tower out of flour with a piece of chocolate on top. We had to cut strips off of the sides until someone knocks over the tower. then they have to dig through the flour with their mouth and look for the chocolate. Then another one where we had to put socks on our hands and use two butter knives to open a hershey bar. then we had to eat each piece of chocolate individually. but we had to take turns. so everyone was flipping a coin and if it lands on heads, you take the socks and knives and try to get a piece before someone else gets a heads. it was tons of fun and then we made a pyramid. (elders only, sorry hermanas). My Zone leaders are E Gee and E Borda. My District Leader is E Samayoa. The Zone Leaders are in my district, District Catocha, so its just us, the leaders and E Wood, E Samayoa's companion. The other district has E Rodriguez and E samoni, Hna Woodward and Hna Campbell and E Rivas and E Baum. Not all were able to make it though.

We also went to Guatemala City for a conference for nuevos and trainers. It was cool to be able to talk with our leaders and the other nuevos again.

This past week a few of our elder's serving in the capital had their debit cards hacked and their money was stolen. We have to be super careful and we can't use the 5B ATMs anymore. Only Bi. 

I forgot to tell you that for New Years we had to be in our apartment by 9 like normal with good reason. It was crazy. The cohetes (fireworks) are really just bombs and all the little kids are playing with them. 

I still haven't eaten anything weird. Not too weird anyway. They have a coffee made from grains so its not real coffee. They call it Mor-caf (mormon cafe).

Hasta el lunes! And tell Scarlet happy birthday!

Elder Mattiaccio

Asunción Mita, Zona Jutiapa, Guatemala Sur

Testimony of Missionary Work - Week 10

Buenas!

This week we were able to confirm Elsa and Maria Antonia in church. We weren't able to the Sunday before because they arrived late and we weren't sure if they could be confirmed after Sacrament was over. Luckily, this week they arrived before sacrament had started. We had worked with their father and asked him to bring them on his bicycle this week since they live so far away and hitch-hiking isn't super reliable on Sundays to get to church. But, he was able to get them to church to be confirmed. 

My testimony of missionary work was strengthened a lot this week. We decided that we aren't going to go to Trapiche Vargas anymore because it takes a long time to walk there (since there aren't any buses that go out there) and we didn't have any investigators who were really progressing. We decided to go out one last time to see if they had progressed or not and in one of their houses was a less active member who was visiting from another town in our area. We talked with her and her husband and learned that she had asked God the night before to send her a sign of whether she should try to go to church anymore and then that day was when we arrived. I know now for sure that there are people waiting for us out here; people praying for answers, for someone to knock on their door and bring them the gospel. We now plan on going to her town and talking with her and contacting her neighbors and the rest of the town.

This week we had an appointment with one of our recent converts to make pancakes. it was so much fun. We made them as big as we could. They took up the entire plate! and they were so yummy. I forgot to take pictures of after but here is one of the pancakes. 

I received my Christmas package. The powdered sugar had opened a little bit and it was kind of everywhere. I was able to make the peanut butter pies I wasn't able to find whipped cream but I found whipping cream. Not sure if that was the same. It came out frothy kind of like whipped cream but they came out alright. Darn, I should've taken pictures of them before we ate them.. oh well. I shared them for New Years. Thank you for the mountain of photos! It was so fun to go through them and tell my comp about you guys.

Until next week!

Elder Mattiaccio